From Carina to Kahina
08 Dec 2023El Saico
Asp Explorer PX-RXL "Stairway to Raxxla"Hanna Enterprise, Shenve
The Carina nebula is indeed a beautiful sight, but the best part were the supergiants on the way.
Having Eta Carinae A face you in its gargantuan glory would be scary enough without knowing it has a history of sudden massive eruptions; it's dreadful and fascinating at the same time. Only Sagittarius A* has ever made me smaller than that.
Taking it slow across Trumpler 16 is a decision I've not regretted, while X Carinae and HIP 93131 were no slouches either. A Wolf-Rayet star like the latter never disappoints!
(Speaking of which, one of the Raxxla hunters has got a long-winded theory centered around a WR on the center of a nebula... why do I keep participating on a comms channel where people got an inherent distrust of who rules over us, even after - well, everything? Perhaps it's an act of defiance; looking at how things unraveled back then, they had a point after all, it's just that their solution would likely make things worse)
Maybe stopping here on the Witch Head, instead of returning straight to the bubble, was the right call. There was a table at the bar where people talked about being on an expedition to retrace the steps of the late CMDR Salomé; or, as we called her back home, Senator Loren.
I remember watching the news about her fight to reclaim Prism, the diplomatic mission on Sol and the whispers about how she was stealing the princess' highlight, and then she just... disappeared.
We only learned from her again when she was accused to bankroll the Emperor's Dawn attempt to assassinate Patreus - it made Mom scared for a while because of how close it was to us; even though it was both a targeted hit and in Mackenzie Relay, up in the sky where we seldom went to.
This expedition leader seems a feisty one; she's as fresh a commander as I, but is already capable to rally hundreds of people who speak of her feats - such as landing on Mitterrand Hollow on her first try! It felt like a cult sometimes, the people speaking on that table... no wonder Kahina is such an inspiration to her.
Still, there are far worse things to do out there in the black than having your first glimpse of the Formidine Rift with plenty of company. Let's see when they plan to depart.