After taking an earlier night, i was able to get an early start. Perfect for the planned trip. Checked provisions, coffee supply and ship one last time. All systems good to go. Freeport was host to minimal traffic this early, which made it easy to navigate my route over to Alpha and the unexplored anomaly jumphole. Jumped successfully, next task was to navigate the alien-like explosives field. It only seemed to be about a 5 klick range, not too dense either. In any case, the first job was to scan the planets, stars and nebula. Three planets, two unknown structures, two suns. One nebula. All, unknown to my databases.
In the nebula, both structures resided together, along with some… defensive platforms by the looks of them. Cloaked though… they seemed to not notice me. One structure resembled that of a jumpgate. Being curious enough, I went through. Cloak remained stable throughout jump. My biggest worry, and something i should have checked beforehand, was passed. What took me by surprise though, was what i saw. A huge…. Plane? Of some kind of megastructure. A quick fly about determined it expanded way beyond what my sensors could measure. And there was some form of… gate. Is this the Sphere? Where the Order opened a Hypergate to beat the aliens before…? I felt… uneasy on being so close to such a place.
The jumpgate showed to be connected, so i double checked my battery store for my cloak and went back through. Another surprise. Instead of it bringing me out back to where i came from, it took me somewhere new. Many.. anomalous structures, visible nebulae and planets. And… it was breathtaking. Almost overwhelming. I pushed out, explored each pathway. Mostly cloaked, but once everything was mapped, i Pulled up, went high. From there… i sat back and took in the sight. The whole system, laid out in its pretty alien vibrancy.
While i thought, i drew what i saw, finding a peace that i didn’t think was possible. Two stars, two nebulae, three planets and a distorted asteroid belt. Quite remarkable. If only such beauty could put the hostilities away…
I spent hours there. Simply drawing and applying the colours i could see, through my own eyes. The blends of blues, purples and light shading, it accelerated my calm, my inner peace. With the image finished, i sat and compared my efforts to the backdrop. I didn't feel like it did what i saw justice, but i could close my eyes and see what was there. It did what i needed to. That was good enough for me to try and return. From my vantage point, i had passed a different jumpgate. So, in the hopes that it didn’t lead me somewhere dangerous, i went through cloaked.
Zeta back on the map. Safety once more. A cruise and jump to delta, then another short flight. Ill be surprised if theres anything else like it anywhere else…. Truly beautiful.
![[Image: ikOGayf.png]](https://imgur.com/ikOGayf.png)