Discoveries

Dbx "Alexei Leonov" NH-16D

Scheau Pri FW-N e6-43 (The Hendrix Nebula)

Distance from Colonia: 7,072 ly

Life aboard The Limpet’s Call has settled down again – but there’s increased vigilance though. People are still speculating quietly in private about what the message meant and who among the passengers and crew could have a hidden agenda. Personally, whilst I find it worrying, i’m sure the command crew are doing all they can to safeguard the mission.

I’ve thrown myself back into exploration, with small breaks to work on Arwen Evenstar and Gwahir – there’s no point in sitting around worrying about things that might not happen, so here I am doing what I enjoy most – exploring new territory out in the deep black.

I’m finding a high proportion of water-worlds and terraformable planets in the systems around the carrier, which is welcome – i’m obtaining some very high quality data on terrestrial planet formation, and there’s the bonus of getting my name on some very nice real estate!

My facilities on board the Leonov are nowhere near powerful enough to crunch all the data and find any correlations between the high number of semi-terrestrial planets and this area of space – that’s a job for the science guys on the Limpet’s Call and ultimately back in the bubble with the big boys and their supercomputers.

Our course has brought us close to the Hendrix Nebula, so I took the opportunity to explore the area before we move on.

The Hendrix Nebula is named after the 20th century Earth musician Jimmy Hendrix – in the 1970s he wrote and performed a song called “Purple Haze”. The nebula is mostly purple with a bright pink edge, hence the name, (I think the astronomer who named it must have been a fan!)

In the adjacent system Scheau Pri SF-C c27-308 I found a geosite on a moon in orbit around a gas giant, and always a sucker for a good view I decided to spend a little time there…

The locators lead me down into a dark valley and an isolated landing zone. I took the SRV out for a spin and spent a peaceful hour or so driving around the fumeroles. It was sobering to realize that i’m probably the first living creature to look upon these dark chimneys, out here for millions of years in the dark under the glowing skies.

It’s been a rich few days of planet-hunting, but it’s time to head back to the barn and prepare for the mass jump to mark the half-way point of the mission.