Beyond the Bubble, amongst the endless black - The Void. The Unknown. A universe of discovery await those whom travel among the stars, a primal beckoning calling upon the fires of ancient human desires of knowledge. Here in the darkness between the stars the adventurer explores not only the universe, but himself - as the stars are many and the travelers are few.

Having set off from the bubble I find myself caught in a turmoil of excitement and fear. Fear not born out of terror, but something darker, like the cold breath of space, the restlessness of witchspace, it is a fear of loneliness in the black. Such fear can be tamed, or harnessed. A driver of pursuit, of desire for knowledge, an unsaitable hunger that drives one forward.

Across the Sagittarius Gap between the arms of the Orion Spur, the long winding arm that contains the bubble of human knowledge, and the beyond, the fringe of knowledge beyond the bubble, towards the center of the pursuit of knowledge we find ourselves racing. System to system, star to star.

First we set out across the gap with the intention of the center of the universe, however the desire for the unknown beaconed, and the trail to the center was crowded with prior knowledge. 125 jumps in it was decided that I take us towards notable elements out adrift in the gap. With our AspX kitted for deep space and the darkness in-between the giants we adjusted course and made pace towards rumor of a spectacular earthlike world with a double ring system - Cycladia. Upon arriving in the system the cold dry air of the ship exhumed its memory of the journey thus-far - but the sight of an earthlike, even more spectacular with fine rings surrounding its heavens, gave new life and focus to our journey. We stayed in system, scanning other notables, refueling and pondering the next move.

A decision to keep driving deeper into the black persists. I found myself and my only companion for the trek, my COVAS Archer, pulled deeper into the stars. We pushed onwards towards the Bug Nebula (CD-36 11341). Fitting as we are merely insects crawling across a cosmic tapestry that we call the Milky Way Galaxy. A beautiful purple glow surrounds the Bug Nebula and ignites the bones of the explorers who pass through the system. It drives the soul for further exploration to illuminate the darkness. Here at the edges of madness we gained appreciation for the outermost reaches and the inner most spaces of the mind.

And then. A ping. A habited system out here in the black. Morgans Rock. The last bastion of interaction this far into the void - at least in this arc direction from Sol, the home of our past. We approached with caution, not sure of the local hostility towards the lone explorer, perhaps piracy and lawlessness prevailed here and cautions must be taken. The first glimmer of ships in supercruise flitting about the rings in the system gave rise to a hope for humanity. A casual scan of the logs shed light that most vessels in system were mining, a few, kitted like mine, for exploration. We approached the habited ring, and within a large asteroid, Morgans Rock shone as a beacon of activity. A hail to the station, the first words we had uttered in a few weeks besides speaking to Archer, commanded a response. A human response. Docking Permission Granted. Settling into the structure, our docking procedures securing us a medium sized pad, our ship, at long last touched down.

Inside Morgans Rock we head to the local Universal Cartography office, to sync our data with the main frame. A dusty local manned the office, whose sullen eyes brightened at our approach. The local, eager of news from the bubble, was incredulous in his questions. My responses, curt, but succinct proved to get the message across that I was merely here to trade data and little else. His questions fulfilled, he synced the data and presented me a credit tab for my discoveries. 24 unknown new systems mapped, countless planets scanned. Our reward - 140 million credits. This was it. This was the hook. Our journey, just started... well worth its reward in discovery in gold.

For now, this journey man needs his rest, physically his body may sleep, but his mind wanders further, towards new goals and new discovery. To exploration and riches beyond what any in the bubble could even imagine. To this we dream. To this we wake. To this... We explore.

-OsirisX Exploration ASPX Sol Morgans Rock