Finally it was time to turn my ship to Colonia. I still had a nagging feeling in my head that I had failed to leave my mark on anything extraordinary during my trip. All the nebula I had found, even the one 8k ly at a strange angle from the core, had data already in the computer and another commander's name by it.

And with just 4000 ly until Colonia remaining, I'd all but given hope.

But then, almost exactly on the galatic plane, on a direct course between my ship and Colonia, I found it. And it was a very special one too!

Welcome to Danuxland, a water world with magnificent rings orbiting the corpse of a star in a planetary nebula. This alone has made the entire trip worth while.

And so with a smile on my face I completed the final 4000 ly of my journey and arrived at Jacques station.

A total profit of 144 mil made the trip a financial success. But really it's the discovery of Danuxland that is going to be what makes this trip one to remember.

After 4 days of travel I finally arrived in the galatic core.

I worked by way through various planetary nebula as I approached the 2 major way points - The Great Annihilator and Sagittarius A*.

With my route plotter struggling, and the realisation there was little left to be discovered in the core I made my way out of the side. I did about 8000 ly to a planetary nebula on the eastern outskirts of the core.

An insistence on flying between all binary pairs took its toll and left me without any heat sinks to get home with.

Overall I found the core to be somewhat samey and very well traveled. Were this the main focus of my trip I would have been left quite disappointed. But never mind, onward to the way point, Colonia!

Space madness is real. No longer do distances mean anything. Shapes appear in the constillations. Things flicker in the corner of my eyes but when my head catches up there is nothing there.

But I was prepared for this. Now I just am. I am wondering. Without looking another 5000 light years passes. All the time I am seeking the exceptional, scouring the star charts for something worth seeing.

And boy does the galaxy deliver.

Without really noticing I am now some 22,000 light years from where I started and now well and truly in the galatic core. Under the warm glow of a giant carbon star I settle once more to dream amonst the stars.

A long day of travel ahead, but not before quickly going to see a black hole in the middle of the nebula.

A slight accident with the throttle saw me take my first bit of signifficant damage at this black hole but I want to make some good progress before landing and repairing.

For the next 10,000 or so light years its nothing but water worlds, earth likes and ammonias. Within 5 jumps I've discovered all of these, multiple times.

Saw my first Herbig AE/BE star.

And 3 terraformable HMC worlds orbiting each other.

I made rapid progress and decided, as the core began to creep up on me, it was time to take a rest, assess my damage and carry out repairs.

Then more travel and more scanning as the core looms evermore.

Found an interesting water world with lots of ammonia.

As I reached the inner arms of the galaxy the sky filled with nebula and I decided it's time to stop scanning and counting light years and start thinking about exploring.

Things definitely started to get strange towards the centre of the galaxy.

This high metal content 2000 ls from arrival tricked me... luckily there was a water world close by too.

After a couple of nebula it's time to land for the night.

Day 2 began around 800 ly from the first major Nebula of the journey so I took it slow scanning any worlds that looked like they might have high metal contents. Quite a few first scans and a really good number of those were suitable for terraforming.

Before long the Nebula was in full view.

I'd set my navigation target to a Neutron one jump from the heart of the Nebula and then found another 2 around the outskirts of the Nebula.

Before long I came across a system with several planets in the habbitable zone, one being a water world suitable for terraforming.

Generally bumbled around then taking a few snaps and just seeing what I could find. Generally a lot of high metal content worlds.

Finally landed for the night on the moon of a class II gas giant.

A decent day of travel, covering a little over 8000ly and arriving close to my first way point, TR16 Sector JR-W E-15.

Shortly after leaving the bubble I came across a few black holes and a neutron stars. The most notable was a BH I found within 5 ls of a neutron, both within 50ls of blue super giant.

Stopped for lunch in a 1km deep ice canyon.

I was also distracted on 2 occassions by an abundance of A/B type stars in clusters. Both of these provided plenty of neutrons and BHs to scan, although many were over 100k ls away so I skipped over them. Between these 2 fields was the Statue of Liberty Nebula. A stunning sight and plenty of planets to land and admire the view from.

End the night on somewhat of a high with a random Earth-like world 3 systems before my final destination for the day.

I now find myself between 2 major arms. Once I've explored the next major nebula I will head up or down and turn towards the core.