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Known Space is only so large, the sectors connected by jumpgates is even smaller. In a galaxy with millions of worlds, thousands of species, interstellar travelers see many things, and half of them may even be true. Here is a small list of stories told by travelers of the hyperspaceways: |
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- "You never know what you're going to find when you look over the edge of what's known and into what's not. We were in sector 857. I took my nav officer, Lieutenant Patrick, with me for a look around in one of our scout ships. Well, I noticed that we'd gotten out of sight of the Cortez , and I was, I was just about ready to turn back when I saw something. It was maybe a thousand kilometers away--black against space. Now, the reason that I knew it was there is that it blotted out the stars behind it. I don't know the exact shape of it, but...it was big. I turned to Pat, to ask him if he could see it, and when I looked back, it had vanished. He doesn't know what it was any more than I do, but its there. And it was real. It still sends a shiver up my back when I think about it." - Capt. Jack Maynard, EA Explorer Cortez , 2259
- Freelance scout Catherine Sakai has been known to spin a tale or two about something she saw in Sector Sigma-957 .
- Spacer folklore has it that the only human to see a Vorlon was a pilot who crashed, off course, on a Vorlon colony world. The human became the first to set eyes upon a Vorlon sans encounter suit, and turned to stone.
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One interesting variation on the “Lost City” tale (which usually spring up during a time of active exploration) was actually made into a bestselling thriller in 2256. The novel, titled Crimson Castle and written by Alexa Belli, combines the various tales about an entire solar system said to be existing in hyperspace. Rather than delve into the various versions of the legend, a plot synopsis of the novel will suffice. Crimson Castle is the second in a popular series on the travails of the fictional EAS Ptolemy, a scientific research vessel. A newly installed sensor system shorts out, but before it completely dies it detects a strange anomaly in hyperspace. The Ptolemy moves to investigate and discovers a binary star system surrounded by five planets. Unfortunatly, this discovery also means crossing a dense barrier, something akin to a stationary hyperspace shock wave. Only one planet has a breatheable atmosphere, so the crippled Ptolemy slowly heads for it. A shuttle is crewed and sent to recon the planet. Surface scans pick out massive structures both above and below ground. Almost all the planets have high concentrations of quantium-40 and other precious metals. As the shuttle lands on the planet, lights are seen burning in a building not far away. The moves to investigate it. From here the novel moves into the typical “Not Quite Dead Alien Race” plot, a mainstay of Lovecraftian and old science fiction novels. To be fair, most real world accounts do mention a feeling of ill-foreboding surrounding the Lost System. Crimson Castle ends with half the crew dying, the ship being repaired, and the solar system imploding into a type of “thirdspace” leaving no evidence of the encounter. |
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