The Call of the Void

I did it. I made it. I achieved a goal I had scarcely thought possible. I made it to the centre of the galaxy. The journey was long, and somewhat arduous, but eventually all things must come to an end. My heart was pounding in my chest as I engaged the hyperdrive and jumped into Sagittarius A*. I was greeted with equal parts unfathomable beauty and utmost terror.

At the centre of our galaxy lies a monster. The super-massive black hole, Sagittairus A*. It's impossible to look at, but the extent of the warping of space due to gravitational lensing seemed larger than the radius of most stars. I pointed my ship towards the centre and stared into the void for what seemed like an eternity.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing

I was snapped out of my trance by the ship's FSD failsafe dropping me out of supercruise. I was smashed back into standard thrust. I looked down at my hands, disoriented. My throttle was on full. I had tried to fly directly into the eye of the Abyss. An ancient Earth philospher wrote: "And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." I had no idea what those words meant until now.

I pulled my thoughts together and steered away from the singularity. I noticed there was a nav beacon so I pointed myself at it so I could scan it for information. When I dropped out of supercruise next to the beacon I saw a passenger liner filled with tourists. Imagine that; the greatest journey I have ever undertaken, the trials and tribulations which led to this point, and here was a bunch of bloody tourists cheapening it. No. No, they can't take my achievement away from me.

I've seen wonders those tourists can't imagine

I pulled away from the nav beacon and skirted the edge of the event horizon. I could swear the black hole was whispering to me. It was a deeply unsettling experience. I pointed my ship away and towards the distant blue-white star at the far end of the syste,. grimacing as I left the influence of the black hole and the light from the stars warped back around me and gradually returned to normal.

I'd achieved my goal. The exoperience had nearly cost me everything. I nearly lost my mind. But I'm still here, changed but otherwise unscathed. And there's so much more to see. I plotted a course for the Great Annihilator system and hit the hyperdrive, breathing a sigh of relief as the voices in my head faded to silence.

Who knows where my journey will take me next