For the most part, the journey was eventless. Many of the systems were deserted anyway, or their pilots were docked and sleeping. I had not encountered so much as a single hostile Amarrian. I was glad as I did not fancy combat. It would taint the voyage somewhat and might spoil the whole feeling. However, to ensure that this would not be the case, I fitted my MWD and plenty of guns to the Thorax to keep me safe.

As I approached the potential pirate blockade I took another look at the map. I was surprised to notice the number of ships destroyed was the same as earlier. This figure is taken from the last 24 hours so who knows, the blockade might be gone by now.

This was not the case however, as I realised what was responsible for the kills. As I dropped out of warp, I was right in the middle of a fleet of Blood pirates. Not that this would worry me too much as they were all fairly low end. I accelerated to the gate but before I could pick up speed, my nerve collapsed as I saw the threat detector flair with 3 Blood Arch Reavers who had already locked on to me. I had not noticed them as usually pirate blockades are closer to the gates. They were crafty as they had set up behind the common warp in point for the gate to get the drop on cocky pilots.

Thankfully, with much sweat dripping from my neck and fringe, the MWD kicked in and my ship accelerated away quickly. However, this was not before they managed to hit me several times with large lasers, stripping my shields down quickly. In what seemed like the longest moment of my life, my ship was scooped up my the jump gate and catapulted out of harms way.

For most of the run after that, I was encountering few small Blood pirates. No doubt they knew I was coming but were less strategic than their larger brothers and were too close to the gates to be effective. And this corridor was like a dead end road of jump gates right to the gates so there was no other place to go but to brave the gauntlet.

As the moment arrived, I reached the final gate that lead to the New Eden system. I was not entirely sure what to find here, I expected to see something like a dim swirl in space. I also hear that there is a planet there too, a gas giant, that was close to the gateway. I expected many grimy looking gasses that may have been expelled by the collapse of the gateway. As I approached the gate, I held my breath as if I expected to come out of the other side submerged in water.

The flash of the jump gate faded and as my vision adjusted, I was captivated by the sight before my ships nose. I was so taken back by what my camera was showing that I half expected it to be malfunctioning. I opened the hatch on the pod to step onto the gantry with the bridge windows that looked out to the front of the ship and was swallowed win light as intense as anything I had ever seen. A pure white light with light sapphire blue radiance that extended in a cone towards the ship, and seemed to cradle the very stars at their edge. A slow and hypnotic twirling of light leading to the centre created the illusion that space itself was turning around me.

To the right of my ship was the gas giant, New Eden I. It too sat on the very edge of the radiant blue light and the surface facing the gate was illuminated with the brightness of a hundred suns. Behind my ship, the stars glistened more brightly than I could remember seeing them do so in any system I had visited. Truly this was the sight that greeted the pilgrims of old who came to this galaxy looking for a new start. Who could rightly blame them for calling this place Eden?

As time moved on, it seemed as though it had not passed at all. Hours, days, months years, whole lives would be born, weathered and gone from existence. And yet, what lay beyond my ships nose would remain the same as it was now for millions of years to come, unyielding to the rigors of time. Suddenly, I felt very young and alone with this old giant of the universe that was beyond desire to expand or change.

I was almost too reluctant to move from this spot and was not looking forward to the trip back. Many bad deeds had been done in this galaxy and I did not feel that I could face them after having such an encounter. As I cradled myself back into my pod, I set the navigation computer to return me back to Pator. When the computer signalled it was plotted, I could hardly bring myself to give the command. After several long seconds, I spoke.

"Engage…. Autopilot."

The computer responded quickly, too quickly, and the ship swung around and, wrapped in a warp field, sped towards the exit gate from the system. Saddened, I took one last look at the Eden gateway before the ship was engulfed in white light at the jump gate and before I knew it, the splendour was gone.

Suddenly the stars didn't seem to shine so bright anymore.