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The Exodus to Sagittarius
Human Space before the Exodus
The Exodus
The Sagittarius Arm
The Triffid and Lagoon Nebulae

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The Dhaoghissi Empires
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The Triffid Nebula is the smaller of the two bright objects, and is located near the top of the image.  The Lagoon Nebula is the larger object at the bottom.  As can be seen in the image, various clouds of dark gasses and dust thread and wind throughout this volume of space.  The brilliant star clusters NGC-6514 and NGC-6530 are associated with the Triffid and Lagoon Nebulae respectively.  Two massive blue giant stars, 7 Sagittarii and 9 Sagittarii, light up the Lagoon Nebula to its remarkable brilliance, and served as guide beacons for the Exodus' astrogators.  Collectively and informally, 7 and 9 Sag are known as The Twins.  The Orion-Sagittarius Linelayer used The Twins as guidestars during its 4200 light-year trip from the Wolf 359 System.

A closeup of the Lagoon Nebula illustrates how brightly illuminated it is by 7 and 9 Sagittarii and 36 Herschel, as well as the NGC-6530 star cluster.  The Nebula itself is about 50 parsecs across (~150 light years), though this image shows only the brightest portion, which is about 75 light-years across.  Intense radiation from the star cluster and The Twins has made close surveys of the Lagoon Nebula problematic, and the nebula itself is not regarded as a good prospect for colonization.

The sighting of what might be an ancient and quite gigantic spacecraft or habitat orbiting a close-triple star system of red giants in the vicinity of the NGC-6530 star cluster by the Interpid survey team (Captain Drake Skyler, Commanding) in April of 2355 was perhaps the only known example of intelligent life other than humans in the universe, though Skyler's conclusion that the object on his sensor logs was a spacecraft or habitat has been hotly contested.  The location of the star system with the possibly derelict craft was known only to Captain Skyler and his astrogator, and neither have been seen since the survey team was formally disbanded in June 2356.  The theft of the Intrepid from Gateway Station on 17 August 2357 is believed to have involved Captain Skyler, and some speculate that the reason he took the Intrepid was to prove his assertions about the object encountered near the nebula.

The subsequent attack on human colonies by the Dhaoghissi has proven Skyler's point about not being alone in the universe, although it has also made it unlikely that further resources will be spent on investigating the sighting.

The Triffid Nebula is a young and fairly small nebula measuring about 8 parsecs (25 light-years) across.  Threads and wispy filaments of dark dust appear to divide the nebula into several parts.  The lower pink part of the nebula is a bright emissions type cloud, lit by the bright compact star cluster NGC-6514.  The upper part of Triffid is a cool reflection nebula scattering the light and radiation from the lower part.  No human survey ships have yet approached the Triffid Nebula for analysis.  Analysis of the Interstellar Very Large Baseline Interferometry Telescope (IVLBIT) data gathered to date has detected extremely faint anomalous radio frequency emissions in the vicinity of the Triffid Nebula, but to date no one has been able to firmly state whether they represent an intelligent source.  Similar emissions have been detected from a relatively large area of space to the galactic southwest of the Lagoon Nebula, and possibly represent the location of the Dhaoghissi Empires.
 

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