The trip through the coruscating field that defined the Gate left the remaining pilots nauseous, each muscle and nerve fibre tingling - "just as if they'd been torn apart and reassembled", as their Medical Officer used to say with a twinkle in his eye - for in fact, that's exactly what had just happened!
Nonetheless, as they gathered their scrambled wits, they could tell the Gate had done its job... The dark nature of the surrounding space itself was sufficient to tell them they were no longer in the region of the dusty stellar nursery...
A blue jewel sparkled in the void ahead of them - the Sector Prime world of Nueva Geneva, with its nightside blazing with the lights of its many cities...
The squadron had just enough power to send out a "Mayday" signal, cutting through the comforting intra-system comm babble. One by one, their engines shut down - most of the pilots re-entered stasis as they awaited rescue, coasting in towards the sanctuary of home...
The little ships were built some time ago in RayDream. This image was done mainly as a test of 'LunarCell,' a marvellous new planet-generation Photoshop plug-in from Flaming Pear Software (see below)...
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