Star Map of Known Space and the Zone

Star Map of Known Space and the Zone

I used a map I found in google of the Orion Spur or Orion Arm to get an idea of the size and scale of Consortium Space.  Somewhere in the text, it says the Zone encircles part of the Spiral Arm.  Just to give you some idea of scale, the Orion Spur (the galactic spiral arm we are located in), is some 3,500 light-years (1,100 parsecs) across and approximately 10,000 light-years (3,100 parsecs) in length (according to Wikipedia).  That’s just the small Spur that is the Orion Arm.  It is surrounded by  and intersects much larger arms – Sagittarius, Perseus and Cygnus.

To put that in perspective, it would take 30 years to traverse 10,000 ly using a Q-Drive (1 ly per day) and 9 years to cross 3500 lys.  Thinking about that, my scale may be a little off.  Somewhere else, it says that Xenos Sector is over 1000 light years from the Core.  So really, much of the above map would be contained in just the Orion Spur.