The "Long Jump" is the prototype vessel the snowleopards built as a proof-of-concept for their finalized hyperdrive.

It used a lot of technologies developed solely for it, like integrated circuits based on germanium semiconductors, hydroponic gardens, automated microfarming, fusion power and hiberzine, a "hypersleep" drug manufactured from a small, robust and unobstrusive plant.

The snowleopards used the Long Jump for an exploration of the nearby star systems. It's first travel took almost 50 years, half a snowleopards life. In that time, the Long Jump explored just as many solar systems, discovered inhabitable planets and other species.
Upon returning the snowleopards believed that their success would both be welcome by the other leopards of their homeworld, opening new opportunities, reviving their stagnating culture.
In a way it did.
The snowleopards where threatened with extinction unless they'd surrender the Long Jump and help producing more vessels to conquer those planets and other civilizations they had discovered.

In a covert action they destroyed all - well, most - of the manufacturing capabilities and technological documentations they had produced to build the Long Jump and evacuated their small population to the orbital dock they had built to create the Long Jump.

The dock was forced out of orbit and sent coasting to a rendevouz-point, whilst the Long Jump, stuffed to the brim with refugees in hiberzine hibernation, jumped to a system very difficult to reach. There it unloaded the refugees on the uninhabited planet, and jumped back to rendevouz with the space dock to collect the next group of refugees.
But whilst it approached the station, which had already come under fire from long range artillery rockets but had managed so far to survive despite heavy losses, the station finally succumbed to another wave of incoming fire as it extended it's protection to the Long Jump, weakening its own defenses.
All that made it in time to the Long Jump was a spare crew complement with a few meager supplies, most importantly a genetic library of all those that had been on board of the station.
The detonation and debris of the station shielded the Long Jump, as it sneaked under low emissions for months out of the system, and jumped back to the new colony with half a year delay.

Only to find the colonists to have gone berserk, a message capsule detailing a medical emergency of ghastly proportions.
The planet was a biological hazard zone, although a cure had been found in the last minute. But the colony was destroyed and none of its members could be found.

Thus, needing a resupply and an alternative place for a new colony, the Long Jump left the system, taking the slow route of about a year to conserve power. The jump was to a nearby system which, in its initial discovery about a hundred years ago, had contained a society that had just recently invented steam power.

Earth.

But upon arrival, the 'pards found that there was a full blown global war running - World War 2.
Many of the technologies in use there were still in use by the leopard society, many of them considered even "current".
Resupply was found to be possible along two routes - sending a shuttle to the surface whilst the Long Jump would try to harvest ressources from one of the gas giants. The Long Jump had already refueled pasing into the system by loading in ice asteroids. Whilst it was harvesting gases from the gas giants of the system, its advanced sensors detected a small number of crude, but still hyperspace capable vessels arriving from their homeworld. So the Long Jump went into hiding and ordered the shuttle and its crew to hide low in the athmosphere - where they were shot down by the humans, being mistaken for a lonely, high flying bomber.

This, however, the Long Jump only learned when it had detected most of the craft to have left the system again, a time of several months during which the crew of the Long Jump managed to fill up all of their ressources.
By the time the Long Jump returned to an earth orbit, the crew came up wit ha repaired shuttle, and a set of six human-made shuttles in tow.

Analyzing human biochemistry and trying to explain the peculiarities of both the humans biological setup and the risk that was to be found on the planet the snowleoaprds had tried to colonize initially, the humans agreed to be brought there to settle on it, letting the Snowleoaprds of the Long Jump seek their luck between the stars.

However, one of the humans sabotaged one of the thermonuclear bombs on board of the Long Jump, intended to create artificial lakes in which the Long Jump could land. The Commander had suspected such and had sent the replacement crew, as they were still young, with the genetic library along with a small group of trustworthy humans without telling anybody.
The other humans took off to land on the planet, and, with only it's original crew on board, the Long Jump was destroyed in a nuclear explosion, moments after a charge triggered by it's commander destroyed the hyperspace node in it's heavily armored compartment


Technically the Long Jump isn't using hyperspace - sidereal space - but a different concept alltogether.
Snowleopards hear a fine, not uncomfortable hum whilst the drive is in operation.
Humans, when they care to close their eyes and listen over the noises of the Long Jumps systems,can hear something else:
http://incompetech.com/music/royalt.....erspective.mp3
https://youtu.be/UGOfGUC4o-w
or something to the effect...