A short story about a Space Engineer and his journey.

SpaceTale.txt

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, places, or entities are works of fiction. Any correlational between this work or its characters, places, or entities, are coincidences.

Exploration Log: March 30th 2085 21:56

Tomorrow is the big day. I set off on my deep space resource expedition. I can't wait! I have already packed my gear and prepared the Astra for launch. The Government seems just as eager with this expedition as I do. They seem to have signed some sort of deal with the Miners Guild regarding my expedition. I am not completely sure of the details, but maybe I will get something good out of this mission if I do well. *Sigh* Well I guess all I can do is wait for morning. This is Jonathan Smith signing off.
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Exploration Log: March 31st 2085 06:00

Well… it's time to go. I guess I should record this… I mean, I am sure the station has a recording system in place… but I don't really trust the 'Guild' all that much. So it would be best to have my own version in case something happens.

*Console Beeps* Well it looks like this is it. *Comms crackle* This is Johnathan Smith aboard the Astra.

This station command, Mr. Smith we have your launch clearance. Good luck on your journey… we look forward to your profitable return.

I am sure you do. Computer power up the engines and prepare for departure.

*Computer Voice* Engines online.

Initiating Engine burn now. *Soft Rumble* … and I am clear.

This is station command, we confirm you are clear of the docking bay. You need to clear 2km from the station before jumping.

*Sigh* I know. I have done this… *Console Beep* What the… station command I am picking up multiple contacts approaching… can you confirm.

One moment… That is confirmed. It looks like a total of six ships… but there are not any scheduled arrivals for the next four days.

Pirates! Station command I am unarmed, I am coming back for protection.

Negative! You need to lead the pirates away from the station. We have determined with the external cameras that the ships are carrying heavy ordinance. We can not fend them off!

Are you insane! I can't fight even a single pirate much less six of them!

Mr. Smith, there are forty people aboard this station… hold on. It seems only two of the pirate ships has broken off and are heading for you. We can use this to our advantage. The stations defenses might be able to hold off four pirates. If you keep leading the other two away we can deal with them separately.

*Sigh* I'll do what I can. Increasing to full throttle… They still seem to be gaining on me. I guess that is the advantage to build a smaller ship.

*Heavy static* This is station Command, keep ahead of them as long as possible. We just started engaging the enemy. They are… *Comms click off*

Station Command do you read me? Station Command? You need to send a hyperlight communications report to Earth… I am only equipped with sublight communications. You need to get the military out here! *Heavy impact* I am under attack! Diagnostics report all systems are green, they must have hit the armor. *Heavy impact* Computer prepare an emergency ftl Jump.

*Computer Voice* Warning no coordinated calculated.

DAMN IT! Do a blind jump! *Static*
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Exploration Log: March 31st 2085 06:18

*Computer Voice* Oxy… low!

*Cough* What the… *Cough* What happened… Oh! My head…*Heavy Breathing* What the… OK Oxygen… uh let's see cargo storage contain five had extra O2 bottles… the door is stuck… uh… no power. What is this odd… freezing… stutter… that can't be me… Suit power is fine… is this in my head? I must have hit my head pretty hard. OK focus… I can get to a medical station later. Get the door open, get oxygen… Uh… let's see. Grinder, yes… grind the door. *Prolonged Grinding noises* Got it! OK… the entire ship is obviously decompressed. So that means there are multiple hull breaches… OK cargo box 5… What the… Of course not. OK let's see… focus… right, check the cargo network. What do ya got for me… There is one oxygen bottle in the o2 generator. Let me move it to this container… Damn! The ship is operating in low power mode. I guess those pirates took out the reactor. Alright the h2/o2 generator is down the hall and to the left… I think. Oh… my head… what is going on! OK just breath… I should probably record this… It seems the suit is already recording what is going on. It never stopped recording since before the attack. Good enough… alright h2/o2 generator. There we go that will do. Oxygen levels are reading normal now. That gives me some time. Next thing I should do is get power online… or maybe record a message to home… just in case. 
*Clears throat* This is Johnathan Smith of the Earth Mining Expedition ship Astra. The Miners Guild station I was departing from was attacked by pirates. I was forced to make an emergency jump without coordinates. I am unsure of where I am at, and I am stranded aboard my ship. *Sighs* If you are hearing this message then, I either handed them to you in person or, the worst has happened. If the latter is true make sure my girlfriend hears this part. Becky I know you did not want me to go on this expedition, but the pay was good. No it was better than good… but I guess that does not matter now. The initial contract payment for this mission should be more than enough for you to have a happy life for a few years. Maybe if you are lucky the government will give you the rest of my contract payment even thought the mission was a failure. Look I got to get back to work, and make sure this message never reaches you… but just in case, I love you.
Alright listen, HQ, if don't make it out of here I want you to know this is all your fault and I blame you for everything. *Chuckles* I still have my sense of humor. No matter what other brain damage I may have at least I can still laugh. Alright that is enough for this log. I create a new one if anything interesting happens.
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Exploration Log: March 31st 2085 06:58

I have looked at the reactor extensively. There is no way to safely fix it. Not without more resources. No reactor means no power… or at least not enough to charge the jump drive. Or use the thrusters… or the gravity generator… or oxygen generation, or anything that I can build with the onboard resources. At least I got the lights and the doors working with emergency power. *Sigh* I am heading for the ships lounge. I think just look at the stars… *Sigh* Look, I am not giving up. But I tend to get lost staring into the stars, so if that is where you find me, you know what happened. *Door opens* No way! Alright I take back everything I said. There is a planet. A blue planet. *Excited laugh* I am looking at it out of the window. It is directly in front of the ship. It seems a bit strange though. Hold on, let me use my suits zoom and enhance to see if I can get a clearer picture of the surface. How is that even possible? When I use my suit zoom, all I can see is impossible looking spikes, that reach far into the sky, and deep crevices that I can not even see the bottom of. I have to be going insane. Maybe this is related to the occasional 'pauses in time' I keep experiencing. I don't know.  I should have carried my velocity through the jump, so the next thing I need to find out is in which direction I am drifting. I have to do some critical thinking.
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Exploration Log: April 1st 2085 01:06

I swear this is not an April fools joke. While working in the main computer system and the thrusters… I had a random thought. I thought perhaps the strange view of the planet had something to do with my suits zoom and enhance. It turns out I was not processing the initial image properly and was failing to extrapolate a meaningful end image. I did some work on my suits computer and manged to temporarily override the zoom and enhance feature. I took another look at the planet. It is much clearer. No strange spikes, no bottomless pits… I am incredibly tired. I manged to route enough power to the h2/o2 generators for it to provide a slow trickle of oxygen to my suit. I'll hook up to it and finally get some proper rest.
On a side note, I have determined that a quick note on that, after the jump my inertial dampeners initialized before the reactor had an emergency shutdown. I am in a stable orbit of the planet below. So I don't have to worry about drifting too far away… or crashing for that matter.
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Exploration Log: April 1st 2085 09:33

I survived the night. That is good… I guess. It seems the time freezes are still happening. I may have to get used to this for a while. I may have an idea for getting to the surface. The emergency power systems were designed to trickle power for a long time… but if I can override them and dump all of their raw power into the thruster systems, it might be enough to get me on a descent vector. I can then use the gyroscopes to level my approach and, hopefully, crash SOFTLY into the surface. I think I seen some lakes when zooming on the planet. I'll aim for one of those if possible, I will have the best chance of surviving the impact. I don't have much of a choice. There don't seem to be any nearby asteroids, and my ice supply will not last forever, so I have to try to land.
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Exploration Log: April 1st 2085 10:16

All systems are green. Considering the bridge is in the center of the ship, I have moved to the lounge and rerouted computer control to be remote controlled by my suit. That way, if deck three becomes deck two, I will not be crushed. I think the emergency power system is ready to be switched. There is not a lot of power, so I will only get one chance at this. Wish me luck. *Console Beep* I worked. Here we go… That is it I am cutting the thrusters. OK there seems to be enough power left to control the gyros. It should take a few minutes to enter the atmosphere. I must admit I am nervous. 
*Long Silence*
*Soft Rumbling* That the atmosphere. No turning back now… even if I could. I see a lake just short of the horizon line. I am turning the ship. *Rumbling Intensifies* That's it. That was the last of the power. I at the mercy of the planet now. Let it be kind… that lake looks strange. Oh sh… *Loud crashing sound* *Log cuts abruptly*
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Exploration Log: April 1st 2085 10:30

*Light wind sound* It seems that was not a lake… or at least not a liquid lake. It is solid ice. It is -2C on this planet, just below freezing. The ship was totaled in the crash. Only a few minor components survived the impact. Although, as sort of sadistic joke by the universe, the broken reactor is sitting next to the remains of ship, almost completely unharmed by the impact; not that it was much use to begin with.
I guess some good news is the planet has breathable atmosphere. My suit is filtering into my helmet as I speak. So suffocating is no longer an issue. Well now I am here… I am not exactly sure what to do. I never really thought I would get this far. Time to do some more thinking… if only these damned time freezes would stop, I could think so much clearer. I guess I will have to put up with it for now.

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Exploration Log: April 2nd 2085 06:46

I had an idea yesterday. Use the remnants of the ship to build a base. I worked though the night, and well… I wish I could take a picture. Not because it is aesthetically pleasing… on the contrary it's just an dull ugly box… but because it is salvation. I even stuck a few wind turbines on the top of it. So I have at least a little power, I might move them up higher in the future, but for now this will do. I have some expansion plans. I want to build basic refinery and assembler system and start looking for raw resources. I have plenty of ice to convert into hydrogen for both my jet pack, and for when I build a hydrogen engine to power my base. That also means I have enough ice for water generation, so I do not need to worry about the water reclamation system… which I am sure totally survived the impact. As for food… I should have enough rations for three months stored in the galley, which I know for a fact survived the impact, because the galley is adjacent to the lounge… and I am still talking so the lounge survived. I am really regretting not downloading the food processor blueprints from the MOD.NET, before leaving. I mean I don't mind eating rations, but I could really use some comfort food right now. There are plenty of plants around, I am sure the food processor would have been able to convert them into something tasty. Well, I am going to take a short nap before getting to work on the base expansion. I'll keep recording these logs if anything interesting happens.
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Exploration Log: April 4th 2085 10:16

It has been a while since my last entry. I have been very busy. This planet is full of raw resources like iron, silicon, and cobalt. But nothing new and exciting… so yeah. I not only built the basic refinery and assembler, but I have so many resources I was able to build both the advanced versions of each. I also built a new h2/o2 generator and hooked it up to a hydrogen engine. The base now has plenty of power.
I have a new idea as well. I want to build a hyperlight communications antenna. It will require quite a bit of platinum, but I think I have enough left over in the surviving thruster components to build it. But power is going to be an issue. I do not know how far from earth I am, so I am going to need to run it at maximum power levels. Which means at least three batteries. I guess that should be easy enough.
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Exploration Log: April 4th 2085 17:28

I was right I had just thruster components. The hyperlight communications antenna is complete. The batteries are in place and charging. They should be shortly. *Console Beeps* Or they could be ready right now. Setting up that second hydrogen engine was a good idea, but I have already burned through most of my reserve ice. I'll have to mine more after this. Alright here we go.
*Clears Throat* This is Johnathan Smith of the Astra. This is an emergency distress call. To anyone that hears this. I am trapped on an Earth link planet somewhere outside of the Sol system. *under breath* obviously its outside of sol duh… Anyway. If anyone receives this message respond to the same frequency…

*Comms Click* Johnathan Smith, this is the Earth Central Government. We are reading you. We thought you were dead, what happened?

*Sigh of relief* You do not know how nice it is to hear your voice. I am not sure what happened. The station I was at was attacked by pirates, and I was forced to blind jump. I don't know where I am, but I somehow managed to survive against all odds. I need immediate pick up. I seem to have severe brain damage. I have this constant stuttering that seems like time stand still for a fraction of a second…

Listen, we understand you are afraid and alone. But we don't know where you are to come get you. Do you have any idea where you are at? Any specific landmarks in the solar system you are in? You said you were on an Earth like planet… there are hundreds of those kinds of planets within jump range.

I… I don't know. My ship was severely damaged from the beginning, I was not able to get any useful readings.

*Sigh* Look, I know this is going to be difficult, but we can not spare anyone to look for you. We are at war with the Pirates. They have been raiding the entire solar system for the last few days and we have had the military and police trying to track them down. We can not spare anyone to look for you.

*Angrily* What!? How can you just leave me out here? Am I just supposed to rot out here…

*Calmly* Listen I know it sounds cruel. But we have other things to focus on, there are thousands of people at risk from these pirate raids. You are just one person, we will help you in any way possible of the opportunity presents itself. But as it stands now, you seem to be out of immediate danger. I mean the Astra did not even have hyperlight communications so you managed to build a transceiver by yourself, right?

Yes, but I do not know how long I can last out here without help. I was not prepared for this kind of thing… *Console beeps* Alright. I'll do what I can. And I will be in regular contact. But my power systems are being overwhelmed by this antenna. I'll contact you again. Please promise me you will try to help.

We will do what we can. Good Luck. *Comms click off*

Alone again. At least they know I exist, and that's a start.
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Exploration Log: April 5th 2085 10:01

Alright let's try this again. Earth this is John Smith, do you read me?

Hello John, this is Mike from the union of Workers, Investigating, New, Elements. We know of your situation and have deiced to step into help you while the Government and Military are busy with other matters. We will do what we can to help, but know that you are in good hands. You mentioned in your last transmission that you are having some sort of stuttering in your cognitive functions?

Uh… yeah. I don't know why but it is incredibly irritating.

Hmm… We noticed your speech seems to exhibit signs of this, you have short pauses in the middle of words and such… We will need you to upload a full medical scan as soon as possible.

I… I will have to build a medical room. If I can find enough silver…

Very good. Contact us again when you have the scan complete… or if you need more help, or just want to chat.

Hey, before you go… I want to thank you.

No need to thank us. We would do this for anyone. Good Luck Mr Smith. *Comms click off*

Alright… let's see medical room… yes that the right blueprint. That is a lot of medical components… which means a lot of silver… I wonder.
*Heavy footsteps.* *Door opens* *Wind picks up*

Ha… I knew you would come in handy eventually. Just enough Reactor components left to build the required medical components. I guess my suit is still sealed enough to handle this Uranium. Uh… lets just set this way over here. *Fast footsteps* And gently down. Alright.*Fast footsteps* Lets get these reactor components… oh I forgot to turn off the recording.

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Exploration Log: April 5th 2085 18:16

Alright I have the medical information. I am sending it now.

Good… we are receiving it now. We will start analyzing as soon as possible. It will obviously take a while, so be patient.

*Soft laugh* I have made it this far. I am just glad someone who knows what they are doing is looking into this. I can't wait to be back to normal. Then get rescued.

*Chuckle* At least you are keeping your spirits up. That's good to know. We will chat again tomorrow. In the meantime I have to recommend you take a few days to rest… if your situation permits it.

I think I can manage that. Thanks again for all your help.

No problem. *Comms click off*

*Door opens*
*Deep breath*
I guess I should record a final message. I have decided these messages are not necessary as Earth know about my situation. It seems like my rescue is inevitable. As I stand here staring at this beautiful sunset… on this world far from my home… I can't help but feel that no matter what happens, this journey… even with the terrible side effects, is well worth it. This is Johnathan Smith, signing off.