As you are on the point of saying yes, and reaching your hand out towards her body, there is an explosion of light. You run to the control panels. The flashes and energy readouts are unmistakeable. You've flown into a spatio-temporal instability. It is a rare event, but it has been known to happen that the energy of a ship's engine will attract the buildup of an unstable wormhole around it, and it will be deposited somewhere completely random. You can only hope that you won't end up too far out of your way.
A few seconds later, the lights cease. And as soon as they do, you realize those hopes have been dashed. Not only are you more than just a little out of your way, your computer has literally no idea where you are. You realize that can only mean one thing: unexplored territory. If your computer can't localize you, it means that you're so far from anything it recognizes that it can't even estimate.
And that's the least of your problems. You see that there's been damage to the engine.
"Where are we?" Rachel asks.
"Damned if I know," you say. "But it's a long way from Kansas. And we're pretty dinged up."
"So what do we do?"
"Look for help, I suppose." You start scanning the sector. You quickly come across two things within range of your shuttle. One of them is a planet that seems to have reached a high level of technological development. The other is an unrecognizable ship in the exact opposite direction. |