Out of bounds

[Sombs]

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Day 2 - Location unknown

It was the morning of the next day, according to the Apahanta's internal clocks. Ezrael looked refreshed as he entered the cafeteria, wearing a new, clean Apahanta suit. The majority of the crew was here. Leon and Annie Reese were not, and Ezrael had a good idea about why, as they didn't stop working over night. Making his steps to the morning buffet, Sherry moved to his side, accompanying him as he started to gather his breakfast.

"Good morning, Captain. There are good and bad news waiting for you," she said quietly in a rather calm tone, keeping her neutral countenance.

Ezrael took his bun and grabbed a few fruits, then looked quickly at her. "I take it those news can't wait until I sit at a table?"

"The good news is that Isley and Reese managed to get the sensors online again, at an efficiency of 75%. We would need to construct the required spare parts to raise it to 100%, however since we currently have only limited resources, I told them to wait and focus on other things like the engines, which are currently still offline. They both are sleeping now, while the KSRs have been programmed with various tasks by them." the Commander explained, watching Ezrael filling milk into a glass.

Then he grabbed a few slices of cucumber and a tomato. "That sounds to me like this was the good news, Sherry."

He could hear her taking a deep breath before she said the next words. "The sensors are working well enough, Captain. It is out of question that they malfunction, even though they have a reduced range. However, the deep space sensors are picking up nothing. Nothing but the black hole. We can't see any stars or nebulae because there are none."

Taking his tray, Ezrael waited for a moment, wondering about the implications before he turned around to take his breakfast to one of the tables. Most of the crew sat at the same table, however, given the nature of the conversation, he and Sherry moved to another table at the corner of the room. Sherry sat down right next to him. "Any theories?"

"There are multiple theories that could be applied. One is that we are positioned in some sort of gravitational pocket that was created by us jumping into the gravity well of the black hole and protects us from forces that would otherwise affect us in a strong way. This could explain why we can't see anything, as light is bent around the pocket, however in that case we wouldn't be able to see the black hole either. The currently most reasonable theory is that we are simply not in Sirius anymore."

Ezrael looked slightly to the side, then back at his tray as he began to split his bun. "I thought the same last night. Could it be, though?"

"George Poole would have been able to tell us more about it, but he is dead, and I am not even remotely into the matter, however we know that ships have been jumping in three,
with Gallia four different areas: Sirius, Gallia, an unknown region called Lost Sector and Cassiopeia. Sirius and Gallia are, in comparison, extremely close to each other. So close that you can see each other's clusters and nebulae from the other region. It is different with the Lost Sector and Cassiopeia, which are merely known to exist, but very far away from Sirius, as stars and nebulae seen in those systems can't be recognized on any sirian star charts. The different alternatives to True-Space, which we use when travelling through jump holes, are said to be more attracted by those two regions than with any other region outside of Sirius and Gallia. A professor at the University of Cambridge even goes so far as to claim that this affinity was caused artificially by-"

"I'm a biologist, Sherry." Ezrael interrupted her while placing a slice of cheese on his bun, then a slice of Lyoner.

"Try to follow me here, Ezrael. Imagine something or someone caused Sirius and Gallia to be connected with other big regions of space via hyperspace or subspace or other dimensions above and below from True-Space. Like, a giant network an ancient species used to get from one part of their territory to another, just like the jump gates we use in the colonies, just on a way bigger scale. And now imagine one of those lanes is suddenly blocked somewhere in the middle of nowhere."

Sighing, Ezrael leaned a little back while grabbing his glass of milk. "I still don't get it."

"Ezrael, Jump Drives never lead into empty areas. They always follow ways in hyperspace that lead somewhere. The Apahanta did a few blind jumps and we always jumped into a solar system. There was always a sun, at least. You understand? Something with a gravitational pull. However, the blind jumps can also lead to areas outside of Sirius, which is why we once ended up in Gallia and once in an area that definitely was not a part of Sirius. But never in deep space. And always in some sort of stellar cluster. But this time we ended up in deep space, somewhere between Sirius and the target region, because something affected the hyperspace lane in a way that caused it to end. A gravitational force."

"A giant black hole. A stray one, that's what you imply?" Ezrael asked, taking a sip of his milk. Then he emptied the glass.

"That is the theory, Captain. One of many, however currently the most fitting one. We will need time to check the facts. Which leads me to the next topic. Time." She looked over to the table the crew was sitting at. They didn't look happy and were rather silent, only talking about the repairs while eating. Sometimes one of them glanced over to Captain and Commander. "Time is, as you know, affected by velocity and mass. On planets, time is passing a very, very little bit slower than in space, and Sirius is technically ticking half an hour faster than the core of the galaxy. We see no stars, meaning there is the chance we are no longer within our galaxy but somewhere outside, which means there is another time difference between us, where no mass is, and the area of the galaxy where Sirius is. With other words, it could be that we are aging faster than people in Sirius do. If that is true, that is. Another factor however is the black hole. Since it is a giant mass, it affects time the other way around, meaning we could also age way slower than people in Sirius do. At this point, we can't tell, since we have no idea where Sirius is and where we are. And, to be honest, Captain, this is also all theory and might also be filled with flaws. I'm no expert on this. Poole was."

"Poole is dead," Ezrael said quietly while observing the crew. "Listen, Sherry, this is all quite interesting, but it is probably very much lost on me. First of all we need to ensure our survival. I take it the black hole is not dangerous for us by now?"

The Commander inhaled deeply just to exhale it audibly. "According to the sensors, we are far enough away from the black hole to not get ripped apart from the gravitational forces. There is a radiation burst not too far away from us, but it won't reach us here. Technically, all we need to do is to bring the engines online to ensure we won't get pulled too much closer to the black hole, however we have days for that. The faster the better, though, which is why Isley wants to do that next."

"Good. That is good news." The bun was ready, however Ezrael chose to pick up his apple first. He smirked slightly at it, as it was one of the apples they grew on the Apahanta's apple tree in the hydroponics. The fruit was red and looked like it had tiny freckles. "Can we recreate the jump process to return to Sirius? I mean, we do have coordinates, right?"

As Ezrael bit in his apple, Sherry bit her lower lip slightly. "The blind jump to this location ate up the jump drive batteries. We can't jump anywhere, Captain."

Remaining quiet, Ezrael swallowed the bite and then stared at the apple. "So we are stuck here."

"Yes. We won't come home."

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Uncharted System Stories: 18 | 32 | 34 | 37 | 38 | 85

Templates: Character | Transmissions

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