“ARGGHHH!” A groan broke the silence in the pitch-black domain.
As the man moaned and spit out a mouthful of blood. He was currently in a dark enclosed space trying to remember how he ended up there. Suddenly some blinking red lights caught his attention and after a moment his eyes adjusted. The better vision brought on a small headache and memories started to flow back.
“Ah.. something must have gone wrong..”
Finally the man so called Simon began to recall some of what happened. During his test flight or in better words experiment something went terribly wrong and during the catastrophe he lost consciousness. After checking the status on the instrument board and trying to make sense of the situation he could only think of a single sentence about his current predicament.
“Im screwed..” Simon reminded himself.
After another cough with some blood he unfastened his seatbelt and and drifted in zero gravity trying to think a way to solve this giant mess before it would be his last.
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For Simon Kent this was not the first time his life was in danger, he was a astronaute and life threatening situations had propped up before. Simon didn’t fear death, no what Simon feared most was people close to him dying. Although he was not afraid of death he was by no means suicidal, though some that knew him might call him that. Because of his life experiences he kept a arrogant and overbearing persona to almost everyone which fitted his current profession. In reality Simon was smart, driven and a science nerd.
He was not always like this but after his family died in a car accident at age of 7, he started to change. Watching his parent and older sister dying without him receiving a scratch felt like a cruel joke from god. After the accident he ended up living with his grandfather who was just as heartbroken as him. His grandfather was a retired pilot and also trained to be astronaut but never got to go to space after some bullshit health problem deemed him unfit. They grew close sharing the loss and were more like friends than grandfather and grandchild since losing his family made Simon quite a mature loner for his age.
Life carried on for Simon and after two years he started to revert to his older outgoing self and even started to get some friends. However this period would not last long, on his tenth birthday his grandfather was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died shortly after. At this young age some part of Simon believed it must have been his fault caring too much that god punished him. This is when he decided he should keep a distance from people and also what he should be doing with his life. To honor his late grandfather and family he would make it up to space. Most children had this dream but for Simon it was ingrained in him and kept him motivated, it also helped that space had almost no people.
After being relocated to some distant relatives Simon dove into studies and training. He could be considered a genius by his foster family however most of it was pure determination. The only hobby he retained during this period was reading fantasy books after being introduced with lord of the rings by his grandfather and practicing jujutsu to stay fit. He grew up fast while keeping and arrogant overbearing front so people would keep his distance, this proved more difficult after puberty as he was staying fit for his future career and the opposite sex started to notice. Because he was not a monk and it fit with outside persona he had a few girlfriends but it was always short lived.
He went off to study cosmology and astrophysics and it was here he formulated his own theory on gravity assisted propulsion. After joining the International Aeronautics and Space Administration or IASA and flying two missions aboard a space shuttle as the science officer and getting promoted to the rank of commander he was given the go-ahead to be the pilot of the flight to test his theory from college. He was now 35 years old and after going up to space he could not imagine a better job.
During the flight to prove his theorem something had obviously gone wrong. After performing the necessary maneuvers and reaching a high velocity the modules system had begun blinking warning lights and a series of violent shakes caused Simon to momentarily lose consciousness. After he woke up it was all black.
Seen from earth's perspective a sudden gravitational anomaly began to form in front of the module and suddenly both the phenomenon and Simons shuttle disappeared.
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An hour of working in the banged up module he manage to get minimal required power to control the craft. T first thing he did after settling back in the chair was to turn back the communications to regain contact with ground control.
“Houston control this is commander Simon Kent do you read me, over?” Static was all he got back.
After turning over the communications dials to check if everything was working, he continued trying.
“This commander Simon Kent do anyone read me, over?”
“Well that didn’t work.. Lets check what’s outside”
The module had no windows but instead used cameras to get the same view without the use of transparent material. After turning the displays back on he was left dumbstruck. He was in a geosynchronous orbit over the planet however this was not planet he was used to. The landmass was all wrong and no lights could be seen over the darkened parts of the planet.
“Houston control… wait that won’t work anymore..”
With a self depreciative smile he tried to make sense of the situation. He brought up the system logs of different sensors to find out what caused this clusterfuck he currently was in. The last log showed an unknown error being recorded by the ship's sensors. It occured just as the experiment was suppose to be completed and after that the module lost power.
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“Must have something to do with that” He pointed to the screen to show his non existing audience.
“Shit already talking to myself.. Either i traveled in time…”
That theory proved false, as the display screens view changed. As the ship rotated dead in space it pointed at the moons. This planet had more than one moon, two to be exact. Either he was suffering from hallucinations or the only viable hypothesis that was left was the unthinkable.
'Huh? My experiment caused a wormhole.. Well that's just perfect..' Simon swore and banged his fist on hull.
Simon tried to remain calm, he had never been afraid of death but this current situation drifting alone somewhere in space-time after passing through a Einstein–Rosen bridge, would make anyone a bit on edge. Shortly after regaining composure he once again checked the status on the module to see what his choices were. Visiting the planet was his final option since he had no idea what was down there. Though it looked inviting, like a second earth, without all the pollution or comfort of electricity. Since the local inhabitants could waiting for him with either lasers or sharp claws he put this idea off for the moment.
After some time of weighing the different ideas to get back home he started feeling weird. He felt both hot and cold at the same time and he could have sweared he saw his skin turn a purple hue. He didn’t have the chance to double check as he suddenly spasmed. A violent seizure prompted Simon to once again lose consciousness.
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Time flew by and the energy reserve on the module kept dwindling while Simon was out cold. When he awoke warning lights had begun to start blinking again. He checked himself but could not find and visible injuries, he thought that he must have received some internal damages from the accident. That was low priority for him as this time his craft was on the last leg, the only option left was to land and hope for the best.
Simon made up his mind and started up the engine and thrusters to begin his journey into the unknown. He calculated a trajectory for the splashdown somewhere in the biggest continent on the planet. Because he was running without most of modules system online, this was mostly down to his on the fly calculations.
“Heh with the luck i’m having today i might land back on Mars… Well here goes nothing!”
During the rough descent in the atmospheric entry more light started blinking red. With a loud noise some piece of the craft broke up because of the heat buildup. The module started spinning but he luckily got it under control, nevertheless the craft had veered of course and now headed to a thick forest on the east side of the big landmass. Simon had no time to check for civilization during the tense crash landing. However as he was nearing the ground he had some minute moments to marveled at how the flora looked similar to earth. He was still going quite fast and the landing was going to be dumpy.
He shook some more as he trimmed a few trees. The screens stopped working as he slid across the earth. When the craft came to a stop he was in a small sized clearing and this time he did not pass out which served as best news all day. Simon took stock of his situation and checked his suit to find out it was ruptured, he made a decision to just open the hatch and get it over with. Hopefully there was breathable atmosphere, if not he was dead anyway. He unlocked himself from the seat and opened the hatch to outside. As he carefully took his first breath and opened his eyes he was greeted by sunlight and fresh air. Simon just stood for a few minutes just breathing. He watched the nearby terrain from the hatch. The clearing had deep dirt path in the direction which he came in for a landing and some pieces of the module wing was lying around it. Some segments where smoking but there was no risk for a forest fire since it seemed quite damp outside.
Simon scanned the clearing and marveled that looked almost identical to earth. The trees and grass was green here as well and they appeared much like the boreal forest he was used to. He reckoned the local wildlife might also be the similar to earth but with his luck they might just be spitting fire. But to be the first to land and explore a new planet was the dream for most in his field of work. Simon steeled himself and went back to pack some supplies and tools from the module, before jumping down on the moist dirt ground.
‘Damn i forgot to say something cool when taking my first step on the planet.. Well noone here to complain but me.’
At that moment he remembered he might suffer from internal bleeding but he was now feeling normal. Once again Simon started checking himself yet he could did not feel the obvious signs for internal bleeding. With that problem aside he could start his exploration in the area around the crash site and maybe find water. He had some from the craft but nothing that could last longer than a week with rationing. The clearing and forest investigation was quite anticlimactic as it all seemed so familiar, he could have been in any forest on earth. It was just eerily quiet. The only noteworthy discovery Simon made was when he tripped on a rock and a few insect like creatures with six legs and wings flew out from the dirt. Simon didn’t have time to name them, they seem quite annoyed at being disturbed and fluttered away quickly.
As the sun started to set he made his way back to the module to fill his stomach and rest for the night. While he was eating his dinner the first sound of animals reached him. Distant roars and bird sounds confirmed that larger animals also roamed this planet. When he went up to do a check on the nearby perimeter he saw the vast amount of unknown stars in the sky further reminding him that he was all alone. Simon for the first time in a long time wished for some company.