A heavy creaking noise shakes the walls and floor. It is not enough to wake the man on the bed. However even with his seemingly forever sleep, an alarm kicks on. Instantly he wakes up. Even with the noise, the man can't shake the delirium of just waking up as well as the confusion of being in a new environment. Like that of a drunken stupor he quickly raises from the bed quickly only to shortly after, fallover. The pain assaulting him probably awoke his senses more than the borreing noise ever could.

Fully awake now the man fumbles forwarded while getting up attempting to get his bearingings. He looks around finally realizing where he was. Unfortunately his revelation could only be short lived at this moment, as a distinctly female robotic voice sounds on the speaker system throughout the metal room.

“Warning: heavy gravitational pull towards black star. Please change course.”

Black star? What is that?

Rushing out of the room the man locates a familiar direction and heads down it. Shortly thereafter finding himself on the bridge of the spaceship. As if reciting an epic skaldic poem the man roars at the ship,

“Cruiser class 5 redirect course away from the mass called ‘black star’”

The slightly metallic voice responds to his commands.

“Rout confirmed. Redirecting thrusters at 30% power away from black star”

Immediately the ship roars to life with tremors coming from the thrusters shaking off the gravitational pull from the mass. About 10 minutes passed and the ship stopped the tremors. Soon after the ships ai rang once more on the speakers.

“Good morning commander Kensington, you have been in a cryo induced comatose state for about 6 years. Hyperion spider claw 5 sustained major hull damage a fuel leakage and the main ai has been disabled due to a network change causing a drift in space. Please give orders.”

Kensington raised his head and breathed in attempting to slow his heart rate down. What was that?

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“HSC5 please turn on the main ai and locate the nearest advanced colonized planet or space station.”

With his command he did not get the answer he was hoping for,

“Error main ai has been damaged and must be manually installed. Nearest colonized station is approx 97 light years away”

“Is Hyper Light Speed drive available to launch?” Kensington asks with anxiety.

“Negative. Hull damage will be greater after jump, with a 87% chance. This percentage is gauged off of 10,000 simulation tests.”

After gauging what he has available and due to his guess that he will just respawn after a death. Granted,this is not a ideal outcome. “That's a good enough chance for me! Engage the drive”

“Error: command has lethal repercussions against commander please reconsider.”

With a growl Kensington says annoyed “Launch. The. Drive.”

Before Kensington could reconsider his decision the ship roars to life once more and changes direction toward where the nearest station is and charges the drive. Kensington walks over to his command chair and sits down to think. And after a bit he remembers that the ai never questioned an order he gave no matter how dangerous it was to the commander or pilot. That's odd. Was that from a recent update. Speaking of, they really updated the graphics…

Suddenly the ship jumps toward the destination. The hull of the damaged ship breaks apart in many places making the once great ship look like a barely mobile scrap heap.

Due to the sudden unexpected jump and because not all of the functions of the ship were available there was a heavy kick to the jump causing Kensington to hit his head knocking him out for the trip.

Waking up drowsily Kensington gets up from the floor with a blaring headache. He then walks over to the command chair and sits down. Seemingly attempting to gather his own disdain, the female metallic voice hammers words into him.

“Warning: commander Kensington has sustained a concussion and is currently bleeding from the nose please receive medical attention before commanding ships.”

Kensington groans holding his head. He breathes through his mouth but still manages to still smell the blood in his nose. It's the smell of iron.

“I don't remember being able to smell in TDVR… or anything hurting this bad.”

“System error: TDVR unknown vocabulary.”

About to plug his ears with his fingers, kensington responds slowly back,

“Please don't respond unless I specifically address you within the next few minutes.”

Kensington then makes a Brushing motion and goes back to holding his head in pain. He simply was not use to this pain. Maybe he should log out to get a bit of a rest away from the pain. It felt way to real.

He shook his head. He didn't want to risk not being able to play for a long time so he would play until he felt tired.

“HSC5 display the station we are about to dock”