Waterlogged

1: Nautically Stranded

Humanity's first exploratory ships were finally complete, their first venture into space finally coming to fruition.

And Syrus Jaden was one of the lucky pilots destined to be among the first interstellar explorers, guaranteed to be jotted down in the computer records of history. Those that really have time to burn may even write his name down on something as tedious as paper!

If he hadn't shown such resourcefulness in the academy, he might never have had this opportunity!

His family was happy for him, like most of the other families were for their own contributions of talent.

Well, Syrus is probably the youngest of them. 21 could be considered young for this, and he really had to work hard to outmatch all the old farts that wanted his place.

"Syrus, don't forget to take our parting gifts with you!" His sister ordered.

"Ah, a pulse rifle? I don't think I'm going to be running into aliens, but thanks anyway. I'm not sure I'll need this relic looking knife either." He chuckled but took them anyway, space pirates aren't going to exist for at least a yea- well, considering humans it might only take a month after commercial ships start up...

"Aren't you scared of going through those things?" His mother questioned and prompted him to consider.

The technology has existed for a while now, it's just that the quantum gates needed extensive testing, and it also took ages for humanity to settle on a unified federation when it came to space matters.

Being divided into a bunch of factions wasn't the kind of look anyone wanted to display if we did find aliens.

He was excited, but that wasn't to say he wasn't scared.

While the gates could be placed with experimental warp drives, the ships themselves have to use the gates which used advances in quantum entanglement to transmit your existence to the other side.

Once you've been destroyed and recreated, are you the same person? The ethical protests of using gates surprisingly disappeared pretty quickly when their reliability was proven.

Even the designers were shocked by their achievement and acceptance.

But he could confidently state, "No, I'm not. Because I'm an explorer!"

"Well, don't let that fearlessness stop you from coming back, you hear me?"

He could only smile now that it was time to depart.

His destination was the farthest, yet only a few hours away at the same time.

The daydreams of the future were already starting, being the farthest human from Earth was something ready to burst out of his dream and become a reality.

After saying farewells to the other pilots, he finally entered his own ship, the Recurva. Each exploration was going to be a one man journey.

The only exception was that a rescue party would be sent if we don't make it back in a month, but he can't imagine anyone needing a whole month for what will probably amount to basic planet surveys.

The federation really just wanted to look for resources and planets suitable enough to try terraforming.

The earth station got smaller and smaller on the aft display as he cruised closer to his destination gate.

Most of the rest chose windows to preserve the view, but Syrus didn't think it was worth taking any risk just for aesthetics.

He placed the rifle on a used panel in the cockpit alongside other things he didn't expect to need.