Astray Among The Stars

Chapter 11: Shadow of a Man Pt. II

Commander William Sloan reporting.
Mission date: March 20, 12074 H.E.

Still no signs of rescue, no contact with NASA or the Space Force has been achieved despite my emergency transmissions. The engines are beyond repair after the latest bombardment. I've been adrift for three days.

I inventoried the emergency rations and the remaining food supply. I can last approximately thirty seven days before I starve.

Navigation says the collision with the unidentified objects has sent me on a trajectory away from Earth. I do not know how far away the collision took me off course, but judging from the stars, I say I am heading towards Tau Ceti, yet I don't know if the navigation system is damaged.

I took a spacewalk today for repairs, and I obtained a fist-sized sample, to which I am analyzing. It's remarkable. Nothing so far tested is like it at all. It appears to be an alloy of metastable or possibly long-lived transfleorvium elements, though I cannot tell for sure without a spectrograph.

Tomorrow I will conduct another spacewalk, maybe find a smaller sample which I can test under the electron microscope.
I need to repair the—

The ship shook. Console screens flashed scarlet warnings as the lights flickered.

The astronaut drifted to the window. A monstrous figure engulfed the view of the stars, the heavenly image distorted, warping around a sphere, slowly pulling the tiny ship inside.

"Holy shit."

* * *

Day 17

The village I crashed nearby has unfortunately endured a pandemic of Earthly disease. Almost half of the population is infected, with a quarter of them dead. I am well, aside from having a violent fever for a few days, but I have recovered.

Even though I am not directly responsible for the pandemic, as they broke into the escape pod when I was unconscious, I feel guilty for their suffering. They are a kind people, and they injected me with some sort of translational technology, and I can understand them now as if they spoke perfect English and vice versa. I read their language and they can read mine. I examined a sample of this injection and it seems to be a collection of nanobots. I have stored another sample to be returned to Earth, should I be rescued or my remains discovered.

As a result of the outbreak, I have decided to build a home far from the town, that way my interaction is limited. They were kind enough to provide me with materials and equipment to make vaccinations, but my expertise in microbiology is unfortunately limited, though some vaccinations have been successful according to their local doctor. The population has seemed to stabilize for now.

I was fortunate to land in a small desert town rather than a large city. This planet, called Kotara, is sparsely populated and is mostly desert and arid mountains. There is one small ocean but it is extremely saline. Though, compared to Earth, there is far less water on this planet and it is more similar to Mars. The climate is cold and dry. Average temperatures are around 7°C. Most Kotarin colonists left the planet after the environmental disasters caused by the failure of terraforming. Supposedly, there are long forgotten ruins scattered throughout the vast deserts of this world, yet very few people dare to venture out.

Aside from the people, the planet has slightly more gravity than Earth. The day/night cycle is roughly seventeen hours. That is all I know of this planet.

Kotarins originated from their home planet, Kotari, a super earth which had far more resources than this colony. They inhabit a few other planets, but I don't feel the need to travel across vast deserts to find a space port at a much larger town. That is too much of a risk without quarantine, let alone proper supplies. I am better off staying here, even if I do so for the rest of my days. . .