A\N: This is the first part of liron-aria's birthday present, and hopefully a distraction from a really bad day. So many many hugs and happy-birthday wishes, l-a! :)
A spaceship floated.
The engines were failing. In the vacuum of space, this shouldn't have been a problem, but as spaceflight grew more and more advanced, pilots and ground crews grew more and more lazy, relying on engines that worked consistently and with nearly no fuel to steer instead of pre-planning when and where to fire engines.
So instead of reaching his destination, the pilot would miss the planet he sought by several light-minutes and wander the depths of space for the rest of his short lifespan.
The problem would last a few hours before it became a serious problem, and then a day or so more before missing the planet altogether. The pilot had some time. But the mission was too sensitive to take that time; in reality, those few hours were all he had. All that his entire planet had.
He had no other choice. A human knew nothing of spaceflight, and even less of the technologies involved. He had to free his prisoner.
He had to free Andros.