Stunned into complete silence, the hum of the ship the only sound heard, not to mention the blood pounding in his ears. Checking and re-checking the data displayed on the screen, "Could it possibly be correct? Quadrant Zeta!?"
Captain Zak Hawthorne was recruited for this mission for the sole reason that he had specific talents. He had many talents, but the one set of skills he possessed were tailor made for this situation. The fact that he was out in space was one thing, but accidentally waking up in a strange area of the galaxy that neither he, no anyone else for that matter has ever been to was an entirely different situation.
His original mission, travel through space in a vessel capable of manning a crew of ten, perhaps fifteen, although uncomfortably. Zak was to rendezvous with another vessel in the Lambda Quadrant, a mere 10 parsecs away from his current location, and escort a particular ship, the Federated Alliance Warsaw Class II, back to Earth. The Warsaw at this time is being captained by a not so good friend of his, Jezza Umbro. The details of that professional relationship are known only to a few, unlucky individuals.
Zak glanced again at the computer screens, just to ensure that what he'd previously seen was not in fact an illusion, brought about by his grogginess due to cryo sleep, Suspicions affirmed, Quadrant Zeta. A rather pathetic, mixed with despairing, groan escaped from the exhausted young captain. First priority, determine why he'd been awakened here, and so far off course. Why had the computer decided to bring him out here? Scratch that, top priority : eat.
One of the benefits, or rather, detrements, to cryo sleep, is extreme hunger upon waking. Unless the body receives nourishment early enough, one could get rather irate rather quickly. Intravenous feeding is wonderful and sufficient, but it simply will not prevent the hunger pangs experienced upon waking.
With a rather large plate of freeze dried food, somewhat resembling a type of beef and potato dish, Zak sat down in the cockpit to get a better idea of what his situation was like. "Hmmmm," he mused as keys were punched and switches activated, different view screens popping up, displaying system information and vital life support functions. Nothing substantial was apparent regarding just why he was out here.
"Activate view screen," Zak commanded the on board computer. After a few seconds of whirring and humming, his surroundings were revealed to him. Looking 'outside', nothing was immediately grabbing his attention as out of the ordinary. A relatively normal looking space view, stars here and there, that was about it. A small object however, caught his attention. After blinking several times, shaking the cryo-webs out of his vision, "Magnify section A44," the computer immediately complied. "What IS that?" he wondered aloud, a tinge of uncertainty in his voice.
A distance of what seemed like a few million kilometers, though who could be sure really, judging distance in space was near to impossible, there seemed to be a large circular object, or ship of some kind. "Might as well investigate," he thought to himself. Attempting to scan the phenomenon from this distance proved useless, the next step was obvious, fire up the engines and approach, cautiously.