Survey log 1: First looks
When he regained consciousness it was to a throbbing body wide ache causing him to groan and wheeze as he returned to the land of the living, still this in of itself was a good sign. Pain after all meant that he was still alive and responsive, for the moment at least. His eyes slowly opened, revealing the soft dull red glow of the emergency power lights, but even this burned his eyes forcing them to close. Concussion maybe, but that one brief glimpse was enough. Something caused a few of the nearby panels to spark softly, the deployed oxygen mask layed crushed on the main console in front of him. Thank God the safety harness caught him, instead of simply slouching lamely as he was now he'd be face first in broken metal and circuitry for…how long had it been?
With Herculean effort he forced his screaming and protesting body to an upright state, gasping out in a mixture of pain and relief when his head hit the headrest. An eternity of just sitting attempting to regain his breath followed, his ribs aching and battered most likely bruised maybe broken at worse. He opened his eyes slowly, trying to let them adjust to the blinding glare of the dull red emergency lights. After his eyes adjusted he could finally take stock of the cockpit, which was as bad as he'd imagined.
Large portions of the main console were damaged, either cracked from the shifting g-forces of the black hole, or the impact of uncontrollable planetary reentry he couldn't say. The vid screen had various items sticking into it, so the camera feeds would be degraded at best. Still that's only the damage he could see in the cockpit at this time, the full scope of the damage would be worse. He'd call it a feeling in his bones, a doctor would call it having multiple bruised bones and ribs. He swallowed hoping it'd remove the dryness in his throat to no avail before calling out. "Evia, You online still?"
For a moment he was left alone until various lights on the console began to turn on, followed by the regular cockpit lights. Good so power systems weren't hit too badly. "Rebooting…rebooting…Electronic virtual interfacing assistant back online." The main touchscreen came online the sine wave that represented her voice shone bright blue as it fluctuated when she spoke. "How might I be of assistance Specialist Conner?"
"Get me a damage report, sort it by degree of damage please."
"Complying."
"Thank you." It wouldn't take her long, but it'd be enough time for his panic to start again. He should be dead after all, hell he and the ship theoretically should be atomic dust right now. Yet here they were, well wherever the hell here was at least. It didn't make sense.
"Damage report compiled Specialist Conner." As he read the list it came to mind that perhaps a list of everything that was working would have been a quicker read. Propulsion damaged, exosystem comms damaged, system wide radar and scanning damaged, long range planetary radar damaged on and on it went. Emergency beacon and tirtiary redundancy systems were for the most part online. He sighed resting his head against the headrest once more his fingers drumming on his leg aching and groaning as they moved. Surveyor emergency protocol calls that he first set up the broadband emergency beacon, followed by pinpointing his exact location so the mother ship can exctract. But this wasn't a normal emergency was it? He didn't even know what system he was in. But what in the hell happened? He looked up at the vid screen, while damaged maybe it'd work just enough.
"Evia can you bring up the main vid screen, pull up the external footage from before we got sucked by the black hole."
"Complying." And with that the screen flickered to light, light a damaged tv it had a spiderweb of frozen or twinkling pixels and around the areas where it was stabbed there were black voids. But it was enough and even though the screen flickered he saw it all, and like a hawk analysed the feed. It started thirty minutes before they were sucked in, from the moment the solar flare overloaded the propulsion and various other systems. Evia was kind enough to have corresponding ship diagnostics so that he could see what exactly the ship was going through in each frame. The results were…beyond him. If he took this footage back to the Confederation it'd cause an uproar in the scientific community he was sure.
He watched as the ship flew into the black hole, diognastics indicating theoretical normal Hawking radiation levels assailing the ship and its shields. Showed the loss of a few external systems, and then nothing. Two minutes fifteen seconds after entering the black hole the ship overloads and goes dark.
For exactly three seconds. At least according to the ship's atomic clock.
Pausing the flickering footage at the moment the feed came back he got a good look at the system he was in. A dim yellowish star layed in its center, visible to the ship was a large gas giant that resembled in his mind saturn with a large asteroid ring frozen forever in a diagonal path, majestic and regal. According to the clock it took an hour after leaving the black hole to approach the giant and more importantly what was shown to be a moon in its ring. He paused on a world with large violet land masses that could be seen mixed with patches of yellows and whites, all surrounded by blue oceans. "Evia, compile a list of planets that match this description." He zoomed in on the image. "Hopefully the Confederation marked this one as a possible survey site."
"Complying." He nodded to himself as he rewound the footage to the moment of the blackout. He'd been a surveyor for four years now, seen most issues that come with the job. But a ship losing power like this? The black hole if it was one had to completely overload every system onboard resetting everything. Still doesn't explain what happened. "List compiled, displaying now."
As he read the list his heart fell and a grimace formed on his face. The Confederation for all the hundreds of planets it's marked and recorded had nothing that matched the description of this world. Which makes him the most far flung human to have ever lived, not an achievement he'd ever hoped to earn. "Well…shit. Evia, can you triangulate our galactic location?"
"I am unable to access the required long range scanner, manual reset required."
He scoffed. "Course it is." He took a deep breath as the safety harness hissed as he unlocked it, forcing himself through the aches and pain he felt to stand. "Evia, are the mass spectrometers working? If so, is the air outside breathable?"
"All spectrometers are currently offline, as per emergency protocol."
"Right." He reached for one of the emergency breathing masks, checking that its oxygen canister was still full. "Evia depressurize and unlock the cockpit. Get the suit ready."
"Complying." The cockpit began to hiss as the outside atmosphere rushed in, the mask hissed with each breath he took as he made his way deeper into his ship. Gear was strewn about the place as electrical panels let out sparks and smoke, the red lights giving an eerie haunted look into the walkway, yet most concerning of all was the bright light further on ahead. The leaves scattered on the floor, the branches that were thrown around, the sounds of what could only be bird-like creatures outside.
The massive gash where a wing used to be. He stopped in front of it as he stared out, the mask hissing and clicking with each breath he took. All before him just outside his ship underneath a light blue sky with white clouds that hung in it, lay a vast almost alpine forest, a violet tree canopy that was covered in a thin layer of snow surrounding the area. A vast snow peaked mountain range in the distance, a cold wind blew into the hole grazing his face causing him to shiver. All as he stood there. staring out into the vastness of this new world.
