Author note: Okay this is another one that is NOT a crossover. It is a Lost In Space story based on the classic 1968 Tv Series. I have taken a few liberties such as dropping the robot initially, making Dr Smith not quite the comedic prat or the malicious villain they had him. Making him a part of the mission crew plan from the beginning, yet still retaining much of his more lovable personality traits.
The Jupiter 2 was traveling through space at 80% of the speed of light with its engines running smoothly. Thanks to time dilation at those speeds the journey to Alpha Centauri 4 light years away was expected to only take just over three years by ship time.
The ship was propelled to these immense speeds not by rockets but a gravitic drive that had been discovered in the 1970s. The gravitic drive pulled at the very fabric of space itself so when an unexpected knot in that fabric, caused by a micro black hole, was grabbed by the drive it caused a strange and unfortunate reaction.
The fabric of space and time was ripped and torn as a wormhole formed that pulled the ship into it. Swirling energies hurled the vessel across vast distances tearing and pulling at the very reality of the ship. Electronic systems compensated as best they could, the onboard electronic intelligence pushed beyond its limits failed to keep up though.
The energies released the ship an immeasurably small amount of time later but an incredible distance away from their starting point. The ship spun and drifted as its engines shut down, inertia carrying it onward. Internal systems made calculations and checks to see if the automated repair systems could take control. The result of these calculations was that the humans had to be awakened to handle this crisis. The computer had never been programmed to deal with anything it had experienced.
On deck 2 seven cryo-stasis tubes held the living crew members of the expedition. The five members of the Robinson family consisted of the patriarch Dr John Robinson, engineering genius and general Renaissance man. The mother of all Dr Maureen Robinson who was in charge of everything medical and life sciences related. Their eldest child 20 year old Judith "Judy" Robinson who served as a nurse technician and biologist in this expedition. The middle child Penelope "Penny" Robinson was an 11 year old prodigy in biology and the youngest was 9 year old William "Will" Robinson whose particular skills were with electronics, engineering and general sciences like his father.
The other two members of the crew were the brave and dashing Major Donald "Don" West. An experienced astronaut, test pilot and engineer. Although only 28 years old he had already been to the moon, mars and several asteroids in the service, performed acts of heroism and served in several combat missions.
The last member of the crew was the reluctant Doctor Zachary Smith. Claiming that at his "advanced" age of 61 he would not be suitable for the mission he was still sent with no choice to back out. His skills as a cybernetics and electronics expert who had helped design the automated systems used in the ship had resulted in him being forced to join the crew when a change in the political winds made him an outcast at the space agency.
The automated systems were programmed to release the mission commander and the pilot first in an emergency followed by Dr Smith. Each of the tubes glowed briefly as energy coursed through and over the silver suited beings within the tubes. Hearts that had not beat for years began to slowly revive, lungs took breaths like they had not forgotten how. Soon the lids of each tube retracted and the men slowly swung their bodies upright.
"Oh wow. I forgot how bad traveling by cryo felt when you woke up." Major West groaned.
Dr Robinson focused on the various red and yellow lights flashing on the indicator panel beside his cryo-tube. "Don, we've been awoken early. Something's wrong with the ship."
"Oh dear. Just put me back in for another cycle or two." Smith whined from his tube. His eyes still tightly closed.
"C'mon Smith. Time to get to work and earn your pay." Robinson declared standing up, already recovered from cryo-sleep.
"Dr Robinson may I remind you that we are not being paid for this expedition as relativistic time dilation would have compounded any pay scale into more than the gross national product of the entire planet." Dr Smith frowned slowly gaining the vertical.
"Then earn your keep Smith. Let's go." Major Smith barked standing swiftly.
"Oh go ahead and toddle off you nattering neanderthals. I'll be along once the room stops moving." Smith huffed grumpily.
"Smith we are in a spaceship. The room never stops moving." Robinson quipped.
"And you see the root of my problems." Smith sighed wearily.
"C'mon John we'll get twice the work done without him." Major West suggested leaving the room to get busy.
Robinson rolled his eyes but silently followed the major out. Smith already dismissed as he tried to figure out what happened to the ship.
…...
Dr Smith slowly wandered into command and control to find the two men already working over checklists and damage control reports.
"Gravitic Drive is out until we can realign the emitters." Major West growled from halfway within an engineering panel, "But we can't align the emitters until I rebuild the control boards."
Robinson shook his head, "And how long will that take?"
"A week at least." West declared sliding out of the access panel.
"A week. Well that is not bad of a delay. Considering how the journey was scheduled to take a few decades." Smith stated going to the astro-navigation plotting table.
Looking out of the front window Dr Robinson said grimly, "It might be a bit longer than that."
"Oh?" Smith asked drawing the single word out.
"Don let's get everyone else awake. We'll need to have everyone's input."
Smith watched the men leave ignoring him. Glancing down at the navigator plot he raised his eyebrow and sighed dramatically, "Oh botheration."
…...
The others had been awakened and given a few minutes to get their bearings before they gathered in the galley. Coffee and sandwiches from the protein sequencer passed around.
"Okay the ship is mostly intact and operational. We have a few systems like the gravitic drive and the force fields that are down. Everything else is working at 90% or better though." John said with a smile.
"So what's the big problem then?" Maureen asked with a confused expression.
"Its that we are lost in space." Smith blurted out.
"Lost? How do you get lost in space?" Will asked incredulously.
"From the flight logs it seems like we hit a wormhole. It scrambled the navicomp and sensor platforms so we're going to have to realign them. Smith will be working on that, Will I want you to help him."
"A pointless endeavor sir. We are going to drift aimlessly until we die." Smith intoned darkly.
Ignoring him John Robinson said, "Maureen you and the girls go through and prep the ship for habitation. The automatics are acting a bit twitchy so until we get everything smoothed out I don't want to rely too heavily upon them."
"Are we in danger dad?" Judy asked with some concern.
"No more than usual. The ship is fine and once Smith and Will get the navicomp and sensor platforms aligned we will be able to figure out where we are and how to get back on course." The senior Robinson stated reassuringly.
"Okay everyone. You know the situation and what we have to do. We're the ones responsible for rescuing ourselves so let's get to work." Maureen said standing up with a firm nod.
…...
Several days went by while the inhabitants of the ship worked diligently to stabilize and repair their celestial home. Dr Smith and Will got the sensors online and began to scan the stars for their position. Looking at pulsars, deep space objects and known stars to triangulate and calculate their position they came to a horrifying conclusion.
"What do you mean we are doomed?" Robinson growled exasperatedly at Smith.
"Just good sir that we have been somehow flung out of our own galaxy into the Small Magellanic Cloud orbiting our galaxy. It will no longer be a journey of months to reach Alpha Centauri but millennia." Smith wailed in despair. "Doomed I tell you. Doomed to wander the stars for an infinite term."
"Maureen could you get Macbeth here a sedative so I can think." John requested.
"Come on let's get you something to help you relax." Maureen said patting Smith on the arm.
"Do not pander to me dear lady. I am not some space happy baboon. You do not seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. We are lost, alone, beyond any hope of returning to our home. Flung here by the exquisite eccentricities of fate." Smith declared.
"Dr Smith. Its not all that bad. The ship should be able to harvest hydrogen as we travel so we can go back into cryo for the journey." Will said.
"You do not understand Will. This ship would have to perform brilliantly for 150,000 years, at least." Smith said flatly. "I do not believe the warranty period extends that long does it Dr Robinson, Major West?"
Both men looked pensively at the older scientist before Dr Robinson admitted, "You are correct Smith. So we'll have to figure out some way to either find another wormhole or create one."
"Are you serious? We barely survived the first trip through one." Smith barked incredulously.
"Do you have a better plan?" West demanded.
Smith sighed, "No. I have to admit we are in the classic position at the intersection of rock and hard place."
"Its a moot point because the gravitic drive automatic control is damaged and I don't know how long the backup will work." Major West stated calmly.
"What happens if the backup fails?" Maureen asked.
"Then we'd have to go to manual control." West admitted. Even with time dilation and good health there was no way a human pilot could remain alive long enough for the ship to cover any great distances.
"There's a open star cluster only 10 light years away. Do you think the ship could make it there?" Will asked.
"West?" Robinson asked as the man did some calculations on his pad.
"I think so. I have the automatics wired crazier than a Christmas tree but if we don't have any bumps we should be able to make it."
"Why would we want to go to a star cluster?" Penny asked.
"The stars are not so far apart that we couldn't stay awake during the travel time. Plus according to the scanners there are several dozen stars with potentially habitable worlds." Will explained.
"Which means if things go bad enough we can at least make a new home." John Robinson stated.
"Assuming there are not already people living there who would be quite cross with us moving into the neighborhood." Smith pointed out dejectedly.
"Always the optimist Smith." West declared, "I'm good with this idea."
Maureen and Judy nodded their agreement while Penny deferred to her mother's opinion.
"Alright. Don let's get a course calculated. Maureen get everyone set up for cryo. Don and I will be the last ones in."
Maureen nodded dutifully. "Okay John."
Review responses:
OfficerDonNZ: Fair enough. It was sheer dumb luck indeed as Minerva said in canon for them to survive. So this is going to explore the results of not all of them being that lucky. Otherwise thank you. I do have some ideas for this one.
Jadesabrexiv: Indeed. I will probably run along the shadows and not delve too deep into the darkness. Sort of the diet coke of darkness just because of my personal preferences. But this could take a really dark turn very easily. Feel free to run with it. I'd like to see another point of view on it. Percy and Ginny would be revealed in a bit. I have some plans for them as well as the twins. Let's just say that for some of them denial is more than a river in Egypt.
Kellerdeath: It will be. Its in the production que.
Timekeeper: It is one I do not see often. So I thought I'd give it a whirl and see where it goes too.