Inktober 2024 - 14 - Roam

Andrew regains consciousness with a banging headache, his face flat on his dashboard. He winces in pain as he straightens up, which pulls on a cut on his forehead. He reaches for it reflexively, but the blood has already dried. He then looks around his cockpit, where every single equipment appears to have taken heavy damage, and swears under his breath. The hull must be intact, at least, or he would be dead. He looks out the window and cannot see any point of reference, only distant stars that are just as likely to be familiar as they are to be unknown, from this far. He manages to pull up a radar image, for a 360° view, but that is no help. So, he goes for the radio:

"HQ? Anyone copy?"

"Five by five, Captain McCarthy," answers a mechanical voice.

"Can you tell me where I am?"

"Your ship's navigation system appears to be offline."

"Yeah, I can see that; that's why I was hoping you could help me out."

"I am sorry: I cannot locate a ship whose navigation system is offline."

"Can't you triangulate my signal or something?"

"This is a direct line."

"Look, I should be in…"

He pushes a couple of buttons, some of which creak a little. The damaged screens flicker, giving him some level of information, in wavy lines full of noise.

"…a 24 clicks radius around E614. Does that help?"

"The search is technically narrowed, although your ship being much smaller than this area still makes locating it very unlikely."

"Don't we have any radar around here?"

"You were sent to survey the zone for radar deployment, Captain McCarthy," the computer reminds him.

"Right… What about my last location? Do you have access to that?"

"I do have access to your last know location. You last pinged in orbit around E614."

"Was that when I called for help?"

"Right before."

"Well, that means you know where I was headed when I started taking fire. Can't you compute where my ship could have ended up after it went cruising in that direction, based on the time I've been out?"

"Yes. Within a 24 clicks radius around E614."

The pilot groans. This machine is so infuriating!

"Look, all I need is a direction."

"I cannot provide direction without position."

"Then pick one!"

"I am not authorised to guess."

"Well your guess is probably a Hell of a lot better than mine, so I think it's safer if you do it than if I do it myself," he reasons.

"That is incorrect. As an experienced pilot, you have instincts I do not possess. My guess would be more random than yours and therefore, necessarily less likely to be accurate."

"All right. Based on what diagnostics I have access to, I must have a few days of oxygen left. Food should not be an issue. Do you reckon I could roam into empty space for that long, or do I have a good chance of finding civilisation at one point?"

To that, the computer has no answer.