Zhang Han tried to adjust the destination coordinates on his spaceship.
The light indicator that was meant to represent the spaceship's position blinked and slowly moved along the interface's 3D map on the control board.
He knew that it was inaccurate.
He was supposed to be flying towards Praoter, a planet that should be located three lightspeed jumps from his home planet, but in fact, he'd already done seven jumps based on the GPS system and was now traveling along at 14,670 mph through an astral belt. Millions of stars and mottled asteroids glowed within the purplish-black hue of outer space.
Praoter was nowhere in sight, but the map tracker told him he was steadily reaching his destination.
Zhang Han had a pretty good guess what the issue was.
His profession had been a diplomat of foreign relations for his home planet.
Long story short, his planet liked to conquer other planets and his executive must have decided he'd outlived his use. It was likely that a war would be started with Praoter soon enough, and Zhang Han, the missing diplomat, would count as the first spark.
So much for that treaty he was going to sign.
If he tried to avoid this mission he would've been assassinated, so Zhang Han went along with everything despite all his suspicions about this trip. He planned to merely pilot this ship off to some other planet to escape, but unfortunately they'd hacked this ship's system ahead of time. It was flying him out into an unclaimed belt along space. He should have known that something like this would happen, but he figured it'd be something like a planted bomb making his spaceship explode, not abandoning him in the outer reaches of space.
He couldn't override the autopilot and he had at most two days worth of food left.
Zhang Han quietly sat down in the pilot's seat and punched a button on his wristwatch. A small image floated in the air of an older woman who held a spotted corgi in her arms.
He sighed, turning it off, then remembered the last words his supervisor told him.
"This is an important deal, Zhang. This agreement will keep Gaojun and Praoter at ceasefire for the next decade. Go on and contribute to something you won't forget in a lifetime."
Zhang Han leaned back in his chair and fiddled with his watch.
"Yeah. What a load of bullshit."
But he was the biggest idiot for thinking he could make a change to a warmongering, dogmatic regime that was set in place on his home planet.
BANG—
Zhang Han flinched. The subsequent jolt was just as alarming as the sound, and it seemed to come from the back of the ship.
He sprung up.
A red emergency light flashed above his head and an automated message sounded.
Alert.
Left blaster has sustained critical damage.
Prepare for emergency landing.
Zhang Han paced across the small floor of the spacecraft and ran a hand through his hair.
Well shit! This was a medium-small ship and for passenger travel, not suitable for autopilot when navigating an asteroid belt. It was no surprise one of the rocks nicked the ship. Bad, though. The outer reaches of space was unexplored territory where marauders floated, not to mention planets that were deemed either uninhabitable or unexplored.
This was a quicker demise than Zhang Han expected, but better than dying from dehydration or starvation.
Still, he couldn't suppress the innate panic in his chest and glanced at the interface on the ship headboard. It calculated rates of survivorship and indicated that the ship was slowly sinking downwards, and the place where the asteroid hit was gradually losing its structural integrity.
Alert.
Emergency landing procedures activated.
Zhang Han almost laughed. What kind of planet is out in the middle of uncharted space besides a lifeless one of rock or gas?
However, when he looked through the front window, he saw half of a large, green and blue sphere in the far distance.
There was actually a planet!
Although there was no telling if it was inhabitable, its appearance made him feel a slight twinge of hope. He put on his spacesuit and helmet.
But without an ability to steer well because of the lost blaster, it wasn't long before the ship was nicked by another asteroid.
Zhang Han felt the ship begin to dip more steeply; the autopilot was making a mess out of any potential of landing. He would never reach that planet at this rate. After trying to get back system control for a while, he gave up and sat back in his seat.
After all it was a hopeless case.
He slowly went through a list of regrets in his mind.
Obviously that he was used as a scapegoat by his home planet.
Two, that his mother would never see him again.
Three, that he never found a good partner.
He couldn't help but want a few people other than his mother to miss him after he was gone. Just to remember him, you know? Zhang Han had dated a few times, but it never worked out. It was hard enough since he was gay, but the people he dated were always too overbearing. Now he was single at the age of 28.
Agh, what a rough life!
Zhang Han was still trying to distract himself from his own demise when the system blared again.
Alert.
System sustainability below 17%.
Autopilot inadequate for emergency landing. Switching to manual command.
Please follow code 07251 for emergency protocol.
Zhang Han was flabbergasted. Of all the circumstances, this ship's safety features actually circumvented the forced autopilot…
It was a great thing that Zhang Han was fully capable of piloting the ship.
Since he was (used to be) a diplomat of foreign affairs he often flew himself to other places. It was cheaper and safer than depending on another pilot. Moreover, he was technically affiliated with the military department because god knows there wasn't a profession that wasn't, so he was able to take a few classes during college.
He quickly went to the control panel.
The rate and angle at which the blasters functioned was pivotal to reach the planet. It needed to be timed perfectly with the remaining fuel and life of the system. If Zhang Han fucked it up, his small craft would be left to float in the asteroid belt until it was finally crushed to pieces by collisions.
He began to punch several buttons, spoke into the voice activated command panel, and did fine tuning using the steering levers.
Zhang Han felt pretty proud of himself when the ship slowly corrected itself and began heading towards the planet. He picked a route he thought most likely to avoid other asteroids.
Unfortunately, he wasn't certain if the descent functions would work well.
He needed all the air catching parachutes and heat reduction modules to land safely, of which were located near the blasters. His hands were shaking.
In a few lousy minutes he'd hit the planet's orbit, and that was when everything could go wrong.
Whatever. Since he was given this opportunity, he was gonna try and survive.
He took a few protein bars and shoved them into his spacesuit pockets, then went for an insta-light, a canteen of water, and a knife. There wasn't much else of use on board, just basic survival equipment that was loaded onto every vessel by law.
The spaceship shuddered. Zhang Han held the back of the pilot's seat to avoid falling over. The ship hit orbit. It was turbulent.
Rather collected before, Zhang Han really felt his heart thumping maniacally now, and his head seemed to spin with dizziness. He sucked in a worthless gulp of air and knelt down onto the spaceship floor.
Somehow he managed to reach up to the control panel and start up the landing module procedures, at which point the rest would happen on a speed gated mechanism.
Alert.
Parachute 2A is absent.
Implementing landing procedure 2.1.
As the ship continued to pick up speed, jolting left and right, Zhang Han was so anxious he pulled off his helmet and threw up on the floor. He rapidly wiped his mouth and pulled the helmet back on, just in time for a violent tilt in the ship to cause his helmet to hit against the wall.
If not for the helmet he would've had his skull cracked open.
Still, it was enough to get a concussion, and as he heard the alert sound again, black spots danced over Zhang Han's vision.
Alert.
System failure.
Power loss expected in…
Zhang Han's breathing was too shallow, and he'd passed out cold.
The ship, already at a speed too high, collided with the ground of the planet.
BOOM--
It skidded over mud and rock in an open area, until it finally stopped by ramming into a thick tree. This tree towered like a redwood, giant pine cones hanging from the branches, and a number of pterodactyl-like birds flew off into the sky with a loud 'Guar—' screech.
A man with bright red hair stepped out from the forest, hands casually placed behind his head, and lifted an eyebrow upon seeing the spaceship.