"Prime the jump drive and set it to standby." Waltr directed. "Distorted space huh? What do you think it will be? A wormhole?"
[A worm hole would be the biggest possibility. The only other thing that can warp space and light like this would be a blackhole or its singularity. However, no crushing gravitational or magnetic field has been observed]
"Either way, we truly need to enter it. Every time I attempt to move around it the drones around us show signs of attacking." Waltr lamented as he observed the drone swarm growing in the distance.
[The jump drive is primed and set to jump a distance of 2 AU whenever we need it]
"Great, lets go in." Waltr declared. "Seeing as the drones aren't coming any closer, safe to assume they won't enter the wormhole with us."
[Prepare for jump surge. Close your eyes pilot]
Waltr closed his eyes as he gave control of the ship to Aroura. Strapping himself more securely into his chair, he gave a thumbs up signal.
[Entering distorted space, Engaging Gravity Wells, Activating Magnetic Shielding. Reinforcing radiation barrier]
As he heard the last words being spoken, Waltr fell into a lull. The flow of time around him slowing down to a snails pace. Light bleeding into darkness as the distorted space formed into a wormhole gate.
Just a few nanoseconds later, the cosmic winds and unstable space battered the ship, attempting to rip apart and destroy the laws that define it. Thankfully, with the projected gravity well surrounding the ship, it held everything in place with the assistance of the magnetic shielding.
Intense radiation surged right after, only to be stopped by the reinforced radiation barrier.
Once the ship fully entered the wormhole, its weird, abstract gravity took hold of it and propelled it forward far beyond the speed of light.
As soon as it started, it came to an end. A few microseconds had passed since Waltr entered the wormhole. The forces emitted by the wormholes exit acted like a net, catching his ship and slowing it down to sub-light speeds.
Once the speed of the ship reached sub-light speeds, it is thrown out of the wormhole back into stable space.
In total, the whole process took only 15 microseconds. However Waltr reopened his eyes five seconds later after hearing Arouras confirmation that they have successfully exited the wormhole.
[Wormhole travel complete. Logging dimensional fluctuations for further use. Temporary flux coating the ship, sensor equipment weakened. Initiating reduced scan]
Opening his eyes to nothingness, Waltr slowly sat up.
"I would call that a successful wormhole jump. However, my vision is gone for the moment." Waltr grumbled as he fumbled around himself to release the straps.
[No need to worry. Temporary blindness is to be expected. You're body has forgotten how to handle interdimensional travel. It should return in a minute or two.]
"Guess I need to do some resistance training in the future." Waltr spoke as he rubbed his eyes. "I'm starting to see something"
[You should sit back down and recover your eyesight. The flux coating on the ship is about to wear out. Preliminary scan shows nothing on the scope]
"Good to hear, but we still need to be on the lookout for any cloaked ships."
Rolling his eyes around and constantly blinking, Waltr slowly begun to recover complete vision.
[Flux coating has dispersed, procced to jump?]
"Yeah, jump in any direction, you set the distance."
[Setting direction, fixed jump one AU. Initiating jump]
A mellow hum sounded through the ship as the engine released the stored energy, initiating the jump process. Once the energy reached a critical state, the release valve burst open, Throwing the ship into the jump vortex.
The jump vortex is a phenomena closely related to jump drives created by humanity. An glowing opaque veil of energy envelops the ship as it moves beyond the speed of light. Within this veil, no light can be observed, except for the glow emitted by it.
[Alert, Interdiction elements detected, conducting emergency stop on jump drive]
"WHAT? INTERDICTION?" Waltr yelled, snapping awake from his daze. "Isn't this uncharted territory? How are there interdiction fields here?"
[Exiting jump vortex in 3... 2... 1... Exiting. Conducting forward scans. Condensing forward shield density as precaution]
"Focus scans!" Waltr directed. "Taking control of the helm. Initiating prop-mods."
Carrying the momentum from the sudden abortion of the jump, Waltr piloted the ship closer to whatever it was that was emitting the interdiction field.
[Projecting scans] Aroura notified him as an large screen appeared before him.
"What the f*ck..." Waltr muttered as he looked at the image.
What lay before them was a humongous desolate station. Large craters and cracks littered the entire surface and parts of the station were starting to drift away from the main body.
[Designating structure as Alien station. Attempting to find comparison... Comparison found. Structure matches dimensions of an old solar system defense station. However, no station was actually built because of its immense material cost and projected maintenance cost]
"Aroura... Are you recording everything?" Waltr muttered in awe.
[...Yes pilot]
"Any hits on the lifeform analyzer?"
[No, The entire station is cold. No fluctuations in temperature and no movement can be detected apart from the drifting debris field]
"What about any power sources? Something this big should contain some sort of fail safe power source."
[No energy readings either. Which is strange as something this big should be generating its own gravitational pull]
"So there's no gravity?"
[Correct]
"And there's no sign of life."
[Correct once more...]
"What about radiation levels?"
[Radiation is at a minimum save for a couple places. Why are you asking pilot?]
"Cause its time for some exploration!" Waltr exclaimed as he piloted his ship toward what he presumed was a docking area.
[Are you sure that is wise pilot?]
"There is a time a place for wisdom. This is not that time!" Waltr answered. "Oh yeah, did you find the source of the interdiction elements?"
[They are being emitted by the station. Pilot, this is a very bad decision. We should leave this area before anything happens]
"Fortune favors the bold Aroura. There are many things here that might be of extreme value to us. Like star-maps for example, We can also look for any recognizable materials and use it for repairs." Waltr begun explaining his reason for exploring, much to the shock and horror of the AI.
"There might be treasure as well! Its a huge ruins of sorts, I would be an idiot to not explore this place a little."
[The need for exploration doesn't require us to risk our very existence!]
"That is what exploration is Aroura! We risk our lives for treasure!"
[I thought we were trying to get back home!]
"We can get clues in this station!"
[How can you be so sure?!?]
"...Uhh..." Anchoring the ship in the dock, Waltr scratched his head. "A man's intuition?'
[WHY WAS THAT LAST PART A QUESTION?!?]
"Don't worry about it!" Waltr chided as he put on his exosuit.
"Don't underestimate the tenacity of humans." Waltr smirked as hooked a device to the side of his helmet.
[Then don't bring my core along! Just leave me on the ship to provide support!] Aroura's voice was heard near his right ear.
"Nope, you're coming along. It's time for you to grow!" Waltr snickered as he jumped out of the ship.
*CLANG*
A loud echo could be heard as Waltr landed on the metal floor.
Standing up and brushing off some nonexistent dust, Waltr made one last comment to the crying AI.
"Don't you know? Home is where your heart is. It's time for you to form your heart."
[WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!?]