Aboard the Extended-Transport NeminDar, everything was still. The engine was cold, rooms and corridors dark, many decks' environmental systems were on standby, and the only occupied deck was being kept at a steady five degrees Celsius to prevent condensation.
The only systems actively running; were the internal data routers, the processors, few sensors (internal and external), few environmental units, and a pod.
Occasionally, a thruster fired, keeping the ship in position. Which was; In a very high orbit above an uncharted planet, capable of sustaining life.
Nearly three years previously, once the sensor arrays came back on line from their repairs; the computer executed one of its lower priority directives. That being; to adjust the ship's course toward a world suitable for evacuation to. Though there was no one left to issue the evacuation, it didn't matter. The computer simply did what it was programmed to do, and to there the ship drifted.
Once it came into range of the planet, the computer established a stable orbit with its now-operational-again, thrusters.
Also, it began to perform scans of the surface, atmosphere, and fauna, to furnish a report to the command staff to aid in the evacuation.
The ship?
It looked like new now, with the exception of the added solar array wings it still depended on in order to regularly supply its energy needs. Those needs were now very few, and had been for some time. Between there being no active life aboard, all the repairs completed, and virtually no wear upon the systems; just about everything went in standby sleep mode and consumed comparatively no energy.
The excess energy harvested; was directed into regenerating the engine's fuel supply, the backup reactors' fuel supplies, as well as replenishing the thrusters. Even the three shuttlecraft's engine cores were replenished after being pilfered previously.
So there the ship waited; asleep, much like it's lone occupant.
Speaking of; The pod he was in was now fully operational again. Its wake timer now functional, continued to wait for its set: three-days before the ETA of the mining colony... A time that would never come, now.
However, there was another timer in operation once again; The maximum-suspension-duration safety-limit timer. With it now having reached its Nine-Year hard-coded set point, it triggered the animation/wake cycle.
The ship being notified of this; Turned on the lights and engaged the environmental heating units on the passenger-access decks, bringing the temperature up to a comfortable twenty degrees Celsius.
As a side-note; The safety-limit timer was imposed, due to a theoretical projection on the effects of long term cryo-suspension. Though the limit never came close to being reached in practical use, it was included none the less.
"Thank the stars for that.."
The implications of it not having been implemented, are personally horrifying.
Anyway, back to the story:
I barely remember waking up. Just flashes of images of; sitting aside the pod, trudging down the corridor to the galley, fighting with the replicator to get my coffee, and sitting at the counter.
Time was a blur.
No surprise now that I know why; The longer the suspension, the more extreme the effects are.
I don't know how many times I chugged cups of coffee, relieved myself, sat there, or even looked up.
But, as what must have been hours passed, I became more lucid. And my stomach, no longer numbed as badly, decided to demand some actual sustenance.
Going back to the replicator and getting something besides coffee, and with less fighting this time; I sat back in my seat at the counter and nibbled my food, still shut out from my surroundings.
After another trip or two to the rest facilities, I had finished my breakfast, and got another.
While I was nibbling away at my second breakfast, it started to dawn on me how quiet the galley was. Eventually taking the great effort to look around, I found I was the only one there.
That wasn't too unusual, it wasn't like the ship was packed full of passengers or anything, it was just a little unlikely.
'Maybe they're all late-risers, waiting till the last day?' I remember thinking.
Switching to water now that I was at least half human again, I began to wonder how long I had been there, and heard not a single voice or door opening.
Finishing up my meal... I was Still a little hungry? How long had I been in there? Long enough to nearly digest two meals? Where were even the crew?
'At least one of Them would have stopped in by now I'd think?' I thought.
This was getting eerie.
"Computer, how long have I been awake?" I asked out loud, addressing the ship's command processor.
-You were revived fourteen hours, thirty-nine minutes, and twenty-two seconds ago-
'Fourteen hours?? I've been sitting here for Fourteen hours? I've never had cryo-lag, fourteen hours-plus bad before.. Maybe I should get checked out in medical?'
"Computer, who's on call in medical?"
-There are no medical officers available currently-
'Great, it's the middle of the night too. I'm gonna have to wait.'
"Computer, whats the ship's time?"
-The ship's time is Thirteen hundred hours, Fifty-nine minutes, and Eleven seconds-
'Thir... It's midday, and no medical staff on call?' Deciding to tempt fate, I posed the nagging question in the back of my mind;
"Computer, how many people have entered or left the galley since I arrived?"
-There have been zero entries or exits since your arrival in the galley-
Doing the math; 'That would mean nobody had breakfast, or lunch either?? What in the hell is going on? Did I oversleep?'
"Computer, Have we reached the mining outpost?"
-Negative, the ship has not reached it's destination-
"What's our ETA?"
-That information is unavailable-
"What?"
-Please rephrase the question-
'Ugh, vanilla systems..' I thought, shaking my head.
'Lets try it this way then, piece by piece. Ugh, I hate playing the game of twenty-questions, asked ten different ways, to get answers from a computer...'
"Computer, what is our current rate of travel?"
-The current rate of travel is Eighteen point Two Kilometres per second-
'So where not stopped... Wait, that's practically standing still!'
"Computer, What's our current location?" I asked, though I was not prepared for the answer I got.
-The ship's current location is unavailable-
'Unavailable?? That's impossible!'
"Computer, get me in touch with someone on the command staff or crew, I don't care who, the captain if you have to!"
-There are no registered command staff or crew on board-
"What? How can there be no command staff?! Was the ship evacuated??" By this point I was becoming alarmed.
-Negative, no evacuations have been executed-
"Then how.. Where.. When did the command staff disembark?"
-That information is unavailable-
Shaking, and filled with dread, I was afraid to ask my next question, but did;
"Computer... How many Passengers are aboard the ship, and where are they?"
-There is one passenger aboard, located in the galley-
.
.
.
I, wanted to throw up everything I had eaten since I woke up.... and I did.
Sparing you the results of the crushing implications of my then, situation;
Sufficed to say they were not pleasant.
Being a mere passenger, I had no approved authority aboard the ship, and now that meant; to the computer.
I was trapped, marooned. In a cage that spanned a couple decks of non essential areas.
I didn't have the authority to access the transporters, shuttlecraft, or even an airlock to throw myself out of... though the thought did cross my mind.
It wasn't till many days later that I even spoke to the computer again. Finally doing so, I played the questions-game again, and learned how much time had passed, and that the ship was in orbit of a planet.
Going to one of the passenger conference rooms, I looked down at the planet from the windows. It looked nice enough, though it was completely unreachable to me right then.
I needed to get authoritative access to the ships systems, and that meant; study and testing. Therefor getting the computer to register my capabilities as I learned them.
Fortunately, it had field-commission provision capabilities for emergency situations like this, though never meant to be a situation in any way this extreme.
What was supposed to have happened was; the distress beacon would draw a rescue party.
The beacon having been broadcasting for over eight years with no response to its call, meant no one would be coming. Likely ever.
I had a lot of work to do, entire careers to take on, all of the metaphorical hats to grow into, if I was going to go anywhere...