Ten Thousand Years and a Blink Away | ONC 2025

The humming of the ship's engine filled the cockpit, a familiar lullaby that usually meant smooth sailing. Not today.

"How did that freelance engineer get here in the first place?" Artist complained, seat tilted fully back and arm over his face. "This is more than 'mild Zilcn drive interference'. This is 'nearly impossible to get to'!"

We all groaned in agreement, cranky and tired from hours of crunching numbers and troubleshooting the interference in the Zilcn drive. The journey to GU-T64A, meant to be a swift four-hour hop through a 6th-level dimensional rift, had turned into a grueling day-cycle. The Zilcn drive, normally reliable, had refused to exit at the specified point, overshooting by parsecs. Three more frustrating attempts had yielded nothing but increasing vexation.

Eventually, we all settled on a slower, 1st-level rift, adding twelve more hours to our travel time. The turbulence and constant astronavigation calculations meant foregoing our usual sleep shifts, dedicating every facet of our mind to successfully arriving at the elusive planet.

"The suspected importance of these ancient robots better be worth our time," Quartermaster said grimly, his fingers still dancing across the displays, inputting equations. "With my updated calculations there is a 67% chance our drive will fail once we exit rift. The engineer was incredibly lucky to be able to leave at all. This is why I packed so many additional supplies."

All of me turned to stare at Quartermaster, making it awkward when he broke synchrony, stopping his work to meet our gaze. The drive hummed in the sudden silence as he slowly dragged his hand through his spiky copper hair. "I didn't mention that before, did I?"

"You never brought that to the mindhome," I confirmed, spreading my hands with the understanding tilt that usually preempted frustration. "Undirected thoughts don't mix, remember?"