All the while I was being pursued by the Republic ships, we had been traveling at sublight speed. You do not fully realize what light speed means until you are in an aircraft moving past it.
The moment I pushed the hyperspace lever, everything seemed to happen at once.
Things that had been displayed on the nav computer as distant suddenly closed in within a span of seconds. There was literally no time to make a choice.
I saw it, and then it happened. There was no time to contemplate, no time to regret, no time to decide.
It was like living in the past, the future, and the present all at once.
The best thing was that the navigation computer had taken over and was now steering the ship, saving me the trouble of making those decisions. Had I been in control, I would have crashed the moment we hit hyperspace.
I clutched the armrest of my seat as I watched my ship veer between barriers I did not even understand. Some were probably comets, some gravity wells, and probably some man made structures. Ancient beacons, maybe, although I had my doubts.
If this was wild space, then there was a high likelihood it was uncharted and unexplored.
The best part, however, was that the two dots representing the Republic ships that had been pursuing me had disappeared.
In fact, the moment I had pulled the lever, the navigation display had gone blank, as if the computer itself was confused.
Only one word had appeared on the screen for a few seconds.
Alert: no navigation data available.
That stayed for a moment before the display switched automatically to show the trajectory the nav computer calculated I was on.
After almost half an hour, I began to trust the ship. I began to rely on its steering ability. Still, my eyes never left the viewport.
At first I had screamed myself hoarse as the ship accelerated before the jump, but now not even screams would come.
I just opened my mouth and shut it again as we dodged obstacle after obstacle.
"Uhoo... come on, boy," I yelled, unable to contain the adrenaline building inside me.
Unfortunately, that success was not about to last.
I should have known it.
This was wild space. In fact, the ship's hyperdrive should have pulled me out of hyperspace long ago because of the gravity rocks and meteorites I had passed. But this was a smuggler ship, heavily modified to override all those safety measures.
For a smuggler, the top priority was escape, not safety.
But even for a smuggler, there was only so much you could do.
I saw it on the navigation screen, almost five clicks away.
The ship twisted and veered to the left, only for alarms to start blaring. There was another obstacle there as well. It veered further left, but the alarms only grew louder.
Have you ever seen death? Well, I did.
I saw it a second before it hit.
The ship tore through what looked like a stupidly large asteroid.
The fact that I had escaped planet sized gravity wells and twisted through tiny spaces between mountains of rock only to smash into an asteroid was insane.
Crap.
The deck filled instantly with blaring alarms.
I had been slammed into my seat, the air driven clean out of my lungs. I sat there for a few moments, trying to regain control of my breathing.
When I finally did, it was to the realization that the ship was screaming like I was in a psychiatric ward.
Everything in the cockpit was flashing red.
Alert. The ship has suffered critical damage. Please evacuate. Please evacuate.
The AI voice echoed through the ship.
"For fuck's sake... what have I done?"
Who had I wronged to suffer this much? What did I have to do to appease them?
Please evacuate. Please evacuate.
I snapped out of it.
What did I need?
The piloting knowledge in my head clicked into place. If the ship was in a critical state, the first thing I needed was a safety suit.
Critical damage meant the life support systems were probably gone. Without life support in space, I would be dead in seconds.
I punched open a compartment to my left like I had done it a thousand times before.
A safety suit popped out. With the ease of someone who had done this countless times, I slipped into it. It had an oxygen mask, which I secured before moving to another compartment.
The entire ship groaned with every movement I made. It wobbled dangerously, as if it was barely holding together.
Every step felt like it might be the one that tipped everything over.
I did not stop.
Every second mattered.
Even with the suit on, if I fell, I was done. The suit could not save me from everything.
I moved quickly to another section of the ship.
Almost instinctively, I knew where the escape pod was.
It was my only hope.
Luckily, it was right there when I entered the emergency sector.
Lucky me. I was really starting to appreciate the smuggler who had modified this ship.
Most smugglers would have sacrificed the escape pod for more cargo space.
I slipped into the small glass vessel and sealed it.
The world suddenly went quiet.
Then the pod's AI activated.
Please fasten your safety belt.
As if I needed to be told.
I strapped myself into the single seat and pressed disengage.
The pod groaned as it forced its way out beneath the damaged ship. The main hull had warped, partially blocking the escape route.
After a few tense seconds, it finally broke free.
I let out a breath.
We were still in hyperspace. The modified hyperdrive had failed to pull us out even after the collision.
The problem was that the escape pod could only operate at sublight speed.
It was not built for hyperspace. It could barely do more than drift.
Which meant I was still stuck in wild space.
For fuck's sake.
I had known it was a death sentence. Now it was confirmed.
Unless someone else was stupid enough to travel through wild space, and specifically this hyperlane, there was no way I was surviving.
I was literally counting down to my death.
Alert. You have 30 hours of life support.
The pod's AI confirmed it.
I knew there would be food and water, enough for those 30 hours. Maybe I could stretch it to 35.
It made no difference.
Thirty five hours was nothing.
Less than two days.
By tomorrow night, I would be dead.
I moved quickly through the pod's control panels.
I needed to send a distress signal.
I did not care who answered it. Well... I did.
I would rather it be a smuggler.
But if it had to be the Republic, then so be it.
I activated the distress signal and leaned back.
It was broadcasting.
Now it was up to fate.
Even if someone received it, it would take real courage to come looking for me here.
There were only two types of people who would dare travel through wild space.
The first were Trade Federation explorers charting new routes. The chances of that were slim.
The second were people like me.
Smugglers.
If smugglers found me, they might save me.
And depending on their ethics, which most did not have, they might enslave me right after.
I closed my eyes.
For almost an hour, I just sat there, thinking about my life.
Less than an hour ago, I should have been waking up in my bed.
I should have been in my room, living my normal life, doing deliveries, playing games.
Instead, I woke up in a mad galaxy where life and death happened in an instant.
For fuck's sake.
The silence was unbearable.
Could this pod do anything other than remind me I was about to die?