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Chapter 14: Corporal Sarai "Echo" Hernandez

Chapter 14: Corporal Sarai "Echo" Hernandez

Sarai stared at the darkened console in front of her, a knot tightening in her stomach. The emergency lights cast faint shadows across the engineering bay, but the usual hum of machinery was gone, leaving an eerie stillness that seemed to stretch into eternity. Her fingers hovered over the unresponsive controls as her mind raced.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

She had known the risks of the experimental warp drive, understood the dangers better than anyone on the crew. It wasn’t her design, but she had been briefed on every classified detail, trained to operate and monitor it. The Sol Shot wasn’t just a gravitational slingshot—it was a test of technology that could rewrite the future of space travel. And now it felt like that future had just come crashing down.

"Sarai, any chance we can get main power back?" Adrienne’s voice over the comms had been steady, but the weight of the question still pressed on her.

Sarai had given the only answer she could: "I don’t know yet. I need time."

Now, alone in the engineering bay, she felt the full weight of that truth. Time was the one thing they didn’t have, and yet she couldn’t stop herself from hesitating. If the warp drive had worked the way it was supposed to, they’d be days away from their destination. Instead, the ship was dead in the water—or worse, somewhere they couldn’t even begin to understand.

She exhaled sharply and reached for the manual override. The console blinked to life, its faint glow casting pale light across her face. Lines of diagnostic data began to scroll across the screen, and she immediately honed in on the warp drive status.



"AI, run a full systems check on propulsion and power cores. Prioritize the warp drive."

"Acknowledged," the AI replied, its tone calm and neutral despite the chaos. "Diagnostic initiated. Estimated time: two minutes."

Sarai leaned back, rubbing her hands over her face. She couldn’t stop thinking about the jolt, the sudden loss of power. Had the drive failed completely? Or had it done something worse?

The console beeped, breaking her thoughts. The diagnostic results began to populate, and her stomach dropped as she read them. The warp drive wasn’t offline. It was active, but its readings didn’t make sense. Energy levels were fluctuating, outputs showing data that didn’t align with any of their planned trajectories.

"AI, explain the current warp drive status."

"Warp drive is operational but unstable. Current trajectory data does not match pre-launch projections. Anomalies detected in star map alignment."

Her breath hitched. "Clarify anomalies."

"Current star map does not match known celestial databases. Location cannot be verified."

Sarai stared at the screen, her heart pounding. They weren’t just lost. The drive had taken them somewhere else. Somewhere uncharted.

"Options?"

"Option one: deactivate warp drive to stabilize power systems. Option two: attempt to recalibrate warp drive for return trajectory. Option three: maintain current status and await further instructions."

She clenched her fists. None of those were good options, but she couldn’t make this call alone. Not yet.

"Log all diagnostic data and prepare a report for the captain," she said, her voice steadier than she felt.

"Acknowledged. Data logged."

Sarai stared at the glowing console, the faint hum of the systems barely audible now. They were alive, but the question remained: where were they? And was there any way to get back?

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