Nowheresville

We all gather around, Vivian with her hand on the small of Leigh's back for comfort.

"Here's where we are on the galactic map." says Danielle,

We all gasp, I can tell right away that we're pretty far off course without even a reference point.

"And, here's where we are in relation to populated space..." she says once more, this time in a much darker tone,

"What the fuck! This is beyond pioneer space! We're out in the middle of nowhere with no fuel!" yells Leigh, collapsing into our mother, sobbing.

"Honey, explorers come through these types of systems all the time. Besides, we aren't in cold space, there's a star right there. There might be a planet nearby that we could get fuel from. We'll be back on track in weeks, I promise sweetheart." says mom in her comforting tone. We all know better, but I must admit her words are very soothing.

"Actually, I've got good news on that front. This system has actually been charted, although it was done long ago with an automated probe. The scan was very rudimentary, however, and was stored long ago, that's why it didn't pop up right away. I'll pull up the map." says Danielle, perking everyone's interest and filling us with some hope.

"Here's a closer view of exactly where we are, let me get the system view on screen."

"We've got Methral, a hot planet near the sun. According to the scan's estimates, the planet is tidally locked. It's got an atmosphere. A large portion of the dark side of the planet should be right temperature wise to support us, so if bad gets bad, we can land there." says Danielle, indicating the small orange planet nearest the sun.

"Next is Agayis. Minus the hilarious name," says Danielle, rolling her eyes and managing to inject some much needed humor in this dire situation, "this planet is square in the Goldilocks zone. It's got a thick atmosphere, is Earth-like, and appears to have some kind of liquid ocean. Only bad thing, at least according to initial scans, it's all ocean, no land.".

"Moving on, we've got Crag. It's a big rock. Probably our best bet for finding uranium fuel, our worst bet if we had to settle down for a while."

"Finally, we've got Bleak Hope. It's got an extremely thick atmosphere, although I'm not sure what it's made of. It's not a gas planet minus initial appearances. Might be a prospect for fuel, otherwise it's just a pretty sight to swing by and look at." finishes my aunt.

"Well, there's more hope than it would've initially seemed. We've got a couple of choices, here. We'll be drifting for a week or two, more if we decide to visit the inner or outer-most planets. We've got more than enough supplies and replicator energy to last decades, but I'm not content with just surviving near some backwood star for a long while. We'll need to set up a home base and find some fuel, or find a permanent place to settle and wait for rescue. I've got the emergency beacons broadcasting on all spectrums, but as you know, they only travel at light speed. It'll take at least 12 years for those signals to reach civilized space, maybe less if someone is out this way." says Vivian with much more composure than before, still comforting Leigh.

"I'm down to hear any suggestions otherwise, but I say we stop by Agayis for a survey since it's closest, and slingshot to Methral a few days later, as they'll be in proximity at that time. It'll take two weeks to reach the water planet in the first place." says Danielle.