[ WP ] You cry out into the void , hoping for someone , something , or anything to respond ...

The ever dutiful machines whirred and hummed around me. Every bone and muscle in my poor tired body screamed with the familiar pain. `` I swear this is my last contract.'' I thought it every time, but this time I meant it. Just like every time before, I suppose. I drank the electrolyte supplements, the protein supplements, and the Carbohydrate supplements, each one more foul and bitter than the last. I washed the stimulants down with water and got out of the Assisted Hibernation suit to put on my uniform. I must have been one of the first up, as I did n't see anyone else in the locker room. The computer informed me we were home. Anticipating the awakening of the other crew members I dusted off the Champagne and put it on Ice. 
 
 I sat down at the terminal. `` This is Exploratory Probe Six-Eight-Twelve, Do you read me'' 
 
 Static. 
 
 Micrometeorites must have bombarded the communication array, I'd try again when we entered visual range. It was strange, no one else had woken yet. I climbed back up to the center of the ship where it is weightless, where the Assisted Hibernation pods were to check on the rest of the crew. None of them were dead, but they all read Status Critical: Oversleep; Can not Waken. Fortunately we would be in orbit in less than an hour, and I'd be able to pass this problem to more experienced hands. 
 
 I went back down to the Communications Array, where the Champagne sat on Ice. There was a shimmering blue star up ahead, Earth! No need to let all this Champagne go to waste. I uncorked some of the bubbly. Much to my surprise, I had to pull the cork out, and when i poured it it seemed kind of flat. Thank Corporate, always cutting corners. I poured myself a glass, toasted to my terminal, and took a sip. 
 
 THE FUCK. It bit my tongue, not with the bubbles but with a woody sharp taste, it was like licking a tree or an old leather bound book. Something was flashing on the terminal. `` Hyperdrive Failure'' I was n't from engineering, so I was n't equipped to deal with that. 
 
 The Blue Dot was the size of my pinky nail, even with a shot com array, we HAD to be in range now. I raised them again. A few measured beeps, but mostly static. Hell, last mission, autopilot would have taken over by now, correcting our orbit and preparing us for unload, crew update, and redeployment. 
 
 I spent a few hours running diagnostics on the com system and checking internal fuses. Everything was in order. By now I could make out clouds and continents. We were approaching from the Solar side, so it was a beautiful blue-green marble, dolloped with swirling clouds. I took a few snaps of it for my family, they seemed to love those. The only replies I could raise were from automatic satellites, and even their responses were spotty at best. After a good few hours I finally entered orbit, the dark side of the Earth coming into view. I corrected the orbit manually, and after more than an hour I had finally stabilized it. I went to one of the windows to see a crescent earth, more night than day now, and like the moon, completely black in the night, meaning we were over an ocean. I snapped a few more images for the family and tried raising them again. More static. 
 
 With a shot array, there was nothing I could do, I was n't certified to service the array on the outside of the ship. Nothing to do but wait. I saw more of the earth at night, and still there was no light. We could n't still be over an ocean! I opened the memo for engineering titled `` Hyperdrive Failure'' Apparently our ship had never entered Hyperdrive, and we had traveled all 120 lightyears at sub-light speeds. I ran another diagnostic on the communications array. Again, it came back clean, perfect condition. Sweat beaded on my brow, I glanced at the champagne. No champagne I had tasted had ever tasted that way. My breaths became short and sharp. I toggled over to long range com, trying to hail a ship, any ship. We came around to the dawn side of earth, I fired up Telemetrics and using GPS found a city, any city. It must have been wrong, it had to be wrong. There was a forest. Even the coast lines were all wrong. The Comm Systems had to be wrong, This was n't earth, It could n't be! The computers had gotten confused! This was a planet slated for colonization! 
 
 Back to Telemetrics. I turned the scopes from planet side to the stars. The coasts were wrong, but the constellations were right. The memo from Engineering was right. My blood ran cold. The computer was n't lying. I glanced at the Champagne, it was n't lying either. No Champagne tasted like that. I checked the Computer's Chronometer. It had cycled over on itself, it was only able to measure years in four digits. What was there to do now?
