A Stranger on the Sojourner

**"A Stranger on the Sojourner"** is the first episode of *Part I: A Stranger in a Strange System*, the first instalment of *Ad Astra*.

## Plot

*On a derelict colony ship at the far edge of Aschere, a stranger awakens to a Universe as unfamiliar to them as they are to it.*

## Synopsis

### Prologue

On Earth in the year 1963, U.S President John F. Kennedy barely survives an assassination attempt, triggering a renewed public and private interest in space exploration. Within a year, life is found in the clouds of Venus, and humanity arrives on the Moon in 1966. Eventually, private aerospace companies overtake government-run agencies to become the principle explorers of interstellar space, establishing several corporate-controlled colonies throughout the Milky Way and, after humanity's encounters with alien life, throughout the Local Group.

Hundreds of corporations rise and fall over the centuries, often falling as a result of conflicts between them such as the Corporate Wars. In the 32nd Century, an age where civilization is exploring the depths of the Universe via the Nexus, a coalition of private corporations known as the Virgo Holdings Board purchases colonization rights to the Virgo Stellar Stream, a stellar stream located above the Milky Way's galactic core, and begin colonizing the Aschere System, a planetary system home to four worlds. An ark dubbed the *Sojourner* leaves Earth for Aschere, but disappears without a trace *en route*. The Virgo Holdings Board decides to use their primary colony, also called Sojourner, as a weapons test site and instead colonize the planet New Eden VI. Meanwhile, the Holders cover up the failed arrival of the *Sojourner*, which is revealed to have become trapped in the orbit of a black hole at the far edge of Aschere.

The powerless *Sojourner* is approached by an unmarked ship crewed by twins Eric and Erica Subsolar, who hack into what is left of the ship's systems and are able to recover the sole surviving passenger, a human with no recorded backstory or name, from the orbit of the black hole. Discovering that the passenger is barely alive, they teleport them to a hospital on El Dorado station.

### Chapter I: Awakening

When the passenger awakes in the hospital, they almost immediately laspe into a TDS-induced coma. The doctors treating him are confronted by soldiers of Aschere Collateral (A.C.E), a paramilitary corporation seeking a position on the Virgo Holdings Board, who demand to study the passenger and seek to suppress knowledge that they were recovered from the *Sojourner*. The doctors assure A.C.E's CEO, Don Laser, that the passenger will almost certainly not recover.

Trapped in a semi-lucid state, the passenger dreams of a whale swimming through the cosmos. The entity approaches them and speaks inside their mind, bestowing upon them the title of "Stargazer".

The Stargazer suddenly awakes from their coma as the A.C.E soldiers leave the station. Disorientated and confused, the Stargazer struggles to stand and can barely see through a star-clouded vision. The nurses calm the Stargazer with music, and once he falls asleep the doctors check them over. They theorize that the Stargazer is perceiving space differently, potentially in four-dimensions, due to extensive exposure to the unique environment around the Gaping Maw. Having been bribed by Laser, the head surgeon plans to euthenize the Stargazer and perform an autopsy to find out how they survived TDS. Secretly overhearing them, the Stargazer escapes their bounds and tries to escape their room. As security tries to subdue them, the Stargazer lashes out, only to discover that everything and everyone around them has paused.

The Stargazer freely explores the station and finds everyone is paused, as if time itself has stopped. Believing themself to be the cause, the Stargazer snaps their fingers several times, eventually restarting time and unpausing everyone, who continue as if nothing had happened. The Stargazer pauses everyone again and continues to explore before taking a set of AR headphones. With only 20th and 21st Century Earth music available, the Stargazer dances through the halls of the station while listening to "Twistin' the Night Away".

The Stargazer eventually finds Eric and Erica Subsolar, the twins who rescued him, who unlike everyone else continue to move unpaused. Sneaking onto their ship, the Stargazer confronts them and asks who they are. The twins respond that they do not know and simply retrieved them from the wreck of the *Sojourner*, explaining that they run a salvage company and were looking for scrap on the derelict ship. The twins try to threaten the Stargazer off their ship, but when he mentions the whale from his dream the twins allow him to accompany him and they escape the station.

### Chapter II: In Dreams

On their way to the colony of New Eden VI, the Stargazer has yet another dream, this time of a town that the twins reveal is the settlement of Forefront, a diesel refinery town suffering from a plague of malnutrition. Believing they will find answers about their identity there, the Stargazer asks for transport to Forefront. The twins agree but demand that the Stargazer recover one of their data caches that crash landed near Forefront as payment for their help. As they approach New Eden VI, the Stargazer enters their teleporter and is told that one of the twins' ships, the *Love Machine*, is waiting for them on the surface and to use the passcode "ragamuffin" to transfer ownership.

On his personal dreadnought the *Ivan the Terrible*, Don Laser summons up Mother, the CEO of Mother's Robotics, on a console and says that their deal has become "complicated".

## Trivia

* First appearance of the Stargazer
* First appearance of the Whale
* First appearance of Eric Subsolar
* First appearance of Erica Subsolar
* First appearance of Don Laser
* First appearance of Mother