Reve sipped his coffee, quietly scanning the darkness ahead, as the engine carried on across barren wasteland. Just over 200kph and humming right along without a feature in sight. It was flat nothingness after more nothingness, and Reve calculated that he and his cargo were only halfway through their 15 hour trip.

Inside the cabin it was row after row of gently glowing green lights. Following procedure, Reve recited the pilot’s checklist, and the autopilot responded to each point with a soft tone. He hadn’t finished the checklist when an alarm sounded and the console lit up in glaring red. Reve recognized the pattern and instantly knew a fuel pump had ruptured. He hit the fuel cutoff to begin the recovery procedure. Nothing happened, the autopilot had already reached the same conclusion and attempted to cut it off, but there was no response.

If this kept up for another 10 seconds, enough fuel would be lost to diminish any hope of reaching his destination.

He took a breath and began to recite his checklist.