Vagrancy

Vagrancy
noun
1. A phenomenon where an animal (usually a bird) wanders outside their habitat range due to navigation errors or weather conditions. Although vagrancy may lead to speciation and diversity, the vast majority of vagrants end up dying alone from lack of food and security.
2. The state of living without a settled home or regular work (usually a hairless ape), wandering from place to place and living by asking for money or food; life as a vagrant.

"Whoever watches the wind will not sow, whoever ignores the wind will become a vagrant."

I woke up. Bright and sterile light peered into my windscreen.
"Where am I?" I thought.
I looked around me.
The polycarbonate canopy of my cryostasis pod-bed opened like a scissor door on a sports car, some century old antique that people used to one-up another with.
I remembered where I am.
The space corvette "Oilbird" which I called home for the last...
I checked the galactic clock, which is measured in time since supernova (there is no reference frames in space to have standard timekeeping).
... 12 millennia since ρ Cas went boom, in Earth-orbit years.
I felt a deep sense of fleetingness, as if I was unmoored in spacetime.
I hurried to check messages from the homeworld Earth.
I turned on the radio transponder and receiver, but there seems to be no signal.
Radio silence.
I tuned to all the frequencies.
Nothing.
But there seems to be a pattern in the waterfall plot.
A deep grief swept over me, which I could barely swallow.
So much time have passed since The War that the language and culture mutated to the point of untranslatability.
I'm glad my homeworld is doing alright, though.
That comforted me.
Even though it takes light-years to send messages Earthbound, I did so anyways.

"12816 annum terra since ρ Cas supernova.

Writing from 623967-SFQcOfhZ (ID)
To my n-grand nieces and nephews,
I hope you are alright. I fled The War in the 21st Century and headed out without a destination. There was a general fuel shortage, and some of us ended up becoming energy bankrupt. I was evicted from my spaceport for failing to pay my storage rent and shuttle mortgage, then stripped of my citizenship and became stateless. Since there was nowhere to go, I pulled the joystick and jettisoned from Earth. Unpredictable space wind have disabled my control panel, but the navigation module still managed to work. I put myself to cryosleep to pass the time and woke up just now. I miss Earth.

With love, yours truly."

I sent the message.
Then I realized they cannot understand the message, judging from the undecipherable noise that appears in the transmission from Earth, some light-years ago.

I checked the control panel to see what modules have been disabled by ions from space wind.

The troubleshooter has diagnosed several system malfunctions:
Radioautism - communications module
Incompatible communications protocol with current societal standardization. Codec cannot decrypt analog signals into digital. Can result in obsessive sensitivity to very niche frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. Also sensitive to radio noise. Please update to the latest version of communications protocol.

Attempting to update...
Error: Cannot download latest communications protocol due to missing dependencies from an existing incompatible protocol.

Schizospectral - sensor module
Oversensitized scanners may result in anomalies showing up on the bridge console. Difficulty determining real anomalies and anomalies from miscalculation. Console display may show non-existent astronomical objects and receive non-existent radio transmission. Do not neglect all input, as a small portion may be in fact existent. Can trigger warning alarms frequently. Scanners can occasionally capture inspirational scenery due to extreme sensitivity.

Warning: Proceed with caution.

Bipolarmagnetic - energy module
Ion propulsion systems has difficulty generating adequate estimated thrust due to chemical imbalance in the magnetic separators. Cathode and anode poles may generate disproportionate anions or cations for the propellant. If there are more positive ions in the ion beam, can generate an extended speed boost. If there are more negative ions in the ion beam, can result in low power and shutdown of other systems.

Warning: Unstable reactors.

Fuel addiction
Leakage has been detected in the fuel tank.
CRITICAL WARNING: INJECT MORE FUEL INTO THE FUEL TANK
CRITICAL WARNING: INJECT MORE FUEL INTO THE FUEL TANK
CRITICAL WARNING: INJECT MORE FUEL INTO THE FUEL TANK
CRITICAL WARNING: INJECT MORE FUEL INTO THE FUEL TANK

I sighed a long and deep sigh, as if exhaling a puff of cigarette smoke.
My control panel is permanently unre-enableable.

I steered my Oilbird towards a space thoroughfare corridor. Hoping that the passing space traffic would provide some assistance and maybe even help repair my ship, so that eventually I have somewhere to go.

I camped at a busy interstellar trade intersection and began sending out SOS signals.

"Please help out a vagabond ship. Out of fuel. Out of power. Nowhere to go. May the Blessings be with you."

A cargo ship passed by and I was forced to wash the windscreen from the space dust that was kicked up by its monstrous size.

Another speed cruiser passed by, its engines stirring up so much pollution as it overtook my Oilbird, almost condescendingly. It was blasting all sorts of radio frequency noise in a very high volume, filled with obscenities. My control panel almost shut down completely due to my sensors being overloaded.

A scootercraft passed by and dumped some containers in my cargo bay. Several young humanoids asked me if I need assistance to the infirmary. I tried to explain to them it's the ship that's broken, not the pilot. They sped off, but not before telling me the containers are full of radioactive nuclear spent fuel rods.

A family ship passed by and docked onto my port.
They seemed to have enough fuel in their tanks to power a ship for a 100 millennia.
I was hoping they might give me enough fuel to keep my ship powered for a year or two.
They gave me enough fuel for a day and uplinked a file to my bridge console.
I opened and read the file.
It was a manifesto from the Enlightened beings sect, telling me how charitable the Being was and how if I gave up all universely possessions to the sect I would go above and beyond the firmament.
But I was already above the firmament.
Also, the file seems edited, and a comparison application showed that the manifesto did not belong to any of the Chapters.
The original Enlightenment Scroll was an instruction guide on spaceship maneuvering, interstellar peace, alien communication, astronomical wisdom, and transcendental morality, with an additional new Chapter on the Universal Savior and one last Chapter on the nature of the Universe and Universal regulations. People seem to debate a lot on which Chapters are true.
But I digress.
I hope the Being is kind and merciful to me.

A couple thousand more spaceships passed me by uneventfully.

Then, as I was about to run out a power, an alien who was almost as fuel starved as me docked onto my port.

"Would you prefer fuel or power? What power modules do you have and what fuels are compatible?"

I transmitted a radio signal.

"Power please, ion thrusters with fusion reactors. Helium-3 preferred."

The alien unloaded a third of their fuel tank into my Oilbird.

"May the Blessings be with you." They said and left.
I turned on the green laser, signalling my gratitude and happiness.

My engine stayed on for five more days until the power went off completely, with only the emergency lights on.

My spacesuit casted a long shadow that reminded me of my former self, and of Earth.
In the shadow I saw that tapestry of my life — from birth, to childhood, to getting my pilot license, to eviction from Earth, and now a vagrant in space.
The supply of calorie cubes also stopped producing as the hydroponic compressor went out of power.

I laid on the cold, hard floor and huddled with myself in the ravenous emptiness.

I stared at my shadow and thought: "As long as there is light, you will never forsake me."
Soon darkness engulfed my windscreen.