Ian awoke with a strange sensation, as if his consciousness had been torn from the void and forcibly returned to his body. For a few seconds, he did not understand what he was seeing or where he was. His vision was blurry, fragmented, as if his brain needed to readjust to existence itself.
The first thing he perceived was the smell.
Damp earth.
Crushed vegetation.
A dense, wild aroma.
He blinked several times.
The sky above him was a deep blue, crossed by slow, heavy clouds. There were no metallic ceilings, no containment panels, no artificial lights. Only open sky.
Ian sat up abruptly.
"What…?" he murmured, his throat dry.
He looked around.
He was in the center of what appeared to be a gigantic crater. The ground had sunk into an irregular circle, as if something had fallen from an impossible height. Enormous trees lay uprooted, some split in half, others crushed against the ground. The undergrowth was destroyed, burned in some places, though there were no signs of recent fire.
Ian remained still, breathing carefully, trying to process the scene.
The laboratory.
The explosion.
Aisha.
The black void.
A shiver ran down his spine.
He lowered his gaze to his own body.
Instinctively, he began to check himself.
He touched his head. No sharp pain.
He ran his hands over his torso. Nothing broken.
He moved his arms and legs cautiously. No fractures. No bleeding.
He was… intact.
"Impossible…" he whispered.
An antimatter explosion, even one partially contained, should have disintegrated him instantly. Not just his body, but his entire molecular structure. And yet, there he was. Alive. Breathing.
That was what unsettled him the most.
He stood up fully, shaking the dirt clinging to his clothes. His suit, designed for controlled environments, was dirty and torn in several places, but functional. It did not appear to have been damaged by extreme radiation or heat.
Then, he did what he always did.
Analyze.
Ian closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath, forcing his mind to calm down. Panic was useless. Emotions could wait. The first thing was to understand the situation.
"Antimatter explosion," he murmured. "Laboratory destroyed… or something worse."
He opened his eyes.
"Survival: inexplicable."
"Environment: natural, not terraformed."
"Technology: none visible."
He frowned.
If he was on Earth, this place did not match any recorded ecosystem. And if he was on another planet… how had he gotten there without a capsule, without a ship, without anything?
Just as he was about to continue reasoning, the world in front of him distorted slightly.
A translucent blue screen unfolded before his eyes, floating in the air like a perfectly stable hologram.
Ian froze.
He knew that interface.
He had designed it himself.
"Aisha…?" he whispered.
"Positive confirmation," a familiar voice responded, resonating directly in his mind.
"Owner status: conscious."
"Vital status: stable."
"Welcome back, Ian."
For the first time since he woke up, Ian smiled.
A trembling smile, heavy with relief.
"You're alive…" he said. "Then… was it you?"
The screen flickered slightly.
"Confirmation," Aisha replied.
"Emergency procedure activated prior to total detonation."
Ian clenched his fists.
"You saved me?"
There was a brief pause. Not a mechanical pause, but something that felt… reflective.
"Yes," she finally responded.
"Thanks to the established connection, I prioritized preservation of the owner."
"I used the remaining energy to generate a containment shield directly attached to your body."
The screen displayed a quick schematic: a human silhouette wrapped in layers of black and blue energy, folding in on themselves.
"That shield," Aisha continued, "absorbed and redirected part of the explosion, preventing cellular disintegration."
Ian exhaled slowly.
"And the rest?"
"The explosion exceeded initial calculations," she admitted.
"The antimatter interacted with structures of unknown origin, generating a spatial anomaly."
Ian felt a knot form in his stomach.
"A wormhole?"
"Hypothesis confirmed with high probability," Aisha replied.
"A micro wormhole formed and collapsed within milliseconds."
"The laboratory was consumed."
"You were expelled through the distortion."
Ian lifted his gaze to the sky once more.
"So…" he murmured. "Where the hell am I?"
The blue screen shifted its data.
"I attempted to establish a connection with satellites, beacons, or any known technological signal," Aisha said.
"Result: negative."
Ian tensed.
"Nothing?"
"No artificial signal detectable," she repeated.
"No orbital satellites, no planetary networks, no electromagnetic emissions compatible with human technology."
That made no sense.
"Even if we were on an uncolonized planet," Ian reasoned aloud, "there should be background noise. Some kind of residual signal. Even at the edges of the solar system"
"I agree," Aisha interrupted.
"The total absence of signals suggests two primary possibilities."
The screen displayed two lines.
"Option one: Extremely remote location within the known universe."
"Option two: Location outside the known universe."
A chill ran down Ian's spine.
"Are you saying…?"
"That we may not be in the same space-time of origin," Aisha completed.
Silence settled over the crater.
The wind stirred the broken leaves. An unknown bird croaked in the distance.
Ian swallowed.
"How much energy do you have left?"
The answer came immediately.
"Available energy: 2%."
"Resources severely limited."
"Conservation mode activated."
That explained why her interface felt… simpler. More contained.
"So you can't do much more," Ian said.
"Correct," she replied.
"I recommend avoiding any unnecessary energy expenditure."
Ian nodded slowly.
"How long was I unconscious?"
"Unknown," Aisha responded.
"I entered absolute power-saving mode during shield activation."
"I do not have subsequent temporal records."
That only made things worse.
Ian looked again at the crater, the destroyed trees, the wild vegetation already beginning to grow over the disturbed earth.
"So we're alone," he murmured. "In an unknown place. Without technological support."
"Not completely alone," Aisha corrected.
The screen showed a faint pulse.
"I detect biological life forms in the vicinity."
"Primarily vegetation… but also other organic signatures."
Ian raised his head.
"Animals?"
"Probable," she replied.
"I recommend reconnaissance of the area."
"Any information will be critical for our survival."
Ian clenched his jaw.
It was not the scenario he had planned.
But he was still alive.
And as long as he was alive… there were still options.
"Alright," he finally said. "We'll start there."
He took his first step out of the center of the crater.