MIR, the sentient Wyvern.

Approaching

A year ago, aboard the Artemis, Commander Tanner and his first officer were "awakened" because they were within sight of the Alpha Centauri solar system and the probes sent were analysing the various data. Their awakening was not insignificant because the ship's AI had encountered strong electromagnetic disturbances and there was a kind of "veil" obscuring the whole area, and the solar system should normally be much brighter when seen from Earth.

The reason they didn't know was that an astronomically immense arm of dark 'matter' was blocking the trajectory and no one on the Artemis or on Earth could analyse or predict what dark matter was, let alone speculate on its effects on an Earth ship or its occupants.

But avoiding it was totally impossible. The AI alone could do nothing but rely on the ingenuity of the commander and any signal to Earth... Well, that was on its way for a long, long time.

The long ship was several kilometres long and had a flexible, modular structure capable of absorbing the most terrible shocks and collisions. Everything was modular and repairable, and each section had its own survival-oriented power plant.

The aim was to give priority to survival, even if the engines failed, so the ship could provide food and water as long as the sun was shining and behave like a living island if it was lost, but at the cost of reducing the population or at least limiting the number awake. This would be the worst nightmare in the event of failure and with a trajectory calculated to return in 1 century using the gravitational acceleration of Alpha's Sun. In short, a zombie mission.

Fear gripped the commander and crew as they entered the shadow of dark matter.

Kim, Maxime and Sacha were also on duty.

Sacha: "Kim, what do you think of the situation?"

Kim: "I don't know, all we know is speculation, gravitational fields, magnetic storms, ionised fields. We don't know anything and this is the first time we've made contact.

Maxime: "Maybe we'll become like the Fantastic 5!"

Sacha: "I don't want to become Elastic!"

Kim: "I don't want to become a stone man!"

Maxime: "But you're still in the Stone Age!

Kim : "No... I'm the same age as Pierre but when he wakes up, he'll be younger... or older...". I don't get it any more... Time has no meaning here."

Sacha "You'll be old when you can't get an erection!"

HAHAHA!

Then as if a black veil crossed the ship and the light tended to diffract. As if we had drops in our eyes and lots of stars of all colours were in the ship. But everything was working normally.

Tanner "AI: Damage assessment?"

None, but I sense instability in the fusion reactor corium. A significant loss of energy in sections 1 to 3. The 4th is normal.

Tanner: "Follow the energy path, it must be leaving traces.

AI: "Energy builds up in zone 1 and a magnetic vortex forms a line towards Alpha."

Tanner: Sound the alert. Evacuation to anti-radiation tanks, hazmat suits and do I need an emergency wake-up call for all criogenes?

The AI had calculated.

"No, you don't. Reserve 4 allows this to be done at a later date. Each capsule is capable of being ejected and re-entering the atmosphere. There is no structural damage requiring evacuation".

Tanner: "So stay on yellow alert! Everyone back to their stations or take cover under the tank."

Kim, Sacha and Maxime received their emergency assignment orders and when they got up from the table (they were in the cafeteria) the stars gathered in complex geometric figures.