From: Capt. Banderia
To: Anyone
Re: Hope

The black starry expanse is as black as the repilicated coffee I'm
drinking. What I wouldn't give for a real cup of coffee. Our rations
of "real" food is nearly gone. We've been stranded somewhere near the
center of the galaxy after a black hole knocked us off course. Six
months. Our navigation system is broke and we don't have the parts to
fix half the ship. Somehow our 3D printer was destroyed in our near
death experience with a super massive black hole. No communications
either. Stuck.

Thankfully there is nobody worried about me. When you sign up for this
gig, you have reasonable expectations you might never go home. I could
never put someone through that. I might not have anybody, but the crew
does, and that worries me. We're a scientific ship; not equipped for
battle. Thankfully we've managed to stay undetected from alien races
using high pulsed neutrinos from our warp reactor to look like a
quasar. My chief science officer concocted that one. Damn brilliant.

While I may have nobody, and as dire as this situation is, I'll try
one last time to send a communication and hope for a response. My crew
is desperate for many things, but most desperate for hope.
