Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Imagine, if you will, a man who has been asleep for 100 years, frozen in the dark confines of a ship hurtling through the empty time of interstellar space. Humanity's first excursion to set foot outside our own solar system. So far away that the people who sent our hero into the void are already long dead.

And then something goes wrong. There is nobody to help, nobody to hear, nobody to see. All he has is one last emergency procedure that nobody ever thought they would need - Zero Protocol. If it works, he might survive.

Then, he makes a discovery beyond his wildest dreams. But will it show him the way home?
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Preemptively, I would like to humbly offer that my novella is not inspired by The Martian, despite some obvious similarities. It's more akin to Jack London's To Build a Fire, with a Bradburyan twist. The kernel of inspiration is actually an old Twilight Zone episode and I leave enough clues that fans of the show should be able to figure out which one.

But the core of the story is a question: What would it really be like to be stranded in interstellar space?

If you enjoy hard science fiction and man vs. the universe tales, then I think you'll enjoy Zero Protocol. It runs just over 20,000 words, so it's a fairly short read.

Thanks for reading.

-MJL

Zero Protocol