Blossom in the Darkness: A Short Story

Donal McGee is an Explorer, the somewhat suicidal forward scouts of the UN Space Directorate, who go off alone into the deep emptiness of space alone to find habitable worlds for humanity to colonize. With eight years left of his mission to a possible habitable system Donal's ship the "West-a-Ways" experiences a critical malfunction. With time running out, and no one to call for help in the darkness, Donal races to save himself and his ship.