Don't wake up, Commander.
01 Dec 2021K.TIGER
Nobody was supposed to be this far out. No stations or settlements for hundreds of light years in any direction, it had been a quiet exploration run for days. Just me and my Asp. I was determined to be the first to make a new discovery, any disovery, and was mapping the surface of an unremarkable planet orbiting an unremarkable star; wih the scan finished, I was about to disengage for the next system when the distress beacon lit up, from down on the planet's surface. I wish I'd left it alone, told myself it was an automated beacon from an unmanned wreck. I wish I hadn't forced myself to make that decision. My Asp, Endurance, was just an exploration vessel. I had spent hours tweaking it for efficiency, getting rid of anything that might slow me down or consume more fuel than it had to. How was I to know that there would be a survivor in an escape pod? How was I to know that selling off the cargo rack for the sake of an extra five minute's worth of fuel would lead to this?
Search and Rescue have never operated this far outside the bubble, and by the time I can jump back and raise the alarm, the life support in your pod will have run dry.
I'm so sorry, Commander. Whoever you are... whoever you were. I'm sorry I couldn't bring you home. Don't wake up.