Asynchronous Space-Time

Lu Chen, a 26-year-old programmer, lost his job to AI and returned to his rural hometown after six months of unemployment. With his last savings and obsession, he built a machine. During a test run, space unexpectedly tore open and he fell through. He found himself in an unfamiliar sea with salty water and a night sky devoid of familiar constellations. The gravity on land was slightly heavier, the vegetation purple-brown, with no signal and no trace of humans. He survived on rainwater collected in reef pits and stranded creatures, not daring to venture far from the coast. Footprints on the riverbank led him to an alien hominid—gray-blue skin, walking upright. From wariness to exchanging food and learning language, they became partners. He taught knowledge and survival skills, improved tools, and connected villages with fire pits, slowly reviving primitive machinery and technology. Every night he observed the stars, and one day he noticed anomalies in their trajectories. He drew star charts and redrew them during the rainy season. When he filled in the last parameter, he froze: orbital radius, period, axial tilt, companion star—all exactly matching the Earth he remembered. In the deep darkness of the sky, he knew the blue planet was there. This was not time travel or a parallel world; he had simply been flung to a corner of the universe. Earth was still light-years away, quiet and stable. Now he had partners and tools. If he could calculate the coordinates and build a primitive launch device, even if the signal took years or he was long gone, at least someone would know he was here. Clutching the stone he used to draw lines, he looked at the horizon. At least he tried; he did everything he could. — Description from novelcodex.org