This comes across as a very lived-in universe. There’s a lot of lore, for both the characters and the setting. I like how you include a lot of proper nouns for locations, and even the month of the year. And I like that the characters clearly have history, not just with each other but independently. At the same time, this is barely over 9 pages long and very dense with information. None of it is boring, but it is very hard to digest and retain because it’s so densely packed. I think it could benefit from being elongated, so that you can space out more of the exposition. That would make it a lot easier to retain all the stuff about each character’s career/education pursuits.
The “vibe” of the story is very relaxed and comfy, and I mean that in a good way. There’s no huge battle. And even after the characters find the collapsed drone, it’s not treated as a threat. It helps to reinforce the feeling of this just being a chill road trip with college friends trying to find their place in the universe. Seeing those SciFi elements gives it that nice bit of spice.
The writing style was a bit difficult at times. There are a lot of over-nested sentences that could get broken up. And there’s a lot of exposition. I’m very much an advocate for trying to fit in lore naturally through dialogue, but sometimes, it’s best to exposit more through narration. And you do that here, especially later on in the story, but there are sections in the dialogue that sounds less natural with how much detail is being stated, in a very “As you know” sort of way. You may want to consider removing some of the character lore from this specific entry so you can use it in later stories. That way, the reader is able to digest the other details, and they’re left with more to learn later.
I’m unfortunately not seeing a lot of actual traveling in this story. I was into the idea of some friends driving across a SciFi road and seeing different stuff, but once they reach the drone, they don’t really go anywhere else till the end. I like that we hear about other places, but I was left wanting to see more of the setting.