By  EowynDoyle

~ -0 years, 00 months, 1 week, 5 days, 10 hours, 27 minutes ~

"Gangplank up!" I shouted into the radio over the stiff wind, watching the metal plank retreat into the side of the ship. Thick wire cables stretched from the magnificent vessel to pillars manned by dock handlers, each one at the ready, huddled against the wind. 

"Release cables." The captain's calm voice filtered through the radio, nearly drowned out even though I had it turned up to full volume. Engines roared to life beneath my feet, my excited heart rate rising with it.

"Release cables!" I relayed to the dock handlers, slamming the red button to my left. In practiced synchronization, each one deftly pulled their lever. One by one the cables popped loose from the holding pillar. Gears whirled and each cable was immediately sucked in and coiled around great wheels hidden behind plates of metal.

It could have been done from the bridge, but the captain always preferred for the docking crew to do it. Said it was easier to tell if one would go haywire and it also shortened their own checklist of things to do before departure.

The cable hatches slid closed with a hiss. A puff of hot air blasted me from above as the closest one locked. The head dock worker gave me a thumbs up, other hand gripping her safely line.

I gave one in response, smile splitting my face.

We were ready to depart.

"Cables retracted and hatches sealed!"

"Good work. Close your hatch and return to quarters for departure." The captain said with a chuckle. "This will be a rough one!"

"Yes, Captain!"

I stared out the hatch enjoying the last few seconds of the shining skyport and glowering storm clouds before it disappeared behind the thick metal plating. The plating around the outer doors and windows were the thickest on the entire ship, nearly a foot thick.

Giddy laughter bubbling from my lips, I dashed though the corridors and the empty atrium, golden staircases winding upwards, surrounded by shops and cafes on each level. All the passengers had already gone to their rooms; no one was allowed outside of quarters for a lift-off to lessen the chance of injury if something went amiss.

By the time I returned to my quarters, the ship had begun to pitch upwards, rearing to pierce through clouds and atmosphere and break free of the planet's hold.

"All good?" Max, a Terran with silver dyed hair, asked while strapping herself into her bunk. She worked in the galley as a second-cruise chef. If I ever detoured through there, she often slipped me a bit of whatever she was working on.

"Yeah!" I slid the straps hanging from the railing of my bunk over my shoulders, buckling it tightly across the chest. The foam mattress conformed perfectly to my body, deadening some of the vibrations that coursed through me.

"Calm down, mate!" Jenida laughed, black and white striped ponytail splayed over her pillow and vibrating with the motion of the ship. "Ya look like ya gonna explode! This is what, ya third cruise?" She was a fellow technician. We swapped landing and lift-off duties each port.

"Lift-off never gets old!"

"I'd beg to differ." Max's face paled considerably as the shaking increased. The ship's rotation was nearly complete and we hung against our harnesses, held back only by the straps.

With a click, the bunks slid downwards then up, moving along a track in the opposite wall that brought us to a near horizontal position. The passenger's bunks, much fancier than our simple ones, rotated smoothly with the ship's motion.

A heavy weight settled on my chest, forcing the air out from my lungs. Darkness narrowed the world, encroaching on my vision till only a thin column of sight remained. Minutes stretched into hours as the Phoenix rocketed upwards, every second increasing the pressure on the hull and everyone and everything kept within. One crack, one small imperfection in the metal and the whole thing collapses inwards

It was absolutely exhilarating.

And then, it was over. The life-crushing pressure evaporated and precious air flooded into my lungs. Gasping, I lay there letting the heart-racing adrenaline fade.

"I can't believe you think that's fun." Max groaned from across the room.

I laughed, giddy at having cheating death once more.

---

~ -0 years, 00 months, 0 weeks, 00 days, 03 hours, 05 minutes ~

"Alright crew, you know the drill," Captain Aeron strolled back and forth before us. Her undyed salt-and-pepper hair was in its usual tight bun. Lines creased her face but her eyes displayed youth and energy. Her silver cords and nameplate flashed in the light as she paced. "The Phoenix is ready to leave the solar system. Each and every passenger has been escorted to and placed in their stasis pods.

"Going at relativistic speeds, the Terran system is only two years away, though fifteen years will pass for everyone else." Max perked up beside me at the mention of her home system. She was looking spiffy in her creased chef's outfit. "Most of you will be placed into stasis and sleep those years away, but many of you will stay awake and make sure the Phoenix stays healthy and on course.

"I wish that I were joining you brave Wakers, but this cruise I will be staying under due to new company regulations."

Shock coursed though me. In every previous cruise, she had always been among the Wakers, ageing her considerably. Whispers of astonishment rippled through the assembled crew.

"Yes, I know." She chuckled sadly. "I was as surprised as you are now. I argued, but Nebula's wishes are final. Guess they want me around longer to pilot more ships. Mr. Steffan will be taking my place as Captain for the duration of the journey. That aside, you should all have been assigned Waker or Sleeper before the commencement of this cruise."

For the first time, they gave me the chance to be a Waker. I had been Sleeper on the previous cruises, a reserve technician for others to pull out in case of emergency, not yet trusted enough to stay awake those years in transit.

"Now go. Good luck and see you again in two years." Nodding in a final way, the captain spun on her heel and strode off the stage.

Max clasped my hand firmly. "Well, see you then." Her large eyes glistened.

"You know, we'll be the same age when we meet again."

"Damn. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone!"

"How can I when you're taking it all with you?"

She laughed, clear as a bell and tinged with sadness. "Alright then. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

She hesitated for a second at the door, foot hovering midstep and shoulders tensed, but didn't look back. Then, she was gone, off to sleep.

Breathing deeply, I turned to my door, wading through the sea of crew members saying their goodbyes. Some had tears that flowed freely as they embraced friends while others left with barely a nod, focused on their tasks at hand.

Head raised and shoulders rolled back, I stepped through.

---

~ +0 years, 00 months, 0 weeks, 6 days, 16 hours, 56 minutes ~

"Hey, mate, cheer up a bit!" Jenida elbowed me roughly. We had been assigned the duty of checks on the stasis pods' instruments and regulators for the first quarter of the journey. They had to be checked every day for the first two weeks -when things were most likely to go wrong- then once a week for the rest of the trip. "Ya girlfriend's still there. For her, it'll be like she just stepped in."

"She isn't my..." I shook my head, trailing off with a shrug. Emotions swirled inside me. Hope mixed with sorrow, joy with longing, and many more too contorted or strange to name.

"Well, she outta be. I've seen the way ya look at each other when ya think no one's looking; everyone has! Jus' be glad the Capt'n approves and hasn't separated ya!"

I glanced down at my watch, stomach in knots. Only another year, 11 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days left to go.

Yay.

I glumly wondered why I had chosen to subject myself to this eternity of wait.

"Seriously, mate, don't be so glum! We an' a hundred others have the ship all to ourselves! We can have individual staterooms if we so wish! I mean, we young'ns deserve a break after a near week nonstop of work!"

"Would Steffan approve?" I wrinkled my nose at the name. He was nothing like the Captain, always snooty and looked down on those who worked in the bowels of the ship, like us.

"Well, he got the Captain's lush quarters an' the largest stateroom, which he already claimed, so he can't tell us off."

"Okay, I guess."

"Come on; after our shift I'll help ya transfer ya stuff to one!"

---

~ +0 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 09 hours, 45 minutes ~

I ran tiring eyes over the hundreds of gauges, lit in oscillating red and blue lights from the deafening machinery above my head. They had check screens, of course, but a computer bug had sent everything in this sector back to the stone age, manually checking each individual gauge and comparing it to the regulation one on our tablets.

"Good thing those stuffy bastards insisted on these backups!" Jenida called from her row, yawning. "How's it go'n? Almost done?"

"Close; just a few more and I'm finished. Engine coolant: a bit low, but not far from proper levels; have to get that checked out. Engine speed: what?"

"Wha'?" She poked her head around the towering wall of machinery, long striped bangs -untrimmed and against regulations- floating lazily across her face. "Something off?"

I glanced from the screen to the gauge. "A bit." The words slowly left my lips, each one stretched in disbelief.

"How much of a bit?" She appeared at my shoulder, gasping and cursing. "Good Goddess above! Off the charts an' flashing red ain't a bit, mate! That's... that isn't possible. How didn't the act'n Cap'n notice, nor the other techs?"

The gauge- which indicated an engine speed capacity based on the output of the ions – was nominally at 75 percent max output and in a healthy fluctuating range of two percent either way. This, however, was nowhere close. The needle pushed the bottom edge of the angrily glowing gauge way below the red line, quivering in a way that didn't sit well in my stomach.

"We need to tell Steffan."

"Nah shit." The blood had drained from her face and the shaking lights cast strange shadows across her sweaty face.

"Come on." I pulled at her arm but she stood stock still, staring at the gauge. "Come on! We need to go, now!"

"Yeah." Her voice quivered slightly. I swallowed, nausea tightening my stomach. I had never seen her scared. Tired, yes. Angry, yes. A combination of the two, nearly every other day. But scared? Never.

That frightened me almost more than the gauge itself.

Once I got her moving, Jenida pulled me along behind her, heavy magnetic boots doing little to slow her panicked dash through the halls. Beads of sweat flew from our faces, forming perfect spheres in the null gravity.

"Move!" We bounced out of the way of another technician, latching onto the side wall. Zero gravity definitely had its perks for avoiding jams in the narrow corridors.

I slammed the heavy door separating engine rooms from the rest of the ship open after Jenida unlocked it using her key card. We spilled out into the heart of the ship's underbelly, a great open room branching off to just about every part of the ship.

Flicking a switch on my boots, I pushed off. I sailed through the room, entering a complex dance with a dozen others also soaring across the space. She followed a second later, having to bounce off a side wall to fix her trajectory after releasing her second boot too late.

"Hey, what's up, Alex?" A tall man in a blue jumpsuit called out to me, lugging multiple tool boxes behind him on a collision course for an open maintenance closet.

"Where's the Captain?" I shouted, pushing off a crate carried a technician absorbed with streams of data running across their tablet.

"Oy, watch it!" They shouted angrily over their shoulder at me, now slightly off their original course and headed quickly towards the floor.

"Sorry!"

"The Cap's right where she has been these months: her stasis pod. But Steffan? He's on the Bridge, prob giving the pilots hell. Not like we ever see them anymore, with him in charge." He caught onto the side of closet door, swinging himself in. "Good luck!"

The second he said it, I realized I'd been picturing explaining this to Captain Aeron, not Steffan. I groaned, heart sinking. If he didn't already know, telling him would be a complete nightmare.

---

~ +0 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 10 hours, 07 minutes ~

"Sir! This is urgent!" I slammed my fist against the unyielding metal door. A camera stared unflinchingly down at me, it's cold red light steady, mocking my efforts. "Captain Steffan, we need to tell you something!" The title left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I choked it out anyways.

A display screen flickered into life beside the door. The angry face of a man appeared, one I had only seen a handful of times before but had filled my stomach with acid every time.

He, like the Captain, had grey hair and lines but while hers made her seem wise and dignified, these only made him look angrier. It was something about his eyes, a cold fury that smoldered within.

However had he convinced the Nebula company or Captain Aeron to give him their trust?

"What the bleeding Hells are you banging on the bridge door for?" He sneered, face turning somehow even more monstrous.

"Cap-" Jenida coughed dryly, blanching at the utterly unworthy title. "Captain Steffan, there's a problem in the engine room."

"And why couldn't your superiors relay this to me? That is why they're there, are they not? To keep engine rabble like you from stinking up the bridge with the stench of sweat and oil and gods know what else?

I swallowed, nails digging into my palm. Any more of this and I'd be putting my fist through that disgusting smug, sneering face of his, locked door or not. "There was no time."

"But there was time for you to rush all the way up here?"

"Ya well know the coms are shot, along with the remote engine monitoring! I thought as 'Captain', ya were in charge of making sure those things got fixed! Or better yet, never happening in the first place!" She shoved her finger at the display.

I could almost see the steam rising from her ears. Fear shot through me as Steffan's face turned a deeper shade than Jenida's.

I rested my hand on her shoulder, glancing warily between their faces, filled with hot angry blood. "Hey, maybe lets tone this down a bit-"

"Are you questioning my judgement, engine rat?"

She puffed her chest out. This was not a good sign. Not a good sign at all. "Yes, yes I am. Ya don't deserve the title of Captain, either."

Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit.

"How about we just get back to the task at hand, why don't we? The engine's not running-" But the damage had already been done.

"How dare you. Oh, how dare you speak to me that way." The deadly calm in his voice made my heart beat even faster and sweat bead across my forehead. Hot, yelling anger like Jenida's I could handle, but something about the slow, icy way his fury was turning scared me to my core. "You mutinous rat."

He pressed something just out of view of the camera. "Security, come escort these two mutinous specks of engine filth to the brig."

"We need to go, now!" I dragged on Jenida's wrist. Something was seriously wrong and getting thrown in the brig wouldn't help anyone stop it.

For a few heart stopping seconds, she held her ground, staring back at him. "Fine." She gave in and we ran, her all the while staring back furiously at the entrance to the bridge. Her pulse hammered against my fingers

"You can run, but you can't escape, not on this ship! You'll pay for your words of treason and mutiny!"

We flew down the corridor, each step struggling against the heavy magnetic boots. The blood chilled in my veins. All down the hall lights above doors flashed red and blast shields slammed shut seconds before we passed them.

One by one, our escape was being cut off and funneled to a dead end.

"We need to go faster!" I urged Jenida on. She had slowed, immediate anger and adrenaline beginning to burn out.

"C- Can't," She panted. "Too slow. Ya... always faster. I- I'm sorry, anger... got the best of me. Again."

"He had it coming. Sooner or later, someone would burst."

She shook her head in despair, leaning on me. "Completely... forgot the engine. Should have been... more important... than my anger."

More doors slammed closed, the procession now moving faster than us. "Whats done is done. You're right. He doesn't deserve to be Captain. But we need to run."

"Yah... sorry." She ran a bit faster, limping. These boots were not meant for running.

Only a few meters ahead, the lights for last doors before the entrance to the crew atrium flashed, the scarlet burst filling me with dread.

"I won't... make it."

"Yes you will!" I hefted her higher on my shoulder, but she just slipped off. She collapsed to the floor.

"I'm sorry." Her hands touched my boots and weightlessness pulled my body upwards.

"What- what are you doing?"

She grabbed me, spinning me headfirst towards the door at the end, whose light just flashed. I struggled, fear surging. I knew what she was going to do.

"I'm sorry." With a shout, she threw me at the door. She fell back to the floor, all energy expended in that last effort to get me to safety. Doors opened behind her, guards in black armor surging outwards.

I flew through the opening and our eyes met for one last time.

The door slammed shut.

I continued to fly backwards. My back hit something soft and annoyed hands spun me away in another direction, but I barely noticed. I just kept replaying the scene over and over. Her throwing me, her scared yet defiant eyes, the blast shield falling closed.

Hands caught my jumpsuit, pulling me downwards as magnetic boots activated.

A man's voice spoke as if through layers of foam. My brain tried to catch the words, to make sense of the noise, but they merely slipped uselessly away.

Useless, like my struggle to stop Jenida from sacrificing herself.

Absolutely useless.

---

~ +0 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 7 days, 12 hours, 41 minutes ~

He shook his head sadly, sighing. "I can't believe it."

"I read the gauges myself; somethings wrong with the engine! We're going way too fast."

"The pilots would have fixed it. They control the ship's speed. There is absolutely no way something like this would be allowed to happen." Mirin glanced to me and Jack, crossing their arms in suspicion.

"That's what I'm saying: there were no pilots!" One little detail I had missed before in my anger: other than Steffan, I hadn't seen anyone else. No one was running around double checking instruments, there wasn't even any noise other than his obnoxious voice. Usually you can always hear background noise from the crew going about their duties.

I leapt to my feet, throwing off the blanket. A wave of nausea and dizziness swept over me. I put a hand against the side of a treadmill to keep from falling on my face as the world righted itself. "I can take you down to the engine room and show you!"

Jack shook his head. "You mumbled somethin' about that in your sleep, but when I went to check it out, it was swarming with guards. They turned me away, say'n I didn't have proper clearance for the area, which was true.

"They also mentioned mutineers had been sighted there an' when they said Jenida an' your name, I made sure to get you to safety. You're no mutineers."

"Then why don't you believe me?"

Mirin pursed their lips. "It's hard to believe, Alex, that's all. For one, why? If your conspiracy is true - I'm not saying it is- what would Captain Steffan be looking to accomplish? The faster the Phoenix goes, the more time dilates around us. There's also a higher risk of collision with debris and even other starships."

"I don't know." I let gravity pull my body back to the floor. My fingers ran absently through my hair, pulling at tangles. Why couldn't Max be here? She always knew what to do. My heart throbbed.

The door burst open, a boy my age running in, young face flushed and sweat streaked. His terrified eyes settled on me. "They're coming for her!"

Jack flew to his feet. "What? How did they find us?"

The boy's eyes traveled across us, landing on Mirin. His gaze darkened as Jack and I turned towards them.

"Mirin, is there something you're not telling us?" His voice, so low and deadly, sent a wave of shivers down my spine. I fervently hoped I would never be on the other side of his anger.

"Oh, so you trust her but not me?" They radiated confidence and defiance, but fear flickered in the depths of their large orange eyes. "I see how it is."

"Well, someone told 'em and we're the only three who know about Alex being here." The boy said while glancing back out the door, fists clenched and fidgeting from foot to foot. He was clearly scared, but didn't want to show just how scared he truly felt. "We really need to go before they get here."

"You haven't answered my question, Mirin."

"Of course there's stuff I haven't told y'all; we aren't married, are we?" They countered, also glancing towards the open door and long winding corridor beyond.

Jack took a step towards them. He was a foot taller in height and tower over her even more in his simmering, almost reluctant rage. He didn't want to believe their betrayal, but was almost certain of it none-the-less. The unspoken pleading in his eyes confirmed it.

"Did you or did you not sell out Alex's location to Steffan and the guards?"

Hands on their hips, they swelled, puffing their chest out and raising their chin to meet his brown eyes. "You know what? Yes, yes I did. The Captain has it on video that she and her friend directly accused him of neglecting his duties and being unfit for command. By the books, that is an act of mutiny. And if you know what's good for you, you will help turn her over and be spared of being accused of helping and abiding a known mutineer."

"We need to go, now!" The boy shouted, hefting a dumbbell from a nearby weights case as a makeshift weapon.

"Well, your 'Captain' is up to something and it isn't good. Never in my twenty years of serving under the real Captain of the Phoenix has anything like this happened."

A click echoed through the gym. "Well maybe it should."

Mirin held a sleek black laz-gun in their gloved hands, confidently pointing the barrel towards Jack's head. They slowly strode backwards, out of reach.

We stared at her, fearful and uncertain. My heart felt like it would burst from my chest, it hammered so hard. I swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.

Boots pounded on metal and anonymous black guards filed in, darkly glinting weapons raised and at the ready. One shoved the boy back from the door towards Jack and I. They formed a tight circle around us.

A familiar figure strode in, his buttons and unearned insignia glimmering in the low light. My stomach flipped itself inside out as he smugly surveyed the room.

"Well done, Mx Kell. I knew I could trust one such as you." Steffan said lazily, his repellent gaze landing on me.

"Thank you, Captain." Mirin gave a respectful head tilt, smirking over at me. "I know better than to harbor mutineers or their allies."

"Yes, very well done on leading us straight to them."

"I trusted you." Jack eyes blazed, the light brown turning almost molten. His chest heaved. "For twenty years we worked side by side and I never once doubted you!"

Their head fell slightly to the side as they considered him. Sorrow flashed across their face but was quickly hidden. "I had an offer I couldn't refuse. I was going to share it with you, eventually, but it seems you've made the wrong choice. Quite sad, really."

"Yes, quite." Steffan spun on his heel, gesturing towards the door with two fingers. "Come now, take them to the brig."

"And me?" Mirin asked.

"You'll come with me. I have something to show you, a reword for your loyalty."

---

~ +0 years, 6 months, 2 week, 2 days, 21 hours, 09 minutes ~

My feet hit the grate at the bottom of the door. The guard outside tightened his fist, but shook his head and ignored it. Again my feet slammed into it, each time bending it just a bit more. This time his breath hitched and anger flushed his face. A third time, I rammed the grate will all my strength.

"Be quiet!" He threw the tablet down on the table, surging to his feet. My defiant eyes met his raging ones. "Don't you effing dare." He started towards the cell.

I hit it again, keeping eye contact the entire while. I had been in here three weeks enduring horrible food, several self-righteous guards who basically worshiped Steffan, and the complete obliviousness to what was going on outside the brig. I was going to explode if I didn't get out of here soon..

"Are you deaf?" His fist slammed into the metal above my head, rattling the entire structure. "I said: BE QUIET! If you effing hit it again, I'll go in there an' break your effing legs!"

High on adrenaline, I stared up at his face, a blotchy purple shade of rage, and smiled innocently. "Do it." My feet kicked the metal a fifth time and he exploded.

Growling, he scanned his badge and threw the door open, letting it bang against the wall, sound reverberating through the dark room. "YOU DO AS I SAY YOU LITTLE PIECE OF AURGHHHH!"

Jenida exploded from her hiding place in the dark, tackling the guard and punching wildly. He fell back, head smashing against the wall. He slid to the ground, leaving a bloody smear and cursing wildly using words I'd never heard before.

I moved to leap onto him and join the assault, but she snatched his badge and threw it to me. A feral smile widened her face. "I'll take care of this one! Ya go free the others."

"Have fun." I dashed out of the cell, glancing down both ends of the dimly lit corridor for the others.

"Oh, I will."

"Ey, down here!" A familiar voice shouted to my left. "Nicely done, taking him out!" Jack smiled up at me from his cell, a black eye marring his stubbly face.

"What happened to you?" I unlocked the door and stretched a hand out to him. His cellmate, the young boy, eyed me suspiciously from the shadows of a back corner.

He took it and I pulled him up. The boy followed him out, taking as wide of a berth around me as possible. "Tried something similar, but obviously failed. How many more are here, do you think?"

"Not sure; can't be too many or you can't run a ship as large as the Phoenix."

"The guards could fulfill most duties, if given proper training." The boy folded his arms across his chest. "But most people would be too scared to disobey him, not after what happened with us."

"Really hope that isn't the case. If it isn't many, that means people will have seen what they've been doing and maybe we can figure out what's really going on."

"If they ain't too scared to tell us." Jenida rested her elbow on my shoulder, wiping off her bloody hands with a torn rag. Catching everyone staring worriedly at them, she rolled her eyes. "Don't ya worry, he ain't dead, jus' unconscious an' locked in. I'm not a murderer."

"Not yet." The boy muttered under his breath.

"What was that ya said?"

"Okay, let's focus here." Jack stepped between the two, hands out and ready to push them back if necessary. "We have one low level guard badge, an unknown number of prisoners here, an out of control spaceship, and an evil person in charge."

"And a hundred people who could betray us at any moment."

"That too. So, what's the plan?"

---

~ +0 years, 6 months, 2 week, 2 days, 22 hours, 45 minutes ~

"This wasn't a good plan!" The pipe fell hung from my hands. We stood in the crew stasis room, the floor littered with unconscious and in one case potentially dead guards. We didn't want to kill them- they were just doing their jobs- but we had no qualms about hurting them. They had forcefully taken over our ship.

"Don't ya worry, we can get ta all of 'em."

"Why did they put them all in here?" Other than a few scattered guards, the ship had been entirely silent, and now to my horror, I saw why.

Almost very single stasis pod had an occupant. In case of an emergence everyone had one, but seeing them all hanging there, deathly still and floating in the blue liquid, knotted my stomach and sent a chill up my spine. I had only seen such a scene in horror movies.

"What is he doing to them?"

"Saving them." Steffan's horrid, slimy voice boomed through the room. I clapped my hands over my ears to try to stop them from ringing and dim the noise. It didn't work. "Engine rats like you wouldn't understand, but I'm doing this for their own good."

"Saving them from what; your presence?"

He laughed, sound waves reverberating through my chest, making me want to throw up. "No, no, no. I'm saving them from the inevitable. If only you'd not lashed out so, you'd be among them. Sadly, now your friends will suffer the same fate from your pathetic insolence."

The floor vibrated, waves mixing with those from the volume and causing me to want to puke even more. My stomach could not take much more of this.

My vision went blurry as the nauseating vibrations increased, throwing light in wild patterns around the room. A stray ray flashed off a pod and right into my eyes. I fell to my knees, blinded.

"What ya do'n?" Jenida's shout reached my ears through the chaos, sounding impossibly far even though she was just a few feet away.

"Bringing the future, just a bit more quickly than before."

Something heavy and soft fell across me, driving my body against the cold metal of the floor and the air from my lungs. Blackness began to fill my mind, flooding out every sensation.

I struggled, fighting to stay awake but I felt myself losing. Pain spiked through my chest as something cracked as the pressure increased even more. My heart squeezed in my chest, fighting to keep beating.

A warm weight touched my shoulder and my eyes flickered open. A face swam before mine, ringed with liquid oblivion.

"Max?" I knew not if I had spoken the name or through it.

"Come to me." The blurry face said softly, sweetly. "Sleep."

I obeyed. My eyes fell shut and every sensation ceased to exist.

---

~ +2 years, 00 months, 0 weeks, 0 days, 00 hours, 01 minute ~

Pure oxygen flooded my lungs as the pod drained. Coughing, I struggled out of my harness, momentarily disoriented. Memories swirled in my mind as I braced myself against the glass, reconstructing themselves from scattered fragments.

Cleaning up from the last meal in the kitchen... saying goodbye to Alex... entering the pod. Ah yes, I was in the pod. Two years had passed.

The door swung outwards and I tumbled out, rolling to a stop against the base of another stasis pod. Others were doing the same, some exiting same as me while others stepped gracefully out.

Show offs.

Someone I had seen before but didn't know the name of stumbled over and helped me up. Panting, we stared around the room.

"Damn, I thought less people were Sleeper!" They said, running a hand through their short brown hair, a move that with a jolt reminded me of Alex. She had always done that when she was nervous or confused.

"Yeah," My eyes darted around, searching for someone I knew wouldn't be here. She would be back in our cabin with Jenida, two years older. My stomach twisted. I had wanted to tell her my feeling but hadn't yet worked up the courage.

What if she had fallen for someone else in those two years? What if she hated me for going Sleeper while she was a Waker?

Speakers crackled into life. "Welcome to the future," a man's voice said, chuckling slightly. Acting Captain Steffan's voice. "There have been a few changes since you were last awake, but I can fill you all in at a later time. For now, rest and recover. There will be a lot of things to do."

Before his short speech had even finished, I started speed walking towards the doors, winding through the immense sea of people and pods.

I had to find Alex.