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“Never frighten a little man. He’ll kill you.” –– Robert A. Heinlein
Date: 01.27.2104
Calypso Colony Ship
Somehow, Daniel got back up. Fighting dizziness, nausea, and an overwhelming feeling of weakness, he had stumbled to the next pod and the next until the row was nearly complete. Behind him, he could hear sounds of pods opening, of people emerging from them.
Recovering from Cryo wasn’t an instantaneous thing. It held a revived sleeper in a grip of disorientation for minutes, even hours. Each person reacted differently, but it was not unlike waking from a very deep sleep. Behind Daniel, as he struggled with maintaining consciousness, men and women, even a handful of children, suddenly found themselves tumbling from restraints, arms and legs flailing, their sluggish brains bewildered by the cacophony of sound and light that surrounded them. Some fell in heaps on the floor, while others moved towards the blast doors like moths drawn to a flame. The doors glowed white hot as the rescuers continued to break their way through.
Daniel didn’t stop. He couldn’t. He made his way to the next pod and keyed in the sequence.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON LOWRY, NANCY
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 9:07 MINUTES
Nancy was young. It was hard to tell, but she didn’t look like she was more than five years old. He was almost to the end of the row. He moved onto the next unit and began to input the emergency override code.
Just one last row after this, Daniel reminded himself. Just twenty more pods to go. The little girl in the last pod had reminded him of how Toby had looked when he was asleep. Toby couldn’t be older than her by a year or two. Wait no, Toby was a teenager now. Luke’s specter stood near him, mouth moving soundlessly now. What was he saying? Daniel wanted to stop and ask his brother so many questions - Could Luke forgive him? Was Toby all right? Had Luke and Janine’s deaths been quick? As that last question hit Daniel’s brain, the hallucination that was his brother tilted his head and shook it sadly.
Daniel’s heart lurched painfully. He didn’t want to think of how it must have been for Luke, or for Janine, worse to know that Toby had probably seen them both die.
The Cryo pod beeped at him.
MANUAL OVERRIDE ATTEMPT NOT VALID
EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE NOT INITIATED
RE-ENTER PASSWORD
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 09:02 MINUTES
Daniel cursed and typed in the code again. This time, it worked. His fingers trembling and they felt thick and clumsy. He moved to the next machine.
A fresh wave of dizziness washed over him and his vision blackened around the edges. He held still and it cleared, his gaze focused on the man behind the glass, dark-haired, with a thick mustache. It was Saul Cramer. He headed the engineering staff.
Daniel’s mind flashed back to training at the Cape, Saul’s strong, broad hand eclipsing his, “Name is Saul. I’m an engineer, or so they tell me. Between you and me, I prefer the term grease monkey. If it can be fixed, I’m your man.”
When Environmental had the glitch months back, they had revived Saul long enough to ensure it wasn’t something mechanical before putting him under again.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON CRAMER, SAUL
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 08:55 MINUTES
Daniel moved on to the next pod, his vision blurring. He sucked in a breath. He had found her, finally.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON SYDAN, SAMANTHA
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 08:50 MINUTES
The frost began to clear and Sam’s lovely eyes were still closed. He wanted to stay, wait for her to wake up, but there were more pods and very little time. He knew this intellectually, but his body was uncooperative and alien. He felt trapped inside of a bag of blood and bone that seemed bound and determined to fail him.
Luke’s specter swam back into focus. His brother looked sad now, said something that Daniel could not hear and pointed to the next pod, beckoning for him to hurry. Daniel nodded to his brother, which was a big mistake. The drum in his forehead kept time with his heartbeat, which seemed unnaturally fast. The room spun and his foot slipped to the side, coordination failing him again. Daniel struggled to stay conscious, but he was losing the battle. He keyed in the manual override for the next pod, then the next in the row. There were still eight occupied pods left. He keyed in the sequence.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON STRIDER, ERIC
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 08:44 MINUTES
Daniel headed for the next pod and distantly wondered how the floor had managed to tilt up to meet him. Darkness claimed him.
On the cold metal floor, Daniel’s eyes slowly opened. The ceiling was groaning and clanking. It was one of many noises that did not make sense. Another was the vision of Sam, somehow leaning over him, clad in the standard fare for Cryo, a tank top, and boy shorts. Her hair and skin were still damp, and her hands felt ice cold on his skin.
“Daniel?” she asked, her voice still thick from the drugs.
In addition to her voice, there were scrabbling sounds coming from the ceiling, which now sounded like the biggest rat in history coming through the venting. Daniel could also hear several of the revived. They were coughing, calling out, several were crying. Cryo was complicated, coming out of it with no one to monitor you, or help explain things, was disorienting.
The wail of the alarms added to the cacophony, and if that were not enough, it appeared that the crew had begun to break through the door. Daniel could hear Captain Aaronson and the others calling to the newly revived crew sitting in heaps on the floor near their open Cryo Pods.
Daniel tried to stand, tried to simply sit up, but his limbs seemed disconnected from his brain. Nothing was moving, no matter how much he willed it. Consciousness can be such an elusive thing. The wailing alarms seemed to fade away in a roar of nothingness and he could see his field of vision closing down as if he were staring into a long black tunnel where only a little bit of light remained.
“Daniel!”
He was so tired now, even his tongue felt thick and heavy as he struggled to push out the words, “Got to...open...the pods, use the emergency revi...seq...sequen...”
He could feel Samantha shaking him, screaming his name, but the blackness claimed him then, and he knew nothing more.
