Awaken

[steven]

The first thing the inspection team heard was a drone mechanical voice calling out to them. "Alright dudes, it's time to wake up and do your job. You have been asleep for exactly fifty years, nine months, twelve days, five hours, nineteen minutes and thirty seconds. As it stands your already two days late for this inspection, my fault, forgot to switch to daylight savings." At this point, only their hearing had returned to them. They were still blind and their entire bodies were completely numb. However after a loud hissing sound, the blackness the crew saw was replaced with a fuzzed vision of the metallic world around them. Then sharp pain all around their bodies as they began to feeling their fingers and toes jiggle about. Shortly after the fuzzed sight became clear and the pain stopped, however the crew seemed light headed.

 

The teams leader Ben Derek Rodríguez stumbled forward out of the cryogenic freezing unit that had been bed for the past 50 odd years and looked around. His team was still awaking up from their long sleep, clearly it was taking them longer to wake up. He examined the crew, recalling who they were. On the far right was Canadian environmental scientist who believed he had failed to save the Earth, the British pilot from a wealthy family, the American programmer whose personal report states he wants to be a musician, the combat engineer from the US Marines, a biological enhanced Brit who Ben had chosen because of his natural night vision, a French doctor and daughter of the ships captain, and finally the Russian female assassin, the one crew member Ben didn't want. This was a civilian unit and didn't need someone who's only use was to shoot. She was going to be trouble, Ben could feel it.

 

Ben headed to a small computer attached to the side of the wall which served as a communication with the sleeper ship's artificial intelligence known affectionately as Barry. Whilst the rest of the crew was still waking up from their long sleep, Ben pressed a button and talked to Barry. "I want a report on the state of Earth and the other Sleeper ships."

 

There was a short pause whilst Barry processed the question and retrieved the information necessary to answer. His drone, mechanical voice came through the ships intercom, "The retracting tectonic plates has ruptured several underground pockets of Gas 77 and is spewing into the atmosphere. Within ten years, the planet will be entirely inhabitable. However scientific probes that was left in orbit is concerned of the explosive... explosive... explosive... explosive potential of Gas 77. It fears that if the moving plates cause powerful tension in a super volcano then Earth could go boom. The other sleeper ships are reporting no problems and have all completed maintenance checks."

 

Happy to know everything was alright with the other ships, Ben turned the rest of the team. "When your ready I'll be waiting in the kitchen area next doors. Everyone should get some food in them, I mean we've gone 50 years without anything to eat. I fancy a sandwich. And try not to make any mess on your jumpsuits! We don't have the means to clean them up here in deep space."

[The Betrayer]

The leader of the opposition was giving a speech. The men watching him were cheering. And with a single shot, Cuba's chances for real democracy have been destroyed.

 

Erin woke up, sweaty and tired. One of the inspection team members was already up.

She heard him say something about food in the kitchen area.

 

Prioritize, she thought. She looked for her locker, put her finger on the biometric scanner and took her sniper rifle.

 

"There. Now I can eat."

Erin walked to the kitchen.

[Thanatos9t]

Yawning after his long sleep Tom Stevenson stepped out of his cryogeneic freezing unit rubbing his eyes which were extremely sensitive after his fifty year sleep.

 

Sometimes there were disadvantages to having genetically enhanced vision but the advantages of them were one of the reasons he was chosen for the maintenance crew.

 

He counted himself lucky that he was on the team as illegally genetically enhanced people normally were outcasts, shunned by the normal populus.

 

I wonder if they have any tea?

He thought as he went into the kitchen to see Erin and the leader of the team Ben already in there.

[The Betrayer]

Erin grasped her sniper rifle tightly when she heard someone walking in. It looked as if Tom flinched when he saw Erin's reaction time.

 

Erin pointed her sniper rifle at the strange man.

 

Ah, it is the man with strong eyesight.

 

Erin brought down her rifle and continued chewing on her food.

[Ataris]

Blurry-eyed, Aiden struggled to regain his vision. How long had he been in stasis? Something told him 50 years or so. But he couldn't be sure.

 

It was mighty cold in here. Most uncomfortably cold, in fact. Freezing. But wait, it was getting warmer. Now it was getting pretty warm....

 

Aiden finally took the obvious course of action and pulled himself out of the freezing chamber. Now was the moment he had been waiting for. He'd always wanted to do this.

 

"Computer."

 

There was no response.

 

"Computer, activate!"

 

"For your information, I am an artificial intelligence, and I am very much so activated, thank you. Now please shut up and get something to eat. And also, in the future address me as Barry. Thank you!" With the last condescending thank you, Barry stopped talking despite Aiden's attempts at conversation.

 

He figured that he had better head to the kitchen.

[Writer]

Alisa vaguely heard Barry's informational announcements, but he was already finished speaking by the time anything he'd said registered in her mind. She frowned at the air as she left her cryogenic unit.

 

"How in space do you lose two days by forgetting a time change of an hour?" she asked aloud.

 

"I might turn that question around on you," Barry replied. "How can you sleep for over fifty years and still feel like you went to bed yesterday? Then again, I am fully aware of the state in which the human body rests whilst in cryogenic stasis, so I rather expect I have a better answer to that question than you do. To your breakfast, Ms. Bell!"

 

Smiling, Alisa decided she rather liked Barry. With that in mind, she headed for the kitchen.

[Jedi_Man]

Sam stepped out of the silver machine, checking his extremities. Everything thats supposed to be there is. Good.

Sam walked into the kitchen, watching the business of everyone. His combat techniques had already kicked in, an effect of waking up in a new environment. Sam pulled out a few slices of bread and some peanut butter and Miracle whip, a sandwich favorite of his fathers, and his fathers, and so on.

" Can someone tell me if there's any Beast energy drink here?" Sam asked to the general crew.

[Ataris]

Walking into the kitchen area, he noticed a group was already present there. Not everyone, but quite a few. Of course the first thing that he noticed was the women, but he also checked for anyone that seemed friendly. This is turn made him self-conscious and he quickly brushed his hair over in the semi-emo way that he liked best. There was still some frost on his clothing, but most of it had either been evaporated or had melted already.

 

Now that Aiden had begun to notice himself, he realized that he was actually quite hungry. Amazingly hungry, in fact, and his blood sugar was very low. This was going to prompt him into a very slap-happy state if he didn't take care to eat something quickly.

 

Checking the large aisles of food-preserving cabinets, there were many generic brands and many licensed brands he noticed as he glanced over in their direction. However, he did not notice any Lucky Charms. None at all. There were certainly generic and healthier versions of Lucky Charms, but no actual Lucky Charms. This made Aiden quite unhappy.

 

"Hey, Barry, where are the Lucky Charms?"

 

"I'm afraid, Aiden Blackthorn, that they were never placed on any of the ships because of their offensive nature. It would be best not to speak of them ever again."

 

A milk-pouring robot nearby glared daggers at him.

 

It was going to be a long day.

 

Heading over to one of the women that caught his eye, whose name he believed to be Erin, not Aaron, he said, "Do you find Lucky Charms offensive? Because I sure don't. Geez, people these days. Or should I say 'Artificial Intelligences.'" He sighed. It was going to be a long trip. A very long trip.

[Alkonium]

"Fifty years?" James asked himself as he got out of his sleeping pod. "Yet not a day past 26." He commented, looking in a mirror. Hungry, he started to make his way to the kitchen, hoping there'd be some sort of food there. "So, how did we get stuck with the idiot AI with an attitude?" He asked Ben as he got there, hoping to strike up a conversation.

[Jedi_Man]

Sam busied himself with the food, Om-nom-nom. My God, this is great!

"Yo, Barry, do we have any coffe or energy drinks, I need something with caffeine." Sam asked the AI.

" I believe coffe is being made, check the machine to your left. " Barry answered.

[steven]

"That idiot AI can you hear. You should be careful when you talk about the being that looks after you while he sleeps," Ben jokingly warned before taking a bite out a peace of toast. "Barry isn't an idiot. I think he's just screwing with everyone. I mean he can't switch on and off like we can. He's needed to be operational to maintain the ship, robot and cryogenic status for fifty years and no doubt he's been bored out of his skull. He's just amusing himself at our expense. It'll get worse, trust me. Our next wake up call is in three hundred years."

 

Whilst everyone else was having their toast, energy drinks and coffee, the team's medic, Sabrine, choose the more healthy option. She choose good old fashioned fruit, grown on the home of humanity and frozen using similar technology that had kept her and her fellow team mates asleep for the past fifty years. She sat opposite the strange Russian woman with the interesting sniper rifle. "Expecting trouble?"

[The Betrayer]

Erin nodded at the woman staring at her.

"Trouble follows the foolish, and there are a lot of fools here."

Erin chewed on her food.

"This sniper rifle killed the Cuban President 5 or is it 55 years ago. I do not hope to use it now."

[Ataris]

Hesitating to say anything else after Erin said these words, Aiden backed off entirely. He looked around for anyone else worth talking to. Finding someone over by the coffee machine, whose name he believed to be Sam, although he wasn't entirely sure what he did on the ship, he walked over to the man.

 

"I'm not really into coffee, but I'll guess I try some anyways." He smiled. Aiden loved caffeine. It tended to do bad things to him, but he didn't care. That was why he liked it.

 

Reaching for one of the cups of coffee, the coffee machine spat something at him and glared at him. Then it mumbled, "Lucky Charms...," and Aiden took a cup of the liquid.

[Writer]

Alisa smiled faintly at Ben's explanation of Barry's behavior. "Plus," she said, "We're not scheduled to be awake long here, are we? So he's gotta get as much amusement out of us as he can before we go back to sleep." She shrugged. "At any rate, I like him. He's good for a laugh, and I don't much mind it happens to be at my expense."

 

She moved to find something to eat and came back to the table with a bagel and cream cheese, and a mug that was three-quarters coffee and one-quarter french vanilla creamer. Sighing contentedly, she said, "Pre-packed no-spoil foods. Gotta love 'em."

[Jedi_Man]

Sam poured himself the largest mug of coffee you'd probably ever see, If it actually stunts your growth, then I'd have been seven foot tall! Sam would always say. He chugged the coffee, appreciating the aroma of the grounds left at the bottom of the cup. He looked at Aiden. " Not bad, though it could be better, what do you think?" He asked as he took another bite of his Peanut butter and Miracle whip sandwich.

[Ataris]

"I think the machines here get a little touchy towards irrelevant things like Lucky Charms."

 

With that, Aiden sneered at the coffee machine. It sneered back. Aiden flinched and turned back to Sam.

 

"I'm thinking I'm up to a little programming after we eat. I'm going to make this ship love Lucky Charms."

 

With that, he chugged the entire cup of coffee and then got another and chugged that one too.

 

"What are you doing later?" he asked Sam.

[Thanatos9t]

Getting up Tom picked up his tea mug along with his plate containing the remnants of his cheese sandwich placing them on the tray.

 

Yuck that tea was terrible, next time I'll make some.

He thought as he placed the tray upon one of the kitchen robots arms.

 

Reaching into his coat pocket he pulled out a pair of tinted sun glasses and put them on.

 

"It's too bright for me in here..."

He said rather sheepishly, still not accustomed to the other people in the kitchen it also didn't help the fact that that crazy Russian woman decided to aim her sniper rifle at him when he entered.

 

He thought about getting Barry to turn down the lighting but that would probably annoy the other people.

 

To pass the time he decided to read the signs across the otherside of the room to everyone else he must of looked like he had zoned out as he staired at the far wall.

[Jedi_Man]

"Well, first I'll do some quick videogames." Sam responded to Aiden. " Then, I'll probably be working on the ship. What are you going to do?" Sam asked as he chugged another mug of coffee.

"Man that hit the spot!!" Sam said.

[Ataris]

Aiden smiled a bit at Sam.

 

"Well, I have some inspections to do. Along with some...routine programming." He grinned at the coffee machine.

 

"What video games do we have, anyway? Mind if I join you?"

[steven]

"Oh video games! Wow, how about when we're done with that we'll take our bikes and does some laps around the ships main reactor!" Ben mocked as he heard the crew members planning several leisure activities when their inspection was over. "I don't know what you lot were planning but we've got to make sure a spaceship the length of New York city and the width of Manhattan lasts for three hundred years. We're not going to get a chance to play Resident Evil with some cokes."

[Ataris]

"Whoah, that sounds fun," said Aiden to Sam. "Well, I guess I'd better get to programming. I have some important things to do. And some...not so important." He grinned again.

 

Taking a pack of Pop-Tarts he had just instantly toasted using the toaster, he walked down the length of corridors to his station, a room full of terminals and statistic displays.

[Writer]

Rolling her eyes at how Ben's comment was basically ignored, Alisa stood, grabbing her bagel and coffee. "I think I'm going to have to take this up to the bridge." She eyed the other members of the team. "Somehow I think I'll be in better company up there..."

 

"I may point out, Ms. Bell," said Barry, "that the only companionship you'll find on the bridge is my voice and the pilot robots."

 

Alisa grinned. "I'm well aware of that, Barry. Thank you."

 

With that, she departed, coffee and bagel in hand.

[Ataris]

Walking into the room, behind him Aiden noticed the ship's pilot, Alisa.

 

"Making sure we don't crash into any planets, I assume?" he asked.

 

At the same time he waved his hand over the "doorknob" and the door slid open.

[The Betrayer]

"Barry, what do I need to do?", Erin asked the AI.

[Jedi_Man]

Sam muttered to himself about the lack of fun he'd be experiencing. Oh well, I'll get on it when we reach the new planet.

Sam grabbed himmself a Beast energy drink and made his way to the engine, entering the codes and swiping cards through scanners and waving his hand like a Jedi. Finally, he made it to the engine room, watching a robot flit around the room.

"Okay, lets see what we got here." Sam said as he bagan a quick inspection.