The First few bits of a Sci-Fi story I’ve been working on:
Blueman : Chapter 1 : awakening
Marro lifted his eye lids. Before him was a dim gray light. He didn’t know where he was all was gray light before him. His eyes didn’t move yet. Just the lids seemed to respond to him. He didn’t know why he opened them so he closed them. The glow from the light was diminished but there was little to tell the difference between his eyes open or closed. His head was covered in layer upon layer of fog. Thoughts formed slowly in his mind. He opened his lips again and tried to look around and found his eyes could move now. He took advantage of this returning motor control and looked to his left and right and top and bottom. He could just catch the lip of something on either side but the rest was the gray light that dominated all that was before him.
He focused his limited mental faculties on the lip to his right. It was a bluish and metallic. He knew what it was but couldn’t form the word yet. He was someplace where he wasn’t suppose to be. The word came. He was in his Dormancy Capsule. He wasn’t’ suppose to wake inside the capsule. He knew he wasn’t and struggled to recall where he was suppose to awaken. He could see the place he was suppose to be and slowly worked his mind around the words. Recovery. He was suppose to be in recovery surrounded by others who had been awakened. He wasn’t though and that meant something was wrong. He struggled to figure out what was wrong but surrendered to the fog layers within his mind. They were slowly lifting and it would do him little good to grope around in the mist for an answer he was likely to find. He waited and let his mind wonder as he looked around him trying to make at more of his surroundings.
He couldn’t feel his body. It was numb to him. This was not entirely unexpected. Had he been properly revived he would have passed through the paralysis while still in a deep dormant state. As he wondered at the lack of a body he felt a warm rising from his spine. He was aware of his spine and the warm spread through him. He knew what it was but once more found the word for it lacking. As the warm moved out from his back and penetrated into his core he could hear his heart. It was increasing its rhythm quickly. To quickly he suspected. He hadn’t been aware of it till then and the increase in frequency between beats was unsettling. Drug. He recalled the word. He was being injected with a rapid recovery solution from his capsule. The reason for that caused him to return to his concern over what may have gone wrong.
As the warmth of the solution made its way into his limbs he found he could command his fingers and toes but he could not feel them. The reason for his surprise at the warm returning to his body arrived in his mind as another layer of fog lifted. His mind was working more normally now and he realized that he was cold. He should not be cold. Dormancy Capsules were never cold. The cold was likely related to the problem that had caused his sudden reanimation.
An emergency reanimation was very rare. So rare he had not ever heard of one occurring. He was in the process of one now. He’d been informed of the process but it wasn’t’ something he expected to experience first hand. Whatever had gone wrong was likely very serious. Marro wasn’t an officer. It made no sense to awaken him in a crisis. Marro was a second grade survival specialist by rank not an engineer or command grade crewman. His job was to scout and record and assess terrain and natural features and wildlife. He’d expected to be one of the first awaken to be sent to the new world they’d fled to but never to be called upon in an emergency. Despite his grade and designation he was, as they all were, knowledgeable about nearly all but the most complicated systems. Any member of the flight was expected to be able to fill in for others. If he was being revived to fill in for another then whatever had gone wrong had impacted a significant number of the crew.
His hearing returned as the last fog lifted from his mind. He could move his head now and he took in the display on his left. His capsule was running on local power and was nearly depleted. This was the reason for which he’d been awakened. From this he knew he was no longer linked to the vessel’s main or emergency back up power. There was also the matter of the dim light that covered his capsule’s canopy. He should be able to see the rows of other crew capsules but instead there was only the thin light. From this he deduced that he was likely no longer aboard the vessel. His gravitational orientation confirmed this. He was being pulled down at his back rather then at an angle.
… To Be Continued …
