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[cutscene]
You have a dream. It's the last few weeks of your life before this long sleep. One day, a pretty mundane day by anyone's standards, a man in a suit approached you and delivered a sealed envelope. He refused to answer any questions that you asked, and the only thing you could get out of him was a curt "examine the contents of the envelope, sir, everything you need to know will be in it", then he turned and left, entering a black government sedan and drove off.
The envelope contained two items, a keycard and a strip of paper containing an address a date and time.
Intrigued by this, (it was either an elaborate prank of one of your friends or something important), you arrived to the location, a large, derelict factory. And you were not alone. Dozens of other people, seemingly from all walks of life, from soldiers, still in uniform to scientists and artists. One thing struck you though, everybody was young. Nobody looked over forty. You were all herded inside the factory where there was a small stage with a screen positioned in front of several rows of chairs. You were seated and asked to be quiet.
A middle aged man climbed on the stage and the screen flickered to life. He looked somber.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is not a prank or some stupid social study. No, this is a far more serious matter. As some of you know, humanity is slowly running out of natural resources. But what any of you don't have a clue about is the fact that in fifteen years, all of earth's fossil fuel reserves will completely run out, and because of the pollution, there will not be enough corn to produce biodiesel and feed the population which is increasing every day. To sum things up, humanity is nearing extinction. And there is nothing we can do on earth that will stop this."
He then fixed his spectacles on his face and smiled a little.
"When i say, on earth i mean it. You all are here for a reason: you have been chosen to be the future of mankind..."
His words slowly sank into a dull buzz as the shock of what he said sank in. Only half listening, you managed to understand that a joint multi-government effort that was done completely covertly in several countries around the globe, saw creation of eight massive starships. Construction took twenty years and several months, but ships were complete. Their purpose was to be launched towards eight nearest m-class planets, and to settle them. Ships were stocked with everything a burgeoning colony would need in it's first twenty years of development, from prefabricated shelters, vehicles and resources to, of course, colonists. Ten thousand of those to be specific. Ten thousand young men and women, hand-picked from every city, town and village on the planet. They were the last hope of humanity.
After some debate, you all agreed that to become members of the 'salvation expetidion force' as the eighty plus thousand people were dubbed. You were sent to pack your most important belongings and mementos, were permitted to say goodby to your loved ones and driven to a remote site in the desert. There, an elevator started lowering you into an enormous, man-made cavern. When the ship came into view, you were to awestruck to talk. It was enormous. It was so big, that from a distance of several miles, you couldn't take all of it in a single glance.
You were decontaminated, as were your things and then given cold-sleep jumpsuits. You were then given a complete physical and treatments were administered as needed. Everyone was given a nanite infusion, to protect the cellular walls from rupturing. Then you were carted of into the ship and placed inside cold-sleep pods. Last thing you saw before sleep took you was a technician looking at you through the glass pane in the lid of the pod. He was nodding. Then darkness. Then pain.
[end cutscene]
Let's see who wakes up first: I'll roll a d6
1-2 Aileen
3-4 Eli
5-6 Abraham
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Aileen, you slowly wake up, groggy and disoriented. Your head is pounding, just like a small gremlin is sitting atop your shoulder and whacks away at your head with a hammer. Your breath mists when it exits your mouth, and you can't see much through the glass pane on the lid of the pod.
You remember that the cold-sleep chamber #164 was brightly lit when you were entering the pod. You also assume that if you were waking up on schedule somebody would be waiting for you outside of the pod.
Aileen clenched her teeth... unsure if the cryonic agents had done a number on her metabolism, or if it had worked just as intended - and what she was feeling was an accepted side effect. After all, she was awake, and that made her... a hundred years old? Two? Three? She didn't remember.
Frantically she tried to fish some of her pre-flight training from her addled mind. So she began to take inventory of herself. Wiggle her toes... thee. Bend her knees slightly... there. Make a fist and release... there. Blink... there.
For the very life of her, she couldn't quite remember the technical details of the unit. Someone should be there, so much she recalled. So she tried knocking on the glass. "I'm awake!" she croaked, her voice failing.
Aileen battled herself free of the belts that had restrained her during flight, and set about exiting the pod. The world was shaking with every motion, and instead of some kind of dignified moment, she found herself stumbling. Gaining her footing was hard, and seemed to get harder by the moment. Getting her head back up straight send blood rushing away from it.
Everything was fading to black, and what some part of her brain recognized as a "floor" was rapidly approaching her face.
Aileen caught her stumble with her hands, and breathed several times. The somewhat stale, warm air invigorated her, even though it was a far cry from what she would have hoped for. Slowly, her head began to clear somewhat. Something was wrong. Very very wrong. Normally, there should be medical staff and engineering around, these were the first to be woken up. Also, a lot of other people emerging from cold-sleep. But she seemed to be, if not on her own, at least not expected.
She rose to a kneeling position, and dug her fingers into her temples. "Either there's some computer trouble and the almighty expert system picked me - or we're all in deep deep sh..." she tonelessly voiced. Started looking around herself, and tried to take a better inventory of her surroundings.
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You are in a room, circular in shape, with eleven more pods aside from the one you were in. In the center of the room is a pillar with three computer stations, and a lot of cables. The room is relatively large, being almost twenty five feet in diameter.
Lighting is extremely dim, with only two emergency lights glowing on the ceiling. You can also see that only one of the computers seems to be on, and you can see readouts on a huge plasma screen above the keyboard. There is no mouse as the screen is touch sensitive. You would have to come closer, but you seem to think that the screen shows readouts for four of the pods in the room.
I grew up with metric, and that is fine with me...but imperial is also good.
"Emergency lights" Aileen mumbled. That was never a good sign. It was probably a critical situation, so she needed to do things slowly. Better waste a little time doing things right than having to start over.
To that end, one foot was put before the other, carefully balancing before attempting the next. If the "Da Vinci" was worth even half the dollars and hopes, it had a good, concise, readable message on that terminal. Something she would understand even before getting all her neurons firing in sync again.
With a grunt, she leaned against the keyboard, and tried to make sense of the readouts. Why waking up outside of schedule?
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The keyboard supported her weight, giving her something to rest against. The screen was separated into four sections, each showing a seemingly same picture of a human body with vitals readouts on the sides. One showed a -NO SIGNAL- message. Two showed good strong vitals (from what little she knew of medicine), and the third showed all in red and -SUBJECT DECEASED- was displayed across that section.
Aileen, glad to get something to put her weight on (other than her shaky feet), leaned as much against the terminal. She looked at the display, and decided this was not her forte. Medical technology... nope.
She looked for something to switch to a more general network access. Before she woke the others up, she wanted to be sure they were not still decades away from their destination. So before triggering some automatic wakeup procedure, she wanted to be sure they actually were there.
So, she, in order, tried to access the ships navigational component - ETA, distance, general status. Next were the hibernation controls. How many horrible "subject deceased" status reports were there? How many others were awake? How many still in hibernation?
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Aileen, what you remember from the briefing you all received before being frozen is that it would take six hundred years for the starship to reach Alpha Centauri (yep, you won the nearest habitable planet, just 4.7 light years away). And from the date on the screen, you can deduce that you woke up a year too early.
Unfortunately, these computers do not have any permissions for network access, they are meant to provide readouts for hibernation pods and that's pretty much it.
After typing in a search query for subject deceased, a new window popped open and names started rolling upwards, fast. Final count was 2567 people dead. 2123 pods malfunctioning or opened. 5433 still showed strong vitals and displayed no warnings. Captain, officers and the flight crew all deceased.
Maintenance reports can't be brought up on this computer unfortunately. You'll have to find one connected to more systems. It seems that aside from yours, two pods still functioned in this room, and they were going through finishing motions for emergency revival.
Eli, you open your eyes to pain and throbbing temples. Air is cold around you, your fingers are numb and you can see glow from the monitor through the window on the pod lid.
Eli sits still, trying to remember what the procedure for awaking is. His sleep-fogged mind slowly reminds him to wait until the techs come and open the pod. Then they will run him through a series of tests to ensure he was not 'freezer-burned', as some called it. Through gummy eyes he can see someone at the control table...so he sits quietly and waits...
Aileen tried some more obscure paths around a computer, but soon gave up. Whoever had made these systems probably had build them from the ground up, and taken a healthy dose of skepticism as to what the users were capable off.
As one of the pods around her began to "go critical" in the wakeup process, she shuffled towards it. Dragging her feet, taking every handhold to stabilize her leaning gait.
"There's a series of buckles you need to undo. Welcome back to life, by the way." she croaked, her voice still miles away from its normally full and cheerful self - but even though she loathed every moment of it, the movement did her good. Brought her closer to "operating temperature" physically and metaphorically both.
Eli looks at the 'technician' and immediately wonders what went wrong. It takes a few tries, but he finally is able to speak.
"Elijah...Boone...security....team....what's happened?
As he speaks, he slowly begins to move, feeling like he is moving through a pool full of pudding.
"Hell if I know. The way I see it, we're in deep deep deep trouble" Aileen replied, with a sigh. "Ship's still a year away, but its waking up people. Those still alive. We lost 25% in hibernation. 50% still out. 25... up or missing. Can't tell from this console."
Having another person to bounce her ideas against made them flow all the better. "We've got two main problems. First, whatever is causing this. Second... supplies. Even if we reach the target, going a year only on preserved supplies will be tough... that year should have been planetside, until our first harvest."
"Ugh." He croaked out, more for his own benefit than of any hope someone else would hear him. It felt like a cold morning on patrol in Germany, not something he had ever particularly relished, especially not with after a hard night of drinking. Heck I didn't even get to enjoy the drink this time. He thought to himself as he started to shrug it off, ah well time to get somewhere.
Bringing his hand up he rapped his knuckles on the pod lid as much as he could.
Slowly he moved his limbs flexing carefully while going about undoing his harness as It wouldn't do to fall down out of the pod and make a scene. While his hands worked on the harness releases he looked about the chamber in front of him keen on finding out what was going on.
Eli moves over to the newly opened pod and helps the man within. The two of them hobble back over to where the woman is located, using the terminal to lean on until strength flows back into long disused muscles.
Aileen had finally given up trying to milk this terminal for further information. "Do you feel up for walking a bit? This terminal is pretty restricted. we need to find out where we're standing on air, water, food and shelter. Its still a long way to our new homes."
"Hold on a minute if you would," Basil replied before standing up straight. Smoothing his uniform back into place he continues, "I just got up, what is going on as of now?"
"I got up about 3 minutes before you", Aileen retorted, her headache rising like a crescendo. "What's going on? Hell if I know. Most of the officers and flight crew seem to be dead on arrival if these stats are right. We're up a full f... year ahead of schedule. That is, those of us that are actually waking up. About one out of four is DOA."
She clawed her hands back against the console, tried getting back on her feet. "So, mister... whatever. We're in a pretty tough space, that's what's going on. I'd rather know if we still have a chance to make it to our new home."
"Lieutenant Basil European Defense Forces, British Division Ma'am." Basil replied scratching his head, "Hm... we'll that's not a happy place to start..."
Basil stretched his arm across his chest pulling it with the other to stretch it more, his hand didn't move nearly as easily as he had wanted when he had rubbed his head.
"Lets look this place over then figure out where we are and what's happening." He nodded to the man that had given him a hand out of his pod, "May I have the pleasure of your names?"
Without waiting Basil started moving about, slow steps to hid the fact he wasn't as steady as he wanted to be yet, looking to see what else was in the room keeping an ear cocked towards them waiting for their answers.
Eli takes a step back and come to attention.
Sir! Master Gunnery Sergeant Elijah Boone, Marine Corp, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Platoon, assigned to station security, sir!"
With some dry amusement Aileen observed the soldiers go through the protocol despite their shaky footing. It seemed drill really did a number on you. "I'm Aileen. If you call me Lini, you better be my mom, dad or lover, though."
"Master Gunnery huh..." Basil stops and thinks for a second, motioning for Eli to relax, "US then, and probably been in longer than me to boot. Lets not worry about the formalities yet Sergeant, not like it's going to help us any right now."
Turning to Aileen, "Right, Pleased to meet you Aileen, any thought on which direction to go? Is there something specific we should look for to help figure out what's going on?"
"Sergeant you haven't seen any weapons around have you?" Eli asked him while waiting on Aileen's reply, "I don't remember where they had us stow our gear before we took the nap."
Eli relaxes and takes a quick look around.
"Gunny is fine sir. It is roughly equal to a RSM in the Royal Marines, and I do not know where our gear was stowed. I was issued this sleep gear, same as the rest of you, and that was all. Is there some sort of map on that thing we can look at? Something that says, 'You Are Here"?
He looks over to Dr. Donnelly. "Good morning to you doctor. I take it you are not a medical doctor? Do you know how this thing works?" He gestures to the computer terminal.
"Not remotely a medical doctor, no. Got my PhD for my work the eurozone weather forecast and modification system." Aileen replied, seizing up the two miltary men. She never liked military, rent-a-cops, or "real" cops, for that matter. "I know how this thing works, and whoever designed this system did her homework. We have a medical monitoring station here. It's pretty easy to access. It gives nice reports on our four pods, has some access to the medical database - but nothing privileged, and no access beyond some very simple info services to the main network."
"We'll need a full-fledged control terminal, and the credentials to match. Then we'll have some overview of how things are looking. Life support, supply levels of air, food, water. Navigation controls. Why the holy hell we have so many casualties. Maybe on the way we'll see a some other 'wakers'."
Eli takes a quick look around the room they are in, looking for anything that might help them as they try to discover what has happened. How many exits are there out of this room? Who was the 4th person who did not make it?
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Suddenly, you all hear a thump inside one of the other pods, and it's lid lurches a little.
Eli, the room is oval, there are twelve cryo pods, equidistant from one another. In the center of the room there is a big pillar of wires with three computer stations attached to it. There is a door between two of the pods, it is closed at the moment.
Eli moves over to the pod, ready to assist another member of their group out into the room.
Claude keep a step back watching the pod that Eli was beside.
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The pod suddenly lurches open enough to deposit it's contents into Eli's waiting hands. Unfortunately, it seems that the occupant of the pod has been dead for quite some time. His shriveled and naturally mummified form breaks in half, but remains together thanks to the jumpsuit. You can see 'rogers' on the nametag.
Aileen did her best not to scream out aloud at the sight - she knew the occupant to be dead, but this was more visceral than she was comfortable with.
Aileen stayed clear from the corpse - mummy - whatever it was. "Well, this is... disquieting. This man has been dead for the better part of a century. Everything is dry, and we have little in the way of scavengers. Or bacterial decomposers, come to think of it." She regained her footing somewhat. Talking and acting helped immensely to shake of her long hibernation.
"Probably no way short of carbon dating him to know when he died. Well, that or get access to the computer logs."
Eli carefully returns the corpse to the hibernation tube and reseals the door. He then continues his examination of the room.
well looks like I will go and open the door...look out and see what we can see
"Well, the very manual way, then." Aileen mumbled to herself, as she moved across the room with some confidence. "Now, would the two warriors help the maiden move that hunk of metal?"
She grasped at the door, tried to find a good handhold. Hopefully the ship had a safe failure mode for this - and unlocked the door before losing power. Right now, that would mean the rest of their lives would not be short, unpleasant and claustrophobic
"Give me a minute," claude pauses starting his internal computer, specifically the mapping software, "There we go."
He looks the door over but shrugs, "Warrior yes, power machinery no. Couldn't we simply cut a wire some place? Seems like that's what we always did back in the unit."