Alien: The Dark

Chapter 1 - Salvage

Mason

"Sleep well?"

I finally opened my eyes after a long hyper-sleep. Janice stood next to my chamber as the hatch slowly opened.

"Mason, you awake?" she asked again.

"Yeah, yeah," I spoke, feeling nauseous, "Are we there?"

I slowly crept out of my bed, tired and dizzy.

"Yes, the passenger freighter is orbiting Delta Pavonis as we speak, just as our good old friend, Kyle, promised," she smiled

I smiled back in acknowledgement and motioned for the bucket to her left, she grabbed it and handed it to me. It felt like I vomited up my stomach as the puke slowly filled up the container. After I felt good enough, I stood and started to slowly make my journey to the locker room down the hall, still with the bucket in hand.

I asked, my words slurred slightly, "Is everyone else awake?"

"Yes, I think almost everyone is at the bridge," she replied.

"Almost everyone?"

"Yeah, um... I think our new synthetic, Alice, is at the infirmary." she sounded, distressed, almost.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Well, she has been there before any of us woke up from hyper-sleep, and it's just... creepy, really."

I chuckled and said, "I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you, androids may look human, but they don't exactly try to be human."

"I guess I'm just being a bit paranoid then," she smiled "You get yourself washed up, I'll be on the bridge."

"See you then."

She then continued to walk down the hallway, while I entered the locker room.

The first thing I did was wash out the vomit in my bucket with some soap and water near the sink, then I jumped in the shower. The feeling of warm water rushing down my face was refreshing and relaxing. About five minutes later, I got out of the shower and put on my sage-colored jump-suit and brown boots. By now, the fatigue from hyper-sleep had already wore off, surprisingly, and I was ready to go to the bridge, and see if salvaging that old freighter is worth the trouble. I exited the locker room and started to make my way down the hall.

Once I arrived at the bridge, Janice and Mark were already at each others throats, as usual.

"I don't need your dumbass remarks, Mark, that freighter could have a lot of value," Janice sighed.

"Did you just say 'that freighter could have a lot of value'?" Mark was baffled, "Take a gander at that piece of shit! We'd be lucky to get anything from it!"

"I don't give a fu-" Janice started.

"Enough!" Peter yelled, the pilot of our ship, "I'm fucking tired of you two bitching at each other over something we haven't even gotten the chance to investigate yet. So if you two really  want to be the first to find out if that freighter is worth something, get your asses down to the airlock, and get ready for an E.V.A."

Janice smiled and said, "I'd be happy to investigate the vessel," then started to head out the door.

"I'm going too," Mark exclaimed. "Just to get a good idea of how worthless this whole thing is."

"I mine as well go with them," I offered, "Keep them from killing each other."

Peter chuckled, "That would be best, I suppose."