Keep me in distant sight

Chapter 8 : Just me and the empty sky

All around, silence.

Heavy, somber, the kind that sticks to your skin and crawls all over your body, suffocating you by its presence alone.

Everything is asleep. Vital functions are still being carried on, by the virtue of the automatic pilot; screens show nothing.

The sleeping pod beeps suddenly, ripping the solemn silence reigning over the spaceship.

Not unlike the ancient theaters, what was veiled behind darkness lights up slowly. One by one, control panel boards wake up, casting their eerie blue-ish glow all around the gleaming space. What was in the dark of space one second ago emerges from its slumber as a screen pop, showing rows and rows of endless codes, appearing in one second and the next, being replaced by different numbers altogether.

The pod, safely tucked into one corner, begins to move. It moves from its sealed place, close to the ground, to a higher place and one by one, its seals open. The screen on the boards, nestled comfortably between the different scanners (one for each side), proudly reads "Phase 1" with a little timer reading "5 minutes".

Inside his little cocoon of steel, cushioned by false leather filled with fabric scraps, Akaashi twitches in his sleep. It's infinitesimal, barely a tiny spasm of his eyelids. But it's more than he has ever made, inside his pod. Little by little, nerves begin to wake up and send signals throughout his body; after his eyelids, his dry lips move as he hums slightly while the tip of his fingers jolt. His consciousness is still bedded deep in darkness, a blissful oblivion offered gracefully by artificial sleep.

On the little screen outside the pod appears a stylized human body, alongside several pieces of information: body temperature, blood pressure, bpm, oxygen levels and the likes. They slowly rise up in numbers as the screen checks several body parts in green, indicating they're still functioning perfectly by sending small electrical shocks through them. When the body temperature reaches a little 35°C, the screen blinks green and the "Phase 2" begins.

It's not unlike cryogenisation, in the end - the sleeping pod doesn't freeze the person inside, but it lowers their body temperature until their vital functions are greatly reduced. It monitors closely every little thing, like sugar levels or simply the brain activity and is designed to keep the pilot alive but completely unconscious and unresponsive. Since it's an artificial unconsciousness provoked by a carefully controlled hypothermia, pilots don't dream. They feel nothing, hear nothing, think of nothing. The first pilot to ever test it had described the experience as floating in a thick sea of cotton near the limits between life and death. An empty bliss, to put it simply. To wake up someone inside the pod is a complicated process but in the end, it's only a matter of slowly warming up the pod to restart everything. Inside the pod, heaters become alive, allowing some colors to return to Akaashi. His blood pumps in his veins, quicker than before, his heart beats stronger, his brain begins to retake control over his body.

When his body reaches its natural temperature of 37°C, Akaashi groans, something low and rough that cracks towards the end. As his eyes flutter open, the pod opens completely, allowing the hot air to escape into the confined space of the spaceship. The screen reads "Awakening : complete."

The first thing Akaashi does when he wakes up is to curse and immediately close his eyes again.

"Shit, too bright." He grumbles almost inaudibly, his unused vocal cords struggling to produce a sound.

For a brief moment, he thinks he's back inside his flat and he is ready to curse at Akinori for forgetting to close the blinds, again. For a few beatific seconds, he's back on Earth, he's waking up with his hangover and his friends are sleeping beside him. And then, when he tries to turn around to bury his face inside his pillow, the smell of linen is replaced by the questionable scent of sanitized leather mixed with sweat and body odors. It's also too tight to turn around and his friends aren't this stiff and sturdy.