Cryoworld

Chapter One: Final Approach

Jericho stood up from his bed and shuffled to his dorm's bathroom. Something on his face had been bothering him, but he had been too lazy to figure out what it was and why it wouldn't come off. As he looked at himself in the mirror, he saw it was just some dust he had smeared in his vein attempts to get it rid of it.

Jericho's hair was almost jet black contrasting his steel grey eyes and pale skin. Observing the holes in his shirt he thought about how he never really liked how he dressed, but as an engineer his clothes rarely stayed clean. So after years of buying things he liked, he gave up and started buying the cheapest shirts and pants possible. For whatever reason, most thrift stores had a lot of high-vis articles of clothing. Essentially all of the thrift stores he knew of looked like a construction site surplus. It was great for work, as reflective gear was required, but it often looked tacky.

Jericho, having finished washing his face, returned to his bed, the rhythmic hum of the Odyssey's engines a constant companion in his cramped dorm.

After three and a half weeks of staring at the dull metal ceiling, Jericho was starting to get a bit stir-crazy. It had gotten to the point where he could easily spot the specific scratches in the metal. Sometimes, he'd try to see if they looked like a country or a shape but they just seemed out of place.

Jericho imagined they were scratched during the construction of the Odyssey. He pictured an inexperienced fabricator attempting to polish the last of the panels in his room and accidentally applying too much pressure on the grinder, leaving the noticeable scratches. Then in his imagination instead of re-polishing them, he imagined the worker deciding he hadn't been paid enough to care and simply moved on to the next room.

There were a lot of little imperfections on the Odyssey like that. His bathroom shower base didn't collect the water to the drain as well as it could, and the sink seemed unleveled. His bed was a two-in-one box spring mattress that sat on the frame connecting to the wall. It might have been one of the cheapest mattresses Jericho had ever seen.  On top of that, the blanket was so thin it might as well have been a bed sheet.  Despite the Odyssey being carefully designed to reach the edge of the solar system and make the return trip, which was an impressive feat given the distance, fuel, and speed needed to do so; Everything else just wasn't the priority, and it showed. The Celestial Exploration Research Institute or CERI always talked about opportunity, duty, and taking care of tomorrow for everyone in the solar system. Yet, despite all the money, influence, and power they had, the Odyssey was essentially a giant, cheap chunk of metal that did little more than get the job done.

Despite this, during the first few days of the trip, all the travelers on the Odyssey explored every inch of the ship that wasn't off-limits. They tried all the restaurants on board and took thousands of pictures to send home or post on the internet while still in range of Earth's satellites. The Odyssey could carry 2,000 passengers, and only about 200 of them were staff. Almost everyone was excited and more than able to ignore the flaws the ship had. Something about leaving Earth just inspired wonder and imagination.

People were waking up early and flooding the living areas, talking about their futures, making plans, meeting coworkers, and, annoyingly, a significant number of people started dating despite having just met each other. Jericho had always been accused of fault-finding, but even he started to enjoy himself. There was a theater on board that, for some reason, only played movies that had come out at least 10 years ago, likely due to copyright issues. Everyone loved it and watched movies from their childhoods and even threw little parties. Jericho was pretty sure the real reason people loved the movies was that the popcorn was free.

Then, after the first week of traveling at 9,000 kilometers an hour, the Odyssey finally left Earth's Hill Sphere, the area in which Earth's gravitational pull was stronger than other nearby celestial bodies. Once this happened, everyone was asked to temporarily return to their quarters so the ship could reach cruise speed and increase the artificial gravity being used on the ship. A pack of sick bags was provided for each dorm.