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CONSCIOUSNESS rushed in the mind of Lieutenant Simon Riley like a crashing tidal wave, golden eyes fluttering open for the first time. Lungs drawing in breath, his teeth ground as his hands grasped for the flat surface he lied on, to touch anything and gain his bearing. He needed to stabilize himself as his body and mind tried to recalibrate to the reality it was now in.
The sensations of being filled every inch of him.
Disoriented, it felt as if he'd woken up from an incredibly deep sleep. So deep, he'd traveled to a different place and time before being ripped back to his body in an instant.
A light suddenly flashed in his eyes, seemingly more harsh than any had been before. As if his eyes were suddently capable of so much more. He winced in response, hand jerking up to shield his face.
Sensations along his skin tickled, making him shiver. Hell, he wasn't even sure it felt like a deep sleep anymore; more like a weird hangover that left him feeling like he'd traveled to another dimension.
"Papillary reflexes are good," an unfamiliar male voice said, sounding as if it were being said through the glass of an exo-mask. The flashlight was moved, the beam no longer stinging his vision.
Fuck, he wasn't wearing his mask. His face was bare for the world to see. Where was his damn mask? No one ever saw his face.
His vision slowly began to unblur, the ceiling of a medical bay room coming into view. Another light shined from there, bright like the flashlight that had just been blaring in his eyes. His lids formed into slits, a sneer forming on his features.
Rubbery snapping of latex-gloved fingers at the sides of head made him hiss in response, ears weirdly responding with movements he didnt quite register. He noticed his hearing was seemingly better than it had ever been before, considering his years around weapons and other jarring sounds.
Too much was going on.
"Auditory reflex is good as well. How you feeling, Simon?" A female voice asked and the hands receded from the side of his head.
Lurching to an upright position, he looked to the woman in medical attire standing at the side of the bed. She was garbed in layers of what looked like surgical scrubs and a gown with a white exo-mask, likely a doctor.
He then noticed how incredibly short she was. So short he thought he was still too disoriented to know what was going on or why she was so small.
"Why are you so damn short?"
The woman chuckled slightly in reply to his less than pleasant words before carrying on entering information on the holographic tablet in her hand.
"You're going to feel disorientated for a while, Lieutenant," the man at his other side said from where he stood at a computer typing away, drawing his attention.
