What Dreams May Come

Chapter 2: useless

Levi felt that Dylan's expression of disappointment was branded on his retinas and had scorched his somewhat befuddled brain. Latin hadn't been the most tactful thing to come out of said befuddled brain, but it had been said now and, as far as he could tell, had only served to further ostracize him from her.

Less Latin, he noted.

His father had hypothesized future generations would use cryogenics as a genetic bank of sorts, holding people until they needed them for specialized skills or for procreation. Given Dylan's reaction and his doubt that they needed historians, Levi was certain it was the latter.

"Don't worry about her," Taylor told him. "She'll come around. It's a lot of responsibility, turning eighteen."

Levi could barely stand on his own, let alone walk along the narrow corridor. He glanced about for windows, but so far he hadn't seen any. He could hardly believe the girl was younger than him. She had scowled so fiercely before she stomped off.

"What's the gravity like here?" he asked instead of discussing Dylan.

"More than what was on the Aeneid," Taylor replied. "I was in cryo; they woke me a year after getting here."

"Oh? So the program continued?"

The older woman looked at him blankly.

"I was the first," he managed, feeling a little shy. How little he knew!

Taylor stopped in the hallway, looking him over as if seeing him for the first time.

"You're Captain Hark's son?" she asked. "I mean, I know you said your surname was Hark, but I just assumed..." She stopped suddenly and turned to a small round pane that he assumed was a window. "Welcome to Alpha Kepler," she said. "I'm sorry we're having a earthstorm and you can't see anything, but you've travelled the farthest to be here. I didn't want to keep you waiting."

She was right, though the window was nothing but grey and brown whipping around. It seemed so formless it was hard for Levi to imagine any sort of ground or sky.

"Thank you," he said, peering out into the storm.

Levi had never seen a real storm, only ones on videos in the archives. They had looked like special effects; this looked like it would rip a man in two. He stumbled against the window, his legs not quite up to the task of holding him upright. Taylor caught him and gave him a smile.

"We'll get back to our berth and you can rest," she said. "Dylan...she..."

"It's okay," he assured Taylor, though he sounded thin and hollow to his own ears. "Where can I get information about the years I missed? Where's the library?"

"Still on the Aeneid, I imagine," Taylor said. "They haven't ported most of the data here yet; our power is still spotty and we're too likely to lose information. But any holo-rib will get you started," she added, seeing his disappointment.

"Holo-rib?" he repeated.

"Holographic ribbon," she explained. "On the ship we had...tablets, right? This is just a strip of tech with the screen as a hologram instead. It's much smaller."

"Cool," Levi yawned, though trying to immediately suppress the want of sleep. He had slept long enough.

The route was longer than he had hoped. By the time he and Taylor reached the door, he practically collapsed across the threshold. A man was in the room, and immediately picked Levi up and helped him to a chair. Dylan was nowhere to be seen, no surprise. The man was much older than Taylor, who was regarding him with a great bit of suspicion.