Predicting the Storm

1: Awake

Fresh air and the sound of rain smattering against leaves had indulged my dreams. When you're asleep for centuries everything starts to feel like a badly structured movie that's hard to follow.

I was running across a vast field. The cloudy sky seems familiar and I could feel cold rain drops as they dampened my hair and ran down my face. A manly figure was ahead of me, eagerly shouting for me to catch up. I didn't bother to even wonder who it was.

As I returned to a weak state of consciousness I had almost forgotten the reason I was here. A vague aura of a dream remained along with a feeling of being someone nameless and faceless. Reality started to pull me back and some part of me feared forgetting the dream.

I could make out faces encircled by darkness above me yet their features remained blurry. With each attempt to take a breath it felt more and more as if I was drowning in an icy lake and I gasped for air.

"Doctor." An echo lingered from above. "Wake up..." 

I was awake, yet I waited for my head to stop throbbing before I would even attempt to speak again. My memory started to return and the lack of light in the room sparked numerous questions. 

"Why—" I started to say but got lost in thought.

"Why is it so awfully dark?" My voice was quieter than I expected it to be but the people above still seemed to have understood and helped me to sit up straight. I blinked rapidly to see their faces more clearly.

"There's so much I don't frankly know Dr. Essen... But it seems that we are stuck in orbit." An elderly woman said yet she was too hesitant to continue so another crew member took over the conversation.

"We know that we started drifting off course 427 years ago from an unknown cause and that the autopilot failed in detecting it for over 200 years. Eventually it activated and corrected the course but now we lack fuel.

We woke up just a few hours ago and after this awfully long journey we're stuck... We're so close to Proxima b... I'm sorry to inform you of this." His voice trembled as he looked down on the metal flooring.

I had occasionally thought of all the possibilities of the mission failing but it hadn't occurred to me it could— no, it had happened.

"I feel ... inadequate to be of any help." I pondered for a moment as I refused to accept reality. "I- I have no idea where to start..."

"We awoke you with concerns regarding Joseph Williams. Would you possibly have any clue where he could be? His pod was empty, and no one has reported opening it. If it opened by itself he must have been the first one to awake. But it's strange that he's not in the pod center." The man looked at the others as he spoke, probably hoping for someone else to add something of importance to the topic. But the rest remained silent. 

An image of Joseph's face appeared in my mind and I felt a sudden pain my heart. He's missing? I have to talk to him. There was so much left to be said. We used to quietly study together and I guess you would call us friends. When I revealed I was also joining the Proxima b mission he was repulsed. I should have said more.

"Doctor, your help would be appreciated in searching for Williams even if you don't have any further information. We will keep you informed of any progress here. Take things easy for a while." A bottle of water was handed to me and they supported my weight as I slowly stood up. My muscles remained stiff. I looked back at the group of people behind me and nodded. Their voices echoed and lingered in my head but there was no more conversation to be had for now. If I wanted answers I'd have to go find them myself.