Awakening

Wake

Eelaya gasped. Mouth and eyes wide opened, clasping the railings of her metallic bed--the coldness of it serving a root for her soul.

She was alive.

She breathed rapidly, as though she didn't have air to breathe in the last minute--when in fact she was safely sleeping in her bed. The events prior to her wake struck her like a storm and filled her head with pictures of the dying planet. It was powerful. It was more powerful than the last times she was stuck in the same ship, hovering above this giant ball of colors. Eelaya didn't remember any dream as immense as this one. Especially the voice at the end of it.

Am I going crazy? She wondered.

Eelaya shook her head and grabbed her own face with both hands ruffling her brown hair, trying to cleanse the thought out of her. She was not going to the Ding-Wing. She was not becoming a J-Cat like some of her formal teammates. She was a team-leader and she was close to repay her debt and get out of this forsaken prison.

Just a dream.

She glanced at the wall-clock. The same clock which painted the entire room at this hour with the majestic dim blue tint.

'04:45'.

Her room was a cramped metallic cubical which provided her with all the basic needs including showers, toilet and sleep. It was nothing more than her cell. Her prison. In Miner's-Dome they are all prisoners here--no matter the title or job. Of course, the real prisoners--the miners--had a debt stamps on them, making them more real prisoners, but it was arguable who got it worse. The miners at the very least knew they are slaves, while the other workers thought they were just that--workers.

"Well. Who needs an alarm anyway." She said trying to distract herself from her prior experience.

It was time to prepared for the morning jog, and if there was something which could help her to cope with everything, it was her routine. The recession week was about to end tonight, and she was not about to waste a morning of activity just because of a bad nightmare.

"I am not going crazy." She said to herself. This time, making it audible--out in the world.

She changed her clothes, watching her slim figure as she did and trying to breathe slower.

Just five more years, she thought. five more years in this red cursed planet and I am done.

Her debt stamp was getting thinner, almost gone from the initial situation. She never rebelled, always kept her word to the corporation, always did her duty, and collected all the bonuses from her mining team. Five more years of this behavior with no incidents might as well grant her a full release of the debt and she would then be free to leave whenever she wished, becoming one of these workers there are here.

She stretched right and left and strolled out the door. Maybe it was partial freedom. Or was it all part of a charade. It was the illusion of free motion--trying to make the inmates keep in line and never stray since they had the liberty to move around. Be it as it may, this was her favorite time of the day--the time when she felt alone in the streets of Miner's-Dome, sub-level one.

Living on Mars and suffering a full week of work outside the Gravimetric-pull of the Dome--which imitated Origin's gravity--was extremely taxing. The physicians always gave one of two choices--either you keep in shape and workout during your stays at the Dome, or you start taking pills to slow the degradation of your body. Obviously, Eelaya preferred the first choice. Swallowing rads-know-what pills which the corporation provided was not her idea of survival. Ever since her youth, she never trusted anyone, and trusting the same entity which enslaved her was not part of her 'smart things to do' list.