Predicting the Storm

5: Strategy for Survival

"Did he send out a distress signal!?" Erin yelled and spun around to face the others. "Surely he must have!"

"You fail to see the point... It doesn't matter if he did." Novinn's forehead wrinkled and he muttered something inaudible. 

"There's no guarantee he's right about any of this! He must have sent a signal! If he did ... the only thing we need to do is to wait for Colony Foundation and to go back to the cryo-pods for now."

My mind went to strange places as I listened to how distressed Erin was. I had never questioned how it came to be us six that awoke. I knew that I was awaken by the others. But how did they in specific wake up?

It seemed like Erin would be the worst person to purposefully wake in this situation.

"You still ... fail to see the point." Novinn repeated himself after a few seconds of silence.

"Then tell me! What's the point!"

Whilst Erin and Novinn argued I scrolled through the various notes.

Joseph wrote consistently for the following week after he had awoken. He described who he was in great detail, and I assumed he was documenting himself for the future. Most of this I already knew, where he grew up, the names of his parents and siblings, the various schools and achievements he had accomplished, and the list went on. It was frankly dull to read but I had to go through it.

How long until he returned? Weeks? Months? How much more did he possibly write before he returned to the cryo-pod?

Why were you awake for so long?

My heart sunk as the letters went on. He continued to ramble about his life for months.

"Should we awake someone else? Doctor? What's your recommendations?" Novinn politely tapped my shoulder.

"Why are you asking me?" I said not looking away from the screen.

"Why indeed, why are you asking her?" Erin sighed. "It's everyone's decision to make."

"And everyone includes everyone here, including Dr. Essen."

"Who ... do you think?" I bluntly asked him. "Why would we awake someone?"

"Just after we'd awaken and realized something was seriously wrong, I talked with Marilyn and it could be possible to— I shouldn't promise anything but we could use someone who can aid in a small scaled evacuation." Erin's jaw dropped as he uttered those words.

"Evacuation? What do you mean evacuation?" Everyone present looked clueless except Novinn and a short red-headed woman next to him who I presumed was Marilyn.

"I engineered the land vehicles on board. They're air sealed with a filtration system. I'm just saying it might be possible to block the filtration system and modify it to be resistant to vacuum." Her eyebrows rose randomly while she conversed.

"That's ridiculous. Do you have a death wish?" Erin flung her arms like a startled hen but eventually rested her palm on her forehead.

"You're not an engineer Erin. Besides, the longer we wait the further away is Apog gonna be from Proxima b. When we get into deep space Colony Foundation will never find you." Marilyn snapped back. Her body seemed to slightly tremble as if she realized the gravity of her words.

"You're all fools..." I whispered to myself as my heartbeat echoed in my ears. Months of letters turned into dreadful years.