Singularity

Archive Log: 29

Everyone's wake up calls were exceedingly as horrible as the next person to them. There was no easiness when it came to waking from hypersleep. No amount of training, of lectures or meetings by those who made and maintained the small hubs could really prepare.
First was the fog slowly lifting; any traces of sleep were slowly evaporating, the heavy fog in everyone's minds dissipating like a fog over a marsh with the sunlight coming. Dreams, or whatever dreams there was were disappearing as reality was slowly crashing back. Senses returned, hearing being the first, followed by touch, sight usually the last as the brain didn't want to wake up, therefore eyes didn't want to open.
It was meant to be silence that greeted everyone's ears, not the blaring sound of an alarm. The alarm was a horrible sound, wrenching through all of them as the lids of their capsules lifted up. The cool air of the ship hit them like a freight train. Sucking in great lungfuls was a natural reaction, even if it bought with it effects that weren't pleasant. The coldness hurt, it burned even as it made its way down into the lungs. What resulted then was coughing fits, but with coughing fits bought on the worst effect of hypersleep: sickness.
No one was immune to this. Everyone suffered and everyone in part heaved and threw up in the small bowls which were placed next to their temporary beds.
Everything was just too much to deal with; the alarm, the flashing lights, the rocking of the ship. Human senses lagging to kick in as people slipped and fell about. At any other time, it could be comical. But this wasn't funny. There was nothing funny about this whole situation as it became speedily clear that some were struggling to get out of their capsules.
Daniels being one. She seemed fuzzy headed and still very much asleep as Oram tapped at her glass. It was an attempt to get her to wake up, but her eyes kept slipping shut. They were coming out early, which meant they needed to get out. If the pod locked, it would be catastrophic.
Tennessee stood the opposite side to Oram and took over manually accessing the controls. Why they were coming out early for, he didn't know. He did know that surely it shouldn't be him having to do this? Regardless, the lid opened with a quiet swish and he reached within pulling Daniels up and to her feet.
She had cracked her head against the glass and she reached up to pull the useless white cap off her head, while tentatively touching her head. It felt sore, but nothing a painkiller couldn't fix. Her eyes slowly focussed and soon she realised that there was rushed voices and panic around the chamber beside hers. Jacob wasn't out.
Daniels tried to step forward, she was nudged back and soon found herself with arms around her. She didn't know who, but someone grasped her hand too. A brief look shown this person was Onora, she looked pale and unsteady, the other person holding Daniels was Karine, they stood aside and watched. It was a mass panic to get the mechanised locks to unlock. It was a safety precaution; to protect whoever slept inside, if trouble arose it would seal itself until a latter time. This was a blessing and a curse. Because the mechanism refused to budge, it would cause pressure to build up within the pod itself. Hypersleep chambers were pressurised, everything about them and everything within them, was built to protect and keep the human inside alive. But that also could cause more harm than good, like the locks.
The locks became deadlocked, even the jaws of life struggled, and broke from the task which they were trying to be used for. These were soon thrown aside, useless and broken. The chamber still intact as the locks stayed steadfast. Even the main controls were useless by this point in time; no amount of trying to override the system would work. Mainly because the system was saying there wasn't anything physically wrong, there was no reason why this chamber shouldn't open.
When all else failed, smashing away at the thing seemed primitively ideal. The problem was that these things were designed to last. These were the most up to date version of an otherwise old system. They could survive crashes, fires, even the vacuum of space for a small while. So, to have grown men smashing at it, was nothing.
It was meaningless, fruitless even yet no one gave up because no one wanted to give up. Because giving up meant admitting defeat, and that also meant letting the man within die. Every piece of technology within the chamber was working overtime, or against itself. Technology could only do this for so long before having a breakdown and overheating. The problem was, if it happened, it would definitely kill the man within.
They were all meant to wake up together, on their new planet. Start a new life, all of them together, happy with the colonists. Watching the new life grow that was previously the embryos. Not this. This was a nightmare situation that no amount of briefing could prepare them for.
None of them knew why they had been woken up, or how exactly. But it was clear that the storm which Walter was trying to steady the ship against, had done more damage than just destroy the sails. That was the only logical explanation as to why Jacob's chamber had gone awol; the aftershocks of the storm had rocked through the ship, all of the ship and a mechanism in his chamber loosened and counteracted by locking down. Jacob's chamber wasn't the only one which was struggling, already in the colonist bay, some had been displaced. The occupants within dead. Without the supply that the ship was feeding in, the humans were all going to die, and they did. It was quick, which was something, but they'd already had a loss.
The ambient lighting within shone red and Jacob's eyes lifelessly, sleepily opened as he looked around. He seemed delirious really, not wholly knowing what to focus on as people continued trying to get in.
It didn't take much for Daniels to break free of the weak grasp that Karine and Onora had on her. Before either could stop her, she had leaped to the chamber. She collided heavily with the white cylindrical object and looked downwards within with teary eyes. Even if no one wanted to admit what was to happen, she was very aware.
There was a moment of clarity, Jacob's eyes opened fully and he looked at her, and then that look was washed away by the fire which erupted within. Daniels screamed, the sound almost inhuman as she was pried back from the burning pod.
The fire could be seen, and it was contained within so there was no worry for it to flood out into the rest of the room. But the man, their Captain within, was dead. Daniels continued to flail within whoever arms were holding her. Despite of the continuous axe hits to the glass, it still did nothing. Jacob was gone, and so were the colonists in the other room.
Collapsing to her knees, Daniels sobbed and cried, a hand shakily going to her mouth as everyone stood silent in the room. A state of sheer shock went through everyone. Though they were told about the dangers, this was something else entirely. None of them expected to live the moment...experience it first hand...
Without a Captain, it meant next in line was Oram. He hadn't prepared for this responsibility. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind. He was quite acceptant with his role, that being a part of the sciences. "Right...we, we need to clean up the area." He said in a low shaking voice, everyone's eyes stared at him blankly. It wasn't that they disliked Oram. It was that he sometimes said and done things which made it easy to dislike him. His religious views were no problem to anyone, yet he used them as a way to make problems arise. His opinions and the way in which he voiced them sometimes, were just blunt, impersonal, and rude. He was to the letter. No funny business. Unlike Jacob, who was definitely laid back and would've been a brilliant Captain, if he continued this mission on...it was doubtful Oram could. And starting off to a rocky beginning wasn't helping. This wasn't how he wanted to start. But they couldn't all stand here.
Someone helped Daniels up and escorted her to her room, the others filed out silently, but all cast lasting looks at the chamber. The fire by now had died down, but that didn't mean much by this point.
When turnings for their rooms came, everyone parted off from each other. The doors opened and shut quietly, and everyone find themselves in their own silent solitude to let the events kick in, or rather sink in. This wasn't how it was meant to be, and finding a way to continue on from this point was going to be hard.
Onora however, entered her room and realised she wasn't alone. Walter had managed to get the bridge under control, seeing as how everyone was awake, he couldn't think of a human he wanted to see more than her. Her face turned to one of sadness as he stood from the window seat and stepped forwards. Walter hadn't got far before Onora slowly jogged and crashed into him.
He braced her shoulders as she buried her face against his hooded jumper. Walter leaned his head against hers and felt her shaking, heard her crying quietly against him. He shut his eyes and let her, this needed to come out. He understood grief, and bottling it up would do no good.
Eventually he felt her ceasing, a few sniffles happened now and again, but he couldn't feel her crying anymore. She leaned perfectly still against him, her face looking sidewards to the bed, her hands clutching onto his top. Walter pushed her gently back, she looked up at him. He reached up and stroked his thumbs under her eyes.
"It was terrifying, Walter..." Onora's voice sounded so small, broken, hoarse even from not being used for ages. She blinked the last of her tears away as she looked to him. Walter's expression was still calm, stoic even as his eyes looked into hers. She smoothed her hands over his top and sniffed, nodding she turned and sat on the edge of the bed.
"I didn't want to wake you all like that. But it had to be done." Walter said rather formatively as he moved to get her a glass of water, he handed it over before kneeling in front of her. He gently placed his hands against her knees, the white material of her suit was soft under his hands.
"What happened, Walter?" Onora asked, still sounding tired, yet she drunk slowly from the cup which had been placed in her hands. Before simply placing it on the floor when she had drunk all the water.
He blinked as she lifted her hands to his face. He just knelt there and let her trace his features, stroke her fingers through his hair before ghosting down his cheeks. Feeling her fingers trail over his lips, Walter reached up and grasped them gently. "A storm. Unseen and unavoidable. It has destroyed one of the sails. The crew is needed to mend it, along with getting the ship back to 100%. I could do that part. But the sails need two people." He explained, he felt that the simple version was enough considering her brain was probably playing catchup and trying to figure everything out.
Onora nodded and gave a shudder, now she was back in her own room, she finally felt cold. "I have missed you."
Walter nodded agreeing with her, "And I you." He paused, freeing her fingers from his hand. Her hand returned to his other cheek. She had been absentmindedly stroking her fingers into the back of his hair. "I spent more time watching over you than the others." He came out with simply, Onora's eyes widened before she let out a quiet laugh. Walter looked confused, she shook her head.
"That...that sounds creepy..." Onora said with a smile still in place. "But thank you, Walter." He just nodded against her palms, a small part of her felt bad for sitting here slightly joking with Walter. Well, having a laugh at his lack of tact with words when Daniels was in her room alone.
Walter must've noticed the change in her expression, he knelt up more and placed his hands either sides of her legs. "She will be okay. She has us, and we will help her however we can."
Onora looked confused, "How..." She didn't remember mentioning Jacob's death.
"Mother." Walter said instantly, "Alerted me to the loss."
Onora nodded her head, "I don't think any of us have the will to go back down there...but Oram seems...adamant..." Onora said awkwardly, trailing off as she fidgeted on the bed.
Walter frowned lightly and tilted his head. "He is Captain now. We will have to follow his orders."
Onora shook her head, "I think he's misguided." Walter frowned, "He didn't seem to react like us all over Jacob dying." Everyone seemed instantly saddened, angered, Oram was stoic, blank. Someone who didn't outwardly show emotion, to Onora, was someone who wasn't in tune with them, or didn't show them because of some reason or another.
"Grief works in odd ways." Walter said, almost rehearsed sounding as Onora just gave him a look. He sighed, he said something wrong, he knew it.
She sat in silence for a few moments, Onora sighed and shook her head. Walter looked confused as she appeared saddened again before she pulled him close. She still had a hold of his cheeks and he was still leaning close to her, he felt her legs part and he leaned against the bed instead of her legs as she kissed readily. There was such feelings in such the simple action that Walter felt himself being pulled slowly, he resisted though, Onora looked confused.
"No," Walter could feel the desperate action of her lips against his, the way in which she deepened the kiss and held onto him as if her life depended on it. Watching Jacob dying, and Daniels losing her other half, had cemented how much she didn't want to lose Walter. But being pulled on top of her, the situation maybe going too far, was not going to help matters.
"Can you lay with me at least then, Walter?" She asked instead, kicking back on the mattress before she was laying on her side. she lifted her head from the pillow and looked downwards.
"That I can do." Walter nodded, he stood and moved around before sitting and then slowly placing his legs on the bed. Shuffling down, he turned his face and looked at her while he laid on his back.
"How have you been, Walter?" Onora asked, she scooted closer to him, she even lifted his arm and placed it around herself before laying against his chest.
"It has been quiet without you all. Lonelier without some," he said leaning his cheek against her hair. It felt as soft as it did when she went to sleep. He was going to comment about her changing, but it seemed that all she needed right now was this moment of comfort. "But overall, I have been alright. I have had Mother to talk too, tasks to be done."
Onora looked up from his chest, "Still sounds lonely."
"I'm not totally certain I know what loneliness is. But I presume the feeling of not having you near was loneliness. That's why I said it."
Onora smiled and nestled back down, shutting her eyes she sighed. "I dreamt of you, Walter."
Walter frowned and looked around the room. "Of me?"
"Of life on Origae-6. You will stay with me, won't you, even after we land?" Onora looked back up at him with wide worried eyes.
Walter smiled slowly, "Where else am I meant to go?" Which was probably more apt than both realised, there wasn't a plan for him once everything was set up. But living with Onora sounded brilliant to him. That was a future he could definitely wait for. "What was it like?"
She smiled, "We were happy. We were left alone, in peace, and no one judged us...I think Daniels was our neighbour." She laughed quietly. Walter nodded, even he smiled slightly over her retelling what she'd dreamt when asleep.
"It sounds ideal." Walter said, watching Onora nod and grow still against him. "I think we'd be happy, very happy." He agreed quietly feeling her arm wrap around him and hold onto his side. He ran his hand up and down her back gently, he could feel her stilling and as ridiculous as it was that she was going back to sleep, Walter allowed her. He didn't see a need for her to help downstairs, that's why the security lot were here, to do the horrid jobs others didn't. Even if that involved disposing of bodies.