During cryogenic freezing, some scientists believe that the brain cannot dream. And to extent, they are correct. To properly prepare the body for periods of travel longer than their natural lifespan, all bodily functions must be frozen in time. The brain does not dream, but is very much alive and put on pause-comparable to a video on a television set. Their is an image on the screen, flickering and ever-lasting for the duration of the sleep.
Doctors encourage people as they lay down, "Think of something good; it will be with you for a long time." Most would picture the first time they held their child, kissed their spouse, a moment of peace or happiness. For the crew of the USS Botany Bay, the last 300 years had been dull, morbid, vengeful, and narcissistic for many. But for a people raised on little else, and currently surrounded by the only survivors of their kind, little else was expected. They were affectionally called the "Children of Chrysalis", and "Augments" by the rest. After the Eugenics War, living on Earth was no longer an option for this species created by man. For centuries they slept, undisturbed and oblivious to the rapidly changing world around their ship floating aimlessly in space.
At the bow of the ship, in front of the enormous spread of glass tubes, two of them were askew. One was placed perpendicular to the grid to distinguish him as the Captain of the vessel, and the other was his most prized possession. They were frozen with images from the same scene, but from different perspectives: the last time they saw eachother alive. Both of them had stood in the cold cargo hold, preparing the cryotubes for their small collection of super-humans. She had been the second to last, and their eyes met just before she climbed in. It was then she decided she wanted to watch the years go by with the image of his face after saying "I love you" and, as he tapped in the fatal sequence of buttons, he picked her expression of complete trust.
When Admiral Marcus commandeered their ship and stepped onto the cargo bay, he believed in the reliability of picking a tube set apart from the crowd-more likely to be a person of importance. Had he picked the tube on the left, the events that followed might have gone in a completely different direction.
Tali awoke with a broken gasp, her dark brown hair plastered to her face in black streaks. The world seemed to spin with unusual colors and bright lights, looking nothing like the one she had left. She remembered a rich voice comforting her as she laid down in the tube.
"When you wake, the world will be a very different place..." He stopped tapping rigorously on the computer to look down at her.
"...One where we can be together."
Her panting slowed as the memory calmed her, but the familiar man was nowhere to be seen. The monitors surrounding the bed started to beep wildly, and she noticed the various tubes leaking assorted fluids that were stuck into her bulging veins.
"No, miss! Please leave those alone. Your body won't react kindly to being ripped from it's life support." An average height, blonde man with round spectacles and a higher pitched voice came running over to her, pressing buttons on the machines overhead to cease their screeching.
Her golden eyes scrutinized him, and she opened her mouth to speak when he cut her off. His pudgy hands were scrambling over the equipment, grabbing a handheld device to scan her body and watch the blinking display. "This is truly remarkable. There is literally no tissue damage, no hemoraghing, no signs of oxygen deprivation. It's as if you were never dead at all!"
The woman merely stared at him with an open mouth, almost uncomfortable when he added sheepishly. "My apologies, Miss. My name is Dr. Nathaniel Fox. I've been monitoring your progress since you thawed."
He watched her blink a few times, unwilling to speak to him. "...No habla Engles? Francais? Deustche? You're not mute-I ran a test for that." He flipped through pages on his datapad, looking for an error in his notes.
"I can speak. I just don't know how to proceed."
"Oh! Ask me anything you like. You must have a lot of questions, seeing as how you've been frozen for the last 300 years." The beeping wand ran over her scalp gently as he spoke, and the doctor appeared childishly enthused to be studying her so closely.
"Th-Three hundred years?" Her impressive mind raced with the implications of the statement
"What happened? Why was I awakened? Where are the others?"
"Well, to answer your first question: I'll say that you were almost killed. Your cryotube was cracked inside it's container, and the defrosting process was shot to hell. We pulled you out, cooled you back down, and hooked you up to this life support system to revive you slowly. Frankly, we had no idea if it was gonna' work. There's not exactly a protocol for 'reviving a 300 year old popsicle from extinct technology with minutes to spare before she goes brain-dead'. Well you did die, technically. We resuscitated you after your heart stopped. As far as why-it was an accident. The others are still safely frozen in storage."
He stood still finally to look down at her with big, innocent blue eyes behind glass.
"What's your name?" He chirped.
"...Talliya. Talliya Jasleen Agrata-Singh."
"Wow, I'm not even going to try to say that correctly. Definitely not English, Spanish, or German. Indian, most likely. Do you have anything shorter I can call you?"
"Tali."
"Nathaniel!" A deeper male's voice boomed from the hallway before storming in, his white coat billowing behind him.
"You were supposed to tell us when there was a development, not come in here and start running tests on your ow-" He stopped abruptly, staring wide-eyed at the woman with golden eyes. "My apologies, ma'am. I didn't realize you were awake."
She wasn't inclined to be friendly with this stranger who was reprimanding the man-child that was kind to her. "Dr. Fox was responding efficiently to the master alarm on my LIFE support. Who the hell are you?"
His young face, though slightly older than Dr. Fox, folded in the brow to reflect a child scolded by their mother. "Bradford. Dr. Michael Bradford. How are you feeling?"
"Normal, just confused and ready to be unhooked."
The brunette looked to Nathaniel for a bill of health and the blonde nodded with a shrug. "Of course, ma'am. Help me, Nathan, get these IVs out and put in Bio."
While the two men gently and hurriedly went to release her from the machines, two more doctors in white coats came in: a woman with a intelligent brown eyes and a man with cropped white hair. The older man put down his pad to motion to the security guard that walked in after them.
"Please extend your hands, madam, so that they can be bound. The same will be done to your ankles, but do not be afraid. This is standard procedure and we do not intend to harm you unless you give us a reason to."
Tali's eyes widened as the guards stepped forward. "I can assure you, I mean none of you any ha-"
"-Your hands, please." His commanding voice had the other doctors shrinking in his presence, bowing their heads in shame.
She stared at him defiantly, eyes narrowed as she extended her hands to the guard. The restraints clicked in the silent room, leaving her immobile.
"That's better. Now the formalities can begin." He smiled, picking up his data pad. "I am Dr. Benjamin Miles, will be your primary health care professional while you are in this facility. State your name, please."
"No."
The older man smirked, writing on his data pad. "Do not test me, child, I will win."
"No. Your presence interrupted my collection of information. I don't know where I am."
He sighed. "I don't know how this will help you because you have know idea what Starfleet is and therefore the term 'Section 31' means nothing to you."
"Starfleet? We're not on Earth?"
"You have no right to any clarifying information until you cooperate with us. I don't see how we can move forward until one of us starts pulling her weight."
Her nostrils flared in contempt. My name is Talliya Jasleen Agrata-Singh."
Miles tapped on the pad with a small smile. "That wasn't so hard, now was it? Now, I'm going to run a few more tests and give them to my assistants for analysis. Then I'll have Dr. Bradford escort you to your room."
Nathaniel opened his mouth to state he had already done so, but Michael forcefully jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow to silence him. He shook his head 'no', his bangs moving along his forehead.
"I thought we were playing fair, Doctor, do you not owe me my whereabouts in exchange for my name?" Talliya mocked.
"All in good time." Miles bit back, clicking the button to withdraw a blood sample from her restrained forearm.
He looked over his shoulder at the female doctor with short auburn hair cropped to just above her shoulders. "Dr. Stapleton, take this and create a report for protein, RBCs, and plasma."
"Yes, Sir." The woman answered, snapping a cap on the test tube and leaving the room.
A few minutes later, Dr. Miles had Talliya stand on her bound feet and waddle uncomfortably to her room. Michael was supporting her on his arm, although the gesture was more for formality. He sighed, closing his green eyes in the dimly lit hallway as they walked along.
Skilled fingers tapped in the passcode, metal door whooshing open. The room was warm but made entirely of metal, and contained a single bed along one wall. The wall furthest from the door was a pane of glass for observation at the Doctor's leisure. Their room adjacent had assorted equipment, and supplies organized among lab stations.
"Will you tell me what I'm missing, Dr. Bradford?" Talliya asked when the doctor turned to leave.
"No, I value my job enough to know better than to disclose that information. Not just Miles, but Sta-the government wants you in the dark."
"Nathaniel was excited to answer my questions. He seems to be the only one."
"Nathan doesn't know! At least not anything that could get him into trouble-he's just an intern. Look, Nathan is the only person on our team who has no idea what you are. He thinks your human."
He noticed she was about to get upset and quickly interrupted. "-Just please, stay calm, Tali. Tomorrow we'll know more and, hey, they might even release you if the tests come back clean."
She sighed, going to sit on the bed. "Fine fine. Go run away like a good little assistant."
He winced at her words. "...I'm sorry I can't help you."
"Can't or won't?"
"I don't know what you'll do with the information I give you."
"Break free? Words aren't that powerful." She bit back.
"...To you they might be."