Hi! Wow... so here we are again, me having not posted in months...and feeling really bad about it. So here's something new for you guys that I'm writing with my friend alloutassaulthorizon, and I'm really excited about it. Please leave comments on what you guys think of this, and weather you think I should continue it. Ok I'll let you start reading now :) As always, ENJOY!

-8tickles

Black. Dark. For how long, I didn't know. But the day I was revived, the darkness stopped, and being became harder. My mind was peacefully dark and then suddenly...there was something uncomfortable.

It was like I couldn't breathe anymore, but really, it was the opposite. I was tasting air for the first time. I sit up, my eyes fly open and my lungs begin to work, taking in deep, labored breaths. I'm blinded temporarily. Standing in front of me are three people, all dressed in the same…color I guess the word is? They were all wearing white. Where were these words coming from? I don't remember anything.

They are rejoicing, jumping up and down, screaming and cheering and hugging each other. One of them screams in a strange language. When he speaks, something in my ear vibrates. There is a short lag from when he says the words to when I hear them. Whatever is in my ear must be translating the words to my language, but what is my language? One of the ones with short hair shouts out with joy, "She's alive, we actually woke up the girl from the moon! I can't believe we did it!"

The space we were in was moderately sized, but very cluttered. The Plexiglass tube I was sitting in along with lots of machines and other things I couldn't identify took up most of the room. It stood at a slight angle, and appeared to be up against a wall. Fluorescent lights hung above me in increments. The floor was patterned like a checkerboard. How did I know terms like checkerboard? This was all very confusing.

I was soaking wet. Something blue dripped off of my hair. I raised a tentative hand and touched it. It was freezing cold. Only then did I realize that I was shivering. I wiped blue gook from my eyes and blinked. My chest and bikini area were covered by a piece of wrap-around silver fabric. It twined from my top all the way down my torso and down my right leg, ending plugged into an outlet near my ankle.

I tried to speak. "130987002593."

The three people stopped dead in their tracks and looked at me. The other one with short hair muttered, "Shit, we are such idiots. We forgot to get translating devices for ourselves!" They laughed for a minute before the first one with short hair and the one with really long hair raced off. That left me and the second one with short hair. He plopped down on a chair and cleared his throat.

"Um hi, I know you can understand me but I can't understand you yet so…my name's Carter. I work here as an intern. I'm sure you're very confused. We're in a science research ship and you're the first person to survive being in a frio chamber this long. The big guys been working on this for years, coming up with theories and big long equations that no one else understands. While they argued about how to do it and if it would even work and who would get the credit for it, we went ahead and just did it! Brought you down into the frio chamber, we call it the frito chamber behind their backs because we all think it's a stupid name but this is kind of a big deal for us, so umm… ya… Maybe we can talk some when uh… when you can talk." He sat there for a minute with an awkward look on his face. "Well, um... Fitch probably needs my help with something, so I guess I'll see you later then." With that he dashed off.

"Sorry about that," went my earpiece.

The long haired person came back into view. She tapped on something next to the glass that separated us, a keypad I assumed, and the glass began to rise. I took a few breaths.

"Are you alright?" she asked with a huge smile on her face. "Hang on, lets get that insulation gel off of you."

"2.1415926535879." I replied.

She unplugged the silver fabric from the socket near my foot and began to unwrap it, revealing an even tighter black fabric underneath it. "This is your translator," she told me, and pinned it at the edge of the fabric near my collarbone.

"Now, how do you feel?"

"Cold," I said. I tried to take a step and almost fell over. "Woah, who turned the gravity so high?"

She laughed. "It's earth gravity, silly moon girl! You'll get used to it."

I hoped I would. "Do you have anything I could change into?" I asked. "This isn't …" The word got stuck in my brain. "...warm." I finished.

"Of course," she said, "follow me."

Using her for support, I made it to the ladder out of the lab, but she practically had to carry me up it. She brought me through a doorway and pointed to a small, closet sized room on our left. "You might want to take a shower first," she said. "Get the rest of that insulation off."

I went inside. Using the walls to brace myself, I turned on the water. The water smelled metallic and… was that chlorine? I washed the blue gel off of my face and got as much of it as I could out of my hair in under a minute. I dried off and picked up the clothes that were left outside the shower. They seemed...soft I think the word is.

When I was done, the scientist woman came back.

"Better?" She asked.

"Much." I verified.

"Good, now I need to ask you a few questions to make sure you're alright. Are you feeling itchy anywhere?"

"No," I said after a second.

"Very good." She said. "Any pain in your back?"

"I don't believe so." I say.

"Perfect. Final question; does anything smell like strawberries?" She asked, completely serious-faced.

I tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a choked stutter. "You...you jest!" I managed to get out.

"No. Nothing here is a 'jest'." She replied, clearly unimpressed by my laughter. "If you can't smell anything then the insulation is unsafe to inhale long term and we've all got a serious problem."

"Yes, I smell strawberries."

"Alright..." she said, not sounding very convinced. "We'll be running some real tests on you soon to make sure everything checks out. Would you like one?" She held up a strawberry from across the room.

I nodded, and she underhanded it to me. The strawberry took a very high angle. Slumped against the wall I prepared myself to raise my hands to catch it off of the ceiling, but it curved downwards and hit me right in the face, then it landed on the floor.

She burst out laughing. "That's right, I forgot," she managed. "Moon gravity." She walked over to me with a large bowl full of strawberries. "Do me a favor and take this up to the cockpit, promised the flyboys I would give them some after we were done with them. It'll help you get used to the gravity too." She put the bowl in my hands but still held it. "Do you have it?" I nodded and she loosened her grip a little. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," I said, and she let go of the bowl.

"Cockpit's all the way that way," she said, pointing back in the direction of the lab. "Go around the railing, it's through the next door."

She didn't have to tell me twice, I didn't think I could handle that ladder if she wasn't there. Holding onto the bowl with both hands, I made it through the doorway leading to the lab and along the elevated walkway going around it leaning against the wall for support. I noticed Carter and one of the people in a white coat down there, so I assumed that he was Fitch.

I stood in the doorway to the cockpit. I saw two people with their backs turned to me, one was a large man sitting in a chair to my left and the other a smaller guy sitting in the one to my right, both of them tapping away at the holographic screens. Behind them was pure black space, and I took a few steps closer to see if we were orbiting anything.

"This must be the moon girl," said the one in the left chair without even turning around to face me.

"How could you…" I started.

"Cause you're the only one on this ship who isn't afraid of what will happen to them when they cross the red tape," he said. I looked at the doorway and noticed a faint red line running through it. I walked through and stood on the other side as quickly as I felt comfortable doing in this gravity. He chuckled. "What do you want?"

"I brought you… uhh…" I held the bowl out to them even though neither of them was looking.

The bigger one gestured to the smaller one. "Mark?"

The smaller one got up and came to me to take the bowl. He nodded to me and thanked me as he took it, then went back to his chair and put the bowl on the glass dashboard between them.

"Strawberries?" asked the bigger guy.

"Yes," I said, "strawberries."

"I'm Curtis, I'm the pilot," he said after taking a few. "That's Mark, he's my intern."

"Understudy, we've been over this before," said Mark. "And considering I've been on this thing three years…"

"It's intern," insisted Curtis. "Anyway if you need anything, come see me, just watch the tape next time. Thank Olga for the strawberries for me."

"Is there somewhere I… uh… I can sleep?" I asked.

He laughed. "Really? You just woke up after a few decades of napping and you want to go back to sleep?"

I didn't know how to respond. After a second of awkward silence, I asked again. "Is there?"

Curtis sighed. "Yeah, go all the way to the back and open up the hatch under the table, it'll take you to the cargo area. That's where you'll be sleeping."

I laughed. "You… you joke, right?"

"Nope," he said. "Just ask Carter."

"Or me," added Mark. "It's where the understudies sleep."

"But I saw beds," I protested.

"Yes, but they're the older people's beds," Curtis explained. "Like mine."

"What year were you born?" I asked.

"2347," he said.

"Ha! 2344, I'm older than you!" I said. "I would like a bed."

He turned around for the first time to look me over and for a second our eyes met. They were dark and stern looking, his brow was furrowed in a way that made him look aggravated, but his face as a whole gave the impression that he liked to joke around. His eyes didn't even make it halfway down my body before he turned back around and laughed to himself. "No, you're not older."

Mark burst out laughing. Flustered, I left for the back of the ship.

I hate strawberries. I thought grouchily.

Even though the ship wasn't incredibly long, it took me almost five minutes to get to the back while walking at the same speed I probably would have been walking on the moon while still using the wall for support. I opened up the little hatch under the table and slid through. I was glad I was short, because the ceiling for the cargo area couldn't have been more than 5 feet from the floor. I couldn't imagine how someone Carter's height even got in here. After going a ways through the cargo area, which ran almost halfway through the ship from what I could tell and held almost nothing but food, I found two makeshift beds that were across the center aisle from each other. I was tired and I didn't really care who's beds they were. I lay down in the one on the right and closed my eyes, submitting to the warmth of the blankets.

This story is going to get so much better as it goes on! Next update will be in roughly 3 weeks...that is, unless I get at least 5 comments, then early update. See y'all next chapter!