A/N: so it seems Aurora is an engineer at this trip and things start to change on us. Not sure where she's leading us.
No beta: feel free to apply :)
Aurora woke up in the darkness. She had troubles opening her eyes as the simulation welcomed her on Homestead II. As she moved she discovered no one else is moving around her. That was out of place, they all should wander around awoken at the same time, to feel less isolated.
She knew that because she prepared herself for the journey watching every documentation possible. Aurora was an engineer, after all, she wanted to know how everything works, and she wanted to be sure nothing will go wrong. Especially with socialization, there she wanted to be sure about every step she makes.
Now she hesitated in stepping out of her hibernation pod waiting for others to move, for other lights to lit, but nothing happened. Everyone stood still sleeping away.
"Put me back to sleep, cryo," she said to the computer but it just replied with repeated instructions to proceed to her cabin.
"You can't be so stupid" she lost her temper. "And so unresponsive, put me back to sleep, refreeze me, and wake me when others are awake. Put me back to hibernation!"
"Hibernation takes place in special labs, pods are only for sustaining cryo-stasis" computer started to run vids about hibernation like she doesn't already know everything about it.
"Why would Homestead Company downgrade its pods? It costs money to downgrade things!" she refused to move.
"Homestead Company does only what it's best for its passengers. It's safest to put your trust in us because this way you can't harm yourselves with the lack of knowledge. Hibernation pods never malfunction, they are safe and reliable, and there is no use of passengers managing hibernation process themselves, and we're not so irresponsible to leave such great responsibility to computing machines."
"But you can put all the rest of the trip to their hands," she said desperately and finally got out of her pod. "When the others will wake up?"
She turned around at the lack of any response. Her pod's interface has turned off. No one was moving, but the path was lit before her so she followed it to her cabin. Comforting thing was that all her stuff were there. There were not many things but she preferred it that way.
The interface in her cabin informed her about the introductory class she was to attend to and she hoped others will wake up to be there too, but the time was all wrong. If her clock hasn't stopped, there were no way they are at Homestead already.
She put her leather jacket on and looked at her face in the mirror. Her hair has grown too long. Even if everything stands still hair grows even if you're frozen. If she was home she would cut it but now she just tied it up on her head to keep it out of her way.
The computer in her room was just as uninformative as the one in her pod, if not less. She hated that, there were no plugs, now wires, nothing to open and override its repetitive nature.
At home, she had all her technology hacked to be manageable and responsive, but outside everything became less and less accessible. To protect them against theft and terrorism all technology became just an interface with specific service, but without any way of interacting with it.
The classroom was chillingly empty, interface infuriatingly automated. Aurora felt panic creeping in. She knew the flight was automated, she knew no one was left awake to suffer years alone, but no one ever mentioned the possibility to awaken alone.
Slowly she walked the halls trying not to give in to panic. She knew the ship's layout by the heart. Passing by the bridge confirmed her fear that they weren't at their destination yet. There was no way of entering the bridge, which was the first level of protection of their route. If any terrorist would be crazy enough to wake up while everyone is sleeping he can't divert the ship from its course.
Aurora realized that she just answered her own question, they probably degraded hibernation pods to discourage any terrorist attacks on the ship during its trip. It was chilling to think that if she manages to reach Homestead that she might me charged for terrorism just for being awake.
Maybe she wasn't the only one awake. Maybe she was awakened by someone to be blamed for the damage they already made to the ship.
Her breath got hectic. She would be a perfect scapegoat. A poor engineer who offered her services to the new colony in an exchange for the trip. No one would believe anything else.
After that, she moved slowly looking around. Navigational room told her that she was right, her clock was right, there were eighty years more to fly on. She saw no way of returning to stasis, and the computer gave her no answer to her questions.
If the damage is already done, whatever it is, when the ship reaches their destination, or when they finally find its debris, her body will tell them that she's to blame, and all her countrymen will be out on the run once again targeted for something they didn't do.
No, she won't give into resignation, if there is any damage on this ship she'll find it and repair it. That was what she was set out here to do anyway, to repair things. She'll go through every inch of this ship and find the damage, no matter how small it is. And then, if she finds no other way, she'll walk out of an air chamber. It was better for her to disappear than to be found dead out of her pod, then any charge could be made, they could pin to her whatever they want.
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