A/N: so things are unfolding.

No beta.

Jim woke up feeling little woozy. It was a new sensation and he was satisfied by it. After all, he was a writer who came along on this journey just to experience things anew, to see the future. He was curious to find out what had changed while he slept. It was a lifetime after all, in a lifetime world would change upside down.

A wonderful thing about this trip was that he will be able to see the world change twice. First to see how the colony is adapting, what their culture looks like, how are they different from Earthlings. Secondly to see Earth two centuries into the future.

To have himself in a freezer for two centuries would be too costly even for his lofty incomes, but this trip was a wonderful opportunity. He didn't even have to pay the full price of his first class ticket. Part of it will be discounted by his honorary for his part in documenting great endeavor that is colonizing new planets. He was proud to be a part of it.

The fact that his contract obligated him to portray Homestead Corporation in the favourable light didn't bother him. It was a journalist's job to portray the world through a certain lens that would allow their readers to see what a right thing to do is. And the right thing to do was to expand to new worlds and make human kind great and victorious.

Jim wasn't bothered by the fact that he was the only one awake. Maybe computer woke them up in batches, maybe he got an early start to see things first, to be able to witness everyone discovering their new world. He dressed carefully examining his features in his big mirror. His cabin was suitably big and he had a nice window. He wouldn't mind spending some more time in this space.

Few months on the ship should be a joy to experience. As he walked the empty halls he was composing sentences in his mind celebrating sleek, reliable design, enjoyable silence, and clean surfaces. He lost his pace when he came across a mess cleaning robots were unable to deal with.

Their round small bodies crushed into the barrier unable to cross over the dented metal which revealed ship's insides. That was just plain wrong but surely someone will come in soon to repair it.

Jim walked around it and shook off that strange feeling of fear. Why would he fear a simple repair job?

But it didn't look like a simple repair. It looked like a huge malfunction. The whole plate was lifted up and wires beneath it were a real mess. The floated in space, in the middle of nothing. They couldn't just step outside on the curb of the road and wait for their vehicle to be fixed, or for the towing service to show up.

Things didn't look any better in the introductory classroom either. They looked even more disturbing. To wake up alone was one thing but to be in front of a training interface all alone was just plain wrong. He tried to engage with the simulation but it was just a simple drone.

He got up as the class continued like nothing is wrong. He started to look for someone, anyone, but he found no one. It seemed like he's alone. He checked every surface that was open. Found the bridge just to discover it was sealed, closed off. Finally, he found an observatory and discovered an awful truth, which was that their trip isn't near its end, it wasn't even half way through. There was no chance he could live for ninety years and live to see the new planet.

Firstly he calmed himself down and tried to find a way to get himself back to sleep. When he discovered he can't then the panic set in. He ran through the halls like a crazy person. It felt like he was going mad, maybe it was all a dream, he surely just has bad dreams in his Popsicle state, but they assured him he won't have any.

Earth, he remembered finally, they will surely have an idea, instructions how to fix his pod, how to go back to sleep. With a sense of a relief, he sent his message with an explanation how he woke up.

"I'm trying to fix this," he said hoping he'll be able to follow their instructions.

He sent out his message and then met another dreadful surprise. Their response will come in fifty-five years. With a sense of disbelief, he continued to explore the ship. It must be a dream.

Finally, he saw a face of a bartender. He sat down with a sense of relief just to discover that the face belonged to a robot. At that he couldn't help but snort, the irony of it all became too much for him to handle.

"So what now?" he toasted to the bartender Arthur. "To just sit around for years and wait for miraculous instructions about hibernation pods, because I can't begin to understand how to work with them, or to bang my head on the wall until it bleeds. Maybe I could write for fifty years, but I'd be ancient till then, that wasn't the point of this trip. It wasn't the point to be stranded and alone."

"Tell that to Aurora, she's been going mad from it for a year now," Arthur said with his irritating smile. "She'll surely be glad to see you awake, she's been in need of company for some time now. I'm glad she'll get you to accompany her, she became quite dreary lately."

"Aurora?" Jim jumped up. "Who is that? Where is she? Did she wake me? Why would she do that to me? What did I ever do to her? How does she look like?" Jim got fearful, what if one of his many conquests decided to follow him on this journey and take her revenge on him like this. It would be most cruel to do this to him, but maybe it was just a prank, maybe she knows how to get back to sleep.

"Maybe if you turn around she would tell you the answers," Arthur nodded towards him.

Jim turned around startled just to be faced with a messy, tired face of a small woman. She was all covered in grease, her clothes were all dirty, and her hair was sticking around her face as a haystack. He never saw a woman so appalling and he never saw her before in his life.

"Why would you wake me?" he yelled at her. "I never heard of anything so vile, why would you drag me into your nightmare. If you were lonely you should just jump out of an airshaft. That's what I would do, I would just end it with dignity, I wouldn't let myself get so… animal-like."

"Of course" she shook her head with disdain, her voice was cracked from lack of use. "Who would you send me but a jerk, an asshole, an excuse for a man? I told you I could do it alone, you didn't have to drag anyone else into it."

As she spoke tears fell down her face but her words weren't directed at Jim, but at the bartender behind him. She has gone mad, everyone knew service robots were just drones, programmed to serve, without any higher intelligence.

"Come on now," Arthur said with his cheerful voice putting two glasses on the counter. "Jim here is a quite enjoyable company, he's a writer, I'm sure he could entertain you and make you put on your glam for a while. The task will be over soon and you'll both get your re-compensation for your troubles."

"You can re-compensate me in Hell!" she screamed at him and stormed off.

Jim looked after she intrigued. Maybe she has gone crazy, but what a story it would be, maybe it would be even worthy of him getting to Homestead old instead of young. It would be better than any journalism, it could be a full pledged novel like the ones his father received prizes for. Maybe, just maybe, his name Jim Preston would overshadow the name of his father James Preston jr., The Great Dread Master.

Well isn't that a woozy?