"Hello Miss Pepper!"

The voice finally made Galaxy wake up. Her dark chocolate eyes stung as the bright white lights filled the room. She wanted to rub them but her arms felt so heavy.

"Your name is Miss Galaxy Pepper, yes?"

"W-what?" The woman said, the world was so blurry. "Galaxy... Or Dr. Pepper." She wanted to laugh when she realized what she had just said, but she was too tired.

"You've been in hibernation, Galaxy. It's normal to feel confused or sick. It will be a few days until you're fully recovered."

Eventually, the world cleared up. Galaxy was able to see colors beyond just bright lights and shadows, in front of her was a light blue human-ish shape. But it was still hard to make anything out. Was she talking to a hologram? Her arms felt a little lighter now and she blindly felt out the pod for her glasses, only to find none.

"You will be in Group Seven, with the other health practitioners. It will be a class teaching you about life on a colony."

"My glasses." Galaxy said, cutting off the hologram. "Where are my glasses?"

"Your belongings will be in your cabin, Galaxy. No need to worry. I will help you with locating your cabin and things as you seem to be visually impared. Homestead made sure that The Avalon cares for it's passengers."

"Thank you..." She said with a yawn as the pod began to move out of the room, making her feel dizzy.

Jim watched as the pod left. He fell flat on his ass. The fact he woke someone up was sinking in now. It was an accident. He didn't mean to do this. Now that woman was trapped on the ship like he was.

Well you were going to wake someone else up anyway.

Jim froze. He was going to do that, wasn't he? It was sinking in. If he felt this awful doing it by accident, how would he have felt if he had opened someone's pod on purpose? He couldn't believe that he was willing to doom someone to this life. Yeah, he was lonely but that was no excuse!

He needed to face the music. He was going to tell the woman he woke up what happened as soon as he could. Hopefully, she would understand.

xxx

The hologram sure was right about feeling sick after hibernation. Galaxy nearly fell over as the hologram in her bracelet guided her through the all white halls. As if the ship sensed how hard it was for her to see, a bright blurry glowing blue line appeared on the ground. It reminded the woman of the lines on hospital floors that told people where to go.

Soon, Galaxy was in her room. Even without her glasses, she could tell it was kind of crappy. It was about as big as the bathroom in her house on earth. She shrugged. She would only be here for four months anyway.

"Your class begins in an hour. Please get ready. Scan your bracelet on this panel right here to register your luggage and it will be delivered automatically."

A panel on the wall glowed. Galaxy held her hand over it and it dinged. Within minutes, her bags appeared in a shoot on the wall. She opened up a pocket on her pink and black backpack and found her hot pink glasses case and opened it. She put on her glasses which were square and had little bedazzled jewels on the frames and stars on the arms.

Everything was clear now. It was a relief to be able to see now!

She wondered if she had time for a quick shower. She felt kind of gross, and she also looked weirdly grey blue when she looked in the mirror. Galaxy thought about it for a minute before just deciding to shower. First impressions were important. She didn't want her fellow calleges to think she was gross. No one would want to get treatment from a doctor that looked sick or like they couldn't take care of themselves.

Fifteen minutes later, Galaxy stepped out of the tiny bathroom, her short black hair still a little wet, and looked through her suitcase for something to wear. She settled on a pair of simple comfortable pair of underwear and sports bra, because who would even see under her clothes? No one. Then she put on a pair of simple blue skinny jeans and a baggy grey turtleneck sweater she got for Christmas from her mother before she died. To top it off, Galaxy put on a pair of black combat boots. This was a lot more plain than what she normally wore, but she wanted to look professional without looking too stuffy. She knew she had a pants suit in the bag somewhere but that's just too much. She looked in the mirror.

Her light brown skin looked like it got its color back after her shower. Her full lips spread into a pretty smile at the sight. Looks like it was a good idea she showered! She wondered if she should put on some makeup or just go natural. She shrugged, going into her makeup bag and putting on her coverup and foundation. After that, she put on some light black eyeliner and dark red lipstick. This would have to do. She still had to do her hair after all.

xxx

Jim walked in circles in the grand concord. He felt nervous. What if that girl thought he was lying and woke her up on purpose? Still, it was the right thing to tell her what happened.

The elevator doors swung open and there she was. Galaxy Pepper. That woman he woke up. Jim looked at her and gasped. She was pretty.

She was different from Aurora, who was pale and blonde haired. Galaxy's hair was short and dark and reached her chin and curled up just a little bit. Her skin was brown like toffee or maybe like honey, it looked healthy. It was a golden brown and reminded him of the sun, like how Aurora's resembled the moonlight. Especially since she was looking weird and sick thanks to the pod malfunction. Her eyes were also a chocolately brown. Jim only saw Aurora's eyes in her profile video, and they were a sparkling ice blue.

"Hi!" Galaxy said before running over to Jim with a dazzling smile. "Are you a crew member or..."

"No, passenger."

Galaxy nodded. "Same. Anyway, have you... Seen anyone? I went to my class and there wasn't anyone. At all. Not even in the hallways. The hologram acted like it was full and."

Jim raised his hand. "I'll tell you everything over lunch, how about that?" He figured it'd be easier to tell the news if she had something to eat and was sitting down.

Galaxy blinked. "Uh, ok. Sure."

They walked to the cafeteria in silence. Jim was too nervous to say anything and Galaxy was just... Quiet.

When they got to the cafeteria, Galaxy noticed that this room was completely empty too. She blinked. The cafeteria in school when she was growing up always at least had a few people in it. The hospital cafeteria was like that too. Why wasn't there anyone here?!

She looked over at the man, wanting answers now. But he just kept walking and went to the large machine. He hit a button and was given a really basic looking lunch. A sandwich, apple and what she guessed was yogurt. Galaxy frowned. This was a luxury ship wasn't it? Why was the food crummy looking?

"Are you going to eat?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah."

"Let me show you how the machine works." Jim said as he put his tray on a table. Galaxy sighed before cutting him off.

"I'm not a little kid. I can do it myself." She said before hitting a button that looked good. Maybe Jim just couldn't handle anything tastier than white bread and plain yogurt.

"Sorry! That's for our golden class passengers." The machine said.

Galaxy glared hard at the machine and hit another button. She heard Jim laugh behind her, making her more mad as the machine kept telling her everything GOOD was for the golden class. When she finally got an option she could have, it was a sandwich, yogurt and an apple. Yikes! The woman sighed and took her tray and sat across from Jim, who was picking at his sandwich.

"You'd think they'd have more options for people that paid nearly a million dollars to get onto this stupid ship." Grumbled Galaxy before she took a bite out of the sandwich. She gagged when she realized it was tuna. It took everything within her to not puke all over the table and swallow it.

"You paid full price?" Jim asked.

"Yeah. My savings are gone now to say the least. I have some insurance money left over so I won't be completely broke when we get to the colony." She said staring at her yogurt. Maybe if she put yogurt in the sandwich, it'd cover up the tuna.

Jim blinked. "Why didn't you go for a discount ticket?"

"Homestead might take more money from me that way, since they take a percentage of your paycheck on Homestead 2 right? It rubbed me the wrong way. They have enough money as it is..." She said before deciding to just dump the yogurt onto the sandwich.

Jim stared at her weirdly. What was she doing? "What are you doing?"

"I hate tuna so maybe this would cover it up..."

He smiled. "What are you, 9 years old? You're so picky."

The ravenette rolled her eyes. "29, thank you. I can't help that tuna makes me sick. It's all my family ate growing up." She took a bite. Ick. It was still gross, it was easier to chew and swallow though. But the bread was getting soggy. "Is it like this everyday?"

"Sometimes they have soup for lunch. They have different meals depending on the time of day."

"So I'm guessing that it's like McDonalds where you can't get breakfast after 11..." Galaxy said with a smile.

Jim laughed. "Exactly."

The woman noticed how nice the man's smile was and blushed a little. He was pretty cute. But then she realized... She didn't know his name! "Oh my god. I'm so sorry I didn't ask sooner but what's your name? I'm Dr. Galaxy Pepper."

Jim blinked. He knew her name already but then he realized something about her. "Dr... Pepper? Dr. Pepper."

Galaxy laughed. "Yes. That's my name... Laugh. It. Up. But at least tell who you are!"

Jim was still giggling at her name as she talked. He forgot how good it felt to talk to someone real. Arthur knew jokes but they were kind of stale and he never laughed at Jim's stories or jokes or little things like this. He looked over at Galaxy, who was staring at him patiently to tell her his name. "James Preston. Jim. Call me Jim."

"Ah... Normal name..."

Jim blinked. "What do you mean?"

"There's nothing wrong with your name so don't get mad. It's just funny when there's people with names like James, Tyler, Jennifer, Chris or Kevin... Because it makes stuff like mine sound even dumber than usual."

"Galaxy isn't dumb..." Jim defended. "It's... Unique."

"Uniquely dumb, maybe. It's okay, Jim. I learned to laugh at my name when I was in preschool. And had to get used to people making Dr. Pepper jokes when I became a doctor."

The man smiled and she smiled back. Galaxy wondered if maybe he thought she was a little cute as well. Then she shook her head. She just met him...

"Anyway. You know I'm a doctor. So, what do you do, Jim?"

He blinked. "Well, I'm an engineer."

"Niiiice." Galaxy said, though Jim wasn't sure if he was being made fun of. "Have you done anything big? Like design bridges or something?"

"Nah, they usually found someone more renowned than me." He shrugged, smiling lightly. "To be honest? I'm just a glorified mechanic at this point, and even that didn't get me a whole lot of work back on earth. Gave me time to read up on robotics and other things in the field... I won't bore you with details. It's fine."

Galaxy shook her head. "Even if you're not some big name fancy engineer... Not that I would know about that sort of thing, different fields and all, I still think it's pretty neat."

"Well being a doctor must be neat."

It was Galaxy's time to shrug. "A lot of it is mechanical now. We're only called in for surgeries where it might be too difficult for a machine. But we get some authority over it, I guess. Also we're more patient oriented, I guess." She smiled. "That's the part of my job I like. Helping people and making a connection... I hope my patients on earth found a suitable doctor that meets their needs. It's the most I can do besides giving them recommendations for other doctors. I can't exactly go back, it's been over a hundred years. I can help more people on Homestead 2, and maybe a little more personally since I'm not sure if they have all the equipment as earth does."

Jim froze. Shit. He needed to tell her now... "Dr. Pepper..."

"Oh, call me Galaxy! Or Gal... or Gala. Whatever does you best."

He swallowed. "Galaxy..."

"Yes?"

"I totally understand if this upsets you. I get it if you never want to speak to me again after this but..."

Galaxy narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about..."

Jim took a breath. "A year ago the ship malfunctioned or something and I woke up."

"That's... That's impossible. Surely they must've had plans for if this happened."

Jim shook his head. "No. They didn't."

Galaxy froze. Her heart stopped. "W-wait... So... you were by yourself for a year."

He nodded.

"You woke up before everyone then... And." Then it clicked. "W-wait. There's no one here. There's no one but is here. I haven't seen or heard anyone but you. W-what..."

Jim reached out gently and took her hands. "T-the ship had another malfunction today. Your pod was malfunctioning, you were going to die in the pod and..."

"So you woke me up." She said, pulling her hands away.

"Not on purpose. I was trying to fix your pod, restart it since the malfunction seemed to shut off everything but turned it back on. Yours was the only one to break."

"Jim..."

"It was freezing you. There was frost showing up immediately. You were awake or something, you were moving around inside and I couldn't just..."

Galaxy opened then closed her mouth. "Was... That why I looked so... Off before I cleaned myself up?"

Jim bit his lip. So she noticed how sick she was. "Y-yeah. I swear, I didn't. I didn't mean to wake you up. It was an accident..."

"...Jim. How... How long until we reach Homestead 2?"

He looked away then got up from his seat. "I can show you..."

xxxx

Jim watched as Galaxy collapsed onto the observatory floor like a sack of potatoes. His heart ached to see another human go through what he had. But at least it would be easy for her with him here. He wondered if he should hold her or if she didn't want to be touched. When he was in her situation, he longed for the touch of another person. He let out a small sigh and put his hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Galaxy."

"89 years..." Galaxy said, her voice shaky as if she was about to cry. Years welled up in her chocolate eyes. "89..."

Jim dropped down onto the floor and wrapped his arms around her and held her close as she began to sob.

xxxxxxxx