authors note: AHHHHH I THOUGHT I POSTED THIS WHEN I UPDATED ON ALL MY OTHER SITES IM OSRRY! so you guys get two updates ^^ thank you for your nice review (thoguh im not sure if one of them was nice?). ill explain some stuff in my other chapter but please enjoy!

Galaxy laid in her bed, staring at the smooth greyish plastic ceiling above her bed. Her eyes were stinging from crying earlier and now they were hurting because she rarely blinked as she laid there. She wasn't sure what to do to process this. There were five stages of grief. She wasn't even sure what stage she was on.

"This can't be happening." Was a thought she had, but feeling Jim's strong arms around her and smelling his cologne and realizing that she could even taste it he was so close kind of cemented that this was real. It wasn't a messed up dream she was having while in her pod. Did people dream in cryogenic sleep? Dreams only show up in the last hours before you wake up anyway. It wouldn't make sense.

She was past denial anyway. This was real and it was happening.

The woman felt too empty to feel anger. Who would she even be mad at? Herself for buying the stupid ticket on this stupid ship and leaving her life and patients behind? Homestead for getting into the colonizing business and selling these stupid tickets? Homestead for not creating better quality pods that could stand up to ANYTHING?

She rolled onto her side and faced the wall her bed was against. Then a hologram popped up on the wall. It was Jim, looking nervous.

"Hey. Just checking up on you. Was wondering if you wanted to come with me to the cafeteria. Only if you're feeling up to it." He said, looking away from the camera on the door. He gave a soft smile. "If you ever need to talk, I'm here. I know it's a crazy situation and I'm sorry that someone else has to live with it. But I'll do my best to help you, only if you need it. I'll be waiting in the cafeteria, it's cool if you don't come though."

Galaxy smiled before tapping on the hologram, which opened up the door to the room. She say up and wiped her eyes and saw Jim standing outside, looking surprised.

"Hey." She said, sniffling a little but she still smiled.

"Hey... How're you doing?"

Galaxy shrugged before telling him to come inside. "I'm just... Not sure how to feel."

Jim walked into the room and leaned against the wall across from the bed. "I get that. I wasn't sure how I felt at first when I realized what happened."

"I'm just... You were alone for a year, you said?" Galaxy asked before scooching over to the side a bit and patting the mattress beside her.

He nodded before hesitantly moving over to the bed and sitting beside her. "A little over a year, yeah."

"How did you do it...? I mean, I'm sure even extreme introverts wouldn't fare too well if it was a year. This place is so big and empty. It just... Reminds you of how alone you are. Sorry if I'm rubbing it in."

The man shrugged. "Wish I could tell you. I didn't do very well in the beginning when I realized what was happening..."

"Did it get better?"

"For a little while..."

Galaxy leaned in closer. "How so?"

Jim blushed when he saw how close she was now. It felt more intense than when he hugged her yesterday. "I-I... Well... My friend Arthur. Wait. You haven't met him, do you want to see him?"

Galaxy's warm eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. His friend? Another person? "Is there someone else?"

Jim blinked. "Oh no, I'm so sorry. I... He's a robot. He was the only other thing that could really... Talk to me here. I don't know how I would've managed if I didn't have him, probably way worse than I did."

Galaxy nodded. She wondered if Jim had built Arthur, he did mention reading up on robotics. It wouldn't be unusual or weird for someone to create another 'person' if they were lonely. Or maybe Arthur was just a part of the ship. Either way, it would be a good idea to get out of the doom and gloom room for a bit. "Sure. Show me."

Jim smiled. "Great, he's in the bar."

xxxxxx

Arthur was indeed part of the ship. Even if Galaxy was impressed by Jim's engineering background, she kind of doubted that he could create something this sophisticated. At least, not without a degree specially for robotics. And programming. And special effects for movies.

Arthur looked just like a person. His skin looked like actual skin. His movements didn't sound mechanical, well except when he moved his entire body. It was startling when Galaxy saw that Arthur had such a realistic body from the waist up only to have a tripod with wheels for a lower half. She couldn't help but wonder if Homestead blew their budget on the robot's top part. They even went through the trouble of making sure Arthur didn't look creepy like the usual realistic androids at kids restaurants that sang songs. Or the singing virtual idols that they didn't look like an anime character.

"Who is this lovely woman, Jim?"

Galaxy blinked when he spoke. He even sounded like a person! No strange echo or weird tones. Homestead really put their all into this bartending bot!

"Galaxy? Galaxy... Are you there?"

The woman blinked. "Oh! S-sorry. Yeah, I'm Dr. Galaxy Pepper." She even added a little bow. "It's nice to meet you."

Arthur let out a small laugh. "It's a pleasure, Dr. Pepper. What is your preferred drink?"

Galaxy shrugged before going to sit down at the bar next to Jim. "I'm. I'm not sure, I never drank that much beyond coolers or beer at get togethers." She laughed softly before putting her hands on the bar and leant in. "Surprise me!"

Jim blinked. She was 29 and didn't have a favorite yet?

Arthur chuckled and nodded. "Should I 'surprise you' every time you come in?" He asked as he poured Jim's whiskey and passed him his glass.

Galaxy laughed once again. "Sure! Until we find the perfect poison, I guess!"

Jim smiled softly to himself as he took a sip of his drink and felt the burn rush down his throat. He watched Galaxy smile and laugh, noticing how her eyes would sparkle and how they looked more topaz in the light of the bar. She looked so much better now than she did when he checked up on her. Even if it was hard when it was just him and Arthur, Jim knew he had to try to help Galaxy adjust. No one deserved to go through what he did.

Galaxy's eyes lit up when a tall glass filled with bright orange, yellow and red liquid. It reminded her of a sunrise. "A Malibu cocktail, it's a rum flavoured with liquer mixed with cranberry juice and pineapple juice. It might be a tad strong at first."

"This looks amazing! I'll try to keep that in mind though. I have to use the little girl's room, can you point me in the right direction?" She asked, getting up from her seat.

Jim pointed slightly behind and beside him. "Hallway in the corner of the room by the bar. Can't miss it."

She smiled. "Thanks. I'll be quick."

As she left, Arthur stole a glance at the man in front of her. "I noticed that that's not the woman you've been talking about for the past few weeks. Did you decide."

Jim shook his head. "No, no. There... There was a malfunction and it affected her pod, it was going to freeze her to death and I hoped I could manually restart it and it'd go back to normal. Since I saw the other pods go back to normal after the power went out. But I accidentally woke her up..."

"And she's aware of this?"

"Yeah, I told her as soon as I ran into her after she woke up. She kind of took it hard, so let's try to support her the best we could."

"Understood."

"One more thing, Arthur..."

The android looked up from wiping his glass. "Yes?"

Jim cleared his throat, noticing that Galaxy was coming back into the room, he lowered his voice. "Try not to mention Aurora, ok? I don't want her to think I woke her up on purpose because I was talking about waking up someone else."

Arthur nodded.

"Understood."