Chapter 1: Awoken

3472, 047 Rain Tide Moon Season, Audun

I woke to the sound of a siren blaring from somewhere nearby. I rolled over, my arm groping clumsily around my body, searching for my straying pillow to block out the noise. When I could not locate the cushion I gave in and attempted to open my eyes.

I groaned and shut them once more in an attempt to protect them from the offensive light shining throughout the room. I took a few deep breaths before slowly cracking them open to peer through narrowed slits at the room around me. I did not recognize the room nor remember how I got there. I was not surprised, this had become somewhat of the norm for me. I slowly rose into a sitting position and placed my feet on the ground before recoiling in shock. The floor was cold! Why was the floor cold? Was there a malfunction in the system? No... there would have been an announcement. Were my thermal regulating socks not working anymore? Did I forgotten to charge them? No... thats not it either, I remember charging them a least two nights ago. My thought process was a mess, I attempted to reign them in a bit; one question at a time. First things first. What happened last night? I thought hard, trying to remember my actions from the previous 24 hours.

This was the first night that I hadn't gone out on another of my gambling joints in a while now. Yah, I know its against the law to indulge in any of those so called "sins" but who cares. I mean, its not like I'm going to be here much longer anyways. The execs were already onto me anyways. They knew I knew more than I should. Execs talk more when they're drunk. They don't like me very much since I have a reputation for always being locked up when sunday mornings roll 'round.

I was jolted from my thoughts when I heard a loud banging on the door of my shared domicile. There was a shuffling of feet, and the sound of a door opening. I started to tune out the sounds before I heard thudding footsteps come towards my door. Before I could go to open it, it was wrenched open by a giant, burly man. Crap. It was an exec, in full uniform, he was, to say the least, intimidating. "Are you Acda?" his voice was just as gruff sounding as he looked. I nodded quickly, not wanting to make this man any more angry than he already was.

He marched towards my shaking form before grabbing me by the arm and wrenching me out of the room, ignoring all of my complaints and protests. When I refused to shut up, I saw him reach into a pouch on his hip and grab a syringe. My eyes widened considerably before my struggles increased tenfold. To no avail as he jabbed the needle into the side of my neck.

As he hauled me through the maze of hallways, I slowly realized where we were headed. Double crap, I jinxed it! This was it. My last day left on this hell-ship. I should be glad, but regrettably, my emotions were leaning more towards terror and nausea than rejoice.

I felt my mind slowly slip into a hazy state, the powerful sedative slowly taking its toll on my mind and body. I barely registered it when the exec sighed and hauled me over his shoulder. Not caring if the butt of the gun strapped across his back hit me in the face in the process. After that everything came in blurry bits and pieces.

I faintly remember being placed on a gurney before being rolled through a pair of swinging doors and into a room filled with people wearing doctor clothing. I fainted after that but can still recall a few whispers and a searing pain in my hip. The whispers rang through my mind, I was confused. The doctors were confused. They were whispering of alzheimer's and alcohol. Sure I drank, but enough to cause alzheimers? I doubt it. I probably just heard wrong. I tried to raise my head to ask what was wrong but as soon as I tried the whispering stopped and I felt, dejectedly, another needle being stabbed into my arm. After that was a shuttlepod then darkness.

Oh. So that's what happened. I reached down and gingerly prodded my thigh feeling for any damage. I winced when my fingers grazed over a swollen bump in my thigh. I looked and saw a bruise the size and color of a plum around a raised lump on the side of my thigh, every few seconds a little red light would flash just below the surface of my skin. Grabbing the edge of my cotton shirt I ripped of a strip to make a crude bandage in an attempt to cover the disconcerting light in my leg.

Now that I knew what happened it was time to figure out where I was. I looked around, taking in my surroundings. I was sitting on a cot that sat amongst what appeared to be an unfolded pod. The pod itself was sitting in a moldy smelling, stone room that was missing a ceiling and covered in debris. Alright, that cleared things up a bit. There would never be debris on the mothership, it would be considered hazardous. That meant that there was only one other place I could be, the abandoned planet of Audun.