Jason Halstead - New Beginnings

Kira lay in the chamber, unable to see through the blurriness in her aching eyes. Her throat was dry and her chest felt heavy; each breath was an experience in swallowing razorblades. Kira tried to speak but barely managed a moan. It evolved into a weak attempt at coughing, and that upset her stomach and made her attempt to vomit. With nothing in her stomach, the dry heaves only left her aching and breathless. The only benefit from the process was that the tears watered her eyes enough to make her eyelids feel less like sandpaper.

Fighting the agony of muscles long gone unused, Kira forced one arm across, pulling the IV out of one arm then repeating the action with her other arm. The other necessary connections were removed, albeit slowly, before Kira faced the daunting task of needing to climb out of her chamber.

“ I can do this,” Kira whispered with a voice that was so weak that the pulse pounding in her ears nearly drowned it out. She reached up to the sides of the chamber and tried to pull herself up. She collapsed, having hardly moved. Fresh tears ran from her eyes down the sides of her face. “I’m not weak!” The rasp in her voice claimed otherwise.

Gathering her legs slowly in the cocoon she reached up and tried again. She managed to pull herself up enough to lean over the edge of the chamber, pinching the flesh in her armpit against the cool metal. The pain helped to focus her and distract her from the exhaustion that made colors dance in her vision. Kira gasped for breath, counting internally until more than a minute had passed, then she pulled her legs beneath her again and used them to help boost her over the edge.

Kira crashed to the cold metal floor. She felt needles and daggers stabbing her body inside and out. The pain was so great she blacked out for a moment, then came around with a gasp of air as though she had been drowning. She managed to roll over and lay there, the cool floor stealing what little warmth her body had managed to reclaim. She felt herself shiver, then she felt the hollow nausea she had come to associate with being so hungry her body was on the verge of malnutrition.

Still she lay on the floor, unable to comprehend the amount of effort it would take to move. Her breathing and heart eventually calmed to the point that she could hear little more than just herself. The faint background hum of the ships air filtration and recycling service provided her only auditory companion. She steeled herself, feeling sorry for the men trapped still in their tomb-like bunks. They’d once been so strong and filled with life, now they were shadows of themselves that required machinery to exist. To be reduced to something so powerless was terrifying. She knew that Emily, if she was still around, would be terrified of being in a situation like the one Kira found herself in.

For Kira it was miserable, but she was accustomed to being disadvantaged and without resources. Now she clung to one thing and one thing only: hope. Kira knew now who she was and who she had been. She knew that she had done incredible things, even if she had not been aware of it at the time. Most importantly she knew that if she could bend her mind to it, she could survive this too.

It was with that belief clutched desperately in her heart that Kira rolled on to her stomach and pulled her knees beneath her. She reached out, grabbing the hateful sleep chamber again, then managed to rise to one shaky leg and then the other. She bent over it, supporting herself with her arms and legs, and tried to will away the nausea and the shakes that threatened to pull her back to the metal floor.

Minutes passed before Kira felt the rubber in her legs turn to the electric pins and needles associated with the return of circulation. She realized her jaw was clenched only after the agony began to pass and her sinuses were burning with the effort of harsh breathing through the dried out passages. She dared to open her mouth, then slowly turned to look upon the other cold sleep chambers that lay beyond her. To get to them she would need to walk around hers, a task that seemed no less difficult than swimming the liquid methane oceans of Europa.

“ One squeeze of the trigger at a time,” Kira breathed. She paused, wondering where the expression had come from. It had to be a holdover from something Emily had picked up. She put it aside, realizing she was letting herself be distracted, and began to move around her chamber as carefully as she could.

She made it, though her entire body was numb with fatigue and she felt like blacking out would be a blessing. The next stage for her was in crossing the six feet of open space between her cocoon and Jeff’s. She gathered her strength and evened her breathing. Kira felt a deep ache in her head and neck, but she pushed it aside. Dehydration and fatigue, she suspected, but neither of which would help her crewmates.

Kira pushed herself off, moving slowly across the floor. She felt like she was balancing on a wire above a bottomless pit, with each footfall doomed to send her plunging. She gathered speed as she went, her legs burning with the effort, until she crashed into Jeff’s cocoon. She held on for dear life, fearing if she slid to the floor she might not get back to her feet.

As her heart began to settle she peered over the clear window, staring down at his shrunken chest and upper stomach. Seeing his body on display she remembered her own and could not help but glance down at herself. The prolonged stasis had robbed them all of both muscle and fat. Even her breasts, once something she’d taken a small token of pride in, seemed deflated and aged.

Kira mentally slapped herself, ‘No more distractions!’ She refocused on Jeff and studied both his sleeping body and the displays on the sleep chamber. He was alive but sleeping, the IVs continuing to pump nutrients into his body. She frowned, then regretted it for the cramp in her neck that ensued. His overall health score was still nearly thirty points from being high enough to initiate the automatic wakeup procedure. That must have meant hers had reached that level. Why then did she feel like she’d been run over by a military grade space frigate?

The ache in her body refused to abate, but the sharper pains faded into a numb background as Kira slowly checked on the rest of the tubes. They were at varying stages of recovery, with Tarn being the next closest to reaching the threshold. She had no idea how long it might take, but he only had five more points on the computer derived scale of wellness remaining. It could mean hours or days, for all she knew.

Kira staggered to a couch in the room and lowered herself carefully to it. The padding was thin and even sitting on it caused a puff of dust to arise. Nevertheless it felt heavenly to her. Before she knew it she had slid down further and fell asleep, succumbing to the exhaustion that claimed her.

Kira awoke to an insistent chime. She jolted her head up, looking around, and instantly regretted it. Pain blossomed in her mind, a holdover from the condition her body was in and the residual effects the drugs in her body had caused. She sat up, feeling certain she was going to be sick again, but several deep breaths allowed her to regain control of herself. She glanced around, finding a display and wondering how long she’d slept. She couldn’t remember noticing it before she’d fallen asleep, so it could have been minutes or hours.

The chime persisted, drawing a breathy groan from her. She warily climbed to her feet, startling herself at how cool the metal floor felt on her naked soles. That had to be a good sign, it meant her core temperature had risen.

After a few experimental steps she found her footing more stable. She glanced back at the closed sleeping tubes of the others then nodded to herself. Even if she could wake them up it would be hours, at best, before they would be able to do anything. More likely days if they felt like she had. She gathered herself together and set off through the ship. It wasn’t until she reached the bridge and moved to her station that she realized she had yet to think of putting any clothing on. She shrugged it away, the ship’s climate control system had adjusted the temperature to accommodate them before they awoke. The floor might be cool but at least there was no danger of her freezing.