What happened?

Despite all my best efforts, consciousness reasserted itself.

First were the muscle aches. I ached all over, my poor, poor arms and legs were bunched and knotted and tense. I felt as if they would come unraveled and fall off if I moved them too much.

My breathing was labored, my throat was so sore. I had had an oxygen mask in the tank for the thawing process, but now that was gone and I was breathing the ambient air. Gaak! Stale air. Smelled like it had been in this can for centuries, and it probably had. How long had it been? No one was saying anything.

And there was no coffee. What fate had befallen this poor ship if there was no coffee to be had? My hopes of seeing our new home fell further.

The gal that brought the food looked pale and drawn herself. Not as though she had just been thawed, but not exactly healthy, either. She looked like someone who was used to being that little bit fat, but hadn't had the luxury of late. Her hair was the most startling thing. Above her rather form-fitting vacuum suit her head was a flaming, bright red!

She was a welcome sight, actually. It meant that someone was alive and things hadn't gone so completely to hell that the computer had to wake everyone up. I had figured out, though, that they needed me for something bad.

The other cryo tech was a tall, dark and bearded man. I only saw him once, and that was when he came in and whispered something in the woman's ear when she brought me food. His eyes kept flickering in my direction. he had a slightly dazed look about him. No one was speaking to me, but I understood.

Something went SNAFU and the frozen colonists were their only way out. Wonderful. How many personnel had they lost? Were the engineering crew all dead? I was the best engineer on the ship, I could handle probably any piece of equipment they threw at me. I understood perfectly how the mass driver worked. I specialized in nuclear power, however.

No one was going to tell me anything until I was in shape to handle it. I waited, and ate the food they brought me. It was sixty hours after they hit the thaw button that the girl finally came in, a look of determination on her face.

I sat up with a grunt, and tried to look attentive. Truth was, I was tired, sore, and completely useless to anyone, but I always try to make a good impression.

"We need your help."

For the first time I tried speaking. I was going to say "That's obvious." to give an impression that I was on top of the situation already. Tried, and failed. All I managed to croak out was "Yeh?"

"We hit a dust cloud. Some larger particles penetrated the hull, we were going too near the speed of light. The dust was vaporized on impact, but polished the whole back end of the ship, and took out all our instruments."

"Th... the back?"

"We're decelerating."

"Oh. You... uh, sure the engine is running?"

"Well, we're not floating, are we?" She tried to smile and laugh. All that came out was a sort of grunt.

"Okay. So everything's working." I was still groggy. Not entirely sure what they wanted yet. I had an inkling, but... "Don't you spacers have an engineering crew? I mean, there were eighty of you when we started out, right?" It was too much talking at once, I went into a coughing fit. I only succeeded in making my throat even more raw. Dammit, I sounded like a frog, too.

Tears welled up in her eyes. I reeled. Just how bad was this damn dust cloud we had run through? The engine was running, fine. There was air to breathe, fine. Where were the crew?

"Look, we just need you to take a look and make sure that we can safely restart the engine when we shut it down at the planet."

Of course, they would shut everything down, go into orbit for a few months and scope out the planet. All planned for.

I sighed "How many of you are left?"

The tall one stepped out of the shadows. I hadn't noticed him there.

He said, "Twelve. The... the freezer crew. We were up here checking the level twelve tanks when the storm hit. The lower sections were all decompressed."

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ. The whole goddamn crew dead and they were ressurecting a wooly mammoth to make sure the engine would turn over. How many dead? I just flopped back on the cot they'd given me.

"We're looking for survivors" piped up the girl. "You know, rooms that might have held air."

"Uh-huh." was all I managed to say. Then it hit me. They were all family. It had doubtless been generations since we left Sol, even if there were hundreds of them by now they would all have been a close-knit family unit. Lose a guy and everybody greives.

I was also a total outsider to people that had only known family all their lives. Would they resent that their whole existence was dedicated to the survival of thirty thousand popsicles?

I had to know. "How long?"

The girl started to say something, the man interrupted, "Three hundred forty two years, a lot longer back on Earth. Someone did the math, once. I forget just how long. Relativity, you know." She looked lost, now. He looked like he was facing a dirty job that he just wanted to get done.

"Look," he said, "Take a look, tell us what needs fixing and how many men you'll need. The engine's still running so it can't be that bad. When you're done we'll just freeze you up again. We've got the equipment for that."

I knew why, too. Convenient way to get rid of a liability. Frozen, you're not much trouble to anyone.

Frozen, /I/ wouldn't be any trouble.

They left it at that. I tried to eat some of their food, but I couldn't swallow. I was stronger, though. I tried to get my arms, at least, into working condition. They were bruised and looked a little shriveled and undermuscled. The freezer is hard on a body.