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.

The Thaw

I woke up.

Tried to stretch my arms... they crackled with the icy coating all over them. Hands bumped the walls of the tank... ouch! Too hot, better let everything cool down.

But I was awake. I was warm, too. Getting warmer. Hot, even. I was disoriented, naturally. Hibernation does that to you. Hotter... the air was in flames! I tried to loosen my collar... my arm moved slowly, and cramped. It tingled with pain. A solid lump stood up from my tricep. Egad, the pain! My fingers scratched at my collar, but that was useless. Hibernation suits were too tight, and it was frozen to my chest anyway.

Frozen.

The heat was unbearable, I fell asleep. Blacked out? Awake again, I could open my eyes now. The frost was gone but it was hot as hell. Temperature gague read 278 Kelvin.

The walls burnt my hands, too damn hot! Was there a fire out there? I saw someone being carried out of a hibernation tank out the little window on the corridor. They were having trouble getting him onto the stretcher. He looked in bad shape, twitching all over the place and all curled up. He was white as milk, and was squinting against the heat. Heat? I read the little display next to the window. Outside temperature was 289 Kelvin, that was really cold! I tried to shift position... all my limbs cramped up at once! I arched my back and bit back a scream of agony... I wasn't ready to move.

It all started coming back to me.

This was a colony ship. Jesus, how long had it been? I worked my jaw, my tongue massaged it's way around my mouth. I got some moisture into everything... gawd, I felt like crap. A monstorous headache was sweeping across my temples, it nearly blinded me! No, that was just the lights. Someone was turning on something really bright out there. Gah! Bright as a floodlight!

I turned my head. My neck protested but that light was burning it's way through the lids, I couldn't stand it. The soft green glow of the tank was soothing. I didn't want to look at any bright lights for awhile.

I saw a small condition readout next to my head. Circulation was going... apparently one of my legs had suffered tissue damage during freezing. No, my whole left side had suffered tissue damage. What the hell happened? Not good news and if I was thawing it meant we had reached our destination. Would I be walking with a limp when I first stepped out on a new world?

Actually, we didn't have a destination. Not a specific one. We were to find a yellow dwarf star with a habitable planet circling it. We were given seven canidates for habitability. The tour could, at worst, take three thousand years. So said the astronomers.

My headache pounded. My legs didn't throb too bad if I just curled them up a little... I was a solid chunk of cramp, from ankles to jawline. My calves had little mounds of knotted tissue sticking out. What an awful cramp! I was exhausted already. Fell into a fitful sleep.

I heard a whooshing noise... I tried to open my eyes but they were glued shut again. I couldn't move at all... I was numb and tingly all over. So tingly it hurt, like everything was waking up again. Someone was carrying me on a stretcher, I think. Eventually they halted, opened another door, and set me down on a cot. When I could finally open my eyes again I was in a mercifully dark room. A pair of sleeper techs were walking out, they shut the door behind them. Still hot! Arrgh, couldn't they turn it down a bit? My limbs were starting to wake up again, but I almost didn't want them to.

I wondered breifly how I was moving any muscle at all at my temperature. After a while I figured it out. They had gone the quicky route.

My genes had been altered somewhat to cope with long term hibernation, but that didn't make it any walk in the park. If you want to be safe about waking a guy up it takes a week at least. If you want him up faster, you have to inject a warming agent straight into the muscles, organs and brain.

It's risky, but you can get a guy up and sipping cocoa in three days.

It had been tested earthside, you had a 3% chance, give or take, of killing someone however you ran it. That figure shot up to something like 15% when you used the drugs and the warming agent.

The bastards.

I slowly uncurled and massaged my poor, tortured limbs. When I could lay flat again on the bed, I tried to get some sleep.

I don't know how long it took, but eventually sleep took me. What a ride.