Orpheus

11

Unbuckling, the crew began making their way to Sector 2: The sickbay. Riley could hear Olivia groan; she turned to see her hunching forward.

"Hey Olivia, you good?" She asked.

"Urghhhh, gimme a minute..." Olivia replied.

"Well, we have to head to the sickbay anyways. Lean on me."

They all ditched their spacesuits and left them at the Intersect, before beginning the climb down the tunnel to the sickbay.

"That's a looooong way down..." Pratham commented.

"The tunnels are hundreds of feet long." Connor added.

"Now why would they do that?" Olivia asked.

Connor responded. "One, cause this would allow each Sector to be huge, and two, only a small rotation would be enough for artificial gravity; save some fuel."

"You know we could have bungee jumped down there." Owen joked. "Used the cables up in the Intersect to do so."

"We're halfway down and now he tells us!" Pratham exclaimed. Everybody gave a few chuckles. Riley smiled; they may be alone, but they had each other right?

After eight minutes they reached the bottom; the sickbay.

The sickbay was a large room, with enough cryopods for each of the crew members. There was an open space at the center, where an operating table could be set up.

"Listen," Connor spoke up. "We do as planned: four of us remain in cryo at a time, while two stay awake in order to maintain the ship."

"Wouldn't want to go out of orbit now do we?" Owen interjected.

Connor, after giving a slight glare at Owen, continued. "Now, only three of us really need to stay awake; Riley, to complete all the pre-requisite procedures before we take the population bombs, Owen, to check on and maintain the trajectory, and me, to ensure that Owen doesn't mess up. We do this in rotations; first, Riley and I stay up while Owen goes under, then Owen wakes up and I go under, finally I wake and Riley goes under. We each will have to be awake say a month or two at a time. Clear?"

"Not clear." Elise interjected. "Months of isolation won't do anybody any good. I say we all stay awake."

"You're not thinking objectively." Connor replied monotonously. "We need to conserve resources. Having you all awake would expend it faster."

"Then we all do it alternatively." Olivia pitched "Two people at a time, for two weeks. That way everyone gets to cryo, and the amount of resources used will be the same."

There were murmurs of agreement.

"Right then," Connor continued, a slight hint of irritation in his voice "Me and Owen stay up first. Rest of you: get ready to go under."

-

Riley changed into the thin disposable clothes that she was going to have to wear while under cryo. She didn't like them very much; the papery material rubbed against her skin. The fact that it made her look like a patient straight out of the operation theatre didn't help matters.

She at first walked over to the window and looked at the Earth, now just a blue drop on a black canvas, the sun a tennis ball.

It seemed to call her, the planet.

'Take a good look Riley. This is the last time you see her.'

She glanced at her side and saw that the others were doing the same thing. She quietly slipped away from the group and walked over to the cryo capsule. The longer she gazed at the Earth, the more it'd hurt.

"Hey" Riley found Owen beside her "Off early?"

Riley nodded. Owen didn't wait for a reply "Well I talked to Connor; you wake in about four weeks and do a two-week shift with me."

"Me and you?" She asked for confirmation.

"You and me, Riles." Owen made a tsk-tsk sound. "Grammar."

"Sorry!" She said in feigned shock, before playfully face-palming.

"Also, brace yourself for the fluid. I almost pissed myself in training when I was first hit by it."

Riley didn't know of Owen was being serious or not. "I will... keep that in mind?"

Owen gave him a toothy grin before he walked back to the glass. Riley turned around to the cryopod; the metallic cradle inside glistening. She gulped down the sleeping tablet kept by the pod and got it. By the time she lay down and hit the close button, she was already feeling light-headed. The pod whirred as the glass door closed above. She could also hear the hissing sound of liquid being dispensed. The temperature inside seemed to be dropping a few degrees every second and now her vision was swooning.

'If something happens and this the last time I wake, I don't want the last thing I see to be the ceiling lights.'

That was all she could think before the icy cold fluid hit her and her vision began fuzzing out. She thought she saw Owen's face, smiling down at her, before she sank into darkness.