YEAR UNKOWN.
The first thing I became aware of was the ringing, not like a holo call, more like the description given to shell shock, my mind felt like it was under a heavy smog, darkness being the only other thing I could comprehend, the intensity of the perceived noise waining I could feel something warm begin to cover my body slowly.
The sensation of a watery substance running down against me became apparent, the fog of my mind clearing just a little, the memory of my cryo injections coming to the forefront of my mind it hung there, I realized I couldn't feel the drugs coursing through my veins, had something gone wrong I thought to myself.
a more direct blast of the warm water hit my eyes, I could feel the pressure against my eyelids, and red light became apparent, I squinted and slowly managed to open my eyes, skin and a mucus like substance being washed away, a small moment of panic I hadn't been told about this, it wasn't listed in the effects of the freezing, at least not that I had known, more water hit against my face and the mucus finally cracked away and washed clean, the red light came clear now, it was from the overhead emergency lights pulsing gently, it struck me that I should be able to hear an alarm if there was an emergency, I started to go through the muscle stimulation excersize we trained in that were inlaid to the metal on the right side of my small viewport, tensing small clusters of muscles as best I can starting with core muscles and working to extremities, i could feel my brain pick up pace, an odd experience not unlike recovering from a heavy hit to the head.
dizziness clearing the ringing finally stop, I could hear a distant noise unable to place it to a memory, I put it down to cryo sleep having affected my recall, I could remember that it might take 10-20 minutes for full cognitive recall in some cases, most recovering in 5 from a short two year stint this was knowledge the lone wakers were drilled in, our duty once awake to begin the process for our secure zones, assuring others and helping them through the process, skilled workers and civilian sector colonists, although still skilled making up the bulk of each cryo group, the red light was odd, tho my brain attempted to follow that train of thought it faded out as sharp cramping pains hit me when I began to tense my extremities, the warm liquid near my feet had stopped circulating, and it drained away to some unknown area likely to be used in the process of waking others if my memory was serving correctly.
the pain having faded I reached for my release on either side of the door, both mechanical and digital options available to me I tried the digital, but the menu would not load, as I pressed in with my thumbs on the two mechanical releases a hiss escaped and I felt a cold breeze hit me, the noise became more apparent as the door split and slid to either side, the state of the ready area struck me.
a sharp breath, shock and adrenaline flooding my system, half of the pods across from me looked to be cleanly sliced In half, the red light in the room from the emergency lighting made sense now something had happened something was terribly wrong, anti panic training kicked in, my courses in threat assessment kicking in, no apparent danger before me I stepped up the half foot onto the deck before me and reached for my ready locker above the pod, pulling out my mesh suit, they worked like coveralls but tightened to you with the press of a button, i stepped into them almost falling over a few times in the process, my balance still not fully recovered.
my brain attempting to stay on a one track feature to avoid panic, I eventually got both legs in and my arms through, I pressed the badge over my breast and the suit pulled tight where was needed, the soles hardened as an electrical current passed through the suit, basic protection and clothing achieved, the matierial; stab and scratch resistant by nature, and built to ensure comfort in varying degrees of cold and hot, finally I took a look around the rest of the room, part of the main hatchway and seventeen out of twenty cryo pods with varying degrees of damage, only the two pods next to mine showed any signs of being in working order, a small green light displaying cryo sleep engaged, I looked closer at the damage.
slightly melted edges in areas but mostly like a giant clean cut that had resealed as it went, I was unable to comprehend what had caused something like that, although we had advanced massively in a short span of time I wasn't aware of any weapons with the power to cause this damage, or any tools that might have either, I slapped the cryo disengage buttons on the two remaining pods, only for the digital display to fail yet again.
I turned the override switches manually, the pod of my second the only one to respond, it belonged to James walker, a bio engineer, I learned from the printed readout stuck on the display, I recall having briefly met him as we boarded, a young man like myself picked at random to be woken in the case my pod failed to wake me, as his awakening process began I tried the override switch on the other pod again but nothing happened, I checked for signs of damage and found further damage beneath the pod, something having sliced under the pod and out the wall behind it, a cold shiver hit me as I realized I had been inches away from sharing this fate.
As Jame's pod began to administer its wake up protocol I headed to the main storage locker, and touching the display was thankful when it sprang to life, I punched in our chambers authorization code and the magnetic lock disabled, it appears some things still have power, inside the majority of the space as taken by our ready bags, the small allotment of clothing and personals we could bring, another section held vac helmets and rations, a few water recyclers, and com pins for short wave communication, all things possibly needed in the event of an emergency, it crossed my mind to search for the security locker once James was awake, damage like that could have been caused by something rather than an accident, and that noise I kept hearing in the distance made a little more sense to me now, I pictured a laser of some kind and the sound of metal and carbon being destroyed in sporadic Bursts, conjurations from the movies I watched growing up, I finally gathered the courage to check the other pods more thoroughly to no suprise it looked 100% positive that no one could have survived the damages to the pods. I was only glad that whatever had damaged them had resealed them,as it passed through, sparing me the gore id likely find inside, I pulled more equipment free for James and readied his mesh suit, he'd be awake soon I hoped.
When the cycle completed I pressed the release for the doors to his pod, "James" I called "I am Conan, your coming out of cryo sleep aboard the Atlantis", I reached out and wiped the mucus leftover around his eyes, noticing dead skin come away from his eyes too, blearily he opened them gazing up at me, he began to consciously work his muscles, after a moment he mumbled out, "why is there mucus there isn't supposed to be mucus on a trip this short", What do you mean? I asked he slowly looked up at me again, Im a bio engineer we are trained to run repairs on these if needed, a mucus layer this thick hasn't been seen before.
even the reports from the 10 year freeze colonists at REM minor had barely the start of a mucus freeze, something like what we had would mean we have been frozen for years and years beyond our goal" his voice trailed off slowly to the end.
I dropped back to the bench behind me, realization striking me that things were worse still than I had thought, logic began to assert itself we needed information, to find out what had happened.
After James had dressed himself, I passed him a vac helmet and a bag packed with what was useful to us, myself carrying an identical copy. "we need to reach the security locker at the end of this deck I have authorization for it, something happened to these pods a laser of some kind I imagine, you can hear one in the distance every now and then". " Sounds good " he said I could see him clenching both fists, the paleness from blood being pushed away, at least he was holding together so far, I twisted the door securement only one side twisting out of its lock, the other having been burned out and melted back together by the laser as it cut through that side of the room, I gave a heavy push only for a creak, and nothing, "Damn " I muttered stepping back, I front kicked the side that had been released and it pushed outward just enough distance for us to squeeze through, cracking and fracturing noise of brittle metal from the door, I peaked my head out expecting devastation, but all that greeted me was stillness inter spread with open chamber doors and a sporadic laser damage.