Humanity used to reside in the Sol star system many generations ago, in an era where trans-planetary travel was only possible in the realm of fiction. On a small planet named Earth, human life grew and evolved until one day, the hubris and shortsightedness of man caused the Earth to go to ruin.
To ensure humanity's survival, and after the failed terraforming of a neighbouring planet, travel to a whole new solar system was decided upon after the discovery of a similar solar system aptly dubbed 'SOL-2'.
Since Faster-Than-Light (FTL) travel was deemed impossible due to humanity's technological limitations, a new facet of technology that once was also considered fully fictional was developed to ensure humanity's journey to the SOL-2 system was possible.
Cryogenics.
With the help of cryogenic technology and organised and planned by the masterminds in the Central Ship Alliance (CSA), the journey to SOL-2 was long and complicated, but in the end, humanity managed to arrive safely at the new solar system to start their lives anew.
Humanity's new era in a new solar system was not all smooth sailing, however, as a significant portion of the generation that arrived at 'SOL-2' longed for life with 'real gravity', and after much protesting, the CSA relented and started the Terraforming Council (TFC) to work with the protestors to create colonies on several of the other planets in SOL-2 after they had been terraformed to support human life.
Though there are now several colonies in planets such as Chariot, Malevolent, and even Kliff on the edge of SOL-2, because of their lesser-than-friendly living conditions, most of humanity decided to keep living their lives in cryo-, and colony-ships like the Maxo's Lightbringer.
However, not all is lost, as part of the reason why SOL-2 was chosen to be humanity's new solar system home was because of the existence of Kor.
Kor, the third planet of the SOL-2 system, is an almost identical sister planet of the historic Earth, and for the last three hundred years, the Kor Terraform Effort (KTE) has slowly and safely moulded the alien planet to be closer to the planet that used to be our ancestors' home.
Though the KTE is scheduled to continue for at least another couple thousand years, we long and work for the day when we, as a species, can finally touch down on Kor, a home a million, million lightyears away from our original home, and for humanity to enter a new golden era…
***
The virtual orientation show continued to explain the role of the Maxo's Lightbringer as a cryo-ship that was currently orbiting around Kaseo Station, and Jafferson was forced to watch the whole show.
His conflicting memories didn't help him in the orientation. Whoever he was that had memories of Earth, yet couldn't remember his name or the names of his parents and friends, struggled to accept the new truth of his existence. While, whoever Jafferson Palmount was before the incursion, seemed to accept the information from the virtual orientation show quite easily. He did, in fact, live through the last few days of Earth before the journey to SOL-2 after all.
Once the show finished, everybody in the batch took off their headsets. Dexta whistled next to him.
"No matter how man' time I seen it, still amazing," the man grinned to himself, "whaseyou, Jafferson?"
Jafferson didn't recognise what Dexta was trying to say so after a small delay, he finally mumbled, "Y-yeah, it's cool I guess."
Jafferson glanced around the room at the other people from the batch as they started to stretch and he saw the broad-shouldered man glaring at him from his pod. Jafferson's throat dried up and he cleared his throat.
The woman who looked through his information, R. Molwerk, stepped up to the podium at the front of the room and cleared her throat to get the attention of the batch people.
"Alright, now that you all have had your memories refreshed after defrosting, it's time for the most important piece of technology that you all be receiving," R. Molwerk spoke clearly and carefully, her voice light and refreshing to Jafferson as he placed his full attention to her, "In a moment, you all will be led, once again, one by one to the next section of the orientation and you will be gifted with your own Neuro-HUD implant — N-HUD for short."
A random woman from the other side of the room called out, her voice shaking with worry.
"Will it hurt?"
R. Molwerk gave the woman a soft, kind smile, "Don't worry, you'll all be anaesthetised so you won't feel a thing. It'll just feel a little numb for a while like when you were defrosted."
She turned to the rest of the batch and continued professionally, "Now, once your N-HUDs are installed, you'll be led to a different section of the ship to get used to the implant. Some people struggle with using it at first, but soon enough, it'll be as natural as breathing to you. It's important to take your time though, the last thing we want is for you to rush through the process and hurt yourself, so don't feel pressured to leave the next room in the orientation until you're up for it."
She swiped at nothing in front of her before calling out the first few names of the batch to get their N-HUD implants.
While R. Molwerk stayed at the front of the room and called out names three at a time, other staff members directed the others in the batch to the next section of the orientation process. Jafferson didn't know how much time had passed, but at some point, Dexta's name was called up.
"Ye!" Dexta exclaimed. He patted Jafferson's back as he walked past and grinned at him, "See you on the other side, frein!"
Jafferson watched the man walk excitedly past R. Molwerk towards another staff member, but then Jafferson realised that R. Molwerk was looking at him.
They silently clocked that they were looking at each other and she gave him a cheeky smile.
Back in his life on Earth, Jafferson wasn't completely inept at social cues and managed to find himself in a few serious relationships. He remembered that he wasn't ugly in any sense of the word, but he had never experienced a woman who was so straightforward with her interest in him like this R. Molwerk.
He tried to remember his previous relationships and started to feel a hollow sense of dread when he realised that he couldn't remember anything about the women he went out with. Like the old memories of his parents from Earth, he couldn't picture their faces at all.
After a while, it took Jafferson a couple of minutes to realise that his name was one of the ones she called out next. It wasn't until everyone who was left in the room turned to him and watched him that he snapped out of his stupor and awkwardly jumped up out of the pod.
They had been sitting in their pods for quite a while and Jafferson's legs had fallen asleep while he sat. He managed to save himself from fully collapsing in front of everyone, but he could hear some snickers when he straightened himself when the strength came back to his legs.
He awkwardly walked in R. Molwerk's direction towards the other staff members. Molwerk watched him closely with a cute smile on her face. She whispered to him as he walked right past her.
"Don't worry, you're still adorable."
Jafferson's face reddened, though it was less from the embarrassment this time.
The other staff members led him through another identical, cramped hallway, to a pretty spacious room. It was hexagonal and in the middle of the room, there was a metal bed positioned next to a huge machine that was connected from floor to ceiling.
Stood nearby, were three staff members. They were all dressed in a somewhat sci-fi, medical garb, and welcomed Jafferson in closer.
They calmly instructed him to lie down on the metal bed. He screamed internally when he recognised the metal bed as some sort of futuristic mishmash of a gurney and a massage table, complete with a section cut out at the head of the bed so that he could lie down on his stomach and face directly to the floor.
The dichotomy of identities from the conflicting memories kept him frozen on the spot as one part of him looked around for a way out of the situation he found himself in, while the calm acceptance that came from the other memories —the Jafferson Palmount who was native to this reality — kept him from running away.
"Come on man, we don't have a lot of time!" the older man who seemed to be the leader of the staff members berated him.
Jafferson gulped as he accepted that there was no escaping from his current situation. He finally decided to trust in the memories of the native Jafferson Palmount as it was adamant that this was all normal procedure, and slowly made his way towards the metal table.
He carefully laid down on the metal bed on his stomach and stared wide-eyed at the floor in front of him. He could see the feet of the staff members as they chatted calmly amongst themselves as they started the procedure.
"Anaesthetic," the older man said.
There was no verbal response, but a pair of feet disappeared out of his vision before returning soon after.
"Now, try not to move, but this might pinch a little." The man said as a short, sharp sensation pricked at the base of Jafferson's neck.