WAKE UP
Just a second after feeling his consciousness sleep away, better described as stopped being conscious of him and his surroundings, he recovered his view of the cryogenic fluid, liquid all around him. If it were not for the silver oxygen mask in his face, he would have thought he was bathing in the sea.
That was, in fact, his first thought. As someone who just woke up, he felt dizzy and confused, and his first view, his first thought, his half-dreamed first vision of the future was his most beloved memory of him bathing in the Mediterranean Sea, a mere child, a young man, and then she appeared. In the few seconds that took him to realise that he was in a cryopod in the Unity forty years into his own future, as pieces of his memories and consciousness returned to his mind, all he could see was a fading memory of Ruth playing with him under the sunbathed emerald waters of the Mediterranean. And he was happy again, as he hadn’t been in years. He felt his heart warm as if a spirit of fire had kindled his heart, as if a warm sunlight were born in it and heated him inside out.
But as he slowly recovered consciousness, as he regained the knowledge of who he was and, more importantly, where he was, memories faded away and his reality showed itself. Just like when a bucket full of water is thrown to a fire to extinguish it, his heart had cooled down, and it would have been hard to tell that he wasn’t in cryosleep anymore. As the pod’s liquid was being drained and the pod itself opened, a neutral expression was drawn in his face.
He exited the pod, liquid pouring from his hair down his body, and watched it form a puddle on the floor under his feet. Watching some drops falling to said puddle from various parts of his own body, he realised that the floor was cold. He liked that, and also its texture. He would like walking around without shoes, as usually he did. After a few minutes he was nearly dry, the puddle extending its random tentacles towards the depressions of the slightly imperfect flat floor, only his hair soaked and a few drops on his arms, legs and body. Obviously he had glanced around, but didn’t see any other activity in the pod bay. So he decided it was safe to walk around for a bit, and started walking towards the nearest end of the pod bay like that, naked except for that odd piece of underwear.
Once he reached the end, he swung on his heels and turned around to walk over to the farthest end. When he passed in front of his pod, seeing some other pods were open and empty and others weren’t, he stopped caring in the slightest and threw the underwear into the pod. His footprints weren’t leaving their distinctive silhouette in water drops as they were at the beginning, and he felt completely free. A point somewhere between his genitalia and his butt itched, so he scratched it while getting into a racing position: his left leg flexed 90º and his right leg extended after him. His body low, with the palms of his hands touching the floor and focusing his eyes on the wall at the end of the pod bay. He rapidly checked that he wasn’t too near the puddle and looked in front of him, mildly excited. He licked his lips in a nervous movement, and pushed the floor with all of his left leg’s strength, pulling his right leg before him, lifting up all of his body, his arms swinging around, and set into motion. He run as he had never run before as his heart pounded hard against his ribcage, filled with adrenaline as excitement and euphoria took over his senses and he felt unstoppable. He reached the wall and put his right foot against it, collecting his own impulse to launch him back towards the pod. And again he sprinted and laughed out loud, as loudly as he could, and jumped and then he stopped. A smile was now in his face as he picked up his uniform and put it on as fast as possible, fearful that somebody could suddenly enter or awake and discover him standing up there, naked. Constantly glancing at each side, he hid between two pods and put the clothes on.
Calming down, he realised that something had happened that was not scheduled. They hadn’t arrived yet, or everyone would be awake. And the systems had to malfunction so that his pod was opened later than the others he had seen. Worried, he left the pod bay through the only exit, towards the Post-Stasis Medical Zone, but apparently nobody noticed him. Thinking of the possibilities, he exited towards the labs, through an alley that goes all the way along the pod bays, and between them. The nano-science lab is a department within the Physical and Chemical labs, but which can be entered from Bio-science labs and engineering labs, as nanotechnology is widely present in the ship’s structure and in biometric systems through which the personnel’s health can be monitored.
First of all he reached for his locker, which contained a few personal items, basically two rings and a bullet-shaped necklace of inestimable sentimental value to him. There were three more items, but now they were irrelevant. He wore his jewellery and crossed the rest of his lab to reach the engineers. Surely they would know what had happened.