A few introductions were made, not everyone was quite as willing as Thomas to reveal their name. It did not matter much at this point. Thomas had been pondering the question of the ships return and if it was even functioning well enough to bring them back. That is when he had a thought, and it was not a good one. [b]"Okay bear with me on this one. The ship was supposed to return to Earth after 50 years, right about the time we were supposed to awaken. I'm assuming that the fallback plan was to have us go back, regardless of if we were awake or not. If we did, someone would probably have met us, and if we were still in cryo, they would have brought us out of it. So I'm thinking that the status of our return is currently 'not gonna fuckin' happen'"[/b], he was not done talking but he wanted the group to sit with that thought. [b]"So regardless of if this ship is bringing us down or not, here is what I know. One, I am a pilot. That being said, I was not trained for this specific vessel. Two, these vessels usually have two smaller shuttles in the bay and that I can pilot. Three, if we are not being brought home by this, then we are essentially just going to wait until we die. I am willing to risk flying down to the surface in a smaller shuttle..."[/b] Thomas, again, trailed off. He was leaving the suggestion open for the rest of the group to comment.

Before heading into space, Thomas was a test pilot. The vehicles he tested were the smaller versions of the vessel he was on, and he knew he saw them put one aboard before he boarded. The chances of him bringing the ship down safely were about 60/40. But, Thomas knew that if the vessel was not functioning right, they would have a zero percent chance of surviving. Food would run out, if there was any. Same with the water. There were those who were dead and in cryo but Thomas did not relish the idea of cannibalism. Even if he did chose to wait it out and eat the dead, they would eventually run out of corpses, and each other, and then they would starve to death. 

The group really had two options, wait and see if the ship would bring them home or risk flying back in a smaller craft. Thomas was all for flying back in the smaller ship the more and more he thought about it. Neither option was a good one. The group had to choose between a bad idea and a worse one. [b]"You know, I'm not guaranteeing that we get back safe my way, but we're shit outta luck if we stay up here and this thing isn't bringing us back. Plus, I haven't heard any type of communication from the surface since we awoke, so I think that the chances of us getting help from down there are minimal."[/b]. That last statement slipped out of Thomas's mouth without much thought. But then he started thinking about what he had just inferred. If there was no communication, that meant that either NASA had given up hope a long time ago, or there was no NASA. Both were about equal on the scale of 'this is fucked'.