[IC] Otherworld, High Casual Science Fiction Roleplay

[SirBeowulf]

Somewhere, millions of thousands of miles away from the planet known as Earth, something dropped down to zero. A timer, set perfectly for three years exactly had just finished its long wait. A sudden hum ran throughout the white behemoth that was known as The Exodus. The engines that had been running continuously for the past three years finally began to let off a little of their steam as power was now diverted throughout the rest of the ship. Lights that had been dead for many months now flickered on, bathing the hallways of The Exodus in a white light. Somewhere within the middle of the ship a machine whirred as it booted up.

A yawn. The speakers on the ship let out a huge yawn as something woke from its long slumber. It was rather anticlimactic compared to the entire ship turning on. Within the recesses of computer chips and wires, a cute little face opened its eyes. It let out a groan as its processors started warming up, being partially dusted with frost. Normally they would be putting out quite a lot of heat, but after being asleep for three years, the entire ship felt lethargic and heavy. To Icarus, the entire ship was his body, and it wanted to head back to bed. Of course, once he realized where he was, Icarus felt rather giddy. He had been asleep for a while, and they had finally arrived at their destination. Well, close enough. A quick estimation gave that they were only a few hundred thousand kilometers from the Kuiper Belt that held their target. In space that was relatively close.

Lines of code popped around inside of Icarus’ head as he began reviewing things. Everything seemed to be top of the line, with no real deviations in terms of rations, water supply, and air supply. Fuel was at eighty percent, and the hydrogen cells would last for a few hundred years at the least. As of now his concern was waking up their ‘passengers.’

Nine humans and one artificial intelligence. He had information on all of them, ranging from blood types to their favorite type of food. Almost immediately he realised something was a bit wrong. Out of the nine in cryo, three of their icons blinked ‘UNABLE TO DISENGAGE.’ He gave a frown, numbers flying through his head. He knew that cryostasis was tricky business. One thing going wrong could kill the people inside. He blanched at the thought, resigning to attempt to wake them later…

Still, six people still being up and running was good. Other than going over their files in his dreams, he didn’t know many of them too well, so he hoped they would all get along. Inside the chamber, he activated protocol. The hatches of their tubes clanked as they opened, the screen protecting them from the outside world beginning to slide up. They lay on gel-like mats, the lot of them looking calm and as close to sleep as you could get. For a few moments, all was silent. Then, as if on cue, most of them began waking up. Then they all began throwing up some sort of blue liquid onto their mats. Icarus averted his eyes, his matrixes feeling a bit queasy. He knew that it was entirely safe, and that it was just the stuff put inside of them to keep their bodies unfrozen, but it was still gross. Still, he had a duty to perform and a few people emptying their stomachs wasn’t going to stop him.

“...good morning, everyone!” his speakers relayed with an air of cheeriness to it.

[Vertical]

To say one would sleep for three years would be crazy, but that is exactly what the crew of the NSC Icarus did, what Samuel Bishop did. A short three years prior, he found himself standing in another room of his ship, well he and the Artificial Intelligence, Icarus, had gone back and forth over whose ship it was. One of the last thoughts that entered his head, a conscious one at least, was regarding the chance of success for the mission and the mission itself. Many days before Bishop even found himself standing in the ship, he was attending a mission briefing. His role was that of the pilot. The ship, his craft, was a magnificent example of the technological advances of the 21st century.

For the majority of the meeting, he had been solely focused on his ship. Most of what was said had gone in one ear and out the other, but he did pick up on some “key sentences” throughout. The point that had really stood out, and it was a point that was made over and over again, was that they only knew two things about what they were looking for. The first, there was some kind of distortion, an anomaly, keeping it from being viewed. The second, they had absolutely no idea what was waiting on the other side of the distortion. It was theorized that a new planet was hiding and that, somehow, the Kuiper belt was causing the distortion. Even though Samuel was the pilot of a scientific masterpiece, on a mission for science, he was not all that interested in the scientific aspect, as of late.

The thing that tickled his fancy about the mission was the chance at adventure, and of course the opportunity to fly through space. Piloting was his career, and his best asset. Not everyone wants to be famous, and Samuel never thought he would find himself in a situation where he could be known as one of the centuries “Great Explorers and Pioneers”, but that is what they labeled him. In fact, mainstream media had released a headline about the entire crew that was title “Our Centuries Next Great Explorers and Pioneers”, Samuel had gotten a chance to read the article that followed.

When Samuel awoke, three years later, everything was fuzzy and blurred. Every part of his body tingled, his mind was unable to focus or get a thought to the front of his head. And then it hit him, hit him like a wall of bricks. The nausea lasted only about 2 seconds before blue fluid was all over the mat. After what seemed like an eternity, but was really a minute or two, Samuel had finished throwing up the fluids. Another minute passed and Samuel was able to get focused. The first thing he noticed, and heard, was the voice.

“Good morning everyone”, it called out to the waking crew. The voice was instantly recognizable as Icarus. “Was there no better way of going about this? Or is shoving blue fluids down my throat to save for later the best that they’ve got?” Samuel asked, his tone slightly distraught from throwing up.

[RBYDark]

Diarmi wiped his mouth against the back of his hand. His throat burned from the sensation of vomiting. He'd never been put into deep freeze, and had to track down a member of another unit to learn what it was like. The difficulty in finding such a person to explain the experience to him now made a lot more sense. Even the person he'd talked to had failed to mention the vomiting, instead focusing on how stiff and sore the experience had left him. Diarmi could now sympathize, every muscle feeling pulled beyond limit with every move he made. Truly, calling the experience 'unpleasant' was like saying the planet they were trying to find was a bit odd.

The discomfort lingered as his brain began to process speech - a cheery good morning, and a complaint about the process. He inhaled, coughed on the bit of mucus that went down in the process, and cleared his throat. Even if he felt uncomfortable, it was better to pull himself together now than later.

"The AI, right? Can't imagine any of us being so cheerful after this." His voice held no bitter edge as he attempted to stretch. It still hurt to move a bit, yes, but that'd get worse, not better, if he didn't try to do something about it. He wasn't quite ready yet to actually stand, though. "Hey there. Don't think we really chatted before I joined everyone in the freezer." That was how it had been referred to by everyone who knew about the process, at least. "You make the trip alright?" As his brain began to focus, he surveyed the room and couldn't help but notice the units that hadn't opened. That seemed a bit odd, though it had been three years. Maybe they'd just need it looked at. He couldn't remember if there was an engineer with them or not - Diarmi was qualified for several tasks on the mission, but machine repair was not one of them, and he wasn't even going to try.