Passengers (PM First)

[TheRPGuru]

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The Avalon was two things in addition to being a technological marvel. A interstellar spaceship capable of running the 128 year journey from Earth to mankind's latest colonization Eden, an Earth-like planet 90 light years away, in full automation. Secondly the one-mile-long, ship was a mega hotel and five-star resort. The Migration company built the ship with two purposes, to get people safely in hibernation from one planet to another, and make Quadrillion's of dollars. Interstellar travel could never be cheap, but Earth was overcrowded and the government helped fund the ships construction. Over the past 500 years the Migration Company had successfully sent several trips to and from Eden, at 5000 people a pop.

Eden itself was being set up as a new Earth, starting from the 30th Century. A fresh start for humankind with all the technological advances of the past 3000 years already under their belt. People had to apply to get a ticket aboard the Avalon, chosen only for desired trades or knowledge, and bank account. You'd think that the Migration company would simply pay for the best and brightest to get shipped to Eden, but no. To the companies great surprise there were far too many people capable and able to work on Eden. Earth in the year 3200 was beyond capacity and people were desperate to take off to a new world if it meant a chance to make something of themselves.

So people not only had to pay for a ticket, but also had to have a desirable skill set AND be in very good health as 128 year hibernation had some after issues that could negatively harm people with certain health conditions. Of course this caused distress for people trusting an entity for put them asleep and safely wake them up for so long. 500 years and hibernation technology had never had an accident. Faith grew, and people got in line to go to Eden.

Jake Smith was a mechanic on Earth, a talented one at that. There wasn't a hover car, jet bike, or digital interface he couldn't fix if given enough time. A mechanic and an Engineer, Jake was chosen to go to Eden for his skills to build and design cars, houses, tools, etc. He had applied five years prior after his repair shop got shut down. People on Earth no longer bothered trying to fix things when they broke, they just replaced them, such was the new age of prosperity. Twenty-face years old, single, both parents passed away, Jake felt like Eden was his best option. He would miss his friends sure, but he had no real family to lose and Eden would give him a chance to make his own family.

In March 3256, Jake boarded the Avalon with 5000 other passengers and 1500 crew members. The flight plan was for the passengers and crew to hibernate the 128 year journey to Eden, waking up four months before arrival to enjoy the five-star resort that the Avalon contained in its massive hull. Jake remembered watching a safety video prior to laying down in his hibernation pod. The video explained hibernation and how safe it was as medical staff hooked him up to the life support systems of the pod. The Avalon and it's hibernation pods had successfully shipped 35,000 souls to Eden without a single incident. He would have nothing to worry about until he woke and had to decide which of the resort's amenities he would have to enjoy first.

In June 3281, Jake stood looking at his short-circuited hibernation pod with cold emptiness. Five years ago, something had gone wrong and his pod woke him up...90 years too soon. He was the only one awake, he had checked. His pre-mature awakening had actived the robots on the ship, which served as hosts, waiters, janitors, fully automating the ship's resort amenities. While the robots could talk to him in limited capacity, Jake was alone. For five years he was alone.

It was breaking him.

But he was a mechanic, he should have been able to fix things. Fix his pod, put himself back to sleep. Oh he tried, for over a year he tried. He found the maintenance bay and dug through repair manuals and diagrams for almost every aspect of the ship. He could repair the fucking engines before he could repair his pod. There was no emergency procedures to deal with a broken pod because the pods never broke. They were fail-safe, perfect.

Then how was he here, awake, alone, 90-years before the ship would arrive on Eden. He was doomed. Doomed to die, alone on a ship with 6500 people in endless, perfect sleep.

While having a resort to himself might have been excited for a moment. Jake quickly realized his problem. The resort's amenities were limited to passengers who had bought the right ticket. The Avalon had three tiers of passenger, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Each tier came with a certain level of cabin quarters, food menu options in the dining hall, and certain levels of activities. Jake had only been able to afford a Bronze ticket, which mean he only got cold cereal from the cafe vendor in the morning, limited meal options on the restaurants, and four activities in the resort proper. Meals and drinks at the bar were easy to get around because he had the option for the ship to charge additional food items to his room, racking up a bill he would never have to pay.

The four activities, bowling, arcade games, swimming pool, and basketball court, quickly got boring and Jake found himself staggering around the ship most evenings. He would wander around the Hibernation rooms, looking at all the people still peacefully at rest. He found more entertainment in reading their nameplates and making up stories about who they were, what they did on Earth, and what they will do on Eden, than he ever had playing basketball with himself. There was one woman he had taken a fondness of in the Gold tier hibernation chamber. He came across her by accident and was taken aback by her beauty. She looked like a sleep goddess in her pod, the nameplate on the front read "Sarah Malroy". It was a beautiful name, she looked like a Sarah.

Jake would stare at her for hours, drinking from an entire bottle of Scotch that he stole from the bar. It hurt him to look at her, Sarah, knowing that he would never meet her, never know her. He would die an old man, long before she could ever have the chance to know he even existed.

Jake was thirty now, even with the medical bay littered with the latest treatments and technologies all on an semi-automated scale, he would live another 65 years at best. Still 25 years too short. Jake was beginning to think it would be better to just walk out of an airlock, than to suffer 65 years of solitude. He thought that to himself as he sat watching Sarah sleep.

He could wake her up....He knew how. It was a simple matter really, pop open the control panel and jerk out a little fuse. Jake had learned all the in's and out's of the hibernation pod. Theoretically he could run full control over any pod in the ship. Yet these pods were merely designed to keep people in hibernation, not put them into hibernation. So while he could wake, someone up, even make it look like an accident, he couldn't put them back under. Otherwise he would have tried to do that to himself.

So he could wake Sarah. Make it look like an accident, and finally he would have someone to talk to. He could actually meet her, get to know her. He wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

But waking her up would be murder. Essentially. She could live a full life with him, but she would be trapped on the ship, destined to die long before the ship would reach Eden. It was murder by proxy at very best. He couldn't do that to her or anyone else.......could he?

One night Jake was through half a bottle of Whiskey, sitting next to Sarah's pod staring at the control panel. All he had to do was jerk the fuse out just a bit and it would start it's emergency awakening procedure. She would be awake, and he wouldn't be alone. Jake rocked his entire body back and forth, reaching for the fuse but pulling his hand away before he could touch it.

"No I.....No..No....Don't...."He repeated to himself over and over, violently shaking his head. Tears ran down his face as he reached for the fuse. This time he touched it before jerking his hand away. "NO!!!! FUCK YOU JAKE!" He roared. "AAHHHAAA!" He curled up into a ball beside the pod and cried. He shook his head, fighting the sobs. "I'm sorry I can't...." He moaned.

He got up off the floor and ran away.

Three week later he went to the barber shop and had the robot shave his face, and cut his hair. That night he didn't drink, instead he made his way to Sarah's pod and stared at her. The control panel was hanging open from where he had left it last night. A tear rolled down his face as he reached down and grabbed the fuse to her pod. "I'm sorry." He whispered and jerked the fuse loose.

Emergency beeping began immediately, steam filled her pod as the system rushed to awaken her before pod failure. Jake watched as the defibrillator shocked her back to life and she took a gasping breath. Jake's eyes widened and he slammed her control panel shut, spinning to run away as fast as he could. Jake ran all the way back to his cabin, his hand over his mouth.

He stared at his face in the bathroom mirror, his eyes wide with the horror of what he had done. He just killed someone, sort of.....He banished her to the same fate as him, robbing her of her freedom and her life. "I can't believe you did that." He muttered to himself. He hadn't thought, he just acted, his loneliness overwhelming him. He ran his hands through his hair, unsure of what to do with himself. He was a murderer.

Maybe she would never find out.....maybe he could just ignore it. Pretend it was another malfunction....

Slowly Jake worked up the courage to walk out of his cabin, wandering out to find out where Sarah might have gone too.

(I know it's long, sorry. Looking for someone to play Sarah. Need someone detail focused, with the ability to create Sarah's own feelings and emotions. Please Pm me your interest)

 

[MadMissJ]

http://amanda-seyfried.net/albums/photoshoots/2014/004/011.jpg

Sarah’s young life on earth had been an accomplished one. She’d been the only child of Franklin and Lenora Malroy, PhD’s respectively, and several times over. She’d been raised as the gift she was, a miracle to an aging couple, their genetics had been perfectly paired in the small girl, a better match couldn’t have been set up in a lab under the greatest of conditions. She’d been precocious and curious, and soared through school with ease. Graduate of high school at age eight, her bachelors at age eleven, her masters just two years after that and two PhD’s by nineteen. She’d grown out of her baby fat by then, and into the sort of beauty that ends up on magazine covers and was splashed on big LED signs.

Her journey toward the Avalon was much like the others she knew who had applied. Her Anthropological Biology, Paleopathology and Morphology degrees made her a natural fit for the trip and life on another planet. Her papers on the future of the human race on another planet, how their bones would change, the diseases that could possibly be harbored, the way human’s DNA would change were lauded by many in her field. Sarah worked on Earth, but lived on Eden and had since she was a child. She toiled for the good of those going after her. She’d applied as soon as she could, knowing that it would take years and luck to get on board that ship. Her mother had financed it, most of it, her university the rest. When she’d walked on board the ship, the rolled out red carpet leading her to the gold tier pods, Sarah had the feeling that she wasn’t leaving everything behind, rather, she was going home for the first time.

The man above her, the medical staffer that was assigned to her to ready her for her hibernation, connected her to her pod’s life support system. Was she Sarah Luna Malroy? Yes. Was she aware of how hibernation worked? Had she attended all the briefings? Yes, and Yes. Had she any questions? No. Was she comfortable? Yes. The last thing she remembered was the gentle clicking of her pod as her eyes closed and the soft smile that she’d been unable to contain.

But now she was awake. Or rather, in the process. It took her a minute to register that the thick mechanical circles that were pulling away from her glowing shirt front were the paddles that had shocked and massaged her heart into beating once more. Warm liquid was injected straight into her Carotid artery, a mixture of hormones that would calm her and enable her to push through the sudden surprise and fear, and remember why she was there and what had happened.

The smile became larger.

Her pod raised slightly to allow her step free of her bed, like Snow White from her glass coffin. Her clinging white suit, groaned at the joints from 128 years without use. She remembered from the briefings that everyone would be waking up, being joined by instructions that would point them to their rooms aboard the luxury liner. She had four months to prepare to arrive in Eden. It was difficult for Sarah to imagine what she would do with that time. Her team, the one that she’d worked with back on Earth were dead now. They’d been her friends, some of the greatest minds of her time. Following procedure, Sarah sat and looked around, waiting to see whose pod would open next. Her foot bouncing on its ball nervously, standing at times to see over the large room full of sleeping people, wondering what new person would start their sequence.

And so, she stayed for an hour or more, before getting to her feet. The shot of calming hormones was wearing off, and a ball of dread was settling in her stomach, making it ache and her hands shook as she pushed back her blonde hair from her blue eyes and silently walked among the pods that branched out from their central points, until the room ended and the doors hissed open, putting her in a lobby of some sort.

Empty, it was empty there too. Sarah’s eyes grew owlish, white fingers locked behind her back. There was no one. No one at all. She was alone. It was the optimist in her that called out, the realist told her it would be futile, something had gone wrong. She needed to find out when and where exactly she was.

“Hello?” Sarah called out, releasing her strangle hold on her other hand to put it beside her lips. “Anyone, Please! Answer!” Her heart felt like it was going to burst as it raced, thudding so hard in the silence that if anyone was awake, they could probably hear that better. “Anyone? Is anyone here?” The last question made the Scientist choke on the emotion of the plea.

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake made his way through the ship slowly. It was quite a journey from his bronze tier cabin to the gold area. Two trams and an elevator to be exact. Combine that with his run back from her pod to his room and he had left her alone for some time. Working up the courage to step out into where she might run into him. Knowing what he had done to her.

He wondered what he would say. Did he even know how to talk to a real person after five years alone? What if she instantly hated him? What if...she didnt....but she found out what he had done later?

His mind was a whirlwind as he sat on the tram ride to where she would most likely still be. Gold tier cabins and pod rooms where centrally located on the ship so that those passengers would never have to travel far to reach anything they wanted. From shops to restaurants, to bar and swimming pool, they had ease of access to everything.

Finally the tram slid to a stop in the central lobby and the doors slipped open smoothly. Jake jerked to a stop in mid-step as he saw her on the other side of the large lobby. Her hand over her mouth as she cried out for anyone to answer her.

The first thing that overwhelmed him was guilt. The fear on her face, near panic at her situation, almost made him flee again. He had done this TO her. She was innocent and he brought her into this cruel reality. How was he ever going to be able to look her in the eyes?

The other emotion was far more powerful. The feeling of relief. She had awaken and she seemed just fine, at least physically. He wasn't alone anymore, he had company, someone to talk to, someone to be near, to hear the story of her life....that he had taken from her. Damn it!

He took a breath and called out to her. "Hi!" His voice cracked at the volume, unused to being used like that anymore. "Hey." He said moving toward her. She still wore her hibernation clothing and wouldn't have gotten her luggage from her room yet. Still she looked wonderful despite the terror in her eyes.

As he trotted toward her he called, "Are you the only one?" He asked knowing the answer. "Nobody in Bronze or Silver woke up....just me." He explained

 

[MadMissJ]

The rush of relief that she felt over hearing another voice was physical, guttural and base. Her brain, shaped and modeled after every brain that had come since Homo Sapiens had stolen the earth from Homo neanderthalensis and elbowed out any competition for their protein hungry organ. The origin of modern thought, the very thing that had built this ship and saved humanity. That searched the stars and found Eden once more. That organ was what sent the notice that she was not the lone soul on the ship, there was someone echoing her call. Like children playing Marco-Polo in old home videos of her great-great grandparents.

It was the word ‘Hey’ that snapped her neck so she could see the lone figure walked toward her. She’d had a few hours now alone, to try and understand what had happened. The clinical side of her told her she was in shock, she would need to work through her emotions one step at a time. Of course, there was denial and fear at the moment, but someday, maybe there would be pain soon, something that would tell her she was alive and not just haunting this place. But that was buried beneath the cold pool that fear afforded her. It drown out any other thought and made her nerve endings like icicles, unable to feel anything but dread.

And though she’d been taught better manners, she stared at the man. Gulping down air that made her chest heave and her shoulders rise and fall, he was walking quickly toward her, and she like a newly birthed fawn wobbled a few more toward him, awkwardly but still it was progress. Sarah hugged herself, and leaned toward him, the ringing of his voice in her ear was like music. How could a stranger’s voice be so life savingly dear to her?

"Are you the only one? Nobody in Bronze or Silver woke up.... just me."

“I... I think I am the only one.” She worked to make sure her voice didn’t falter.

“I waited, like I was instructed. I was supposed to have someone show up and escort me to my room. There…everyone was supposed to wake up at the same time. They said that we had to have patience because in gold everyone would have their individual butlers come to fetch them. Mine didn’t come…no one woke up.” Sarah was still thinking that through, and elegant high brows drew together.

“Do you know what happened? Why are we awake?” She was so full of questions, but if the man had just woken up like she had, he’d probably not had time to look for the answers. “I’m Sarah.” She offered a smile, stressed and thin but she put out her hand. “You know while I waited I thought I’d never touch another human again.” Having the assurance of another physical being with her, she looked further around the lobby. Humans were like that, pack animals. Comfortable in large groups. Their group was two, but it was the largest on the ship, she suspected.

“We aren’t at Eden…” She explained, “We should find out why, or at least how much longer it’ll be until we get there. Malfunctions in the machinery is unheard of…”

 

[TheRPGuru]

The relief that washed over her upon seeing him filled Jake with regret. The look that made her think it would be alright now. He had to hold back his sadness and prepare himself to give her the bad news. They weren't at Eden yet, but for Jake and Sarah....they would NEVER be at Eden. With just under 90 years left in the galactic journey there was no hope that they would ever get off this ship in their lifetime.

He wouldn't reveal more than he needed too yet. He didn't want to scare her off. He looked down at his hands from her questions. His demeanor was heavy and solemn. "I....don't know why we've been awoken....the pods malfunctioned." He told her softly.

Looking up at her slowly. "I've been up....for a while now " The effect of just how long he had been prematurely awake hung in the air. He shook his head slowly as he looked at her. "We aren't just a little prematurely awake....According to the navigation system.....we are 90 years from Eden." He swallowed hard and prepared for her response.

The news had hit him like a truck five years ago. He remembered walking around the ship aimlessly, trying to figure out what was going on. Once he found his way to navigation the computer told him dreadful information. He spent over a year trying to rework his pod, to somehow put himself back under.

He remembered the panic of trying to find a way. Trying to figure out something, ANYTHING, to fix this. Nothing worked. It was then that he began to drink himself to bed. He had spent six month trying to make the most of it. He played in the arcade and tried some of the resort attractions. But those wore off quickly without someone to enjoy them with. He began to feel the solitude weigh him down after three years. He would suffer isolation for two more years before finding Sarah and committing murder.

"Something must be wrong with a couple of the pods. That's the only thing I can think of. Everything else I've found on the ship is working fine." He explained further.

 

[MadMissJ]

"I....don't know why we've been awoken....the pods malfunctioned."

“But the pods don’t malfunction.” She knew she was spouting off the information that had been fed to her over the year after she’d been chosen to represent some of the finest minds that earth had created in the five-hundred years since the shuttle from Earth to Eden had existed. There had been no reports of failure. None. But Sarah like the man with her whispered, as if saying the words at a volume suited to the large, imposing ship would make it true.

"I've been up....for a while now."

She blinked at him, and looked at the stranger. He wasn’t in his white suit, as she was. He was dressed comfortably, from the clothing that he’d probably brought from earth for the four months that he’d have to spend lounging by the pools or dancing in the clubs. Sarah tried to recall what she’d put in her many bags as she’d packed for another life. She’d brought her grandmother’s pearls…she’d brought a long gown for a night where a mechanical opera would take place. Useless items.

"We aren't just a little prematurely awake.... According to the navigation system.....we are 90 years from Eden."

And it was with that information that she sank to sit on the edge of the large fountain in the middle of the most beautiful hotel that she’d ever seen. Her eyes closed when she felt the synthetic marble under her, hands palm upward on her knees, her toes curling inside her mission approved slippers. Her head seemed too heavy for her neck and that too eventually came to rest inside her hands. There was going to be a way out of it. There had to be, if they could find a manual, instructions, if they could repair the pods somehow the two of them would remember this as just a nightmare, a hiccup on the way to paradise. But there was something in his voice that spoke volumes about his having been in her position for a while. She would have done that first, she would have poured over every single speck of information from that first day on. Like an insomniac trying to find the magic hour, pill, machine that would let her lie dreamless until everyone woke with her.

“I’m twenty-four.” She was doing the math in her head now, twenty-four years old, plus ninety? She wouldn’t be a doddering old maid welcoming all the newly awoken people. She would be a well-preserved corpse, she wouldn’t be living to one hundred and fourteen. God, willing. Being alone for ninety years? Never listening to the buzz of other conversations inside a restaurant, never having to apologize for not looking where you were going and bumping someone, no one to hold the door open for just a few steps too soon so you had to jog a few steps to be politely let inside. Every awkward, terrible, wonderful thing that could happen to a person had been taken from her by a malfunctioning pod.

"Something must be wrong with a couple of the pods. That's the only thing I can think of. Everything else I've found on the ship is working fine."

“You’ve been awake for a long time?” This was where she looked up, deciding that she didn’t want to stand yet and risk crumpling to the floor. She was in some fresh new horror, what she was looking at before was a person who had accepted this fate, days, years, maybe even decades ago. Some malfunctioning pods? His and Hers?

“How did you get on?” It was her medical mind now, she’d studied humans her whole life, and through her own denial she wanted to find in the man across from her a glittering shard of hope. “What did you do? Did you try to fix them? Is there a manual? There were medical personnel that locked us up, strapped us in. Maybe you need a second person to do that?”

Here was where Sarah stood, reaching her full height to look at him in the eyes. "How long have you been alone?"

 

[TheRPGuru]

It hurt him more than she could ever know to see her crumple onto her butt. Sitting on the fountain as the gravity of the situation hit her. A situation he had forced upon her. Her mind worked quickly though as she came up with the same ideas he had run through himself half a decade ago. He said nothing as she worked it all out in her mind. He waited for her to cone to rest mentally and stand back up to face him.

He swallowed at her question, his mouth opened to speak but closed as his words became choked in his throat. Tears welled up in his eyes. "F.....five years." He breathed, fighting back everything that was running through him.

He sighed and shook his head. "I was....AM a mechanic. The first thing I did was try to fix my pod. I tried for a year to put myself back to sleep. But without the procedure we got on Earth. It isn't possible." He told her holding back a sob. As he spoke, words came out broken and quiet. He still didn't trust his voice after not needing it much the last five years.

Jake looked her up and down before suggesting, "This is a lot I know....I felt the same way five years ago but...we can try to fix it still..." He gave her a fake smile. "It's not like we don't have time right?"

Jake turned and gestured toward the gold suites. "Your suitcases will be in your suite. Since you are a gold passenger you can get into places I cant....maybe you can open the way to something that can help us." He suggested hopefully. "Take a shower first....clear your mind and try to calm yourself. I'll uh....Wait right here I guess." He chuckled softly.

 

[MadMissJ]

And she listened. She listened as his voice cracked, listened as he went from gruff to tortured and back again. Studies had been done on this sort of torture, putting prisoners in solitary confinement as a way of breaking their spirit, and it was evident that it had broken something in him. When he tried to say the years he’d been alone, her own fear was magnified by the watering of his eyes. He explained that he had been and still was a mechanic, and that confirmed her worse fears. If someone who was that in tune with machines couldn’t get his pod working, she didn’t exactly have a background to do any better. If it had been human, if she could study it through a microscope maybe Sarah would have had more than a chance. But hope was bleeding out of her with every word he said.

"It's not like we don't have time, right?"

She gave him an equally distressed upward turn of her lips. “Right, nothing but time…” Floating together toward a planet they would never get to see, in a ship built for the thousands of others who would never know that she’d been wandering on it for 90 years prior.

"Your suitcases will be in your suite. Since you are a gold passenger you can get into places I can’t....maybe you can open the way to something that can help us. Take a shower first....clear your mind and try to calm yourself. I'll uh....Wait right here I guess."

She nodded at his assessment. That was the next logical step. Of course, her ticket afforded her access to almost every place on the ship, it hadn’t occurred to her, mostly because she hadn’t had to think of people anywhere but in the gold tier, what they would be doing. Everything he suggested she do was spot on, she needed to be wrapped in the warmth of hot water, and wash away some of the fog and fear. But she paused, tilting toward him and doing the only thing she could think of as a fellow prisoner. She wrapped her arms around him. It was awkward of course, his body was foreign to her, his musculature and bone structure were new. Her fingers splayed out in between his individual ribs before flattening against his back, her head tucked down under his chin with her eyes still open and looking at their feet.

“I’m sorry you’ve been alone so long.” What else could she say? She lingered there because the moment she disengaged she would have to face their reality. When she was trying to shore up her own courage to take the next few steps into this other reality.

“Right…” Sarah pat his back, gently, and went back to hugging herself. Looking toward the grand throughways of getting to her room. “Well, you don’t have to wait here…I mean if you want to see what is up there…” He’d been on the ship in such a limited capacity that he must want to explore. She started taking her first steps to an elevator, getting inside and being scanned, it promised to take her and her guest to her room.

She preferred the silence as she navigated the halls to stand outside her own suite’s door, the thing sliding open for her and she stepped inside. All her things had been set for her, even down to a note on a flat device that lay on her pillow, explanations for how she could access everything at the tips of her fingers. What shocked her was the wall of windows, or what must be projectors to show her what was on the other side of the wall. It was several slow steps as Sarah looked out into the vast blackness. Nothing, she was currently being treated as the Queen of Nothing.

“I’m…going to get into the shower. You can wait or…go…or…Can you open the doors up here without my help?” She had no idea, again she turned to look around her room, a cascade shower was placed in the middle of her room. Meant to give the feeling of space the minute she entered the wide glass box, it frosted, showing nothing but her head and feet. Which was a lot more comfortable to her as she peeled off the white suit and started the water.

“Well, there is a bright spot.” She leaned her face toward the spray from above, letting it wash over her hair and body. “We won’t be using any recycled water yet.” Her joke made her laugh, something small and shy, she pushed the wet curtain of hair away from her eyes to focus on him above the line of frost. “Unless you’ve used all the natural hot water.”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake tensed as she embraced him, a natural reaction from a body that wasn't used to physical contact any more. Her embrace was meant to be comforting, he knew, but instead it made him feel bad. Made him feel worse for what he had done. This woman had taken to him quickly, and instantly offered her sympathies to what he had gone through the passed five years, yet she no had clue that her faulty pod was because of him. She was his comfort and yet she wouldn't be comforting him if she knew the truth.

Slowly she eased away from him, her arms moving back around herself as if she simply needed anyone to hug...even if it was herself. He was much the same way when he found out what had happened and how trapped he was. Now all he could do is give her time, and once she gained acceptance they could maybe try to act like everything was normal. Maybe by then, the guilt will fade.

Sarah led him to the gold suites, following the guide on her wristband to where her room was. Jake marveled at how differently the tiers were treated. His room was like a closet that happened to have a cot in it. Her's was a luxury room. Bedroom, dinning room with delivery service, a full shower! It was like night and day. Jake found himself drawing the comparison to how first class was treat compared to the steerage class on the great Titanic some 1500 years ago. Apparently mankind hadn't changed that much.

Sarah explained that she was going to get into the shower, and suggested he go try to open other places in Gold tier. He smiled and shook his head, "Sadly they'll only open to the ID on your wristband. I can't go anywhere around here without you. Take your time though, I've waited this long, I can wait a little longer." He said, turning his back as she slipped toward the shower.

Jake went to her dinning table and took a seat, where a robot popped out of the wall and said, "Good evening, can I get you anything?" It asked in an electronic voice.

He eyed the machine for a moment, a vaguely humanoid shape, garbed as a butler waited for his answer. He looked around, the water in the shower still running. "I uh....can I get something other than oatmeal paste?"

"Certainly. Protein paste is only for Bronze passengers. Gold members have unlimited range of our menu options. This journey to Eden has a special pot roast with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans, if I might make such a suggestion."

Jake perked up. He hadn't had a real meal other than oatmeal paste, protein stew, and bread, since he woke up. This was real food, "Yeah that! Give me that!" He said eagerly. Then cleared his throat, as if to impress the robot. "I mean. Yes, that sounds lovely, I will take that please."

"Certainly." It replied and vanished into the wall. Moments later a hole in the center of the table opened and up came the meal he had ordered, hot and fresh.

Jake stared at it for a moment, as if in disbelief that this could be real food. Jake dug in uncontrollably. He was so busy stuffing himself that he didn't hear the shower stop, or Sarah come down to meet him. He glanced up in shock, gravy dripping from his lips. "Uh.....The robot offered me food. I haven't eaten anything but oatmeal and protein paste since I woke...." He said with a mouthful of food, the plate itself nearly clean.

 

[MadMissJ]

Sarah stood in her shower for a while. Letting the droplets fall all over her while she thought on her predicament. She had only been in stasis for 38 years, no, that math wasn’t correct, when she had tried to confirm things, Jake had said that they were 90 years away from Eden when he woke up five years prior, she was now 41 years in stasis.

Only 41 years, she had friends on earth who were now probably grandparents. She tried to picture the men and women of her team, with graying hair, children, all the things that 41 years would bring into a person’s life. She’d been so optimistic, she was in the peak of health, young and intelligent. But she’d never wanted to have a tether to earth. She would have arrived at Eden and she would still be twenty-four. She’d had dreams of writing papers while patters of little feet wound their way around her. Little feet that were essential to a new world.

Her tears started the mingle with the shower at that point. She’d had everything planned in her mind, she would have her lab, a marriage, children. It would be her Eden.

In case Jake was near she tilted her head down toward the cloudy glass, pressing lips and teeth into her fist trying to keep the ennui tethered and not let it go out of control. She couldn’t breathe, the thick steam and sadness was almost suffocating, so Sarah reached out to turn off the water, wiping her fingers across her lash line, before a warmed towel was proffered from the wall. It was short work to wrap it around herself, and look to see where the man who was with her was actually at. Sarah walked toward the closet, small but serviceable, her things were hung up, and she selected for comfort rather than to impress. That’s what she needed right now, comfort.

Sarah was still brushing her hair when she ventured further into the room she was in possession of. Walking in on Jake vanquishing a plate with his fork and knife as if it would disappear as quickly as it had been placed. His wide shoulders hiding most of the carnage, but as she rounded him to sit across the table, her fingers were over her mouth hiding a smile.

“Hungry then?”

"Uh.....The robot offered me food. I haven't eaten anything but oatmeal and protein paste since I woke...."

Sarah wrinkled her nose, not wanting to attempt to figure out what protein paste was. Apparently, the bronze level passengers were meant to subsist on it for only four months, but she couldn’t see why one of the pleasures of being human was robbed from them.

“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t eat.” She shared, asking for a glass of red wine when the butler was turned toward her, and reaching out to take the glass from the middle of the table, there was no coy sips, what she needed was alcohol. It was one gulp and then another, hoping that the warm liquid sitting in her stomach would ease the knots there.

“It’s one of the things that has made us human from the beginning. The reason humans stayed together. Feasts, food, all that. It’s the most basic way to get to know someone, every happy or sad event calls for it.” She was wandering in thought, leaning her chin on her hand that was propped up by her elbow on the table. “That being said, I don’t think I’m going to be enthusiastic about sharing protein paste with…” Just him. Forever. “you.” She finished on a flat note and a wince, taking another deep drink.

“How did you get through it? I just keep thinking of everything I wanted to do, my whole life. I loaded it on this vessel and now, it’ll all just be unrealized potential.” She finished her glass and was relieved when another was presented to replace it. “I don’t usually drink like this…” A lush. “But, maybe the situation calls for it? Who will tell on us? Who will notice, right?” She was spiraling, swallowing hard Sarah looked into her glass and back across the table.

“So, what is there to do?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake watched her sit across from him, his table manners quickly become less dog-like and more human so as not to disgust her. She ordered wine which appeared quickly and disappeared into her mouth almost as quickly. He smirked and looked down at his empty plate. He was satisfied, but he hadn't eaten in so long he turned to the robot and ordered another plate.

Sarah asked him how he had handled all of this. It was a question that gave him pause as his seconds appeared in the center of the table. He slowly pulled the plate toward him and swallowed. "It was hard, of course. But I busied myself with trying to make it right. I worked on my pod, read every manual I could find on the ship, but I learned more about fixing the engines than I did about that fucking pod." He blushed and shook his head, "Things really didn't get hard until...maybe a year or so later. I had tried everything and nothing worked, so I knew then I was done for. Condemned to a life of oatmeal and paste....at least the hot sauce is good."

He shrugged, "I never thought about what could have been though. In all my time alone I never really felt bad about never seeing Eden. I mean I was going to be a mechanic, a builder of things for people, a fixer. Not exactly a very important job on a budding colony. No, the potential lost never bothered me, but...thinking about living my days alone, truly alone. I think that was the hardest part." He smiled softly at her, "Then one day, I walk into the lobby and there is someone else. A pretty someone else. Suddenly this place doesn't seem so bad."

Jake ate, pushing the plate towards the center to offer Sarah a bit of the food if she wished, though wine was clearly her thing for now. He understood, he had been shit faced just the other night. It had been his own way to ease the pain, hopefully Sarah wouldn't have to go down that spiral.

“So, what is there to do?”

His gentle smile became a grin.

Twenty minutes later Jake was dribbling a basketball, pretending to juke his way around Sarah as she feebly waved her hands to defend against him. He jumped back and raised the ball, but Sarah knocked it out of his hands and chased after it. "Hey that's a foul." He called, but Sarah shot another bucket and shrugged, "What is this prison rules now?" He taunted.

After getting his ass handed to him by a girl, Jake took her to the arcade where they tried their hand at a shooting game call Zombie Massacre, standing side by side with comically large plastic guns and tried to shoot their way through the hordes of zombies, coming after them.

 

[MadMissJ]

She was sure that Jake was letting her win. However, she hadn’t been sequestered in her lab for most of her life. She knew how to shoot hoops, even dribble, and she knew how to throw an elbow when she couldn’t make it around her competitor. Maybe he called it ‘Prison Rules’, but she saw it as the most efficient way to get from point A to point B. After her last point, Sarah just shrugged and smiled, holding the ball on her hip with her arm extended, a lazy victory pose if there ever was one. It had been on the tip of her tongue to remind him that she hadn’t played basketball in forty-one years and he’d had five years of straight practice, but just before she said it, Sarah thought better of it and followed him instead to where the arcade was.

This was something that she had very little experience with. What with all the bells and whistles and bright flashing lights. She followed, past another game that required basketballs, pushing the pile with her pointer finger, and moving along. There had been a game that she’d enjoyed, hopping on a motorcycle to rev and climb her way on a long track against several other computer generated competitors. But her companion called her over and placed an almost weightless gun in her hand, there wasn’t much warning before groaning, moaning zombies were clamoring toward them and she was forced to start pulling the trigger. Her game plan was simple, shriek and close her eyes, laugh and then try to kill something that was making her screen flash red. Eventually, it was just laughter, having been killed so numerously that the game took pity on her and sent the brain hunting hoard toward Jake.

Her cheeks hurt, and she was comfortably buzzed, so Sarah waited for the simulation game to end, looking around again and wondering what else was in the gargantuan ship. This made her look down at her bracelet, tapping at it a few times before looking up and seeing that the game was over.

“Sorry, force of habit.” Sarah confessed, “I was looking for access to the Library interface."

It was then that she produced a yawn, if only for effect, her fingers of one hand once more reaching across her chest to hold the other arm.

“I’m a little tired.” Drained, exhausted, disenchanted, upset, whatever anyone would call it. “It’s been…fun.” Again, the blonde smiled. “But I think I’m going to go to my room.” But Sarah didn’t immediately, she reached out to touch his arm, something warm, still unsure before pulling her hand back.

“I was thinking of going to see a movie tomorrow…you know if you aren’t busy…” How could he possibly be busy? “I could meet you in the Lobby and we could go?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

It had easily been the best evening he had in his entire five year stay on the Avalon. He didn't consider hibernation to be part of his time as those years passed in a blink. Her laughter made him forget everything that had happened while he was alone. It even made him forget what he had done. Almost.

Eventually Sarah yawned and threw in the towel for the night. She smiled lightly at him and suggested that they catch a movie tomorrow. If he was free. Jake almost had to laugh at that. He was the free-ist prisoner in history.

He shrugged and said, "Well there is a huge party in the bronze lounge tomorrow. I kind of promised the robots I would show up. I mean they have been slaving away over protein paste for decades, and I would hate to upset them." He explained with a smirk.

What he didn't tell her was the number of times that he had seen every single movie the Avalon offered in the theater. Numerous times, in fact, but he wouldn't say anything as he didn't want to quash her mood. Her spirits seemed to improve a bit as they had played and Jake wanted to keep those spirits high as much as he could.

"Sounds great. But how about I meet you in the cafeteria for breakfast first? My room doesn't have a built in chef." He suggested.

Once Sarah said goodnight Jake stood and watched her disappear into the Gold sector. He stood there for a few minutes wondering if he should try and improve his status on this ship. Maybe tomorrow he wold try to break into another suite in the gold section.

Before he headed to his own bed he made a stop down in the maintenance Bay to grab a tool box and a crowbar. He marveled sometimes back in mechanicall classes that even after a thousand years of technologiCal advancement...mankind never could improve on a good crowbar or screwdriver.

It was late by the time he got to his closet. He had to force himself to sTay awake long enough to shower in the community hall bathroom. Then he collapsed onto his bed for the night.

 

[MadMissJ]

She’d lay awake for quite a while, in her large room. It was inevitable she supposed that she’d think of everyone back on Earth, everyone in Eden, everyone that was still asleep on the Avalon. Sarah tried her deep breathing, but underlying her sense of injustice was guilt. She’d left her mother on Earth alone. If she had been going on to a life that would be completed in some new world, it would have been worth it, right? But her mother probably went to her deathbed thinking that her daughter, the bright little miracle child would begin a whole new life in paradise. Instead, while her mother’s ashes would lay unclaimed, she was awake here, and Sarah would never see the place that she’d longed for.

She could have stayed home and helped her mother through her last years. She could have stayed and maybe finally agreed to go out with one of the professors that had their eye on her. His name had been Peter. He’d worn bowties and had the quirkiest sense of humor. Maybe if she hadn’t had to wait five years to leave planet earth, knowing she’d be on her way to a new life, she would have given her old one a little more effort. She could register at eighteen, and she had. She had needed, not just wanted to go to Eden. Knowing that she couldn’t sleep just yet, she asked her room to put her videos on the large screen, interrupting her view of space with going away messages. Friends and colleagues dancing and waving, some getting into a booth to wish her well.

She listened to hear mother’s goodbye message over and over. Smiling at the lines on her mother’s face that were so sharp that Sarah thought she could reach out and touch her. In the end, Sarah asked for the message to be replayed yet again and fell asleep to the soothing sounds of Lenora Malroy.

“Hello, Baby-Bear. I know if your father had been here…”

------------------

Sarah awoke, her eyes a little grainy and swollen from the night before. It felt like waking up in the pod all over again and there was just the smallest part of her that let her imagination run wild. Her pod had just opened, her heart had just started, she would be waking with the rest of the Gold passengers and she would regale her dinning companions with the strange dream she’d had of waking up early. That worked for a little bit, she was relieved. But the minute she pushed the covers back, the wish collided with reality, and her feet gently fell on the plush carpeting by her bed.

Her mind told her that there was nothing to do now but go forward. But her heart was still set on Eden. Sarah had told Jake that she wanted to see a movie, she had asked him along. So, she didn’t have the option of climbing back into bed to wallow and drink. Sarah wandered back toward the shower and went about readying herself for her first full day awake. The clothing in her closet was simple, slacks and a blouse was chosen, twinning her long hair upward into a French braid. Sarah looked at her bracelet to see what time it was, and asked it directions to the cafeteria.

Again, she was surprised at how astoundingly empty everything was. The room was large, hundreds of tables. But there was one lone figure at one, and herself at the door. A whole ship built for comfort and joviality, and Sarah was coming to terms with just how empty her life was going to be. It was out of habit that she waved to be noticed. Had this been a normal breakfast, he’d have had to look over so many heads, to see her, to notice her. Sarah walked along the benches until she was with him.

“Is this seat taken?” Eventually, those jokes would stop being funny, but it made her laugh all the same as she sunk down. “I didn’t check to see what time breakfast was, hope I’m not too late.” Even with her makeup on, she suspected she still looked tired.

When the automated system logged her seat, and asked her what she would like for breakfast, Sarah was ready this time.

“I’d like a Turkish coffee, smoked salmon eggs benedict, fruit on the side. And pain au chocolate.” Blue eyes swept over to her companion. “What about you?”

And once their orders were in front of them, Sarah turned her wristband toward Jake, showing the flashing warning on it and the following instructions.

“I’m supposed to report to a learning group. My room, it said that I was supposed to report yesterday. But it still insists. How do you figure it malfunctioned but knows that I am awake?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake took more time getting ready than he should have...probably. Despite his guilt he couldn't hold back the excitement of finally having someone else to talk to. Sarah was an incredible salvation to his heart, though her circumstances were more grim than his given the truth. So Jake found himself up early, again he showered and even went so far as to spike his short brown hair.

Once he was dressed in a casual t-shirt and khakis, which he had stolen from one of the many shops in the mall sector, he made his way to breakfast. Hundreds of empty tables with thousands of chairs filled the room, yet not a soul to occupy the room. The vastness of the cafeteria was almost oppressive while so empty.

Jake took a seat and waited patiently for Sarah. A robot waiter swung by and brought him coffee without asking. Jake had long since given the command for the machine to always bring him coffee first and take his order second.

"What can I get you?" It asked.

Jake glanced at the thing. "Why do you always ask me that? You know I'm bronze and that only one thing is on the menu for me. So why do you always ask me?" Jake snapped.

The robot beeped lifelessly at him. "What can I get you?"

Jake sighed and shook his head. "Nothing. I'm waiting for somebody."

"I shall return." It said and wheeled away silently.

An hour later Sarah appeared from the Gold side of the room. Jake watched as her eyes roamed over the huge empty space. He could see the gravity of the emptiness hitting her even as she walked towards him with a wave.

Jake smiled at her joke. It was so good to hear another person's voice. "Not at all." He told her softly.

The waiter robot appeared and asked, "What can I get you?"

Jake held back a moan as Sarah ordered the most delicious sounding breakfast he had ever heard. When she finished the robot beeped and confirmed her order but waited for Jake to order. It didn't ask him anything, it merely stood in silence as it waited for him to order.

Jake looked at Sarah and sighed. "Oatmeal." He muttered.

The robot beeped happily and disappeared to retrieve their orders.

Sarah held her bracelet towards him and asked about the notification regarding her classes. Jake shrugged, "I don't think the ship realizes that we are awake too soon. The programing just knows that we are awake and is acting as it should. It doesn't realize that everyone else is asleep."

Jake shrugged and said, "I just caved and went to the classes. Gave me something to do. I suppose you can just go to the classroom and swipe your I'd to check in and leave." He offered.

Their food came and Sarah's meal looked and smelt magnificent. Lushe, vibrant fruits, wonderful eggs, with salmon smoked to perfection. It was amazing.

Then a murky bowl of oatmeal was set in front of him. Jake sighed and looked at Sarah. "Maybe I should have taken out that second margate before I left." He said. "Eat up. The movie start in..." He looked at his wristband, "whenever the hell we want it too." He teased with a smile.

 

[MadMissJ]

Her face split into two when he ordered oatmeal. He’d explained the meal situation last night, when he’d been gorging himself on pot roast and the sides that had come with it. Sarah hadn’t been hungry then, she was now, but the look on his face, the depressed look of a man who thought his last meal would be a bowl of oatmeal was far too gloomy and she’d never be able to eat while he tried to slog through some grayish brown bowl of sludge.

When their meals came, Sarah asked for seconds on what she had ordered, and pushed her plates toward him. The sunny eggs in their rich sauces over salmon, fruit, the little French pastries, even her coffee ventured across the table, one by one, shifting thanks to her pointer finger and the smooth surface of the table.

Sarah was still grinning.

“Five years of oatmeal? I think that’s the most heartbreaking thing about your story.” She tried to add in some levity to their problems. Picking up her own fork and knife once her food had been delivered once again and for the first time for her.

As she posed her problem to Jake, he’d come up with the logical answer. Everything in the ship was working because it didn’t know that there were thousands of people still asleep. It must assume that Jake and she were merely the most adventurous of the passengers and pilgrims.

“Well, maybe I can do that on the way to the movie?” She sipped at her coffee, it was sticky sweet, but strong and spicy. Heavenly really.

“The movie start in...whenever the hell we want it too." He teased with a smile.

“A life of never being late?” Sarah asked, quirking an eyebrow. “It can be day whenever we want it to be, and night whenever we feel like it?” She followed the thought further, taking a bite out of the chocolate filled bread. “I’ve always been a disgustingly on time person. My parents used to drill into me: “Early is on time and on time is late and late is unacceptable. Good to know that I’ll never be late for the rest of my life.” There, her attempt to look at the upside. And she finished what she wanted of her breakfast, before pushing it aside and concentrating on her coffee.

“So, what movie do you recommend?” Sarah quarried with a smirk. “I know bronze passengers have access to the screens, so I imagine that you’ve seen them. I don’t think I’m up for much of an action movie…all things considered.” Her eyes crinkled with mirth over the edges of her cup.

“I think a romantic comedy would be the thing. We could get ice cream from here, oh, and nachos, and those…those things…” She had to put her coffee down to try and mime what she was talking about, spreading her hands about a foot’s length apart, then looked to be holding a baseball bat the next minute. “They get all that sugar everywhere…” She paused once more before announcing loudly “A Churro! Yummm.” She made a small move of pretending to melt into her bench, with an exaggerated rolling her eyes from pleasure.

“Since your movie snacks will be on me. What do you want from back home?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake smiled as she pushed the tray of food toward him. At first he waved his hand, "You don't have to do thi....alright." He said, digging in, unable to refuse the elite level of food. He looked at her and smiled, "Thank you." He said and flicked the bowl of oatmeal completely off the table, where it crashed and splattered over the floor. Instantly a small army of vacuum robots appears from a nearby hole in the wall and began sweeping up the mess.

The robot waiter brought her "seconds" and Sarah made a comment about how she could never eat oatmeal everyday for five years, and beyond. Jake shrugged, "At least it was hard for me to put on weight the last five years. Easy to skip meals when you can't stand the food."

The eggs were wonderful, the salmon was to die for, and even the simplest thing, the fruit, was heavenly. Jake let out soft moans as he ate a little faster than he should in front of a beautiful woman. But he was a man starved for too long, and now he had real food before him. He couldn't control himself, the breakfast vanished into his mouth very quickly.

Oh and the coffee was good. It didn't taste like sludge.

As he ate he listened to Sarah try to justify good points of being stranded. She told him of her strict upbringing, never being aloud to be late. He liked hearing about her life, her real life, not the life he had made up for her in his head while she slept. The truth about Sarah was far more interesting than anything he had made up in his mind. He was a mechanic, not an author, his imagination was limited to trying to fix things.

He would never tell her that he imagined she was a stripper/cheerleader/secret agent.

He smiled as she mimed the snack she was trying to think of, "A dildo?" he asked at her phalic gesture. "Sugar everywhere? A churro?" He asked.

Sarah brightened and slapped the table. "A churro!" She melted into her chair at the mere thought of the cinnamon snack. Jake laughed softly, she was funny. So bright and cheerful. It was nice to have her around.

She asked him what he wanted from back home. His access to the movies limited him to popcorn and a soft drink. Not bad, but traditional and like everything over the last five years...rather boring. He sat back and thought for a moment. "Snack from back home....You know what I miss. M&M's."

She looked like she was unimpressed with his boring choice. Jake smiled and leaned forward, "You know they melt only in your mouth....never in your hand." He told her matter of factly.

They got up from the table and started to head toward the theater. But Jake paused as a thumping caught his attention. He glanced to the wall and noticed one of the vacuum bots banging into the wall over and over again. Clearly it was trying to get into the hole in the wall where they were housed, but it was missing the hole by about two feet.

Jake glanced at Sarah, "Guess he didn't like the oatmeal either." He said, walking over to the robot and picking it up. He set it down in front of the hole in the wall where it seemed to come to its senses and disappeared into the wall without further issue. "That's the fist time I've seen that." He explained as he caught back up to Sarah and they headed to the theater.

Of course Sarah had been right, he had in fact seem everything the theater could offer. But he didn't mind seeing anything again so long as it was with Sarah. She would be seeing many of the movies for the first time, seeing as how the Avalon got new movies before they left Earth. The machine in front of the theater dispensed their snacks, including Sarah's dildo churro and Jake's M&M's.

They shared everything, Sarah's churro was good, and Jake's M&M's mixed well with the popcorn. Though for the first time he could ever remember, there were some unpopped seeds at the bottom of the bucket. Normally the system was perfect, so it seemed odd to him to find seeds at the bottom. He didn't say anything though, keep quiet and trying to not give any of the movie away as they watched.

Once it was over Jake suggested they take a walk, "What'd you think of the movie?" He asked her, as he led her toward the ship's greenhouse. It wasn't quiet a walk in the park as all the planets where housed in glass cases to keep them preserved for their arrival on Eden. But it was a nice proxy.

 

[MadMissJ]

Her face lit up in a blush when Jake suggested the word ‘dildo’ at her. And she shook her head like he’d failed his charades guess, pausing for a minute to gather herself up and start trying to remember it again. “No! Oh, my god, not a dildo!” she was laughing through trying to mimic a churro and once he’d guessed it, she was still giggling. Her cheeks pink with embarrassment, but her parents had taught her the art of small talk years and years ago, so she continued, making her assessments and asking him more about himself. There was a strange sort of intimacy there, with no one in the world except for Jake and the robots. When they walked, she walked close to him even though there was space to be at least an arm’s length away. It was just more comfortable like that. As if they were on a busy city street and they needed to be close to talk.

“You know you were wrong back there.” Sarah started, after her shoulder had brushed his several times, and she’d merely looked up at him as an apology.

“Technically M&M’s can melt in your hand. The melting point of chocolate is between sixty-one degrees and ninety-one degrees, the palm of your hand is between ninety and ninety-five degrees, your mouth though usually stays at a hot ninety-nine degrees. So, it just melts quicker in your mouth.” She’d finished her story by the time they were getting their treats, and she offered the box to Jake, making a move to take it away at the last second, then generously giving him the box before she took her churro from the snack machine.

But she wasn’t aware of malfunctions like Jake was. Sarah took her favorite seat in the theater. The first row of the back section, where there was more leg room and a bar that she could rest her feet on, she wasn’t a sit back and relax person in a movie instead her arms rested on her knees as she leaned forward. More so when the comedy was high and she was laughing. There were quite a few times that she had turned to her companion while she laughed, shaking her head. She took a piece of popcorn out of the bucket and tossed it at Jake when she thought he wasn’t paying attention and did the “eyes on” movement. Her two fingers pointed at her eyes, then at the screen. Though she nudged him to show him she was joking.

"What'd you think of the movie?"

“It was good.” She said with a shrug. “Does it hold up?” was her question, seeing as it was going to be on her rotation for the next several decades. Once they were in the greenhouses, her eyes started to wander more. Sarah did like plants, in that they were colorful and wonderful if she wasn’t responsible for their upkeep. They were frozen too behind glass, just like the rest of the crew and passengers on board the ship.

“Do you mind if I ask you something?” Sarah shifted so she could look at him full in the face, but her protective gesture of wrapping her arms around herself was back, though she tried to hide her unnerved self with a light smile. “Do you have anything that’s waiting for you in Eden? Some of them, the people I came with, they’d just gotten married. They’d already bought a pod out on the planet. They decided to just put their life on hold until they were in greener pastures. Did you have that set up, out there?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake gestured to a viewing bench and sat with her in the green house, listening to her question. A pang of guilt ran through him as she mentioned friends she knew still in hibernation. It was another thing that piled upon all the stuff that Jake had taken from her. He thought about Eden for the first time in a long time, at least for the first time in any real capacity. Eden wasn't a goal for him, never had been, not really. It was just a fresh start, a place where his skill-set was needed.

He took a deep breath and said, "On Earth...." he glanced at her and smiled weakly, but turned away to look around at all the beautiful planets on their way to a new home. "People don't have a use for a mechanic on Earth. Not they way I imagined it." He chuckled and shook his head, "I loved building things as a kid. Build-o-blocks, and things like that. Or taking apart those little flying droids kids get for Christmas. I loved either building things, or taking them apart so I could build them again."

He shrugged, "But on Earth, everything is built. When things break it is so simple to just either replace the broken part, or the item entirely. I always thought I could build things and make a name for myself. Instead I replaced headlights on hover cars, and swapped compressors in jet bikes. It was nothing like I dreamed it would be."

"Then I heard about a discount trip to Eden. And I thought to myself...now that's....that's a place where I can do something meaningful you know? I wanted to build myself a house. Build houses for other people too. Help assemble cars and genuinely build a home. I so I sold everything I had, and bought a ticket here." He sighed and hung his head, "Guess I should have just stayed on Earth huh?"

He looked at her and narrowed his eyes. "What about you Sarah? Why Eden?" He asked her. "Is there a boyfriend waiting for you in one of these pods?" His stomach tightened as he feared her answers.

 

[MadMissJ]

Sarah sat on the bench that Jake indicated and she let her shoulders relax, her arms falling away as he told her about the amount of his potential that had been wasted on earth. He spoke about building blocks, and the blonde grinned. She tried to picture Jake as a child, she’d never really been the sort to play, to fiddle, to build. She’d had a thirst for knowledge, but it had never extended to working with her hands. She was either looking far into the past, or further into the future, she’d never been present. Not like he had.

But his words about wanting to build a meaningful existence did resonate in her. Her look softened and she nodded. How would it have been for men like Jake to build actual homes instead of having them prefabricated and put together by machines? It was something that Sarah had taken for granted. The robots who listened to her as she spoke on her clinical findings, tallied up her numbers and double checked her math. Everything was untouchable, and spotless. She imagined that changing brake lights on hovercars was a dirty job. Different, he was different from the men she knew…had known.

“I so I sold everything I had, and bought a ticket here." He sighed and hung his head, "Guess I should have just stayed on Earth huh?"

“No…no…it was incredibly brave.” She assured him, lifting a hand to rest on his shoulder, stroking the muscle there, trying to comfort him as best she could since she’d been the one to bring around the subject. Something that was obviously painful for him. But it was all so fresh to her. “Its…part of us to want to go…out. That’s what we’ve done since men were just a glint in evolution’s eye. We went forth…to find something better, do something more. It got us to the stars, and it got us to Eden.”

Not them…but others. Others would go and she and Jake would be lost in the annuals of time.

"What about you Sarah? Why Eden?" He asked her. "Is there a boyfriend waiting for you in one of these pods?"

“A boyfriend? No…no not at all.” She assured him, brushing away the topic with a quick flick of her wrist. “I never thought I belonged there. On Earth. I ah…well…I went through school quickly, it’s a little awkward to ask a boy in your master’s program to your middle school dance.” That pulled her back in, rubbing her hands together as if the memories made her cold. “My work, well, my life has been spent on Eden.” Sarah took a long length of her hair that had come loose from her braid and tucked it behind her ear.

“I worked on human evolution, it’s my field. I’ve been writing papers about living on Eden, the potential disasters, the potential for humans to evolve. I signed up when I was eighteen, I’d already had a PhD by then. So, I waited and worked really, that’s all I did. Waited for the day I was on board the ship and bound for where I belonged, and worked at knowing every pitfall and genetic conundrum that we may encounter.” She knew she went on too long about her work, she didn’t want to watch Jake’s eyes glaze over with boredom. And again, she waved that all away.

“I never wanted to start anything on earth, when I was already light years away. It wouldn’t have been fair.” She looked down at her hands. “But you know, never getting there. It’s sort of a cosmic joke, isn’t it?” Sarah tried to pull it together to give him another grin. “I refused to start my life on Earth, so here I am. Nothing I worked for is possible, so, I have no choice but to start my life now.”

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake felt that somber feeling fill his stomach. Sarah was incredible unique, even on Earth among countless levels of talent. Her mind was incredible, even without knowing her, he had read her profile on the ship's computer. It told him that she was the very definition of a child prodigy, and a young woman who looked forward to putting her brilliant mind to work on Eden. Eden the planet and home that had been a focus for her whole life. Eden the planet she would never get to see.

Jake looked away from her, he had to break eye contact as the feelings ate him up. The more he learned about her hopes and dreams, the more guilt he felt about robbing her of that. He had been so lonely, so desperate, that the act of literal murder had become a line he would cross. Sarah's carefully laid out plans were fucked and it was his fault.

He looked up at the beautiful forest in limbo around them. "I'm sorry Sarah." He told her softly. "I'm sorry this happened to you." He sighed and looked down at his hands. "I can't imagine how robbed you must feel." His head turned to smile softly, "I think you would have done amazing things. On Eden I mean...you would have gone down in history." He told her, trying to be comforting. "Now you're stuck with a mechanic who wouldn't know evolution from Quantum Physics."

"I can fix you mechanical voice tablet though, if it breaks. So there's that." He laughed, "Funny, I can fix most things. Except a hibernation pod." He sighed.

There was silence for a while, then Jake shook his hand and slapped her knee. "Alright fuck this shit." He said loudly standing up quickly. He spun toward her and shook his head, "What's the big deal really?" He asked spreading his arms wide open.

"We have free-reign of a five-star resort. Free life-time passes to do whatever the fuck we want!" He insisted. "We should feel sorry for ourselves! We should feel sorry for all the people who aren't us!" He nodded and smiled at the look she gave him. "Think about it Sarah. People work their whole lives to be able to afford a WEEK at a nice resort. We have a free lifetime at a resort. An endless vacation if we want it."

He reached out for her hand. "Come on. Enough of this humdrum and mopping about. Let's go have fun." He pulled her to her feet and smiled, "Do you like water parks?" He smiled, wiggling his eyebrows.

 

[MadMissJ]

You could take the girl out of the lab but apparently, the lab lived inside the girl. It had been a few weeks into her stay that she’d finally decided that she was going to record their journey. After all, there were cameras all around them, it had only been a matter of asking Jake if he could somehow rig so she could capture images of them from the replay. And she began writing, being able to keep her mind on the study was the way she’d always handled things. She was an observer of human behavior and development and nothing was going to change that. Images and video clips had been filed away along with her own commentary on why things had gone the way they had gone.

Currently she was in the med-bay. A comforting looking older man in a lab coat told her that she would just feel a pinch as he took her blood, patting her on the back as his motorized wheels, where feet should be, were rotating around to place her sample into the centrifuge. She opened the notebook on her imaging pad and started to speak on what had facilitated her taking her blood.

“Note one for day twenty on year 85 from Eden.” Sarah said distractedly, looking at the images of the two of them in the cafeteria. “Subject Two, Sarah decided to surprise Subject One. A clear case of boredom, she waited fifteen point seven minutes for Subject One, Jake, to walk by the cafeteria where they were supposed to meet. Subject Two, had a bottle of soda in her hand clearly shaking it when Subject One came in from his entrance.” She had to pause in her talking because she was laughing a little, watching herself spray the soda toward Jake and turn to run, fumbling the bottle as she went but clearly not quick enough to get fully away. Both took their positions on the edges of the table, eyeing each other as they rounded the thing, before Jake climbed over. Sarah quelled her smile and continued.

“Clearly they are now engaging in childish humor. More so since Subject One gained access to Gold Tier. Blood sample to follow to observe hormone levels.”

Sarah picked up a stylis bouncing the end against her bottom lip, reviewing once more the video of the two of them. Almost without a thought she reached out to press a button on her pad, hoping it would sync up with Jake’s. Sometimes it wouldn’t, but he was working on that.

“Jake?” She asked her imaging pad, waiting until it pulled up his face. “I’ve been wondering something, I want to put it in my notes.” Sarah showed him her pen with a grin. “I’m filling in some of the details of your time on here. But…I was wondering...You know you’ve been on this ship for so long. How did you, well, how did you cope without any human contact?” That made her snort a little as she tried not to laugh and she took a deep breath to calm herself. “I mean, sexual contact. Are there bots on board, or something?” She waited patiently before going further with her thought. “Since I’ve been here, have you wanted more human contact?” Another pause. “Sexual contact?” She raised her eyebrow, her lips quirking at one side. “Have you thought about it? You and I?”

 

[TheRPGuru]

The following weeks had been rather interesting and by far some of the best time he had spent on the ship thus far. Having Sarah around was a godsend, even if she was in her head a little too much sometimes, her companionship for something as routine as breakfast was a huge improvement. Her access to Gold level items was like icing on the cake.

They had spent a lot of time together initially, frolicking together through the resorts many activities. The Water Park, the arcade, every restaurant on board, and on and on. What was even more interesting was how they kind of fell into doing their own thing at times as well. Jake tinkers with the little cleaner robots, taking them apart and putting them back together to see if he could. Sarah found herself in the medical bay, researching something. She used her mind and he used his hands. Together they made a great team. Jake even set up the cameras on ship to record them as she had asked.

Jake broke into the maintenance bay a retrieved tools, and headsets for them to wear so they could stay in communication from other sides of the ship should the need arise. Maintenance turned out to be a gold mine for Jake, loads of tools and even raw materials were just there for the taking. He used those materials to build, and create. What he loved to do best.

Weeks passed, Sarah became a bit more open it seemed. She played games and tricks on him. Shaking a soda into his face, for one, which led to a rather fun chase. Jake returned the favor a few days later by sneaking into her room while she slept and filling her slippers with Oatmeal.

One day Jake was sitting in the Greenhouse, in front of a makeshift work bench he had set up so he could work in the pleasant scenery of the garden, when the headset buzzed out of the blue. Jake grabbed the tablet on the work table and tilted it up so Sarah's face would appear in front of him.

"Jake?" She asked.

"Yeah what's up?" He said, twisting a small piece of metal into shape.

“I’ve been wondering something, I want to put it in my notes.” She explained, holding up the notes so he could see.

He stopped what he was doing and looked at her. "Notes on me?" He asked, grabbing a can of soda from the table and drinking.

“I’m filling in some of the details of your time on here. But…I was wondering...You know you’ve been on this ship for so long. How did you, well, how did you cope without any human contact?” She snickered, “I mean, sexual contact. Are there bots on board, or something?”

Soda spewed from his mouth as he coughed violently in reaction. His eyes widened as he doubled over and coughed the painful carbonation from the wrong tube. "What? Bots? Do there are....why are you asking me this suddenly?" He protested.

Truth be told sex didn't cross his mind much, first with the panic of trying to fix his pod, then with the crippling depression of hopeless solitude. He never considered even masturbation during the last five years. Well, maybe not anymore. He would be lying if Sarah's company hadn't put the sexual desire back into his brain. But nothing so much that he would consider himself desperate, or willing to put her in an uncomfortable position.

Sarah, it seemed, was the more straightforward type.

He shook his head, "No I haven't had anything like that on the ship." He confessed. "I guess it never crossed my mind with all my free time to feel sorry for myself." He set the tools he was working with on the table. "Why do you ask?"

“Since I’ve been here, have you wanted more human contact?” Another pause. “Sexual contact?” She raised her eyebrow, her lips quirking at one side. “Have you thought about it? You and I?”

Jake bit his lower lip, "Is it possible for me to plead the fifth?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Sarah's look said it clearly wasn't an option. Finally Jake took a deep breath. "Yeah I...thought about it Sarah. Of course I have, but I never said anything because I didn't want you to feel any more pressure being stuck with me than you already have. I worried that you might not even consider me in that way, and then it would be awkward for the next 80 years." He said.

Then he paused and leaned towards the tablet screen. "Wait....you brought this up. Does that mean you thought about me like that?" He watched her face carefully, but he was never good at reading women. Yet there was something in her eyes, "Oh my Sarah what would the robots think if they caught us?" He teased. "Let me not get ahead of myself here. Are you offering me sexual pleasures?" His lips curled into a devious smile.

"When and where?" He asked.

 

[MadMissJ]

After he spit out his soda, Sarah really was intrigued. She knew where he was, she didn’t even have to look in the background. He liked to do his work in the greenhouse and she in the medical bay. But they didn’t really go without seeing each other and often. He’d set up his tinkering shop among the plants, Sarah thought it suited him just fine. Maybe she’d call him the salt of the earth sort, it seemed particularly apt, even on a spaceship.
[
"What? Bots? Do there are....why are you asking me this suddenly?"

“You’re a talented engineer, I don’t think it would have been beyond you to somehow reprogram a bot or completely build yourself a bow to stern mechanical arm.” She held up her hand and this time she wasn’t miming a churro. No, she was definitely stroking something that would make a much bigger mess than some spilled sugar. “I want to know.” She smiled at him, letting her chin be supported by her palm while she held her machine in the other hand so it was like facing him in person.

"Yeah I...thought about it Sarah. Of course I have, but I never said anything because I didn't want you to feel any more pressure being stuck with me than you already have. I worried that you might not even consider me in that way, and then it would be awkward for the next 80 years."

“Hmm…” Sarah searched his face in her screen. “So, you think it would ruin things between us? Make things uncomfortable? How long were you going to wait?” She found herself smiling now, maybe her question hadn’t come from a purely medical standpoint. But she was curious, and Jake on the other side of the screen seemed to have lost some of his shock.

"Wait....you brought this up. Does that mean you thought about me like that? Oh my Sarah what would the robots think if they caught us?"

Her blue eyes crinkled at the sides with her ever widening smile. She liked Jake’s sense of humor, the teasing. It made her whisper conspiratorially back at him.

“I bet the cleaning bots would be excited for something to do, other than you diddling with them every other day.” Sarah laughed around her rejoinder, it was light, airy even. As if this conversation had always been a possibility.

"Let me not get ahead of myself here. Are you offering me sexual pleasures? When and where?"

Sarah had to sit up straighter and put her finger toward him chastening him through the screen.

“I’m not done with my questions.” She reminded him, though there was a light pink blush that spread around the apples of her cheeks. And the scientist paused again, before continuing.

“What have we done, when you thought of us?” The words had the woman catching her bottom lip between her teeth, but her eyes were locked on the picture of his, looking for an indication, the permission to move ahead, the desire to do so.

“What do you want to do to me?” Here she lowered her voice, “What did you want me to do?”

She was far too cerebral for her own good, but she wasn’t smiling now. Instead without her permission or thought, light fingers lingered at the last button on her blouse, touching her own skin there, fluttering around her collarbone before tracing the musculature of her neck and back down again.

 

[TheRPGuru]

Jake leaned toward the screen, eyeing her for these incredible awkward questions. It spoke volumes to her mind though. She was a very bright girl, and her own intelligence led her to interesting ways to play. Jake was more of an instinctual guy, good with his hands, able to work out problems with his tinkering. Most of them anyway. Now his instincts told him that Sarah was horny, her almost mocking teasing told him that. She wouldn't have brought these questions just up out of the blue. Jake knew she had been thinking about it first, and it led her to this kind of intellectual teasing.

He smirked at her through the tiny little screen. "Too many things to count. You want my favorites?" He mocked with his smile melting into a sly grin. "I thought about taking you to the observatory and nailing you against the window, thrusting myself into you against the vastness of space. Other times I've thought about stealing that doctor-bot's lab coat and giving you a proper exam."

He leaned back than, and shrugged, "Then again....there is something to be said about the enjoying spending the night in bed together, a very naked night." He explained.

His arms crossed over his chest and he nodded toward her. "Now it's your turn. Answer my question. Did you bring this up because you want to fuck?" His crude smirk returned slyly.