<< | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | >>
He came presently to capsule twenty-seven-slash-eleven and leaned over the reclining unit to peer at the occupant. The window was frosted over slightly and he used his sleeve to clear it, the pink gel that suspended the young woman inside further obscured any detail. He could see she was young, pretty, her hair short and fair. He caught his breath. It wasn’t Jessica. The momentarily irritating sound of Cross’ deck boots on the metal walkway made him look up from the woman.
“Hey man, we’re on. Guardian’s going to set up some access between here and the farm biome but I can’t persuade him to break protocol and let us see the others.
“We’re going to have to wear suits for the trip, as well, life-support in the transit system isn’t due to come online for another, erm, eight hundred years?”
“Okay.” Said Stock. “I thought this was going to be Jess’ capsule?” he gestured at the sleeping woman between them.
“Oh yeah, it was going to be. There was some kind of balancing act with us and the second to last lot. Jess wanted to see another few months on the farms, do some adjusting or whatever.” He peered at the occupant. “This is Skye Reed, one of the AI conditioners. They did a swap.”
“Oh.” Said Stock, his disappointment obvious. “Where’s Jess, then?”
“She’ll be in the other chamber, probably. Don’t worry about it, another couple of days and you’ll see her. Well, you know what I mean. Come on, let’s go and look at your trees.” He paused to have another look at Skye Reed. “She’s a honey.” He leered.
It took a couple of hours for one of the manufacturing centers to construct their pressure suits, time they whiled away in the ready room. Cross filled Stock in on some of the events he’d missed, going into hibernation earlier. They joked about how Cross had caught up a little in age difference. Stock asked him if he’d dreamt at all.
“Don’t be daft. Anything you’ve got to dream with is deep frozen.”
“I dreamt.” said Stock.
“You probably had a few flashes before going really under, or while you were being thawed maybe.”
“Probably.” He said.
They suited up, checked each others seals and then walked back along the sleeping ranks to the elevator that would take them ‘up’ to the central axis of the ship.