Consciousness returned slowly, emerging like a timid sprout from thawing earth after a long winter. Farah groaned inwardly, then decided that there was no particular reason for restraint, and groaned again, this time aloud. She opened her eyes to mere slits, but the bright white light of the stasis room sent violent stabs into her visual cortex, and she promptly shut them again, the afterimage dancing haphazardly across her field of vision.

By the Icons almighty, I hate waking up from cryosleep.

She could hear the others stirring in their cryobeds. Someone was having the dry heaves. She cracked her eyes open once again and propped herself on one elbow. It was the engineer. The poor girl was shivering, her face pale, the thankfully nonexistent contents of her stomach trying to make their way out.

Farah made an effort to sit up and lower her legs over the side of the capsule, winced as her left calf cramped up. As she massaged away the discomfort, she glanced to the right, where Adhan was looking enviably at ease. The man nodded at her silently, but it was too early for verbal greetings, so she simply returned the nod. Her mouth felt like something had died in it.

At the other end of the row she saw the captain stir, muttering something inaudibly as consciousness asserted itself. Kira was nowhere to be to seen, seemingly already up and about. Farah finally allowed her feet to touch the floor, glanced at the lockers containing their clothes and personal belongings.

A new day was upon the crew of the Nameless Star.

Kira slowly woke up from the treacle of hypersleep and sat up in the cryo bed. As usual, she was one of the first to wake up, her body crying out for caffeine. She stood up and checked the other beds, making sure everyone was defrosting. Check the instruments, grab some kawah, hit the shower, and then fresh clothes. The usual routine.

She walked out of the stasis room and quickly ascended the ladder to the flight deck, moving with the fluid grace of one born under the sign of the Dancer.

Once on the flight deck, she sat down in the pilot’s chair and made a cursory inspection of the cluster of instruments and dials, and pressed the button that would start the kawah machine in the galley.

https://i.ibb.co/7n0LxwQ/Kira-...e-Awake-portrait.jpg
This message was last edited by the player at 20:57, Thu 09 June 2022.

awake cold clogged bright weary...alive

Adhan hated Portal jumps. Hated them. It wasn't the "going into cryosleep, never knowing if you'd wake up mad...or at all" part; he had fatalistically come to terms with that the first time he'd jumped, a few cycles ago aboard the Nameless Star. No, what bothered him was that waking up from cryosleep was always so damned uncomfortable, and that he almost always had work to do right away, meaning he couldn't even stay in the coffin and feel sorry for himself for a few minutes.

Ah, well, he thought to himself, such is the price of freedom. He squinted over in the direction of the other coffins and saw a Farah-shaped blur looking in his direction, so he gave a confident nod and tried to look relaxed. Somewhere nearby, Aisha was trying to empty an already-empty stomach; that, at least, was a problem that had never affected Adhan after a jump. He felt bad for her, but it was not like there was anything he could do for her at the moment.

The Captain will want a status report soon, the unwelcome thought came. Might as well get moving. And so, with the slow, stiff motions of someone remembering how muscles worked again, he sat up, winced, and began clambering out of his coffin.

Terminal, he thought to himself. No...kawah, then terminal.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:05, Fri 10 June 2022.

Farah arose with one surprisingly fluid motion. Though still knackered from the cryosleep, she still had the physique to keep her steady and balanced. Once on her feet, naked against the cold floor - which only helped in waking her - she stretched to her full length, and did a few routines for warming up, as one would from their bed before heading off to the gym or your job. Fingers touched her toes as she bent, her spine cracking as muscles shifted and moved in response to her body's stretching.

"Good morning everyone. Hope everyone has had a good rest.." she said aloud, though she looked an extra time over to Aisha, the dry-heaving engineer. She grabbed one of the strategically placed heating blankets - always nice to have after the cold sleep - and headed over, offering to put it around the girl's shoulders to help her unthaw. "You alright?" she then asked, checking her over in case she had suffered any abnormal behavior during the cryosleep.

Farah, unmasked, looked much harsher than she meant to, as did her voice. A stern teacher, almost, examining her unruly students. But during her time with this crew, she would hope, they would have come to terms with what she dared show at a few occasions. But even so, between the cybernetic eye and arm that were visible when she wore the rather sparse outfit of a tank-top and boxers, she looked... naturally menacing, and not exactly welcoming.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:07, Fri 10 June 2022.

Having sat down in the pilot's chair, Kira made a perfunctory check of the main instruments. The jump had been successful, the Nameless Star emerged from the portal about two hours ago and was in the Kua system, its course already set for Coriolis station by the autopilot. The Kua portal station had hailed them once about twenty minutes ago, as was the custom, and Kira made a mental note to contact them as soon as possible.

Being the only person on the ship with at least some medical experience, she was responsible for any passengers traveling on ice. She punched a couple of commands into the console and checked the trio of cryobed occupants on the lower deck. Their vital signs were in the green, so she relaxed a bit. It would take them about forty hours to reach Kua's orbit, and the passengers would be revived closer to the end of the trip.

The console gave a pleasant plink, and a small pop-up notification appeared in the corner. The kawah was ready.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:07, Fri 10 June 2022.

Aisha's eyes slowly stopped their darting and drew into focus. Farah, in front of her, looked... real. Alive. True.

Aisha pushed past the blanket and into Farah's arms, clutching the shocked woman like tightly.

"Oh thank the Icons! You saved me! How? I... i was dead. I..."

Her voice collapsed into sobs.