Waking up was the worst. 1

Every day I would open my eyes in the darkness and wait for the pod to be unlocked. Sometimes it was to the blaring sound of the 6 o’clock alarms and then freedom was granted swiftly. Most of the time, however, I would lie awake for what seemed like hours. Running my hands over the smooth metal of the pod and listening to the low hum of the air filters, I would feel my panic growing. What if today they forgot? What if something had happened and I would never leave the pod again?2

Life on board the ship was a strange mix of back breaking work and mind numbing boredom. The first ten hours of everyone’s day involved continuous work. Duties were rotated every two weeks and since I had no special skills or training, each week just brought more tedious hours of scrubbing something or other.3

After you got off work, you got four hours of free time. However, the strict rules of the ship prohibited nearly every recreational activity available. Drinking and smoking were not allowed. There was a gym, but high demand meant that you were limited to 15 minutes. In any case, the ship’s artificial gravity, which was about 1.15 Gs meant that by the time you were through with your job, you were frankly too tired to do much but sit somewhere and try to muster the strength to do something more productive. At eight everyone was herded into their pods. Half an hour later they were locked, and they pumped in sleeping gas through the filters and shut you off for most of the night.4

Some of us just couldn’t take it though.5

A man on deck C purportedly flipped out and beat someone to death with a mop four months into the journey. There was no space for murderers on the boat, so they just shot him and dumped him with the garbage. After that, everyone that complained of headaches, sleep deprivation, or anything of that nature was moved to a special high security section of their deck, so I just kept my feelings to myself and stayed quiet.6

The day it happened, I woke up three hours before the wake up alarms went off. The pods didn’t have clocks built in, but I counted the seconds. When they let us out, I was exhausted and nearing hysteria. Maybe that’s why I stumbled down the wrong corridor.7

“Sir?” said someone, and I looked up into the face of a giant guard.8

“Yes?” I replied.9

“Is there a reason why you’re headed for the airlock, sir?” the man demanded.10

The fact that I wasn’t going to the mess hall was news to me, and I didn’t bother hiding my surprise. “Really? Well… I must not have woken up all the way,” I said, rubbing my eyes.11

I saw the guard’s eyes narrow behind his visor and he started to say something, when his eyes glazed and he stopped moving.12

I knew what had happened even before he opened his eyes and stated, “This is Captain O’Harrigan speaking. Citizen,” he said, pointing at me, “Assist me in opening the airlock.”13

I blinked in confusion, and looked at the screen by the airlock. Incredibly, the screen showed that we were hooked up to a government cryospeeder. I nodded, speechless.14

“Take this,” said the captain’s avatar, tossing me one of the guard’s pistols. I grabbed it, trying to decide how I should refer to the possessed man in front of me. 15

“Careful,” he continued, “Take up a position over there.”16

I stepped to where he was pointing and pointed my weapon at the hatch. The captain stepped to the screen, but before he could do anything it flickered and the door opened. A tall, severe man stepped out.17

“Welcome aboard, Mr…”18

“Engle,” replied the official, ignoring the captain’s proffered hand and keeping his eyes on my gun, “And don’t worry – I won’t be here long.” He shook himself and continued, “If this wasn’t a matter of absolute urgency, I never would have taken that thing. Cryo is a pain, and even the benefits are clouded by the sore muscles afterward.”19

The man smiled, and when he did, I knew that nothing good was about to happen. It was a joyful smile, but the joyful smile of a man who gets his pleasure from the suffering of others.20

“As you may have heard—oh but of course you haven’t,” he allowed himself another smirk, “the agency funding your mission has recently collapsed. Thus, we are cancelling this endeavor.”21

“What?” gasped the captain, “But we’re less than a month from our destination! Do you expect us to turn back now?”22

“Of course not!” exclaimed Engle.23

“Oh. Well that’s—“24

“You must surely understand you don’t have the fuel or resources to simply turn around and come back. No, we’re going to let you reach your destination. However, your supply ships were never launched.”25

The captain’s face turned a nasty shade and he lunged at Engle, who sidestepped neatly and slid his hand – which suddenly held a thin knife – across the other man’s throat. I fired.26

With an expression of utmost surprise at my aim, Engle dropped slowly to the ground, still breathing. The gun I had been given appeared to be a tranquilizer.27

As I stared at the two men lying before me, a face appeared on the airlock screen.28

“Good job citizen,” said O’Harrigan, “Now quit slouching about and get that bastard up here.”29