r/HFY • u/jpitha • 12d ago

OC-Series [Rains, Pours] Chapter 4

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When he was in training, Charon had asked if people dreamed while in hibernation. He never really got an answer that satisfied him. Everyone would hedge, saying that they weren’t sure, or that it was different for everyone, and other non-answers. It was almost as bad as when he asked about link-death. When humans traversed a wormhole, about one in one hundred felt like they died and visited an afterlife. They reported seeing ancestors, long lost friends, people from history who would either not speak or give cryptic advice. This death wasn't permanent - the person experiencing link death would return to life when the wormhole trip ended, but liters upon liters of ink were spilled in debate about what - if anything - was experienced.

In Charon’s case, when he was awakened by his cabinet he had thought something had failed. He had barely closed his eyes and had no time to dream when he felt the warm haptic buzz of the seat; the lights inside came up slowly. “Hummingbird? Did something happen?” He said.

There was no reply.

“Hummingbird? Cha-ren?” Charon lifted his head but it bumped gently against the lid of the cabinet, which hadn’t opened. Swallowing panic, he reached around until his fingers found the internal controls. Tapping on the buttons, a little screen filled his vision. He seemed to be all right, healthy and awake fully. There was an orange indication next to the latch, but it still could be opened manually. The internal clock…

Was clearly broken. The time elapsed indicator was reading gibberish. It was impossible that 28,341 years had elapsed. It was probably 28 and something was wrong with the display.

“Hello?” He said, this time toggling the external speaker and mic. “Is anyone there?”

Over the open mic he heard shuffling and muttering but couldn’t make out the words. After a minute more voices could be heard in the room until finally, “Yes?” A voice answered back. Charon didn’t recognize the voice but that was to be expected. It’s not like he thought that Cha-ren was going to wake him up.

“Uh, we’ve been rescued right? Can I get out?”

“We are still determining that.”

Determining that? What did that mean? Charon wondered as he heard more commotion outside the cabinet. The speaker’s accent was odd too, with strange pronunciation, as if this was a language unfamiliar to them.

“Is Cha-ren still there? Is she all right?”

“The…K’laxi? Is that how you say that name?”

“Ye-es, that’ right,” Charon said warily. “Is she there?”

“Yes…she’s here and as near as we are able to tell, she is well, though she is still in hibernation.” Charon could hear how they were tasting the words as they spoke them. They were clearly unfamiliar with the language, and that worried him. Who would rescue us that doesn’t know how to speak Colonial Standard?

“Can you connect my cabinet to her? I’d like her to hear a friendly voice when she wakes up.”

“We do not know how to accomplish that.”

“Just ask Hummingbird to do it.”

“Who?”

Charon’s blood iced over at that. What did they mean who? “Hummingbird is the name of the ship and who helped us get into hibernation after the reactors blew.”

“Ah, I see. That is most interesting. We will discuss things once you have exited the cabinet. Hummingbird is not here, and we are struggling to understand technology this old, please give us a little grace.”

“Old? What do you-” Charon said and finally slapped the manual override on his control. There was a hiss of pressure equalizing and he could hear a yelp of people jumping back as the lid unlatched and he was able to push it open. Sitting up, Charon squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light.

He wasn’t aboard Hummingbird anymore.

Someone, somewhere had moved their cabinets into…a break room? It looked like the break room from his internship back on Hyacinth. Off-white walls to hide the grime, plastic tables and chairs for easy cleaning, the smell of old food and other unknown items heavy on the air. Immediately he looked to his right and saw Cha’s cabinet, indicator lights green and operating. Releasing a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, he looked up at the people standing around him.

They weren’t human.

That wasn’t quite right. They didn’t look like Charon. He knew enough that people came in all sizes, shapes, and colors, but these were a people he didn’t recognize at all. They were still bipedal, with bilateral symmetry, five fingers, two eyes, hair on top, but they…they…

They didn’t look right. They were far too tall - the shortest among ten two meters at least - and their skin was a pale, translucent pallor tinged with green. The clothes looked normal enough, pants and shirts, but Charon didn’t recognize the fabrics. Their eyes were larger than his, and some people had eye coloration he had never seen.

When the cover to the hibernation cabinet opened they jumped a meter back and were now regarding him owlishly. Charon took a deep breath; the air smelled wrong. It had a metallic tang and some kind of background scent he couldn’t place. It wasn’t the ever-present dirty sock smell of a station, and it wasn’t the spiced wood smell he got from K’laxi ships, nor the citrus smell of human cleaners.

“Uh, hello?” He said, and that seemed to break the spell. “Where am I?”

One of them, a woman, Charon thought, stepped forward. She wore a uniform that was a pale orange, almost a vivid brown, and had a badge across her right breast he didn’t recognize, a name tag maybe?

“That will take some explaining,” She said, and this time Charon saw her mouth move out of time with her words. A small speaker on her belt was speaking. A translator.

“The internal clock wasn’t malfunctioning, was it?” He said with a leaden certainty he was correct. “It’s been twenty eight thousand years.”

A man in the back brightened, “Has it? We had no way of checking when we found you. What exactly was the time elapsed?

“Uh, 28,341 years.”

“Yes, but whose years?”

“Earth I assume. That’s who we used for most of our timekeeping in space.”

Gasps across the room and two people in the back dashed out of the room in a hurry.

“Please,” The man said, stepping forward towards the woman. When he approached her though, she held out a hand, preventing him from getting any closer. He ignored the gesture and said, “Are you from Earth?”

“No,” Charon said, and saw their faces fall. “I grew up on High Mars Hyacinth, in orbit around the planet Mars.”

Just as quickly they perked back up. “You grew up in the Sol system then, yes? You saw Earth with your own eyes?”

“I visited it a few times when I was young,” Charon said. “Family vacations, visiting relatives, that sort of thing.”

Muttering in the background among the assembled people. The two folks who had run away returned with a half dozen more people in tow.

“Please,” Charon said. “I just woke up and I have no idea what’s going on. Can we wake Cha-ren and then take stock?”

“Will she be all right with these environmental parameters?” The woman asked. “We weren’t sure.”

“You weren’t sure about K’laxi environmental needs?” Charon said, incredulous. “We’ve known about the K’laxi for nearly two centuries. Their parameters are compatible with human standards.” He hopped down, his ankles and knees protesting. Grasping the edge of the cabinet against a sudden wave of dizziness, he paused a moment before letting go and going to Cha’s cabinet.

His initial estimation was correct; she was in hibernation and fine. It appeared that even her injuries from the blast had been fully healed while she was under. He followed the intuitive menus and imitated a wake. The cabinet hissed and immediately came to life. Indicators started reporting more detailed information, fans started up and the whole thing hummed. With the gentle thump of the latches, her cover opened and Charon peered inside.

Cha-ren was there, just as she was when they entered. He smiled and his eyes stung with tears when he realized she was still wearing his shirt. Things might be completely unknown, but at least she was there with him. “Cha,” he said gently. “Cha-ren, time to wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered and her ears flicked as she yawned and said, “Just a few more minutes, it felt like hardly any time at all.” She opened her eyes and smiled with her mouth and ears when she saw Charon. “For a moment there, I was worried I would never see you again.”

“Same,” He agreed. “But, here I am.”

“I’m glad. How long was it before we were rescued? It felt like hardly any time at all.”

“It’s been a while,” Charon admitted. “But the important thing is that you’re here, and you’re healthy. The cabinet even indicated that all your injuries have been healed.”

“I do feel pretty great,” She admitted as she sat up. Her ears flattened as she looked round, “Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” Charon said. “The folks here don’t know where Hummingbird is, and they didn’t know if K’laxi were okay to be in our environment.”

“They didn’t know if-” Cha-ren sat up suddenly and looked behind Charon, taking in the people for the first time. He heard her sharp intake of breath and saw her pupils dilate. “What do you know of the K’laxi?” She said to the woman who seemed to be in charge.

“We know that they - you - were -er, are - a species that was one of the earliest partners with humanity when they ventured out into space, and together with the other sapient species the First Flourishing thrived.”

“First Flourishing?” Charon said.

“Were?” Cha-ren said, her ears pointed straight up, and she looked at Charon, “How long has it been, really?”

“Twenty eight thousand years or so,” Charon said.

Cha-ren’s eyes widened, and he saw tears well at the base. They cry like we do, he thought as she sobbed and threw her arms around him.

****

They had led them to a room and gave them some time alone. It was a guest cabin, with a large single bed - Charon smiled at that - a changing room, some kind of combination shower/toilet/cleansing device that neither knew how to use, and that was it. They laid on the bed, holding each other for a long time.

“Twenty eight thousand years,” Cha-ren said finally.

“Seems that way,” Charon agreed.

“What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to survive,” He said firmly. “We’re together and while that’s not a lot, it’s enough.”

“Why didn’t they know anything about K’laxi? Did something happen to us?”

“I don’t know,” Charon admitted. “They were very interested in finding out that I grew up in Sol, and had visited Earth.”

“What about Hummingbird?”

“I don’t know that either. I hope they rescued the rest of his ship when they got us. If they did that, it should be possible to reactivate him.”

“Do you think they can?”

“…No,” Charon said after a moment. “They were unsure how to open the hibernation cabinets. I don’t think anything like our technology is in common use around here anymore.

Both of them were hungry, but there didn’t seem to be any way to call out to anyone, and every door and cupboard in the cabin was empty. They fell asleep clutching each other, cold and hungry.

The next morning, the door opened and the woman who had been leading the team earlier walked in. Behind her trailed another woman who carried a tray with steaming cups and a two bowls.

“Good…morning?” She said and frowned. “I think that’s how it’s said. I have brought you some food.”

The woman placed the tray on a table and bowing once, left the room. Charon and Cha-ren approached the food cautiously. Two steaming mugs of something hot, and two bowls of some kind of grain awaited them. Cha-ren looked up at the woman and said, “Is it safe for me to eat this? My physiology means that I cannot eat many human foods.”

She nodded, “We consulted the archives, and were assured that this is suitable for both of you. It may not be the most…delicious, but it is safe to eat and will sustain you.”

Charon took a sip of the liquid. Woody, and smoky, it was familiarly unfamiliar. Like someone had described coffee over an intermittent interstellar beacon. The grains were simple, bland, cooked grain. He couldn’t even tell which one it was, or whether it was one he had eaten before. True to her word the taste was uninspiring, but hunger was the best seasoning, and hey ate it all.

When they had finished that same woman who had brought the tray in came to collect the dishes and left with three more mugs. This time the woman in charge took one and sipped it. “My name is Gallie, I suppose I would be what you call the director here. I realize that you must both have many questions, and we will do our utmost to answer them, but before that I need to know something from you. Where is Earth?”

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10

u/jpitha 12d ago

That's a teeny, tiny, infinitesimal bit longer than 30 years. Hummingbird, what did you do?

Remember, I'm on vacation next week, so no chapters, but I'll do what I can to post on Tuesday when I return.

If you want to keep up with what I'm doing and want to read other stuff I've made, you can go to https://www.pitha.club/ and sign up for my intermittent newsletter! I do my best to keep it interesting and not annoying.

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6

u/Coygon 12d ago

Hummingbird set himself to high-perception mode so time woukd fly by. 1 year real time woukd be 1 hour to him. At that rate, 28,341 years is about 3 years, 3 months. Not enough time for him to go insane, unless he was already dangerously unstable.

So yeah. What DID happen?

1

u/dumbo3k 11d ago

Still on their movie marathon, obviously.

1

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u/questionable_fish Human 12d ago

Getting Red Dwarf vibes here...

But a lot less comedy and a lot more lost in space

1

u/AvecBier 12d ago

Great story!

2

u/gmx39 11d ago edited 8d ago

These people not knowing Earth's location is very suspicious.