OBLIVIOUS

CHAPTER 2 - Echoes from the Past

With Abraham by my side, I take clumsy steps through the room where I awakened. When I reach the door, I brace myself against the frame as he supports me from the other side. As I stand between the room and the clean, white corridor, I notice a few things. First, Abraham had trimmed his light brown hair to within inches of his scalp. It's just tall enough to fold over in a gentle wave above his forehead, but in the weightlessness, individual hairs rise on their own, separating from each other.

I run my fingers through my hair and feel my locks doing the same dance above my head. It feels weird. Tickles, actually.

The corridor stretches into the distance, bending around the central axis of the space ark. I keep walking, lifting my boots off the floor and putting them down. I hear the clicks and clanks as the soles stick and release.

I'm not sure where we're going, but I feel confident Abraham does. The farther we go, his hands fall away from my arm. I twist in his direction, not to look him in the eye, but to make sure he's still next to me in case I lose my balance. He's there, and the more I move, the more I feel strength expanding and contracting my muscles.

"You said this was a space ark," I say. "What do you mean by ark?"

"It's called Novus One."

I draw the corner of my lower lip up and in toward my teeth, but stop short of biting down.

"To answer what you're thinking, Novus is Latin for New. The space ark was the only one engineered and built by the designers. It's gargantuan. A quarter mile in diameter. The room you woke up in is on the outer wall. This corridor wraps around the entire station." Abraham bobs his head. "It's a space station, for all intents and purposes. But we call it an ark because it stores a multitude of living things, like you and me, among many other creatures, in stasis. Until the awakening."

I stop and arch my back. The vertebrae in my spine crackle and pop.

I inhale deeply and exhale.

"Are you okay?" Abraham asks.

"Feeling better by the second." I nod and resume walking. "What about this stasis?"

"Technically, it's called cryogenic hibernation, but I refer to it as stasis, to shorten the term. The process lowered your body temperature, heartbeat, and bodily functions to where clinically you were dead. But you weren't. Your heart was beating once every three-point-five minutes, providing minimal blood flow to your extremities with just enough oxygen supplied to your brain to keep you from waking up a vegetable."

I cut my eyes to Abraham.

He tips his head side-to-side. "Figure of speech. The rest of your body would be alive, but you wouldn't know it."

"So, I was in stasis in that room?"

"No. You were in a cryo chamber. I brought you out of hibernation and moved you there."

I ponder everything he's telling me. It makes sense based on how I felt when I woke up from sleep.

We've been moving for a while, which makes me wonder when we'll reach our destination. When my stomach growls, I remember Abraham mentioned getting something to eat.

"I think I'm hungry."

"The galley is around the next bend. On the right."

That makes me think. We hung a right when we exited the recovery room. Another right would lead to another area on the ark's outer perimeter. I've seen no doorways or hatches on the left side of the corridor. That makes me wonder what's on the other side of the interior wall.