Tranquility Lost

Chapter 1: Frostbite

Metal creaked around me, and I let out a groan as I felt the hissing of frozen air. Through blurry eyes I made out an indistinct form. It shifted as I began to make out dim conversation around me.

"Hey. This one's waking up."

"Where..." I grimaced, as a wave of pain and nausea roiled through my body. "Where am I?" Fear cascaded through my veins as I remembered my last moments. I had been shot just as we'd began lifting off. Was I captured by the Warlord? But no, he didn't have that kind of mercy, not to mention the technology to keep me alive. Or was I dead? "Are you... an angel?" I murmured.

The figure turned back to look at me as my vision cleared. She had dark eyes and hair, and a slight smile as she pondered the question. "I doubt it! Look into the light here," she added, clicking on a small handheld light and holding it aloft. "Follow it to the left... up... and to the right..."

I obeyed, but as she nodded and clicked it off I made out a plaque on her black uniform. "Corporal Hyeong... Narae."

She chuckled. "Well you've clearly passed the vision test," she said, tapping at a handheld tablet. "Next—"

Commotion broke out from across the room. Before I could say anything, the corporal had darted away. Loud voices echoed, but I could not make out the words. Instead I strained to rise, finding it more difficult than I had expected. Yet my breaths came strong and clear, and where I'd been shot...

Tentatively, I reached for where the wound had been. There was nothing.

"Steady," a gruff voice said, faintly familiar. The stench of oil drifted toward me, and an impossibly strong hand clasped my own. I accepted, lifting myself up with a gasp as another wave of nausea roiled my stomach. "Good to see you again, patrol leader."

I froze for a long moment. Slowly my head rose, taking in the dingy gray armor plating, exposed in places. Heavy charring and gouges carpeted the surface like lunar craters. And yet...

Somehow, the barest whisper of faded paint still remained. The letters traced in a faint, oily green. M4X-319.

"You..."

I couldn't find the words. I looked up, to see what had once been unmarred chrome and two green lights where a human's eyes would be. Instead one flickered red ominously, fading in and out at intervals, while the other was burned out completely—the whole left side of the combat droid's metal face now charred black.

"Haul him away to the brig!"

The order finally wrested my attention away. A tall man with gaunt cheekbones and a dark complexion was adjusting his military cap. He continued, fussing over his trenchcoat as a cursing man in a faded orange jumpsuit was hauled away by two burly security personnel. I realized now that I was far from the only person struggling to remain standing. We were inside a large steel-gray chamber, and perhaps another dozen were being hauled out of what looked like tombs.

No, not tombs... cryo beds.

"Billionaires," the officer scoffed as the man was hauled farther away, his shouts fading into the distance. "Useless when pried from their companies. Now then." The man's boots clicked as he approached, assessing the dozen of us as we came to our feet.

My mind was running a mile a minute, and I still had no clue why I'd been thrown into a cryo bed in the first place. Sure, a generation ship like the Tranquility had hundreds of them, but I'd signed up in the knowledge that I'd live out my days doing routine maintenance for the benefit of the passengers. Cryo beds were reserved for only the most wealthy and well-connected, as well as their family members or those otherwise determined to be valuable when colonizing a new land.

But me? I was just some dumb kid from the Florida wastes lucky enough to watch over them for a short spell as the Tranquility hurtled along on its 350-year journey.

And so... what the hell was going on?

Sluggishly, I realized that the unfamiliar officer was addressing us, several other security personnel standing at ease behind him. "My name is Colonel Anderson. Now, you may be wondering why you've been thawed. To cut to the chase, I have a few answers for you." Colonel Anderson paused. "First: no, we haven't reached the planet yet. Second: you've been asleep for approximately a century, which brings me to the final point..." He crossed his arms. "Third: you've been awakened to bolster the acute manpower shortages faced by Bridge Security in our attempts to retake the ship. That is to say... consider yourselves drafted."

A long silence fell.

Then the passengers broke into discordant shouting. I just stood there, numbly, unsure of what was going on. It seemed like I'd died just moments before, only to be reborn. I glanced at Corporal Narae still standing at attention. She looked a good deal less like an angel now. Yet she bore the same black uniform that I'd worn along the perimeter in Florida. If she was a devil, then how was I any different?

"That's enough," Colonel Anderson snapped, and though his words were not loud there was enough heat and authority in them that everyone else fell silent. "As passengers, especially those in the first-class section, undoubtedly you grew up feeling entitled to speak your mind. For that reason you've been spared from the draft until now. Lieutenant, take them to the training barracks for the 7th Auxiliaries."

"Of course sir," a lean man with pale blue eyes replied. He stepped forward, and with the assistance of a few other guards got the party shuffling along like sheep to the slaughter. I was at the end, and turned to Max, unable to formulate any of the questions I had.

"Let's move," Corporal Narae said, stepping toward me and waving me forward, a baton in hand. Her attitude was more bored than threatening, yet I had no doubt that she'd use the baton on me if she needed to. Yet I still found myself locked in place.

"It's good to see you again, patrol leader."

"Hang on." Narae blinked, glancing from the combat droid back to me. We both seemed almost dead on our feet. "I've never heard him..." she trailed off, whipping her tablet back up and hurriedly tapping at it. Then she let out a soft, silent sound as her eyes flitted up toward mine. "You're... you held the line at Merritt Island?"

I smiled weakly. "Wasn't just me." I waved a hand to indicate Max, who inclined his head in recognition.

"A century gone past and still I remember."

There was a strangely wistful sound to it. But he was just a robot, after all. I must have imagined it.

"Should I... follow along?" I suggested, glancing at the last passengers trooping along, a guard trailing behind them.

"Journey, no, excuse my language but you're a damn legend!" she managed, shaking her head in disbelief. "They're being hauled away to fill the ranks of a penal company. Not you. The Colonel will want to see you alone. Hell, you'd probably be fast-tracked to officer..." she trailed off.

I could almost see the words this guy might be my boss soon flash across her eyes.

Grinning, I found myself growing a bit more comfortable in this new world. "Alright then, Corporal. Lead the way."