Alien Romance draft

Leo

Leo drifted.

He drifted and drifted—it was dark, and long, and he felt like he was dead. Time stretched out for an eternity, and then without any warning, Leo could hear the beeping of an alert through the dark haze he was in.

216 Earth years had passed since Leo had been put into cryo-sleep. As a part of the Human Relocation Effort, many biologists had been sent out in a ship, each individual pod being sent out to a different prospective planet. Each scientist had been put in their own habitat, complete with analysis tools and plenty of rations for them to get set up on their planet and live comfortably, and of course had been given a transmitter to send data back to earth, where the rest of the population was waiting to find out what planet, or planets, would be suitable to send out more people to colonize and develop for more in depth space travel.

Today, though, was special. Today was the day Leo's pod landed on the surface of the planet the humans had decided to call Aquarius Prime— a planet similar in carbon composition to Earth, with breathable air and water covering most of the surface that wasn't covered in tropical jungles.

A few hours after the pod settled onto the grist of the planet in a small clearing near the edge of the ocean and surrounded by trees, the life support kicked in. Leo's pod let out a hiss as it rapidly warmed him up to body temperature, a sharp beep reverberating through the small space before a jolt of electricity jumpstarted his heart back into a steady rhythm. The IV catheter in his arm gave him a shot of fluids and nutrients, the air filling with a gust of pure oxygen to assist his body with the reconstitution process. His bare chest stuttered as he pulled in his first very cold breath in over 200 years, freckled and pale skin already flecked with goosebumps despite the machine warming the air around him. He coughed weakly, trying to get his lungs used to breathing again, his stomach rolling with nausea.

The ship's AI assistant, MIDI, chimed and brought the lights up in the pod to a comfortable level, the lid of the pod sliding up and to the side, allowing the man space to sit up as he was ready. He would likely be disoriented and groggy from his travel, but that would pass.

Leo groaned as his eyes fluttered open, his body feeling stiff and achy from the lack of movement he had sustained in space travel. His mouth felt like he had been chewing on sand, and his hazel-colored eyes were having a hard time focusing on anything around him. Not to mention his heartbeat was pounding in his ears, mixing with the angry ringing that was echoing through his head. He sat up to retch over the side of the pod producing nothing but bile due to the emptiness of his stomach—but it was still a rather unpleasant way to wake up.

"Good morning, Dr. Murphy." the AI's voice resonated through the pod. "Please move slowly. You may likely experience feelings of nausea, dizziness, and disorientation. You have landed on Aquarius Prime after 40 light years of cryo-sleep. Please direct yourself to your Habitat Display to confirm landing and activate your pod's life support functions." she continued, a stripe of blue LED's lighting up to guide him to a panel on the wall as a holographic hand print scanner lit up into existence, awaiting his touch to bring his pod to life.

"Probably would be too much to ask for coffee, eh, MIDI?" He asked, his voice a little hoarse as he sat back to take a breath, laying back against the pod as it tilted to angle up so he could gradually adjust to being upright while his blood got used to circulating again. After a minute or two, he managed to stumble out of the cryopod to press a trembling hand into the hologram scanner. "Alive and kicking. Life support would be great." He added with a soft groan, his free hand moving up to press to his throbbing temple, his red curls falling over his forehead a bit as he steadied himself on the wall.

The habitat hummed to life as he placed his hand on the scanner, which disappeared a moment later. The LED's brightened, flooding the pod with light. It was the size of a small apartment, filled with various tools and research equipment on one side while the other served as a personal living quarters. Against the far wall was a small cot-like bed, surrounded by built in shelves holding various biology reference tomes, empty journals for him to fill with research, and some personal belongings he had brought along with him. There was a small dresser of sorts built in to the underside of the bed, and immediately to the right, a small door behind which was a small bathroom with all of the amenities. A composting toilet, the compartment of which having access to the outside for farming purposes, and next to it a small sink and ultraviolet shower for sanitation. He even had a small kitchenette, which was mostly useless at this point, considering MIDI would handle providing most of his meals for the time being, and the rest of the space was allocated to his instruments. Microscope, centrifuge, and other medical equipment. His cryopod would now even function as a medical bay for auto-doctoring if he were to get injured on this strange planet.