Ten years. I've been asleep for ten years. Damn I look good. I guess it was because of Cryo-sleep (heheheh). I guess I really am lucky that my home-made Auto-guidance system works, otherwise I'd be a frozen corpse hurdling through space without direction. That and hooking an electronic eggtimer to my cabin works just as well for a good safety feature.
Right about now I'm just waking up from a great, albiet frosty, sleep as you can tell. Besides getting out of bed and eating just about everything in my fridge, I'm now heading towards the bathroom in my quarters, The Captain's Den, to tidy up. So you know, I saw my face in the reflection of the glass of my Ice-Pod, and in the time it took for me to travel through space to this godawful galaxy, I grew another beard. I hate beards...
The Lazer Razor was the first thing my hands touched once inside the expansive bathroom. It was a trusty little device that has gotten me out of many jams. I used it for not only cutting the hairs on my face, but if I didn't happen to have a pair of wire snips or plasma seperators, the skinny, five-thousand laser beams that came out of and bounced off of each end, would do the job for me. Unfortunately, the razor was prone to slicing off the skin of unwary users, due to a manufacturing defect. I haven't been cut once by my own, but there's a first for everything.
Smooth, muscle memorized, motions surrounded my face along with the tingling sensation of electricity on skin. I personally like traditional razors more so than the new kind. The newer ones are much more expensive than buying a shard of metal, using a Diamond Lathe to sharpen the edge and to make a rivet hole, buying a piece of wood, and bolting the two together. That, and the old fashioned razors didn't leave burn marks on your skin if your older sister accidentaly takes your father's and rakes it across the bottom of your foot... Suffice to say she loved me just as much as she understood the multi-spectrum of inter-dimensional shifting.
Once my face was smooth yet again, I took a shower and looked through my drawers for something to wear. I didn't care too much about how I looked, but being the Captain of your own personal Space Station/Laboratory with a staff of thirty people, it called for something upscale every day. If I really cared about looking good, I would have worn a suit instead of my cargo's and a hoodie. But, the only thing that was mandatory for the captain's look was a labcoat or a uniform. I obviously didn't take the uniform because I like the idea of not needing to be a tight-ass 24/7.
After getting on my clothes and looking over the supplies I still had left, I noticed something. Out of the glass dome that served as my window to the stars was a light. Not just the light of another ship or strange lifeform my people have already discovered, but the light of a sun. In mid stride back to my fridge, I stopped in my tracks and gazed at its beauty. How perfect the gasses burned blue, and made tentacle looking shapes that reached out and grabbed at nothing, but it's light; containing billions of solar rays that would no doubt keep my ship going for eons and eons. Wonderful.
I never usually gaze at something of little significance for long, but the difference between the sun here and the one on earth is that earth's meager black hole isn't a solar gold mine. Before the others could awake, I had the solar panels online and absorbing energy for the later days passing our arrival on Osiris. That is, until I noticed my Holo-Comm blinking.
On my filthy desk stood my Comm-Link. An orb of blue, floating, pixels flew from the circular disk (portal) that lay on my paper-covered desk. I had three unheard messages. The first was from my friend; Jonathan Kraden.
John was one of the only people I could call a friend. He and I go so far back, only some of my memories don't involve him. In fact, I can count them on one hand if I wanted to. So out of respect, I looked at his message.
As usual, John was wearing his black and gold suit. He was highly decorated, and his medals were well earned. But back to the point, he announced, "Hello Raymond. I know you won't hear this for some time, but I would like to catalog our arrival on Osiris to you. It is just as packed as you said, with less room than we thought. One of my men couldn't even stand on a cell stack without knocking it offline, and forcing it to tumble down. Don't forget to call me when you're awak, there are things we need to discuss."
"Second Message", beeped my Comm-Link, and a man in a white and gold uniform with the Osiris logo (a hammer smashing through a rock representing our fight as humans against the bleakness of space, and winning), appeared. This man's voice was like velvet. It was too smooth to be truthful on any occasion, yet too blunt to be a lie this time...
"Hello Raymond Curtal, this is General Dartix. Since you seem unable to pick up, I will say this; I need your help to defeat General Kraden. If you do not assist me in this global conquest, your termination will be carried out. We both know you are the second smartest man of our two worlds, and Dr. Gardell has already sided with Kraden. I expect your call anytime now."
"Third Message", chimed my Holo-Comm, and John was back on the air. This time he was wearing his battle uniform with full decorations.
"Ray", pleaded my older-looking friend, "It's been two years, and I need your help. I figured you'd be awake by now, so I'll say it without putting you through the filler. A war broke out between both the resident's of Osiris and the Earthen refugees. General Dartix challenged me to a duel, and now for the honor of earth and the preservation of it's people, I have to fight him to the death. We are discussing the terms in four lunar cycles, I hope to see you soon. I need you to stop this war before it gets out of hand.
Your friend
John Kraden."
"End of Messages", chimed my Comm-Link once more.
Damn I thought, A war, and I wasn't invited. It would have been interesting too...
Before my thoughts could get the better of me, I looked at the clock and date display on my Holo-Comm. The message was sent October tenth, and today was the fourteenth! I didn't know when the conference started, but I would definitly be there soon.
