Chapter Text
You startle awake, it hurts to breathe and the only thing you can do is cough up thick globs of viscous goo as you try to reach around the piercing darkness around you. There are smooth, cold walls all around you, you’re trapped. Panic seizes you before there’s an electrical hiss and suddenly the tiny rounded room you were laying in cracks open flooding everything with a terrible white light.
You squint against it it’s still a little hard to breathe but you coughed up almost all of what was inside your lungs, it’s cold and for some reason, you’re soaking wet. Three people come into your vision and for a brief moment you don’t recognize them before they start shining a flashlight in your already burning eyes,
“Reflexes are phenomenal, breathing has stabilized and we’re looking at a fully conscious recruit here.” One of them speaks getting down quick notes before the second one starts speaking,
“Hey there, wakey wakey.” She snapped her fingers in your face and you flinch backward, your mind dragging behind your thoughts, you recognize this person. Doctor Amelia, smiles, “Good to see you made it recruit. If you can just do a few more basic tests we’ll get you up and on your feet in no time.”
“What’s going on?” You rasp out, your throat feels like sandpaper and your limbs ache terribly as if you had been in bed for centuries.
“We’ll get to that sweetheart.” Doctor Amelia smiles again, “Wiggle your fingers and toes for me?”
You follow her orders wiggling your fingers and toes, the cold makes it feel like your limbs have gone numb, you’re in some sort of spandex underwear and you pick at it,
“Good! Can you move your neck around? I see you’ve already gotten the hang of moving your arms so no need for that one, just take it easy.” You move your neck just to look up at her, the other doctors have already run off to do something else, “Remember anything at all? It takes a second for it all to come back but if you can remember your name for me that’ll be great.”
You take a second to think looking around in the meantime, you’re in underwear, in what looks like a highly advanced medical bay with beeping monitors and hissing wires and everything is made of metal, there are no windows. Everything comes back to you in an instant and you blurt out your name quickly, you’re really thirsty,
“Did we make it to the station?” You feel like getting up but Doctor Amelia has a careful hand pressing you down, it would be best if you followed her orders,
“We did! I assume everything is coming back now?” You nod quickly, “Fantastic! If you feel like you can go ahead and step out of the pod and make your way to the observation room. We’ll get you all fed and ready to go after a thorough briefing.”
It doesn’t take you long to get out of the pod, you’re thirsty and sore but it feels good to finally stretch out.
You were onboard The Erebus, the biggest transportation ship ever built heading to The Revenant Space Station to become part of the PEA’s specialized fleet. The observation room was huge, its ceilings were domed and the huge round armored window allowed you to look out at the approaching station, you had made it through the Cryosleep. With a giddy bubble in your chest, you smiled at the sleek metal edges of the station stretching your arms above your head, there were other recruits already in the room all dressed the same in that weird spandex underwear but everyone was too busy looking at the station.
You had wanted to go to space since you were little, to see the stars up close and to study the new and exciting life-forms that would be amongst the red giants and asteroid belts and now here you were literally about to have it all. PEA’s training course was the hardest thing to do while back at home on Earth, countless books to read through about theories and possibilities you just wanted to get your hands on one of those fancy badges already and dig your fingers into their extensive files.
And now here you were, staring up at the station that would become your new home, the blood rushing in your ears eager to start the real training.
Two people crashed into you laughing wildly after you all had your meal, a bath, and a chance to change into real clothes. Turning quickly you saw your fellow recruits and friends Eris and Ben before wrapping them into a tight hug,
“Nearly didn’t remember you guys!” You laughed, everyone was crowded into the docking station onboard The Erebus while they got clearance to land, “Good to see that you both made it!”
“You too!” Eris smiled her dark skin already regaining most of its color, the Cryosleep must’ve taken a lot out of her.
“We worried you were the one that didn’t make it.” Ben smacked your back hard enough to make you stumble and you let out a bubble of laughter, “I’m glad we found you though! Now we can all become the next best specialists in the colony!” Ben was still just as strong as he was before when he wrapped you back into a tight hug that cracked your spine.
Eris was hoping to get into one of the research teams just like you were but Ben wanted to be part of the scout teams, taking the dangerous job of dodging space storms and black holes looking for the next weird planet. But there was still the selection process to go through, and then everyone would get their positions after training. Your throat felt dry again despite having drunk four glasses of water during the meal, you hoped you would end up on the research team.
The station was just as impressive inside as it was outside, the huge docking station allowed over ten ships to land, well, seven now with The Erebus taking up tons of room. It was a little jarring to see just how many recruits were piled onto the ship after exiting The Erebus, there had to be thousands of them all standing around and chatting with one another with you and your friends pushed to the front. It was overly loud until a sharp-looking older man with grey hair and a worry-lined face came forward, there was a woman trailing right next to him along with another, sharper-looking man with countless medals pinned to his chest.
You recognized them all and without thinking stood at attention at their approach, Captain Keter, the man that spearheaded the PEA and made it what it was today stared out at the crowd with an overly serious expression that sent ice through your veins. The room finally quieted once everyone noticed them,
“Recruits!” He called out making sure he had everyone’s attention. You heard a unanimous shift in the crowd as almost half of them snapped to attention, Ben’s heels clicked together his eyes fixated on General Munchi, the leading voice of the Scout teams, “I’m sure you all know me and my companions but I’ll do the introductions anyway, I’m Captain Keter this is General Munchi and Lead Researcher Yamen Da’ Cosht.”
Yamen gave a little wave, her long brown hair tied up in a tight bun, that was going to be your boss from then on. You clenched your fist, you would get into the research team if it killed you.
“All of the information I’m about to tell you all can be found in your briefing packets in your rooms but I’ll be happy to give you all a quick synopsis.” Captain Keter continued waving his hand out before continuing his welcome speech, “I welcome you all onto this space station with high hopes, you all have passed with flying colors back home and have trained for years to make it here but the fight isn’t over yet. Training will start at 0500 sharp!” He pointed a stern finger at the crowd before smiling for the first time it was a much kinder smile than you were imagining, “We’re all excited to have all these new faces here on board, your positions will be chosen by how well you all do in the training exercises and classes! Dismissed!”
With that all three of them turned and walked off leaving the entire docking bay in stunned silence before it exploded back into a clamor of noise, Eris had the widest smile you had ever seen and Ben smacked your shoulder laughing at how you had your mouth open the whole time. You snapped it shut and smiled laughing with your friends to your new rooms.
The new room was surprisingly cozy, it was small but it was all yours, and your friends were able to get the rooms right next to you on either side so that was a plus. You landed on your new clean bed and grabbed the packet, it was a very thick packet and you sighed as you flipped it open, you would have to read through the whole thing possibly twice just to make sure you knew everything.
It had the schedule down to the exact minute, wakeup, physical training, breakfast, more physical training, class, and on and on and on it went until bedtime. You groaned, there were only two hours of ‘free time' in the entire day. You shook your head clenching your fist, you were fantastic at the academy you would do fantastic here. It was only the first day anyway and they would give you the entire day to rest, recover and get ready for the rest of your life. It was exciting, to say the least.
‘Recruit No. 277-EEA’
You turned the uniform in your hands, this was going to be what you wore every day, you had at least ten of the exact same outfit lining your closet. The stitching was in harsh black against the light blue collared shirt right at name-tag height but it brought you some strange form of comfort when you ran your thumb over it. The first ‘E’ representing The Erebus while the other letters represented the PEA, it was hard to believe that this was going to be your new label in some ways before you ‘earned’ your name back at least after getting assigned a place. With a giddy sigh you hung the shirt back in place, dinner was an hour ago and some of the crew had walked groups of the recruits around to show everyone where everything was. When they guided your group past the Research Wing you and Eris both gawked at the high-tech machines that buzzed and hummed just behind the sliding glass doors every one of the people in there wearing the longest fanciest lab coats you had ever seen. Ben shook his head at the both of you with a smile but you got him back after your group was guided past the Military grade workout rooms, he looked like he was about to faint after stumbling over his words about dumbbells and speed training.
But now it was time to tuck-in for the night, it was hard to think about sleeping now with all this new and wonderful information buzzing around in your head. After setting your alarm you climbed into bed thinking about your schedule until you finally dozed off. Tomorrow you would start the long training process to get into The PEA and start changing the known world.