Chapter Text
As soon as I wake up, I look around the room. It doesn't look like it was when I went into the coma, there's a pile of canvas bags in the corner and no one else is in their beds... Wait. No one else is in their beds?!? Where did they all go? I hear a clunk from somewhere on the Hail Mary, so hey, at least I know that my coworkers are awake. Checking the time and... oh shoot. It's a month after I was supposed to wake up, so I think the time was set wrong for something. Well, at least we're closer to Tau Ceti now, so there's a lot less waiting.
"I'll go see what that clunking is, it's all fine, it's probably just some footsteps..." I'm trying to gaslight myself into being calm, and it is definitely not working. I wish Alex were here, she always knew what to do when something went wrong, but she's back on Earth, tens of light-years away. I miss Earth, but I knew I'd never see any of my friends again when I signed on to the mission to save everyone.
When I pop my head through the hatch, Dr. Ryland Grace is standing there, but there's also some sort of glass tunnel system running through the room and in it there's some sort of... rock? And of course Dr. Grace is talking to it like its a person, because that's definitely a thing he does, stand around and have conversations with freaking boulders. He doesn't seem to have noticed me yet, so just to let him know I'm here, I say "Hi Dr. Grace, how's the mission going? I just woke up from my coma. Also, what's that rock?" Dr. Grace looks up at me in surprise, and the rock moved- the rock MOVED?
"Dr. Grace, what the heck is that rock?!? WHY DID IT MOVE?"
"Lani stop panicking! That's Rocky." Dr. Grace looked over at me, then at the moving rock who presumably is Rocky. Who is now waving at me.
"Well I will if would tell me why there is a giant five-armed boulder in the middle of the room!"
"♪♩♬♫♫"
Well, that's it, the rock sings. I'm done with this, there's something going on and I can't figure it out.
"Rocky just said-"
I storm out of the room yelling, "I CAN'T FREAKING HANDLE THIS RIGHT NOW! I JUST WOKE UP FROM A COMA, GRACE!"
Once I'm back in the room with everyone's beds, I grab my headphones and my laptop and start up my music playlist. I like singing along to my favorite songs, especially ones by Imagine Dragons and sometimes a bit of AC/DC. But of course the first song that plays is Jupiter by Gustav Holst. I know it's a coincidence, but it feels like the algorithm is mocking me. After a couple seconds of listening, I can't take it. I'm too angry and scared and tired, and I need to let my emotions out. I scream incoherently for a long time, for what feels like several hours but in reality was a couple of minutes. It's loud in my ears, but I don't care. "I don't care about this!" I know I need to stop and think, but I'm too angry to calm down.
I climb back onto my bunk and just sit there and cry. It feels like everything's gone wrong, but I can't figure out how.