Chapter Text
Her blissful dream comes to a screeching halt. In the place of the peaceful landscape she'd been dreaming of, there is darkness. She tries to fall back into her unconscious mindscape, but her body won't let her.
That's when she hears it. She's not exactly sure what she's hearing…but she's hearing something. It sounds like she's underwater, but if she can just get to the surface…she tries to open her eyes.
"Eye movement detected. What is two plus two?" The voice doesn't seem to belong to a human. It's robotic, but it also seems to have a feminine pitch and a slightly soothing British accent.
"Christina?" That's a different voice. That one is definitely human. "Mmph." The sound is supposed to be a question, but it comes out more as a complaint.
"Incorrect. What is two plus two?" The robotic voice asks again. Okay, she knows that. It's a simple question: 2+2=4. Getting her mouth to form that word is the hard part. "Fthr…" okay…that's not great. "Incorrect. What is two plus two?"
What's wrong with her? Why can't she speak?
She starts to panic a little, suddenly realizing that she has no idea where she is. "Hey, Christina, you're okay. Just try again." The human instructs her.
She tries to turn her head to them, but something prevents her from doing that. "F-" she breaks off into a series of coughs, suddenly realizing how sore her throat is.
"Incorrect. What is two plus two?" She groans, that once soothing voice is now incredibly irritating. The person laughs, "I know that feeling." No, you really don't, she thinks angrily.
She blinks and her vision fully clears. All she can see is bright lights and a couple little white robot arms that are hovering near her. She flinches away from them instinctively. Okay, try again.
"Four…" she mutters clearly. "Correct. What is the cube root of eight?" Oh, okay. Bigger words now, but it's still a simple question. She works in STEM; it makes sense that they would ask her a more complicated question next.
"Two," she says, her voice more confident now. "Correct."
"Christina, can you squeeze my hand?" The human voice says. She feels a warm hand close around hers, and she does her best to grip it like they asked. "I know you can do better than that…" they say in response to her weak attempt.
She's pretty sure she rolls her eyes before squeezing their hand harder. "There you go," they praise.
"Hand movement detected. Please remain still." The robot arms move towards her suddenly. "Mmmm," she mumbles in surprise. The person lets go of her hand and steps back. She wishes she could see them and figure out who they are.
"Ow!" She gasps when she feels sharp pain in various places. She tries to watch what the robot is doing. It looks like it's removing leads and tubes…from her. That's not fun to think about.
She suddenly decides that she wants to get up and figure out what's going on so she moves her legs, trying (and failing) to sit up. "Okay, take it slow…" the human says, grabbing her arms.
"Full-body motion detected. What is your name?" That's a great question; she thinks they probably should have asked that earlier. The human has kind of ruined the robot's test, because they keep calling her Christina.
She knows her name though, even if they hadn't said it. "Christina Hammock Koch." She answers, her speech is much clearer than before. "Correct."
"Hey—I don't think that's really necessary right now— yeah, okay…you don't answer to me…" she doesn't know who the human is talking to, until the robot abruptly raises scissors to her head. "No…" she says, panicking slightly as she once again attempts to sit up.
The human places a hand on her back to help her up. "Thank you…" she says because it feels like something she should say. The robot snips a giant chunk of her curly hair. "Excuse me!?" She yelps, trying to swat it away.
"My hair has layers you can't just cut it…like this!" She gestures wildly, before remembering that she has now regained control of her muscles. She lifts her head from where it had been lolling against her chest and turns to the right.
"Reid!" She exclaims, relief flooding her body. "Christina!" He responds with a laugh. "Are we here?" She asks, looking around. She knows the last thing she remembers is being sedated for their journey so the logical conclusion is that they made it.
"Yeah, we should be stopping pretty soon. We're in the Tau Ceti system." She nods, looking around. Jeremy is still unconscious in the bed next to her. Victor is nowhere to be seen.
She realizes suddenly that the only thing she has for clothes is a translucent orange sack that has been keeping all the tubing together. "Can I have some clothes?" She asks timidly, immediately self-conscious.
The robot is moving before Reid can, placing a mustard astronaut uniform at the foot of her bed. "You can join us in the lab whenever you're ready, okay?" He says, keeping his eyes on her face, respectful as ever.
She nods and he turns to a ladder, climbing it with ease. "Armando can help you if you need anything, but we're here too. Just yell!" He says before disappearing into the room above.
She wonders vaguely who Armando is, but shakes it off. She'll ask later. She shucks the rest of the orange plastic off, still seated on the bed. She's a little nervous about the idea of trying to stand up fully.
She finds undergarments tucked within the folded jumpsuit. She's grateful she doesn't have to actually ask for those. Her motor skills are still a little off so it takes her a lot longer than it usually would to change, but she feels much better with her modesty preserved.
The pain accompanying the removal of all the tubes has faded into the background and her hair has been chopped (albeit quite unevenly) to a comfortable length.
She takes a deep breath and braces herself with a hand on either side in order to try and stand. She immediately crashes to the floor. Is it possible that gravity can be too much? The ship's centrifuge is obviously on, but wouldn't they have set it to something more comfortable? Or are her legs just wobbly?
She sighs, pulling herself up using the bed as a crutch. Her arms are faring much better than her legs. When she stands this time, she feels a little more stable. She lets go slowly, keeping her hands hovering over the bed in case she loses balance again, but she doesn't.
"Okay, cool…" she takes a step. She doesn't fall. She takes another. She grabs onto the ladder, about to make her way up to the next part of the ship when she hears a sudden choking sound.
She whips around only to look away when she realizes that the robot is in the processes of extubating Jeremy (and she'd really rather not watch that.) Unfortunately, it is also very loud. She covers her ears to try and block out the gagging sounds.
After a minute, she slowly lowers them. She's suddenly extremely grateful that she wasn't conscious whenever the robot extubated her. Jeremy seems fine though; he's breathing independently now.
She turns back to the ladder, expecting him to sleep for a while longer, but once again she pauses. This time it's because the robot starts to speak to him.
"Eye movement detected. What is two plus two?" She turns back around with a sigh, watching Jeremy closely for the signs of consciousness the robot had detected. He lets out a low groan in response. She abandons her attempts to climb the ladder and rushes over to Jeremy instead.
Don't say his name yet. She reminds herself, just in case the computer needs to ask him that too. "Incorrect. What is two plus two?" She sees him open his eyes again, this time they stay open.
"Sphry?" He slurs, his eyes darting around frantically. "You're okay." She says, hoping her voice is comforting. "Incorrect. What is two plus two?" Jeremy sighs deeply, his eyes meeting hers for just a moment before he stares at the robot and tries again.
"Fffff," she realizes now that Reid did actually know exactly what she was feeling earlier when he'd said so because he had to have gone through this too. She wonders how long he and Victor have been awake. "Incorrect. What is two plus two?"
He huffs out another frustrated sigh before he manages, "Fffour."
"Correct. What is the cube root of eight?" There's a flicker of confusion in his eyes before he gets it, "Two."
"Correct." He looks tired, but he also seems nervous. "You're alright. I'm here." She says, opting not to touch him yet. "Where…?" He asks, looking directly at her.
"We're on our mission aboard the Hail Mary." She answers calmly. He furrows his brow and she realizes that there is zero recognition in his eyes for her or the words she'd just said. "What?"
She tries not to panic. This doesn't mean anything. He just woke up from a coma. He probably just needs a few minutes. It'll come back to him. His fingers twitch. "Hand movement detected. Please remain still."
Jeremy does not remain still as the robot removes the life support systems. He squirms and keeps trying to get up (neither Christina or the robot are letting that actually happen.) "Please remain still." The computer repeats.
"What's going on?" He exclaims, staring at Christina again. "Please—OW." She cringes, keeping her eyes on his face.
"What can I do?" She asks, feeling pretty helpless. "Help me…" he whines, reaching for her. She takes the hand he outstretches. "The robot is helping you. Just stay still for a second…" he doesn't like that answer.
"What's wrong with me? Why am I in a hospital?" He asks, his voice almost desperate. She's becoming increasingly more worried, and glances towards the hatch in the ceiling that leads to the rest of the ship, resisting the urge to call for her crewmates. They're probably busy.
"You're not in a hospital. You're aboard the Hail Mary." He shakes his head. "You said that already. I don't know what that means." He says, his voice strained.
She frowns, shifting her weight between her feet. Jeremy tries to get up by rolling over. She catches him before he can fall off the bed. "Full-body motion detected." He rolls the other way and this time she can't catch him in time.
He lands on the floor with a loud thud and a pained groan. She sighs, walking around the bed. Before she can even reach him the robot has picked him up and placed him back onto the bed. "What is your name?" Please, Jeremy…come on…she thinks desperately. "I…I don't know." Shit.
"Okay, that's—just give me one second, I'm going to—Reid!" She screams, all semblance of calm going out the window.
"Incorrect."