Mizuni woke up groggily, feeling worse for the wear, and being so cold she thought that she was sitting in a bucket of ice. Her eyes hurt, and all her muscles screamed in pain. She felt like she was going to hurl at any moment, but at the same time, she was feeling so hungry that she didn't think anything would come out.
She managed to mumble something, but her lips hurt too much to speak. Someone touched her shoulder firmly. It was a comforting and warm hand. Mizuni felt like it was that hand that ground her to the moment right then, and that it felt more real than a dream because of the hand.
"Oh, thank heavens you're alive," someone said. It was a sort of familiar voice, but Mizuni couldn't place it right then. "I was so afraid that we couldn't get you out of that before it was too late," the voice continued.
A thing was brought to her lips, and cold liquid touched her lips. She drank a little, but spilled most of it. It was cold, and Mizuni felt like she was brought back to life as the liquid flowed onto her skin on the outside, and into her stomach.
She blinked a few times and then tried to look around. A familiar shaped was next to her, with a wide smile on its face, but Mizuni couldn't place any names onto it. After a few seconds, she recognized his eyes, and what little there was left of his uniform.
"Lu?" she whispered. "Is that you, Lu?"
"It's me, Valera. It's me," Perez said. He put her hands on both of her shoulders and hugged her gently. "I missed you so much, Valera. I was so afraid you'd die," he whispered.
"Lu, what happened?" she said, and then looked at Perez like seeing him for the first time. "Lu! What is going on? Why do you have such a beard?! Why do you look so ... so scruffy?" she pleaded, and then went quiet.
After a minute or so with Perez just looking at her sadly, she lowered her eyes. "It's been a long time, isn't it?" she said quietly. "It's not the couple of months we thought, right? How long has it been? A year? Two years?"
"Eight years, hija, eight long years ..." Perez whispered sadly.
"Eight!" Mizuni almost yelled, and quieted quickly after her throat hurt. "But the pods were only rated for five ...! And ... and, we didn't have power! Lu, where are the rest? Are they okay?" she asked, her voice quivering with desperation.
Perez looked at her, and tears formed in his eyes. "I don't know, Valera, I don't know. I haven't dared to look. Most ... most of them are gone. Three years ago, Infinity run out of power, and most of the pods died instantly. I managed to connect the ship to the station and keep some pods alive," he whispered.
"Who ...?" Mizuni said and dared not to continue.
Perez shook his head. "Don't know. Too coward to look," he said, ashamed.
Mizuni looked around. Less than half the sleeping pods in the room had power, and the rest had transferred to low-power mode, judging by the lights. It was then that she noticed for the first time that she wasn't alone with Perez. There was a short woman with very long blonde hair, and long ears lying on the floor, with her head propped up on top of a pile of flattened cardboard boxes. A sleeping pod cover was put on her like a makeshift blanket. She was fast asleep, and she looked like she hadn't taken a shower in three months.
Still, she looked like the most beautiful thing Mizuni had ever seen. Her tiny nose and pouty lips drew her eyes more than she cared to admit. She turned to Perez.
"Who is that?" she asked quietly.
Perez glanced at the elf and then turned back to Mizuni. "That's the one you can thank for your life. She's called Naina Melcey. She came here to rescue you, and without her, we would all be dead and doomed," he said. Then he grinned. "You're going to love her, hija. She's a scientist herself, and she reminds me of you. She's a brilliant genius, and very fast to think."
Mizuni looked at the sleeping Naina and smiled. "Thank you, little elf," she said. I'll thank you properly when you're awake."
"She worked for two days straight, without sleeping at all," Perez said. We had very little time, and it was a hard job. She never ate, never slept. Just worked right up until the point the pod entered the waking cycle. Then she just dropped down, and I dragged her there and covered her with that thing."
"Welcome back to the land of the living," a computerized female voice announced suddenly, and Mizuni yelped and jumped. "I am sorry for scaring you, Dr. Mizuni. I am Quera, the ship's controller. Well, at least now I am."
"Infinity doesn't have an AI controller?" Mizuni wondered.
Perez nodded at her. "It didn't up until a few days ago. That's Melcey's ship's AI controller. She built a thing in the viewing room from Dr. Kitten's stuff with Dr. William's tools and relocated her ship's AI there," Perez told her.
"She what now? How was she able to ...?" Mizuni wondered.
"I told you, she's brilliant," Perez said. "Like, we have power now, because she did something with Sunstar's sensor disc, her ship's hyperdrive and what not. I have no idea, but as far as I understood, I believe the station is now running with some kind of power from the sub-space bubble that we're in, and her ships works as some kind of converter for it," Perez explained.
Mizuni watched Perez with her eyes wide open, then turned towards the sleeping Naina. "How did you ...? So you know my theories? But how did you know how to ...? And what kind of drive can do that?," she wondered, shaking her head.
"She said she's been in the black for the last ten years, studying sub-space bubbles," Perez said.
"Correct, Captain Perez," Quera said. "Captain Melcey read all your papers back in the Academy, and we have been documenting the phenomenon in the deep space for the last few years."
"I cannot wait for her to wake up," Mizuni said. "I have so many questions."
Mizuni turned to face the pods and her expression fell. "Lu, I need to know," she said.
Perez nodded. "I know. They were more your friends than coworkers. For me, they were just souls on board that I was responsible for. But you knew them," he said. "What do you want me to read? Those, who are left, or ...?"
Mizuni fought against the tears. "I cannot believe we're talking about this. For me, it was like yesterday when we went under," she said quietly. She took a deep breath. "Tell me who is left," she said.
Perez walked to the pods and steeled himself. He started reading from the pods that were still on, "Dr. Tamira Williams, Dr. Pēteris Fesh, Dr. Jacob Oberz, Dr. Susette Jamet, Dr. Raul Marco, Dr. T'hea-ik, Dr. Vivienne Kitten," he listed, and then stopped.
"That's it?!" Mizuni yelled desperately. "That's it? You said there were more!"
Perez nodded, and continued, "Officer Katarina Welsh, Officer Paul Bolen, Ve'ntha Y'ra-ek." He sighed and shook his head. "That's everybody. Everyone else is ... gone," he whispered sadly.
"Dr. Stein?! Abebe! Dr. Llainessa? Granny ...?" she said and tears formed in her eyes. "They're ... they're ... gone?" she asked desperately.
Perez nodded. Mizuni's shoulders slumped down, and she fell back into her pod in a sobbing mess.
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