Title: Rude Awakening.

Setting: Every thing is black.

Man’s Voice- Where am I?

Girl’s Voice- You’re here.

Man- And where’s that?

Girl- Here.

Man- Wait, who am I?

Girl- You don’t remember?

Man- No… I don’t remember anything…

A flash of light splits the darkness.  Every thing starts out fuzzy but slowly comes into resolution.  The image of an over head light becomes annoyingly clear.  Camera pulls out a bit to show a young man clearly around the age of 18, black short kept hair, his eyes are different colors, one green the other blue.  He was laid out on an operating table with a number of odd looking devices around him, some of which were rather intimidating.  He was dressed in a kind of white jump suit like some kind of medical gown.  

In a groggy state the man tried to sit up.

Voice- Ah, you’re awake.  I wonder if that translator is working.

Man- Wh… what, translator?

Voice- Excellent, another successful operation!

The owner of the voice stepped into a view, he was a large reptilian creature with an armadillo like shell, wearing a lab coat.

Mach- My name is Doctor Yzrimachla, how ever I’m well aware of how complicated my “proper” name is to pronounce, so you may refer to me as Doctor Mach, or as the rest of the crew has taken to calling me, Doc Mach.


The man stared in disbelief at the thing before him.

Mach- Ah yes, that’s right, you’re from a back water time, your generation was still using crio travel.  Maybe I can explain things to you?

He slowly nodded his head, keeping his wide eyes fixed on the creature in front of him.

Mach- Excellent, most excellent.  You see, you are now aboard the free lance vessel Meaningless Venture.  We happened upon your ship long wedged into an asteroid.  That’s what your primitive kind gets for relying on auto piloted transportation.  

He continued to watch Mach in disbelief, he could only fully grasp a hand full of what he was being told.

Man- S… so I was on another ship, then where is the rest of the crew?

Mach- I’m afraid that you my lad are the only survivor.  Most of the crew either died during the impact or their tubes lost power over time, it’s hard to tell at this point.

Man- At this “POINT”?

Mach- You might want to brace your self lad, because you’re about to get a bit of a shocker.  We did a date scan on your vessel, your ship left it’s port of home two million two hundred and eight thousand years ago.

Before the man could respond two new figures enter the medical bay.  One is a female, Ember Eastwood, a lady with bright green hair, sharp yellow eyes and dark tan fur dressed.  The other, Carlos Mendez, a rather clean cut yet powerful looking man with brown eyes and dirty blonde hair.

Mach- Captain Eastwood, Lt. Mendez, just in time to greet the patient

Ember steps over to the operating table and gives the man a quick look up and down.

Ember- He seems alright, you didn’t do anything “extra” to him did you?

Mach- Captain!  I gave you my word that I would only install the micro translator, you still have it, that I have done nothing that I was not asked to.

Carlos- You can’t blame her Mach, last time we left you a patient, you went and replaced half his organs.

Mach- Hmph, I was merely taking advantage of the opportunity.  I had an experiment to complete and he happened to be on the operating table.  Besides, I finished the work you left him with me for before hand didn’t I?

Ember- He died two weeks later you psycho!

Mach- All in the name of science.

Their new friend shifts a bit uncomfortably in his seat at the mention of the monster who was just inside him having killed a patient.

Ember turns back to him.

Ember- So what’s your name?

Man- Uh…

She pokes his fore head.

Ember- A name kid, what’s your name?

Man- I uh… I don’t…

Mach- Crio sickness, very common side effect.  After the brain and body have been shut down for as long as he was it is no surprise.

He looked over at Mach with a worried look.

Man- Sickness?

Mach- Nothing too serious.  It’s just that part of your brain well… suffice to say, you’ll find you can’t remember a great deal of things.

He’s silent for a moment as it dawns on him that Mach is right.  He can’t remember his own name, let alone anything about his past, or even how he ended up in that tube.

Ember- Hmmm, no name huh?  Carlos, we’re in unclaimed space correct?

Carlos- Yes ma’am.

Ember- According to law any ship found with out a crew is salvage and claimable by those who find it, since you don’t have a name or a legal record you don’t count.

Man- Uh… what?

Ember- Since we’ve claimed salvage to your ship everything on board now belongs to me, including you.

Man- I don’t think I like where this is going.

Ember- To make the ownership complete I’ll give you a name.  I always liked the name Jason.

Jason- Uh…

Ember- Carlos, take care of the paper work for this will you.  

Carlos- Yes Captain.

Jason, as he was now named, didn’t know what to say or do.  All he could do is sit there and listen to what was going on, helpless.  Ember turned her attention back towards him, her demenier quickly changed to a more serious one.

Ember- Look kid, I’ll be blunt with you, you thawing out right now is very inconvenient.

Jason- Huh?

Carlos- Mach, how are his motor functions?

Jason- …

Mach- Very good question sir.  A very simple experiment will tell us.

With a quick shove Mach sends Jason onto the floor.

Jason- Gah!  Cold floor!  Limbs all numb!

Ember nudges him with her foot- Can you get up?

Jason- No…

Mach- Another successful experiment!

Ember- He’s no good to us for this if he can’t even get up Mach and I doubt the UMF is going to believe we’re equal opportunity hire.  

Mach- Not to worry, I’ll give him some muscle stimulants, they’ll get him on his feet for a while until his body finally recovers.

All Jason can do is lay there on the cold metal floor staring at everyone’s feet.

Carlos- I’ll see if we have any extra uniforms.

Ember kneels down and rolls Jason onto his back.

Ember- Listen up, you have three days to get your act together, this is way too big of a score to get screwed up by you dropping into our laps.

Jason’s thoughts- Score?

Ember- Shoot em up Doc!

Jason- What-

Before he could make a decent protest though Mach had already sunk the device into his skin and sent the drugs into his system.

There is a brief pause as everyone waits to see what will happen.

Ember- Did it work?

Suddenly Jason started to twitch and convulse on the floor.

Mach- Yes, I’d say it is working perfectly captain.

Ember- He looks like he’s having a seizure… he wont be doing that a lot will he?  Cause I’m not alright with that, it’s creepy.

Mach- He’ll be fine, that’s just all his muscles being forced into working order.  

Quickly he sat straight up wide eyed.

Jason- What the hell was that!?

Mach- Just a muscle stimulant to get you on your feet…

Ember- Listen kid, this aint no medical ship, we’re on the clock and now you’re part of the crew.  We don’t have time to sit and let you rest back up to full strength.

Jason- Uh, could I please get something to wear?

************************************************************************
Jason made his way through the ship on wobbly legs, he now wears more civilian type clothing.  As he did, he stopped for a moment at a view port and saw what he assumed was the ship they got him from.  It’s ruined body towered in the chunk of rock that held it in place.  

Jason- …

He was snapped back to reality by a slap to the back, the surprise of which makes him hit his head against the thick glass and lose his balance.

Female voice- Oh!  I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to knock you over like that!

Jason looks up to see a female figure with pale blue-ish skin, bright pink eyes and long dark blue hair.  She wore a yellow and grey jump suit with a tool belt around her waist, a mechanic of some kind one might guess.  She stood at least a full six inches taller then him with a build that would complement her obvious duties on the ship.  But what caught his attention most of all was the pair of small horns on either side of her forehead.

With a pleasant smile she squatted down to be more on his level and introduced her self.

Trell- Hi, I’m Trell, the ship’s mechanic and welcome wagon!

Jason- Uh… I’m, Jason… apparently…

Trell- Carlos and the Captain asked me to try to help get you up to speed on what’s going on and to try to keep you out of trouble.

Jason- Thank you?

Trell grabs him up by the shoulders and stands him up.

Trell- Come on, I’ll fill you in on what’s going on over some food.

************************************************************************
Jason sat at the table of a small make shift cafeteria.  It wasn’t much to look at.  Just a couple of tables, a cooking area and a big window to look out into the void.

Trell had taken to busying herself at the stove while Jason continued to stare out the window.  His concentration was broken when she set a plate of, something he guessed was, food in front of him.

Jason- What’s this stuff?

Trell with a wide smile- Well to narrow it down, left over stew.

Slowly Jason lifted a spoon full of it up to his mouth and gave it a few investigative sniffs.  Trell watched him practically from the edge of her seat.  After a few seconds of trying to guess what it was he took it in and swallowed as Trell continued to keep watch on him.

Jason- This is pretty good.

Trell lets out a sigh of relief- Thank the various gods, it didn’t kill you.

Jason- Yea- Wait, WHAT!?

Trell- Well, you ARE about a million years old.  I didn’t know if the food would kill your or not.

Jason takes another spoonful- So what’s this score your captain was talking about?

Trell- Well, we’ve been hired to steal some stuff, basically.

Jason gave her a surprised look.

Trell- I know what you’re thinking, but you need to understand… the universe is a very dangerous place.  We do what we can to survive.