Chapter 1

Dear Jim,

Two weeks ago I was awakened. Forget everything you have heard about waking up in a cryopod. It is much worse. I spent several days in the infirmary, but I only know that from what the nurses have told me. I remember seeing a light, sometimes moving shadows. Sometimes I was half dreaming or possibly hallucinating from whatever drugs they had given me. Once there seemed to be a large donut with sprinkles hanging above me and then a brown spotted dog was hunting a flock of geese through the room followed by what appeared to be a doctor. I also heard someone screaming about getting a lawyer outside in the hallway, which made me giggle. Or maybe I only imagined the giggling, too.

People were there but I didn't recognise them. There was talking around me but I couldn't understand what anyone said. I had only short episodes of something like consciousness which got longer and clearer after a while. I noticed that I was lying in a large spherical room, which was mostly white but also partly painted in that shade of supposedly calming green and blue you are unlikely to find anywhere outside of medical facilities.

At some point I became aware of other people lying in beds around me. There were three other people in my room, lying on beds surrounded by screens just like myself. One bed was currently empty. All of us were wearing gowns in a terribly happy floral print. All of us had shaved heads and like me, the others were certainly just fresh out of their pods. We were surrounded by an array of screens and lamps and whatever the other things were.

The first bed was occupied by a man of approximately my age. He smiled at me briefly when he noticed me looking at him, then returned to reading whatever it was he had on the pad in his hand. In the second bed there was a younger woman. She seemed to be in a bad shape, or probably just the same shape I had been a few days earlier. I could not see who the third patient in the room was.

Slowly, my episodes of unconsciousness started to resemble actual sleep. I watched the doctors and nurses tend to the other patients. Their hair was visibly longer than that of the patients: short, but not shaven to the skin. One of the doctors was an elderly woman with already greying hair. All of them were wearing the medical personnel uniforms with the blue stripes.

The man next to me sometimes left the room and then got back to bed. He was visibly bored and tried to chat with me, but I fell asleep after a few sentences every time. I can't remember what we talked about.

Then they brought in a new patient, who occupied the remaining bed in our room. He was tall and muscular. He looked around through half-closed eyes.

As my thoughts became clearer they started to talk to me/ I was able to take my first sips of water. I noticed how much everything hurt. Maybe they reduced my medication, I don't know. Not long after that, the young man got a stack of clothes and left for good. He waved at me on the way out.

After another long sleep they brought me a tray of food. I ate a few spoonfuls until I felt sick. I am not sure whether it was just me, or the particularly slimy mashed potatoes. They still told me I was doing fine. I didn't quite agree.

After another few days I could get up and walk short distances on my own. I could even keep the food down that they brought me – and complain about it. I watched the girl in my room slowly getting her bearings. A new person took the place in the young man's bed.

Now I finally feel well enough to write to you as I promised when we last saw each other.

Love,
Sarah

Tavaron

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