Awakening from Hibernation

Posted on Mon Nov 1st, 2021 @ 3:51pm by Ensign Duncan McManus

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: Aalox’s Quarters and Mess Hall, Atlantis
Timeline: Day 165 11:00
1425 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

It had been seven days since Aalox began his annual hibernation. Typically, Denobulans only hibernate for 5-6 days, but various things can affect their length, particularly heavy stress, like being thousands of miles from home.

The Denobulan sat up in his bunk and simply stared blankly at the wall for a few minutes, his brain desperately attempting to engage and catch up with his body. The bootup sequence takes a while.

His thoughts turned to his wife, where is she? Downstairs? right, he had a daughter now, she must be taking care of the little one. Looking over to his nightstand. Metal furniture. This isn’t his home, where was he. A Spacecraft, not a Denobulan one, however. That’s right, the human ship, Atlantis. Why was he still, oh, oh nooo... He felt sick, but fortunately, his stomach was empty.

It took about 20 minutes to collect himself and get his brain in gear. He was on an Earth starship, The Atlantis, decades from his wife, daughter, friends and family. If the ship survived and stayed on course, he would see them again, but he would miss out on so much of their lives.

He dressed in his civilian clothing. The uniform the humans gave him when he became an honorary Engineer still felt strange and he refused to wear it unless officially on duty. Aalox made his way to the mess hall to fill a very empty stomach.

Too hungry to mess around with trying to get the protein resequencer to make something Denobulan, so he just ordered a number of hearty human breakfast meals he has liked previously. Bacon, eggs, biscuits in gravy, baked beans, Weisswurst, steamed rice and Tea.

Duncan did a double-take as he saw his fellow Engineer almost stumble into the mess hall and grinned. It looked like his slumber was finally over and he would come back to one hell of a big surprise once he finally woke up in the huge ship that was dwarfing them. It was amazing what a week could do on the Atlantis. It changed everything from them having less than a week's worth of fuel to them having enough fuel for the next year. "Aalox my man you are awake," Duncan called across the mess hall waving to let him know he could join him.

Aalox heard his friend’s call, smiled and carried his breakfast feast over to his table and joined Duncan. “I am indeed, and quite hungry I might add. Please excuse me if my mouth is too full for conversation,” he says while shoving half a biscuit in his face, still smiling. He eagerly chews, but then stops, eyes focusing beyond Duncan, arm pointing over Duncan’s shoulder at the massive shape outside the window.

Duncan shrugged. He did not exactly have manners himself sometimes especially after a long day or before a long day or just generally. Engineers were not always known for being good at table manners in their rush. Duncan looked at the wide eyes before he turned to look at The Caelestis. “Yeah, a lot has changed,” Duncan admitted sipping on his coffee.

Aalox stood up and took a step towards the window, grabbing a handful of Bacon as he went. Ducking his head around to get different angles on the ship outside he asked “What is that? It’s huge! Bigger than any vessel I’ve seen.”. He shoves the bacon in his mouth while listening to the answer.

“It’s called The Caelestis.” Duncan explained bringing his coffee with him. “We have no idea really what it is. The ship is more advanced than anything we have seen.” Duncan admitted. He had no idea what to make of the ship if he was sure. It was every engineers dream but it was out of his league in experience.

"The Caelestis... I hope Captain Leroux can work out an exchange of knowledge with them. I wonder how fast she can go." Aalox says, then pops the rest of the Bacon in his mouth. He reaches back to the table and grabs the Weisswurst and returns to the window.

Duncan stayed silent as the man went to get get more food. This needed to be a conversation whilst starting at the ship. “It’s abandoned. Well for the most part a few people have said they have seen someone but it’s had not been proven.” Duncan revealed. He had asked the same question but for the most part they knew it went fast than them.

“A ghost ship?” Aalox asked, he shutters a bit, his face inflating ever so slightly. “We’ll I’ll sure feel better going over there, after the MACO’s have cleared it bow to stern” he returns to his seat and continues eating. “How have your rocket fuel experiments with Rhodes been going?”

"Not enough MACO's for a ship like that even with Armoury," Duncan commented with a shrug. They could not always rely on someone else for their protection. "Not bad. It tastes less like rocket fuel thankfully." The man said speaking slowly so his accent was not as pronounced for the man. "So you no not want to come over with the Engineering team to explore then?" He wondered innocently pulling out his PADD to show the photos he took of the ship.

Aalox eagerly looked through the photos of the Caelestis, salivating over both them and the breakfast he continued to shove in his mouth. “Did you get a look at their warp drive? Or any shuttle craft if they have them?” He asked. The prospect of exploring such a unique ship beginning to override his risk aversion. He still hadn’t even learned to use a phase pistol. Something he should probably Correct.

"No shuttle crafts that we have found but it is so big and vast we have barely searched but the warp core is amazing. It somehow refines and processed fuel to use over and over." Duncan was sad that if they could someone haul the ship with them they would have fuel or convince people to move to that ship they could be home so much quicker. Maybe in this lifetime, long enough to see Earth again.

Aalox looked down at the photos of the warp core. "This could get us home faster. It has to exceed warp 5, perhaps even 7. I've never seen something like this. What's going on with those injectors?" He pauses and whispers "Are we looking into taking that ship home?"

“More like ten,” Duncan admitted. “No one has. Even the Vulcans are stumped. Nice to see them on the same wavelength as us.” Duncan shrugged. “It has been discussed but we do not really known the language or how to work it. See there is an AI over there it only really answers to members of the foundation.” And for the life of them they did not have any idea what the foundation was. Only that they had built it and sent it off in search of a new home.

"Ten!" Aalox grasped, holding his fork still, "That would mean... only a decade or so to return home... how do I get on the next away team?". His thoughts turned to his daughter, and the thought of a chance of seeing her again before she completely left childhood behind.

"Have to talk to..." He paused remembering they did not have a Chief Engineer. "Talk to Gerhard. He is in charge of organising who goes over to the Caelestis and who stays here. I am sure he would like another Engineer looking at stuff." Duncan decided with a shrug. it was logical to have more Engineers looking at how things worked over there but who knew what the armoury officers mind worked sometimes.

“Will do” Aalox said shoveling the beans in his mouth and flipping through the photos of the Caelestis “What other wonders have you found over there? I assume someone is working on getting this to reprocess some of our own fuel?”

“We are all full again. We will be fine for another year.” Duncan assured quickly. That was the most important fact of everything that they were secure in able to being able to move again. “Oh so many wonders. It’s amazing and out of this world.” Duncan would miss the ship when they parted company. It was a treasure trove of items and the Scotsman was a treasure Hunter. He did not even realise his fellow engineer had left him to his own thoughts.