Dialogue

1

Aurora: hi. Are you passenger or crew?
Jim: passenger. Jim Preston.
Aurora: Aurora Lane. Do you know what's going on? Nobody else from my row woke up.
Jim: same for me.
Aurora: the crew's supposed to wake up a month before we do, but I haven't seen anybody.
Jim: the crew is still asleep.
Aurora: are you saying nobody's awake?
Jim: just me.
Aurora: just you?
Jim: it's just us.
Aurora: but somebody's got to land the ship in a few weeks.
Jim: we will arrive in approximately 89 years.
Aurora: 89 years?
Jim: the other passengers aren't late waking up. We were early.
Aurora: we...we need help. Where's the crew?
Jim: the crew's in a secure hibernation room. Everything important, the controls, the reactors, the engines... it's all behind firewalls. There's no way through.
Aurora: how long have you been awake?
Jim: a year and three weeks...

2

Aurora: well, you're a man of simple tastes.
Jim: I'm not a gold-class passenger. French breakfast puffs above my pay grade.
Aurora: what? This whole time?
Jim: yeah.
Aurora: what can I get you?
Jim: no, no, I'm fine.
Aurors: stop it.
Jim: really. Ok.
Aurora: here you go. So, I was thinking, maybe there's another way to go to sleep. What about the infirmary?
Jim: I checked it out. It's just scanners and an Autodoc.
Aurora: there could be another hibernation machine in the cargo hold.
Jim: I had that through, too. And then I read the manifest. It's mostly farming stuff, machines and trade goods. Replacement parts for computers and engineering. We're not gonna find a hibernation facility in a box.
Aurora: we could build our own.
Jim: we can't.
Aurora: Jim, you're not even trying.
Jim: I have tried everything. For over a year, I... tried everything.
Aurora: well...well, I'm not ready to give up.

3

Aurora: Why did you do it?
Jim: Do what?
Aurora: Emigrate. Leave Earth. I'm interviewing you.
Jim: You're what?
Aurora: You were the first hibernation failure in the history of space travel. That makes you a story.
Jim: Who you gonna tell?
Aurora: Posterity. So, why did you give up your life on Earth? 120-year space hibernation means you'll never see your family or friends again. You'll wake up in a new century on a new planet. It's the ultimate geographical suicide.
Jim: Well, I could ask you the same thing.
Aurora: But it's my interview. Were you running away from something?
Jim: No. Everything was okay.
Aurora: So?
Jim: Well, I guess I just wanted a new world, I don't know, a fresh start.
Aurora: That's Homestead Company advertising.
Jim: Is it?
Aurora: Jim.
Jim: I... I know. I guess. You're right. Back on Earth, when something breaks, you don't fix it, you replace it. The colonies, they have problems to solve. They're my kind of problematic. And a mechanic is somebody. This is a new world still being built. I could build a house and live in it. Open country. Room to grow.
Aurora: Now you're back to slogans.
Jim: Can't slogan be true?

4

Aurora: This is a perfect birthday drink. Thank you.
Arthur: I remember this day a year ago. Jim was so looking forward to meeting you.
Aurora: What? How could he be looking forward to it?
Arthur: Oh, he spent months deciding whether to wake you up. He couldn't stop talking about you.
Aurora: Jim woke me up?