I Fell From The Dark

6

When she opened her eyes, she could see. Not perfectly: the world was still soft edges, but there were distinct shapes where before everything had been a blur. The stress of her nightmare faded as she looked around, at her hands, her bed. She found that, with effort, she could focus on things immediately around her, but further away across the room it was still indistinct.

'Looks like you can see better,' said Pilgrim. 'That's great news.'

Mia looked up from studying her hands. She turned to her left, where the voice was coming from, eager to see what Pilgrim looked like.

A form glided towards her, smooth and soft and pale, patterned with blinking lights. It wasn't human.

'You're a... robot?' she said.

'Sort of,' replied Pilgrim. The robot was carrying a blue tray with another packet of soup. It set it down on the bed. Then it straightened and turned to face her.

It had a human torso and arms, and a blank, black face on a pale head. Its hands were approximately human, but each had an extra thumb, next to the little finger. It rolled on a pair of wheels. Its face flickered with complicated lighting patterns.

'I'm an AI which runs the ship,' it said. 'In some ways, I am the ship, and this body is just a remote control unit which I can move around and help you with. That's why I call myself Pilgrim: the ship's name is Solar Pilgrim, but I think that's a bit of a mouthful. Don't you? Now, it's time for some breakfast.'

'Are there any other people on-board? Other than me?'

'Yes, lots. But they're all frozen. Right now, it's just us. This was always your job: you trained for this for years.'

'I did?'

'You did. But I don't want to distress you, Mia. It will all come back soon enough. The most important thing is that you need to get up and about as soon as possible: and that means you need to eat.'

Mia picked up the package, enjoying how easy this action was. She sucked the soup from it. As she ate the bland paste, she thought.

I'm scientist, am I? If this is a spaceship, travelling between stars, it would make sense. You'd minimize power by keeping most of the people onboard in some kind of stasis. You'd wake them up when you were braking, getting close, because that's when you want to start making decisions, deciding on stuff like landing sites.

And I guess... I know this. That's a sign too.

But something just doesn't fit in with this. If that was the case, why can't I remember all that? And these dreams are incredibly vivid, and they're nothing to do with spaceships or planets or robots.

I don't really have a lot of options, though, right now, not while I'm in this state.

She put the soup packet back on the tray, and looked up at Pilgrim.

'Thank you. What's now?'

'I'm going to help you out of your bed, and we're going to start walking around.'

Mia smiled. 'Well, okay! Let's go.'

'Hey! That's the Mia I remember. Is it coming back at all?'

She thought briefly about lying, but then discarded the idea. Pilgrim didn't seen malicious, and so there was no value to deception.

'Not really, no.'

'Well, let's see if we can't bring some of your memories back while we work, shall we?'