Borderworld

Introduction

KING, FELIX

00:14:18

01/19/2682

TRANSPORT SHIP: "THE KEY"

I wake from my cryptosleep with a jolt. The world outside of my small pod is very obscured, masked by the thin coat of frost and ice from hundreds of years of build up.

I scan around the icy pod and look for something, anything, that could let me out. After a few minutes, I find an overhead lever, coated in a glistening red, then black, then red icicle and grab onto it and yank it down. The pod door flies open and I fall out onto my knees and look around as the smoky, cold air escapes from behind me. I feel sick; they said that would be a side effect of the cryptosleep, though. Very unsteadily, I manage to push myself up onto my feet and scan over my surroundings quickly, just before the ship itself shakes violently and I hear creaking metal and flowing water.

The ship is part of The Rising Sun Coalition's fleet, a colony ship built to hold hundreds, even thousands, of people. We only loaded around 250 for the beginnings of the colony, although the ship can hold almost 2,000. Informally nicknamed "The Key", it's supposed to be representative of the Coalition's campaign to "open new doors for humanity." Being it's only a colony ship, it doesn't have much firepower on board; only a few flak and energy turrets. The engineers at the Coalition are meant to be the best, so this ship should be built to last, meaning if something has gone wrong, it was man-made.

I turn and look around and look out a nearby window. Adjacent to the ship is a planet, but nothing at all like our destination. Uduran is supposed to be a tropical planet, covered with trees and water everywhere. This planet much resembles earth in its supercontinent of "Pangea" form : all of the land is connected, aside from a few islands out in the middle of the ocean. Instead of spreading out all over the planet, most of the land is compacted into the northern hemisphere of the planet, while the southern hemisphere is covered with water. I don't believe this planet has a name. It might be one of the Borderworlds, a planet that sits on the edge of the galaxy, separate from the rest of "civilization."

I turn away from the window and in both directions, all that can be seen is rows and rows of cryptosleep pods. It seems like I'm the only person that's awake yet among the hundreds of other people on the ship. I look at the pods next to mine in both directions; I have to find Jesse, but have no idea which pod she went into.

I begin to make my way towards the other pods and wipe the frost away from the glass of the first one I see and try to look in: Travis Ronin. He's the "leader" of our small group sent to colonize Uduran, but definitely not who I'm looking for. I move to the next pod and wipe away the frost and peer inside. A woman, for sure, but I don't know her name. She looks familiar, but, she's also not who I'm looking for. The next pod was particularly frosted over, so I wipe away all of the frost and try to look in. Through all the ice, it's hard to see, but this time it's definitely her.

I look around the pod for some way to open it and then pull on a large red lever and hear a loud whirring sound, then a huge crash. On the floor in front of the pod lies Jesse.

"Jesse!" It doesn't feel like it's been that long since I last saw her, but it's been 400 years. She doesn't look a day older. I help her up onto her feet and give her a tight hug.

"Felix! Oh my god, I've missed you!" she says. Her voice is still the same. Everything is still the same. Her long, dark dreads still fall over her shoulder and reach down to the middle of her back. Her dark brown eyes that turn into a beautiful light brown as they go in towards her pupils. Her chocolatey skin that somehow manages to shine in every light, sweaty or not. Her signature scar over her left eye. She hasn't changed in the slightest. "I'm lucky to be alive!"