twenty-eighth jump;

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Any and all.
LOCATION: Gravity Couches and beyond.
WARNINGS: Maybe some swearing, or even some violence, and more than likely some implied (and possibly explicit) nakedness.
SUMMARY: Another month, another jump, another round of new faces.
NOTES: It could just be the standard sensation of air on wet skin, but if you bother to check, you might notice the steam rising from your body, barely there and gone within a minute. By the time you get to the showers, it will be clear that it's not just taking you time to adjust. The room is cold — colder than usual, but no worse than the last jump. While it's nothing dangerous, it's certainly motivation to hurry through the usual routine and get dressed quickly.



It's getting closer.




YOUR EYES ARE OPEN.

KEEP LOOKING.

You wake up in darkness.

There's a breathing tube jammed down your trachea, and you're suspended in a tube of clear blue fluid. Upon registering your level of consciousness, the gravity couch drains the fluid surrounding you and retracts the breathing apparatus; the doors in front of you open, and you're deposited on the floor of a stark, sterile medical bay.

You are not alone.
There are others who have come before you, others who are awakening beside you. Some may be familiar to you, perhaps even friends. Others have much less amiable plans. Some are merely alien and inexplicable, but there are always those who might mean you harm.

After you catch your breath and your vision returns, you notice a number on the inside of your forearm. Maybe it's a familiar number. Maybe it means something. Maybe it's just a number. But the number—completely unique to you—is a tattoo, and it does not come off.

If you enter the room adjacent to the medbay, you will find a small locker with your number on it, surrounded by rows upon rows of identical lockers. Inside, you will find a few of your personal items, a communications device, and a ship's uniform in your exact size. The comms device is fully powered and connects directly to the ship's network; it's your only means of communication beyond physical conversation. Upon turning the device on, a neutral, automated voice will say, "Please take the blue lift to the passenger quarters." Any other attempts at communicating with the rest of the network are met only with static.

This is your welcome party.

Comments

[acapriciousthing]

[She smiles at her]

That counts for something. Connections between people are the most important thing, in the end.

[needsheadphones]

He did it for us. [ Not even just for them -- for the entire world. ]

I wish there was some way to repay him.

[acapriciousthing]

When that happens [And it does happen, so very often] usually what they want most is for you to make the most of the life they left you with.

[needsheadphones]

I kind of ended up here before I could do that.

[acapriciousthing]

[That... does complicated matters]

There's still a chance. I know it sounds ridiculous, but there is.

[needsheadphones]

I guess. [ She rocks a little, looking up at the ceiling. ] Always something to do, huh?

[acapriciousthing]

Work seems to be the one unlimited resource.

[needsheadphones]

I do like to keep busy.

[acapriciousthing]

It was a bit of a shock, going from the most full time out there to... anything else.

[needsheadphones]

Yeah, I'll bet. No vacations back home, huh? Things would fall apart.

[acapriciousthing]

Yeah. I tried it once, when I was young and foolish.

Never again.

[needsheadphones]

Ouch. [ Seriously, that sounds... really, really not good. ]

I can only imagine how that went.

[acapriciousthing]

Let's put it this way: As soon as someone made me look, I went right back to work.

[It's so long ago that it's easy enough to talk about. But what a mess that was.]

[needsheadphones]

[ Rebecca laughs a little. ]

Well, lesson learned, right?

[acapriciousthing]

Exactly. Never tried that again in billions of years.

[needsheadphones]

Probably shouldn't do it in the next billion or so, either.

[acapriciousthing]

Don't really plan on it.

Besides, I like my job.

[needsheadphones]

See, it's a good thing we talked before this or that would sound really morbid.

[ She's kidding. ]

[acapriciousthing]

It's the meeting people part. I've met so many great people.

[needsheadphones]

Is there... uh, any way to keep in contact with them, after?

[acapriciousthing]

The answer to that really depends. Different people go different places.

[needsheadphones]

More than two places?

[acapriciousthing]

A lot more. With so many different cultures, it was bound to happen.

[needsheadphones]

So... every afterlife exists?

[acapriciousthing]

People end up where they think they should.