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[h1][center][color=ffaa00]Echo Montegawitz[/color][/center][/h1]
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Five... the following and the tour consisted of five of the six members of the team. Next to the empty and deactivated cryotank at on the end (where Benji had emerged) Echo remained. Rather than following along in all of the hubbub and reorientation, she had scrunched down into the fetal position while still inside of her tank. She didn’t care that she was cold, that she was mostly naked, that she was leeching cryo suspension fluid from her pores, or that her electrolytes had been boosted through the roof in order to keep her blood a sludge in her body instead of a rigid ice that would explode her cells and veins.
[color=2b2b2b]You idiot! How could you be so wrong!? How could this even be possible? This wasn’t supposed to happen![/color]
She was inside of her own head thinking.
[color=2b2b2b]Because you’re awake, it means that the project has failed or that the project has succeeded. It means that you have embarrassed yourself again.[/color]
She said nothing, simply shifting her gaze from nothing in particular to nothing else in particular. While the others were viewing their quarters, she stood, compelled by something she had unwittingly observed, and she walked ahead slowly. She was drawn forward as if not by her own will. There... there was the table and the cake and the knife. Her hand stretched out and gently and quietly wrapped around the metal handle. It felt hot against her cold flesh even though it was only room temperature. There, she stared at the utensil for a moment. There was a flash as she could see her face in the broad section for a moment.
[color=2b2b2b]This could do the trick, quick and easy. Painful and messy, but a sure thing.[/color]
She rotated it around for a moment, observing the lights glinting in the metal. Then it came slicing down. Through the cake, of course splitting the spongy surface and dragging icing down into the void. Again the weapon penetrated its victim, and a chunk came slipping off and onto a saucer.
[color=2b2b2b]It probably means that the entire human race is relying on you to meet your obligations. You can’t be some sort of a savior, you don’t know how.[/color]
She plated 5 servings, and then proceeded to the rest of the kitchen without taking one for herself. Then she immediately began tidying up to prevent spoilage. She placed dishes into the robotic cleaning system and promptly set it to rinse, wash, dry, sort, and stow all of the dirty dishes. It was happy to comply.
[color=2b2b2b]If I die, they die with me. Then again I don’t even know if we have enough supplies, you might just make it worse if you [i]are[/i] alive![/color]
[color=ffaa00]“I always had a clear goal. Something to work toward. I don’t know what to do anymore.”[/color] she said out loud. It was impossible to tell if she was speaking to the group who had reconvened in the kitchen or if she was just thinking out loud. Without listening for a response, she immediately headed over to the food synthesizer and opened an access panel. She punched a few buttons and there were a large group of green lights. Page after page flipped past. She was familiar with it, she was the nutritionist of the crew after all.
[color=2b2b2b]Maybe it will be different. There are only six people to tend... with the weight of 143 billion expectations all waiting for me to fail. I can’t do this![/color]
The trillion dollar machine was nothing more than a glorified 3D Printer, laying down proteins, sugars, fiber, water, air, vitamins, and synthesized flavors all at a dizzying pace and served at the temperature appropriate in order to create food. However much people thought the machine was a miracle, making something from nothing, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Every bladder included was nearly irreplaceable since it was so highly processed and decontaminated and carefully packaged that it took months of manufacturing for just one of the proteins. There were thousands... and it would all become poop shortly after use which was completely unusable for recycling. It was impressive and (in fact) essential for the time being. But it was not infinite. Already a considerable dent had been made with Benji’s sustenance. He apparently really liked flavor pack #TSNO113138... whatever that was.
[color=2b2b2b]Damn! Plenty enough. Plenty for all of us. So much for martyrdom.[/color]
It became apparent to anyone looking upon her, that she was shivering while already heavily into her priority chores. [color=ffaa00]"We... We have maybe 3 years of food."[/color]

Upon that pointless statement, she turned and started looking down various corridors and cabinets near in the cryochamber. She found it... seeds, thousands of seeds of plants of all sorts. Some medicinal, some food, some aesthetic, and some from species only the database only knew what to do with. They were all decontaminated and stored so that they could be grown hydroponically. The seal on a few cases were breached, and the long dead plants were now simply dry husks. A species lost to the toils of time and the fallibility of mankind.
[color=2b2b2b]Why couldn't that have been me?[/color]
Fortunately the important plants were cushioned by the less practical varieties.

In addition there were embryos, frozen just like the crew, that were to be inserted into purged chicken and ostrich eggs. Again, most of the less practical species were breached from age, and would have rotted away had they not clean swept every surface of the space craft before launch, and purged the embryo of all bacteria and viruses before storage. [color=ffaa00]"I can start hydroponics right now if we have space to begin, that can sustain us indefinitely so long as we maintain power."[/color]

Her voice could be overheard most of the chambers, so long as the doors were open. The ship was a cramped space, and real estate was prime when floating in space.