"Top?"

SSG George Liu's low pitched voice couldn't begin to touch the stupor he'd found his First Sergeant fallen into. Which, when he thought about, seemed like an amazing feat. Hell, that had to be one of [i]the[/i] most uncomfortable ways imaginable to fall asleep, cramped up on that folding metal chair she'd dragged in from somewhere, slumped over a stasis bed with only her folded arms for a pillow.

"Hey, [i]Top,[/i]" He pressed his fingers gingerly against her shoulders a couple times. "[i]First Sergeant![/i] The Commander's waiting - " 

First Sergeant Abigail Larson sat straight up like a shot in that hard metal chair with a surprised snort, and regretted it the instant she did. Cramped muscles screamed in protest, and her head ached mightily, throbbing dully behind her pale blue eyes like a thousand muffled hammers banging away in her skull. The doctors had warned that every person's experience waking from stasis was as different as the individual. Where some might wake violently nauseous, shaky, and near-crippling muscle weakness for days, still others rose from cryosleep as if waking from a refreshing (if [i]extremely[/i] long) nap, all bright-eyed and perky.

Abby knew she hated those bright-eyed perky fuckers with all her heart and soul.

Most people could expect to feel some mild nausea and disorientation, fatigue and yes, sinus headache symptoms, for a few days after emerging from cryosleep, but it wasn't the headache she'd been fighting since she woke yesterday that sent her to this bay pod, and to this particular stasis bed.

She blinked and managed a wan smile for the squad leader, using the wrist of her ACU blouse to wipe away the thin line of drool she could feel had begun to work its way down her chin. Some people resembled nothing so much as earth-bound angels as they slumbered, rising from their heavenly rest with a slow, dignified grace. 

Abby wasn't one of them.

"Thanks Liu," she murmured, rubbing at her eyeballs with her fingertips for a moment before standing to her feet, arms stretched overhead.

Liu nodded in response, his face stony though a single thin line of concern creased the corner of his mouth. "Commander said he wanted to talk to you a minute before briefing the whole Third Shift, but he didn't say why. He seemed antsy, nervous - it was... [i]strange.[/i] "

Abby shrugged nonchalantly, though she honestly felt anything [i]but.[/i] She picked up the tablet that rested beside her, atop the stasis bed where she'd fallen asleep, before reaching to her ear to tap the ear piece back on. "Don't think too hard on it. You know how CPT Stanford holds things close - don't sweat anything. You'll hear it all in the briefing."

Captain Lee Stanford wasn't a bad man. He was actually a very [i]good[/i] man, caught in as shitty a situation as Abby could have dredged up in her worst nightmares. He'd done the best he could with what he had - she knew that. But that didn't mean she was looking forward to the shitstorm she expected, when he left her to make that announcement.

Abby folded the metal chair with one hand, leaning it up against the wall before her gaze returned to the stasis bed. She took a deep, steadying breath, deliberately shoving the lingering headache aside when her eyes fell on the face "sleeping" beneath the deceptively clear, thick glass. He looked so [i]small[/i] lying there on a cryobed meant for an adult maybe twice his size. 

[i]But he's alive.[/i] Abby kissed her fingertips, laying them against the glass above her son's forehead. So still, so small, but he was alive - the displays all said so, and so did the med tech she'd stopped on his way through. That had to be enough. 

[i]Sweet dreams Michael. Love you baby. Mom will be back later. I won't leave you all alone... [/i]

Michael couldn't hear her. Abby knew that. But that maternal instinct simply wouldn't let her rest, that fiercely protective imperative that made her gut twist up with a snarling anxiety - not with the nerve-wracking news she'd woken to yesterday.

Abby tapped her tablet as she fell in beside SSG Liu, checked the time - half an hour until the Third Shift briefing when the whole of the just-woken crew was scheduled to meet and be briefed on the general business of the Copernicus for their annual assignment. 

Heh. [i]General business[/i]...

CPT Stanford would be waiting in the Auditorium, she knew. No point in keeping the man waiting. She knew damn well if there was anyone aboard the ship right now, craving a little slice of cryo-induced oblivion at the moment, it was him.

[center]**********[/center]

The First Sergeant descended the curving steps that lined one side of the Auditorium, past row upon row of comfortable looking, well-padded fold-down chairs in a descending wedge. The entirety of the space resembled nothing so much as an enormous college lecture hall, though the ceiling high above formed a dome that curved into the wall behind the wide stage at the bottom of the wedge. For the moment, the illusion of a deciduous forest on a summer day occupied the walls and the great dome above. Deep green leaves fluttered on the branches of maples and oaks and ash, playing in the light breeze that also gently blew wisps of white clouds over a blazingly blue sky.

A few other folks had also arrived early for the briefing, for their own reasons she supposed , and Abby paid most of them little attention for the moment. She certainly cut a figure in her military uniform, her ACUs, combat boots barely leaving a sound in her wake as she strode the distance. Blonde hair pulled back smoothly behind her head and twisted into a tight, neat bun at the nape of her neck, Abby's sharp blue-eyed gaze swept the room for the MP commander. 

Nodding a quick acknowledgement, Abby picked up her pace when she saw Stanford's hand beckoning her toward the stage.