To say one would sleep for three years would be crazy, but that is exactly what the crew of the NSC Icarus did, what Samuel Bishop did. A short three years prior, he found himself standing in another room of his ship, well he and the Artificial Intelligence, Icarus, had gone back and forth over whose ship it was. One of the last thoughts that entered his head, a conscious one at least, was regarding the chance of success for the mission and the mission itself. Many days before Bishop even found himself standing in the ship, he was attending a mission briefing. His role was that of the pilot. The ship, his craft, was a magnificent example of the technological advances of the 21st century. 

For the majority of the meeting, he had been solely focused on his ship. Most of what was said had gone in one ear and out the other, but he did pick up on some “key sentences” throughout. The point that had really stood out, and it was a point that was made over and over again, was that they only knew two things about what they were looking for. The first, there was some kind of distortion, an anomaly, keeping it from being viewed. The second, they had absolutely no idea what was waiting on the other side of the distortion. It was theorized that a new planet was hiding and that, somehow, the Kuiper belt was causing the distortion. Even though Samuel was the pilot of a scientific masterpiece, on a mission for science, he was not all that interested in the scientific aspect, as of late.

The thing that tickled his fancy about the mission was the chance at adventure, and of course the opportunity to fly through space. Piloting was his career, and his best asset. Not everyone wants to be famous, and Samuel never thought he would find himself in a situation where he could be known as one of the centuries “Great Explorers and Pioneers”, but that is what they labeled him. In fact, mainstream media had released a headline about the entire crew that was title “Our Centuries Next Great Explorers and Pioneers”, Samuel had gotten a chance to read the article that followed. 

When Samuel awoke, three years later, everything was fuzzy and blurred. Every part of his body tingled, his mind was unable to focus or get a thought to the front of his head. And then it hit him, hit him like a wall of bricks. The nausea lasted only about 2 seconds before blue fluid was all over the mat. After what seemed like an eternity, but was really a minute or two, Samuel had finished throwing up the fluids. Another minute passed and Samuel was able to get focused. The first thing he noticed, and heard, was the voice. 

“Good morning everyone”, it called out to the waking crew. The voice was instantly recognizable as Icarus. “Was there no better way of going about this? Or is shoving blue fluids down my throat to save for later the best that they’ve got?” Samuel asked, his tone slightly distraught from throwing up.