A shrill beeping jerked Connor awake. He blinked rapidly up at the pale ceiling above him, momentarily confused about where he was. He groaned and pulled a pillow over his head, wondering if he could ignore the beeping of his alarm and go back to sleep.

Sleep. He was surprised that after being asleep for three years in cryo, he’d still need more of it.

After a minute the beeping got to be too annoying to ignore and he knew that he had to get up. He reached over to the side of his bed and blindly slapped around at the table until he grabbed his digital watch. He pulled the pillow off so he could look at it and turn it off.

Silence once again descended over his room.

Letting his hand fall on his bare chest he turned to look at the wall by his bed. The large circular ‘window’ was off leaving just a blank screen. He still wasn’t sure if he wanted to use it or not to fake an Earth environment. The blackness of the screen perfectly matched the endless void of space.

His eyes drifted away from the window to the pictures tapped up by the wall. Gazing at the smiling faces of what were now ghosts made his chest ache and his throat tighten. Maybe putting them on the wall had been a bad idea, every time he glanced at them all he thought about was his family and Earth. What it was like now three years later?

Did they know about the ship? Did they know that Connor had been on it?

Did they hate him for not being able to save them?

Shaking his head he pushed up from his bed, swinging his legs over the edge and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. For a couple of minutes he sat like that, trying to wake up and push aside the dark emotions. He had work to do. Or he would after the briefing was over.

He got dressed in a pair of jeans that were well worn and permanently stained in a couple of places from grease and oil and a pair of work boots. Last he pulled on a black t-shirt with a set of crossed wrenches at the center of his chest and above them were the words ‘I’m Here Because’ and below was ‘You Broke Something’. The white ink was a bit faded from being worn and washed countless times but it was still perfectly legible.

Grabbing his toiletry bag he pushed the messy, long, blue dyed hair on top of his head into some semblance of order, he left his room to head for the communal bathrooms.

He to at least try to look professional and presentable.

==

Connor felt like his brain short circuited a bit when he entered the auditorium for the ship wide briefing. On the one hand the seating reminded him of college but on the other hand they looked like they were in some kind of fairy-tale forest.

He looked down at his coffee thermus, his groggy brain wondering if the combination of bad instant coffee mix and half a bottle of sweet creamer and sugar was making him crazy.

It’s all a screen, remember? He rolled his eyes both at himself and at the fact that someone decided to make the lecture hall look like it was in an enchanted wood.

Sipping at the diabetes laced concoction that was his morning coffee he walked down the steps to find a seat toward the middle of the auditorium. There weren’t that many people there yet so it was easy to flop his ass down in one and kick his feet up onto the one in front of him.

He idly glanced around at the people present to see if he recognized anyone. A woman walking toward the front caught his attention and he grinned when he recognized Abby. The few weeks before the ships launch he had gotten pretty close to her and her son Michael.

His grin fell as it occurred to him that Michael was likely still in stasis. Inwardly he grimaced, sad that he wouldn’t be able to hang out with his little buddy. If he felt this bad he couldn’t imagine how Abby was feeling and he had to resist the urge to get up and give the woman a great big hug.

But she was working and he didn’t feel like having her knocking him on his ass. Again.

She wasn’t looking at him so he restrained himself from waving and turned his gaze up to the ceiling above them. He frowned up at swaying branches, the bright sunlight streaming through green leaves and a bright blue sky that seemed to stretch endlessly.

He wished it was real.