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Cryo sucked.

Volana had heard that some people simply go out and then wake back up years later, no feeling of time in between. She always felt rather envious of them. Not for her, Volana had half a mind to ask if it was some running joke to spike her nutrient drip with the good stuff, the dreams her frozen mind decided to conceive always tended to be far more unsettling than she particularly cared to experience.

Even so, waking up from cryo sucked more.

Light, blinding painful white light, was the first sensation that came rushing back to greet her, forcibly dragging her out of the artificially induced stasis like being dropped in ice cold water. It was closely followed by the sound of an announcement coming back over the ship's comm system, a muffled jumble of words that her groggy mind couldn't yet parse. A single, uncoordinated motion draped her right forearm over her eyes, offering a slight reprieve from the shock of stimulus. The limb felt heavy, like her arm was full of lead, and Volana exhaled consciously for the first time in fifteen years.

By now words were beginning to fall back into place, and she caught snippets of a familiar voice giving instructions. It was another beat before she could place it as the captain.

She could hear other voices too now, along with a general hum of activity that was steadily increasing as what she assumed were technicians monitored vitals as others aboard awoke. A breath in, the recycled air smelled astringent and metallic. It took a few more beats for feeling to return to her limbs, and she risked lifting her arm from her head to squint her eyes open. Above her the transparent cover for the cryopod hung open, having been opened well before she regained consciousness. Volana rolled her head to the side, blinking to force her vision to focus on the stasis pod next to her own.

"...to ready stations. Pandora will reach orbit in one hour. Follow the post-hibernation routine and proceed to your station by then. I repeat..."

Right.

Rise and shine.

Steeling herself for the exertion, Volana made to push herself up to sitting with both hands.

And only succeeded in nearly rolling herself off the left side of the pod, her heart jumping in her chest from the unexpected motion, while the shot of adrenaline shocked the rest of her body awake.

Volana waved off the technician which had noticed and moved to help with her good arm, and cursed under her breath at the phantom hand that had [i]not[/i] been able to support her weight. Her face flushed, and she felt her cheeks grow hot from the rush of blood. She really hoped no one else had noticed her momentary lapse. 

Less than a minute in a completely new solar system and a swear were the first words out of her mouth.

"I'm fine, fine," Volana insisted, properly pushing herself up to sitting this time as she swung her legs around for them to hang off the side of the padded pod. A chill worked its way up her spine as she dropped to the floor, the metal floor sucking the warmth out of the soles of her feet. Not that the insubstantial garments they had spent cryo in provided any sort of protection against the chilly air either.

Spurred on by the temperature, Volana took a few shuffling steps forward to reacquaint herself, and her legs, with the sensation of [i]not[/i] falling over. Confident that she did remember how to walk, she made her way over to the showers nearby, following both the labels posted to the walls and her now fifteen year old memory of the layout of the ship.

Small blessings, the water was actually above room temperature once she stripped down and made it into a shower, a rarity on board most vessels she had been on. While it felt amazing, she didn't linger too long, her stomach was beginning to remember that the last meal she had was a distant memory at this point.

It wasn't long after that she found her locker, inside the few things she had brought with her on this distant journey. Slipping into her pilot's suit with a practiced efficiency, Volana grabbed her prosthetic before heading off to find something to eat.

It was only when she sat herself down in the mess that Volana finally took the time to look around, she wasn't the only pilot who had decided to get something to eat before getting to her station.