"PASSENGERS" "INTERSTELLAR STARSHIP AVALON" "DESTINATION THE COLONIAL WORLD HOMESTEAD II" "STATUS:" "AUTOPILOT" "CIRCLE OF CONTROL TRIPULATION HIBERNATION QUARTERS" "CREW: 258" "PASSENGERS:" "PASSENGERS: 5,000" "DIVERTING POWER TO MAIN SHIELD" "COLLISION ALERT" "REPAIRING FUSION REACTOR" "REPAIRING FUSION REACTOR" "REPAIRING FUSION REACTOR" "REPAIRING FUSION REACTOR" "JAMES PRESTON DENVER, COLORADO RATE 2 MECHANICAL ENGINEER" "Good Morning, James!" "How're you feeling?" "Wait, what?" "It's perfectly normal to feel confused." "You've just spent a 120 years in suspended animation." "What?" "It's okay, James." "It's Jim." "Jim." "Just breathe." "Everything is okay." "Where am I?" "You're a passenger on the Starship Avalon." "The Homestead Company's premier interstellar star liner." "We've nearly completed the voyage from Earth to your new home, the colony world of Homestead II." "A new world." "A fresh start." "Room to grow." "Oh, yeah." "The Avalon is on final approach." "For the next 4 months, you'll enjoy space travel at it's most luxurious." "Food." "Fun." "Friends." "My friends." "That's right, Jim." "The I.D. band on your wrist is your key to the wonders of the Avalon." "You're in perfect health, Jim." "Let's get you to your cabin where you can get some rest." "You maybe experiencing post-hibernation sickness." "Your door will be lite up for you." "Welcome to your cabin." "Your home until we make landfall." "Over the next 4 months, you'll prepare for your new life on Homestead II." "Meet you fellow passengers, take skill building classes and learn about colonial living." "You've been assigned to Learning group 38, for passengers with engineering and technical trade skills." "Please scan your I.D. to confirm luggage delivery." "Jim, please scan your I.D. to confirm luggage delivery." "To help you recover from hibernation, be sure to drink plenty of fluids" "Enjoy the rest of your voyage on the Avalon, a Homestead Company Starship" "Good morning one and all." "It's a beautiful morning here on the Starship Avalon." "Whatever you do don't get homesick, get Homestead." "Let start with an ensemble, one of my favorite back on Earth." "Just call me... call me Jim." "You got a cool jacket." "Hello, Passengers." "Will you all please take a seat." "Welcome, Learning group 38." "Your introduction to colonial life." "Earth is a prosperous planet." "The cradle of civilization." "But for many, it's also overpopulated." "Over-priced." "Overrated." "I'm sorry, I think I maybe in the wrong..." " No questions until the end, please." " Oh, sorry." "The Colonies offer an alternative." " A better way of life." " Where are all the other..." "And there's no colony more beautiful than Homestead II," " the Jewel of the Occupied Worlds." " It's fine." "Where IS everybody?" "We're all on the Starship Avalon." "But I'm the only one here." "There are 5,000 passengers and 258 crew members." "So why am I alone?" "We're all in this together." "Hello?" "Anybody here?" "Hello?" "Please buckle up and secure any loose items." "This elevator will experience a momentary lapse in gravity." "Grand Concourse." "Welcome to the Grand Concourse aboard the Avalon, can I help you?" "I need to talk to a person." "A real live person, please." "What sort of person?" "Personal trainer?" "Travel planner?" "Therapist?" "I don't know." "Somebody in charge." "The Ship Steward handles passenger affairs." "It's on level 3 of the Grand Concourse." " Thank you." " Happy to help!" "Not good." " Hello!" " Who's flying the ship?" "The flight crew, the Captain, the Pilot, the Chief Navigator..." "I want to talk to the Captain." "The Captain rarely handles passenger queries directly." "It's an emergency, please." "The Captain is usually found on the Bridge, in the Command Deck." "Bridge access requires special authorization." "Bridge access requires special authorization." "You got to be kidding me." "Welcome to the Observatory." "What can I show you?" "We're supposed to land soon," "I'm..." "I'm the only one awake." "I don't understand." "What can I show you?" "Show me Homestead II." "Homestead II is the 4th planet in the Bhakti system." "Right." "And where are we?" "We've been transit from Earth to Homestead II." " We will arrive in approximately 90 years." " What?" "We arrive at Homestead II in 90 years, 3 weeks and 1 day." "No." "Wait." "How long ago did we leave Earth?" "Approximately 30 years ago." "I woke up too soon." "Hello." "How do I send a message to Earth?" "Interstellar messages are sent by laser array." "This is an expensive service." " Bite me." " Happy to help!" "Planet and connection?" "Earth." "The homestead Company." "There are 30,826 contacts listed under "homestead Company."" "I'm emigrating to Homestead II." "I have an emergency." " I have a Customer Help Line." " Sounds about right." "Begin message." "Hi." "I'm Jim Preston." "I'm a passenger on the Avalon." "And uh..." "I think something went wrong with my hibernation pod." "I woke up too soon." "And I mean..." "way too soon." "Nobody else is awake." "And..." "I don't know how to get back to sleep." "And the thing is, there's 90 years to go." "At this rate, I'm..." "I'm sorry, I'm trying to fix this." "I..." "Maybe I missed something." "I could use a hand." "That's all." "Thank you." "Message sent." "Outstanding." " Message will arrive in 19 years." " Wait, what?" " Earliest reply in 55 years." " 55 years." "We apologize for the delay." "That will be $6012 dollars." " Afternoon." " Oh man." "It's good to see another face." "I thought I was the only one awake!" "Who want's to sleep on a beautiful day like this?" "Oh, I mean we're in trouble, we're not suppose to be here." "Well, I won't tell if you don't." " Huh?" " Our little secret." "What can I get for you?" " What?" " You look like a whiskey man." "Okay." "Oh, you're a robot." "Android, technically." "Arthur's the name." " Jim." " Please to meet you, Jim." "How much do you know about this ship?" "I don't know." "I know some things." "What do I do if my hibernation pod malfunctions?" "Oh." "Hibernation pods are fail-safe." " They never malfunction." " Yeah, well, I woke up early." "Can't happen." "How long until we get to Homestead II?" "About 90 years or so." "And when are all the passengers supposed to wake up?" "Not until the last 4 months." "How is it that I'm sitting here with you with 90 years to go?" "It's not possible for you to be here." "But I am." "Good morning, it's a beautiful day here on the Avalon." "So wake up, sunshine." "It's time to relax and enjoy your stay." "Please make a selection." "Sorry." "The Mocha Cappuccino Extreme is reserved for gold-class passengers." "Sorry." "The Mocha Cappuccino Extreme is reserved for gold-class passengers." "I want the Mocha Cappuccino Extreme, bill my room please." "Food can be purchase in the ship's..." "Sorry." "The French Roast..." "Sorry." "The Pumpkin Spice..." "Sorry." "Vanilla Chai..." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorr..." "Sorr..." "Sorry." " Large coffee." "Please enjoy your coffee." " Cream." "Sugar." "Oh, really?" "HIBERNATION POD" "Crew Pod access requires special authorization." "TRANSPORT CONTROL FAILURE" "TRANSPORT CONTROL FAILURE ELEVATOR_2B" "TRANSPORT CONTROL FAILURE ELEVATOR_2B CRITICAL ERROR" "Please..." "Level..." "Grand Concourse." "I'm screwed, Arthur." "Completely and ridiculously screwed." "Come on, now." "Every cloud has a silver lining." "Guess, I'm going to die of old age on this ship!" "Oh, we all die." "Even androids end up on the scrap heap." "I'm the only customer, why are you always polishing a glass?" "Trick of the trade." "Makes people nervous when a bartender just stands there." "So, lay some bartender wisdom on me." "I'm lost in space here." "You're not where you want to be." "You feel like you're supposed to be somewhere else." " You said it." " Well." "Say you could snap your fingers and be wherever you wanted to be." "I'll bet you'd still feel this way." "Not in the right place." "The point is, you can't get so hung up on where you'd rather be that you forget how to make the most of where you are." "What are you telling me?" "Take a break from worrying about what you can't control." "Live a little." "Live a little." "Welcome to the BM suite." "Oh yeah." "What?" "Make that a double jumbo shrimp." "Triple." "Thank you very much." "Phantom." "Alright." "I did exactly what you did." "Large coffee." "A margarita, please." "You have Han many, Señor." "Oh Hector, please." "Another one." "Yes, Señor." "Thank you." "Get out of here!" "Come back." "Hey." "Come here." "Damn!" "Welcome, Jim." "Please turn your attention to the screen displaying safety tips." "These space suits are designed to withstand the harsh environment of space." "The carbon fiber and body armor..." "Slide the handle on the right to release the air pressure." "Magnetic boots now engage." "The can be deactivated using the control panel on your arm." "Press the red button to open the air lock door." "Have a wonderful time." "Tail attached." "BOOT MAGNET OFF" "Welcome back, Jim." "We hope you decide to join us again soon for another thrilling experience." "Have a wonderful time." "AURORA LANE" "Aurora." "Searching passenger profiles." "I'm Aurora Lane." "Passenger 1456." "I'm a writer." "I think we tell each other stories to know we're not alone." "To make contact." "Your father was Oliver Lane, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author." "No pressure, right?" "My Dad used to say:" ""If you live an ordinary life, all you have are ordinary stories." "You have to live a life of adventure."" "So." "Here I am." "Good Morning." "We're starting over..." "in every way." "I'll have to figure out where to live, how to live, who my friends will be." "It's like the first day at school." "And this school bus took 120 years to get there." "We're creating a culture." "You are funny." "Do you ever read something and feel like it's written just for you?" "I don't do a lot of reading." "She is good." "Who's that?" "Aurora." "Ah." "The sleeping girl." "You know, I'm not saying the universe is evil but it sure has a nasty sense of humor." "How is that?" "You get to fly to another planet, but you'll die on the way." "And you find the perfect woman right in front of you." "Yet, she's completely out of reach." "Yeah, I'll miss New York." "Give me a cup of coffee and a view of the Chrysler Building, and I can write all day." "But you have coffee on Homestead II, right?" "They better have coffee, if they don't they have to turn around and go back to Earth." "HIBERNATION POD" "HIBERNATION POD" "Say you were trapped on a desert island, you had the power to wish somebody there with you." "You wouldn't be alone." "but you'd be stranding another person on the island." "How do you..." "Would you make the wish?" "I don't know." "I've never been on an island." "Okay, well..." "Yeah." "Forget the island." "Say you figured out how to do something that would make your life a million times better." "But you know it's wrong, and there's no taking it back." "How do you do the math?" "Jim." "These are not robot questions." "I know how to wake Aurora up." "That seems like a fine idea." "You could use some company." "I'd be stranding her on this ship for the rest of her life!" "Oh." "Well, you can't do that." "What am I going to do?" "I'm here for you." "Arthur, you're a machine." "See, you can't feel that, you don't have feelings." "You see?" "That doesn't hurt." "And you don't even mind." "She..." "a person." "Don't even think about it." "No more Aurora talk." "I'm over it." "I'm moving on." "What am I going to do?" "I'm going to sit and thinking about it?" "I'm not going to..." "I can't think about it." "So I'm not going to, that's the deal." "I've made my decision." "I know what I'm doing." "I just cut it off." "I'm not..." "No more." "You won't hear me bring up her name again." "I'll never even mention her name again." "Done." "I can't do it." "I'm shaving off my beard." "Please don't do it." "Good morning, Aurora." "How're you feeling?" "It's perfectly normal to feel confused." "You've just spent a 120 years in suspended animation." "Grand Concourse." "Hello?" "Anybody?" "Hello." "Hi." "Are you passenger or crew?" "Passenger." "Jim Preston." "Aurora Lane." "Do you know what's going on?" "Nobody else from my row woke up." "Same for me." "The crew's supposed to wake up a month before we do." "But..." "I haven't seen them." "The crew is still asleep." "Are you saying nobody's awake?" "Just me." "Just you?" "Just us." "But somebody's got to land the ship in a few weeks." "We will arrive in approximately 89 years." "89 years?" "The other passengers aren't late waking up." "We were early." "We..." "We need help." "Where's the crew?" "The crew's in a secured hibernation room." "Everything important, the controls, the reactors, the engines, it's all behind the firewall, there's no way through." "How long have you been awake?" "1 year and 3 weeks." "No." "No." "No, this can't be happening." "We have to go back to sleep." "Aurora, we can't." "We just have to get back to our pods and start them up again." "I can't find my pod." "I can't find my pod." "I can't find my pod." "It doesn't matter." " Aurora." " I can't find it." " Stop." " I can't find which one is mine." " Stop." " How do I know which one is mine?" " You don't know." " I can't..." "Stop." "It doesn't matter." "Putting somebody into hibernation requires special equipment." "Remember the facility where they put us under all the procedures we went through." "These pods are designed to keep us in hibernation, they'll wake us up at the right time." "They can't put us back to sleep." "You don't think there's a way back into hibernation." "No." "But there has to be." "There has to be." "9 o'clock." "Bedtime." "I know I should be working the problem but..." "I can't even keep my eyes open." "You just came out of hibernation." "It's going to be a couple of days before you're 100%." "You should get some rest." "I think I'm going to have to." " I'll walk you to your cabin." " No, it's okay." "I'll be alright." "Okay." "Good night, Aurora." "More than a year." "I can't imagine." "It must have been so hard for you." "It was." "Good night, Jim." "Please buckle up and secure any loose items." " Whiskey." "Neat." " Sure thing." "How's your day been?" "Aurora's awake." "Congratulations." "You don't look happy." "Arthur, can you keep a secret?" "Jim, I'm not just a bartender, I'm a gentleman." "Don't tell Aurora that I woke her up." "She thinks it was an accident." "Let me tell her." "Of course." "How can there be no way to put someone back into hibernation?" "What if a pod breaks down?" "No hibernation pod has malfunctioned in thousands of interstellar flights." "Well, I'm awake." "Hibernation pods are fail-safe." "Good morning." "Have you eaten?" "No, I'm starving." "And this is the dumbest machine." "Happy to help!" "INFO_M_MC" "INFO_M_MC CRITICAL ERROR" "Infirmary." "What about research articles, any kind of technical documents?" "Hibernation technology is proprietary." "The following articles deal with the subject on a theoretical level." "New file." "My Voyage." "I boarded the Avalon with an idea, a destiny." "But now, out of reach." "I've been awake for 7 days, awake far too soon... and I may well spend the rest of my life here in a steel world a 1,000 meters long." "There's another passenger awake." "A mechanic named Jim Preston." "He seems to have accepted our fate." "But I'm scared." "I'm fighting to stay calm." "All the other passengers will sleep for another 90 years." "While I roam about my life on this ship..." "traveling forever... never arriving." "My only companion, a total stranger." "Why did you do it?" "Do what?" "Emigrate." "Leave Earth." "I'm interviewing you." "You're what?" "You're the first hibernation failure in the history of space travel." "That makes you a story." " Who are you going to tell?" " Posterity." "So why did you give up your life on Earth?" "A 120 years space hibernation means you never see your family or friends again." "You'll wake up in a new century, on a new planet." "It's the ultimate geographical suicide." "Well, I could ask you the same thing." "But it's my interview." "Were you running away from something?" "No." " Everything is okay." " So?" "I guess I just wanted a new world." "I don't know, a fresh start." "That's homestead Company advertising." " Is it?" " Jim." "I..." "I know." "I guess, you're right." "Back on Earth, when something breaks, you don't fix it, you replace it." "In the colonies, they have problems to solve." "My kind of problems." "The mechanic is similar." "It's a new world still being built." "I can build a house and live in it." "Open country, room to grow." "Now you're back to slogans." "Can't slogans be true?" "Do you know how much Homestead Company's made off its first planet?" "8 quadrillion dollars." "That's 8 million billions." "Colony planets are the biggest business now." "Did you pay full price for your ticket?" "No, I'm in a desirable trade." "So they fill your head with dreams, discount your ticket, and you fly off to populate their planet and give homestead 20% of everything you made for the rest of your life." "Not to mention the debt you're going to owe on this fancy starship." "So all you see here is 5,000 suckers?" "I see zeroes on the homestead Company's bottom line." "I see 5,000 men and women changing their lives." "5,000 different reasons." "You don't know these people." "I'm a journalist." "I know how people." "Really?" "This one." "Is he a banker, a teacher or a gardener?" " Banker." " He's a gardener." "And her, is she a Maddison, Donna or Lola?" "Donna's too serious for that hair." "Lola." " Maddison." " Shit." "Alright." "Chef, accountant or midwife?" "She has to be a midwife." "There's no way you just made that one up." "She is a midwife." "Good to know they still have midwives." "I liked her." "We would be friends." "You think you can see that?" "Don't you?" "I do." "A round trip ticket." "That's right." "I was going to fly to Homestead II, live for a year and right back to Earth." "I don't get it." "I left Earth for a new life." "But you end up back where you started." "I end up in the future." "250 years in the future." "On Earth, which is still the center of civilization, like it or not."