Snippet #1370906

The fourth cylinder to open experienced a power malfunction, and the first thing it's occupant knew of anything was the painful impact of the floor as he collapsed from the drained capsule. His eyes flicked open as his mouth uttered a painful grunt, and a gasp as he took in air for the first time. Even the sparse light seemed blinding for a moment, and he lay there until the pain subsided.

Eventually, he clambered to his feet and looked around. Two other figures were silhouetted a short distance away. No...wait, three figures, he realised, as one person who was being held in the arms of another jumped back. He looked at the other figure, who was slightly nearer. As his eyes adjusted, he started to process it with knowledge acquired from an unknown source. He identified the being as female...human...physically fit and healthy. Indulging a curious impulse to find an overriding epithet for the woman, he followed here eyes to the marking on her capsule, and realised with her that her name was "Hope".

Using the information likewise, he turned and looked back at the module from which he himself had come, and saw that in a respective fashion his title was marked as "Eli".

Once again he turned back to the female.

"You are...Hope." he said, his voice somewhat gurgly as the last vestiges of the stasis fluid left his throat. "I am Eli. Who are...we?"