Snippet #1955336

Dreams were a strange thing, when one was confined within the existence defying Gap tank. Different for each and every person but strange to their own perceptions. For Matthew Jäger, as he drifted in his tank of breathable gel, he did not dream his own dreams but rather, slipped in and out the dreams of those around him. The telepathic part of his mind, reached out in the long darkness, seeking comfort in the mental presence of those around him. He was never sure and never asked, if any of his crew realized that their captain was within their minds, during the long sleep between solar systems. It would have been odd to ask in the first place and he didn't want to bring up his abilities.

With a sudden start, the captain of the Nimble Gryphon, was ripped form seemingly endless sleep and thrown back into the waking reality. His eyes fought to stay closed, as he felt the rush of the gel around him, his mouth opening, to allow as much of the suddenly suffocating stuff, to be pulled form his lungs as possible. His back pushed lightly against the flat bottom of his tank. Unlike other models, the former pleasure craft, had tanks where those aboard her, would lay down in them, rather then stand. With a soft hiss, the clear top and sides slide away, opening the rest of his ship to the naked captain.

Matthew's chest was wracked with heavy coughs, as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the tank. His lungs were trying to clear themselves of left over gel, which he spit out like a large glob of phlegm. Wiping off his face, he gently removed needles and sensor pads. Legs and arms stretched, flexing muscles and popping joints after the long sleep. For a moment he waited, before shoving off from the tank and wobbling around like a new born colt, trying out his legs for the first time. After a minute, his legs remember how they were suppose to work and he strolled over to the control panel.

Fingers moved slowly, as the captain set the computer to a more gentle awakening then he had. Each one of them had a smaller, private room, to sleep in, so they didn't have to wake up naked with each other. Each room had robe or towel, waiting for them, so they could enter the locker room decent and cross to the gender separated showers, to clean off the gel, still coating their bodies. Or they could be like the captain and walk around naked, their choice really.

His first task done, Jäger turned away from the console, where all life signs showed green and stepped into the showers. A cloud of steam drifted through the locker room, as he stepped back out and opened the one marked with his name. He could feel the crew waking, as he pulled on his clothing and stepped out into the ship proper. The gravity was low through most of the ship, about half Terran, save in the exercise chamber, which was set to almost Terran. Each step was almost a leap, as he moved up the main corridor, to the bridge.

Sitting comfortably in the command seat, he watched as the main computer did a system's check. Everything looked fine, life support was normal, nav computer was online, scanners showed nothing around them, ion sail had engaged, the electromagnetic torpedo launcher reported loaded and ready, each of the three balloon turrets looked armed, so on and so forth but he'd wait for his crew to check out each system on it's own. After they all gathered and reported in, he'd tell them about how he planned to finish this job and maybe about their other cargo.