The last things she remembered were the sirens, and people running, her too, what from was a little blurry, hell who she was was a little blurry. There were screams, so many screams, then she was shoved into a pod, and everything went dark. Now she was awake, and everything ached, then, there was the hiss of an injector and darkness. It was fine, just five more minu..........

Take two, this time waking up was a little easier, and a lot less painful, and there were more people around, had everybody made it out OK? Then there was another shot, and off she went again, if she remembered the procedures right next time she’d...........

This time it was easy for her to wake up, no pain, no more shots, no alarm sounds, that was a good start, now to figure out where she was, this didn’t look like the place the pods were stored.

Well the ceiling wasn’t much of a clue, typical medical bay stuff, could be anywhere, it looked a bit battered, had a tramp ship rescued them? Well maybe it looked a bit fancy for that, she really hoped she hadn’t been picked up by pirates. A quick glance at her would-be saviours was not reassuring. Those parts they had looked to be cobbled together from all sorts. She made to bolt, that didn’t end well, her legs had the consistency of soup right now, and instantly gave out under her weight.

“Whoah, whoah, easy there girl, steady.” The girl in the middle said, clearly trying to reassure her, well it wasn’t working.

“Whoah? Seriously? What am I a horse?” She snarked, hoping she sounded braver than she felt.

“Sorry, not really used to kids,” the stranger replied. “Nice to meet ya, the name’s Eileen, I’m the acting Captain, for what that’s worth, and you’re aboard the Reliance, how ya holding up?”

“Fuzzy,” she replied. “Don’t remember much, so let’s start simple, what do you want from me?”

“Nothing, we just couldn’t leave you to rot in that pod.” The smallest of the trio replied, she seemed to be a heavy gravity worlder, it was odd to see them off-world. There had been some kind of dispute, and most of them had shut themselves away on worlds The Flotilla couldn’t live on, she didn’t have the full story, the grownups had all just told her it was complicated in that patronising tone which implies that you wouldn’t understand, and then changed the subject, arrogant gits, then something more pressing came to her attention. Inside her head, a red flag was raised, it took her a few moments to process, and figure out the significance of that statement.

“Waddya mean couldn’t leave me to rot? Those pods were rated for upwards of a century.”

At that. the first girl to talk went all serious. “I’m afraid we may have some bad news for you, the other pods, they had a power interruption somewhere down the line, as for you? You’ve been asleep a while kid.”

Her head started swimming, that did not sound like good news. “How long?” She croaked.

“We don’t know really kid, things got a bit messy.”

“DON’T SCREW WITH ME, I ASKED HOW LONG, SO STOP BEATING AROUND THE BUSH AND TELL ME GODDAMNIT,” she snarled. knowing she should feel bad about snapping at her rescuers like that, but she had to know.

Eileen looked sad as she finally spoke up, taking each of her companion’s hands for support before speaking again. “The Flotilla collapsed a few centuries ago, Relly here is salvage, and because of the need to run the ship we are probably the last remaining Flotilla ship out there.”

Her head reeled, centuries? Days she could understand, weeks maybe, months would be a stretch. Years even were a possibility. But literal CENTURIES? A century singular was nearly ten times her life, and somehow it had been multiple of those? Her brain struggled to process that mind-boggling number.

“How many others made it out?” She asked, she really didn’t want to know, but she had to, it was like poking at a cavity, it hurt like hell, but she had to know the damage.

“Yours was the only pod we found intact,” the tallest girl replied. She didn’t sound unsympathetic but was clearly not one to sugarcoat the truth.

The world swam around her as she did her best to come to terms with this, why her? Of all the people on that planet why her? Not that she wasn’t grateful, but the entire planet was full of geniuses of all stripes, and none of those people had made it? What made her so special? She was just a kid, and not even one of the smartest ones in her class, sure she knew her way around a wrench, but was that really enough to qualify her as the sole survivor of an entire planet? No worse than that, she was probably the last of The Flotilla. She didn’t deserve this. Somebody else could have made it.

“I know that look kid,” the heavy grav worlder interrupted, “been there, we all have, there’s no shame in being the one to survive. Difference between them and you means nothing, never did. Whatever makes you think they were somehow better qualified, fitter, or in any way better to survive clearly wasn’t, you’re here now, and we’ve got your back.”

“What would you know?” she snapped, what gave these arrogant bastards the right to go all preachy with her? How could they ever understand?”

Eileen raised her hand. “Lab escapee,” she replied, “I don’t understand what you’re going through, won’t pretend to, but survived where others didn’t, so if you need to talk I’m here.”

She tried to calm down at that. It was hard, she had a lot to think about.

“So you got a name? We can’t keep calling you kid forever” Eileen asked, looking a little awkward.

“Wylie, now can I please be alone for a bit? I need to think.”

Eileen looked sympathetic at that. “Sure thing Wylie, Relly keep an eye on her, keep her safe.”

There was a confirmation beep, then they slipped out, leaving her to her thoughts.