The cacophony of noise woke me from my sleep. My head felt like someone was slamming a…a…I couldn’t recall what the thing was called. I just knew that it had a handle and something round on top. Oh and that it was used to pound in…fuck…nails?

Fuck! Panic caused my throat to clench as I realized I was having issues recalling something as simple as some simple words. If I was unable to recall those, what else was I unable to remember?

“System compromised!” A loud, monotonous voice kept practically yelling in my ear. It wasn’t the only thing that was screaming for my attention. Various beeps, bells, and alarms were going off around me. None of which I understood. The only thing I knew was that none of them were good.

“Status?” I asked on reflex, not really sure why though.

“Medical system compromised,” the voice replied. “Multiple systems have failed. Structural integrity is nearing critical. Core compromised. Computer systems compromised. Power grid failure imminent. Environmental system failure. Backup power active. Waste recycling system lead detected. Main power failed. Thrusters non-functional…”

The system went on for what felt like forever. It listed system after system, failure after failure. All of which was great information, for someone who knew what the fuck any of it meant. Me. I had no clue what the hell was going on or even where I was.

Finally fed up, I interrupted the voice. “Stop talking. Tell me where the hell I am and why I feel like shit.”

I don’t know if I had truly expected my words to do something or not. Thankfully, the damn thing listened and shut up. After a few moments, it returned. “Medical system failure. Main computer system failure. Query not recognized. AI system queried…”

“Fucking crappy primitive system.” A new voice spoke up. From what I could tell, it sounded like it was coming from the same place as the monotonous voice. Suddenly, the cacophony of random noises ceased. “That’s better. So…”

Wherever I was had been dark but there had been enough light for me to see out the transparent material that kept me locked up. I say had because all of the lights suddenly vanished. The noises that had been going on in the background suddenly vanished at nearly the same moment.

“Hello?” I tentatively asked. After a moment of no reply, I cried out a bit louder. “Is there anyone there?” My hand smacked against the odd, transparent material. Wait, it was called plexiglass. But how did I know that now when I didn’t a minute ago?

A soft hum filled the space as the voice resumed what it was saying. “…the medical…Wait, what the…god damn it.” The voice groaned. “Even my systems are compromised. Just what the hell did you do to the ship?”

“Ship?” I asked, confused as to what a ship was or what I had to do with what was going on.

“Ah…damn it. Of all the times for the medical system to fail, it had to be when you had massive head trauma.”

“Where am I?” My voice grew more frantic as I tried to get out of whatever this place was. “Who are you? Why am I here?”

“Hold on for one second…why did my human have to be fucking injured? I hate injured people. Always whining and..ah, there is the system I was looking for.” The voice sounded annoyed as it continued. “Starting scan of the local region and nothing. Great, even that system is busted. Oh and would you look at that. So is the environmental system. Just what did they use to build this ship? Duct tape and bubble gum? Wait…don’t answer that. I think I recall there being a few records stating just that. That’s what happens when you have to build a ton of ships with scraps and anything you can scrounge up.”

It let out a long sigh before continuing. “Welp, seeing as how you have already been exposed to anything in the atmosphere, I say fuck it. Opening your pod now.”

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A faint whining noise filled the space around me as the walls shook. A waft of cold air blew through the gap as the plexiglass door started to slowly open. With it came the smell of ozone and burning…something. The door managed to open a good hand length before it stuttered to a stop. The pitch of the whining increased while somewhere nearby two objects ground against each other.

Without warning, the whole place went quiet and dark once again. I was not willing to get stuck here, waiting for an apparently failing system to come back and let me out. Back against the wall, I lifted a foot and kicked the plexiglass. It shuddered but otherwise did nothing. Another kick resulted in more of the same. Still, I kept kicking.

Finally, on the tenth kick, something popped as a paint line appeared in the nearly transparent material. As I pulled my foot back for another kick, the lights and noise returned. “Just what are you…oh. The pod door is jammed. You do recall the button on the side of the pod for emergency release…right?”

Button? Emergency release? Yeah, I had no clue what it was talking about. As I continued to kick the glass, the voice returned. “Apparently not. Okay… Stop kicking the door and feel around with your right hand for a round button.” I ignored the voice. “I said, stop kicking the door. Would you listen to me? STOP FUCKING KICKING THE DOOR!”

Its yelling caused me to drop my foot as my hands reached up to clutch my pounding head. “Good. Now reach your right hand down and press the button near your hip…or at least I think it is there. Wait, the documents for this model say it is there.” I reached around blindly just to keep the voice from yelling at me again. My head was still pounding. “Not there…No…Down and forward.” My hands found a little gap in the wall with an inset circular…thing. “Good. Press that.”

With a bit of effort, I pushed on the…I think it called it a button. The walls around me shook violently as something nearby hissed loudly. Moments later the voice ordered me to grab the button and twist it. As soon as I did so, something clicked a microsecond before a series of soft popping noises filled the space. But that was it. Nothing else happened. The plexiglass simply hung there, partially cracked and blocking the exit.

Angry at the amount of wasted time, I slammed my foot into the edge of the glass. I expected my foot to meet resistance but it found none. The door shifted as it went flying. My forward momentum caused me to follow along behind the thing.

When my body slammed into the now-free plexiglass, my head screamed while a ringing sound filled my ears. “Hey…Russo…Ernesto, are you okay?” The voice called to me. I didn’t answer though. Somehow, something it said triggered a memory…

I was in a long, off-white hallway. To one side was a row of windows overlooking the orbital shipyard and the gas giant behind it. Ships flew into and out of the docks as material was transferred in and out of the place.

Without warning, I was thrown to the ground as something caused the deck below me to buck. “Ernesto!” A feminine voice called from down the hall. Before I could get up, she was on me. Her hands flew over my body as she looked for injuries.

“I am fine,” I whined as I pushed her hands away.

She pulled me into a hug before standing up with me resting on a hip. “Good. Then you wouldn’t mind seeing the doc would you?” With that, she took me down the hall and into the small medical room for our station.

“Ernesto, are you okay?” A frantic girl asked as soon as the door opened.

Oh god, why did she have to be visiting her dad today? Instead of answering, I hid my burning face in my mother's shirt. A deep male voice chuckled. “Do you think that Ms. Russo would look so calm if he wasn’t?”

As the memory faded, I heard the voice pleading with me to be okay. “If you are so worried, then why don’t you just help me?”

“I would but all of the drones are either offline or still in storage.” What were drones and what did they have to do with helping me? It must have realized something because it sighed before it asked a question. “You really don’t remember anything?”

“Am I supposed to remember something specific?”

“Well, shit.” As if it had been waiting for this moment, the lights vanished yet again. Well, most of the lights. There was a faint yellow light coming from the passage to the left. As I stood to walk in that direction, I found that there was a soft breeze. It smelled of…my head pounded as I tried to force the word out. It smelled of the hydroponics back home. Full of moisture and life, with a tinge of grease and metal.

The more I walked, the more I wondered what had happened. Pipes were bent at odd angles and plates were buckled. But the worst damage so far was the torn wall. It was a jagged break that cut diagonally from floor to ceiling at the end of the hall. While I could feel the breeze originated from the crack, the brilliant light that spilled through prevented me from being able to make out anything on the other side.

Not knowing what else to do while I waited for whoever had been talking to return, I squeezed through the crack.