Chapter 22

Day 741

They walked the short distance to the infirmary.

"What are we doing here?" asked Aurora.

"I have some good news for you about me waking you up." said Jim.

Aurora was intrigued but still curious.

Jim then waved Gus's ID band over the screen by the autodoc and detecting the ID band.

"No physician is present." said Jim. "Override of my authority, ID 2317.

Command mode selections then appeared on the screen and he started to scroll through them until he found 'stabilize and suspend'.

"In command mode there is a function called 'stabilize and suspend'." said Jim to Aurora. "What it does is it puts the person into a state called 'Medical Stasis'. It stops all metabolic activity. The function is intended for terminally ill patients that are close to death that need to be kept alive for a while. It's a little different scientifically and medically, but it's essentially nearly the same as hibernation. You can go back to sleep."

"I can go back to sleep?" Aurora thought inside her head.

But suddenly the idea didn't appeal to her anymore. She had resigned herself to the inevitable that she was going to spend the rest of her life on the ship with Jim. She was happy about that. But now she's being given a chance to give up to have her old life back. Before she forgave him she would have leapt at that chance, but now she didn't want to do it...at least not without Jim.

"But there's only one autodoc." said Aurora.

"Unfortunately." said Jim. "And you are going to lie down in it. And you are going to go back to sleep. You are going to make it to Homestead 2, And you are going to write your book. And you're going to finish your journey that you started out with."

"But what about you?" asked Aurora. "You'll be right back where you started. You'll be all alone."

"It will be different now. I have a better handle on it."

"I need time to think about this." said Aurora.

She stepped out of the room and went back to her cabin.

Day 748

She avoided Jim for another week. Constantly going over the pros and cons of going back into hibernation. If she woke up in 90 years, then Jim would be dead and she would never see him again. In her whole life on Earth she never found a man to love. Not that she didn't have options, but rather she just never allowed herself to fall in love. She had had a few boyfriends that she had been close to, but in the end she always left them because she had been holding out for someone better. It turns out that it took the scenario of being the 'last man and woman on Earth' for her to fall in love. But now that she had Jim, she didn't want to give him up.

After the week of solitude which Jim had respected, Aurora went looking for him to tell him her answer of what she was going to do with the option of going back to sleep.

Day 749

Jim was sitting in the pub. Arthur was polishing a glass as always. He had reconnected Arthur's artificial intelligence chip in his circuit board and he came back online with apparently no problems. The synthetic rubber like skin that his face was made out of had been severely damaged, but Aurora had fixed him up. He looked all right though he could be better.

Jim was drinking a glass of water while turning over and over in his hands the makeshift gold and silver wedding band that he had made himself.

"Tuesday is my day with Arthur." said Aurora.

Aurora walked into the room, all dressed up and smiling.

"Then may I join you." said Jim.

"Absolutely." said Aurora. "Arthur you are looking lovely."

"Thanks to you." said Arthur.

"Aurora I'm just going to say this straight out," he then presented the ring to her, "will you marry me?"

She presented her finger for him to put it on her and he did.

"Took you long enough to ask." said Aurora in joking reprimand with a smile.

She and Jim then kissed.

"Champagne?" said Arthur as he presented two flute glasses filled with sparkling white wine.

They had Arthur perform the ceremony. The two of them had never been happier. They were ready to spend the rest of their lives together as their wedding bands symbolized and their wedding vows had declared.

They were in the swimming pool. They both dove into the water. They swam to the transparent domed wall at the end of the pool where the passengers could look out at the stars through the water while they are swimming.

While still paddling their feet lightly to keep their heads above water they put their arms around each other as they looked out at the stars and then kissed briefly.

"Hell of a life." said Aurora in a statement of fact.

"Hell of a life." Jim agreed.

They had each other. They had a luxury cruise ship all to themselves. They didn't have to work. They didn't have to pay rent. They had each other's love and physical affection with all of the essentials of living and more provided for them.

They could see their future. Right there on the ship. But yet who knows what it might hold.

17 years later

Earth

City of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

In an office building owned by the Homestead Company, with rows and rows of cubicles where telephone operators in front of their computers were taking calls and answering questions for Homestead Company customers. One employee received an incoming transmission in the form of a video message from deep space. This was common they received thousands of them all the time.

The message completed its upload from the deep space laser array transmission, and then the operator hit play.

The face of a Caucasian man with brown hair appeared and started speaking,

"Hi, I'm Jim Preston. I am a passenger aboard the Avalon. And...I'm not quite sure what to say...I think my hibernation pod malfunctioned. I understand that that's not supposed to happen, but I'm the only one awake and everyone else is asleep and the thing is the ship still has 90 years to go before it reaches Homestead 2, and...I don't know maybe it this is all my fault...maybe I missed something...I could just really use some help right now. Thank you."

The customer service operator sat there at his desk in utter shock. He wasn't even sure if he could believe it. This was just so far-fetched scenario, it conflicted with one's ingrained beliefs. The ingrained belief now being that hibernation pods cannot malfunction.

He pressed a button for the staff support line.

"I need someone from Tech Support please."

It was company policy to investigate the matter. They traced the transmission, and determined that it had come from deep space in the direction of Homestead 2 along the course that the Starship Avalon was supposed to be taking. They looked up the profile of the passenger, Jim Preston. They did find a James Preston who seemed to fit the physical appearance of the person in the video. They contacted some of his former friends who were all 49 years older after the Avalon had left Earth, some of them could scarcely remember what they ate the day before, let alone a friend from 49 years earlier. But they confirmed that it was no hoax, it was no elaborate joke.

Now to determine a hibernation pod malfunction which was supposed to be impossible. They went over everything that they knew about hibernation pods. The tech experts said that merely the hibernation pods weren't supposed to malfunction not that they strictly couldn't malfunction. They of course went over several different hypothetical scenarios that would cause a hibernation pod to malfunction, short of deliberate sabotage.

Further examination of the details including coming up with the situation that Gym Preston would be in, if a person did wake up prematurely because of a hibernation pod malfunction they would be stuck on the ship with no way to get back into hibernation or have any solution to their problem. Some of the people in charge at the homestead company we're embarrassed at the idea of how they could miss something like this. Failure of imagination. They were so religiously believing that it was impossible. Thing never thought it would happen.

They received several messages from the Starship Avalon over the next few decades. The second message appeared about five years after the first. It was a report from Jim Preston and Aurora Lane explaining what had happened and interestingly the breach in the ship's Shields with a small meteorite. They explain about all the malfunctions and the problems but fortunately they had fixed it. Jim Preston expressed his disappointment and customer complaint to the Homestead Company on the lack of a contingency protocol of want a passenger is supposed to do if they wake up early. Though he was slightly sympathetic and understanding that the intent was that it was never supposed to happen to begin with, but none the less. But Titanic wasn't supposed to sink but yet they should have still had enough lifeboats for everyone.

After that, new security and safety protocols were implemented into Starships including a means to put a person into hibernation while on the ship without medical staff, still hoping that Jim Preston's pod malfunction was an isolated incident that would never happen again, they had to protect the future customers that it might happen to. Though of course it would take centuries to implement this to all of the interstellar starships that were still on route.

February 4th, 3039

The Starship Avalon was entering the Bhakti system. It began a standard braking procedure to slow its velocity to be able to come into a stable orbit around the colony world of Homestead 2. The Planet was green with forests and mountians, rivers, lakes, and salt water oceans. It had a population of several million, and society was thriving. The mined minerals out of the ground, grew crops, farmed domestic animals, and built lots of houses, all while enjoying everything they would on Earth, shopping malls, hiking trails, and a verity of recreational facilities. All while giving a small percentile of everything they have to the Homestead Company.

The Avalon. With a velocity of half the speed of light it would take several months for the ship's breaking to sufficiently take effect. The ship was on course for an orbital Shipyard in high orbit over Homestead 2, the shipyard was similar to the one that was in orbit of Earth's moon, mining raw materials from a significantly smaller asteroid, only 1 billion tons, but enough for the shipyard to work with. The shipyard was also an orbital Space Dock for incoming Starships. At present there were several luxury liners that we're docked there some of them almost ready to head out, some that would be under maintenance for a while, and a few only half built under construction. The Avalon was not the only ship that goes from Earth to Homestead two. Along the same course there were several ships that were a few years and decades ahead of the Avalon, while also at present there were several ships that were few years and decades behind the Avalon.

The ship's navigational system detected the close proximity of Homestead 2, the ship autopilot initiated the automatic reanimation process of the ship's crew.

Captain Norris felt consciousness as his body felt semi paralyzed.

A holographic face appeared in front of him.

"Good Morning Captain Norris. How are you feeling?"

"I'm tired." said the Captain.

"You're experiencing post hibernation sickness, it will pass. The ship is on Final Approach."

"Thank you." said Captain Norris as he felt a little bit more awake as each passing second.

"Let's check your vitals."

He noticed that throughout the room there were several other hibernation pods that had the same holographic face in front of them waking up the crew. Of course not every member of the crew woke up simultaneously. It was just the senior staff on the first day and then on the second day the lower-ranking officers, and then on the third day the rest of them.

Then they wait a month before waking up the passengers.

The giant laser scanner had swept over his body there was an approving chime.

"You are in perfect health, Captain Norris. Please proceed to your cabin where you can get some rest."

Captain Norris and the rest of the senior staff made their way groggily towards the crew quarters.

When they got there they went to sleep.

The next morning, when Captain Norris was well-rested and wide awake, Captain Norris went to the bridge to check on the main systems, which was standard procedure for his standard duties, when he noticed an interesting anomaly. There was some damage around the doors and the consoles. Damage that doesn't affect anything, it seems like scorch marks as though someone tried to cut through it with a welding torch. Though the metal was made of a specially synthesized titanium/ platinum/carbon polymer which is virtually indestructible even to super hot melting temperatures. It would take specialized equipment to be able to cut through the security hatch protecting the bridge.

Then he received a page over the Comm.

"Captain Norris, this is chief medical officer Barton, please come to the Infirmary, there's something that you need to see."

When Captain Norris and many other members of the senior staff got to the infirmary, they found that the autodoc was occupied. The console registered that the autodoc was on the continuous sustained medical function of 'Stabilize and Suspend'.

The occupant of the autodoc was an elderly woman.

"The autodoc is keeping her alive in Medical Stasis." said the chief medical officer.

"Where did she come from, Dr. Barton?" asked Captain Norris.

"I came in here as my first act of Chief Medical Officer after waking up to check on my infirmary, and I found her here. A few things in here are out of place, and obviously something has happened here."

Captain Norris looked closely at her. Her hair was long and gray, her skin was so wrinkled. She had to be at least 100 years old.

"What's her condition?" asked Captain Norris.

The chief medical officer pressed a few buttons on the console and it showed the state of her nervous system.

"She is near death." said the chief medical officer. "99% from just old age. She'll be fine as long as she stays in Medical Stasis, but once we bring her out she may only have a few days, perhaps a week."

"Then let's let her die with dignity, wake her up and give her a stimulant to keep her aware and alert, I want to find out from her what's going on here."

The chief medical officer pressed a few buttons where then the screen gave a reprimand beep saying that a person in 'Medical Stasis' cannot be reanimation without an attending physician.

The chief medical officer waved his right wrist over the screen and it beeped detecting his ID Band.

"Computer, health and safety protocol has been acknowledged, a licensed doctor is present. Begin reanimation process for occupant in the autodoc, authorization, 'Chief Medical Officer', 'ID 3579'."

The autodoc then began the reanimation process and a few moments later the elderly woman start to stir.

The Captain then stood over her as the autodoc opened up.

"Ma'am, are you alright?"

The chief medical officer then took a syringe full of a very powerful stimulant and injected it into her arm.

The elderly woman opened her eyes fully and then seemed to be fully awake quickly. The stimulant in question was not something recommended for anyone, but in her condition it might actually just get her heart to beat a little bit longer.

"I'm doing well, thank you." said the woman in a scratchy elderly voice.

"I'm Theodore Norris, Captain of the Avalon. What is your name?"

"Aurora Lane." said the elderly woman. "I'm a writer. And have I got a story to tell you!"

Captain Norris was directed by Aurora Lane to pick up a holographic notepad that was on the counter off to the side.

The note on the notepad was titled, 'Journal Entries of Aurora Lane'.

Aurora told him to read everything that was on the holographic notepad, it was a 3000 page book. Her greatest work. But for him not to read the first page until he took a look at the Grand Concourse first.

The Captain and several of the other officers went to the elevator while the chief medical officer gave Aurora Lane a full checkup. He believed that there might be some procedures available that could extend her life by another year.

"Please buckle up and secure any loose items." said the computer. "This elevator will experience a momentary lapse in gravity."

There was an elevator ride to the luxury module, and then they unbuckle their belts and exited the door of the elevator.

"Grand Concourse." said the computer as they walked into the giant shopping mall.

Only when they walked in they were greeted by an unusual sight that they didn't imagine. The entire Grand Concourse had been transformed into a giant Park and garden. A giant tree in the middle that would have taken a century's growth. Plants and grass everywhere. There were animals consisting of mostly birds that clearly had been brought out of stasis from the cargo hold. The waiter robots from the restaurants were tending to the garden and caring for the animals. There was a little hut in the middle that looked quaint and cozy. The Fountains had been modified and rearranged to create little irrigation waterfalls everywhere.

Okay, the Captain wanted some answers now. He opened up the holographic notepad and read the first page which was an 'intro' to the story.

And the first page read,

"Dear passengers of the Avalon,

"My name is Aurora Lane. In the year 2949 there was the first ever hibernation malfunction of the passenger Jim Preston. He was alone for a long time until he woke me up to share his loneliness with him. I was mad at him in the beginning, but I eventually forgave him and fell in love with him. We were stuck on the ship with no way to get back into hibernation. The bartender Android Arthur once said to us that you can't get so hung up on where you would rather be that you forget to make the most of where you are, so Jim and I built ourselves a life! A beautiful life!...here is my story..."

The end

Author's note: Hope you have enjoyed this novelized version of the movie 'Passengers'. Please excuse all the plot holes. Please send me a comment!