Please Immerse in Water to Thaw

Present Day

Consciousness returned to Brett. He rubbed his eyes under his holo specs and yawned. He tried to look outside the portal window but saw that condensation had formed upon it. He began wiping at it with his sleeve, clearing up the view enough to see by. On the other side of the chamber, in the storage hanger which was now completely submerged underwater, was a 15th century medieval European castle.

“Huh.” he stated.

He put his face to the window and tried to make out details. The castle looked to be made, well, of cargo crates would be his guess. Stacked upon one another like a giant Lego set. There was even a flag flapping lazily in the current. Though he could not discern what was depicted on it. Lights were illuminating the water from above, likely from the bay's own lighting.

'Current? Where is a current coming from?' He thought to himself.

He looked around the immense hanger and saw what appeared to be rows upon rows of algae in what looked to be farmland, under the water. He also saw where the current was coming from, the ventilation shafts thirty meters above, close to the ceiling.
Then a shadow passed by the window. Brett ducked out of sight, not sure if he quite yet wished to be seen by, by, well, whatever had constructed a Lego-type medieval castle in a spaceship’s cargo bay. He sat for a moment, absorbing what was happening now to what he remembered before entering stasis.

He certainly didn't remember swimming into the cargo deck. He did remember Penny, which brought a pain to his chest. His mind drifted back to when she was first assigned to him. Twenty-one and eager to learn, full of spunk and wonder. It was her first tour with the JMC and his as well, although he had some flight time recorded, serving on satellites before assignment to Blue Dwarf. She was hard working, diligent and dependable. He also thought she was very pretty, funny and sweet.

He rubbed at his eyes, putting an end to the memory, it was no good to dwell on that now, not while he was stuck inside a fish tank! But there was someone on board who should know what was happening. “Holly?” He ventured. “Holly? Are you there?”

Nothing? Not a peep? He supposed that wasn't unusual, they may not have installed an intercom in the chamber, it was not like anyone in stasis could hear the computer anyhow. However…..
“Holo lens activate.” The lens booted up, it’s battery life saved by the stasis process. “Search for ships interior broadband signal.” A few seconds went by as he watched the indicator remain empty. The lenses weren't a communication device per se, but it could connect with his personal computer in his quarters to access more recipes stored on hard disc, providing they currently weren't submerged as well.
A few more seconds ticked by when suddenly a single bar appeared at the corner of his lens.

'Contact!'

Using the eye-tracking function in the lenses he began to open every file in his personal computer, pushing the RAM to it’s max. Come on, come on, notice this, notice it. He could feel a headache coming on, his brain was processing a lot of data and it was beginning to take it’s toll. Then the images stopped. For a moment he thought he crashed his computer, then the holo lens filled with the face of a balding caucasian middle-aged man with a tired looking face.

“Oy, wot’s going on here? Who’s messing about with the Chef’s computer? Don’t think I hadn't noticed, made my solitaire game go all blipey-blipey.”

“Holly! Thank goodness, sorry about your game, I didn't realize you were engaged. Sorry.”

“Gorden Bennet, what are you? Some giant eyeball alien? Look, if you've come to take our optometrist it’ll do you no good. He’s long since dead.”

“No Holly, it’s me, Chef! Chef Bishop. Brett Bishop.

“Chef? What happened to you? Are you a mutant?”

“No Holly, I’m speaking to you through my holo lenses.” He pulled them off and held them away from his face. “That better?”

“What’s happening, dude? Where have you been?” The computer asked. Brett noticed a change in Holly’s behavior, he had picked up some almost ‘human-like’ facial tics and quirks.

“Well Holly, I’m in a deactivated stasis booth.”

“Oh, well then, let me fix that up for you, they are always breaking down, had many a stasis booth open prematurely a while back and subject the occupants to Cadmium radiation. The JMC were really cutting corners with this ship”

“No, no, no, no, no!” Brett shook his head for effect. “I don’t want to go back into stasis, I want to get out.”

“Well, I’ll just pop the seal then and…”

“NO, no, no, no, no, no!” Again he shook his head even more vigorously.

“Look, you’re being very contradictory right now. Which do you want?” Holly admonished.

“I want to get out, BUT!” He emphasized. “The cargo deck I’m currently on at level three-hundred is flooded. Also, there’s a castle made of storage crates and an algae farm.”

“Go on, you’re taking the piss.”

“I assure you, I’m not.” Brett stood up and reversed his specs so that Holly could see out the window.

“Well, that’s something ‘innit?”

“It actually really is. Any ideas? What happened after the Cadmium leak?”

“Well, on the plus side, if you had any outstanding student loans, they've probably been forgiven. On the minus side, you missed three million birthdays.”

'Three. Million. Years!?'

“Hello? Chef Bishop? You there mate?”

The strange thing about a total mental shutdown is that the last thought one usually has just before the mind is unable to process anything, is usually the most inconsequential to the current situation. In Brett’s case it was…

'Well, there goes the Boston Cream Pie.'

Next: Catch of the Day.

OOC: Well, Brett’s mind is taking a little siesta until next post. He then only has to figure out how to A) Not drown and B) Not drown in a horrible manner.

Also, what was that shadow that passed by the window? The answer will surprise you and give nostalgic feelings to those who read American Marvel & DC Comics back in the ‘80s. <No, it isn't Aquaman nor Sub-Mariner>