The Company Guy

John J Wilson slowly arose from his pod, massaging his temples, visibly in some sort of pain. Keeping his eyes half-closed, he managed to get out of the cryopod and slowly marched towards the dressing rooms. About five minutes later, dressed in his usual attire of an overall, he sat down at the galley. Wordlessly, he still continued massaging the right side of his head whilst trying his best to get access to something that would hydrate him.

"How long left until we can finally get off this damn ship?"

He sounded tired, almost in pain.

"I feel like there's a freight train running through my head. God these long cryo-sleeps are so horribly uncomfortable."

Miller poked at the various prefab breakfast options. There was some kind of cube that looked like a quiche, a wrap, likely a breakfast burrito, granola fruit bars, soy-protein pancakes, and dry instant oats. She typed in her WY employment PIN and pressed a release lever that issued her a ration of oats, which she promptly hydrated with hot coffee, creating a strange porridge.

She glanced over as John Wilson entered, clearly suffering from similar aftereffects of cryosleep. She could feel a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth but kept it in check. Dealing with corpo types was never her favorite part of the job. She chuckled to herself dryly. 'Guess cryosleep doesn’t choose favorites.'

"Hey Wilson, if you can convince the company to provide free Hydr8tion packs--ooh, or better yet, we could do with some fancy new cryopods with protein IV. Then we could all get a better wake-up call on the regular." There was no hint of an edge in her tone, but the comment was passive-aggressive. She wasn’t in the mood for complaints from someone who wasn’t about to get his hands dirty. In her head she thought, 'Suck it up. We’ve got work to do. And you can hover over us with a clipboard judging our every move.'

She took a bite of her makeshift porridge, letting the moment hang in the air before adding,

"In the meantime, might want to grab some water."

“I might - provided I’m given a hefty raise and bigger quarters," Wilson replied, ignoring the hint of passive-aggressiveness in her voice. "You know, I think I might just do that."

He arose again, still massaging his temples, and walked towards where one could acquire some water, trying to figure out how to operate the machine.

"10 Dollars for a bottled water, what a steal…"

He typed in his Weyalnd-Yutani PIN and chose the recycled water option. Whilst waiting for the machine to dispense it, he looked around the room, noticing that some of the crew hadn’t yet managed to find their way here.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. The new cryopods. We can put in an order for them and sell the old ones when we get back to make up for lost profit," Rye sighed into his coffee as he nommed on a protein bar. "Gives me an excuse to get on the loader and stuff."

Captain Miller chuckled as she listened to John Wilson comment on the jacked up price of bottled water being ‘a steal’. ‘Guess for some corpo kiss-butt, maybe.’ Ah, but Wilson did seem to be actually an okay guy.

Wilson addressed Miller, "Cap‘n, you check how far we’re from Sutter‘s? I can’t wait to visit the Electric Lotus."

In response to his question about their destination, she replied, "That’s the first order of business. Right after I ply myself with just enough to tide me over. And yeah…The Electric Lotus sounds fancy Been a while since I had a good drink in a place that didn’t smell like engine grease. Though I have to ask, Wilson. You buyin’?” The question was rhetorical. She didn’t assume it was an invitation.

"Perhaps... once the numbers in my account steadily rise to an adequate level after this thing is over."

Finally managing to get hold of some water, he emptied the recycled stuff in one big gulp before sitting down at the table again, visibly more well than before, though his tiredness was still quite evident.

Miller took another bite of her coffee-soaked porridge, the strange concoction did double duty feeding her and getting her more alert…maybe. Well, at least it was keepin’ her mind off the dryness in her throat.