Flashback

Jaff's response to Dexta's excitement was extremely underwhelming.

"Great."

Dexta clicked his tongue at Jaff's subdued response, before jumping off the ladder back down on the ground.

"Should get in yours and see what it's like. Sleek," Dexta stepped aside to give Jaff some room to reach the ladder.

With the orientation video done, and no other notification to tell him where to go and what to do next, Jaff nodded and climbed up to the top compartment. He noticed a thumbprint scanner and pressed his right thumb on it. The compartment beeped and a mechanism unlocked.

"Jump in!" Dexta said.

A couple of small, soft lights lit up the compartment just enough that Jaff could see the interior. Thankfully, unlike the rest of the residential area, the pod looked slick and high-end. Jaff didn't want to sleep surrounded by rusted metal, but the interior of the pod looked inviting and cozy.

The pod was compact. It was only tall enough so that staff members/passengers could somewhat sit inside, though they had to slightly lower their heads to fit. Only about 70 to 80 centimetres, he guessed. The pod was only slightly wider than Jafferson's shoulder-width in its depth, and it was about two metres in length.

"How do I get in?" Jaff asked awkwardly.

"Head-first," Dexta explained, "Least that's what I think. Too hassling to come out again if leg-first."

Jaff twisted around and saw Dexta simply shrug at him. He sighed and looked back towards the pod. He reached out and hooked his fingers at the top edge of the entrance and pulled himself in on his stomach, his head entering first.

Once he was half in, he turned around awkwardly on his back and pushed himself further into the pod. It was awkward, but not too cumbersome to enter.

He realised that the 'mattress' that he laid on, shifted slightly under him until it seemed to hug his figure snugly.

It's kinda like memory foam, Jaff thought to himself. As he lay on his back, he turned his head to the left, and the memory foam-like bedding shifted to accommodate his movement automatically, he saw two buttons. One was labelled "CLOSE", and he pressed it. Something whirred and the sliding door automatically shut and locked.

The interior lighting changed from its original soft white lighting to a calming soft blue for a moment before turning completely off.

It was deathly silent in the pod, and Jaff was extremely comfortable. That was until a window opened in his N-HUD and he saw that Dexta wanted to communicate with him. He begrudgingly accepted the call.

"Whayouthink? Sleek, eh?" Dexta's voice suddenly entered his mind. He was going to have to get used to how the N-HUD works. He kept forgetting how the N-HUD connected to various parts of his brain.

He reached up and placed his hand underneath his neck and felt the little nub where they had implanted the main computing node of the N-HUD.

"It's surprisingly comfy," Jaff answered.

"Ya, and sound-proof too. 'Less there be alarm going, sleep gon' be easy." Dexta explained happily.

As Dexta kept chatting, one of Jafferson's memories crept up to the forefront of Jaff's consciousness.

It was a flashback of Jafferson's parents on the day that they sent their son away to board the Maxo's Lightbringer, an unknown number of years ago, right before the Colony and Cryo-Ships left on their journey to the SOL-2 System.

***

"Why am I going alone?" Jafferson asked.

His parents who had been dragging him towards the entrance stopped and looked at him with worried eyes. They exchanged worried, questioning looks with each other before looking back at their son.

"It's best if you don't know son," his father said solemnly.

"Did you guys get into some sort of trouble?" Jafferson asked as his parents continued to drag him towards the boarding section of the space dock.

There were hundreds of other passengers who rushed and shoved past others to board the Maxo's Lightbringer.

"Now's not the time son!" His father growled quietly. It seemed like he didn't want to bring any unwanted attention to the family as he dragged his son.

"When will be the time?" Jafferson exclaimed in confusion, "You suddenly barged into the house today and told me that you got a single lottery ticket for the Cryo-Ship and that I was going to get frozen. What about you guys?"

"There's not enough time to explain," Jafferson's mother said as she held his other hand, "You just have to trust us."

"I-It's not that I don't trust you Mother, I'm just confused."

The crowd around them had all bunched up at the bottleneck of one of the boarding entrances to the Cryo-Ship and they had to stop suddenly. Other people shoved against Jafferson's back as everybody started to squeeze next to each other.

"Wait up! Stop bunching up!" A loud voice called out right behind them. It was a space dock worker in a high-visibility uniform who shoved people away to make some space, "You'll get your turn, everyone will!"

Jafferson's mother reached up and cupped her hand on her son's cheek, "I'm sorry gwel, this is all we can do."

The boarding process was extremely quick and efficient, as tickets were automatically assigned to their owners' official governmental documents and the only step needed to access the documents was to scan the person's irises. Soon enough, it was almost Jafferson's turn to board.

His father turned around and held onto his son's face with both his hands and stared into his son's eyes, "You have to stay out of trouble, son, at least for a little while."

"W-what are you saying?"

His father ignored him, "Keep your ears out for someone named Natalia. We won't know when she will be defrosted, but when she does, she'll be able to explain everything."

"Next!" The dock worker in charge of the boarding process yelled.

"Why- Who is Natalia?" Jafferson was baffled by how his parents were acting.

"We can't say no more gwel, this is all you can know," his mother said as she clutched his forearm tightly.

His father let go and stepped back out of the way. It was Jafferson's turn to get his iris scanned.

"Next!" The dock worker repeated himself, "We don't got all day! Should'a said goodbye earlier!"

His parents shoved him forward and he awkwardly approached the iris scanner. The scan was quick and even amid all the bustling noise, a sharp ping played on the dock worker's station.

"Citizen ID number: 59781160-03. Jafferson Palmount," the dock worker laughed, "Lottery entry, lucky you."

Jafferson ignored him and looked back at his parents. They were both crying and held their fist against their chest.

He felt the tears start to form quickly as he returned the gesture. His voice cracked as he said softly, "Always in my heart."

They nodded at him.

"That won't do," the dock worker said, "make sure you ain't crying before they frost you. Body fluids and cryo don't mix. Get going! Plenty others waiting behind you."

The last of his parents that he saw was when they were shoved by a dock worker to make room for others waiting in line.

***

The memory was so vivid that Jaff had teared up himself. It was almost as if it was his own memories that he had remembered. He attempted to remember what his parents looked like, but he couldn't.

Dexta's voice and a new notification snapped him out of his thoughts and he wiped his eyes dry.

"Anyway, I'm go get my JPT done dusted," Dexta announced and right before he ended the call, "Tilla."

Jaff shook his head. Dexta's dialect was not being translated properly. He was going to have to work hard to figure out the meanings of some of the words.

His attention turned to the notification:

[Now that you are acquainted with your personal pod, the final step of orientation is to complete your Job Placement Test. Use CSALTS to head back to the orientation centre.]

Jaff wondered what the Job Placement Test entailed and was surprised when a notification from the CaSTE System appeared in front of him. He swiped the N-HUD window and was pleasantly surprised when he realised that the CaSTE System windows could be manipulated like the N-HUD windows.

<Congratulations! User has reached the end of:< strong> act-one!

User has received 1 Point!>