Wake up Call (2)

"Everyone! Do not panic! We are in the middle of an asteroid field. The captain and the pilots are navigating us through the obstructions. Though we received slight damage to our engines, the rest of the fleet are towing us out of the danger zone." A soldier yelled at the top of his lungs to the hall of passengers.

The medics and the crew, who already knew of the situation, went about helping people off the floor.

"What we need everyone to do os remain calm. Do not get in the way of the crew and mechanics. We need all of our attention on the repairs of the engines. The medics will be coming around to help people, but if you are not seriously injured, please don't waste their time, there are many people for them to attend to!"

After the soldier was done talking he immediately left the hall.

Since she couldn't go back to sleep with her cell on the floor, she helped those around her as well as offered her assistance to the medics.

"It seems not everyone on the ship has woken up," Lila stated to a medics officer who was rapping a broken arm on a woman.

"Yes, when navigating through the field only this side got hit with asteroids, which made some of the sleeper cells fall and cause engine trouble...Thank you." Finish wrapping the woman's arm the medic ran off to help the next person.

The situation in the hallway was pretty much under control by the crew, Lila had nothing else to do but to go back to her room.

Inside her room, Lila found that not only has her sleeper cell fallen off its charging port, it also needed a diagnostic check as there were cut wires stick out from its panel.

Lila sighed as she realized she'll be staying awake for the time being.

Moving to her bed, Lila laid down and caught a glimpse of the digital calendar on the side on her bed. Sitting up, she wondered how much time has passed since they put her into the cell.

Viewing the date on the calendar and remembering when she went to sleep, Lila realized two years have passed while she was unconscious.

She lost two years of her life, two birthdays, just sleeping!

"They didn't find any planet in these last two years...?" Lila didn't know how she felt about the sleeper cells anymore, missing two years of her life just sleep was high on her list of thing she wanted to do.

For the next couple of days, the crew helped some passengers get back to sleep with the repair of their sleep cell. For those who had their sleeper cells seriously damage by the asteroid field needed to wait until the mechanics finished the engines before taking a look at their sleeper cells.

Lila was one of those people, so in the meantime, she was sent to help with the crew's work.

At first, she was excited to work on until she found out they wanted her to handle all the menial jobs.

What's when Lila started to rethink her feeling on the sleeper cells. Sleeping through two years didn't sound so bad anymore against the arduous work the crew was having her do.

Lila was sent to work in various ships as her ship wasn't the only one in the fleet that was damaged in the asteroid field. To monitor the repairs of the fleet, the Commander General connected all the vessels together, making them into one big mothership.

_____

Seventy-two days have passed, and still, they couldn't get the damaged engines running.

"Are you kidding me! You are supposed to be the brightest in your field! Why haven't you been able to fix the problem yet!?.... We can't keep going like this....!" The Commander General wanted answers from a room full of his personal picked engine staff.

'If they stayed like this any longer they will have to settle for one of the semi-habitable planets they passed. As some of the passengers have woken meant more water and food supplies were being consumed. Having to rush off their world and the loss of a ship meant fewer supplies were packed. We needed to get moving.' The Commander General thought as no one in the room could give him an answer to his questions.

"Everything should be running...we have run all the tests and repaired the destroyed parts, but the engines won't start...Sir, the problem we are having right now is that we do not know what the problem...We need further time to assess the situation." One of the head mechanics said it plainly for the Commander General to understand what the real issue with the engine was.

"HOW MUCH TIME!?.... The supplies are already less than what they should be at this point. If we continue on like this, the food and water supplies will be depleted before we can even reach the next galaxy!" He wanted solutions, not excuses.

The staff in the conference room recognized the circumstances they were in, but what could they say.

"What if..." A tiny voice in the back broke the silence in the room.

People looked this way and that for the person who spoke.

"What if, we asked some of the young adults to help. Maybe new eyes looking at the issue might see the problem?" A woman wearing a technician's uniform said.

"Mmm...that's right, we gave tickets out of a couple of 'geniuses' right?" He looked at his secretary for confirmation.

"Yes, sir. We pacifically passed out three, sir."

"Okay, go see if any of them are awake, if not wake them up. At this point we need all the help we can get...Oh! And since you guys won't be busy any more get started on those sleeper cells. The more people we can get back to sleep the better."

"Yes, sir!" Everyone left the room in relief knowing it won't be their problem anymore.

____

Kara had been woken up by the medics and given a check-up as they informed her of the situation regarding the fleet.

"Shouldn't they tell the technicians this problem? They didn't need to wake me up just to tell me this, right?" Kara thought still disoriented from the drugs.

Check-up completed, Kara was led to Commander General's office where other people were already seated inside.

"Has the crew updated you three on the situation?..." Kara nodded her head to the Commander General's question.

Kara sat in a room with the Commander General, his secretary and two other boys wondering what this was all about.

"I'm aware that you all have just woken up, but we need your bright minds. The three of you are the best your schools if you guys can find a way to get us back on our course, the will be all of our saviors." Having said all that he had to say the Commander General stood up from his seat shook their hands.

No longer disoriented, Kara could plainly understand what the Commander General was telling her.

Outwardly Kara held a confident smiling expression, but inside her head, Kara thought, "Oh, f*** me!"