Imagine you are Amanda Bates:
“I don’t know the reason yet why I woke before the others. Something to do with instinct I guess.”
You are somewhat privy to being undead. Something about the immortality is enticing. So, from your coffin you emerged. An eerie silence lies in the cabin of Theseus. Maybe it was the fact that at this moment you were the only one “alive.”
You are extremely uncomfortable with the state with which your body is in after being undead for eighteen hundred days. The weakened state you are left with after such a journey is dangerous. Not only to yourself but to the fellow members of the crew.
Naked was a perfect metaphor for how you feel after such a trip; Both psychically and mentally.
“Exposed”
You feel exposed. Your lack of reflexes or muscle leaves you open, weak. The vast space leaves the ship open to who or whatever maybe flying by at the particular moment. Or following you. The vast space also allows a bit on comfort as the odds of you running into “something” else are remarkably slim. But interstellar space has a way of manipulating odds.
To counter this exposure, you slide the coffin lid to the side. Painstakingly pull yourself from it. Allow the lack of gravity to act as a crutch in proceeding to where your cloths are stored.
In order for you to gain your strength back, you begin to prepare yourself for isometrics. It isn’t exactly easy brushing the rust off after all these days. But you know you have to.
The first cycle is always the toughest. Your bones begin to crack as you begin to push the peddles. It feels as if the peddles are pushing back. Just one rotation at a time. Just one and then the other. Does it make things easier, think about them this way, probably not. After some time passes, time that is nothing compared to the amount of time in the coffin, but much more difficult, the rest of the crew begins to awake. They all looked like shit.
“Wha—” You hear a voice, barely more than a hoarse whisper, attempting to come from Siri. “…happ…?”
You continue to work on your body.
“…Sssuckered,” Szpindel says barely.
It didn’t hurt to see Szpindel in pain.
It probably would have been a lot funnier watching four emaciated, naked cadavers attempting to move in zero gee but you can hardly crack a smile when your body is in so much pain. Humor isn’t exactly a vampire’s specialty. Now that your body is beginning to allow itself the ability to breathe, next comes the reflexes. You pick up a rubber ball, bounce it off the bulkhead. It should come back with less force than you threw it but that hardly makes it possible to catch. Reflexes need more work.
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I choose to do the scene where the crew wakes up from Amanda Bates’ perspective because she was the first awaken. She is also the “fighter,” so I thought it would be interesting to show how the weakened state after they emerge from their coffins effects someone whose main weapon is their body. I also wanted to show how empty Theseus would be before everyone awoke. I wanted to address her opinion on Siri’s ability to read them but that occurs right after I finished. I also wanted to address the line where Siri says “Szpindel’s unspoken distrust of Amanda Bates shouted from the corner of his smile.” I wanted to show how she viewed him. The “It didn’t hurt to see Szpindel in pain” somewhat addresses this.