After twelve years, Jayden Lander returns with his family to their former home, Hope Station. Upon arriving at the space station, Jayden attends school, learning to use alien artifacts left by the mysterious Missing, and the more he understands about Hope Station the more he learns about his dead father.
Little does Jayden know he is about to have a dangerous encounter that will change everything on Hope Station.
--------------------------
Chapter One - The Thirteenth Time
Jayden Lander opens his eyes and he sees someone looming over him. His first muddled thought is that it's Dracula, the vampire, and Jayden's first impulse is to lash out, but he can't move a muscle. The vampire grabs Jayden and lifts the boy up into a sitting position; the vampire wipes away something off of Jayden's face.
Jayden blinks and sees not Dracula, but simply a man, a man who is trying to help Jayden wake up from his three month long sleep in the hibernation chamber. The man wears a robe, not a cape; Jayden tries to laugh, but chokes instead on the hibernation liquid that is stuck in his lungs.
Jayden doesn't breathe once in the three months of hibernation and as he begins to cough and cough, it is painful to get all the liquid out of his lungs. Also, Jayden is revolted by the goo that covers him from head to foot. Having the gel on him is like being covered in the snot from a thousand point blank sneezes.
Jayden stops coughing and the man helps Jayden off of the egg shaped cocoon and onto the floor where shower nozzles wait to blast away the hibernation liquid, but moving is oh so hard, because he hasn't moved a muscle in three months. He is stiffer than a board and as he is helped down to the floor, Jayden screams as he bends his muscles that are protesting their coming back to life.
The man turns on the water and leaves to help someone else wake up from the Sleep. The water feels good and Jayden can feel the gel begin to fall off of him like a snake shedding its skin. He attempts to move, and slowly his muscles hurt less and less. Jayden moves into a crouch and then stands up; he is hunched over and looks like a hunchback that he would probably run from, if he were to see himself on some street. He holds some bars to keep him standing up, enjoying the thuds of the water on his back from the second nozzle that is at the, normal, head height.
Jayden straightens to stand all the way up, and he can blissfully feel the shower attack his head. Jayden groans as he touches the smooth skin of his scalp where, by rights, there should be a long mane of brown hair. For hibernation to work people have to be hairless, even on their heads. He will look like a bald freak, but Jayden knows that this must be much harder on the women on board.
Jayden takes off the thin jumpsuit that has electrodes hanging off of it; he is free of the hibernation liquid, and he turns off the water, dries off with a towel, and puts on a long white robe and fuzzy white slippers. He sees men and boys to his left waking up and going through the agony he just weathered. With a smile, Jayden is proud to see that he is the first to get dressed. Jayden walks past twelve hibernation stations to a wide blue door at the end of the room.
Little does Jayden know he is about to have a dangerous encounter that will change everything on Hope Station.
--------------------------
Chapter One - The Thirteenth Time
Jayden Lander opens his eyes and he sees someone looming over him. His first muddled thought is that it's Dracula, the vampire, and Jayden's first impulse is to lash out, but he can't move a muscle. The vampire grabs Jayden and lifts the boy up into a sitting position; the vampire wipes away something off of Jayden's face.
Jayden blinks and sees not Dracula, but simply a man, a man who is trying to help Jayden wake up from his three month long sleep in the hibernation chamber. The man wears a robe, not a cape; Jayden tries to laugh, but chokes instead on the hibernation liquid that is stuck in his lungs.
Jayden doesn't breathe once in the three months of hibernation and as he begins to cough and cough, it is painful to get all the liquid out of his lungs. Also, Jayden is revolted by the goo that covers him from head to foot. Having the gel on him is like being covered in the snot from a thousand point blank sneezes.
Jayden stops coughing and the man helps Jayden off of the egg shaped cocoon and onto the floor where shower nozzles wait to blast away the hibernation liquid, but moving is oh so hard, because he hasn't moved a muscle in three months. He is stiffer than a board and as he is helped down to the floor, Jayden screams as he bends his muscles that are protesting their coming back to life.
The man turns on the water and leaves to help someone else wake up from the Sleep. The water feels good and Jayden can feel the gel begin to fall off of him like a snake shedding its skin. He attempts to move, and slowly his muscles hurt less and less. Jayden moves into a crouch and then stands up; he is hunched over and looks like a hunchback that he would probably run from, if he were to see himself on some street. He holds some bars to keep him standing up, enjoying the thuds of the water on his back from the second nozzle that is at the, normal, head height.
Jayden straightens to stand all the way up, and he can blissfully feel the shower attack his head. Jayden groans as he touches the smooth skin of his scalp where, by rights, there should be a long mane of brown hair. For hibernation to work people have to be hairless, even on their heads. He will look like a bald freak, but Jayden knows that this must be much harder on the women on board.
Jayden takes off the thin jumpsuit that has electrodes hanging off of it; he is free of the hibernation liquid, and he turns off the water, dries off with a towel, and puts on a long white robe and fuzzy white slippers. He sees men and boys to his left waking up and going through the agony he just weathered. With a smile, Jayden is proud to see that he is the first to get dressed. Jayden walks past twelve hibernation stations to a wide blue door at the end of the room.
