Alien Worlds: A New Beginning (April Fools) (Patreon)

“Warning: Emergency Cryosleep Activation.”

There was a hideously cold feeling all over her body. Rhea felt like a human popsicle. She had never had the best blood circulation to begin with, and it had almost disqualified her from the mission before she’d even…

God… Fuck. Where was she? What were these random thoughts swirling around her head…?

All of a sudden, there was a sharp pain in her chest, and clarity returned to her brain.

Rhea was inside a cramped stasis pod, a narrow tube just barely big enough to contain her small body. But hey, these things weren’t built for comfort, were they? It wasn’t like Rhea needed to worry about that when she’d been cryogenically frozen and pumped full of drugs to prevent her inner body from freezing solid.

Though a natural sense of panic spread through her chest, the small woman remained calm. Rhea curled her shivering right hand into a fist and banged carefully on the thick glass in front of her. The cryopod was supposed to let her out automatically, but the tech’s who built the thing actually had the foresight to implement a forced opening procedure if the pod detected someone trying to get out. Maybe the only well-designed thing she’d encountered on the mission so far, honestly. Considering it was humanity’s last gasp, you’d think they would have put more fucking money and effort into making sure things work. But hey, maybe it was appropriate that humanity died the way it lived.

Not that Rhea Reyes had any intention of dying today...