Colony/Chapter 1

Dillan groaned as he woke up, his head was killing him and his vision was blurry, but most of all he felt incredibly cold.

He opened his eyes and tried to focus as he saw a frosty white window close in front of him. There was a sudden hiss, and the glass panel swung up and away from him, causing air to rush in and brush over his naked skin.

Naked? Wait, why was he naked? He sat up, confused and disoriented, and for the first time he noticed there was something tight on his face. He grabbed at the thing and pulled it off, noticing it was a plastic mask that was covering his nose and mouth. It had a tube attached to it, and it was strapped around the back of his head with some elastic.

It was only after he got the thing off that he realized it was a breathing tube. He noticed that wasn't the only bit of tubing poked into him either. There was something tight on his arms, and he looked down to see the IV tubing pushed into both of his arms. More embarrassingly though was that there was something stuck up his penis, he thinks he heard the name of this thing once. A catheter, they called it.

Also, why was he naked, and why was it so cold?

He began to reach for one of the IV tubes in his arms when suddenly a disembodied mechanical AI voice started speaking from the speakers in the room.

"Please do not remove your IV tubes without proper instruction, Captain Winters. Careless action can result in an unacceptable blood loss and risk to your health and wellbeing."

"Huh?" Dillan looked around when he heard the voice, and for the first time he realized he was in a rather large room sitting in some kind of open pods, and around him he could see several more pods just like the one he was in except that they were closed.

"You have been in cryo-sleep. It is normal to have loss of memories of events leading up to being put into stasis, so you are likely to be disoriented and confused at this time. Normally an adult medical practitioner should assist you in your waking up process, but none were available due to emergency procedures. As such, you will have to remove your own life support systems and apply gauze and manage your own health in your wake-up process. Please begin with removing the catheter, and then the cardiac monitor. Please remove the IV tubes last, as this will cause bleeding upon removal which must be quickly treated."

"What?" Dillan asked, confused. "Wh... what do you mean? I was in cryo sleep? Uhh... wait, why isn't there a doctor here?"

"All crew and other passengers were evacuated from the ship automatically in response to a warp-space accident. No other individuals are present at this time. You are the oldest remaining passenger on the ship, and thus have been recognized as the acting captain of this ship for command purposes."

What? All that... wait... this is just too confusing, what is going on here?

"Please proceed to remove your tubing and treating your IV insertion wounds. This is for a matter of maintaining your own health.

What in the world... This was all just too much to take in. Well, it was cold, and it really wasn't pleasant sitting here naked in an ice-cold tube, so he would definitely not complain about getting out of here .

Dillan was still feeling like he was in a little bit of a daze and had no idea what was going on, but he followed the AI instructions as it told him how to remove the stuff hooked up to him.

First, it instructed him on how to remove his catheter. His first instinct was to just pull it out of his penis, but the AI warned him that this would damage his bladder if he did so as it is kept inside him by something of a balloon inside of him. Apparently, the tip of the catheter inside of him actually puffs up with air in order to keep it from slipping out, and he has to let the air out of it first or else it will be bad.

It stung like hell as he started pulling it out. He couldn't remember it being put in at all, but having something rub inside his urethra definitely hurt.

The AI had also made some sort of comment about how the IV needles in his arms were made of flexible material, thus avoiding the needles puncturing him internally or something like that. Honestly though, there was so much going on at once right now that it just flew right over his head.

After the catheter was out, next came the sticky pads on his chest which were for monitoring his heart. The AI called it an "EKG," but whatever. After this, it was finally time for the needles. The AI instructed him to get out of the pod first and try to remove the tape that kept the needles in without letting the needles actually slip out, because he was going to bleed a lot once he got it out and was going to have to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. For that, it would be better to get both of them out at once.

Apparently the AI had pumped him full of extra blood beyond capacity in order to counter-act the expected bleeding, but it would still be bad if he didn't do everything quickly and get himself bandaged up.

He had to run across the room after removing the needles in order to reach a cabinet. It was a horrible experience. He was running across this ice-cold room completely naked while bleeding out of both arms, terrified he was going to die of the blood loss or something if he couldn't get this right. He'd been re-assured by the AI several times, and also warned there was no one else and this would not work unless he could get himself bandaged up.

He wound up bleeding all over the medical supplies as he bandaged himself. He remembered getting a needle like this out before at the doctor's, and they were able to just put a cotton ball on the place and put a piece of tape over it, and that was it. However, for him, the blood would keep the tape from sticking. The AI seemed to expect this and didn't even have him try tape at all. Instead, he wrapped bandages around both his elbows in order to hold the cotton balls in place.

By the time he was finished, the cabinet he got the medical supplies from, as well as the box they were kept in, was all covered in his blood. He felt a little woozy after all that, but the AI reminded him he had to wake someone else up first. He really didn't want to, but he wound up dragging himself to his feet anyway. The AI told him what to get together in order to help the person. He wrapped himself in a blanket and prepared a tray full of supplies from another box he hadn't gotten all bloody. Some of his blood also smeared on the blanket, and his arms were a total mess. Not to mention, he was still naked under this blanket.

"I want my mom and dad..." Dillan says in a weak voice that makes him sound a lot younger than his 12 year old age. Normally, he'd be embarrassed at himself for such a thing. No kid his age would say something like that, it makes him sound like a little kid. But now; shivering, cold, bleeding, and alone, Dillan didn't care at all about how that made him look. That was his genuine wish. He felt awful, and being hugged by his mother is about the only thing he could think of to help him feel better right now.

"The adult section was jettisoned in the emergency. No adults are present on this vessel. You are the oldest individual currently among the colony members. If you wish for companionship, please assist in the wake-up procedures for one of the other children," the AI voice says. Upon hearing this, while hearing that his mom and dad were jettisoned into space is rather upsetting, he ultimately focuses in on the solution the AI gave him to his current distress. It actually doesn't sound bad to have someone there he can share this misery with, and maybe comfort each other.

"Umm... Ok, what do I do?" Dillan asks.

"Prepare the necessary supplies to treat the IV wounds upon removal, and select the individual to be woken up. Two individuals who have been determined most compatible have been selected. Veronica Conner age 10, and Molly Bennet age 6. Please select between these two which you would like to awaken for companionship," the AI said.

Of course, what Dillan did not know, and the AI did not say, is that when it said 'most compatible' it was referring to compatibility with artificially induced early puberty treatments. He did know some things hinting at sex that were talked about among his friends despite how much adults try to conceal that stuff from children in their community, but his awareness of hormones and puberty was completely non-existent. He wasn't even aware sex could make babies in the first place, the gossip among his friends only went in the direction of girls having a slit instead of a penis and how the penis can go inside it. He didn't even actually know the word "sex." This was a shocking level of ignorance for a 12 year old, but it was made possible by how restrictive their religion was about this sort of information and the collective efforts of an entire community to lock down all mentions of it in speech and also AI filters that censor what they can see on the internet. The Listrians had commissioned AI filters that were sensitive to anything that can even prompt a child to start having questions in that direction.

The only things Listrian children knew about sex were things that were gossiped about among their classmates, things that they came up with on their own through observation and no influences from outside the community.

With no information available on those subjects, Dillan didn't even have reason to think the AI might be referring to anything other than compatibility that would make for a good friend for him. The thing is, he didn't really know either of the girls the AI just mentioned. Their community was small, but it was still large enough to have children separated by grade and kids would only know younger kids if they lived in the same neighborhood or played together at recess.

As for them both being girls, he barely even questioned that. In this distressing situation, waking up a girl actually did sound better. He just wanted someone to hug and cry with him, he didn't think a boy would be good for that. He would probably just make fun of him.

So, who should he pick then?

• Veronica, someone older would be better since she's closer to his age
• Molly, she's a little kid and that means she'll probably do everything he says