He could barely stretch out his arms without hitting some set of buttons, blinking servers, glowing monitors, or half a dozen other technical apparatuses that he really didn't understand
Maybe the room was actually larger, but as it stood, he couldn't imagine more than a single person fitting in the tight space semi-comfortably.
A single office chair, high backed and squishy with extra padding, sat directly in the center of the high space. Its well worn leather and small tears here and there showed a subtle impression where many hours of someone's life had whittled away watching the monitors in this room.
He shook off the the thought and sat down.
He had to admit: it was a pretty nice chair.
Behind him, the security door slid to a close with a soft whoosh and the click of a lock.
Glancing around, he looked from screen to screen, trying to figure out what exactly he was supposed to even do with this equipment. He knew what he was looking at. Keyboard. Computer. Monitor. Server. Biometrics scanner. Video camera. Speakers. But he didn't completely remember how to work them or, much less, what he was supposed to do.
Who the hell was that woman?
Even if he remembered how to use the equipment before him, he had no idea who he was trying to contact.
It all made his head hurt.
"kkkZZZT!"
The speakers chirped loudly, coming to life in the eerie silence of dust and whirring machines and making him jump.
"Hello? Are you there? Can you hear me? GodIhopeIgottherightchannel...Please. Please be the right channel. Hello???"
The young woman sounded nearly as panicked as the first time he heard her. Once again, she seemed as though she were half talking to him and half to herself. Or perhaps someone else?
"Hello?" he responded, looking expectantly from monitor to monitor for some kind of sign that he was doing something.
None of them seemed to react. With the exception of a black screen flashing a white cursor in the bottom left corner, all of the other screens had "EREWHON: Butler v.1.32" plastered across them and that was it.
"Ok. Ok...Breathe. It's alright." The woman continued on although the man wasn't sure if she was talking to him or herself. "It looks like you should be in the security room. At least, I can see a silent alarm going off in there. So it's either you...or...one of them."
Her shaking voice betrayed her swelling when she said the word "them".
"Look. If you can hear me, there should be a mic in there. Say something."
"Something." he responded before smiling to himself.
He knew it was ridiculous for some reason, but it felt satisfying to respond like that.
All the same, the woman waited without hearing. Until...
"Alright, nothing. So here's what I'm going to try. Look at the monitors. You should see me typing on one of them."
In tandem, one of the monitors blinked to life; changing from the fabulous EREWHON splash screen to some sort of text box. It displayed an ever growing string of nonsense that resembled "SADGASHGASDJGKSFGDIFBBAG" like someone was just banging on a keyboard.
"Can you see it?" the woman asked frantically.
"Yea, I can see it." he responded with growing exasperation. "I can see it."
Hesitantly, he reached out and grabbed the keyboard. His memory seemed to be returning more and more with each passing moment; perhaps as his brain thawed, he wondered to himself. Tapping one of the keys, a patented "A" appeared within the text box below the woman's line of gibberish.
"OHMYGOD!" she screamed so loud that he grabbed his ears. "YES! YESSS!"
The man clutched his aching head for a moment before reaching back out for the keyboard. To his surprise, the words flowed naturally from his fingers and actually was easier than speaking.
"Jesus Christ, woman."
This elicited another frantic scream of joy and he could swear he could hear her jumping up and down and banging things wherever she was.
"Yes! Yesyesyesyesyes!" she cheered again. "Ok. Ok. Here we go. Can you hear me?"
As she spoke, she typed.
"Can you hear me?"
"Not technically, but yes." he shot back.
"YES!"
He could hear her cheering again over the loud speaker.
"Ok. I'm gonna turn off the loud speaker for now. We can talk through here."
"Ok." he agreed and heard an audible click followed by silence.
After a long moment, he typed again.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Sorry, Mr. Nadohs. Was just getting everything turned off."
"Mr. Nadohs?"
"This is Karlo Nadohs, isn't it?"
"I don't know."
"Why don't you know?"
The words were simple and logical, but he couldn't help but feel as if they were a touch incredulous.
"I just don't." he shot back.
Another extended moment passed in silence as Karlo stared at the blinking text screen. He was about to ask if she was still there when she began typing again.
"It must be the cryo freeze." she said.
"Cryo freeze?"
"Yea. You were cryogenically frozen for the trip. All of the miners were. You don't remember?"
Karlo stared down at his hands as if they would somehow provide him a response to the hundred questions that just entered his mind. All that stared back were soft, pink pudgy things with a hint of callous.
"I just said I don't."
"I suppose you did." the woman agreed before quickly adding. "Sorry."
"No problem. Can you tell me what the fuck is going on though?"
Another pertinent question. Another long gap of silence.
"No. I don't think I can." slowly scrawled across the screen followed a moment later by. "But I'll try."
"Ok. Let's start with this. Who are you?"
"Oh! Sorry. My name is Dr. Mara Lethe. Nice to meet you. :)"
