Discovering Earth

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: Lock, Wrinkles and Cross

Discovering Earth

A moment after the “click,” Fran heard a “whoosh.”

She blinked open her eyes; eyes that had been closed for the entire nine-hundred year “moment” that she had just stepped across.

Sounds began to creep into her recently thawed world. A mechanical humming accompanied several arms that reached into her “pod”; administering fluids and retracting a variety of tubes. A hissing sound came from the hydraulic system as it pushed her upright.

With a flick of her small right finger, Fran triggered the lock and the door to her “bed” swung open.

The first step was always the worst. Well, almost the worst. She still had the mirror to deal with.

A few minutes later she was facing the wrinkled result of time-creep one experienced due to quantum fluctuations in her stasis pod. These fluctuations were necessary to let her soul know that her body was still alive. If she were truly dropped to absolute zero, her body would wake up with no one home.

So she aged. A minute here and a few seconds there added up.

As she made her way to the command bridge, Fran could feel the rejuvenation drugs starting to do their job. She’d be good as new before long.

“Computer, what have you found?”

“Greetings, Captain. I have located an M-type planet in a Goldilocks Zone twenty-three standard years out at full reverse thrust.”

“And?” Captain Fran asked, sensing that the computer was holding something back.

“And, intercepted transmissions indicate a warrior species with apocalyptic-leaning behaviors.”

Fran didn’t like the idea of colonizing a planet where the local inhabitants didn’t know how to play well with each other.

We’ll just cross that bridge when we come to it, she thought.

“Computer, initiate the birthing protocol. Make sure some of our crew-to-be have warrior DNA.”

Word Count 300