Seeder Saga by Adam Moon Page A

out of the experiment before things went really bad."
    "I'm just saying, if I got here because of trial by fire, then you got here via trial by luck."
    "Wait a second. You can't hold any of that against me. I passed the test early. That's the only difference between us."
    "Well, I'm still your superior officer, so get the hell out of my sight."
    Jack shook his head sadly. Just because he had been removed from the experiment early didn't mean he got to turn a blind eye to what had happened afterwards. He ’d watched the remaining crew members spiral out of control. He’d watched the testers as they created more and more chaos inside that fake spaceship. He’d seen it all from a dozen feet away on monitors.
    But he also knew Sarah was right. He'd gotten off easy. He might have cracked too if they'd left him in there. He got lucky. She didn't.
    He left her to check on the colonists. There were two thousand of them and they were mostly in stasis already. There were a few cowards who were still stalling, but they'd all go to sleep eventually.
    The sleep wasn't really sleep at all. Their bodies would be frozen in time for four thousand years. When they woke up they'd be in orbit around the seed planet. The seed planet had already been given a name , but the mission commander had explained to the crew that they could name it whatever the hell they wanted once they touched down.
    Jack didn't give a shit about the name. After the testing he'd went through just twenty four hours ago, his only concern was getting to the planet in one piece.
    If the testing did anything for the surviving crew members, it conditioned them to expect the worst.

 
    Take Off
     
    Sarah said dryly, "We're all ready up here."
    A few seconds later a male voice came over the speaker : "Ground control to orbiter, we're a go down here too. Just give us a timeline and we'll hand the controls over to you."
    "Now's fine. Everyone's on ice."
    "Controls are yours. Godspeed."
    Disgusted , she said, "This had better be the real deal this time. I don't want to have to go through another fake launch just to prove myself to you bastards. If this is a test, I swear I’ll kill you."
    "This is the real deal. Good luck."
    "Screw you, ground control." With that she switched her comm off, double-checked that all the stasis pods were occupied and operational, and then set the Seeder to launch from the fueling station. Just as the boosters kicked in, she disrobed, attached the IV's and got into her coffin-like stasis pod.
    Hers was not beside all the others. Hers was all alone in the command station . If shit went down, the captain could be woken first and be able to take immediate action. She hoped it wouldn't come to that, but then again, her spirits were dampened by the testing she'd just gone through. She could only imagine the worst.
    Just as the door to her pod hissed shut, s he whispered, "I hope you all bake to a crisp down there."
    The IV's began to pump and the pod had all the atmosphere evacuated from it. It then filled with a frigid mist that felt oily on her skin. Just before she blacked out from oxygen deprivation, her body was locked in time by the chemical cocktail.

Danger
     
    The thaw hurt more than she thought it would. Apparently the test had faked more than just the situations; it had faked the details too, because the thaw from the test hadn’t been this painful.
    A human voice called out to her over the intercom. “I apologize for waking you so far ahead of schedule , but I had to be sure you were alone when we spoke.”
    She was still unhooking the IV’s when she said, “Uh huh. You better have a great reason for doing this.”
    “My name is Greg from ground control. I need to debrief you on your crew.”
    She wrapped the thawing blanket around her shoulders and waited for the disembodied voice to continue.
    “Your crew members have been put through some horrific scenarios and we can’t be sure they’re still as emotionally sound as they were