Chapter Text
Obi-Wan opened his eyes screaming from the top of his empty lungs. There was no air to breathe, when he clawed at his throat without a clue how to make it work, so the only sound coming out was an ugly croaking. He felt his face grow hot and the skin of his cheeks and mouth burn from the stretch of a never ending silent scream. He was starting to panic. I am drowning. Again… I am drowning. That has been the only explanation his brain could come up with, painting the picture in with the freezing cold surrounding his body and the moving blurry white-and-blue lights of the surface he perceived through his eyes fluttering close. Almost… Move. You need to move. Damn it! Obi-Wan reminded himself.
It took all the will he could muster to jerk his body upwards, muscles painfully twitching to motion and his dry lips instinctively catching a breath. Finally… The cool air flooded his lungs and brought a growing sense of clarity for him to start seeing things around distinctly. Cold illumination from within the cryopod, colorful array of buttons and symbols emerging from the interfaces and screens, soft warm lamp light from the ceiling which was currently imitating a pleasantly cloudy sky from a distant planet he had never been to. It was so blue…
“Good morning, Captain… Obi-Wan Kenobi” - Mother was ever so timely to announce its presence from within the interface of the cryopod chamber. “You have successfully completed a sleep sequence of… 9 months… 14 days… 5 hours and 0 minutes; current position of.. the Negotiator is… X:350.00,1….Y: 1.05,0.45… ly, and it is on… 60,1% of its journey to… Kepler-186. Ultimate descent onto… HIP 65426 imminent in… 168 hours.” - its halfmechanical voice was sort of soothing, even though it was the standardized Weyland-Yutani setting. Obi-Wan could not stop himself from thinking that the person this voice belonged to should be dead for at least 100 years. “Please take a drink of water while I pull.. the Negotiator’s statistics to your interface. Remember to slowly stretch your upper and lower body before performing any rapid movements and standing up. The Healthcare handbook recommends starting with…”
Obi-Wan took the plastic cup which emerged from the moving compartment above the cryopod and first tentatively sipped a drink of water before gulping the remaining liquid, when he realized how thirsty he was. Mother has started projecting the ship’s diagnostic on the screen, which was brief and not really informative, just standardized procedure so his brain would start understanding where he was, who he was and why he was. The Negotiator on the screen was projected as you would have been able to observe it from outer space, seeing the ship moving in a forward propulsion, its podded engines burning to steer the course, the hull mirror-like reflective, distincting it as a SunMoth type vessel.
Captain Kenobi hated cryopods.
He paid half of the needed attention to the resiting of a good stretching routine, performing it automatically and bending as the system told him to overcome the sleeping fatigue. Nine months asleep and it felt like he had taken a nap on a moving cross-terrain transport for a scarce couple of hours, while other passengers were dancing and shouting and shaking the transport and probably his head. Captain Kenobi thought he overcame this particular weakness of his with the low tolerance of deep cryosleep travel, he certainly did perform well in simulated environments… I guess as long as I am productive it does not matter if I feel like shit.. Obi-Wan thought when climbing out of the pod as Mother stated he was ready to stand up. His back hurt less than he expected and his head even wasn’t so dizzy. Maybe he was in luck.
“I have added an appointment with… Doctor Offee to your schedule tomorrow at… 0900 in the Medical bay.” Mother certainly chose its moments very well.
Obi-Wan rubbed his overgrown beard and grumbled while he was searching for his voice.
“Thank you, Mo..ther.” The words did not come easy to his dry mouth, when he requested another cup of water. After gulping the second one in one go, he massaged his temples. So it was impossible to avoid seeing a doctor… He hoped it would not turn out to be too embarrassing. Obi-Wan respected Barriss; they had been on missions together when she was still Nurse Offee and not Doctor Offee. It in turn made the conversation even more complicated. They could not really send him home now or deem him unfit for the mission here in the middle of nowhere, leaving a ship without a captain, so he relaxed his shoulders slightly, still thinking about spending 2 hours in MedBay with Barriss. “Mother, could you tell me where Cody is and who else is currently awake?” Obi-Wan’s voice was more level now, but he cringed and grimaced when hearing it regardless. He needed to brush his teeth and take a shower and trim his beard and… so many things.
While he stepped into a pair of magnetic slippers and pressed a soft fabric of a wake-up robe over his body, Mother announced the location of all the staff, leaving Cody for last. Maintenance personnel, a couple of scientists (Vos among them), engineers, some repairs people. It is hard keeping the SunMoth running even off the molting cycle, and expensive... Captain Kenobi winced quietly when he realized Barriss was not even currently among the awake personnel. The ship is going to wake her up early for my “what the fuck is wrong with me” session… Amazing. Obi-Wan was already finishing with a shower and drying in the sonic, when it announced the location of the Synthetic. “Entertainment room, central deck, 3 minutes walking distance.”
Captain involuntarily hmmmed under his breath, musing over this bit of information. That is weird.
His body was still sore when he got into a more comfortable Negotiator uniform and straightened invisible folds on his clothes while combing his hair through with fingers. His now trimmed beard made him look slightly more presentable but he had to do something with the hair. Later. Now Cody and that MIP Drive productivity report and trajectory schematics.
Obi-Wan pivoted to the portal, going around the CryoRoom to avoid looking at pods radiating freezing cold and at his colleagues suspended deep asleep. It made him uncomfortable that they did not really seem alive, as if their existence temporarily stopped in cryo.
The way to the Entertainment room has been… tiring. The captain felt himself slightly nauseated at the turns in the corridors and the soft light blinking alive in each section he was moving into. The portal door into his desired location slid open silently before him to reveal the lounging area with a couple of arcades, dim screens, crafting stations and shelves full of books. The whole area was empty of people. And specific Synthetics… Obi-Wan however heard sounds from a half open VR simulation room. Even stranger for Cody.
When Obi-Wan stood in the arch of the door he saw Cody - protocol straight posture Synthetic was sitting on the couch and operating two controllers with both of his hands, seeming focused on a screen, which displayed a wild array of violence and explosions. Next to him with his back towards the exit another figure was slumped on the sofa, maintenance personnel’s jumpsuit half discarded from his wide shoulders, leisurely tapping buttons on a smaller controller and greedily palming snacks from a foil package before throwing them towards a loudly chewing mouth.
“Like so?” The usual Cody monotone even felt slightly excited. Or captain Kenobi was too sleepy. Either one of two. Or both.
“Yep, blast them. If you hit the head, it's double damage. You can do it, Cody!” a younger amused voice pressed.
“I am trying, Technician Skywalker, I really am, but it's honestly not a part of my programming.” The Synthetic was faring pretty well regardless of what he was saying. Obi-Wan would have been able to assess it better if his head did not go dizzy because of the amount of movement and flashes on the screen.
Technician Skywalker’s name was in the list of currently working personnel Mother recited just 10 minutes ago, Skywalker A… Something with A. Obi-Wan did not have the energy right now to search his memory for the name, but the fact that he did not remember right away meant that he was not hired by Dr Vos, Dr Jinn or himself. Weyland-Yutani then… Obi-Wan massaged his temples and coughed politely to try to get some attention from his subordinates. Mother accommodated by putting the entertainment programme on pause and turning on the overhead lights in the room, which were previously dimmed. Two sets of eyes were immediately on him. The Synthetic dark and waiting and a crew member curious. With better light, Obi-Wan could see that the technician's uniform was all wrinkly and the white shirt with Negotiator logo stained. He looked just as young as he sounded. Maybe 23? Hopefully not younger. Kenobi frowned, reminding himself that he did not take part in whom Weyland-Yutani hired to throw away their lives for deep space research missions.
“Captain Kenobi. Welcome back.” Cody greeted just as he was programmed. He put down the controllers and stood up readily. “I was expecting to see you at 1400 on the Control deck, sir. Should I start pulling the report now?”
The Synthetic pointedly lowered his gaze to the datapad hoisted at Kenobi’s hip and awaited further instructions. Ever so helpful. Obi-Wan pulled the pad, which bloomed with requested data almost instantly, projecting the Negotiator with the breakdown on the productivity and diagnostics, moving text slowed down to accommodate his neural capacities for comprehension.
“It’s okay, Cody. I just did not realize you would be interested in entertainment.” Unlike his senior Dr Jinn, Obi-Wan did not care much of what the Synthetic was up to, the new batch produced by WY were not only highly intelligent, but also capable of absorbing complex learning programmes and effectively growing. A man could have his hobbies, even if he did have neural link liquid for blood in his veins.
Skywalker seemed to smirk or chuckle from the sofa but the captain did not have time to react to that right now. He was still nauseated and overall not even at 60% of his performance. Data flow of usual charts and graphs, was exactly the right medicine for his brain to stop spinning.
“It is not entertainment, sir. Technician Skywalker was showing me the extraction and retrieval mission in this learning programme. It was very graphic, I did enjoy the learning curve and visual effects. Have you “played” it, sir?” - Okay, Cody DID sound excited.
Obi-Wan lifted his eyes from the datapad, leveling his gaze on the technician.
“Technician Skywalker…” he exhaled, his datapad opening a side tab and bringing up a personnel form. Weyland-Yutani; Org Rank - T6; Tenure - 17ty; Age - 26ty; Role - SNTX tech support, WY MCS tech support…
“Just Anakin is fine. I am not big on not big titles.” He smirked again, loudly chewing a crunchy snack from the same foil bag on his lap. Recent task assignment - SNTX CC2224 <Cody> learning module maintenance, 1315, complete. Current task assignment - Leisure, 1330. “And I am not slacking off, Captain.”
When Obi-Wan lifted his eyes from the datapad again, Skywalker almost looked hurt seeing what information the captain brought up on his device. He would consider believing the performance if a wide teethy grin did not stretch Anakin’s face almost immediately afterwards.
“I was not implying you did.” Well, I did go check… Obi-Wan’s pad slightly tingled in his fingers, announcing waiting messages from Mother, Tano and Vos in priority order. He needed some coffee before that. And a snack… His gaze fixated on a package on the technician's lap. A familiar picture on a crinkled foil… “I do, however, want to imply that you are eating my chips.”
"These? Did not have a name on the pack. Thus free to take according to the stocking and labeling procedure, Captain.” He did it again, somehow exaggerating the title. Obi-Wan honestly did not have time for this, but the situation was forcing him to inhale a pacifying gulp of air and let it out immediately, cooling off. He was THE Captain after all, Qui-Gon did leave him in charge. He can handle a technician who thinks he is funny, with eyes so curious on his face and his hands and his datapad. Nosy much… Regardless, Obi-Wan admitted to himself, the technician was right, he did not label most of the items as they did not come with the initial manifesto. Should not be a big deal… that he took them. Anakin pushed, however: “They are not tasty anyway. Who would have 25g of protein per 100g of chips? Where are the fats? Oil? I don't know, milk powder? What does cru…stacean even mean? Honestly, Captain, I am doing you a favor.” Skywalker looked so smug when he plopped one more chip onto his tongue with his left hand when he was done talking. A loud crunching sound followed.
“In such a case, could you stop eating them?” Obi-Wan did sound annoyed now. He extended his hand forward, waiting for the package to be passed along. “Please?”
“‘s’that a direct order?” Skywalker leveled his gaze on Obi-Wan. Eyes tense, waiting.
This was getting tedious.
Before Obi-Wan had time to answer or feel another spark of annoyance, he felt a foil touch his palm and readily grabbed it. The technician was standing now, slightly towering over the captain. Kenobi rolled a package shut and measured Anakin with his gaze again, noticing he was now also extending his gloved right hand with something else in it.
“What is that?” Kenobi palmed the other item as well. Reinforced synthetic material, like a maintenance bag.
“You look like you are going to throw up in like… 5, Captain.” Skywalker shrugged, moving past him and out of the room.
When systems got a clue they were not going to be used, the interface shut down, dimming the room to minimum light. Obi-Wan frowned at the bag of chips and an empty maintenance bag in his hand. Nausea was creeping higher and higher but he did not feel like actually being sick.
He snapped out of this weird feeling of suspension, Anakin almost gone in the end of the corridor. “Crab.” Kenobi exhaled just loud enough so the technician would hear.
“Huh? Crap?” came from Skywalker, who stopped in his tracks, curiously looking at the captain.
“Crustacean. It is crab, shrimp, lobster, these kinds of animals. That’s what the chips are made…from.” He shook a package of chips higher to show the technician, immediately feeling revulsion from the sound… from the smell. A wave of sickness came over Kenobi’s head. Shit. He is actually going to feel sick now. The smell of the chips he did not realize existed before, was so strong and flared his nostrils. Why did he need to grab and shake it now?
Anakin smirked and pointed at Obi-Wan’s mid-waist.
“Bag for your crap, Captain.” he smiled before taking a turn towards the west deck and disappearing completely, only the sound of his boots echoing in the corridor.
Obi-Wan grabbed a plank of the portal, which he later understood was actually Cody’s arm (not that SNTX minded) and felt sick. Crap.