A brave new world

2184 A.D.
1.5 million miles from Earth, a large grey ship glides silently through the depths of space, carrying its slumbering cargo of passengers and supplies towards a newly verdant planet. The ship, The Eden, had left the overpopulated and polluted Earth 48 years earlier, the intrepid passengers volunteering to enter cryogenic sleep as the ship, piloted by its computers, shot through the silent depths of space towards mankind's greatest achievement. To create life had always been considered to be mankind's greatest accomplishment, the ability to re-create an entire planet, turning a lifeless rock and converting it to a vibrant life supporting planet, had seemed incredible, an impossible dream that somehow had become reality. Now, 750 colonists slept as they were transported to their new home, the brand new planet of Genesis.

The colonists were composed of people with the skills and knowledge deemed necessary to survive, scientists, engineers, and their families. The journey through the stars and the building of a new world, a new civilization, had filled the population of Earth with hope, the dream that this single journey would spark a new era for mankind. An era free of overcrowding, food shortages, epic illness, a halcyon era that perhaps was now within their reach was the common dream... until the dream turned into a nightmare in the silent depths of space.

The first moment Evan realized that something was wrong, drastically wrong, was when the claxon of the alarm filled his cryo chamber, the red haze of the flashing emergency lights penetrating his slowly opening eyes. He shouldn't be hearing the alarm, the lights and the emergency should have been dealt with long before he was awoken. The crew should have dealt with any emergency, any trouble before he as one of the youngest passengers was brought of cryogenic sleep. At nineteen, Evan was definitely one of the younger colonist, his sister Abigail perhaps the only other passenger of the Eden that was his junior, so if he was hearing the alarm as he awoke, something was seriously wrong. The procedure was for the computer to awaken the senior most crew and passengers first, the ones who had the training and experience to deal with whatever crisis could be occurring before awakening the rest of the passengers, moving through the banks of cryo chambers, deactivating them by seniority. Worry crossed Evan's brow as he waited for the familiar hissing sound of the chamber depressurizing, the heavy glass and steel lid sliding back to free him from his drug induced and computer supervised slumber.

As he sat up, Even expected to see the narrow corridor between the cryo chambers crowded with newly awakening passengers, his friends and family all milling about as they tried to shake off the last of the cryo sleep. The worried frown on his face deepened as he looked up and down the deserted corridor, his eyes running over the multitude of silent and sealed chambers. It was only after a few moments of disoriented gazing that the truth of the situation finally hit Evan. His gaze stopped on the red indicator light on top of the cryo chamber beside his, the meaning of the solid red light hitting him like a blow in the pit of his stomach as his eyes darted to the next chamber, hoping and praying to see the green light that indicated life. All up and down the corridor, Evan saw the same damning red light, the indicator that the occupant of each chamber had died, that somehow technology had failed, robbing all of the passengers of their lives. With growing panic, Evan climbed out of his cryo chamber, shivering in the cold corridor as he hurriedly paced along the chambers, his eyes fixed only on the indicator lights, his mind not wanting to accept the realization that in each of these chambers lay one of his fellow passengers, his friends, his family...

He was so filled with despair that he almost missed the green light atop the chamber on the other side of his, his eyes skipping over it several times as he felt the panic and loneliness building within him. It was only the faint sibilant hiss of the chamber depressurizing that drew Evan's attention. His heart in his throat, Evan hurried to the chamber, holding his breath as he looked through the thick frosted glass at it's occupant.