Lily rode her bike down the lane toward her grandmother's house. She could feel the heat of the sun on her face, hear the buzzing of insects. Up ahead, her grandmother waved from the porch of her house, calling her name.
"Lilliana! Lilliana!"
Lily shook herself. Her grandmother sounded nothing like that, and the insects sounded, flat, like the one note buzz of machinery.
"Lilliana! Agent Lilliana Newton!" The voice belonged to a man. Her eyelids fluttered open and she stared at him, eyes going wide with fear and shock.
"Who?" That one word was all she got out before she was leaning over the side of the pod, vomiting mucus and fluid, coughing it out of her lungs.
"Captain Darius Mitchell of the Star Destroyer Enigma." He didn't quite snap to attention, concerned with keeping her from slipping headfirst out of the pod. "We found you floating in space."
'Bless Micah's coal black little heart.' She coughed up more gunk. "How long?"
"Pardon?" The man, Captain Mitchell, blinked at her.
"How long was I out? What year is it?" She took a deep breath and waited to choke again. When she didn't, she relaxed, and looked up at him again.
"It's, we don't use that calendar anymore." Captain Mitchell's voice had gone gentle. "We were hoping you could give us some idea of how long you'd been in there."
"A long fucking time, apparently." She sat up, pulling her knees up to her chest, ignoring the muscle cramps screaming in her calves. Dead, all of them, dead. "I went into the pod some time in 2350."
"Oh..." Captain Mitchell went pale under his umber skin. "Oh."
"Yeah, oh. Can you get me some clothes and a vid screen. I've got a lot of catching up to do." She took a breath and started to climb out. The pod had done it's job, she hadn't lost too much muscle mass. "And a shower. I'm disgusting." She smiled at him, tears threatening in her eyes.