“Err-..” I bit my lip, looking around, trying to think of what to do.

I took the main metal panel off the controls, the front one, and tried to spark power from there, yet nothing seemed to happen. Wait, the black box that guy talked about.. I thought to myself and started to look for it, finding it pretty easily in the small space. I twisted its red knobs and started to manipulate the many different buttons, antennas and dials on it. It resulted in a large amount of static, but eventually someone’s voice came through.

“Can you hear me?” I called out, waiting for an answer.

“Yes, we can hear you. We are currently trying to resolve the issue.”

“Alright.” I heaved a sigh and strapped myself back in with whatever this.. Radio thing was.

Within a few moments of sitting there, something started to knock on the door in one of the storage lockers. I spun the chair around and looked to see which one it was.. It seemed to be coming from the top left. I went over to go see what it was, opening the locker.

“Greetings, Fae.” DNA stated in his monotone voice.. Wait, why was he here?

“DNA what on earth are you doing here?” I picked him up and held him to prevent him from flying away.

“Your father put me in the locker with a voice recorded message. I will play it back now: ‘Hope you enjoy the company, Love you.’”

“Glad to have you DNA, I was worried you would have forgotten me!” I teased him.

“It is impossible for me to forget you. You are planted in my database as my creator and I have captured visual and auditory ‘memories’ as humans call them.” His screen displayed the black image of a pixelated thumbs up.

“That’s right.. So I guess I didn’t need to worry about that.”

“Correct. I am also questioning why the electrical power is not on.” His head turned, looking around.

“Not sure, they said they are trying to figure it out.” I shrugged.

“Faelyn, it seems there was an unexpected power surge which completely exploded in the outer shell of the capsule. It should have done no damage to the inside, however there is no way to manually fix it here. We currently have two options: Abort the mission and retry within a couple of months, or attempt to use the fuel left to get to the ISS.” The same voice explained.

“Attempt to try and get to the ISS.” I decided, quickly questioning my decision.

“Alright then, let us know when you are ready for us to try and direct you towards that way. We will let them know to most likely expect a visitor.”

“Gotcha.” I said, strapping myself back in, clutching DNA. “Ready to go now.”

I sat there in silence for a couple of minutes before the engine started to work once more, somehow, and started to give small boosts toward a certain direction. I didn’t know how long or the difficulty it would take to get there, so I merely just remained silent until someone said something to me. I looked down at DNA in my lap, who was waving with his arm. I quickly waved back at him and gestured for him to be quiet. He nodded and dimmed his visor. Abruptly, a grinding sound started to come from the capsule.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Engine failure.” Someone said, sighing. “We have to abort the mission, Fae.”

“Alright, I get that. What am I supposed to do?”

“I believe you have enough supplies until we can get to you, so just stay there and we will come and find you within a few days.”

“Alrighty, before I turn this thing off, are you willing to try an idea?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Use the boosters to try and send the capsule into the Atlantic Ocean.” I suggested.

“Alright, I’ll run tests to see if that would be able to happen. Give me about 15 to 30 minutes.”

I sat there, waiting for what would happen. My mind went to other scenarios, some worse than this and some better, trying to think of other things I could do to try and help this situation. I was honestly surprised I hadn’t heard my Dad in a while, knowing he was still there. He had informed me weeks earlier that he would be there for about a week or so before leaving to go back to his job.

“That unfortunately will not be possible, one of the boosters was damaged from the main engine explosion.”

“I see, I thought I would throw it out there anyways.”

“Now Fae, there is another option for you to do while you wait for us. We have complete access to your location, so there is no need for you to give it to us. There is a possibility we could put you into a cryostat which would, in simple terms, preserve you in a low temperature chamber until we come to find you.”

“Is that safe?” I thought aloud, questioning what they were talking about. I had only truly heard about it a few times, as a still in-development project.

“For the majority, yes it is safe. Within the past couple years, all space capsules have a chamber in case of scenarios like this where the astronaut would be able to choose to do it until we came to fully abort the mission.”

“That seems.. Actually kinda reasonable. How do I do it?”

“In the back, there is a gray, silver panel which you can use to adjust the settings on it and open it. You would need to set it to 32-34 Celsius and then use the small switch near the bottom to open it.”

“Let me see.” I unbuckled myself, still holding DNA and went over to the back. There, just as the person had said, was a silver panel with a temperature dial and multiple small switches.

“Should I be trying to do this now?”

“It is completely up to you, you can do it now or wait a bit and then do it. I would advise on waiting in case any complications come on.”

“Gotcha, and just questioning, how is this thing working without any power? And off-topic, since you’ve been talking to me this entire time, what’s your name and role in this?”
“We reserve an amount in full which runs it for up to 2 weeks and my name is Casimir. I am the lead scientist and engineer in this mission.”

“Nice to meet you, Casimir. The fuel thing makes sense now, cleared up my question.”

I sat there for the next 4 or so hours, waiting for something to happen, thinking about what Casimir had told me about the cryostat. It honestly confused me yet intrigued me at the same time. Knowing in my head, I would eventually do it within the next couple of hours, it made me think about what would actually happen when I got in. DNA had started to play his soft, ambient music in the background which also helped the eerie silence which was in the capsule quite frequently, on and off as Casimir would tell me things and results of tests he was currently doing.

My thoughts drifted to another subject; where was I currently? How much off track was I? Random questions and short thoughts came into my head, although I tried to push the majority of them out to prevent myself from worrying too much. It was a.. Tendency I had to say the least.

“Casimir?”

“Yes, Faelyn?”

“For when you do eventually find my capsule, make sure to get the small robot. His name is DNA and he will respond to you if you call him.”

“Alright. I believe we are going to attempt to put you into cryostat now. It appears to be safe enough to do for the time being.” He said.
“Let me do what you had said before.” I nodded to him

I unstrapped myself from the seat and drifted over to the panel, grabbing onto a small hook on the wall to keep myself from flying away. Using my left hand, I turned the settings to what Casimir had said in hours past.

“Okay, got it.”

“Wonderful. Now, wait a couple of minutes for it to start and then open the chamber, get inside and there should be a small panel of buttons in there. That is where you can close the chamber. Just lay back and close your eyes and the next time you open them, you will most likely be back here.”

“And if I wake up before this, what do I do? Just for clarification.”

“We will leave voice recordings in the black box of important information for the next week or so, so in case you wake up, just check it to know what’s going on. I’ll most likely be here anyways so you can contact me by just turning it on.” He assured me.

“Got it.” I said, unsure what to say otherwise.

I waited about 10 minutes for the chamber to start working, studying it a little from the distance I was at. It seemed to work as I could hear something quietly humming inside. I put DNA back in the locker I had found him in and explained to him what to do.

“DNA, I know you’ve been listening this entire time. Can you make sure, number 1, I don’t die, and number 2, make sure that when they find us, that you make noise and answer whoever comes because they will look for you. I told them to.”

“I will. I am able to monitor your health with scans from inside here. Your father put my charging station in here which has reserved power. If the humans are not able to find me, I will play loud sounds on my speakers.” He nodded, displaying a pixelated smile on his visor.

“Sounds good.” I nodded back.

“Faelyn, the chamber should be ready for you to enter now.”

“Alright, Casimir.” I closed the locker as DNA waved to me with his arm.
I flicked the small switch up as the front panel of the chamber opened slowly. I couldn’t see much of what was inside, as the air coming from inside of it was white, frosted.

“Be safe and we’ll let you know if anything happens.”

“I’ll try my best.” I shrugged, stepping inside. I turned around as the white door slowly closed on me.

---

Hello there! Thank you for reading Chapter 4 of Millennium. Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you have feedback, suggestions or comments for me! Links to other chapters will be updated below. :)
Chapter 1: https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/millennium-chapter-1/
Chapter 2: https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/millennium-chapter-2/
Chapter 3: https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/millennium-chapter-3/
Chapter 5: https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/millennium-chapter-5/
Chapter 6: https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/millennium-chapter-6/
Chapter 7: https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/millennium-chapter-7/
Chapter 8: https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/millennium-chapter-8/