Consciousness came back slowly. First I was aware of the dryness in my mouth. Second I noticed that my headache had lessened slightly. Third I realized that I was lying down. Last I realized I had no idea where I was. My eyes opened instantly. They landed on the back of Officer Byrne. She turned around with a shot in her hand. Her eyes landed on mine.

    "Good to see you awake, First Officer." She walked up to the cot I was sprawled upon. I blinked slowly. "What happened?" My memory was foggy.

   "I'm afraid you overexerted yourself." She held the needle up to the light to examine the contents. "According to the medical files, after being unfrozen we were supposed to be on bed-rest for a day or so. Seeing as you haven't gotten off your feet in nearly twelve hours, you fainted from exhaustion. Officer Peterson tells me you were experiencing dizzy spells."

    "And what's the shot?"

    "Merely a booster so that this doesn't happen again." When I didn't say anything else, she stuck the needle in my arm and pushed the contents in. Officer Byrne was also a medical doctor. I had been aware of the fact but hadn't really considered it until now. I looked around. I must have been in the medical bay of the Patriot. A few cots lined the walls and shelves upon shelves held medical supplies.

    I wiped away the dab of blood from the injection site. "How long was I out?"

    "About an hour."

    Not too bad. I was already feeling better. Upon sitting up, I saw an image of a scan on the computer screen. My eyebrows raised. "You scanned my head?"

    Officer Byrne nodded. "I wanted to make sure you didn't have a concussion. Besides that, I compared it to a past scan to see what changed." From the falter in her expression, I knew she was talking about the largest side-effect of being cryogenically-frozen. The voices.

    "And?"

     "Nothing. Just a bit more activity than usual." Her voice lowered. "I don't get it. How can we – it just about shocked me to the point where I nearly fainted." I sighed softly, rubbing my hand over my bare head. "I don't know either. Imagine how Peterson and I felt when we ran into two people that would have arrested us if we couldn't have heard their thoughts in the first place."

    She shook her head slowly. "I can't imagine waking up without being warned beforehand. Peterson let me know, but it didn't prepare me." She turned back to the scans. "There's nothing on these to suggest anything has changed. How can we be doing this? It's from stories."

     "You know as much as I do." Something occurred to me. "However, I can't seem to hear you or Peterson. Maybe it has to do with how we were all woken up from the cryo-chamber?"

     She pursed her lips. "I don't know yet. I'll figure it out. It seems that we can hear everyone except for those that have the same ability that we do. I wonder if the crew will be the same." I wondered as well. Instead of dwelling on it, I swung my legs over the side of the cot and rose to my feet. My legs wobbled a bit but I was fine.

     "Where is everyone?"

     "In the common sitting room. We did not tell the Mayors of the situation. All they know is that you needed a moment." I mentally thanked her for that. The last thing I needed was the Mayors believing I was falling apart.

    Officer Byrne suddenly jumped. The empty needle in her hand hit the table. I looked at her. "Are you alright?"

    Her eyes shifted toward me and she pressed a hand against her ear. "I-I'm fine. Sorry, I just startled myself."

     "Just don't let me catch you fainting on me." I pulled on my boots and strapped on my holsters. She gathered herself and joined me in the hall. The shot she had given me helped. My headache was lessening more and my bones no longer felt like lead. Raising my chin, I navigated the halls to the common sitting room.

    There were two aboard the Patriot. One was the common room, built for the crew. The other was the Bridge break room, exclusively for the Bridge crew. I had never been to the common room. Inside, there were a few couches and a small bar. Mayor Spencer was sitting on one of the couches. Mayor Zyre seemed content to sit in silence nearby. Officer Peterson was on his tablet, eyebrows creased. I noticed he still wasn't wearing his glasses.

    "Apologies for the delay," I said as I walked in. The Mayors looked up. "She looks better. I guess she just needed a minute," thought Mayor Spencer. Mayor Zyre wasn't as forgiving. "She looks like she was run over by a hover train."

    "Do you have a plan?" Asked Mayor Zyre.

    "I am about to." I gestured for them to follow me. Officer Byrne would need her station in the Bridge to conduct research. Minutes later and we were entering the Bridge. Officer Byrne sat down and turned her station on. I did the same and pulled up a few files on the electron batteries.

    "How many batteries do we need?" Officer Byrne addressed Officer Peterson. He tapped a bit on his station. "Roughly seventy fully-charged batteries for the whole crew."

     The Mayors found a place to sit while I pulled up records of the making of the batteries. What would it take to make more? Though I quickly discovered that was a dead end. Zoel would not have the exact same supplies, and without the same engineer who made them in the first place, we wouldn't be able to make a battery the Patriot was compatible with.

     "If the Patriot and the Pioneer have no more, I see a very simple solution." Officer Byrne lifted her head. "We go get some."

    I had a feeling she had more to say and wasn't just calling our previous attempts poor. I turned in my chair to look at her expectantly. Officer Byrne lifted the tablet she had connected to her station. "With the newest data downloaded, I see that Zoel has had communications with Earth since the Pioneer left."

    Mayor Spencer nodded. "A message takes a few years to travel, but yes, we've been communicating." Officer Byrne nodded. I borrowed the tablet to download the same data and checked my station once again.

    Just as it finished the download, Officer Byrne snapped her fingers. "I've got it. I know where to get batteries."

    I turned around again. "Let me hear it, Officer."

    "According to this, there's such a thing called the HyperZipline. It's a system of travel developed in the past couple years. Using energy beacons, a ship can travel faster than the speed of light along the designated path. There's a HyperZipline from here to Earth."

    My hairless eyebrows raised. "You are suggesting we go back to Earth and get the batteries ourselves?"

    Officer Byrne nodded. "The trip would only take a week."

    I had trouble wrapping my head around that. A three-hundred year flight turned into a week. It made our sleep-ridden flight feel a little useless, but I knew that without it, this travel never would have existed in the first place. I turned to the Mayors. "Is this possible?"

    They shared a reluctant look. "The HyperZiplines are regulated by the Planetary Court. No one is allowed off world to a new one without their express permission. We'd have to get you guys into a hearing."

    An idea crept to mind. "I think I can get around it..." I turned to my station and pulled up a source to the 'Planetary Court.' I read up on it for a minute. The Court had been established as soon as the Pioneer landed on Zoel. They handled interplanetary affairs. Anyone that wanted to leave the planet had to take it up with them.

   I began to prepare a message. It explained the situation we were in. I checked back our communication files and found the file that had been shared with the Pioneer. It had a code that either of the ships could give if there was an emergency. The Planetary Court should have the same code in their database. My message should be booted to the front and accepted right away.

    After about five minutes, I sent the message and faced the group. "I've sent a message directly to the Court, embedded with the Patriot's emergency signal. If the Court still uses the original files, we should be admitted passage—" There was a beep and I smiled at the message. "And we're admitted. We're to be back in Settlement Mirah in an hour for takeoff."

    "Wait, how could it be that easy?" Mayor Zyre was stunned. "I've never seen the Court act so fast." Though they were clearly at a loss, I had a feeling that the Court hadn't even opened my message. It would have been flagged with a code they knew was important. We'd likely be facing the Court later once they realized what exactly they had approved.