First came the cold. It was faint for a time, no more than a thought in the back of his mind, as if he'd been dreaming. But as he thought about it, wondered why he was dreaming such a bone-chilling cold, it quickly filled Ethan's mind to the exclusion of all else.

Next was the darkness. That was when he realized he was in cryosleep, probably just beginning to come out. He hated that part between sleeping and awake, when your mind realized how completely frozen your body was, and still couldn't force it to move.

Why wasn't the chamber opening? If he could recognize the chill now, the attendants should be opening the chambers. Experience told him he was moments away from consciousness. They must have landed on 581c. The crew would have been first up, but he should be hearing voices by now.

He should be warming up.

Slowly, forcefully, Ethan raised both eyelids. He could only manage to get them halfway, but it was enough to see the inside of the cryochamber lid, and more than enough to spark off a terrible pain above his right eye.

"Damn," he moaned. As he reached up to touch his forehead, his hand scraped the lid of the cryochamber.

That was when he realized he wasn't in a cryochamber.

He blinked, trying to focus through the darkness and stabbing pain. His hand was shaking with cold, but he pushed out and felt the lid in front of his face. Instead of the smooth, frost-coated cryochamber lid, he touched cold, thick padding.

"What the hell?" Suddenly memories flashed through his mind, of the Solaria, of waking up on an alien world, ships exploding in the air above them, the gray city.

And Captain Marshall.

The rush of fear forced Ethan's eyes completely open, but he still couldn't see in the darkness. He wasn't in a cryochamber, that was clear, but where was he? And how long had he been out?

He was freezing, shaking uncontrollably now, which shouldn't happen if he'd been properly installed in a cryosleep chamber with the right mix of drugs. So was he on the fleet ship, speeding back to a dead planet?

"Marshall!" He shouted, then instantly regretted it when his head nearly exploded.

Ethan closed his eyes and saw lights exploding for a few seconds. He felt around, through the thick padding, then his hands gripped a control. Without a second thought, he pressed the control and the lid above him released with a heavy sigh, popping open a few inches.

He pushed, and it obeyed, hinging up and over, but he wasn't greeted with the lights of a cryochamber bay, or any lights other than the little white dots still bursting in his peripheral vision.

With some effort, he pulled himself up and stumbled out of the tube. His head was reeling, and a strong shiver forced him a step back, against the pod, where he sat, gripping the edge.

When he could focus again, he looked down at the metal case supporting him.

"Escape pod?" He shivered violently, then tried to look around. He was outside, in the dark, with no lights in sight, not even a moon.

"Ethan?"

He looked up, but couldn't see through the darkness.

A moment later, Lydia pushed through some bushes and saw him, then hurried over. "Oh, thank God! I've been looking for nearly an hour."

Ethan tried to stand, but was surprised to find the ground so close to his face.

At least now there was a light, and his chill was slowly fading.

"Ethan? Are you with me?"

He blinked, then saw Lydia looking down at him from a few feet above.

"I actually managed to get a fire going," she said. "Never thought I could do that, but I suppose you never know what you're capable of until you try."

He stared up at her as the pieces began to fall back into place.

"Marshall put you under," she said. "Into a chamber, which is why you're so cold. And your pod must have hit hard." Lydia tapped her own forehead. "You hit your head inside. You have a concussion, so don't try to get up."

"What the hell happened?" Ethan stared at Lydia, pleased to manage a short sentence without his head exploding.

"Marshall ejected us in the pods after takeoff." She glanced around and shook her head. "At least, I think it was right after takeoff. I'm not really sure."

"Takeoff?"

"He put you in a chamber. They drugged me, too, but I don't think I was put in cryo before they ejected us," she continued. "At least, I think this is -- what do they call it? Urth?" Lydia shook her head. "For all I know, this could be 581, or somewhere else. I don't think it's Earth, though. There was never any open space like this on Earth."

Ethan wanted her to shut up, but it was easier to think while she just rambled on. He reached up and felt a thick bandage above his right eye, where most of the headache seemed to center, and his shirt was stained with blood. The shivering was slowing down, thanks to a fire that was a bit too large for safety, but he was pretty sure if he tried to get up, he'd only manage to be sick.

"He was right, though," Lydia went on. "Patterson didn't make a move on the ship. He just kept demanding you be released, and telling Marshall he was insane."

"He was," Ethan agreed. "He is." He glanced up and noticed stars in the sky for the first time. "If he's not dead yet."

Lydia sat back and wrapped her arms around herself. "Not yet, no. But if my calculations are correct, they're all going to wake up in ten years."

Ethan stared up at her. "Ten years?"

"I told them," she said. "I checked those calculations over and over, but they wouldn't listen."

Ethan gritted his teeth and pushed himself up, just a few inches at first, then when he didn't pass out, he slid forward just enough to plant his elbows on the ground and look at Lydia. "Did the others know?"

She bit her lip and shook her head.

"You didn't tell them?"

"They were already under when I figured it out. I'm not a physician, Ethan. And definitely not a cryosleep expert. But I know how to calculate percentages."

Ethan held his breath, then started up further, trying to at least get into a sitting position. Something he couldn't have managed without Lydia's help. When the world stopped spinning again, he was leaning back against the escape pod, facing the overly-large fire and a very pale, apologetic woman.

"Now, tell me exactly what happened. Just start from the top, okay, before I pass out again."

Lydia put her hands to her mouth for a moment, then nodded and studied the loose dirt at her feet. "We'd been talking for weeks, ever since Captain Marshall brought it up, and before anyone really knew what was happening, we'd all agreed. Keeping our plan a secret wasn't as hard as you'd think." She shrugged. "You were all too busy with the unrest among the darksiders. Some of that we helped along. Well, not me, personally, but some of Marshall's men. It was easier that way."

Ethan rubbed his forehead gingerly. "Okay, so you all snuck aboard a few hundred at a time."

"Don't be angry with your men, Ethan. Marshall planned it well. They started going into the chambers early this -- or that -- morning." She glanced around. "I really have no idea how long we've been out."

"How in the hell did he launch? Did the ship damage the gray city?"

Lydia shrugged. "I'm not sure. He was on the bridge all night, arguing with Patterson, giving him ultimatums. They'd already shielded the computers from outside hacking, so they knew there was nothing anyone on the ground could do to stop the launch. And I'm sure he gave them time to evacuate the city." She bit her lower lip. "I know it was at least seven hours from the time he drugged you and put you in a freezer, to the time they drugged me, too."

Ethan closed his eyes against a wave of nausea. "All right," he said, surprised by the lack of volume in his own voice. "They're not my problem anymore. There's nothing I can do for or about them." He glanced around, but without any light besides the fire, he couldn't see more than a few feet around them. "Do we have any idea where we are?"

"I'd like to assume we're on Urth, on the dark side," Lydia replied meekly. "But where, exactly, I don't know. We could be on the opposite side of the planet, for all I know."

"These pods have locator beacons." Ethan shifted, trying to see up and into the escape pod he was leaning against.

"But that only works if someone knows to look for the signal," Lydia countered. "We don't know if Patterson realizes we were jettisoned, do we? If he didn't track us coming down, how will he know where to start looking?"

Ethan held up a hand. "Would you just give it a rest for a minute? My head is pounding enough already." He twisted around and gripped the lip of the pod.

"What are you doing?"

"I need to see if there's anything in here we can use."

"Use for what?"

With some effort, Ethan managed to get to his knees and peer inside the escape pod.

"If it's your rifle you're looking for, it's not there. Your vest isn't, either. So, I mean, we don't have any communication devices or anything," Lydia said.

"I was hoping for a flashlight," Ethan replied as he looked around the small space.

"A flashlight?" Lydia laughed shortly. "What in the hell good is a flashlight going to do us?"

Ethan stopped his search and turned to glare at her. "I've just been kidnapped, drugged, frozen for God knows how long, dumped out of a ship in a tin-can death trap with no weapons, no communications, and no idea where I am. On top of that my head is killing me, I can't seem to get to my feet, and I really think I'd like to throw up." He turned back to the pod, ignoring the slow-building look of horror on Lydia's face. "What I'd really love to do is crawl back inside this thing, pull the lid shut, and wait for a rescue. But what I have to do is find a light, which is the only weapon we're gonna have, and keep you alive in a potentially hostile alien environment until someone finds us." He reached around the small space, looking for a survival kit or anything he could use. "Or until I kill you myself," he muttered.

"Oh my God," Lydia's voice grew quiet. "You don't think -- I was crashing through those bushes for an hour looking for you. But wait, we have the fire."

Ethan knew better than to shake his head. Just rooting around the escape pod was more than he should have been doing, and he really thought he might pass out again any second now. "The fire's yellow light," he said, his voice cracking slightly with exhaustion. "The beasts on this world only react to white light."

"What are we going to do?"

"I'm already doing it." Just when he was about to give up, his hand found a small case. He pulled it up and found an emergency first aid kit, with a small, but working, hand light inside.

"Oh, the aid kit." Lydia turned around and picked up a container. "I did think to bring this from my pod. It was the only thing in there."

Ethan checked the light, then put it back in the case to preserve the battery and set it outside the pod and kept feeling around. "There should be emergency rations, some flares, a knife. Basic survival gear."

"I didn't find anything other than this aid kit," Lydia said with a shrug.

"Dammit." Ethan had to stop looking when his vision blurred. He put a hand to his head, hoping to wait out the sudden flush of cold and dizziness. "There's got to be more in here."

"Maybe Captain Marshall stripped everything when he put you in."

"Why would he leave an aid kit?"

"Here, let me look." Lydia took Ethan by the arms and pulled him away from the pod. "You should be trying to rest."

He moved out of the way, then leaned against the metal tube facing the fire. "Yeah, that's gonna happen." The orange glow from the burning wood illuminated their small camp nicely, but it made it next to impossible to see much further into the darkness. He glanced up at the sky to try and see if he could tell what direction the stars were moving, but his vision was still blurred enough to make that impossible.

"All right, here, I found another case." Lydia came out of the pod holding a small metal box and handed it to Ethan.

The supplies were meager, but he found what he was looking for. "That's something, at least." He pulled the blade out of the knife handle and examined it in the firelight.

"It doesn't look like much protection against those beasts," Lydia said as she sat down beside him.

"It isn't." Ethan closed the blade back into the handle and clipped it to his belt. "But it'll have to do." He nodded toward the other first aid kit. "Is there a light in there?"

Lydia opened the case and pulled out another small hand light. "Just this." She flicked it on and a small but bright beam of white light responded.

"Turn it off. We'll have to save the power for when we need it."

Lydia complied, putting the light back into the case. "So, what do we do now?"

Ethan looked at her. "We wait," he said. "Colonel Patterson will find the beacons and look for us here, near the pods."

"And what if they're not transmitting?" Lydia was looking at the fire, not Ethan, as she spoke. "What if the colonel doesn't even know to look for us? What if he doesn't even know Captain Marshall ejected us when he left?"

"Then we deal with it." Ethan sighed and shifted, trying to find a comfortable way to lean back against a metal pod while sitting on hard ground. "We'll have to sleep in shifts. Do you have a watch?"

Lydia shook her head as she brought both knees up and hugged them. "I'm not very sleepy."

"Good, you can take first watch." Ethan pulled his wristwatch off and handed it to her. "Wake me if you think you hear anything. If you get scared, get in the pod. I just need to get rid of this headache, then I'll check the emergency transponder."

If Lydia had a reply, Ethan never heard it. He felt himself slipping into unconsciousness even as he was finding a comfortable position for his head.