Paz opens her eyelashes.

There is an icy darkness all around, making her want to pull her legs to her chest and curl into a ball to retain as much heat as possible and prevent her body from cooling further, but she has no way to move — her limbs, hips and chest are pressed against a steel structure and tied with belts from strong buffalo leather to a gel mattress. She feels almost completely naked, only her chest and thighs are bandaged with compression knitted fabric, so that blood circulation does not stop from being in an immobilized position for a long time, and the only thing covering her body now is a rough, medical-like white cotton shirt with wide sleeves.

A few centimeters from her face is a metal surface, somehow reminiscent of a coffin lid — the inner wall of her cryptosleep capsule, which has served as her bed for the last... how many years has she been sleeping?

The capsule is filled with warm air, slightly heavier than a real atmosphere, and its composition, density and pressure are monitored constantly. The metal walls do not transmit sound, light and electricity, so it looks dark all over the inside of the container.

Suddenly, some buttons and indicators near the upper part of the capsule light up and a quiet crackling is heard, the body is slowly heated and the cryo-circulation system comes to life, slowly releasing the straps that restrain her hands, and the top and side walls of the casket rise.

Paz moves her shoulders and elbows a couple of times, then tries to move her legs, arms and neck, getting rid of the stiffness in her limbs.

As the body is warmed up, the capsule is filled with oxygen, slightly chilled and humidified — it will help her to return to full consciousness and get rid of the unpleasant feeling of heaviness in the head and lungs.

The inner lining of the cryocasket turns into a kind of liquid, like warm jelly, making it easier to get rid of the remnants of the preservative fluid on her skin and hair.

The platform she’s been sleeping on starts moving slowly with a metallic hum, sliding out like a chest of drawers, and Paz has to squint her eyes slightly, because the room is much lighter than the absolute darkness of her cryobed.

As she tries to get used to the light again, a few nurses are near Paz and one of them help her unfasten the safety belts and then puts warm wet compresses on her eyes, cheeks and forehead, cleansing her skin from all the remaining liquids.

Paz takes a couple more breaths of fresh air and then the nurses wipe her body dry with a special medical-like napkin, gently helping her out of the cryocasket. After being thawed from a deep coma, she cannot yet fully cooperate with her still weakened body, but eventually, the control is returning to her, so she extends her hand to hold onto a special metal pillar, making her body accustomed to the feeling of weightlessness again.

A few nurses are constantly monitoring her vitals and taking notes, a couple of doctors, some engineers, and one of the ship’s crew stand by. With the help of a few nurses, Paz is helped out of the capsule and into a clean hospital gown, giving her a sense of privacy and dignity. When she’s ready to move herself, the nurses are able to switch their attention to another of the still sleeping residents, while Paz, holding onto a special metal handrail in zero gravity, carefully moves towards the locker room. She knows that there is still quite a bit of time before the artificial gravity is turned on, since not all of the mission participants have yet awakened from cryosleep, and so she decides to use this time to change clothes and tidy herself up after a long period of inactivity.