The ship was relatively quiet, and has been quiet for the last few weeks. Or maybe it's only been a few days, time in space was strange, something you still haven't really gotten used to. Days and nights pretty much looked the same, the only way to distinguish them was that at night everyone was in their designated rooms, more security, less noise.

Nights on the ship we're a little bit unsettling, it doesn't really matter what time you used to go to bed on earth, here it's 10 PM on the dot, the bright fluorescent lights just, go out, no warning, no notice, just darkness. Overnight the ship goes into power saving mode, that is what one of the other crew members had told you. Why? No one really knew. Or at least no one told you or could tell you anything about it.

Your room was spartan when you moved in, small, barely enough to fit a bed, a dresser that doubled as a table and a small side room with a sink and toilet in it. It was small, crammed, uncomfortable but at least you didn't have to sleep in communal rooms. Over your time here you managed to scavenge some decoration, your friend in botanics gifted you a few small flower pots on your birthday, cacti, easy to maintain, don't need much water but they definitely added a much needed fleck of color.

Nights lasted exactly 10 hours, no longer, then the lights automatically turned on, sometimes it's like you're being shined at directly with bright white search lights when you were just trying to get some shut eye. Mornings always had the same routine, wait for the lights to come on, toilet, brush teeth, get dressed, and go to the cafeteria. There was no time for extra. Cafeteria food was simple, based on science and not really what you'd like to eat. Just enough to keep your diet balanced without getting too costly.

Then work. Nothing fun about that. Sometimes one of your coworkers did keep you entertained with small talk or some story, sometimes the newest gossip. Then lunch break, same food as for breakfast just slightly different, just enough for no one to complain about being fed nutrition paste. Then you got 4 hours to do what you want. You could go to the bar, talk to the friendly android bartender, go swimming at the pool, work out, read or just lay in bed.

The rest of the day you worked again, until the day was over, until lights turned off, and this repeated, over and over and over again, it feels like every day is a month, nights are too short, breaks are too empty. And you are in the middle of nowhere in space. It's safe to say that anyone would go insane here after some time. Routine was good until it wasn't.

The pay was good but that was hardly any good point, what were you going to do with that money? You couldn't spend it here, there was no intergalactic postal service to deliver anything, restaurants were mostly just for the higher ups, you were just a regular crew mate, stuck with the mediocre, and it takes 10 years back to earth, what are you going to do then?

Sometimes you ask yourself if it was a mistake to sign up for this, sometimes you ask yourself if you were being ungrateful, and sometimes you just wanted to punch that annoying security guard next to your work place, what was his name? Echo? Absolute asshole. Always found something to annoy you with, lately he's been pointing out that you gained some weight, seriously what is this guys problem. Well you did make a snarky comment back two days ago, since then it's been a bit quieter, at least when that other guy was around, you never caught his name.

Speaking of the devil, there was the nameless man, what was he? 6'4"? 6'3"? Maybe you should ask him what they've been feeding him. He notices you looking at him..he..waves?

"Hey! you, c'mere here real quick."