“Glad I’m alive?” I asked, sitting up. “What was touch-and-go?”

“Your awakening.”

He walked to the wall of panels and tapped on the center square. It expanded to over two meters causing the other panels to shrink and divide into smaller ones soundlessly.

“It didn’t go as we had expected,” he said as the new panel turned black revealing the outline of a human body to one side and a cacophony of numbers and vital signs on the other. “You were under so long that you required extensive muscle and tissue regeneration.”

“Under what?” I asked, my voice cracking.

He turned his head toward me, tilting it to one side and furrowing his brows.

“Ah. I’m sorry. I forget.”

He turning back to the larger display and tapped a corner. One of the smaller panels opened to reveal a short, blunt tube with a nozzle at one end. “For the amnesia,” he offered, pressing the nozzle to my neck.

“You are in an awakening facility; a medical center of sorts. You’ve been asleep a very long time. Longer than anyone else ever has.”