Before I lost all radio and satellite contact, I had been flying solo on a simple survey mission, deep in unexplored parts of the asteroid belt. Out here, until I found something worth mining and the opportunists showed up, transponder signals from Central Authority were sparse and low powered on a good day. But, my radio had died for the same reason that my ship’s primary engines had seized and shut down. I watched a replay of what little the exterior cameras had managed to record. It looped again to the start. The plasma storm erupted in the vacuum of space in less than a second, right in front of my current path. Electrical arcs connected to my ship in several places and then all was static. A swirl of reds and blues and yellows, the storm seemed unlike any previously recorded phenomenon, though it was not as if I could transmit this home and run any data searches.
I was not exactly lost, but I hadn’t officially registered this survey. Profit margins for prospecting rights were higher when there were no corporate overlords taking their cut. Assuming that I was not careening forward to burn up in the space rainbow outside, I really only had one option. I crawled into my ship’s tiny cryobed, and hoped that the computer would keep our solar arrays pointed where they needed to be for a while.
A while passed, as it turned out.
I felt odd. Warm. I opened my eyes. The room was bright and appeared to be moving all around me. Was I sitting up? I blinked and focused as a yellow blur of light floated closer and spun in my field of vision. “You are awakening!” it called, before spinning off to join the rest of the swarm of colors that I saw had been approaching me directly ahead.
A blue blur of something spun to say, “We are so happy that your mind is active! What are your rituals like for the start of a waking cycle? I prefer the jets of water right away! Perhaps you wish to eat first?”
A red blur zoomed into view. “Nevermind them. You must have so many questions. We do, too.”
“I do, too!” cried a second yellow blur, I think, trying more than the rest to not just spin in one place. “Do you have weapons? Are you alone?”
I flinched at the last implication, and the lights all flew away into the darkness. I hung motionless in the dark, but my inquisitors could not stay away for too long, wherever I was.
Blue came back first and said, “You expressed hurt. Are you well? Please respond.”
I had prepared for such deep cryosleep events, at least in the abstract, but zenobiology and alien contact protocols escaped me. Both had once been merely theoretical, anyway. I tried to speak, but my lips had never felt so parched. I collected myself and spoke aloud. “Buh.”
“She is conscious!” sang the blue ball of light of dancing light.
Red said, “She is similar to the others, but more open to us. What does this mean?”
Yellow said, “An enemy in our midst. It will pollute and ruin all of our hard work.”
“Anger is a rational response for them,” said Blue.
Red said, “I recall that you brought this specimen here yourself, agent, so you must speak for it.”
Blue said, “Its rarity speaks for itself.”
Colors swirled into angry thunderstorms in opposition overhead. I cried out, “I will speak!”
“This one is too calm, too quickly,” said the yellow cloud. “It is a spy.”
“I am not! I was an explorer, a scientist. We meant to study and learn the nature of our surroundings. Any useful materials I found were shared with others – for the right price, sure. But, that meant that my people would be able to travel further, after I was gone.”
The colors fought amongst themselves again. Finally, a blue blur approached me by itself. “We have encountered new symbols from your species and we are most curious about your thoughts.”
A stuffed cat with purple stripes blinked into existence. I was able to reach out and hug it to my chest, as I had done in my youth many times with a doll exactly like this one. “This reminds me of Mister Kitty,” I said.
“Ah, then, it is a friend? Come,” said Blue. “This means that your strength has returned. Follow me!” Blue hummed a tune that was vaguely familiar as the cloud bobbed away slowly. Red and Yellow watched from above, projecting worry.
I felt muscles move, but my surroundings remained indistinct at first. Foggy mists cleared and I was walking between racks of clothing. Suddenly aware of my nakedness, I lifted out a black concert tee on a thin metal hanger, from the second tour by the Rats of Pluto. “I had one of these, too!” I pulled on a pair of overalls, scuffed on the left knee from my usual posture when repairing engines, and began to understand, a little.
The blue cloud had stopped in front of what looked like a simple wooden door, as if the clothing display aisle ended against an invisible wall. Blue smoke rained down and a short humanoid took shape. She inhaled sharply and developed a gray skin tone and pajamas dotted with small giraffes. I had worn something like that in baby pictures. The tangle of curls on top of her head stayed their original bright blue. Her human facial features were a blend of all of the former teachers in my life, I think. Blue spoke with the same voice she had had when she was a cloud. “We will enter through the bathroom. Let me know if you wish to stop and use anything.”
“Bathroom?” I asked. Blue pulled on the door standing in fog and it opened on a small tiled bathroom. The white porcelain sink and tub on clawed feet reminded me of my first apartment. I stepped in and turned around to find a linen closet behind me, full of towels, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies.
I pulled on the door next to the sink and walked out directly into my grandmother’s kitchen. I opened drawers and cabinets, finding canceled cereal brands and Gran’s cast iron collection.
Blue said, “It is early morning! New roomie, do you know how to make pancakes? No one else remembers.”
“I used to cook those with my grandmother every Sunday.” I pulled out a flat bottomed pan and turned to the olive colored stove. I stopped in place and turned back to my strange roommate, or landlord, or captor. “Wait, I am not alone here?”
She had taken a seat on one of the high stools on the center island. Blue smiled and said, “We also survey, and like to make new friends.”
She pointed above the double kitchen sink at a window that I could not be sure had originally been there. I placed the flat pan on the stove and walked over, pushing curtains aside. I was looking through an open window and out over a short wooden fence that separated my front yard from the house next door. A gray woman with sparkling red hair was standing with a man about my age who looked decidedly more human. They were talking to an older man over the next fence. I heard a buzzing sound start up across the street, and looked over to see a tall woman, wearing an enormous straw hat and mowing her lawn. I could smell cut grass. It must indeed be early morning, for the sun was hanging just above the horizon, looking bigger and redder than it should be.
The red haired gray woman looked over and smiled. She elbowed the man next to her and waved. He turned and walked over, hopping the fence and approaching my window. “Hello! They said I would have a new neighbor today. How are you adjusting?”
“Where are we?”
“Did they not explain yet?” He noticed the band logo on my shirt for the first time. “The Rats of Pluto! Nice! I loved their reunion tour.”
I frowned and glanced at Blue. She was humming again, stirring batter in a large glass bowl. I turned back and asked, “Explain what?”
He ran his left hand through his hair. “I was surveying the smaller moons of Saturn when my ship hit an electrical storm and I lost power.”
“Saturn? I didn’t know any teams had reached Jupiter yet.”
“I had no option but to go into cryostasis. Is she making pancakes?”
I whirled around and yelled at Blue. “How long have I been asleep?”
Blue stopped humming. “The concept of your year is difficult for us. We try to return samples eventually, but to our dismay, your star had exhausted its fuel in the time since our last visit. The third planet was engulfed. There was no home to return you to.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Are you talking about the Sun turning into a Red Giant? That’s not supposed to happen for –”
“Six billion years or so, yep,” said the man outside. He looked embarrassed.
I gripped the edge of the counter with both hands. “I ask again, where are we?”
The man said, “My red friend told me once that we are orbiting Neptune. They felt bad and created this sanctuary for us. There are four other streets like this one, I think. I’ve only been awake for three days here. I’m William.” He reached up with his right hand.
I stuck my hand out the window and shook with William. “Erica.”
He scratched his nose. “Say, Erica, if you don’t need to be alone right now, we were discussing having a welcome party for lunch. Fred, over there, remembers steak and chicken. I think I have the last barbeque grill in the universe.”
Reddit WritingPrompt [WP] You wake up from cryosleep in a vault. After exiting the vault you find a seemingly human civilization, but it turns out they are aliens that have found a desolate earth and have modelled their civilization (including themselves, with genetic manipulation) based on the human relics they found was extra fun. This world is an obvious place to visit again, eventually.