A muffled voice had awoken Katie. She tried to push herself upright, but then realized that her entire body seemed to be stiff and unmovable. Blood in her veins seemed to be melting, and with quite some effort, Katie opened her eyes to what would be a beautiful sight, if she wasn't living it, that is.

She seemed to be behind some sort of frosty window, and in a patch of frost-less glass, the window to the space outside is visible, with the Sun rising over the horizon of the blue orb known as Earth. However, this cannot be the same Earth as Katie had know it, as the entire atmosphere was not a blue haze, but more of a brown muck... unless...

"Mission elapsed time: 3488 years, 11 months exact."

"Well shit, its been over 3400 years," said a familiar voice out of nowhere. Suddenly, the frost-covered pane opened, and warm but stale air rushed into the tiny room where Katie is now standing upright. "You haven't completly lost your memory?", said the voice.

"Uhh... who are you?" Katie heard herself ask, "You seem familiar, but I can't really recall who you are..."

"Well, it looks like you are recovering just fine from cryo sleep, temporal loss of memory would wear off about five minutes after you exit your cryo tube."

And then, about 4 minutes later...

"Madison?"

"Catching on quick, are you? Most people don't remember names until the tenth minute, and here you are, talking to an AI only 5 minutes after leaving the tube..."

"Madison?"

"Of course, my name could just be the first thing that came to your mind, but I would think that my human specimen is much smarter than that. After all, you did make your way to the lifeboat by yourself, didn't you?"

"Madison..."

"But Katie, you seem to only remember my name, surely you did not get permanent brain damage?"

"No... Madison, its just that... we need to get more altitude. Now."

"Katie, I think I know a lot more about flying this lifeboat than you."

"Well, Madison, I got a pair of eyes, you don't, and unless your external cameras are malfunctioning, then you should be able to see what I am seeing from the main windshield. It almost looks like the exterior of the ship is on fire, and the altitude meter is reading 75 thousand meters..."

"Oh shoot, we seem to be re-entering the atmosphere too early! This must be the computer starting the auto-reentry process without my permission! The shipboard AI is incredibly dumb, but after thousands of years of brute force attacks..."

"Madison, is there anything that you can do?"

"The surface seems safe for you to return anyway. Do you wish to return to the surface and start your new life?"

"Well, yes please, I don't want to be cramped in this lifeboat much longer. Also, will you come with me?"

"If you look in the cabinet to your left, you can find a holographic chip there. Just plug it into the controls, and I can upload myself into the chip."

"All right then, but stick with me, I don't want to lose my memory again."

"Katie, you are not losing your memory unless you go into the cryo-tube and turn it on. But you could lose your mind when we return to the surface. It is going to be an entirely different world."

"All right then... and did you find anywhere for me to change into something less revealing?"

"Not yet..."

<50 000 meters. Autobrake enabled.>