This story was requested by CeeBee42. As a request, the chapters are shorter than usual. Also, all characters in sexual situations are 18 years or older.
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The echoes of the ship's klaxon cascaded around the grand cryo-chamber. Jacob's eyes shot open and he punched the transparent cryolid open. Something was wrong. Very wrong. He dry heaved over the side of his pod and pulled the tube out of his arm. His skin felt feverish and sweaty. He wore only the boxer-briefs issued by Colony Control, but he was so hot.
The klaxon stopped, but the chamber pulsed with red warning lights. Jacob pulled himself out of his pod and fell to the metal floor. He pushed his damp, brown hair out of his eyes and looked up at the screen. It didn't look like they'd arrived at New Canaan yet. He looked around the room. Of course not. Everyone else was still in their cryopods. Something had gone wrong. He fell forward to his hands and knees and retched. He was sick. Panic set in.
"Mom?" Jacob stood on unsteady feet. "Dad?" At eighteen years old, he didn't want to cry for his parents, but the situation seemed to call for it. The red lights continued to pulse as he stumbled to a terminal. He opened a connection and a screen appeared in the air before him.
"Welcome aboard the mothership Wilderness. I am the Errand into the Wilderness. We are sixty-three years and twenty-seven days from Congregational Establishment on New Canaan." The computer's voice was feminine, smooth, and comforting. "What is your status, member Jacob Winthrop?"
"I'm sick," Jacob croaked at the machine.
"Running a scan now." The computer paused for a second. "Anomalies found. You have mutagenic alkaloids multiplying in your cardiovascular system. Seek out your nearest doctor immediately."
"What?" Panic now gripped him completely. "Take my family out of cryo."
"But we are sixty-three years from New Canaan." The computer didn't seem particularly perturbed by the request, but she didn't rush to execute. "Are you sure you wish me to wake up the Winthrops and Carvers? All members?"
"Yes." Darkness pulsed in Jacob's vision with the red lights. The room faded. "All of them." Jacob collapsed to the floor and blackness fell around him.
~~
"He's coming around." Isaac Winthrop's voice pulled Jacob from his sleep. "Make sure you get the sedative ready."
"Dad?" Jacob opened his eyes. He was lying on a table in one of the med rooms. Robotic arms whirled above him. His pale, lithe body was on full display, with only his briefs still covering his modesty. "What happened?"
"You pulled us all out of cryo, you little devil. That's what happened." Mary Winthrop stood next to her husband. She brushed her blonde hair out her face and tried to put on a brave smile. They both wore the standard blue Wilderness jumpsuit uniform, although she was a full head shorter than her husband. And a good deal more curvy. "How are you feeling, sweetie?"
"I feel really weird." Jacob tried to sit up but quickly put his head back on the exam table. "Did I wake up Mason and Pricilla?"
Isaac nodded. "You woke John and Humility too. Both your siblings and their spouses. It's a wonder you didn't wake the whole colony."