[ WP ] You just awoke from cryogenic sleep and discover you are aboard a space ship carrying the last of the humans , searching for a habitable planet . How did you get aboard the ship ?

I stood there, in the dark of her bedroom, watching the light from passing cars buzz across dusty blinds. Megan was lying there, snoring just the same as when we lived together in the dorms. She seemed so peaceful, barely a care in the world. And why should she have one? The lottery had chosen her, out of all the members of our field. She was the one who was going on the Daedalus to Kepler-22, traveling across the black sea to a new world. While the rest of us rot on this dying world. My jaw ached under the pressure of a grimace at the thought. The notion sickened me, prodding the malice of the past seven months to life. 
 
 `` It was the same in grad school,'' the whisper of hate finally took form. 
 
 `` Everything was just handed to you. People could pronounce your name, and the faculty thought it would look nice in the journals. So work that was n't even yours was just handed to you.'' Her snoring cut through my words, as though even sleep could n't stop her constant mantra of success. She had told me once that it was all simply good fortune being showered upon her. Good fortune does n't rob others to provide. 
 
 A knot twisted somewhere deep inside as I looked down at her face. I had come to know every contour and blemish intimately. I was never as beautiful as she was, but the desire for knowledge had always taken priority. But now, now that I was looming over Megan in the dead of night, beauty was everything. It was what had brought me here. It was what would convince guards to let me on the Daedalus. It was her beauty. After tonight, it would be my beauty alone. 
 
 The wire slipped effortlessly from my pocket, a violin string pulled right from Megan's tuneless hobby. I wrapped each end around thick leather gloves, stretching the wire as far as it could go. The pressure bit through into my palms, proving this moment was here -- now. Sliding the wire between the pillow and her head came easy, as if I were cutting cheese again at my father's deli. It was work like that which made my hands deft now, and that is all I needed. The world was no longer about science and making things better for mankind. It was all about escape, and the one choice between this shitty apartment and freedom. 
 
 `` Megan,'' her name slid off my tongue like venom. `` Wake up, Megan.'' 
 
 She roused slightly as the wire grasped the nape of her neck. `` Megan, it's me. I have a gift for you.'' 
 
 Megan rolled to her side, giving me all the room I needed to finish this. The wire formed around her neck like jewelry, cutting off hope and stealing every last smug moment from the woman that tormented me. 
 Her eyes shot open, realizing that something was amiss, that a viper was in the room with her. Megan scanned the room in fear, unable to fully discern what was happening. 
 
 `` You have maybe a minute of oxygen, Megan. I wanted to do this in a way so you could see. I wanted to teach you why you had to die.'' Her body writhed, and both hands bolted to the source of her pain. It was too late though, the wire already digging into her flesh. 
 
 `` Laura,'' her ragged voice spurted what little she could put together. I loosened the wire just so she could twist enough to look at me. Megan stared up at a mirror, her eyes fixated in shock. The face-sculptor had done his job well. To any stranger, I would be Megan's twin. The truth was far worse. I was ready to end it. I stretched the wire again, and Megan tried to squeak out some plea. She continued to struggle, filling the room with the noise of rustling silk. Seconds stung like needles, draining Megan of everything she had while I stood there -- finally triumphant. 
 
 `` No faculty to help you now,'' and the struggling slowed to a halt. I held my grip for a short while after, making sure it was n't a farce. She was dead. I pulled one of the gloves free with my teeth, running two fingers alongside her neck to check for a pulse. Nothing. I had done it. 
 
 -- -- - 
 
 The beeping startled me awake. Frost covered the front of the pod, obscuring everything but the light that wormed its way inside. The low blue hue of the passive lighting reminded me that it was my turn to pilot -- my turn to guard two hundred lives from the ion storms and meteor showers. My stomach turned, and I wretched against the feeding tube. My throat would be sore for days because of that. But the pain had a secret promise. 
 
 I was alive. 
 
 * [ CC welcome ] * 

