She tried to open her mouth, but there was something over her face. She tried to take it off, and as she did, she remembered it was a mask. Her arms seemed extremely heavy, and her movements were clumsy and uncoordinated. After much effort, she managed to pull the mask off. She tried to open her mouth, but it was so dry her lips were stuck together. She finally pried them apart and attempted to call out, but no sound came from her throat.

Suddenly, she was aware that she was naked, and now she felt afraid.

The woman rested her head, and slowly the memories started coming. She fought to remember what she was supposed to do; it seemed as if she had to dig deeper and deeper into her own mind for answers that were buried long ago. She remembered the briefing on the effects she would experience. This wasn't at all how it had been described though, and she felt worse than she'd been told she would.

Finally, she remembered about the drugs that would help her feel better. She peered at the digital readout and saw they'd been administered automatically an hour ago, during the wake-up sequence. “Why do I feel so sick?” she thought.

Now all she wanted was to get out of the capsule. She located the large button and reached for it, her arm clumsy and weak, the movement painful. It finally made sense to her why this button was so much larger than the others were. She once had considered inquiring about its size but never got around to asking the question. She now realized that she probably would never have been able to hit the button, if it had been a smaller target for uncoordinated arms. It took several tries, but finally, she pushed it. The motor sprang to life, and the lid opened.

She experienced an immediate sense of relief when the lid was gone and started to move but quickly remembered the equipment she was still hooked to.

It took over twenty minutes to undo all the wires and tubes. The more she moved, the worse she felt. Her whole body was in pain, and she was getting dizzier by the minute.

She had attempted to sit up but grew increasingly nauseated, so she lay back and did what she could while moving as little as possible.

In training, she'd been able to undo all the equipment in less than two minutes. Now she'd needed to stop and rest four times.

Finally, she had all the equipment and tubes removed. She pulled herself up into a sitting position and tried to get out of the capsule. The nausea returned, much worse than before, but she struggled over the two-foot high side and collapsed to the floor of the chamber where she vomited repeatedly. Her well-aged stomach contents had a smell and taste that were completely overpowering.