A terrible, throat tearing cry echoed around the small room as the body on the table thrashed against its bonds. It only lasted a few seconds. It always only lasted a few seconds. Then they were still and muttered horrible gibberish.

“She’ll be fully awake in a few more minutes,” Dr. Ambrose droned. “Tell her family outside she’ll be ready to go home shortly.”

The nurse by the door nodded and left. This was standard procedure for bringing people out of stasis. The truth about the waking process wasn’t public knowledge. Who knows what people would think if they knew what it looked and sounded like. However, as far as the medical community could tell, the screams and muttering were a harmless byproduct of stasis, and once fully awake no one ever remembered any of it. Indeed, besides the sore throat and occasional bruises from where they’d strained against their bonds, there didn’t seem to be any long-term side effects to stasis.

“Subject B dash seven eight three,” Dr. Ambrose spoke into his audio recorder, “waking with six seconds of apparent, elevated distress, followed by semi-consciousness as expected. Heart rate is becoming steady. Subject is also breathing without assistance.”

He checked her skin near the wide straps used to hold her down.

“No sign of bruising but will still prescribe usual painkillers and anti-inflammatories for potential swelling in her throat and vocal chords. Will schedule follow-up for –

“Where am I?” the woman asked.

Dr. Ambrose looked down at her, surprised by how quickly she seemed to be waking.

“Good morning,” he said in his usual bedside manner. “How are you feeling?”

“Where am I?” the woman repeated, more urgently this time and her eyes darted around the room as though searching for something, anything familiar.

“You’ve just completed your return journey to Earth,” he told her in a calming voice and trying to keep her eyes on him. He smiled warmly to comfort her. It wasn’t unusual for there to be some confusion upon waking. “You were in stasis for approximately three years for the journey. Your family is here to pick you up.”

The woman relaxed slightly but kept darting her eyes around the room from time to time as though expecting to see something different than what had been there the last time she’d checked.

“Can you tell me your name?” Dr. Ambrose asked her. It was still a bit soon to expect her to remember but it never hurt to check. The sooner she was fully awake the sooner he could move on to the next patient.

“My name’s Luna De la Vega,” the woman replied almost mechanically, and then continued on, answering all of the other standard waking questions. “I’m returning from my mission at the Pantheon observatory orbiting Jupiter where I served as chief biologist for ten years. I was aboard the Earth Transit Technologies freighter Star Cluster for my return trip. This is my twelfth time being placed into stasis. I feel stiff but not in pain. My mouth is somewhat dry and my throat is sore. My vision and hearing both seem to be working normally, and there are seven people in the room.”

Dr. Ambrose ticked his way down his clip board while she spoke, noting her correct relay of information. When she gave her accounting for the number of people in the room, however, he faltered.

Early on in the development of stasis technologies there had been an unusual side effect noted in that people almost always mentioned seeing people in the room who weren’t actually there. Most of the time there would be one, perhaps two additional people according to the subject. At first, some researchers thought it might be similar to how some people claim to see loved ones during a near death experience. That theory was quickly abandoned when more and more subjects began to provide the same basic descriptions for the extra people they were seeing. They weren’t deceased loved ones, and neither were they like anyone else they could have ever met. The most disturbing fact was that all of the accounts given were kept secret from the subjects so they had no way of knowing what others had seen or described.

The additional people were tall, perhaps between six and seven feet in height. Their clothing was thin, flowing by most descriptions, and varied in colors ranging from earthy browns and reds, to muted greens and blues. They usually stood still but would move away from anyone who came too near to them as if not wanting to be bumped into. It didn’t matter how long the subjects remained in the rooms to wake up either. The additional people were always there, never fading from view. Once the subjects were taken out of the room, however, if they were brought back the additional people would be gone. Some subjects mentioned a sense of unease about the figures, explaining that their expressions were cold, possibly even aggressive. Any attempt at communicating with the additional people, or even trying to touch them proved unsuccessful. Who or what they were was unknown but so far they hadn’t done anything besides observe.

Dr. Ambrose looked about the room. He counted only three people in the room besides Luna; himself and two nurses. Most of the time his patients saw one or two additional people. Four additional people was a new record for him.

“Where are they?” he asked, pulling out the page noting the room. The marks for himself and the nurses were already there.

“Two by the door,” Luna said, indicating with her eyes since she was still strapped down to the bed. “Another in the far corner and…

Her voice faded away but her eyes fixed onto a point just to Dr. Ambrose’s side.

Dr. Ambrose looked to where she had indicated, finally glancing to his side but never seeing anything. He’d never had one so close to him before and he had to suppress the urge to swipe his arm around in an effort to touch them.

“Anything of note about them?” Dr. Ambrose asked.

Luna swallowed and then winced.

“Can I have a drink?” she asked.

“There will be water for you when you leave here,” Dr. Ambrose replied before repeating his previous question. “Is there anything of note about them?”

Luna slowly looked to each place she had mentioned as having one of the extra people.

“The one standing beside you,” Luna began but did not continue.

Dr. Ambrose felt the hairs on his neck stand up and he had to fight the urge to take a step to the side, away from where Luna was looking.

“What about them?” he prodded.

“The others are all looking at me,” Luna said, “but that one’s looking at you. It looks like it’s chewing on its lip or something. It looks angry.”

“Hmmm,” Dr. Ambrose noted it down and then, as casually as he could manage, walked around the bedside to the opposite end and began undoing the straps holding Luna down. “Are you feeling well enough to sit up?”

He couldn’t help but notice how Luna’s eyes had followed not him, but just behind him as he’d moved to the other side of her bed. He didn’t want to ask what the other person was doing now. All he needed to do was help Luna get up and he could escort her out of the room. Then these other people would be gone.

“They all look really angry,” Luna muttered as Dr. Ambrose began to help her sit up.

“They do sometimes,” Dr. Ambrose admitted. “But they never seem to do anything besides that so I don’t think we need to be concerned.”

Inside, he was trying not to look around the room himself even though he knew there wouldn’t be anything for him to see. This wasn’t the first time subjects had described the additional people as looking angry, but it was the first time any of them had looked at someone other than the subject. He would have to remember that for his notes later on. Perhaps there were other accounts of the additional people looking at other people in the room. If there were, he’d never heard of those accounts. Still, it would be worth looking into. Maybe he could begin a new study on the subject if it happened again.

Luna had to lean on Dr. Ambrose for stability at first and he let her find her balance before trying to ease her into her first couple of steps.

“The two by the door aren’t moving,” Luna said as they drew close to the door.

Dr. Ambrose stopped walking and held Luna to keep her from continuing on without him.

“Are they blocking the way?” he asked.

“Not exactly,” Luna admitted, “but they usually stay farther away from me.”

“Well, let’s just ease our way passed them,” Dr. Ambrose suggested. “Excuse us, please,” he added to the empty air on either side of the door. He didn’t like trying to talk to them. It felt wrong, almost like he was going insane, even though it was generally accepted that these people were, in fact, real.

Without waiting for Luna to give any hint as to whether or not the two people flanking the doorway had moved, he resumed his and Luna’s walk towards the exit. As they passed through the doorway he could have sworn he felt hot breath on his neck. He didn’t shiver or look around even though every instinct in his body was telling him to do just that.

Outside in the waiting room, the De la Vega family was eagerly awaiting Luna. There were cheers and clapping and all of the usual fanfare. Luna would forget about the people she saw in the room within a few more minutes. At most it would seem like a strange, half remembered dream to her. Dr. Ambrose wondered why that was.

No matter, there were others still to awaken and he needed to record his notes before the next patient was ready. Perhaps he’d put in a transfer request to one of the off-world stations. Then he could try to experience what he had so far only been a blind bystander of. Then again, he wondered if he could keep performing his work if he knew what it was like.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end once again and he wondered if one of them was near by.

He wondered if it was the one who had looked so angrily at him.