The air smells weird. That's the first thing I noticed.

I don't know how to describe it. I wouldn't say it smells 'wrong', just... different, I guess.

My assigned therapist told me it's probably something to do with the dust particles and the gas composition of the filtered air here in the base, but I don't think that's it.

Maybe 127 years in cryosleep just fried my olfactory system. I heard that some of the other sleepers couldn't walk right at first because some nerves in their legs and spines got damaged. Another one, Gina, the nice lady with the long brown hair in the pod right next to me... apparently, they messed up the insulation on her, and the cold killed off her neurons pretty early on. She didn't wake up.

It's weird walking around this place. It's nice, clean and bright, the food is decent for being grown, harvested and fabricated inside a thermo-regulated indoor farm with artificial weather, we've got running water, electricity, light, heat...

But I can't help feeling like I don't belong here. My therapist told me that it's normal for me to feel like an outsider and that I just need to give it time, but... it's just...

These 'space settlers' aren't humans. At least, not in the same sense that I am.

There's the obvious cases like the security guards, the heavy duty workers, the 'space walkers', specialized mechanics for exterior repairs, all the ones who were genetically modified to better be able to survive in space. Some of them were even created in a lab right here on base- crafted from optimal genetic material, grown in a vat, and educated in their designated field of work as well as basic human knowledge via a download straight to their brains.

Then, there's the cyborgs- the crew members with artificial body parts. The captain with his cybernetic eyes, the chief engineer with his extra pair of metal arms- hell, even the cook has a robot hand that can turn into a knife, whisk and God knows what, somehow.

And even the 'regular' people aren't regular. Everyone made a big deal about us sleepers waking up and being added to the colony, but we're just so... normal. The people who've been living here look taller, healthier, stronger, and just... brighter somehow. Compared to them, I just feel tiny, weak, and even... old, in a way. Not like I'm an old woman in an old body, but like... like I got thrown into a future I can't comprehend, a world that moved on, with no regard for me...

...I think I'll schedule another appointment tomorrow.