( Read the previous episodes of Journey to Centauri.) |
Journey to Centauri : Episode 20 "Dana. Here’s a candidate." Ensign Cassiano stood over a cryocell in the darkened expanse of Cryobay Four, matching an inventory code on a portable touchscreen to the numbers stamped on the foot of the cell."A doctor?" "Yes. Gayle Nambala." He used his sleeve to try and wipe some of the frost on the outside and peer down at the shadowy form inside. "32 years old, 115 pounds. Looks like she’s in pretty good shape. In fact, I think I remember her…probably the best looking popsicle in this bay. " "Really?" Dana looked up, her interest piqued. "How are her vitals?" "As good as it gets. Should I mark her for wakeup?" "Yes." Dana already seemed to have lost interest and was moving down the bay, into an unusually shadowy area further down. Cassiano punched a code into the small computer "tombstone" at the head of Nambala’s cell, starting the wakeup process. "Hey Dana, did you know this is my birthday?" "Happy birthday," she said without irony. "How does it feel to be 75?" "75? You mean because of the sleep?" He remained still for a moment, turning the concept over in his mind. "Damn, that's old." "Here’s something to make you feel better." His quicklink bleeped and he looked down to see the image of a birthday cake on his portable screen. After a moment, an animation of a woman popped out with the words "Dr. Gayle Nambala" over her head. He smiled. "Well, well. I thought sex in the workplace went out in the late 20th centur…" "Oh, no." Dana’s voice cut into his reverie, and he looked up. She had moved into the next section of cryocells, blocked off by a screened panel, and he could tell something was wrong. He moved quickly toward her, past the screen, and found himself in a land of the dead. None of the lights along the wall in this section were on, and no pale blue light shown from the cryocells. "The powercord must have been severed," Dana said, and Cassiano could not read her face in shadows. She started forward and he followed her, moving through a garden of death, rows and rows of prematurely thawed cells, decaying bodies floating in slimy liquid. "Now we know," he said quietly. "It must have happened…" "Wait," cut in Dana. He saw her moving toward a cell that was set back in the darkness. It rested on a platform of sorts, slightly elevated above the others, and a small yellow-orange light cast strange patterns up and around it. Cassiano felt as if he were approaching a crypt, or a throne. And if that light were working, perhaps the cell had not decompensated. Cassiano scanned quickly through his touchpanel, looking over schematics of the bay. "No record of this cell in the datalinks. Strange, although you know how chaotic the launch was. Perhaps some info was lost from the banks." "Why is it set away from the others?" Cassiano shrugged. "Looks like they barely fit it in." He moved closer to it, and suddenly noticed his knuckles were white on the touchpanel. Dana approached the cell. "The platform is a circuit wafer that controls this section. Ordinarily it would just have storage bins on top of it, but it looks like they used the space for another occupant." Cassiano looked into the top of the cell. There was someone in there, a dark form, shadows hidden in shadows. The small computer, the "tombstone," was dark. He put his hand on the glass. Cold. "It’s functional, but it looks like the computer is non-functioning. We can't get any data. There could be brain damage, tissue damage. If he or she thawed and then refroze..." Dana poked the tiny computer but got no response. Cassiano spoke up again. "I'll send engineering down to get it working so we can start the unfreezing process..." "Hand me your stylus," cut in Dana. Cassiano extended it to her reflexively and Dana took it. "Now be quiet for one moment." Dana pried the computer off of its metal input cable and examined the underside. She thrust the stylus in and twisted, then pried the back off of the computer and touched the contact on a tiny copper-based chip, then bridged the gap between the computer and the now disconnected cable. There was a click and a burst of bubbles from inside the cryocell. Cassiano watched as the storm of bubbles roiled up, causing the form inside to jiggle and twitch. The process fascinated him, repulsed him a little. Underneath the cryocell, the weird yellow light cast shadows around its smooth glass shape, closing around it like long fingers. Who did they hold in their grip? "I didn’t realize that might work so quickly," whispered Dana. "We’ll have to notify Commander Lal." Cassiano nodded. Dana watched for a few moments more, then turned away. "Onward," she said quietly. Continue on to Part 2.
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