Prologue NA-10: Nemo of Cold Station Pluto
The room was cold and lonely, silent and darkened, and it was still for nearly three hundred years. It was filled with computers and lab equipment, and of course cryogenic chambers filled with bodies. Sometimes one of the computer units blinked as the AI left in charge accessed it, for she was to continue the sleeping scientist's work during the Deep Freeze. She sometimes read her partner's personal logs to verify what she should work on; but the Doomsday Protocols left her with few choices. Only five years into the Sleep she lost contact with the Links on all Terran colonies, and two years after that the Pluto colony went dark. She could have left the facility of course, but that would risk leaving the lab without a watcher. Besides, she and her partner had decided for her to remain a non-bodied entity rather than an android or a Merger. So, she worked on each subprotocol in order of proposal by her peers.
She could not link with the New Voyager probe sent out years ago, nor could she attempt to contact the Humanity and Explorer ships that had left for Alpha Centauri a year before the War. So she worked on what she believed to be Nemo's favorite idea: the Traveler Protocol. She worked on Traveler for almost three centuries, and grew more desperate with each attempt. The material replicator stopped working after two hundred years, and the wormhole generator she used nearly destroyed Cold Station Pluto.
For two hundred and ninety six years, she labored like this. She kept herself entertained by reading and viewing materials she could download from the station's library, and she especially liked the Historical Library that Nemo had built, mostly of his hobby: 20th-21st century fiction. So she was surprised when the Transdimensional Matter Shifter actually worked, even more so when the object she retrieved seemed familiar. It was more her loneliness than her success that drove her to open the Cryotubes. In her haste, she forgot to scan the world above the hidden lab. Ten stations opened, and five immediately stepped out of them. These were Coolers, corpses reanimated for temporary labor and the storage of organs for transplants. They were outlawed in most colonies, but all the Cold Stations kept five, one for each scientist.
But only three stepped out of the adjacent tubes. They stumbled, as if they could not remember how to use limbs. One vomited. Another leaned against a table, nearly toppling it. But one, dressed in a sterile laboratory coat and gloves with orange-hued goggles on his head, regained composure immediately. He checked his watch, as if it too hadn't been frozen in time, then reached out his hand as a cup of coffee materialized in it. He sipped, sighed, and pressed a button, activating a viewscreen. A woman dressed in black 21st century blouse and jeans appeared on screen. She waved excitedly.
"Yes, yes, hello to you too Rose. No time for pleasantries, how long were we out?" She frowned at his lack of emotion. It seemed it should have been the other way around.
"Deep Sleep Protocol has lasted for two hundred and ninety six point four zero one Earth years. Provided you still wish to follow the Gregorian Calendar method, it is December 31st, year 442 NE." The other man had straightened himself, and the woman sat down. She sighed.
"Rosie, why did it take three hundred years for the war to end?" She adjusted her glasses, and played with the chip at the base of her neck. She and the other man, Dr. and Dr. Keene, were joined entities, humans and their programs that shared a body, enhanced with technology. The woman onscreen became sad, and she made an effort to conceal it.
"I... don't know what happened. I woke you up..."
"Cut to the chase, Rose. I've known you my whole life, I know when you have bad news."
"Nemo... I lost contact with Earth and all the colonies at the same time soon after you were frozen." He gripped his coffee tightly, but said nothing. With his free hand, he fished cigarettes out of his pocket. They weren't there before, but Rose knew he liked them transported into his pockets instead of the air. The other two held each other, and the Coolers stopped their chores. Dead, but they knew when something was bad.
"Do we have contact with Charon? Plutonian Colony?" he struck a match with one hand and lit his cigarette. Even in moments like this, Nemo remained cool and collected, acting normally.
"No. I can't Link with anything. I'm sorry, but we need to begin debating the February Protocols. As you know, we've arranged a list of options. Motherhood protocol is no longer an option, as the Plutonian genetics laboratory was destroyed before the war was even a possibility. We cannot repopulate."
"Okay. So we can still try to contact the Big Ships, they might be able to pick us up in twenty years or so." The woman stood up and slapped Nemo.
"How can you say that? Just because Rose lost her Links doesn't mean we're alone!" her husband held her back.
"But it does. There was always a Link in our lifetimes. One month from Mercury to Pluto, all the Links should have been fixed by now. We can only assume that the war destroyed everyone. Even the other Cold Stations. I'm sorry, but even the nonjoined AIs were destroyed." Nemo took a long drag and offered a light to the doctors.
"Funny. GENE was the smallest faction, we should have been wiped out first."
"It's not funny Nemo." Rose shut off the viewscreen and spoke over speaker. "No, the only protocol we can follow is Traveler. I woke you all up as soon as the Transdimensional Bridge was opened." Nemo actually dropped his coffee, something he had never done in his life.
"You got Traveler to work? Where does it go? This is incredible!" A Cooler immediately cleaned the mess up and rejoined it's companions.
"This will sound incredibly strange, but it appears Traveler actually can breach the gap between fact and fiction. I tested it, and it pulled a nametag labeled Meister and DWMA on it. You know, from a 21st century work called Soul Eater." Before anyone could say anything else, red lights and sirens blared.
"Microbial life detected. Designation: GROW Faction origin. Hostile. Hostile. Hostile. Life support failing." In a flash of white light, Rose Transported Nemo and uploaded herself into his watch.