By Dana Sterling
Chapter One - EmergenceI barely remember anything about the incident that changed my life. A blinding flash of light… sudden bone-numbing cold… and then…
Nothing.
No dreams.
No sensations.
No anything!
Slowly, however, awareness began to return. First came the floating sensation… a bit like the days I'd gone scuba diving. Then there was the gentle gurgling sound… like fluid moving through a pipe. Soon after came warmth… blessed, comforting warmth. The dreams quickly followed… disjointed, random… like fragments of a shattered mirror.
Finally, one day, I opened my eyes… only to find everything around me was wavering, distorted. Kind of like when you look at water in a glass. Bubbles floated up past my eyes and I gasped… then gasped again as I felt fluid moving in and out of my lungs!
Panic set in, and I thrashed about, trying to figure out where the hell I was! Distantly, I heard voices reacting to my distress. Then, I felt myself sinking, the fluid around me rapidly draining away. My feet came to rest on a grating, but, lacking any strength, I collapsed as the last of the fluid drained away.
Where the hell was I? Through the thick walls of the chamber I was in, I saw people scrambling about, doing who knows what. Then, the 'tank'… yes, that was it. I'd been in some sort of tank, one filled with that strange fluid I had been… breathing!
An oxygenated fluid?! Fragments of memories flashed through my mind… research I had once done on the subject years ago. But my mind still reeled at the improbability of it all.
Slowly, the tank lifted out of the way, and I got my second shock. Strangers in very futuristic garb rushed in, wrapping me in blankets. One produced a small hand-held device and shone a beam from it onto me. In the next incredible moment, I was floating through the air, carried along by that beam, until I was gently placed on a nearby bed of some sort.
That's when I got my third shock. From all appearances, these beings were as human as I was. They talked amongst themselves, and, occasionally, one would speak to me, but I was having trouble following what they were saying, which only heightened my confusion. The language sounded like English… but in a peculiar, convoluted dialect. Where the hell was I?
These strange humans bustled about, from all appearances genuinely concerned about my welfare. They pulled the blankets up, making sure I was as comfortable as possible. But it was all a bit too much for me to deal with, so my body did what it naturally does to protect me.
I passed out.
Unconscious, I dreamt of people talking to me, trying to get me to understand them. Gradually, their words became clearer and easier to comprehend, but it still made for a really bizarre dream.
Sometime later, I awoke to the sound of… silence. No one bustling about. No presence anywhere nearby. Slowly, I opened my eyes… and gasped, jerking bolt upright in bed.
If I had been in Hollywood, I would've said that I had just awakened on the set of some futuristic movie. I didn't know how else to describe what I saw all around me. In the next heart-stopping moment, a being of some sort shimmered into existence right next to the bed, nearly causing me to jump out of my skin.
"Good morning, citizen," he/she/it said. "I am pleased you are awake. How do you feel?"
"Who… where…" was all I could splutter, frantically glancing about.
I reached out, trying to touch the stranger… and gasped, recoiling in shock as my hand passed through whatever it was.
"Please remain calm," it went on, seemingly unfazed by my actions. "I am the holomed attendant."
"The what?!" I exclaimed.
"I have summoned members of the team seeing to your care," it informed me. "They should be arriving presently."
"Where the hell am I?" I blurted out just as the door to the room hissed open.
"You are in the Nova Tokyo med facility," a man in very futuristic garb replied as he approached.
Thinking this was just another holographic projection, I reached out. Only, this time, my hand encountered solid flesh and blood, causing me to gasp and recoil in shock.
"Is something wrong?" the man wondered, glancing from himself to my shaking hand.
"You're real!" I whispered, drawing a breath to slow my wildly pounding heart.
"Yes," the man chuckled. "How do you feel?" Then, smiling as he realized what he'd just said, he added, "Medically, that is."
"Confused," I muttered, slowly settling back against the pillows. "Where am I? What is this place? What happened to me?"
"Rest assured, citizen, I will answer all of your questions," the stranger responded, giving my hand a comforting pat. "You call yourself Jayden, is that right?"
"How did you…"
"We were able to pull it from your psych scan."
"My what?!"
"I'll start by answering your last question first… the one about what happened to you," the man explained. "As near as we can tell, you were placed in cold sleep as the result of some sort of accident."
"What the hell is cold sleep?" I stammered.
"A deep form of hibernation," the man explained. "You might have heard it referred to as cryogenic suspension."
"Wait… cryo what?!" Memories suddenly slammed jarringly into place. "Cryo suspension?! What the hell for?"
"We found traces of what used to be a particularly virulent disease in your system," my non-holographic attendant explained. "In your time, the disease would've proven fatal. So, clearly, someone decided to put you into cold sleep in hopes of one day finding a cure."
"M… my time?!" I spluttered, shivers of dread stampeding up my spine. "What do you mean?" Gulping back a lump in my throat, I managed to gasp out, "What… what year is this?"
The stranger paused a moment, as if considering his answer, then softly replied, "4217."
"Fuh… forty two… s… s… seventeen?!"
"Yes," the man replied, nodding. "You've been asleep for over two thousand years."
Nearly a full minute passed as I stared at this stranger, my mind reeling as it desperately tried to comprehend what I'd just been told. Then, slowly, almost against my will, I glanced around the room… at all the futuristic hardware. Gulping back the sobs that threatened to overwhelm me, I collapsed back onto the pillows.
If what he said was true… Every person I had known and loved, every place I knew and cherished… my family and friends, my home… my cat, Daisy… it was all gone… swallowed up by the inexorable march of Time.
I burst into tears.
The stranger came over, gently laying a hand on my shoulder.
"For now, friend, sleep," he whispered. "We'll talk again later."
Something touched my arm, I heard a quiet hiss, and the world slowly faded away.