The Curse of Cryonics

by Mine_Menace

The Room, Part Two

The first thing I noticed was...the darkness. Nothing but the darkness. It was too dark to see anything--there wasn't enough magical light from the mine itself to light anything up in the room, and any electric lights the room may have had were off.

I opened my mouth to ask my companions if there could be some light, but before I said a word, a trio of small, but bright orange balls of light floated past me and settled on the ceiling, banishing most of the darkness. I blinked as my eyes adjusted and automatically muttered "Thanks."

I stepped forward a bit more, looking around the smallish metal room, internally grinning as my memory clicked and I started to remember.

To the right were storage cabinets, a couple of which were still open.

To the left was the main computer, hidden behind sealed panels so it looked like wall.

And in the center of the room stood the now-open, coffinlike cryopod. I automatically stepped toward it, trying to recall everything. Something's up with me...

"Patrick," said Celestia's voice from behind me, "how are we going to access this...computer?"

"It's touch-sensitive," I muttered, now standing over the cryopod and staring into it. "First, I need to...well, awaken this cryopod with my fingerprints. That basically sets everything else up--it unlocks the computers and the other cabinets."

I frowned, realizing something, and faced my companions. "Wait a second. I was found by pony miners. Ponies. How did they get in? How did they open this?"

"According to what they told me," Celestia said, "when they found it, they touched the door and something in the door clicked, but they still had to force it open with their tools. When one of them touched your...cryopod, it opened and so did a few of your cabinets."

I frowned and scratched my chin absently. "Well, if the cabinets opened when the cryopod did, that makes sense...but you ponies shouldn't have been able to get in at all. They--the scientists--told me that this room would only recognize human touch."

Firefall frowned. "Maybe it's faulty? Maybe it thought the ponies' touch was human..."

"Could be..." I muttered, turning back to the cryopod. "Let me see here..."

I walked around the box, looking for the touch sensor and trying to remember where the scientists had told me they had put it. I quickly found it on the head side, and I smirked internally, leaned down a bit, and pressed my whole hand against it, waiting a few seconds.

"What are you doing?" Firefall asked, looking confused.

"Touch-sensitive, remember?" I prompted. "It's supposed to recognize my fingerprints, and each human's fingerprints are uniq--"

I was interrupted by some kind of...chirp coming from the the cryopod. I pulled my hand away instantly, surprised. I didn't remember that.

And then the thing spoke to me. It spoke out loud. In perfect English.

"Handprint recognized," it said in a cool female voice. "Hello, Patrick Stanford Walker."

Both Firefall and Celestia recoiled somewhat in shock. "Did that thing just talk?!" Firefall yelped.

"Two unrecognized life-forms detected inside cryochamber," the cryopod said in the same cool tone. "Patrick Stanford Walker, are they friendly or hostile?"

For a split second, I wondered what would happen if I said hostile, but I quickly banished the thought. I wasn't taking any chances. "Friendly!" I said hurriedly.

"Unidentified life-forms identified as friendly," the cryopod said. "Systems are secure. What would you like to do, Patrick Stanford Walker?"

In an instant, I remembered what this thing was, and I mentally slapped myself for being an idiot. "Oh god, now I got it," I chuckled.

"Patrick, what is that thing?" Celestia asked warily, staring at me.

"It's the cryopod-computer system...but I totally forgot it had artificial intelligence," I explained briefly, laughing at myself. "It responds only to me, and especially since you two aren't even human...hang on."

I turned to the cryopod. "Uh, cryopod, do you have an official designation?"

"My official designation is see-are-why-eight," said the cryopod immediately, "or CRY-8, although you are free to give me another designation to refer to me by."

"Why are you called CRY-8?" was the first thing that sprang to mind.

"The CRY in CRY-8 simply applies to cryonics and its aspects," CRY-8 told me. "The eight is simply there because I am the eighth final cryopod developed."

Both Celestia and Firefall stood slack-jawed, staring at CRY-8, undoubtedly amazed, to say the least. "I've never seen anything like it..." Celestia muttered.

"This is one of those computers you were telling me about, then...I guess..." Firefall observed. "Unless there's...no, there's no way someone's actually controlling it...it sounds alive! Like it's actually a living creature like you or me!"

"It's called artificial intelligence," I explained. "It's supposed to sound alive. But it was created by scientists and programmers and people like that. I've got to admit, for most of my life, I didn't expect to meet one so...realistic."

It isn't like Siri is very realistic, I thought, at least compared to this. Then a thought struck me like lightning.

"Hang on a second, CRY-8," I said suddenly. "You said you were the eighth. Why? Were there others? Are you cryochamber version eight or something?"

"There were other cryochambers developed," CRY-8 said. "CRY-1 through CRY-10 in total. All ten cryopods were equipped with scanners to sense others, and though mine have been somewhat damaged, I can sense CRY-3 and CRY-10 close by. We are identical models: version three. Versions one and two were prototypes."

You sense other cryochambers...

"Wait...are you telling me there's more of you?" Firefall asked in apparent shock.

Holy shit...am I not alone?

"CRY-8..." I said slowly, deliberately, trying not to get too excited, "why are there other cryochambers?"

"There were nine other people who were to go through the same experiment as you," CRY-8 said in its cool tone. "Each one of you, placed in cryosleep, was inside each cryochamber. The other cryochambers and I were placed approximately ten kilometers apart from one another, and as the earth has shifted over time, my scanners have been damaged and I have lost sight of all but CRY-3 and CRY-10. You are the first occupant to awaken between myself, CRY-3, and CRY-10."

Holy shit. Holy mother of god.

"I think there are more of you still, then," Firefall muttered, still in shock.

Don't get excited. Don't get excited. It might all come crashing down anyway, like...the other stuff. Don't get excited, damn it, Patrick!

Forcibly swallowing any excitement I might have had, I glanced at the ponies and said, "Okay, that's cool, I guess."

"Are you...okay, Patrick?" Celestia asked, sounding concerned.

I pretended not to hear her and faced CRY-8 again. "CRY-8, I'm going to give you another designation, and it will be..." I paused for a moment as a name came to mind. "...Polaris."

"New designation accepted," said Polaris. "I shall respond to the designations CRY-8 and Polaris. Thank you, Patrick Stanford Walker."

In spite of the fact that Polaris was an artificial intelligence and wasn't truly sentient, I couldn't help but say "you're welcome".

"Patrick...this whatever-it-is tells you there's probably more of you still alive," Firefall said, aghast, "and you give it a new name, of all things?!"

I turned, glaring at Firefall and crossing my arms. "Look, once you've been through some things, you change. I'm trying to be realistic, and I'm not holding on to the hope that there might be more humans because it's not realistic. Not everything turns out all nice, okay?"

"But...not only are you so willing to dismiss the possibility that there might be more humans still alive, you don't even know how long you've been in that thing!" Firefall countered. "If you haven't been in there for that long, it seems to me that the other humans are more likely to be alive, and their...cryochambers...haven't been messed with somehow, just because more things tend to happen given more time!"

"Good point! Let's find out!" I said with mock enthusiasm. "What's today's date?"

Taken aback by the question, Firefall stuttered slightly. "Um...uh, it's the twenty-fourth day of spring, 975, Celestial Era. But how's that going to help?"

I ignored that last sentence and turned. "Polaris, what's today's date, what date was I put in cryostasis, and how long have I been in cryostasis?"

Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Firefall roll his eyes. "There's no way this thing can tell you--"

"Today's date is April twelfth, 2,389,217, Common Era," Polaris said in its cool tone, "you were put in cryostasis on July thirty-first, 2016, Common Era, and you were in cryostasis for approximately 2,387,200 years, eight months, twelve days, three hours, thirty-one minutes, and seven seconds, rounded to the nearest second."

The ponies stared at Polaris, wide-eyed, then shifted their gazes to me.

"You're over two million years old?!" Firefall practically yelled.

"I know of nothing that's that old, aside from the earth, sun, moon, and stars...it's incredibly unbelievable," Celestia said, shaking her head slightly.

"Bear in mind that my body was basically put on pause for that two million year-plus time span," I reminded them, "and that biologically, I'm twenty years old. Yeah, I'm basically...millions of years old...but at the same time, not really..."

"Could that thing be broken?" Firefall asked, frowning at it. "That's really hard to believe. There's no way you're that old."

"Okay, I'll humor you. Polaris, are you broken?" I said, my voice laced with sarcasm.

"The only damage is to the scanner that detects the other cryochambers," Polaris said instantly. "Everything else is running perfectly."

"So basically, mostly no," I concluded coolly. "You've got your answer."

I put my hands behind my back and started pacing back and forth casually. "So what exactly do you want to know right now? I could keep asking Polaris questions, or I could ask it to turn on a monitor so I can search for things directly, I think..."

I glanced at them and could see them looking toward each other, muttering among themselves. I felt inclined to listen in, but it was rude, they would notice, and they would probably do...something.

I just hoped Firefall wouldn't ask about the solar system...at least, not while Celestia was around...

"Patrick," Celestia said after about fifteen seconds, "please ask...Polaris...how close the other...cryochambers are."

I shrugged, stopped moving, and turned back to Polaris. "Polaris, how close are the other cryochambers you can still sense?"

"CRY-3 is approximately sixty-three meters west-northwest of us and twelve meters down," Polaris said, "and CRY-10 is approximately 4.8 kilometers south of us and fifty-seven meters down."

My eyes widened in surprise. CRY-3 is really close by...I think...stupid metric...

"Another human is close by?" Firefall said as his pupils shrank. "But...that means..."

"Does it mean the--" I started, but never got to finish.

An angry yell sounded through the mine, taking all of us by surprise. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? AGAIN?!"

If we hadn't been surprised before, we certainly were now. Firefall turned and ran out of the open doorway, with Celestia following at a fast walk and me bringing up the rear. Once I was out of the cryochamber, I turned to my right, took the steps two at a time, passed the end of the mine cart tracks, and halted as I saw where the miners had been concentrating their efforts in digging.

A soil-brown miner with bright golden eyes shoved his way past me without taking a close look at me. "That's it, I'm done here!" he yelled in frustration as he threw his pickaxe in a random direction before he started heading toward the mine cart tracks.

I frowned, then turned to the pocket of the mine that the miners had dug out so far. They were standing there in a group, staring at something, backs turned to me, with Celestia and Firefall along with them. Even though I was around twenty feet away, I was taller than all of them save Celestia and I could see what they were staring at.

It was part of a smooth, gray, metal surface in the wall of the mine. Exactly the same as the surface on my cryochamber.

Author's Note:

Done with Part Two already; I'm honestly kind of surprised. Not a busy weekend. I'm not sure when I'll be done with the next chapter, though, because school.

Until next time, then.

Comments

[HB_DS2013]

Looks like we found another cryochamber.

[Da Fennec]

logical no experiment could be considered valid with only 1 subject. The 2 million years isn't hard to imagine after all a thousand years is a LONG time considering the life span of humans

[DiscoPanda84]

Polaris? Isn't that a Megadeth song?
*goes to look*
Yep, looks like it is... Hopefully not a relevant one, although if it was, it would explain a few things, wouldn't it?

[Mine_Menace]

7908035 I had no idea that Polaris was the name of a Megadeth song. Probably because I don't listen to Megadeth. Polaris is also the name of the North Star, though, so take from that what you will.

[I_am_XNN]

"Two unrecognized life-forms detected inside cryochamber," the cryopod said in the same cool tone. "Patrick Stanford Walker, are they friendly or hostile?"

Why am I reading that in the voice of the announcer guy from Portal 2?