Sam Decker opened his eyes to see two men in their early thirties staring down at him.
“Welcome back to the universe, Mister Decker.” Said the one on the left.
All Decker could do was lay there for a minute until he could begin to form words. “Who are you? Where am I?” he said with a slight slur as he tried to sit up.
“Don’t worry; You’re right where you have been for a thousand years, safe on earth, in the MIT cryotechnology lab. We’re the lab technicians. My name is Greg Whitford (PhD), and this is my assistant, David Wayne.”
Decker just sat there for a moment, dazed. Then a look of satisfaction came across his face. “A thousand years. That’s amazing. How much has changed since then? What were the major wars? Who were the important people? Who were the economic superpowers? Who were the important military superpowers? What were the great technological innovations? What happened to the United States of America?”
“Slow down, you’ll learn everything you need to know soon. You will have plenty of time to look up what you want to know. And, to get you comfortable with the technology and culture of modern society, we will provide you with someone familiar with the late twenty-fifth century.”
“What, a historian?
“I suppose you could call him that. But first, we need to get you some comfortable clothes, your preserved affects, and your pre-arranged housing details.”
Looking down, Decker noticed that he was, in fact, wearing only a paper-thin medical gown. “That would be nice,” he replied. While he waited for them to get the clothes, he looked around the poorly lit room. The stainless steel table he had been sitting on was one of twelve placed along the walls perpendicular to a wall with a large door. On each of the other tables lay a human figure, and on the wall above each the tables was a glowing rectangle displaying the vitals of the person it belonged to. On the wall opposite the door was a row of glass cabinets full of various medical devices he couldn’t begin to recognize.
Then Decker suddenly realized how cold it was in the room. It was easily below freezing, and possibly below zero, but he couldn’t tell. He glanced back at the display for his table to see if it had the temperature, but it was blank except for the MIT logo. He opened his mouth to ask the lab technicians, but they had both left the room. A slightly computerized female voice spoke to him.
“Hello Mister Decker.”
It startled him, not because he didn’t expect it, but because it came from right in front of him.
“I apologize if I have startled you, Mister Decker. Let me introduce myself. My name is Eve, and I am the MIT campus AI.”
“What do you do?” Decker asked out loud.
“I function primarily as the university activities director, but I also work with the students directly in most departments to enrich the student learning experience as well as my knowledge of human culture.”
“Do you work with the history department?”
“Yes. I often work one-on-one with students to assist with essays.”
“What can you tell me about human history in the last one thousand years?”
“I have already prepared a list of scientifically and culturally significant Headlines from the last one thousand years. Shall I read them to you now?”
“That sounds nice.”
“August 27th,2507: The secret to indefinite longevity discovered by Hans DeWitt ; July 12th, 2594: United Nations passes plans for inter-solar starship expedition to Alpha-Centari; September 30th, 2615: SS Minerva christened by President Francis, departure set for next year; May 2nd, 2616: SS Minerva departure delayed by terrorist bomb threats; May 5th, 2616 …” Then Eve fell silent quickly.
“Here you go, mister Decker,” Dave said, entering the room. “Here are your clothes,” he said as he handed Decker a pair of sweatpants, a shirt, and a pair of sandals.
“Can we go somewhere warmer?” Decker asked.
“What? Oh, yeah. I forgot how cold it is in here. There’s a heated room down the hallway. Go left out the door and it’s the second room on the right. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
Decker went to the room, which was kept at a very comfortable 70 degrees Fahrenheit, as indicated by the thermostat next to the door. Decker got dressed and sat down on a sofa against the wall next to the door and waited for someone to come and give him something to do.
After a minute or two, Greg came in with what looked like a manila envelope. “Here are your housing arrangements.”
Decker took the envelope and opened it. Inside, there were a number of letters and a pamphlet for a housing development in a New York suburb.
“We still use paper?” Decker remarked.
“We’ve always used paper. It’s cheap and recyclable. Besides, silicon is a lot rarer than it used to be, and we export most of what we have off-world. In fact, except for Summer – you don’t know about Summer, it’s all sand on the surface, low population, it’s barely livable – there are barely any silicate based planets. Don’t get me wrong, we get a lot of useful exports from the rest, like hydrogen fuel, industrial grade diamonds, and water, but silicon is the stuff of an efficient society.”
“I thought you were a doctor. Why do you know all this?”
“I minored in Intersolar Economics. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made, if I say so myself.”
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