A Visitor to the Future - 70 - What Happened Under the Ice
There were other, more exotic pieces of art in Antonia's collection, including a transparent case which contained a sculpture with a flowing fountain of liquid metal, a human-sized statue made entirely of diamonds, and clothes that Antonia considered too nice to wear, displayed on neat mannequins that you could adjust the pose of with a command. I found myself thinking that if I had owned even one of Antonia's works of art in my own time, I could have sold it and been set for life. But Antonia thought nothing of it, and as the light shone through the diamond statue and we admired the patterns it made, it became clear to me that Antonia and Sarkona cared nothing for the value of the materials they were made of - just how they made them feel.
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There was something about one of the plants in Antonia's lounge that kept making me sneeze repeatedly. Antonia found it hilarious at first, but quickly suggested that we move back outside. Some of it must have lingered on my clothes or in the air, because I kept sneezing for about ten minutes afterwards.
"Achoo!" I sneezed again, cursing whatever plant had caused this.
"There you go again!" she said, "I'll have to find out what plant is causing that, I don't want to have to exile you from my lounge."
My nose tingled, and I felt like I might sneeze again at any moment, but I managed to squeeze in a question, "Why aren't either of you sneezing?" I asked.
"Oh, I had pollen-filtering Biodev done years ago," said Antonia, pointing at her nose, "I couldn't work so closely with plants if they irritated me all the time."
"Same," said Sarkona, "There wasn't really any reason not to get the work done. I can't remember the last time I felt stuffy."
I crinkled my nose and blinked a few times, feeling that the urge to sneeze was now fading.
"I've actually been meaning to talk to you about Bio-dev as a whole," said Sarkona, "I know I gave you a brief introduction on the Promise of Sol, but I wanted to ask if you'd given Bio-dev any further thought since then. There are plenty of Bio-dev modifications that you may enjoy the benefit of."
"Some," I said, "I'll admit I've been thinking about stopping my aging process a lot, but I am a bit nervous about it all - I recognise how strange that must seem to you, given I wouldn't be standing here today without it."
"There's no rush to get anything done," said Sarkona, "You remember Robin? You could easily get to his biological age and still have plenty of time to get the Biodev work done if you wanted. Can I ask - what exactly about it is making you nervous?"
I sighed, shoulders slumping, "I don't really know. I think part of it is my previous experiences with doctors - being told that your condition is so bad that there's no hope of recovery - I can only describe that as soul-crushing."
Antonia looked sad at that, but there was an element of puzzlement in her gaze. Neither her nor Sarkona had ever known a world without the Bio-dev wonders of the Consortium. It must have been unthinkable to them.
I continued, "But on the other hand, I'm here now, and I'm only here because of Bio-dev. I think the main thing for me is that I don't really understand it. I don't even really understand how you fixed me."
Sarkona laced their fingers together on the surface of the table, resting them with thumbs facing upwards. It was odd - their ancestor, Dr Grant, had exactly the same habit when talking about difficult subjects. I wondered if Sarkona knew that fact.
"I think you're ready to hear about it now," they said, "When you first woke up there were a lot of unknowns about how you'd react to the information, so I was reluctant to share all the details with you. But I have to say, I think you're doing remarkably well in terms of your overall adjustment - and you should be very proud of that fact. If you really want to know, I can tell you the fuller details now, if you'd like. But if you're uncomfortable at any point, please just ask me to stop."
"I'm think I'm ready," I said.
"Alright," said Sarkona. I could tell that some part of them was dreading the risk of alienating me, of destroying the friendship we'd built over the last few months. I could see a quick internal debate flicker across their brow - though it could only end one way for Sarkona - the truth must win out. They continued. "Dr Grant was a genius, and that's not just me saying that because I'm related to him. The greatest problem with cryocontainment within his own time was the very freezing process. The fact is that if ice crystals form within a subject's cells, they destroy the cells from the inside. And the human body is composed of a lot of water. So the first part of Dr Grant's process involved removing as much of that water as possible. Now, in his time that was an expensive process - as was the whole storage and concept of freezing. So, the first part of the process was to remove as much of your original mass as possible, and focus on what could be saved."
Sarkona tapped the top of their laced hands with their thumbs, eyes slightly downcast. "There's no easy way to say this - your head was separated from your body. The body that you have today, we grew from your DNA within a vat, then took the time to ensure it matched the very basic scans we had on record for you. I'm sure you've noticed that there are some differences between it and your original body."
I looked down at my hands - Sarkona was right, I'd noticed the lack of freckles on some parts of my skin where they'd been before. And my little fingers used to click when I bent them. But I thought that had just been part of the repair process. I reached up towards my neck instinctively - though I'd seen myself in the mirror more than enough over the past few months to know there was no sign of any re-attachment there.
"Your original body was returned to your family for burial," added Sarkona.
I blinked. Somehow that was a little reassuring - the fact that they had been able to say goodbye properly, to move on. On the other hand, that did mean there was a skeleton identical to my own, just without a head, somewhere out there, underneath the ground. I could visit my own grave.
"Are you okay?" asked Antonia.
I let out a breath and nodded. "I remember Tungsten saying that he worked on my right index nail?" I questioned.
"Of the new body. The nail bed didn't quite grow correctly at first - we had to start again. Not that you could tell now, it looks perfect."
Sure enough, there was no sign of any damage today.
"Right. So as I said, only your head was placed into cryocontainment. The refrigeration process required placing you on ice, and getting you as close to absolute zero as possible. With that done, you would be sealed into a vacuum casket, which did the majority of the work in keeping you at that temperature. You were moved between facilities quite a few times from what we understand, and X-rays and other scans were performed on you from time to time, as per the nature of the experiment you signed up for. Eventually, however, cryocontainment techniques advanced to the point that they could store whole bodies easily, so after that point there were better subjects to study. At that point, you were left to peacefully wait out the next thousand years."
I didn't really have anything to say, and felt oddly choked up. So I nodded for Sarkona to continue.
"That brings us to about two years ago, when myself, Tungsten, and the other Bio-devs started work on you. Medical tools have advanced a very long way since your own time, so we used what we call cell-robots to investigate the damage, all without unfreezing you. We did need to bring the temperature of your containment up for that, but not to a level that would endanger you."
"Cell-robots? Nanorobotics?" I managed to ask, though my heart wasn't really in the question.
"Not quite. They're small, but only as small as the smallest human cell. Nanometer-sized robots are still outside what's possible for now. Picture a tiny cell moving between your other cells - that's how they work. Or then again, maybe don't - sorry. We planned out the work very carefully. Cell-robots can approach a cell, investigate it for ice crystal damage, disassemble any ice crystals they find, and repair the damage. Being packed in ice and stable helps a great deal from that perspective - anything that was damaged and knocked out of place would be close to it's original position. Then there was the question of repairing the remaining damage."
"Beyond the ice crystals?"
"Yes. Though Dr Grant's initial freezing process was quick, it was not perfect. Many cells did have the opportunity to decay. We had to fix those. Once that was done, we used what we call a bridge to get you connected to your new body. That's a series of synthetic organs which begin to slowly spool up while your metabolic processes resume. Then it was just a case of attaching you to your new body, removing the bridge, and working from there. You came to consciousness about a week later."
I was silent for a time, taking a moment to think about everything Sarkona had said. Antonia's hand reached across the table, rested on top of mine. Knowing what I knew now, it all seemed a surreal - I felt off-balance.
"But I'm still - me?" I asked, "You didn't change anything in there?"
Sarkona shook their head, "We didn't change anything - we just repaired what was broken. You've shown no signs of memory loss at all, which is the biggest worry we have when undertaking a project like this - if you were accidentally unfrozen at any point during your cryocontainment, that is one of the first problems that we see. You're still you, just with some different parts. And please don't just take me at my word - the procedure was fully audited, end to end. If you ever feel that you want to review it, or have another Bio-dev that you trust do so, then you can. Just ask the Consortium."
"I think I need to take a walk," I said, letting Antonia's hand fall from where it rested on mine. I stood, and strolled away from the table. Sarkona had leaned forward, chin now resting on crossed arms on the table.
I had a lot to think about.