Chương 124: Book Five, Chapter 27: Deep Sleep Tech

It was impossible to forget that I was in space. Even as I stood up and walked around to explore the futuristic vehicle, I could always see the stars through the numerous viewports around the ship. I didn't know if it was the result of Carousel's magic or just the magic of space travel, but I felt an overwhelming awe as we soared through the final frontier. I had a theory that I was never able to disprove. I believed that the ship we were on had nothing to do with the storyline we were running.

It was only there to transport us to the setting of the real story. Part of that was the aesthetic difference between it and the rest of what we had seen, but more than that, it was the sterile environment. There was nothing to be learned here; there were no clues about the storyline hidden throughout most of the ship. The NPCs were also very uninterested in the amazing technology that they were operating mindlessly. It was almost as if they themselves didn't realize how incredible this ship was.

I couldn't shake that feeling. There were only two NPCs actually awake aboard the ship. There were three others, but I wouldn't see them for a few hours after we took off. If there was only one part of the ship that was relevant to the story, it was in an area called the Cryo Sleep Quarters. Interestingly, even though the room was called Cryo Sleep Quarters, when we entered it and looked around, it became clear that Cryo Sleep was an exaggeration.

The NPC Flannery was there to explain to us something called the Deep Sleep Chambers. These chambers stuck out like a sore thumb. They were made of polished metal, not that weird white material that the rest of the ship was, and they had lots of loose hoses and cords coming from them. Whereas every other piece of advanced technology on the ship seemed to operate without any such cords, the Deep Sleep Chambers fit better in with the technology we had seen back on the ground.

"What do you mean, 'Deep Sleep Chambers'?" Dina asked.

"Well, you'll go to sleep in these beds, and they'll keep you alive for the dull parts of the flight," Flannery explained. Dina did not seem very happy about that. In truth, none of us did.

"How long exactly will we be asleep?" Kimberly asked as Flannery started to open up one of the chambers to show us what it looked like inside. Although the upper of the chamber lid was covered in glass, it was difficult to see inside because that glass was frosted.

"It should take us approximately four months to catch up with the IBECS," Flannery said. We all looked at each other. Being Off-Screen, we didn't have to hide what we were thinking.

"I really hope that's a fake four months," Isaac said. We couldn't imagine spending a literal four months asleep, wasting even more of our lives on one storyline, but we totally believed that it was possible.

"Don't worry. It really is just like falling asleep," she said. I examined the machine closely, along with the others. Three of them were in use—it was easy to tell because we could see the NPCs inside of them through the frosted glass on the red wallpaper. I was hoping that Bobby would be inside one of them, but he wasn't. That would be cheating because he would have the general backstory for his character and be able to fill us in on everything we needed to know.

"How about that thing over there?" Cassie asked, pointing toward one of the pieces of machinery on the wall of the room. It was quite large, and it was made of the same white material that everything else on the ship was. At first, I didn't think anything of it, but then I realized that it did show up on the red wallpaper in the way that trope items did, except it had no trope—it was just labeled "Foremother." Flannery looked over and said, "That's our Foremother.

It contains genetic samples from all the animals on Earth and is capable of cloning them. In fact, we have some samples that we're supposed to be supplying to the IBECS. Get this—one of the officers asked for clones of his dogs." She started to laugh. It sounded like we had found Bobby. And his dogs. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"So you're telling me that this machine can create any animal it wants based on its genetic code?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

"It's something new KRSL is trying just for this flight. One day, it will be a basic requirement for all star-faring ships. In case it gets stranded on a new planet without much life, it can seed the planet with animals from our world and help make sure that they have the traits they need to survive on that planet, either as a food source for humans or simply to spread the embers of life around the universe. Or, in this case, carry dogs into outer space."

I had a hard time believing that the same civilization that built these 90s anime Deep Sleep Chambers was able to build a sophisticated cloning machine like that. I imagined that it hadn't. That machine wasn't part of the story. It was a prop.

"I have a question," I asked.

"Is there some part on that contraption that, if it went missing, would shut the entire machine down so that it couldn't be operated?" Flannery looked at me, confused, but after a few moments, she said, "Sure. It has a dynamic spark in its power relay that would shut it down if it went missing. But I assure you, we checked, and it is there." She left us inside the room, and I turned to Dina and said, "Maybe it would be best if that dynamic spark, or whatever it is, went missing."

I really didn't have time to deal with clones.

"I just want your bosses to know that if the idea is that we're all tourists who won a prize to get to see the solar system, then putting us inside ice boxes like this is counterproductive and inconsistent with our underlying character arcs," Isaac said aloud as the lid on his Deep Sleep Chamber was being closed.

"I have told you a dozen times that you are not going to be frozen," Flannery said.

"You're just going to be put into an induced sleep and fed intravenously." He was having fun with her, watching how she reacted to his rants and remarks. He knew that somewhere, someone was writing a script for her, and he was dead set on talking directly to them.

"I also know what 'intravenously' means," Isaac said, "and you haven't put any tubes in me yet, so I don't know how this thing is going to work." Flannery closed the lid, and while he was muffled, we could still hear what he was saying because the Deep Sleep Chambers were not airtight. These were not Cryosleep or anything similar to that. We were literally just going to be put into induced comas, or at least that's what the lore of the storyline indicated. Carousel's magic would probably do the real trick.

We had yet to be On-Screen during our entire trip, which told me that nothing that was happening mattered. Isaac had a point—our characters were allegedly contest winners who got to tour the galaxy so that we could write testimonials used in advertisements for KRSL's space tourism ventures. But that was a very thin premise that was clearly not part of any story. It was just supposed to help us understand why we were there. The real story was on the ship we were headed toward.

The Deep Sleep Chamber was actually quite comfortable. At first, it looked like I would be lying on a cotton sheet, but it wasn't cotton. It was a soft material that felt like fabric but was clearly rubber or gelatin or something similar. Laying down on it felt like I was floating. There was machinery inside that started to wiggle as I lay down and got comfortable. I jumped when I felt some weird machinery jiggle my thigh muscle from underneath the gelatin I was lying on.

"Don't worry about that," Flannery said.

"The machine is designed to make sure that your body gets the movement it needs to stay healthy while you're asleep."

"You said we'd be fed intravenously?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. The thing was, I could actually see the part of the machine that was supposed to fit around my arm and connect a series of tubes to my circulatory system or whatever, and yet she made no effort to attach it. I had a feeling that we weren't actually going to be put to sleep—not using whatever technology the bed was designed for. Then why were we being put in the beds at all? Was this a learning opportunity? I lay back and rested my head on a pillow made of the same material as the rest of my body.

I watched as the frosted glass moved up and covered my face. I looked around and realized that while the technology had reminded me of something that would take hundreds of years for humanity to develop, it wasn't the futuristic thing that it appeared to be. There were no fancy arms that could stitch my wounds or perform surgery. There were no holographic displays of my vitals. It was just a fancy bed and some sleeping chemicals.

While the ship that we were on was so advanced that I couldn't even picture humanity being able to build it, this device was not. While it was difficult to imagine it being built in some alternate history's 1980s, it wasn't impossible. It felt grounded and real, and for that reason, something was foreboding about it. Unlike the futuristic ship, which was basically magic to me, this chamber felt like a product—a house appliance.

I lay there and tried to identify what my misgivings were about it, but while I was thinking about it, I fell asleep. I awoke rested and ready for whatever came. I was still Off-Screen, and we were nearly halfway through the Party phase. All of this, and we still didn't know what this storyline was about. The apparatus that was meant to feed and monitor my health intravenously still wasn't attached to my arm. To us, it was basically a prop.

"Rise and shine," Flannery said as she pulled back the top of my chamber. I took a deep breath and sat up. I felt great—genuinely happy. Antoine had brought his trope that was supposed to make sleep very refreshing (among other things), and while I was skeptical that it was worth taking up the trope slot, I definitely wasn't going to complain about it.

"Come on, people, get up!" Antoine said.

"We have some touristing to do!" He jumped up from his chamber, hooted and hollered, and clapped his hands. I felt excited to get out of bed. Even Cassie looked happy, and looking grumpy in the mornings was one of her things. I noticed that my clothes were still clean. It was almost as if I hadn't really been wearing them for four months—ahem. As I walked out of the room, I saw Isaac standing in front of one of the portholes, looking out at the stars.

"Are these our stars?" he asked. It was a good question. Carousel had different stars than the real world. I hadn't quite memorized them in the way that I had the Big Dipper or Polaris, so it was hard for me to say if we had actually moved into outer space or if we had just been flying in circles. To Carousel, would that be a trivial thing? Would it be hard to send us out into the galaxy for a storyline? I had no idea.