1000 YEARS - Book 1 - Awakening

14. Cryons*

— February, Year 774

Darkness, and silence — and the deadly cold of space.
Three towering black presences, two in full space suits, one just in regular attire and wearing a head visor, which cast a soft light on his features and shone light beams ahead, — and a diminutive forth figure, bouncing around in a silver-white spacesuit — entered the low gravity environment of the cryo vessel antechamber.
In the combined light of the visor and the three sets of space helmet lamps, the extent of the destruction became more glaring than what had been visible during the Calypso probe inspection. Consternation settled on all faces — the three faces illuminated by ambient lights, that is. One black space helmet remained shrouded in dark, only a dim, eerie blue glow indicated a presence within.

"This is unfortunate," Loki's voice came from the communicator of the black spacesuit that had gone down on one knee in front of the remnants of what had once been a computer terminal. He held up a broken piece of electronics-casing still anchored into the floor by its umbilical cord of cables.
"It is conceivable that some data bits might still exist within the debris, and could be recovered," said Eno, the helmetless Synthetic.

An army of small six- and eight-legged black crab-like creatures had poured into the antechamber behind the spacemen and had amassed around the opening, as if waiting for a signal, to attack. A provisional entry door had swung shut and latched behind them all. Upon a red laser burst from Eno, the crawling bot army entered into motion like black tar sliding off the walls. They dispersed around the space and started harvesting debris.

"I would suspect that these terminals contained information about the cryo pods' inhabitants? Without that, how will we select suitable samples?" Loki asked.
"The damage assessment probes we sent in after docking identified a death-year range from Old Calendar years 2091 to 2199; it counted 2,474 apparently intact containers." Eno said.
A baritone voice from the faceless space helmet spoke. "We will take the most recent and work back to the oldest, alternating genders, in equal time intervals, six in total. Eno will keep count."

The little silver-white spaceman had already bounced his way to the back door — the access to the 'CRYO 1' main compartment — and was trying to turn the heavy door wheel to unlock it. But owing to low gravity and his own minimal body weight he had instead sent himself spinning in space. Eno grabbed the flailing feet and put the short man back right-side up.

Their climb through the portal brought them onto a platform over the cavernous inner tunnel lined with row after row of pods, twenty-five to each circle. The army of black bots swarmed in right behind them. Gangway sections hung suspended from ring-shaped rails, each about forty feet in length. Eno sent an assortment of bots to the ancient activation mechanisms and a few moments later the first section cranked to life and rotated into alignment with the portal platform.

After Eno's quick check that everyone's gravity boots were active, the four people stepped out onto the first gangway, which Eno then set into motion. On their slow ride along the wall their headlamps and Loki's spotlight searched death-year dates. They were in the 2190 to 2199 section, the most recent ones. Soon their first specimen, the very last addition to this giant crypt, deceased on 2199-12-11 was identified. Eno deep scanned the container — it was a female.

On the Synthetic's brief commands several bots scurried away. Laser cutters detached the cryo pod from its wall anchor, while other bots stood ready and pulled the recovered container onto the gangway. The identifier 'Alpha 1' was quickly laser-etched onto this first specimen.

The next would be a male.
They moved on to the following section of gangway, as Eno scanned for the next target date. His first two scans revealed females. The third was a male who had died on 2181-11-09.
"Beta 1" Loki said.
They took him.