Keeper of the Sleeping Minds

Keeper of the sleeping minds

The excitement of the last days before take off and the following period of settling in quickly wore off. Soon, the crew initiated the first jump. I can't remember anything about it, spending it in drug induced sleep. When I woke up, it was time to start earning my keep, namely checking the mind storage banks, making sure the minds were well and happy, as far as possible. Three of us shared duty, Tina, an easygoing woman some years older than I, a guy called Dany and me. We didn't get to see much of each other, mainly meeting at shift change and for occasional briefings with the crew. I was glad to be able to chat with Tina, building up a friendship quickly. Dany struck me as the odd type, seldom speaking, fulfilling his tasks with the precision of a clockwork.

The crew consisted of four, Captain Steve, his replacement Sumiko, the astrophysicist Gianna and an engineer called Lisa. They kept to themselves, except at said briefings. Those were mandatory before and after each jump, to ensure everyone working together well. For all of us, an adequate replacement slept in hibernation. Should anyone fall ill, his mind would immediately be extracted and the revitalisation of his step-in induced. Tina had medical training and was responsible for all needs of the stored humans as well as the crew. Everything was planned to be failsafe, to guarantee humanity's threatened survival.

As I walked the ship on my increasingly boring maintenance routine, I used to imagine those minds staring down at me, some interested, some haughty and some, most of them, simply bored. Of course they had no possibility to stare, safely enclosed in their tiny caskets, waiting to be freed on the planet of our destiny. No one knew if they were capable of conscious thoughts while in storage. The few reports available of early test subjects hinted at kind of permanent light sleep. They mentioned colourful but meaningless dreams while not connected to the sensory input of a working body. I was glad I didn't have to experience it.

In this long hours of duty I started to question our mission, wondering if our fantastic plan actually could work. We were on a quest for the promised land, but would the planet of our destination be able to fulfil our expectations? After all, it was just an unmanned probe initially setting us on this track. What if it turned out Gliese was inhabited by slimy monsters prone to cannibalism, or by mindless bodies worked by one central intelligence? Was it possible the pictures showed machines instead of living beings? I watched and re-watched the original footage, trying to convince myself the idea sounding so promising back home in the relative safety of Broken Hill Space Centre was more than a hoax of destiny.

In the meantime, the ship jumped in regular intervals and we proceeded as expected. The plan fell in place smoothly and so did the daily routine of inspection, eating, working out, chatting with Tina and sleeping. The ship was strictly functional, there had been no time to build in recreational areas. I spent my time reading, submerging myself in the huge library the ship's computer provided. It contained as much data about humanity as we had been able to collect. With time, I also got closer to Dany, sharing his quiet company at meals and sometimes walking the outer rim corridor together in the name of working out.

After the sixth jump, Sumiko got sick. Maybe it was just a simple cold. But Captain Steve insisted procedures where strictly followed. We had to extract her mind before another one of the team could get infected. I remember the tears in her eyes when Tina gave her the shot. I had gotten to like the friendly and quiet Asian, the only one of the crew who accepted us mind tecs as equals. So I couldn't help crying myself while hooking her up to the mind bank. In the meantime, Dany reanimated her backup, Lynn. When all hibernation drugs had left her system, leaving her fully functional, she asked for Sumi. It turned out the two of them had been close friends. It broke Lynn's heart to hear she was already gone, another isolated mind in storage. Thinking of my own friend Sandy, my heart went out to Lynn.