“He’s breathing naturally,” the lead doctor announced. There was a note of surprise in her voice.
On the other side of the glass, the medical techs were high-fiving. Two of the doctors were preparing their surgical remotes to remove the stump of the umbilical from Soćko’s navel.
“Now what?” Yuri asked.
“We wait,” Lankin said. “Make sure he remains stable, and give his body a chance to filter out the barbiturates. If he wakes naturally, fair enough. If not, they’ll try stimulants.”
—
We all trooped back to the lounge, with its comfy chairs standing on the bare composite-panel floor. Loi and Eldlund went over to the freezer cabinets and started searching through the meal packs for breakfast. Alik got himself a Belgian hot chocolate from the dispenser and settled back in his chair.
“It can’t be that easy,” Kandara said when she sat next to me. “What about muscle atrophy? He’s been lying there for thirty-two years, for fuck’s sake!”
“Something took care of that,” Loi said as he came over, carrying a plate of scrambled eggs, sausages, and hash browns straight from the microwave. “Something in the blood they haven’t found yet. It all came from the Kcell organs, don’t forget; we don’t fully know what they’re capable of.”
“You’re talking magic potions,” Callum said dismissively. “Not real biochemistry. No chemical treatment will preserve an inactive body in healthy physical shape like that for thirty years.”
“What then?”
Eldlund sat down beside him, blowing the steam from hir porridge. “Maybe Soćko is the success? The others are all being rebuilt by the alien cells, but he was just further along?”
“No,” Yuri said. “The Kcell organs in his hibernation chamber were different. They supplied blood that’s rich with oxygen and nutrients—a real hibernation as opposed to what’s happened to the others.”
I kept a very careful watch on the faces around me as I said: “He might not have been asleep the whole time.”
Yuri gave me a look that invited me to continue. He was my boss, respecting my opinion. No change there. Callum was expectant, wanting to hear some options, clearly eager for answers. Alik continued to sit there, mug of hot chocolate in his hand, waiting like every good interrogator for the suspect to talk too much. Those lifeless face muscles of his were as still as a millpond.
“Exercise,” Kandara said eagerly. She grinned at me. “That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”
I gave her an appreciative shrug. “The simplest solution always applies. And the only real way to maintain muscle tone is through exercise.”
“So Soćko wakes up once a week,” she said. “Or a month. Whatever. And spends a few days getting in some calisthenics sweat-time. Then goes back into hibernation. He’s on a timer.”
“Not a chance,” Loi said.
Kandara shot him a challenging glance. “Why?”
“Where does he do his calisthenics? The ship has been in a vacuum for over thirty years. There’s no space suit; he couldn’t even step out of the hibernation chamber.”
“So why is he in such good shape?”
“Genetic modification?” Loi said uncertainly.
“The medical team sequenced everyone’s DNA,” Lankin said. “Soćko doesn’t have any modifications; we didn’t even find vectors for telomere treatment in him.”
“We’ll find out soon enough if he wakes up,” Alik said. “We just ask. Meantime, let’s focus on what we do know. We came here to assess if this ship indicates a clear and present threat.”
“It does,” Yuri said. “Aliens with a significantly more advanced technology base have established a secret beachhead either in Sol or one of our settled systems. They snatch humans for unknown, but fucking dire, reasons.”
“That’s not necessarily a threat,” Callum said.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Come on, man, face it: We’re scary. We can cross interstellar space, and we’re still aggressive, unreasonable, badly behaved, and own continents full of weapons. Hell, if I encountered us, I’d want to hold back and watch for a while.”
Alik’s hand shot out, pointing at random. “Did you even see what they did to those poor bastards? They
For once Alik’s neck and jaw muscles were flexing. Loi and Eldlund were regarding him in concern.
“Their ethics might not match ours,” Callum said. “They are alien, after all. But they haven’t been overtly aggressive. That has to mean something.”
Alik snorted in contempt and turned to Yuri. “I need to talk to my people.”
Yuri and I exchanged a slightly guilty look. “There are no direct comms with solnet,” I said. “That was a major part of Alpha Defense’s quarantine protocols.”