Laws of Time

by Jeff Yee

  Chapter 8

  “Goodbye, Mom,” said Stacey while she wept and held her mother tightly in her arms. Sean, who had already said his farewells to his mother-in-law, waited in the car along with his son and daughter, giving his wife alone time with her mother.

  “Stacey, don’t go,” said her mother Julie. “Please don’t go. I can’t stand to lose you. I have a feeling that we will never see each other again.”

  Stacey cried harder than she had ever cried before. Until that point, her mother had been reluctant, but she had supported her daughter’s plans. Now, at the last minute, she was expressing second thoughts and making the final goodbye very difficult.

  “Mom, we will see each other again!” she said as she backed away from the hug and pointed towards her mother’s heart. “I will always be with you, right here, in your heart.” Her mother reached for her as she broke the embrace.

  “Why? Why must you go? What’s wrong with the present?”

  “There’s nothing wrong,” Stacey said softly. “You’ve been a great mother and we’re very happy with our lives here.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “I don’t know,” said Stacey, not quite knowing how to answer the question herself. Then she realized that she had to be stronger with her mother. “It’s the chance that the future might be better.”

  Tears flowed down Julie’s face. It hurt Stacey to see her mother in so much pain. Then, she turned and walked slowly towards the waiting car hoping that the distance between them would ease the suffering. She turned back to her mother once more and said, “I love you Mom.”

  As Stacey entered the passenger door of the car, her mother affectionately responded, “I love you too. You’re the best daughter one could ever ask for.”

  “Goodbye, Mom… Goodbye.”

  With Sean at the helm, slowly backing out of Julie Bartell’s driveway, Stacey pressed her right hand firmly against the glass of the passenger window as a goodbye gesture. Her mother didn’t move, watching her daughter’s car roll backward inch by inch until it reached the street. As Sean put the car into forward gear, Julie lifted one arm and did a single wave from her left to her right. And then, she was gone from view.

  The drive to the airport was painful. Her mother’s last words continued to echo in her mind and the tears did not stop running down Stacey’s cheeks the entire length of the trip from La Jolla to the San Diego airport. They had spent the entire day visiting close family and friends to say farewell, before finally stopping at Stacey’s mother’s house as the last visit before their trip. The last stop was undoubtedly the hardest on the Harrison family.

  It was also a very quiet trip to the airport. No one in the Harrison family said a word, other than the occasional expression of comfort for their mother. Finally, the silence broke when they reached the airport and boarded their private plane bound for Guadalajara, Mexico. It was a tremendous relief to Sean, who felt guilty for pulling his wife away from her mother, to change the subject and to focus on something other than farewells.

  The events leading up to the dramatic goodbyes began a few weeks prior when Sean had first called his lawyer to investigate cryogenic suspension laws in Mexico. Fortunately for Sean and Stacey, they learned that there were no established laws preventing their suspension plans if it was performed in Mexico. Since Tace Technologies had a manufacturing facility in Guadalajara, it would be easy to maintain the state of cryogenic suspension in the Mexican office until the point where U.S. laws were changed. At that point, assuming the laws would be changed one day, their bodies could be returned back to a Tace facility in San Diego.

  In the preceding weeks, all of the necessary equipment had been secretly moved from San Diego to Guadalajara. Sean did not want to draw attention to their plans and risk further obstacles. As a result, their timetable was shortened considerably from what was expected to be many months to only a matter of weeks – to make sure that there would be no additional setbacks. Unfortunately, family and friends were given short notice, and the sudden change in timeline shocked Stacey’s mother who had expected to spend more time with her daughter before her departure.

  Sean and Stacey left their past behind them as they watched from above as the plane crossed the border into Mexico en route to Guadalajara. Outside, the ride was smooth. Inside the plane, Stacey was filled with guilt. She turned to her son and said, “Kris, please ensure that your team develops a solution as quickly as possible. I don’t want to be away from your Nana for too long.”

  Kris nodded. He didn’t say a word. He knew it was going to be a very difficult task, but it was not the time to be straightforward with his mother.

  A few hours after leaving San Diego, the private plane landed in darkness at the airport in Guadalajara. It was early evening in the capital of the state of Jalisco, where the sun had already set beyond the horizon of western Mexico and the blue waters of the Pacific. The four Harrisons grabbed their belongings and proceeded straight to the local Tace offices. Sean explained that they didn’t need sleep – they were going to get lots of it in deep hibernation – and he was very eager to get the process underway.

  “Buenas noches,” said one of the local Tace Technologies employees, greeting the Harrisons in Spanish as they reached the main building of the Tace Guadalajara office. Then he switched to English and continued, “Everything has been prepared and tested. The environment that we created is identical to the original lab at headquarters.”

  “Thanks - we can begin immediately,” said Sean.

  Wasting no time, Sean and Stacey entered a first stage preparation room where they were cleaned before putting on a special suit made of a fabric designed to withstand extreme temperatures. The next stage of preparation required injections of cryoprotectants into their bodies. The super-cooled alcohol compound would help to protect the formation of ice crystals in their cells. After hours preparing for the deep freeze, the last stage would be performed in the room with the cryogenic cylinders designed to be Sean and Stacey’s home for the next quarter century or so. In the last stage, a painkiller would be injected to help numb the pain of the first few seconds of a relatively slow temperature drop.

  Sean and Stacey entered a lab room where Kris and Alyssa were waiting for them along with two lab technicians.

  Kris said, “It’s time now. We have everything ready for you.”

  The Harrison family said their goodbyes. It was Sean that first entered his future home – a metal canister that would be filled with freezing liquids. Stacey said one last goodbye to her kids and then she entered her cylinder. After receiving painkillers in the form of shots to the arms and legs, their canisters were closed, secured and mounted firmly to the wall of the lab. The technicians performed a final security audit of the system and were given clearance to proceed.

  With a final button push, the cryogenic freezing process started. Instantaneously, the temperature inside the canisters began dropping as a liquid surrounding the bodies of Sean and Stacey cooled them within seconds to a temperature of -30 degrees Celsius. Immediately following, liquid nitrogen was added forcing the initial liquid out of the canisters, exiting through a complex system of valves. A load roar erupted and gas filled the room as the liquid vaporized in the warmer room temperature, cooling the room at the same time.

  A very surprised Alyssa asked, “Kris! Is this normal?”

  Kris, walked over to the monitors and answered, “Yes, it’s normal. There’s more gas in the air this time… probably because we have two freezers. And they’re larger than the ones we used for the lab animals. But yes, this is normal. Don’t worry Aly. Everything appears to have gone according to plan.”

  He studied the monitors and it was as he expected. It read -196 degrees Celsius. His parents were now in a state of cryogenic suspension.

  Chapter 9

  “Dad! Dad! Wake up. It’s Kris.” Sean Harrison’s son attempted to wake his father. Sean was lying down, semi-reclined in a hospital bed. Although his body temperature wa
s back to normal after completing a cryogenic reanimation process, Sean remained unconscious.

  In a separate bed next to her husband, lay Stacey Harrison who was recovering from a similar thawing process. Stacey had regained consciousness only a few minutes before. Her muscles were slow to respond to her brain’s commands, but she eventually turned her head toward her husband and said softly, “Sean…”

  The Harrisons were in a specially designed rehabilitation center for cryogenic reanimation at the Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego. The hospital was one of only three rehabilitation centers around the world specializing in the needs and care of individuals who returned from a state of suspension in a new time. Although the Harrisons were the first individuals to be cryogenically frozen alive, they were not the first to return from cryogenic suspension. After the discovery at Tace Technologies and subsequent changing of U.S. laws prohibiting suspension before death, many citizens from around the world had chosen the technique as a method of life expansion. Some of these citizens had already been reanimated before Sean and Stacey. Rehab centers, like the dedicated wing at the Sharp hospital, were designed to assist these men and women with the first few days of recovery, both physically and emotionally in the new time period.

  Doctors, friends and family filled the room to witness the spectacular event. Alyssa, accompanied by her husband and children, held her mother’s hand. Kris positioned himself in between the two hospital beds to be within eyesight of both parents without strenuous movement. Behind Kris, at the foot of Sean’s bed, was his own family. Kris and Alyssa’s families had waited anxiously for the moment to meet their in-laws and grandparents for the first time.

  Alyssa grabbed her mother’s attention. She had waited a long time to introduce her family and this was the first opportunity. “Mom, I want you to meet my husband. This is Frederic. And these are my beautiful children Andre and Jacqueline.”

  Stacey was awake, but she was slow to respond to questions and commands. She looked around the room at all of the people staring at her. There were faces that looked familiar, but everything, including the surroundings, all seemed foreign. She turned her head back to the left again for the one face that she did recognize. Her husband. Then she turned back to Alyssa again. “Aly, is that you?”

  “Yes, it is. Welcome back Mom.”

  It was difficult for Stacey to absorb all of the information in her state. She closed her eyes in an attempt to recall her memories and process the environment around her. She opened her eyes again and said, “You are older.”

  “Yes, I am. Mom, listen, do you remember what you were doing before you woke up here in the hospital?”

  After a brief pause to think, Stacey answered, “We froze ourselves.”

  “Good, it is helpful that you remember. That was twenty-four years ago. I am now forty-nine, married and these are my kids.” Alyssa pointed to her family again, unsure if the first introduction registered with her mother.

  Kris was listening to the conversation between his mother and sister when he felt a movement on his father’s bed. An arm moved.

  “Dad, wake up,” Kris said once again to his father.

  This caught Stacey’s attention and she turned her head towards Sean’s bed.

  Slowly, Sean lifted his eyelids and took light into his retinas for the first time in twenty-four years. Like Stacey, his muscles were slow to redevelop and there was a significant delay in processing the information from his reacquired senses. He focused on the bright light coming from the ceiling. Sean could sense that he was lying down in bed and that there were people in the room with him. Gradually, he glanced around the room at the people and the objects surrounding him. He did not recognize anyone or anything.

  Stacey called for him again, “Sean…”

  This time, Sean rolled to his right in the direction of a familiar voice and recognized his wife. He opened his mouth but was unable to speak. His voice muscles had not returned and he only managed an incomprehensible murmur. Staring at Stacey, he attempted to smile. The muscles in Sean’s left cheek were slightly stronger than his right side, which resulted in an uneven smile, but the gesture was enough to receive a reciprocal smile from his wife.

  “Dad, I know it’s hard to talk right now.” Kris stood between his parent’s beds to address them both and continued, “I’ll answer some of your questions now and then we’ll leave you to rest. First of all, you have been asleep for twenty-four years. As you can see, we are much older, but you are not.”

  To confirm the statement, Sean looked at his son Kris, who had aged considerably since their last meeting. Then he looked back to Stacey, who did not appear a day older than the last time he saw her.

  “You are back in San Diego at a rehab center,” Kris continued. “The doctors behind me are excellent and have helped a lot of people adjust to a new time. You’ve been asleep for twenty-four years and it will take some time to get adjusted. To help you get adjusted, you’ll be here for at least a few days. But we’ll be here right beside you during your stay, and then once you’ve been given clearance, we’ll take you to your new home.”

  When Sean realized that twenty-four years had passed, it became clear to him that the woman next to Stacey was his daughter and that she was twice as old as the last time he saw her. His voice was clear and could be understood when he called her name, “Aly!”

  Alyssa walked over to his bed, held his hand and happily said, “Welcome back Dad. I missed you.” She had waited many years to do an introduction of her family to her father, and repeated again, “Dad, this is my husband and these are my children. We’ve all missed you.”

  The woman beside Kris used the opportunity to introduce herself. “I’m Elaine, Kris’ wife. And this is our daughter, Cameron, who is sixteen years old.” She signaled towards her daughter.

  “Hi Grandma. Hi Grandpa,” said Cameron.

  Sadly, the tearful reunion was one-way. Kris and Alyssa’s families were elated to see their relatives after decades of absence. Even the doctors were emotionally charged, bearing witness to grandkids meeting their grandparents for the first time, spouses meeting their in-laws and children being reconnected with their parents. However, for Sean and Stacey, emotions were difficult to show when their minds were not in complete control of their bodies and its functions. They sat in their hospital beds absorbing as much information as they could, but without the ability to comprehend and fully understand the situation. It was as if they were still in a dream.

  One of the doctors suggested, “Perhaps we should let them have some rest and continue the reintroductions later today. We should run some tests on them now and check their vitals.”

  In the back of the room stood Ryan Graves, the primary author of the cryogenic freezing method used by Tace Technologies. As the resident expert who had witnessed many suspensions and reanimations, he agreed with the doctor. “Yes, this is probably very overwhelming for Mr. and Mrs. Harrison,” Ryan interjected as he approached Sean Harrison to hold his hand before leaving. “We should allow them some time to recover first.”

  The room slowly cleared, with the exception of Kris and the doctors who were preparing diagnostic equipment to run checks on Sean and Stacey. Before departing, Kris leaned towards his father and whispered into his ear, “The rat is awake. He has traveled through spacetime and has survived.”

  Chapter 10

  Outside of the Tace Technologies headquarters in San Diego, dozens of vans and trucks with sophisticated communications equipment lined the company parking lot. Inside Building One, media companies and bloggers from around the world gathered in a large cafeteria, repurposed to be a pressroom for the corporate announcement. When information had leaked that the Harrisons were brought back from cryogenic suspension, news agencies immediately understood the potential story surrounding the reanimation of the famous couple. Bringing the first pair to be frozen in time back to life would have been newsworthy itself, but in this case, newscasters anticipated a much larger story. It was standi
ng room only in a cafeteria that was filled to its three hundred person capacity.

  Flashes of light from digital cameras blinded Kris Harrison as he approached the podium. Kris took a quick look around the room and then started the press conference. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you for attending today.” After a slight pause for dramatic effect, he got straight to the point of the conference, “Yesterday, my father and mother, Sean and Stacey Harrison, were reanimated from cryogenic suspension after twenty-four years.”

  Reporters with questions immediately raised their hands to be acknowledged, but Kris ignored them and continued, “It goes without saying that my family and I are very happy to see them again after many years. This is a significant achievement to bring back the first man and woman that were frozen in time using the methods here at Tace Technologies. My parents are currently watching this conference from their room in the rehabilitation center here in San Diego at Sharp Memorial Hospital. It’s an exciting event, and certainly newsworthy, but there’s more…”

  When Kris paused to take a breath, a slide show presentation began on the wall behind the podium. He then continued, “We are distributing copies of this presentation electronically. You can download it onto your laptops, readers or phones by using the SSID ‘Tace’.”

  From the title slide of the presentation, it was apparent to the press that the rumor was likely true – that time travel experiments at Tace Technologies were indeed successful. Unconfirmed reports had been circulating for months, during which time the company’s stock had soared on speculation that time travel had been achieved. The first sign that the rumor was true was the unfreezing of the former Tace CEO. The second clue to journalists that time travel was possible was the call for a press conference to discuss an undisclosed finding. Excitement and anticipation filled the room when the presentation began… Traveling Through Time.