Rescued From Paradise by Robert L. Forward & Julie Forward Fuller

Author:Robert L. Forward & Julie Forward Fuller [Forward, Robert L. & Fuller, Julie Forward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Hard Science Fiction
ISBN: 0671876554
Publisher: Baen
Published: 1995-03-02T06:00:00+00:00

AFTER a few weeks of checkout, it was time to go. Laura made herself comfortable in the compchair in her apartment so that the infrared link had adequate signal-to-noise through her hair. Once fully connected into Mike, she felt herself lift free of her own awkward body as Mike's neurnet spread out before her. She danced over neurons like a butterfly, sensing rather than seeing any loops or glitches in the programs. The commnet of Succor was sparkling and supportive, and she enjoyed the beauty of the implied landscape. An electric blue spark appeared beside her. Laura knew Orson better in this guise, and she moved within the glow of his personality. Their minds merged and Laura tried to match the deeply personal warmth of the connection with the formal reserve of the man she had met personally earlier that week. They had not met personally since. Each preferred the custom compchairs in their own suites to the ones on the free-fall central deck, and with the quality of the virtual links it made little difference where they were physically.

Together Laura and Orson spent the morning taking Mike through the final prelaunch check. But with no glitches to fix, after that there was really nothing left to be done but admire their own work. The actual firing of the antimatter rockets would be done by Goddard Station. They would be accelerating at three gees for a number of months to get up to speed in a hurry, so the human crew would have to be in their suspended animation tanks and under before ignition.

Reluctantly Laura pulled out of the link. She got out of the chair and stretched, her arms and legs stiff from the inactivity. Time spent in the ship's neurnet always seemed short until she logged off.

If a few hours of sitting still can make me stiff, thought Laura to herself, I wonder how I'll feel after fifteen years. John was waiting by the side of her chair to help her out of her clothing and into the narrow bed of the deepsleeper. He stood by as the tiny metal fingers of the med unit inside the deepsleeper painlessly microneedled the improved deepsleep version of the life-extending drug No-Die into the vein at her collarbone, and Laura felt herself slipping into sleep. After a few minutes, John tenderly lowered the lid on the deepsleeper. A moment later foam filled the interior, surrounding her body with a strong soft cocoon. The room grew dark and quiet except for the soft glow from the tell-tale lights of the medical monitor and the simulated breathing noises of the ever-loyal John, waiting patiently beside the coffinlike box for his sleeping beauty to awake.

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