Chapter #3The Human Bank. by: Unknown New Equestria pre-harmony archives, section FA, vault 24P, ID #: 24933APL.
Material: Digital film stock recorded onto a portable disk drive, estimated to be conceived within late of the decade 2030. Context: An advertisement in favor of investment towards human medical practices.
Video file begins with a five-second animated logo of "Cyrotech Laboratories" with synthesized audio, then fades to a filmed setting where a human wearing a lab coat and stethoscope is seated behind the desk of a sterilized office. Feed is very discolored due to deterioration of metals within the port, intermitten with distortions in audio and video that render certain portions very hard to understand.
"Mark Taslow": Hi, there. My name is Mark Taslow, one of the co-founders of Cyrotech Incorporated, and I'd like to ask for a few moments of your time to discuss the plans we have in store for the world of medicine. The customs within our facilities seek out to bring patients ailing under terminal ailments far closer to the best technologies and techniques that shall assure as quick and effective a [indecipherable] as possible, doing so by freeze-framing them in their illnesses and [indecipherable] that they'd never imagined before. He stands up from his seat and walks around the desk, passing a wall covered with framed degrees and plaques. That way, doctors and specialists are granted all the time they need to strategize their techniques, develop new treatments, and study their conditions to bring [indecipherable] to the shining gates of the rest of time.
Video fades to a frontal view of four different humans in labcoats walking down a corridor of white, regular walls, with two at either side as they carry a white pod with them. Vapor is condensing around the device as though it's incredibly cold, with the blurred outline of a human body partly visible through the foggy glass. They reach a vacant space in the wall where they stand the pod vertically and fit it within, allowing the camera to see many others in the wall spanning the entire distance at numerous levels above each other.
"Mark Taslow": Narrating over above footage. Our laboratories have [indecipherable] perfecting our equipment to assure that the quick-freeze process is without any pain or impact on the patient's functioning post-release, and before then are held in heavily guarded and maintained fortresses of security to [indecipherable] until their final release.
Footage shifts to "Mark Taslow" inside an examination room.
"Mark Taslow": However, our goal is only in reach with your help. Call 555 - [indecipherable] to learn more about our procedures, history, and ways you can invest, or visit our website at www.cyrotech.org to find a sponsor in your area. I'm Mark Taslow, thank you for your time, and remember that-"
Video remains corrupted beyond recognition, but the blue introduction animation is barely visible through the distortion, playing in reverse and fading to black before the file ends.
"Mister Moenks?"
I looked up from my magazine to a blonde nurse leaning into the waiting room through the red doors. I'd been sitting around for a few hours, and saw all kinds of people going in and out, but never once did any body come in through the red doors, nor out.
"Time?"
"Mm-hmm. Right this way, please."
She ducked back through the doors, and I got up and followed after. The two of us crossed through into a long corridor of featureless white walls, aside from a metal sliding door in the far end.
A tornado of emotions was storming around inside of me as we walked down the long hallway. I was nervous, sure, considering all the crap that was about to happen to me, on another end I felt excited about all the things I'd see and experience after being melted. But most of all, I felt a heavy feeling of finalization weighing down on my body. After all the heartbreak, packing, briefing, studying, and excitement building up to everything I was about to go through, the spring that kept winding up was finally about to be let loose.
When we reached the door, it slid aside on its own and let loose a cold mist of air from a pure white examination room, with walls, cabinets, equipment, and even full-body uniformed doctors that looked like they were completely bleached, aside from me, once the nurse stepped out and left me as the only splotch of color in the room.
"Alright, mister..." One of the doctors recited from his clipboard. "...Moenks. You're with the Gateway to the Future program, right?"
"Yes, sir, that's me."
"Well, just get dressed in this gown..." A doctor wheeled a rack with a patient's gown clean and ready. "...then get laid out on this platform, and we'll have you prepped up."
I'd been through a crapton of physicals to make sure whatever could happen wouldn't kill me. This time around it was just basic warm up, something i'd gone through even more rehearsals for. The doctors scurried around me like they were prepping a turkey on a platter; I didn't wince as they prodded me with needled hooked up to IVs, but this time around I could feel a warmth from the coolants as the liquid traveled through my bloodstream. Even after being told how it'd feel so many times before, I still felt squirmish at the feeling.
They kept walking around the table for about an hour, where by that point I was getting too antsy to hold down for long, and I was eager to sit back up after they cleared away. In front of the table, the carting doctor now had a full-body suit made up of thick rubber, but with white shaped and lines designed in that made it resemble a tuxedo. There were even fins on the legs to make them look baggy.
"What's that?"
"This is your suit to the grand gala of the future..." The scientist didn't sound remotely interested as he mumbled the slogan.
.....
"...and in the pedestal of the stasis chamber, you'll find what's called a survival pack!" A different scientist instructed with several others following behind as we speed-walked down the home stretch. "The device's freeze maintenance are designed to immediately thaw your body in the event of malfunction or early release."
At that point in the dark hallway we passed a wide window allowing a pale light in. I glanced to my side and saw a quick view of huge shelves spanning hundreds of feet from the wall, completely covered with pods. I couldn't help but shiver.
"I'll be safe till I'm released, right?" Probably not the best place for second thoughts, I'll admit.
"Sir, I can assure you that our company has some of the most advanced and toughest security of any organization in the nation." She said with confidence. "Once you're frozen, it'll feel like no time once your out. Probably like ten minutes!"
"Mm-hmm..." Was all that my jumbled thoughts could let me speak.
I could almost sense the incoming wall as we reached the end, which automatically swung open as if by no command.
There it was.
A white, oval-shaped pod sat perched in the center of a small room. Its door was wide open, and I was almost starting to see it as some kind of coffin waiting for me to enter.
"Any last words you'll leave in history?"
I tried to think of some kind of snarky or cute thing to leave them with, but all I could say was "...potato."
She shook off an awkward nod with a ponderous look, then gently placed her hand on my back and coaxed me toward the freezer. The metal felt cold through the rubber on my back as I stepped into the pod and laid back against its surface, trying to channel the guy on the men's bathroom side as I let my limbs hang slack against my body as straight as I ever tried to be.
They surrounded the pod with expectant looks, their hands eager to pull the nonexistent lever, but only willing to go on my mark. Part of me wanted to think of my childhood akin to my life flashing before my eyes, but I pushed it aside, considering how far I'd come. So I just laid there, letting the confirming silence of the room seep in until I finally gave a small nod.
A loud whirring noise hummed from the winch as the window lowered and completely closed off the capsule. A red display lit up from above and started counting down from ten.
I just closed my eyes and let my muscles relax, trying to get as comfortable as I could while I listened to the seconds beep away...
KSSSSHT
...huh.
So, this is it? This is frozenville.
That, or I'm dead. Dang it, if I'm dead, I'm gonna be pissed.
But...yeah, she said this'd just last ten minutes, and ten minutes is just going through two five times. Mm-hmm. Just counting to sixty nine times.
Yup.
Ten minutes.
A sixth of an hour.
A...uh...twenty four hours, multiply that by six...that's twelve, carry the two...one hundred forty-fourth of a day. Right? I think...
So that'd be five-hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes in a year, thanks Rent, divide by ten, that'd be...five, two, five, six...followed by one zero. Fifty-two thousand, five hundred and sixty? One fifty-two thousand and five-hundred sixtieth of a year. That's nothing.
...and hey, I'm probably going on a minute right now, so yeah. Nothing too it.
...
...
...ball...
...bill...
...pill...
...pile...
...pine...
...dine...
...ding...
...ri-
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