Chapter 11:
Vera, Thomas and Doug entered the lab and joined the others in the basement.
"Well, are you ready?" Frank asked. He actually seemed to be more nervous than excited this time around. They repeated the process that had been done on Kiki weeks before. The bodies of the three subjects quickly thawed and slumped over slightly. The monitors beeped, seeming to indicate a state of readiness. Frank took a deep breath, changed some settings on his controls, and pushed a button. Subject one awakened and immediately checked his clothing over to make sure it hadn't been damaged. Frank and the others breathed a sigh of relief. He revived the other two subjects who both seemed as relieved as Frank that they were alive.
"Wonderful! Splendid!" Frank said, walking over to each of the subjects and looking them over. "You all seem perfectly fine! How do you feel?"
"My clothes are wrinkled." Subject one said in a tragic, moaning tone.
"I feel great, actually," subject two burst out before Frank could chew out subject one. "That was really refreshing, feels like I've had a great night's sleep." The other subject nodded in agreement.
"Good, good!" Frank said. "Now tell me, what was it like while being frozen and being revived? Were you conscious of anything at all?"
"I knew I had been frozen." Subject three spoke up. "I wasn't aware of it during the time or anything, but I was just standing there one minute and the next I was awake. But somehow I knew that it had happened. There was a strong feeling that I had lost some time from my life."
Frank raised an eyebrow. "Elaborate." The subject paused for a while, trying to gather his thoughts.
"Well, you know how when you get tied up playing a game or reading or something in the evening? Before you know it, it's 3:00 AM, and you need to get to bed if there is any chance of you waking up in the morning. It was like that. You weren't really aware that all those hours had passed while you were reading or playing the game. But afterwards, you felt like that time could've been spent on something much more efficient."
"Interesting..." Frank pondered. "Did you two feel it?" he asked the other two subjects.
"It was kind of similar for me, I knew I'd been frozen, but I didn't feel like I'd lost any time in my life or anything, I just somehow knew. It was kind of weird." Subject two shrugged.
"I don't remember anything but waking up and finding my clothes wrinkled. I thought you said there would be no damage!" Subject one yelled.
"Oh just shut up about your clothes already!" Frank said. "OK, well, we’ve got things set up here for you all to stay for twenty-four hours to make sure there are no side effects."
The subjects looked at each other and then back to Frank.
"I don’t want to stay!" Subject one moaned. "I need to go find an iron!"
"As annoying as it will be for all of us," Frank steamed, "I need you to stay."
"Well I don’t want to! You never told us this!"
"It was in the papers you signed you nincompoop!"
"I didn’t see it!"
"Maybe if you had READ it, you would have!" Frank rarely lost his temper, but this particular gentleman had broken him.
"Whatever! I don’t need your attitude! I want to go home now!"
"Fine," Frank said, slowly counting to ten mentally. "Fine. You need to sign this release stating that you have been advised to stay and are leaving despite counsel telling you otherwise." Subject one snatched the paper that Frank had produced, signed it, and stomped up the stairs to the foyer and out to the street.
"Can I get in on that too?" Subject two asked. "I really feel fine and would like to leave."
"I’d rather you didn’t," Frank replied. Subject two looked extremely disappointed and put on a pouty face. "Fine," Frank breathed and produced a second form. Subject two signed it and galloped up the stairs, closing the door loudly behind her.
"I'll stay," said subject three, "I haven't got anything to do today and don't have to be to work tomorrow, so might as well hang around."
"Great!" Frank said happily. "Well, we've set up a bed and have things all ready for you over here. If you want anything, food, magazines, books, whatever, just ask and we'll get it for you." Frank closed the door to the small room and walked back towards Flo. "WE DID IT!" He shouted as he leaped toward her. Flo, sadly, wasn't expecting this, and dodged Frank instead of embracing him, leaving him embracing the floor instead.
"Oh my! I'm so sorry Frank, I wasn't expecting that!" Flo said, fighting back laughter. Frank looked up back at her and started laughing as well. The others laughed nervously, unsure whether or not they should be more concerned for his health. He seemed fine, however, so it wasn't long before they were all rolling with laughter.
"Oooohhhhhh wow..." Frank said, fighting back the ongoing giggles. "That was fun. Well, we have more work to do. We've got to prepare for your trip now," he said, looking at Doug, Thomas, and Vera. "How about we order a pizza and discuss things?"
They agreed, found a phone book, and looked up the closest pizza place. Frank called and ordered two large pizzas: one pepperoni and sausage, and the other half vegetarian and half supreme with anchovies, his favorite.
"Well that's that," Frank said, hanging up the phone. "Let's discuss some of this now while we're waiting for the delivery boy. Where should we start?" They looked at each other, no one wanting to initiate the conversation. Finally Thomas decided to just get it over with.
"I guess my question is," he started, "how long are we going to be frozen for? I mean, sure, we could say we're going to be frozen for a hundred years, but how do we know that there won't be some catastrophe that kills the power to the lab and kills us right along with it? Who's to say this building will even still be here that far in the future? Who's to say this city will even be here?"
"I've thought a lot about that," Frank quickly answered. "Once we freeze you, we--Flo and I--will immediately hire some people to help us monitor you, and we'll train them so they'll know everything about these machines, inside and out. I'll write a manual for everything as well so that if there's something we missed, they can look it up there. If you're frozen long enough for us to have passed--which I'm sure you will be, it's not that long off after all--the people we’ve trained can continue to maintain things and keep the lab going."
"OK, that makes sense, but how do you anticipate dealing with the matter of funding? You can't run a lab forever without fresh money coming in."
"That's the ingenious thing about it all! Many years ago, Ervin here found out that you can predict nearly anything on the stock market using mathematics and know with near certainty when something will make money and when something will fail to return. We basically have a set of formulas that we can use to predict the right move at the right time, and generate piles of cash! That's how we've been funding our work so far. All the money we earn is split up and either put back into the lab or reinvested to return more money. We've also saved up quite a bit in many different banks so as to prevent all our eggs being in one basket."
"What if the economy collapses like in the thirties and bank runs prevent you from getting to your money?"
"Well my boy, I have a solution to that as well. I've stockpiled a large amount of cash in a safe and secure location that can be accessed in the event of such an emergency. That way the bills can still be paid and you can stay frozen till things get better. After all, that is the goal. Now that the research and development is finished, the cost to maintain the lab is vastly reduced. We just need to pay the electric bills and the workers. Simple stuff really."
"OK, well you'll be fine monetarily then..." Thomas thought.
"Oh absolutely," Frank insisted. "As a matter of fact, we're going to take ten-thousand dollars and stick it in a high-yield savings account at three percent interest after you're frozen. Provided we have the excess funds to do so, we'll add an additional thousand each year. If you were frozen for even only fifty years you would come out with over $160,000! You'll arrive to the future financially secure a
nd free to explore the world in whatever way you desire."
"Wow... That's a relief at least. But that still doesn't explain what we would do in the event of a catastrophe of some sort, or at the least, a power outage."
"I have an answer for that too! We have battery backup systems capable of keeping everything important running for twelve hours alone, and provided it's sunny outside, the solar panels on the roof will supplement things for much longer. In addition to that, we have gasoline powered generators that we can use for as long as there is a supply of gasoline. We'll keep at least a week's worth of fuel on site, and can purchase more if need be. Of course, if fossil fuels ever go out of style, we'll just upgrade the equipment to use whatever the next big energy source is."
"You really have thought this out haven't you?" Thomas smirked, realizing that Frank likely had an answer for nearly anything he could ask him.
"Most certainly! Basically we've designed this so that as long as this city exists in some form or another and there is access to electricity, the equipment can be maintained. If an emergency arises, of course, we can always wake you up early."
"Oh!" Thomas shouted, suddenly remembering. "How long ARE we going to be frozen anyhow?"
"Well that's the other thing we wanted to discuss. Personally I think you'll definitely need at least a hundred and fifty years to see any improvement at all. If I were to pick, I'd say a bare minimum of two-hundred years..." They sat in silence for a while.
"That's a long time..." Doug finally said, stating the obvious.
"Yes, yes it is..." Frank reiterated the obvious.
"A very, very long time..." Vera punched the obvious in the face.
Fortunately, the doorbell rang and killed the obvious before someone else could punish it further. Doug instinctively went up to greet the visitor and returned shortly with two delicious smelling pizzas. Everyone began to drool more than Pavlov's dog and quickly devoured the large majority of the two pies. Test subject number three, upon smelling the pizza, poked his head outside of the room he was stationed in for observation. When he saw what he had smelled, he hurried over to claim some for himself before it was completely obliterated. Overall it was a very joyous night. At the end of the day, all their questions were answered. Thomas, Vera, and Doug made their way home feeling reassured, happy, and very full of pizza.