Winter

I watched intrepidly as my colleagues stared at various computer screens around the lab, trying to pay attention to the fifty-some-odd tasks that went into the current trial. They wore something akin to a hazmat suit, protecting themselves and the delicate machinery that was in the hermetically sealed room. I sighed, my breath fogging the window that separated me from the lab. I’m glad to not be as technically involved this time, as I didn’t care for the full-body protective gear. The suits grew uncomfortably warm after a few minutes of mild activity, and those actually in the room had to wear them for hours at a time. I did it once or twice in the beginning, but I eventually made it a priority to avoid wearing them at all costs. I suppose that's one of the perks of being one of the lead researchers involved, my job slowly morphed into an “overseeing” role as we made more progress and acquired more funding, allowing our initial group of four scientists to expand tenfold. So many new faces are being brought into our little world. I remember when Kelvin Laboratories first opened and I was a much younger man, working in a much smaller lab. They didn’t have as much funding, only taking on smaller projects, certainly not as important as the work I did now. When Kelvin opened a branch nearby, the smaller lab was destined to go under, being unable to compete with the pace that Kelvin was going to set. I left as soon as I could because I knew I was meant for more important work than the smaller lab could offer. Shortly after I joined Kelvin, we made massive contributions to the renewable energy community, thus establishing our dominance in the area and our position as the global forerunner of science and innovation. My specialty was in thermodynamics and much of my preliminary work was in that field. I worked in that path for the first half of my career, harnessing the laws of heat and energy to accomplish incredible feats. I was proud of my work and while satisfied with my current position, sought to rise higher. I thought that the opportunity would never come until I received a “summons” from the administrative council that ran the lab.

________________________________________

I walked down the clinically clean hallways that made up our labyrinthian complex, anxiously awaiting the meeting I was currently trying to find. Turning a corner, I arrived at a nondescript door at the beginning of another endless hallway, with only a single plaque, engraved with a number - 537 - to mark it as any different from the countless doors I passed on my way here. I paused for a moment, collecting myself, before grasping the handle of the door and entering the room. I found myself in a simple conference room, artificially lit and sparsely furnished. Typical. A person in a dark suit stood at the head of the table, with graying hair and thin glasses adorning his face.

“Dr. Trotsky. Thank you for making yourself available on such short notice. I understand you are a busy man.” He spoke, a quiet voice, but one that commanded respect.

“Please, join us, and we can begin introductions.”

He gestured to an open chair at the table, the other seats occupied by three people. I sat down and appraised the others. They were all dressed in the typical research scientist attire, bleached lab coats, tidy name tags, with neat folds and precise edges. I suppose I shifted uncomfortably, as my slightly frazzled hair and shortness of breath from the walk felt like billboards advertising my inequities to the others here. Before the silence could grow complacent, it was broken by the man at the head once again.

“Thank you all for joining me, I have the pleasure of being familiar with you all, but I’m afraid that privilege isn’t shared with you. Allow me to rectify that. My name is Benedict Graves, I am part of the administrative council that runs Kelvin. You all have been gathered here to be offered a position on one of our newest endeavors. It is in a previously unresearched field and will prove to be a daunting challenge of our capabilities as a laboratory.” As he spoke this, I saw the other scientists perk up. I won’t lie, I did too. Who wouldn’t? Here we are, all employed at a globally recognized lab, being offered an opportunity to be a part of something never before done? Graves continued.

“Each of you represents what we consider to be the best of your respective field and we hope, with your combined efforts, we will change the world.” He gestured to the woman across from me. She was surprisingly pretty for her job, easily outshining many of the other women in my department. With long, black hair and piercing blue eyes, she carried herself with an air of haughtiness, inspecting us with a discriminating gaze, as if looking at a particularly benign insect. I attempted to return the look but couldn’t muster the will to do so. I was out of my element.

“This is Dr. Michelle Gasly, from our Biology division. Next to her is Dr. Malik Al-Hafin, Computer Technologies and Programming.” Gasly sniffed and turned away. Al-Hafin nodded curtly, his groomed hair and beard remaining staunchly in place, under some external force keeping it frozen in position. He wore a turtleneck under his lab coat, in silent protest to the typical dress shirt or blouse that dominated the fashion here. Graves then moved his hand to the other side.

“That is Dr. Pedro Ruiz, from Fluid Dynamics and Engineering.” The man next to me waved nervously at the others. He wore round glasses, framing his narrow face. Upon closer inspection, he looked more uncomfortable than I did, his eyes darting from side to side, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. I watched as he pulled at the cuffs of his sleeves, clearly desiring to be anywhere else in the world, rather than in this room right now. I chuckled inwardly and shifted my attention from Ruiz back to Graves, who spoke when our eyes met.

“Finally, we have Dr. Lionel Trotsky, from our Thermodynamics and Energy department.” I managed to nod, all the while attempting to mask my disdain. I was the best and most experienced geothermal researcher in this facility, not just some lab rat from the Energy Department. Luckily, I did not need to hide it for long, as the attention turned back to Gasly when she cleared her throat, then spoke.

“What are we going to be researching? We have quite the collection of… experts here.” She paused before experts as if she doubted the aptitude of the word in this scenario. She was trying to snub us, something that I almost respected if I wasn’t one of the objects of her condescension.

Graves nodded, “Yes, we do indeed.” He hit a button on a remote that suddenly appeared into his hand from an unseen pocket and the wall behind him lit up, becoming a screen for an additionally unseen projector. There was a single word on the screen.

Cryogenics.

________________________________________

It was 15 years after that meeting, almost to the day. I have it marked in the calendar on my phone. I never thought we would get this far. The conflict within the group was immediately apparent, as Gasly and Al-Hafin seemed to try and walk all over Ruiz, all the while I was the one doing any work. Graves let that slide, as long as work was getting done. I almost thought he was joking when he came to the group about six months into the project, telling us that “we didn’t have to like each other, as long as research was being done”, but he was serious. The Council didn’t care if we bickered and fought all the time if we kept moving forward with the project. It was 10 long years before we were finally able to run an initial test on an apple. It took an immense amount of power, very nearly exploded in our faces, but it worked. We succeeded. After 5 minutes in Winter, our lab's shorthand and the codename for the process, the apple showed absolutely no signs of decay. Things moved quickly after this, our funding increased, and more coats were assigned to our project. We slowly scaled up, achieving our first animal freeze 3 years later, putting a rat in Winter for a month. The tests continued, our research continued and by now, the conflicts in the beginning had fallen to the wayside, only to be replaced by an unspoken tension between us. But that doesn’t matter now, everything was going to change after the experiment today.

Our first human test. By some miracle, we got the green light from the Council. Ruiz and Gasly wanted to do another small test, after all, we had never done anything larger than a small dog. But I pushed back. We may never have another chance to do this. We need to go big, get as much information as possible from this trial! I had worked tirelessly on making this project viable, I wasn’t going to let this trial be something insignificant, just to not get reapproved. They came around. Eventually. I had to make some compromises, but we agreed to a year-long trial. Preparations were made, our large-scale prototype was tested and completed. We were so close; I was so close. And of course, my job was already done. I just needed to wait.

So, there I was, watching my colleagues and coworkers, in their protective gear, through a sheet of reinforced glass. They were close. Al-Hafin kept walking by, giving me a thumbs up and a gesture to the readout across from me. Three minutes. Three minutes till Winter. I allowed my mind to wander, imagining how it would feel. Just a blink. Cold, freezing cold, for a single instant. Then waking up, a year later. The possibilities. Patients with threatening illnesses or lethal injuries can be frozen, kept alive, and healed. This technology has the potential to make billions in the private sector. And my name would be on it! Al-Hafin walked by again. One minute. Alright. The scientists were moving into position, those unnecessary were exiting. I breathed slowly, anxiously watching the digital clock drain. One minute became forty-five seconds. Forty-five became thirty. My heart rate began to increase.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

I could hear the blood rushing to my head, as the thump in my chest grew louder and louder, until finally.

10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5...

4...

3...

2...

1......

I watched, as the scientists around me erupted into cheers, though their cheers seemed infinitely far away. Success! We’d done it! I was in shock. It was so fast! An entire year gone, in only an instant. I tried to grin, but my face didn’t respond. I tried again, but to no avail. My concern grew slightly, but it was replaced by the realization that most of our animal subjects experienced a brief loss of motor skills after Winter. I relaxed and watched them continue to celebrate. Like a silent observer, I witnessed colleagues hugging, high-fiving, talking animatedly. The administrators in the viewing room were speaking quickly and gesturing to clipboards. Al-Hafin and Gasly shared a kiss, Ruiz was clapping, but they were thousands of leagues away. Why aren’t they letting me out? A slow chill began to creep up my spine. I had to be forgetting something. We hadn’t talked about the protocol for what happened afterward. Hell, I hadn’t thought of it. And they were all still there, laughing, smiles for miles. WHY WERE THEY JUST STANDING THERE?

...standing there. They were all in the same position from when Winter came.

I shouldn’t be seeing this. Just a blink…

I shouldn’t be awake.

I was supposed to be waking up, a single year feeling like a blink of an eye.

But I could see the celebrations.

I could see them laugh.

I could see the readouts, everything green.

I could see them all, proud of their accomplishment. My accomplishment.

And there was no way that I could tell them I was still awake.