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"In 1970 I found little difficulty staying 30 years ahead of the man in the street, and now I find it difficult to stay 18 months ahead of the man on the street."
- Vernor Vinge
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| EverRest Cryotorium | ||
| Rest forever in cryonic suspension among the stars. |
In the future world of 2081, wealthy individuals try to reach immortality by having their bodies frozen and placed in low Earth orbit until cures are found and tested. Unfortunately, the EverRest Cryotorium is suffering from the same problem as the International Space Station.
| The EverRest Cryotorium, No. 2034/HH in the National Astronautics and Space Administration Registry of Inert Platforms, had been falling in toward the planet for five years now. Everyone knew the orbit was decaying, but no one gave much of a damn.
The operating company had gotten its fees in advance, and ... they were long gone. The EverRest Corporation assured the survivors of "absent friends and loved ones" that internal systems and basic hull integrity would preserve the cryo-environment at an optimum 200 degrees Kelvin for centuries to come... Not all of the EverRest's inhabitants had been trustful of lawyers... and had converted their assets into bearer bonds, negotiable Swiss paper and gem-quaility stones. For the repose of these assets, the EverRest Corporation had provided titanium-clad, asbestos-lined vaults built into the base of each of the platform's twenty-four cryogenic "sleep-cases." These modern-day Pharaohs, wrapped in the chill embrace of liquid gases, had tried to provide for their afterlife as thoughtfully, comfortably and completely as any resident of the Valley of Kings. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes... Within six months of EverRest Corporation's demise, adventurers had matched orbits with the platform, entered it, and plundered each of the twenty-four "Star Vaults." |
| Technovelgy from Flare,
by Roger Zelazny. Published by Baen Books in 1992 Additional resources -
|
Compare to Suspended Animation (Frigorific Process) from The Senator's Daughter (1879) by Edward Page Mitchell, cold-sleep from Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children (1941), stasis from Heinlein's Door Into Summer (1951) and corpsicle from Pohl's The Age of the Pussyfoot (1965).
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