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Human hybernation is to animal hibernation as animal hibernation is to constant wakefulness In its reduction of life processes, hybernation approached absolute stasis It is nearer death than life
- Dictionary of Science, 101st Edition
RAJA FLATTERY lay quietly in the hybernation cocoon while he fought to overcome his terrors
Ship has me
Moody waves confused his s He could als onto the ebon blackness which surrounded him
I was Chaplain/Psychiatrist on the Voidship Earthling
We were supposed to produce an artificial consciousness Very dangerous, that
And they had produce soly infinite powers
God or Satan?
Flattery did not know But Ship had created a paradise planet for its cargo of clones and then had introduced a new concept: WorShip It had demanded that the human clones decide how they would WorShip
We failed in that, too
Was it because they were clones, every one of them? They had certainly been expendable They had known this from the first moments of their childhood awareness on Moonbase
Again, fear swept through him
I must be resolute, Flattery told himself God or Satan, whatever this power may be, I’m helpless before it unless I re as you believe yourself helpless, you reh resolute," Ship said
"So You read my mind, too"
"Read? That is hardly the word"
Ship’s voice came from the darkness all around him It conveyed a sense of remote concerns which Flattery could not fathom Every time Ship spoke he felt hih a furry sense of subjugation, but every thought aed and inadequate
What could a ainst a power such as Ship?
There were questions in his h, and he knew that Ship so have I been in hyb?"
"That length of tiless to you"
"Tryyou"
"TellI’ve been in hyb"
The words were barely out of his mouth before he felt panic at what he had done You did not address God that wa or Satan
"Why not, Raj?"
Ship’s voice had taken on an air of caled with it
"Becaus because"
"Because of what I could do to you?"
"Yes"
"Ahhhhh, Raj, ill you awaken?"
"I am awake"
"Noti?" He felt that the ansas deeply important; he had to know
"You h its history for Me, replayed itself at My Command"
"Replaye the same way every time?"
"Most of the times"
Flattery felt the inescapable truth of it and a cry was torn from him: "Why?"
"You would not understand"
"All of that pain an"
"And the joy Raj Never forget the joy"
"Bu replay?"
"The way you , Raj, or a holo-record of a classical draetting a bit ht me out of hyb?"
"You are like a favorite instrument, Raj"
"But Bicke"
"Ohh, Bickel! Yes, he gave Me his genius He was the black box out of which you achieved Me, but friendship requires more, Raj You are My best friend"