Beep… beep… beep…
I open my eyes and see that I’m lying in bed in a white, spotlessly clean room. I’m surrounded by people in white coats. One of them is approaching me. What’s going on?
„Well, good morning, miss Seavey, I hope you had a good 4 century’s sleep. The year is 2419 and 400 years have passed since you were frozen. How are you feeling?“
„What? How?“
And then I remembered…
„There’s not much we can do“, the doctor said. „You have less than a month to live.“
And in an instant my entire life changed. I couldn’t believe it. My life was coming to an end. I was not going to let that happen. Ever since I was younger I knew that I wanted to live forever. That might sound crazy but I know that I am destined to be something great. The next few days I spent looking up ideas that would help me beat death. I came across an article titled: „Will humans live forever in the future?“ and it said: „Cryonics is a visionary concept that holds out the promise of a second chance at life – with renewed health, vitality and youth.“ I immediately knew what to do. I would undergo cryogenic freezing and wait for years in the future until the medicine for my disease is found.
Then, I was frozen. I was floating in liquid nitrogen oblivious to everything around me for 400 years, waiting to be woken up when the cure is found.
And now, I’m freezing cold surrounded by doctors who keep asking me about various symptoms, but alive and well. They told me they put a tiny robot in my body to discover the illness and treat my body. I guess that’s how they identify health problems now. They also use 3D-printed replacement organs and robot-assistants, it seems. The future, at least for now, looks exactly like I would have imagined. I’m still getting used to the fact that all the people I ever knew are long gone and all the places I’ve ever visited are probably unrecognisable by now. I don’t even have any personal belongings. I’m leaving this afternoon, because some distant relatives want me to live with them, and the doctors say I have to be very grateful, because usually, „the unfrozen“, as they call us, live in special institutions until they get used to their new life. The nurse also introduced me to my personal assistant, which seems to be the norm now, because everyone else I’ve seen by now has a tiny white-blue android floating behind them and following them around wherever they go.
“My new ID says that my planet of birth is Earth, why is that even necessary?”, I ask Tatum, which is the name of the program the androids are running. Siri unfortunately retired back in 2037 but Tatum is a lot more efficient.
“Well, around 2100 a baby was born on Mars and from then on we have to specify which planet and colony we were born as people have been colonizing space because of overpopulation. That’s how humanity was saved. If we hadn’t done it, we would have killed each other.
“Are you serious? Are there any other colonies on other planets? “
“Yes, of course! The Lunar colonies!”
“Since when is the Moon a planet?”
“Since the people of Luna fought to change the definition of “planet” so they don’t feel inferior to the humans who live on Earth or on Mars. There was even a war between the colonies because of these silly conflicts around 2230 but there hasn’t been a single war since.”
“But how can you travel from one colony to another? Isn’t that expensive? And shouldn’t it take years?”
“Oh no, we just teleport, didn’t you have teleportation back in 2019?”
“Uhh… yeah, in Star Trek. We had airplanes, cars, trains,… Wait, so are we going to teleport home?”
“Exactly. Put that bracelet on and don’t worry if it feels weird, you’ll get used to it.”
“Woah, wait, I’m scared, can’t we just take the bus or something?”
“The bus? Buses don’t really exist anymore. Only flying cars. This is way more practical, you’ll see. Pug-pug, take us home!”
“Pug-pug? Who’s Pug-pug?”
And then I saw a hologram come out of the bracelet and a voice said:
“Location: Zagreb. Teleportation begins in three, two, one…”
My whole body was numb, spinning around recklessly, limp, nauseous and wobbly. I definitely thought I was going to throw up!
„You did so well for your first teleportation! Most people usually throw up when they do it, and if they don’t, they just complain about how numb, nauseous and limp they felt,“ said Tatum and I felt as if she could read my mind.
„As I matter of fact I can!“
„But how?“
„Scientists discovered a new brain cell that is connected via BTS to all brains around. And we have Internet access in the outer space. We can connect with every single planet and every being in space. We now know that there’s intelligent life in space.“
„WHAT!? BTS is still around? Did they freeze themselves too? Are they okay? How do they connect people to them? Am I connected to them? This is much better than I thought…“
„What? No, BTS is the newest form of wi-fi.“
„Oh okay, never mind… Well how do you communicate?“
„Using advanced smart phones and social media such as Ploonstagram and Twipler!“
„But how do you communicate? Don’t you all speak different languages?“
„Well since 2285, when almost all languages went extinct because of globalization, English has become the main language in the universe.“
„Well, it seems like the only thing that hasn’t changed is that English is all around!“
And so I went along my new and exciting life exploring the greatness I was always destined for.
