AL Clark - Jonathan G. Meyer (good books for high schoolers txt) 📗

surrounding each of them; waiting for their first patients.

“I wish I could have woke up here,” Al confided to Chris. “When I woke up, I thought I was having a nightmare.”

“Me too,” Chris replied. “My mom is here somewhere; I hope she can wake up in one of these beds.”

“You mother is here?”

“She’s the one that helped me get aboard. They claimed the lottery was totally unbiased, but it does help to know the right people,” Chris proudly informed Al, “She is the senior electrical engineer on this ship.”

Al put his hand on Chris’s shoulder, smiled and said, “Lucky you. Not everyone has a mother like that. I think the hibernation units are in the next room, let’s see if we can find her.”

The Hibernation Unit Storage (also known as Hiber-Pod Bay) was dark and quiet. Tiny lights outlined the walkways, with the rest of the room cloaked in shadow. Standing on end, tilted just a little, and resembling tombstones, was a room full of hiber-pods. Row after row of blinking lights, indicating the status of each pod, reminded Al of colored fireflies on a summer night.

They stepped up to the closest pod to get a better look. Instead of a name, there was only the number four. A small glowing window allowed them to see the face of a man, maybe thirty years old, with brown hair, and the slightest of smiles. A foggy mist of coolant flowed around his peaceful sleeping face.

The pod indicator lights were blinking green, which was a good indication he was still alive. There was some in this sleeping crowd that were not so lucky. An occasional blinking red light meant some of these people were not okay, and might never see the end of their trip.

They moved to a pod with the blinking red lights. Determining if it was a man or a woman was difficult. Whoever it was, they died a long time ago.

“We need to find my mother before it’s too late.” Chris was worried and with good reason.

Al had come to a realization. “There are no names and a lot of pods. We need to know the number assigned each person to find your mother. With the fog in the windows, it might be hard to recognize her. Maybe, if we can find a working computer terminal, we can look it up, or it’s possible there is a handwritten list stored somewhere for emergencies. Let’s look around and see what we can find.”

Small offices lined the outer walls of the hiber-pod bay, and they systematically searched them. The lights came on when they entered these rooms, and the search progressed quickly.

In one office Al found a safe with a card reader and a key slot. He tried his card, but nothing happened, so he continued his search. All the computer terminals were off-line or without power; it was impossible to tell which. Working towards the end of the module, they searched all the offices and checked all the cabinets and drawers that were not locked. They found nothing useful and met at the door at the far end of the bay.

That is when Al remembered the keys he found in Al Clark’s room.

“I’ve got keys!” he exclaimed. Al reached into his pocket, grabbed the keys, and held them up for Chris to see with a big smile on his face.

“Yeah...so?”

“Follow me,” Al said. He turned around and headed back to the office that held the safe.

Chris fell a little behind as Al rushed back, so he entered the room to find Al trying one of the keys and sliding his card. He kept trying different keys until on his third attempt the safe popped open.

“I found these keys in the cabinet with my gun and my card.” Al pulled the door open.

“I’ve never seen keys like that,” Chris said.

“That might be because they are from way before your time. It makes sense they would use these old keys to add a second layer of security to the access of highly secure areas. They are almost impossible to find and hard to reproduce. If these are Al Clark’s keys, he had a high-security clearance.”

In the contents of the small safe was a single thin journal. On the cover, in faded lettering, were the words: Hibernation Unit Code List. The journal was old and dry, and they had to handle it with care. Still, the little book was precisely what they needed.

****

THE JOURNAL WAS A BACK-up for a back-up. A code book that referenced names to numbers and was the last line of defense in case the records were lost. It was abbreviated and crude, but it told them what they needed to know. On the left side was a line of numbers starting with one and increasing on down the page. To the right of the numbers was a row of names with the top name being Tobias Effinger. Following the line to the right side of the page led to a description; Captain, Commanding Officer, EC-Excaliber.

Chris’s mother was number twenty-six. Her name was Elizabeth Morris, and she was in pod number twenty-six with her position listed as Chief Electrical Engineer.

Chris was delighted, and wanted to go wake her right away. However, Al cautioned, “I don’t think it’s that simple. Do you know how to operate a hiber-pod?”

“How hard can it be?” Chris asked.

Al was not so certain. In spite of his doubts he said, “All right, let’s go and see.”

They returned to the hiber-pod bay, and it didn’t take long for Chris to locate his mother’s pod. She was one of the lucky ones. The indicator lights on the outside of the pod were all flashing green. Elizabeth was a very attractive woman, and Al thought her face looked serene and beautiful. The fog in the pod obscured the details, but he could tell she had the same blonde hair as her son—only longer. The resemblance to Chris was startling.

Under the flashing lights on the control panel, was a small cover that popped open when pushed on, and inside were gauges, buttons, dials and more lights. One troubling tiny light glowed a steady crimson. Operation of the pod appeared complicated, and there was no button or knob labeled WAKE UP. If the process was done improperly, it could kill the person inside. They looked at each other and said almost simultaneously, “We need a manual.”

They left Chris’s mother to her dreams and headed back to their quarters. Along the way, they each grabbed another piece of fruit from the trees in the park; Al tried an orange, and Chris another apple. They ate them without speaking, each thinking thoughts of their own.

In their quarters, Chris ate a package from the mess hall. Al decided he wasn’t hungry. They each opened a bottle of water and sat down at the table to plan their next move.

Chris was disappointed. “Surely they have manuals somewhere for the hiber-pods. I can’t believe we didn’t find any.”

His hopes had gone sky high when they found the journal. When they realized they didn’t know how to operate the units, his hopes fell.

“I take it you and your mother are close?” asked Al.

Chris sighed and answered, “Yeah, she’s great. She and my dad are both great. I was fortunate to have them for parents.”

The look on his face turned sad as he told Al of his mother and father, and the decisions they had to make regarding the trip to Avalon.

Chris was the only child of Elizabeth and Thomas Morris. Both successful professionals with the income that accompanies it. He had gone to the best of schools and graduated as valedictorian of his senior class in high school. He graduated third in his class at college. Afterwards, he started an apprenticeship in advanced ship propulsion and was ready to start his second year when he got the call for the trip to Avalon.

His mother and father surprised him with a party the night before they left. A party they would never forget; a bittersweet celebration that would be the last occasion they celebrated together. Chris’s father was happy for his wife and son. Unfortunately, he did not make the lottery and had to be left behind.

His father talked to him that night, “Sometimes things don’t go the way you would prefer. I can’t go—but you and your mother must. I will be happy in the knowledge that the two of you will have a better life.”

They called Chris to the ship the next day, the day before it left. He arrived early in the morning, ushered aboard, and taken directly to the room where his hibernation pod was. The man that helped him into the pod said this spot was supposed to be filled by an experienced propulsion engineer, and that he was one, of only two, with hiber units located outside the hiber-pod bay. He was very fortunate.

In their rush to get underway, he had missed orientation, and the walk-through that the other passengers received; despite the late notice, he had made it. He was going to Avalon, and his mother was going with him.

“My mom will know a lot more about the ship...when we wake her.” Chris told Al between yawns. “Where do you think we should look first for a manual?”

Al’s answer was thoughtful, “It just makes sense to me they would store the manuals somewhere in the medical or hiber-pod bays. We probably need to try the keys I have, and see if there are cabinets or drawers that we missed that can be unlocked.”

They had a plan, so with renewed hope they retired to their separate rooms to try and get some sleep. Visions of what might be made them restless, and kept them from a good night’s sleep.