Jonas turned to Contreras. “I’ve been wondering about that. What kind of documents did you have Simone sign before she was stazed?”
Contreras glanced at Seba who said, “Sorry, Sylvia didn’t know about Simone until after she’d been stazed. Simone seemed to feel she was about to die…precipitously.” He glanced at Grace, “And I think Grace thought she might too.” Seba indicated the young Indian woman, “Arya, and some other people on our team who’re in Texas at present, took her at her word and stazed her as what they believed was a life-saving measure.” Seba’s intense gaze shifted back to Jonas. “I believe you’ve seen the video of Simone’s request to be stazed. Do you think she was as sick as she seemed to think she was?”
Jonas shrugged, “Hard to give a valid opinion without some lab work, or at least her vital signs. However, over years of oncologic practice I’ve learned that when a patient says they’re about to die, they’re often right. I’m pretty worried about how we’re going to handle her when she’s unstazed. I’d like to do it in a facility where we can immediately give her full medical support. Is that possible? Or will we have to unstaze her here and then zip her over in an ambulance?”
Seba looked surprised. “Oh, no. We can move her Stade,” he indicated a large, glistening, silvery box, “and a stazer,” he indicated another, smaller, silver box with cables coming out of it, “to the hospital and destaze her there.”
Jonas blinked at the mirrored box, “That’s Simone’s Stade?”
Seba nodded. “We’re still working on a method of attaching the records you sent us to her Stade. Then we’ll send her home with Grace.”
Jonas realized that he’d been thinking of Simone as if she were dead and should be in some revered location rather than parked in the corner of an industrial building. In fact, he thought, she has no vital signs at present, so by law, she could be considered dead. But she’s not. She’s in a form of suspended animation. He had a realization, The law’s going to have to be revised to deal with stasis.
The other young man had gotten the dog in the crate. Now he approached and put out his hand, “Hi Dr. Jonas. I’m Norm Tibbets. We’re about to staze my dog Saturn so you can watch if you like.”
“Um,” Jonas said, startled, “sure. That’d be interesting. Why’re you stazing your dog?”
They all started across the room toward the dog. Jonas thinking the dog looked perfectly healthy as it sat, eyeing them curiously, tongue lolling from one corner of its mouth.
Norm said, “Mostly to solve a problem resulting from the fact that I work half-time here with Staze in Charlottesville, and half-time down in Texas with GLI.” He shrugged, “And partly to prove that stazing a large animal causes no harm.”
Jonas focused on the words about large animal harm. He said, “What do you mean ‘prove stazing causes no harm’?” He glanced at the others, “Surely, you’ve already done that, haven’t you?” When no one answered him, he let his eyes rove back over them and decided they all looked a little uncomfortable.
Seba appeared the least troubled. He said, “Stazing merely stops time, which immediately resumes upon destazing. There’s no reason to expect any harm. Besides, neither the cricket we stazed, nor the hatchling chick everyone’s seen destazed, have suffered any evident effects. I’d be happy to be stazed and destazed myself.” He shrugged, “In the interests of completeness, we talked about stazing a dog and Norm volunteered Saturn.”
“Saturn?” Jonas asked.
“My dog,” Norm answered. “Named him after the rockets that launched the Apollo missions.”
Slowly, Jonas said, “I don’t think you’d better perform experiments on your dog. You could get in serious trouble.”
“I’ve advised them of that,” Contreras said.
“I don’t think of it as an experiment,” Norm said. “I just think of it as a kinder alternative to puttin’ the poor fella in a kennel when I’m gone. It’s been working great. He goes in his crate. I wrap it, staze him, then unstaze him again on the weekend when I can spend time with him. Best I can tell, he has no idea anything happened.”
Jonas’ eyes went to the perfectly healthy-looking dog. “How many times have you done this?”
“Two round trips so far. Today’ll be his third trip.”
“And a round trip is…?”
“Being stazed, then unstazed.” Norm looked at the dog. “When I got him to Charlottesville a week ago Wednesday, I stazed him so I wouldn’t have to lock him up in my apartment while I’m at work. End of the day Friday I destazed him and we spent the weekend together. Late afternoon Sunday I stazed him again. It being Friday, I just destazed him again right before you got here.”
Tilting his head curiously, Jonas said, “Why staze him late Sunday instead of Monday morning?”
Norm gave him a surprised look, “If I don’t want to mess up his circadian rhythms, I have to staze and unstaze him at about the same time of day.”
Jonas nodded, then frowned at a realization. He said, “If your dog’s only living two out of every seven days, it could live as long as you do.”
Norm nodded enthusiastically, “Not quite, but isn’t that increased apparent lifespan great? If you figure an average dog’s life span’s about twelve years, it’d be extended to forty-two. Longer if he spent much time in stasis when I was on vacation or otherwise couldn’t take care of him. If you got a dog when you were in your forties, there’d be a good chance he’d outlive you.” He shrugged, looking over at Saturn, “I’d like that, except I’d worry about what’d happen to him when I was gone.”
Arya shook her head,
