“No,” Simone said. “The way I’m feeling, I’m not sure I’ll be alive tomorrow.” She looked back at Arya. “This was my idea. I want to be stazed to await the approval of Arvinzamab, the new monoclonal antibody treatment for ovarian cancer. I’ve been tested and my tumor cells have the antigen that Arvinzamab attacks so it should work for me. I understand that no human has ever been stazed before. I also know that no animal bigger than a hatchling chick has been stazed. I understand that there may be unknown risks and that I might die sooner if I’m stazed than if I’m not. I’m willing to take that chance in the hopes that, stazed and then later unstazed and treated with the antibody, I might live.” She closed her eyes a moment, then opened them and said, “Is that enough?”
Arya said, “You understand that we’re going to put you in a chamber and stop time around you. That we’re not going to do anything to make you better. Correct?”
Simone nodded exhaustedly.
Arya turned to Grace, “And, Grace, as Simone’s wife and understanding all the risks, you agree to her being stazed?”
Tears in her eyes, Grace nodded, then realizing she should speak, she said, “Yes, I do.”
“Do you guys want to wait for us to staze a larger animal first to be sure it doesn’t cause a problem we couldn’t detect in the chick?”
Grace shook her head, but Simone said, “Please no. I don’t think I have the time.” She glanced at Grace, “When you unstaze me, I think you’d better have me at the hospital, all ready for treatment. I’m not kidding about… not feeling like I’ve got much time.”
The door to the other room opened and Gunnar stuck his head in. Seeing that no one was talking, he said, “Are you guys ready?”
Arya said, “I guess so. I don’t think Simone feels up to walking in there. Can you guys carry her? Or perhaps carry her chair?”
Grace helped Simone sit up in the chair, then Gunnar and Emmanuel picked up the chair with Simone on it and carried it into the other room.
Still filming, Arya ran ahead of them and saw that the men had Mylar wrapped and clipped around a box with a chair in it. The front remained open. Arya ran ahead and pulled that chair out. She left the phone’s camera recording, though she knew it pointed at crazy angles while she moved the chair.
The men set the chair with Simone down and Gunnar scratched his head. “I don’t think we can carry her chair into the box.”
Simone gave a weak chuckle, “I’m going to be stazed in a cardboard box?”
“Um, yeah, sorry.”
“No, no, it’s fine. Grace, can you help me stand? Then Arya can put the chair back in there and you guys can settle me onto it.” She looked up at Gunnar, “Will that work?”
He nodded and they set about carrying out the plan. Arya’s camera lost the angle again as she moved the chair again.
A few minutes later they had the Mylar flap clipped shut over the front of the box, excepting a little window in the upper front corner. Arya filmed over his shoulder as Gunnar peered in at Simone and said, “It’s gonna be dark in there for a couple of minutes until we get everything closed up and can staze you, okay?”
Simone nodded.
Gunnar and Emmanuel clipped the rest of the Mylar closed in the front, then Gunnar stepped over to one of the stazers, pulled out his phone, and found his passwords. He started keying stuff in. After a minute or so he got a puzzled expression and looked up. “How long should we staze her for?”
Arya and Emmanuel stared at him.
Grace said, “We’ll just unstaze her when Arvinzamab’s approved, right?”
“Yeah, but we have to choose a time that she’d come out even if we all got killed and never unstazed her.”
Arya wondered if they should set it billions of years in the future, when the Earth would’ve been consumed by the sun. That way if Simone came out without anyone around to help, she’d be dead before she had time to suffer. But she didn’t propose that out loud.
Then, from inside the Mylar and the box, Simone said, “If you guys aren’t around to unstaze me I’m gonna be on my own anyway. So, set it for a century. They’re sure to have a cure by then. I’ll just have to hope someone finds me and helps me get set up for treatment.”
Grace said, “Don’t even think that! I will be there next year when we bring you out.”
Arya heard the capacitors charging.
Grace stepped close to the box, “See you soon honey.”
Simone said, “See you—” Then the snap of the capacitors’ discharge cut her off.
The guys started unclipping the Mylar and, in a minute or so, unwrapped a gleaming slivery, box-shaped Stade. Arya recognized the thousands of tiny sockets on its surface were because Gunnar had used his new nubby Mylar.
Grace brought her hands to her face and exclaimed “Oh!” She staggered a little, but Emmanuel caught her before she went down.
Arya stopped filming.
After Emmanuel had eased Grace into a seat, Arya took a knee in front of her. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I think I’ll be fine in a bit… I’m not sure what happened. At first, I was just astonished when they unwrapped it and Simone was gone, or… or stazed, I guess. I mean, I know that’s what we came here for, but I just…” She sighed, “I guess I didn’t consciously expect it to work.”
After a moment Grace got up and walked over to Simone’s Stade, putting a hand on it. “It’s warm,” she said, surprised. “Is that
