I turned to sprint to the back room housing the stasis chamber and slipped on the pool of coffee nearly falling to all fours. I clambered to the security door and fell against it looking for my security card. I found it and slid it wildly through the card reader until finally the door opened and the smell of stale sweat and incense poured out of the room.
It was dimly lit with candles whose light barely overcame the neon blue glow of the stasis fluid inside of the chamber. There was no scientific reason for it's color, the fluid itself was clear; Miranda said she just thought it looked awesome. Miranda looked awesome now, bathed in that neon blue light, suspended as if levitating, and completely naked. She was inside the chamber which was a clear glass tube about three feet in diameter and eight feet in height.
I was stunned, standing there contemplating what is must be like to be in stasis. Every physiological process in Miranda's body was virtually halted, with the exception of higher brain function. She wasn't breathing and her heart wasn't beating except for what could rightly be described as random signals "escaping" from the brain stem. Before the first human trials, for all we knew the chimpanzees were completely unconscious up until the point we drained the stasis fluid and administered the injection to wake them.
These thoughts continued to race through my mind while I slowly scanned the room and saw the source of the smell. Around the base of the stasis chamber, intermixed with the ring skinny white candles, were incense burners silently smoking. Around the ring of candles and incense there was a ring of nude students prostrate and whispering - their lips almost touching the floor. I recognized the four males as students from around campus, but the three females were strangers.
The hum from the equipment in the room suddenly turned into a din of beeping and buzzing, but above all I could hear the naked students on the floor wailing. I think that must be what it sounded like when Pharaohs died. Suddenly Miranda twitched briefly in the fluid as it began to drain into the floor of the tube. The volume of the wailing increased, and I could finally make out words, "It's time! Miranda's here! Get the syringe!"
By this time I was backed up against the wall as if the floor were crumbling from the center and was about to give way underneath my feet. I watched the females of the group scatter about the room. The thin brunette ran to the controls and ran the program to raise the glass tube into the ceiling. She continued typing rapidly to confirm that Miranda's vital signs were becoming stronger as expected.
The heavy brunette strode to the glass cabinet on the wall and began preparing the syringe to wake Miranda, and the blonde took a large wad of sheets and towels from a closet and quickly formed a bed extending from the stasis chamber out into the middle of the floor.
The males collected Miranda from the metal grating at the floor of the stasis chamber, who was now crumpled up like a rag doll. They laid her out neatly on her back in the makeshift bedding. The heavy brunette administered the shot, and the group reformed their circle around Miranda. They rocked back and forth on their knees praying. Miranda started shivering violently and suddenly stasis fluid began to flow from her nose and mouth. Now she was coughing and expelling the fluid in short geysers. The crowd started wailing again.
The strength slowly drained from my legs and I slid slowly to the floor. I leaned against the wall unable to do anything but watch in awe.
Miranda was now catching her breath and her hands weakly went from one student to the next, touching their heads as they wailed. When she had touched every one, they were suddenly quiet. Miranda's mouthed opened and then stayed motionless for a moment before quietly saying, "My children."
The heavy brunette clasped her hands together and put them over Miranda's navel, and without raising her head she asked "Where did you go? What did you see?"
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