By Nathan Conlon
The human must’ve been shocked upon its awakening to see a bear using a computer. The sight of a bear alone would’ve been enough to set alarm bells ringing, but one checking emails over a morning coffee was something else entirely. It explained the hysterical cries issuing from the human’s mouth.
I have very little knowledge of English—the main human language—so I immediately called for Zaki. He’d studied human language all his life. Within seconds, the lab door crashed open with a thunderous boom.
“Zaki!” I scolded. “The human is already petrified! Calm yourself!”
We had to be extremely careful; our last human died of a heart attack shortly after awakening from cryosleep. That was seven years ago. We had no idea how many humans were still alive, but there couldn’t be many.
“I’m sorry, Yosta,” Zaki replied with nervous eyes, his paws raised in defense. “I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life!”
As had I. Earth was littered with the relics of a human civilization that had taken to the stars, never to return. They’d left no means of contacting them, but we were almost certain they were out there. There were so many unanswered questions, the most important being: why did they leave? We believed that the answer lay with these frozen souls—the ones who had stayed behind.
“Well don’t mess it up by scaring the poor thing to death.”
The human sat on the edge of the bed with wild, staring eyes; an orange robe barely concealed its pale skin and frail body. It had stopped yelling but breathed heavily, possibly having a panic attack.
Zaki took a deep breath and composed himself. He gently lifted a stool and placed it before the human’s enclosure. He sat down, making his massive bear self as small as possible so as not to intimidate the human. Good boy, I thought. The recorder clicked to indicate that it was live.
Because I hardly understood a word of English, this report is based on Zaki’s translation:
“Hello.” He waved a paw. This had been a human sign of greeting.
The human’s gaze darted anxiously between my colleague and me. Its breathing had slowed somewhat, but could still be heard through the glass enclosure, competing with the whirring recorder. Zaki swallowed, nervously rubbing his thighs.
“What’s going on?” said the human. “Who… How… ?”
“Relax. You are safe here.” Zaki’s words meandered like a gentle river—he was putting his study of Zen to use. “You have just awoken from a very long sleep.”
The human’s gaze drifted across the room, as if searching for the pieces of a jigsaw scattered through eons. “I’m a scientist…”
“Excellent.” Zaki gently leaned in. “You’re starting to remember—well done. Can you tell me your name?”
Its eyes drifted to the floor, brow furrowed in concentration. Millenia of cryosleep had no doubt clouded its mind. The recorder whirred on.
I was beginning to fear a partial memory loss when suddenly, its eyes lit up like stars.
“Martha! My name is Martha!”
Zaki glanced over to me and nodded. “Her name is Martha—she was a scientist.”
Exceptional. There had only been two other cases of a specimen remembering their name, and they had both been in Kralin, to the east.
The human rubbed its temples. “Why… How… No… No… this must be a dream. Bears don’t talk.”
Oh no. This is where it had gone wrong in the past.
Taking a deep breath, Zaki composed himself once again—but was clearly nervous. We both were. The answers we sought required the specimen to be alive. Our lifetimes’ work hung in the balance.
“Martha—” He spoke softly. “As I said before, you’ve been asleep for a very long time.”
The human tilted its head to the side. A strange, almost playful look came across its face, as if it was actually starting to believe that this was all a dream.
“How long have I been asleep, then?”
Zaki’s head slowly swiveled and looked up at me. Although I couldn’t understand the conversation, I knew the protocol. I gave him the nod.
“Well,” he said, “we can’t be exact, but…”
“How long?” the human repeated, slamming its palms on the bed.
“Prepare yourself.” Zaki raised his paws.
“I am prepared.”
Another deep breath.
“You have been in cryosleep for the past eight hundred seventy-two thousand years, roughly speaking.”
The human’s eyes glazed over and it collapsed on the spot.
“Zaki, you fool! This one better not be dead!”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Good job Nate – love it man. Keep it up!
Cheers Dee – much appreciated! :)
This story kept me intrigued but the ending left me wanting more- a conclusive something. Great writing and cool idea. I want to read more about these bears and their work.
I’m glad you liked it, Katie! It’s difficult to create a good story arc which feels complete in such a short space but perhaps I’ll write a follow-up to this one :)
Haha, what an unfortunate situation for all parties! I’m as intrigued as the bears to know what happened to humanity.
And where did the talking bears come from? And how long was the scientist expecting to be in cyrosleep? So many questions!
It’s great to hear that people are so intrigued! Perhaps I’ll write a follow-up – watch this space.
Exactly!
Sorry. The “Exactly” was supposed to reply to Michael Dolan’s posts. I guess the comments don’t nest so well.
I wonder what I would do if I woke up to find talking bears and that I’d been asleep longer than 8,700 Rip Van Winkles. I think my writerly brain would lament not being able to tell my spec fic writerly friends about it.