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"We're about 20 minutes away from the point where Clarke's law kicks in and technology becomes indistinguishable from magic."
- Peter Watts
 |
| Suspension Room | ||
| A kind of prison cell; the prisoners were placed in suspended animation. |
Unique use of the technology of suspended animation.
| “But you didn’t quite get it, did you?” returned Heath sarcastically.
Assuming a more threatening tone, he continued. "Now get this. Baker, and get it the first time: any more of your trouble making, and in the ‘suspension’ room you go!” Baker started visibly. No suspended animation for him! What if he never woke up? Half-dead for the rest of eternity! ...The “suspension room”! That’s what that sickly sweet smell was, the gas that the subject was forced to breathe while the temperature of the room was slowly dropped to absolute zero, preserving the gas-saturated blood corpuscles of the body — suspended animation. Rarely used except in extreme cases, the suspension room removed unruly members of the crew from life temporarily so that they neither used up precious oxygen nor the limited food rations. |
| Technovelgy from Crossroads of Space,
by A.G. Stangland. Published by Wonder Stories in 1932 Additional resources -
|
Here's what it was like, after a mutiny!
“You don’t seem to appreciate what I’m doing for you, man,” Baker continued ironically, “you won’t have to consider oxygen or food from now on. This foul air is bad enough now as it is. And then if someone finds this ‘Pan’ drifting around a couple of centuries from now you’ll still be alive.” He was busying himself about the valves of the mixing tank preparing the gas.
Heath tried to raise his head. Then his arms and legs. He was securely bound to the table. A groan sounded behind him. Rawlins voice. Of course, they would have him in here, too. He thought furiously in his helpless position. Suspended animation! Conscious sensations would recede from him. There would be no feeling of cold or warmth. But his mind would be aware of things around him. His eyes would see with a sort of helpless abstraction. It would be a living hell! Death would be more merciful. Suddenly, a hissing broke into his confusion of thoughts, a swift hissing that carried with it an insidious sweetness. It was getting colder too. The preserving process was beginning !
“Sweet dreams, Captain!” suggested Baker, backing out of the gasketed door.
Heath felt a horrible nausea at the pit of his stomach after a few thin wisps of the saccharized gas were drawn into his lungs. He struggled with his bonds, pulling and straining with a desperate fury. Damnation! His brain was blazing with the gas-saturated blood surging through it.
Compare to moratorium from Philip K. Dick's 1969 novel Ubik, personality death from Harry Harrison's 1959 short story Robot Justice, zero-time jail from A World Out of Time (1976) by Larry Niven, Brainlock from Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) by William Gibson and virtual punishment from Complete Sentence (2011) by Joe Haldeman.
“You traitorous devil! It was a damned mistake I didn’t sentence you to ‘suspension’ while I was at it.”
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