Free Bastion Science Fiction Magazine - Issue 4, July 2014 by Alex Hernandez George S. Walker Eleanor R. Wood Robert Quinlivan Peter Medeiros Hannah Goodwin R. Leigh Hennig

matter how many eminent scientists and doctors continued to affirm it, or how many people now accepted it as a part of their lives as normal as marriage or retirement, Anna stood firm in her belief that cryonics was wrong.
    “Remember Prometheus? Life is supposed to end in death.”
    Damian rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help it. “You’re starting to sound like one of the Anticry Brigade.”
    “Come on, Day. I may want nothing to do with cryonics myself, but I’m not out to rid the world of it.”
    He tried to keep the tension from his voice, but they weren’t debating coursework or passing judgement on faceless strangers any more. “Well, I’m here having coffee with you now because of it. So maybe you should ask yourself whether you’d rather I was dying from natural causes instead.”
    It had been like this between them in the days leading up to his preservation. He knew Anna was recalling those dark times too. She bit her lip and closed her eyes before reaching out to take his hand again.
    “Please, let’s not do this. I missed you, and I’m so relieved you’re back. Can we talk about something else?”
    He squeezed her hand, his heart racing as he considered the final big question on his mind. “Well, I could ask you if you’re seeing anyone. But I’d understand if you don’t want to talk about that either.”
    She waited for him to look at her before she answered. “No. I’m not seeing anyone right now.”
    “Right now? As in, maybe you will be next week?”
    She laughed. “As in, I was seeing someone a couple of years ago, but it’s over.”
    Damian grimaced. A couple of years ago for him, they were talking about moving in together. He buried his mixed feelings and ploughed on. “So…can we see each other again?”
    She sighed. “I’d like to, Day, but…I need some time to think about it.”
    He wanted to ask her what there was to think about, but he wasn’t that insensitive. He knew this was hard for her, too.
    Instead they changed the subject and drank coffee for two hours, catching up on Anna’s life and Damian’s plans. But unspoken questions remained between them, and Damian noted that Anna didn’t ask him how cryo had felt or whether he had been aware of his surroundings. And he didn’t tell her his anxieties of the unknown were gone, and he now welcomed his next cryopreservation; the one he would enter, like everyone else, before he was seventy years old in the hope of someone eventually finding a cure for old age.
    Although her beliefs still chafed, the first week of his return allowed Damian to grasp some of Anna’s fears. The world had changed a lot in eight years. Unfamiliar technology abounded. Governments had changed. Damian didn’t understand recent pop culture references and had nothing to discuss with friends aside from his cryonics experience. Everybody knew someone stored at the Institute, but not many people knew someone who had been reanimated, so he was a source of endless fascination. His friends had thriving careers while he still had the limited qualifications and experience of a guy in his mid-twenties. Most of them were married with children. Their lives had moved on without him.
    The same could be said of his family.
    His sister and her husband had offered to support him through the early months. Phyllis still took her relaxed approach to life and hadn’t lost her playful sense of humour, but she now exuded an air of settled responsibility. It surprised Damian how much that complemented her. It would take a while to get used to seeing her without glasses, though. The laser surgery she had always promised herself had clearly been a success.
    “It’s weird. I’m five years younger than you now,” he said one evening as he helped clear the table. He had been her big brother.
    She flicked him with a tea towel. “Don’t rub it in! You’ve already made me feel old enough for being a mother of three.”
    “Well, Ben was just a kicking bump the last time I