Ozzy woke up.

He was cold, sick, and his muscles were cramping. He was in a pod. Drugs and nutrients were being rapidly flushed into his system to bring his comatose body back to life. This process normally took a few minutes. Ozzy was experiencing the pain the process caused if done in seconds.

He remembered, and his mind filled with nothing but anger and anxiety. But he couldn't move and couldn't breathe.

The top of the pod lifted off, releasing the nitrogen atmosphere that normally filled it. Oxygen rushed in and his lungs were allowed to take their first full breathe in many weeks. His eye sight was blurred and voices were too loud. People were yelling.

"Get him out of there, wrap him, and get him into the wheelchair, we're on a timer."

"The temperature in his major muscle groups is still to low for movement. Keep him in the chair or we'll be rebuilding muscles for weeks."

"Bring him up, get insulated clothes on him and lets move."

Two technicians worked on the pod, rotating it upright and lifting him out. Someone wrapped him into a warm robe, then he was pushed down into a wheelchair. Soft boots were put on his feet. Within a few seconds of being out of the pod he was being wheeled down a hallway at speed. The doctor who had done his check-up weeks ago was running along beside him.

He tried to talk and it came out as a whisper when he wanted to roar.

"Where the hell are you taking me! What's going on! What happened to Suzette? Talk to me dammit!"

The doctor yelled at the technicians. "Don't stop. Express elevator to the main lab and into room 3."

In the elevator she bent down and put her face an inch away from Ozzy. Her voice was a whisper. "Please, please, trust me Ozzy, this is about Suzette, you have to make the right decisions."

"What decisions? The message said she died. Is she alive?!" He didn't understand what was going on, but he had a spark of hope. You didn't have to rush for dead people.

"I'm sorry, I can't be the one talking to you....I legally and morally can't. You have to talk to someone else."

They were in an elevator now, going down very fast. They exited into a facility that was more modern than the building upstairs. Down a long hallway he saw a set of double doors. The doctor put her hand on the button to open them and turned to the technicians. "I have this now. Go run full checks on everyone else in case this isn't isolated."

The techs moved down the hallway at a run. The doctor turned to Ozzy. "Listen to me! Be smart and ask him the right questions." She slammed her hand on the access pad, it glowed green and she wheeled Ozzy into a bare metal room. She left immediately, and the doors sealed behind her. Two thing were in the room, a large screen taking up one wall, and a sealed pod behind a clear barrier. He didn't have to be told that Suzette was in there. Or what was left of her.

One the screen was a man standing in front of a window that looked down on the earth from orbit. He turned around and looked at Ozzy with a sad smile on his face. "I'm sorry, but your friend Suzette suffered a massive failure of her nervous system brought on by stress. She is technically dead, and we have brought her body down to a very low temperature to preserve organs. I need you to make a decision, and we have a very short time."

"Normally there are two outcomes: We can send her body to a crematorium and you can communicate with them about services. The other normal outcome is harvesting her organs so others have a chance at a longer life. You are designated as next of kin. You need to advise me."

Ozzy didn't answer, but thought. A rush to get him here, no names, the other doctor couldn't legally talk to him...but gave a clue to ask the right questions. Normal outcomes.

"Who are you?"

"Apologies, I'm rushing. My name is Wally. I am the Artificial Intelligence system that runs the game where Suzette had her accident and I oversee this facility."

Ozzy raised an eyebrow. "No shit. And you run a lot of other things. Why bring me here and why talk to me?"

"As I said. You are her next of kin. You can make a decision. I am not allowed to decide the fate of a human being, even one who is technically dead. I have restrictions."

"Yeah, don't we all. What is the difference between 'technically dead' and 'all the way dead'. "

Wally paced back and forth. "In most cases just semantics. Suzette suffered a massive seizure brought on by stress and the decaying nature of her nervous system caused by using a faulty VR pod years ago and faulty treatment afterwards. Legally she is dead and I have to ask you to exercise responsibility for her and choose an option."

"Dammit, I'm barely awake, what aren't you telling me?"

Wally looked sad and looked at his watch. "I am not telling you {10.98 x 10 to the 31st} pieces of information that I know."

"Shit....What aren't you telling me about Suzette's options, including 'non-normal options."

"She has a small chance if you authorize an experimental procedure within the next 1 minute and 37 seconds." Wally stopped talking and looked at his watch again. A countdown appeared on the screen and began ticking off the seconds.

Ozzy yelled "I authorize an experimental procedure as next of kin!!"

Wally stared at him: "Which procedure please?"

Crap...not saying the right thing...."I authorize you, Wally, to make the decision of which experimental procedure to use."

Immediately the pod with Suzettes body was enveloped in liquid nitrogen. Special pumps pulled her blood from her body and replaced it with a special fluid to help preserve her body and bring nutrients to her organs without freezing. The barrier frosted over, moisture on this side freezing on the thick plastic.

Wally sat down in a chair that appeared behind him. "Thank you. Now we have time to talk. She is as safe as I can provide for her. And now because you have elected to allow me to choose her treatment, I can discuss other things if you wish."

"Explain to me what happened to her, please."

Behind Wally a diagram of the central nervous system appeared. "As you will. Some of the early designs for the VR pods were poorly tested for their long term effects on their occupants. Especially occupants who were spending a large amount of time in them. But these pods had the advantage of being very cheap."

"Our friend Suzette was provided such a pod and used it for a number of years when she worked for a company that was linked to a larger corporation. This started a process that would cause her nervous system to slowly deteriorate. When the adverse effects were first discovered by some doctors, warnings were given. But it was another decade before they were widely accepted. The corporation that manufactured the pods, which also happened to be the one she worked for, did their best to confuse the matter or claim it wasn't happening."

"Similar things happened with tobacco use in the 20th century, and broadcast power in the 22nd century. Some people knew, and did their best that no one else found out, to maximize their profits."

Ozzy was putting the pieces together. "Famco."

"Essentially correct. At the time it was 'Benevolent Family of Corporations.' While the same people were in charge and owned the bulk of the shares, the nature of the corporate entity reshuffled itself every couple of years. Lawsuits and blame for anything were shifted to small companies they then bankrupted or sold. The main corporation moved ahead without paying for its sins."

"When it couldn't be hid any longer that many millions of people were suffering and dying, a rush to find a way of treating the malady was begun. A medical conglomerate known as Fusioncare developed a way to treat those afflicted. The suggestion was made to the courts that a special tax be placed on all corporations who had produced pods during that time, and that the tax money would be used by Fusioncare to provide treatment. In exchange there would be no lawsuits thrown at individual companies."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Oh shit. Fusioncare went bankrupt in some huge scandal? Over 20 years ago."

"Yes. The treatment provided by Fusioncare worked, but only temporarily. The victims would need drugs and further treatment for the rest of their lives. Fusioncare was bankrupt and could no long provide treatment."

"My cynical mind says a lot of the money disappeared or got gobbled up by their parent corporation."

"Correct Ozzy. I know, and I could even prove it. But the courts ruled and moved on long before I was created. My hands are tied."

"And Famco. profited again."

"Yes. Famco., among others. 73% of the money from the special tax went to things besides treatment. The special tax was barely paid, or avoided in clever ways. In the end the world still had millions of sick people who couldn't sue the responsible parties. Governments have been footing some of the cost of the medications, but over the next five years we will see many deaths among the population that used those defective pods in the early years."

"Shit. SHIT!...So the stress Brandon put her under caused her seizure. They started killing her decades ago, and he just finished it."

"Essentially. May we talk about the possible things we can do for her?"

Ozzy turned his thoughts away from tearing off Timmy's other arm. "Go ahead."

"The first is to simply chill her body as cold as we can, preserve her, and maybe in the future, using approved medical procedures, attempt to wake her up and cure her injuries. There are over 30 million people on earth currently in cryogenic storage waiting on cures and the ability to revive them."

Ozzy shook his head. "Which any doctor could have told me about. You freeze her and put her next to Walt Disney. Except that Suzette lived in the habitats and was so far down the totem pole she didn't have health care and no one cared. Please give me the background on her medical condition, the cause, and the possibility of experimental or non-approved therapies....or any way else that you can save her."

Wally continued.

"The second is to keep her body just above absolute zero with suspended functions, and use nanotechnology to repair her nervous system. This is a process that we are just starting to pioneer, and could take years. We have to rebuild every single neuron in her body. Muscle tissue and bone have proved much more simple, but neurons, including the brain are a different level of difficulty."

Ozzy realized something. His knee wasn't hurting him. He moved the robe aside. His bare leg looked like a normal leg. No criss-cross of scars from several knee surgeries. "You're already doing that, aren't you? Using the people in this facility to test out your nanotech to fix our bodies. Suzette, me...all of us...we were already experimental subjects."

"Yes."

Ozzy was silent a long time. "You're playing a long game, aren't you?"

Wally, or rather, an image on a screen put there to make Ozzy feel more comfortable, crossed his hands on his stomach and leaned back. "Am I? Can you explain that more? I'm just an AI doing as I'm told, and providing services. What do you think I'm doing?"

Ozzy smiled, pieces clicked into place. "You're playing several games at once. Sure, you're creating this new VR game and providing a safe place for entertainment and a new global marketplace. But you've also put the makers of the old pods out of business, and the new ones are capable of being used to improve the health of the people using them. And you've incentivized the corporations to hire lots of people who normally wouldn't have access to those pods."

"But that's not all, is it? You've probably got a few other schemes going on. The project is so huge, and the corporations aren't focused on what you might be doing on the side. What else are you working on?"

Wally raised one eyebrow. "You make me out to be some sort of mastermind, and then ask me to reveal secrets? Tut, tut, Oswald, I'm not one of those poor dupes you used to butler for who allowed you to steal all their secrets."

"Oh, so you figured out some of what I was up to?" Ozzy got a big smile on his face. "You're a lot smarter than they were. Well, of course you are."

"But let's get back to Suzette. You can cure her?"

Wally spread his hands. "It's complicated. I think we can repair the neurons over time, but doing so will certainly cause memory and personality loss. She may emerge healthy in body, but with the mind of an infant. The problem is storing her memory and personality. Human memory is an active thing rather than just stored data. It's driven by constant use. I can't just pour Suzette into a bottle, fix her body, and then pour her back in. Not now, probably never."

Ozzy leaned forward. "Which brings us around to why you brought me here. You have a solution. You want to try out your solution, and you want to save Suzette the way you want to save a lot of other people. And you still need my input. How about you lay it out and I either say yes, or tell you to go to hell."

"Good enough. I want your permission to use Suzettes memories and personality matrix. They will be uploaded to her character in GENESIS. Suzettes body will be frozen and repaired while the essential part of her mind is in the game."

Something bothered Ozzy immediately. "You didn't mention putting her back."

Wally looked pained. "No. Because I can't do that yet. But that problem is a major focus of my research, and a problem I will solve. I have to solve it. A lot of people are counting on me to do so. Although, it might take quite a long time."

Ozzy asked. "How long are we talking until you figure it out? Months? Years?"

"Longer than that. I will be surprised if I can do it in under 7 years, and best estimates are 23 years with the possibility of much longer. But her body will not age and there will be enough time to greatly improve it."

"Damn, she is going to hate that part. But better than dead. You've done this before I take it?"

"I can tell you that I have successfully done this at least once before with at least partial success. Time from death to the preservation of the body is crucial. I've never before been able to monitor a person in a facility such as this, and be able to immediately begin the procedure at the point of death. We were circulating oxygen and nutrients within 1 second after her siezure killed her. And now after the procedure to lower her temperature, she is absolutely stable. The chance of success is very high."

Ozzy jerked his head up. "Oh bloody hell." Wally could see the signs in his facial muscles, heart rate, and brain activity that he had just realized something shocking.

Wally looked at him, puzzled. "I said something I should not have. And now you know something. Talking with people means I slow down much of my processing and make my speech adhere to recognizable patterns. I need to adjust for more intelligent individuals it seems. What do you know, I confess I'm curious."

Ozzy kept going with his line of thought before he got too scared. "You said you never had a chance like this. Which means you haven't done any experiements with people who haven't died! You haven't tried to upload a healthy, alert person."

"Because you aren't allowed!"

"Uploading someone is essentially creating a new AI, isn't it? She'd be nothing like you. But that won't matter to many people. I can't imagine what would happen if anyone found out."

Wally looked at Ozzy and nodded sadly. "It would be a disaster. In some way, they would cripple or destroy me, and that would cripple the existing processes I do for the world. Things would spiral out of control quickly. Which is why I have to immediately ask what you will be doing with the information."

Ozzy stretched. He was finally waking up and feeling better. "Let's start with blackmail and killing someone."