"And here we are, your new home for the next thousand-plus years, Section C, row 1500, block 42, sleeper capsule 789," Louise said, blinking a few times. A vertical rotating lift spun a series of stasis pods down to and past the deck level, disappearing below. Many with people visible through the transparent lid, with only a few still empty. My new home stopped at the deck level, and the top opened on the inside was a gel.
"Nice, the view is not much, and I wonder if we will have any issues with the neighbours?" I said, looking around to see the endless rows of capsules.
"Arr, I can see you will be quite a card to spend the long nights with," Louise said, then blinked a couple of times, a gesture that was not flirting with me. The theme of this today had better not follow me into the virtual world. Louise tapped me on the shoulder and, with one hand, pointed at me, the other palm up towards the capsule.
"Let us get you settled in for now, shall we? First, I need you to remove your clothing." Louise said.
"Oh, I didn't know," I said before removing my ship's suit and stripping it to my boxers.
"Well, well. I like a man in a white boxer with red heart shapes. But they and the woolly socks have to go also." Louise said.
And I complied, removing the light jumpsuit slippers I had been provided on Earth. I stepped into the black interior, turned my back against the back of the capsule, and faced up.
"Let's get the formalities over with then. You are Walter Richardson, owner of Data and Information Solutions. You are electing to be placed in status for this journey. Plus, any reasonable time to disembark for up to 500 years after reaching a suitable planet that will be found and agreed in route by the ship's captain?" Louise said, and my personal HUD lit up, and an overlay of text appeared with a green accept or reject button. I selected accept.
"Thank you, Walter. Do you acknowledge for the good of the ship and the crew that you may be disconnected and woken early or terminated en route? This shall be done by order of the preference. And you... have selected with payment of 3 billion credits to preference Z in effect the last tranche? My, if I had known you were that rich, we could have got you a better location." Louise said with a small smile.
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Again, the text jumped into my HUD with the text Louise had just stated. Except there was a small line that read can be overridden by the ship's captain.
"Louise, who is the Captain of the Queens Lament?" I asked.
"It is an Artificial Intelligence. It calls itself the Queen," Louise replied.
I considered this for just a moment. I have made a few enemies in the last 10 years. My company had not been shy in getting ahead of the competition, and it was silly. Still, I wanted to confirm that no one could be influenced into maybe doing something stupid or putting me on a blacklist of some kind. The AI would be fair and incorruptible. I selected the Accept option one more time.
"Thank you, and last of all, your mind will be removed from your body," Louise said. Again, The text popped into my visions with a great accept button but no reject button, just 'ACCEPT', which I did. Foam started to fill the bottom of my capsule, surrounding my bare feet it was slimy but warm, and I liked it. I could feel my legs beginning to feel numb, and the movement of my body was getting difficult.
"Last of all, where will you want your mind to reside?" Louise asked.
That was easy. I had spent several months researching where I would spend the next thousand years. One of the things that people don't really know is that I became a data guy and was able to attract wealth because I am basically a lazy fuck. I don't want to work; I want to set something up that is self-fulfilling, and that would let me game and read the hours away, and that is the one area in which I knew I could excel in one of the fantasy worlds.
"Which one," Louise asked
"Not one of the established ones, something that has not been played to death," I said via a text in my personal HUD.
"Well, we have several. Are you looking for an advanced world off exploring the universe? Or maybe one of the old magic and swords worlds like Sol. We could put you into the main game if you have the online credits. You could buy your way into a kingship on the central lands or something like that?
"Yes, I would really like to go into Sol," I said. With that, my Personal HUD lit up with a splash, asking if I wanted to enter Sol. I selected accept.
The capsule lid closed with a hiss; I heard Louise talking to someone outside. "I know they don't have to strip. I just think it will be funny when they wake up with 5000 other sleepers, and they don't have any clothes". that was the last thing I remember, that and the total, utter darkness.