Part 3: Miracles & Wonders

Alex quietly sipped his coffee. Jade twiddled with her hair. Together, they silently waited for John or Kwame to come give them some news. They managed to get the man in the capsule into the medical compartment. John did have some training back on Earth, and he would do what he could. For now, there was nothing to do but wait.

The silence was broken when Kwame came in. “Alex, you should come see this.”

“What is it?”

Kwame opened his mouth as if to answer, then stopped, and thought for a moment. “You really must see it for yourself.” Alex exchanged a puzzled look with Jade, shrugged his shoulders, and followed Kwame out.

When they entered the medical compartment, John was reading some instruments. Laying in a bed was someone who only vaguely resembled the emaciated man they dragged in here. He was propped up, looking around calmly, seemingly just analyzing the room. He paid no attention to anyone else in it.

John was twitching with excitement. “This is really incredible, never seen or even heard about something like this… I’m going to be famous! I wonder if I will get to name it…”

“John, what are you talking about?” Alex looked at the man in bed. “What did you do to him?”

“Well, when we brought him in, I could tell he was suffering from Advanced Hibernation Syndrome. I hooked him to a nutrient drip, and did my best to stabilize his vitals. I honestly figured he was a good as dead when we unhooked that primitive neural interface from his head.”

“Okay… so explain this.”

The man in the bed stopped scanning the room, and looked at Alex. “Swordfish geometry,” he said, matter of factly, and then went back to ignoring everyone else.

“He’s been doing that for the last half-hour,” Kwame said.

John nodded in agreement. “It’s the strangest thing. I was only giving the bare minimum of nutrients, so as to not overwhelm his body. But his vitals quickly stabilized, so I gave him some more. He seemed to respond well to that, I kept increasing the dosages, and he just sort of, well, swoll up.”

Alex looked at the man. He wasn’t the feeble creature they dragged in here. In fact, he looked like a man who worked out quite manically. The skeleton like torso now was covered in massive muscles, they gray skin a healthy deep tan. “Can he understand us?”

“Well,” John started, “that’s the thing. He doesn’t speak Geetel. Kwame checked out the capsule-”

“It had materials in English,” Kwame said, “I showed them to John.”

“I spoke English back home,” John explained, “there are differences between what we use now and what the material in the capsule said, but they seemed minor. I tried to speak to him when he regained consciousness, but he seemed to ignore me. Then he started rambling in Geetel. Just odd stuff.”

“Kwame, you guys found written records in the capsule, any idea on a name?”

“Not entirely sure, Alex, but John here seems to think his name is Michael.”

Alex walked over to the bed. The man continued to examine the room, ignoring him. Alex crouched down and said, “Michael?”

The man stopped looking around, and turned to Alex. As serious as possible, he said, “Felonious scampi. Nuuuuuuuuuuuuton. Farfarfarfararoooooooo. Flurp.”

Alex shook his head. “Okay…. erm, I’m gonna go with Michael for his name. John, do you think he’s a threat?”

“Not likely, but hard to be sure.” John tapped a monitor. “His metabolism is off the charts.”

“Alright, here’s what we are going to do. Kwame?”

“Yes, boss?”

“I want you in here to keep an eye on this guy. Jade says we have about 26 hours until we get to the Rock. I’m going to grab some sleep, John, you come wake me when Kwame tells you he needs some relief. This guy does not leave this room, got it?”

John and Kwame nodded in agreement. Alex left the room. He wasn’t sure what to make of what he just saw. They dragged what was as close to a corpse as one could be and still be alive out of that capsule. Now it looked a normal, albeit insane, man in the medical compartment. Alex was baffled. He just hoped this wouldn’t cost him some money. But he wasn’t alone with his thoughts for long.

“Captain!” John shouted after him, “I have a theory on our mystery man.”

Alex stopped and turned around. “I’m all ears. I hope you’re going to tell me some fancy research institute on Earth will pay big money for something like this.”

John gave a puzzled look, and shook his head. “No, hadn’t considered that. Actually, I think I know what’s going on with this guy.”

“And?”

“I wrote a paper on the long term effects of hibernation during my first year at school. One case I remember reading in my research was about this old Earth program with hibernating astronauts. Back then, the trip from Earth to Mars took over a year. They wanted to see if they could use that time more productively.”

“There was a marking on the ship that looked like some old scientific organization”

“I know, right? So this experiment, they put the astronauts into a hibernation, slowing metabolic functions down as close as possible to death. But they were able to keep the conscience mind awake, or something close to wakefulness. The astronaut still would not perceive time the way we normally do.

Instead, training and education records were connected to the astronaut, the idea being that they could, um, enhance, I guess would be the right word, enhance the minds of the astronauts. Early tests showed greater cognitive abilities as a result. But only one test flight was made… and it was lost.”

“So let me get this straight, you think this guy back there is some astronaut who went missing centuries ago? This could be a more valuable than I thought.”

“You’re missing the big picture here, captain. Limited cognitive gains were shown by subjects who underwent the procedure for a few weeks or months at a time. This guy has been floating out there, thinking, learning, for centuries… the possibilities are staggering.”

Just as Alex was ready to respond, a shout came from the medical compartment. “John, Alex, you need to hear this!” John looked at Alex, cracked a grin, and ran back towards the medical compartment, Alex followed, confused.

When they arrived, Kwame looked at them, shrugged, and pointed towards the bed. The man was sitting up, and looking Alex straight in the eye. “Captain Michael Henry, National Aeronautics and Space Administration �" Mars Division.” He extended a hand. “A pleasure to meet you, sir.”