THE ARK

James Cowan was by far the most knowledgeable person when it came to the inner workings of the sleep program. Fourteen years before, he had signed on to assist Dr. Henry Sullivan, who was then the world’s leading expert in the concept of long-term sleep programs.

Over the years, they had many large successes and a couple failures. Eventually, their experiments led to the need to progress from animal experiments to actually placing humans in a sleep state for a long duration.

The thoughts were that this technology could be used for lengthy space exploration trips, or to possibly put a person to sleep until a cure for a specific disease that they were afflicted with could be found.

The subject of the first human experiment was a graduate student named Randy Rominski. He and eight other students answered an ad that was offering them one thousand dollars to take part in special sleep experiment. After the physical examinations were complete, Randy was selected above the other eight students and the test began.

This first attempt involved a simplistic sleep capsule, and a crude version of the sleep inducing formula (SIF) that was continuously infused into the sleeper’s body through IV lines. A special mix of gasses was also administered by facemask while the subject remained asleep. The breathing gas, in conjunction with the SIF formula, created what was known as the Sleep Effect. During this experiment, it was noted that continual monitoring and adjustments to the dosage of SIF were required.

A physician or specially trained nurse was needed to be on duty twenty-four hours a day, to make the necessary adjustments.

That first live experiment lasted two weeks and was considered by most to be a success.

When the experiment ended, and the flow of SIF was discontinued, it took almost twelve hours for the young volunteer to regain consciousness.

Randy began forceful vomiting six hours before waking, and in the process aspirated and later developed a severe case of pneumonia.

After finally regaining consciousness, he was delirious for the next twenty-four hours and had to be restrained. It was a full week before he was back to what could be called normal.

However, there was evidence that almost all body processes had stopped during the sleep. The food he had ingested just before going under was still undigested in his stomach. There was also evidence that skin and blood cells had not died off as they normally would have, had the individual been awake.

These facts and others led Sullivan and Cowan to believe that they were on track to find a method to stop the aging process while a person was in a controlled sleep.

However, the side effects of the SIF were a major problem that would need to be addressed. Randy later made it clear that he would never be given SIF or be placed in a sleep capsule again.

After several years additional work on the SIF formula and with the introduction of a new drug that was administered at the time of awakening, most of the side effects had been eliminated.

The next two-week-long test went much better; the subject of the test woke up quickly but was still briefly confused. He experienced two episodes of vomiting, but he was feeling free of symptoms within two hours.

Additional tests indicated that the severity of the symptoms increased as the amount of time subjected to the SIF increased.

With the longer duration tests that came next, it became necessary for an anticoagulant to be added to the SIF formula, to prevent blood clots from forming in the extremities while the sleeper was immobile for several years.

The team agreed that it was time for a larger test of the system. Under Sullivan’s supervision, Cowan re-engineered the sleep capsule so that urinary catheters were built in and tied into a central waste disposal system. A positive pressure facemask replaced the standard oxygen mask that had been used up to this point. The new mask was designed to increase the depth of respirations that were almost nonexistent with the SIF in the occupant’s system. By increasing the depth of respirations, it was hoped that pneumonia that often set in with poor ventilations could be avoided.

The plan was to place four occupants to sleep for one year. There was a central source of SIF and all systems were monitored and controlled by computers.

A 24-hour a day watch was maintained and the occupants were placed into the capsules.

The experiment proceeded as hoped for the first 2 months. Then early one afternoon there was an alarm sounded by one of the medical computers. The blood pressure of the subject in capsule four, which during the sleep period was always extremely low, had suddenly crossed below the danger limit.

The decision was made to remove him from the experiment. Before his capsule could be opened another alarm was sounded, he had experienced cardiac arrest. He was rapidly removed from the capsule and resuscitation efforts continued for half an hour, but in the end, they were unsuccessful.

The autopsy that followed showed that he had died from a massive infection. By nightfall, the occupants of capsules one and three were also dead, each passing in the same fashion. The experiment was immediately terminated and the subject in capsule two was rapidly removed from the capsule and awakened.

Upon awakening, she woke up slowly but remained confused. Twenty minutes after awakening, she developed a fever that rapidly rose to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. IV antibiotics were administered and she was diagnosed with a massive systemic infection. Two days later, she too was dead.

The subsequent investigation showed that the shared supply of SIF had become contaminated with a common and usually harmless bacterium. While in the sleep-like state, the body systems that would normally combat such a minor problem were inactive and by the time anyone was able to intervene it was too late.

Questions were also raised about the competence of the medical staff in their handling of the crisis. Because of massive public pressure and the threat of legal action, the private funding for the entire project rapidly dried up.

While devastated by the failure and the loss of life, Sullivan was encouraged because one thing was clear; almost all body processes were definitely stopped during the sleep period.

After a year of failing to obtain new funding, Henry Sullivan was contacted by the Department of Defense and given the opportunity to continue his work. He was informed that if he agreed he would be working for the US Army Research Laboratory.

Working for the military was not the ideal situation. Sullivan had wanted to avoid the political issues related to working for the government, and he was concerned about how much control of the project he would lose. In the end, agreements were made and the only demand Sullivan made was that his assistant James Cowan is allowed to come along as his partner.

Sullivan and Cowan set right to work and now armed with a budget that was many times larger than what they had been working with before, began making many advances. After a year, they were ready to retry the test that had gone so terribly wrong before.

Six and a half years ago, four volunteer subjects were placed in the sleep capsules with the plan of keeping them asleep for a year.

After much discussion, it was decided to continue using a shared source of SIF for manageability reasons, but it would be better monitored and frequently exposed to specific low doses of radiation to kill any intrusive organisms.

The night after the subjects were placed in the capsules and the continuous infusion of the further modified SIF was started, a large blood vessel in the base of Henry Sullivan’s brain ruptured.

The hemorrhagic stroke left the brilliant scientist in a vegetative state. A ventilator was needed to breathe for him because that part of his brain was dead from the moment the blood vesicle ruptured.

Two weeks later, with his children and grandchildren at his bedside, the life support system was disconnected. Henry Sullivan was pronounced dead ten minutes later.

James Cowan found himself suddenly in charge of the project. By this time, Cowan was almost as knowledgeable as Sullivan had been, and after some debate, it was decided that the experiment would continue. At the end of the year, all four volunteers were awakened and had minimal effects from the SIF.

Now in its sixteenth variation, SIF had officially been renamed SF016. From that point on efforts were made to further automate the systems in hopes of creating a completely automated sleep period. There had been no further failures until today.