Our story begins with our lead climbing into his cryosleep tank. The doctors around him apologize that despite their best efforts, the disease inside his organs will destroy him in a matter of months and there’s nothing modern medicine can do about it. He thanks them for their help and they wish him luck and that he may awaken in a future when the technology has advanced enough to repair his organs.
Flash forward...
Our lead is stirring in a gel bath. Groggy and barely able to see, he wobbles in the bath. A station next to him chimes and there’s a dark spot in front of his vision where somebody has leaned between him and the green lighting. A gentle voice says she’s pleased to see him awake. It takes a moment to process all the sudden stimulation but then he panics and tries to sit upright. His disease, he can’t be awake if- The woman lays a hand on his shoulder and guides him back down. She’s happy to inform him that everything is already taken care of. He was revived almost a month ago but they kept him under to flush out the corrupted cells, building up normal functioning, and bring him back. He sighs in relief and drifts off to sleep again.
After a day to recover and get back to his senses, our lead is talking with a guide sent to get him up to speed on the world he’s woken to. His chamber was unearthed after a recent dig. The whole facility was buried, hundreds or thousands of years ago. Records don’t go that far back so none of the recovery team know how long guests from the past have been in stasis. It’s always an exciting find when they can recover and help people from stasis facilities, because the society also gets to try to fill in the gaps of knowledge of the old days.
As the guide walks him around the facility and they talk, our lead eventually stops and points out that his doctors, the nutritionists, and the guide, they’re all women. She laughs and says he’s quite right. Around 600 years ago or so, fewer males were born. And in under another 100 years, they were completely gone. Thankfully by then, science and technology had advanced to the point that artificial methods could lead to births without men and ensuring genetic diversity and a healthy population. Our lead is shocked, a society of only women! She laughs again. Indeed, outside of men woken from cryostasis.
With his hospital rejuvenation complete, our lead is ready to leave the facilities and start a new life. He’s being sponsored by one of the company leaders that runs the archaeological expeditions. The one that found him, in fact. As the guide finishes, she motions to the craft docking off the magnetic track running to and from the facility. Out steps an extravagant woman, dressed in an all white outfit that looks to be a combination of evening gown and business suit. She takes confident, quick strides and has made it from her craft to our lead in just seconds, before gripping him in a tight hug. Already ready to go, she exalts the wonders of the old world and cannot wait for him to tell her more and correct errors in her organization’s understanding of the bygone civilizations. She ushers him into the craft as the hospital staff wave good-bye.
The craft zips along the city’s tracks before pulling up to a pod holding a manor surrounded by huge gardens. The protective shield flickers on and our lead looks through it at the other domes and the estates peppering the sky. His benefactor puts an arm around him and hurries him towards the manor. She motions to a grand staircase and asks if he’d like to see his room first or is he thirsty? He’s surprised and let’s her know that he thought he was just here for the discussion and that he’d have an apartment or something. She scoffs and says that her house boy will have the very best, as she leads him up the stairs. He’s confused about the term “house boy” but she seems delighted. It appears the staff at the clinic didn’t give him the details so she’ll have the honor.
Reviving people and rebuilding them after cryostasis and decades of unstable power flows and a lack of maintenance is rather expensive. He’s built up quite a debt for the procedure and as his benefactor, she had taken it on for him. As is the custom for practically all men revived from cryostasis, of course. She’ll help him adjust to society and in return, he’ll join her as the estate’s house boy until his debt has been paid. Of course, he’s free to stay on after that, if he desires. She leads him to a room at the end of the hall and opens the door onto a well-furnished and fancy bedroom, practically larger than the apartment he was envisioning he’d be assigned. With the addition of a rather large ballgown placed on a platform in the center of the room...