The Ark

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

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

Over the years, they'd had many successes and only minimal failures. Eventually, their experiments led to a need to progress from animal experiments to placing humans in a sleep state for long durations. The original idea had been to use this technology for lengthy space exploration. As the project progressed, other suggestions for the technology were discovered, including possibly putting a person to sleep until a cure for a specific disease they were afflicted with could be found.

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

This first human experiment involved a simple sleep capsule and a crude version of the sleep-inducing formula (SIF) which was continuously infused into the sleeper's body through IV lines. A unique mix of gasses was administered by face mask, 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, continual monitoring and adjustments to the dosage of SIF were required. A physician or specially trained nurse needed to be on duty twenty-four hours a day, prepared to make the necessary adjustments. That first human experiment lasted two weeks and was considered by most to be a success, even though it took almost twelve hours for the young volunteer to regain consciousness.

Randy Rominski began forceful vomiting six hours into the waking process. While vomiting, he aspirated and later developed a severe case of pneumonia. After regaining full consciousness, Randy remained delirious for the next twenty-four hours and needed to be restrained. It took a full week before he was back to what could be considered 'normal'.

Further test results showed nearly all body processes had stopped during the sleep cycle. Food he'd ingested before the experiment remained undigested in his stomach. There was also evidence that skin and blood cells hadn't died off as they usually would have had the subject been awake.

These facts and others led Sullivan and Cowan to believe they were on track to find a method for stopping the aging process in a controlled sleep. However, the side effects of the SIF were considered a significant problem. Randy later made it clear he would never agree to be given SIF or be placed in a sleep capsule again.

After several years of 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 subsequent two-week-long test went much better; the test subject woke swiftly but was still briefly confused. He experienced two episodes of vomiting but was free of symptoms within two hours.

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

Longer duration tests came next and it became necessary for anticoagulant to be added to the SIF formula. This was required to prevent blood clots from forming in the extremities while the sleeper was immobile for several years.

At this juncture, the team agreed it was time for more extensive tests 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 face mask replaced the standard oxygen mask which had been used up until this point. The new mask was designed to increase the depth of respirations, which had been almost non-existent with the SIF in the occupant's system. By increasing the depth of respirations, it was hoped the pneumonia that often set in with poor ventilation could be avoided.

The plan had been to put four occupants to sleep for one year, using a central source of SIF for all test subjects, and have all systems monitored and controlled by computers. A twenty-four watch was established once the occupants were placed into the capsules.

The experiment proceeded as planned for the first two months, until early one afternoon when an alarm was sounded by one of the medical computers. The blood pressure of the subject in Capsule Four had suddenly crossed beneath the safe limits. The decision was made to remove the subject from the experiment, but before his capsule could be opened another alarm sounded because he'd gone into cardiac arrest. He was swiftly removed from the capsule, and resuscitation efforts continued for half an hour, but they were unsuccessful.

The autopsy which followed showed he'd died from a massive infection. By nightfall, the occupants of Capsules One and Three were also dead, passing in the same fashion. The experiment was immediately terminated, and the female subject in Capsule Two was rapidly removed from the capsule and awoken.

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

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

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

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

After a year of failed efforts to obtain new funding, Henry Sullivan was contacted by the Department of Defense and given the opportunity to continue his work under the auspices of the US Army Research Laboratory.

Working for the military wasn't the ideal situation for Sullivan because he'd wanted to avoid the political issues related to working for the government. He'd also been concerned about how much control over the project he would lose. In the end, agreements were made, and he'd accepted. The only demand Sullivan did insist on was that his assistant, James Cowan, be allowed to come along as his partner.

Once arrangements had been finalized, Sullivan and Cowan set to work immediately. Now they were armed with a budget many times larger than what they'd been working with before and they quickly began making improvements to their systems. After a year, they were ready to repeat the test which had gone so terribly wrong.

Four volunteer subjects were placed in the sleep capsules, with the plan of keeping them asleep for a year. It had been decided to continue using a shared source of SIF, purely for manageability reasons –this time, however, it would be better monitored and frequently exposed to specific low doses of radiation to kill any intrusive organisms.

The following night, a large blood vessel in the base of Henry Sullivan's brain ruptured. The hemorrhagic stroke leaft the brilliant scientist in a vegetative state. A ventilator was needed because the part of his brain which controls respiration was dead from the moment the blood vessel 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 suddenly found himself in charge of the project. He was almost as knowledgeable as Sullivan, and after some debate, it was decided the experiment would continue. By the end of the year, all four volunteers were awakened and experienced minimal effects from the SIF. That had been six and a half years ago.

Now in its sixteenth variation, SIF had officially been renamed SF016. From the moment when James Cowan took over responsibility for the program, efforts had been made to further automate the systems in hopes of creating an entirely automated sleep process.

There had been no further failures – until today.