Yuri was leaning so far forward, his helmet was practically touching the sarcophagi casing. “Why remove the limbs?”

“We can only assume they’re not required. Certainly maintaining the muscle and bone structure would be a drain on the hibernation support organs. Incidentally, those exterior organs are made completely out of Kcells.”

“It is an Olyix ship, then?”

“That’s the only indicator we have of their involvement. We don’t understand why the cells in the ship’s tanks weren’t used to fabricate the hibernation chamber mechanisms; they are considerably more sophisticated. Presumably because Kcells have been proven to work in combination with human biochemistry. Given this setup has successfully kept them alive for the thirty years since the ship crashed, it would be a valid explanation.”

“They snatched seventeen humans,” Callum said, “then did this to them to keep them alive. Why? I mean, what’s the bloody point?”

“Is it reversible?” Eldlund asked. “Can they be given their bodies back?”

“We can clone every part of a human body, or print it with stem cells, or replicate it with Kcells,” Jessika said. “The technologies are established. But actually doing a Frankenstein and stitching all those parts together is just about impossible. I’d say the only way to do it in this case would be to clone the original body, but somehow prevent the brain from developing. Which—” she sighed “—would take a lot of research. And even if you did succeed, you’d have the problem of transplanting the old brain into its new body.”

“Ha!” Yuri grunted. “That again.”

“I thought Hai-3 told you it was theoretically possible?” Eldlund challenged.

“Theoretically, yeah. But that’s another huge research project. Even if Alpha Defense approved, it would take decades and billions of wattdollars to get them walking around in a decent body again.”

Eldlund’s hand gestured at the sarcophagi. “I imagine they would think it’s worthwhile.”

“But the risk…” Callum said.

“You want to know if it’s acceptable? Ask one,” Kandara said. “Put one of these poor bastards into a decent human-built life-support system, flush the barbiturate shit out of their brains, and they might wake up.”

“And they might not,” a shocked Eldlund replied.

“Then you learn enough about the failure to improve the technique for the next one,” she said. “And keep going until we’ve perfected it. Because we all know we’re going to have to try this at some point. We’re not going to leave them like this.”

“The psychological trauma alone would be massive,” Loi said uneasily.

“Tough. For the record: If you ever find me like this, either wake me up or kill me. Don’t leave me like this.”

“I’m not—”

“There might be a way around this,” Lankin interrupted. “The doctors are hopeful they can recover the Odd One.”

“The Odd One?” Kandara queried. “What the hell is that?”

“Yeah, sorry. My team is a bit on the nerdish side, and they don’t have a lot of imagination. They called him the Odd One because he’s different from the rest.”