Amy was already in the chamber, assisting the last member of a ten-person capsule into place. The man was undressed and covered by a sheet which served no real purpose other than to preserve the modesty of the sleepers. He could see the other nine sleepers, but from this angle, he couldn't tell the male to female ratio. Twenty years, naked, that close to other people who you'd only known for a few months at best wasn't a pleasant thought. He knew that if he were in that situation, he'd want a sheet too.

He watched as the IV was started on the sleeper who'd just been added to the capsule. All the man's EKG electrodes were already in place. Another technician reached into the capsule, placing a long catheter tube somewhere Brad didn't want to think about. He decided that he'd seen enough.

As he walked away, he thought back to the catheter tubes and IVs. Would the final sleeper have to hook all that stuff up themselves? He knew that was something he'd never be able to do.

The elevator arrived, and he rode it down to engineering. When the doors opened, he immediately heard yelling. Two of the engineering assistants were hovering near the reactor and seemed to be watching the confrontation.

“Are you a moron? What kind of stupid idea was that? If you were half as smart as you thought you were, you'd know that doing that could easily overwork the cooling pumps!”

When Carter responded his voice had a nervous edge to it. “Easy man, there's nothing to worry about, as long as you closely monitor the pumps, and you'll attain a performance boost of about four percent.”

A third voice jumped into the conversation. “Four percent? If you were lucky, you might get three, but that's meaningless. This reactor is already seventy-three percent more powerful than we're going to need. Why would anyone risk taxing the cooling system to gain four percent that isn't even needed? You're an idiot!”

“Gentlemen! What's going on here?” Brad demanded, irritation evident in his voice.

“Carter's messing with the automatic cooling systems. These things are carefully calibrated for safety and efficiency by the manufacturers and meet the requirements of our team. But this IDIOT thinks he can make things better, by ignoring their recommendations and making his own custom changes!” the engineer named Fitzpatrick explained in a frustrated voice.

“Carter, this is the last time I'll discuss this with you. RJ agrees with me that enough is enough. One more incident with you causing problems and we'll kick you out. If the doors are already shut, we'll sleep you and throw you out when it's over. You're far more trouble than you're worth. You need to remember that what you're doing is for the good of a team of ten thousand people. It isn't about you. If you can't think past yourself, then get out now!” Brad turned and stomped out of the engineering area.