“Please.” I smiled innocently, enjoying the ease at which I could get under Captain Courageous’s skin. By next week, he’ll be calling me a lot worse than Mr. Eisenbraun …

Commander Read finished his debriefing then left, accompanied by the rest of Alpha Squad, my former fiancée included.

Dharma stood. “I must join them. Perhaps next week when you switch over to Alpha Squad you can tell me why you seek to provoke Commander Read?”

“I’ll tell if you’ll tell.”

She acknowledged my wit by tapping my forehead with her index finger, then left the galley.

“Professor Eisenbraun.” The grapefruit-size neon-blue orb mounted along the ceiling crackled to life. “Please finish your midday meal and report to the science lab for your debriefing.”

“Acknowledged. And GOLEM, it’s called lunch. You sound like a bad sci-fi movie.” Squeezing the surprisingly tasty contents of the shrimp and mango sauce pouch into my mouth, I tossed the wrapper into the nearest recycling bin and left the galley for the main corridor. Turning left, I followed the curved hallway until I arrived at the science lab, the double doors opening to greet me.

The dimly lit, pie-shaped chamber was twice the size of the galley, its walls converging to meet the transparent central vertical column housing GOLEM. The shaft was vacant, the computer apparently occupying another level. A ceiling-mounted light bathed the liquid-filled tube in a luminous golden hue. The rest of the room was dark, save for four violet recessed lights, giving the lab the look and feel of an after-hours nightclub.

To my left were the cryogenic pods. Set in four rows of three, each seven-foot-long by four-foot-wide acrylic capsule was housed inside a rectangular steel base mounted to the deck. Dangling from the ceiling above each row of machines was a robotic trunk identical to the appendage in the galley. The mechanical arms appeared lifeless, awaiting the neural commands of their master.

Occupying the opposite side of the chamber was a surgical suite. Two more steel appendages hovered above an aluminum operating table. These robotic arms appeared far more sophisticated than the others and were equipped with a rotating wheel of surgical instruments from scalpels, probes, and forceps to a laser used to seal wounds.

Set along the wall was a pair of ten-foot-high, twelve-foot-wide sliding aluminum doors. Curious, I reached for the handle of the door on the left and slid the panel open.

It was an immense walk-in refrigerator. The walls were lined with shelves that were stocked with IV bags, plasma, and an assortment of medications. Resealing the door, I tried the next compartment, surprised to find a blast freezer harboring a similar layout.

My eyes caught movement—GOLEM was descending silently through its tube.

Sliding the freezer door shut, I cut through an aisle of cryogenic pods and was standing by the vertical tube as GOLEM hovered just above eye level.

“Good afternoon, Professor Eisenbraun. How are you feeling?”