“It’s accessible, but without the cognizance—”

“Can you simulate an acid trip? Leave your body? What do colors smell like? Aw, man, what about the sex? If I had ABE, I’d be a maniac!”

“I think you already are.” I followed my exuberant new companion through the lower level and into the biology lab that held my designated cryogenic pod. “So Jason, are you the one who will be programming my pod?”

“Pod’s programmed. I’m the one who hot-wires the neural connections just before you go nighty-night. No worries, bro. Never lost a subject yet, except for Alec.”

“Who’s Alec?”

“Alec Russell. He was one of our first human guinea pigs. Let’s just say the dude didn’t thaw evenly. Again, no worries. We haven’t had a problem since we perfected the booster shots.”

“What if the booster shot wears off?”

“Can’t happen,” Jason said, checking a pressure valve on a pipe inside the cryogenic pod’s chassis. “To put you to sleep, we give you an IV drip that contains anesthetics and a booster activator. The activator mixes with those booster shots you’ve been receiving, essentially shutting down cellular mitosis, along with the aging process. The tetrodotoxin gel seals the deal. Cellular activity remains shut down until the vat drains and your cells come in contact again with oxygen. Doesn’t matter if you’re under a day or a century, until you’re exposed to air, you’re a Popsicle. Hey, ever wonder if ABE can be hacked?”

“Huh? No. It can’t be hacked; every person’s neural pattern is different.”

“Right, right. So, what’s a guy have to do to get rigged?”

“I’ve got the only prototype. The first ABE-100 editions should be available in April.”

“By April, we’ll be cruising past Mars. Come on, doc, hook me up!”

“Sorry, Jason.”

“I’ll make it worth your while. How’d you like to spend the training exercise in one thirty-day-long nocturnal emission?” Jason tapped the cryogenic pod’s control panel. “I call it ‘Omega Memory Injection,’ or OMI for short, as in, ‘oh my, do me again.’ It’s something new I’ve been playing around with. Just before you slip into cryogenic stasis, the sensory helmet engages a prerecorded visual that stimulates the cerebral cortex.”

“By prerecorded visual, you mean porn?”

“Hey, whatever you’re into, I don’t judge. I’m into Stackism.”

“Never heard of it.”

“Stackism focuses itself on objectivity and the willingness to try almost anything without prejudging it, as long as it doesn’t inflict harm upon ourselves or others. We named our philosophy after the late, great Robert Stack, who hosted an old TV show called Unsolved Mysteries.” Jason rolled up his sleeve, the words, IN STACK WE TRUST tattooed on his left biceps. “I’m a founding member.”

“Congratulations.”