Doktaruth shook her head. ‘Erlinder will live there with a team and continue to collect and store genetic material. That is his main area of interest. He is building a computer program that will tend the cryosleep pods, so that he can focus on collection of data. I need to remain here to supervise the next stage of the project.’

Again the older woman looked uneasy, which Cassy must this time have noticed, for she asked, ‘What is the next stage of your program? You said before that more pods were being installed.’

The older woman nodded. ‘They are a good deal larger than the old pods because the next stage of my research will be conducted on human subjects. They will be volunteers with life-threatening illnesses, but I am not happy to be progressing so swiftly. We did a good deal of experimentation on the effects of short-term cryosleep on mice and birds and more recently on monkeys and pigs, and we were able to awaken all of our test subjects without physical harm, but it is impossible to accurately assess the effect of cryosleep on their brains and on their minds, and there is no way to measure its effect on anything over a period beyond ten years. That is the longest we have had an animal in stasis and that was a rat. It lived to a ripe old age. The nearest to human was a monkey called Herod. He was put into cryosleep for just over seven years, and he woke fine, but he died of an embolism about six months later. We don’t know if that was the result of the stasis or natural causes.’

‘So all of the animals and birds you sent to Eden …’

‘Will be able to be revived in the short term, but beyond that we can’t truly know,’ Doktaruth said. ‘Of course, the idea is that the animals will be awakened and replaced every ten years, except for an animal whose species goes extinct. And we will be constantly monitoring the process and improving the science and technology of cryosleep so that the safe periods will grow longer.’

Cassy said rather abruptly, ‘I don’t suppose I could look at the last flamebird one more time.’

The older woman laughed. ‘If it were up to me, Cassandra, I would let you pet the bird to your heart’s content. But it is being kept in the live animal enclosure, and I need my security pass to enter it. That pass of your father’s would get you in, but your visit would be recorded and all hell would break loose. I promise, when they bring the bird to me, I will send word and you can come and see it.’

‘You promise?’ Cassy asked urgently, looking suddenly younger.

Doktaruth gave her a pitying look. ‘You are not responsible for what they have done to these birds just because you painted them.’