Bob carefully laid his body down in the bodylength tube. It was a low temperature, and his naked extremities were feeling it. He looked up, as a technician slid the cover shut, dogging the bolts shut. A rumble could be faintly felt through the isolating standoff's that the tube was mounted on. He counted backwards to himself, trying to ease the fear.
Ten, nine, ei--. In mid number, the process took place and his physical shell was flashfrozen, his mind suspended.
* * *
--ght, seven. Bob was now awake, in the future. He didn't know whether it was ten years in the future or ten thousand. All he knew was that the medical science of this age was capable of restoring his lungs.
He tried to get up, failing miserably. As he wiggled his feet, they stopped moving long before he could feel them hit an obstacle. Bob raised a hand, feeling a similar reaction. He therefore lifted it parallel to his body.
Ye God! His... fingernails... they were at least a meter long! As sensation returned and his sluggish neurons warmed up, he could feel his hair. It cushioned his head and made it's way down to his toes in a curling, braided river that suggested to him that it was far longer than he was tall.
The cover slid back, making a grating noise. The technician looked in was not the long dead male one, but a pretty Asian woman in a white labcoat.
"Welcome to the thirty first century, Mr Smith."
Bob nodded, feeling dazed. "What's wrong with my fingernails, and hair?"
The lady looked in the tube, blushing as she saw his state of undress. "Well, they grew slowly over the last millenia. We could slow down the nails, but we couldn't do much about the hair without harming your skull, or possibly your brain."
"Can't you cut them, please?", Bob asked.
"I'm sorry. Veins have grown in them quite a bit. There would be... complications."
Bob sighed. "It's always something. Have the terms and conditions of this companie's stewardship of my estate been fulfilled?"
The pretty woman nodded. "Yes sir. If you will please get into this wheelchair, we can take you to Processing, where the doctors will have a look at you."
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