The room was cold and metallic, the harsh light bounced off every surface. And yet, she strongly recalled being in a thick fog, drawing breaths slowly as if through a straw, the sound muffled all around her.

“Delilah, can you hear me?” A voice she did not recognize asked her a question she could not answer. A hand crossed her field of vision drawing her attention back to her surroundings. “Delilah, are you with us yet? Delilah?” The hand snapped it’s fingers pulling her focus.

A sharp ringing through every bone in her body, something she could somehow hear in her toes, and she felt her thoughts suddenly snapping into place. She could know few things with absolute certainty: _She is Delilah E. Davidson of New York. She is a renowned biochemist the world over. And if she is think these thoughts then the world is in trouble…again. “Oh, fuck me, not again!”_

—————————————

“How much have I missed?” she asked the group gathered before her, two men and a woman in lab coats, a woman with a clip board, and several suits and military personnel in varying colors stood a ways back.

“84 years. You have been frozen for the last 84 years, Delilah.” A man in a lab coat spoke up, the voice from earlier.

“And who may I ask are all of you? None of you seem to be old enough to be anyone from my lifetime.”

“I am Dr. Seamus Collins, the head doctor here at CryoCorps. The gentleman to my left is Amir Singh and the woman to my right is Eva Strauss,” Dr. Collins motions to the others in lab coats. “They are the co-heads of research and recoveries at CryoCorps.” He motions through the rest of the the room. “Joining us is also, Mary Tench, a representative of your estate and assorted members of the government and U.S. Military, whose attendance I assume you understand.”

Delilah nods her head, sort of. Up to this point she has only used her eyes and voice. The rest of her body wasn’t responsive in the same old way as her eyes were. “Yes, I understand. Before we move on, however, can you please explain the box I’m in to me.”

Delilah watched the doctor puzzle together the best explanation in terms she could understand. She watched him through a small window on the front of a machine in which she was suspended, in what she could not determine. She couldn’t feel anything enough to guess.

“Cryo didn’t turn out like the movies, at least not right away. When you were frozen the science wasn’t 100% when it came to our understanding of thawing.” Dr. Collins explained, carefully wording each sentence. “Some people haven’t regained full motor control upon being woken up so these chambers allow time for the body to decide what will work again and to what extent. Almost all case so far have been successful as far as brain activity, but some level of paralysis hasn’t been uncommon, unfortunately.”

Delilah took a moment to take in the last several minutes. Her reality was a bit complex: _she was 84 years into the future of a world she was only meant to be a part of again if things went severely wrong._

__

_“_If you’ve gone through the trouble to wake me there is a reason, so let’s hear it. How’d we mess up the world this time around?”

__

A military representative steps forward and opens a file he’d been holding. “Are you familiar with the theory that receding ice caps and thawing permafrost layers could potentially lead to a global water contamination situation, caused by microorganisms present in runoff waters that spread diseases to both humans and animals alike?” He doesn’t wait for an answer before launching into his next sentence. “This is now becoming a reality and at this moment our scientists are struggling to contain the outbreaks. This is why you were woken up, Ms. Davidson.”

Delilah felt an electric tingle in her finger tips, a sensation she found familiar and oddly settling. It was akin to banging your elbow on a door jam. She flexed her toes in the goo she could start to feel around her.

“I’m flattered sir but what exactly do you expect me to do for you. If your best can’t solve this problem and we have advanced more than 80 years beyond me, well, maybe it’s time for us to make peace with what the world has become.”

“You can’t be serious!” He furiously charged at Dr. Collins. “Is this some kind of joke to you? We were told she would help. All this time and money wasted!”

Dr. Collins stood up and was eye to eye with the military man. “You were told she was a renowned scientist that helped once. We made no such claims.”

“Why the fuck was she even frozen in the first place!” The military man charged at Mary.

She held up her clipboard to halt his fiery speech. “Ask her?” She pointed to Delilah.

“I never planned to actually be woken up for science, anyway. My daughter had a disease that impacted her organs. We learned early on I was a donor match, so when my time came and I was ready to make peace with what I had done with my life we opted to freeze me should she ever need anything. I was meant to be let go when she passed. Do you know what has happened to her?”

Mary piped up from her chair. “I actually do, yes. She passed a few years ago, natural causes. She was a great mother.”

Delilah perked up in her chamber. “She had children?”

“Yes ma’am. Two boys and a girl. Sadly my brothers couldn’t be here today, so I am here solo on behalf of the family. I have children. My children are starting to have children. Please help in anyway you can. For their future. Then you can stay or go in any way you’d like.”

Delilah looks about the room and locks eyes with Mary. “You told my mother should she need you, you’d come back for her. She may not need you, but we do.”

“Show me what research you do have,” she declares out her window.