White Space Season 2

never see that look again.
    “Can I have a few minutes?” Jon asked. “I want to say goodbye to Emma.”
    Cassidy nodded, kissing Jon on the cheek before returning to her mom and their neighbor, who was a few threads short of a sweater.
    Jon looked down at Emma, so still, so innocent. So dead.
    He reached out to touch her, running his fingers through Emma’s hair, remembering again the first time he’d seen her, in this church. He remembered her shoving cookies into her purse and couldn’t help but laugh through the tears now streaming his cheeks.
    “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, leaning down and kissing her on the head, then stayed beside her, still whispering secrets only she could hear.
    “I wish I’d met you sooner. I’m so proud of you for being such an amazing little girl. So many people here love you so, so much. As do I.”
    Jon went on, telling Emma all the things he’d wanted to say — how he would miss the many adventures they’d never get to have, and that he hoped to see her soon.
    Jon kissed her one last time, on the cheek, and said, “Tell your mother I love you both.”
    * * * *

CHAPTER 7 — Sarah Conway

    Blake led Sarah through several long and winding hallways, cavernous and dark, corridors illuminated only as they entered, then fading once left.
    They kept walking until they reached a doorway with an odd, blue insignia, scrawled in a style Sarah had never seen. She wondered if the symbol was a logo or perhaps written in an unfamiliar foreign language. The character seemed vaguely Asian.
    Blake stopped in front of the door and turned to Sarah. “I’m about to show you something that will shock you,” he said. “I need your promise that you will control yourself. Can you do that?”
    “Yes,” Sarah nodded, staring at the door, eager to see what was waiting behind. She ignored her bristled hair and chills, nodding as if to punctuate her yes.
    Blake waved his hand over the insignia. The door parted, and he stepped into the pitch-black room. Sarah hedged, wondering if Blake planned to kill her on the other side.
    “Come, now,” he said, kindly enough.
    Sarah entered the room, and the door slid shut behind her.
    “Lights,” Blake said. A giant ball of blue hummed to life above them, hovering a few hundred feet in the air. It was stunning, like a blue sun in their artificial sky, with arcs of powdered azure flames dancing in swirling circles around it.
    The light revealed the room: a giant dome, about the size of an indoor arena. Sarah gasped at the chamber’s enormity.
    “How big is this station?” she asked, clearly awed. “I’ve never seen anything like this on TV.”
    “You know,” Blake said, “I’m not quite sure. It isn’t mine.”
    “What do you mean? I thought you said it was your space station, your lab in the sky, or whatever you called it.” She couldn’t be certain if that was a real conversation they had shared, or one of her false memories.
    “Well, it is, I just don’t own it. But, Sarah, that isn’t what we’re here to discuss. I think, this is what you wish to see.”
    Blake pointed toward the ceiling, and the light grew brighter.
    Sarah then saw them, though she couldn’t believe it when she did — hundreds, maybe thousands of glass doors, like coolers in a supermarket, stacked in rows 10 high, and God only knew how many across, lining the walls on either side. Behind the doors, people.
    She gasped, grabbing Blake’s arm as if the doors were seconds from opening and spilling forth with zombies attacking.
    “Relax,” Blake said. “They’re in a state of induced stasis.”
    “What?” Sarah asked. “And who are they?”
    “Stasis is like hibernation, or at least that’s the best way to say it. They are sleeping, and will stay that way in these chambers, awakened only when needed. As for who,” he smiled, “come with me.”
    Sarah followed Blake, not really watching where she was going as she stared at the army of frozen faces buried behind the glass, though she couldn’t draw many details from the still-dark coffins.
    They stopped walking after reaching the far left wall, a few feet from a lowered row of chambers. “Chamber lights on, 1114 through 1120.”
    Light spilled into the boxes. Sarah whimpered, screamed, and fell a long, involuntary step back.
    “What the hell?” she cried out, turning to Blake, then back to the six illuminated doors, five with nude girls who looked exactly like Emma.
    “What the hell is this? What