Mitheral
"Growf!"
New Alcatraz 2387
In the year 2387 mankind has begun to slowly spread out to the stars. The process has been very slow as interstellar travel has been accomplished two ways. The first - and necessary step - is slower than light travel, ships that take years. At first this was done by humans or drones. Later more sophisticated synthetics were able to handle the work of setting up the second method of travel. That second method was by jump drive. Jump drives are short ranged and very, VERY expensive. However, the jump is instantaneous. (Recharging the jumpdrive takes a very long time however.)
All this meant that man’s spread to the stars has moved along sluggishly. Overpopulation, resource shortages have approached nightmarish levels. What we are left with is a dark and dystopian society where the rich are untouchable and the poor dependent on the rich for survival. The world is not unlike that of the TV Series Altered Carbon, or the movie Blade Runner.
Criminals in the 24th century are incarcerated in one of a few ways. Live and wakening incarceration is for slaps on the hand - not unlike being thrown in a drunk tank. For this class of criminal the cost of the other methods is not warranted for the brief stay or maximum sentence. Second is cryogenic suspension - used for those who do not warrant a Stack (memory storage on a disk that can be placed in a new body if it isn’t damaged). Cryogenic storage is for those with sentences between one and twenty years. Beyond that criminals are Stacked and Resleeved into a new body (whatever is available) once their sentence is up or they are offered parole. Their original bodies are often placed on the market and sold.
Our story begins when the one and only Methuselah terrorist is brought out of cryogenic suspension after over 300 years, which is unheard of. His records have been lost over the centuries. But some investigation indicates he was placed in suspension well before Stacking was invented. However, his cryogenic unit indicated a supermax incarceration.
It was a miracle he had survived revival. His body had been flooded with cryoprotectant nanotechnology several generations ahead of its time. His body was riddled with scars. Some were gunshot wounds. Some were major knife or even sword wounds. But has back indicated signs of torture. Every bit of his skin had been flayed from it. Whoever he was he hadn’t gone peacefully.
Whatever crimes he had been charged with - guilty or not - any evidence was long lost. A Life Sentence is considered to be 15 years. (Yep, 15 in most of the US.) 300 years was 20 lifetimes according to the law. So UNCTAC or just CTAC (basically the police) was left with being forced to wake him up for evaluation for release.
Your Character
I originally considered that might be his case worker / handler. Or unofficially you are an undercover agent (CTAC). However, you could also be just someone he meets after his social workers set him up with a place to live and a job - like a man on parole. If you are familiar with the Altered Carbon setting, you might be someone very rich who wants to try to put my character on the payroll - or maybe just wants to buy him as he is unique.
