[ WP ] You 're the first person to enter into cryogenic stasis after volunteering . Only something horrible happens : even though the doctors think you 're in stasis you 're still conscious , and scheduled to be frozen for 5,000 years .

I was conceived on Earth, *old* Earth. When I was first running for office, they did n't believe me. Run a nutrient scan, I finally told them. You'll see the markers of gestational exposure to Iron 12 in my blood. It let me capture a certain popular appeal -- anybody who came from *that* hellhole had to be tough. 
 
 The truth is that I was n't raised tough. My earliest memories are of my grandfather, sitting on a pile of dirt utterly and completely still, his face turned to the reddened sky. `` Shh, listen, he said.'' I could hear the whirring of the housing pod and the churning of the acid pools, nothing special. `` Listen, you can hear everything from here.'' 
 
 I was raised to pay attention. 
 
 My grandfather was born in the Natal Age more than five thousand years ago, before any people went to the stars. My grandmother was born on Ceuran, right before it was destroyed, just when the galactic wars were getting really bad. The big refugee movements had already filled most of the edge systems, so they dumped her on old Earth. `` You'll figure out how to live here,'' they said. *Or not. * 
 
 Well, they did figure out how, sheltering in the ancient structures against the raging storms. She found my grandfather in one of them, hidden with other strange, short people in one of those creches of forgotten coffins, frozen in time. Every hand that could work was welcomed, but my grandfather was special. 
 
 ( to be continued )
