Stasis Dreams

Caretaker Chronicles

by Josi Russell

A Caretaker Chronicles short story.

After twenty-four years trapped in a nightmare en-route to the planet Minea, Taiver wakes up from stasis to find himself trapped in a malfunctioning pod, submerged in liquid, and unable to move. The ship’s lone caretaker, Hannah, tells Taiver that the sedatives no longer work on him, she can’t get him out of his stasis chamber, and Minea is still thirty years away. Taiver can’t even escape back to his nightmares, and his only companion may be the reason he had them in the first place.

Stasis Dreams is a short story set in the universe of the bestselling Caretaker Chronicles.

Genres: Science Fiction

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 24, 2016

About the author

Josi Russell’s science fiction novels explore familiar human relationships in unfamiliar contexts. She currently teaches creative writing and fiction courses as an Associate Professor of English for Utah State University Eastern. She lives in the alien landscape of the high desert American Southwest with her family and a giant tortoise named Caesar. Josi is captivated by the fields of linguistics, mathematics, and medicine, by the vast unknown beyond our atmosphere, and by the whole adventure of being human.

Reviews

[Gypsy Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

En route to the colonized planet of Minnea, Taiver finds himself waking up while still in his stasis pod. Hannah, the soldier monitoring the sleeping passengers, tells him that he’s woken up 33 years too early. Complications abound as the minutes pass by. First, she can’t get him re-sedated because he has built up a tolerance for all of the sedation solutions employed on the ship, to his stasis pod won’t open. It reminds me more than a little of the Chris Pratt movie Passengers, but without the creepy romance. This story also has a delicious atmosphere of suspense and plot twists, while still being plausible scifi. You can easily feel Taiver’s panic. Personally, I thought he was rather over-dramatic, but I suppose he could have had claustrophobia which would have easily explained just why he tried to force so many things instead of having a little patience. This is an extremely short novella. It’s only about 32 pages. I read it within an hour or two. The story left a lot of plot threads open (like what happened to Hannah? And did Taiver make it to Minnea? -He’s not the same character as the guy who awakens in the Caretaker book 1), so I’m dying to pick up the book series this ties to (which means it served its purpose well as a teaser). Though the very final end scene left me really confused and didn’t really do anything for me.

[Sentinelle23 · Rating 5 out of 5]

💖💖💚 CAPTIVATING !

TAIVER is dreaming in stasis.

He's remembering EARTH...
He's dreaming that he's drowning...

He's trying to wake up but he can't...

Something's wrong...


----------------------------

Travelling in space to MINEA, inside a stasis chamber since many years, TAIVER is trying to wake up...

A short, mysterious but very captivating story of CARETAKER CHRONICLES.

A very nice reading.
I'll read the next book.

[Robert Jenner · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent short story about a man trapped in a hibernation pod on a long-distance journey to humanity's new home, dealing with not only the struggle to survive but multiple moral and ethical dilemmas, both onboard and carried over from his last days on Earth. Highly recommended and I'm looking forward to the other books in the series. (The price is a bit steep for thirty pages though, I think 99 cents might be a bit more reasonable.)

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story , will be reading more of the series . As is is a short story and meant to be an introduction to series i found the ending just right, perfect for the story and makes want to find out what happens next without feeling were left hanging .

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good story but too short

[Cass · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Julie Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice

Nice complement to the series. I hope it's expanded on. My favorite is still Caretaker. I loved the question this book set up.

[Lee Inks]

I was hoping for a bit of a longer short story. I think I finished this in about 30 minutes. I hope this becomes another series set since I am very interested in the caretakers future and plans!!!