 |
| Mayflower 1970 |
- On Day 1463 of the spaceship Hope Dempsey’s journey to Barnard’s Star, Ryan, the sole conscious passenger, files a status report. He then dreams of several couples wearing black spectacles dancing in a ballroom. A strange moaning chant emerges and the dancers appear to be angry at a particular individual.
- On Earth, Ryan and his wife arrive as newlyweds at their new apartment, but their private idyll is disturbed by loud “Chinese jazz” coming from the unit next door. A red-haired (Irish) window washer then appears, further disturbing their valuable privacy.
- On Day 1464, Ryan does a periodic status check on the 12 hibernation capsules are holding his family and friends in suspended animation during the 5-year journey through space. He tells the computer that he is lonely.
- Earth: 14 years into their marriage, Ryan and his wife attend a discussion group which includes the eventual passengers of the spaceship Hope Dempsey. They discuss the collapse of society and then witness a group of zealots (“Patriots”) immolate a man in the street. The government collapses as the citizenry suspect an alien attack.
- Earth: As the TV shows images of riot and chaos, Ryan’s uncle and a man named James Henry begin to squabble. Ryan feels that this is a turning point in mankind’s history, probably into another Dark Ages.
- On the Hope Dempsey, Ryan tries to watch a foreign film to relax and begins thinking of his family again. They seem to be under some form of scrutiny. Ryan comes out of his reverie, thinking that something has been left undone, but he can’t recall what it is.
- Ryan regrets that during the period of chaos in which he and his associates had prepared for their flight into space, he had probably “compromised” his ideals a few times. He blames the visionairies for being bad leaders. Ryan had been the owner of an electronics company, and although generally liberal in his politics ("with a small 'l'"), he had also given in to the fears of nationalist elements dominating the political climate.
- On the Hope Dempsey, Ryan repairs a glitch in the water supply system and tries to be optimistic.
- Earth: Ryan and his associate Masterson become worried that the amount of non-English workers employed in their company will put a bad light on the firm due to the nationalistic climate. They decide to fire them.
- Earth: In January 2000, Ryan and his friends attend a Patriots meeting, where an alien “witchhunt” threatens to break out. One of the supporters of this racially-based witchhunt is James Henry. Ryan tells Henry that the true aliens are the Patriots. Ryan considers leaving Earth.
- On the Hope Dempsey, Ryan’s feelings of loneliness cause him
to consider waking up his brother’s wife and resuming an affair he had
once had with her. He has a symbolic dream (the typography here is
shaped into the word “KILL”) and after he wakes up he decides to
distract himself in agricultural education studies.
(from Sailing To Utopia, White Wolf 1997) - Earth: Mrs. Ryan’s behavior becomes erratic as she develops a severe phobia of outside strangers. She refuses to visit her Uncle Sidney, who is too afraid to visit the Ryans himself.
- Earth: Mrs. Ryan has a dream that she is being chased by a hostile crowd. She goes into the corridor outside her apartment unit and is traumatized by the sight of another building occupant. On the Hope Dempsey, Ryan has a dream of an old woman teasing him through blinds and of his toy products coming to life. On Earth, Ryan meets with a Ministry officer who threatens to commandeer Ryan’s company unless it increases its aid to the Patriots’ war effort.
- On the Hope Dempsey, Ryan begins to make a log entry but is surprised to see a previous entry made in his hand which he does not recall. Later he forgets to check on the hibernation room. When the computer reminds him to do so, he finds that someone has temporarily engaged the emergency lock. He wonders if he had done it and then forgotten.
- Ryan inspects the hibernation chambers, each marked with its occupants’ birth date and various end dates scattered throughout the winter of 2003/2004. Ryan begins hearing footsteps and voices coming from the hibernation chamber. The computer recommends he take an anti-delusion sedative (Proditol). Ryan resists, and then has visions of his family both inside and outside of the ship, tearing away at its hull. He faints.
- Ryan wakes to find that the computer has woken his brother John from hibernation as a failsafe measure. John has injected Ryan with Proditol to restore his sanity. Heading off to bed, Ryan thinks back on an affair he had had with Sharon, the daughter of a rival toymaker during the collapse of society. On Earth, after a break up and argument, Ryan abandons Sharon in a dangerous part of London and allows her to be killed by a crazed mob.
- Earth: Ryan tries to rationalize his indirect murder of Sharon as being a necessary evil for his family's safety. Later he, his family and friends capture a transport ship which takes them to a spaceship being maintained in Siberia by a small international team of scientists. Ryan secretly kills everyone aboard the Siberian transport as a precaution. As an Englishman, he distrusts the other Europeans at the spaceship base. Later during the flight to a new planet, he kills the European scientists who have joined their mission.
- Ryan is visited by his brother’s wife Janet, with whom he had once had an affair. He learns that John is waking all of the other passengers. Ryan remains in his room, sedated by the Proditol drug. After a few days he wonders why he has not been served any food, and suspects that his co-passengers are trying to starve him to death.
- Ryan tries to emerge out of his isolation but still experiences strange visions, and at one point believes that he has killed James Henry for trying to take over the ship. The computer asks “WHAT IS THE EXACT NATURE OF THE CATASTROPHE?” Back in his room, his friend Fred Masterson visits and consoles him with the remembrance of how they had resolved a romantic dispute by putting Fred’s wife Tracy into hibernation earlier than scheduled. Ryan considers putting Henry back into hibernation.
- Ryan has more paranoid dreams, and the word “KILL” is spelled out again in the book typography. Ryan is awakened by the computer, which informs him that no one has checked on the hibernation chambers in two weeks. Ryan begins to suspect that the people who have been visiting him have all been a single shape-changing alien. He then finds Fred standing before him. Fred tells him that he has killed his wife Tracy and wants to cover up the crime by putting her into hibernation. Ryan shoots Fred but afterwards his body disappears.
- Ryan continues to have “visitations” by his hibernating family and friends, who accuse him of extreme paranoia and self-righteousness. They imply that he had conspired to put them all into hibernation against their will.
- On day 1490, after his hallucinations have abated, Ryan looks forward to beginning a new life at Barnard’s Star. He reports to the computer that all of the occupants of the hibernation chambers are in a “steady condition”. After dreaming about the black-spectacled ballroom couples again, he starts a new log book and then returns to his agricultural studies.
