Isso soa suspeitamente semelhante ao conto "Sleepover", de Alastair Reynolds. Talvez tenha sido uma adaptação?
A história do passado era um futuro próximo que aperfeiçoou o cryosleep mas era caro. Milhares de ricos dormem em tempos difíceis, esperando um futuro melhor, uma vida mais longa, doenças curadas, etc.
"He was one of the first two hundred thousand," Clausen said. "The ultimate exclusive club." [...]
"You remember why you went under, of course," Clausen said.
"Because I could," Gaunt said. "Because anyone in my position would have done the same. The world was getting better, it was coming out of the trough. But it wasn't there yet. And the doctors kept telling us that the immortality breakthrough was just around the corner, year after year." [...]
A série começa com um homem acordado para um mundo com um punhado de sobreviventes de uma invasão alienígena que estão isolados nas plataformas oceânicas protegendo o restante da humanidade enquanto se defendem da invasão de alienígenas de alguma forma amorfa aprendendo como atravessar o oceano em tempestades (ou algo parecido).
"Maybe it would help if I told you that the current population of the Earth is also two billion, near as it matters," Clausen said. "Almost everyone's asleep. There's just a handful of us still awake, playing caretaker, watching over the rigs and OTEC plants."
Ele é um substituto para um sobrevivente que morreu, porque há recursos para um número específico de trabalhadores, todos necessários para manter as coisas funcionando.
"Where are we going?"
"Running a shift change," Da Silva said, wrapping a pair of earphones around his skull. "Couple of days ago there was an accident out on J platform. Lost Gimenez, and Nero's been hurt. Weather was too bad to do the extraction until today, but now we have our window. Reason we thawed you, actually. I'm taking over from Gimenez, so you have to cover for me here."
"You have a labour shortage, so you brought me out of hibernation?"
"That about covers it," Da Silva said.
Ele é um estranho, tentando se mostrar digno, ganhando a confiança de seu parceiro, uma mulher que estava perto do homem que morreu, mesmo que os sentimentos sejam um luxo que este futuro sombrio dificilmente pode pagar.
"It hasn't been easy for her. She lost someone not too long ago." Nero seemed to hesitate. "There was an accident. They're pretty common out here, with the kind of work we do. But when Paulo died we didn't even have a body to put back in the box. He fell into the sea, last we ever saw of him. [...] If Paolo hadn't died, then we wouldn't have to pull Gimenez out of storage. And if Gimenez hadn't died... well, you get the picture. You can't help it, but you're filling the space Paolo used to occupy. And you're not Paolo."
A ameaça alienígena era apenas uma mancha escura sob tiros de água tempestuosos.
It took Gaunt a few moments to make out what Nero had already seen. Half-way to the limit of vision, part of the sea appeared to be lit from below, a smudge of sickly yellow-green against the grey and white everywhere else. A vision came to mind, half-remembered from some stiff-backed picture book he had once owned as a child, of a luminous, fabulously spired aquatic palace pushing up from the depths, barnacled in light, garlanded by mermaids and shoals of jewel-like fish. But there was, he sensed, nothing remotely magical or enchanted about what was happening under that yellow-green smear. It was something that had Clausen and Nero rattled, and they wanted to avoid it.