"A metal chest—ouch—I've been thinking of for a long time. Jerran, what's 'suspended animation'?"
"Why?"
"Nirea kept muttering it to herself in the cave. I think she read it on the chest."
"Suspended," mused Jerran. "Temporarily halted. Animation, life. Life held in check? Movement stopped for a time?"
"That's it."
"Love of freedom, lad, what's it?"
Revel, glancing up at the soaring spheres, said half to himself, "Man of the 21st century. Century's a hundred years. Twenty-first? John R. Klapham, atomic something ... suspended animation. John sounds like a name. Rest of it, enigmas, but...."
"Watch out!" yelled Jerran, turning against his back. "A god comes at us."
"How good are you at throwing knives?"