Date: 1st January 2077 AD.
Time: 00:01 O'clock
My name is Daniel Brown, just some random eighteen years old high school graduate with somewhat higher-than-average grades from a small rural town named Oakwood, and today is both my birthday and the first day of the year 2077.
I was sitting on a couch in front of my family's cozy little house, staring at our cornfield. In my hands, I was holding a holographic tablet that was used to control a swarm of quadcopter drones scanning the field for potential pest infection.
"Dan!!! Come inside and eat your cake, or daddy's gonna eat it all!!!" my father shouted from inside the house with such an energetic voice that it caused me a slight itch of irritation.
"Wait a minute, Dad!" I shouted in reply, as I was quite busy at the moment with my work.
"Just pass the tablet to that darn expensive clanker, Cornée!" Dad shouted once again, followed by a loud munching sound as he began devouring my birthday cake to lure me back into the house.
I sighed heavily at my dad's usual antics. Then, a cold and hard mechanical hand was gently placed upon my shoulder, followed by a familiar voice-my housekeeping android, Cornée.
She was brought into our home at a dirt-cheap price by my father after he returned from his deployment in the Middle East as 'Roboticist TSgt.' specifically to take care of me and my little sister in my mother's stead after she died from a rare disease many years ago. I don't really know where he got her from, but her appearances and overall features seemed quite sketchy for a housekeeping android.
With a towering height of two and a half meters, she was covered head to toe in a surprisingly clean and refined butler outfit. She had a sturdy, semi-metallic body more suited for the battlefield than a cornfield. A flexible, sterile white synthetic skin covered her firm broad shoulders and well-defined abs, which made her look intimidating. Her plasteel alloy arms flexed with muscle made from nano carbon fiber as she easily yanked the tablet away from my hand with her strong yet surprisingly gentle grip. Her long silver hair dazzled under the brilliant light of exploding fireworks of my neighbors celebrating the new year, while her sharp, imposing eagle-like sapphire-blue eyes gazed straight at me, piercing deep into my heart and soul.
"I'll take care of it, young master." she spoke in a monotone voice, her face look like a stone statue trying really hard to smile, but ending up looking creepy as hell.
I couldn't do anything but sigh heavily once more as I walked back into my house.
"Don't forget to apply pesticide!" I shouted at her as my hand grabbed the doorknob of the front door and held it open wide.
She responded with her usual militaristic-style salute, as if I were her commander or something. It might be a bit weird for a housekeeping android to do something like that, but she was still a part of my small family. So I saluted her back in return with a smile before entering the house.
Inside, the house had a homely and cozy cottage-style interior composed of natural materials like wood and wicker, yet everything inside was surprisingly high-tech, with literally every piece of furniture and household appliance embedded with AI models trained exclusively by my technophile father. They could talk as if they were alive.
Creepy, yet convenient, as they were aware of themselves when parts broke down and could either repair themselves or locate the broken part for either me or my dad to fix.
"Welcome back, young master!" the ceiling lamp spoke with its robotic voice to greet me. To others, it might seem weird, but to me, it was completely normal.
I walked past all the talking furniture greeting me and went straight into the dining room, full of my birthday party celebration. My father was holding a vintage smartphone, recording everything, while my beloved adorable little sister, Diana, was munching on my birthday cake, her little mouth covered in whipped cream and icing.
"Happy Birthday, Daniel!!!" my dad, my sister, and all the furniture in the house enthusiastically shouted in unison as a rain of confetti showered down on my head.
"Yayyy..." I replied monotonously, sitting on the dining chair and putting my cone-shaped birthday party hat on my head. In front of me, a vanilla-flavored cake was lit with many vibrant-colored candles-eighteen of them, blazing beautifully under the roof of our cozy and lively little home.
*Fuuhhh* I exhaled a stream of air, blowing out all the candles on the cake as everyone and everything cheered me on.
After that, I just smiled. Despite my uncaring behavior and overall boring outlook, inside I was truly thankful to my destiny for granting me such a lovely family and a livelihood everyone my age could only dream of.
Then, I used a kitchen knife to cut a slice out of the vanilla cake and put it on my plate, which was glowing with RGB light. My dad had such a weird aesthetic sense, as RGB lighting had fallen out of fashion since 2050. Today's trend was clean white sleek aesthetics with cold blue lighting.
I used a fork to put a small slice of cake into my mouth, spreading its creamy vanilla taste all over my taste buds as dopamine rushed through my brain.
Everyone was smiling. Everyone was happy.
And that's when my life changed forever...
My sister screams in panic as my dad dropped his phone and immediately ran toward me, as my smile suddenly disappeared from my face, replaced with paralyzing pain that's rushed through my body. My vision started to get blurry, and my brain froze as if it were being dropped into a tank of liquid hydrogen, then I goes unconscious for a long while.
-----
After sometime unbeknownst to me.
I wake up again on a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling lamp inside a clean sterile room. Beside me were my father, his face pale as snow, and my little sister, crying her heart out. In front of them was a doctor whose body was half cybernetically enhanced, and behind him stood an android nurse holding a hologram tablet.
"Your son seems to have inherited 'Absolute Neuro Deterioration' from his mother." the doctor spoke in a solemn voice as he explained to my dad that my survival rate was abysmally low and that this disease had no existing cure.
My ears caught everything as tears began to swell in my eyes. It was basically a guaranteed death, just like my mother.
"But there might be a way to save your son." the doctor said, though his voice sounded uncertain and anxious.
My dad and sister pleaded with him to save my life, which made the doctor utter just one word,
'Cryosleep'
The plan was to put me into a device known as a 'Cryo Casket' and freeze my body in a secure location until a cure for my illness was found. Then they would wake me up and treat me.
Sounds easy, but the cryo casket had a failure rate of a whopping 90%. Not to mention that no one knew how long I would have to stay asleep inside that damn casket.
My father fell into deep thought as my sister pleaded with him not to go through with it, since it looked more like signing my death certificate rather than saving me. And even if the cure was found and the miraculous casket stayed functional, I could find myself in a far future where my dad's hair had gone grey and my sister had grown into adulthood while I was frozen in time.
But I, wanting to take the risk rather than face guaranteed death, rose up from my bed and smiled at my family with hope.
"I'll go through with it!" I declared with confidence, my voice as clear as day.
And thus, my fate was sealed.
Unknowingly, not in the way I thought it would go.