Suspended animation in fiction is the temporary halting of life processes of fictional characters followed by their later revival. The process often serves as a plot device and is used in innumerable science fiction stories as a means to transport a character from the past into the future (a form of forward-only time travel) or to aid interstellar space travel which requires a long journey of months or years (See Space travel in fiction). Often, in addition to accomplishing whatever the character's primary task is in the future, he or she must cope with the strangeness of a new world, which may contain only traces of his or her previous surroundings. In some instances, a character is depicted as having skills or abilities that have been lost to society during their period of suspension, al