A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (39 page)

“So don’t sleep longer than that, I guess.” Athena added.

The briefing continued for another hour, then broke into small groups discussing things. Finally, everyone agreed to retire for the evening. Athena returned to her assigned quarters, intending to start reading. Instead, she entered the compartment, stripped off her uniform and crashed into her bunk. She was asleep in seconds.

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“Thanks for coming Ron.” Athena welcomed the Marine Colonel into her office. Ron “Viper” Danford was the commander of the ground forces, not that they were limited to planetary operations of course. They were equal in rank, but Athena was a couple days senior and had been placed in command. Not that they were, technically, still active in any of their national military structures, but they retained their ranks and positions regardless.

“No problem Grace. I would have suggested meeting sooner but it’s been a heck of a busy time for us all.”

“Indeed it has. I can hardly believe that I’ve been here for three weeks.” Athena agreed. She had meant to meet with Ron in private before now, but she’d just been too damn busy. “So I’d like to go over our command structures and how to divide everything up. Aegis provided us with a suggested structure and I think that I agree with it for the most part. I may make a couple tweaks and I stood up a new office, but it’ll be lightly staffed I think. How about on your end?”

“I think we’re of the same mind there. I’ve looked over what Aegis put together and I must say, they’ve done good work. Of course, if I had an unlimited budget like this project seems too.” He grinned as he trailed off. “I don’t think I even have any new offices to stand up.”

“Good, good.” Athena brought up a couple of charts on the bulkhead of her office. “Some of the obvious departments are engineering, medical, and logistics. For these three I am giving them a fair bit of freedom of action. I know enough to look in, but I can’t call myself an expert. These people are, some of the best, so I’m letting them set-up how they see fit. Captain Nina Tinoco is heading up the medical department. She cut her teeth early on as assistant surgeon for Orbital Assault Group Four. She became head surgeon for OAG-6 after that mess in the Xi Beta system.”

“She patched up a number of my people. She’s good, I have no doubts.” Ron agreed. “She’s Brazilian, isn’t she? I know that they had a pretty substantial cross-decking program with us before and during the war.”

“That’s exactly right.” Athena smiled briefly. “Engineering is someone I don’t know personally, but he comes highly recommended from Aegis Defense. Brandon Martin left a personal note in his file.” Athena flipped up a file onto a second screen. “His name is Jeff Lin and he’s the creator of a lot of Aegis combatant designs. I guess I can vouch for him after a sort, he had the idea to build my
Tripoli
.” Athena smiled again at that, thinking fondly of her last command. “Plus he’s worked numerous other ships. He doesn’t always design them all the way to completion, but he’s the brains behind a lot of them.”

“I’m surprised that Brandon would give him up.” Ron remarked.

“I suspect he knows that he won’t be building any new ships for a while and we’ll need him more.” Athena countered.

“Fair enough. What about logistics?”

“Another name I don’t know, a German Marine. Lieutenant Colonel Otto Brasch. He ran the joint supply network for the campaign against the Chinese. He was in the other theater from me, but he’s got good reviews.”

“Sounds good by me.” Ron moved quickly to the next topic on his mind. “You said something about a new command? Something that Aegis didn’t suggest?”

“Indeed.” Athena gave a mischievous smile. “The Special Ships Division, but I think I’ll call them the Silent Service myself. Unofficially, of course.”

“Of course.” Ron smiled before cocking his head to the side slightly. “Submarines in space?”

“Close enough, I rate. I already have someone in mind to run the office, an Aussie frigate captain, Captain Karina Morton. She commanded one of the
Brisbane
-class frigates. They are a variation on our own fast frigates, but with the emphasis on stealth. I assume you don’t closely follow naval systems?” Ron shook his head no. “I wouldn’t expect you to, but anyways, their fast frigates have a lot of added heat sinks and shielding to provide them with an even better stealth capability. They sacrifice a few percentage points in terms of acceleration, but they are a dammed nightmare to localize. During a few pre-deployment work-ups, I was part of a group exercising against two of them. They popped a fleet carrier before we even knew they were there and got away clean. We managed to kill one of them before the exercise ended, but they decimated a full cruiser squadron and got another solid hit on our battleship.”

Ron whistled at that. Fleet carriers were such that they rarely tried to hide, their energy signatures were the least shielded of any, since they utilized a number of energy intensive methods to perform their primary function of launching fighters. As such, they were surrounded by veritable fortress of electronic emissions and sweeps. Ron was no expert on naval tactics, but he did know that fleet carriers were the hardest ship in the fleet to sneak up on without being seen, not even a ghost of their presence.

“So you’ve managed to rope her in?” Ron wasn’t sure what to make of the people who decided to join the Valhalla program. He wasn’t sure of himself, honestly. It was just so insane there were times he still couldn’t believe he had agreed to this whole endeavor.

“I have.” Athena sounded almost giddy, but still controlled. “She’ll be here in a week or so, on the next stealth shuttle.”

“Sounds like you’ll have things well in hand then.” Ron remarked. “I’ll have some more of my ground element next week as well, should be the same shuttle. A couple of French and British SpecOps. I also have a line on a Korean tank driver.”

“Tanks? Really?” Athena sounded intrigued.

“Yeah well, I had originally discounted armored vehicles myself, but this guy was in command of a small vehicle detachment that ran circles around a Russian powered infantry unit. His losses were terrible, but they hurt the Russians even worse. I suspect he’ll have some unique ideas and a solidly different perspective to bring to our little project.”

“I’d be interested to observe some of those exercises, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, I’d be happy to show you, once we’ve gotten ourselves settled in.” Ron shifted in his seat. “Now, I do have a point of concern.”

“Sure, what’s on your mind?” Athena leaned forward slightly, her face one of interest.

“Trainers. I don’t know what your situation is exactly with Chiefs, but I’m frighteningly short on DIs. I have a few Master Sergeants, solid combat veterans, but I’m a little light on the basics. Combat experience is still a must, but I want a few who have been deeply involved in a training cycle. I think only one has agreed thus far, but even he hasn’t made it here yet.”

Athena picked up an electronic stylus and tapped it absently against her chin, staring off just past him.

“We’ll have to make sure we resolve that.” She said finally. “But I think we’ll be okay. Aegis is already planning on a long recruitment process. We’ve four more shuttle runs this year, but we’ll be getting only a few next year. It is expected that the overall levels of surveillance will pick back up again as the various powers build their sophisticated sensor nets and drones back up to normal levels. It’s going to make it hard to keep this secret, so we’ll be taking extra caution.”

Ron nodded his agreement, he’d seen the same briefing videos. “I think so long as we receive them in the next four or five years, it shouldn’t be a problem. How long do you figure they’ll keep sending us people?”

Athena thought about that for a moment. She’d been spending a fair bit of time thinking on this herself. She’d also had some extensive discussions with Zoe Martin before she’d left a few days ago.

“This facility is being set-up to place about two-hundred people into long-term stasis. I discussed it with Colonel Martin and she confirmed that the factory complex we have here is capable of turning out additional units. The real limit is on our virtual reality matrix. We can probably go as high as three-hundred without risking too much of a limitation on our environment. Right now, I’d be pretty comfortable right around two-hundred. Thoughts?”

“I’d agree with that.” Ron said agreeably. “I have my list and the priorities filed. I’ve been assured they’ll be fulfilled. Time is about to become something of an irrelevance for us.”

“I have a feeling it is going to be both a frustratingly long time and a perilously rushed operation.”

“You think we’ll be at war that quickly?”

“I think war at all will be too quickly.”

The day had come. Athena could feel her pulse racing and felt a little dizzy with the situation. Her retinal display helpfully displayed her heart rate and blood pressure, all while suggesting she take something and reduce her stress level.

Yeah, because I should maintain a healthier level of stress while contemplating entering stasis in the middle of a random asteroid in the depths of space, to sleep for decades.
Athena snorted.
Everyday occurrence, what am I worried about?

“You can undress here sir.” Lieutenant Rhodes was with her again, though also for the last time in person.

For some time, at any rate.
Athena thought amusingly.

“Sir?”

“Yes of course, thank you Lieutenant.”

Athena stripped quickly, stasis didn’t allow for clothing, and shivered in the cold space. The stasis chamber was kept at a chilly nine degrees Celsius. Athena stepped quickly from the small side compartment out into the large cavernous chamber that held fifty of the large stasis modules. Her unit was standing open, three technicians running last minute checks and prepping the unit for initiation. She was the last in this chamber, the rest had already entered stasis. The technicians would enter stasis in a different chamber, once the security network was brought fully online. Robotic units would patrol the passageways and sentry turrets guarded every hatch and intersection.

Not all the technicians were entering stasis, half would leave on the next shuttle out. The process for those who were entering stasis was automated, but that hadn’t been built into every unit. Some things were a worthwhile cost savings, even on a program such as this. Athena knew that this project must have cost a gigantic sum and she couldn’t even begin to imagine the cost. She had asked Zoe about it and had received a dismissive reply, but she could sense the undercurrent in her tone and knew, this project had greatly weakened the defense giant that was Aegis.

“In you go, Admiral.” The senior technician said, sweeping his arm into the capsule with a comforting smile. Athena respected his professionalism, his gaze did not wander as was wont to happen with civilians. The junior female technician was less than subtle with her own glances in Athena’s direction, but she chocked it up to her age. Professionalism would come with time. She was pretty sure the other junior technician was doing something similar, but he was doing so with a little more discretion. She shrugged it off, it wasn’t something to concern herself with an overt amount. Being nude around people came with service in the deep black navy.

“Are we good to go?” Athena addressed the senior man, keeping her tone casual and confident. She crushed her trepidation down under an iron boot.

“Yes sir.” He said casually, his tone reassuring as she was sure it was intended to be. “Your unit checks out, green across the board with no warnings and everything is perfectly nominal.”

Athena nodded, she’d expected no less. The units were shockingly simple to enter. A small unit hooked into the base of her spin at a special port that came to the surface of her skin. This allowed for communication and the transfer of the special drugs used in the process. Everything else was handled by the unit as needed. There was some plumbing and such, but it was pretty minimal. Her body wouldn’t be very functional in stasis. She tried not to think too much about it because it got disturbing awfully quickly.

“Let me get you hooked up.” The female tech leaned into the unit as Athena settled stepped into the unit. The technician’s hand slid down her back lightly to position Athena’s spinal port appropriately before reaching out to grasp the umbilical. She slid it forward and Athena heard the faint metallic click as it twist-locked into place.

“All set sir.” The technician smiled sweetly and squeezed Athena’s arm gently before stepping back. The senior tech gave her a quick sharp glance but Athena headed off any verbal rebuke. She hadn’t seriously crossed any sort of line.

“Thank you.” She told the woman. Athena settled back into the form-fitting gel of the unit and felt it cocoon her. Before leaning her head back, she gave a quick nod. She was no prude, but the cold temperature was not doing anything for her dignity, particularly since she was now standing, elevated above the small cluster of technicians and Lieutenant Rhodes. He brought himself to parade ground attention and snapped out a salute. Athena lifted her hand and returned the salute quickly and considerably less crisply, feeling ridiculous as she did so.

“Let’s seal her up.” She said, somewhat annoyed at the amount of time spent in the freezing cold like this. She hadn’t felt this awkward since that one time at the academy during zero-gee training, but the less said about that the better. She had been a bit more…wild in those days.

The hatch swung around and its matching gel cocooned her front. She gasped as the cold gel pressed against her and the cooling system came online. She was shivering now as the pod tried to lower her core temperature, filling the volume of air that persisted in the mostly form-fitting pod with an icy gel. She consulted her retinal HUD and saw that the umbilical was indeed feeding through its myriad of drugs into her system. She could feel her body numbing, though whether it was from the cold or the drugs, she couldn’t tell.

“Can you hear me sir?” It was the junior male assistant.

“I can.” Athena sub-vocalized through her implanted comm. His voice entered her head by the same system.

“Excellent. Your vitals are all responding as predicted. All indications are good here. How do you feel sir?”

“A little cold, starting to go numb. It all seems to be as I was told.” Athena responded, the numbness having progressed to the point where she had stopped shivering. Normally, she’d worry about hypothermia, but she knew it was the drugs adjusting her body and letting it cope with the new temperature.

“Very good sir. We’re going to initiate in a few minutes, but you’ll have to sleep first. Remember, don’t fight the drugs, let sleep come.” He soothingly reminded her.

“Yes, yes.” Athena started to voice her frustration at the number of times she had been through these instruction, but then tempered. Caution was not a bad thing, redundancy could save her life. “Thank you for the reminder.” She finished calmly.

“No problem sir. You’re doing great.” The tech didn’t seem to take offense at her initial tone. She figured, with all the Marines and Chief Petty Officers they had already put into stasis, they must be pretty desensitized to cursing and the frustrations that came from people who found themselves powerless when they were so used to having control over themselves. At least on an individual level, she figured. She felt a drug-induced sleep coming on and after the initial primal instinct to resist, gave herself over to a deep sleep.

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