A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (36 page)

Martin shrugged. “So long as they break no laws, anything they do is of no concern to them. Besides, it isn’t as if those who actually review the data are processing it all. Even the bits they do process, they are sworn to secrecy. It all is used to teach our most advanced quasi-sentient AI how to run the simulation program. We have had several very successful tests of the project to date. One of them just concluded, having been in operation since the end of the war.”

“”Really?” Athena couldn’t help but be interested. “How well did the program hold up?”

“Other than a few areas in which the test subjects could tell the difference, quite well. Even knowing they were in a virtual reality, they still felt like it was quite real.” Martin replied.

“Amazing.” Athena had a new realization that dimmed her enthusiasm somewhat and brought a note of dread to her voice. “What has this got to do with me?”

“We want you to join the program.”

The simplicity of his statement was almost shocking, even knowing it was likely what he was going to say. “What would my purpose be? What is the end game?”

“You would be one of the contingent for what we are calling the Valhalla Program. Some of America and her allies’ best young tacticians. You, and the others we are looking to recruit are innovative, not so old so as to be stuck in your ways, still open to change and considering wildly new strategies and options. In short, experienced but still capable of molding to new concepts. We are looking to recruit tacticians, pilots, engineers, doctors, Marines, intelligence officers, logistics personnel, and a few other specialties.”

Athena’s head had started to spin. If it had been almost anyone else, she would have assumed she was being played. One look at the expression on Martin’s face and she knew otherwise.

“This is a lot to process.” She said finally.

“Don’t I know it? I think the only reason I can consider it as simply as I can is because I have been involved with it for years now, nearly since the war began. I can try and answer all of your questions to the best of my ability.”

So they kept going, the hours passing by quickly. By the time Athena had exhausted her supply of questions and absorbed as much as she felt she could in one sitting she stopped the meeting.

“I need to think about it.” She’d told him.

“I can give you a few days.” He replied. “If you’re interested, just send me a message through normal channels that you finished your review and found no problems.”

“Kind of cryptic, isn’t it?”

“Maybe, but it’s simple.” Martin said simply. “It’ll suffice.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Captain Kim glanced at her pad as the unit buzzed briefly for her attention. She saw that she had new orders and opened them.

“Shit.” She exclaimed.

“What’s up, sir?” Lieutenant Ramirez inquired.

“New orders.” She turned the pad so he could see them.

“Reassigned to the 22
nd
Training RASAT. Immediate deployment to Ceres.” He looked up cheerfully. “Hadn’t you put in for that sir?”

“Yes.” She grumbled.

“Then why do you seem less than thrilled?” He asked, confused.

“Because there is no way I’ll get to keep my platoon.” She sighed heavily and ran a hand through her short black hair. “It’s a great opportunity, train with the Agema and hone my skills. That’s not what it is. There’s no way I’ll keep 3
rd
Recon. Matter of fact, you’ll likely get command.”

“Temporarily, sir. You’ll be back.” He countered.

“True, but they aren’t going to let me stay regardless. I haven’t been told as much, but I am a captain. The only reason they let me keep the platoon was because there was a war on and they didn’t want to take me away from the unit and risk a degradation in its effectiveness. We were deployed almost constantly from the time I got my promotion until war’s end. With all the manpower reductions and scaling back, it’s up or out more than ever.”

“Would Company command be so bad?” Ramirez asked.

“If we were still at war, no.” She said. “But now that it’s over? No company sized unit is going to deploy anytime soon. That means I command a Company from a desk, not in the field. It means my fighting days are over.”

“Maybe sir.” Ramirez tried to find a way to disagree, but it was a halfhearted attempt. She had a point. Large scale deployments were likely over for some time. Platoon strength was about the largest unit one could expect to be deployed. Even when a sub-platoon unit was deployed, the commander could weasel their way into the action. A Company commander, however, wouldn’t have such an easy time.

“Well, take them as they come I guess.” She shook her head. “I might be a little premature, but congrats on your new command, Lieutenant Ramirez.” She extended a hand.

“Thank you sir.” He said quietly. “I’ll take good care of it for you.”

“You dammed well better.” She laughed. “I’ll likely be your commanding officer. I’ll be watching you.” She motioned from her eyes to point at him. They both laughed.

They said their goodbyes and Ava went to get packed. She had a trip to Ceres and who knew what would happen after that?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Colonel Ron “Viper” Danford stepped from the transfer shuttle, having ridden the fast transport from
Sword of Ares
directly to Ceres. The flight had taken nearly two hours, but only because the two were at their farthest separation and getting away from the Martian orbit had taken nearly five minutes. Of course, the biggest delay had been the checkpoint to approach Ceres. They had even tougher security than
Sword of Ares
. Even the US military shuttle had taken nearly twenty minutes to get through all the checks. If anything, Aegis seemed to have become even more paranoid since the war ended. Danford shrugged mentally, to each their own. He only wished he’d had more to do. He didn’t like having time to think anymore, too much pain there. He needed to stay focused on his work, not his loss on the home front. That was why he agreed to this training rotation, an opportunity to work his ass off.

“Colonel Danford, sir?” A young Captain dressed in the Aegis Defense black approached him and saluted.

“Yes?” He returned the salute, bringing his mind into focus, pushing away his momentary distraction.

“Welcome to Ceres, sir. If you’ll follow me, I can show you to your quarters.” He gestured towards a side exit, one that bypassed security. That seemed a little odd, but again, Danford shrugged it off and allowed himself to be led away.

“Bypassing security?” He questioned the aide.

“You are considered to be somewhat more trustworthy than many who come here. Besides, we’re passing through some very thorough scanners right now. I’m sure if we were so inclined, we could tell you the size in centimeters.” It took Danford a second to realize what he meant. All he could do was open and shut his mouth. The captain turned away, but Danford was pretty sure he saw a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Snide little bastard, aren’t you?
Danford mentally threw his way, smiling despite himself.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Athena paced her cabin as she’d done for the last three hours. She was tense, her mind rolling the question over and over. She kept going back to her conversation with Martin. The implications were staggering, horrifying, intriguing. She was deeply conflicted. Part of her wanted to walk away, part of her wanted to know more. Part of her wanted to accept.

She thought back to her conversation with Daniels several weeks ago, before the DP Draconis mission. What was she going to do next? What was her purpose? The Navy had always been her purpose, was it still? She reached for her tablet and commed the station’s communications department.

“Yes Admiral, what can I do for you?” A pleasant voice answered.

“I need to send a short message to Aegis Defense, Admiral Martin specifically.” She said.

“Of course sir. Is this a priority message?”

“No.” Athena said quickly, “just a basic message will suffice. Please send; I have finished my review and found no problems.”

“Is that all sir?” The pleasant voice questioned.

“Yes, he’ll understand.”

“Any encryption sir?”

“Just the normal levels. This isn’t terribly sensitive.”

“Very well sir. The message will go out in the normal burst to Ceres in,” The voice paused. “twenty minutes.”

“Thank you. That’ll be all.”

“Of course sir. Have a good evening.” The line went dead.

Athena let out a long and loud breath. She looked into the mirror and shook her head slightly.

“Alright, what have you gotten yourself into now?” She complained aloud. Of course, she knew the next step. She wasn’t sure she liked the next step.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

At exactly 0800 the next morning, Athena stepped into the shuttle bay. She had her own shuttle to the surface, one of the VIP shuttles that were typically used for flag officers. They were well appointed, though not as well as the civilian VIP ones were. Those weren’t based on a military design, so their designers had more freedom in their layouts and furnishings. That suited Athena just fine anyway.

“Admiral Harper!” Athena turned to see a Petty Officer First move through a small cluster of disembarking crewman and move in front to salute. “Your shuttle is this way sir.” He motioned towards the small black shuttle parked behind the transfer shuttle that had disgorged the crewman. Athena nodded and followed the man to the shuttle’s side boarding steps. After boarding and stowing her small bag, she turned to look expectantly.

“All set sir?” The Petty asked. Even though there was nothing in his tone, Athena still felt that the question was ominous.

“Yes, I do believe so.” She said, not even believing it herself.

“Don’t worry sir, it’s a smooth ride. We’ve done this run a bunch of times, never lost anyone.” He replied. Now Athena was even more on edge.

“Very well.” She nodded. He gave her a smile and another salute before moving forward and strapping himself into his own seat. He informed the pilots that they were all set.

Athena tried to force herself to relax. She’d be on the ground soon, then Admiral Martin would pick the opportune time to permanently enroll her in the Valhalla Program.

The pilot deftly maneuvered the shuttle through the flight line, carefully following the directions of the deck controllers. After several minutes the shuttle lifted off and moved smartly away from
Sword of Ares
. Athena settled in for the flight to Earth. It would be nearly four hours and she figured she could catch up on some of the sleep that she missed out on the night before.

After finally managing to get to sleep, Athena was startled awake by the Petty Officer. “Yes?”

“We’re on final approach to Earth, sir. Could you come with me for a moment sir?” He asked gently.

“What’s this about?” Athena asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“We need to get prepped sir.”

“Prepped?” Athena asked. “We’re still in orbit.”

“Yes sir, we are.” He replied. “But we’re not going down in the…conventional way.”

Now Athena was worried. “Not the conventional way?” She asked warily.

“No sir.” He smiled. “We’re doing a little sky diving.”

“And I thought today was going to be boring.” She replied flatly. “Are you a Petty Officer in the US Navy?”

“Oh yes sir, I am. I also happen to work for Aegis.” He said cheerfully.

“Of course. Why not infiltrate the US military?” She asked rhetorically.

“Never can be too careful, sir.” He answered anyway.

Athena just shook her head and followed him aft into the shuttle’s small cargo compartment. It was filled with three large crates, lashed to the bulkhead. The Petty Officer moved deftly to open all three and initialize their self-checks. Athena realized they were sets of power armor, though they had none of the usual hardware attached. All of the weapons and other combat systems were missing.

“Now sir, there are two options for you.” He began, looking slightly uncomfortable. “As you may be aware, these suits are very close fitting and require direct contact to function at full effectiveness.”

“Another words you have to be naked.” She filled in. “I know how they work. The second option is much more limited in its controls and considerably less comfortable, or so I am told.”

“Yes sir.”

“I would prefer to be as mobile as possible. I have studied the basics of these suits, though I must confess I’ve never actually worn one.” Athena said. She started to unbutton her uniform.

“Very good sir.” The Petty Officer looked quite relieved. “I’m going to inform the pilot we’re just about set. This one is for you, sir. Just step in and hit this button here.” He popped the suit and gestured to a small red button in the left arm. He then proceeded back forward.