A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (35 page)

“Very well. Remember, take it quickly but try to not kill anyone.” Kim reminded him.

“Aye aye, sir.” Ramirez still didn’t sound happy about it, not that she could blame him. “W’ve got the stun drones operating just ahead of us with tranquilizer darts and shock rounds.”

“Keep me informed.” She closed her end of the link as she moved in front of the commander, Colonel Sukin. She noted they were in their Russian dress uniforms instead of the gaudy ones the self-proclaimed Czar had created.
At least the man had some degree of humility.
She supposed.

“Colonel Sukin, I am Captain Kim, commander of
3
rd
Recon & Special Action Team and Admiral Harper’s representative. I am here to accept your surrender, sir.”

Sukin nodded at her courtesy of respecting his rank. “Thank you Captain Kim. On behalf of the system of DP Draconis and in respect of the terms previously agreed upon by Admiral Harper and myself, I hereby surrender the DP Draconis system.” Sukin gestured to the prisoners. “I present the prisoners. These are the individuals who have caused the most harm to this system and its people. I entrust them to your custody.”

“I accept these prisoners. They shall be dealt with in accordance to international law. We have files on most of them already and your supply of information on them will also be taken into account. Our own investigators will be down shortly to begin their work. I will be leaving some of my Marines to provide support for them. Admiral Harper is also remaining in orbit to oversee things.” Kim left out the obvious fact that she could also bombard anything or anyone who interfered with her people on the ground.

“Of course, Captain.” Sukin nodded again “I will assist in any way that I can.”

Ramirez reported in at that time, causing Kim to pause. “Command secure, sir. No KIA, thirty detained.”

“I think we can proceed now.” Kim said to Sukin’s questioning face. A beep of Sukin’s small computer pad caused him to pull it from his belt. He looked at it for a moment, shock registering on his face. He then quickly transitioned through anger and to a look that approached respect.

“You and your Admiral are truly careful individuals.” He shrugged. “I cannot say I blame you, I would likely have done the same in your position. I trust I will get my command center back after this?”

“I believe the Admiral intends to return it exactly as we found it. For the purposes of the investigation, we wanted the mainframe under our control until we have a chance to copy it.

“And of course, it is a vital command and control asset to ensure your people’s safety and my compliance.” He said with a knowing smile. “Very well, shall we?” He gestured towards the terminal structure.

Sol System: Mars Orbit

Sword of Ares

Athena left the briefing with Admiral Mondragon and several civilian authorities with a mixture of anger and relief. On the one hand, several of the politicians had been livid about her deal with Colonel Sukin. They said she should have demanded unconditional surrender, brought everyone to justice. Athena had countered that Sukin and his compatriots, while complicit in the actions of the others, had ultimately acted in the best interest of the planet and saved many lives in doing so. They could have continued to resist, forced her to bombard the planet and kill many people. They told her she could have simply waited for reinforcements to, in the words of one diplomat; “Do it right.” She nearly climbed across the table and beat him senseless. Suggesting that simply adding more troops and ships would have changed the result was ridiculous. Their own casualties would have been manageable, at least  by wartime standards, but the planet would have suffered terribly. All of that for nothing. Instead, she had arranged for a relatively stable government that was already in place to take over governance under international observation. She considered this to be a small win.

Admiral Mondragon and the Secretary of the Navy had been more understanding. The SecNav had pointed out that, while she had exceeded her mission directive to simply render the system harmless and had exceeded her command authority by negotiating with what was effectively a foreign power, she would not be prosecuted or otherwise disciplined.

“None of the major powers recognized the DP Draconis government as such and so she technically hadn’t violated that restriction.” He had told her with a cold smile at the still fuming politicians.

She was just glad to be out of the day long grilling session. She still retained her command, though the larger ships Mondragon had leant her had reverted to their original commands. She retained the smaller ships, but it still left her greatly under-gunned compared to her wartime command.

But there isn’t much to be done about it, what with all the reductions to the Navy that are occurring around her.
She thought sourly. The peacetime Navy was looking to be a small tithe of its wartime strength. Already, a full twenty-five percent of remaining strength had been mothballed. Another five percent, those that were massively damaged and undergoing repairs, had been stripped and scrapped.

Athena had elected to take the somewhat scenic route on her way back to her ship. She had nowhere in particular that she needed to be for several hours. She was scheduled for some time off. Admiral Mondragon had insisted that all his officers, including flag level, get at least a week’s vacation each year. She had managed to avoid it last year, but now he was ensuring it didn’t happen again. She had a mandatory two weeks off, no work, no
Tripoli
. Since she was in no rush to start, she figured she could take her time getting to the shuttle bay. Her mandatory vacation was supposed to start today, but she’d managed to convince the Admiral to give her twenty-four hours on
Tripoli
before she had to go. She had decided to hike a few small mountains on the North American east coast. She was thinking about the various possible hikes as she rounded the next corner, running fully into the individual standing directly in her path. An angry exclamation formed in her mind but died on her lips as she saw who it was.

“Martin?” She exclaimed instead.

“Good to see you Admiral Harper.” Logan Martin nodded his head in greeting, a sly smile on his face. “Sorry for being in your way like this. You seemed so deep in thought I wasn’t sure anything else would break the trance.”

“You may have been right.” She admitted with a smile of her own. “Though you could have tried first.” She admonished.

He lifted his hands and ducked his head a fraction, but letting out a laugh as well. “I admit, I could have.”

“So fancy meeting you here.” Athena prompted. She knew it couldn’t be coincidence.

“Yes, well, do you have a little time?” He said motioning to a doorway directly across the passageway. Something in his tone led Athena to believe that he already knew the answer to that question.

She slowly nodded her ascent, now on guard as to his agenda. It had been nearly a year since she had seen the man. After Aegis had reclaimed their ships at war’s end, they had both been busy on separate sets of missions. Aegis had as full a portfolio as the Navy, responding to hotspots, company disputes, and the like that had emerged after the war and with the fallout from the Russian Federation’s collapse. Added to that was several systems that had peacefully seceded from their respective countries, but leaving a political quagmire in their wake. It all created plenty of work for Aegis and the other private security contractors.

Once inside, Athena realized this was one of the secure conference rooms that companies could make use of when holding highly sensitive meetings with Defense Department officials. As Martin locked the room down into its highest security setting, her ominous feeling increased tenfold.

“So what’s this about?” Athena asked sharply.

“Well, that is something of a long explanation. You could say this is about your future. It would also be fair to say this is about the future security of your nation, of mankind even.” Martin began, his face scrunching as he tried to convey a deeper message that Athena was still oblivious to.

“You going to have to do better than that.” She replied pointedly.

“I know.” He responded. “Can I start by getting your consent that nothing will leave this room? What I’m about to discuss is highly sensitive.”

Athena hesitated. Martin read her mind. “While it does involve to United States, you will not be required to compromise any state secrets.”

“Very well. Everything stays here.”

“Alright.” Martin looked relieved, just a little at least. “As a student of past wars, what is one trend that tends to follow large wars in the peace that follows? To direct you somewhat, it is directly related to the demobilization process.”

“Loss of institutional knowledge. Though it isn’t just a factor of demobilization. When there is a long gap between wars, many of the experienced personnel are either retired or dead.” Athena replied.

Martin nodded his head quickly. “Precisely, exactly the point I was heading for.” Martin agreed happily. “Well we, Aegis Defense and a small group of concerned officers from the US and allied contingents, have a plan to reduce this deficit and actually improve our readiness for any future conflict.”

“That sounds like a tall order. What are you proposing, longer life spans, stasis?” Athena was both intrigued and doubtful. Long life spans for humans had proven difficult to extend past a century or so, at least in terms of a healthy lifestyle and people still aged. Stasis had its own problems.

“A little bit of both I suppose, but stasis is the most appropriate term for it.”

“But stasis has a whole host of problems, chief among them the complete disconnect suffered by those in stasis. What good is it to know how to fight the last war if you are ignorant to the changes in-between?” Athena countered.

“Ahh yes, there’s the traditional rub of stasis.” Martin didn’t seem troubled by it. “We’ve bypassed this concern, at least we have a plan to do so.” He allowed.

“You found a way to maintain a person’s consciousness while in stasis.” Athena concluded, dumbstruck.

Martin nodded slowly, giving her time to process before diving into it. “A bit more background before I get right to the heart of the matter. Aegis has poured considerable resources into virtual training programs. The problem has always been realism. Even with live fire exercises, there is a considerable difference between the real thing and training. Much of the trouble is simulating fatigue, hunger, and all the other little things that truly make up being in a combat zone, more so for those on the ground than in space, but the principle is the same. To create realism, we needed to tie into the individual’s central nervous system and bring it along, modulating what they feel. This is turn, led to obvious applications for those in stasis. Solving the issue of keeping the mind active while putting the body to sleep was something of a trick, but we figured a work around to that as well.”

“That explanation leads to more questions than answers.” Athena complained mildly. “Let’s start with the basics. First, how’d you solve the mind-body interface in stasis?”

“Well,” Martin shifted somewhat uncomfortably. “all who are placed in this modified stasis must be modified for the process.” His explanation seemed vaguer than it could have been.

It all clicked for Athena. “Agema.”

“Indeed. The nature of their implants allows for not only their minds to be somewhat disconnected from the bodies on command, but they can also tap directly into their central nervous systems. The system dovetails nicely with their abilities and systems.” Martin pointed out.

“So long as a seventy-five percent attrition rate in your candidates isn’t a big deal.” Athena replied acidly.

“Come now, you believe those numbers as well?” Martin replied testily. “The Agema program did suffer from casualty figures close to that at its inception, but we’ve improved the process immensely. We now see less than a five-percent mortality rate. The washout rate, which was fifty-percent of the loss anyway, is unavoidable but they aren’t dead, afterall. The death rate is highly exaggerated.” Martin sighed. “Not that it surprises me, Aegis hasn’t published updated figures, hoping to maintain the illusion of high casualties. I suspect that some of the counter-intel folks may have even spread some of the rumors, thought I don’t know that for sure.”

“Why?”

“To protect the program. If it were something that others felt could be copied, they would try. There are few outside of Aegis who even understand the full capabilities of an Agema. Even you are not familiar with their entire capability set. They accomplish their missions, which is all people need to know. So long as it is all they know, we can maintain our technological advantage.”

“Even though it could have helped us in the war?” Athena snapped, more angrily than she had intended.

“That is an unfortunate side effect, yes. But even some of your own commanders agree. Others are far more likely to utilize this technology than the United States. The modifications are quite extensive and intrusive. It would be quite difficult, if not impossible, for the soldiers to return to normal life after their service was over.”

“And your Agema?” Athena questioned. “Can they not retire?”

“Oh they can, though most serve for life, in one capacity or another. You must remember, Ceres is very different than any other world. Our society is much more closely knit than any other nation. We are all together for a common purpose. Some call us a cult, perhaps with some degree of truth depending on how you squint at it, but we are much more unified than most. It is a sort of indoctrination, but it serves us well.” Martin shrugged.

“Alright, let’s move past that for a moment. The last big question, where does the data come from for all this? That’s a lot of scenarios, a training simulation maybe, but a full world that people in stasis can live in for extended periods?”

“Yes, well, that is also solved by the Agema.”

“How so?” Athena cocked her head, curious as to how the Agema played into this.

“As you are probably aware, the Agema have extensive physical modifications, in addition to an advanced neural interface.” Athena nodded as he spoke. “What you may not be aware of is that the augmentations also includes a massive amount of nanites and other small processors spread throughout the body. These provide additional storage and computing power, all tied directly into their brains. We have advanced the neural interface to the point where, after a decade or so of practice, Agema can utilize the additional computing power as a mere extension of their own minds. This vastly improves their ability to calculate, consider options, and store or recall large amounts of data. Currently, the latest upgrades give the Agema about ten petabytes of additional storage capacity. This would normally be a lot but, with a true eidetic memory, it is actually somewhat limiting. Our scientists are, even now, looking into improving it.”

“Wait, you said an eidetic memory?” Athena stopped to consider the implications.

“Yes, or near enough to one. And since the neural net is tied to the brain the computer…” Martin led her to the answer he could already see she was working towards.

Athena gasped at the realization. “You can download their entire memory set! How do you separate out the useful information from the everyday life events?”

“For training simulators, we have the Agema shunt the data manually to specific regions of their storage capacity, then extract only that. It is a tedious process, but serviceable. However, for the stasis project, we do not. We dump everything together, it is all relevant.”

“But then they have no privacy.” Athena countered.

“Correct. They all knew what they were signing up for. Besides, we do not have the same level of privacy you find in the United States, but there is also a higher trust of the government with us. Of course I feel, in my biased opinion, that the Aegis-run government does far more to earn their trust than any other government.” Martin said with pride.

“Still.” Athena shuddered briefly. “It seems like such a lack of basic freedom.”