"The Forgotten": A post-apocalyptic tale

[Alice2015]

"The Forgotten"

A post-apocalyptic tale

Link to the OOC Thread​

Alice listened intently as the voice of the Artificial Intelligence guided her through reanimation. She'd been in cryogenic stasis for 9 months and needed physical and mental rehabilitation. They began with simple things like wiggling her fingers and toes, turning her head left and right, etc. For communication purposes she was instructed on clearing her throat, waggling her tongue, humming, and finally speaking.

"Alice Walker, Captain, United States Space Force," she answered to the questions what are your name and rank and of what organization are you a member. When asked her current location, Alice growled, "In the middle of the fucking Nevada desert."

Her tone and chosen profanity were warranted Alice believed for two primary reasons.

First, she felt weak and in pain, both physically and mentally. She didn't like that. Alice had always been a strong person: physically, mentally, emotionally. Feeling exhausted, sore, and foggy made her irritable, which tended to bring out the tone and choice words.

Second, being in what amounted to a coma for 9 months hadn't been on Alice's career bucket list. Since she was a little girl, all she'd ever wanted was to stand on the surface of Mars. She'd dedicated her life to that goal, and ultimately made the list for an upcoming crewed mission to the red planet.

Then, she was offered a choice position in the Deep Space Exploration and Settlement Project. Already an astronaut, Alice had mistakenly thought that meant she'd be on the first crewed mission to Europa. Uncrewed missions using sophisticated 3D printers were already fabricating the construction needs for a permanent settlement to be assembled by human beings once they arrived.

Alice abandoned her life goal to be a part of something even bigger, only to learn that she would instead be a test subject for a suspended animation project. The stasis project was part of the Europa mission, yes. But it wasn't space flight and planetary settlement either. Over the course of 4 years, Alice was to be in stasis for a month, then three months, then nine months.

She'd been denied reinstatement to the Mars Program. The highly classified nature of the Project meant that resigning would mean an end to her career with Space Force.

Lifting her head a bit for a better look left and right through her stasis pod's transparent cover, Alice asked with that same irritated tone, "Where the fuck are the Overseers?"

"There are no Overseers on duty, Captain," Bertha responded.

That made absolutely no sense, of course. Following her previous stints in stasis, Alice had always awoken to the numerous faces smiling down at her from beyond the Plexiglas,

"You have completed the post-cryogenic stasis reanimation procedure, Captain," Bertha announced. "Are you ready to open and exit your pod?"

"Yes, yes!" she answered impatiently. "For fuck's sake, get me out of this coffin."

The locks clicked open, and the lid lifted up and away. Without an Overseer there to help her, Alice found it near to impossible to get herself up and out, but eventually she managed it. She took a minute to stretch and twist, during which time Alice began to notice more than simply the absence of Overseers.

"Bertha, did they move me?" she asked the AI. "This isn't the room where..." She hesitated, finding even more surprises. "Where'd all the pods come from? When they put me under, there were only 4 of us. I'm counting ... 16 ... no, 18 pods." Each of the coffins appeared to be energized and illuminated. She asked, "Are these all occupied?"

"There are 18 cryogenic stasis pods on this level, Captain," Bertha responded, continuing, "And they are all currently occupied. Some of the occupants are deceased, however."

Alice's eyes and mouth opened wide with shock as she exclaimed, "What? What're you saying? Some of the test subjects are dead?"

"Yes, Captain," Bertha said in her matter of fact, emotionless tone. "Of the 18 occupied cryogenic stasis--"

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Alice cut in. "Pods! Call'em pods! Give me the numbers."

"Yes, Captain," Bertha apologized, without the emotion a human would offer. "Of the 18 pods on this level, 6 are occupied by deceased subjects."

"Of the pods on this level," Alice repeated. "How many levels are there ... and how many pods are there? And as far as that goes, where the fuck am I? This isn't Harris Air Force Base, is it?"

Bertha responded to the series of questions in order: "8 of this facility's levels house pods. There are a total of 14 levels in this facility. In total, there are 60 pods. 24 of those 60 pods are occupied by deceased test subjects. You are in Cryogenic Stasis Bay #4 of the Richardson International Bunker Complex inside Gunnbjørn Fjeld in the Watkins Mountain Range on Greenland's eastern coast."

Again, Alice's eyes and mouth revealed her surprise. She tried to grasp what the AI was telling her, her mind filled with an array of questions. The first to come out of her mouth was, "The Gun-born what?"

"Gunnbjørn Fjeld," Bertha repeated, pronouncing the word properly and with an accurate Danish accent. "A Fjeld is an alpine peak that protrudes through glacial snows or an ice sheet--"

"Greenland?" Alice interrupted yet again. More to herself than to Bertha, she asked, "What the fuck am I doing in Greenland? And how the fuck could there be ... how many pods did you say?"

"60 pods, Captain," the AI answered. Then, believing that Alice's murmured question had been for her, Bertha responded, "I have not been programmed with knowledge as to how or why you were brought here, Captain."

Alice slid forward, dropping her feet to the cold deck and testing her ability to stand. She was unsteady at first but finally managed to walk the three steps to a nearby bench. Sitting, she pulled open a locker before her, finding the clothes she'd taken off and stored months earlier in Nevada, thousands of miles away.

She stripped out of the cryo pajamas, down to her birthday suit, then donned a pair of modest panties, a spaghetti strap tee shirt, a pair of cotton socks, and a pair of tight fitting but stretchy pants. She found a mirror on a nearby wall and stood to check her appearance.

Haven't changed a bit, Alice thought to herself, as if she'd expected to lose or gain weight or even wake up looking like a wrinkled ol' decaying zombie. She took a moment for some body movement exercises, stretching her muscles and verifying proper balance.

Speaking to the only company she had at the moment, Alice asked, "Bertha, am I the only reanimated test subject?"

"You are the first reanimated test subject, Captain," the AI responded with a sense of formality. "My programmed instructions were to reanimate you specifically if either of a number of certain circumstances arose."

"What circumstances?" Alice asked.

Bertha's answer was vague. "This facility has suffered some systems failures, resulting in the death of 24 of 60 cryogenic test subjects. A recent earthquake has amplified those failures, leading to the need for your reanimation."

Alice didn't understand why she herself was brought out of cryo to deal with the troubles about which Bertha spoke. The Overseers should have been dealing with them, making Alice again ask herself, Where the fuck are the Overseers?

She made her way toward the nearest pod. She'd been putting this off, but she knew she had to deal with this eventually. She peeked down through the Plexiglas, and -- to her relief -- found a live subject, a female perhaps 10 years her junior, looking as if she was simply taking a nap. Alice moved on to a second pod, finding a man whose age might be ranged from mid-20s to late 30s. He, too, was still alive and looking fine.

Reaching the third pod, though, Alice looked through the cover, then turned away quickly in shock; she was struck by the dry heaves, what with having nothing in her belly to be expelled onto the floor. She looked down into the pod again at the female test subject. Her appearance reminded Alice Egyptian mummies after archaeologists had removed their wraps.

"How did this level of decay take place so quickly?" Alice asked herself softly. "I mean, we've only been in stasis for..."

Looking at what was left of the dead woman, an incredible thought came to Alice. She asked with a hesitant tone, "Bertha ... how long ago was I put in stasis?"

"Until you were reanimated 36 minutes ago, you had been in cryogenic stasis for 114 years, 44 days, 11 hours, and 19 minutes, Captain" Bertha said with her programmed matter of fact tone.

Alice just stood there for the longest time, staring at the glowing red eye on the wall. Her mind was blown; she didn't know what to say or ask, and even if she had, she doubted she could have formed the words.

"You must be hungry, Captain," Bertha asked, unaffected by Alice's dismay. "Would you like to eat? I have heated a fully balanced meal for you in the mess hall."

 

[Alice2015]

(OOC: Skip down to the bottom and read the comments about the facility picture, then come back up here to read the post.)

6 days later:

Alice entered the saloon, finding the 6 test subjects Bertha had reanimated sitting at the largest of the picnic style tables lining the far wall. For now, they included 2 men and 4 more females. Alice would continue reanimations in a few days, bringing their number higher. Right now, though, with the continuing issue of systems failures, there was a problem with keeping even just the 7 of them alive right now.

Half of those at the table were Space Force members, all officers of lower rank than Alice herself. The other 3 were civilians who'd been included in the Project for one reason or another. Alice had introduced herself to each of them as they'd come out of stasis and to each other as their number increased.

She'd told them nothing about their situation, though. Alice had only escorted them one after another to the 3rd level saloon for a meal and rehydration, then down to the 4th level living quarters for a good night's sleep. Some of them had found it ironic that after a presumably months long cryo nap that they'd need to sleep. But as Alice had learned when she herself had been reanimated, your body and mind would still suffer exhaustion for several days.

Now, as they finished their breakfast, Alice stopped at the head of the table and stood over them, studying their faces before saying, "Okay, so, this is going to be a bit of a shock."

She told them what Bertha had told her about how long they'd been there, about the system failures, and about the earthquake. "The systems failures caused several of the pods to shut down, killing the people inside. The biggest loss of life, though, came after the quake. A crack in the outer wall is allowing water to flood the lower levels ... the cryo pod levels. There are pumps, but they weren't designed to move this much water. The water level is currently rising 4.5 inches a day.

"We already lost two levels and we we're in danger of losing a third -- your level -- which is why you were the first to be reanimated," Alice continued. "17 dead due to the flooding so far. Their pods were submerged and failed. The remaining 7 deaths were due to ... other factors. I estimate we have 12 days before we have to evacuate the next level, the level I was on."

"Why am I here?" one of the women asked timidly. "I mean, the last thing I remember, I was at the clinic in my neighborhood being tested for the most recent influenza, and ... and I wake up here. I don't understand."

Alice looked to the woman who'd asked the question. At barely 22 years old, Rita Reynolds was the youngest of those sitting at the table. Alice had looked through the beauty's digital record as her reanimation had been underway. Despite her youth, Rita had 3 Horticulture degrees, one of them a PhD in Hydroponics, specifically its potential use on deep space manned spacecraft.

"I don't know why you're here, Rita," Alice confessed. She looked to the other Space Force personnel, saying, "I mean, I know why we four were part of the Project. Your background in hydroponics will definitely come in handy here."

Alice had shown Rita the 2nd level Horticulture Level yesterday. Alice had prepared the space for use, with Bertha guiding her as per the knowledge and instructions hidden in the AI's computer files. But it was going to be up to Rita to begin growing the food that would be necessary to keep the facility's occupants alive long term.

"But as to why you were ... well, for the lack of another word Shanghaied into the Project," Alice admitted, "I have no idea."

(OOC: If you are interested in joining this roleplay, please PM me with your character concept. The premise regarding who is in the facility is that about 1 out of 6 of them were Space Force personnel who were legitimately part of the cryogenic stasis test, while the other 5 out of 6 were Shanghaied because they could help sustain the facilities population once they were all reanimated. Ultimately, the facility will be opened and our characters will head outside, discovering that Greenland is no longer a land of ice and snow and is a somewhat green, somewhat barren land due to extreme global warming and melting of the world's ice .)

------------------------------​

This is the image we are using for the Richardson International Bunker Complex. (No, I didn't create it; I discovered it on the internet.) As described in the first IC thread post, the RIBC comprises 14 levels. For our purposes, the 8 levels of pod storage are below the lowest level in the picture.

 

[Alice2015]

Marcia Weathers sat at the table listening in silence and only occasionally making eye contact with the others. It wasn't that she was shy or anything. God knows she wasn't. Out in the world 145 years ago, before the Project, she'd spent every Friday and Saturday night out on the town, more often than not with a new man ... or woman ... or both.

No, what was affecting Marcia was guilt. She knew things about the Project -- specifically about the Greenland and long term stasis aspects of the Project -- that no one here knew and that even Bertha the AI didn't know.

Marcia had been an Overseer.

She wasn't known to any of those at the table or awaiting reanimation in one of the pods in the levels below. Each of the Stiffs -- one of the many nicknames for the test subjects tossed around by the Overseers -- had already been in stasis long before they'd come to Richardson, which had been her only duty station with regards to the Project.

Marcia had been what the others called a Dually, a Project employee with two reasons for being here.

First, she'd been tasked with watching over the Stiffs after they'd arrived in Greenland: monitor the pods, monitor the occupant's vitals, tour the facility looking for problems and fixing them if possible.

And second, she'd been destined to occupy one of the pods herself. Marcia had known since long before arriving at the bunker in the mountain that she wouldn't be leaving there for a long time, if ever. The world had gone to shit, and the human race was looking at imminent extinction. She'd been offered an opportunity to not just live through the apocalypse but see how things turned out in the long run.

It was the first part, living, that had got her to sign on the dotted line. The second part had been one of those shrug the shoulders type of things. Marcia had a great interest in not dying, even if it meant sleeping away decades or even centuries before once again opening her eyes and venturing out into the outside world to see what they were facing.

Of course, going outside might not ever be an option. Marcia knew that, too. She and the other Stiffs might very well have to live down here for the rest of their lives. They'd have to keep the facility running efficiently; they'd have to produce children to perpetuate the species.

It was that last part that was behind the Project Administrator's choosing of Marcia as one of the Overseers who would remain on as a Stiff. Genetically, Marcia was nearly perfect in every way. Her DNA had no markers for cancer, heart disease, mental illness, or any of the more than 1,200 serious ailments that researchers had identified in the Human Genome. Oh, sure, she had an allergy to hazel nut trees and horsehair. But no one had expected that to be a problem down here or even up top again if ever the bunker's occupants ever left their home.

She listened as Alice explained to them their situation and then responded to their questions as best she could. When the topic of the Overseers' absence came up, Marcia had to look away in fear of revealing her knowledge of the topic through her guilty expression.

After the last of the Stiffs had finally reached Richardson from wherever in the world they'd come, and after a month of monitoring them, their pods, and the facility as a whole had shown that all was well, most of the Overseers had left the secret bunker for other destinations. Some had been reassigned to other cryo sites built and operated by the United States and its cooperating allies: there was one in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, another in Canada someplace, and a third that Marcia knew of in the Swiss Alps.

Other Overseers had simply returned to their homes to spend their final days with their families. Marcia didn't have one to return to, though. She'd lost her parents years earlier to an accident and had had no siblings or close cousins and such. Her party crowd and fellow Project workers had been all she'd had. Choosing to lay back in a glass coffin and take a long nap as opposed to dying a horrific death out in the world had been an easy choice.

At one point, Alice looked to her and pointed out, "Marcia, when I looked up your file--"

She interrupted -- politely, as it was -- by raising her hand in a stop gesture. "It's pronounced Mar-SEE-uh ... see, not shee." She smiled to Alice, saying, "It happens all the time, more often than not. My parents all had to do things the difficult way."

Alice pronounced the other woman's name properly, then continued, "When I read your file, or tried to anyway, I found very little other than your name and some basic background like birthplace and birthdate."

Marcia could feel her heart pounding heart, and the heat rising in her face would have shown that she was blushing in panic if it hadn't been for her dark complexion. She shrugged, responding, "Don't know anything about how they kept records. I was ... how did you say it earlier ... shanghaied? I don't know anymore about this place or our situation than any of you do."

She looked around the table, smiling nervously and again shrugging. Marcia was lying, of course, but she had the good fortune of being a good liar. In truth, one of the last things she'd done before the last of the Overseers put her in stasis was to go through her record and expunge most of the information, specifically any work history or connection to the Project. She'd been planning on filling in the spaces to make herself look legit, but she'd run out of time and had had to leave it mostly blank.

Marcia finished her cover story with a slight chuckle and the parroting of what Alice had told them, "Systems failures, I guess."

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

Tyrande Collins

Italian Decent

Education: High School Graduate. R.O.T.C. Marines 4 Years. Space Force Command 2 Years

Tyrane had it good. Foot Ball Star. Lead String Quarterback in High School. ROTC. A job on the weekends at the local shooting range (Mostly loading shelves and collecting brass)

That ended when his school blew up. Terror attack. He was at an away game. His girlfriend Michelle was in the gym practicing (she was Gymnastics Captain). From the police reports 42 schools across America were targeted. Most of them small towns.

He signed papers as soon as he could. He’d always wanted to be military, like his grandfather, and his great-grandfather. His father was a farmer, blown out knee from construction accident. But his uncle was a Marine.

He graduated wearing his Uniform, walked from the ceremony to the Marine Bus, and never looked back.

Sniper, C.Q.C., Medic training. He was good with computers as well. He’d started looking at going Ghost Operations when the Space Force Command tagged him for an assignment.

----

Sitting at the end of the table he looked and felt like shit. The garbage can was next to him. He sipped at ice chips, looking at food made his stomach roll and bile seeped into his nose.

Fucking Experiments!

But at least he was alive, and the experiment worked. Sort of.

God the smell of the powdered eggs and dehydrated hashbrowns was getting to him. How long before he just fucking puked his internals until they were external?

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

Alaina Elise Carmichael.

Top of her class. Straight A’s. Fast track to MIT, early enrollment. Pre certification classes. Hell she was taking classes on line she shouldn’t have had access to, except she hacked the system.

Then she made a few mistakes. She hacked the wrong site. Read some files she should never have known existed. Got tagged and woke up in a cell in the middle of fuck no where.

The gun on the table. The hand cuffs holding her to the floor mounted table and she knew she was fucked.

Option one: Agree to an experiment. Get out of it and join some people she never wanted to meet.

Option two: …..

She picked option 1.

Eating her eggs she scanned the room. Including the guy heaving his guts up every time he looked higher than the floor. Built nice, obviously military based on the build and haircut. The attitude.

Probably a bully.

Looking over at the leader, at least until she died or got voted out. Alaina raised her hand. “How long before we’re forced to evacuate the Facility? Or are we able to shunt the water into a different direction before that happens?”

 

[Alice2015]

Alice studied Marcia for a moment before also shrugging and saying dismissively, "Well, not important. I'm sure we're going to have plenty of time to get to know one another, files or no files."

She looked to the other faces, then to the meal on the table before them. Looking once more to beautiful ebony skinned woman she would soon learn was of Jamaican heritage, the Chinese-American Alice said, "I want to thank Marcia for preparing this wonderful breakfast for us."

Marcia snickered, mumbling, "Wonderful my ass." Some of the others laughed as well. She clarified about the meal, "There isn't much in the cupboards of this place. I mean as far as variety goes. And spices. C'mon, they couldn't have packed us some Allspice or Basil?"

She poked her fork at the reconstituted powdered eggs, then explained, "I looked through the pantry. Amazingly, almost all of it appears to have survived the, what was it, nearly a century and a half. I opened some packages this morning and checked them. They're all good. They're just ... blah. Boxes, cans, bottles. We need fresh food to stay healthy."

Simultaneously, Alice and Marcia looked toward Rita, whose fair skin that her Scandinavian ancestors passed down to her went red under the scrutiny. Nervously, she told them, "It's going to be a while, sorry. I mean, I only visited the horticulture level for the first time yesterday."

She looked to Alice, who she knew has spent some of the past 6 days prepping the Farm for use. "I'll be planting spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard ... some herbs ... cilantro, mint, basil. Some strawberries, too. The earliest thing I'll be able to offer are sprouts. Alfalfa, beans. It'll be a week for the sprouts, months for the rest."

"What about meat?" one of the Stiffs asked. "Or are we getting all of our protein from plant fiber?"

"We'll have meat, yes, but that's gonna be a while," Alice said. She could see by the looks in some of the faces that they weren't following the topic. She explained with a bit of a sarcastic tone, "The benevolent planners of this Project in which we find ourselves had enough forethought to bless us with over a hundred thousand fertilized embryos of things we might like to eat down here once we'd awoken."

"Embryos for what?" someone asked.

Again, Alice shrugged. "Rabbits, guinea pigs ... some other small animals that don't take up much space but reproduce fast. We have a store of feed for them, but eventually they'll have to eat from the Farm, too.

"I grow plants," Rita said. "I don't know anything about raising animals, let alone making them in a test tube."

"Don't worry, we have that handled," Alice reassured her. "We'll be eating real meat in no time at all. Bertha -- that's the AI that looks out for us in case any of you haven't had the opportunity to interact with her yet -- Bertha says there're also embryos for larger animals ... goats, pigs, even cattle. I think those are meant for if we ever get back out there into the real world."

Alice explained that one of the next Stiffs to be reanimated was an Ectogenesiologist. Alice had tried a dozen times to pronounce the word, accusing the AI of making it up. Bertha had explained that it was a new word to the scientific lexicon; it referred to a person working in the scientific field dedicated to creating animal life entirely outside a natural womb.

Bertha had said, "I believe that the motion picture franchise of Jurassic Park was--"

"Yeah, yeah," Alice had cut the AI off, "I know all about Jurrasic Park. I also know that things didn't turn out well for the humans in those movies."

"Fortunately, most of the embryos we have are for animals that are small, cute, and furry," Bertha had said.

Alice had been quick to point out, "Which means we just might have a problem with the others wanting to eat them. I mean, rabbits and guinea pigs and the like. I mean, most people think of them as pets, not dinner."

 

[Alice2015]

(OOC: Facility image)

Alice looked to Alaina Elise Carmichael after the woman asked, "How long before we’re forced to evacuate the Facility? Or are we able to shunt the water into a different direction before that happens?"

Hesitating to consider both the answer and whether she was ready to share it, Alice said without commitment, "Don't know." Again, she hesitated, then clarified, "What I mean is ... at last check the water was rising at just over 4 inches a day. That doesn't mean it will remain steady at that rate. It could slow. It could accelerate.

"But at its current rate and all things the same," Alice continued, having already done the math several times over the past 6 days, "the highest of the cryo levels will be flooded in just under 6 months. Obviously, we'll have the rest of the test subjects out by then.

"After that, the generator room is next," she told the others. "If it gets flooded, we're fucked. We have to find a way to either stop the water from entering the facility, which Bertha tells me is unlikely ... or we have to find a way to pump out more water ... or we have to move the generators to a higher level. I have no idea whether or not that is possible."

Again, Alice shrugged. She hated not having solutions to problems. It disturbed her almost as much as finding out that she'd been sleeping in a glass coffin for a century and a half like some fairy tale princess.

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

Raising her hand again Allaina paused for a half breath. before asking. "Why are we considering staying inside if the place is flooding? Where's the water coming from? Can it be stopped or patched? What gradient level was the quake? Where we close to the epicenter or further out we got hit by a shock wave? When can i have access to the system so i can start figuring out what went wrong? That is why I'm here.. right?" One breath that came out so fast it was hard to believe anybody had that much breath in their lungs.

Swishing his mouth out with water Tyrande spit it into the trash, at least the taste was gone. As long as he breathed through his mouth he couldn't smell the Powdered Eggs. Standing up he gave Alice a salute before he asked. "Do we have an scuba or rebreather gear in the facility? I can dive down and take a look." he volunteered.

 

[Alice2015]

(OOC: For anyone following our story, we made a change. Alice was uncertain how the others would react to learning that they'd been in stasis for 144 years, so she hasn't told them. Additionally, she ordered Bertha, the AI, to keep that news to herself, too. I'm sure that the news will get out soon, but for now, it's a secret. Shhh...!)

..........................​

"Why are we considering staying inside if the place is flooding?" Alaina asked. She followed up with several rapid-fire questions, then asked what she could to help. "That is why I'm here.. right?"

"Those are all very good questions, Alaina," Alice said. "First ... the source of the flooding is unknown. Bertha has hundreds of cameras across all 14 levels of the facility, particularly in the cryo pod levels. And yet, none of her cameras spotted the leak. More than likely, it's in the lower reaches somewhere, maybe even in the floor, under the bilge."

The facility's 14th level had a bilge area below it, just as ships and submarines did. Pumps kept it empty, and automated scrubbers -- fancy Roombas, you could call them -- moved around cleaning the floor to reduce odors. Now, of course, the Roombas were moot and the pumps, while still working, were overwhelmed.

"The leak can be patched," Alice continued. "Bertha reassures me that the materials and tools are available in the Repair Room on the third level. What was next...? Oh, the quake. The short answer: we don't know. Bertha doesn't have a connection to the outside world, so all she knows is that it was big and not all too far away."

That wasn't exactly true, though. Bertha did know the quakes size and epicenter: magnitude 8.2, with an epicenter halfway between the facility's location and Great Britain, pretty much due south of Iceland. (OOC: Google map link) But telling the others that Bertha had a link to the outside world might lead to questions she didn't want asked and answers she didn't want to give.

Right now, her bunker mates thought they'd been in stasis for just 3 years. Alice couldn't even imagine how they would react to find out they'd been laying in their pods for more than 144 years.

"As far as gaining access to the computer systems," Alice said, looking to Alaina, "you can start tomorrow." Looking between them all, she said, "Today, though, I want everyone to just take it easy. Get some rest, spend some time in the gym if that's your thing..."

The facility had a full gym in the back of the Living Quarters on the 5th level. It was impressive, Alice thought, with all the most modern exercise machines, free weights, a sauna, and a swim spa.

Tyrande dealt with his nausea situation in a way that caused most around the table to grimace, including Alice, then stood and asked, "Do we have a scuba or rebreather gear in the facility? I can dive down and take a look."

Alice had considered that as well without acting on it. Her astronaut training had included hours upon hours in a swimming pool performing EVA training. But Alice had never enjoyed those activities. She would never tell anyone this because it would have been the end of her career, but diving had always scared the shit out of Alice. She'd barely passed her qualifications, and she'd only done so because she'd performed sexual favors for one of the Training Supervisors.

"No, we don't have scuba gear," Alice confessed reluctantly. "However ... we do have a considerable length of flexible inch-and-a-half hose. If we connected one end of it to the air recirc' system in the Repair Bay and attached a pressure regulator and mouth piece at the other ... neither of which we have but could create..."

She looked to Tyrande, and she could see in his face that he knew where she was going with this. Once again, she shrugged, saying, "I would never order you to do this. It's dangerous. The leak could be as much as 40 feet beneath the current water level. I'm not a diver, so I don't know what kind of pressure that is. Hell, I can't even guarantee that the hose wouldn't collapse once you got down that deep."

Alice didn't like even making such a suggestion. But unless someone could come up with something else. Maybe Tyrande knew how to construct a scuba kit...?

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

“I’m a Marine. Adapt and Overcome. It’s what I do.” Ty replied as he reached for the salt. Throwing a splash on his tongue followed by a fistful of those fucking disgusting ass powered fucking eggs. “Overcome the obstacle, or get overcome.”

“Do or Die.” He added. “Workshop. I’ll find what I need or build it myself. I can free dive 400 feet down, it’s not the record. And you need two hoses, one for intake, one for exhale. Otherwise you end up inhaling carbon dioxide.”

“How are the oxygen scrubbers working? Greater than 80 percent I hope? Otherwise we all start taking the permanent nap.”

Straightening to his full 6’3” height he rotated and popped his spine a few times in several places. “I’ll need a full map of all the levels, above and below the water line, just in case. Including air ducts, access hatches, power lines, ladders, stair wells, construction level blue prints.”

 

[Alice2015]

Alice listened to Ty's description of himself and of what he needed to get the job done. He was confident in his thinking that he could find the crack in the wall and seal it. She liked confidence in a man. As far as that went, she liked confidence in a woman, too. Most of her past lovers had been male, but she'd been known to get nekked with women as well.

Looking around the table, Alice didn't see a face or body with which she wouldn't like to see in her bed. All of the men were handsome in their own way; all of the women were lovely in theirs. She silently chastised herself for her lewd thoughts at a time like this.

She couldn't help it, though. Alice was always exceptionally horny after exiting stasis. After her first, one-month stint in cryo, she practically raped the first guy she met after passing out of the gates of Harris Air Force Base back in Nevada. After the second test, this time 3-months long, she spent four days in a variety of campus dorms and off-campus housing playing who's next with a succession of UNLV football team members and a handful of cheerleaders.

She didn't understand why this post-stasis horniness affected her so, and when -- in confidence -- she asked the Project nurse monitoring her for an explanation, as the nurse could do was shrug and say Never seen that before. Well, that wasn't all the nurse could do for Alice. That was done in confidence and multiple times as well.

The only reason Alice wasn't slipping away to a dark corner or to a more comfortable bed in the Living Quarters with one of the six people before her now was simple: they were all going to be living together in tight quarters for an indefinite amount of time. Previously, Alice had been able to have her fun and walk away. Here in the bunker, though, she and anyone with whom she might want to reliever the stress were going to be seeing each other every day. Alice didn't need that kind of awkwardness. No, until this feeling of desperate need waned, which it always had, she'd have to continue taking care of her problem while showering alone, as she had been doing every day since reanimation.

"How are the oxygen scrubbers working?" Ty asked. "Greater than 80 percent, I hope? Otherwise, we all start taking the permanent nap.”

"They have suffered some failures, like many of the systems," Alice reported. "Fortunately, with only 7 of us up and around right now, it's not a problem. However, as we reanimate more subjects -- which we have to do before the water reaches the next level -- we're going to have problems with the O-2 ... with water recycling, with diminishing food stocks--"

"We'll be out in about 5 months," Marcia interrupted. When Alice looked to her, Ms. Weathers explained, "I did a quick inventory of the pantry. There's enough to feed us without severe rationing for 5 months, maybe 6. That's based on feeding 7 bellies, though. Every time you reanimate someone new..."

Marcia didn't have to finish that sentence; they all knew what she was going to say. Rita Reynolds jumped in, asking, "How many people on the next level being threatened with flooding?"

Alice lifted a small electronic tablet she'd been carrying around for much of the last 6 days as if about to refer to it. She didn't need to, though; she'd been over the numbers so often that she'd already memorized them all. "That level, like most, has 18 pods. However--" She cleared her throat, drew and released a deep breath, then reported, "12 more people."

There was a moment of solemn silence for the dead before Marcia, who had voluntarily taken responsibility for feeding the others, told them the obvious, "That seriously cuts into how long our food will last."

"Really...?" Marcia asked sarcastically. She caught Alice giving her a sharp look and offered an apologetic expression. Being in charge of growing the facility's new food, she reminded them, "It's gonna be a month before we're producing our first crops, and they won't be much. Sprouts, some lettuce. It'll be fresh and nutritious, but there won't be much at first."

Marcia looked to Alice, asking, "We have to bring these people out of stasis that soon?"

Alice thought about the question a moment. She looked toward the eye on the wall, as if she was facing the AI face-to-face, and asked, "Bertha, can the pods on Level 12 be moved ... up, I mean? Can we use the elevator to bring them up to 11 or even higher?"

The AI answered quickly, "No." Alice clenched her jaw in disappointment, but that feeling was short lived as Bertha continued, "The cryogenic stasis pods are equipped with internal power cells that will provide support for up to 10 hours. However, the elevator is not functioning due to a software issue for which I do not have a fix."

Alice looked directly to Alaina, smiled, and said, "That sounds like an issue for our hacker."

Looking between her bunker mates, she said, "Okay, so ... today's a day off for everyone." Alice thought she saw expressions of disagreement in some of the faces and quickly held up a hand in a stop gesture, telling them firmly, "No! Today is a day off. Some of us are still feeling weak, including me, and I've been up and around for 6 days, not less than 1 like the rest of you.

"You will take the day!" she stressed. "Get some rest, get a hot shower, spend some time in the sauna, feed your faces, I don't care. But no work." She looked at Marcia, saying, "And no more cooking. I'll take the kitchen for the rest of the day. You do like the others ... and do nothing."

Alice looked around to the others, asking firmly, "Got it?"

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

A day off? Fucking civilians in charge?! Command had lost their shit. There were things she wasn’t saying as well. Why hadn’t they contacted Command? Why wasn’t Command talking to them? Comms down? Why didn’t they just walk out the door and fire a flare?

“By your Command,” Ty said as he rotted turning about face with military precision and walked away. His mind working as he walked. He had been ordered to do ‘nothing’. But he could still think. And work out and swim. So that was the plan. He hit the gym, bench presses, leg weights, tread mill. Then a shower.

That was a bad idea, as soon as the hot water hit his body his cock stood up and saluted. Fuck he needed pussy, but that wasn’t happening. Not yet anyways. Fuck if the right guy came along he’d close his eyes and think about the latest movie star as he got a blowjob.

But for now he took matters in hand and.. well.. stroked his hard shaft in the hot spray. Once he was done, and the evidence was down the drain he headed for the sauna. He didn’t bother with more than a towel.

Sitting in the sauna he let the heat ease his muscles, even if his cock didn’t pay attention and stayed up.

 

[Alice2015]

Marcia Weathers had left the meeting in the Saloon and gone straight to her quarters on the 4th level. She needed to be away from the others for fear that she was going to reveal her deep, dark secret: she was or had been an Overseer.

How was she going to keep this secret? What would the others say or do if they found out? Marcia wasn't responsible for them being here, of course. When she arrived at the bunker, the Stiffs were already in stasis.

Her job had been to watch over them; monitor their vitals, maintain the equipment, file reports. Then came the truth about why she'd so unexpectedly been offered the position: genetically, Marcia was practically perfect, her DNA including none markers for serious diseases, ailments, etc.

They'd wanted her for her ability to repopulate the human race with perfect babies. Really?!?

Marcia arrived at her quarters and flopped down on the bed. You couldn't really call it a bedroom. It was a bed and a tiny desk with a chair surrounded by heavy moveable draperies on a ceiling rail like what you saw in hospital emergency rooms.

There were 8 beds along each of 3 walls. The 4th wall was occupied by 4 unisex bathrooms. (Each included only a toilet and sink as the showers were in the Gym on the 5th level adjacent to the Bunkroom.) There was also a closet full of bedding and generic coveralls of all needed sizes. A dirty linens chute led to the 6th level laundry room, which was adjacent to the generator room.

Marcia stared up at the ducts, pipes, and conduits filling the overhead for a couple of minutes, contemplating her situation. The others didn't know her background, of course, as it had been removed from Bertha's memory banks before Marcia entered stasis. All she'd told the others about herself was that she'd been a cop in New York City, went to Urgent care to get a flu shot, and woke up here.

She didn't like lying, but what was her alternative. Tell the others she'd been an Overseer?

After several uneasy minutes of staring upwards, Marcia leapt up from her bed and headed down a level. She entered the hallway leading to the showers and more and stopped short, finding Rita Reynolds peeking into the shower and sauna room. Marcia took a long moment to admire the other woman's delicious form. Rita was small in stature compared to her own self, standing only 5'2" to Marcia's 5'8". Like Maria, Rita had impressive, firm C-cups; Rita's ever-pert nipples were at this moment presenting themselves wondrously through the thin fabric of her exercise top.

Marcia cleared her throat, causing Rita to almost leap out of her sports shoes. Rita's face exploded in a fiery blush as she proclaimed guiltily, "I wasn't looking!"

Smiling wide, Marcia stepped closer and looked into the room, just in time to find the very naked and also very impressive Tyrande Collins heading from the showers to the sauna, his still mostly hard cock waggling to and fro with each step. Marcia looked to Rita, taunting playfully, "Did you like what you saw, little girl?"

Rita's blush only deepened; she looked away, unable to maintain eye contact. Again, she lied, "I ... I didn't see anything."

"He's a fine-looking man," Marcia said.

Rita peeked into the room again, disappointed to find no further evidence of Ty. She giggled. "He's really good looking, isn't he?"

"And he's naked," Marcia added. She nodded toward the open doorway, asking, "Why don't you go join him?"

Rita's eyes opened wide and her mouth fell open. She gasped, "No...! No, I ... I ... I couldn't."

"Why not?" Marcia asked, adding, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Marcia grasped Rita by the hand and led her into the room. Rita resisted, but Marcia had her outmatched in weight and strength. Marcia led the petite thing to the bench near the sauna, released her hold, and began shedding her clothes. Rita just stared as Marcia revealed her wondrous ebony-skinned body.

"Strip and wrap a towel around you," Marcia demanded as she wrapped a large towel around herself. Impatiently, she demanded, "Take your clothes off and wrap up in a towel, or I'll strip you myself."

Rita hesitated, but when Marcia stepped forward to proceed with her threat, she signaled a stop gesture, then turned away and slowly began stripping off her already minimal outfit off of her body.

Behind the petite thing, Marcia marveled at Rita's shape. The dark-skinned woman preferred women over men, though she did both; she particularly enjoyed smallish woman like Rita. She was tempted to drag Rita into the showers for some water play and leave Ty to himself. But from the woman's reaction to seeing Ty, Marcia guessed that Rita's preferences likely leaned toward cock, not pussy.

Rita wrapped a towel around her form and turned. She looked like a scared little kitten in a room full of pit bulls, which made the instigator of this situation smile with delight.

Marcia opened the door and peeked in, finding Ty sitting with his back to the wood paneled wall, eyes closed. His cock was still more hard than not, lifted slightly above his thighs and pointing out toward the center of the small room. Marcia snatched up another towel, opened the door wide enough for Rita to also spot the man's nicely size cock, and then stepped inside.

"Cover up," Marcia said with a smile as Ty opened his eyes and realized he had company. She tossed the towel directly into his lap, telling him quietly as if sharing a secret, "There's ladies present."

Marcia took a seat opposite Ty, gesturing Rita inside; the little woman couldn't maintain eye contact with either of her sauna-mates but did steal peeks at the male companion often as she sat close to Marcia, their thighs almost touching.

After a moment, Marcia asked Ty bluntly, "So, you into girls ... guys ... what?"

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

“Oh, I’m into the ladies. Often.” Ty replied looking at the two towel clad beauties across from him. If the towels were shorter he’d be taking peeks, as it was the towel she’d through and that had landed on his lap had a definite tent. Pulling it to the side he bared his rather lage and happy cock. “Considering your ages you’ve seen naked people before. Sauna’s are made for being hot and sweaty. Towels just make you itchy.”

“I prefer hot and sweaty without the itching. If you’d rather I can leave and come back when you’re done. Or we could handle the situation at hand like adults and talk or do something about it.”

“I don’t know about you, maybe it’s something in the food or the drugs pumped into us in cryo. But I’m horny as Dragon.” Reaching down he ran a finger along his shaft, from tip to base and back to tip. “Now earlier I did... deal with this myself, but it’s not doing the trick. Maybe if one or both of you’d like to give it a try? Or I go back to the shower and try again.”

 

[Alice2015]

“I don’t know about you, maybe it’s something in the food or the drugs pumped into us in cryo," he mused, "but I’m horny as a Dragon."

He traced a finger along his cock's length. Marcia peeked Rita's direction and smiles as the woman's eyes widened. Rita would later pull Marcia aside to talk about what happened here, asking, "Was he really saying he masturbated...? Was he really saying that to us?"

Marcia loved the other woman's naivete. She herself had never been that shy, particularly at 22 years of age.

"Maybe if one or both of you’d like to give it a try?" Ty suggested.

Marcia again looked to Rita, making eye contact with her. She nodded her head toward Ty, suggesting Rita take the man up on the suggestion. Rita's eyes opened even wider, something Marcia wouldn't have thought possible. The younger thing shook her head no almost imperceptibly.

Ty told them, "Or I go back to the shower and try again."

"You might have to do that," Marcia responded.

She reached a hand over to lift the lower edge of Rita's towel, revealing the rest of her thigh and nearly exposing her crotch. Rita slapped a hand down on the towel, hiding herself again, but in the meantime caused the towel's upper portion to fall downward, revealing her bountiful bosom for a moment before she lifted the towel to hide her tits again.

Marcia laughed, then confessed, "My tendencies tend to lean toward cute little things with big boobs."

Rita gasped in shock, clutching the towel tighter to her body. She stood suddenly, hesitated, looked between Ty and Marcia, smiled nervously, and lied, "I just remembered ... I'm supposed to meet with Alice ... to, um ... to talk about the Hort' lab."

She hurried to the door, hesitated again, looked back, and smiled nervously. Ty was just the kind of man to whom Rita would have loved to lose her virginity; and if Rita was inclined to spend time in bed with another woman, Marcia was the kind of woman she would have picked her.

This was all just a little too much, though, and turning again she headed out quickly, disappearing from the pair's view.

Back in the sauna, Marcia laughed loudly, looking to Ty with a wide smile as she stood and admitted, "I shouldn't have done that. That wasn't polite."

She stripped her towel off, setting it aside. With a sincere tone, Marcia said, "Please, don't think I'm a tease. I simply agree with you about the towels being scratching and unnecessary."

She sat again, asking, "So, what do you think about all of this? You're Space Force, right? You volunteered for this. But you thought it was for 9 months, not 144 years. How do you feel about that?"

Marcia was being careful in asking her questions and for good reasons. She'd initially been an Overseer, not that any of the others knew -- even Bertha the AI was unaware of Marcia's original role here because of some targeted file deletions prior to entering stasis.

She was curious about the others' feelings about what they were going through. It would determine whether or not she ever confessed to having been an Overseer ... and of knowing what she knew about the world beyond the bunker.

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

Looking over at her Ty gazed at her naked form. His eyes trailing across muscle, skin, sinew. The firm breasts and the perky nipples, the space between her thighs drew the most attention as his hand touched his cock again. Wrapping his fingers around his swollen shaft he slowly stroked his shaft.

"I'm Space Force now, But I'm also a Marine. And once a Marine always a Marine. And it doesn't matter to me how long we slept. a Day a year. A century. An Eon. I had no family before, I have no family now."

He wondered if they'd fuck. Would she be able to take him? Did she like to suck and swallow or spread her legs and claw his back?

"And you might agree with me about the towels, but you are a tease." He said looking her in the eyes, for a moment his eyes dipped to her lips, and he imagined his cock sliding between them.

"She is a cute thing with big boobs, I'm guessing smart but naïve."

 

[Alice2015]

Watching Ty pleasure himself, Marcia couldn't help but contemplate the irony of the situation. She didn't do men -- not anymore, anyway -- but she'd never tired of watching a man orgasm. She didn't fully understand that; it was sort of a kink that had begun developing when she was doing men, as a teenager, seeing in their faces and hearing from their mouths the wonders of sexual orgasm.

He explained about being Space Force and US Marine at the same time -- or was it consecutively? -- and then explained about the lack of family. That was one big difference between the two of them: Marcia had had family back when she joined the Project. Her parents and two adult brothers had still been living in a century old brown stone in Hoboken, New Jersey, when she left for Greenland and never came back.

Marcia liked to think that all or at least a bit of her family was still alive. She knew better, though.

Ogling her while he caressed his cock, Ty accused her being just what she claimed not to be, a tease, but then spoke of Rita, saying, "She is a cute thing with big boobs, I'm guessing smart but naïve."

"I don't know her well ... yet," Marcia responded with a smile; it was meant to imply that just maybe she might make a sexual play for the little thing. Honestly, she doubted it. Rita had most definitely given off straight vibes, and despite the horticultural expert being just what she liked to put her mouth on and fingers in, Marcia didn't think anything was going to happen there. She watched Ty another moment, still smirking with delight, as she said, "But I think you might have a better shot at parting those delicious thighs of hers."

Marcia's expression got a bit more serious, though, when she added with a soft but sincere voice, "I suspect she's naive as you said ... and possibly fragile. I don't know you, Ty ... and you don't know me ... but I promise you this: hurt her ... and I'll hurt you worse."

She gave him a moment to consider her threat, then looked directly to his groin, smile wider, parted her thighs, and caressed her hands down to find her pussy. Marcia suggested, "Since we aren't compatible as sexual partners ... I suggest we each do our own selves ... you know ... to relieve this horniness that we feel."

Regardless of what Ty did or said next, it was Marcia's intention to fondle her clit and probe her pussy until ecstasy was reached. She believed Ty was write: there was something about cryo that brought out the horniness in people, and unlike their fearless leader, Alice -- who'd already driven herself to orgasm a dozen or more times over her 6 days of reanimation -- Marcia was yet to feel the joy of sexual euphoria, and she wasn't willing to wait until she found a proper partner, meaning one of the other 3 women who were up, around, and breathing.

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

"Interesting, we just met and you've already assume I'm a rapist," Ty commented. "Or if not a rapist. Abusive misogynistic, or at least someone that goes around hurting women, and probably enjoys it."

Letting go of his own shaft Ty grabbed his towel as he stood up and walked out. "I'm none of the above," he added as he closed the door between them.

Going back to the showers he finished what he'd started, then went to his room and got dressed. Time to have a conversation with the boss. Walking through the upper levels he learned the layout and found her in the Monitoring Station / Command Center. The only place with the most computers and access to data flow.

Walking inside the door he stepped to the right to allow anyone else that walked access to the room, and snapped a hard heel click salute that sounded more like a gunshot in the tight confines and metal walls. "Master Sergeant Tyrande Collins reporting for duty Captain." He said, holding the position until she looked at him. "Before sleep I was required to supply a potential roster of security personnel. I was also expecting to be serving under Lieutenant Miles Quaritch, Space Command TRIAD. Has he survived, will he be awoken, and will there be a five man security detail in the potential future?"



TRIAD = Tactical Recon Infiltration Assault Division
https://www.armyupress.army.mil/por.../Cyber-Space-Triad/Cyber-Space-Triad-img1.jpg

 

[Alice2015]

Doctor Leslie Hawkins had left the morning get-together in the Saloon to begin her day off as the others had, only to instead change her direction and end up in the Infirmary on the 2nd level. She was the only medical professional to be reanimated thus far, but she knew she wasn't the only one who'd entered stasis.

Leslie wasn't one of the original US Space Force test subjects who'd entered suspended animation along with Alice and Tyrande. She was, however, a volunteer to the project. She'd been a member of the medical staff team responsible for putting the subjects into stasis. Many of the Stiffs knew her, if not by name, then by face.

It was only after the initial 14 USSF members were put to bed that the Project's Administrator came to Leslie and offered her a place as a test subject. Like the others, she'd thought the cryo period was going to be only 9 months. She spent a couple of weeks visiting with friends and family; at a going away party, she repeated the cover story that she was heading for Africa to be part of a medical relief team. Before they put her in stasis, she even hand wrote a couple of dozen letters and post cards that were so vague in nature that the Project's operators could send one a week to her closest family and friends and it would appear that she was up and around and doing her job, as opposed to lying flat on her back in suspended animation.

Of course, like the others -- the others except for Alice, of course -- she had no idea that she'd been in stasis for 144+ years. All of those people who'd received her letters and sent her letters in return -- letters she'd never received, obviously -- were all now dead and gone. She didn't know that, of course. She might not ever know that.

She milled about the Infirmary for almost two hours, cleaning equipment, organizing resources to fit her way of working, and inventorying. Checking the labels on medications and other perishables, Leslie found everything to have been supplied within an appropriate time frame. Well, at least that would have been correct if she'd only been in stasis for 9 months. She would only learn whether or not the medications, for example, were still affective once they were actually used.

As she worked, Leslie began getting anxious. She'd been suffering from anxiety for years, and a century and a half of stasis hadn't changed that, apparently. She tried to ignore it, and when she couldn't, she tried to fight it with deep breathing and thought clearing mantras. Neither helped.

Moving to the Infirmary's door and locking it, she went to the Narcotics safe and tried her password. The lock clicked open. Leslie felt both relief and guilt. Looking to the windows and seeing no one beyond them, she searched for and found a box of Fentanyl transdermal patches. She applied one to the inside of her upper arm where it would be hidden. She stored the box, locked the safe, and headed for her bedroom on the 4th level.

She was already feeling the effect by the time she'd stripped down to her bra and panties and slid under the bedding. As her mind and body both relaxed, Leslie both cursed and praised her easy access to narcotics. This contradictory thinking didn't last long as sleep overtook her quickly.

 

[Alice2015]

In the sauna:

Marcia watched Ty leave the sauna, ceasing stimulating her clit for a moment as she considered what he'd said. She hadn't meant to offend him; she'd only wanted him to understand that she'd recognized Rita's naivete and would do what she needed to protect the woman.

She would have apologized to Ty then and there except for two things: first, he exited before she could consider her words; second, she really wanted to finish up what she'd started, just as Ty was presumably doing in an adjacent shower stall. She returned her skilled fingers to her clit and less than a minute later waves of pleasure exploded through her body. Her mind swam in euphoria as her entire being trembled to the core.

Once she'd come down from her high, Marcia remembered what Ty had said about stasis and his horniness. She doubted there was any connection between the two. Ironically, she was wrong and Ty was right. One of the medications administered to maintain suspended animation was similar in formula MDMA, aka Ecstasy. A century and a half of having that chemical pumped through one's body had an effect, which most if not all of the test subjects were sensing.

In the Monitoring Station:

Alice was pouring over reports on the screens before her that the AI had prioritized for her attention when the door to the room opened and Ty stepped in.

"Master Sergeant Tyrande Collins reporting for duty, Captain," he popped off with profession precision.

Alice's lips spread a bit as she rose to height and returned the salute. It had been almost a century and a half since a subordinate had shown her such respect and yet it still felt like yesterday. She lowered her arm sharply, ordering, "At ease, Master Sergeant." In a softer tone, she suggested, "Seeing how we're in a less than official military situation these days, why don't we find a middle ground on the protocol. What if ... what if you continued calling me Captain ... but relaxed on the salutes and heel clicking. If you're comfortable with that Master Sergeant."

She didn't ask if she could simply refer to him as Tyrande or Ty or even Collins. She would let him decide how casual she could be with him at some time in the future, near or not.

"Before sleep I was required to supply a potential roster of security personnel," he informed her, getting directly to his job as part of the bunker's security force. "I was also expecting to be serving under Lieutenant Miles Quaritch, Space Command TRIAD. Has he survived, will he be awoken, and will there be a five-man security detail in the potential future?"

Alice's change in demeanor likely told Ty that bad news was heading his direction. She took a couple of steps forward, stopping when she was at a distance that was professional but also offered a feeling of intimacy that came with sharing bad news.

"Regretfully, Lieutenant Quaritch was one of the deceased test subjects on level 8," she said with a solemn tone. "His pod was one of those that was part of the pre-earthquake systems failures."

She turned to a nearby console and picked up a small object, then turned back and stepped closer to Ty. She told him, "There's ... there's more. Second Lieutenant Philip Crane was on Level 13 ... one of two flooded levels. He's ... he's deceased as well. With Lieutenant Crane's death--"

Alice opened a small, velvet-covered case to reveal a pair of gold, Second Lieutenant bars. "We need a new Head of Security ... and as senior United States Space Force Command officer at this facility, I have the authority to offer field promotions ... if you are interested, Master Sergeant."

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

Ty looked at the bars, half tempted to say yes and half tempted to say no. instead he held up a hand in a stalling gesture. "Before we go there, Captain lets see whom else is recoverable. You may find one of them less argumentative then i will be.

After all it would be uncomfortable for you to promote me, and then another Master Sergeant gets woken up and has an earlier promotion date than myself."

"I'm sorry to hear about them. Good individuals both. I've never worked with them, but reputation says a lot. Have we had contact outside the base yet? My recommendation would be to open the doors and get a SatComm going."

Looking over at the locker in the corner he raised an eyebrow, "I would like a sidearm, with your permission. Handgun, or a taser." Though he said the word taser as if stunning someone was distastful to him.

"Also, You should be aware that current personel are in a state of.. sexual arousal. Myself included as are Marcia and Alice. The Doctor should check us out. Possible side effects of one of the drugs?"

"And the Chef.. Marcia. Attractive. Doesn't like the guys. And she said we had been in cryo for 144 years.. not nine months. So either she made a mistake. Or she knows something you haven't disclosed to the rest. If you have said it's 144 to her, and she let it slip, then she's a security risk."

 

[Alice2015]

"Before we go there, Captain," Ty said, surprising Alice; she'd assumed, wrongly apparently, that he'd leap at the promotion. He continued, "Let's see whom else is recoverable. You may find one of them less argumentative then I will be."

Alice studied Ty's expression and body language. She'd read his record, of course, as any good Commanding Officer would and should. She had lots of questions for him about his past service, but -- so soon in their working relationship together -- it wasn't the right time to get into these. Soon. Very soon.

He continued, "After all it would be uncomfortable for you to promote me, and then another Master Sergeant gets woken up and has an earlier promotion date than myself."

"That's not going to happen," Alice told him as she turned to retrieve a computer tablet from near where she'd gotten the bars. Tapping at it and then turning it to Ty, she informed him, "There's no one of a higher rank than you, Master Sergeant."

On the screen was a list of 9 names, all of them military: 4 USSF, 2 Marines, 2 Air Force, and 1 Navy.

"Each of these men and women have policing service of one kind or another in their military background," Alice informed him. She pointed to three names in particular, saying, "These two here were cops before they went military, and the last one, the Squid, was a SEAL when he was recruited for the Project.

"You outrank each of them," she said, snapping the lid of the bars box closed and again holding it out in front of her. "Take the promotion, and you pick your Security Team's members ... four, five ... all of them. I don't think you're going to need more than a couple, but if we do leave this bunker in the near future, we might need some people trained in keeping the rest of us safe."

Ty expressed his sympathy regarding the dead servicemen, then asked about making contact with the outside world. Speaking about the facility's AI, Alice informed him, "Bertha's connection with the outside world is down. She doesn't know what the issue it, which is saying something since she's the one running this place, human or not.

"Alaina is going to go through the failed software or code or programming or whatever tomorrow," Alice informed him. "Hopefully she'll make contact with Command or anyone for that matter and find us some answers."

In truth, Alice wasn't entirely sure that she wanted their resident hacker to contact the outside world, as doing so would reveal to Alaina and then, presumably, the others that they'd been in stasis for 144 years. Alice knew that she had to tell the truth about that time period eventually and soon, but she just hadn't figured out how to explain it yet.

Ironically, while Alice knew about the 144+ statis, she didn't know why that period of suspended animation had occurred. Only two people currently reanimated knew anything about the outside world as it was 144 years ago: Marcia, the former Overseer, who'd gone into stasis days after the majority of the Stiffs had; and Leslie, the Doctor who'd been part of putting everyone else in suspended animation and also went into it just days after Marcia had.

Of course, Alice knew nothing about Marcia and Leslie's additional knowledge. What they knew would come out eventually, too. Secrets that affected a good deal of other people rarely remained secret for long.

When Ty mentioned the Arms Locker on one of the Monitoring Room's walls, Alice grimaced a bit. She wasn't ready to hand out firearms just yet simply because she didn't know the people with whom she was living and working. She hadn't been expecting to be here like this, in Greenland as opposed to Nevada; in stasis for a century and a half as opposed to three-quarters of a single year; in command of a rag tag assortment of military of civilians, most of whom hadn't volunteered for the Project in the first place.

"Let's, um ... let's get to that a little bit later, shall we, Master Ser--" she hesitated, looking to Ty and making the correction she hoped he would accept, "Lieutenant Collins."

When he spoke about the horniness inflicting the Stiffs, Alice laughed aloud. Being a little more forward than she probably should have been considering her position amongst the team and her lack of familiarity with Ty, she confessed, "Thank god, I thought it was just me."

She felt a blush filling her face and turned, feigning a need to circle around to the nearest console for one reason or another. As she tried to inconspicuously hide her embarrassment, Ty suggested, "The Doctor should check us out. Possible side effects of one of the drugs?"

"Possibly," Alice agreed. "I'll have Leslie ... Doctor Hawkins look into it."

She came back out from behind the console again, studying Ty. She stopped just before him, looking him directly in the eyes with a serious expression. "Lieutenant ... Ty ... I'm going to put a great deal of responsibility on your shoulders. You're important to the successful operation of this facility. I've read your record, and I'm impressed with you."

Alice hesitated a moment as a chill ran up her spine and sent gooseflesh out her arms and down her thighs. She didn't attribute the physical effect to anything at that exact moment, but as Ty would leave the Monitoring Station and she would get a look at his ass, Alice would contemplate whether or not she should abandon her rules against fraternization.

She was about to speak to Ty about his ideas of finding and fixing the leak in the facility's wall when a knock at the door caught her attention. Marcia entered a few steps, giving Alice a slight smile and then giving Ty a bit of a devilish smirk. To Alice, she asked, "Can we talk ... in private?"

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

Taking the small black box from Alice, Ty raised an eyebrow. "If you've read my entire service record you have one up on a great many Birds, and more than a dozen stars." His face went firm, and pained, for a moment. There are things I've done and will do that some will require, and many will find unpleasant or revolting. But I do my duty. Always."

Footsteps approaching the door locked his jaw shut from further comment and the box was in his pocket as the knock sounded. When Marcia entered, he snapped a salute and about-faced walking from the room without request. But did stop just outside the closed door in case The Captain called for backup.

 

[Alice2015]

Alice smiled at Ty accepting the bars before explaining a bit about how he performed his duties.

She told her new Head of Security, "I will never fault you for doing your job, Lieutenant. And I will do my best never to order you to do something that others would find unpleasant or revolting."

She knew that she probably wouldn't be able to keep that promise. Sometimes in the military -- which this bunker and Project still were, even 144 years later -- unpleasant and revolting were the words of the day.

After Ty left, Alice gestured Marcia to join her at the small planning table in one corner that she'd co-opted as her desk until she established a proper one. As Marcia sat opposite her, Alice asked, "What's on your mind, Marcia ... or do you prefer Miss or Ms. Weathers?"

"Marcia is fine, Alice ... or do you prefer Captain?" Marcia returned.

"Being a civilian as you are, Alice is fine," the Captain responded. She poured two glasses of refiltered water and repeated in different words, "What can I do for you?"

"I don't believe that we were in stasis for just 9 months," Marcia said with an almost accusatory tone.

Almost immediately, Alice looked to the Monitoring Station's still open door for Ty. She couldn't see him, but she suspected that he was still out there, standing by to aid her as necessary. She went to the door, found him there as expected, was about to dismiss him and close the door ... then reconsidered and ordered, "Lieutenant, join us, please."

Back inside and gesturing Ty to grab up another chair and sit near Marcia, Alice said with a serious tone, "What I'm about to tell you is for your ears only ... for now. The lot of us, Space Force personnel and civilians alike ... we were in stasis for more than 144 years."

She looked to Ty for his reaction, then to the other woman. What she saw in the latter's face was not surprise but a lack of it. Alice asked, "You suspected something like this, yes, Marcia?" Before the other woman could speak, Alice added, " Because you were an Overseer, were you not?"

Marcia's face did fill with surprise now. Alice continued, "You made some subtle errors in deleting your actual record and replacing it with information that would make you appear as if you'd been shanghaied like some of the others."

Alice studied the other woman a moment, then asked, "So ... wanna explain?"

"You explain why the fuck we've been here for 144 years," Marcia demanded, "and I'll tell you why I hid being an Overseer."

"I can't ... 'cause I don't know," Alice admitted. She glanced to the AI's eye on the wall and explained, "Bertha doesn't either. Someone deleted vast amounts of information ... thousands of files on this topic, and they did a far better job on it than you did doctoring your own file.

"Perhaps Alaina can find something when she starts working on the failed systems tomorrow," she said with a hopeful tone. "If they didn't actually reformat the drives, rather than just delete the indexes like most average people do..."

Alice looked hard at Marcia and said, "Okay ... your turn."

Marcia didn't want to admit who she was and what she'd done, but she knew that it would all come out in the end.

"I was an Overseer, yes," she started. "I was a cop before that, NYPD. Detective ... in Narcotics, then Homicide. Then these Men in Black types offered me a Security gig for a classified project. The money was outrageous, so I took it.

"Next thing I know, I'm here," she said with a tone of disbelief. "I spent six months in the classroom, then another six on training pods. This shit was like nothing I'd ever seen before, like right out of Star Trek or Pitch Black. It was a full year before I ever saw my first Stiff in a cryo pod."

She chuckled and explained, "That's what they called you guys ... us guys, I guess: Stiffs. A year of training, followed by six more months monitoring you guys. And all the time I was doing this, the rest of the staff -- Overseers, doctors, nurses, admin' -- were leaving. There were only four of us left when they dropped the fuckin' nuke on me."

She grabbed her water, finished it off, then asked, "You got anything with alcohol in it?"

Alice fished a Fifth of Jack Daniels out of a drawer, poured two fingers into Marcia's empty glass, did the same for her, then offered to do the same for Ty.

Marcia gulped her drink down, gasped from the burn, then continued explaining, "I was told that I had to enter stasis. I told'em No fucking way!. But the last Admin guy still there showed it to me in my contract. Fuckin' fine print.

"If I wanted to get paid for the year and a half I'd already been there, I had to enter stasis for 9 months. So, I stayed."

She gestured for another shot, got it, and gulped it down. "I was worried about what y'all would think about me when they finally took us out of the pods, 'cause I'd been told that you'd been told you would only be in them for 9 months. So, I had them doctor my record.

"The last Doctor here put me in stasis," she informed them. "And 144 years later, give or take, I woke up here with y'all."

Alice looked to Ty for his reaction, but Marcia wasn't done. "By the way, that doctor who put me in stasis...?" She gave the pair one of those I've got a secret smiles before telling them, "She's here with us right now. She's your Doctor ... Doctor Hawkins. Oh, she wore a full mask and bio suit, 'cause of the contamination threat when putting people in stasis and all. But I knew who she was this morning when we all sat down for breakfast."

Alice's jaws clenched with anger. She looked to Ty and said with a slow cadence, "Lieutenant ... would you mind locating our Doctor ... bring her here ... for a little chat?"

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

"Of Course," Tyrande replied. He was tempted to ask for at least a taser. But doubted a single doctor would put up much fight. "I would recommend restraint, after all the Doctor has been asleep as well for the 144 years. She may or may not know anything, just because she was the doctor that put our resident spook under doesn't mean she knows more or less than anyone else."

Walking out the door Ty checked the medical bay, and although he couldn't access any cabinets. Not that he wanted to he did notice the wrapper for a transdermal patch. But they'd been out of the pods for less than a day. Who was sick and what were they taking? Picking up the wrapper he looked at it. Just numbers. No medical name. No patient name.

Heading for her bedroom he stuffed the wrapper in his pocket. On the fourth floor it wasn't hard to find her room. the door was closed and the lights off. Everything else had an open door for air circulation.

Checking the window he saw her sleeping; a knock got no response, so he tried the door. Security locked. "Bertha, you monitor everything. Disengage the locks on the door please?" he asked. When the soft clicked sounded he watched a light go from red to green on the panel. Easing the door open he stepped inside and flicked the wall panel. The light came on the lowest setting. Which was more than enough for him. If he got attacked by anything bigger than a 3 ounce mouse he was demanding a weapon.

"Relax," he said to himself. To many movies and to many tactical incidents. Kids with grenades, or knives. "Doc, wake up The Captain wants to meet with you." Reaching down he touched her shoulder, then checked her neck. Well she was alive at least.

Walking back to the light he slid it to full illumination. "Doctor, wake up!" He said, loud and firm. Not quite a yell, but not softly either,