Ages in Oblivion Thrown: Book One of the Sleep Trilogy Read Online Free Page A

was a little too much to take in all at
once. It was ridiculous though, because she couldn't immediately
recall how she would have ended up in a cryogenic (was that the
right term? she couldn’t think straight) facility. She wasn’t even
sure she had ever given the technology any kind of credence,
either. Why couldn’t she think clearly? A doctor-looking lady spoke
up, anticipatory in her tone.
    “ I think we should begin to revive the
others. It's evident that...” She seemed ready to give a
dissertation. Maeve cut off the woman.
    “ Others? What others? Why didn't you
mention that yet?” She was
getting agitated. They had to get her to lie back. She acquiesced,
knowing that she was at the mercies of these people. She was
powerless.
    “ I'm sorry.” Tark said simply, and
sent Hawke off to finish reviving the rest of the occupants of the
container. Once she’d gone, he clearly felt freer to speak. He
looked the young woman over, still feeling a protective urge that
he couldn’t explain. Blood flow had resumed its normal rate; she
was not so pale as she had been. Death had removed its hand from
her brow, and he was glad of it. The rest would take time to be
regained. She looked exhausted and frail to the point of
hollowness. A week or two in the long-term care facility ought to
help.
    “ Do you feel alright?” She nodded,
mouth set grimly against spoken word. He tried again. “Would you
like to know what year this is? It might be a shock to you though,
I suppose, if our people have dated your ship accurately.” To that,
her lips parted, and hovered, half open for a long pause before she
said anything.
    “ Tell me. Let me in on the big
secret.” She might have been sarcastic, but the malice was absent.
Her voice was barely above a whisper, conspiratorial.
    “ Twenty-two seventy-six.” He pulled
back, inches really, wouldn’t have done much good if she’d wanted
to grab at him, but his point was made. She stared at him, as
though she could will his words to unhappen. Maybe it was a
practical joke. That was a moderately comforting thought. Ah, or
even more sensibly, a training exercise. Wait, training for what?
The big blank spot in her brain mocked her.
    “ Well. What do you know. I can’t think
of a single thing to say that would make sense of any of this. And
I’d usually have some clever remark, I think.” She sighed, and
looked down at the floor. It was just a matter of being utterly
confused. Not that big a deal. Maybe a bolt of lightning would come
through the roof of this place and remove her from the land of
giving a crap.
    “ I have a feeling that things will
sort themselves out. In the meantime, let me be the first to
welcome you on board the Nimitz.” He swept an arm outward,
presumably to indicate the entirety of the place. She
frowned.
    “ As in the admiral? Like we’re on a
ship?” She still didn’t quite get it. Wrong kind of
ocean.
    “ Well, more like the vacuum of space
than water, and more like a big giant military base than a ship.”
He wasn’t sure what she was making of all this.
    “ Don’t I feel smart. Could someone
just hit me in the head with a blunt object and make the bad man go
away?” She was holding her head again. Tark wasn’t sure who the
“bad man” was, but he suspected that it was a turn of phrase, and
not directed at him. He didn’t have a chance to try and figure it
out though; Hawke was back to making pronouncements.
    The naval clinic had turned into a center of
activity with the other five bodies on the tables. The doctor moved
from station to station, waving her hands and giving loud
instructions to her nurses and interns. Maeve struggled to her
elbow, straining to see faces, desperate for a flicker of memory.
Anything that might seem familiar in this strange, cold place would
be a balm to her battered sensibilities. She shivered with tension
and fear, and suddenly wondered why three people were missing.
    “ Doc?” Maeve raised her voice as
loudly