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

as she could muster. Hawke couldn't hear her. Everything
came to a dead halt when a piercing whistle screamed above the rest
of the noise. “Sorry. Where are the other three? I thought there
were nine of us.” Maeve felt the startlement of realization that
they had said six, but that she had somehow felt a different number
surface in her mind. The doctor looked momentarily sheepish, then
stiffened.
    “ There were nine; one compartment was breached, its
occupant, expired. Two other bod…persons were missing.” One dead,
two vanished. She felt that there was a specific someone she should
be looking for, someone very important to her, context or
significance was out of place. Or time. She had a sudden urge to
jump up and scream, though it would be less than helpful. Hell, it
might even make everyone in charge here think she was in need of
psychiatric help. The overhead lights flickered in front of her
eyes, and she saw a movie-like scene playing out behind her
eyes.
    … Water casually washed the
shoreline of the Gulf coast, eerily placid after the late summer
tropical storm that had sulked a mile offshore, never touching
land. It was still rising swells the size of baby elephants in some
places. Here, on this night, it was calm and smiled the thumbnail
moon back at Maeve and....
    “ Are you alright?” Tark grasped her
shoulder lightly and looked at her with furrowed brow.
    “ This is just a huge shock to the
system.” That was it, beginning, middle…end. She wasn’t giving him
anything else, if she remembered anything else at all. She was
still a little groggy. Her speech slurred now and again, giving
away as they talked how far she had yet to go.
     
    ۞
     
    Hawke looked around her hospital with
an emotion she rarely felt. Satisfaction. Now, five other cryogenic
patients stared suspiciously at their new surroundings, while
personnel took their names, dates of birth. But no matter how you
looked at it, this could be hers alone.
    This significant little piece of scientific
accomplishment belonged to her. In spite of the reprimands she’d
gotten, she knew she had to do this. There was no way she was going
to keep it a secret like the Colonel thought they should. He'd see,
when she got a nice citation. Maybe the wheels would get greased a
little and some of her other requests would get paid attention to
finally. Smiling most peculiarly (at least that's what her nurses
whispered to each other), she made her way into her office and
composed a message to send back to Earth. Things would begin to
change here and now.
     
    ۞
     
    "Dammit!" Rikert Shirk, second
lieutenant, (young and pretty much freshly pressed) whacked a panel
inside the cryogenics container. He cursed a few more times for
good measure. His Chief Warrant Officer,
2 nd grade, popped his head
around a corner, and grinned when he saw the look of consternation
on his lieutenant's face. The warrant officer was called Patrick,
but he preferred Paddy when he was three pints down. He’d been
working on the lad, but those shiny butter bars had given the kid a
touch of gold fever. It was a common affliction; it was a warrant
officer’s purview to cure him of it.
    "Whatsa matter, sir ?” He tried to slip in a tiny bit of
sarcastic inflection on the ‘sir’, knowing how it gave the
lieutenant the twitches. “This old beast giving you problems with
which you cannot cope?" Rikert did not prefer his own nickname, but
everyone called him by it anyway. It was a joke from the locker
rooms, taken on a life of its own. Dick glared at the mirthful CWO,
who had a wicked gleam in his eye.
    "I'm giving you fair warning, Chief, you
start harassing me, and I won’t go so easy on the pitch during our
football match this week." Patrick wheeled back in mock horror.
    “ If you go and break my legs, who will
keep my wife in the manner to which she’s accustomed? Just tell me
what the problem is, sir .” He
grinned at himself.
    “ I can handle it. You have better
things to do