The cryo facility wasn’t actually all that far away from the academy at which I'd trained, which itself wasn’t all that far away from one of the major sub orbital shipyards on the planet. The decision to locate the new high-throughput academy near the shipyards was made under the assumption that observing the construction of future spacecraft would boost morale. However, I never saw a completed hull from that shipyard before entering cryo. We’d had an ongoing joke about the shipyard workers having accidentally taken a break in a cryopod.
As I made my way towards the exit, through the atrium windows of the cryo facility, I could see that the old running joke no longer held any merit. The flurry of activity and expanded facilities were evidence of rapid progress. Even from a distance, I could see large portions of ship hulls being welded together. It was both uplifting and complicated feeling. These were the ships we had trained for, the ones promised to us so that we might valiantly defend humanity. The sight of so many triumphs of industry lifted my spirits. However, I couldn't shake off the bitterness that came from not being assigned to one of those ships. Instead, I was assigned to an R&D project. It was probably important, but still left me feeling left out of this massive collective dream.
My instructions for pickup were simple: head to egress dock 11C, which was located far away from the main docks. These were massive terminals designed to accommodate dozens of transport vehicles at once. In contrast, 11C was more of a glorified fire exit with a few folding chairs placed nearby. Beyond the door lay a small boarding facility for a rover.
Although there were roads on Mars, most transportation required air-tight compartments and radiation shielding. As a result, underground maglev trains were the primary mode of transport for both supplies and personnel. Since 11C was no maglev embarkation platform it seemed the location of my assignment lacked rail access.
Perhaps due to its top-secret and remote nature?
Typical.
I sank into one of the folding chairs, sighing as I massaged my stiff and aching legs. Cryo had left me feeling weak and lethargic, and even this short walk to the egress dock had been a struggle. I pulled out my information packet and flipped through it, as if I hadn’t already read every word. Disappointingly, it was still just as bare-bones as before, sparse in general and tacit about my mysterious new assignment. I continued to read it over anyway, it was better to read through it again than sit twiddling my thumbs.
The exterior door of 11C clattered open and shattered the relative silence of this far-off exit. Without much waiting, I heard a man calling out, "Good morning.” He paused, shuffling through some papers, looking at them and then back up at me. “Officer Vicky Hernandez Miller?"
I already knew that this man was going to get on my nerves. It wasn’t entirely his fault, cryo left my head a mess and just the sound of his voice made my headache worse.
“That's me,” I offered with a mild wave and smile in response, hoping I didn't look as bad as I felt, first impressions and all. "Just Vic is fine. I already know the spiel: R&D, hush-hush. You my ride?" I said, tapping the info packet I was holding.
He nodded and continued, “Yes, that would be me. We’re waiting on one other person from this facility before we depart. Do you know an Officer Sarah Williams?”
I must have made a face, or the poor guy could just sense how angry hearing that name made me. Either way he stopped talking in a hurry.
I was the best in my class, I had been the whole way through, technically however, there was one girl who maybe kinda sorta had a sllllightly better score than me at the end of our last year.
Despite consistently outscoring her in simulations throughout our last year, our 'friendly' rivalry reached a boiling point when she broke my nose the day before the final tournament sims. She managed to narrowly beat me the next day, and I fell in the class rankings. Second place forever in the annals of history, I think I might hate her for that.
“Yes, I know her, we were in the same class.” I finally managed.
"Oh good, then she should be along soon as well, that's good," The man who was to be my ride nodded along.
It took that slow poke Sarah another 10 minutes to finally show.
As she finally arrived, I tried to keep my expression neutral. She looked about as haggard as everyone else I’d seen come out of cryo today. She recognized me immediately, I didn't want to start a conversation with her. Technically it had been over 7 years since she broke my nose, our school rivalry is good as ancient history far as post secondary education goes. Except it didn’t feel that way. In my subjective reality it was last week, and I was still really pissed off. Sarah didn’t seem to notice.
She approached with a wide grin. "Oh wow, Vicky! I can’t believe we got the same assignment!" she said, reaching out to hug me. I braced myself for the contact, already feeling irritated by her bubbly demeanor.
I was having a complicated emotion, my anger over a last minute defeat seathing against a pang of joy, all tinged with a pulsing headache. We’d both assumed we’d get different postings after coming out of cryo. I hadn’t really been mature about my loss and I figured that would be fine since we’d probably never see each other again what with a war going on.
The nose breaking had been caused by an accidental headbutt during ‘activities’ I didn’t feel like thinking about and were not permited by regulation. The fact that it got into my head during our last set of sim matches was entirely my own fault.
I’m still pretty sure I hate her though.
A smile twitched onto my face for just a moment, before the seething and headache won out
“Hi Sarah,” I grumbled, wriggling my way out of her grasp. How was it that everyone popped out of cryo feeling like absolute crap, but she was still full of energy?
"Could you hold off on talking until...hmm, forever?" I grumbled, shooting her a withering glare. “My head is killing me.”
Sarah relented. My jab did little to unplaster the smile from her face, but at the very least, she turned her attention to our ride.
“Hello, Officer Sarah Williams, pleasure to make your acquaintance!” She chattered happily, along with the offer of a handshake, which the man whose name tag I still had not read accepted. “Likewise, Now that you are both here we can get moving, getting to the facility is a bit of a trip and I imagine you’d both like to rest.” Finally, that was something I could get behind.
Cryo sickness isn’t really a specific thing, there isn’t anything particularly special about coming in and out of cryo that causes the list of symptoms. Really it's just a mix of not having eaten in a good long while and being dehydrated. Low on energy, electrolytes and water a headache, lack of enthusiasm and general nausea was to be expected. A good meal, a few liters of water and a nap would fix you up just fine. Common practice for coming out of cryo was to do just that, give the subject a warm meal, plenty of water and time to nap. Apparently whatever R&D project wanted us, wanted us ASAP, which meant a long rover ride before any food or a nap could be acquired.
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I think the intent was to allow us to rehydrate and rest in the rover, the issue being that rover rides and cryo sickness don't exactly mix. For one, the Martian surface isn't smooth. As nauseous and aching as I felt, the term "relatively flat" seemed entirely divorced from “actually flat” while bumping around inside the small sealed cabin of the heavy shielded rover. We were offered water, I drank mine down quite quickly before realizing what a mistake it was. There were no windows to roll down for a breath of fresh air. I was the first to throw up, and since I hadn't been given a meal yet, it amounted to dry heaving, losing the water I had just ingested and a splattering of bile. The scent quickly filled the cabin and became quite unpleasant. Even Sarah's cheerful demeanor and attempts at conversation ended half an hour into the ride when she started to gag as well. Our driver apologetically offered us some plastic bags. It was easily one of the most unpleasant experiences I’d ever had, right up there with waking up this morning. Watching the dull red surface move slowly by in complete silence while my head throbbed and my organs threatened to expel themselves up my throat. The ride took three long hours.
I was an hour into wondering with no small number of expletives why we couldn’t have simply taken a dropship when the rover pulled onto an actually paved road, much to the relief of everyone in the cabin, and drove up to a gated checkpoint. Credentials were exchanged over radio while Sarah and I peeked around. Aside from the small checkpoint here, complete with turrets and armed guards in evo suites, there was nothing but a heavy bunker door built into the side of a hill.
"The facility is underground?" Sarah whispered, echoing my thoughts.
As far as I knew, bombardment wasn't a major concern. Aside from the fortified locations on Lua, limited industry wasn’t spared towards hardening locations in such a way. If a planet was already in the predicament of being bombarded chances are the system was already lost. Unlike on Lua there was no central command, wealthy elites, or even building-sized railguns to hide out here on Mars. So, what was the bunker-based R&D project for? Sarah and I mulled it over silently until I spoke up, “If it isn’t to keep the project safe maybe it's… keeping something inside? I mused, more to myself than to Sarah, but she nodded along anyway. Now I was just peeved at her for being so agreeable.
The rover lurched back into motion as the bunker doors groaned open, leading us into a better-maintained ramp that descended steadily downward. The harsh solar rays bouncing off the Martian desert were replaced by a cooler artificial light. Even inside the rover, the temperature drop was much appreciated. I managed to get some water down before we arrived at a mid-sized airlock. It was large enough to fit four or five vehicles of this size. Given the amount of effort that must have gone into constructing this place, it was probably large enough to require that many vehicles just to keep it supplied, especially since it wasn't even on the maglev network.
My body protested as I followed Sarah and our escort out of the rover and into a second surprise checkpoint and decontamination process. My head was throbbing, and I was too tired and uncomfortable to be properly unnerved. I wasn’t a total stranger as far as top secret stuff went. Just being a moderately informed recruit with no sort of clearance you can already make some pretty good educated guesses as to the scope of certain things, what new tech was being developed based on training we were getting. What industry was being supported, what force numbers were expected and the like.
This research facility, nestled into the martian bedrock with two sets of checkpoints beyond the maglev lines, was beyond my understanding. Being seven years out of date, suffering from cryo sickness and a three-hour rover ride wasn't helping matters. More pressing than my desire to process this overwhelming location was the desire to eat and take a nap.
As we passed through the final checkpoint, I was grateful that I didn't have to talk to anyone. We entered a surprisingly large atrium, and Sarah let out a brief laugh as I stood there and took a moment to feel dumbfounded. The space was like a good sized maglev station. My internal image of “secret project buried under a mountain in the middle of nowhere” had me expecting a bunch of small bunker-like labs, not a shopping mall sized space built hundreds of meters underground. It even had that wide open space with fresh water flowing in a fountain.
"Wow, isn't this great, Vic? This must be a cool project, right?" Sarah exclaimed. I was too exhausted to be snippy or angry at her. "I think … I need a nap," I replied, and I meant it.
A stranger to our side spoke up, interrupting our conversation. "We should be able to arrange that for you soon," he said. "And if you wish, we can also provide dinner. But before that, I must ask you to humor me for a momentary presentation, I'm afraid."
He was a tall man with glasses, salt-and-pepper hair, and a slim frame. He wore a lab coat, if anyone in this building full of scientists looked like the archetypal researcher, it was him.
Sarah perked up instantly, running straight into whatever extrovert programming or superpower she had access to that allowed her to be so sociable even when entirely drained.
"Nice to meet you, Officer Sarah Williams," she offered with a peppy handshake, before turning to me as if to include me in the conversation
“Vic” I said, making moderate eye contact with the scientist, my goodness the man had bright green eyes.
“It is nice to meet you both Officer Williams, Vic.” The man said, looking at us both in turn. “I'm the head researcher here, you may call me Dr. Hirsh.”
He turned to gesture to a series of tablets that were situated on a table near the entrance.
"I understand that you must be exhausted, so I'll keep it brief. Welcome to the Theseus Project. You are here because we need the best of the best, and that's what you are. These tablets contain a map of the facilities, your room keys, a schedule, and a detailed document on our project. There's a briefing tomorrow morning, but for now, feel free to take the evening for yourselves. Your rooms should be ready, and there's a mess hall if you're hungry. If you have any issues, my contact info is on the tablets." With a smile, he handed a tablet to each of us.
Frankly, He’d had me at mess hall. I nipped the device up and set about navigating myself towards dinner post haste.
Sarah stayed behind, evidently still with questions. I had questions too, but I figured anything I couldn’t glean from the information on the tablet would be covered in the briefing tomorrow. All of that would be best addressed after ingesting some food and getting some time alone in hopefully private quarters.