The two torches were the only source of light in the small cave, but that was enough. Lara had been here many times, keeping the area clean as the rituals required. This time though, was different. She stood in front of the door, heart pounding, hand poised over the keypad, hesitating. The Empire was coming to destroy them. The villagers couldn't leave and they had no way of defending themselves. They had cultivated the ways of peace for generations while protecting the sleeping soldiers from discovery. That was their purpose, their reason for remaining in this secluded location. And now she was going to wake them. The texts said the soldiers were beings of immense power and strength, and that they had come here to sleep. The real reason why had been lost to the villagers over the centuries and only legends remained, and even they had become unimportant - until now.
The texts told them how to waken the soldiers but not when to, and this was what frightened her now. She had persuaded the others that they should wake the soldiers and have them defend the village. But what if the soldiers did not want to woken now? What if they turned their powers against the villagers in anger? She dearly wished that Ialda, her spirit guide, was here to advise her, but all the guides had become silent weeks ago when they first talked about waking the soldiers. For the first time in anyone's memory, they had no help from the spirit world. This, too, worried her. But, she trusted her instincts and they clearly said this was the right path.
Overcoming the apprehension building within her, she lifted the cover that protected the panel from dust. Great Spirit, she prayed, please let this work. Taking a deep breath, she keyed in the code to open the door.
The door slowly opened with a low, groaning sound, but before she could relax, a loud piercing sound filled the cave. Reflexively, she covered her ears in panic, frozen in front of the panel momentarily. Then she raced for the cave entrance, fear rising within.
#
There are no dreams in stasis. Only moments ago, Jason had lain down to enter the long sleep, and now he was wide-awake with the sound of alarms quickly penetrating his awareness. Turning his head, he tried to determine if any danger was present, and winced as an unexpected pain shot through his neck. He ignored it, and slowly scanned as much of the room as he could see. No one was there. Relaxing somewhat, he waited for the cover to slide off.
He gingerly slid his tall, lanky frame off the bed, and nearly collapsed as his feet hit the floor. I shouldn't be this weak, he thought as he struggled to remain upright. What’s going on? Leaning against the stasis bed, he scanned the room, looking for any sign that might explain the alarms. He saw nothing but the open door.
That explains why I’m awake, he thought, but who opened it?
Although his strength was returning rapidly, it was still a struggle for him to cover the ten feet to the main console. Once there, he silenced the alarms and looked past the door, but saw nothing in the darkness outside.
Damn it! he thought. What the hell is going on?
He turned back to the console and activated the switch to close the door. That will keep us safe for a while.
Then he froze as he noticed the indicators. Most of the status lights for the stasis pods showed red - failure of the unit. A shiver went down his spine.
No. That can’t be!
He rushed to the nearest unit with a red light, fear rising within, and looked into it. A grinning corpse stared back. Shaken, he moved to another unit and found the same. Then another, and another. Six units later, he found one with a perfectly preserved body, and a green light. Lieutenant Sara Patrick, medical officer for the team. He scanned the room again, this time counting the green lights. A feeling of horror came over him when he realized that his count matched that of the console. Including himself, only twelve of the fifty had survived.
He returned to the console and flicked the wake-up switch, hoping the green lights really meant survivors.
As he waited for the units to open, the magnitude of the equipment failure sunk in. They were supposed to be in stasis for five years and then automatically revived. That had not happened, and he suspected that they had been under for a lot longer. Questions crowded his mind, but two questions in particular kept coming back. Why hadn’t they been wakened when they were supposed to, and why were they wakened now?
Although all the stasis units opened simultaneously, their sleepers didn’t, another indication to Jason that something was seriously wrong. First to wake was Chief Patricia Killman. Of all the people in the team, she was the fittest, despite her small size. But Jason watched in dismay as she collapsed getting off the bed. Next was Master Sergeant Pete Hillier. Like Jason and Pat, he had trouble standing. Slowly, the rest got up, all showing signs of weakness and confusion.
Sgt. Hong Omara, was the last to move. As Hong slowly sat up, gingerly flexing his muscles and breathing deeply, Jason remembered that Hong always entered a meditative state just before stasis, and he suspected that Hong had fared better than any of them because of this, at least physically.
The others were now studying the room, vacuous eyes silently noting the devastation of their ranks. Eventually, the eyes focused on Jason.
"I don’t know," he softly replied in answer to their unasked question. "Something went wrong, but I do know someone woke us. The door was open.”
Almost in unison, they all looked toward the door.
“Where are they?” asked Pete.
“They were gone by the time I got up,” replied Jason.
“So what do we do now?”
“What we were trained to do,” said Jason, sounding more confident than he really felt. “First, we see where we stand.
"Raph, Pete, Hong, check the armory. Tim, Sean, find out why the stasis units failed. Lou, check the communications. The rest of you, gear up and meet me at the entrance.”
Jason moved away from the console to let Tim and Sean work, and was lost in thought when Raphael called to him.
“Boss! You’d better come over here.”
Jason went to the armory. Once inside, he stared in disbelief. The protective coatings, which had been applied to the more delicate equipment, had gone from their normal, soft, flexible state to being hard and brittle. Flakes came off in his hands as he picked up one of the pieces, exposing the corroded and pitted surface beneath. He looked questioningly at Raphael.
“It’s all like that,” Raphael stated.
“It doesn’t go like that after only five years!” Jason said deliberately.
“I know. I think it’s been longer. A lot longer.”
Jason examined the other equipment in disbelief, noting that the once clear plastic bags had become colored and brittle. This unnerved him, but he said nothing.
“Do what you can with what we’ve got,” he resignedly said to Raphael before heading back to the command console.
Back at the console, Tim was shaking his head.
“What is it?” Jason asked.
“I don’t know how any of us survived,” Sean replied slowly.
“What do you mean?” Jason asked impatiently.
“We’ve been here for three hundred and sixteen years,” replied Tim cautiously. “It’s a wonder any of the units survived. They weren’t designed to operate this long.”
“Are you sure about the time?”
“That’s what the main clock shows,” replied Sean carefully.
Jason’s mind was blank. He stood still while the two stared at him expectantly.
“Boss?” asked Sean, bringing Jason back to reality.
“Yea? What?”
“What do we do now?”
“Keep checking. There has to be something to tell us why we were left so long.”
He turned to Louise, who was working at another console.
“Lou. Get anything?”
“It looks like the gear inside the cave is intact,” she answered, “but I don’t think anything outside is. I tried to see if I could pick up something, but that was a no go, not even static; but that could be something as simple as a broken cable, or more likely, missing antennas. We’ll have to go outside with the portable comms gear to be sure.”
Jason’s gut tightened again. There was no doubt their original mission was long dead. But what of the world outside? Had anything from their time survived? Or would they be faced with something totally new, and possibly deadly?
“Everyone!” he barked. “Over here.”
He gathered his thoughts while the team surrounded him.
“Tim and Sean have discovered that we’ve been in stasis for over three hundred years. I have no idea what we’ll find outside, but we can’t stay here. Once we’ve determined what’s out there, we’ll move operations, if we can.
“Someone woke us up, and we need to find them. Hopefully, they’re still in the area. There’ll be two recon teams. Pat. Velma. You’re with Rick. Joe and Sara; you’re with me. Finish gearing up. I’ll join you in a moment. The rest of you, keep checking.”
“What about the ones who didn’t make it?” asked Louise hesitantly.
Jason looked past her to the closed stasis units.
“For the time being Lou, leave them as they are. Hopefully, we can give them a decent burial later.”
#
The alarms abruptly stopped as Lara reached the entrance of the cave. She uncovered her ears, thankful for the quiet but puzzled about the sudden disappearance of the sound. Things were not as they should be, and this frightened her. Despite her fear, she had to go back. The village needed the soldiers and she was the one responsible for waking them.
Inside the cave, she faced the closed door. She stared at it, puzzled. Nothing in the ancient texts mentioned the door closing after it had been opened. They said that she was supposed to go into the room to wake the sleeping soldiers. She turned to go to her father for help, but stopped after a couple of steps. No, she thought. I have to do this alone.
Returning to the door, she lifted the cover on the panel and pressed the lights in the same order as before. Nothing happened. Afraid that she had done it incorrectly, she repeated the sequence, but to no avail.
Angrily, she hit the panel with her fist and then jumped back, shocked by her action. This was replaced, almost immediately, by a feeling of frustration. Frustration for not being able to waken the soldiers. Frustration for not being able to enter their room. And more deeply, frustration that, after all her efforts, she would have nothing to show the village. She shook her head. Where were these feelings coming from? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opening herself to the energy fields surrounding her. Yes, she thought, there it is. It’s coming from behind the door. She opened her eyes and stared intently at it. There was a new energy, one that hadn’t been present earlier. Something inside had changed.
Then the door opened.