Matt sipped the whiskey, thinking hard. “Sir, there's no way we can sleep a significant number of people for that period. The power requirements are enormous. We might be able to work up a small nuke reactor to run automatically for a while, but there's no way we can do this on a large scale; it just isn't feasible without a lot more preparation time.”

“Alright, Colonel, what can you offer?” Draper asked.

“Sir, I'm still processing this. I'm sorry, but I need a few hours to work through the details and come up with something,” Colonel Fitch responded.

“I understand, it took me a good week for this to settle in enough so I could think straight. Unfortunately, that isn't possible right now, we have a conference call to make,” the General said, as he reached for the keyboard in front of him and activated the camera at the end of the room. The small red light on the front of the camera blinked on, and the camera swiveled to face them.

Fitch was starting to ask the General about the conference call, when he heard a familiar voice from the speaker on the table. “Good afternoon, General Draper. I assume that's Colonel Fitch with you?”

Matt brought his eyes up to the video conference monitor and found himself staring into the face of President Daniel Anson.

Chapter Nine

DAY 939

Derek Kline bit into the spicy shrimp and winced. The pain in his left rear molar was intense, it had been worsening for the last three days, but his excessive fear of dentists had kept him from making an appointment until this morning. Now it wouldn't be until Monday before he could get treatment. That meant another three days of this pain before he'd get any relief. The dentist's secretary had been sympathetic, but not sympathetic enough to find a way to squeeze him in today. In the meantime, the best they could offer was suggesting he take Motrin to help with the pain. So far, their suggestion had helped marginally, but not anywhere near enough.

Derek glanced across the table to his friend Robert Walsh. Robert was hungrily eating, and it made him a little envious to see his lifelong friend eating so easily while he suffered with each bite.

Derek and Rob had met in kindergarten and been close friends ever since. When they were ten years old, Derek's Grandfather had bought him his first telescope, and both boys developed a love of astronomy. They spent many summer nights studying the heavens and charting stars. They would often quiz each other about the constellations and the individual stars which made them up. They'd pooled their pocket money and slowly began to build up a formidable astronomy library.