Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Nurse & the Patient - Cryogenic Freeze

Stefan joins you and explains that the patient will be contained within one of the pods, and that is where he will be kept until he is woken for a mission.

"When it is time to wake him, we will bring him out of cryogenic freeze and then move him into the main room and the Master Chair. At that time he will be given an injection and woken. It will then take him a day to get over cryogenic and the drugs used. We also need to give the serum time to repair any damage done to his body by the freezing process and then at some point he will go for wiping and reprogramming with Lehmann."

He realises he has spoken of something you know nothing about when you turn to look at him quickly, a frown on your face. He shakes his head. You know that when he can he will explain what he means by wiping and programming.

He then opens one of the pods and you look inside. It is dank, cold, dark and claustrophobic, and you feel as if it is sucking the air out of your lungs. Lining the bottom is a thin padded mattress. You suppose that it is to make it more comfortable. You move away. The thought of putting the patient in there is awful. It will feel as if you are burying him alive.

"Will he be awake when you put him in?" you ask. Stefan nods. You cannot help but shudder.

"Once he is in there, he will be frozen."

You close your eyes. "Dear God," you whisper.

"It's safe Freya. Once he is asleep he won't know anything about it." But Stefan's assurances do not make you feel any happier.

You know that they have already begun to add the drugs to the patients food, and at first they made him feel dizzy, queasy, but that settled down after a few days. From now on, Stefan says, he will need to take drugs before and after each freeze. They believe it will take at least 24 hours for his body to get over each session and during that time he will be returned to his quarters to sleep and for you to attend to him. Then, after further preparation, he will be ready to be sent on mission. That is what they call it. The term sound so blasé - on mission. He will be sent to murder. To ruin lives. He will be sent to bring order to Hydra's new world.

*

You have had a quiet morning with your patient, and he is responding well to your lessons. You receive a message. They ask you to attend the cryogenic freeze chamber with the patient. The person who brings the message is a bit confused when you question them as to what is going to happen, and she leaves you with the idea that they are just going to trial out the pod to see if it will house the patient, see if it fits and is comfortable. That is all.

How can something like that be at all comfortable? you wonder.

The woman looks at the nurse. Surely she received the brief that they sent out...? Her name was on it. If so, why is she asking so many questions? This will be their first attempt at freezing him and she must know that? Stupid woman, she thinks. She doesn't even know why the nurse has to be there! Stefan insisted it would make the patient feel calmer. Surely, the woman thinks, we can do that, we have the drugs.

But hers is not to reason why and so she does what she is told.

You walk your patient down to the cryo suite. Every time you think of the pods you feel sick. You do not want to consign him to that metal coffin, to oblivion. You had asked Stefan if they thought he would dream when he was in there, but Stefan shook his head. "Not from the brain wave patterns we have seen from the others," he says. You know he means the people they tested the pods out on, but you stopped him from telling you any more details.

You don't want to know how many people have already lost their life to this process.

"It is safe Freya, I promise you," Stefan says trying to reassure you again. With him on the project you feel comforted. He tries to ensure you are always consulted, always kept informed.