He can see large reptile looking birds perched on the top of the highway, two in total. The overlay fills with information about them, calling them pterodactyls. Vernon had never seen dinosaurs before, and gets why this reclaimed area is so difficult. Dragon type creatures that can sniff you out, and no where to run.
There is a building nearby that would be able to block the view of the lizard birds. He doesn’t want to cause a stir because he doesn’t know what else might be out there right now. With the sun still rising he can hide in the shadows. He goes around the corner and walks to the edge of the city. Looking both ways before he crosses the street for anything that might come after him and he also gives a quick look toward the sky. With everything looking clear he wind bursts into the forest toward his destination.
The forest starts out dense but thins out quickly, fading into an open field. Stopping at the edge of the field he puts his hood back on and scans the area. The scan finds nothing. He continues on, and passes through the field. The marker is getting closer and he can see a small house coming into view. There also seems to be someone waiting outside.
He gets about two hundred yards away before he stops and stares at the person standing in front of the house. They make no movement or gesture to him but they are faced his direction. He decides to walk the rest of the way so he doesn’t startle whoever it is that is looking at him. Getting closer shows there are no features on the face at all, because it wasn’t a person. It looks like a mannequin without any clothes. Vernon reaches out and grabs the arm and lifts it up, as he releases it just falls back to its side. The little cottage behind it seems in good repair but he is in a shifted area and looks don’t matter.
He knocks on the door, “Hello, anyone there?” he calls out to no answer.
Opening his digital wallet, he produces the key and puts it into the door. The key slides into the lock with ease, and turns with no effort. The door swings effortlessly open and reveals the house is empty. No chairs, tables, beds, or storage. The fireplace is the only feature, even though there were windows on the outside, there are none on the inside. Vernon takes a few steps inside as four beams of light cover him and pass over his whole body.
The ground starts to shake and house begins to rumble and splits down the fireplace. Vernon turns to the door and it has already closed shut, leaving him nowhere to run. The roof opens over the fireplace, like a doll house, and flattens out straight. The walls of the house begin to invert themselves, and flip around to where the mannequin was. The roof falls back onto the house with a bang.
From the doorway of the now inverted house, Vernon can see the insides flooding with blue light. The light fades. The roof raises again but this time away from Vernon and all the walls fall to the ground. Dust and dirt fly everywhere. Vernon’s hood augments his vision by flipping through night vision, x-ray, and infrared. The only thing visible is just the figure of the mannequin.
Three gun shots ring out. Vernon waves his left hand in front of him making a barrier of ice and with his right he draws his gunlet. The bullets hit and shatter the barrier with an explosion of fire. Ice shards fly in every direction and quickly turn to water. He turns his head to back to where the mannequin was and he stares into his own face.
Backing away quickly, he barely misses the upward swing of a blade flying by his face. The mannequin became his copy. Same black hair, blue eyes, height, clothing and weapons. The gun in its hand is even down to the runes on the outside of it, and the sword is the same four foot long double sided blade without a hilt.
If this really did just copy him, this is not going to be an easy match. He reaches into his coat toward the small of his back on the left side, where he keeps his blade. A thin rectangle piece of gray metal attached to a gravity port on his belt. A hole opens up and a handle extends out turning off the gravity port releasing the blade into his hands. Vernon grabs onto it and pulls it out from behind him. The dull gray piece of metal separates down the center unfolding into a polished gray sword. Two rows of runes on either side of the blade.
Retracting the gunlet he grabs onto the base of the handle giving it a small turn which extends the grip to allow for a two handed approach. With both hands firmly on the grip he holds the blade on his right side. The mannequin follows each movement. Retracting the gunlet, extending the grip of its sword, and then taking the same posture. Both blades have fire sweep over them.
The swords streak orange and red through the air as they collide. Shockwaves of fire and air barely reach past Vernon before the next shockwave rings out. The grass in the field lays flat from the continued clashes. Vernon swings downward and connects blades, but the mannequin counters his every swing. He wonders if the mannequin is able to copy everything he can do. While their blades are still connected, he takes a deep breath to focus, his sword’s flames extinguish. His inner door opens, and a flash of white covers both him and the mannequin as his blade is covered in light.
Pressing downward on his blade, he slices a piece of the mannequin’s sword off. Vernon presses forward, dragging the mannequin’s feet across the ground as it tries to regain its footing. Emulating Vernon, it extinguishes its sword's flames and looks as if it begins to focus. Vernon takes a step backward and the mannequin doesn’t move. It can’t copy his light.
Sprinting towards it makes it take a defensive position. Down the fuller of the it’s blade separates and extends on either side. Sparks begin to fill the newly created space and flow over the blade.
Vernon pulls back his sword for the swing, separating his. The light fills the space and extends past the tip of the blade. He swings overhead with both hands. The shockwave from the two clashing blades rips out the grass at their feet, denting the ground. Vernon’s blade cuts through, slicing the mannequin in two.
As each half of the mannequin falls to the ground the floor of the house starts to move and open. Stopping the flow of light to his blade he retracts and puts it away. In the center of what was the floor of the house there is one large white circle.
He step into the center of it, hoping its the way out. Three polls shoot out of the floor around him, that connect at the top. A hum from bellow his feet starts as electricity begins to flow through the circle and polls. Then a flash of white light.
Opening his eyes Vernon sees two generators producing a shield behind him, and between the two generators is a door. He pulls up his map overlay and notices that he is on the west side of the map at the exit. A feeling of triumph fills him. It has only been a day and he was able to make it to the exit already.
As he celebrates he turns back to gaze upon the shifted area he has triumphed over. A gigantic hole opens up in the sky and a monstrous dragon falls through. It's followed shortly thereafter by six paladins. They each carried the Dragon insignia on their jacket arm. The dragon looks around at all them spreading it wings letting out a fearsome roar.
Vernon is captivated by what he is seeing. A hand is placed on his shoulder.
Tyler says, “So you think you’re ready to take one of those on?”
Vernon turns his head to answer, “Yea I do. Why are you here, I was almost done?”
“Just got a call that they were going to use this place as a drop point for this dragon. I knew you were in here so I came to watch, just in case. Looks like I didn’t need to.”
“What are they doing?” Vernon questions as he sees the group of paladins circle the dragon. The scales of the dragon are barely scratched and you can see the rage in the beasts mahogany eyes.
“They are about to seal the dragon to this place. Some of the creatures out there are difficult to take down so we put them into a place like this to wear them down. Don’t worry about that though, let’s get you out of here so your trial can be finished.”
Vernon turns and walks through the door into a crowd of smiling faces. Marie, his parents, Duke, Ashley, Emma, and Vargas are all standing there. Marie rushes over with a look on her face that could only be described as pure happiness. She jumps in
to his arms and gives him a long kiss.
“You’re all here?!” Vernon says excitedly.
“Of course we are son, Tyler here was nice enough to tell us that your final was just about over and to come and wait for you to finish.” Eugene says.
“There hasn’t been a day gone by that I haven’t prayed that you got through everything so I could see you again.” Marie says.
Vargas chimes in, “You just had to go and beat my time didn’t you Vernon.”
Vernon laughs, “You just gave me something to shoot for going first is all.”
Duke asks, “Where is the celebration going to be at?”
Vargas adds, “I have something set up at the pizza place around the corner from here, Paladin Pizza.”
Vernon stands there, Marie on his arm truly happy. He can’t help but be moved, and holds back tears of joy. “Thanks everyone for being here, it really means a lot to me.”
Paladin Pizza is filled with people from the local community and deliveries are made daily to the Paladin Academy. The wait staff have armor and weapons from all the eras of the Paladin Order displayed on their clothing. Vernon turns off his overlay for a second to see their uniforms. It is a plain white jumper with a name tag of which paladin they are portraying and a green stripe down the right side of the jumper.
Reaching into his pocket he feels the small box that contains a diamond ring inside. Since he couldn’t leave the Academy grounds, Tyler was able to get it for him. It felt like a fifty ton weight was in his pocket, but he wants to remember this moment. Marie walks over to Vernon because she can see something is on his mind.
She says, “Hey babe, what’s wrong?”
The electronic music and the voices of all the people come back to Vernon in a flash and he grabs hold of the box in his hand and slowly takes it out. Trying not draw attention to it.
“Nothing’s wrong Marie,” he says is a soft tone, “I just was thinking about something I wanted to give to you and the best way to do it.”
“Give to me, and what might that be?”
Vernon gestures a message over to Duke to get his camera ready. “Remember that night in New Atlantis before the tournament, that I gave you a promise ring out of that claw game.”
“Yes I do.” She says as she takes a necklace out from her shirt to show him, “I have kept it close to my heart ever since, why?”
“I want to make good on that promise,” He says as he gets down on one knee, heart pound. “Marie, will you marry me?”
Marie’s face goes flush, tears start running down her face and begins fidgeting with excitement. She screams jumping into his arms, “Yes! A thousand times yes!”
Shadow Moon (Book 2)
1
Vernon finally arrives at the dock two hours before the ceremony starts, still being fueled by the adrenaline his alarm so graciously gave him for being set at the wrong time. Stepping out of his car, a breeze blows past, filling his nose with a refreshing waft of sea air while his thick black hair ruffles around. Taking in a deeper breath of the refreshing scent helps him relax and still his rushing heart.
He looks over to the large gray box of a building that is housing the ship he is about to board with cranes working feverishly above, putting the finishing touches on the vessel for its maiden voyage. Marie and the bridesmaids have already been there for the last few hours and are currently inside the ship getting ready. He hurries to the receptionists counter, past a crowd of people waiting to board, and they waive him on though after checking his HaLO. It shows he is the groom for the wedding that is about to take place, allowing him to board before the other passengers. Vernon is then allowed past the line, receiving dirty glares from those who are waiting, as he is let past the entrance.
Walking down a long metal hallway he passes greeters on either side waving and smiling fake smiles. Vernon walks past them all without even giving a second glance. If he had arrived at the time he originally planned he might have given a real smile back, but he was focused, and inside his own thoughts. He was wondering what Marie was going to look like in her dress, if they were going to have a difficult marriage, and if they were going to have kids.
Leaving the cold metal hallway he comes upon a set of stairs with an escalator beside it, and an elevator next to that which will allow all the waiting passengers to ascend to the upper decks of the ship, where host will be preforming check-ins through their HaLO’s. Vernon takes a look down at his HaLO, wrapped around his right wrist. It’s an older model with a couple of analog buttons, and a digital display. He likes it because he hasn’t seen one similar with the analog features, and his parents got to pick it out for him. It’s like a memento from them. A constant reminder they are always with him.
The HaLO is a bracelet like band normally around one’s wrist, but there are some who have it around their neck or ankle. Most are new and sleek, with no displays or buttons on the exterior. It holds all the user’s personal information, like medical, financial, and location, while using their brain like a storage unit. Through the HaLO everyone has access to information on the HaLO Virtual Network, or HVN. Sending the information throughout your nervous system allowing you to see things that aren’t physically there but feel, smell, taste, and sound like they are, which are normally called overlays. With everyone born within the Astrum Government required to have one from birth, it’s amazing that anything physical gets built anymore.
Vernon shakes the random thoughts from his head and opts for the escalator, because he will be able to take the steps two at a time, and be able to get up to the ship faster. At the top it leads to a long glass covered walkway with light spilling in. The way the light comes through the glass reminds him of his parents’ home in Saint Anthony Dome, looking into the sky and watching the sun rise as the light filters through the dome. Stepping into the corridor of glass, he slows his pace at the sight of the ship, then comes to a full stop. He stands there gawking, the urgency he had before fading into the background like white noise.
The Navigator, was an immense sight before his eyes. It had to have been a massive undertaking to build this ship that was before him. Standing twenty six stories tall, and three hundred yards long, it was comparable to any of the large cruise ships from back on Earth. Here on Eden though, it was the first and only of its kind. It had taken a millennia to rebuild back to, then surpass what humanity had on Earth, and Vernon is happy he lives in this time and place.
The thought that he was about to spend the next week inside this behemoth was an interesting thought. There was a virtual brochure that he and Marie read when they were picking this cruise as their wedding and honeymoon location. The cruise had been reserved for only invited parties, mostly the upper crust of the Astrum society, but Marie’s father was one of them. He is the mayor of the Saint Anthony Dome, their home town, and was able to get the two of them onboard. The brochure stated that almost fifteen hundred passengers would be sailing for seven days, with over a thousand plus crew members. The thought of how they were all going to fit and have the food to survive the trip began to fill his mind.
Vernon snaps back to himself, realizing that time was not on his side today. The need to get ready made his feet try to recover some of the lost time. He half sprints down the corridor, even though there is still two hours till the wedding begins. He needs to be ready and dressed well before that or Marie might have the wedding called off due to the grooms head being on a spike.
A ramp from the glass covered corridor leads up to the ship, and with every step echoing his boots atop steel. At the top of the ramp, Vernon takes his first steps onto the cruise liner. He takes a quick look around, trying to get his bearings, when a gust of air almost knocks him over. The sea air filling his nostrils again. There are dull yellow floors, connected to white walls without so much as a stroke of paint out of place, and it seems to him the outside hull area was more for function than design. There is a sign within a small planter, the same yellow as the floor, pointing toward the aft of the s
hip. It simply reads, check in, above the arrow.
Vernon begins to walk at a brisk pace in that direction. As he does a man’s head pokes out around the corner of the entryway. Dark hair, eyes, with an olive complexion stare out at him with a blank expression.
2
Vargas pulls up driving a limousine. He parks the car close to the front entrance, and goes to open the back door. He looks over to the ship he is about to spend the next week on, and admires its size. This was going to be his first mission as Captain of the 9th Division, secretly known as Shadow Squad. There are only two members currently, because the squad doesn’t exist. He pulls on the handle, opening the door. Long tone legs peek out of the car, as he offers his hand to the woman inside.
Memories of her wash over him. The last year of high school, when they were introduced. It was right after he lost in a tournament he was participating in. She was there to see her sister in that same tournament. He was walking out of the competitors locker room, down a hallway, and all he could remember seeing were smooth tan legs.
The next couple of weeks he spent with her, traveling back and forth to New Atlantis, were the best of his life. Also the most expensive. He was a poor kid from Pharis dome, but that didn’t matter when she was around. They talked for hours about things they would like to do, and place they would like to go. Discussed a few virtual worlds in which they could play in together, so it was easier for them to see each other. He had mixed feelings about joining the Paladins when he did. Some of him wanted to stay with her, and other parts knew that wouldn’t really be possible without becoming a Paladin first.
“Thank you Captain.” The woman says enunciating each word.
Vargas lets out a sigh, “Lieutenant, I told you, to call me by my name until the mission is over.”
Cypher Theorem Series Box Set: Books 1-3, The Zero Class, Shadow Moon, Dragon Fire: A Science Fiction Fantasy Page 19
