by Adair Hart
“What aliens did all this to you?” asked Jane.
“It’s a race called the Krotovore. They were from the future and the Sombrero galaxy. Insect-like race. They’re who gave us the nanobots.”
Jane shuddered.
“However, I think traveling with Evaran has helped put it in perspective.”
“Has it been easy?”
Dr. Snowden gulped. “I wish I could say it has. Our first adventure was with the Fredorians when—”
“When you helped Andia Kiggs find and assemble the Arkaron,” said Jane.
“That’s right. Andia was a great person. She and Emily were … very friendly. I came to know the Kreagans well, and the loss of one who traveled with us hit me pretty hard.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I only saw that you helped from the Evaran Protocol details.” Jane tilted her head at Dr. Snowden. “So Emily and Andia …”
Dr. Snowden nodded. “I was surprised at first, but after I thought about it, it made sense. While Andia seemed authoritarian, she was actually adventurous, beautiful, smart, open to new ideas—”
“You sure it was Emily that liked her?” asked Jane with a chuckle.
Dr. Snowden’s face warmed up. “What I mean is … Emily bonds with people that have certain characteristics, and Andia had them. The fact that Andia was a woman and older didn’t bother Emily. She tends to go for older anyways. With Fredorian culture being what it was with the groups and all …”
Jane chuckled. “I’m Fredorian, and that concept hasn’t been adopted widely in the United Planets. I was exclusive with Chris.” She cast a sidelong glance at Dr. Snowden. “I better watch out then, huh?”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
“Hey!”
Dr. Snowden jerked his head back and put his hands out front. “I didn’t mean it like that. Emily used to be … much more open and free-spirited. She spent nine months alone on a prison planet in a pocket universe on our last adventure. As you can probably tell, she is much more guarded now. I don’t think any relationship is in her immediate future.”
“I noticed that. I actually thought she was your bodyguard.”
Dr. Snowden sighed. “That’s not too far from the truth anymore. She wants to be alone lately.” He looked down.
Jane laid a hand on Dr. Snowden’s shoulder. “It must have been a difficult time for the both of you.”
“I’m glad she’s safe now,” said Dr. Snowden. “We even had a duplicate of her made of nanobots for a short while. One thing I have learned traveling with Evaran is that reality is very strange.”
“Sounds like it. Evaran seems like a good person, and I’m happy he’s helping me,” said Jane.
“That’s Evaran. He has so much power, but he is the one being I know where power hasn’t corrupted him. Speaking of which … you think Advanced Dynamics and the illegal augment trade have something to do with your husband’s death?”
Jane sighed. “I don’t know. I do know they won’t give me a straight answer. I’m hoping to find out more when we head up there.”
Dr. Snowden took another bite of his pizza slice.
“You know … you sorta look like Chris, maybe ten years older.”
Dr. Snowden swallowed, then said, “It appears we share similar tastes.”
Jane raised her eyebrows.
Dr. Snowden’s eyes widened. “I meant … umm … that he chose to work on a space habitat. I’m an astronomer, but I would have loved to do work on one in any capacity.”
Jane smiled.
“On another note, have you been to Earth before?”
“Oh yeah. Fredoria and Earth are two of the four founding members of the United Planets. I was stationed at Austin, in the Texas district, for a year.”
“The Texas district?”
“I’m not sure what you would call it in your time period.”
“It was a state in the United States of America,” said Dr. Snowden. “Emily and I were abducted north of there, near Columbus, Ohio.”
“Ahh, the Ohio district.”
Dr. Snowden rubbed his chin. “Things sound quite a bit different on Earth in this time period.”
“One government with the world divided into districts.”
“That makes sense. In my time period, there are over two hundred independent nations, each with their own leader.”
Jane cocked her head. “It makes you wonder how any global initiatives got done. I know some about Earth prior to the Third World War, but not too much.”
Dr. Snowden chewed on Jane’s words. “I don’t know anything about that. I look forward to reading up on it, though. It sounds like this United Planets thing is good for Earth. How are relations with the Kreagans?”
“They’re good now. Obviously much better than when we broke off from them in 2734. We’ve come a long way in the last several centuries.”
“There’s so much for me to learn still. Anyways, I wasn’t trying to use all your time up here for a history lesson. I’m hoping you find some answers when we go up to the space habitat.”
“Me too,” said Jane. She cast a sidelong glance at Dr. Snowden. “I suspect you’re still looking for answers too.”
“What do you mean?”
“Emily. I can see the pain in your face when you interact with her,” said Jane. She tapped the side of her head. “Augments.”
Dr. Snowden sighed. He looked out at the setting sun. “I guess I am. She’s changed dramatically, and I’m struggling to deal with it. Evaran says I’m supposed to be there for her, but I get the feeling she’s tense around me. I feel like I’m actually hindering her recovery.”
“I wouldn’t think of it as a recovery. If this is who she is now, you should accept it, and form a new relationship.”
“That’s what Evaran said too. He said to be myself, and adapt. I’m trying.”
“That’s all you can do,” said Jane.
Dr. Snowden swallowed hard.
“The night’s still young. I sure wouldn’t mind a tour of the ship.”
Dr. Snowden smiled. “It would be my honor.” He stood and went to pick up his plate.
“I know I thanked you already, but I really do appreciate what you did back at Warlord Okon’s camp.”
Dr. Snowden’s heartbeat accelerated. “Oh … well … As Emily would say, I got your back.”
“What about my front?” asked Jane with a small smile.
Dr. Snowden stared at Jane for a moment. “Always.” He extended his free arm in a flourish. “Shall we?”
“Lead on.”
Jane yawned as she sat on the edge of her bed. She could not recall the last time she had slept as peacefully as she had. A grin crept onto her face as she thought about her tour with Dr. Snowden. The Torvatta was impressive. Its dimensional rooms and technology were unlike anything she had ever seen. No wonder Dr. Snowden and Emily enjoyed traveling with Evaran; the Torvatta was a great base to operate from.
After cleaning up and slipping into her light power armor, she took a final look around the room. It was advanced and luxurious, something she could see herself getting used to. The thought of traveling with Evaran had crossed her mind a few times. In the short time she had been with him, she had already met Warlord Okon, someone who was deemed impossible to find, and now she would be going to the space habitat. She cleared her mind as she exited the room.
When she entered the main area of the Torvatta, she saw V headed toward the holo room. Dr. Snowden had showed it to her the previous night, and she had a hard time believing it was real. While replication shared similar capabilities, to have a room that could do the conversion effortlessly surprised her. Dr. Snowden had summoned up a large rock that they sat on as it orbited a gas giant planet. Talking to Dr. Snowden was easy, and several times she had to catch herself from leaning into him. It had been a long while since someone showed an interest in her. She smirked as she caught up with V outside the holo room.
V swiveled his head toward Jane. �
��Jane Trellis. How are you this morning?”
“You can call me Jane, and I’m doing fine. What are you up to?”
“My morning training session with Emily.”
“Do you mind if I watch?”
“Analysis. I do not think Emily would mind.”
“After you,” said Jane, stepping back. She followed V into the room. Her eyes widened as she sized up the environment Emily had running. It was a large, open area in what appeared to be a space ship. She could see windows with space on the outside. Emily was jumping around and fighting humanoid creatures with leathery skin. Some had unusual appendages sticking out of their bodies. It was not the appearance that startled her, but the quantity of them. There were probably fifty or sixty surrounding her. Emily was a whirlwind of activity with her staff.
The room paused as V and Jane approached Emily.
Emily wiped the sweat off her forehead and took a moment to catch her breath. “You’re late.”
“I apologize. Evaran had me run some analytics,” said V.
Emily raised her head a bit as she looked at Jane. “Want to join us?”
“Sure … but what are we fighting and where are we?”
“This is the first Kreagan colony ship we found hurtling in space when we were looking for the Arkaron crystals,” said Emily, waving her hand around. “Evaran called these creatures transformed. They were created by an Outsider race called the Malazim. They couldn’t enter our reality, so they used an obelisk-like stone to reach out and transform living matter.”
Jane’s eyes widened. “Okay … that sounds unusual. I know of Outsiders, but don’t think I’ve ever heard of them coming through stones before.”
“Analysis. The Malazim are what attacked the first Kreagus home world, causing a mass exodus,” said V.
Jane scrunched her face. “Huh … I didn’t know that. I heard there was a major event, but details were sketchy. Nonetheless, I’m ready.”
Emily looked Jane over. “Are you sure? What melee weapon are you going to use?”
“I’ll use my sidearm,” said Jane. “It’s all I need.”
“Okay … ,” said Emily. She gestured for V and Jane to stand next to her. After they arrived, she tapped at a console that appeared in the air. “I’ve tripled the amount of transformed. This should be a good fight.”
Jane looked around as the large area populated with more transformed. She was used to fighting two, maybe three opponents at a time, never a swarm. Crowd control was usually meant to subdue, not kill. After setting her weapon to wide beam and lethal, she glanced at Emily and said, “I’m ready.”
Emily pressed a button on the midair console, which caused it to disappear.
Jane raised her eyebrows at the growling sounds coming from the creatures. She could smell them. It reminded her of rotting flesh. Her attention focused on the group of transformed rushing her. She aimed ahead and fired.
The transformed in front of her were sliced in half.
She glanced over at Emily, who was spinning around gracefully like a dancer with her staff and tossing transformed around.
V was punching holes in the transformed and kicking them back.
Jane stumbled back as one of the transformed grabbed her arm. With a quick kick that sent it flying, she stepped back and fired, shredding it.
Six more transformed converged on her.
She fired in an arc, but one of the transformed dodged it and was within arm’s reach. She hit her belt, causing a rectangular human-height shield to appear in front of her.
The transformed jumped forward, knocking her down. It then jumped on top of her shield.
Her pulse quickened.
Another transformed grabbed her feet and pulled her into a mob. They attacked her shield, and the ones near her feet began to slash at her lower legs under the shield. She struggled to slide back, but more transformed appeared near her head. There were too many. She had underestimated their speed and ferocity. With a panicked look over at Emily and V, she said, “Help!”
Emily and V rushed over.
V grabbed the one trying to get Jane’s head and tossed it away. He kicked two more that had tried to fill the gap.
Emily jumped on Jane’s shield and, in a swirling motion, knocked the transformed back. Once there was some breathing room, she cleared a spot where they could defend.
V helped Jane up.
“New strategy,” said Emily. “Me and V will take the sides. You fire from the center between us.”
“Okay,” said Jane as she tried to steady her trembling hand. This was more real than she had expected.
Emily had shortened her staff into a baton and was mixing repulsion blasts in with strikes. V had begun to spin at a high velocity and move around. Whatever he hit went flying back or was decapitated.
Jane took advantage of the space they had secured and fired out.
After forty-five minutes, the swarm had been cleared.
Jane sat down. “Whew. That … that was intense.”
Emily sat next to her and tapped Jane’s arm. “That was level eight.”
“What?”
“Analysis. There are one hundred levels. Emily has only reached level forty-two.”
“That’s incredible,” said Jane as she looked at Emily. “You move much faster than I would have expected. You’re a lot stronger too. I would’ve expected that from V, but not you.”
“I train for four to five hours every day. And of course, the nanobots help.”
“Do you train so hard because of … what happened?”
Emily snapped her head toward Jane.
“I’m not trying to pry. It was … something your uncle mentioned last night.”
Emily sighed. “That’s part of it. However, I think it boils down to being prepared for whatever life throws at you. I don’t just train physically, I train mentally now as well through studying.”
“That’s a good approach to life. I follow a similar regime, though not quite as hard as you, apparently.”
Emily exhaled from her nose. “You performed well for your first time. The first time I did this on the colony ship, I ran away in fear and left Uncle Albert and a friend alone. If V hadn’t reached them, they wouldn’t have made it. My weakness could’ve been their death.” She clenched her jaw.
“Oh … ,” said Jane. “If you and V hadn’t stepped in, they woulda crawled under my shield and I wouldn’t have made it.”
“The holo room would have paused before any serious injury. It tracks our health,” said Emily.
V swiveled his head toward Emily, then Jane. “The Torvatta has your back.”
Emily and Jane chuckled.
“So you do this every morning then for a few hours?” asked Jane.
“I do an hour in the mornings usually if Evaran has a meeting. On other mornings it can be two hours, but overall, still four to five hours a day. You’re always welcome to join. I’ve tried to get Uncle Albert in here, but that’d interfere with his late sleeping.”
Jane pursed her lips. “You know … he’s trying to adjust to the new you.”
“I know. He’ll have to come to terms with who I am now.”
“He will,” said Jane with a smile. “Just takes time.” She swallowed hard. “At least he has time.”
Emily paused as she examined Jane. “How did you adjust after losing your husband?”
“I haven’t, really. They say time heals all wounds. I think it’s more accurate to say time covers all wounds. It still hurts, but I won’t let that event define me. I … need to focus on the future.”
“Yeah.”
“Anyways, I’m going to get cleaned up.”
V tilted his head. “Evaran has requested we meet in the conference room at eleven a.m.”
“Good. I can get something to eat then too.”
“Acknowledged.”
Jane exited the holo room and headed to her living quarters. It was obvious to her now that Dr. Snowden and Emily were far more advanced than an
augmented human. She did not think they knew their full potential. The United Planets called augmented humans advanced, and nonaugmented humans normal. Dr. Snowden and Emily were something else. Human, yes, but with capabilities far in excess of an augmented human.
Jane enjoyed talking with Emily and V. It gave her insight into their mindsets. Traveling with Evaran was turning out to be challenging, but that was the part that excited her. She grinned as she continued on to her room.
Dr. Snowden looked up from the table as Jane and Emily walked into the conference room. The tour he had given Jane the previous night replayed in his mind. He reflected on how great it felt to sit with her on a floating rock in the holo room. His thoughts were interrupted by Emily swatting his arm.
“You’re up early,” said Emily as she sat next to him with an orange drink.
Dr. Snowden snorted. “I was up at nine thirty, actually.” He had gone looking for Jane and saw that she was in the holo room with Emily and V. They were doing the Kreagan colony ship simulation, something he had no desire to relive. Emily had invited him several times, but the thought of how close his life had come to ending made his palms sweat. He would do it sometime, to conquer his fear of it, but he was not in any rush.
“Analysis. Jane joined me and Emily at nine thirty-one a.m. in the holo room.”
“I saw that and got breakfast instead.”
“I understand. You had meat desires,” said V.
Jane laughed while Emily snickered.
Dr. Snowden raised his eyebrows and looked at Jane. “Do you see what you’ve started?”
Jane shook her head as she chortled. “Sorry.” She glanced at Evaran. “Go ahead.”
“I am glad everyone is in a good mood,” said Evaran. He tapped at the table console, causing a projection to shoot up a wireframe depiction of the space habitat where Chris died.
It reminded Dr. Snowden of a large cylinder with a wide upside-down salad bowl on the bottom. The cylinder had smaller cylinders around it at various intervals. Structures that reminded him of frying pans stuck out around the cylinders. The number of levels surprised him. They started at one from the cylinder base and went all the way to eight-four at the top. This was not a small habitat.
