The Time Refugee: Book 4 of the Evaran Chronicles

by Adair Hart

  “There’s nothing we could have done to help them,” said Dr. Snowden, laying a hand on Jane’s arm.

  “I know,” said Jane. “I’m trained to save lives. It’s hard to ignore that instinct. Don’t worry about me. This is a bit overwhelming.”

  Emily smirked. “At least this time we have the suits. We’ve been in worse situations.”

  Although the conditions were tense, Jane felt safe traveling with Dr. Snowden, Emily, V, and Evaran. If this was a view into what they would do for someone on the team, she was all in. Working as a field agent was lonely work, and often times she wished she had a team to work with. She smiled at Dr. Snowden and Emily as she continued on.

  Emily noted that the room they entered was massive. After twenty minutes of going through various corridors and ramps, they ended up in the bottom area of the base that housed all the regular Voss Billozein had been converting. Although they were high up on a walkway that extended over the room, her skin crawled at half of the containers being open. Some of the uncontrolled Voss were climbing the walls, others milled about, shaking uncontrollably. There were others that looked like they fell out of their container.

  Jane pointed at a commotion on the far side of the room. “Check that out.”

  Emily inspected where Jane had indicated. “It’s Jeetrozein, and his group isn’t faring well.” The faint red glow coming out of an enclosed room farther back in the corner caught her eye. She crooked her thumb at it. “We need to go there.”

  Dr. Snowden sighed. “We have to go through all these Voss?”

  “Maybe not,” said Emily. She peered around for a moment and saw several ladders hanging off the edge of the walkway. Looking at the end of the walkway, she said, “This walkway has ladders we can take. There’s one at the far end we can use. Then it’s a straight shot to where Evaran is.”

  Dr. Snowden followed Emily’s gaze. “Okay … but there’s a small horde between the ladder and where he is.”

  “I’m the only one that needs to go since I have the orbs,” said Emily. “This suit has a camouflage aspect I can use. You two can provide cover from top if there is trouble, and V can provide a distraction hologram away from where I’m at.”

  “That’s a solid plan,” said Jane.

  Emily smirked. “It’s not quite as good as what Evaran would come up with, but I’m getting there.”

  “Agent Emily over here,” said Dr. Snowden, crooking his neck at Emily.

  Emily swatted Dr. Snowden’s arm. “Remember, you’re my backup.”

  “Let’s hope none come behind us on the walkway.”

  “I think you’ll be okay, and even if they do come, you can push them off. Use height to your advantage.”

  “I think this sealed the deal of me joining you in your morning trainings.”

  Emily crept down and waved forward. “I’m going to hold you to that. C’mon!”

  After ten minutes of creeping forward in silence, they reached the end of the walkway.

  Emily noted that the ladder that was easy to see from where they were previously was harder to distinguish once they were there. The only sign it was there was a gap in the rail guard and a red painted strip on the walkway. She accessed her wrist interface and turned on her camouflage.

  Dr. Snowden’s eyes widened. “That’s pretty nifty. I can still see you … sorta … but really have to focus.”

  “It’s battle tested,” said Emily. She recalled using it in her last adventure against five hunters in a jungle on the prison planet she spent nine months at.

  “I like it,” said Jane. “United Planets elite units have that standard on their suits, but not us lowly agents. Evaran should add that to these suits.”

  “I agree,” said Dr. Snowden. “Emily can’t have all the toys.”

  Emily raised an eyebrow.

  “I bet she’s raising an eyebrow at me,” said Dr. Snowden.

  Emily shook her head and got onto the ladder. “V, fly away a bit and see if you can distract them to move away from me.”

  “Acknowledged,” said V. He flew off to the middle of the room.

  “Here I go,” said Emily. She climbed down the ladder, and once she reached the ground, she hugged the wall nearest her. Looking up, she could see Dr. Snowden and Jane had gone prone and were looking out with PSDs on standby. She exhaled from her nose as she moved along the wall.

  A platform packed with the capsules that held Billozein’s progeny jutted out from the wall.

  Emily moved along the edges of it, but paused when the sound of several grunts echoed out. She held her position as she saw two uncontrolled Voss on the ground. They were on all fours, trembling and shaking their heads. One was vomiting. She figured they probably got popped out, regardless if they were ready to or not. Why they were out of their capsules was a mystery to her. She whispered to V via her PSD. “V, now.”

  Her attention pivoted to the middle of the room, where V projected a large hologram of a Cepharus, a shelled creature with massive tentacles she had encountered during her alien abduction rescue by Evaran. The difference was this hologram version towered over the room at around thirty feet or so.

  The outcry was immediate. Uncontrolled Voss from all parts of the room moved toward it.

  Emily chuckled. V was swinging the tentacles around like he was trying to grab the uncontrolled Voss. Each time a holographic tentacle touched one, the uncontrolled Voss made whooping sounds and guttural growls, causing even more to come. She had thought it would be a large grizzly bear like she had seen V use before, but this would do. The two uncontrolled Voss in front of her crawled toward the hologram. Once they were a bit away, she continued on. When she arrived outside Evaran’s cell room, she picked up low voices inside.

  Something peeked out of the room and looked around.

  Emily narrowed her eyes. It appeared these were regular Voss, and they had taken refuge in the room. She did a quick survey outside and observed that there were no other Voss, either regular or uncontrolled. Maybe there was something about Palisin energy they did not like. She crept up to the door and looked in.

  There were three regular Voss. All had their weapons out, with one just inside the door. The other two were looking forward while sitting on either side of Evaran’s cell.

  Emily understood the door was a natural choke point. She saw Evaran staring at her. Even with her camouflage, it did not surprise her that Evaran could see her. She weighed her options for a moment, then knelt right outside the doorway. Tossing in one of the orbs at the closest pillar caused the front and right side shielding to dissipate.

  The two Voss in the back jumped up.

  Emily slipped into the room and kicked the Voss nearest the door into the one on the right side in the back.

  The Voss on the left side came around the shielding and fired wildly.

  She deflected the shots and hit the Voss with a stun beam.

  The Voss collapsed.

  She fired a repulsion blast at the two remaining Voss, who were beginning to regroup. They went flying into the wall. Another sweeping burst of her stun beam made them stop moving.

  Evaran observed Emily. “You impress me once again.”

  Emily walked over to Evaran and placed an orb on his handcuffs, causing them to stop glowing. “I’ve been training.”

  “I can tell,” said Evaran as he broke his wrist constraints.

  Emily placed another orb on his ankle restraints, which Evaran then broke apart. “Uncle Albert and Jane are above on the walkway, and V is projecting a Cepharus in the middle of the room. Oh … and it’s great to see you again as always.”

  Evaran stood and rubbed his wrists. “It will take me a moment to adjust.”

  “Sitting for several days will do that to a body,” said Emily. She bear-hugged Evaran. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  Evaran put an arm around Emily. “I am good and have had time to think. Billozein should be on his way to his ship.”

  Emily stepped back. “We saw Jeetrozein a
t the other end of the room. It wasn’t going well for him.”

  “He probably believes he can regain control. That will not be possible with the programming I have implanted,” said Evaran. “I did notice that the Palisin energy seemed to irritate the Voss in the room and kept the ones from the capsules away.” He stretched around for a moment, raising each leg in sequence. “However, let us head to the Torvatta now.”

  Emily gestured toward the door. “You don’t have camouflage, but the path should be clear. We can run there.”

  Evaran grabbed his utility handle and extended it into a staff with one end glowing white, the other blue. With one final look around, he exited the room and headed toward the ladder Emily had pointed out.

  Halfway there, Emily picked up the sound of repulsion blasts. Looking at the base of the ladder, she could see a mass of uncontrolled Voss swarming around, trying to climb.

  Dr. Snowden and Jane were firing downward, but Dr. Snowden had turned toward others that were coming down the walkway.

  “Should we fight our way through?” asked Emily.

  “I have another idea,” said Evaran. He adjusted his utility handle to make a baton with a glowing yellow end. “Grab on to me.”

  Emily remembered that the yellow glow meant it was in grappling mode. She put her arms around Evaran’s chest.

  Evaran fired up a bit away from where Dr. Snowden and Jane were. They rose into the air at an angle and began to swing forward. Once they were within range of the ladder, Evaran repositioned his grappling beam to above Dr. Snowden and Jane.

  Dr. Snowden jumped when Evaran landed next to him. A grin broke out on his face. “Evaran!”

  Jane placed a hand on Evaran’s arm. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  “Thank you, everyone, but we should head to the Torvatta now.”

  “The path should be cleared … well … except for the few stragglers that came through to the walkway,” said Dr. Snowden. He looked down the ladder. “If we’re gonna do something, we need to do it fast.”

  “We can go now,” said Evaran. He tapped at his ARI. “V, we are leaving.”

  V flew up and hovered near Evaran. “Acknowledged. It is good to see your life sign is active.” His lights pulsed for a moment.

  “The feeling is mutual,” said Evaran. “It is time to see where Billozein is going.”

  Emily smiled as she followed Evaran. Her nanobots were tingling, her face was flushed, and the excitement of the situation was almost like an addiction to her now. She had doubts about staying on board long ago, but no more. This is where she belonged, next to Evaran. With Dr. Snowden, V, and now Jane, it was a group she was beginning to see as one big family.

  After twenty minutes, Dr. Snowden and the others reached the control room that they had been at previously.

  Dr. Snowden looked around the floor for the two regular Voss they had left behind. Their mangled corpses looked like something had put holes in them. When he focused on the bodies, he thought he could see rising smoke, as if something hot had gone through them. He wrinkled his eyebrows as he pointed at one of them. “Those holes look pretty precise …”

  Evaran scanned one of the bodies with his ring. “They are from an energy beam. I do not suspect it came from one of the uncontrolled Voss.”

  “When we left, we heard them scream, but didn’t hear anything else,” said Emily.

  “It could have been robots. Voss are not particularly quiet, controlled or otherwise,” said Evaran.

  “Voss judicators,” said Jane with narrowed eyes.

  Everyone looked at Jane.

  “They’re an elite Voss unit. They cover many roles, from security, to hunting down targets. It’s usually one big control one, with smaller ones around it. I saw some on the screens in this room earlier.”

  Evaran rubbed his chin while perusing his ARI. “I see. It appears they have shielding.” He extended his hand out, palm up. A projection shot up from his ring, showing a line of several judicator models.

  “That’s them,” said Jane. “These look much more advanced, though. I ran into one or two long ago, but they were much easier to handle than what those look like.”

  “I suspect then that they were here. Your forearm shields will prevent any damage. Make sure you have it ready to deploy if needed.”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Let us go,” said Evaran as he strode across the room.

  They stepped over the dead Voss and exited.

  When they crossed the halfway point of the corridor outside, a pair of crazed Voss burst around the corner at the other end. One was limping while the other held its arm. A barrage of energy beams raked their backs. They crumpled to the ground after yelping, then fell silent.

  Dr. Snowden’s heartbeat increased as he gripped his PSD. His eyes popped open at the sight of a quadruped robot as it stepped around the corner and into the corridor. It was one of the Voss judicators that Evaran had shown. The cold mechanical sound it emitted made his nerves fray. Swiveling cylinders on its back ended with an orb that had a black tube sticking out. It was the same tube on the front end that caught his attention. It was much larger. A semitransparent bubble shield surrounded the robot.

  The judicator paused for a moment, then faced Evaran and the others. A beam swept out and then spread into individual beams that highlighted each person. The cylinders turned so that the tubes were lined up with the beam.

  “Shields!” said Evaran, moving his left arm forward and kneeling.

  Dr. Snowden, Emily, and Jane followed Evaran’s example.

  A barrage of orange energy beams hit them. The front tube shot a larger beam, while the smaller cylinders above shot thinner ones. As it advanced, smaller versions of the robot appeared behind it.

  Dr. Snowden observed that the smaller ones were more spiderlike and only had the front energy beam tube. He had seen them earlier as well and knew why they were a problem. It was when they scaled the wall that his skin began to crawl.

  Evaran crooked a thumb back. “We need to get back to the control room.”

  They crept backward, always facing forward. When they got there, the judicators were within ten feet. Jane and Emily were the first into the room. They ducked off to the sides. Dr. Snowden was next. When Evaran backed into the room, he placed his UIC on a side console. Several quick swipes at his ARI and the door sealed shut. A humming sound emanated from the door as the judicators fired on it.

  Evaran stood. “The door is shielded. We should be okay for the moment. We need another route.”

  Dr. Snowden shook his head as he looked at Jane. “How did you handle those in the past?”

  “Overwhelming force,” said Jane. “United Planets has its own version of them. Plus we had Paragons, heavily augmented human–AI hybrids with specialized armor and weapons. One thing judicators are susceptible to is energy drain on their shields, and once those are depleted, they go down easy.”

  “Our stun beams could do that,” said Evaran.

  “Maybe … but I bet these have regenerating shields, so it would need to be a sustained stream.”

  “I wonder where they were before,” said Emily. “I didn’t see any on the way in, other than on the screen.”

  “They’re probably in hunter mode,” said Jane. “I don’t know how these were built but would guess that they were busy clearing out other areas with any Voss, controlled or not.”

  Evaran placed his UIC on his belt. “I have found another route. There is a ladder shaft that connects a network of maintenance tunnels. It should take us right up to the docking bay.”

  “What if there are more of those judicators?” asked Dr. Snowden.

  “We have a tactical advantage in the tunnel size. They are about half as wide and tall as the regular corridors.”

  Emily smirked. “It’s less room for them to maneuver and easier to focus fire.”

  “That is correct,” said Evaran. He headed out the other side of the room with everyone in tow.

  Dr. Snowden gr
imaced as he saw dead Voss everywhere. It was easy to pick out the uncontrolled Voss versus the regular ones. The uncontrolled Voss had a crack in their heads, like the pale creature inside had tried to get out. It reminded him a bit of cracking a lobster tail open. He shuddered at the thought.

  They reached the ladder shaft and hustled down it.

  Dr. Snowden noted on the way down that it was well lit. He ran his hand between a pair of rungs and touched the warm feeling of the steel wall. The ladder shafts had entry points at each floor, with a ledge all around the shaft, enough to stand on. He wondered if they used robots to maintain it or if there was a maintenance crew.

  Jane nudged his leg from under him. “Are you thinking again?”

  Dr. Snowden cleared his throat. “Maybe.” He flashed her a smile.

  Jane shook her head.

  Evaran climbed off the ladder at one of the entry points. He placed his UIC on the wall console, and a moment later, the door to the floor opened. He exited the shaft and helped the others in.

  Dr. Snowden noted that the room they had entered was mostly white, in contrast to the black-and-purple color scheme that pervaded the rest of the facility. Large, square white pillars with lights flashing on them filled the room in a grid pattern. Their reflectiveness caused him to squint. He walked up to one with Jane and ran his hand across the surface. It reminded him of touching the side of a plastic milk jug. “What are these?”

  Evaran scanned one of the pillars with his ring. “They appear to be part of some power management system.”

  “Huh,” said Dr. Snowden.

  Evaran looked around, then headed to the room exit. “We are on the same floor as the docking bay. It is ahead.”

  Several dead regular Voss lying near the room exit caught Dr. Snowden’s eye. He wondered about the others who were probably trying to do their job, then getting either mauled by uncontrolled Voss or judicators. He sighed at the thought of so much death.

  After fifteen minutes of dodging judicator patrols and the random uncontrolled Voss, they reached the docking bay.

  Dr. Snowden peered in. “Billozein’s ship is still here.”