The Awakening (The Hyperscape Project Book 1)

by Donald Swan

  “Karg, buddy! Please! You’re breaking my back, crushing my ribs. I can’t breathe in here,” Nick wheezed. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you gotta put me down.”

  Karg stopped bouncing him and gently put him back on the floor. Nick massaged his temples and gasped in an attempt to recover from having the air squeezed out of his lungs. Karg stared down at him, waiting silently and patiently. He looked like a big kid with a new toy. Nick started laughing. The expression on Karg’s face, the long days alone, the stress of thinking Arya had been killed, it all culminated in this moment of utter release as he stared into Karg’s big, funky eyes.

  Karg grinned. Nick’s laughter began to swell into an all-out, piss-in-your-pants fit of laughter that drove the air out of his lungs and had him dropping to the floor on one knee. Karg chuckled and leaned down to look into Nick’s face as he continued to laugh. Nick scrubbed at his eyes and tried to contain himself, but it was no use.

  “I—I’m…j—just so hap—peeee to see you g—g—guys!” Nick screeched through his mirth. “Oh, God!” He held his aching sides. “F—feels so g—good!”

  Arya was beside him, dropping down onto both knees, laughing along with him. Karg soon followed. Sirok maintained a safe distance as he watched the three of them rolling on the floor, holding their sides in pain as they laughed like hynangtas.

  “Strange species,” he muttered, his four eyes trained on his crew.

  “What’s the matter, Sirok,” Nick screeched through tears of laughter. “Haven’t you ever had a fit of the g—giggles before?”

  “No. I don’t think I have. It looks awkward and painful,” Sirok answered.

  All three looked at him for a moment then dissolved once again into screeches of intense laughter.

  “God, I’m so happy to be back!” Nick crowed.

  A splash of water from Nick’s cup was enough to bring the commander around. “Rise and shine,” Nick said, kicking Zurkan stiffly in the side with his boot.

  Zurkan moaned and opened his eyes slowly. Karg grabbed him with one hand, yanked him up off the floor and then set him down hard in a chair.

  “Don’t kill me,” Zurkan pleaded to the group.

  “Oh, we’re not going to kill you. That would be too nice.” Nick sat down in a chair across from him. “How did you know about the module? And how did you know Arnon?”

  “You’re going to kill me as soon as I tell you, so you can just go get freked.”

  Nick smiled calmly. “You can do this my way or his way,” he said, pointing at Karg.

  “Frek you! All of you!”

  “Okay.” Nick shrugged. “But you should have done it my way.” He stood up from his chair. “Karg, you win. You were right. He’s not gonna talk. He’s all yours.”

  Nick looked back at Zurkan. “You should have cooperated. I was just trying to help you. Not that I care. I just hate it when he gets messy.” Nick turned and headed for the door. “I’ll be in the corridor. I just don’t have the stomach for this.”

  Karg walked over to Zurkan and grabbed him under his armpit with one of his massive hands. Another hand grasped Zurkan’s ankle tightly, while a third covered his mouth. Karg pulled the raider’s pant leg up with his remaining hand, exposing his leg.

  Zurkan looked nervously over the huge hand covering his mouth. “What the hetek are you doing to me?” he mumbled under Karg’s hand. “Wait! Stop!”

  Karg ignored his plea.

  To Zurkan’s horror, Karg opened his enormous mouth, pulling his lips back to expose his huge, blunt teeth. Karg eyed Zurkan’s leg as he drew it closer to his mouth, then leaned forward and stretched his teeth around Zurkan’s leg to take a bite.

  Sweat dripped off of the raider as he struggled against the massive Rakozian. Muffled screams came from Zurkan’s throat. “Wait! Please! I’ll tell you anything, just don’t bite my leg off! Please, I beg you!” Tears ran down Zurkan’s face as he sobbed like a child.

  Karg lifted one of his fingers from Zurkan’s mouth. “Are you sure? ‘Cause I’m really getting hungry.”

  “Yes, I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” Zurkan blabbered from between Karg’s powerful fingers.

  “Go get Nick,” Karg directed as he lowered Zurkan’s exhausted body back down into the chair.

  Arya opened the hangar door and winked at Nick as he stood leaning against the wall just outside. “Looks like he wants to talk, after all.”

  Nick nonchalantly strolled into the hangar and plopped back down in the chair across from Zurkan. “Start talking.”

  “Arnon was a spy for me, but then he got captured by the Dragorans. Lucky for me, you rescued him. While he was aboard your ship, Arnon had been sending me secret transmissions, but then they suddenly stopped. When I found out the Dragorans wanted you real bad, I knew they would pay a huge finder’s fee to whomever caught you. Naturally, I took my chances that I could find you. I’ve been chasing you for weeks.”

  Sirok shook his head. “No. He’s lying. We would have picked up any transmissions.”

  Zurkan chuckled. “I doubt it. Not unless you knew exactly what to look for. The transmissions were masked to look like background noise. Even if you could filter it out of the noise, it would just sound like static. You know…white noise. When blended into the background radiation, it’s virtually impossible to detect. And then it can only be decoded using a special algorithm.”

  Arya sat down hard in the chair next to Nick. She was clearly surprised by the news of Arnon’s treachory. “All that time Arnon was a spy, after all. Only not for the Dragorans. For this slug. Sorry, no offense, Sirok.”

  “None taken,” Sirok muttered, still deep in thought about the ingenious hidden transmissions.

  Arya frowned. “The transmitter is quite clever, actually.” She looked hard at Zurkan. “I honestly didn’t think you had the brains for that sort of thing.” Her gaze went to Sirok. “You better get to the bridge to monitor things in case we have more company. Karg, will you supervise repairs?”

  “I’ll get right to it…Captain.” Karg winked and headed out of the bay.

  Nick glanced at Arya. “So, what do we do with him now?”

  Arya heaved a weary sigh. “For the moment he’s our prisoner. I’m sure I’ll come up with something useful to do with him. Right now we need to think about repairing our ship.”

  “Right. Speaking of ships….” Nick stood up and walked over to the module, leaving Arya to guard the prisoner. After all the fighting and plasma fire ripping up the bay, he needed to make sure the raiders hadn’t damaged his pride and joy. To his relief, everything seemed to check out okay.

  As Nick leaned into the module’s cockpit, a scuffling sound erupted from behind him. He turned to see Arya struggling with Zurkan. The two were face to face, fighting over the pistol in Arya’s hand. With the weapon mashed in between them, it was difficult to see who had the upper hand. Nick took a step toward them, preparing to rush to Arya’s rescue when a shot rang out. The horrible, muffled sound of a close-range plasma blast. Arya stood there with her back to Nick as a puff of smoke rose from between the two.

  “Arya!” Nick screeched as he bolted over to her. He came up behind her right shoulder with his gun already aimed at Zurkan’s head.

  Zurkan looked over at Nick with a blank stare. “Frek.” His eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed to the floor, dead. A stream of smoke rose up from a burnt hole in his abdomen.

  Relieved that she was okay, Nick spun Arya around and hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry. Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I should have never taken my eyes off him.”

  “It’s my fault. He was faster than I thought,” she said, scrunching her little nose in surprise.

  “It’s over now. Everything’s going to be alright,” Nick whispered. He wrapped his arms a little more tightly around her.

  She gave him an awkward pat on his back and waited for him to let go. But he wasn’t letting go. Her heartbeat quickened. Nick’s reluctance to release her was a surp
rise. One she wasn’t prepared for. She had to fight it. She couldn’t give in to her feelings. She couldn’t allow her emotions to get in the way. Dran, why isn’t he letting go? She could tell by the tremble in her hands that she was fighting a losing battle. And did she really have to fight this battle? Why couldn’t she just allow herself to sink into the emotion, and….

  Her body softened as she finally gave in and melted into him, took in the heady scent of him, noticed every single inch of how he felt pressed against her, his strong arms, rippled abdomen, sturdy thighs. Her senses went into hyperdrive as she tried to impress every second of holding him into her brain. She never wanted to forget this moment in time.

  They stood embracing one another until Nick pulled his head back to look at her, his eyes bloodshot with tears. “I thought he killed you.”

  Arya smiled through the stream of tears that were making their way down her own cheeks. “I thought you were dead. We hadn’t heard from you in days.”

  Nick raised his thumb to her cheek and gently stroked a tear from her face. Their gazes seemed unbreakable. In the silence of the empty bay, Nick slowly leaned in toward her, his nose almost touching hers. His heart was pounding so hard he could barely breathe. He just wanted to….

  “Nick! Arya! You two alright? I thought I heard weapons-fire,” Karg hollered as he stomped into the bay.

  Startled, the two dropped their arms away from each other and took a step back. “Oh…yeah. Everything’s great,” Nick said, grinning at Arya. They wiped the tears from their faces and turned to look at Karg as he approached.

  Karg looked at Zurkan’s dead body lying on the floor and then back at the two grinning faces in front of him. “Um, you sure you’re okay?” Karg asked, obviously perplexed by their expressions.

  “Yeah, Karg, everything is…good.”

  Nick’s grin got bigger. Arya’s nose twitched just slightly, one side of her mouth turned up in an interesting little quirk that let him know all he needed to know at the moment.

  “So the long and the short of it is that you were a handful as a child,” Arya said. “Always getting into trouble.”

  Nick leaned his elbows on the table between them and smiled back at her. “I prefer to think of it as adventuresome.”

  The trio had joined up in the lab. Karg had been helping Nick, and Arya had simply stopped by to see what Nick was working on. The conversation had quickly turned to small talk, and soon they were all laughing and talking about their younger days. It was one of those rare moments that they could really relax and joke around, a welcome break from all the action of late.

  As Nick was talking, Arya glanced over at the I.S.A. patch on his shoulder. Her eyes opened wider. “That’s it!” Without further explanation, she jumped up and headed for the door, calling back to the two left sitting there. “Come on!”

  Arya stopped suddenly, turned around, and held up her hand. She looked a bit confused and preoccupied. She shook her head. “No, wait…you need to stay here.” With that, she walked out of the room, leaving the two of them stumped. “I’ll be back!” they heard her call out as she made her way down the corridor.

  Nick had started to stand up but stopped halfway when Arya had told them to stay. He stared at the empty doorway befuddled. “What the hell was all that about? Where’s she going?” he asked as he slowly lowered himself into the chair again.

  Karg shrugged. “Beats me. She’s been acting weird since Argos died. A lot on her mind I guess.”

  “Yeah, I guess. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her to have those damn psychopath nanites in her head. That would be hard for anybody to get over.”

  Nick and Karg stared at each other uncomfortably.

  Karg changed the subject. “What were you saying about those transmissions?”

  “Oh, um, I had an idea about how we may be able to use a hyperspace generator to send transmissions between the different cells of the Resistance. I figure if we used a low-power generator to hold open a minuscule hyperspace window, one on a subatomic scale, then we could transmit a signal over great distances through hyperspace to another device. A sort of hyperspace two-way radio. We could shield the whole apparatus in a Faraday cage to keep the signal from transmitting into normal space. Heck, it would work anywhere, even deep inside an asteroid, because it bypasses normal space and matter.”

  Karg raised his boney eyebrows. “And the Dragorans and Mok’tu wouldn’t be able to intercept the transmission, since they don’t have the ability to open a hyperspace window. That’s brilliant!”

  “Only problem is, we have to build in a self destruct to keep it from falling into enemy hands. If one of the Resistance ships got boarded, we would need to be able to blow the generator.”

  “You know, despite all your disadvantages, your species can be surprisingly intelligent at times,” Karg praised.

  Nick’s brow lowered, and a half-grin appeared on his face. “Um…thanks?” He hadn’t heard a backhanded compliment like that since Aunt Ruth said to his mom ‘You look good, did you gain weight?’ Asking a woman if she’d gained weight was rarely considered a compliment. Now he could relate to the confusion on his mom’s face that day.

  “You certainly have a way with words, Karg,” he said.

  Karg grinned. “I like to think so.”

  Time got away from them as they joked and badgered each other until they ran out of things to talk about.

  “I wonder what happened to Arya,” Nick remarked. “It’s been awhile since she left.”

  Karg stared at him for a long moment. “So…what’s going on with you two?”

  Nick frowned and hid a smile behind the glass he raised to his lips. “What do you mean?”

  Karg leaned forward in his chair. “Come on, I’ve seen the looks you two have been giving each other.”

  Nick shrugged and tried to avoid Karg’s stare. “Nothing’s going on.”

  “Uh-huh,” Karg rumbled, a knowing grin on his wide face.

  The swish of the door broke the momentary silence in the lab. Arya returning from the bridge.

  “Hey, Arya, you have to hear what Nick was telling me.” Karg glanced at Nick. “Go on, tell her what you said about the transmitter thing.”

  Nick looked up at Arya, his mouth open to speak, when he noticed the odd look on her face. “Arya? What is it?”

  Her expression was somewhere between amazement and bewilderment. She walked toward them with an almost uncertain gait, her eyes glazed, as if she were disturbed by whatever she was mulling around in her mind.

  Nick felt an icy chill go up his spine as he watched her approach. “Karg, could some of those psycho nanites have survived?” he asked anxiously, his eyes remaining on Arya. Cautiously, his hand slid to the plasma pistol on his hip.

  Karg uttered only a single worrisome word. “Um….”

  “No, I’m fine. I think,” Arya replied, staring straight ahead as she sat down, still deep in thought about something. She turned and looked into Nick’s blue eyes.

  He stared back at her with a puzzled gaze, his hand still resting cautiously on the pistol in his holster. “What?”

  She drew in a deep breath and realized she had barely drawn a breath the entire way down the corridor. She inhaled deeply again, trying to catch her breath before continuing. “Do you remember the prophecy I told you about?”

  “Yeah, I remember. Don’t tell me…the hero dies. I hate when that happens.” Nick was well aware that the crew believed he was the hero in the prophecy. Something he had casually shrugged off. They were just reading too much into the story and the coincidence of his appearance in their space.

  Arya swallowed hard and didn’t answer him for a moment. “Well…I just remembered the name of the prophecy.”

  “If you tell me it’s named the prophecy of Nick….” Nick grinned nervously. He didn’t like where this was going. The last thing he wanted was to be hero to an entire nation of people. The pressure would be too intense to live up to.

 
; “No, actually it’s called the Prophecy of Isa.”

  Nick was still puzzled. “Okay, so it’s called the Prophecy of Isa,” he replied in a kind of hokey, spooky voice.

  Arya pointedly shifted her gaze to the patch on Nick’s shoulder.

  It took a second for Nick’s brain to kick in as he followed Arya’s gaze to his I.S.A. patch. “Holly shit! I-S-A…Isa!” Nick’s stomach turned loops in his gut. He tried to speak but his throat only allowed for a tight, nervous squeak. By the look on Arya’s face, there was more. Oh, God, here it comes. “I know I am going to regret this, but what’s the rest of the story?” he reluctantly asked.

  Arya stared at the floor as she spoke. “While you were gone, I received a message from Argos.”

  Karg’s interest was piqued. “A message…from Argos?” He glanced at Nick, his brow raised as if he were suddenly uncertain of Arya’s mental state. “But Argos is dead.”

  Arya frowned at her big friend. “A recorded message, stupid. I haven’t gone loopy…yet. Argos left me a recorded message.” She held up a memory crystal. “I saved part of it to show you.” Arya placed the crystal into a port on the console near her. An image of Argos popped up on the display.

  Nick hadn’t seen a picture of Argos since his death. He’d almost forgotten how intimidating he was. Strong, in control, and a full foot taller than Nick, he’d been an ominous presence when he was alive. The image didn’t quite seem to do him justice. Although the resolution of the display was extremely lifelike, right down to the individual hairs of the spotted, cat-like coat that covered Argos’ face. It still wasn’t the same as actually being in his presence.

  Arya pressed a key on the console and the video message began to play.

  “Arya, I assume that if you are seeing this message, I must already be dead. There are some things I need to tell you, and I’m afraid I may not get the chance. Let me start by saying I am so proud of you. The Resistance was nothing more than a loosely bound band of desperate people before you helped organize it into what it is today. I’m sure it would not have survived this long without you. You are a natural born leader, and I had hoped to see the day when you would lead our people, from home-world, from the Royal Palace, as you should. But what I want is not important. Our cause is what’s important. You, our Queen. Regaining our way of life. Being free of oppression. Those things are important. You must continue, not for me, but for our people. Never give up.”