The Awakening (The Hyperscape Project Book 1)

by Donald Swan

  “Okay then.” Arya released the breath she’d been holding then quickly checked the ship’s systems. “If anyone was nearby, that would have got their attention. I think we should get moving. Better hang on.”

  Without wasting any time, she fired up the ship’s engines. A gust of dirt-laden wind blew down the tunnel as the engines came to life.

  “Well, it still works,” Nick said.

  The ship rumbled and creaked as it lurched forward. “We’re moving!” Arya exclaimed.

  Nick’s legs felt like rubber bands wiggling around from the earthquake-like vibrations of the ship’s hull. He reached for the nearest chair and plopped his butt into it. Through the window, he could see the opening of the tunnel getting closer as they slowly roared forward. Daylight washed the cockpit in a warm, bright glow. Nick was glad to see the light of day again. He’d had enough of this damn tunnel.

  He held his breath as the cockpit gradually cleared the opening. The sheer drop of a thousand feet had him digging his nails into the bottom of the seat. He’d never had a problem soaring in a ship, but hanging off the edge of a cliff was a whole other story.

  The nose of the ship peeked over the edge of the crevasse as the ship squeaked its way out of the hole in the cliff face. Nick grabbed the chair harder as the freighter jerked and lurched. In a pulse raising moment, the ship wobbled, dangling over the valley below, then stabilized. The ship had finally cleared the tunnel and was free. Arya pulled the nose of the freighter up as she maneuvered away from the cliff.

  “Damn am I glad you’re a good pilot!” Nick crowed. He let out a whoop of relief, startling Karg with the force of his yell.

  Mist rushed past the cockpit windows as the craft began to climb. Even with the ship’s inertial dampeners, the acceleration forced Nick’s head back into the headrest. For a freighter, it sure had power.

  It wasn’t long before the ship pierced the veil of thick atmosphere and they could see the deep black of space in front of them.

  Arya punched her com-badge. “Arya to Sirok. We’re on our way back.”

  “I can see that. What are you doing on a freighter?” Sirok sounded puzzled.

  “Long story. Prepare the docking bay.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Sirok responded.

  Nick stared at the stars beyond the window of the freighter as it roared toward its rendezvous with the Ashok. “Space. It’s beautiful, cold, violent, full of wonder….and unbelievably large.”

  Arya glanced up at him. “Feeling nostalgic?”

  “Feeling happy to be alive.”

  Arya frowned at the serious note in Nick’s voice. She could tell he was feeling homesick, missing his planet, his people. The knowledge made her feel anxious inside. Nick had become a part of her crew, a part of her, and she had hoped he felt a part of her world. Minus all the war and the chaos. Perhaps that was why he still had trouble fitting in. Too much pain in such a short time.

  She didn’t know what to say to make him feel better, so she simply turned back to the console and the business of flying the freighter back to the Ashok.

  “It won’t be long now,” she murmured.

  Nick’s weary sigh lay heavy in her heart. She caught Karg’s eyes on her, briefly held his gaze then looked back out the window. The big lug knew what Nick meant to her. Hetek, the whole crew probably knew.

  She would think about all that later, though. Right now, she just wanted to get home. In many ways, she could understand Nick’s pining for his home-world. She also missed her planet, and longed for peace for her people. It had been a long time since she’d known anything other than war and suffering. She wanted that to change. She wanted….

  She glanced back at Nick. Perhaps she wanted too much.

  Nick stepped from the ore freighter and then turned to take a look. The ship filled the Ashok’s hangar. Even the force-field had been moved back toward the outer door to accommodate the vessel’s large size.

  A maintenance bot whizzed past him, carrying the case containing the hyperspace probe. Nick hollered after it. “Hey, be careful with that. Take it to the lab.”

  The bot continued on its path, a computerized voice responding as it headed for the door. “Affirmative.”

  “Damn bots. If it so much as puts a scratch on it, I’ll—”

  “What? Fist fight with it?” Arya grinned, one brow raised as she passed. “Males.” She shook her head and walked on.

  Hours later, after the crew had settled in, Nick found Arya in the cargo hold of the ore freighter, her nose in one of the ancient Arisian manuscripts. She looked up when she heard the door.

  “Nick, you wouldn’t believe all the wondrous things I have discovered.”

  She frowned as he drew closer. “You don’t look nearly as happy as I do. What’s wrong?”

  “I just finished repairing the data drive on the probe, as best as possible, anyway. There are still some damaged sectors….” He sighed heavily. “Anyway, I found this.”

  Nick activated his PDU and played back a message he had found on the probe. It was another human’s voice, and by the sound of it, he was in obvious distress. “Mayday, mayday, mayday, I’m caught in some sort of gravity well. I recovered the probe. Repeat. I recovered the probe, but am hopelessly lost inside a gravity well. Serenity, do you read? Mayday.” After a few seconds of crackly silence, the voice continued. “I hope that the probe will record this message. There is no chance of escape for me. Even if I can open a window, I’ll never make it through, but hopefully the probe will. I’m going to attempt to release the probe at the precise time to allow it to be thrown into the open hyperspace window. Please tell my wife…Becky…. Becky, I love you. I’m sorry.” There was a long pause then he began to speak again. “Opening hyperspace window now. Have to time it just right…. Releasing probe. I—” The recording went silent.

  Nick stared down at the floor. “That was my best friend, John. He knew the only thing left for him to do was save the probe. Dammit! It’s my fault. If it wasn’t for me launching that probe, he’d be alive right now!”

  Nick glanced at Arya. Her ears were folded back, a reflex from the loud sound of his outburst. He realized he had scared her when he shouted ‘dammit’. “I’m sorry.”

  Arya’s ears slowly picked back up. “It’s not your fault.” She got up from the table and came to stand in front of him. After a pause, she laid her head on his shoulder. “You had no choice. You had to protect your planet and your people. You had no way of knowing that would happen.”

  Nick sighed and wrapped his arms around her slender body. “Yeah, I know. But somehow that just doesn’t seem to help. Becky didn’t want John to join the program in the first place, especially with a baby on the way. Now she may never know what happened to him. I saw what my mom went through when my dad was missing in action. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

  “It was his choice. Respect that and remember him well,” Arya said. “Someday you’ll be able to tell your people about his bravery. Without him, you wouldn’t have the probe, and the Arisians would have one less prophecy.” She fell silent for a long moment, her cheek resting against his strong shoulder as she listened to his steady heartbeat.

  “Did you find out anything else?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  Arya took his hand and led him over to an antique couch of sorts that had been stored in the archives. “Sit and tell me about it.”

  Nick sat down and leaned back. Arya tucked herself close and once again rested her head on his shoulder.

  Nick gazed down at the top of Arya’s head. “Well…the data I retrieved from the probe gave me an idea. Do you remember the covert hyperspace communication network Karg told you about?”

  “Yes.”

  “I figure we could set up a series of hyperspace transmitters at different locations. We could not only use those transmitters for communication, but if they each sent out an encoded carrier wave, we could also use them to triangulate our position in hyperspace. That way, we can n
avigate through hyperspace and be able to calculate jump points.”

  “Jump points?”

  “That’s what I’m calling them. A place to open a window and make the jump into and out of hyperspace. Jump points. With the transmitter beacons, we would know where we were in hyperspace at all times. We could then know where to initiate a jump point back into normal space. At least, as long as we stayed within the network of transmitters. It’s like the VOR or GPS systems we use back home. Hyperspace amplifies the signals, so it should work over vast distances. I even think we can power the units using the energy from within hyperspace. Humans have speculated about harnessing vacuum energy for centuries, but they never had a glimpse into the actual workings of hyperspace, like I have.”

  Nick looked down at the top of Arya’s head again. He was getting used to the feel of her leaning against him. And he liked it. He liked it a lot.

  Arya kept her cheek resting against Nick’s shoulder, her long, slender fingers wrapped around his bicep in a position that felt comfortable. “That’s brilliant, Nick. It may be all we need to turn the balance of the war in our favor.”

  He nodded. “Oh I almost forgot. I had another thought. On my planet, during the war, the Resistance fighters would broadcast a radio program every day to let their allies in far flung places know the latest news. They used it mainly to help with the morale of the Resistance fighters that were spread across large areas. Why don’t we do the same thing over the hyperspace network? We can call it The Voice of The Resistance.”

  Arya sat up and looked at Nick with delight. “I love it! It’s exactly what our people need. Who can we get to do the broadcasts?”

  Nick raised his brow and smiled.

  Arya’s eyes widened in surprise. “Me? No, I don’t―”

  “Why not? What better symbol of freedom than the Queen of Aris?”

  Arya pondered Nick’s suggestion for a moment. “You’re right. It’s time I stop hiding and start helping my people. They need to know their Queen is alive.” She stared into Nick’s eyes, her expression filled with gratitude. “Thank you. Today has been such a wonderful day. First the Royal Archives and now this.” She leaned back into the comfort of Nick’s shoulder again and tucked her hand back around his arm.

  Nick knew she could hear the beat of his heart quicken as he reached over and ran his fingers through her thick, shiny green hair. She nuzzled his chest in contentment and made a soft puttering sound. Nick’s eyes opened wider as he looked down at her. She purrs!

  Six months later….

  “This is Queen Arya Nuraku of Aris, and this is V-O-R, the Voice of the Resistance. Yesterday, our forces, led by Admiral Bannon, simultaneously attacked Dragoran and Mok’tu troops across the entire quadrant. Twenty three enemy ships were destroyed in the attacks, including two Mok’tu Planet-Killers and one Dragoran Dreadnought. But despite our new weapon, we still lost two ships, the Coranii Destroyer Sprag and the Rakozian Death-Stalker Armageddon. Their brave sacrifices will not be in vain. We will continue in their honor, and in the honor of the millions who have already fallen victim to the cold hand of our oppressors. We will not stop until every citizen on every world is free from the tyranny of the Dragoran and Mok’tu empires. We do this for our children and our children’s children. We do this so they will never again look up at the heavens in fear. We do this because we must. We do it because it is right. Whoever you are, wherever you are, know this: We stand beside you. We are the Resistance.”

  THE END

  Or is it? Solve the hidden clues in this book to download The Lost Chapter!

  Go to TheHyperscapeProject.com for more info.

  Thank you. I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. Consider giving it a five star review on Amazon: Write Review

  Connect with me on:

  Buy Book Two Here!

  Check Out This Great Science Fiction Book by E.J. Deen:

  KaelJai.com

  Copyright Cassandra Blizzard-LeBedz

  All rights reserved. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including any information and storage retrieval system, is forbidden without the prior written consent of the publisher and author. For information about "fair use," contact the author.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

  Published in the United States of America.

  The people on the streets of New York City were bundled up against a frigid winter. Small drifts of snow lay scattered on store canopies and parked cars, and puffs of mist hung in the air from street grates, building vents, and vendor carts as warm air met bone-chilling temperatures. But the chill in the air didn’t bother him. His internal temperature remained constant in most weather conditions. His luminous green gaze scanned the crowd of people as he walked along the busy sidewalk, his black leather coat open, revealing the white t-shirt beneath. Snug blue jeans and a simple pair of black leather boots completed his wardrobe. He wasn’t even wearing a warm winter hat, unlike the people flowing past him on the city sidewalk. He wasn’t focused on them at the moment. Anxiety churned in his stomach, a dread that had plagued him since he’d been dumped on this planet. It was worse this morning. The sense that something was wrong made him jumpy and hyper-vigilant. He was supposed to be safe in New York, but he knew he wasn’t. He would never really be safe, and he would never be able to shake the anxiety and the sense of dread that plagued him. Not until he died or he killed Jindom. That was his ugly reality. The truth he carried with him while he pretended to have another life far away from his home. His real home.

  He could handle having been cast out of his home, but he couldn’t handle the fear of what had happened to his province since, or the thought of what would happen to these people of earth when Jindom finally came to kill him. He’d been thrown to earth through a portal, abandoned to fend for himself, alone and alienated from his people. Alienated. Alien. That’s what he was considered in this world. An alien. An unknown. It was hard to think of himself as alien, or even different. But to these people on this planet, he was an anomaly, something to be feared, perhaps even dissected. The thought made him grimace.

  It had been nearly a full year. He’d managed to survive, keeping to himself mostly, and interacting with humans only when it was necessary. Money hadn’t been a problem. Their technology was still limited and full of weaknesses. Hacking had become a must for him in this new society, and he’d siphoned enough money from a few billionaire bank accounts to keep himself comfortable and out of reach.

  He looked human, for the most part, although there were some noticeable differences. His body metabolized food differently. He could conserve energy for long periods of time, build it, store it, and manipulate it. He could literally draw energy from nearly any source, including the atmosphere around him. His body was designed to sustain itself on multiple levels, through food, water, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and from sapping energy from everything that gave off energy.

  His eyes were different. If one looked closely enough, they could see subtle differences in his irises and pupils. His pupils narrowed in a horizontal, elliptical pattern at certain times. He had night vision and could see as well in the dark as he could in the light. He could smell better than any earth dog, and could hear several different ranges beyond human hearing. He had no sweat glands, his testicles were internal instead of external, he had slight webbing between his toes, and his fingernails were strong enough to be used as daggers if he let them grow. He didn’t. Let them grow. He was trying to fit in not stand out.


  Oh. And then there was that other difference. He had a retractable barb on the underside of his left wrist, complete with a venom sac that held enough venom to kill at least a dozen grown men in less than ten seconds. The barb was not something he flung around at whim. Instead, he only used it in extreme cases. It took three days to grow another one back.

  He was tall, lean but muscular, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His skin was pale, ageless, although by earth standards he would be somewhere in his thirties. He kept his blue-black hair cut close on the sides, leaving a wavy mass atop his head. His bright green eyes glimmered as if lit from within. For the most part, he looked like a male model. Between his looks and his six foot five inch height, he turned heads, which was why he tried so hard to be anonymous and unseen.

  He was a bit psychic. He knew when someone was lying. He could smell it on them before the words left their lips. These were all normal features on his home planet. But here…on earth…these senses were considered heightened, superhuman, almost supernatural.

  He was called Kael. It was an easy name for humans to remember, as it sounded similar to their familiar male name Kyle.