That would not be unlike his grandfather,
a tragic accident would befall him making him unable to complete his mission thus turning failure into personal tragedy.
That was quite possible.
But this changed everything.
He recorded a message to return the troops to the fleet and prepare to move out and then went to get a drink.
It was a week’s journey to the planet,
and then they would see. He held guarded optimism that they would find what they were looking for.
It took only half a day to break down the camps and return the men to the ships,
they had done this countless time in world sieges, so they were very efficient at it.
Once all the troop carriers were on board,
the fleet leapt into slip space to its next destination.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTYFOUR
Rude Awakening
The Specter was on course to reach the base within the week;
however,
Blake couldn’t know this he was still sleeping in a semi-coma strapped on a medical bed in the rear of the gunship.
Shira had kept glancing worriedly at him for the first week of the journey since an irate Xera had called them both to medical and explained what had happened to him.
She couldn’t believe he had paired with Morgan, why couldn’t he have waited until they were at the bloody base?
What if something went wrong,
how the hell where they supposed to fix it?
Shira cursed under her breath.
Next, to her, Rom perched up,
“Did you say something?” he asked her.
“No. Well yes, oh hell I don’t know, why couldn’t the captain wait until we got to the base to pull this shit? I mean we aren’t equipped to handle any medical emergencies. It’s not like a human had tried this before, it just seemed, I don’t know, irresponsible.”
She looked at Rom who gazed out the console at slip space as he thought about it.
“The Captain wouldn’t have done it unless he knew it was safe.
For one the man has an incredibly healthy survival instinct and two he is not exactly a plan far ahead kind of guy.”
Shira laughed, he was right the captain was a lot of things all good, but long-term strategist was not his strong suit, he was more fly by the seat of your pants. And of course,
make shit up as you go along,
but so far that had worked for them,
they were alive and headed somewhere safe. So, she couldn’t fault his style, but still, she was worried, what the hell was going on in that brain of his.
Blake sat on the Sofa in his grandmothers living room again,
Morgan sat next to him,
two glasses of Chivas were already poured,
and a good size bowl of his grandmother’s famous crab dip was on the center of the coffee table along with crackers and cut up vegetables.
Blake scooped up a healthy portion of the dip on a piece of celery and popped it in his mouth,
his eyes closed, and he almost shivered with pleasure.
“Man, I have not had that in years, you should try some, it’s amazing,” he said to Morgan.
She nodded her head
“I am okay for now, I wanted to talk, it is almost time to wake you, and I need to prepare you for what you are going to feel.”
She was, as always, a vision of beauty and Blake could not help thinking she knew what she was doing when she chose that digital form.
Morgan looked at Blake, and her eyes narrowed. “Are you listening to me, or are you lost in thought again?” she asked.
“Shit don’t you know, I mean you are stuck in my head” Blake shot back grabbing another helping of the crab dip,
mostly to avoid staring at her.
Morgan shook her head
“I prefer not to scan every thought a being has,
it can be confusing and almost always leads to nothing unless they task me with it.
However, I monitor activities and ensure you have the right knowledge available to you immediately to allow you to complete any task.”
She stated. Blake thought that she knew exactly what was going on in his head at any time,
but she wasn’t going to rise to the bait and Blake didn’t want to force the issue.
“You know I feel very drained,
and it’s hard to concentrate. Is that normal?”
he asked her. Morgan nodded.
“Your brain is still processing the knowledge that was transferred, but because of where it is buried you won’t have direct access to it without me.
Think of me as a librarian. I will feed you knowledge and muscle memory as you need it, but it is actually stored in the unused portion of your mind for easy access should I need to give you that knowledge.”
“So, it’s like a backup that you pull your information from, almost like a data miner from hell,” Blake said, crab dip dripping from his chin. Morgan shook her head
“God, you have abysmal table manners,
but yes, that is essentially correct,
the actual process is much more complicated,
but for now, that should suffice as an explanation. Now onto your awakening, when you wake up, you will feel like you were on an all-night bender, your brain will actually feel heavy,
and your equilibrium will be off.
This will clear up hours within waking.
This is your mind processing the data,
as well as processing me.
Remember your brain is a mixture of chemical and electrical impulses and literally,
a foreign item has been introduced,
so, it needs time to process. I will tell you what to type into the medical droid on the Specter to get you some painkillers,
for the migraine you will have.
As well as a series of vitamins and stimulants to aid in the recovery.
Once we get to the base you will report to Seafu,
he knows your coming and they are prepared for you.” She said looking at him.
Blake nodded
“So, it’s going to be like a killer hangover but will clear up within hours of waking. So, when do I wake? I mean don’t get me wrong,
I love spending time with you here, but I need to make sure everything is good,
and we are on course. I am pretty sure having me unconscious and in my current state is probably making people a bit nervous”.
Morgan thought about it and nodded something to herself
“Well the data has been successfully copied,
and now it’s just processing and storing.
One more day and you will be ready” she said. Blake blew out an exasperated breath,
I mean he liked the good food and the nice comfortable location,
but he was really getting annoyed with just sitting here.
He needed to be with his crew.
he understood she was just looking out for him. Morgan might play it close to the vest at times,
but he didn’t think she would harm him,
it wasn’t based on anything but just a hunch.
A day later Blake awoke with a start scaring the hell out of Xera, Davi, and Kree who were sitting next to the medical pod he resided in playing a game of cards.
Kree just about flew out of his hover chair which was set next to the table allowing him the ability to be on the level to play.
“Holy Shit on a Shingle!” Kree screamed,
and Blake almost laughed.
“I see Rom has passed his affinity for English cursing on.”
And then the migraine slammed into Blake’s head like a freight train.
He almost passed out again the pain was so severe. He reached for the medical console and through blurry vision typed.
The odd thing was he had never used this console before, but his fingers flew over the virtual keyboard on the screen as if he had done it a hund
red times before.
The access to the muscle memory and codes he needed was instantaneous.
He knew Morgan was giving him this information, but it was like, he just knew it.
He was so amazed he nearly forgot about the migraine, well almost,
the medical droid responded instantly its five spidery arms with new hypos pulled from the storage container,
as the large digital eye looked on,
the spidery limbs swiveled jabbing the hypos into Blake’s arm. Within a moment his migraine had subsided, he felt a little light headed but not enough to impair him.
“Mother fucker!” he exclaimed rubbing his head. “Anyone see that damn truck that hit me?”
Xera, Davi, and Kree just sat there gawking for a moment as they processed what they were seeing and then Davi spoke
“Captain, your awake. Oh, thank god, I mean Xera explained you would, but we were all still worried.”
Davi dived at him to hug the big man.
“Davi, if you hug me, I will cut your arms off and shove them so far up your ass you will be able to tickle your own tonsils,”
Blake said pointing the finger at Davi as the other man stopped his charge but the broad smile never leaving his face.
Blake slowly swung his legs from the base of the medical pod and onto the floor,
he raised himself, testing the strength in his legs and immediately plopped back down as the floor turned sideways and threatened to blacken his vision.
“Okay I think we will wait on that,”
he said lying back down and covering his face with both his hands.
“Someone want to tell me what’s going on and where we are at?”
Kree yelled up to the front of the ship to Shira and Rom
“Hey captains awake; anyone know who won the pool?”
Blake uncovered his face as Shira and Rom appeared from the front of the Specter.
“Wait you fuckers had a pool on me?
Seriously this is like the greatest moment in human history and you people are betting like some assholes in Vegas, seriously?”
Blake said shaking his head in disbelief
but a smile crossing his face.
Kree perked up
“Hell yeah Captain, why waste a prime moment to make some credits? I mean we, it is not like you weren’t going to pull through, so that made Davi
out at the start, everyone knew he wouldn’t win.” Blake shot a look at Davi
“You bet on me never waking up, Fucker?”
His hand shot out and punched Davi hard in the chest, then he remembered the gunshot.
“Oh shit, sorry man I didn’t hit the gunshot wound, did I?”
Blake looked pained as Davi opened his shirt,
still smiling, he did that a lot,
though a little creepy it did get endearing after you overlooked the fact, he was batshit crazy.
“Nope Captain the wound is fully healed.” Showing off his chest, where not even a scar could be seen where the high-powered round had punched into the armor covering his chest.
Blake whistled.
“Hot Damn that is some awesome healing. I am guessing the nanites.”
Davi nodded.
“Oh yes they are very resilient, and once they had access to biological material, which the medical pod carries, it was able to rebuild the area where the bullet had damaged some of the soft tissue from the force of the impact.”
Blake nodded and laid back down
“Alright, aside from the whole ‘let’s bet on the Captain and his misery,’ someone update me.” Blake said, covering his face with his hands again to shut out the light, Shira stepped up.
“Captain, we are about a day out of the coordinates that Xera gave us.”
Shira looked over at Rom for a long moment,
Blake uncovered his face,
sensing the hesitation in her voice,
wincing at the light he caught the look and switched his head back and forth between the two. “Okay, what?” He asked, seeing the look and knowing it wasn’t a good one.
Shira sighed.
“Okay, I don’t know a whole lot about slip space Cap, but according to Rom this location can’t exist.” Rom stepped up
“Captain, this location literally is in the middle of slip space. This isn’t a known travel route, and I can honestly say I have never seen anything located within slip space.
It’s an impossibility, if we come out at those coordinates and it is in the middle of nothing,
we are going to be lost,
I have… concerns.” Rom finished,
Blake rubbed his head which was still aching a little from a massive migraine,
but damn those drugs worked.
“The coordinates are correct,
I am not sure how I know but apparently these Ancients or whatever the hell we want to call them created a bubble within slip space.
This allows them to literally create a reality where none existed, its powered by a star.
I don’t know how but I just know it’s there,
so, I am going to have to ask for a little faith.”
Shira and Rom exchanged a look again apparently it had been quite a conversation they had.
“Fuck, what now?” Blake said getting irritated and looking them both over.
“Well…” Shira began, and Rom cut her off.
“We know you just went through a trauma that we don’t quite understand, and I just want to make sure you are you, Captain”
Rom finished leveling a gaze at Blake.
“Really, we are going to have a fucking
‘Sybil moment’?” He said, Shira lowered her gaze finding something very interesting on the floor to stare at.
Rom cocked his head
“Sybil?” he asked.
Blake rubbed his head
“Movie about…. Shit doesn’t matter, the point is, it’s me, yes, it’s also Morgan but it’s all me, it’s hard to explain, but she is more like an inside voice,
not in control, so yes though I have access to her knowledge, she is not running the damn ship.
Now can we move on now or do I need to complete a fucking quiz?”
Blake shot back irritably.
This conversation was now pissing him off.
Rom and Shira looked at each other apparently making a decision
“Just had to check Captain” Rom said.
“Before leaving the Nismel we wiped the drives and blew the reactor,
there is nothing left of the ship for anyone to find, The Specter is in the green and as Shira said we will be on location within the day.” Rom finished “Awesome. Now someone wants to get me my damn clothes”
Blake said looking around,
that’s when everyone realized he was still in a hospital gown that covered, nothing.
Blake heard Xera snicker quietly.
“Don’t you have yarn to play with or some catnip to sniff or something?”
Blake shot at her realizing it had more bite to it than intended.
“Sorry, just feeling lousy,” he said to her.
Xera’s feline eyes glinted humorously.
“I understand Captain, and I take no offense.”
She bowed her head slightly and then returned to what she was doing on the table.
“Listen, I don’t know what to expect when we get there. I mean everything tells me this is a safe place with friends,
but let’s not just assume that.
I want full combat load outs.
I don’t want to take any chances on this. If we get there and no one is shooting at us,
we will reevaluate.” Blake said.
Rom smiled a toothy grin
“There is that paranoia I love so much,
good to have you back, Captain.”
Shira was grinning too.
“One more thing Captain, you might want to look in a mirror as soon as you can,”
Rom said pointing at his face.
&
nbsp; Blake’s stomach sank.
“Please tell me it’s not bad?” Blake said fishing for a mirror in the drawers.
“Not bad… just a little unsettling that’s all”
Rom said in his most diplomatic voice as the others nodded seeming to find other things to look at other than Blake’s face.
He finally found a mirror and stared into it.
His face was the same, it was his eyes that stood out, his once blue eyes were now silver-white giving him an almost ghostly look.
“Oh really, what the shit?” he said in a low voice,
“I look like a fucking cast member from a bad horror flick.” Blake looked up at the team
“You waited until now to tell me about this?”
At least the comments on whether he was him now made sense.
Shit, Blake would have thought the same thing if any of the others had woken up like this.
“Sorry, we thought you knew,” Shira said sheepishly,
“It’s kind of creepy Captain.” She concluded.
Blake looked again at the mirror.
“Yeah, no shit, if I start speaking in tongues someone find a fucking priest,”
Blake said opening and closing his eyes.
“Hello, Vincent Price,” Blake said shaking his head. Then he heard Morgan in the back of his mind
“I apologize, I should have told you there would be changes, but each being is different though the eyes seem to span across all beings of the galaxy,
it’s something in the pairing we aren’t sure why it does that. Otherwise, we would strive to fix it” Morgan whispered to him in his mind.
Blake shot a thought at her which was a visual version of her a few donkeys and a car full of clowns,
Morgan cringed inside his head.
Good, he could still shock her.
“Next time let’s not hold back. Okay?” he shot the thought at her.
She acknowledged and then was gone again. “Alright apparently this is a change that comes with the pairing thing I did with Morgan, that’s all” he assured them.
There was a sigh in the room as whatever stress had built up seemed to ease a little.
Revenant Page 27
