by Jacob Holo
Time Reavers
Jacob Holo
Copyright © 2014 Jacob Holo
All rights reserved.
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Cover Art by Robert Chew
Cover Design by H. P. Holo
Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com
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Also by Jacob Holo
The Dragons of Jupiter
Time Reavers
The Seraphim Revival
Bane of the Dead
Throne of the Dead
Disciple of the Dead
Dedication
To H.P. You made this story possible.
Table of Contents
Also by Jacob Holo
Dedication
Chapter 1: The Tau Guard
Chapter 2: The Kinetic
Chapter 3: Two Secrets
Chapter 4: The Silence Doctrine
Chapter 5: The Hamburger Speech
Chapter 6: The Mantis
Chapter 7: Toothpicks
Chapter 8: Hive Lord
Chapter 9: Borehole
Chapter 10: Train versus Juggernaut
Chapter 11: Watchtower
Chapter 12: Oblivion Boundary
Chapter 13: The Greek Road
Chapter 14: Chronopolis
Chapter 15: Stalkers
Chapter 16: Mantis Mind
Chapter 17: The Original Borehole
Chapter 18: Alpha Juggernaut
Chapter 19: Tau Double-Prime
Chapter 20: Triple-C
Chapter 21: Grounded for Life
Author's Note
About the Author
Chapter 1
The Tau Guard
Everything stopped.
Or rather, everything stopped but her.
Nicole stared at the subway station in wide-eyed terror. The train rumbling into the stop had frozen in front of her. The people hurrying up along the platform stood like statues, some of them suspended in mid-stride. Some of them not touching the ground as they ran to catch the train.
Nicole looked around, heart pounding in her chest. She tried to find Mrs. Woytowich or someone from her class, but no one was there. She was alone.
A middle-aged man in a peaked cap caught her eye. He wore a black sweater over his white shirt and tie. The sweater had a crest on the sleeve that looked a lot like an American police shield. Maybe he was a policeman. It wasn’t her teacher or a classmate, but he was better than nothing.
Nicole weaved her way through the crowd of motionless Russians, trying her best not to touch any of them. When she did, they felt like solid rock. The sensation sent chills down her spine. All of this was so wrong!
Nicole ducked under an elderly man’s pointing arm, and walked over. The policeman was looking down and smiling at a little girl in an obnoxious pink dress. He wore a fake look of concern, as if humoring the girl and her equally pink mother.
But they weren’t moving. No one was moving!
“Excuse me, sir?” Nicole asked. Her voice echoed in the station, the only sound besides the squeaks of her shoes on the polished floor.
Nicole grabbed hold of the policeman and tried shaking him, but he wouldn’t budge. She backed away and brushed against the girl in pink. Her hair was a rigid as steel.
Nothing moved. Nothing made a sound.
No, wait…
Nicole stood perfectly still and listened. She heard something else, a distant but recognizable sound. It was a man’s voice. Someone else was here and he wasn’t frozen! She wasn’t alone!
Tentative relief welled up within Nicole. Someone else was down here with her! She listened hard, barely breathing. The man’s voice sounded close, but with an oddly hollow, almost metallic echo for the cavernous Saint Petersburg subway station. Slowly Nicole walked towards the source, slipping through unmoving pedestrians and rounding a tall column to the subway’s central thoroughfare.
Columns twice as tall as the trains rose up in two rows on either side, supporting a lavishly ornate marble ceiling. Huge wrought-iron chandeliers hung from the roof. It was easily the fanciest subway station she’d ever seen.
Except for this mess, she thought.
Nicole could hardly believe how quickly her mood had changed. She’d been so close to outright panic, but now she was filled with a giddy sense of relief. She wasn’t alone! No matter what kind of strange mess she was in, she didn’t have to face it alone!
Looking around, Nicole again tried to find Amy, her classmates, or Mrs. Woytowich. Amy had clearly said they weren’t leaving until everyone was out of the restrooms.
But now that she thought about it, no one else from class had been in the restroom with her. She hadn’t heard Mrs. Woytowich mention anything about waiting at this stop. It had all been Amy…
Nicole grimaced. She chewed on the inside of her lip.
Again. Amy had tricked her again. The one school trip to a foreign country this year, and Amy was playing her stupid games. Normally, Nicole would be furious, but she just shook her head and kept moving.
She walked down the thoroughfare and maneuvered through the frozen throngs of Russian pedestrians. The man’s voice became louder and more distinct. Whoever he was, he was mumbling under his breath, but most importantly, he was mumbling in English.
Nicole stepped around a column, squeezed sideways through the press of people, and finally caught sight of him.
The man looked a few years older than her, probably just starting college. He wore a beat-up black trench coat, thick oval glasses and had a crop of black, untidy hair. He stared intensely at his open notepad with a pencil stuck behind an ear.
The man grabbed the pencil, and jotted down a few notes.
“Hey!” Nicole shouted, smiling and waving her arms. She ran towards him. “Hey!”
The man looked up.
Nicole stopped in front of him with a huge smile. She couldn’t help it. She was so relieved to find someone else.
“Well, this is a pleasant surprise,” he said. “I was starting to get worried. There’s got to be at least one reaver in here with us. I certainly didn’t trigger the tau freeze. It’s probably a big one too. Maybe up to class six if my math is right. Umm, are you okay?”
Nicole stared blankly. He lowered the notepad and Nicole got a good look at it. His scribbles reminded her of algebra class, only a lot more complicated.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” He flipped his notepad closed and placed it in his trench coat. Nicole caught a glimpse of the coat’s interior. It was all pockets and pouches, some holding what looked like knives. She took a step back. Her chest tightened with renewed anxiety.
The man reached into another pocket and retrieved a small dog-eared paperback, its cover creased from storage in the coat. Dozens of pages had little colored sticky tabs attached with tiny notes scribbled in pencil. The title read: Basic Russian Phrases for Idiots.
The man flipped the book open to the front and cleared his throat.
“Izvinite. Menja zovut Daniel. Umm, let me see here… Kak vas zovut?”
He looked up expectantly.
Nicole shook her head. She w
anted to say something, but the words caught in her throat.
“Huh… I’m pretty sure I’m pronouncing it right.” He flipped to the back of the book and cleared his throat again.
“Opasnost! Reaver blizko!”
He looked up.
“What the hell are you saying?” Nicole asked.
“Oh, you speak English!”
“Yes!”
“Oh, wonderful!” he said, putting the phrase book away. “A fellow American by the sound of your accent.”
“Yes!”
“I’m sorry about that,” the man said, extending a hand that Nicole shook limply. “I wasn’t expecting another tau guard, and certainly not another American. My name’s Daniel, by the way. Daniel Cadinsky.”
“Nicole.”
“Nice to meet you, Nicole,” Daniel said. “I certainly wasn’t expecting anyone else in this part of the city. None of Viktor’s tau guards are covering this area, and I just happened to be here when the freeze hit. Lousy luck, having to deal with a freeze in a foreign country. I’d rather be back in New York.”
“Umm, Daniel?” Nicole asked, tugging on his sleeve.
“Yeah?”
“Could you please tell me what’s going on?”
Daniel stared at her for a few seconds. He tilted his head to one side.
“You mean you don’t…”
She shook her head.
“You’ve never…”
She shook her head again.
“So this is the first time that you’ve…”
She nodded emphatically.
“Wow! You mean, you’ve never had any training and—”
“Please-just-tell-me-what’s-going-on!”
“Umm, sure. Oh gee, where to start?” Daniel said, scratching the back of his head. “Well, we’re in the middle of a tau freeze.”
“A what?”
“Err… tau, you know? Tau being the symbol for time? It’s just a fancy way of saying time has stopped.”
“Yes, I noticed that part!”
“What we’re stuck in right now is called tau prime,” Daniel said. “It’s tau, but it’s got a little apostrophe next to it. Are you sure you’ve never had any training?”
“Very sure!”
“Never been to Chronopolis?”
“Where?”
“Not even once?”
“No!”
“Or the Pandemonium College?”
“I don’t go to college yet, but I want to be a veterinarian someday.”
“Umm, that’s nice.”
“Can you please tell me how to get out of this?”
“Well, you can start by not shouting at me,” Daniel said.
“Oh… s-sorry…”
Nicole backed away from him, suddenly embarrassed.
“Look, just take a few deep breaths and calm down, okay?”
“Okay. Sorry.”
“Don’t mention it. Everyone gets freaked out their first time. I was personally hysterical for weeks afterwards. I couldn’t look at a clock without having a panic attack. Compared to me, you’re doing great.”
“Th-thanks.”
Daniel put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and for some reason, that made her feel a lot better. No matter what kind of mess she was in or how incomprehensible the situation was, she’d found someone who knew what he was doing.
“Hey, you hungry?” he asked.
“What?”
“Freezes can last a while,” Daniel said, looking around. “It’s easy to lose track of how long, so eat whenever you’re hungry, you know? Ah! Here we are!”
Nicole followed Daniel through the unmoving crowd queuing for the next train.
“So, how long do freezes last?” she asked.
“Oh, it varies. I’m not really sure most of the time. I could never get my watch to work during a freeze, you know? Most sparkies can get simple stuff like a watch to work, but what’s the point when you have reavers to worry about?”
“What?”
“Personally, the longest freeze I was stuck in lasted about five days, give or take a day. I spent the whole freeze over the Atlantic in a plane, and man, it was horrible! The reaver was actually hiding in one of the engines and I had to climb out onto the wing to get it! Second worst experience of my life.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah! Lunch!” Daniel said, stopping next to a fat, bald man with a greasy McDonald’s bag. Daniel struggled to peel the man’s finger’s back and open the bag. It took a lot of effort. His face reddened with exertion, and he triumphantly said: “Yes! A Big Mac.”
“You’re going to take this man’s food?”
“There’s a cherry pie in here too. You want it?”
“No thanks.”
“Your loss,” Daniel said. He reached in and pulled out the Big Mac. The bag snapped shut as soon as he let go, almost catching his fingers. He smiled, opened the carton, and took a hungry bite out of the Big Mac, which was weird because it wasn’t stone hard anymore.
“That’s theft,” Nicole said.
Daniel frowned at her as he chewed.
“You stole his Big Mac,” she said.
He swallowed. “Umm… it’s better if you think of it as a tax. For performing a public service.”
“Which is?”
“Killing reavers, of course.”
“What’s a reaver?”
“Which reminds me,” Daniel said, pulling his notepad out and flipping it open one-handed. “Yeah, it’s a big one. Five point eight on the Novikov scale, you see?”
Nicole shook her head. The scribbles on the notepad were just so much gibberish. Even if she had known what the symbols meant, his handwriting was barely legible.
“At least, I think I figured it out right,” Daniel said. “Wish I could use a calculator during a tau freeze, but oh well. Say, do you have a watch?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it still working?”
Nicole pulled back her jacket sleeve. “Umm, no.”
“Hmm. You’re probably not a sparky then,” Daniel said. “Hey, here’s an idea.” He switched the Big Mac and pad to one hand, and held the burger carton up in the other.
“Try setting this on fire,” he said.
“But I don’t smoke,” Nicole said. For emphasis, she patted her pockets for the absent lighter. Amy would probably have one, trying to seem cooler than she really was.
“No, not like that,” Daniel said. “With your mind.”
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?”
“Not sure really. I’m not a pyro. I think a lot of them can’t control it at first and end up setting themselves on fire. It can get messy.”
“Well, I haven’t set myself on fire yet.”
“Yeah, good point,” Daniel said, dropping the carton. It stopped a foot off the ground, shuddered in mid air, and launched itself across the train station like a guided missile.
“Did it just…?”
“Go back into the man’s carryout bag? Yeah. Temporal reset.”
“But isn’t he going to think it’s weird that his Big Mac isn’t there?”
“Nah. He’ll just think they botched his order.”
“If you say so.”
“So you’re not a sparky and you’re probably not a pyro,” Daniel said, walking down the station’s main thoroughfare.
Nicole spotted a young woman in black waiting on the platform. She had conspicuously dyed black hair, black makeup and numerous ear, eyebrow, and nose piercings.
“Hey, Daniel?”
“Yeah?”
“This freeze thing. It’s not dangerous, is it? My friends will be okay, right?”
“Friends? Where?”
“I was expecting our class to be waiting by the platform.”
Daniel spun so fast he blurred. His trench coat whipped around him. Nicole wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her.
“They’re not th
ere,” Nicole said. “I already looked.”
“What do they look like?”
“I don’t know. Like a mob of thirty teenagers following a woman around who dresses ten years younger than she is and tries really hard to be our friend.”
“Is she cute?”
“What?”
“Your teacher. Is she cute?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Daniel shrugged. “I don’t know. It might be important.”
“Well, I have no idea. Some of the boys in class seem to think so, but they’re a bunch of idiots.”
“Hmm. No, I can’t say I’ve seen her.”
Nicole pointed at the Russian goth. “What about her? My…” Nicole sighed. “Friend is dressed like this.”
Daniel walked over to the goth. He looked her up and down.
“This is what your friend looks like?”
“Sort of.”
Daniel did a double-take of the Russian goth and Nicole. “How did you end up friends with someone like this?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Nothing. I just thought… We are talking about the same person, right?”
Nicole sighed.
In truth, she was used to the reaction given the contrast between Amy and her. Compared to Amy’s aggressively gothic styles, Nicole wore her black Mass Effect hoodie, a well-worn Aperture Science tank top, blue jeans, and her favorite pair of running shoes. She kept her brunette hair short, almost boyish, and wouldn’t be caught dead wearing make-up or jewelry.
“She’s not even my friend, really,” Nicole said. “She’s my sister. Sort of.”
“Oh, well that does make a little more sense,” Daniel said. “You can’t choose your family. What did you mean by ‘sort of’?”
“None of your business.”
Daniel shrugged. He looked like he didn’t care about the answer at all, which somehow annoyed Nicole more than if he’d pressed for an answer.
“So my classmates are okay, right?” Nicole asked. She hesitated before adding: “And my sister?”
“Oh, yeah. They’re fine. In fact they’re safer than us right now. You can slap them or punch them or hit them in the head with a crowbar and they won’t feel a thing.”
