The Shadow Connection

by Adair Hart

  With a full stomach, he stretched out on the bed. Robert and Jake had shown him and Emily the cafeteria, and using something they called a level-two replicator, they had a good dinner. The base was high-tech, even in the cafeteria, and it had no shortage of amenities. He noticed that Emily had not eaten much, but it made sense when she asked Jake to show her the gym after going to her room.

  A knock rang out.

  “Who is it?” asked Dr. Snowden.

  “Robert.”

  “Come in.” Dr. Snowden crawled out of bed and stood.

  “Hope I’m not bothering you,” said Robert, opening the door.

  “Not at all.” Dr. Snowden noticed Robert still had on his suit. “I was just enjoying the room.”

  “I know the beds aren’t the most comfortable, but compared to what I had, they’re a dream,” said Robert.

  Dr. Snowden smiled and gestured toward the living room. He took a seat and eased back.

  Robert entered and sat perpendicular to Dr. Snowden.

  “So … you live here full-time?” asked Dr. Snowden.

  “I do now. After Jake was abducted, I lived in a small apartment in East Denver. Compared to that, this place has everything. Any food or drink or clothing, access to any place the scout ship can go, and all sorts of technology to play and learn with.”

  “That does sound good. I have a similar setup with the Torvatta, except, well, it’s missing.”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” said Robert. “If anything, Evaran is persistent, and he’ll find it.”

  Dr. Snowden eyed Robert. “Evaran told us about what happened with you and Jake. That must have been a surprise for Evaran to show up on your doorstep with Jake.”

  “Surprise would be an understatement,” said Robert, cracking his neck. “My life has only gotten better since Evaran entered it, except for the brief stint at this base when Greecho captured us.”

  “Understandable.”

  “Now I get to spend time with Jake, flying around with him, seeing sights I never thought possible, and not having to worry about a job. Even the health care here is top-notch.”

  Dr. Snowden could see from Robert’s perspective how life changing it was to be here. “How has Jake adjusted to all of this? It must be a culture shock for him to live here now.”

  “It is … but he has Kathy to help him. I try to help him too, but I’m getting up there in years,” said Robert. His eyes misted. “I’m just glad to have a chance to do this with him.”

  Dr. Snowden licked his lips. “Coming to a base of vampires didn’t bother you?”

  “Not at all. They’re actually not what I expected. They have honor, and the way the media portrays them doesn’t do them justice. I mean … sure, they do drink blood and can be violent from what I’ve studied, but for the most part, they keep to themselves, which is not as easy as it sounds from what I understand of nonhuman politics.”

  “I hear that. We actually traveled back in time and met Lord Noskov when he was in Lake Baikal in Russia,” said Dr. Snowden. “Evaran and Lord Noskov fought. Evaran won of course. I remember watching it and thinking that I was surrounded by hundreds of bone-clad killers. They even had someone there that they were going to eat, or maybe drink.”

  “I’ve heard some of those stories. Lord Noskov might have … embellished them a bit.”

  Dr. Snowden cleared his throat. “So do you have an official title here or anything?”

  Robert shook his head. “None. Well … maybe just resident.”

  “Nothing wrong with that. I could see how nice it would be to live here. I’m looking forward to checking out the landing pads at night.”

  “Oh … you’ll love it,” said Robert with a grin. “Nothing like the crisp mountain air, the noises of the mountainside, and moonlight to ease your mind. I’ve been out there quite a few times.”

  “Sounds great.”

  Robert furrowed his eyebrows. “So what about you? I understand you were saved from an alien abduction by Evaran and then traveled with him. I bet you have a lot of stories.”

  Dr. Snowden smiled. He could see that Robert was excited to have someone closer to his age to talk to, even if Robert was older. “I do but … I’m not sure I can talk too much about specifics.”

  “I understand,” said Robert. “Since you’re a time traveler, there could be consequences. I don’t mean to pry, it’s just that … when I learned Evaran was a time traveler, on top of being able to fly around everywhere, my mind exploded with ideas. Where has he gone? What did he see? I guess seeing humans travel with him, my curiosity got the best of me.”

  “Well … I can say that I’ve been outside of the solar system, and even … the universe.”

  “The universe!” said Robert with widened eyes.

  “It’s a lot crazier than you might think. I’ve also been to the past and the future.”

  Robert ran a hand over his mouth. “That’s incredible. I’ve wondered what it would be like to travel with Evaran for some time now. I mean … I got to see the portal thing when we went to see Jells. It’s hard to believe there is so much out there.”

  “Oh, yeah,” said Dr. Snowden with a smile. He enjoyed seeing Robert’s enthusiasm and knew that if he had never traveled with Evaran and had access to someone who had, he would be in the same place as Robert. “It’s had its ups and downs, of course. Although Emily and I have had some rough experiences, she got the harder end of that.”

  Robert furrowed his eyebrows. “I’m … I’m sorry to hear that. Family is important.”

  “Yeah,” said Dr. Snowden.

  “I sensed she is a lot tougher than she might appear.”

  “That’s one way of putting it. She trains day and night, just in case.”

  Robert grinned. “I suspect she and Jake will get along fine. He brings so much energy around here.”

  “Emily does too wherever she goes. Then again, she has nanobots inside her, and I do too.”

  “I heard that, but wasn’t sure I fully understood. So you have … what? Small robots inside of you and they enhance you somehow?”

  “Yeah, and they keep me healthy, among other things.”

  Robert circled a finger at Dr. Snowden. “You have your own built-in health-care system.”

  “I guess I do,” said Dr. Snowden. He enjoyed talking with Robert. Although Dr. Snowden had patched things up with Dr. Bryson, Dr. Snowden had to watch what he said. He had to do that with Robert as well, but it was only the details. At a high level, Dr. Snowden had more freedom in what he could say.

  His muscles had relaxed, and talking with Robert was like talking with an old friend. Dr. Snowden suspected they were kindred spirits. He was younger than Robert, but they both had a younger relative they traveled with. Dr. Snowden wagged a finger at Robert. “Although I can’t say much about things, I think I can tell you more about our first encounter with Lord Noskov, outside of the fight of course.”

  Robert scooted to the edge of his chair.

  Dr. Snowden smiled as he began to talk.

  Emily surveyed the gym with Jake. She had enjoyed her meal, and although she was a little tired, Jake’s energy to show her around was infectious. She enjoyed the excitement. The gym was small compared to the Torvatta’s holo room. She also noticed that it was not a holo room, where anything could be created.

  Jake gestured outward in an arc. “This is the gym. It’s not much, but you can get in a good workout.”

  She missed the big combat scenarios she could draw up on the holo room. The gym had an unusual odor, something the holo room could eliminate. “Looks good. You come here a lot?”

  “Yeah. Every morning, and some nights.”

  “Ahh. Work off excess energy,” said Emily.

  “I won’t lie,” said Jake. “As cool as it is being here, sometimes it’s boring. The gym helps pass the time.”

  She tilted her head. “You don’t go flying around and checking things out?”

  “I do … well … me and Dad
do. I also visit my girlfriend Kathy at college when I can, but sometimes I just want to be alone when exploring, you know?”

  “I do, actually. Although it seems doing that where I’ve been is dangerous,” she said.

  “I bet. Traveling with Evaran must be so mind-blowing.”

  She looked down. “It is, but … there have been some rough times too. People dying, getting hurt, and hard-to-escape situations.”

  His eyes widened. “Sounds rough.”

  “Yeah.”

  Jake licked his lips. “You said you have nanobots inside you?”

  “Yep.”

  “What do they do?”

  Emily smiled. “They make me stronger, faster, and think better. They also heal me, can calm me down, and even boost me for a short while. I’ve given ’em a good workout.”

  “Stronger? Like … how much?”

  She gestured at a punching bag in the corner and walked over to it. She adopted an offensive stance, then struck the bag with a series of blows. On her last hit, the bag went flying off the stand it was holstered to.

  “Holy crap!”

  She laughed. “Yeah, that bag stood no chance.”

  “I wish I had some nanobots.”

  She eyed him as she picked up the bag and holstered it. “I heard you had a rough past. Evaran filled us in on what happened. Ironically, we were in the year 3104 about seven hundred forty light-years away from Earth, eating in a Crustican restaurant called Krells.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” said Emily.

  “That’s awesome. I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anyone, but I was lucky compared to … others that went to different places,” said Jake, looking down.

  “Your mom.”

  He nodded. “It’s in the past, though. Look to the future. Or I guess in your case, just travel to it.”

  They shared a laugh.

  She looked around. “So … what else on this base is worth looking at?”

  Jake lit up. “Oh, there’s a lot. One thing Greecho was all about was comfort, so there’s a lot of that here.” He waved toward the gym exit. “C’mon.”

  She followed Jake for the next several hours throughout the base. It had a wide variety of rooms with varying functions, and even Jake did not know what all of them did. One room that stuck out to her was the flight training room. It only had a chair and a workstation in the middle of the room, and the environment would change for whatever scenario was running. She likened it to a fancy flight simulator.

  They ended up in the command center where Evaran and Mikhail were discussing a hologram that hovered over an octagonal table in the back of the room. The command center was larger than she expected. The front of the room had multiple screens, a large one in the center flanked by smaller ones. Various workstations dotted the area in front of it. Several hallways led off to destinations unknown, and there was even an area for food and drink.

  Evaran waved them over.

  Mikhail smiled, baring his fangs, when they were at the edge of the table. He focused on Emily. “Jake showing you the base?”

  “Yeah. It’s pretty big.”

  “Yes, it is. It took me a while to learn where everything is, and even longer to know how everything worked. I’m glad we got Jake to help us figure out half this stuff.”

  Jake grinned. “Ahh, it’s nothing. This technology is actually a bit primitive compared to what’s out there.”

  “Perhaps so,” said Evaran, “but it is still better than most technology that resides on Earth.” He tilted his head at Emily. “Hopefully we will not be here long, but if we are, then this is a good place to be.”

  “Does Lord Vygon have a base like this?” asked Emily.

  “He does, but it’s much smaller,” said Mikhail. “When he sleeps, he shuts it down and turns on the automated defenses. He then sleeps under Ollikrin Nation protection at one of their bases and keeps his crew there too. He doesn’t have numbers like the other ancient vampires, and the base would blow up if it was ever seriously breached. I think of it more as a temporary base. Lord Noskov prefers to stay here, with us protecting him. I prefer that too, nothing against the Ollikrin Nation of course.”

  “Huh,” said Emily. “I remember the Ollikrin Nation. Outsider group.” In her experience with the Ollikrin Nation, they were made up mostly of shifters of all types.

  “That’s right,” said Mikhail. “Out of all the ancient vampires, only Lord Noskov keeps everyone at the base when he sleeps. It helps having an advanced base to begin with.”

  “Cool.” Emily pointed at the hologram. “So … what’s this?”

  “I am mapping various points and incidents over the last few years,” said Evaran.

  “Oh. Find anything?”

  “I have. However, before I discuss it, I still need to verify everything.”

  Jake peeked at a device on his wrist. “It’s going to be sundown soon. We should head outside if we want to catch it.”

  “I will join you for a bit,” said Evaran.

  Emily grabbed her PSD and contacted Dr. Snowden. “Uncle Albert, we’re headed outside.”

  “That works for me. Robert and I will meet you there,” said Dr. Snowden.

  She closed her PSD and nodded at Jake. “Let’s watch a sundown.”

  The next morning at 9:00 a.m., Dr. Snowden sipped his coffee as he surveyed the command center. Everyone had taken a seat around the octagonal table in the back. He had enjoyed the previous night outside on the landing pads. They spent it on the side section he had seen when they first arrived at the base. Sitting on heated seats and watching the sunset was an experience he thoroughly enjoyed. Jake had lit a fire after the sun went down, and they observed the stars while staying up a bit and talking. Dr. Snowden did not want it to end.

  Getting to sleep was not as hard as he thought it would be. He slept through the night and, in the morning, enjoyed a warm breakfast in the cafeteria with Robert, Emily, V, and Jake. The excitement of new visitors was obvious. Jake and Robert were all smiles, and V seemed eager to try out some humor with them. After breakfast, everyone had gathered in the command center per Evaran’s request.

  Dr. Snowden noticed that Evaran seemed troubled. Although the subtle facial motions would not be easily detectable by others, Dr. Snowden knew what to look for.

  Evaran tapped at the console on the table, causing a projection of Earth to appear with red dots on it. “I am glad everyone is here. Hopefully you enjoyed last night and got some rest.”

  “I sure did,” said Dr. Snowden. “I think next time I’ll take a cup of hot cocoa out with me.”

  Emily smiled. “Me too.”

  “I will join you next time for the whole outing,” said Evaran with a smile. He gestured at the projection. “I have done a lot of research with Mikhail and V. The red dots you are seeing are incidents involving nonhumans. These are special in that they were all committed by a mixed group of nonhumans, the majority of them Wildborn. They also have sightings of dragon-like humanoids. That is unusual.”

  “To say the least,” said Mikhail. “Some of these Wildborn are very powerful, and these dragon thugs, no one has seen them before. How they’re moving around in broad daylight is also a mystery.”

  “We ran into two Wildborn outside a Raskarian vampire club in Columbus. They did not fare well.”

  Jake grinned. “They’ve probably never encountered someone like you before.”

  “They had not,” said Evaran. “However, they knew who I was, and attempted to kill Dr. Snowden and Emily. I cross-referenced the two we met with other nonhumans, and it appears they run in a loose group numbering seven.”

  Mikhail raised a finger. “The recent split in the Helian authority plays a part in this.”

  “That is correct,” said Evaran. “There is a lot of evidence that links one faction of the Helians with these Wildborn and dragon-like humanoids. However, their exact relationship is unknown.”

  Dr. Snowden rubbed his chin. “So … where d
o we start then?”

  Jake tilted his head. “If it were up to me, I’d talk to the other faction of Helians. They’re bound to know something about all this.”

  Evaran nodded at Jake. “You are wise. That should be our first step. The Helians lost Atlantis a long time ago and now maintain secret bases through the world. The one nearest to us is farther up in the Appalachian Mountains.” He interacted with the table, causing a red dot to show. “There.”

  “Well, you’re gonna need a ship and a pilot, so count me in,” said Jake.

  “Me too,” said Robert.

  Mikhail looked down. “I want to go with you and help, but I must stay at the base while Lord Noskov sleeps.”

  “There are others that can monitor things,” said Jake. “It should be secure if—”

  “All right!” said Mikhail. “I can’t go because of what those damned Helians did to Blake Brown. I’m not sure I could control myself around Helians.”

  Dr. Snowden furrowed his eyebrows. “Blake Brown?”

  Mikhail paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. “He was my mentor, and one of the oldest surviving members of Lord Noskov’s inner council. He killed a rogue Helian enforcer, known as a manager. Instead of resolving it with Lord Noskov, they waited until he slept and then captured and exiled Blake from Earth by handing him over to galactic slavers. The Helians initially denied it, but the truth did come out.”

  “Oh, wow,” said Dr. Snowden. “Knowing Lord Noskov, I bet he didn’t take that sitting down.”

  “He didn’t, and neither did I,” said Mikhail, baring his fangs for a moment. “He kept the peace by not starting a war but told the Helians that if there was even one incident between them and us, it would be a full-on engagement to the death.”

  Dr. Snowden wagged a finger. “Well … if this Blake guy was exiled, and assuming he escaped the slavers, then he would go to Fredoria.”

  Mikhail shrugged. “Lord Noskov seems to think that too. He said that now that the Kreagans are involved, if Blake ever came back, they would send hunters, and it could escalate very quickly. Lord Noskov let the situation be what it was.”