The Awakening: Imortum

by JK Stone

  Jason could feel that there was more to Justin’s tale and gestured for him to continue.

  “The next day I was taken to one of the sublevel interrogation rooms in the Pentagon, where I spent the next few weeks being not so pleasantly questioned. I was repeatedly ordered to explain how I knew this code and who sent it. I couldn’t explain it. I never said it was the language we three spoke to each other.

  “Somehow I felt like if I did, something very bad would happen to us, so I kept my mouth shut. They knew I had a knack for languages and in the end, they must have just figured I was a savant or something.

  “I was tested over and over with codes and languages, and a week later I was transferred to Goodfellow Air Force Base, where I was fast-tracked through crypto training then shipped to the Aleutian chain, and I was under constant watch. I was stuck in a box there, deciphering signals and codes for the rest of my tour.”

  Justin gave an exaggerated shudder and continued. “Needless to say, I was more than happy when my hitch was up. They tried their damnedest to keep me in the service though. At one point they told me I had to wait until a sensitive piece of information I knew was no longer a threat to national security. I reminded them that I knew if I were to reveal any information deemed top secret or SCI, I would be subject to prosecution for treason, and since it was war-time I could be executed for treason. They made me sign nondisclosure for several things I had witnessed, and in the end, they relented and I got the hell out of Dodge. I’ve never said a word about it until just now for fear they would have me whacked.

  “I suspected that might be you over there, and wanted to ask you, but with the surveillance I knew our government was performing on our own citizens, not to mention the times I knew I was being surveilled, I didn’t dare ask. When you asked if there was a reason our government would want us dead, that was just one of the memories that came to mind. But this is the first I’ve spoken of it.”

  Jason was stunned. What were the odds that all three brothers would have a role to play at the time the Imortum came to help him? “I think Inola has been guiding and helping us along our paths, even though we haven’t seen her since we were nine years old. I heard her voice during the first attack on this ship. She said it was my awakening. I don’t know what I was Awakening from or for, but I think we’re all needed for something and Inola has been playing us like a two-bit piccolo to get us here ever since we were little.

  “I’m beginning to see possibilities but nothing is certain. And as for our government being the ones after us, we now know it wasn’t them. It’s the guy in the other ship like this one, but we still don’t know why yet.”

  Jerren let out a groan drawing Jason’s attention. “Do you remember the events of the four weeks after we rescued you?” Jerren asked.

  Jason cringed at the memory and said. “Yes, isolation and needles pretty much sum it up, why?”

  “When my team arrived in the compound to rescue you, everywhere we looked there were corpses with no signs of physical damage. We put on our MOPP gear and set out. My partner and I were tasked with finding and recovering you, and the SEAL team was tasked with securing the warhead. After we located you, we put you into the MOPP for isolation protocol.

  “The SEAL team took blood samples from some of the dead, then we got the hell out of there. The tests all came back negative for any known bio, chemical or radiation damage and because the cause of their deaths was undetermined, that is why we were all placed in quarantine until the doctors determined we were not a biological threat.”

  “And?” Jason prodded.

  “And if it is as you say Inola was there at least in your head, she might have been the reason for all the dead. As far as I know they never found any reason for all those people’s deaths, and believe me, they were definitely interested in finding the cause,” Jerren explained.

  “So, what do we do now?” Justin asked sounding a little nervous.

  Jason knew his brothers were alike in more ways than looks but they had their differences as well. He figured it was time to set his plan in motion and see if they were in. “First off we need to get the family to safety—

  Justin interrupted him. “You told us they were tracking us by our DNA and nowhere would be safe to drop us off, or has that changed?”

  Jason explained about the master control room, the stasis chamber, and how it was out of phase with real time and could be accessed only through the master control room. “As long as they’re in the stasis room I don’t think the other commander can get to them.”

  Jerren looked as if something was troubling him, then he said, “I don’t think any of the family are going to willingly get into a stasis chamber. How do you propose we convince them?”

  Jason had been afraid of this. He hesitated a moment and then said, “I…didn’t actually give them a choice in the matter.”

  Justin and Jerren both said, “What did you do?” at the same time. They both smirked at one another before returning their focus back on Jason.

  “The dinner was a bit of a farewell feast, to get them to go to bed early. Once their heads hit their pillows, they were put into an induced stasis sleep. We need to move them into the stasis chamber for their safety and after the threat is over we can take them out and they’ll be none the wiser.”

  Jerren and Justin looked unsure. “I don’t know. They’ll be seriously ticked off if they find out what we’ve done,” Justin said.

  Jason explained that Justin, Jerren, Alise and he would be the only ones who knew about the stasis and that the family could be brought out of stasis in their beds and never know what had transpired. “Besides if we let it go much longer, someone is going to kill somebody.”

  Jerren said, “You’re probably right. I’ve had to patch up both Tim and Uncle Tom a couple of times already. They really seem to hate one another. After the last brawl, I asked both of them what it was all about, and I was told to mind my own business, so I told them they could patch themselves up from now on.”

  “All right, but what if it takes years to stop this guy from pursuing our family?” Justin asked. “The family might believe it if they only see you, but if Jerren and I get much older they’ll know something is up,” Justin stated with obvious concern.

  Jason considered how to proceed. “First off, I don’t plan for this to take forever. But even if it does take an extended period of time, I’d sleep better at night knowing our family is safe. Second, and this might be of interest to one of you. There’s a second time ship in need of a commander. It’s been derelict for the past fifteen thousand years. I performed a diagnostic and everything seems to be functional but it has been powered down and it needs a commander to reboot the system.”

  Jason looked between Jerren and Justin. “I was hoping that if we could get that ship in working order, one of you would be in command of it.”

  Jerren seemed to think about what he’d just asked. “What do we do just go onboard and say, ‘I’m the new commander’?”

  Jason shook his head and said, “When I was in the master control room, I performed a diagnostic. It came back with no commander viable and asked me if I wished to reset the binding disk for a new commander. I think if I were to select yes, I should be able to assign one of you, and you would be able to bond with that ship and the AI once it comes back online.”

  Justin was the first to speak. “I was only a general’s assistant and crypto specialist. I wouldn’t have the first notion of how to run a ship.”

  Jason snorted indignantly. “Do you think I have any idea what I’m doing? I’m winging it as we go and hoping I don’t get any of us killed. I think either one of you would make a great commander. You two need to work it out. There’s no real hurry; the ship isn’t going anywhere. I just cannot fight the feeling that one of you is supposed to take command of that ship though.”

  Justin said to Jerren, “I think with your training and history you’d make a better choice than I would. It sounds like a great opportunity but
I’m not trained for it.”

  Jerren looked hard at Justin then nodded. “I agree with Jason and think you would do great at whatever you want to, but if you insist then I’ll do it.”

  Justin nodded then looked at Jason. “Then it’s settled. Jerren will do it.”

  Jason was relieved. “Okay, first off we need to get the family to the stasis chamber, then we can work on how to make the other ship operational again.”

  Jerren asked, “Are we going to put Pastor Bob in stasis too?”

  Jason chuckled. “That’s his name? Damn, I’m a bad host, I never bothered to find that out. And no, Alise said our ship is near Earth, and after we restart TDS 3 we’ll send him back, then use a time probe to make sure he’s not in any danger. If it checks out, then we’ll leave him there. We don’t think TDS 5 is tracking him, so he should be all right.”

  Jason called out to Alise, “How are the preparations coming along?”

  Alise replied, “The environmental suits are ready. Make sure to scan the stasis chamber before entering it and if you need to contact me use your life monitor. I will take us to a PTD of negative eight to match the master control room when you are ready to make the transfer. A PTD that far off will draw a lot of energy to maintain, so you will have to make your time count.”

  Jerren asked Jason, “What’s a PTD?”

  “A phased time dilation.” Jason stated, then he added, “It’s complicated. I’ll explain later. Let’s get you two dressed for this mission, then we’ll collect the family.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Jason, Jerren, and Justin entered the master control room, each with a family member draped over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Jason approached the wall with stasis on it and thought, scan stasis chamber environment. It was a good thing he did because the readout showed minimal life support and very low oxygen levels. He reset the environment to Earth normal and called for the archway, then signaled for his brothers to follow him as he entered.

  Jason walked to the first pod and placed his father down. Looking back, he wondered what was taking his brothers so long. He activated the stasis pod his father was in, verified that it was working properly then exited to see what was the matter.

  “What’s wrong? Wouldn’t it let you in?” Jason asked when he entered the master control room.

  Jerren had a troubled look on his face and asked, “Did you just drop Father in there and come out?”

  “No, I put him in a pod and came to see what was taking you guys so long.”

  “You were only in there a couple of seconds and came right back out,” Jerren stated.

  Jason realized the room must be further out of time space than he thought. “Okay, follow right behind me and just keep walking until you see me.”

  They did as he said, and a few minutes after Jason entered the stasis chamber, Jerren appeared with a shimmer. Jason told Jerren to place his stepmother in the pod next to his father’s and after he did, Jason activated it. About a minute later Justin shimmered in front of them.

  Jason showed Justin where to place their younger half-brother and explained, “I waited several minutes before Jerren appeared, we put mother in a pod, and then another minute later you showed up. Several minutes passed in here but only seconds out there, so I thought the time dilation was off.”

  Jason completed the stasis process on the next pod and continued. “I was concerned they’d age in the pods because of the time differential, but when I verified the dilation, it actually looks as if time is not moving for the pods at all when they’re activated, and moving very slowly in this chamber. So, they’ll be frozen in time until we remove and awaken them. I think the reason for your delayed entrance into this room is due to the master control room being in a negative eight TD.”

  Jason saw Justin looking around the room and Justin’s eyes settled on several pods along the back wall. “What’s with those pods? They look different from these.”

  Jason peered over, then approached and examined each of the pods. Justin was right; several of the pods were only two feet long compared to the ten-foot-long ones they were using for the family. The pod at the very end was only a one-foot-square, and where his family’s pods had a porthole showing the inhabitants, the other pods were just solid metal with a computer display. Jason tried to access the information on them but kept getting the same response.

  Unauthorized access query denied.

  Jason looked at his brothers. “I don’t know. It won’t let me access any information on them.”

  Jason thought about it a second. “I think the family will still be safe in here. The Lantins didn’t even know about the master control room, which means nobody’s been in here for nearly four hundred thousand years.” He looked between his brothers and they both nodded.

  Jerren sighed. “I was wondering about that myself. This is still better than everyone being at each other’s throats, which was about to happen. Just look at how Uncle Tom and Tim were going at it.” Jerren shook his head in disgust then he added, “Okay if everything is settled here we should get the rest of the family.”

  Jason nodded, “Let’s get this done.”

  *****

  It took Jason, Justin, and Jerren another thirty minutes to gather the rest of the family from their beds and get them into their pods. After they were all settled, the brothers assembled in the master control room.

  Jason closed the stasis chamber and moved to the TDS 3 station and requested the console, and noted that the previous query was still on the screen,

  TDS 3

  AL not online

  No life forms onboard for fifteen thousand one hundred thirty-three years Location 374.4 KKSLO Terra .5 PTD.

  AL-Commander no longer Viable.

  Reset binding disk for new Commander? (YES) or (NO).

  Jason looked at his brothers then back to the console and selected (YES).

  The lighting dimmed in the room, and a complex algorithm ran across the screen.

  Justin asked, “What does AL stand for?”

  Jason thought about it a second and was about to tell him when Justin said. “Ah, Okay,” and Jason turned to look at the wall behind him and read,

  A - Advanced

  L – Lifeform

  I – Integrated

  S – Synaptic

  E – Escort

  Jason said, “There you have it. It would appear that the AL is an Alise. All of the ships probably had them.”

  Jason really didn’t like the idea of a lookalike of Alise on the other ships, and a hint of possessiveness rose for a second before he pushed the feeling down and he remembered the AI, or AL, would manifest to be whatever the commander most needed. So the tension eased slightly. Although he and his brothers were triplets and thought alike, they did have their own personalities and they had different tastes in women. A beep sounded behind him and he turned around to consult the control panel and it read,

  TDS 3

  Binding disk reconfigured, apply to new host.

  Jason looked to the left of the display where a familiar dime-sized disk lay. He hesitated only the briefest of moments before picking it up and gesturing for Jerren to come closer. “Okay, Jerren, you need to press this disk right there.” He pointed to the spot behind Jerren’s right ear and said, “I won’t lie to you. It hurt like nothing I have ever felt before.”

  Jason saw the concern etched across Jerren’s face and decided to ease his mind a little. “Alise told me it shouldn’t have hurt that much and there was something odd about my bonding that caused a feedback. But the other eleven times she bonded were virtually painless.”

  This seemed to mollify Jerren a little bit and he said, “Okay here goes nothing.”

  Jason saw him tense up briefly as he applied the disk. There was an audible static discharge but when Jerren pulled his finger away, the disk was still on it.

  “Did it work?” Jerren asked.

  Jason examined the console and read,

  TDS 3

/>   Disk reconfigured. Apply to new host.

  Bonding procedure failure, incorrect host data.

  Apply binding disk to proper host.

  Shaking his head, Jason had Jerren try it again, thinking it was just a glitch, but after the third attempt, Jerren dropped the disk on the table.

  “Damn, that thing zapped me harder and harder each time I tried it. It doesn’t look like it’s going to work,” Jerren said as he rubbed the side of his neck.

  Jason turned and said, “Justin, why don’t you give it a try?”

  Justin paled. “Uh, I don’t think it’ll work for me either. I really don’t think I’m the right person to be in charge of a ship anyway.”

  The control room rumbled and the disk vibrated on the table. A second later it flew through the air and applied itself to the spot just in back of Justin’s right ear.

  “WHAT THE…” Justin shouted as he swept his hand against it in an apparent attempt to get the disk off but it was not moving. He reached up in an apparent attempt to peel it off with his fingernails, but the second his finger touched the disk Justin’s eye’s rolled back and he dropped to the floor.

  Jason and Jerren rushed to aid Justin. He’d hit his head on the way down and a goose egg was forming. Jason pressed his hand over the injury hoping he would be able to help Justin in the same way he had healed his own hand.

  A few seconds later Jason felt a soothing sensation resonating down his arm, then lifted his hand and saw the knot was diminishing. He put his hand back on his brother’s head and about thirty seconds later there was no hint of an injury.

  Jerren asked, “What did you do to him? Is Justin all right?”

  Jason thought about Jerren’s question and said, “I don’t know. He seems all right. I injured myself when I was in here the last time and found I could heal myself like this.” Jason called out to Alise. “Is it normal to pass out after applying the binding disk?”

  Alise’s voice sounded over his life monitor. “Yes, aside from your bonding, all of the commanders were unconscious for ten minutes.”