The Purification: Book 3 of the Evaran Chronicles

by Adair Hart

  Evaran raised his head and let out a measured breath. “I … did not want to explain this, but it is needed.” He swept his head across everyone. “I trust you all and this information is pertinent to Emily. What I say here is not to be repeated unless necessary. Is that understood?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Good,” said Evaran. He paced back and forth in front of the station he had been working at. “This parallel timeline we are in, as you know, is part of the universe. The universe is part of a multiverse, which is part of a plane. Each universe in the plane has a shell around it.” Evaran put his hands out as if holding an imaginary ball. “Each shell is composed of layers, with each layer having a specific role. The layer we are interested in is the life layer. Before I continue, I am curious.” He faced Lord Vygon. “Have I ever mentioned this to you before?”

  Lord Vygon shook his head. “No … you haven’t.”

  “Interesting.”

  Dr. Snowden narrowed his eyes. This explanation must be something Evaran kept very close to his chest if Lord Vygon did not know about it, especially given how close he thought they were.

  Evaran nodded. “Continuing then. This life layer forms a link to inside the universe. When the link is established, you refer to it as consciousness. This life layer link, or three-L as I call it, is something I can see if I look for it. I do not understand what triggers the link, but it is something I aim to learn more about,” said Evaran. He pointed at Emily. “Although she is a nanobot swarm, she has a three-L. Most machines and artificial intelligences do not.”

  “So … this three-L thing makes me … alive?” asked Emily.

  Evaran raised a finger. “Well … it is a bit more complicated. I know quite a few three-L patterns. They appear to me as part of the energy signature that surrounds all life. Yours is almost identical to the Emily who went through the rift door.”

  “That might explain the dreams then.”

  Dr. Snowden tilted his head. “You can dream?”

  “Yeah … but it was scary. I was in a jungle running from some small creatures. Then I got captured by something that … was … I don’t know how to explain it. It was bad, and kept me naked in a cage. I felt like … I’d been there for weeks.”

  Evaran looked down for a moment, then back up. “Dreams are part of another layer. The three-L crosses through it. Think of the dream layer as more of a morphable matter layer that takes cues from a three-L on what to form. It can also be used to communicate, and since it is independent of time, it can be used for some interesting aspects for those who … have a gift for it. I suspect your dreams in this case were used to see what the other Emily was experiencing. Maybe not.”

  Dr. Snowden’s eyes popped open as he looked at Evaran. “That’s just great.” He sighed. “If the rift controller is busted, how do we find Emily then? I mean … my Emily … well … you know what I mean!”

  Emily looked down.

  Evaran put a hand on Emily’s shoulder. “For all intents and purposes, this is Emily, just duplicated in a new body. She may not have the same physical history as the original Emily, but her energy signature is almost identical.” He looked at Emily. “To avoid confusion, we will call you Nanobot Emily and the original Organic Emily. Fair enough?”

  Nanobot Emily nodded.

  “Good. As to finding where that rift door leads, I suspect we will find out more in the rift room. Nanobot Emily’s brain, unlike the majority of her body, is composed of nanobots with rift technology. I suspect that is why she has a three-L. I believe, with some focus, that may be of use down there.”

  “I’ll do whatever I can to help,” said Nanobot Emily with a half smile. She flinched when Dr. Snowden put his arm around her. With a wipe of the tear that had fallen onto her cheek, she smiled.

  “Two nieces … now the Purifiers are really in trouble,” said Dr. Snowden with a chuckle.

  Nanobot Emily swatted his arm as she stood up. “Let’s do this!”

  Dr. Snowden studied the ground as he walked behind Evaran and Lord Vygon. Nanobot Emily had latched onto his arm like Organic Emily always did. The sensation of there being two Emilys was a new one for him. On one hand, he was happy that Nanobot Emily was an actual duplicate. It was Emily, even if the body did not have the history of Organic Emily. He knew he would not be able to tell the difference if they were side by side. On the other hand, he was worried about Organic Emily. Nonetheless, it was reassuring to have either Emily on his arm.

  Nanobot Emily looked up at Dr. Snowden and smiled. “Thinking about the situation, aren’t cha?”

  “Yeah … what do you think Dan would’ve thought of all this?”

  Nanobot Emily chuckled. “He woulda said, Well … hell.”

  They laughed as Evaran glanced back at them.

  After twenty minutes, they arrived at the rift room. Dr. Snowden noted that it was similar to the first rift room he had seen at the Purifier base on Earth. This one was missing the rift controller. He shuddered to think of Organic Emily appearing and getting pricked, then shoved through the prison planet rift door.

  Evaran walked up to the crystal rods and scanned them with his ring. “As we do not have access to the rift controller, we will need to use another method of access.” He faced Nanobot Emily and pointed to the right crystal rod. “Please place your hands around that.”

  Nanobot Emily complied.

  “Now … focus. See if you can sense any rift technology components.”

  Nanobot Emily furrowed her eyebrows as she dipped her head and closed her eyes. After a moment, she popped them open. “Whoa … I can sense it! It’s like … cheese in a pretzel.”

  Lord Vygon raised his eyebrows and looked at Dr. Snowden.

  Dr. Snowden smirked. “Yeah … someone’s hungry.”

  Evaran pointed at the crystal rod while looking at Nanobot Emily. “Okay, hunger notwithstanding, can you concentrate on reaching out to it?”

  Nanobot Emily half smiled. Her hands glowed a bit, causing everyone to stand back. “I can’t. Can only sense it. But …”

  Evaran tilted his head. “What did you find?”

  “They’re all connected,” said Nanobot Emily. “The rift doors, that is. There is another on this planet.”

  “Can you get its location?”

  “I think so. Trying.”

  After a minute of concentrating, Nanobot Emily dropped her hands to her sides. “I … think I have it. Kinda vague. Not sure how to show you.”

  “Put your palm out.”

  Nanobot Emily complied.

  Evaran placed his UIC on her hand. It glowed a mix of blue and red for a moment, then stabilized.

  Dr. Snowden remembered that the UIC could connect in a limited fashion to organic manner. It had been given this ability by a matter mage on their last adventure when helping the Fredorians. He had also learned that the UIC was originally gifted to Evaran by the matter mages for helping them. The mixed colors intrigued him since he expected it to only be blue.

  “I can feel it trying to connect,” said Emily. “How do I transfer?”

  “Just focus on the information. Imagine it shooting from your brain to your hand. The UIC should be able to pick it up.”

  Nanobot Emily chuckled. “This is so weird.”

  Evaran perused his ARI, then tossed out an orb. It shot a projection showing the planet they were on, with two red dots. He pointed to one of the dots. “We are here, and the other appears to be the same.”

  Dr. Snowden noted that the first dot was blinking. He figured that indicated where they were. The second one looked to be in Peru.

  “Yeah,” said Nanobot Emily. She tapped the crystal rod. “Wish I could just turn the darn thing on, but it needs a rift stone and controller … and I ate it.”

  “It is okay,” said Evaran with a chuckle. “We can head to the one in South America. It stands to reason that if this base has a mirror in our timeline, then the one in South America would as well.”

  “Of course,” sai
d Dr. Snowden. “However, the first base in our timeline was in Egypt. This second one might be somewhere else.”

  “It is possible. Come,” said Evaran. “We will verify its location in this timeline and then use that as a base to find it in our timeline.” He waved forward as he exited the room.

  They weaved their way back up to the Torvatta and, once inside, sat down.

  Dr. Snowden noticed that Nanobot Emily took her usual seat next to him. It felt natural to have her near him. His jaw tightened a bit as he thought of Organic Emily. The one he gave airplane rides to when she was a kid. If Nanobot Emily’s dreams were a glimpse into what Organic Emily was experiencing, then it would be a nightmare for her. Stranded alone, fighting who knows what. He exhaled from his nose as he looked down.

  Nanobot Emily placed her hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find her.”

  Dr. Snowden looked at Nanobot Emily and half grinned. He reached over and squeezed her hand.

  “V, take us to the South American base,” said Evaran.

  “Acknowledged.”

  The Torvatta ascended and began to fly toward the next destination.

  Lord Vygon tilted his head. “How are we planning on breaching it?”

  “V is going to breach it,” said Evaran.

  V turned around. “I am?”

  Dr. Snowden and Nanobot Emily chuckled.

  “Yes,” said Evaran. “Once we verify its location, you will go in with scout mode. The goal is to observe all rift controller interactions. While you are doing that, we will head back to our timeline and verify if there is another base there.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “We will not leave this timeline until V is in position.”

  Lord Vygon tilted his head. “We could make it easy. I could try to run past them all, grab the operator, and knock out anyone who gets in my way.”

  “You could, but if the alert is raised, the operator could leave. He could also set it into shutdown. At that point, we would not have the prison planet destination code.”

  Lord Vygon shook his head. “Yeah … I’m fast, but probably not fast enough to prevent him from getting that shutdown process off.”

  Nanobot Emily cocked her head. “Maybe I could interface with the rift controller.”

  Evaran shook his head. “Possible, but it may not have audit or history logs of destinations. I suspect the reason operators are the only ones who know destinations is to ensure that only a few know how to operate the rift doors and where they go. I do not think the overlord wants informed minions who know how to get to every point in his empire. We can keep that as a last resort option.”

  Nanobot Emily nodded.

  Evaran faced Lord Vygon. “Let us take a break. We should be at the South American base in about an hour. V, notify us when we arrive.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Dr. Snowden sighed. “Well, I’m going to get something to eat then.”

  “I will join you,” said Evaran.

  They assembled in the conference room and picked up food and drink from the sustenance replicators. Evaran sat at the head of the table, while Dr. Snowden and Nanobot Emily sat to his left and Lord Vygon to his right.

  Dr. Snowden took a bite of his burger and closed his eyes. “I sometimes forget to eat, and after taking a bite of this, wonder how that is possible.”

  Nanobot Emily giggled. She took a sip of her orange juice, then spit it out. She shook her head. “Okay … that definitely does not taste like I remember it.”

  Evaran half smiled. “I believe you would probably like what V drinks. It is a mineral drink, but has the consistency of oil.”

  Nanobot Emily shuddered. “Yeah … I’ll just sit that one out.”

  “Very well,” said Evaran. He cocked his head at Lord Vygon. “I do not recognize that drink. Did the Torvatta make it?”

  “Yep. I call it the Lord Vygon special.”

  Evaran perused his ARI. “There is no drink with that pattern name in the replicator database.”

  Lord Vygon glanced at Dr. Snowden. “It’s there, you just can’t see it.”

  Evaran cocked his head for a moment, then narrowed his eyes. “Contextual time stream data. Interesting. I was not aware the Torvatta had that ability.”

  “It has a lot more data than you might know,” said Lord Vygon. “It’s hard to believe as long as you’ve been around, that you never knew that. I guess, though, you never really stuck around in one spot for too long to find out.”

  “You are full of surprises,” said Evaran.

  “That I am. That I am.”

  “Tell me. Have you seen the future?”

  Lord Vygon took a sip of his drink. “Not the one that brought you here, but another one. I’m aware of what awaits humanity, and by extension, us nonhumans. Of course, it could all change. Your presence here reminds me of that.”

  Evaran perched his chin on his left hand as he eyed Lord Vygon. “I have the feeling we will cross paths many times.”

  “That we do,” said Lord Vygon with a smile.

  They finished their food, and after an hour of light discussion, V poked his head into the room. “We have arrived.”

  Evaran stood. “It is time to navigate V to the portal room then. Come.” He waved for everyone to follow him.

  They assembled in the command area as V went into the research lab. He came back out in orb mode and hovered near the front console. “I am ready.”

  Dr. Snowden looked out the left screen. It showed the same base as the other one, except this one did not have spikes. He could see the guards outlined in green walking around the perimeter and the towers. He noted that the Torvatta was just inside the main gate and slightly above the main building entrance.

  “V, scout mode,” said Evaran as he interacted with his chair console. The front right screen switched to a visual of what V saw.

  “Acknowledged. Scout mode engaged,” said V. He shimmered for a moment and then disappeared.

  Dr. Snowden studied the right screen as it showed V exit the Torvatta and fly toward the main doors.

  When V scanned the door, it showed the stone composition as well as handprints and other organic residue on the doors. He flew off toward one of the towers and, after a moment, had passed through the top open part where two guards stood.

  Dr. Snowden grinned as he watched V’s scans of the guards. It outlined them with multiple labels indicating everything from body temperature to breathing as a sound graph. He appreciated the glimpses into how V viewed things.

  It did not take long for V to descend from the tower via an internal ramp to the inside of the side building. He twisted and turned through the tunnels, flying above the guards, until he located a shielded door similar to the one in the first base. After scanning it, V flew back toward a room where two guards were resting. He projected a hologram of Evaran running past the room and imitated the sound of hurried footsteps. Flying back to the shield, he disabled the hologram but kept the sounds up until the guards reached the shielded door.

  “I know I saw something,” said one of the guards.

  The other guard accessed the door console, dissipating the shield. “Check inside. I’ll check out here.”

  The first guard nodded and passed through the doorway, with V in tow. The door shielded back up once they were through.

  Dr. Snowden gestured at the right screen. “That was pretty good.”

  Evaran nodded. “V is quite resourceful.”

  “How would U4 have handled that?”

  Evaran snapped his head toward Dr. Snowden. “I have never mentioned U4 to you before.”

  Dr. Snowden’s eyes popped open. “Ohh … uhh …” He gestured at the right screen. “V mentioned her to me earlier … umm … before the timeline change when you were up on the roof.”

  “I see,” said Evaran with narrowed eyes. He clenched his jaw for a moment. “U4 was not equipped with stealth. She could not have done this.”

  Dr. Snowden glanced at Lord Vygon, whose eyeb
rows were raised, then focused back on the right screen. Evaran did not show emotion well, but Dr. Snowden knew the small movements and facial gestures that acted as proxies. He concluded that this was still a sensitive subject.

  V had reached the portal room and hovered in the corner of the room above the podium. The angle showed the Purifier operator standing at the rift controller as well as a good view of the rift room. “Destination reached.”

  Evaran tapped at his chair console. “Very good. Hold position and record all that you can. We will be back in a bit.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  The front right screen switched to an outside view as the Torvatta ascended.

  “Back to our timeline,” said Evaran.

  Emily walked for several miles through the forest without incident. It was dense, with large trees surrounded by smaller ones that looked like they were competing for space. She shook her head at the thought that the trees would be sentient, although she had seen stranger things.

  The smell of the wood caressed her nose. It reminded her of camping with her dad and Dr. Snowden. Her eyes softened as she recalled her favorite part about camping, the stories around the campfire. With a sigh, she trudged on.

  It was about thirty miles until the next facility. She could make it with one overnight stop, maybe two if there was trouble. Places to rest with defensive capability were on her mind. She knew how hard it was find anything like that out here.

  Five miles later, she took a break near a large tree. The forest had gotten darker, mainly due to the trees around the path extending overhead. Normally she would have found this ominous, but with recent events, it did not register with her. She sat against a tree on the side and pulled out her PSD. After chewing on a piece of dried meat, she took a small sip from her water container. She let her legs rest and stared up. It was peaceful, and the ambient noise of the forest almost lulled her to sleep.

  She jumped when a pang shot through her leg. Reaching down, she pulled out what looked like a sharp pine needle. Her PSD vibrated on her leg. Could it be? A jolt of excitement coursed through her. She pulled her PSD out and opened it. The outline around the communications icon pulsated. Her breath went haphazard as she pressed it.