The Awakening (The Hyperscape Project Book 1)

by Donald Swan

  He turned abruptly and put a large hand over her mouth to shut her up. Leaning down close so she could look into the depth of his eyes, he said very clearly, “If you want to remain alive, you will follow me to the ends of your planet if need be, without hesitation and without argument.”

  Her eyes were wide with fear, and he could feel her heart thrumming hard against his abdomen. The energy of it beat the air between them, reaching out to strum his nervous system. His senses were at high alert, and he could see everything about her, smell everything, feel everything, like no human ever could.

  “I’m going to let go now. And you’re going to be good and not scream. If you hold me back any longer, I will have no choice but to leave you behind, to protect myself. If I do that, you will die. Do you understand?”

  She nodded feebly, her cheeks pinched up above the meat of his palm. She looked like a pathetic little cartoon character on some earth show. When he didn’t let go, she nodded more emphatically and grunted something from beneath his hand. He slowly lifted a few fingers. She didn’t scream, so he withdrew his hand, but he remained vigilante. She gasped once for breath, straightened her shirt, swallowed hard, and nodded again.

  “Alright. I’m following you.”

  Kael assessed her eyes to determine her truth. Satisfied that she would give him no more trouble, he looked around at his surroundings. Microwave and cell phone towers jutted from the tall building next to the abandoned one they stood beside. He turned and peered into the distance. The energy plant was too far away. This building would have to do, for now.

  He went to the door and looked through the glass. A small hallway led to an empty lobby. He jimmied the door and stepped inside. Old broken glass crunched beneath his boots. He pulled the girl in behind him and closed the door, locked it, and turned back to look around at the graffiti-covered walls.

  “What is this place?” the girl asked from behind him.

  “An abandoned office building,” he said.

  “How do you know?”

  “I observe.”

  Moving silently, his senses heightened and alert, he led her upstairs to the third floor. Glancing around as he went, he eased down the hallway until they came to a small room at the end of the hall. The girl followed him inside, but when he closed the door behind them she seemed wary and nervous. Kael ignored her and assessed the room from ceiling to floor, then went and peered out the dirty window at the street beyond. Satisfied that he would not be battling his way through any more Sulcrums, at least for a short while, he turned to the only desk that sat to one side of the room. He crossed the room and sat down slowly in the dust-covered swivel chair.

  The girl looked around the room. “Why would anyone leave their office furniture behind?”

  “You ask a lot of questions.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve always been curious by nature.”

  “Questions can get you answers that you won’t like to hear.”

  She shrugged again. “Maybe. Maybe not. You didn’t see me running from that big robot-thing, did you?”

  His eyes narrowed. She spoke the truth. She was the only one who had stood her ground. Not that sticking around had been the smart choice.

  “I know Tae Kwon Do. Been studying it since I was five-years-old,” she said as she looked out the dirt-smeared window. “It teaches you to be bold.”

  “There’s a difference between boldness and stupidity,” Kael replied.

  She turned to frown at him, her arms going across her chest. The position of her forearms thrust her breasts even higher, revealing a tiny bit of cleavage above her sweater. Her breath hung in the air, reminding him of just how cold she must be. The building’s windows were mostly broken out, allowing for little shelter against the elements.

  “How old are you?” he asked.

  “Twenty-seven.”

  “Your name?”

  She hesitated, her gaze turning toward the floor. “You first.”

  “My name is Kael.”

  “Kyle,” she repeated. “Sounds like a perfectly harmless name. But you’re not harmless. And you’re not human either, are you?”

  “Kah-ell,” he corrected her pronunciation. “All drawn together in a subtle way. And what makes you think I’m not human?”

  “Well, for starters, a man appeared out of thin air and called you master, and then this big shiny, chrome thing stepped out of the crowd and tried to break you in half. Now, I know the military, as advanced as we’ve become with our drones and weapons and such, doesn’t have anything like that hulk, and as far as I know, humans can’t appear out of thin air. Not to mention the sword that morphed out of its arm and then morphed back into an arm and then back into a sword, like magic. Plus, my friend swears aliens have been visiting us for ages, and...maybe you’re one of them coming back to visit, or coming back to find something, or take something—”

  Kael stood up, effectively cutting off her speech. She took a step backward. He stopped.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She repositioned her legs. Kael noticed that she had shifted her center of gravity and she was now on the balls of her feet.

  “Your Tae Kwon Do is no match for me.”

  “We’ll see about that,” she retorted. “Now, if you don’t start talking, I’m going to speed dial my cousin, who’s a New York cop, and you’ll be apprehended, taken to a secret government facility, where I’m sure you’ll be more than happy to talk.”

  Kael’s mouth twitched at the corners as he held back a laugh. “You don’t bluff well. You have no cousin who’s a cop.”

  Her chin lifted, and he saw the glint of defiance in her eyes. “How do you know that?”

  “Because I can tell when someone is lying.”

  She opened her mouth to say something, then clamped it shut again.

  He smiled in satisfaction. “You and I are in danger. I plan on keeping us safe. But I must remind you that if you limit me in any way, I will have no choice but to abandon you and leave you to fend for yourself. You’ve seen what a Sulcrum can do, so I suggest you work with me not against me.”

  She gulped hard but kept her gaze firmly on his.

  “Now, your name please.”

  “Sarah. Connor.”

  His frown deepened into a scowl. He was losing patience with this female. “Your real name,” he growled as he took a menacing step toward her.

  She gulped again and took a step backward. Her back butted against the wall, stopping her from escaping. “Okay! Eva! My name is Eva!” She said the words in a rushed, desperate near-squeal.

  He stopped advancing toward her. “Good. We’re making progress. Now, what other talents do you have, Eva?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “If you think you’re getting into my pants, think again! I’m not—”

  “I simply want to know what you’re capable of that might help us!” he roared.

  She jumped at the explosive sound of his voice in the small room, her eyes blinking rapidly as she realized what he had meant. “Oh! Oh, well...I’m...well...I....”

  “Do you have a profession in this world?”

  She glared at him. “I did until you smashed my flower stand to bits with your big ass!”

  His right eyebrow twitched as he tried to hold back his mirth. She looked both comical and beautiful standing there looking so angry. “That’s it? You sell flowers and you know Tae Kwon Do?”

  She lowered her eyes and toyed with a frayed thread on her coat. “I was thinking about going to college.”

  “What about tech?” After only a momentary pause, he answered for her. “No, I didn’t think so.”

  She frowned. “I may not be handy with tech, but I’ve got bigger balls than you do!”

  His eyebrow twitched again. “You have no idea.” He wasn’t about to tell her that his testicles were internal. “Enough of this talk. We’re running out of time. So...just...whatever situation we find ourselves in, do as I say. Exactly as I say, without argument. Do you understand?
”

  “Of course I understand! I’m not stupid!”

  He nodded once then turned back to the desk.

  “So, what are we going to do?”

  “Right now, you’re going to be quiet, and I’m going to think.”

  “I’m hungry,” she muttered.

  He glared at her.

  She looked away. “Right. Shutting up now.”

  “Do you have family?”

  Her gaze went to the floor again. “Nope. Mom ran away when I was three, and dad died six months ago. Cancer got him. No siblings. And....”

  “No cousins,” he finished for her.

  “Right.” She nodded and turned her back so he wouldn’t see her eyes. She gave him about two seconds to think before she turned back and asked “That man...the one who came before the machine thing. He called you Master Jai. Master…what does that mean?”

  He answered slowly. “It means that he was giving me the respect due me, as master of the region of Jai, where he dwells and I once ruled.”

  She smacked her hands together and crowed, “See! I knew it! You’re an alien! Jai’s not on earth, is it!”

  He glared at her. She clamped her mouth shut and huddled in a corner away from the windows in an attempt to stay warm. The room seemed deafeningly quiet, but it only lasted a few minutes. Kael broke the silence when he stood up so abruptly that he nearly knocked the desk over with his knees. She jumped and opened her mouth to scream, but one look from him made her close the sound off before it left her throat.

  He nodded toward the door. She huddled closer into her corner and waited.

  A word entered the room before the man did. “Master.”

  Kael relaxed. He’d smelled the priejst, but he hadn’t been sure. Sulcrum’s had a number of ways to confuse their prey.

  The door opened and the priejst stepped into the room without making a sound, his black leather duster swinging around his ankles as he came to a halt. He turned his head and looked at the girl, then fixed his gaze on Kael. He opened his palm and tossed something onto the desk between him and his master.

  “I bought you some time.”

  Kael stared down at the small diamond-shaped metal pod that had come to rest in the center of the desk. It was the communication device from inside the Sulcrum’s head. The priejst must have taken it before the head had exploded.

  “I do not know how long, maybe a day, maybe two. But eventually they will realize the Sulcrum is no longer communicating signals to home-world, and then they will come.”

  Eva stepped out of the corner, her eyes glued to the priejst. “You’re that guy. The one that appeared out of thin air.”

  The priejst barely glanced in her direction. His focus was on Kael.

  “She’s been imprinted,” Kael said.

  The priejst frowned.

  Eva stepped closer, her high heeled boots scraping the floor. The sound seemed overly loud to Kael’s sensitive ears and made him painfully aware of just how exposed they were.

  “What does that mean?” she wanted to know. “Imprinted?”

  The priejst turned to look at her. “It means that they now have a genome of the human race. They know how you work, what your weaknesses are, and they can formulate an attack plan accordingly.”

  “Attack plan? You mean....” she grimaced, her blue eyes going paler.

  “They will come and decimate your world,” the priejst said succinctly.

  “But I thought....” Her eyes went to the small metal device on the table. “You cut off the transmission.”

  “An imprint is sent as it is occurring,” the priejst explained. “But without the portal, it will take time, perhaps several days before the signal reaches Trinoor.”

  “Trinoor?” she echoed, looking worried.

  “Our home-world,” the priejst answered.

  “What about the portal?” Kael asked. “Can they send ships through?”

  “The portal can only be manipulated for a short time. One small object can be sent through each time the portal is opened,” the priejst answered. “A person, a Sulcrum, a Rydyr, a Battalia at best. Then the energy required to open the portal again must be restored to full. It will take four earth hours before a person or a Sulcrum can traverse the portal again.”

  “What about a Battalia?” Kael asked.

  “Longer. A day.”

  “So, I have 24 hours between a single attack and the time a ship might arrive,” Kael said.

  “That is correct.”

  Eva assessed the priejst, his long blond hair, pale silver-grey eyes, high cheekbones, long fingers. Her eyes slowly swept him from the top of his head, lingering around his groin, and then down his long legs to his booted feet. Kael tried to ignore her. Her interest was annoying. She should be cowering in the corner, sniveling and begging for mercy, not in the middle of everything wanting to know what was going on.

  “And the ships? How long before they reach earth?” Kael continued.

  “A month. Maybe more.”

  Kael’s shoulders relaxed a fraction.

  “But if the Sulcrum doesn’t capture you, Jindom will come with a Battalia long before he sends ships. You know this, Kael Jai.”

  Kael’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, I know.”

  “I am in communication with a priejstess back home,” the priejst said. “She is hidden but vulnerable. I will know what she knows.”

  Kael dipped his head in acknowledgment, his blue-black brows knitted together in a frown of concentration.

  Eva had stepped closer to the priejst and had her head tipped back as she looked up at him in fascination. Kael stared at her for a long moment. She was strangely unabashed about her curiosity. “You talk more than this one does,” she piped in, jerking a thumb in Kael’s direction. “He seems limited to short sentences and grunts.”

  “He does not need to,” the priejst replied, his gaze still on Kael. “Talk much, that is.”

  “What is a Battalia?” she asked him.

  “A small ship that carries six, no more.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a small object to me,” Eva muttered.

  Kael frowned. “Compared to the ships Jindom commands, a Battalia is tiny.”

  Eva pretended Kael hadn’t spoken. Her eyes were still on the priejst. “Do you have a name?”

  “I am called Sylph. I am the Keeper of Kael Jai.”

  “What does that mean, keeper?” she asked.

  “It means that he is my guardian, and he will die protecting me if need be,” Kael interjected.

  “Cool.” She smiled.

  Sylph glanced her way. Judging by the look on his face, he was as perplexed by her as was Kael.

  Kael’s expression was stony, serious. “I need an army. There’s no way I can defend this planet without one.”

  Sylph acknowledged the comment with a slight slant of his head.

  “Why don’t you just go to a different planet?” Eva offered.

  Kael turned and fixed her with a steely green stare. “Because you’ve been imprinted. You could remove me from the planet, or kill me, and they would still come and destroy your world.”

  “They would not know if he had been moved, and they will not stop until his body has been identified,” Sylph explained.

  Eva stared from one to the other, her mouth forming a silent oh. “Can’t you just let it slip that he’s been moved?”

  Sylph frowned. “I cannot endanger my own Jai.”

  “Or fake his death,” she finished.

  Kael’s glare deepened. She noticed but she didn’t shrink away from him.

  “Jindom will never believe that Master Jai is dead unless he sees his corpse with his own eyes,” Sylph explained. His tone clearly let her know that he was losing patience with her.

  “I thought about throwing her in the river,” Kael commented.

  Sylph’s lips twitched upward in a half-grin that he fought to control.

  Eva glared at Kael. “I didn’t ask for this, you know. I was just minding m
y own business, selling my flowers—”

  “It was a slow morning for you, you’d only sold one bouquet all day,” Kael’s smooth, deep voice interrupted.

  She huffed a few times in frustration before continuing. “When you came along and brought that monster with you.”

  “You could have run, like everyone else. Then you would have never been imprinted.”

  Her breath fogged the air between them as she huffed even more. She folded her arms across her chest and clamped her mouth tightly shut.

  “But you were too curious,” he finished. “You had to get involved. Too involved. I suspect that’s a pattern with you.”

  Sylph stood vigilant, hearing their conversation but only half listening. His stance made Kael nervous. Sylph would know if anything changed in the field. He would sense it before anyone else could. Kael was not prepared for war. He’d done battle with many, had killed many, but here...on this planet...he felt helpless and alone. Without his army, what good could he do in protecting the innocents of this world? At the moment, he barely had the means to protect himself.

  Sylph met his gaze. Kael could see the silver-grey sea of his irises shifting in color, almost like he was traversing different energy fields and it was reflecting in his eyes.

  “What is it?” Eva whispered.

  Both males ignored her. Kael’s gaze was focused on Sylph. “You sense something, brother?”

  Sylph’s focus shifted back to the room, to Kael. His master called him brother. It was meaningful. It meant that his ruler considered him an equal. This was a real compliment for a priejst of Trinoor. Sylph nodded in answer to Kael’s question. “I feel a shift. Someone is seeking.”

  Kael’s eyes narrowed. “You mean...a seer?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then they know the Sulcrum is no more.”

  “Possibly. The scan is weak. It is a very long distance to penetrate.”

  Kael took a step closer to Sylph. “Jindom’s wy’tche.”

  “It must be, master. Jindom must assume that her scan will be faster than the Sulcrum’s signal.”

  “Can she do it?” Kael wanted to know.

  “Possibly. She is a strong one, master. Perhaps the strongest of us all.”

  “Call me master no more, brother. Here we are the same.”