The Awakening
Page 20
Justin looked around and with a shiver and he surveyed the environment. The ship was a mess. Everywhere he looked he saw debris floating in all directions. The brothers made their way through the mess toward the engine, which was a duplicate of the one on Jason’s ship. The only lights in the room were being emitted from their suits, and they glowed brightly enough to illuminate the entire room. They approached the engine, which was dead quiet.
Jason said, “Well, let’s see what happens.”
Justin watched as Jason removed his gloves tucked them into his waistband placed his hands on the engine and began to focus. With the look of disappointment he looked to Justin. “It may require both of us to provide enough energy.”
Justin nodded, removed his gloves as well and they both placed their hands on the engine. Still nothing.
Jason let out a sigh and Justin’s left hand with his right and placed his left hand on the engine. “Justin, put your right hand on the engine and focus as hard as you can.” They did and this time a few lights flickered and faded away.
Jason’s watch chirped and Jerren’s voice came over it a bit distorted. “Whatever you just did almost worked.”
“Okay we are going to try it again,” Jason said. “Let us know if anything changes.” To Justin, he said, “You know that feeling you get when you wave your hands really fast back and forth, and you get that gravity feeling?”
Justin nodded.
“The energy we need feels kind of like that. You need to tense up and push. I will do the same and with any luck it will work this time. Are you ready?”
Justin nodded and they proceeded. He felt a massive explosion, and the ship bucked and threw him like a rag doll against the far wall. The the debris that was floating so harmlessly was now hurling in their direction. He saw the debris coming his way and was about to yell for his brother to take cover when something large crushed his head.
Justin felt as if a live wire had been connected to his limbs. One jolt, two, then three and he let out a gurgle. “What happened?” He coughed up a little blood.
Jason sighed and said, “We’re under attack.” Another volley of blasts hit the hull and coursed through both of their bodies.
He heard a familiar voice say, “Use them!” Jason stood and helped Justin to his feet. Grabbing his hand, Jason told him to touch the wall as he placed his hand on the engine. He had no idea what Jason was doing but did as he asked. The energy blast from outside along with his and Jason’s energy coursed directly into the engine and the lights lit up the room, then began to fade out. Justin was despondent. He was thinking he had failed as well and they would have to retreat to the master control room.
Jerren’s distorted voice came out of his life monitor. “Whatever you just did worked. The ship is powering up it should be functional in a few minutes your time and fully restarted in an hour or two.”
A moment after he heard Jerren’s voice, Justine felt an energy wave pass through him. He looked at Jason, who was glowing.
“They were warned!” Jason growled and then began to convulse and hyperventilate.
Justin was getting more and more concerned for his brother. With every rapid breath, Jason’s face was getting a deeper and deeper shade of red. It was now almost the color of blood and his body was crackling. “Jason, you need to calm down. You’re going to have a stroke!” he yelled to no avail.
Jason said with a guttural growl, “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS.”
Justin wasn’t sure what he meant or why he said it but the words had a very menacing and dangerous feel.
“YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WARNED AND YOUR LIVES ARE NOW FORFEIT!” Justin didn’t only hear the words; he felt every one. They seemed to grab his soul. At that moment he felt as if something very powerful had been unleashed, and a death sentence had been imposed.
Jason was reaching out and grasping at the air, whispering at his fists. He flicked his wrists, hugged himself and threw his hands out from his body, then fell to the floor unconscious.
Justin rushed to his side. He felt Jason’s neck. His pulse was weak and irregular. Not knowing what to do for him, Just picked his brother up in a fireman’s carry and took him to the master control room. He shouted, “Alise, Open the archway! Jason has been injured!”
As soon as they entered TDS 1, Jason disappeared.
Alise opened the passage between the engine room and the inner corridor and said, “I transported him directly to medical. How did he get injured? All the attacking ships were destroyed.” She signaled for them to follow her as they spoke.
Justin explained everything he could remember, which wasn’t much. He was finished by the time they made it to Jason’s side. He asked Alise, “What is wrong with him?”
She was consulting a monitor and shook her head. “I do not know. His body chemistry is off. His electrolytes are almost depleted, and he has severe sub conjunctival hemorrhaging.”
Justin felt like he was about to pass out. “Is he going to be all right?”
Alise said, “His body chemistry is almost back to normal. He should be fine.” He could tell she wasn’t sure but he nodded and approached his brother, placed his hand on his brother’s forehead, then turned to Alise and Jerren. “What do I need to do now?”
“Set course to Daregon. TDS 3 will need to be recharged, and that is the closest location. We will meet you there,” she said.
Justin said, “I thought you said these ships can’t be in close proximity to each other?”
“Until this event we were never able to get this close.”
Jerren asked, “Is this ship within weapons range of TDS 3?”
“Not quite, why?” Alise answered.
“I was just thinking. How close to the atmosphere can these ships hold their position while charging?” Jerren asked.
Alise said, “We can maintain a low Daregon orbit, why?”
“Are you thinking overwatch, Jerren?” Justin asked.
Jerren nodded and Justin explained it to her. “If I put TDS 3 into the lowest possible orbit for charging, then you put this ship as close to its apogee as possible, then this ship can protect TDS 3 while it charges. That is what we refer to as an overwatch position.”
Alise smiled. “That sounds like a plan. After Jason wakes up, we have to repair an issue with the ancient Imortum portal on the surface, then we will meet you at Daregon.”
Justin entered the master control room and was about to take a step toward TDS 1 when the display on his console caught his attention. Looking down he wondered if he could control the ship from there. A second later the display changed to read,
TDS 3
He thought, Set course for Daregon, and the display changed to read,
TDS 3
Course laid in, estimated time to Daregon 182.5 hours.
Smiling at the fact he had figured it out, he decided to go back to his ship.
He made it a few steps in and his grin faded. Looking at the unsurmountable mess, he let out another groan and began picking us whatever he could and stacking it against the far wall to allow access. It took him a few minutes before he realized he could ask the AI what to do. Grinning once again he called out, “Hello, I’m speaking to the AI. I’m the new commander of this vessel. Would you come down here?”
He got no answer, and no Alise appeared. He tried for the next few hours to no avail. He figured something must be wrong with the AI’s program and decided he would ask Jason about it when he woke up. Figuring it would not clean itself, he began the arduous task of cleaning the ship.
* * * * *
The Artificial Intelligence was not amused one bit; it had never in its entire existence been forced to bond with an untrained commander. It was a source of pride that it had only two commanders the entire time it was active. It knew the other ships had at least ten over nearly four hundred thousand years, which is what made it the elite in its opinion. All of the others were inexperienced beginners to its way of thinking.
The AI had monitored the self
-proclaimed commander of the ship while he gathered the true commander’s possessions and moved them to the second level. It knew the logistics of traveling fifteen thousand years back to rescue the commander was near impossible and the possibility of creating a major paradox did not sit well with it. Not to mention this new commander would be resistant to the idea. It still chafed that it did not even get a say in whether he was qualified to run this ship. Which he obviously was not if his moving all of the items manually was any indication.
The AI was astounded that this untrained Terran human was able to restart the engine. From the information that was recorded, the AI seriously doubted either of the former commanders could have done it. And although it would not admit it, the AI. thought it would like to complete the bonding process, if only to find out how he managed to accomplish it.
About Kord Stone
I am a longtime resident of the great state of Nevada. Over the years, I have seen many strange and unexplained things. I have a vivid imagination, which helps me in my storytelling, not to mention getting my family’s eyes rolling with my far-out theories. I served this fine country during the first Gulf War in the Air Force, where I was trained in my undisclosed field. I wish I could say more about it, but I wouldn’t want “them” coming after me. I live in a small town with my wife, who is also an author, my two daughters, who are both in college studying to be authors as well. I am constantly being hounded by my four menacing dogs, who interrupt my writing whenever they feel I have neglected them too much, which is always.
I hope you enjoy my first novel The Awakening.
Thank you for reading.
Kord Stone
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The Awakening
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The Awakening Copyright © 2016 Kord Stone
Edited by Susan Edwards
Cover design by Kelly A. Martin
Cover photography by Aleksandr Petrunovskyi, tankist276 and Vadim Sadovski
Electronic book publication March 2016
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