by Brett Baker
This series is dedicated to my mother, who never failed to believe in me…
And to my father, who was there for me when I needed him.
Adagio of Awakening
Song of the Multiverse: Volume I
By Brett Baker
Copyright ©2019
ADAGIO of AWAKENING
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2019, Brett J. Baker
This book may not be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part by any means digital or otherwise, without permission.
ISBN: 978-1-79-528604-6
A Royal Crown Press Book
royalcrownpress.com
Cover Illustration and Design by Brett J. Baker
I
Rin Halloran was a pretty girl, with short brown hair that came down and flared out ever-so-slightly at her jawline, and brown eyes that had in them a golden glimmer when she was excited or filled with joy. She stood in her nightgown, its diaphanous fabric shifting as the wind blew against it, causing it to billow out before her. And as the sunlight bathed her in its warmth, she listened.
And on that wind as it blew past, she could swear for just a moment that she could hear music. It was faint, like a whisper and then it was gone, yet somehow in that momentary audible contact, it was almost like there was a sense of something far greater, like a hidden world behind this everyday existence she lived in, and in that music she could hear that world calling out to her to share its secret.
Rin longed for a world of adventure; one where she wasn’t so average and ordinary. Certainly, the world she lived in was filled with wonders, technology made all their lives better, but Rin wanted more than that. She wanted to be extraordinary like her sister.
Lexi was older than Rin by 7 minutes, and although they may have been identical twins they were far from alike. Rin looked across the field where Lexi swung a baseball bat, sending the white baseball flying off into the distance at incredible velocity. And as Lexi tossed down the bat and ran along the baseline toward first, her long ponytail bouncing behind her, Rin nodded knowingly. Lexi was outgoing, charismatic, athletic, and admired by all. Rin meanwhile, was quiet, introspective, and unassuming. The two really couldn’t be less alike.
And yet the two of them had shared a bond as siblings, just as they had shared a womb. Rin remembered a few years ago, when she was being harassed by a bully after school one day, Lexi appeared and beat the bully savagely until she fled; That bully never bothered Rin again. And afterward Lexi was so kind and caring to her, as if to make up for the bully’s rotten treatment.
And as she watched Lexi round second and head toward third while a neighbor boy chased down the ball, the sky suddenly grew dark. It wasn’t the natural dark of a storm; instead, it became filled with a deep, inky blackness. Fear filled Rin’s eyes as she looked over to the field, but they were still playing, completely unaware that somehow the world had just changed above them.
“Stop!” Rin cried, holding out her hand toward them, as if wanting to grab them and pull them to safety. “Look up at the sky!”
Then the sky seemed to be sucked away into the cold blackness of space, and it became an empty vortex consuming all that was below it. Rin’s breath froze in her lungs and her heart became heavy and static, like some solid weight within her chest. She couldn’t breath. Suffocating, she opened her mouth to scream.
But instead air suddenly rushed into her lungs. Rin coughed, hacking up gel as it was violently expelled from her lungs and sinuses. Then, not realizing that her eyes had actually been shut, she opened them once her breathing returned to normal and she realized the warm field where her much younger self had just been was gone and was now replaced by a cold, sterile lab filled with metal tables, and an array of monitoring equipment. Across the room, she spotted a stasis tube, and inside it was her sister Lexi floating in slumber within the same gel that was now draining rapidly out of her own tube. The sound of the gel being sucked out below her filled her ears. Rin looked down at her slimy form. She was dressed in some sort of wetsuit with metallic hoses attached up and down her spine, they both were. Then the thought struck her. She knew who she was, but she didn’t remember how she got here, or how long ago that was.
And even more worrisome, she spotted a man, wearing what appeared to be a black, hoodie, with the hood pulled up over his head under a black leather longcoat, black blousing trousers and black leather gloves and boots, who was standing with his back to her, typing into the control panel for Lexi’s tube.
Reaching up, Rin pushed the access panel for her tube open, and the cold air rushed in, giving her a chill that crawled up and down her spine.
“You’re awake,” the man said, his back still turned to her as he continued typing into the control panel. “Good. There’s a shower over there, and I’ve laid some clothes out for you.”
Rin looked across the room to the shower, and there was a metal bench next to it, situated beside some lockers. There folded up on the bench were two sets of garments that looked to her like school uniforms. And for some reason the pattern and colors of the uniform looked oddly familiar and reassuring, but for the moment, she couldn’t remember why.
“Who are you?” Rin asked as she reached behind her, and took hold of the highest of a series of metallic hoses that attached along her spine with a twist. It disengaged, and the rest followed, automatically detaching from the back of her suit and freeing her. She climbed while the bubbles in the gel began to swirl around Lexi in her tube as the drains were activated.
“You can call me Watanabe” the man said, as he stepped away from the control panel and nodded watching the gel stabilize, and its level begin to lower within the tube, his back still toward her. “I’m here to get you two out of here.”
The floor was cold against Rin’s feet, and the slimy gel made it very slippery. She walked gingerly over to the shower, nearly falling a couple of times as Watanabe turned his back toward them both, careful to keep the twins out of his line of sight. A brief moment later, Lexi began to cough and hack within her stasis tube.
“Where is this place?” Rin asked as she stripped off her wetsuit, activated the shower and stepped beneath the stream of warm water that flowed over her, washing away the slime and muck of the stasis tube.
“A hidden lab in Evanston” Watanabe replied. “You’ve been here for four months.”
“Four months!?” Rin repeated in disbelief.
“What… Happened?” Lexi asked as she swung the access panel to her tube open. “Who are you?”
“Watanabe” Rin explained. “He’s here to get us out of here”
“And where is here?” Lexi demanded, her long hair sticking to the back of her wetsuit as she slid on the pads of her feet across the room to the shower as Rin got out and began to dress. Both looked across the room suspiciously at Watanabe, every few seconds, but he stood unwavering, his back toward them and his hands clasped behind him patiently as he stared at the blank patch of wall between their two tubes.
“As I explained, we’re in Evanston.
Rin, now fully dressed in a tunic and pleated mini skirt, knee-length socks, and smartbelt, smartboots, and smartgloves, held what appeared to be a set of red goggles in her hands. “What’s with the net goggles?” she asked.
“The best tech money can buy,” Watanabe replied. “They will give you a heads-up-display, net access, and most importantly, keep you in contact with me as you make your escape.”
“You’re not coming with us?” Lexi asked as she stepped out of the shower, and began to put on her own set of clothes, which matched Rin’s.
“I will guide you remotel
y” Watanabe explained. “Follow my lead. I’m going to get you to a safehouse nearby.”
“Why?” Rin asked.
“It’s okay you can turn around” Lexi added as she buttoned up her tunic. “We’re both dressed.
Watanabe turned and faced them. He wore the hood of his tunic up, covering his facial features in shadow. He was a man of medium height and slender build, but they could both see a hardened, muscular physique rippling beneath the fabric of his garments.
“Rin brings up a valid point,” Lexi said. “Why should we trust you?”
“You don’t have to trust me,” Watanabe replied. “And I never asked you to. But if you want to escape from this place, you do have to follow my instructions.”
Rin put on the net goggles, and the world seemed to turn red all around her. A heads up display initiated in the smooth, rounded lenses of the goggles, and a tiny microphone slid down from the covered ear panel toward her jawline.
“I want answers!” Lexi demanded angrily. “Who brought us here and why!?”
“I believe your genetic code has been tampered with” Watanabe replied simply. “As for the who, I’m still trying to figure that out.”
“And why are you helping us?” Lexi asked while Rin folded her hands nervously in front of herself.
The sounds of footsteps approaching in the corridor outside caused the three of them to fall silent. Then both the girls’ eyes shot wide open in disbelief as they watched Watanabe seem to turn into a yellowish energy and literally melt away.
“That answer will have to wait until later” Watanabe said into Rin’s comm. as Lexi put on her net goggles. “For now, let’s concentrate on your escape.”
“How did you do that?” Rin asked.
“Another question for later,” Watanabe replied. “Now, I need you to get behind the door on either side. I’ll tell you when to move.”
A few moments later, the doors parted, sliding open, and two men dressed in high-tech armor, and carrying blaster rifles entered. They seemed unaware of Rin and Lexi at first.
“Now” Watanabe cried into their comms. Rin dashed out into the hall while the guards’ backs were still turned toward them. Lexi meanwhile also dashed out, hitting the control on the wall which caused the doors to slide back shut between them.
Then suddenly, blaster fire erupted tearing through the doors like they were made of paper, just missing both the girls. Rin cried defensively dropping into an instinctive crouch as she buried her head beneath her hands. Lexi, meanwhile, suddenly and inexplicably struck one of the bolts of lased particles, deflecting it back into the wall beside the doors, where it caused a section of wall to smolder and spark.
Lexi looked down into her hands discovering that from out of nowhere she seemed to be holding a massive mallet-like hammer composed of energy. It stood nearly as tall as she was, and its mallet stood nearly half as tall as a man and was at least twice as wide around.
One of the guards pulled the doors apart, spotting Lexi standing there holding the massive energy hammer with a wide, excited smile on her face. His eyes grew wide as he swung his weapon up via a shoulder sling to fire. Lexi, however, beat him to the punch, leaping into him mallet-first, sending him flying where he slammed into the opposite wall with a loud “ka-thunk.”
Seeing this, the other guard brought his weapon up to fire, but Lexi raised her mallet overhead, bringing it crashing down on top of him. He fell to the ground in a crumpled, broken heap, his blaster rifle bouncing and then skittering across the floor away from him.
Then Lexi spent a long moment staring at the energy hammer in her hands. “Cool,” she whispered as it dissolved away with a thought.
“How did you do that?” Rin asked as she rose and walked up alongside her twin sister.
“I don’t know” Lexi replied. “I just needed it and suddenly it was there in my hands.”
“It was your mind responding to your body’s conscious need” Watanabe replied. “You manifested the hammer out of your psionic energies. Proof that they’ve altered your DNA.”
“Now get moving,” Watanabe urged. “More will be on their way, and they won’t be far behind.”
Rin and Lexi followed the corridor at a full sprint, and came to a T-intersection.
“Go left” Watanabe instructed over their comms.
They turned left, and continued up the hall only to encounter four more guards in firing positions up ahead.
“Fire!” one of the guards cried. “Don’t let the subjects escape!”
Lexi stepped to the front, swinging her hammer, deflecting some of the blaster fire. But one stray shot got past her.
Then much to Rin’s surprise, she found herself dodging the shot with ease.
“What is happening to us, Watanabe?” Rin asked as Lexi charged up the hallway. Leaping up, the elder Halloran sister brought her hammer crashing down into the floor in the midst of the guards, sending out a shockwave that caused the guards to tumble and lose their footing.
“Amazing!” Watanabe replied. “You dodged the shot before it was even fired, but only that shot, as if your body instinctively knew that it would get past Lexi’s hammer.”
Lexi spun around on the balls of her feet, her hammer rotating around her and striking all four guards knocking them into unconsciousness.
“Oh I’m loving this!” Lexi roared once she had come to a stop. “I totally kick butt!”
“Don’t get cocky” Watanabe warned. “You’re getting close to the main lobby, where they’re already setting another ambush. Be on your guard.”
Lexi and Rin proceeded forward with caution. They came to a door, which slid open revealing the main lobby beyond.
As they entered, they walked past a white reception counter with orderly rows of white chairs arranged along the opposite partition and potted plants scattered here and there. Then as they came to the partition and turned to their left, they spotted the front door. But blocking their path was the guardpost commander, dressed like his guards in black blast armor. His shoulderboards each bore a row of stars. Behind him on either side was a sentinel: a massive armored combat drone armed with a variety of weapons.
“Turn around and go back to your stasis tubes” the post commander ordered in a clear, authoritative tone.
“Who do you work for?” Lexi shot back angrily, raising her hammer, and brandishing it threateningly toward them. “Why are we here?”
The post commander smiled as his eyes flared with anger. “I’m not authorized to disclose that information. Needless to say you are valuable resources. If you won’t return to your tubes willingly, then we will return you to them by force.”
The two sentinels came forward on thick, heavily armored limbs toward Lexi. Autoblasters popped out of their shoulders, swiveling down toward her. Lexi defensively raised her hammer. In that same moment, the sentinels both unleashed torrents of blaster fire that could easily cut her in half.
Seeing this, Rin stepped back, fear and hesitation filling her and holding in her in place.
Lexi, placing her hammer on the floor, flipped up over it. She came to land back behind where she had been standing, avoiding the deadly barrage which carved a burning pattern into the steel flooring.
The post commander, meanwhile, activated a control on his belt buckle, fading from their view.
“Active camouflage,” Watanabe commented over their comms. “Watch your backs!”
As Lexi rushed forward, swinging her hammer in a wide arc, she struck one of the sentinels in the side. Rin suddenly leapt aside a brief moment before there was a whoosh of air passing before her shoulders. Looking carefully, she could see the commander’s virtually invisible outline within striking distance.
Without intent or conscious thought Rin kicked at waist level for the commander, hitting his belt buckle. This caused jolts of electricity to cascade throughout his body, as his active camouflage failed.
The commander stumbled backwards and fell onto one knee. Meanwhile, The Sentinel Lexi h
ad struck in the side wrapped its mechanical hands around the stalk of her hammer. Lexi pulled futilely trying to loose her weapon from the drone’s grip. Her eyes grew wide as the other sentinel came up alongside the first, and struck her across the face with the back of its hand, sending her flying. Lexi slid along the floor on her back until she butted into the back wall.
“Lexi!” Rin cried as the commander got back to his feet with a sadistic smile on his face.
“Shouldn’t have done that,” the commander began. “Now I’m going to have to make you suffer before putting you back into your tube!”
He pulled a pair of electrified brass knuckles out from a pouch on his belt. Striking them together caused arcs of electricity to lick back and forth between them.The commander swung, lunging at Rin.
Rin sidestepped the blow, ducking the swing that followed which was meant to take her head clean off her body.
Lexi, meanwhile, got back to her feet. Her face was still red and throbbing from the sentinel’s backhanded slap. Her hammer dissolved away where the Sentinel still held it in its grasp reappearing in her hands.
Lexi looked across at the two drones as they approached, The sentinels marched toward her, and the elder Halloran sister allowed herself a confident smile. Spinning her hammer before her, and leapt forward toward them.
As the commander loosed a jab at Rin, She twisted her torso. Rin could feel the tingle of electricity against her skin as his taser-knuckled fist soared past her head. Finally, she struck, bringing her knee up into his solar plexus.
He had overextended himself, Rin realized after the fact. Her body had seized on the opportunity on its own. She felt at the same time proud of her sudden ability to fight, and scared that she was no longer in control of her own actions.
Like whirling fan blades, Lexi’s hammer deflected the torrent of autoblaster fire coming from the sentinels’ shoulder-mounted weapons. Suddenly, she was in striking distance of them both, and she brought her hammer crashing down from overhead, striking the ground between them. The impact knocked them both off their feet. With the sentinels prone, Lexi stood over the one that had hit her earlier. With a vengeful gleam in her eye, she brought her hammer crashing down on its head crushing it completely.