The Awakening: Book 1 of the Evaran Chronicles (10 page)

“Uncle Albert! It’s set!” said Emily, trembling with wide eyes.

His breathing was ragged and his speech slurred. “Get out of the room!”

“I’m not leaving you!” shouted Emily.

He kicked out at the second one. It dodged him again. It raised its arm toward his right leg.
Stab!
He clenched his jaw and grunted as the bone knife lodged itself near the first wound. He tried to stand up using the table but fell back down.
“Go!”

“No!”
screamed Emily as she pushed the second alien away. She pulled the knife out of his right leg. The second one staggered back up. It rushed her.
“No!”
She stabbed it in the eye. The second one howled and fell back into the wall. The first one jumped at her.
“Get away!”
Tears ran down her face. She punched it midair, sending it sprawling. It hit the wall and slid down. It whimpered as it put both hands on its head. She grabbed Dr. Snowden by the arms. “
C’mon
!” She dragged him out of the room. She hit the close option on the console, and the doors slid shut. Thumping sounds emanated from the door. She helped him up and put her arm around him. They took off toward the main engine room.

The adrenaline was still pumping through him. He squinted his eyes and parted his lips. His chest was struggling to keep up with his breathing. He massaged the three stab wounds. They must have poisoned him. His voice slurred. “It won’t take them long to get out.”

“I know. Let them come,” said Emily with a clenched jaw and a guttural voice.

He did a double take. Emily’s face was strained. Her eyes had a look of defiance, just like Dan’s did when he was backed into a corner. He’d never seen her like this before.

It took them fifteen minutes to get back to the main engine room. When they were almost there, he heard only one alien shrieking. The second one with the stabbed eye must not have made it. He could hear the shrieks getting closer. When they reached the main engine room, he scanned it and did not see anyone else. He noted that the red beams had been disabled and the blades were whirling around. He massaged his stab wounds again. He could feel the nanobots trying to counteract the poison. These nanobots just signed a renewal contract. His vision was still blurred, and he was nauseous with a headache.

He tensed up as he heard a deep growling noise coming from the entrance to the main room. Time seemed to slow down as he turned his head and saw the krall standing in the doorway, gazing at him. His heart went ballistic as he realized just how bad the situation had become. The approaching sound of the alien’s high-pitched screaming snapped his mind back to reality.

Emily helped him toward the hallway Evaran had gone down. She called out for Evaran several times. She got Dr. Snowden about halfway there before helping him lie down. She put herself between him and the krall and adopted a defensive stance. She shot him a look filled with unbridled rage. “Don’t you
dare
leave me!”

The krall had moved closer to them. It was just a blob to him at this point. He heard the alien burst out of the hallway entrance. He figured this must be the end then
.
He could not help Emily fight the alien and the krall. They might have had a shot with the alien, but there was no way in hell they had a shot against the krall. The krall was much larger than V’s projection showed. This thing was the size of a grizzly. He turned on his back and sat up. He was going to go out fighting. He had come too far to give up. He licked his lips. Tears streamed down his face, and his head drooped. He heard the muted sound of Emily calling out to him. He had failed to protect her. His head bobbed. What would happen to Emily? His breathing slowed, and he crashed to the floor.

Twenty minutes passed, and Dr. Snowden awoke with a headache, but his vision had returned. Everything was quiet around him. He jumped as Evaran spoke behind him. “It did not see you as a threat. You should be thankful for that.”

Dr. Snowden sat up and rubbed his temples. He scanned the room for Emily. He saw her over by the krall, petting it. The mangled body of the alien lay near it. “Evaran! How long have you been standing there?”

“I heard Emily’s shouts and came as fast as I could, but it looks like she had everything under control. She is more resilient than I expected. It appears you met the krall. Despite their appearance, they are quite friendly actually,” said Evaran.

Emily rushed over to Dr. Snowden and gave him a big hug. “Uncle Albert!” She helped him to his feet.

He eyed the krall, which had gone back to the dead alien and was munching on it. “I thought you said it was a dangerous creature.”

Evaran nodded. “It is a dangerous creature, if it sees you as a threat. Your humanoid form and size resembles that of a Grimlyn. It most likely figured you could help it. When it saw the aliens rushing to attack you and Emily defending you, it reacted. Emily seems to have formed a bond with it. Looks like you two were able to deactivate the beam, though,” said Evaran as he walked over to the krall and patted it on the side. The krall appeared to enjoy the contact, and its eyes relaxed.

Dr. Snowden noticed Evaran had the bone knife in his hands. “Well, those aliens stabbed me in the leg three times with a knife like that, but it appears to be healing. I think they poisoned me too. I guess the nanobots took care of that.”

Evaran’s eyes narrowed. “It would appear so. I used my ring to close your wounds, but that is only an external fix. Internally there may be some pain as it heals.” He spun the bone knife around in his hands. “This is a Grynge tribal dagger. You can tell by the decoration. That is very unusual. There should be no Grynge here.”

“Why not?”

“Let us just say that they are not a part of
this
reality.”

Dr. Snowden swallowed hard. He figured Evaran would have elaborated if he had wanted to, but he didn’t. He filed it away as something to ask about before they went home, assuming they got there at all. He looked around. “Where’s Jay? He got his unlocked it seems.”

Evaran nodded. “He did, but he is not back yet. V said they are almost here.”

After a few minutes, Jay walked back into the main room, but hesitated at the entrance when he spotted the krall and mangled alien. He looked at Dr. Snowden with dull eyes and flattened lips. “I killed them.”

Dr. Snowden’s eyes furrowed. “Killed what?”

Jay pointed at the alien on the ground. “Its friends.”

Emily walked over to Jay and gave him a hug. “But you survived.”

Jay creased his eyebrows and hugged Emily back listlessly with one arm as he pointed to the krall with the other. “That the krall?”

Dr. Snowden nodded. “Yeah. It protected us. I got stabbed in the leg three times and was poisoned, but I’m okay now. Thought I was gonna die.”

Jay smirked. “You’re a tough son of a bitch.” He walked over to the wall, slumped down, and put his head into his hands.

Dr. Snowden furrowed his eyebrows and cocked his head at Jay. “Everything okay?”

Jay grimaced and looked up at him. “Just thinking about Sanjay.”

Dr. Snowden lowered his head and drooped his shoulders. “Yeah.”

“Also thinking about my son possibly never knowing his dad,” said Jay, looking off into the distance. “That and I never killed … ,” he said as he twirled his hands in the air, “something smart like us before, not even when I was in the army.”

Dr. Snowden sighed. “I know the feeling.” He looked up at Jay. “I got one back in the control room.”

Emily looked down with furrowed eyebrows. “I did too.”

Jay’s lips drew flat. “Why couldn’t they just leave us the hell alone? Instead they gotta fuck with us.” He snorted and shook his head. “Credit to Blue Ball, though. He did one of them light shows behind them. It gave me the distraction I needed. Not sure it would’ve turned out as well without him.”

V glowed a bit brighter. “Acknowledged.”

Dr. Snowden glanced at Emily and then met Jay’s gaze. They nodded at each other.

Jay stood up and put his hands in his pockets. “So what now?”

Evaran interacted with his ARI. “With the main engines online, we have a little less than seven hours to get to my ship. We can head there now. Before we go, though, I need to check something,” said Evaran as he interacted with his ARI. Evaran nodded and then walked in front of the krall. He balled up his right fist and put it on his chest. He then extended his fist toward Dr. Snowden, then to Emily, then to Jay. The krall watched Evaran’s actions intently. “Everyone, extend your right arm, palm up.”

Dr. Snowden extended his hand slowly, and the krall walked up and nuzzled it. The krall then walked over to Emily and nuzzled her hand. She reached out and patted it on the head. The krall went over to Jay and nuzzled his hand. The krall slowly blinked, then walked back to Evaran. Dr. Snowden saw it blink slowly like that with Evaran. It made him think the krall was happy to not be alone.

“Umm, why’s it doing that?” asked Emily.

“The krall understands a limited set of hand motions. The collar on the back of its neck gives it enhanced intelligence. The nuzzling was confirmation that you three are its friends,” said Evaran as he scratched the krall behind the ears.

“You just happen to know krall hand signals?” asked Dr. Snowden.

“Not quite, but the collar has an interface. I just tapped into it and downloaded the hand motions while you lay unconscious. Another interesting feature is it can project a shield in front of it. Quite useful when charging enemies with ranged weaponry. Now, let us head to my ship,” said Evaran.

Jay exhaled sharply. “What about them mercenary dudes running around out there?”

Evaran paused before speaking. “I have V set to continuous scanning. If we find a group of them, I will deal with it and retrieve information from one of their data devices. Most mercenary groups in this region have a crew locator beacon of some type that we might be able to use as well. That should give us a tactical advantage, knowing their general locations.”

Jay sighed. “A shotgun would work better.”

Evaran half smiled at Jay and then walked toward the engine room entrance. They followed behind him. As they were walking out, Evaran turned to the krall and extended his right arm with a horizontal flat hand toward Emily. The krall walked over to Emily and walked beside her.

Dr. Snowden limped along as he massaged his legs. The poor Grynge. Pulled from wherever they were, to this ship, confused, lost, and hungry. They probably attacked out of desperation. Now they were dead, just like everything else he saw on this ship. The krall, though, was able to feed at least. It had saved his life. He felt safer with it on their side. Just a bit ago, he thought it was going to be his death. Now it was protecting them. It seemed to have bonded with Evaran and Emily. Maybe it saw what he saw in Evaran: hope. Hope that Evaran can maybe lead them out of this hell. He was relieved to be leaving the engine room, but Sanjay’s death still lingered in his thoughts. He was calmer now, and the full impact of it was beginning to dawn on him. His stomach tightened up at the thought of running into more mercenaries.

04

T
hey walked out of the engine room. Evaran motioned for V to fly out and then motioned for the others to cling to the wall. He walked a step or two away from them.

Dr. Snowden figured that was Evaran’s way of being able to deflect shots if any were to come. Dr. Snowden’s limping wasn’t helping things. He rubbed his wounds. Evaran had closed them, but they still hurt. Dr. Snowden’s leg was getting stronger, but each step seemed to aggravate it. He noticed that Evaran appeared more solemn. It was subtle, but the way he moved looked more aggressive. It was obvious Sanjay’s death weighed on him.

After fifteen minutes of walking without incident, they reached a large hallway entrance and entered it. On the sides were doors leading off to other areas.

Dr. Snowden was again mesmerized by the size. It looked like it could easily sustain a large amount of traffic. With the lower mist density and brighter lights, he could see quite far. The random shrieks and noises of creatures far off disturbed him, but he knew there was nothing he could do about that.

V flew back from scouting ahead and projected a map. It showed one of the smaller side doors off to the right side leading to a large room, which was highlighted. Past the large room was a series of rooms connected to each other with two red dots highlighted in one of them.

“Analysis. Two humanoid life-forms detected ahead. Ninety-three percent match on visual profile indicating mercenaries.”

Evaran ran his hand through his hair. “Looks like we have an opportunity, assuming they are Bloodbores.”

Dr. Snowden bent over and took a deep breath.

“Uncle Albert?” said Emily as she rushed over to him.

Dr. Snowden held his hand up to her. “I’m fine. Just walking with pain is all.” He glanced at her and smiled while exhaling sharply through his nose.

Emily tilted her head at him. “What?”

“Just glad you’re headstrong,” he said with a cracked voice. He straightened up, and Emily put her left arm around his shoulders.

They followed Evaran, V, and Jay to the door V had highlighted. It opened into a small hallway that ended at the entrance to another room. They walked through and into the large room. Evaran put his UIC on the door console and interacted with his ARI. A light-blue shield appeared in the hallway entrance they just came from. He held his palm up to the krall, then flipped it around. The krall walked a few steps out and shook its head. A static sound rang out as a mostly transparent arced shield appeared in front of it. It reminded Dr. Snowden of a bulldozer’s front blade but reversed.