The Awakening: Book 1 of the Evaran Chronicles (7 page)

Dr. Snowden furrowed his eyebrows. The idea that the UIC could access any technological system regardless of the security seemed implausible. The results, though, were obvious, and he could not deny that.

“Why would you need the ARI then? There’s already a physical interface,” said Sanjay.

“The ARI is a generic interface that works across any system. The ARI and the physical interface both access the same set of functionality,” said Evaran.

Sanjay raised his eyebrows. “So the ARI is just another view essentially.”

“Exactly. Imagine a sphere, where the bottom is at your hips and the top is at your head. On that sphere lives the interfaces. I get readouts on the surrounding environment based on V’s scanning or mine as well,” said Evaran.

“Damn, that’s sweet,” said Jay.

Dr. Snowden shook his head. “I can’t even imagine that. Could these nanobots inside us give us something like that?”

Evaran half grinned at Dr. Snowden. “Perhaps. I will investigate the possibility later.”

Dr. Snowden’s eyes lit up.

“I hate to interrupt, but these draug creatures … specimens like us?” asked Emily.

Evaran turned toward Emily. “Yes, they have been extinct for a very long time. Nasty creatures, and in following with the theme of the other specimens, apex predators of their world.”

“Why’d they pick so many of them?” asked Jay.

“I do not think they picked up all the ones we saw. I am guessing they picked up a brood queen by accident. It would need considerable amounts of food to make that many though.”

Dr. Snowden gulped. “What’re we going to do about them? If we go out there, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“I have been trying to access their global security control system, but it is too far gone. I have, however, been able to access the local security control system. I was able to reroute some functionality.” Evaran tapped at his ARI and directed them to look at the main screen. “You can see it in action for yourselves.”

They turned to the main screen and watched the draug roaming outside the door. The draug brood was feasting on the dead Krotovore and other dead aliens. A beeping sound rang out. Metallic spiderlike robots swarmed out from the hatches and attacked the draug. The robots began dismantling the draug with incredible efficiency. The draug retreated with the robots in pursuit.

“Man, they kick ass!” said Jay.

“Those are security drones. Those drones are strong and fast and can jump and scale walls, and they have numbers. They are also all networked to the ship, so they have a sensor advantage as well and can communicate instantly with each other,” said Evaran.

“Where were they earlier? We coulda used their help,” said Emily.

Evaran nodded. “They would not have distinguished us from the draug had they come out. On top of that, they can only be turned on from here since the global security control system is down. It was one of the first systems to go down since it is a primary system. They will ignore us since we are now honorary crew members. I added us to their ship roster database. They got the update when I reactivated the local security control system. However, the update only applies to the ones outside this door. We will need to be careful if we see any outside the surrounding bridge area,” said Evaran.

“Oh,” said Emily.

“I did find some other information on your profiles in the system. Seems they kept a master copy of them here. It had information gleaned from the virtual simulation as well as the state of your memories from your initial entry into it,” said Evaran.

They all turned back around to look at Evaran.

“Like what?” asked Jay.

“Well, it says you just had a son before entering the virtual simulation. Sanjay is the first in his family to go to college in America. Emily plays volleyball, and Dr. Snowden recently published a paper,” said Evaran.

Jay nodded. “I can’t wait to get back to him.”

Sanjay nodded. “I wish I was back at college.”

Emily sighed. “Be nice to be on a court instead of here.”

Sanjay smiled at Emily. “I wish I had time to play sports.”

Emily glared at Sanjay. “It’s simple time management.”

Sanjay averted his eyes and looked away.

Evaran paused and narrowed his eyes. He interacted with his ARI. “Looks like there is more, but a bit more personal. Okay, back to digging for me.”

Sanjay walked over to one of the consoles and began interacting with it. Jay went over to the sustenance replicators. Dr. Snowden and Emily walked over to one of the consoles in the back row. A dead Krotovore lay sprawled out to the side of it. It was in similar shape to the one they saw outside. The odor of the rotting flesh permeated the air around it. Emily grimaced as she walked past it.

Dr. Snowden scrutinized the console. He reached out to touch the glass-like console, tracing its multiple circular interfaces along the multicolored lines that connected them. It reminded him of a circuit chip with swirls. He ran his finger across each quadrant of the main circular interface, noting it lit up where his finger touched. He ran his finger over a smaller circle that displayed a series of menu options. He observed that the interface would work better with four eyes, given how spread out the information was. He was able to catch some of the words, but the interface moved too fast. It seemed like a mess.

“I can barely read anything on this,” said Emily as she touched the screen. A light golden circle lit up under her finger.

“I guess if I had four arms, more than two eyes, and the ability to process information at blazing speeds, it might make more sense,” said Dr. Snowden. He bumped Emily slightly with his shoulder, causing her to smile.

Evaran addressed the room. “Who wants to hear a Krotovore speak?”

Dr. Snowden’s eyes lit up. “What’d you find?”

“The last visual log in the system. I will play it on the main screen,” said Evaran, pointing to it.

They focused their attention on the main screen.

Evaran swiped at his ARI, and the main screen changed from the picture of the planet to a Krotovore with a tight-fitting gray suit. The background around the Krotovore was flashing lights, and a muted warning alert was firing off.

Dr. Snowden’s chest felt light as a tingling sensation rushed through him. He noted that the background looked similar to where he and Emily stood. He did not know Krotovore facial expressions, but the rapid blinking of the eyes seem to indicate nervousness. Were they the first humans to see a nonhumanoid alien speak? The Krotovore interrupted his thoughts when it spoke in a high-pitched and garbled-sounding voice.

“Kri’tokhaar reporting. Kri’tokhaar is the last surviving member of the crew. Kri’tokhaar doubts it will make it out of this alive. A majority of the main systems are down except for life support. The global security control main system is down along with a majority of the secondary systems. Bipedal creatures attacked us en route to the last rift we came through. The specimens are roaming the ship freely. Tertiary systems such as transports and replicators are still functional. Kri’tokhaar barely got into the bridge and sealed it. Ghaa’kiPruut was with Kri’tokhaar and made it into the bridge, but Ghaa’kiPruut was mauled severely by a quadruped creature on the way in. Ghaa’kiPruut died shortly thereafter.”

Dr. Snowden looked down at the Krotovore they had walked around earlier. Although he was excited to see Kri’tokhaar speaking, he was saddened at the situation being described. Was this how they truly spoke, or was it a glitch in the universal translator? It seemed when Ghaa’kiPruut was mentioned, Kri’tokhaar’s eyes blinked slower and its voice slowed down. Maybe these Krotovore do have emotions. He looked at Evaran, who had his hand on his chin and his finger on his lips. It struck him again that for Evaran, this was probably nothing out of the ordinary. However, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience unfolding before him. He turned to look back at the display as Kri’tokhaar continued speaking.

“Kri’tokhaar doesn’t know if anyone will ever listen to this, but beware the rifts. This journey through the rifts did not go as planned. It was to be a quick jump through and back. The probes that initially tested it went in and came back. They reported an unknown constellation on the other end. We thought it was stable, but found that it is not. We have been through eighteen rifts now, with each one placing us in an unknown location. We still did our mission, however, picking up species for study and researching everyplace we went. At our last pickup, we retrieved four bipedal creatures. That region appears to have an unusually high amount of bipedal forms. It took us three weeks to get to the next rift, and on the last week, we encountered an aggressive bipedal species that attacked us after failed communications. Although our ship had better defenses, they had more ships. We made it through another rift, but the systems damage had been done.”

Dr. Snowden waved his hand at the display. “Can we pause for a sec?”

Evaran paused the playback.

Dr. Snowden furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at Emily before looking at Evaran. “Who’re the bipedal species they’re referring to? I know it isn’t us.”

Evaran placed his hands behind his back and pursed his lips before speaking. “Earth is part of a galactic community. The Krotovore ship was flying through the Kreagan Star Empire, which stretches over a vast area of space around both Earth and the space-time rift. They are humanoid and are aggressive at defending their space.”

“As advanced as this ship seems, it sounds like the Kreagans must’ve been fairly advanced,” said Dr. Snowden.

“Not so much advanced as different. The Krotovore region of space in their galaxy only has one humanoid race, and they are primitive technology-wise. The Kreagan are far from primitive. They are the dominant power in your section of the galaxy. The Krotovore had no defense against some of their weapons it appears, based on the logs I have read,” said Evaran.

Sanjay raised his hand. “I noticed they referred to time in weeks. I assume the universal translator is translating that? To something we would understand?”

“Very observant, and you are correct. If it had translated it to fifty-nine tetritons, it would not make sense to you. Anything else?” said Evaran.

Dr. Snowden and Sanjay shook their heads no.

Evaran interacted with his ARI. Kri’tokhaar began speaking again. “Kri’tokhaar was able to guide the ship to the nearest planet, which seems to have primitive life. If the life pods can fire, there may be a chance of getting out of this. Kri’tokhaar is heading to the docking bay now.”

The sound of something hitting the door in the video startled Kri’tokhaar. Kri’tokhaar looked back at the door. “There isn’t much time. If you are hearing this and are on the ship, be careful. Kri’tokhaar out.” The video showed Kri’tokhaar reaching forward with two of his arms and touching the console screen. The video went blank after that.

“I wonder if he made it to the docking bay,” said Emily.

Evaran looked at the ground as if in thought. “Not likely. The ship reports all Krotovore life signs are gone, and none of the life pods were fired.” Evaran looked around at his ARI. “Nonetheless, it looks like the data retrieval is done. I also changed the ship’s trajectory, so we are no longer in danger of crashing into the planet. However, we need to get the main engine back online. I have downloaded the sequence needed to do so. We will need to head there, to the engine room, next.”

“What did you change the ship’s trajectory to?” asked Sanjay.

“To the sun. The ship will continue toward it, but under its current momentum it will be several weeks until it gets there. By turning on the main engines, we can shorten that time to seven hours,” said Evaran with taut lips. Evaran picked up his UIC and placed it back into his utility belt.

“You’re gonna kill everything on the ship?” asked Emily with wide eyes.

“That’s cold, man,” said Jay.

Evaran looked down with furrowed eyebrows before looking around at them. He sighed. “This was not an easy decision. I feel for the creatures on this ship, abducted without a choice in the matter. However, the planet below cannot be interrupted by this timeline-changing event. This ship is larger than the asteroid that hit your planet sixty-five million years ago. The primitive life on the planet would not stand a chance.”

“Okay, but why’re we speeding up the ship to the sun?” asked Dr. Snowden.

Evaran gestured with his right hand. “We are deep in Bilaxian space. They already have cruisers on their way here, and I am sure it has attracted the attention of others. This ship’s technology is far more advanced than that of any of the civilizations here. It would radically alter the timeline to have this advanced technology fall into any of their hands. That must not occur. They would arrive before this ship hit the sun with plenty of time to scour it.”

He gestured with his left hand. “Another thing. This ship causes timeline changes wherever it goes. It must be stopped. The very existence of these apex predators on this ship has already caused changes from wherever they are, just as your presence here has. If I had the time, I would capture every one of them and take them home. However, I do not know where they came from, save a few. I could try and guess, but that could make things worse. I had to make a choice, and I chose to save you four and direct the ship into the sun. I know where you came from and when.”

“What do you mean by timeline exactly?” asked Dr. Snowden.

Evaran drew his lips flat and tilted his head at them. “Your universe has many instances. Each instance has a defined chronological sequence of events, which is called a timeline. Let me give you an analogy. Let us say the Krotovore never abducted you and your life continued on as normal. A year after your brother’s funeral, you meet the woman of your dreams.”

“Hell yeah, Doc!” said Jay, nodding with a crooked smile.

Dr. Snowden cocked his head at Jay with wrinkled eyebrows. “Hey! It could happen.”

Evaran nodded. “Yes, it could. We will call that the default state of the timeline at that point. Now along comes the Krotovore, and they abduct you before you meet this woman. Your future has now changed. Since your future has changed, anyone or anything that had interacted with you also changes. This is how the timeline maintains referential integrity. Any change in the timeline causes an update toward the future. This is referred to as a cascading timeline update, or CTU. The point where you meet the woman of your dreams no longer happens now. She would go on about her life, never having met you.”