The Awakening (The Hyperscape Project Book 1) (9 page)

They both stood
up and stepped around the crates to see what had happened to Karg. Nick scanned
the area with his gaze. The cargo bay was usually neat and orderly, but now
crates and debris littered the floor. There was no sign of Karg anywhere. Where
the hell did he go? And what stopped the air from rushing out of the hull
breach?

Karg’s voice
echoed through the vast hangar bay. “Whenever you get a chance, I would appreciate
it if you could give me a hand.”

Nick and Arya
looked around, unsure where the voice was coming from.

“I have no
idea,” Nick said as he turned in circles. “Where the hell is he?”

“Up here.”

Looking up they
spotted Karg hanging above them. Nick and Arya stood speechless, twisting their
heads to get a better look at the strange sight. There was Karg with his back
plastered flat against the ceiling, his arms and legs dangling down, like
someone had glued him up there. The big hulk had flung himself in front of the
breach, using his body to plug the hole. He was sucked tight to the ceiling,
stopping the outflow of air and saving their lives.

Arya gazed up at
Karg in bewilderment for a moment and then busted out laughing. It was the
funniest thing she had ever seen. There was this big lug of a warrior, stuck
firmly to the ceiling, helplessly waving his arms and legs.

“You’re going to
be the talk of the next mess hall gathering,” she said between giggles. 

“Now, is that
any way to treat someone who just saved your life?” Karg called down.

“Sorry, Karg,
we’ll get you down soon. But first we need to get the systems back online.”
Arya turned toward the door at the far side of the bay. “Come on,” she
commanded Nick as she struggled to keep a straight face.

“Alright, but
hurry up, my rear is getting cold,” Karg hollered as he watched his two
shipmates head to the door.

Nick glanced
once more at Karg and then followed Arya to the doorway. He had to admit it was
an awfully funny sight seeing Karg hanging there with his butt out in space and
his four arms dangling helpless. “Now that’s what I call seriously getting your
ass in a crack. Never a camera around when you need one,” he muttered to
himself.

Arya called to
Captain Argos over her com-badge while she quickly made her way down the
corridor to the aft section. “Did you get that baskurt, Captain?”

“No, they
disabled the weapons. We couldn’t do anything but watch him fly off. We’ll have
to worry about him later. Right now we need propulsion and weapons back online.”

“You’ll have it,
Sir.” Arya paused in front of a thick, metal hatch.  She swung the door
open, ducked inside, and quickly got to work restoring power to the engines.

Nick stood
watching. It would take more time for her to explain what to do than for her to
do it herself, so he stayed out of the way. She was definitely proficient at
everything he had seen her do up until now, and this was no exception. Nick
looked around, lost in the unfamiliar alien power distribution hub. Walls full
of removable control boards surrounded them on three sides. Arya quickly
rearranged the boards, rerouting the power conduits with great efficiency. Nick
tried to follow what she was doing, but he was still two steps behind when she
slid the last control board in.

With the circuits
bypassed and a final throw of a large switch, Arya was finished. Lights
throughout the hub popped on and the silence in the compartment was replaced by
the low hum of active power conduits. “Power restored, Captain.” Arya grinned
at Nick. “Now let’s go get Karg down.”

On their way
back to the bay, Arya stopped and pulled a couple of space suits out of a
locker. “Here, see if this will fit you.” She tossed one of the suits to Nick.

Nick slid the
suit on, watching how Arya locked her gloves and helmet in place. The suit was
obviously made for someone taller, so the blasted thing ended up all bunched up
around his arms and legs. Not exactly a great fit, but he wasn’t about to
complain.

“Ready?” Arya
asked through the integrated helmet communicator.

“Ready,” Nick
replied, still uncertain of what she was up to.

The two entered
the bay, and Arya climbed up onto a stack of crates near to where Karg hung
from the ceiling. She threw a breather unit up to him and then hopped back down
to the deck.

“Are you going
to do what I think you’re going to do?” Nick stared at Arya apprehensively, and
then glanced back up at Karg. “Can he survive without a suit?”

“Rakozians are
pretty tough. With the breather, he can withstand being in a vacuum for a few
chronits.”

From a nearby
control console, Arya sealed the access doors to the hangar. “You better hang
on to something.”

Nick watched
Arya grab onto a girder and hold on tight. “Oh, crap.” He quickly clutched the
girder, wrapping his arms through the metal bars.
She’s even crazier than I
am!
He thought.

Arya reached
over and pressed a button on the console. The huge hangar door slid open,
revealing a beautiful scene of stars lying beyond the force field that
protected the bay.

Nick recognized
the field as the same one he’d traveled through when he’d been pulled into the
ship. With all the bizarre events that had happened to him since he’d come
aboard, that seemed like ages ago. In reality, it had only been a day. One
hell
of a day!

Arya tightened
her grip on the girder. “Hold on.”

With a beep from
the panel, a warning siren squealed throughout the bay. Red lights mounted
along the top of the metal walls flashed rapidly, turning the hangar into a
bizarre dance-floor-like scene. Nick mashed his body against the metal column in
preparation.

Suddenly, the
force field holding the atmosphere in place dissolved, and an explosion of air
blasted out into space. It was as though they were inside a champagne bottle
and someone pulled the cork. The air left so fast that it was over in a couple
of seconds, hurling an array of small objects out of the huge doorway. The
debris spun away from the ship, weightless in the void of space. Some of the
dead Mok’tu slid a few feet across the floor while Karg tumbled down the bay,
coming to a stop some distance away. He stood up and gave a wave to let them
know he was alright.

Nick looked down
at the lifeless Mok’tu lying around on the deck. “Well, at least you have some
of these bastards to study now.” As he spoke, a light on the chest of one Mok’tu
caught his attention. The little red light was flashing faster with each
passing second. “Look!”

Arya turned to
see what Nick was pointing at. “Sket! This way.
Hurry!
” Motioning for
Karg to follow, she led them to a transport ship docked in the bay. Arya
punched some buttons on an external keypad mounted to the outside of the ship.
With a hiss of air, the transport door opened, hinging down to create an
entrance ramp. The team hurried inside, and Arya quickly closed the door behind
them.

Nick followed Arya
as she made her way to the cockpit of the ship. Numerous explosions suddenly
erupted outside in the bay, rocking the transport as they stepped into the
cockpit. Nick instinctively ducked as a metal hand was thrown straight at him
by an explosion and slammed into the cockpit window directly in front of his
face. Small metal parts landed all around the hangar bay, bouncing on the floor
in the eerie silence of the vacuum before finally coming to rest. The Tac Squad
had self-destructed. It was the Mok’tu’s final desperate attempt at killing
them.

Arya peered out
of the window at the mess. “Now we know why no one has ever brought back a Tac
soldier for study.” She dropped her head back in the seat and sighed. “I was
really hoping to find out more about their shields.”

“Now what?” Nick
asked as he stared out the cockpit window.

“We’ll fly over
to Bay One until we can repair this mess. Unless you would rather climb around
outside looking for the air lock,” she said, removing her helmet.

“No, thanks. Bay
One will do fine.” With the atmospheric pressure returning in the transport
ship, Nick unlatched his helmet and pulled it off with a twist.

Arya looked over
her shoulder at Nick. “We make a pretty good team.”

“Yeah, a
good…team,” Nick replied, surprised she included him in their group. With
everything going on he hadn’t even been able to think about getting home, just
surviving. “Is it always like this?”

“No…. This was
one of our better days.” Arya stared out the cockpit window as she maneuvered
the craft out of the bay, never looking back at Nick. The tone in her voice was
dead serious.

Nick was dead
serious about his question. So far, it had been the roughest day of his life.
If this was a good day, he wasn’t sure he would make it through a bad one.

Arya turned toward
Nick. Her serious look gave way to a grin.

One corner of
Nick’s mouth turned up as he fought to contain what was building in his gut. A
laugh forced its way out from between his lips as he tried to hold it inside.
He fell to the floor in an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Relieved for it to
be over, relieved to be alive, and relieved Arya was joking, after all. His
relief washed away the tension of the day and the only thing he could do was
laugh.

Arya was also
glad to have the episode with the Mok’tu behind them, for now at least. She
couldn’t help but let out a giggle at the sight of the strange alien life form
rolling around on the floor of the transport, all red-faced and laughing
hysterically.

Even Karg began
to laugh as they cruised along, his deep rumble of mirth echoing through the
empty transport ship as they made their way around to the other hangar bay.

Arya walked down
the corridor leading to the mess hall. As she rounded the bend, she heard Karg
and Nick talking to one another over their morning meal.

“Your calendar
is made up of twelve munse, your clock is divided by twelve, but your math and
currency is based on ten? That’s the most backward thing I have ever heard,”
Karg announced in his deep voice.

Nick scratched
an itch on the back of his neck. “To start with, it’s months, not munse. And
what else would math be based on? Math is math.”

“Yes, one plus
one equals two, but basing it on ten is inefficient. We base it on twelve.”

Nick was still
perplexed.

Karg looked at
him across the table. “Look, ten can only be divided by one, two, five and
itself. Twelve is divisible by one, two, three, four, six and itself.”

“Yeah, but—”

Karg cut him
off. “What’s three quarters of ten? Seven and a half. A fraction. What’s three
quarters of twelve? Nine.”

“Yes, but—”

“How much is
that currency you carry?”

“It’s a
quarter.” Nick pulled the coin out of his pocket and flipped it over in his
hand. “This is an old one, from back when they still had some silver in them.
It equals twenty-five cents,” Nick replied.

“Is that a lot?”
Karg queried.

Nick laughed.
“No, it’s not much. A penny is the smallest currency on my planet. This only
equals twenty-five pennies. Why?”

“What is half of
that? Twelve and a half. A fraction! See, your system is very inefficient,”
Karg boasted.

Nick glanced up
to see Arya standing there grinning. She had been watching their discussion
from the side of the room. Arya raised her eyebrows and cocked her head as if
to say
well, he’s right you know.
Nick just shook his head, trying to
grasp the strange alien concepts.

“So, instead of
a dollar being one hundred pennies, it should be ninety-six? And a quarter
would be twenty-four?” Nick said, narrowing his eyes in thought.

Karg laughed and
banged the table hard with his hand, causing Nick to jerk so abruptly that he
almost fell out of his chair. “Now you’re getting it,” Karg said. “There’s hope
for you, after all.” Karg gulped down the purple gorban juice from his cup and
stood up to go get some more, letting out a deep burp as he went.

“Well, Karg
seems to be warming up to you,” Arya remarked, as she approached the table. “I
came to tell you that Captain Argos wants you to answer some questions later.”

Nick nodded as
he stared off into space. He’d known it would only be a matter of time before
Argos would want answers.

Arya glanced
down at Nick’s plate of uneaten food. “You okay there? Don’t like the karesh
meat?”

Nick’s gaze
panned over to Arya. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine, just didn’t sleep much.” He looked
down at the not
quite
identifiable food in front of him. “The food is
pretty good actually. What is Karesh anyway? No, wait…maybe it’s better you
don’t tell me.”

Arya sipped some
juice from her cup. “Have you tried the gorban juice? That will make you feel
better. You should get some before it’s gone. It’s not often that we have it.”

“Thanks, I
will.” Nick poked around on his plate with the two-prong fork that came with
his tray of food. “Can you tell me where I am?”

“You’re in a
star system called Garanta Orionis. Some still call it by its ancient Arisian
name, Back Of The Giant,” Arya answered. “Which, by the looks of it, is very
far from your home.”

Nick stared at
her for a long moment. “That doesn’t really help me a bit.” He sighed and
scrubbed a hand across the back of his aching neck. “It sucks being lost and
not knowing where the hell I am. I mean, I didn’t plan on being here. I’m
really not supposed to be here at all. Wherever
here
is. Don’t get me
wrong. If your ship hadn’t picked me up, I’d be dead. So, I am very grateful
you brought me aboard. And you have been very kind to me, but my coming here
was just an accident. I don’t even know
how
I got here.”

Arya set her cup
down on the table. “I can see you are missing your home…. I too miss mine. It
has been such a long time since I have been to my home-world.” Arya looked
almost wistful as she thought about her planet. “I really miss the Sarlansis
trees. There are huge forests of them. At least there used to be, before the
war.” Arya lifted her gaze back to Nick. “Your home must be awfully far away
for us not to have
some
record of your species in our databanks. You
really don’t have any idea how to get home?”

Nick shook his
head no as he toyed with his food.

“Well, Captain
Argos will have the final say, but maybe we can help you find your home
planet.”

Nick stared down
at his plate.

Arya leaned down
to get his attention. “You should eat. You’ll need your strength. I’ll get you
some juice. It’ll help your energy.” Arya left the table to round up a cup of
juice, leaving Nick still staring at his plate, lost in his thoughts.

Moments later,
she returned and plopped a cup down on the table. “Here you go. Taste it.”

Nick agreeably
lifted the cup to take a sip. “Wow. That
is
really good. Kind of like
fruit punch, only better. Thanks.”

Arya sat down
and shoved some karesh into her mouth.

Nick glanced
around at the almost empty room. In one corner, a couple of aliens were
gathering some food containers. The two creatures were completely covered with
what appeared to be spacesuits. He only caught a hint of their creepy faces
through their masks as they turned to leave. They appeared to be four-legged
with two arms and a bizarrely shaped head. The aliens were definitely odd, and
it was even odder that they were wearing spacesuits
inside
the ship. It
made him realize that overall he hadn’t actually seen many crewmembers. Only a
handful since being brought on board.

“I’ve noticed
that there seems to be a very small crew for a ship this size,” he said, still
watching the two spacesuit-clad aliens exiting the room.

“Meths.”

“What?” Nick
turned to Arya with a befuddled look.

“We call them
Meths. The two Coranii you were looking at over there. They’re methane
breathers. Whatever you do, steer clear of areas marked with red and yellow
‘METH’ signs.”

“Oh, um, right.
I’ll do that.” Nick’s brain was still stuck on the whole methane breather thing
as Arya continued.

“The Resistance
is spread pretty thin. We only have enough crew to run the ship. That way we
reduce our losses if one ship falls to the enemy,” Arya explained through her
mouthful of food.

“Resistance?”

“The Resistance
is formed out of all the indigenous races in this sector. We have banded
together against our common enemies. We are the ones that were lucky enough to
escape the war between the Mok’tu and the Dragoran Empire. We were just in the
right place at the right time to be spared. But we are few. The Resistance
tries to rescue any survivors that it can. We stay in the shadows, attempting
to fight the enemy any way possible. I feared our fight was a hopeless cause.
But then you showed up with that ship of yours. You destroyed a Planet-Killer
and a Dreadnought in one swoop. I knew then that the Divine One had answered
our pleas. You are our salvation.”

“Your salvation?
I can’t even get home. How could I be your salvation?” Nick asked, bewildered.

Arya’s eyes
glazed over as she spoke. “Our prophecies tell of a Great War spreading over
this sector, and a brutal fight against soulless beings of metal and scales. It
was written that when all appears to be lost, a noble warrior from a distant
world would split the sky and swallow our violent oppressors, freeing our
people. I never believed much in prophecy, and I never understood what it meant
by
split the sky
, but now here
you
are. It’s all so clear to me
now.”

Nick looked at
Arya’s hopeful eyes. He hated to crush her faith. “Look, I…I’m not who you
think. I am just a man from Earth. A very
lost
man from Earth.”

Arya grinned.
“The prophecy said you would be humble.”

Nick dropped his
head and sighed. “I liked it better when I was being shot at. At least I know
how to handle that,” he grumbled under his breath.

A beep from
Arya’s com-badge announced an incoming call. “Arya, bring…Nick to my
ready-room.”

“Right away,
Sir.” Arya stood up. “Come on Noble Warrior, you don’t want to keep the Captain
waiting.”

Nick rolled his
eyes. This whole savior thing made him really uncomfortable. Was this day going
to turn out even worse than yesterday? What’s going to happen when they found
out he’s really not their prophesied hero?

Once in the
transport tube, Nick readied himself for the pressure of the lift’s
acceleration. As the tube shot upwards, Nick stood with his knees locked
against the force with a smile on his face, happy that his legs didn’t buckle
this time. His pride would have been bruised if he let it beat him again. The
tube came to a blistering halt. Nick’s inertia carried him upwards an inch off
the floor before he dropped back down. His feet hit the floor hard. The force
transferred up through his rigid knees, jarring his teeth and forcing him off
balance. Hoping Arya didn’t notice, he wrestled to gain his composure. The damn
thing still got the best of him.

The tube doors
opened into a relatively small room with a curved, black table in the middle.
The smooth, polished table sported a row of chairs around the outside of the
curve. Facing them from the only chair on the opposite side was Captain Argos.
From what Nick understood, the table was different than the ones on other
ships. This one was the Captain’s own design. He liked to have people close
enough to see their eyes when he talked to them.

Nick and Arya
stepped out of the tube and into the ready room.

“Thank you,
Arya. You’re dismissed,” Argos said without hesitation.

Arya nodded and
stepped back into the tube. The tube doors shut and she was gone, leaving Nick
and the Captain alone.

Nick stood
facing Argos with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. Under other circumstances
he would have suspected that the karesh wasn’t sitting well with him, but he
knew it wasn’t the food. This was going to be an inquisition, and he was damn
uncomfortable about it. The next few minutes would determine his fate. What
could be going through the Captain’s mind? After all, Nick was an outsider
here. Hopefully he could reason with Argos, and with any luck, he could
convince the Captain to at least spare his life.

“Please sit.”
Argos motioned to the row of comfortable looking chairs in front of the table.
Nick spun the nearest chair a quarter turn, sat down and turned back to the
Captain, who stared at him intently.

“Some of the
crew believe you are fulfilling an ancient prophecy. They think you are here to
save the galaxy.” Captain Argos leaned across the table and gave him a stern
look.

Nick looked
away, trying not to meet the Captain’s steely gaze. The large cat-like eyes of
Captain Argos were unsettling. Like having a predator’s gaze locked on you just
before the kill. The sharp teeth didn’t help much either.

 Argos
leaned in closer. “I don’t believe in prophecy. I believe in actions. I believe
in honor.”

A scary silence
permeated the room as Nick waited for Argos to make his point.

“Your actions so
far have been honorable. You fought bravely to save this ship, and for that I
am in your debt. Of course you
were
fighting to save your own neck, so
I’m not entirely sure where that puts you.” Argos paused and stared at the tips
of his green fingers, which he rested on the table in front of them.  “No,
I don’t believe you’re the savior that was prophesied about two thousand years
ago, but I sure hope to God you prove me wrong…because, short of a miracle, my
people, our culture, will be lost forever if we don’t win this war.” The
Captain sat back in his chair, and a translucent image appeared over the table.