Novum: Revelation: (Book 4) (6 page)

Jake ran for well over an hour, stopping only occasionally to catch his breath or relocate the path of Jane’s small footprints. She was barefoot, of course, and didn’t weigh much, so she didn’t leave much to follow. When he reached the steeply sloping base of the mountain range, the dirt gave way to bedrock, and her trail disappeared altogether. Fortunately, he saw a very distinct set of stairs carved into the rock face straight ahead. Who had carved them, and why Jane had known to run straight for them, was anyone’s guess.

The stairs went up the side of a nearly vertical rock wall at a steep pitch. Halfway way up, he had to stop to stretch a pulled calf muscle. Even with all of the running he had done back when he was on the ship, which included running up several sets of stairs between decks, he was not in shape for such a steep and lengthy climb. Also, the steps were less than a meter wide, and the fear of falling to his death made the climb that much more difficult.

When he finally reached the last step, he collapsed to his hands and knees on the glass-smooth floor of the ledge, without even bothering to look around. Only when his heart stopped pounding in his throat did he look up to see Jane sitting cross-legged less than ten meters away. She had beads of sweat running down her face.

“If it’s any consolation,” she said, “the climb wasn’t easy for me either.”

He rolled to his back and stared up at the darkening sky. “It isn’t,” he said between breaths. “Why the bilge did you run off by yourself?”

“You didn’t see it?”

He closed his eyes and tried to slow his breathing. “See what?”

“That’s why I ran after it. No one else saw it rise up from where Ash disappeared?”

“The bug?” He thought he had been the only person to see it. “I assumed that it was just something on the ground that reacted to the dust pile falling on it.”

She stood. “It wasn’t an insect. It rose up and flew towards the mountains. I knew that if I stopped to explain what had happened, I would have lost sight of it.”

“Raines mentioned that a self-contained simulation would need a controller and a power source,” he said. “We found the power source.”

“I think the bug thing was the controller. Probably designed to return home if something went wrong.” She looked at him. “Did I mess up, Jake?”

He stood as well. “No, Jane. You did exactly what you should have done.” He looked around the ledge, which he now realized really was oddly glass-smooth on top. “So, where did this controller-bug of yours go?”

She looked back at the rock wall behind her. “I don’t know. It flew up here, but by the time I made it up the steps, it was gone.” She looked back at him. “Maybe it was all for nothing.”

He squatted down and ran his fingers over the smooth floor. “This ledge certainly isn’t natural, and neither was that staircase coming up here. This place has to be here for a reason.”

“You mean there are people here? Other people?”

He stood and nodded. “Someone sent that simulation to meet us and bring us here.” He walked over to the rock wall. “There has to be an opening here—some sort of door.” As if on cue, a section of the wall a few meters away dipped in and then slid to the side, revealing a oval-shaped opening. “Tell me that I did that,” he whispered.

“Door,” Jane called out. Immediately, the opening resealed itself. She repeated the word, and the opening reappeared.

“That was too easy,” he said.

“Perhaps it was meant to be easy,” she replied.

He looked at her. “You think we’re being invited in?”

She nodded and started for the door.

“Wait,” he said. “Let’s not rush in, okay? I’m feeling a little bit like a small animal being lured into a trap.”

“We’re in someone else’s structure,” she said, “without access to our ship. I think we’re already trapped.”

He nearly smiled. “You’re right, of course.” He looked back at the top of the stairs behind him. “But, I’d like to wait for the rest of our crew to get here. Okay? I’d like AJ’s input on all of this before I proceed.”

She looked at him then sat back down on the floor. “You’re the captain, Captain.”

He ordered to door to close again then walked over and sat beside her. If Raines hadn’t already died from the exertion, they hopefully wouldn’t have to wait too much longer.

The sun had already disappeared around the wall of mountains to the west when they heard voices from the far side of the ledge. Jake jumped up, but the stabs of pain in both of his strained calves kept him from reaching the stairs before Jane.

“Hey, old man,” Raines said as he topped the staircase first.

Jake smiled. “Glad you could make the party, young fellow.”

“Find anything interesting?” AJ asked as she came up next.

“Definitely interesting,” he replied, reaching out a hand to pull Vee and Jessie up the last step. Wood came up last, looking more annoyed than tired.

“More important than interesting,” the doctor said, “did you find us shelter for the night?” He looked around the barren ledge top. “Honestly, I’d be happy with a cold, damp cave tonight if it doesn’t have wild dogs trying to eat me.”

“Well, Doctor,” Jake said, “you’ve come a long way.”

The man frowned. “I’m more adaptive than you’d imagine, I think.”

When Jake thought back to Wood’s story of what had happened to him before joining his crew, of how he had lost his wife, watched her die from a bullet to the head—killed by the same people he used to work for—he realized that maybe it was time to give the doctor a break. “I believe you, Arik,” Jake said, reaching out his hand to the man.

Wood took his hand and pulled himself up the last step. “Thank you, Captain,” he said then tightened his grip. “But please call me Dr. Wood. As much as I appreciate what you have done for me, what you went through back on the ship to keep us all alive, I still don’t want to be here, and you and I are still not
friends
.” He held his grip a second longer, as if to drive home the point.

Jake smiled and then squeezed Wood’s hand twice as hard. “I think I understand you, Doctor. Glad we got things out in the open.” He released his grip, and even though Wood tried not to show it, he tucked his sore hand under his armpit and looked away.
Guess I won that one,
Jake mused to himself but at the same time realized that the man’s wounds probably ran even deeper than he knew.

“So, what do we do now?” AJ asked as she looked around the ledge. “You said that you found something interesting, but I don’t see anything.”

He pointed to the rock wall and then called out, “Door!”

When the opening appeared in the rock, AJ whispered, “You never fail to surprise me, Captain.”

The opening led to a long tunnel that sloped gently downward. There were no lights, but the walls seemed to glow slightly, at least enough to see their way. Jake led the way, with AJ taking up the rear. They didn’t discuss the arrangement, but when they were captain and first mate of the
Rogue Wave
, their number-one job was to protect their crew at all times. Jake felt a sense of normalcy when AJ automatically took the rear position.

The tunnel went deeper and deeper into the mountain, then about the time Jake was starting to grow concerned, he saw a door ahead. When he reached it, he saw that it looked like a standard pressure door, not much different from the internal doors in every colony building. He looked for a switch to open it but in the dim light couldn’t find one. AJ stepped through the group and said, “Door,” and the door opened inward by itself. “Just a guess,” she said with a shrug then stepped through.

He followed her into a large dark room. He couldn’t see anything, but he could tell it was big from the echoes of his footsteps. As soon as the last person stepped through the doorway, it closed behind them.

“Did we just walk into a trap?” Raines asked.

“I hope not,” Jake whispered then yelled, “Lights.” When nothing happened, he said, “It was worth a try.”

“How about illumination?” Raines said next, but still nothing.

Vee was next. “Lights on,” she called out, and that worked. The walls began to glow brighter and brighter, until they could see they were in a circular room. It was just what Ash had described—a living space like the rich might have in Capitol City. There was a kitchen twice as large as the one on the
Wave
, a round table in the center that was big enough to seat a dozen people. A half-dozen doors lined the outer walls, and Jessie ran over and opened the nearest one.

“It’s a bedroom,” she exclaimed, “and it’s huge.”

“Does it have a shower?” Wood asked. When she nodded, he ran to the next door down and said, “This one’s mine.”

“Hold on, everyone,” AJ said. “We don’t know anything about this place.”

“That’s right,” Jake said. “Just because it has all the comforts of home doesn’t mean it’s not a trap. We were lured here, remember?” he looked at Jessie. “I’m sorry, but that person wasn’t your brother, and he, or it, led us here for some reason. Until we learn more, we need to stay together and stay suspicious.”

“Can we stay suspicious after I take a shower?” Wood asked.

“And after we eat something?” Vee asked from the kitchen. “I smell something, and it smells wonderful.”

“I’m serious, people.” Jake said, raising his voice just a bit. “We’re not so hungry or so desperate that we can’t wait a few minutes and properly check this place out.” Raising his voice seemed to do the trick, because everyone came back to the center of the room, even Dr. Wood. “That’s better,” he said then looked at AJ.

“All right everyone,” she began, “let’s check this place out. Vee and Norman, please check out the kitchen and take an inventory of whatever you find. Jessie, Dr. Wood, and I will check out each of these doors. See what’s inside.”

When the five of them started their assignments, Jake looked at Jane. “What about us?” he asked.

AJ smiled. “You two ran the fastest and hardest,” she said. “Why don’t you try out the chairs?”

Jake shook his head. “I’m not going to sit down while everyone else is working. Besides, as nice as this place looks, I still think it’s some sort of trap.”

“It’s not a trap,” a deep male voice said from the other side of the room. When Jake pivoted around, he saw a man who looked oddly familiar standing in the doorway.

“Who are you?” Jake asked.

The man stared at him intently. “A better question is, who are you? Where I come from, you don’t barge into a man’s home and…” He stopped suddenly and looked around at the rest of his crew. “My apologies. You must be the people Ash said would be arriving last night.”

“You know Ash?” Jessie yelled, running forward. “Is he…is he here?”

“Ash wasn’t real,” AJ reminded her.

“Of course Ash is real,” the man said as he surveyed the faces around him. When he reached Jake, he said, “Excuse me, young man. You look very familiar. What is your name?”

“Jake Stone.”

His face went blank. “Jacob? Is it you? Is it really you?”

Jake nodded his head. “Are you...are you my father?”

The man took a step forward, eyes squinting in the low light. “Am I dreaming? Are you really here? How have you been, son? How did you get here?”

“Michael Stone,” Raines interrupted, walking up to the man. “I recognize you now. Do you remember me?”

The man stared blankly at Raines for a moment, then a wide grin brightened up his face. “Well, I’ll be. Norman Raines.” He stepped over, and the two men embraced like brothers. Suddenly he backed up and pointed to Raines’s chest. “Tell me you had nothing to do with sabotaging our ship.”

Raines put up both of his hands. “I swear to you.”

“You were in charge, and you backed out of coming with us at the last moment. When the batteries died and we found the kill switch, more than a few people accused you of selling out your friends.”

Raines looked physically sick. “I hope you weren’t one of them, old friend. Believe me, if I had known anything about what happened to your ship, I would have stopped you all from going. And I would have prevented the same thing from disabling our ship as well.”

“Then why didn’t you come with us back then? Why did you suddenly back out?”

Raines glanced at Vee. “My eldest son and his wife became ill—there was a radiation leak at the power plant where they worked,” he said solemnly. “They asked me to take care of their daughter, Vienna. I couldn’t decline.”

Vee walked over. “No, you couldn’t,” she said as she hugged him.

He stared at the old man for several seconds then gave him another full-body hug, encompassing Vee with his embrace. “I’m sorry, old friend. I’ve been stuck here all alone for too many years. Too much time to dwell on the past, I’m afraid.”

“Why are you out here, so far from the others?” Raines asked. “Catherine told me that—”

“You’ve seen her?”

“We’ve been living with my mother and the rest of your crew for about two months now,” Jake answered.

Michael turned back to his son. “How is your mother?” he asked.

“She’s…” He was going to say
remarried
but realized that would be cruel. “She’s doing okay. She actually asked that I come out here and try to find out what happened to you.”

His father looked confused. “How did you get past the barriers, and the dogs?”

“Ash helped us,” AJ said, stepping up to his father and extending her hand. “Very pleased to meet you, Mr. Stone.”

His father’s voice suddenly changed. “I believe the pleasure is all mine, young lady. Who might you be?” He took her hand, but instead of shaking it, he held it between both of his.

“My name is Alexandria Juno,” she said. “I’m first mate of the cargo vessel,
Rogue Wave
.”

His eyes suddenly lit up, and he dropped her hand. “You have a ship here? Where can I find its captain?”

AJ smiled and turned to Jake. “You’re looking at him.”

His father raised an eyebrow. “Captain? Really?”

“Don’t look too shocked,” Jake said.

“Sorry. I’m sorry, son. It’s just that you were less than ten when I last saw you. “I’m still having difficulty accepting the fact that you’re a grown man.” He shook his head. “I missed so much in…how many years has it been?”

“Fifteen,” Jake said.

“Fifteen years,” his father repeated. “So that makes you around twenty-five, right? That’s how old I was when I met your mother.”

“What happened to you? Why did you leave Mom and not come back?”

His father walked over and sat down at the center table. “It may sound to you like I’ve lost my mind, since that’s how it seemed to your mother and the rest of our crew, but a few months after we arrived, I swear I saw—”

“You saw your ship in the lake in the valley,” Jake finished.

His father raised his eyebrows. “Your mother told you?”

Jake nodded. “Yes, but the weird thing is that I saw my ship in that same lake.”

“So you came out here to find it, didn’t you?” he asked. Jake nodded. “So did I, only I got trapped out here by those damn invisible fences.” He paused then added, “And then the dogs found me.”

“They found us too,” Raines said, “and very nearly killed us all.”

“How did you escape them?” Jake asked.

He looked at Jake for several second before answering. “To be honest with you, son, I’m not sure.”

“What does that mean?”

He shook his head. “It’s not something I like to think about, but a large pack of dogs found me when I built a fire one night. I was in a clearing, with nowhere to run.”

“So they attacked you,” AJ said.

“More than that,” he said, his eyes darting back and forth like he was reliving the event. “They mauled me. They were…tearing me to pieces. I screamed for help, but I was all alone.” He looked at Jake. “My last thought was that I was never going to see you or Cathy again.”

“But you’re alive,” Vee said. “You look perfectly fine.”

He nodded. “That’s the point. I am perfectly fine, and I shouldn’t be. I passed out from the pain and then woke up here, in this room.” He knocked on the table with his knuckle. “Right here, in fact. On top of this table. I was naked, and my body had what looked like new skin all over the place. I later found my clothing, bloodied and ripped to shreds on the floor in one of the rooms. On the bed next to them were exact copies of my clothing, in perfect condition.” He pinched the fabric of his sleeve with his fingers. “Really nice material, actually. Never needs washing.”

“So you were healed by someone, or something, here,” Raines said.

“That’s what my brother said happened to him,” Jessie said. “He told us that he had new skin on his chest.” She then sat down in the chair next to Michael. “Do you know where my brother is? Do you know if he’s okay?”

Michael nodded his head. “Your brother is fine. He—he was a bit more damaged than I was when he arrived here. He still can’t travel very far, so he sent an assistant to meet you.”

“Assistant?” she asked. “What do you mean?”

Michael looked at Jake. “You still have utility fog simulations back in Civica, don’t you?”

Jake nodded. “If what we saw, what we talked to, was a simulation, it was the most advanced one I’ve ever seen.”

Michael smiled. “You have no idea. I could generate a copy of you that would fool your own mother.”

“But how could it function outside your rec room?” Raines asked. “I found what looked like a portable power supply of some sort, but that doesn’t explain how it could move and talk to us. Utility fog particles need a pretty advanced controller with a direct linkage. You can’t move them remotely.”

Michael laughed. “The assistants we create here are fully independent. Portable power supply and portable controller.”

“That must have been what Jane and I saw,” Jake said as he looked at the others. “That’s why Jane took off—something rose up out of the pile of fog particles and headed back here. That’s what she was following.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Michael said. “I assume the controller had some sort of a recall feature in case the power supply failed.”

“So where is my brother now?” Jessie interrupted.

“He’s exploring up along the wall—that’s what we call where the inner hull of the torus meets the mountain range.”

“Why is he up there?” Vee asked. “Isn’t he worried about the dogs?”

Michael shook his head. “They can’t climb that high. Or at least, we’ve never seen them up there.”

“But why is he up there? Why isn’t he here waiting for me?”

Again his father shook his head. “We didn’t know how long it would take for you to get here. And as for why he’s up there…” He looked at Jake. “I haven’t given up looking for my ship. We’ve been looking for a door to the inside of this torus. The wall seemed like a good place to search.”

“But he should be here,” Jessie said.

Michael patted her on the shoulder. “Ash said to tell you to be patient when you arrive, and that he’ll be back in the morning.”

She looked unsure, but after a moment, her face brightened. “I’ll do that, Mr. Stone,” she said. “I’ll be patient and wait until morning.”

Michael stood up. “Excellent. Now how about I cook something for all of you? I imagine that you’ve had a long and difficult couple of days. Why don’t you all pick out a room—there’s plenty to go around—and take showers? You’ll find clean clothing of various sizes and styles in the closets. I’m sure you’ll find something that will fit you. When you finish we can have a proper dinner here together.”

Everyone looked at each other. Under normal circumstances, they might have declined, but with exhaustion setting in, they each peeled off to one of the doors that lined the walls. Jake and AJ went to the last two, and she gave him a nod as she disappeared into her room. Jake looked back at his father one last time. “You’re going to be here when I come out, aren’t you? This isn’t some sort of hallucination, is it?”

His father said, “I’ll be honest with you, son. I can’t answer that, one way or the other. But, I will say that I’m very happy to see you again. If this is a dream, then it’s my dream as well, and I’ll be very sad to wake from it.”

Jake nodded and stepped into his room. “Same for me,” he whispered.