The Awakening (The Hyperscape Project Book 1) (2 page)

Three Months Earlier….

Nick Bannon sat
in the cramped, one-man cockpit of his Hyperspace vehicle at the designated
test coordinates between the Earth and the moon. From his vantage point in
space, the view of the Launch complex on the moon was breathtaking. The large
main dome complex, ringed by smaller satellite domes, was easy to spot against
the stark gray lunar surface. Particularly striking was the green biomass dome
filled with genetically modified plants and algae, an integral part of the moon
dome’s life support system. Even the linear mass driver rails at Pad Two, the
very ones that had recently propelled him into space, were visible in stunning
detail. As he pulled his camera up to get a commemorative shot, his gaze was
drawn toward a glint of sunlight reflecting off something nearby. There she
was, Space Station Omega. The first of her kind. Gleaming brightly against the
dark backdrop of space. ‘The Wheel’ as it was referred to by the crew. The
multi-national station was the first to use centrifugal force to simulate
gravity. He’d often gazed up at it from the launch complex and wondered what
it’d be like to be part of the crew. But he’d never seen it from so close. It
was impressive. Outfitted with all the latest tech, she sure was a sight to
behold. But Nick didn’t have time to enjoy the scenery. He needed to get back
to his mission checklist. Today was a big day for him. It marked the
culmination of years of preparation. This was the only shot he would have at
proving his hyperspace theory. The military big-wigs had only allocated enough
funding for one mission. If he didn’t obtain some positive results from this
test-flight, he wouldn’t get another chance. It was a miracle that he had been
cleared to use the space station’s new instruments to monitor the experiment in
the first place, something that would be practically impossible to do once the
station went fully online. Nick’s little experiment was more or less just a
shakedown for the station before going operational.

Nick reached to
flip the final switch in preparation for the flight and accidentally bumped his
elbow on the side of the tiny cockpit. Pain shot down his arm and buzzed to his
fingertips. He winced but remained focused on his task. He was accustomed to
the cramped conditions. Nick practically grew up in one cockpit or another. As
a kid on his father’s knee, the inside of a fighter cockpit seemed as big as
his childhood dreams. Not so much anymore. It would be nice to have a little
extra elbow room, but unlike the station, that kind of luxury wasn’t in the
budget. For now, he’d just have to deal with the cockpit’s small size.

Hoping that all
the equipment worked as planned, he took a deep breath and radioed mission
control. “Serenity Base, I am go for hyperspace deployment.”

“Roger, Hyper
One. Omega Station reads ready. You are clear for field deployment. Godspeed.”

After a final
check of his instruments, Nick flipped the switch that armed the field
generator. “Switching on telemetry now.”

“Telemetry looks
good, Hyper One.”

Nick glanced
over at the photo of his father that he had stuck to the console earlier. It
was his favorite picture. There was good ol’ dad, standing proudly in front of
his Starfighter, flight suit zipped, helmet under one arm. The picture had been
taken shortly before the Moon War. “I wish you were here to see this, dad.”

He looked out
the window one last time at the thin veil of atmosphere surrounding planet
Earth below and once again tried to quell his uneasiness. “Piece of cake. Be
home in time for dinner.”

“Say again,
Hyper One. Your transmission was garbled.”

“Sorry,
Serenity. Just talkin’ to myself.” Nick took another deep breath and focused
back on the mission at hand. The smell of cold, oxygenated air filling his
lungs was somehow comforting. It took him back to a simpler time, back when his
father used to let him pretend to be a fighter pilot. He smiled at the picture
on the dash. Those were the days. But there would be time for reminiscing
later. Right now he had a job to do.

“Initiating
hyperspace field in three…two…one….” He threw the last switch. A strange bluish
glow danced outside the windows and lit up the cockpit as the instruments began
collecting data.

“Serenity, you
seein’ this?”

“Roger, Hyper
One. Data looks good. My God, this is incredible!”

The sound of
cheers rolling through the mission control center erupted over Nick’s headset.
Flight control team members chattered in the background as they worked
furiously to make sense of the readings. Then a familiar calm voice came over
the channel.

“Don’t lose your
head, Bannon. How does it look for phase two?” It was Phil, the flight
director.

“I’m on it. Adjusting
field strength for optimal insertion. Window now at optimal.”

“Go on phase
two,” Phil replied over the radio.

“Launching
hyperspace probe now, Serenity.” Nick reached for the launch button. Just
before he hit the switch, a loud warning signal went off. The sudden sound
scared the living daylights out of him. Startled, he jerked back, accidentally
hitting his hand against the cockpit window.

“Son of a
bitch!” Regaining his composure, he looked down at the single red light
flashing rapidly on the instrument panel.

Serenity Base
broke in. This time Phil’s voice had a tone of concern. No one else would have
caught the minor inflection in his voice, but Nick had heard this tone before.
Something was wrong. “Hyper One, we’re reading some sort of power surge. It
looks like feedback from the hyperspace window. Do you copy, Hyper One?”

“Yeah, copy
that, Serenity.”

A power surge
could burn out the instruments, and his project would literally be toast. He
reached for the abort switch when suddenly the blue glow outside turned into a
blinding white light, obscuring all view of the cockpit switches.

“Damn!”
Adrenaline surged through Nick’s veins as he fumbled blindly in the direction
of the abort switch. Then everything went black.

Nick pried one
eye halfway open then let it fall shut again.
Where the hell am I?
He
struggled to sit up, but his arms and legs just lay there like limp, wet
noodles.

His brain
scrambled to make sense of what had happened to him, but the screaming pain in
his skull made it impossible to focus.
Ah, geez, it feels like my skull’s
going to explode.

Nick reached a
hand toward his aching head.

Clank!
The sound of his space suit glove hitting his helmet startled and confused him.

“What the hell?”
One eye opened fully, then the other. He jerked himself upright. “Crap, I’m in
space!”

Suddenly bits
and pieces of the mission wiggled their way into his conscious mind. The
launch. The warning signal. The white light! He must have blacked out.

Struggling to
overcome his spinning head, Nick radioed mission control. “Serenity Base….
Serenity, come in.”

Only an eerie
silence answered his plea. “Serenity…? Omega? Does anyone copy?”

One flip of the
radio dial confirmed his fears. Not a sound on any channel. Not even the usual
satellite telemetry.

“Great, the
radio’s fried!” Trying to calm himself, Nick sucked in a tense breath then
slowly released it.

A red glow
emanating from outside drew his attention. “What the
hell
….” Outside the
cockpit window, he could see…something. But it wasn’t space. Or at least not
any space he’d ever seen before. The only thing visible in every direction was
an odd, pulsating, reddish hue. No stars, no Moon…. No Earth!

“Shit!” He could
handle just about anything fate threw at him, but this? Red as far as the eye
could see, and no Earth? “Damn, that ain’t right. Serenity?”

He made another
frantic check of the instrument panels. “Serenity, please respond.” Again,
nothing but static answered.

 The cold,
hard truth of his situation crept slowly into his brain. “I must be in
hyperspace!” He stared at the pulsating crimson hue beyond the window. “This…
has
to be hyperspace.” If he wasn’t so damn scared, he’d be excited. For years he
had dreamed of seeing the inside of hyperspace. But right now it was the last
place he wanted to be.

He wasn’t even
sure if anything could survive in hyperspace. Little was known about hyperspace
at all. One theory described it as a second dimension overlapping the known
universe. Two dimensions existing in the same place at the same time. That theory—similar
to wormhole theory—would allow communication, or even space travel, in a
fraction of the time. A shortcut in space-time, theoretically. It would explain
why entangled particles appeared to interact at speeds faster than light. And
here he sat, smack in the middle of that big ole theoretical dimension.

“It’s no theory
anymore,” he muttered. Another sigh heaved from his lungs as he let his head
drop back against the headrest. He could just see the headlines now.
Boy
Wonder makes history by discovering hyperspace, dies before he can tell anyone.
“Yeah, just brilliant, Nick.”

Overwhelmed by
thoughts and fears, he stared out of the window at the barren red dimension
surrounding him.

 
Oh God,
what if I’m dead?
Nick gave his head a quick shake. “Snap out of it! You’re
a scientist for Christ sake.”

“Think, Nick,
think.” He could clearly see that the hyperspace generator had been turned off.
According to the readings, he had managed to hit the abort, but it was too
late. The module had been sucked into hyperspace before the generator could
shut down. The added energy from the anomalous power surge must have opened the
window enough for his ship to be pulled in.

A curved piece
of what looked like titanium drifted across his path. As it slowly spun around
in the weightlessness of hyperspace, he could see part of an insignia clearly
emblazoned on its surface. The Greek letter, Omega.

A few more
pieces of debris floated past. It took his brain a moment to put the events
together. The new space station? But it was too far away to be affected. The
window couldn’t have expanded that large.
Could it?
If the edge of
that window came into contact….
“Crap!”
Nick wiped a shaky hand
across his forehead. There were twelve men and women on that station.
Did I
just…? Are they all…dead because of me? I have to get back to find out what
happened.

Wait, the
probe.
It must have been recording the radio chatter during the accident.
He could get a better idea of what happened by reviewing what it recorded. Nick
flipped through the time index. “This can’t be right.” He had apparently been
unconscious for far longer than he’d realized. He checked his watch, surely the
probe’s data was wrong. “Two hours?” He didn’t need the biomonitor on his fancy
watch to tell him how high his heart rate was. It was about to beat right
through his flight suit.