The Awakening (The Hyperscape Project Book 1) (33 page)

Copyright
Cassandra Blizzard-LeBedz

All rights
reserved. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in
any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including any information and storage retrieval system, is forbidden
without the prior written consent of the publisher and author. For information
about "fair use," contact the author.

This is a work
of fiction. All characters in this book have no existence outside the
imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the
same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual
known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention. Any
resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is
entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the
publisher.

Published in the
United States of America.

The people on
the streets of New York City were bundled up against a frigid winter. 
Small drifts of snow lay scattered on store canopies and parked cars, and puffs
of mist hung in the air from street grates, building vents, and vendor carts as
warm air met bone-chilling temperatures.  But the chill in the air didn’t
bother him.  His internal temperature remained constant in most weather
conditions.  His luminous green gaze scanned the crowd of people as he
walked along the busy sidewalk, his black leather coat open, revealing the
white t-shirt beneath.  Snug blue jeans and a simple pair of black leather
boots completed his wardrobe.  He wasn’t even wearing a warm winter hat,
unlike the people flowing past him on the city sidewalk.  He wasn’t
focused on them at the moment.  Anxiety churned in his stomach, a dread
that had plagued him since he’d been dumped on this planet.  It was worse
this morning.  The sense that something was wrong made him jumpy and
hyper-vigilant.  He was supposed to be safe in New York, but he knew he
wasn’t.  He would never really be safe, and he would never be able to
shake the anxiety and the sense of dread that plagued him.  Not until he
died or he killed Jindom.  That was his ugly reality.  The truth he
carried with him while he pretended to have another life far away from his home. 
His
real
home.

He could handle
having been cast out of his home, but he couldn’t handle the fear of what had
happened to his province since, or the thought of what would happen to these
people of earth when Jindom finally came to kill him.  He’d been thrown to
earth through a portal, abandoned to fend for himself, alone and alienated from
his people.  Alienated.  Alien.  That’s what he was considered
in this world.  An alien.  An unknown.  It was hard to think of
himself as alien, or even different.  But to these people on this planet,
he was an anomaly, something to be feared, perhaps even dissected.  The
thought made him grimace.

It had been
nearly a full year.  He’d managed to survive, keeping to himself mostly,
and interacting with humans only when it was necessary.  Money hadn’t been
a problem.  Their technology was still limited and full of
weaknesses.  Hacking had become a must for him in this new society, and
he’d siphoned enough money from a few billionaire bank accounts to keep himself
comfortable and out of reach. 

He looked human,
for the most part, although there were some noticeable differences.  His
body metabolized food differently.  He could conserve energy for long
periods of time, build it, store it, and manipulate it.  He could
literally draw energy from nearly any source, including the atmosphere around
him.  His body was designed to sustain itself on multiple levels, through
food, water, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and from sapping energy from everything
that gave off energy. 

His eyes were
different.  If one looked closely enough, they could see subtle
differences in his irises and pupils.  His pupils narrowed in a
horizontal, elliptical pattern at certain times.  He had night vision and
could see as well in the dark as he could in the light.  He could smell
better than any earth dog, and could hear several different ranges beyond human
hearing.  He had no sweat glands, his testicles were internal instead of
external, he had slight webbing between his toes, and his fingernails were
strong enough to be used as daggers if he let them grow.  He didn’t. 
Let them grow.  He was trying to fit in not stand out. 

Oh.  And
then there was that other difference.  He had a retractable barb on the
underside of his left wrist, complete with a venom sac that held enough venom
to kill at least a dozen grown men in less than ten seconds.  The barb was
not something he flung around at whim.  Instead, he only used it in
extreme cases.  It took three days to grow another one back.

He was tall,
lean but muscular, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist.  His skin was
pale, ageless, although by earth standards he would be somewhere in his
thirties.  He kept his blue-black hair cut close on the sides, leaving a
wavy mass atop his head.  His bright green eyes glimmered as if lit from
within.  For the most part, he looked like a male model.  Between his
looks and his six foot five inch height, he turned heads, which was why he
tried so hard to be anonymous and unseen.

He was a bit
psychic.  He knew when someone was lying.  He could smell it on them
before the words left their lips.  These were all normal features on his
home planet.  But here…on earth…these senses were considered heightened,
superhuman, almost supernatural. 

He was called
Kael.  It was an easy name for humans to remember, as it sounded similar
to their familiar male name Kyle. 

He’d prefer not
be outcast, but he’d made a comfortable life for himself here on earth, safe
from the war that most assuredly still raged on his planet.  There, on
Trinoor, he’d been a leader, the young ruler of the capital province of
Jai.  Until the ruler of the Northern  province of Nagarr came to
claim the capital for his own.  It was the longest, bloodiest war in all
of Trinoor’s history, a war that broke a centuries old reign of peace among the
three provinces. 

Master Jindom,
the warlord of Nagarr sought to rule over the entire planet of Trinoor. 
He was evil, insane, brutal and without mercy.  After years of battle, one
province against two, Jindom had succeeded in casting Kael out of Jai. 
Kael had been overtaken, betrayed by a spy in his ranks, nearly murdered, then
saved by a priejst who appeared out of thin air and took him to the mountains
where the priejsts dwelt.  Those loyal to him kept him sequestered,
hidden, until it became too dangerous.  For his own protection, and for
theirs, the priejsts opened the portal and sent him to a place where Jindom
would never find him, or so they assumed.  The portal was priejst tech and
only the priejsts knew how to open it.  Surely, they’d all been killed by
now. 

Scowling at the
mere thought, Kael paused in front of a department store window.  Despite
what the priejsts had told him, Kael was never certain that he was safe. 
He knew the madman Jindom would not rest until he found Kael and killed
him.  He sensed that his world was still in chaos, his loyal followers
still fighting to save Jai and keep his whereabouts hidden.  Though he’d
been nearly a full year on earth, he knew that one day Jindom would send the
Sulcrum to find him.  He’d chosen New York City because of its dense
population.  It made him feel safer.  But to the Sulcrum, even in a
sea of sweaty, perfumed humans, Kael’s energy signature was unmistakable. 
Even on a planet populated by billions, the Sulcrum would have no difficulty in
locating him.  It was only a matter of time.  And when Jindom
discovered him...the blood would run thick in the streets.

Kael stood
before the large glass window of the store, his gaze both fixed on the display
in front of him and on the reflection of the stream of people flowing along the
New York City street behind him, alert as ever.  Always alert and
waiting.  In the reflection, he noticed a young, blonde woman on the
sidewalk near a stand that sold flowers and small trinkets.  She watched
him from under her lashes.  He could tell by the tilt of her head that she
found him attractive.  Little did she know the truth of what he was. 
He barely gave her any thought.  He was tense today.  He could sense
something was wrong in his world.  The atmosphere around him felt
different, and he couldn’t get his mind off the anxiety.  He had an
unshakeable feeling that today was his day of reckoning.

Kael smelled him
before he saw his reflection in the window.  The scent made him tense, and
his fists clenched as he prepared for battle.  The priejst appeared out of
the crowd like magic and stood ten feet behind him, waiting.  He knew Kael
smelled him and saw him.  Kael stared at the priejst’s reflection. 
He was tall, like Kael, but thinner, his skin even paler in contrast to the
paleness of his master.  He wore a black leather duster that reached to
the ankles of his black leather boots, and his long fingers were gloved, also
in black leather.   Clearly, he was trying to mask his looks with
what he assumed were cool street clothes.  Despite the cold winter air,
he’d left his head bare.  Unusual for a priejst.  He would have
blended into the New York scene with ease, but his long, white-blond hair made
him stand out, and his clothes were dated, like a copy of a character in some
old sci-fi earth movie.  He looked young, maybe thirty-six by earth years,
but Kael knew him to be well over a hundred Trinoor years old.

“Master,” the
priejst called to him.  “They are coming.”

Kael’s blood
rushed forward in his veins as hormones catalyzed his body for war.  He
turned around to stare into the grey eyes of the priejst, every muscle in his
body coiled for action.  “The Sulcrum?”

The priejst
lowered his chin in a brief nod, then looked Kael directly in the eyes. 
“Jindom himself tortured the youngest of us until he laid our secret bare.”

Kael’s eyes
narrowed.

“Do not waste
time on anger, Master Jai. The young one was weak, too weak to withstand the
pain Jindom gave him.”

“You are
mistaken, priejst.  I feel only remorse over the young one’s pain.  I
take full responsibility.  I should have ended this war long ago. 
But….”

“But you do not
possess the savagery that Jindom thrives on.  That is as it should
be.  You are a great ruler, worthy of your calling.”

“Was,” Kael
corrected.

“Your loyal army
is still yours to command, master.  As it always will be.”

Kael stared at
the priejst.  “How many does Jindom send?”

“Just one
Sulcrum.  Through the portal.  But if he doesn’t secure you, ships
will arrive to lay waste to this planet until you are found and killed.”

The muscles
along Kael’s neck bunched and his teeth clenched so tightly that his jaw
ached.  “I should have never left.  Now, because of me, these people
are in danger.  And they have no idea we even exist.”

“One’s own
territory makes one strong.  But unfamiliar territory brings light to
weakness.”

Kael’s eyes
narrowed as he contemplated the priejst’s words.  When the priejst turned
to leave, Kael’s anxiety deepened.  “Priejst!”

The priejst
looked over his shoulder at Kael, “Do not worry, master.  I cannot go
back.  I am like you now, outcast and running for my life.”

“We should—
”  Before he finished the thought, the priejst vaulted twelve feet into
the air and vanished.  The priejsts of Trinoor had the power to manipulate
energy fields, a gift that took years of training and afforded them many
opportunities to appear and disappear at will.  If only Kael had that
tech.  Maybe he wouldn’t feel so anxious now.

Feeling even
more tense, and even more alone, Kael took a long sniff to check the air for
more visitors.  He didn’t relish the idea of fighting a Sulcrum with
nothing but a Strongblade for defense.  How long before it appeared? 
A hulking, seven-foot tall robot that looked like a man wearing high-tech armor
would stand out in the crowd, any crowd, anywhere.  A machine that was
made of a metal so polished that it reflected its surroundings and seemed to
flux in and out of the atmosphere would be a spectacle among the more primitive
race of earth.  A Sulcrum had the ability to morph its right arm into a
blade, a club, or a phaerig, adjusting its fighting tactic to suit the
situation.  And it was nearly indestructible, with few weaknesses. 
Kael was a sitting duck in the New York crowd.

He sensed the
shift, a barely perceptible displacement in the air that let him know the
Sulcrum approached from behind.  The barb under his wrist twitched but
remained sheathed.  His venom was useless against the Sulcrum. 
Mindful of the many innocent citizens around him, he strongly considered
running.  He knew he could never outrun the Sulcrum, but he could at least
lure it to a place with less people.  Maybe then there would be less
collateral damage when he took the Sulcrum’s head off.

His gaze shifted
to the small woman at the flower stand.  A flash of sunlight gleamed off
the metal clasp on her coat.  And in that tiny bit of metal, he saw the
reflection, a movement behind him.  No time to run now.  The Sulcrum
was already preparing to deliver a death-blow to the back of Kael’s head. 
Might as well take the machine down now and be done with it. 

The woman’s eyes
widened.  Just as her mouth was opening to scream, Kael spun around, his
left arm moving in an upward arc to stop the downward force of the Sulcrum’s
blow, his right hand balling into a tight fist and thrusting forcefully toward
the inner thigh of the Sulcrum’s leg cavity.  A Sulcrum had only two weak
points in its entire body: the bend where the thigh met the groin plate, and a
very small pivot just at the top of the throat, beyond the chin, tucked into
the neck.  If he could disable the power conduits running through the
inner thigh, the Sulcrum would go down on one knee, and Kael could use his
Strongblade to take the Sulcrum’s head off at the neck’s weak point.