Awakening: The First Tale of the Trine (Trine Series Book 1) (14 page)

Orak and Aki huddled together on the cot in the containment room, looking to any observer as though they were sleeping. Sheltered between their bodies, they watched the small screen where Orak had tapped into the exchange between the President and the Director.

“Do you think the Elvahn will be able to restore the Bore before the Abbadon come in force?”
Aki asked.

“You know more about the damned thing than I do!”
Orak snarled. “
You tell me! We can’t just sit here and rely on them coming in time to head this off. I don’t know how Zion dominated that human, but I know he is the one who went after these people. He can feel them in the aether as clearly as we can. It’s the only explanation.”

“And now they are bringing them all here, ‘for their protection,’”
Aki said. “
Zion will either find another agent to get to them, or may even be allowed contact if the humans grow desperate.”

“We cannot allow him to get near them,”
Orak thought.
“He is already too strong for us to fight without Kio here. If he gains these humans’ abilities…I don’t even know what he might become, what he might be able to do. I do know this…he will feed these people to the Abbadon, every man, woman, and child if he thinks it will ultimately destroy them. We can’t let Zion lead them down that path.”

“Humanity is the only race we’ve ever found that can match the Abbadon for violence and cruelty. How can we stop them? They want to fight, they revel in it,”
Aki said.

“That comes later,”
Orak replied. “
First, we must stop Zion from influencing them further, or bonding himself to any more of these aether sensitive individuals he has identified. I think I know how we can start, but I will need to speak to each of the three they are bringing here for ‘protection.’”

“Three…”
Aki thought, awestruck. “
You mean to make them a Trine!?!”

“It will protect them from Zion’s domination, and allow them to completely access the aether. They will be able to help their people fight the Abbadon, and help us bring Zion to justice before he leads them to destruction.”
Orak’s thoughts were grim, but determined.

“The Elvahn Assembly banished you for forming a Trine of your own…what will they do to us if we show humanity this power? We won’t have a home to return to…”
Aki trailed off, before concluding the thought. “
You’re right. This is Zion’s doing, not ours. We are protecting these people. If the Assembly can’t see that, then…”

“Then to hell with them,”
Orak thought. “
These humans have some wonderful expressions, don’t they?”

“So how do we go talk to these three?”
Aki asked.

“That will be the easy part. We’re underground. Humans can’t see in the dark,”
Orak replied.

Orak continued to surreptitiously monitor the security footage throughout the FBI headquarters for the next two hours. “
Look,”
Orak said to Aki. “
They’ve put those men Tyler and Delmont in a room together.”

Aki glanced at the screen as Orak rolled his arm towards him, where two beds could be seen in the medical unit. Both of the men looked terrible. Delmont’s entire right arm was in a cast, and a bandage was wrapped around his head and left hand. It was impossible to tell if he was sleeping.

The man named Tyler lay a few feet away, his chest exposed to accommodate all the tubes that had been placed for his breathing. His head was moving back and forth, and as Aki stared at him, he thought “
Is the skinny one singing? He looks awfully…happy?”

“Who knows with these humans. We will find out soon. Let me check on the other one,”
Orak replied.

Tuning into the room of Katie Dufresne, they could see that she was sitting up in a bed with an oxygen tube running to her nose, and a nurse in the room talking to her.

“When can I see my family?” Katie asked the nurse.

“You’ll have to talk to the doctor about visitation,” the nurse replied calmly. “And the agents on duty. Remember, you were brought here for your protection.”

“Have the police caught him yet?” Katie asked. “At least tell me that. The agent I spoke to said that he started that fire, and that they were going to find him.”

“Dear, I don’t keep up with that business. Now, do you need anything to drink maybe? I can help with that, you know!” the nurse replied cheerily.

“What I need is to know what’s going on, and what happened to my friends! If you can’t tell me, I’ll go find someone that can!” Katie yelled, getting out of the bed and stomping towards the door. The nurse had left it cracked open, and when Katie threw it wide two soldiers came together to block her.

“I’m sorry, ma’am.  You’ll need to stay in your room at this time,” one of the Guardsmen told her.

“Or what?” Katie demanded. “Are you going to shoot me?”

“No,” the soldier replied. “But she might,” he said nodding behind Katie towards the nurse.

Katie turned just in time to see the nurse plunge a small syringe into her arm. “I’m sorry dear, doctor’s orders,” the sadistic nurse said in the same cheerful tone, as she helped guide the wobbly young woman back to her bed.

After watching Katie Dufresne get knocked out, Orak flipped off the screen. “
We’re going to the two men in the same room first. They will be easier to convince.”

“You’re going to give them a choice”?
Aki thought, surprised.

“Of course I’m going to give them a choice,”
Orak snapped. “
If they choose wrong, I will do it anyway, but I will at least present it to them. We are civilized beings, after all. Letting the condemned choose the method of their execution is the very essence of civility.”

Aki chuffed out his wheezing laugh, then rolled off the bed. He stretched all of his legs, then shook himself lazily before padding over to the airlock. Looking back over his shoulder at Orak, he gave a wink, just as the lights went out throughout the entire building.

The emergency lights quickly flickered to life, but after only a moment they blinked off as well, leaving the entire floor in absolute darkness. As Aki forced the airlock door to cycle open, the pair could hear the guards outside cursing. The two soldiers had pulled out flashlights, and were a few feet away at the door to the observation room, talking to the technician assigned to watch the aliens.

None of them noticed the pair as they eased out of the room and down the hallway in the opposite direction. Aki’s nails clicked quietly on the floor, but Orak’s heavy armor made no noise as the pair jogged away from their cell.

“Do you know where they are being treated?”
Aki asked.

“Roughly. All three of them channel the aether unconsciously, like newborns. I should be able to pinpoint the sensation as we cross the halls,”
Orak replied.

They moved through the facility slowly, melting into alcoves and shadows as other flashlight beams pierced the gloom. Orak abruptly stopped at a crossing hallway, patting Aki to signal him to turn around.

“
We passed them,”
Orak thought, going back to the previous hallway.

The pair crouched down by a glass walled office at the corner, peeking through to see another set of soldiers farther down the hallway. These two also had flashlights, and were steadfastly maintaining their guard even with the distraction.

“Can you handle this?”
Orak asked.

“Easily. Watch this,”
Aki responded. An instant later, the two guards flinched, dropping their flashlights. As they hit the floor, both of them blinked out, and Orak could hear them rattling across the floor as Aki pulled them down the hall.

“Hells bells, what are the chances of that happening?” one of the guards joked.

“Did you hear them go bouncing down the hall?” the other replied.

“Yeah. Here, bend down and help me feel around for them.”

As the pair of guards knelt down, feeling the ground around them, Orak and Aki nimbly stepped past them, then eased open the door to the treatment room.

“Bring the emergency lights back up in here. Keep them low, but I want Tyler to be able to see us,”
Orak ordered.

A small light began to glow from over each bed, illuminating the two men. Delmont was sitting propped up, his head wrapped in bandages above his nose. It was obvious he hadn’t noticed anything was amiss so far. Tyler, however, had thrown off his sheets entirely. A hospital gown had been draped over him for comfort, but due to the tubes in each side of his chest, he was unable to wear anything further. He had thrown the gown to the floor, and lay on the bed completely nude while humming happily.

When Tyler saw Orak, he grinned broadly, and grabbed his penis. Shaking it back and forth, he began to sing in a high, off pitch voice:

Ooooooh, they locked me up in a cell,

and they got me high as hell.

So when the lights went out,

with a happy shout,

I started playing with myself.

Delmont turned his head towards Tyler and said, “Dammit man, enough with the singing! Doc, are you there? What the hell did you give this guy?”

Tyler, unperturbed, grinned over at Delmont as he burst into his next bastardized verse of a Billy Idol song:

When they steal my pants,

and I find my lance;

I’ll be playing with myself

Oooh-oooh-oh-oh.

Orak stomped over to the bedside while Aki lay down by the door, chuffing his wheezy laughter. “Stop that!” Orak demanded. “Can you even see who I am?”

Tyler squinted up at Orak in the dim glow from the emergency light, then shook his penis at the armored figure. “Are you the technician here to service my unit?” he asked, grinning broadly.

Aki’s tongue lolled out and he rolled onto his side wheezing as Orak fumed. Delmont turned his head towards them, and said, “He’s been like that for about an hour, since they came in and dosed him up with something. Is that you, doctor? What did you give him, anyhow?”

“Man, this ain’t no doctor,” Tyler said. “It’s some weird Blue Man Group looking fucker with a giant therapy dog. Dog?” Tyler said questioningly, squinting past Orak. “I take that back, dude brought a giant therapy bear-thing. It’s cute. Bring that big cuddly bastard over here.”

“Ah, no thanks,” Aki said from the door. “No cuddles for you until you find some underwear.”

“Oh shit, man, this clown is a ventriloquist! He’s making the giant fuzz talk!” Tyler howled. “I love this hospital, man!”

Delmont was scowling under his bandages, and using his left arm to try to push himself up the bed. “What do you mean a giant talking dog? What color is it? Tyler, what color is it?” Delmont yelled, alarmed.

“I don’t know man, it’s dark in here. Green, I think?” Tyler said.

“It’s you…” Delmont said. “The white haired thing from the hospital. You come to finish this?”

“Calm down, both of you,” Orak ordered. “We’re here to help you. Delmont, we saw what happened to you, and we came to…”

Orak was interrupted as Tyler whipped his head to the side, and started his song again. “Well this isn’t going to work,” Orak muttered. “Aki, can you do anything to sober him up?”

“Sure, give him a couple of hours. If you mean right now, I doubt it. I don’t know what they gave him, and can’t make him metabolize it any faster if I can’t isolate it. I guess you could dump some water on him or try to scare him?” Aki offered skeptically.

Orak’s eyes narrowed as he looked over Tyler, noticing that the young man had a dark birthmark over his heart. Nodding to himself, Orak said, “Did you know that a soul can carry a scar from past trauma? If a soul was released from its physical body violently, sometimes a mark will form on its flesh during its next incarnation. Your kind call them birthmarks. We call them deathnotes. Some of my kind can read these notes, to look at a soul’s past. Would you like to see how?”

Tyler’s eyes were glazed and unfocused as he tried to look at Orak. “I’ve got a birthmark on this dick you can read, you Papa Smurf looking puppy-rapist,” he said, laughing.

Orak looked on Tyler pityingly for a moment, then said, “That’s not a birthmark, that is a genital mutilation scar.” Stripping off his glove, Orak reached out his index finger to place it on the birthmark over Tyler’s heart. “There is a reason few of the Elvahn attempt this. This is going to be unpleasant for you.”

Tyler jerked violently at the sensation of falling, just before his face slammed into a filthy puddle. Coughing and gagging on the smoke that surrounded him, he rolled over, his hands grasping around in the mud surrounding him for his rifle. Tyler realized with another jolt that he was not controlling the body which was now struggling to regain its feet. Instead, his drug-fogged consciousness was somehow travelling along with this person, experiencing some sort of battle through their perception.

He was lying in a muddy trench, reinforced with wooden beams to keep the sides from collapsing. A mortar shell had exploded nearby, sending him flying. Another soldier was yelling nearby, but the body Tyler was in had been deafened by the blast. Apparently the soldier understood the intent, as he got to his feet and began running further down the trench, rifle shouldered and ready to fire.

He was not in control of the body, but he had full use of its senses. He was limping, his right leg a blazing agony, and he could feel the warmth of the blood trickling from his ears and nose. As he rounded a corner in the trench, a grenade landed only a few feet in front of him, and he ducked back as the explosion sent a spray of dirt and blood past him. Turning back, he stared in slack-jawed terror at an unrecognizable figure, its face and limbs shredded by the blast.

The body he was riding along with did not seem to share his fear. Peeking around the corner with its rifle raised, the man immediately began firing at the gray-clad figures dropping down into the trench. Tyler recognized the style of their helmets from his high school history class, and realized with awe that he was fighting Germans.

His body was racked with pain every time the rifle he had shouldered kicked back, but every squeeze of the trigger sent one of the German soldiers stiff-legged to the ground. Emptying his cartridge after only a few shots, the soldier ducked back behind the corner, but instead of attempting to reload he snatched a grenade off the webbing he wore. Ripping the pin free, he tossed it blindly down the trench, and then picked his rifle back up to eject the cartridge.

Peeking back around the corner, he couldn’t immediately get a clear shot through the smoke his grenade had created. A hail of bullets whizzed past him, one staggering him back as it deflected off his helmet with a brain-rattling
PING
. The soldier was shouting something, but Tyler could not make out what he was saying through the ringing in his skull. Taking a few steps back, the soldier crouched down, and as a German appeared at the corner he fired upwards, the man flailing backwards as his face exploded from the bullet.

Two more Germans rushed the corner, both collapsing as the soldier continued to fire. While he desperately tried to load another clip, several grenades landed on the pile of bodies he had downed. The soldier backpedaled, slipping and falling flat in the muddy trench. The blast from the grenades peppered the soldier with shrapnel and bits of flesh, and the concussion stunned him briefly.

A German glanced around the corner, and seeing that the soldier was down, swung his rifle out towards him. Tyler could barely see what was happening, blood was flowing into the soldier’s eyes, and his entire body screamed from the burning shrapnel. Even as the German levelled his rifle, the downed soldier grimly drew a revolver from his belt, cocking the hammer on the huge pistol. The German’s shot exploded through the soldiers belly just as the revolver thundered, knocking the German from his feet.

Two more immediately replaced him, both firing their rifles wildly at the downed soldier. Tyler knew he was mortally wounded. The bullets ripping through him jerked his arm, and the hand holding the revolver wavered as his lifeblood seeped away. He kept cocking the hammer and firing, though, gasping one hitching breath at a time. Three more times he managed to fire the pistol, dropping one of the Germans, as the other rushed forward. The remaining German slammed his bayonet into the soldier’s chest, impaling his heart and tearing one last agonized gasp from the soldier.

Numbness spread through his body as his vision began to fade. The last thing Tyler could clearly see was the soldier’s hand slowly cocking the revolver one last time, and with his last ounce of strength squeezing the trigger, the blast muffled by the German body almost on top of him. His dimming vision began to spin wildly, giving Tyler shifting views of the carnage around him. His last coherent thought was,
I know that gun
.

Tyler’s body gave a violent spasm on the hospital bed, causing the tubes inserted on each side of his chest to twinge painfully. Coughing and sputtering, he slapped Orak’s hand away from his chest.

“That is how your soul was released from its body, once,” Orak said conversationally.

“I know that gun,” Tyler coughed, trembling visibly all over. “I mean, like, it’s in my house. I
know
that revolver.”

“What are you talking about? Are you still drugged?” Orak asked, forehead furrowing as his finger moved threateningly towards Tyler.

“No!” Tyler coughed, scooting up the bed. “Take that black magic voo-doo finger and shove it back up your ass! What the fuck are you? Where am I?”

“Calm down,” Delmont said from the other bed. “We’re in a medical facility, you’ve been drugged up after being injured.”

“Damn, man,” Tyler said, glancing over at Delmont. “They should have saved the drugs for you. You’re fucked-up. Wait, what the hell happened? How did we end up here? Where is my brother?”

Orak stared down at the young man trembling in the bed before him. Tyler looked emaciated next to Delmont, whose musculature was obvious even through the multitude of bandages covering his injuries. Tyler had pulled his sheet up to cover part of his nudity, but the tubes coming from both sides of his chest prevented him from moving freely. The chest tubes were connected to water seals, which bubbled fitfully with his ragged breathing.

“What is the last thing you remember?” Orak asked Tyler.

“I…I had some horrible nightmares, man,” Tyler said, squinting up at Orak’s blue armored figure. In the dim glow from the emergency light, Tyler couldn’t make out much of Orak’s features, and he tried to lean forward to get a better look at the Elv. “I think I might still be having them, honestly,” he said, looking around the room.

“What do you remember?” Orak repeated sternly.

“Okay, okay, man…” Tyler said. “My brother Jay and I went to the hospital down in Chapel Hill. My dad was dying, and we were taking him off life support. I…I held him, while he passed. He flat-lined, and I…” Tears welled up in Tyler’s eyes, and he jerked the sheet up to wipe his face. “Man, I don’t know…I think I might have gone crazy.”

Tyler raised a hand before Orak could repeat his request, as the armored figure sighed heavily. “I’ll tell you, man. I’m just trying to figure it out. Some dude burst into the room, and he threw the nurse out on her butt. Jay and I were about to whip his ass, but…the whole room just burst into flames. Everything, all around us. I remember it got all quiet, like, I couldn’t hear a thing or make any sound…and my mouth and eyes felt weird, like my head was bubbling. I saw…I saw the fire eat Jay’s legs, but where he fell close to me, it couldn’t touch us. The fire just kind of parted all around us, and then…man, I dunno. This is insane, but…I saw Pops get up. He was gone, man, I’m telling you, but
he got back up
. He grabbed the guy making the fire, and he tossed that bastard out the window. I remember I couldn’t breathe, and I grabbed Jay ‘cause I was falling down beside him…then there was this noise, like thunder, and I was out.”

“Next thing I know, I’m having some nightmare about being in a trench fighting German dudes, and I’m shooting them with my great-grandfather’s old revolver Pops has locked up at the house. One of them stabs me, right…here…” Tyler trailed off, looking down and rubbing a finger over the faint brown birthmark over his heart. “Ok, Papa Smurf,” Tyler said, looking back up at Orak. “Your turn. Tell me what the hell happened.”

“That nightmare you had was a deathnote, a flashback from your soul” Orak said simply. “The soul remembers, even when the flesh does not. If you recognized some family heirloom, it’s quite likely that part of your soul is a reincarnation. It’s common in families.”

Tyler stared at Orak slack-jawed. “What the fuck are you talking about? You’re saying I’m my own great-grandfather?”

“No,” Orak said, glaring down at Tyler. “Souls are energy. Your kind knows well that energy is neither created nor destroyed, it simply exists in different forms. Souls manifest from the aether into physical bodies. Many of them do it repeatedly, and the flesh they inhabit will often bear the marks of their past struggles.”

Orak crouched down on one knee by the bedside, so that Tyler could see him more clearly. With another heavy sigh, Orak said, “We will talk more about this, I promise you. I want you to focus on something more immediate right now. You were not dreaming, when the fire consumed you and your brother. You were targeted, just as this man was,” Orak nodded towards Delmont. “Because you possess a very rare ability. That is how you survived the fire. You have the ability to channel what my people call ‘aether.’ Channeling this aether will let you do things other humans cannot do. I am here right now for two reasons. One, I need your help. Two, in order for you to help me, you need to learn how to control your abilities. You are both powerful, but you will soon be dead if you do not let me assist you.”

“Dead?” Tyler said. “That dude with the fire is out, man, Pops took care of him. What else is happening?”

“In your case Tyler Morrison,” Orak replied. “You will likely end up killing yourself. What you did to protect yourself from that fire was idiotic. You created a vacuum around yourself. The fire couldn’t reach you, but you may have noticed you also couldn’t breathe. Anyone with a bit of sense would have wrapped the source of the flame in the vacuum, not themselves.”

Tyler looked offended. “Damn, man, it isn’t like I knew what I was doing. I didn’t have Papa Smurf on site to show me the error of my ways.”

“Stop calling me that. My name is Orak. I’m not blaming you, I’m simply pointing out that you don’t know what you’re doing. It would never have been an issue if you had not been provoked. You likely would have lived a normal, peaceful life. You would rarely find yourself in such emotional distress that the aether would lash out that way. Delmont here can tell you, though, that these are not normal times. Your world is about to be attacked by another alien race called the Abbadon. You will be hunted. You will be forced to call upon the aether. And if you do not know how to control it, you will die.”

Delmont had sat quietly in his bed listening to this exchange. “This Orak person is right,” he said. “I was at work…I guess it was just this morning. This thing got in somehow, a creature like a giant spider, or praying mantis. I don’t know how to describe it. It was taller than me, and it could speak, at least a little bit. It attacked the office with some sort of little roach things, and then it ripped me apart. Goddamned thing did this to me,” Delmont said, waving the stump of his left hand over his body, before touching it to his face. “That monster took my eyes, took my hand. You say you need our help, but I don’t know what you expect us to do. I sent that thing on its way to hell, but it took a big part of me with it.”

Orak stood up, and took Delmont’s left arm by the wrist. “This man Tyler might end up killing himself with the aether, but not you Delmont. Your death would come fighting, I don’t doubt it. What you did, killing one of the Abbadon hand to hand, untrained and with only your will to protect others and survive…I think you are exactly the hero your people need.”

“You, on the other hand…” Orak said, looking back to Tyler. “You might not be the hero humanity needs, and certainly aren’t what they expect…but I think you will do.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess?” Tyler said.

“Kind words,” Delmont said. “But that’s all they are. Neither of us have much fight left in us. I heard what the doctors said about you, Tyler, when they were in here.”

“Wait, what did they say? What are these tubes in my chest…what’s wrong with me, exactly?”

Orak stepped back to Tyler’s bedside, and took his hand. “I don’t know if it was the amount of aether you channeled, or some effect of the vacuum you created, but…both of your lungs were partially torn. The chest tubes are a temporary measure, to prevent them from collapsing again. The medical reports I saw indicated you will need surgeries in the coming days to remove the damaged tissue. Also, when your lungs initially collapsed you suffered cardiac damage. Your doctors aren’t sure how much just yet, but they are estimating you’ve lost at least twenty-five percent of your heart function. They can treat you, but the records said ‘with the damage done, the patient will always need supplemental oxygen, and will likely have trouble with most activities of daily living.’”

Tyler stared at Orak, then looked down at the sealed boxes of water hooked to his chest tubes. They continued bubbling with each of his ragged breaths, seeming to confirm what the strange figure had told him. Looking back to Orak, Tyler said, “So you come here looking for our help…to do what? What are you proposing exactly?”

Orak stood up between the pair of men in their beds. “Delmont, you fought with one of the creatures we call the Abbadon. There are more of them coming. They will target the two of you, and others like you, because of your abilities. Tyler, the man who attacked you could clearly channel the aether as well. I don’t know who sent him, or what his intentions were…but I have suspicions. I need your help in fighting the Abbadon when they arrive. They will come for Aki and I, and alone we have little chance of resisting them. We also need your help in stopping an Elv named Zion. Delmont, he was the first one to come into your room yesterday, and he is the catalyst for all of these events. The Abbadon are launching their attack because of what Zion has done.”