The Awakening: Book 1 of the Evaran Chronicles Read Online Free PDF

fully clothed, he tapped his pocket, causing his key ring to jingle. He ran his hand across his back pocket and verified his wallet was still there.
    His thoughts turned toward what Evaran had said. He had never told Emily about his prostate cancer. It had been diagnosed in the early stages, and he had been undergoing effective treatment. Dan had died from a different cancer, and Dr. Snowden remembered the day Emily found out Dan had cancer. She had descended into a bad place. He didn’t want to burden her with that while she was finishing college, especially when the chance of remission was high according to the doctor. It dawned on him that the treatments in the virtual simulation were not real, so he would have been behind in his treatments. That appeared to no longer be needed, however.
    He thought it was interesting that Evaran came over and told him this, instead of saying it aloud in front of the others. Did he know that Emily didn’t know? He rubbed his hips, thinking about the prickle sensations he had felt in that region earlier. He had no way of verifying it was gone. He would still have to tell Emily at some point, a conversation he was dreading. He finished dressing and stepped out of the stall.
    He was the first one out. He walked back to the slab they stood at before. A few moments later, Emily joined him, then Jay, and then Sanjay. Emily had on her jeans, loose shirt, and comfortable shoes. Jay had on work boots, jeans, a white shirt with a red puffy vest of some type, and a red-and-white trucker hat. Sanjay had on casual dress shoes with khakis and a tan buttoned-up short-sleeve shirt.
    Evaran had been looking at the large screen on the wall and turned to face them as they assembled. “The shields are about to drop, so we must leave now.”
    “What’s so important about the room’s shields dropping?” asked Emily.
    Evaran pointed to the large screen. “Come over here, and look at this.”
    They walked over and stood to the sides of him.
    Evaran took a card from his belt and placed it vertically next to the console by the large screen. It snapped into a hovering position one inch from the console. An unstable blue light appeared between the card and the console. After a few moments, it stabilized and emitted a steady light. Evaran then interacted with the air in front of him, moving his fingers around and pressing buttons, like there was an invisible interface only he could see. The large screen on the wall began displaying different-looking creatures. “You were not the only specimens on board. This ship has sustained damage and is currently hurtling toward a planet. Impact is in two hours. Thankfully, the shields in this room lasted as long as they did. The other specimen rooms’ shields have dropped. Those specimens, as seen on this screen, are now freely roaming the ship. That is why the crew is dead.”
    Jay exhaled sharply. “This is so fucked up, man.”
    Dr. Snowden’s stomach rolled. He wrinkled his eyebrows as he scrutinized the screen. The creatures he saw looked like nightmares come to life. They had unusual symbols laid out around them. The screen would show one for five seconds, then move on to another creature. Some of them looked humanoid.
    “Why do you keep tapping the air in front of you?” asked Emily.
    Evaran half smiled at Emily. “You would refer to it as augmented reality. The universal interface card, or UIC,” said Evaran, pointing at the card on the console, “connects me to whatever it is attached. An augmented reality interface, or ARI, that only I can interact with appears around me. In this case, I am able to control the large screen we are looking at.”
    “You don’t have glasses on, though. Contact lenses?” asked Sanjay, dipping his head at Evaran.
    “Something like that,” said Evaran as he half grinned.
    Jay shrugged and shook his head. “Augmented what?”
    “How does the UIC know how to connect to the—” said Sanjay as a high-pitched beep