Knadyn: A Terraneu Novel (Book Six) Read online

  Knadyn

  (A Terraneu Novel, Book Six)

  By

  Stormy McKnight

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Copyright pending, Stormy McKnight

  Cover Art by Brandi Doane McCann

  Published by Stormy McKnight

  http://www.stormymcknight.com/

  Knadyn is the sixth book in the Terraneu series. I would advise that the books be read in order, to enhance the experience. However, I do try to write them as stand-alone as possible.

  Knadyn is a work of fiction and the characters, events, and dialogue found within the story are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, either living or deceased, is completely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or shared in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to digital copying, file sharing, audio recording, email and printing without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  About the Author

  Keep reading for an excerpt

  Other Titles available:

  Chapter One

  “So you are saying the prisoner being held here is an alien?” Ava Howard asked disbelievingly and her father’s keen hazel eyes fixed on her intently.

  “Yes, that is exactly what I am saying.” Steve Howard moved her slowly along the path to a bench near the garden. The entire community had only recently been taken back from the overgrowth of nature, but the ground for the garden had been cleared first thing. This spot had been chosen and cultivated due to its nearness to irrigation and surprisingly low radiation levels. The ground in certain spots were still highly irradiated so they had gotten lucky with this area being so clean.

  “You know I have been studying the anomaly that reappeared three years ago?” her father prompted. Ava did know. Her father had been brought to Scotland almost thirty years ago to study an anomaly and she had traveled with him since she was on holiday from school. That is the only reason they were still alive. Soon after arriving, a mysterious catastrophe wiped out all of the Earth’s electronic devices. After that there was a subsequent re-set of the planet’s human and animal populations. Her mother wasn’t able to make the trip and as far as Ava knew, she hadn’t survived. They had limited communication capabilities but nothing that could reach the United States.

  While she had been daydreaming her father was still talking, “I think I was able to ascertain the cause of the anomaly.” He moved to sit on the bench and she sat next to him. After a minute, she sighed. Her father was losing some of his mental clarity as he got older. He had laughed it off saying, “The only thing worse than getting older…is not getting older.”

  “So you think you know the cause of the anomaly?” she prodded him to continue the conversation.

  “Yes. I have pieced together enough information to make an educated extrapolation of what I think is happening.” He leaned closer, his eyes burning with excitement. “The anomaly is some type of wormhole.” He looked around when he said it then back to her, running his wrinkled hands through his spiky grey hair. Whenever he did that, he looked like pictures of Albert Einstein she had seen. “It happens on the solstices for some reason. Possibly because that is the height of an energy buildup in the atmosphere. All of the data points to something happening twenty…” His focus faded as he tried to remember then sharpened again, “No…almost thirty years ago. I had set up equipment to study the anomaly as Renee requested. However, I wasn’t able to utilize any of that information and the anomaly didn’t reappear until three years ago. Our current equipment isn’t nearly as advanced as I used to have, but I was able to track some activity. The young prisoner is the missing piece that I needed and I think I have finally found the answer.”

  Ava knew almost all of what he had just gone over, but she just smiled to encourage him to keep talking. “Okay.” Ava wasn’t sure if her father was mad or brilliant. “You think the anomaly is a wormhole and the man being held in isolation is an alien.” She was intrigued enough to ask, “Why do you think that they are connected?”

  “Renee told me that they first spotted him during the raid on rebel territory. According to eyewitnesses the prisoner was visible one moment, then gone the next. The government forces have been hunting him for almost six months. He was taken captive a few days ago and Jeromy was very boastful that he had finally been caught.” Her father spoke quickly, “The solstice was six months ago and if I am correct the wormhole would have been active. Also, the prisoner was wearing a strange type of armor that the leadership had me study.” He looked at Ava expressively, “I didn’t know where they got it at first and then Renee confided that it was the prisoners.” Her father’s eyes shone with excitement at making a new discovery, “I have never seen the like of this material. It was heavily damaged but I know it was beyond anything this community had ever seen. I think it had the chameleon properties required to make him “disappear” as the witnesses stated. Jeromy asked me about it and I lied and said it was just a fancy polymer. I told him that maybe the rebels had gotten lucky and found some old military surplus.” Her father leaned back on the bench. “I have only seen the prisoner from a distance a few times. However, I know he isn’t able to eat. Every time they force him to try, he gets violently sick. They had to put him on an I.V. drip to keep him hydrated. They haven’t gotten him to talk, and if we don’t intervene it may be too late.”

  She saw her father’s look and suddenly knew what he was going to ask. Massaging her temples in frustration, she hissed so they weren’t overheard, “No! I won’t try to influence Jeromy into letting me examine the prisoner. You are asking too much.” She knew her father was getting further and further from reality, but he was really gone if he thought she would use Jeromy that way. She had dated him and they had even been engaged, but she had ended their relationship years ago. Reasons being that Jeromy was selfish and spoiled. His mother had passed away during childbirth and his father was one of the leaders of their community so he felt he could get his way in everything.

  “Jeromy cares for you still.” He rubbed his hands along his pants in nervousness. “I know he can be difficult, but we have to try to help the prisoner—”

  “Jeromy only cares about himself…you and I both know that.” She put her hands over his and squeezed. “I’m sorry father. I love and respect you but I am not going to use Jeromy that way. If the leadership wants this prisoner isolated it’s for a reason. Maybe they are right. Did you think of that possibility? Whoever he is, perhaps he is dangerous.”

  “The leadership knows about some parts of my theory of the anomaly. I wasn’t able to hide all of my findings. I have tried to tell them that lifeforms couldn’t travel through it. If they suspect that the prisoner is from the wormhole, despite my telling them otherwise, they might call you in for advice. If that happens, we are all in danger. The prison
er, you and me. It will mean they don’t trust me anymore.” Her father’s face grew taunt with fear, “They might suspect that the prisoner is an alien, one that is responsible for all of the damage to Earth.”

  Ava wanted to interrupt but before she could say anything, he went on. “Ava, the leadership would be wrong in assuming that they are violent or dangerous.” Her father waved his hands around in agitation. “I think quite the opposite. They have been helping us.” Her father’s mood changed lightning quick and he chuckled gleefully. He slapped his hands together and ignored her take that the prisoner might be dangerous. “The atmosphere has improved much faster than it should have. The soil tests show—”

  “You have evidence of that?” She interrupted harshly. Against her better judgement, Ava was losing patience with her father. Yes, the atmosphere had improved at an astonishing rate, but what was his proof that they were being helped by a benevolent alien race? Maybe the planet was just resetting itself. “You have solid evidence that they are helping us? Then where is the food? Medicine? Technology?” She didn’t mean to let bitterness into her voice, but she couldn’t help it. Her father was living in the clouds if he thought the prisoner was here to help them.

  “Ava.” Her father sighed resignedly, “Cleaning up the atmosphere would be a first step. Even if they were willing to help further, attacking them and taking their men prisoner doesn’t help our cause. If you were a greater intelligence dealing with the likes of Earth wouldn’t there be rules of limited or non-interference?”

  “If that male is from such a greater intelligence, how did he get captured?” she asked just to be annoying.

  Her father ignored her tone, “Even the soldiers of this community could get lucky under the right circumstances and catch an advanced being.” He paused to rub his jaw.

  Sighing loudly she ran her hands through her thinning blond hair and pleaded, “Whatever you are thinking, please stop.”

  Her father eyed her with such intensity that she squirmed, “Ask Renee to let you work with the prisoner for a few days. He seems to be mellowing out in his old age, and he always did have a soft spot for you.” He patted her hand. “See if my theory about the prisoner is correct. You will have to work fast because we have less than three weeks, and we are limited in what we can accomplish in such a short time.”

  “Less than three weeks for what?” Ava asked. She couldn’t imagine what her father was getting at now.

  “Well, that fellow might just be missed. If that is the case, I for one, don’t want to be on the wrong side of an angry rescue party.”

  Ava felt a chill go down her spine. If what her father theorized was true, then they could all be in grave danger. “I will see what I can do.” She promised, helping her father to his feet. He was getting more frail by the day. His usually stiff posture had gotten a bit of a stoop to it. His warm brown hair had whitened down and he moved much slower. “In return I need you to do something for me.” She stated emphatically.

  “What would that be?”

  “Start taking better care of yourself.” She admonished lovingly. “You haven’t been eating your rations and you need to keep up your strength.” Holding tightly to his hand she started walking him back towards the living quarters they had been assigned.

  Chapter Two

  Ava never got a chance to request to work with the man her father thought was an alien. Just after her conversation with her father, Jeromy had found her and requested she “examine” a special prisoner. He told her the captive was a rebel soldier.

  “We have tried for a few days to get him to talk.” Jeromy bristled with anger. That was one thing that he couldn’t stand…failure. He didn’t think that he could do any wrong. Maybe it was that his whole life he was the “golden boy”. He was the best in school, his father made sure of that. He was good at his military training, his father saw to that. He was tall and lean with golden hair, blue eyes and a scruffy beard covering his weak chin. Genetics and lack of razor hid that. All of the females of the base thought he walked on water. It had rubbed off on him and turned him from a good childhood friend, into a bad ex-fiancé. “Just be careful in there. Don’t try to give him anything to eat. He just gets sick and it’s a waste. See what you can do.”

  Startled Ava realized Jeromy had opened the door to one of their makeshift medical rooms. In another time, this may have been a school or small office building. Since only about twenty buildings were still habitable, this was now a hospital or if the occasion called for it…a jail cell. She smiled when she saw another friend guarding the door. Dillon had been in school with both her and Jeromy. Dillon hadn’t taken the road into “asshole” like Jeromy had. He was still a really nice guy. Ava said a quick hello to Dillon before Jeromy had pushed her into the room and closed the door behind her.

  The male lying on the bed was so pale it made her look tan. The window in the room was covered, as part of a cruel torture Jeromy had devised or because it had bothered the prisoner, she didn’t know which. When she reached the side of the bed, she noticed that he had the I.V. in his wrist with a saline drip going. She wasn’t sure how safe those old saline bags were or if they were doing him any good.

  She looked him over starting at the top of his head. His hair was in the fashion of most males around here, Jeromy included…the military buzz cut. The spiky growth on top of his head was pitch black and she noticed that he didn’t have any scars, scabs, sores or rashes on his scalp. That was unusual since most of them had at least two of those things going at any given time.

  His eyes were closed and long black eyelashes were fanned across his lower lid. He had two black eyebrows in an arch over each eye and that came across as odd to her. Not very many men in this community worried about trimming their eyebrows. His cheekbones were sharp in his face, but she took that to be due to the fact that he might not be eating. Was her father had been right about that? If so, it made her pause to wonder what else he might be right about.

  The prisoner’s nose was nicely proportioned to his face and wasn’t pointy or hooked. His lips…her eyes stuck on his lips for a second longer than necessary. They were full and what her friends would laughingly call “kissable”. His jaw was angular and his chin was square. Surprisingly there wasn’t a hint of a beard or growth of hair on his face. That was another odd thing since she knew the guards wouldn’t bother to shave him.

  Looking further since the blanket covering him had slipped down, she noted his bare chest and shoulder muscles were somewhat defined, but not overly bulky. There were males in this community at this level of fitness. Some were even more muscular but they only got that fit with advance training and extra rations. Jeromy had tried, but the exercise regime was too strenuous and he had quit, saying that he didn’t want to waste the extra rations when his skills were better served elsewhere. From what she could see, this male had been well fed and pampered, at least at some point. His chest, shoulders, biceps, forearms and stomach…all of which she could see, were leanly muscled. Her gaze fell on his hands lying palm up on the bed. His wrists were fastened to the railing. His hand was much larger than hers and she finally saw a few scars but no sores or callouses on his hands. When she lightly touched her fingers to his she was taken by how soft his skin felt.

  Taking a chair, she sat down and waited to see if he would wake up. Her fingers drummed idly as she thought about what she had seen so far. Nothing she saw of him shouted that he was an alien. He was taller than average at about six foot two, faintly muscled, without sores or rashes but he seemed to be human. She was just getting ready to leave when she felt a sudden awareness that she was being watched. Her whole body stiffened and the hairs on her arms and neck were energized. Lifting her eyes, she looked to the prisoner’s handsome face. He wasn’t sleeping anymore and his bright eyes were fixed on her. She couldn’t get over the intense look in his eyes. Then it hit her…not one person she had ever met had purple eye color.

  “Hello.” His voice was deep and dry. She wondered how l
ong it had been since he had gotten a drink of water, instead of the I.V. drip.

  “Hello. I am Ava Jean Howard. Please call me Ava.” She moved around to stand on the other side of his bed. Despite what Jeromy had said, his parched voice screamed for water to her. “Would you like a drink of water?’ she asked very quietly.

  “They stopped giving me any.” He whispered back, his gaze going around the room.

  She looked around also and noted that there weren’t any glasses or canisters to hold the liquid. “Hold on a second.” Hurrying to the door, she opened it and asked Dillon if he could bring her some water. Before he could answer, she tucked back into the room.

  “You will get into trouble if you give me something to drink.” His voice was so weak and raspy the sound hurt her ears.

  “Let me worry about that.” She insisted. When she heard the door open, she moved to block him from view of the guard. “Thanks Dillon.” She took the glass from her friend and saw that the prisoner had closed his eyes. She waited until she heard the door close again then moved the chair around to the other side of the bed. Not caring if she got in trouble, she released one wrist. He could snap her neck if he was strong enough and so inclined. For some reason she didn’t think he would hurt her. It was the look in those smoldering purple eyes of his.

  “Here sip this. I know it’s a bit gritty but the water system still isn’t working like we’d hoped.” She handed him the glass and watched as he took baby sips of the water.

  “Thank you…”

  “You are welcome.” She paused and then asked, “What is your name?”

  He looked at her intently for a second then answered, “Knadyn.” His voice was so soft she didn’t think she heard correctly.

  “Aiden?”

  Smiling he shook his head, “No. Knadyn. It is pronounced…Nay-din. The emphasis is on the ‘nnnn’ sound.” He rolled his tongue on the N and Ava smiled back.