Novum: Revelation: (Book 4) Read online

  NOVUM: REVELATION

  By Joseph Rhea

  NOVUM REVELATION Copyright © 2016 by Joseph Rhea. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this eBook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author, who can be contacted by email at: [email protected]

  Book cover by David Rhea

  (DaveRhea.net)

  Also available in print worldwide.

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  Contents

  Chapter 01

  Chapter 02

  Chapter 03

  Chapter 04

  Chapter 05

  Chapter 06

  Chapter 07

  Chapter 08

  Chapter 09

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  About the Author

  Books by Joseph Rhea

  Chapter 01

  “Having trouble adjusting, aren’t you?” Jake’s mother said gently behind him. He was sitting on a small bluff, watching a pair of large long-necked water birds gliding across the lake just west of the village.

  “How did you find me?” he asked without taking his eyes off the view.

  He heard her sigh. “You come here every seven days, and always at noon. Your father…had a friend who used to do something similar. He claimed that it helped him keep track of the passage of time. He felt that was important.”

  He looked back at her. “You don’t?”

  She shook her head. “I gave up those contrivances long ago. Now I try to be content with each and every day and not worry about things I can’t control.”

  “That sounds fun,” he replied sarcastically. She brushed it off like she always did and walked up to sit beside him. He had a sudden realization that after fifteen years apart, it was reassuring to have an “always” between them after just two months back together.

  She must have read his face, because she put her hand on his back. He involuntarily flinched, and she pulled it quickly away. “Sorry,” she whispered.

  “No, I’m sorry,” he said, looking back at the lake. He still had difficulty facing her. For fifteen years he had held an unchanging mother in his memories; young, vibrant, caring--always there when he needed her. It wasn’t that she was old now, although her prematurely grey hair and sun-weathered skin made her look older than she was. It was more that she was dead for so much of his adult life, and that made it difficult to accept that she was alive. “You really don’t try to keep track of time, do you?” he asked. “No one seems to know or care what day it is, let alone what month, or even year. I just can’t understand why that’s not important to you.”

  She leaned back on her hands, and he had a glimpse of the young mother he remembered. “We call it the ‘circle of life,’” she said.

  “I get it. You live inside a torus, a big hollow circle, so…”

  “No, that’s not it. Circle of life refers to a simpler way of living. You’re born, grow up, have children, and die. Your children do the same, and their children, and so on. It’s a cycle.”

  Jake shook his head. “How is that any different from life back in Civica?”

  “Because here, in Eden, nothing changes. Entropy doesn’t play a role in our lives as it did in the colony. In Civica, you are made aware of the passage of time every day. Machines break down, power sources diminish, food runs out, governing bodies become corrupt. It’s a constant reminder that the human race is on a path to extinction.”

  “How is that different here?”

  “Because this is Eden, Jake. It’s Earth. It’s the birthplace of humanity. It’s a perfect world, a utopia where the sun never dims and the stars never burn out. It is ancient beyond what we can comprehend, but it looks brand new. There has always been, and always will be, food and water for every creature living inside. Nothing outside of our bodies ever changes, and therefore, the concepts of past and future hold no real meaning here. We are all parts in a never-ending circle of life.” She looked deeply into his eyes. “This is humanity’s past, and it’s our future as well, Jake. And it can be your future too, if you are willing to accept your place in it.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “It all sounds great and everything, but I just can’t—”

  “This has nothing to do with timekeeping, does it, Jake?”

  He looked at the grass between his feet. “What else would it be?”

  She patted his arm. “I think this is about the rumors you’ve been hearing.”

  “What rumors?” he lied.

  “Don’t play games with me, Jacob. You know what I’m talking about.”

  He looked back up at the lake. “You mean the fact that you believe you’re all Betas? That everyone on the Compass Expedition believed they were Betas?” He looked directly at her. “Is that the rumor you’re talking about?”

  She nodded. “I understand from AJ that things had turned very bad for those thought to be Betas in the colony.”

  “Bad? You could say that. Blamed for every crime, put in prison for no reason, sometimes killed outright.” He looked back in the direction of the village. “Did you know that Dr. Wood invented a device that could identify them from their blood?”

  She smiled. “A true Beta doesn’t need a medical test. You just know it, deep down in your heart.”

  He jumped to his feet. “Well, I don’t know it,” he yelled then lowered his voice. “If both you and Dad were Betas, then you’re saying I’m one too, right? I’m a Beta?”

  “I’m sure you’ve had moments when you felt different from your friends, haven’t you?”

  “The only difference I had from my friends was that their parents were around.”

  “That’s not fair, Jacob.”

  “Isn’t it? You’ve basically admitted that you and the others ran away from Civica.”

  She nodded. “That’s right, but your father and I didn’t run away from you. We were looking for a new home, and we knew it was dangerous. We planned to come back for you.”

  “Betas have hive minds,” he said, changing the subject. “I don’t see any sign of that here.”

  His mother stood up and faced him. “We believe in the concept of a true democracy where everyone has an equal voice. If that’s a sign of having a ‘hive mind,’ then I’m guilty. And so is the rest of my crew.” She paused before adding, “And so is your crew.”

  “My crew?”

  “AJ told me that she and her people were helping a woman named Nia Moon fight for Beta rights when you met them.”

  “So?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Did you really think they were just being altruistic?”

  He shrugged. “They’re good people.”

  She nodded. “Yes, they are, Jacob. And they are Betas as well. Even your Dr. Wood. He may deny it, but it doesn’t change who he is. Or who you are.”

  “I’m human!” he yelled, finally reaching his breaking point.

  “Betas are humans,” she said calmly. “I believe that we’re a second generation of humanity, created specifically to survive in this ocean world. From that perspective, Alphas, the original humans from Earth, are no longer needed here. They are the ones we should be eliminating, not the other way around.”

  Jake’s head began to spin, and he sat back down on the grass. His own mother was talking about going to war with the Alphas of Civica. Was she the threat everyone feared? Was she growing an army of Beta warriors out here?

  “Jake has difficulty accepting major changes in his life,” Jane said as she apparently materialized from thin air and dropped to the grass on the other side of him.

  “Good afternoon, Jane,” his mother said with a warm smile as she sat as well.

  “Good afternoon, Catherine,” Jane replied with a nod of her head.

  His mother and Jane had connected right away, which under other circumstances wouldn’t have bothered him. However, in the fifteen years since his mother’s people had come to Eden, procreation had become something of a survival tactic for them, a major part of their circle of life. The arrival of Jake’s crew seemed to be on everyone’s mind, even though they only spoke of it in whispers when they thought no one was listening. “Four healthy women of child-bearing age,” he heard his own mother say to someone else. Was this part of their hive-mind thinking? More proof that they were trying to breed an army out here?

  “Seriously,” he said, tired of the whole discussion, “I just came up here to watch the birds land on the water. How does everyone…” He froze when he saw the Rogue Wave floating in the middle of the lake, the empty bridge fully visible through the upper viewports. He looked at Jane then back at the lake, but it was gone. Vanished. No sign that it had ever been there. He looked at his mother. “Did you see that?” he asked.

  She answered without taking her eyes off of him. “What did you see, dear?”

  He looked back at Jane. “Did you…did you see the Wave?”

  Jane looked at the lake. “Would you feel less isolated if I told you that I saw it as well?”

  He shook his head, but
his mother spoke before he could. “Did you really see your ship out there?”

  He looked back at the lake. “It looked so real. I could see its reflection in the water. Small waves splashing against the hull. I could see inside the bridge. Sunlight on the dashboards. I…”

  She put her hand on his shoulder, but instead of comforting him, she used him to stand up. “I need to get back. I’ll see you both at dinner.”

  Jake watched her walk away, confused as much by her reaction as to what he had seen.

  “Change is good,” Jane said out of nowhere.

  “Excuse me?” he asked, turning to her.

  “Everything interesting happens at the borders,” she said, as if reciting a passage from one of Raines’s science books. “The borders between the things you are used to and the things that are foreign to you.” She looked in his eyes. “It drives evolution. It’s also how we evolve, both physically and emotionally.”

  He let out an audible sigh, oddly reassured by her words. It went against his mother’s perfect world theory where nothing changes. “You never cease to surprise me,” he said.

  “Will you be surprised to learn that I don’t believe you’re a Beta?”

  He nodded. “Yes, and I appreciate your support.”

  “Will you also be surprised to learn that I will follow you when you decide to go look for it?”

  Now she lost him. “Look for what?”

  She pointed to the lake. “My ship.”

  He turned quickly, but the lake was still empty. “Wait a minute. Your ship?”

  She nodded her head. “I lived aboard the Rogue Wave my entire life, or at least, the life I remember. So I think that it’s more of a home to me than any of you.”

  Just hearing her call the Wave her “home” made him miss it all the more. The fact that he had wanted to sell her a year back was now inconceivable. “I don’t think she will be easy to locate,” he added, looking east and then west. “We don’t even know which way to go if we did want to start searching.”

  “Sure we do,” she said as she stood up then began doing cartwheels in a circle around him. “We head west.”

  He looked towards the lake. “Because I saw the Wave in the lake west of me?” he guessed.

  She stopped and looked at him. “No, I’m sure your vision was just a holdover effect from your hypoxia.”

  He shook his head. “Then why should we head west?”

  “Because the sun is moving in that direction, silly. Our daylight hours will be longer of we move with the sun.”

  He nodded. “I didn’t think about that.” Without technology, with no form of portable, artificial lighting, they would be forced to travel by day and camp at night. Moving west would certainly make sense.

  She began to cartwheel again. “I’m sure most of the crew will come with us,” she said. It was hard looking at her while her face rotated around and around.

  “Most?”

  She stopped again. “You don’t seriously think Dr. Wood would come with us, do you? As much as he complains about living without hot showers and proper toilets, I can’t see him heading into the hinterland for several days.”

  “Hinter-what?”

  “It’s a word from one of Norman’s books. It means wild space.”

  Jake looked down the curved landscape and hoped the journey wouldn’t be too wild. If this really was Eden, the birthplace of humanity, then the whole torus probably looked like the valley they were in. If that was the case, then they wouldn’t have to carry much, because they could probably gather all the food and water they would need along the way.

  He sat there daydreaming about the trip then realized Jane was standing there watching him. “What?” he asked.

  “Shouldn’t we go tell the others?”

  He sighed and then stood up, realizing that in doing so, he had made up his mind to go—and he felt good about it. “Yes, I guess we should.”

  Chapter 02

  As Jane had guessed, it took very little effort to convince his crew to go with him. Dr. Wood was the lone exception, of course. He nearly laughed out loud when Jake proposed the trip to him, then returned to his hut without further comment.

  The real problem was the rest of the villagers. They called an all-hands meeting at the fire pit that evening to discuss his idea.

  Eleanor, the head cook, was the first to speak up. “You’re one of us now,” she pleaded. “You can’t just up and leave us.”

  “Who will help me tend the fields?” Maxwell, the eldest member of the village, asked, genuine tears welling up in his tired eyes. At least they looked genuine.

  “We’ll only be gone a few days,” he said, “a week at tops.” The truth was he had no idea how long they would be gone. The more he thought about it, the more determined he was to locate his ship at all cost. In fact, he would have started out that very evening if they had lights to carry.

  As the rest of the villagers gave their own reasons for abandoning the trip, Jake noticed that his mother was not in the crowd. He excused himself, accepting a glare from his first mate, AJ, then walked the short distance to his mother’s hut.

  “Mind if I come in?” he asked when he heard her moving around inside. When she didn’t answer, he pushed the cloth door aside and poked his head inside. “Mom?”

  She was sitting on her bed with her face buried in her hands but looked up and wiped her face when she saw him. “You know, that’s the first time you’ve called me that since you arrived.”

  “Seemed like a little kid’s word,” he admitted.

  “You were a little kid the last time I saw you,” she said then wiped her eyes again.

  “Why are you crying? Is it because I want to go look for my ship, or is it something else?”

  “Isn’t that enough of a reason? I’m your mother. I don’t want to lose you again.”

  “How can you lose me?” he asked as he walked over and sat beside her.

  “If this is about us putting pressure on you to choose a mate, I can ask the others to give you a little breathing room.”

  He stood up. “It’s not about that, but now that you mention it, I would appreciate it if everyone just left me alone.”

  “If you leave the village, you could get hurt,” she said, as if she hadn’t been listening. “You could fall off a cliff.”

  He patted her arm and smiled. “I plan to walk down the valley, but I promise to stay off steep ledges if I find any.”

  She looked at him. “Don’t patronize me, Jacob Stone. You want to head off and look for your ship, and you have no idea where it might be or how to find it. I believe you would take any risk in order to locate it. Am I wrong?”

  He stood up. “Look, I think I understand your concern—”

  “No, you don’t,” she interrupted. “You’ve never been a parent, so you can’t know what it’s like. What are you going to tell Becca?”

  “I…I wasn’t planning to tell her anything.”

  “She’s your sister, Jake. I think you owe her—”

  “I don’t even know her, Mom. We’ve hardly spoken.”

  “And whose fault is that?”

  “Listen, Mom,” he said, trying to steer the conversation back to the original topic. “I may not have had children, but there have been people in my life that I cared for deeply—”

  “Who is it?” she interrupted again. “Tell me about her. What’s her name? Is she one of your crewmates?” She patted him on the arm. “See? We still have so much to talk about. You can’t just leave me now.”

  “It’s just a few days,” he pleaded. He hated that he felt like a child whenever he talked to her. It was true that it would be a while until things were normal between them. “Look, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll promise to be back in four days—two days out and two days back. Maybe add an extra day to look around. We’ll call it a scouting mission, just to see what we see. Even if we find something, I promise I’ll come back before pursuing it. How does that sound? Five days tops.”

  She frowned. “I don’t mean to doubt you, Jacob, but I think you have too much of your father in you.”

  When she didn’t continue, he asked, “What does that mean?”

  She shook her head then stood up. “Nothing. I guess that I have to accept the fact that you are a grown man now. If you want to leave, none of us can stop you.”