Free Novum: Revelation: (Book 4) by Joseph Rhea

Stone.”
    His father’s voice suddenly changed. “I believe the pleasure is all mine, young lady. Who might you be?” He took her hand, but instead of shaking it, he held it between both of his.
    “My name is Alexandria Juno,” she said. “I’m first mate of the cargo vessel, Rogue Wave .”
    His eyes suddenly lit up, and he dropped her hand. “You have a ship here? Where can I find its captain?”
    AJ smiled and turned to Jake. “You’re looking at him.”
    His father raised an eyebrow. “Captain? Really?”
    “Don’t look too shocked,” Jake said.
    “Sorry. I’m sorry, son. It’s just that you were less than ten when I last saw you. “I’m still having difficulty accepting the fact that you’re a grown man.” He shook his head. “I missed so much in…how many years has it been?”
    “Fifteen,” Jake said.
    “Fifteen years,” his father repeated. “So that makes you around twenty-five, right? That’s how old I was when I met your mother.”
    “What happened to you? Why did you leave Mom and not come back?”
    His father walked over and sat down at the center table. “It may sound to you like I’ve lost my mind, since that’s how it seemed to your mother and the rest of our crew, but a few months after we arrived, I swear I saw—”
    “You saw your ship in the lake in the valley,” Jake finished.
    His father raised his eyebrows. “Your mother told you?”
    Jake nodded. “Yes, but the weird thing is that I saw my ship in that same lake.”
    “So you came out here to find it, didn’t you?” he asked. Jake nodded. “So did I, only I got trapped out here by those damn invisible fences.” He paused then added, “And then the dogs found me.”
    “They found us too,” Raines said, “and very nearly killed us all.”
    “How did you escape them?” Jake asked.
    He looked at Jake for several second before answering. “To be honest with you, son, I’m not sure.”
    “What does that mean?”
    He shook his head. “It’s not something I like to think about, but a large pack of dogs found me when I built a fire one night. I was in a clearing, with nowhere to run.”
    “So they attacked you,” AJ said.
    “More than that,” he said, his eyes darting back and forth like he was reliving the event. “They mauled me. They were…tearing me to pieces. I screamed for help, but I was all alone.” He looked at Jake. “My last thought was that I was never going to see you or Cathy again.”
    “But you’re alive,” Vee said. “You look perfectly fine.”
    He nodded. “That’s the point. I am perfectly fine, and I shouldn’t be. I passed out from the pain and then woke up here, in this room.” He knocked on the table with his knuckle. “Right here, in fact. On top of this table. I was naked, and my body had what looked like new skin all over the place. I later found my clothing, bloodied and ripped to shreds on the floor in one of the rooms. On the bed next to them were exact copies of my clothing, in perfect condition.” He pinched the fabric of his sleeve with his fingers. “Really nice material, actually. Never needs washing.”
    “So you were healed by someone, or something, here,” Raines said.
    “That’s what my brother said happened to him,” Jessie said. “He told us that he had new skin on his chest.” She then sat down in the chair next to Michael. “Do you know where my brother is? Do you know if he’s okay?”
    Michael nodded his head. “Your brother is fine. He—he was a bit more damaged than I was when he arrived here. He still can’t travel very far, so he sent an assistant to meet you.”
    “Assistant?” she asked. “What do you mean?”
    Michael looked at Jake. “You still have utility fog simulations back in Civica, don’t you?”
    Jake nodded. “If what we saw, what we talked to, was a simulation, it was the most advanced one I’ve ever seen.”
    Michael smiled. “You have no idea. I could generate a copy of you that would fool your own