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

your room,” said Evaran.
    Jay cocked his head as if to say something, but shrugged his shoulders and looked around.
    The hallway they were in was large with low light levels. A faint mist permeated the air. The ceiling was about twenty feet high, and there were two entrances across the hallway and one to the right of the entrance they just came out of. At the end of the hallway was a larger entrance. Alongside each room entrance was a high-tech workstation with unusual equipment on the side. The walls were covered with metallic panels, broken up every now and then with a screen and elongated, flat, U-shaped tubules with a red-spotted fleshlike texture jutting out every few panels or so. Several feet from the ceiling on all sides was a glass-like black strip outlined with gold borders. It wrapped around the whole hallway.
    The stark contrast of the well-lit lab they came from to the dimly lit hallway sent chills through Dr. Snowden. He waved his hand through the fine mist that seemed to float above the ground. The smell Jay referred to hit him too. It rankled his nose. He looked around and noticed the other entrances did not have shields on them, and the black strips had an optical illusion appearance. He pointed to the barely visible strips. “What’re those?”
    Evaran tilted his head up to look at the strip. “It is a holographic projection strip. Similar to my ring from the virtual simulation, but that one is much more advanced. If they were working, I would be able to show you a Krotovore AI.”
    “How convenient they’re busted,” said Dr. Snowden.
    Evaran paused to look at Dr. Snowden, then turned and waved for everyone to follow.
    They continued out into a hallway. At the end of it, they stepped into a large cylindrical area.
    Dr. Snowden did not see a floor or ceiling in the middle, but he saw that the walkway they were on extended around the edges in a full circle. He also saw walkways ringing the edges both above and below him. It was difficult for him to see too much, as the mist seemed to be denser. He noticed that there were four half-cylindrical columns evenly spaced on each walkway. He figured they were some type of support structure. It reminded him of a large, hollow missile silo. He moved to the walkway’s edge and looked down a few levels, then up. “How big is this? I can’t see the floor or ceiling.”
    “It is several miles each way. We are on level 546 out of 1000 or so levels. We need to go up to level 555, where the main bridge concourse is. There is an elevator system nearby we can use,” said Evaran, pointing to the nearest half-cylindrical column.
    Jay laughed. “Several miles? In a building? C’mon, man …”
    Evaran half grinned at Jay. “You still believe this is a building?”
    “Yeah, I do,” said Jay, glancing at Dr. Snowden.
    Dr. Snowden nodded his head at Jay. “Until proven otherwise, I agree with Jay’s assessment.”
    Evaran shook his head and exhaled sharply. “Okay.”
    They reached the featureless half-cylindrical column. Evaran placed his UIC on the wall console and interacted with his ARI. The half-cylindrical column rotated, exposing a spacious interior with gray walls.
    “In we go then,” said Evaran.
    They walked into the elevator. Dr. Snowden noted that the interior was featureless except for one console. The wall slid shut, and after a few moments, they reopened to level 555.
    Dr. Snowden was amazed at how fast it went up nine levels. They walked out, and he recognized that this level had a different height than the others. He guessed it to be about three stories high. He jumped as a shrieking sound rang out from far away. The mist and low lighting made him rub the goosebumps on his arm.
    They turned left and walked for a few minutes to the main bridge concourse entrance. They stopped to examine the archway. The border of the entrance had thick segmented blocks ringing it. Each segment had a circle on it, with an alien symbol in the circle.
    Looking down