Divine Awakening

Ash settled back into the nylon mesh seat, and carefully placed the VOX headset back over his ears. Captain Riegel’s voice filled his ears through the noise-canceling headphones. Despite the loud environment of the C-130, much noisier than the helicopter, the headphones ensured his hearing remained protected.

Ash used Crown chakra energy, a power he rarely accessed and had difficulty even sensing, to concentrate on the memory of the quick glance he’d had of the phone. The text had been upside down, but with the Crown energy his recall would remain clear, allowing him to study it later.

“Let’s talk about Nomad first,” Captain Riegel suggested.

“He’s the guy in charge of the other team, right?”

“Affirmative. He’s not on your team, so I can’t provide as many details, but what I can say is he’s a superb soldier and a good man. Despite his long stint in the army, he remains easy to work with. That probably has a lot to do with his specialty and the amount of time he’s spent on assignments.”

“If you’ve mashed a bunch of different branches together, I’d assume that would cause some conflict, even if they’re all trained to deal with it. Does he have some type of team-building experience?”

“Excellent deduction, Shamrock. That’s exactly right. Nomad is a Green Beret and an expert in training locals to become insurgents, so overcoming differences of opinion and maintaining clear lines of communication are the critical skills that made him perfect for us.”

Ash, knowing almost nothing about the US military or its governmental agencies, didn’t press her for details, given he had no context for them. His Throat chakra remained inactive, indicating the truthfulness of her information.

“How many people are on each team?” Ash asked.

“Ten, and that includes you.”

Ash hated the idea of leading a group, but he had to admit some curiosity about the other people.

“These aren’t in any order. We’ll start with McGyver.”

“McGyver? I’m not familiar with that word.”

The Captain briefly looked frustrated and then sighed. “Sephy likes old TV shows, including McGyver, and she’s the one who produced these call signs. Our McGyver grew up off the grid and is excellent at fabricating items without modern tools. Unlike the TV show, he doesn’t have a bunch of degrees. So, his utility is based on practical items which might be critical inside the Pit.”

“You said that Sephy based our group off a role-playing game. How does McGyver fit into that?”

“I’m not sure, to be honest. I’ve never played games. I just trust that Sephy knows what she’s doing.”

“This has started off far less exciting than I expected. He’s probably great with a club or staff or something, right?”

“Oh no,” Captain Riegel responded, shaking her head. “McGyver is very religious and a devout pacifist.”

“That doesn’t seem like a good fit for where we’re headed. Now I am wondering if your friend might need to update her software or something.”

Captain Riegel smiled mischievously. “If you don’t like McGyver, you’re going to hate Syntax. Do you use any social media?”

“No, I don’t have the time.”

“That will make adjusting to Syntax more difficult.”

“Why?”

“Syntax’s identity is wrapped up with her online persona. She acts like she’s on a reality TV show. She is, however, a linguistic genius, knows over twenty languages, and can exchange basic information in a new language after less than an hour of hearing it. In addition, she’s created multiple languages of her own.”

“That at least sounds more useful, considering we don’t know what we’ll find down there.”

Ash’s Throat chakra had responded to the last thing the captain had said. “What are you not telling me?”

Captain Riegel nodded as if expecting the question. “Those languages weren’t human. She created one for crickets, another for birds, and one that can only be understood underwater.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Why do people do anything?”

“Fair enough. I assume she can’t fight either.”

“No, but that brings us to Longshot who might make you happy. She’s an Olympic gold medalist in archery.”

“Great, finally some ranged damage.”

“Affirmative. There’s no arguing her skill with a bow. I should warn you, though, her day job is a journalist, and she asks a lot of questions. You’re an introvert, and she’s going to drain your battery quickly.”

“So far, my team consists of a pacifist, a cricket translator, and a chatty journalist. Has Longshot at least seen combat?”

“Negative, her targets have always been paper.”

“You’re killing me, Captain.”

“Speaking of dying, let’s talk about Patch. He’s a superb paramedic.”

“Let me guess, he’s also a pacifist.”

“I’m not sure. He comes from a tough area, so I guess you’ll need to ask him.”

“There’s no way we survive this.”

“Another nice segway, let’s discuss Everest. She’s another that you might have seen if you watched any of those physical circuit challenges. She’s a parkour expert and has trained a lot with her father, who’s a survival, evasion, resistance, and escape expert from the Air Force. Full disclosure, her father is on Nomad’s team, and his code name is Grizzly.”

“At least we’ll have one person who can take care of themselves.”

“Affirmative, and she’s also a connection to the other team, which might prove valuable if things get stressful. Which they will.”

Ash nodded his understanding.

“Tripwire is more your speed. He’s a self-taught trap and explosives expert.”

“Self-taught?”

“He’s a prepper. Probably the only group on Earth who are happy about the approaching apocalypse, since they’re the ones prepared for it.”

“I don’t know much about explosives, but since he hasn’t killed himself yet, I’ll assume he has some skill.”

“He does and he’s also a little high-strung.” Before Ash could respond, Captain Riegel continued. “The next two will likely cause you some headaches because they argue all the time. Wiki is a specialist in ancient cultures and the occult. Checkmate is a legitimate genius who will be your puzzle, logic, and pattern recognition specialist. If the Pit acts like a dungeon, then it will likely have some type of obstacle that Checkmate will be valuable for.”

“Does one of them have a hobby like assault rifles, or dagger throwing?”

“Unfortunately, not, and neither does the last member of your team. Her call sign is Relay. Since you can tell when I’m lying, I’ll admit she is a bit of a wildcard. And while I don’t know exactly why she’s on the team, I know it relates to her new abilities that surfaced after the Pit appeared.”

“She’s a Clypser?”

“Yes.”

“And you don’t want to discuss her abilities? Shouldn’t I know that if she’s part of my team?”

“What I’m comfortable telling you is that her counterpart on Nomad’s team is call signed ‘Brainwave.’ He joins us from one of the CIA’s programs, and I would describe him as a mentalist.”

“Mentalist? Like those guys that can figure out your phone number by holding your wrist or get you to see things that aren’t there?”

“Something like that. We can talk in more detail about everyone once you’ve met them and have a feel for their personalities.”

“Sounds good. Thanks for the information.”

Ash closed his eyes and considered what he’d learned about his team. He didn’t want to say the AI was crazy or fatalistic, but he had no confidence that the people described could survive in the Pit—a place where, literally, the best-trained military personnel from all over the world met their end.

In less than a day, he would meet these nine strangers, but he already knew they’d all die. He mentally prepared himself to navigate the Pit alone.

Why would these people even agree to explore such a dangerous place? It seemed suicidal. Longshot and Everest appeared like the only two with skills that might help them survive. What could possibly motivate these people?

Thoughts on motivation reminded Ash he needed to come up with a new one. He couldn’t tell people he was the chosen one foretold to save the planet by a prophecy from the lips of god himself ten thousand years ago. That sounded crazy.

Which caused Ash to consider how the others would see him. How confident would they be when they learned their leader was a Mexican avocado farmer. Maybe he shouldn’t be so quick to judge his team.

No reason to worry about those things now, Ash would handle whatever situations arose when the time came. Thinking through a bunch of hypotheticals was a waste of energy.

Instead, Ash could use this time to improve his chakras. The only chance he had of surviving this circus was if he could harness the power of all eight. And he had a long way to go.

Ash lifted and crossed his legs in the uncomfortable chair. He’d spent his life uncomfortable, so the seat didn’t bother him.

With a focus Ash had only recently been able to summon, he utilized his Crown chakra to review the brief glimpse he’d gotten from the phone screen as he handed it back to Captain Riegel.

It felt like pushing his brain through granite. Ash had spent very little time trying to activate this chakra, and it showed.

The phone’s display appeared in Ash’s mind, and he studied the conversation between Captain Riegel and Sephy. He noticed that the captain’s first name was Allyssa, and that she spoke in a much more relaxed fashion with Sephy than she did with Ash.

Only the last portion of the conversation remained visible, but it contained two valuable pieces of information. The first shed light on the woman named Relay and her capabilities. It appeared she could see icons around people that gave her insight into—something. Ash wondered what insight she could gain.

Which led Ash to the second item and the references to his father. He didn’t have many clear memories of his father and rarely thought about him.

The memories Ash could recall showed a kind but quiet and somewhat serious man. Grandpa Pine never discussed Ash’s father, and Ash felt it was because grandpa blamed the man for his daughter’s disappearance.

Ash had never pressed the issue because he knew how wrecked his grandpa had been about her vanishing, and Ash didn’t want to stir up those memories just to satisfy his curiosity.

Now, it seemed this AI had discovered something interesting about Ash’s father, and an intense curiosity surfaced. Whatever secrets his father kept, Ash planned to discover them.