Nik found himself prone, his mind a chaotic swirl of events that had led him to this unfamiliar place. Could this be real? It had started like any other day, finishing his shift in the mine when the STM malfunctioned. He fixed it, but Toma discovered his secret.

  The Warden came into the picture. Interrogation followed. Pain... Unending pain consumed him. Explosions... Gunfire...

  Then silence. The pain started leaving. Voices. Valentine and Erica's voices. Then, more noises. Different noises. Happy noises. Then rest. Sweet rest.

  Nik had been falling in and out of consciousness. Now, he felt like he could stay awake. He could see around the room a bit when he came to his full senses. From his position, he couldn't see much. It looked like a well-stocked medical office. Where had he been taken?

  Nik ventured a slight movement in the bed, instantly aware of the pulsing wounds on his back. Every little move he made wracked him with fresh pain. Still, Nik's curiosity was too great. Besides, he had dealt with pain and exhaustion for god knows how long by now. What were a few whip injuries?

  Summoning a substantial effort, he managed to get onto his hands and knees. He noticed a tube attached to his wrist. Nik looked over to see an IV stand with a few bags hanging from it. Slowly, Nik eased his feet off the bed. Carefully, he extended his foot until he felt the cool tile of the floor. He slowly eased the other one down until he felt himself standing. A wave of lightheadedness swept over him, forcing him to pause while it receded.

  After another minute, he was finally able to stand up fully. The room was still wobbling around him. He reached out to the IV stand, pulling it closer. Using it as a makeshift walker, Nik slowly shambled to the door. He felt a tugging. Wires. There were wires stuck to him. He peeled them off one by one. When he was finally free, Nik started for the door again. As he did, a familiar face came rushing in.

  "Nik!" Erica cried out. "What the hell are you out of bed for? I thought you had gone into cardiac arrest." Nik looked over at the monitors he had just disconnected himself from.

  "Sorry," he muttered, an undertone of sheepishness in his voice. Erica looked just as he remembered. Slim but very well developed physically. The only difference was her attire. Instead of wearing her usual warm cottons and apron, she looked prepared for a camping trip. She even had a tiny waist pack at her hip.

  "Well, I assume you'd just say no if I told you to get back in bed," she said, making her way over to a storage closet. "Here." She wheeled out a chair that looked like a walker. "It's a rollator. You can walk with it and sit if you need a break. Also, I'll need to take out your drips." She pushed the mobile aid over to Nik and unraveled the tape holding the IV needle in his hand.

  A minute later, Nik and Erica emerged from the medical office. Careful of his injuries, Nik made his way forward sluggishly while Erica watched his every movement.

  Her anxiety was palpable. Nik figured she was worried about him potentially fainting without warning. He could feel the intensity of her gaze as if it was piercing through him.

  "Where are we?" he asked, looking around as they ambled down a short hallway. There weren't any windows.

  "Well, that's a tough one to answer," she said contemplatively. "The short answer is we're about twenty miles northwest of Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland."

  "Where?" Nik gave her a puzzled look.

  "Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland," she repeated.

  Nik shook his head, "I won't even attempt to pronounce that."

  "Good. I'd rather not repeat it again."

  "So, what's the long answer?" Nik asked. They rounded the corner at the end of the hallway. Nik Froze, flabbergasted.

  "The long answer," Erica began, her voice carrying a hint of pride, "is that you're two thousand feet underground, in the heart of Vector, the Bilocation Network's military arm."

  Nik remained rooted to the spot. Before himself was a causeway descending into a sprawling room teaming with people tirelessly working on projects of every nature. The hallway he stood in curved around the entire atrium-like floor. Nik's amazement turned into stupefaction when his gaze shifted upward.

  They were at the base of a gaping shaft that stretched heavenward. Nik could barely make out distant rays of daylight permeating a glass dome. Flocks of drones filled the indoor sky with life. Nik watched as they flitted to and fro across the atrium. Some traced the edge of the spiraling walkway up to the surface as they delivered their contents.

  Around the path's edge, door after door lined the walls. Could they be offices? Or dormitories? Nik gazed in wonderment when a voice piped up behind him.

  "Hello, old friend." Nik turned around to see Valentine beaming at him. "Welcome to Vector headquarters, the military arm of the Bilocation Network. It's about two thousand feet underground just Northwest of Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland." Valentine swelled with pride.

  "I already told him all of that, you big oaf," Erica scolded.

  "You did?" Valentine asked, aghast. His delight deflated under Erica's stern nod.

  "But I wanted to be the one who introduced him to Vector," his lips pursed into a childish pout.

  "Too late, I already did," Erica said smugly. Valentine hunched his shoulders in defeat. A half moment later, his warm smile snapped back into place.

  With pride reignited, he declared, "Then, I'll have the honor of giving him the tour!"

  "Be my guest," Erica gestured sarcastically. "And when he inevitably collapses and dies, I'll have you to blame."

  "Right!" Valentine said triumphantly, disregarding Erica's quip. "This way, Nik. There's a lot I want to show you." Slowly, Nik and Valentine began to descend the causeway into the heart of the blusterous facility.

  "Wait!" a small voice called." Nik looked back to see a tiny girl with blonde hair skipping down the ramp toward them. "Daddy, wait!"

  "Daddy?" Nik echoed, glancing at Valentine, who returned a sheepish smile.

  "Yeah, well, I kinda forgot to tell you that Erica and I had been expecting for a bit the last time we saw each other. You're just in time, too. Her fourth birthday is right around the corner." When the little girl reached them, Valentine crouched down and scooped up his daughter. She perched herself around his shoulders and began to eye Nik.

  Peering over Valentine's head, she asked, "Daddy, who's this?" As she tilted her head, her hair playfully swayed to the side.

  "This is Uncle Nik. He just got back from a long trip." Valentine winked to Nik

  "Hi there," Nik said, waving. "I'm Uncle Nik. What's your name?"

  "Heidi," she said shyly.

  "Hi Heidi, you have pretty eyes. Who gave you those?" Nik teased.

  "Definitely not me," Valentine laughed.

  "I think she got your smile, though," Nik added, making Heidi blush. She pulled Valentine's thick ponytail up to hide behind.

  "Yeah, well." Valentine looked embarrassed himself. "Why don't we get this tour going?"

  "Go!" Heidi cheered, coming out from behind the ponytail. She pointed onward. Valentine continued down the ramp while Nik followed behind, taking in his surroundings. It wasn't long before he realized that people had stopped their work.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "Why are they all staring at me?" Nik asked quietly. He must have looked outlandish with his rollator. The grizzly wounds displayed on his bony back probably didn't help either.

  "They're not staring at you just to gawk, that's for sure," Valentine spoke in a low voice.

  "What do you mean?" Nik really wished he had a shirt. Maybe a cane would have looked more dignified than a rollator. While at it, he would’ve liked to add a few dozen extra pounds of body mass and beard trim.

  "Don't you remember who you are, Dr. Niklos Krylov?" Valentine asked, his voice soft yet firm. "Many of these people owe their lives to you. The rest have grown up hearing stories about your role in building the BN before the Trinity Attack."

  "We built the Bilocation Network," Nik corrected.

  "That's not my point," Valentine whispered. "You see, to them, seeing you is like seeing a walking, talking myth. You're the man Ragnarok swallowed whole only to be spat back out because you tasted bad."

  Nik looked around again. Valentine was right. The looks people had on their faces weren't judgemental or merely curious. They had hope in their eyes. Something Nik hadn't seen for years.

  "Plus, you're the only person I've ever known who literally survived a nuclear blast," Valentine winked. Nik raised an eyebrow, but Valentine continued before he could ask.

  "Ah-ha, our first stop. It also happens to be my least favorite, weapons development." Nik frowned as Valentine turned left just at the end of the ramp. Valentine kept a smile, but Nik could tell that the weapons development station only existed out of necessity. Valentine would prefer to settle disputes over a game of Kubb and a round of drinks.

  Nik spied a wide array of armaments, but his attention was caught by something that looked eerily like a pronged RCP.

  "Is that what I think it is?" Nik pointed.

  "Uhh yeah, it's an RCP gun," replied Valentine. "We're calling it the reclaimer."

  "The reclaimer? That's kind of an extravagant name," Nik said, eyeing the menacing weapon.

  "Reclaim as in reclaim stolen power. The only problem is that the user has to wear a Nuclear capacitor to power the damned thing and store the reclaimed energy."

  "What do you mean stolen power?" Nik asked.

  "It's meant to be our contingency against teleclones," Valentine Shrugged.

  "What's a teleclone?" Nik felt like he already knew the answer.

  "People with their save-state data cloned repeatedly," Valentine confirmed Nik's suspicion. The data taken from a person using the STM could be stored and used to make copies of that person. The same case was valid for everything else if you had a large enough power supply.

  "So, by ‘stolen power’, you mean the energy used to create teleclones?” Nik asked.

  "Bingo. Some of the diciest situations I've seen involved teleclone attacks. The thing about teleclones is that they all know they aren't in any real danger since their original self is far removed from the battle. So, they fight with complete abandon to themselves and everything around them, much like berserkers."

  Nik wondered how much combat Valentine had seen in the past few years. He suddenly felt sullen about how much time he had spent in the mines. How many teleclones had Nik provided power for during his time chipping rock? How much good could he have done if he had been around?

  "Anyway, let's move to the next station," Valentine said, turning across the other side of the ramp. "Here, we have RCP research and development." Nik saw RCP schematics and measuring equipment. Several RCP prototypes were already fixed to a rig, which Nik assumed was for controlled testing.

  "I think I know the purpose behind this," Nik said. "You're trying to make a more efficient RCP."

  Valentine nodded. Nik had the same thoughts since his first shift in the mine. The RCP, as wondrous a device as the STM itself, was inefficient. Because of that inefficiency, Nik had become a slave to mine power. Fixing the efficiency issue would be a game-changer.

  "Imagine the possibilities with an improved RCP," Valentine mused.

  "No more slave mining," Nik said.

  "Yes," Valentine agreed with a sudden look of realization. "Sorry." He glanced at Nik, who waved it off.

  "Don't worry about it. Things are going to get better," Nik reassured.

  "I was just thinking of the ability to manufacture. Imagine digitally manufacturing parts of vehicles or buildings instantly and in as much quantity as you need. It could also theoretically solve world hunger."

  "Good point," Nik said. He was still thinking about the RCP. He imagined spending a great deal of time at this station in the coming future. "So, what's the next area?"

  "Right this way." Valentine led Nik across an open walkway, gesturing to a station brimming with holographic maps of various kinds, including a detailed recreation of Earth dotted with floating points of light. Nik could only assume that they were satellite locations.

  "This is the global reconnaissance and surveillance station," Valentine gestured. The underlying pride in Valentine's voice suggested this was where he spent most of his time. "We use it to keep track of the nodes in the Bilocation Network. We're also trying to regain access to old satellite networks surrounding the planet. Ever since the Eschaton began, they've been cut off. But that wasn't the original purpose of this station."

  "Eschaton?" Another word that Nik didn't know. Valentine shrugged.

  "It's what people have been calling the times we live in. I don't really know where the name came from. I just know that I've been hearing it more and more as time has passed. I'm not even sure what it means."

  "The end times," Nik said. "What was this station originally used for?"

  "To find you, of course," a familiar voice interjected. Nik turned to see a slim figure, a young man on the cusp of adulthood. He regarded Nick through a pair of round spectacles.

  "Edy?" Nik exclaimed as a wave of realization hit him. He was the one who had tipped off Valentine about their miraculous escape from the nuclear strike.

  "Aye, Captain," he responded, his salute dripping with sarcasm. "Also, do you know how frustrating it was trying to find you? All you had to do was have a normal conversation with someone, and BAMMO, we could have confirmed it was you, but noooooo. You just had to be all -I'm going to be Mr. Super Incognito."

  "Edy," Nik asked in a hushed tone, eyes wide with disbelief. "How on earth did you survive?"

  Edy was one of the people Nik had wondered about the most in the mine. The last time they saw each other, night had fallen in a frozen tundra, and Edy had been stuck in the woods while Nik was hauled off like poached livestock.

  "Once things finally settled down after they nabbed you, I snuck into the camp, swiping what I could to survive," Edy explained. "Then I had to hike in the middle of the night all the way the hell back to the first little camp we were at. It took me a while, but eventually, I jerry-rigged its pathetic STM to get me somewhere warm."

  "I got word from one of the nodes that some kid had wandered in," Valentine added. "He had claimed he was with you before you vanished."

  "Yeah, so I run into Thor's cousin over here,” Edy gestured at Valentine, “and he's all like, ‘You've seen whittle Nikki?’ And I'm like, ‘Yeah, I totally saw him.’ Next thing I know, I'm part of the search team."

  "Wait, hold on a sec." Nik's head was spinning. "You modified an STM by yourself?" Nik remembered trying to teach Valentine and others, but no one seemed to grasp it particularly well. Now, here was this kid who apparently figured it all out by himself.

  "Edy's the boss of Gateway!" Heidi piped up.

  "Oh my gosh, seriously? Seriously?" Edy jerked his head upward to look at the tiny girl on Valentine's shoulders. "I was supposed to introduce it since, you know, it was MY idea."

  "Too late," Heidi said, smugly mimicking her mom.

  "You're going to be the first guinea pig I test it on," he pointed angrily at her.

  "Nuh-uh!" Heidi stuck her tongue out at Edy.

  "Gateway?" Nik interjected, glancing between the bickering duo. Edy gave Heidi one last eye roll before turning back to Nik.

  "Follow me," he said, pivoting on his heel to walk away. Almost immediately, he swiveled back, fumbling something out of his pocket. "I've been meaning to give this to you. You dropped it when we teleported that last time." He handed it to Nik, who looked down. It was Nik's original save-state drive.

  "This is," Nik said quietly.

  "When he first showed me, my instinct was to bring you back right then," Valentine piped up. "But something didn't sit right. We chose to search for you instead." Nik had forgotten about the little drive when they fled the original BN headquarters.

  "Anyway, it's back in your hands, so let's go." Edy roamed off to another part of the Vector headquarters with the others in tow. Nik kept glancing at the little drive like a lost treasure.

  They followed Edy into a section that looked like it had been closed off to the rest of the facility. Nik spied a little piece of paper taped to the giant steel door. The words "OFF LIMITS" had been written in crayon. A digital padlock adorned its cold exterior.

  "Wait!" Heidi's voice broke in, her gaze dropping to Valentine. "I gotta initchi-ate him." Valentine winked and gently hoisted Heidi down to the ground. She ran up to Nik and held her hands up to stop him. "You can't go in until you say the magic pledge."

  "Magic Pledge?" Nik smiled. Heidi glared at him.

  "Only people who pledge can go in," She reiterated.

  "What's the pledge?" Nik asked, playing along.

  "Copy them." She pointed behind her at Valentine and Edy. "They say it better." Nik couldn't help but crack a smile after seeing the horror on Edy's face when Valentine wrapped a meaty arm around his shoulder and held his other hand in an oath. Edy didn't move initially, but Valentine gave him a silent bone-cracking squeeze.

  "You start," Valentine grunted through smiling teeth. Edy sighed, then held up his hand in kind.

  "Repeat after me or say it together and whatever," He started. Another shoulder squeeze made his eyes bug out a bit.

  "I, as a member of Vector," he squeaked out. Upon seeing Valentine's approving nod, Nik mirrored his raised hand. Edy and Valentine spoke in unison while Nik tried to keep up.

  "I, as a member of Vector,

  swear before entering this sector

  to keep its secrets safe and sound.

  To never bring its name above ground.

  If I break the rules aforesaid,

  then I am a big fat doo-doo head."

  When they were finished, Heidi examined Nik for a moment. Apparently satisfied, she giggled and ran back to Valentine, who scooped her back up.

  "Ok, you can come in," she happily chirped from her high perch.

  "Thank god," Edy said, stretching his shoulders back out.

  "Right this way, Dr. Krylov," Valentine said, opening the giant door.