The Peril of Knowing: The Conscious Dreamer Series Book 2: An Alternate Dimension, Alien Invasion Thriller

By Sharolyn G. Brown

Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy.

Without giving it a second thought, serial over-achiever Lauren left her life behind and joined the fight against the imminent alien invasion. However, when it doesn’t seem like any progress is being made, she takes matters into her own hands. And gets kidnapped.

Roxal may have escaped the false gods who enslaved her, but she doesn’t feel free. Living within a Resistor group, she gets an up-close view of their fight against her former captors. But this leaves Roxal struggling to come to terms with what people do in the name of war.

Both Lauren and Roxal are fighting to make their lives make sense again. Can Lauren successfully stop the aliens planning to invade Earth? And can Roxal figure out who the enemy really is before it’s too late? Will these women survive the danger that comes from knowing the truth?

The Complete Conscious Dreamer Series Includes:
The Heaviness of Knowing, Conscious Dreamer Series Book 1
The Peril of Knowing, Conscious Dreamer Series Book 2
The Sacrifice of Knowing, Conscious Dreamer Series Book 3

Science Fiction series, aliens, alien invasion, thriller, alternate dimension, parallel dimension, scifi, sci fi, alien planet, dystopian, metaphysical

• Language: English
• Publisher: Moon-kissed Publishing
• Release date: Jul 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9788826484600

Book preview

it.

Chapter One

Lauren stood nervously looking over the tech’s shoulder, trying not to disturb her as she worked. She didn’t have to stand over Eve’s shoulder as she monitored the six screens on her side of the tactical van. The van, camouflaged to look like a large delivery truck, had many places where she could sit, but Lauren was too nervous to walk away.

The screens Eve was monitoring were showing real-time, green-tinted, night vision video of the impending raid. There was another tech behind her watching another six screens on the other side of the van, but those were of no interest to Lauren.

Though she was safely waiting, and watching, in the van some nine hundred yards away from the action, Lauren was nervous for two reasons. One, ENL was only able to secure their team a five-hour window during which the authorities would ignore all calls for assistance in the area. And two, her partner, Vince, was the wearer of one of the cameras whose video she was now watching.

As the members of the raid team got into position, she heard a lone voice speak over their radios. In position. Mark.

That short statement was followed by a reply of Mark and go.

Lauren wasn’t a member of any of ENL’s raid teams, nor did she want to be. But this was the third raid she’d seen during her four months with ENL. So she knew the Mark and go statement was beginning the short countdown until the two, six-member raid teams would breach the target warehouse in a coordinated attack.

As expected, about ten seconds after giving the command, the dark, silent night was disturbed by the concussive sound of the explosive each raid team used to make an opening into the building. On the screens in front of her, she saw that once the team was inside, they were immediately met with resistance, also as expected.

On two of the screens, she saw the intermittent muzzle flashes of the guns used to incapacitate the first wave of guards. She couldn’t tell where the four guards had been shot because everything on the screen was in various shades of green. But from the way their bodies slumped on the floor, she assumed they were dead.

Each of the shooters began moving toward the bodies on the floor, their handguns still held out in front of them as they walked. When they were close enough, each camera’s wearer maintained a steady view of the bodies as other members of the ENL team searched them. Once these searches were complete, the two lead shooters took point and the whole group pressed on.

Lauren took turns watching each person’s progress, not sure which of the six cameras was Vince’s. As a result, she had a front-row seat for the battle. She followed the raid team as they walked down hallways, making their way through the building. Then, all the cameras paused, showing the same scene from slightly different angles: a wide set of double doors.

One raid team member approached the doors as the other five watched. And even though she was seeing this person through five cameras, Lauren still couldn’t tell if it was Vince. In fact, she couldn’t even tell if it was one of the two female members. Everyone on the team wore all-black uniforms that completely covered them from head to toe, along with modular, hard-shell panels that protected their chests, backs, arms, and legs.

Lauren held her breath as the person standing beside the doors grabbed a handle and then held up their free hand with all five digits extended. The person started counting off one finger at a time. When the last finger came down, they pulled the door open, and the scene turned chaotic.

Muzzles flashed inside the room. The camera feeds blurred and shook as everyone dove for cover. Overlapping voices and continuous gunfire made it hard for Lauren to distinguish one person’s words from another’s.

One team member began returning fire while taking partial cover behind a wall. When the gunfire from inside the room started thinning out, another person moved toward the doors again, their gun raised and ready to fire. They took position on the floor, angled to the side of the open door, presumably for cover.

That person’s camera revealed there were several guards inside the room. One of them stood up from behind an overturned table to fire at the raid team, and unfortunately for him, took a direct hit to the head from the person positioned on the floor. His body slumped over onto the table.

A second ENL raid team member took a position on the other side of the open door, and Lauren watched as a similar scene played out, again and again, the opposing guards going down the moment they made a mistake. When there were too few guards left to hold the position they’d taken in the room, the raid team stormed the room in force.

More members of the warehouse’s guard staff were shot. More ENL team members dove for cover as the guards shot back. Some people even engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

Lauren watched all of this in stunned silence.

Half an hour later, the fighting came to an end as the two six-person raid teams converged on each other, having eliminated all the guards throughout the building. As the screens started going blank, Lauren walked away from Eve and stood beside the rear door along with everyone else who was waiting to leave the van. Once the all clear was given, she rushed out to see how Vince was doing.

She hurriedly walked through the loading area and into the cavernous warehouse. The enormous space was filled floor to ceiling with boxes and crates stacked on rows and rows of shelves. Now that the fighting was over, the rest of Graham’s team was hard at work. Lauren zigzagged through the crowd of people, trying to stay out of the way. They had less than four hours remaining before the Tsukuba authorities would arrive to take control of the scene, so they needed to be finished by then.

Finally, Lauren arrived at the area being used for triage. The members of the raid team were milling around now that their job was done; some were talking and joking, while others were seated and waiting to be examined by the on-scene paramedics.

As she searched the group for Vince, she, unfortunately, happened upon Cain first. Cain Nabal was one of Graham’s top security advisers and the leader of Vince’s raid team. He was also the partner she’d initially been assigned when she joined ENL. She despised him. Their first and only field mission had ended disastrously. They’d managed to accomplish their goal—actually, she had managed to accomplish their goal—but the mission had ended with him forcefully dragging her out of a building while calling her names. She’d slapped him before all was said and done.

After that fiasco, Graham had pulled her out of the field and stuck her in the lab. He’d claimed she wasn’t fit for field duty. It had taken a whole month for Lauren to convince him to let her attempt field work again. Vince had been assigned as her new partner, and so far, their collaboration was working well. However, because Vince was on the same raid team as Cain, she still occasionally saw him.

Lauren and Cain made eye contact, but neither acknowledged the other’s presence. As she passed him, still searching for Vince, Cain leaned in closer to the group of people he’d been chatting with and said something she couldn’t hear. The four other guys and one woman burst into laughter. Lauren continued on, not bothering to give them a second glance.

At last, she found Vince sitting in a chair in what looked like a makeshift doctor’s office. She stared at the damp, dark brown hair on the back of his head, searching for any signs he might be seriously hurt. But he appeared to be fine. He was calmly examining his left arm as a field medic wrapped a bandage around it. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Lauren drew closer to Vince. I thought you were trained to avoid getting hurt, she said.

He turned to look at her. I am. But the men we were fighting didn’t really care about our training. He smiled and winked one of his midnight blue eyes.

All done, said the medic. You should limit the use of that arm for the next two or three days. And see a doctor if the wound grows inflamed or displays other signs of infection. The medic finished bandaging his arm and handed Vince a pill bottle as he rattled off some follow-up care instructions.

Thanks, Doc. I know the drill. Vince held the pill bottle out to Lauren.

The field medic walked over to his next patient, not taking the time to acknowledge Lauren’s presence. She wasn’t bothered; he was working under the same time constraints as everyone else.

Lauren took the pill bottle from Vince, knocked out the listed number of pills, and handed them to him. She then found a bottle of water to help him swallow the pills. After he’d taken his medication, he stood.

Did the techs find anything useful in here yet? he asked.

Don’t know. I wanted to make sure you were okay first. It looked like you guys were taking heavy fire.

Thanks. I— He grimaced. He’d absently reached out to pick up his gear with his bandaged left arm.

Lauren picked up his TAC bag and exchanged it for the water bottle he was holding in his good hand. You should go back to the hotel. I’ll get one of the other guys to drop me off when I’m finished.

He cocked his head to the side. You know I can’t do that. If something happened to you here, Graham would never let me hear the end of it.

Lauren threw her hands into the air. She couldn’t believe they still didn’t trust her to be alone. Or rather, Graham didn’t trust her. You would think that by turning her back on everything in her life—her family, her fiancé, her job—she would have proven how committed she was to ENL and its cause.

Fine. Stay here in pain if you want. I’ll start searching with everyone else. She shoved his medication and the water bottle back into his hand and stomped away. She knew he was just following orders, but it still hurt.

At times like this, she missed her old life. Or rather, she missed the control and autonomy she’d had in her old life. Now, it seemed like everything she did had to be approved by Graham. She hated it.

Lauren’s anger continued to build as she marched into a section of the warehouse where only a few team members were working. She grabbed a crowbar from their supplies and began breaking open crates.

This warehouse was one of the main contraband movers in Japan, or so claimed the intelligence ENL had gathered. They were searching the warehouse in hopes of finding something of great strategic importance to their enemies, who called themselves Power Legatee, or PL. Lucas, her former boss, was a member of PL. They worked in support of the aliens, known as The Keepers, who were planning to invade and conquer the Earth.

This something, according to the information ENL had received, was supposedly an important piece of the process for opening a bridge between Earth and Trebor. ENL’s sole purpose was to prevent the creation of this bridge.

Lauren mumbled to herself as she opened crates. "I can’t believe they’re still treating me like a child. When do the training wheels come off? Am I ever going to be allowed to prove that I can do this job, no matter what it requires? Will I ever be allowed to live a normal life—Oooh."

Her rant was cut short when the top popped off a crate and revealed knock-off designer bags inside. She knew they were fakes, but they were high-quality fakes. She grabbed two of the larger bags and moved to the next crate. Designer dresses. And the next. Designer shoes. And the next. Designer coats. And the next…

When she wrenched open the last crate in the row, she stopped short. It didn’t contain knockoff designer items. It contained computer microprocessor chips.

She picked one up to examine it closely—and immediately found what she was looking for. Whenever Lauren designed something, she put a personal mark on the prototype. It could be a particular wiring configuration, or something like a dummy part serial number that would only mean something to her.

In the case of her microprocessor, she had come up with a serial number that contained the letters O, U, T, T, E, L. It was a joke meant to reference one of the leading microprocessor manufacturers in the world. As she scrutinized the chip in her hand, she found the same letters arranged in the same order.

Someone had copied her microprocessor design in an attempt to complete her part of The Keepers’ invasion plan.

Lauren stared at the microprocessor, as if waiting for it to give her more information. When it gave her nothing, she went to find Vince. She had very likely stumbled upon the something they were looking for.

She located Vince wandering around the warehouse floor.

There you are, he said as he spotted her. I’ve been looking—

Vince, this is my microprocessor. She held the computer chip close to his face.

He repositioned the TAC bag’s strap on his right shoulder and took the microprocessor from her hands. Yours? How do you know it’s yours? To me, all these things look alike.

It’s mine. Look at the part and model numbers along the edge. It’s a sequence I made up for the prototype. This, she pointed at the chip, "is my design."

Vince stared at the microprocessor. We need to call Graham. Things are moving faster than we expected. He took the chip from her and began walking.

Lauren followed.

What ‘things’ are you talking about? she asked.

Well, we knew PL wouldn’t just give up on your microprocessor simply because you started working with us. We knew they’d eventually finish your work. But we thought it would take them longer to find someone to finish your design. How many chips did you find? And can you tell if they work?

There was at least one crate full of them. And no, I can’t tell if they work without testing them in a lab, Lauren said, trying to keep pace with Vince as he trekked through the warehouse and then outside.

He didn’t say anything else as they moved toward one of the tactical vans. He banged on the rear door and entered as soon as it opened. As Lauren climbed in behind him, she realized it was one of the raid team’s support vans. They walked past several raid team members in various stages of undress and stopped in front of Cain. He had changed out of his tactical uniform and was now seated on a bench, lacing up a pair of black work boots.

Vince held out the microprocessor for Cain to see. We need to tell Graham we made a discovery. Looks like PL is working to finish Lauren’s chip, he said as he tilted his head in Lauren’s direction.

Cain took the chip and inspected it for a few seconds before asking, Can she tell if it works? He directed the question to Vince, as if she weren’t standing right there.

"She cannot. Not until she gets it back to the lab to test it," Lauren replied.

Cain stood, his six-foot-four-inch body towered over her and was even an inch or two taller than Vince. When we get back to the Complex, he said, finally acknowledging her existence, first priority will be to test the chip to see if it’s working. When I meet with Graham to let him know what we found, that’ll be his first question.

Fine, Lauren replied. She didn’t like the thought of being stuck in the lab again, but she understood the need to confirm how close PL had come to their goals. For the first time ever, she really hoped something she’d designed wouldn’t work.

Chapter Two

Roxal stood in the open courtyard staring at the gnarled, misshapen tree displayed in the thick polymer enclosure, enjoying one of her favorite freedoms since escaping from The Keepers: being outside. Without any sort of barrier between her and the red Treborian sky, she felt the rays of the bright blue sol and welcomed the warmth. The end of harvest season was coming, and along with it, colder temperatures.

This was yet another revelation. In the thirty-five annums in which she had been enslaved, she had always lived in a temperature-controlled environment and had never experienced fluctuations in temperature. In fact, even the nazu she was wearing as an outer garment over her clothing for warmth was something she never knew existed.

Tightening the nazu around her body against the chill of early helio, Roxal’s thoughts came back to the display. They had been at this location, the Clyr Encampment, for two helios, and she found herself drawn to this display repeatedly. Clyr Encampment was a large settlement in the heart of the Resistor-controlled area of Trebor. It was here that the Resistors located their center of operations, and it was much more than what the word encampment inferred. It consisted of several multi-floor buildings grouped together in the center, with other smaller buildings and dwellings spreading out from them. There were individual homes, commerce centers, and business establishments that Roxal never imagined would exist on Trebor. It actually reminded Roxal of what would be called a city in Lauren’s world.

She was at Clyr Encampment with Rodan and the woman’s second in command, Kada, and Roxal had no idea why. Two helios ago, Rodan had found her during mid-helio meal, and told her to prepare for an extended journey. In the time it had taken Roxal to pack her few clothing items, Kada had been at the door of her quarters telling her it was time to leave.

Roxal had rushed out and followed him to a skyship. She had paused to take in the giant machine; she had never traveled in one before. Kada had yelled her name, breaking her out of her stupor, and Roxal had entered the skyship close on his heels. It had taken almost a half helio of travel to get to Clyr Encampment from their dwelling, now referred to as Second Gamma compound.

As she thought of the many new experiences she had encountered since escaping from The Keepers, she touched her finger to the small sensor square, activating the appearance of the display’s inscription. She read the now memorized words once again.

Preserved in memory of the sacrifices made to defend our freedom. Though we were once allies, we will never forget what the fight against these Keepers has cost us and may cost us again.

She did not know why she kept coming to view this tree, because looking at it reminded Roxal of both the lies she once believed at the hands of The Keepers and the truth that she now knew. Both of which made her angry. The fact that the lies she was told angered her was understandable. But the fact that the truth also angered her was something Roxal struggled with.

In the four lunar cycles she had been free, Roxal had learned that once upon a time both the Resistors and The Keepers were one in the same. Several hundred annums ago, Trebor was invaded by people known as the Ignawli. Everyone on the planet, who survived their initial attack, had joined together to beat back this invasion. All of the fighters had called themselves the Planet Keepers. And though the battle was hard, eventually the Planet Keepers had prevailed.

However, after the Ignawli were defeated, a new fight began. This time among the Planet Keepers about the best way to protect Trebor. The group now called the Resistors thought that the best way to keep Trebor safe was to continue working together as they had during the fight against the Ignawli. That a united Trebor was stronger than any enemy.

The group now called The Keepers, on the other hand, had a different idea as to how to protect Trebor. They thought Trebor could be kept safe by using dimensional travel technology to find another planet where soldiers could be trained to also fight for Trebor.

Understandably, the Resistors had wanted nothing more to do with dimensional travel, seeing as how the invading Ignawli that they had just defeated had originated from another dimension.

Once again, the people of Trebor were at war. This time with one another. It was during one of these battles that the Resistors attacked a Keeper stronghold, the very place where they were now. Hoping to take out The Keepers in one fell swoop, they deployed the use of atomics which had killed everyone and everything within range of the blast. In fact, from what Roxal could tell, it seemed that the video of the ruined and poisonous landscape that The Keepers always showed during Glorious Session was the result of that Resistor attack.

So while it was not true that the entire world looked like that ruined landscape, an area on Trebor had once looked like that. And it was the Resistors’ fault.

Thoughts like these, about what the Resistors seemed capable of doing, had led to questions of uncertainty that she had not told anyone. Including Edo. And looking at this tree, at what the Resistors were capable of, it made her wonder if the Resistors were any better than The Keepers.

There you are, said Kada from behind Roxal.

Roxal turned to find the man standing near one of the building’s entryways.

Rodan needs you now. She is about to meet with Terk.

Roxal nodded, trying her best to push her fears and concerns aside. She was not ready to act on them yet, so thinking about them would not help as she worked with Rodan and the rest of the Resistors.

I am ready. Lead the way, Roxal replied.

As they walked through the building, Roxal took note of her surroundings. One side of the hallway was made of clear glass that allowed a view into the courtyard. The rest of the hallway was made of a light gray metallic composite. Everything was shiny and well lit. This was definitely one of the newest edifices she had seen on Trebor, which admittedly was not saying much. Still, something about this building seemed new and airy, not heavy and oppressive like Second Gamma, or even Gamma, the compound that Rodan had occupied when she had originally escaped.

After walking for a short time, Kada and Roxal entered a room where Rodan was seated at a long, rectangular table. Roxal did not say anything as she and Kada took a seat on either side of Rodan. Just as they were positioning their chairs closer to the table, two more people entered the room, prompting everyone to stand again.

One newcomer was an older man with deep brown skin and white hair. The other was a younger man with pale skin, like Rodan and Kada. The older man stood in front of Rodan first and extended his right hand, palm up, with his arm bent at the elbow.

Rodan extended both of her hands with the palms up. Then she joined her palms together, pulled them into her chest with the fingers now pointing up, and bowed her head over them. Terk, your presence is welcomed, she said before raising her head.

The man joined his hands together and pulled them to his chest and bowed his head also and replied, As is yours, Rodan.

This was the traditional formal greeting among the Resistors. Rodan and Kada had made sure she learned it before their meeting. They particularly made sure she knew that during the initial hand extension, Terk would only extend one and everyone else in the room would be expected to extend both. This slight variation was an acknowledgment of Terk having the highest rank of everyone in the room.

This would be Roxal’s first time actually giving the formal greeting because members of Gamma no longer used it amongst themselves. Even though there was a hierarchy within Rodan’s group, she wanted everyone to feel as if they were all equally important. The greeting would be done in this meeting, however, because it was considered disrespectful to meet with people from other Resistor factions and not greet them. Disrespectful, that is, unless you had a personal relationship with the person with whom you were meeting.

Terk followed his greeting of Rodan with a greeting to Kada and then Roxal. All of this was again repeated when it was Amor’s, the man accompanying Terk’s, turn. Once the greetings were completed, everyone took a seat at the table. Rodan and her people on one side and Terk and Amor on the other.

So this is the person who allowed you to successfully invade a Keeper compound? Terk asked while watching Roxal.

Roxal looked down at her hands on the table, and her stomach fluttered. She felt as if Terk were appraising her and her abilities, and she feared she was not measuring up. When Rodan had told Roxal she would be joining her and Kada on their trip to Clyr, she had not told Roxal why. And for the past two helios, Roxal had been left to her own devices. It was not until the previous late helio when Kada told her that her presence would be required at a meeting. Now she understood. She was to be on display.

Yes, Rodan answered. She was a member of the team who successfully took over a compound from The Keepers.

But I thought her ability to connect with her charge on Earth was key to your victory?

It was key to our being able to disconnect the compound from The Keepers’ network. And her ability was also useful in implanting a virus on their network. And we have all received the same reports about unexpected glitches in The Keepers’ automated defense systems. But those accomplishments were just part of my faction’s successful capture of a Keeper-controlled compound. The first in several annums, if I am not mistaken.

Roxal looked over at Rodan, who was seated to her right. Though the woman appeared to be leaning back in her chair, sitting in a relaxed posture, she heard a slight intensity in Rodan’s words that made her wonder if Rodan and Terk were actually allies.

Understood, Terk replied and then paused. "Well, after our meeting previous helio when I