“Kajka Okbak wants you to know that he will only take one of you. The other will die,” said the Zompawan.
“I don’t need a translator, Okbak.” Fox looked at his gun and fidgeted with it for a moment, startling the Kelhoon. They quickly readied their guns, grunting unintelligible sounds, bringing a sudden commotion among themselves.
Fox lowered his weapon. “Whoa, whoa lizard breaths. This gun isn’t for you. It’s for my friend here.”
Rivkah went for her gun. It wasn’t there.
Fox tapped another gun in his holster. “Here’s your gun, sweety-pie. Now, run.” He pointed his gun at her.
* * *
Rivkah’s eyes grew wide and she brought up every emotion she could think of, ready to pound some Chi into everyone’s solar plexus.
Fox pulled the trigger and a zap went across her chest and her hands unconsciously went up, touching the pain spreading across her torso. She let out a whelp, then fell back hard on the rocky terrain. Her body started to convulse, her arms and legs spasming against her will, her heart palpating at a rhythm she’d never experienced before.
She went to take a breath, but it wouldn’t come. It was stuck, as if the blast that went into her chest had blocked the airway.
The guy just up and killed her. He got the upper hand on her twice in one day. She had to at least give him that. He did what he always wanted to do, end her shitty life. In truth, and in her mind, it was for the best – better for rest of the galaxy. How many more people would she let down in her short existence?
She eyed the purple, blue sky, the beautiful turquoises, tans, and yellowish-reds of Jupiter shone like a sun down upon her, giving her a warmth she knew she didn’t deserve.
Worst off, she was speechless. All the words she wanted to throw out at Fox, that piece of shit, wouldn’t come out, wouldn’t rise to the surface.
She went to take another breath and this one came, but lethargy came with it. The death sleep, the body’s acceptance of death. It was starting and for some reason all she wanted to do was hold Fox’s hand, anyone’s hand. Jaxx’s hand most of all. Where was he? Why wasn’t he here with her, holding her? She didn’t want to die alone. She didn’t want the last moments of her life to be uncared for, unloved.
It didn’t matter. No one was here for her. They never were and it wasn’t anyone’s fault but her own. She failed in life and in death as well.
Rivkah’s eye-lids became heavy, tired. She was too tired. Her eye-lids began to shut and her body took over, ceasing to be controlled by her.
Rivkah took one last breath before her eyes shut completely and everything faded to black.
18
E-Quadrant, Earth ~ Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
General Lin Yu pressed the barrel of his pistol harder into Drew’s forehead. This was it. He was dead, his brains would be blown out and across the wall any second.
Drew closed his eyes.
“Huílái! Huílái!” yelled the guards, moving toward the doorway, their rifles thrust forward.
There T-hacker stood, his sharp business suit on, his perfectly short cut beard, and his twenty-something face glowing.
Yu eased up on the pressure, then brought his gun down, glaring at T-hacker. “You dumb.” Yu motioned for his guards to seize him.
T-hacker backed up, slowly raising a digital device in his hand. The guards jabbed their guns forward, warning him to get back.
“It’s something for you, General Yu. It’s Mya. This is a video of her, for you.”
Drew tensed up. This probably wasn’t good, no matter how it panned out.
Yu marched over to T-hacker and went to grab the device. A video was on it with a play icon in the middle. He thought better of it, ordering a guard to take it and press play.
The guard pressed play.
Yu jerked back and so did Drew, craning his head to see what was playing. Anderle, on the other hand, slowly moved over to his desk, cocking his head for Drew to follow.
Drew shook his head and glanced back at the screen. It was a security camera eye view of Mya sleeping in her bed. The lights went on, the guard sleeping on the stool next to Mya’s bed awoke, disoriented, his gun catapulting out of his hands and clacking on the floor.
Yu’s facial features contorted more at each passing second, anger rising in him. He grunted words, sharp, curt words.
Mya woke up, screaming, then crawling back in the far most corner of her bed, fear in her eyes. Several men in black fatigues dashed in, throwing the guard on the floor, shoving a pillow case over his head and pulling out rope, tying the soldier’s arms and hands. They grabbed Mya and raced out of the room.
Anderle, standing at his desk, arms cuffed behind him, giggled.
Yu turned and hucked the device at Anderle.
Anderle ducked, the device smashing into a wall, breaking into dozens of pieces, chunks dropping to the floor.
Yu pointed at the open doorway, ordering his troops. “Nǐ zài zuò shénme? Zhǎo tā.”
His soldiers pushed through the doorway, bumping T-hacker out of the way, where he stumbled and fell to the ground. They dashed into the hallway, heading for the bend in the hall – heading to find Mya.
Bratatat! Bratatat! Bratatat!
The soldiers jerked back and forth violently, their rifles flying into the air, bullets ripping through them, punching blood and innards all over the hallway floor. They fell, lifeless, their body’s slack; dead.
Men in black fatigues emerged from around the corner, machine guns in hand.
General Lin Yu turned, his gun pointed directly at Anderle. He pulled the trigger, the gun kicking back, a flash exiting the barrel, the bullet skimming across Anderle’s shoulder.
Anderle dropped to the floor, using his desk as cover.
Bratatat!
Yu twitched like he was being electrocuted and Drew jumped to the side, farther away from the gun fire. Yu, much like his soldiers, was dead before he hit the floor.
A young man in black clothing, couldn’t be more than eighteen years old, and skinny like most hackers, rushed into the room, hot machine gun pointed toward the ceiling.
“We got ’em, sir.” His eyes were wild. His ashen face said he’d never before ended the life of another, and probably never cared to do it again.
Anderle stood, fingers pressing into the sodden mess, where the bullet had grazed his shoulder, cringing. “You extracted Mya too?”
More gun fire riddled the hall outside the oval office. They all instinctively ducked and T-hacker ran into the room.
Anderle jutted his finger toward the gun fire. “Go, help them.”
The young man in black nodded and hurried out of the door, joining his friends lined up against the wall, exchanging fire with Chinese soldier’s out of view around the corner and down the hallway.
A man in black fatigues pointed his gun around the corner.
Bratatat! Bratatat!
His hands and arms vibrated. He let go of the trigger, pulling back, and resting against the wall. Everything about the way he was handling himself said he’d learned the art of war on a video screen and was not prepared for combat.
Drew made his way over to Anderle. “What’s happening?”
“I told you Drew. If the General ever did something I didn’t like, I’d end his life. And that’s what’s going on.”
“Where’s Mya?”
An explosion rocked the hallway. Drew covered his head, then turned, his ears ringing. A cloud of white dust filled the hall, remnants of a Chinese explosive blasting a hole in the wall.
Several young men – Anderle’s men – lay motionless on the floor. Others rushed over, pulling them out of the way, and returned fire.
Drew looked around. There was no escape, no way out. They were sitting ducks.
“T-hacker, get over here,” said Anderle.
T-hacker raced over to the desk, where Anderle and Drew stood.
Anderle turned on his computer, his hands typing as fast as Drew had eve
r seen someone type, sweat beading off his forehead.
“Hurry, Anderle. Hurry,” moaned T-hacker, constantly looking over his shoulder.
Another ally fell, a bullet lodged into his neck, blood squirting outward. He rolled onto his back, his legs bouncing up and down, hands sliding over his neck, trying to stop his own bleeding. The other men continued to fire, continued to ignore the young man on the floor, his legs slowing down, his kicks ceasing, his hands falling to the side.
A yelp and another man fell. Only two left.
Drew swallowed hard, his chest tightening. The Chinese would be here any minute. He had to get out. He had to fight his way to Mya, wherever Mya was, and had to somehow get her to her father. She could save the world, according to the Status Report he’d read. What that meant, he had no idea. How could a little girl save anything besides a stranded baby bird?
“Hurry,” pleaded T-hacker.
“Shush! I’m going as fast as I can.” Anderle looked up. “Shit, one guy left.”
Drew took his eyes off Anderle and back to the fight. A lone man, again young, skinny, muscles that hadn’t come close to maturing, was on one knee shooting back and forth with the Chinese. There was no way this guy was going to survive.
Drew had to get a machine gun, had to shoot his way down the hall, running the opposite way to the Chinese, hopefully able to save himself – which he doubted, highly doubted, but it was the only way, his only chance.
Drew took a step forward. Anderle caught his arm. “No, stay.”
Drew wiggled his arm away. “We won’t make it in here.”
Anderle looked back at his computer, typing away. “Trust me.”
How could he trust the guy? The guy was a piece of shit times ten, much like his father – Slade.
“I gotta get Mya.”
“It’s done.” Anderle stood straight, pulling Drew by his side, T-hacker close to his other side.
Metal walls extended from the floor to the ceiling, encircling them around the desk, creating a barrier between them and the rest of the office, and most importantly, from the hallway where the Chinese soldiers continued to lay down fire.
The floor shuttered, clicked, then descended like an elevator.
19
Edge of M-Quadrant, Nearing Jupiter ~ Starship Atlantis
Shaughnessy leaned over and vomited in the trash can next to his computer station. He was shaking, sweat dripping down his face as if he’d just taken a break halfway through running a marathon. He put his head in his hands, his lips trembling, his mind full of excuses not to do this, not to risk his life. “Oh...no.” Another hit of nausea came over him.
He brought the trash can up to his face and dry heaved. There was nothing left in him, except weakness.
He couldn’t be weak. Not anymore. This was for Jaxx. Yes, what he was doing now – sabotaging the Secret Space Program by changing their coordinates and locking it in – was ordered by Senator Ken Furr, but only Jaxx was on his mind, only Jaxx deserved any help, any respect. Senator Furr was doing what Jaxx would have wanted – diverting the fleet away from Callisto, so no harm would be done to anyone or anything on that moon.
And he’d just diverted Starship Atlantis – the ship he was on – back to Earth. Soon, everyone, including Slade and the president, would know.
It was time to change SSP’s coordinates.
He swiped his hand on the holographic button on his holoscreen, patching into the Secret Space Program’s fleet’s main network – the same fleet accompanying Starship Atlantis to Callisto, the same fleet created by the United States government in secrecy, designed to explore the cosmos and protect the United States from outside threats.
In truth, all Shaugnessy knew about the Secret Space Program was what Jaxx had told him, and that had been garbled at best. Something about missions to a planet Taiyo, blasting the Kelhoon out of the sky. Jaxx merging with starfighters, saving the Taiyonians from total annihilation. All Star Wars shit if you asked him and none of it made a lick of sense, but if Jaxx thought it was central to the safety of the galaxy, then Shaugnessy was on board.
Shaughnessy pushed his glasses up the ridge of his nose, staring at Star Haven’s blueprint. The fleet’s network was mainframed into Star Haven, a Secret Space Program Second Class Star Carrier. The star carrier was manned by SSP’s very own Fleet Admiral Lon Vernadore.
“Let’s automate your flight and see if the rest of the fleet follows you, including Starship Atlantis,” he said to himself.
Shaughnessy bypassed the network’s security protocols, working his way around firewall after firewall. He’d been at this for hours, staying up late and alone in central ops, telling all the scientists before they left that he had more work to do and he’d close up when he was done.
He touched his necklace hanging over the holocomputer. A necklace Jaxx found at one of the pyramid sites years ago, gifting it to Shaughnessy before he left Starship Atlantis. It was the only thing that kept him company. The office was dark and empty, the way he was feeling right now.
He rubbed his leg, digging his fingers into his pants, wiping the sweat off his hands. If he was caught, especially by Slade, he was dead.
“I’m doing this for you Jaxx.”
In truth, he didn’t care about the bullshit politicians on this flying boat. What he cared about was Jaxx’s mission, a mission to save an entire civilization on Callisto from utter destruction.
He tapped a few more keys. He had to do one more step – to initiate the plan. He steadied his shaking finger with his other hand and pressed the tip of his nail through the hologram.
He held his breath, the moment he’d been waiting for.
A beep and, NEW COORDINATES, popped up on his screen.
He was in. All he had to do was password protect it and then put in the coordinates.
He pulled up a new window and clicked on a box labeled, CHANGE PASSWORD.
He typed in SLADE ISAAC ROBERSON. If anyone found out the password, perhaps they’d go to Slade first and point their finger at him.
He went back to the coordinates, tapping in, Astronomical Units 19.826, Eliptical Latitude 0.63, Eliptical Longitude 308.55, HG_Lat 5.14, HG_Long 131.32, HGI_Long 232.64. Uranus.
He closed his eyes and thought of his colleagues debating the nutritional merits of the reconstituted layered protein that was used in the chili in the mess hall, and the beefy taste the kitchen was able to replicate.
He opened his eyes and gulped. It was done.
COORDINATES LOCKED. AUTOPILOT INITIATED. TO BYPASS AUTOPILOT, PLEASE ENTER THE SECURITY CODE.
He walked over to the window, eyeing the incredible behemoth, Star Haven, off in the distance – Jupiter’s colorful aura coming into view. He opened his mouth in awe. Star Haven was indeed changing directions, slowly, but surely. They were heading to their new destination – Uranus – and exactly where they belonged; up the solar system’s ass.
This was going to cause a shit storm and Shaughnessy knew it.
He sat back down at his desk, glancing at his computer screen. He gasped and his eyes shot wide open. “Who the…? How?”
DETONATION INITIATED.
“What’s detonating?” He stood, his knees hitting the front of the desk, tilting it a bit off the ground. It clambered loudly when it came back down. He landed his fist on the desk. “What is detonating? And, why?”
He went into the Secret Space Program’s mainframe again, moving quickly from window to window.
A ship, a small destroyer – The Gladstone – floating in space next to Star Haven was highlighted and blinking red.
He clicked on the ship, going into the ship’s network, patching through binary code until he found what he was looking for. The Gladstone was a war machine, but if the 2300-Megaton nuclear reactors and 4800-Megawatt ion tanks overheated, the ship would blow.
PATCH INITIATED. SELF DESTRUCT UNDERWAY, blinked across the screen. That ship was never intended to explode and self-destruct, but something was initiating it, s
omething or someone had patched through a code that would work the reactors to death, causing it to cause an inferno throughout the entire ship.
10.
9.
8.
“No...what?” Shaughnessy bypassed the destroyer’s firewall.
5.
4.
He found the negative patch. It came from Starship Atlantis, central ops station 9. He looked at a placard on the right side of his desk. 9. His ops station was 9.
2.
1.
He raced over to the window, pressing his hands against the nebula-strength glass. He eyed the ship next to the newly re-routed Star Haven. It was the destroyer-class ship, The Gladstone. A flash of light consumed the ship, a red, blue fire erupted inside of it and sparked for a second, then extinguished.
Pieces of the destroyer spun wildly in space.
Shaughnessy dropped to his knees, his heart in his throat. “What did I do?” His heart skipped a beat, then two. His mind raced and vomit hurtled out of his mouth and onto the floor.
He’d been setup.
20
Leonia, Canis Major ~ Galactic Arm, Milky Way Galaxy
The incoming missiles were seconds away. Jaxx jumped, gripping the cable, then loosened his grip to slide down the outside of his own mech. The mech whipped back as one explosion, then another, battered against it, and fire erupted inside Jaxx’s mech’s missile batteries, recoiling the mech. Another missile hit the mech’s shoulder, twisting it around, whipping Jaxx like a slingshot.
He lost his grip and flailed through the air. He kicked his legs and arms, his body doing a somersault he wasn’t expecting or wanting, and he crashed onto the sand and dirt laden ground.
He tumbled over brush and rock, smacking against a small tree. He grunted and got to his knees, the smell of burning metal filling the air.
“Look what we have here,” said a Leonian, the same one he first met – the old, wise-sounding man. He extended his hand.
The Complete Atlantis Series, Books 1 - 5: Ascendant Saga Page 58
