The Ascension Myth Box Set

by Ell Leigh Clark

  As she watched, Jessica’s eyes returned to normal and her facial muscles relaxed, making her look almost angelic and peaceful.

  Molly, three minutes. We’ve got to leave.

  Molly used her hand to close Jessica’s eyelids, and stood up. Understanding what had just happened was going to have to wait for later.

  A moment later, she was running back through the open plan office area and jogging down the aisle of cubicles. Crash saw her coming, and opened up the window so they could escape into the pod hovering outside.

  With one final tug, he slid the window open. “Come on, Lady Boss. We’ve got to move.” He started to put his foot out into the pod, and was thrown back. “What the…?”

  A green flash ionized the air a few inches from the window.

  Molly’s heart sank in her chest as she realized that there was a secondary forcefield around the building.

  Oz, can you get this securi-field down?

  Working on it.

  He paused.

  Shit. It’s not on the network. There’s no mention of it anywhere. It can’t be on a network. I can’t access it.

  Well, then, we’re trapped. We need another way out.

  Okay; down the stairwell, on the other side of the office behind you.

  Molly helped Crash up. “Change of plan, Pilot-Guy. You okay?” she asked him.

  Crash was grimacing. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just got a tingling foot now.”

  Molly looked at it. She couldn’t see anything through his boot. “Can you run?”

  He gestured in the direction of the other door. “With that lot chasing us? Hell yeah!”

  They both drew their weapons and ran to the other side of the office. When they reached the door, Oz overrode the security lock on it. Molly hauled the door open, and the gunfire started. Crash slipped through and started running down the stairs ahead of her. The gunfire ricocheted against the door, as Molly vigorously returned fire.

  Crash was halfway down the first flight of stairs. “Leave it, Molly! Let’s go!” he shouted up to her, now the most panicked she had ever seen him.

  She stepped back through the door, and turned to follow him. Just then, she flew backwards against the wall on the other side of the stairwell.

  She had been hit.

  Her body slumped down on the floor. Crash was back up the stairs like lightning, checking her vitals without even thinking.

  No reaction.

  No breathing.

  No pulse.

  Shit. He forced the door shut, and tried to type to Oz.

  Oz was offline.

  Crash looked back at the door, panic rising in his chest. It was still unlocked, and those killing machines were coming for them. He picked Molly up and started moving down the stairwell, praying she was just knocked out.

  Chapter 13

  Navanah Desert

  “Okay, she’s all yours,” Sean told Jack, as the safe house appeared as a spot in the sand below.

  Jack gritted her teeth and guided her missile cocktail onto the target.

  It locked on.

  She hit release, and three projectiles screamed through the air from the Mini Empress.

  She communicated the action. “Missiles released. Impact in 3, 2…”

  An enormous explosion erupted beneath them.

  Sean quickly pulled up and banked left a little to avoid the blast zone. Spinning around in their console chairs, they were able to see the explosion continue in the desert below them through the top left corner of their window.

  Sean glanced over at his protégé. “You did good,” he confirmed. He pulled up some data on his heads-up display. “Yup. Totally annihilated. Good job, Captain.”

  Jack grinned, watching the explosion, and enjoying the sensation of flying upside down under the pull of the maneuver. This was the moment she felt most at home. Nothing but fire and destruction… and a damn impressive pilot by her side.

  She could get used to this.

  Just then a communication came through on Sean’s holo.

  Iantrogen Building, Downtown Spire

  Crash carried Molly in his arms, running down several flights of steps, carefully watching her head so that it didn’t loll back and damage her neck.

  She was bleeding. He couldn’t tell where from, though. He’d spotted the wound on her arm, but he was sure she’d had that before she’d been hit near the door. He arrived at another level and tried the door. This one opened.

  Finally, he thought to himself, pushing his way into the sparse white corridor.

  Please let there be medical equipment, he prayed, trying to recall the combat medicine training during his short commission. He made his way down the quiet corridor looking for signs of life, or anything that might possibly help him.

  He passed a few doors to what looked like labs. Labs, labs, and more labs, he fretted as he kept striding down the way, his footsteps reverberating through the tomb-like corridors.

  There was another door coming up on the left. He peered in the window. It looked like another lab with an open supplies cupboard. Ancestors only knew what kinds of supplies were in there, but it had benches.

  He pushed his way in, still carrying an unconscious Molly in his arms. Making his way through the lab, he laid her carefully on the bench furthest from the door. Just a little further, there was another door. He strode over to check it. It had an exit, a window, and more supplies. Probably drugs, he considered, given where we are.

  He turned back to Molly. She was still unconscious. Not breathing. And yes, no pulse; he checked again.

  Straightaway, he started mouth to mouth and heart massage, refusing to believe she might be dead. Between cycles, he tried to inspect her head and body. The arm wound wasn’t enough to kill her.

  He noticed she’d stopped bleeding from her arm – that was both good and bad.

  Another cycle of air and heart massage.

  Then he checked again. There was a taser burn in her hairline. She’d been hit. Her brain was likely fried. He checked her eyes and her pupils were unresponsive.

  Panic and grief welled in him. He knew what this meant. He just refused to believe it.

  Heart massage. One, two, three, four.

  There was no Oz to contact.

  He pinched her nose and breathed into her lungs again.

  The team wouldn’t know where they were.

  Head up, he took another breath, and breathed into her lungs, watching her chest rise.

  Heart massage. One, two…

  His thoughts wandered, replaying the sight of her falling down from an unseen hit. Seeing her body here motionless. He kept working, feeling less than helpless.

  Breathe. One, two, three, four, five, six…

  Joel was going to be devastated.

  Tears trickled down his face. He took another breath, ignoring his own outpouring of emotion.

  He breathed into her…

  Senate House, Spire

  Joel picked up a message on his holo. It was from Oz.

  MOLLY AND CRASH IN TROUBLE. AT IANTROGEN. PLEASE HURRY. OFF NETWORK FORCEFIELD HAS US TRAPPED. NEED TO FIND IT AND DESTROY BEFORE ENTERING THE BUILDING.

  Joel went white.

  The message had been sent five minutes ago. He called Molly. The call wouldn’t connect.

  He called Crash.

  The call connected. He listened on the line. He could hear breathing and sobbing. It was Crash’s voice, but not. “Molly is down,” he sobbed. “She’s not breathing. No pulse. Please… Joel. Please.”

  Joel felt disconnected from his body, like this wasn’t really happening. “Crash. Is that you?”

  Crash blubbed through his grunts. He sounded like he was trying to revive her. “Hurry. There’s a securi-field. We’re trapped. She’s not breathing.”

  Joel forced himself to focus, tears already streaming down his face, but he ignored them in favor of fixing this. “I’m on my way. Hang in there.
Where are you?” he asked, realizing that Oz was going to be offline, too.

  Crash had gasped and then gone quiet. A moment later he responded. “4th floor. In the labs somewhere.”

  Joel nodded. “Okay. We’re coming for you. Keep her safe. We’re coming.”

  Joel hung up and called Sean.

  Sean answered straight away.

  “Big-bad-blowing-up-fighting-machine, at your service,” Sean answered the call.

  Joel’s voice was commanding, but tainted with emotion. “It’s Molly. She’s down. Not responding. No pulse. No breath. Sending coordinates. Meet me there. Bring your guns.”

  * * *

  Sean’s mood sobered instantly. “We’ll be there in minutes,” he confirmed. “Awaiting coordinates.”

  A second later, he was on the nav system, finding a location to land the ship. Jack looked over at him, the area around her eyes contorted in concern. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  Sean answered simply. “Molly is down. It doesn’t sound good.”

  Jack shook her head. “What’s the plan, and what do you want me to do?”

  Sean was all business as he selected coordinates and prepared to land. “We’re going to put this bird down, and then use the pod in the back to get to her location.”

  His holo pinged. He looked down and waved his wrist at Jack. “That’s the location,” he told her. “Get that programmed into the pod. We need to get there fast.”

  Jack started fiddling with his holo, and then bumped the coordinates to hers. Sean focused on landing the ship at the edge of the desert. “And make sure you’re shielded and armed. This is a code 9 extraction, by the sounds of it.”

  Senate House, Spire

  Joel had hung up and headed straight out of the Senate building. There wasn’t time to explain to Paige and Garet. Besides, they were safer where they were.

  Joel called down his pod using his holo, realizing he was going to have to figure out how to control it without Oz. As soon as it arrived, he hopped on board. Two minutes later, the pod shot up into the sky and into the direction of the Iantrogen building.

  First job was going to be to find the forcefield generator. He started scanning for anything that had a forcefield signature, honing in as he got closer. The image of the building came up on the heads-up display. He turned it around, trying to figure out where it might be.

  Either top or bottom, he figured.

  He turned his scan towards the bottom of the building, and noticed that the signal was heavier there. Stronger. He pushed the pod further in, and tried to find any kind of controls for an on-board weapons system. He was sure it had some. After five long seconds of flicking through screens, he gave up and opened the pod door, setting his weapon to the highest setting, and then lowered the pod down to the location of the generator.

  It took a bit of searching, but eventually he found it tucked in a shed. A simple gun wasn’t going to cut it. He holstered his weapon and rummaged in his combat suit pocket for a charge. He found one.

  Let’s hope this is enough… he prayed under his breath. He lowered the pod to the ground and hopped out. Checking inside the shed, he saw words on the signage that backed up his conclusion. This was the secondary forcefield generator that was keeping Crash and Molly trapped.

  He set the charge, pulled the pin, and then hopped back into the pod, pulling sharply out of the way of the blast zone just in the nick of time.

  A huge explosion rippled over the entire building, cracking like a bolt of lightning. Joel quickly moved the pod back some more, looking for any fall out. There was no fire that he could see. No debris blasting off the structure. Just a huge amount of energy being released from the forcefield as it collapsed.

  He watched a green light sheet across the structure as it tore across the width and height as the electric field ionized the air, before disappearing.

  Without wasting a moment, he checked back on the heads-up display. The forcefield was indeed broken.

  Now to track their holos, he told himself, wishing he had paid more attention to how Molly and Oz had been doing it. He felt like he was flying blind. And deaf. And dumb.

  He scrambled through the heads-up display and found a search function.

  SEARCH HOLOS, he typed in. It brought up every holo in the area. The screen was a mass of red dots.

  Shit.

  He started talking to himself. “Come on, you piece of shit. Help me find Molly’s holo.”

  “Finding Molly’s holo…” a computerized voice repeated back to him.

  Joel’s hands stopped, hovering just above the heads-up display. “You can hear me?” he asked, taken aback.

  “Voice recognition is active,” the voice sounded over the in-pod auditory system.

  Joel was confused. “Why have you never talked before?”

  The voice responded to him. “Previously, controls were operated by the Intelligence known as Oz. There was never any need.”

  Joel had questions, but right now, he needed to get to Molly.

  The mass of red dots on the building overlay disappeared, showing just one. Molly’s. Fourth floor, just as Crash had said.

  Joel felt a slight relief as he made progress through the things that had to happen in order to reach her. “Can you take me down to the fourth floor, nearest access point?” he asked the computer.

  The voice crackled over the line again. “Nearest access is a window. Do you want that window disengaged?”

  Joel was checking his gear and getting ready to fight. The computer pulled his attention. “Disengaged?” he queried.

  The artificial female voice responded. “Yes. Removed.”

  Joel pulled his weapon from his holster. “Hell yes, I’d like it removed!”

  The pod whipped round to the side of the building closest to the red dot. A moment later, a window on one side of the building shattered, and the pod sped deftly closer. The door opened, and Joel was able to hop through the window and onto a bench that lined the room.

  That’s when he saw her. Molly lay lifeless on a bench over on the other side of the room. Crash was still administering CPR, tears streaming down his face, relentlessly trying to revive her.

  Joel couldn’t bear to look. He reached out and started moving towards her, but stopped as his legs collapsed underneath him. He hauled himself up, fighting the urge to crumple under his grief, hoping that despite her having no life signs for so long, there might still be hope.

  Just then, Sean and Jack arrived through the same window.

  Joel had barely approached her limp body and laid his hand on her face, brushing her hair out of the way, when Sean stepped over.

  “It’s okay, buddy. There’s one more thing we can try,” he told him. He took Crash by the shoulders from behind, and moved him out of the way. Without hesitation or consultation, he gently scooped Molly’s body up into his arms, and headed back towards the window.

  Joel’s hand fell away as Molly was moved. He watched them, stunned, grief-stricken, and in so much pain he couldn’t think straight.

  Sean laid her body on the bench in front of the window for a moment as he scrambled up onto it, then picked her up again and put her into the pod.

  Joel started to shout out after them, a howl of utter despair and darkness. Jack ran over to console him, very aware they needed to get out of danger, too.

  And then the pod was gone.

  Gaitune-67, Hangar deck

  Meanwhile, back at the base, the Queen Bitch’s key ship was activating and powering up remotely.

  Auto checks flicked through, one after another, preparing for takeoff. Preparing for an immediate gate jump.

  Minutes later, the hangar doors opened up, and a lone pod arrived, touching down gracefully next to the ship.

  Sean hopped out, and then hauled the body of Molly Bates out of the pod after him. His face locked in determination, he gently carried her up the invisible steps. As he hurried up them, he coul
dn’t help but remember her smile as she had examined the steps, when she was introduced to the ship only days before. He reached the top of the stairs, and made his way into the ship as fast as he could. He glanced back at the door he’d just come through, and could see her as if she were standing there right then, inspecting the magic of the door’s technology, marvelling at something she hadn’t seen before.

  He shook his head and fought back a tear as he bustled straight into the cockpit. He put her limp, and now bloody, body into the Nav chair where she had sat the other day. This time, he buckled her in as the chair quietly adjusted to her weight and dimensions.

  He paused a moment, adjusting her head on the headrest. His hand lingered on her face, and he gently brushed her cheek. Time was pressing. He went straight to the pilot’s seat, and started flicking switches. He had barely even strapped himself in before the ship was heading out of the hangar door, out into the inky blackness of space.

  Normally, they would turn back towards the inner system. The system wasn’t where they were going this time, though.

  The ship pulled a short distance from the asteroid, and a second later, disappeared.

  Senate House, Spire

  Oblivious to everything else going on, Paige and Garet were engrossed in conversation. Conversation about history.

  Garet had been trying to defend himself, or, more precisely, his actions. He was just beginning to realize that it wasn’t going to work.

  He sighed and rubbed his face with one hand before looking back at Paige. “Look, I valued power and status. Maybe I was wrong. But what I will acknowledge was that I didn’t do right by you.”

  He was frustrated, but trying his best to concede. He finally let his defenses down. “We should have had more conversations, before this all happened. But then we ended up on the rock, and, well… Everything changed.”

  He looked over at Paige on the other sofa, hoping for some glimmer of compassion. Paige took another swig of the beer he had sent for. Day drinking wasn’t good for her, but they’d been working so hard. And Garet had been so insistent they talk. “Yes, and you should have talked to me about taking the job.”