The Ascension Myth Box Set

by Ell Leigh Clark

  As he heard the meeting come to an end he crept back toward the double doors and came through them noisily, glass of milk in hand.

  He waved as he wandered past, drawing a nod from Giles before he disappeared out of view down the corridor.

  Chapter 12

  Senate House, Spire, Estaria

  “Were we not in agreement that this was to be a joint decision?” Bulin asked pointedly, eyeing the Estarian senate warily from the Oggs’ side of the table. “While we understand the inclination to get jumpy when presented with an external threat like this, the fact of the matter remains that we agreed to act as one.” His tone was getting harder as he spoke. he paused, took a breath, and slowly let it out. “The agreement was not for the Estarians to decide to launch the fleet at the slightest provocation.”

  The Estarian Speaker lifted his hands in a placating gesture, and Bulin fell quiet reluctantly.

  “Our approach is…unconventional,” the Speaker acknowledged silkily, folding his hands on the table. “But we don’t have time to debate this when there could be an invasion force on the outskirts of our system.”

  “There could be,” Bulin stressed. “But we don’t know. We know there are ships, but not why. If you go flying off half-cocked, you could inadvertently be declaring war and giving us an enemy we know nothing about.”

  Ekks watched them go back and forth and drummed his fingers on his knees.

  “What would you suggest?” the Speaker asked, considerably less silken. “We can scarcely control our people at this point. They’re all getting antsy, and a lack of action on our part isn’t helping matters at all. If we don’t do something, we’re going to be facing riots in the street.”

  “Perhaps you shouldn’t have gone out of your way to inundate them with the news,” Bulin suggested, deceptively pleasant. “They’ve been surrounded by the news like a swarm of flies, and they’ve had nothing else to think about. Of course they’re getting jumpy.”

  “Spelling it out doesn’t actually do anything to remedy the matter,” the Speaker reminded him flatly.

  “No,” Bulin agreed. “But it does make it clear that it was your fault and your mistake.” He paused and sighed, head hanging for a second as he rubbed his forehead. “I’m saying this as your ally,” he continued once he straightened up again.

  Ekks’s hands curled into impatient fists against his thighs.

  “Making another mistake isn’t going to fix the first one,” Bulin continued. “You’re acting rashly and trying to break an agreement that both of our worlds agreed on for good reason. I don’t think you’ve thought through the consequences of this, and frankly—“

  The room fell silent as Ekks got to his feet, slamming his hands down on the table. The sound reverberated through the room like thunder. Slowly, all eyes turned to him.

  “This is a military threat,” he stated, his voice low and terse. “It is a military decision. As such, we will be doing what we need to do to succeed, regardless of how much you would all like to dither and clutch your pearls.”

  He pushed himself away from the table then turned, and left the room, his steps hurried and purposeful. The door hissed closed quietly behind him, but it could have been as loud as a gunshot in the silence of the boardroom.

  Aboard The Empress, Base Hangar Deck, Gaitune-67

  Molly watched as Arlene and Ben’or escorted Anne onto the ship. It looked like Anne was over anything that was bothering her the previous evening as she chattered away as Ben’or listened patiently.

  Giles had already boarded three times. Each time he had forgotten something, like a talisman, or a star map… and then something personal that he didn’t explain in passing.

  Now Molly stood talking to Paige and Maya as she watched the last checks being made.

  “You’re sure you’re going to be ok?” she asked Paige.

  “Of course,” Paige told her, almost as if she were trying too hard to allay any concerns Molly might have. “We’ve run point from here a million times. We know what we’re doing.”

  Molly sighed and looked her friend in the eyes. “Look, we’re probably going to be back pretty soon…. And there’s probably nothing to worry about, but I don’t think I say this enough, and… I just want you to know…” She looked down at her feet. Despite all the progress she had been making with the emotional touchy-feely stuff, it still looked like she was struggling.

  Paige held her hands. “Hey, Molly, it’s ok.”

  When Molly looked up her eyes were watery and filled with concern. “But just in case… I need you to know… you’ve been the best friend a girl could hope for… And what with all your other things, and what you’ve done for this team… You’re an inspiration.”

  Paige teared up too. “Oh, Molly. Stop. Everything is going to be fine. You’re going to come back soon and we’ll beat whatever the bad stuff is that’s going down and then we’ll kick back with pizzas and margaritas, just as we always do.”

  Molly nodded, her eyes down at their clasped hands. She squeezed them tight then hugged Paige. Then Maya. Without another word or any eye contact, she hurried off down the side of the ship to get on board too.

  Paige and Maya stood watching, their arms around each other. “It will be fine,” Maya said quietly. “This is just routine.”

  Paige gave her a sideways glance, her humor returning through the anxiety. “Now you’ve gone and jinxed it!” she teased.

  The girls giggled and pulled each other back away from the ship that was about to take off.

  Onboard there was a flurry of activity as the team stowed away the last of their baggage and took their seats. Brock and Pieter were in the cockpit along with Crash. Pieter was manning numerous holoscreens as well as a bunch of functions that he’d routed through one of the main control consoles from the back of the cockpit. Brock sat in his usual seat as copilot, mostly there just to back up Crash and Emma who tended to have everything under control.

  Crash finished his pre-flight checks and with a quick look to Brock who returned his glance with a nod, flicked the open channel to the comms for the ship.

  “Ladies and gentlefolk. Welcome to Zhyn Airways. This is your captain speaking. We will be leaving in just a few moments now. As you will see as we exit the hangar today’s flight is being accompanied by our brothers-in-arms, a certain set of quote, unquote, ‘mercenaries,’ who may or may not be on loan from the Zhyn Empire… depending on who you talk to and whether they’re a part of the Federation or not.”

  He paused, and there were mutterings and chuckled through the lounge area.

  “We will be cruising at an altitude of a zillion feet, at a land speed of Light times three… or thereabouts. We will refrain from gating on this occasion on account of not wanting to leave our escorts behind, but if the need arises we will still have that capability intact.”

  The ship was already midair about to pass through the opening hangar doors. “Please keep your hands and arms inside the carpet… aaaaaaaand, we’re out of here.”

  The ship whooshed through the hangar doors, slap bang into the middle of the waiting Zhyn fleet outside.

  All of a sudden, the forward motion was arrested.

  “Hang on,” Crash muttered over the audio. It switched off, leaving the lounge in a strange silence.

  Molly looked out of her window. Joel had moved and sat next to her. He peered out too. “You think he’s got this?” he asked.

  Molly chuckled lightly. “I hope so. It’s not a complicated plan to fly in formation from here to the outer system.”

  Joel smiled. “Yeah. I might go and make sure everything’s ok.”

  Joel shuffled out of his seat and headed up to the cockpit.

  “Everything all right in here?” he asked arriving to hear Crash talking over the external comms.

  Brock swiveled round in his chair. “Yeah. It’s fine. They’re playing at being Canadian,” he joked, rolling his eyes.

  Joel fro
wned. “Come again?”

  Pieter joined the conversation. “It’s an old human expression from Earth,” he explained. “Basically, Crash was going to allow the Admiral to go first, and the Admiral’s people - Trev’or and Ruther said, no please, after you, friend. They’ve been back and forth on it a few times,” he added quietly as if confiding in Joel.

  Joel scratched his nose disguising that he tried to wipe his face in despair. “And what did we decide?” he asked, a hint of sarcasm creeping into his voice.

  Brock interjected. “Hey, this is an important piece of protocol. How we treat our allies is a reflection of who we are. We don’t want to offend the Admiral… and I for one am extremely grateful that the Zhyn are here backing us up after no one else was going to!”

  Joel sighed and glanced at Pieter for a real answer.

  Pieter rolled his lips before answering. “They’re going together. Side by side. We’re just waiting for the Admiral’s ship to adjust his course and we’ll be going.”

  “Ok. Thank fuck for that,” Joel muttered, turning on his heels and heading back to the lounge. “I was beginning to think we had a problem…”

  His boots clunked down the stairs as he disappeared from the cockpit.

  Pieter and Brock exchanged looks as if Joel was the crazy one, and then shrugged before returning to their checks.

  * * *

  Joel returned to the lounge to find Giles had taken his seat next to Molly.

  He felt a flash of irritation but knew there was more on the line than anything that may or may not have happened between the two.

  Besides, he rationalized to himself, he’s probably boring her to death about some talisman theory or other.

  He put his thumb up to tell Molly everything was ok, just as the motion of the ship seemed to shift and move again. Molly nodded to him and returned the thumbs up.

  If she wanted him to rescue her, she was going to have to make it obvious, he decided, sitting down on one of the chairs near the front of the cabin.

  “So, you think what?” Molly asked.

  “Well, it’s kinda threatening to show up with a whole army behind us, don’t you think?” Giles posed.

  Molly frowned. “It’s not even a full fleet— twenty ships remember.”

  “Well, all I’m saying,” Giles was looking agitated and nervous, “is that it’s just a little overkill if we’re expecting this to be a friendly coming together of two new species. I mean, if someone showed up to talk to you, with reinforcements and weapons out, wouldn’t you think that there was something wrong with the picture. You know… that maybe their intentions weren’t as pure as they were saying.”

  “Giles, it’s just a bit of strategic backup. Just in case.”

  Giles took his glasses off and pinched his eyes. Then he sighed. “I… I guess.”

  Molly lowered her voice and leaned in. “Look. I understand. And if it were just you, me and them in the middle of a desert, I’d be all for showing up unarmed. But it’s not. When they showed up at the edge of the Sark System they pulled the whole Estarian, Ogg and Teshovian alliance into it. That’s three civilizations. And the Federation… which is goodness knows how many different species, jurisdictions and lives. You and I have our values, but there is such a thing as being responsible to other people.”

  Giles’s shoulders slumped. “I just hope it doesn’t telegraph to them that we want to start a war,” he muttered as he slipped out of his seat.

  Molly grabbed his arm, and he paused. “Look. I know you’re anxious. I am too.” She glanced around the cabin to see all her teammates sitting uncharacteristically quietly. “Everyone is. But this is going to go down fine. We just have to keep our nerve and stay cool, ok?”

  Giles suddenly looked embarrassed. He ran his hand through his hair and glanced around to see if anyone was watching him. He nodded and Molly let go of his arm, allowing him to stand up and shuffle back to his seat.

  Molly put her head back on her headrest and closed her eyes.

  You’re worried he’s right.

  Like I said, taking half a fleet to a meeting isn’t my first option. But I don’t know what else we should be doing.

  Well, there’s nothing to do now. As long as they keep to the plan, stay back and don’t open fire, everything should be ok. After all, that satellite data Mom sent over indicated they had several ships in the fleet.

  Oz?

  Yes?

  She’s not your mom.

  Well, she is yours.

  Yes. But you don’t get to call her Mom. It’s… creepy.

  All right. Man… you’re so…

  I know.

  Anyway, all I was saying is, I don’t feel like we’re bringing a nuke to a knife fight.

  Good to know…

  Chapter 13

  Aboard The Empress, Outer Sark System

  “Molly, you’re probably going to want to see this…” Crash’s voice in her audio implant woke her from her own thoughts. She looked around the cabin. Everything was still quiet with a tension that was palpable.

  “Ok, coming,” she responded, hitting her holo to acknowledge his request before scuffling up and past Joel who was dozing next to her.

  She headed through the lounge and into the cockpit to see Crash putting the outside view on the main screen ahead of them.

  Her breath caught in her chest as a shot of adrenaline released into her system. “Wow…” she whispered under her breath.

  Not quite like anything we’ve ever seen before.

  You can say that again.

  “Boss?” Crash asked her quietly without turning around. “We’re in position. What do you want us to do now?”

  Joel appeared at her right elbow. “Holy fuck…” he whispered under his breath.

  “I know, right?” Brock chimed in, his eyes fixated on the screen. Pieter was silent, his eyes also glued to the image ahead of them, as if entranced by some sort of magic.

  A single AR ship filled the screen, almost overwhelming the cameras and the viewers.

  “Is there any way to pan out?” Molly asked.

  “Negative,” Crash replied. “We’re already panned out as much as possible. These ships are humongous.”

  “Makes you wonder why the outer satellites didn’t get a better read on them,” Joel muttered, almost to himself.

  Molly logged the observation. “So how many of them are there?” she asked.

  Crash shrugged. “We can’t get a real count. But here’s an image off the starboard side. He pulled up another screen showing a number of similar-looking ships, all strangely organic in shape, like slightly elongated eggs bent at the front end of their length.”

  It was difficult to see the surface detail. It was almost as if their eyes couldn’t focus on it, or that it kept shifting and changing.

  Molly squinted, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. “Can we clean up the image?”

  Emma responded promptly. “I’ve been trying to. It’s not straightforward. It seems the ARs have some kind of forcefield that is preventing us from getting a lock on any of the details… visual or otherwise.”

  Pieter, frowning, scratched his head and stood up. “ARs?”

  Brock grinned. “Shouldn’t it be T-A-Rs?”

  Joel moved closer to the screen as if he were going to try and touch it. “Tars?”

  Brock shook his head absently, his eyes still fixated. “The Ascended Race,” he explained.

  “Ah, yes, he has a point,” Pieter agreed, also as if he were half distracted by what was in front of them.

  Joel rolled his eyes. “You were saying, Emma?”

  “I can’t get a read on them,” the onboard EI explained. “There are moments when their fields fluctuate where I find it difficult to even get a lock on them.”

  Molly found herself short of breath and then started to breathe deliberately. She realized she’d been so absorbed with the new information she had forgotten to bre
athe. “It’s so hard to judge their size out here. There’s nothing to measure them against… Emma… any clues?”

  “I got nothing,” she replied. “As I said… the fluctuations are almost as if they’re designed to stop us getting a lock on anything.”

  “That explains the satellite having issues,” Joel grunted.

  At some point, Sean had joined them in the cockpit. “Is this going to interfere with deploying weapons?” he interjected, matter-of-factly.

  “Most certainly,” Emma responded quickly.

  “We should alert the Admiral then,” he announced, looking to Molly to relay the order.

  Molly shook herself from her trance-like state. “No. Not yet,” she said, taking a breath. “No need to cause panic. Plus, we don’t want to be firing on them anyway.”

  Sean frowned, his chest puffing up already. “That isn’t the point. They have the right to know.”

  “In a moment,” Molly said, distracted again and taking another step toward the screen. “Let’s just hail them and find out what the score is. They know that their first reaction is to retreat at the slightest hint of trouble.”

  Sean, stood back, arms folded. Karina appeared at the cockpit door and shuffled in next to him, looking concerned about the new development too.

  Joel edged forward again, his hands now on the back of Crash’s seat as he gazed up at the screen showing the enormous ships towering over them. “You know, we obviously don’t stand a chance against these guys,” he muttered looking back at Molly.

  Molly glared at him for voicing his concerns and worrying the troops even more. “Good thing they’re friendly,” she said firmly, and almost defiantly. “Crash, open a channel with our pre-recorded messages. Pieter, cycle through them until there is something they respond to.”

  Joel glanced over at Pieter then back to Molly. “Let’s hope that Giles and Arlene have this frequency thing correct and they’re not accidentally insulting their mother or something.”

  Molly shook her head but stood firm, watching the screen, her arms folded across her chest.