The woman nodded and turned, jumping through the portal, her cat right behind her. Patrick looked down the hall to see a half dozen men firing at him, and more coming through the portal. I can’t take these out too, he thought, hesitating for a moment. And more will just come through if I do. With that thought he leapt at the portal. The quick feeling of disorientation shot through him, and he was unsteady for just a moment as he came through the other side.
Patrick turned at the sound behind him, and saw the wormhole contract to almost nothing, then disappear entirely. He looked over at Alyssa, who gave him a shoulder shrug, then walked over and enfolded him in her arms.
“Did you do that?” he asked, looking back at the portal.
“No,” she replied, looking into his eyes. “But it’s a good thing, isn’t it. Now they can’t pursue us.”
“But we can’t get through to try and find the control center,” he said, a feeling of dread coming over him.
Alyssa grabbed the Monk by the face and pulled him down to her lips. He drank in her kiss like the symbol of life that it was. She finally broke the connection and looked into his eyes. “We just survived certain death. And the ones after us can no longer get to us. So take a break and worry about the here and now, like you are always spouting in your philosophy. We’re alive, we’ve confounded our foes, and we’ll worry about the future after we’ve rested up a bit.”
“An excellent philosophy,” said a deep voice with an unusual accent.
Patrick pushed Alyssa away and reached for the hilt of his sword.
“Calmly, my friend,” said the man who stood before them in the small clearing in front of the dead portal. “I mean you no harm.”
Patrick kept his hand on the hilt of the weapon while he examined the man. He had a feeling that he would not be able to hurt this creature, who had total control of this ancient tech. Then he really looked at the man. Bald head, high domed forehead, slightly pointed ears. He looked at a hand and noted the six fingers.
“Welcome to the Donut, my friends,” said the man, his image flickering for a moment as a bird flew through the hologram. “I am Watcher.”
Epilogue
“Get him in there,” yelled the Captain to the trooper.
The man grimace and picked up the head of the Colonel, to put into the box with the body.
I’ve never seen such a bloodbath, thought the Captain as he looked over the hall. Over fifty men and Maurids had been killed here, by two Republic operatives and one primitive. He looked back over at the box that had been brought to preserve the dead flesh of that monk. Now it would do the same for the commander of this ill fated mission. Wish we could do the same for the others, thought the officer, the son of a merchant, and thus considered lower class in his culture. But rank, including social rank, did have its privileges, and the Colonel was considered more valuable by the powers that be than all of these soldiers put together. Not by the Captain’s standards, but no one asked him.
“Are you almost finished in there, Captain Klison?” asked the Admiral over the com.
“We have him,” said the Captain, looking over and nodding at the men who were lifting the box. “He’ll be coming your way.” He watched as the men carried the box back to the portal, the only way out of this sealed room.
“No rush, Captain,” said the Admiral with a chuckle, and the Captain knew the man really would have preferred to let the dead stay dead and buried in the case of Colonel Nathan Chung. “We’ll get him back in good time. We’ll be stripping stuff from this station for a week before we boost out of here.”
And I get to stay behind with two companies of troops and a brevet rank of major, thought the Captain with a grimace. He would rather have stayed a captain and left this ancients haunted place. He never knew when the ghost of something might come through one of these damned portals. He preferred not to even think of it.
“We’ll keep the fort under guard,” he said instead to the Admiral, who, after all, did not have time to listen to the complaints of a mere marine captain. “If the Republicans and the Monk come back we will get them.”
“Of course you will, Captain,” said the Admiral in a voice that implied no such thing. “Of course you will.”
THE END
About the Author
Doug Dandridge is the author of over twenty-eight self-published books on Amazon, including the very successful, Exodus: Empires at War series, the Refuge techno-fantasy series, The Deep Dark Well Trilogy, as well as numerous standalone science fiction and fantasy novels. In a three year period as a self-published author, Doug has sold over one hundred and fifty thousand ebooks, paperbacks and audio books. He has amassed over 2,200 reviews across his books on Amazon, with a 4.6 star average, and over 2,600 ratings on Goodreads with a 4.118 star average. He served in the US Army as an infantryman, as well as several years in the Florida National Guard in the same MOS. Doug, who holds degrees from Florida State University and the University of Alabama, lives with his five cats and one outnumbered dog in Tallahassee Florida. He is a sports enthusiast and a self-proclaimed amateur military historian.
Books by Doug Dandridge
Science Fiction
The Deep Dark Well Trilogy
The Deep Dark Well: An Adventure 40,000 years in the making. Pandora Latham was a Kuiper Belt Miner from Alabama. She’s used to landing on her feet, even when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and 46,000 years in the Future. Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the Empire that once ruled the stars. Her decisions will set the path for Galactic recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.
To Well and Back: Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore Galactic Civilization. But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the Galaxy their own. Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.
Deeper and Darker: Pandora Latham is on the warpath. Watcher, her lover, and the only man who can once again unite the Galaxy, is a prisoner of the Totalitarian government of the New Galactic Empire. The Empire thinks they have the upper hand, but they have never faced someone like Pandi, and the peoples of the Galaxy that she has rallied to her cause.
The Exodus Series
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1: The introduction to the Exodus Universe. Two thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home. Now the greatest power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran Empire. Until the enemy appears once again at the gates. And the years have not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2: The saga continues. The Ca’cadasans attack at the moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic. There are other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed humans. And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the position he most dreads.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: Sean is rescued, but he is not about to go back to the safety of the capital without striking back at the Ca’cadasans who have invaded his Empire. But will his decision put the lives of thousands at risk, as well as risking the safety of his own Empire, by depriving it of its leader.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 4: Sean is crowned Emperor, and attempts to organize the Empire for war against the Ca’cadasans. But he finds that planning battles and winning battles are two different things. Defeat follows defeat. Can anyone snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Or will the new Emperor fail before his reign even really begins.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 5: Ranger: Cornelius Walbroski enters the rigors of Ranger training, becoming one of the augmented warriors of the Empire. But his first assignment, Azure, is one of the most deadly planets in the Galaxy, even prior to the coming of the Cac
as. Can Cornelius survive his first mission? Or will promising career end before it really begins.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 6: The Day of Battle: Sean and the Empire need a victory before human morale goes completely into the black hole. He develops a plan to bring the Ca’cadasans into battle in space of his choosing. But the Cacas are not an easy opponent, and they have plans of their own, for the Donut.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike: The Empire has weathered the Ca’cadasan onslaught, and now it’s the time to strike back with an offensive of their own. A victory could win the war. But will it?
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 8: Soldiers: The Cacas have been ejected from Imperial space, for the moment. But millions of citizens of New Moscow are still held captive in death camps in their former empire, processed for rations for the large aliens. Sean is determined to save as many as he can, and the Fleet and Army are prepared to carry out his directive; free the prisoners at all costs.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 9: Second Front: The exploration mission sent around the edge of the Ca’cadasan Empire has found the other Empire at war with the large aliens. They are not as expected, and Sean must order his military to perform actions that could vilify him in the eyes of his new allies.
Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Exploration Command: Three novelettes concerning Exploration Command, the arm of the Fleet tasked with pushing back the boundaries of the Empire, and discovering the technology needed to win the war.
Exodus: Machine War: Book 1: Supernova: When a civilization is discovered that has a special ability that would be of tremendous benefit to the Empire, great excitement is generated. When it is found that a nearby blue giant star is due to supernova in less than a year, destroying that world, excitement turns to a frantic race to save as much of that species as possible. And enemies from the past, lurking in space, bring forth a new war to the embattled Empire.
Exodus: Machine War: Book 2: Bolthole: The Machine Intelligences are back, with a vengeance. While the Empire is busy fighting a war of survival against the Cacas, the murderous killing machines they had created hundreds of years prior are now ready to strike back. And the Imperial stronghold of Bolthole is in their sights.
Other Scifi
Diamonds in the Sand: When a perfectly healthy scientist falls dead of an apparent heart attack, it is up to Sarasota Police Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere to find out what really happened. The scientist was working on Nanotechnology, a secret desired by everyone from the Government to the Mob. There are too many suspects, including the woman that Gary comes to love. The Army had made Gary better than human, but had they prepared him for the terrors that had been unleashed by the new technology?
The Scorpion: The Scorpion had been the world’s deadliest living terrorist. Kestral McMann had been in on the kill. Now The Scorpion is back as a mind upload, using clones to penetrate the tight security of an isolationist United States. McMann is the only man who can stop him. But can McMann survive the threat of his own side, and the insane President who leads the Nation, in time to stop The Scorpion from plunging the Great Satan back into the Stone Age.
The Shadows of the Multiverse: Something has been periodically wiping intelligence from our Universe through the ages. It’s back, and it’s up to three unlikely heroes, the Captain of a Battle Cruiser, a Physicist turned Archeologist, and a Child, to save the intelligence of the Universe from Monsters from another Dimension. Can they learn to use the powers of their unusual Quantum Minds to defeat creatures that have been playing the game for billions of years?
Afterlife: What if you didn’t believe in the afterlife of the World’s Religions? And what if science offered you the alternative, survival within the Virtual World of a computer, where your mental abilities are magnified and you can do anything you want? And what if the World decided that your way was wrong, and declared war on you, meaning to destroy your reality? What would you do? Afterlife, a tale of survival at all costs.
We Are Death, Come For You: When aliens strike the Tau Ceti colony, humankind knows that something bad is on the way. They prepare as best they can, but will it be enough against superior technology? The aliens are death worshippers, and only the extinction of the human race will satisfy their evil intent. There are wonders of tech on the horizon, but can they be deployed in time? Or will humankind have to depend on the smallest of their techs to save them?
Fantasy
The Refuge Series
Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1: A nuclear war in Central Europe opens the gates between dimensions, sending millions of Earth Humans into a land of myth, archetypes and fantasy. The Evil Emperor of the Ellala Elves sees the humans as energy to fuel his transformation to immortality. But the humans have brought their own weapons with them, as well as a race of Demigods who will battle the fantastic armies of Refuge. The war is on, and only one side will ultimately survive.
Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2: The Ellala have a plan to destroy the human military and capture the civilians. And the humans find that their weapons will soon cease to function. So it’s use it or lose it for the Earth Humans, and they use it with a vengeance. Tanks against Mages, Attack Helicopters against Dragons, and Nuclear Weapons against Death Gods. And the other peoples of the planet come forth as allies to the humans that they see as the fulfillment an Ancient Prophecy. But will it be enough?
Refuge: Book 3: The Legions: The human invaders are now without their technologies, at least those using explosives and internal combustion engines. But they still have knowledge of many other techs, especially the arts of warfare as practiced by the greatest infantry of the ancient world. Will it be enough to stand up to the half lich Emperor and his magical forces.
Refuge: Book 4: Kurt’s Quest: When the evil half lich Emperor sends his minions on a mission to find the Crown of the Lost Gods, an artifact which can control the minds of millions, it is up to Kurt von Mannerheim to stop them. Along with his fellow immortal, Jackie Smith, the human Physicist/Mage James Drake, the Ellala Ranger Fenris and the Grimakan Priest Garios, they must head to the frozen north to foil the plan, and ensure that the evil artifact never sees the light of day.
Refuge: Doppelganger: Set thousands of years after the arrival, Kurt von Mannerheim, the Immortal Emperor of the Imperium of Free Nations, must give up everything to save his Empress, the Elfin Princess Gwenara Elysius von Mannerheim. The world is at a crisis point as the Evil Tarakesh Empire, under its Immortal Emperor Heinrich Stuppleheim, prepares to overrun the world with its Nazi Ideology. And Kurt must face a creature of legend that may prove too much for even his physical and mental abilities.
Other Fantasy
The Hunger: Abused wife, drug addict, prostitute; Lucinda Taylor had been victimized by men all her adult life. Left for dead by her pimp, Lucinda was turned by a passing vampire. When he is destroyed she becomes a free agent, slaking her hunger for blood on the bottom dwellers of society, the type of men who once victimized her. The crime boss of Tampa is her next target, and the City by the Bay is about to become a bloodbath. But can Lucinda avoid those who are hunting for her; the Priest, the FBI man, and a pair of Vampires who would like nothing better than to send one Avenging Vampire forever into the dark?
Daemon: A Steampunk Fantasy. The world is dying, the victim of the magic used by society for the last three hundred years. Daemon Corporation thinks they have the answer, stealing the life from other worlds, bringing from other dimensions the intelligences that inhabit them for sacrifice on Earth. But something has come with them, a force that is killing the employees of Daemon Corp. It is up to Forensic Mage Detective Jude Parkinson to find a way to stop the unstoppable, while keeping the head of Daemon Corp from silencing him to keep the dark secrets of the company out of the public eye.
Aura: Triplets are born on a world where the magical Aura decides the fate of its owner. Ariel is a girl with more than double the normal Aura, destined to become a mighty Priest or Mage. Aiden has a less than normal Aura, and is destined to be a
soldier or laborer. While Arlen has no Aura at all, and is seen as an abomination in the eyes of the Church of Baalra the Dragon God, which has no power over those with Negative Auras. Fate will rip the siblings apart, then bring them back together as they battle to defeat the Dragon God and leave the Evil Empire, before Ariel is taken as the Avatar of Baalra, his mortal vessel on Earth.
Books with other Authors:
Five By Five 3: Target Zone: Novellas by New York Times Bestsellers Kevin J. Anderson and Michael A. Stackpole, along with Prometheus Award Winner Dani and Eytan Kollin, Baen Author Sarah A. Hoyt, and Exodus Empires at War Author Doug Dandridge, make this a must have book for the military science fiction aficionado.
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Theocracy: Book 1. Page 29
