Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller

by Brandon Ellis

  She unclipped another vial and threw it at Jaxx. He took off the cap and peered into it. Inside, shimmering gold flakes floated in the liquid. He took a sniff, then bent over with his hand on his mouth. He held in vomit. Maybe he’d drink up later.

  His back began to tingle, then his head—no, more like his brain. He stood straighter, his mind clearer and fresh, as if he’d just gotten back from a week’s vacation in Barbados. No longer wanting to throw up, he turned to Abdu. “Where are we going?”

  Abdu motioned at the thousands of Leonian’s jumping in starfighters, transport ships, and mechs. “We’re regrouping. We have to teleport via the pyramid network you opened. As long as we have one actively functioning pyramid on this planet, we can teleport where we please.”

  He wanted to know how that was possible. He closed his eyes, linking up to the pyramid network. He took a long, deep breath, clearing his mind, intending the network to speak to him, to answer his question.

  A pyramid, golden and shining like the sun, appeared in his mind’s eye. Out of its apex, it shot an energetic tube, clear and wide, to a network of ethereal tubes in space. His vision panned out, seeing the pyramid network like a translucent sphere of tubes surrounding the Milky Way Galaxy. Planets that held pyramids all had tubes extending from the planet to the network. It was simple. If he wanted to go somewhere, he’d need to designate a specific world he wanted to travel to while inside a pyramid, and it would teleport him through the energetic tubes, across the galaxy if need be, and to the tube that connected to the specific world. It only took seconds.

  “Get in a combat-mech. We’re heading to a very wonderful place. Let’s hope the Agadon don’t follow us,” said Abdu. “We’re heading to Taiyo.”

  Jaxx shook his head vehemently. “No. We’re not taking ourselves or these Agadon to Taiyo.” The Kelhoon attacked them, along with the SSP, and ravaged their world. It was only a few years back when he helped the Taiyonians stave them off, push them back and out of their solar system. The Taiyonians had been in repair, emotionally and physically, ever since. “The Taiyonians have been through enough.”

  Abdu, walking beside him, smirked. “The prophecy says we are. They, and we, will be your helpers.”

  “Helpers for what?”

  Abdu held onto his chains. “You’ll see.” He gestured to the vial in Jaxx’s hand. “Drink up.”

  Jaxx jumped up a ladder leaning against a twenty-story mech, found some footholds, and climbed into the cockpit. The ladder reminded him of the ones the SSP had, only it was larger.

  Abdu and Zara climbed into their mechs on either side of Jaxx.

  Abdu held up a vial, full of the same red liquid in Jaxx’s. He lifted it in a toast.

  Jaxx lifted his own vial, then brought it to his lips. He drank it down. Then spat what was left in his mouth down the side of the mech. “Gross! Seriously, what’s in that?”

  Abdu laughed, his hand on his belly. “It’s Golgath piss—a four-legged animal on Leonia. It will give you lots of energy.” He continued to laugh. “You’re going to need it. Trans-world world travel is…well…let’s call it enervating. You’ll be glad of the Golgath piss when we get to the other side. Trust me.”

  “Everyone, get ready,” said Zara. “Destination; Taiyo.”

  Jaxx’s body vibrated and a wave of sharp energy shot through him. His chest violently lifted toward the ceiling, his back arcing away from the cockpit’s seat. A flash of brilliant, electric blue light swirled in front of him, then encapsulated his vision. The pyramid network displayed before him and a golden shaft of light shot up from him and his mech. He glanced up, seeing the translucent tube. This time he was inside it, ready to blast off this planet and to another.

  Then darkness.

  And silence.

  A splash of light, bright and unforgiving, penetrated his soul. Stars appeared. He was in space with hundreds of ships and mechs around him.

  A planet, blue and green, like a glowing jewel in the night, floated in space no more than a few klicks away. His heart ached for Earth, but the planet’s tell-tale moons, Utsukushi Tsuki—an all blue, water moon—and Mori Tsuki —a forested moon, mostly green and brown, from the dense forests from a high carbon dioxide environment—confirmed that the planet was Taiyo.

  A beep on his sensor told him bandits were near. He flipped to reverse vid cams, seeing exactly what he didn’t want to see.

  Giant ships. Agadon ships. A blue hue, mimicking fire, danced at the bottom of a few frigates. The starfighters, starships, and destroyers were in formation—ready to attack.

  The Agadon had followed.

  Jaxx had not only brought hell upon the Leonians. He brought hell upon the Taiyonians. He was a curse upon all peoples. He was the bringer of death.

  He slammed his hand on the console. “Son of a...”

  “Attack formation. Move!” ordered Zaya.

  Jaxx adjusted his thrusters, pushing port boosters to full, and flipped around. He turned his missile batteries on and targeted the nearest enemy starfighter, his screen glowing a deep red, telling him he had a lock. He put his finger over the trigger. “I’m ready to engage.”

  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 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 Shaughnessy 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 Shaughnessy 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 just 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 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 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’s 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, 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, something 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

  E-Quadrant, Earth - Lookout Mountain, Tennessee

  He saw the cameras in the corners of the room the moment the Chinese soldiers burst through the oval office’s French doors. Drew put his hands up after just turning off the computer. He was a dumbass. Another rookie mistake. Of course there would be surveillance monitoring every pocket of this facility.

  “Don’t shoot.” His eyes were like saucers, his mind moving in and out of his current predicament and the videos he had just seen.

  General Yu pushed a guard aside. “You not obey.” His eyes were cold. “You die.”

  All he could think of to say was, Thanks Mom for leading me here. But he refrained. It wasn’t his mom’s fault. It was his. His thoughts led him here, his subconscious obviously using his mind to mimic his mother’s voice. But why would he lead himself to die? How could he possibly know Anonymous was the passcode to Anderle’s root file?

  And who was invading the world and why wasn’t anyone out there fighting them? All other questions were now background noise.

  A guard grabbed Drew and spun him around, putting cuffs on him, the cold steel squeezing hard against Drew’s wrists.

  “What’s going on?” said Anderle, walking in, Lord of the Rings robe on, yawning. “You woke me.” He stopped in his tracks when he saw cuffs on Drew. He bared his teeth at the general. “What are you doing? We didn’t talk about this.”

  The guard pushed Drew forward. He dug in his heels. “Why didn’t you tell me? A global invasion is happening right now. We need to get these Chinese, all Chinese and our military and any other country that still has a standing army, and mobilize them to confront the threat.”

  “How did—” Anderle glanced at his computer. “You son of a bitch.” He reared back and punched Drew smack in the chin.

  Drew lost balance but was held up by the guard. He shook his head like a dog, doing his best to get the punch’s sting off his face. “You hid that shit from me? This entire time I’ve been down here, aliens were flying through our atmosphere?”

  Anderle looked satisfied. “Yep.” He cocked his head toward the door. “Get him out of here.”

  “Dǎjiǎ zǒngtǒng,” ordered Yu.

  Anderle frowned. “What?”

  A guard pushed Anderle against a wall and wrestled him to the ground.

  Anderle grunted and pushed the soldier off, only to have the man come down with a knee into his stomach. Anderle curled into a ball and his assailant grabbed his hair, pulling Anderle to his feet. Pain swept across his face.

  They pushed him back on the ground face first, slapping cuffs on him. They picked him up and shoved him against a wall. Anderle, face scratched, glanced up at a camera, mouthing, “Plan B. Plan B.”

  Drew caught it, not understanding what Anderle was doing. He curled his lips, angry at the man who led him here, who trapped him in this White House cave, wanting to shove dirt in his eye when he was already down. “Your Chinese friends here really know how to stay loyal, huh?”

  Yu planted his hand hard against Drew's chest and pushed him against the wall, next to Anderle. “Enough this. We not need you. You die.” He pulled out his semi-automatic, cocked it, and pressed it against Drew’s forehead.

  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 to T-hacker and went to grab the device. A video was on it with a play icon in the middle. He thought b
etter of it, ordering a guard to take it and press 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 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 catapulted out of his hands and clacked on the floor.

  Yu’s facial features contorted more at each passing second, anger rising. He grunted words, sharp, curt words.

  Mya woke, screaming, then crawled 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 pillowcase 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. The soldiers 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.

  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.