Fox tried to stand.
The woman thrust her hand out, using a strange energy to root him to the ground.
“God dammit. Let me up.”
She shook her head. “My name is Liberty. I am the Master of Atlantis Alta, or in your terms, Callisto.” She put her hands in prayer position. “And, to answer your internal question, Jaxx, you and Fox are indeed Atlantean. The difference between Human and Atlantean is subtle, and with your advance translation skills, I’m surprised you missed that in the Egyptian Stele’s and hieroglyphs. The human race has been genetically manipulated by another species and a similar manipulation continues to this day with the chemicals in your foods and liquids, but we won’t get to that now. The Atlantean race, to which you were both born, has not been manipulated. We’re still pure. You both, on the other hand, are more powerful than the Atlanteans, for a great power has been bestowed upon you. You carry human chromosome two and human chromosome seven.”
This just wasn’t making sense. Jaxx and Fox were Atlantean brothers, yet partly human as well? Then, who were his real parents? “A great power has been bestowed upon Fox and me?” asked Jaxx.
“You have much to learn, much to decipher. In time, it will come. Now, for you two,” she pointed an index finger to Jaxx and her other index finger to Fox. “You have a connection you haven’t quite understood and when you felt it in the past, you dismissed it as something else entirely or ignored it altogether.”
Fox gave a hearty laugh. “You’re full of shit, woman.” He supported his body with his hand on the ground and pushed himself up like a rickety old man, the electrical charge clearly still tingling through him. “How did we get here?”
“Mez Beds, please,” she said.
Two beds materialized in the middle of the room, crystalline in appearance with a glow pulsing from within. Ear muffs—or something similar—were at the head of each bed. “You can’t leave this dome until you find your true connection. It’ll bond you, even if you can’t overcome your kismet issues with each other. It’s your destiny. It’s our destiny. You’ll right a great wrong that’s facing our people.” She snapped her fingers, gesturing for them to lay on the beds.
Jaxx and Fox didn’t move and Liberty dipped her head. “It’s your choice. Until then, it’s by decree that you may not leave this dome until you have understood your bond.”
She left the dome and the door shut behind her, though no lines showed where a door should have been. No frame, no door knob, nothing.
Fox stood in a stretch. He cracked his knuckles. “This ought to be fun.” He rushed Jaxx.
36
Somewhere in North Carolina ~ Earth
He’d been on the road for three hours. All he’d seen on the way were a few cars and mostly people walking on the side of the freeway, their thumbs out. Drew would have pulled over many times, but each time, the memory of the men who stole his car came to mind. In a time like this, he could only trust himself.
Mya hadn’t woken yet. Perhaps the trauma had overrun her nervous system and her body kept her safe by conking her to sleep for as long as it could before the trauma reared its ugly head the moment she woke.
His chest tightened and his stomach fell when the red gas light blinked on. Near empty. Now he was feeling trauma. Not like back when the foreign military opened fire on his location, but still, a car with no gas equaled he’d be up shit creek.
He was passing Balsam, North Carolina on Route 74. Population 49.
He pulled onto the exit. The gas station was run down and his car jostled up and down as he pulled onto the broken driveway.
Mya continued to sleep.
He pulled up to one of the two pumps, a Country Mountain Store sign above the roof of the store only yards away told him exactly where he was—butt freakin’ nowhere. The store looked empty. Nothing in life from this point forward would be easy, not that it had ever been. But with the US economy in the toilet, people running to safety, and everyone—just like him—suspicious of everyone, life would be a shit-show of people stealing and pillaging and looking out for number one.
He opened his car door. “A mountain store?” he said quietly to himself. The smell of fresh air and pine seeped into his nostrils. The landscape was beyond gorgeous. Green, healthy trees dotted the mountains surrounding Balsam.
He took out his wallet, eyeing a credit card. He sighed. “I hope this works.” He slid it into the gas pump’s card reader. No response. The lack of digital numbers on the pump’s display should have told him exactly that—not operational.
A beat up truck was parked on the grass by the side of the store. Rust started to make its home on its roof. He hurried over, checking left and right, hoping nobody watched him. He opened the driver door and popped open the gas cap cover. He shut the door and walked over and unscrewed the gas cap, then took a whiff. There was gas in there that he’d have to siphon. He went to the store’s front door and jiggled the handle. Locked.
He glanced back at his car. Mya was stretching, yawning, and then rubbed her eyes.
She opened the door. “Mamma? Where’s Mamma?”
Oh, boy. Here we go. He strode next to her. Bending down, Drew rubbed her shoulder. He didn’t know if that’s what you’re supposed to do with kids, but he’d give it a go. “Mya? Your mom won’t be able to see you for a while. I’m going to be taking care of you until your dad arrives.”
Did he just say that? Taking care of her? He couldn’t even take care of his bong. And when was he going to explain that her mom would never see her again?
Kids were an anomaly to him, perhaps because he was an anomaly as a child. Growing up, he didn’t know how to talk to children his own age and especially didn’t like playing Legos or stacking blocks with them, since other kids were so elementary. Plus, being born with photographic memory had its down sides with runny nosed, piss-ant kids who made fun of him for knowing algebra and equations better than college professors by age ten.
“Where’s Daddy?” Mya stepped out of the car. A cold breeze brushed across them and she huddled against Drew’s leg.
Drew put his hands out and leaned back like Mya was a leach, trying to suck the blood out of his leg. A soft buzz sounded behind him and before he could look to see what it was, his mom materialized in the front seat, her hands around the wheel, staring at Drew like he had half a brain.
“Get a hold of yourself, Drew. She’s a child. Comfort her, and for God’s sakes, stop lying to her.”
Drew lurched back a tad.
Laura gave Drew an understanding nod, one that said you know what to do and that she didn’t raise an idiot. Then his mom faded away.
Drew scratched the back of his head and looked down at Mya.
The breeze blew again and Mya squeezed tighter around his leg.
He placed a hand on her back. “Your dad is working. He’ll join us when he’s done. Might be a few days, a week, and hopefully not more than a month.”
She glanced at him. “He’s here?”
Drew looked around. “I don’t think so.” He eyed the store. He’d have to break in, find a tube and shove it into the truck’s gas line and siphon the gas out. The store better have a gas can.
“What’s that?” Mya unwrapped an arm from Drew’s leg and pointed behind him.
A small drone hovered above and in front of the trees that lined the property. It was the buzzing sound he’d thought he’d been hearing. It dipped to the side.
It dipped again.
Drew furrowed his brow. “Get behind me, Mya.”
Drew walked slowly, taking short steps so Mya could use him as a shield, just in case this small drone was Chinese and had a gun.
“It’s really neat,” said Mya, pulling out from behind him and running toward the drone.
Drew reached his hand out, doing his best to grab her. “No, Mya.” He chased after her, imagining automatic rounds blasting out of the drone’s nose, Mya getting hit, taking the blunt force into her chest, vibrating as each bullet pounded her
like he’d seen in movies.
None of that happened.
Mya made her way beneath the drone and attempted to grab it out of the air. She giggled like any six-year old who’d forgotten about her mommy, daddy, and anything else in the world except for the joy of the moment.
“Don’t, Mya.”
The drone lifted in the air, and turned around. It dipped another time.
Where the tree line met the pavement, the terrain had a slight decline—almost a hill, but not quite. The drone avoided a tree, moving into the woods, and down that decline.
Drew picked up Mya, her legs wrapping around his waist, her hands grasping his coat. She jabbed a finger at the drone, her lips downturned. “Did I scare it?”
“No. I think it wants us to follow it.” He patted her heart. “What do you think?”
She gave a slow nod, her eyes as innocent as a baby. “I think so.”
Some teenage techy was probably flying that thing, seeing what was going on in his town.
Drew stepped over a downed branch, then around a stump, heading a few yards into the wooded area. The drone bucked right, changing its direction.
Drew continued to follow, Mya in his arms.
The wind picked up and they rounded another tree. Looking up, gray clouds came in fast. Rain was on its way.
The drone hovered ten yards. Then moved up and down several times, dipping left and right, left and right, over and over again until Drew could see why.
More than a dozen 5-gallon gas cans sat around the base of a tree.
Drew stopped and set Mya on her feet. “Stay here.” He slowly took a step forward, hearing the leaves and branches under his shoes. He surveyed the area, wondering where the trap could be. He picked up a heavy rock, then threw it near the can, half expecting a net to rise from under the leaves and carry the gas cans, and anyone else who may have gotten caught.
He looked back at Mya. She was gone.
His heart about hit his knees. He heard the leaves rustle and spun on his heels. Mya ran to the gas cans.
He let out an exasperated breath. “Don’t touch that.” He walked to the cans and took off one of the caps. A stream of fumes punctured the air. “It’s fuel.”
The drone lowered, then dipped a few more times. A stream of light came from its belly, then a man stood in front of them. He wore a tie, blue suit, and had his hands on his hips. He almost looked like his uncle Jaxx, but a bit older, wiser, his eyes confident.
“Hello, Drew.” The man smiled. “I’m President Jefferson Kennedy. We need your help. Continue your course.”
The man disappeared and the drone lifted upward and over the canopy of trees. It sped off.
Drew put his hands over his mouth. “Did you see a guy standing there by chance?”
“Yeah.”
So he wasn’t hallucinating again.
He grasped the handles on two cans and picked them up. “You think you can lift one?” he asked.
Mya tried, then shook her head.
“Alright. Stay with me. No running off. Uncle Drew has another place to the east to show you.”
37
J-Quadrant, Solar System ~ Flood of Dawn, Callisto
A day after her crazy flight to East Rise, the invasion-laden city just east of Flood of Dawn, Rivkah was bunked up with the maximally-annoying Katherine Bogle. They were in a clear dome with nothing but beds and crystal walls.
What was worse, she couldn’t get her mind off of the girl and those kids tortured by those monsters, the Kelhoon. She knew about the Kelhoons ambition to rule the galaxy, and while in the SSP she experienced it first hand. Yet she didn’t see the behind the scenes version and what the Kelhoons did to the survivors. She never wanted to see it again. In fact, she wanted that entire Kelhoon race exterminated. She’d love to do her part now.
“You’ll be able to do your part very soon, Rivkah. But, it will come at a price,” said Bogle.
Rivkah sat. “What did you just say?”
Bogle looked off in the distance, staring at something Rivkah couldn’t see. “I am the web that keeps you and the two together. I won’t steer you wrong. Only you can steer you wrong.”
Rivkah crossed her arms. “What in the shitfire are you saying?”
Bogle blinked her eyes several times. “Huh?”
“You won’t steer me wrong? Who thinks I’ll let you steer me anywhere? If it were up to me, I’d be off this planet and finding my way back to Oklahoma where I could have a little peace and quiet.” She looked down. “I should never have left.”
Bogle wrinkled her brow. “What are you talking about?”
“You just said you’re the web that keeps me and two others together.”
Bogle snorted. “You were dreaming.”
Rivkah waved her hand in the air. “I wasn’t, but you probably were. Forget anything I said and I’ll gladly forget anything you were saying.”
Bogle rolled to her side, her back to Rivkah. “You don’t like me, do you.”
Rivkah kept her mouth shut.
“Well, it’s okay. I’ll grow on you.”
“I hope you grow off of me. Let’s just stay quiet from now on.”
Bogle leaned back, staring at Rivkah. She closed her eyes, then opened them wide, her eyes set to the distant wall. “You are to protect these people. You’ll take orders from me telepathically while you fight the good fight, while you keep the three hounds at bay.”
Rivkah jumped off her bed and stomped toward Bogle. She grabbed Bogle’s hair and pulled her head back.
Bogle kept her eyes positioned on the wall. “It’s against Universal Law to invade another’s space without permission.” Rivkah’s hand went numb and without her control, she loosened her grip from Bogle’s hair and dropped her hand to her side.
“Ow,” Bogle rubbed her head where Rivkah had pulled. “What’d you do that for?”
Rivkah looked around. Something was up and she wasn’t liking it. She went to the crystal wall, touched it, searched for a door somewhere—anywhere. She had to get out of here. Another escape, another run from the darkness. She walked around the room, doing her best to locate a button or a lever.
The door opened across from her. A man walked in.
“Grenik Star?” Bogle stood from her bed then hurried to him, like a wife to a long-lost husband. She gave him a tight hug.
Grenik laughed. “Well, aren’t you happy to see me.” He motioned for Rivkah. “Captain Rivkah Ravenwood, we have someone for you to see, and Executive Officer Katherine Bogle, please come with me as well. We’re going to place you into the Cultivation Room to get you ready for combat.” He said it matter of factually, as if that’s exactly what they would do without complaint.
Bogle leaned back. “The Cultivation Room?”
“It won’t harm you. It’ll enhance you,” replied Grenik.
Bogle threw her hands out the side. “Not interested.”
Grenik dipped his head and bowed. “I understand.”
Rivkah, on the other hand, would be happy to get out of this trap. “Take me to your leader.”
Grenik cocked his head to the side. “Leader?” His confusion turned to a smile. “Uh, our Master. You’ll see her, but we’re taking you to your friends.”
Rivkah almost laughed. “I don’t have friends.”
“I see. Lieutenant Kaden Jaxx and Captain Richard Fox are not your friends?”
Rivkah’s eyes went wide. “Are they here?”
“Yes, yes. Jaxx, on the other hand, is barely here. He’s covered in blood, doing his best to keep Fox at bay, at which he’s doing a mighty job, by the way.”
Rivkah’s hands went into fists. “What did you do to him?”
“It’s what Fox is doing to him. Please follow me.”
38
J-Quadrant, Solar System ~ Flood of Dawn, Callisto
Jaxx was in the air, pressed against the wall, his jaw clenched. He was in pain, but not physical, more mental. It was like his mind was being sucked into a black
hole and he did everything in his power to keep his mind intact.
Fox laughed. “I like this power thing...brother.” Fox, cracked up at his own joke. “I’m draining you. You feel that?”
Jaxx did. He was tired. He was also getting pissed, fantasizing about throwing Fox across the room, then beating the shit out of him. “Put me down, Fox.” He brought both hands to his head as a new sensation kicked in. Dizziness. He swallowed, keeping the contents of his stomach at bay.
“God, this is going to be easy.” Fox dropped Jaxx and walked backwards a few steps like a bull ready to strike. He was determined with his forehead low and his eyes forward. He turned and brought his fist back in a punch and threw it in Jaxx’s direction. Even though he was several yards away, Jaxx’s head pushed to the side, as if Fox landed a blow to Jaxx’s temple; Fox’s knuckle to Jaxx’s skull.
Fox jumped up and down like a kid in an ice cream parlor. “What the hell? This is awesome.” He focused on Jaxx and threw his arms outward. Jaxx stiffened. An energy grip grabbed him like he was stuck in a straight jacket.
Fox put his index finger up. “Stay there, Jaxx. Let me try something.”
Jaxx fought Fox’s energetic grip, throwing his own energy around to kick this energy off of him. Nothing worked. He dropped his head, sweat dripping off of his nose to his chest, his arms as weak as a baby. He closed his eyes, thinking this was it. Fox was probably going to kill him or worse yet, torture him until he flat-lined. He let go of any attempt to push Fox’s energy off of him, and relaxed every muscle, including his mind.
Immediately, Jaxx fell, slumping to the floor.
“Wait. Stand back up,” yelled Fox.
Jaxx didn’t move, didn’t lift off the ground, didn’t flinch.
Fox took heavy steps toward Jaxx. “I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”
Jaxx, on the other hand, was regaining his energy. The Chi ran through him like water into a tree’s roots. He stood and took a few steps and thrust his palm on Fox’s chest.
The Complete Atlantis Series, Books 1 - 5: Ascendant Saga Page 42