A woman, no more than Drew’s age, beautiful, brown hair flowing over her shoulders, and blue eyes that could brighten any guy’s day, washed a glass behind the bar. “Marines have us on rations, Carl, and for good measure. We don’t have an unlimited amount of food, if you’ve forgotten.”
The guy threw his napkin on the table, stood and grumbled something inaudible. He kicked his chair to the side and wiped his hands, eyeing the exit. The problem? The guy was as big as a bear, looked like he was ready to pounce, and Drew stood between him and the door. Drew stood to one side, but the guy slammed his shoulder into him as he walked by. “Move it.”
Drew jerked back, doing his best to absorb the blow. “Sorry to get in your way, buddy.” Sarcasm came naturally to Drew. He didn’t hold back.
Carl stopped with his hand on the door handle. He turned and flared his nostrils. “What did you say, little man?”
Drew wasn’t little, but compared to this guy, everyone was. Drew knew it would be unwise to pick a fight with Carl, let alone say any more words to him. Drew’s mouth, on the other hand, had other ideas. “I would love to insult you but I’m afraid I won’t do as well as nature did.”
Drew gulped. Why the hell did he say that?
Carl reared his fist back and swung at Drew. Drew jumped out of the way, eyes like saucers. Another fist came at Drew’s jaw, connecting, knocking Drew into the corner of the bar. Glasses and bowls slipped off the countertop, crashing to the floor, shattering into hundreds of pieces. Carl’s knee came up into Drew’s stomach and Drew lifted a few inches off the ground, then fell to the floor, holding his stomach and gasping for breath.
Carl grabbed the top of Drew’s hair and pulled him to his feet.
“Stop it, Carl.” Megan ran between them and pushed Carl away from Drew. “Leave, alright? Just leave.” She put her hand on his chest, her voice steady and low.
He gave her a long look, then turned and exited.
Megan spun on her heels, her eyes like an inferno. “You’d do well if you keep your Goddamn mouth shut in this town, stranger. Do you hear me?”
Drew rubbed his chin, his body buckled over. “Yes, miss. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry ain’t getting you any soup or coffee.” She walked behind the bar and pointed at the door. “You leave, as well.”
“I haven’t had food in…I don’t know how long. Please, I—”
“Megan, he’s with me.” Master Sergeant Angel Segarra rose from a table at the back of bar. He was with Mya and some other Marines.
Mya smiled, her eyes full of the same innocence he’d seen every day for the weeks he’d been with her, more or less saving her. She, however, was now some type of superhero, able to heal someone’s broken nose with a touch. And if shit wasn’t already strange, right after they landed in Whitefish, she evaporated alien jet fighters with some kind of energy that emitted out of her body.
“He’s with you? Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Megan muttered. She pulled out a dust pan and grabbed a broom leaning against a wall. She stomped over to Drew and shoved them in his face. “Clean your mess, and I’ll give you some vegetable soup and coffee. Alright?”
Drew swept the shards of glass and bowls into a pile. “I don’t drink coffee. Any water?” He brushed the pile into the dust pan.
Megan slid a small garbage can over to him. “Drink the water in the soup. Otherwise I have to boil water for ten minutes. We got hand cranked generators keeping the water flowing, but we don’t know if those ETs are slipping any harmful materials in the rivers upstream past the shield. And I’m not boiling anything for the next few hours.” She tapped her gas stove, indicating that’s where she’d boil it.
“Drew, come over here,” called Segarra.
Drew emptied the dust pan and walked over.
“Where did you last see my wife and son?” Segarra looked at Drew, his eyes full of hope.
A memory of Segarra’s wife came to Drew’s mind, her outstretched arms reaching for Mya, a pool of blood surrounding her. His wife, Mya’s mom, had died in a car dealership, struck by a string of bullets, and as for Segarra’s son? He was smashed under a fallen cement ceiling. He couldn’t have saved her or the boy. And now he was supposed to tell this strong Marine, who could take Carl—the bear—to the ground with one arm tied behind his back, that his wife was dead, and died right in front of Drew? And that he held Mya back from her mom, the child who could heal with a touch, while her mom was dying, asking for help, wanting to be with her child in her last breaths of life?
“I last saw her in Charlotte, North Carolina.”
Segarra shook his head. “That’s not good enough. I can tell you’re holding something back. Now, what is it?”
Drew glanced at Mya, then back at Segarra. He wasn’t going to tell him in front of his daughter. “Can I chat with you outside?”
Kachoooj!
The building shook again.
Segarra nonchalantly stood, as if ET bombs dropping on a science-fiction-like shield around the city was a normal thing. “Let’s go.”
Drew followed him toward the door.
Segarra stopped at the bar where Megan stood and leaned in. “Can you watch my daughter?”
“I’m not your babysitter, Mr. Marine. I know she has extra powers and stuff, but she ain’t any more important than the rest of us.”
Several people in the bar nodded, as if Mya was getting the celebrity treatment she didn’t deserve.
“I’m just trying to get you two to bond. You seem the most liked in this town, and my daughter deserves some praise.” Segarra put his hands on the counter and craned his neck to look at a Marine sitting next to his daughter. “Keep an eye on her, Buster, will you?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Segarra lightly rapped his knuckles on the counter top and winked at Megan. “I appreciate your gratitude for what we’ve brought here. If you haven’t noticed, we’re saving your asses.” He pressed his lips together in a straight line as if stopping himself from saying anything further. He thumbed over his shoulder toward the exit, keeping his eyes deadpanned on Megan’s. “Let’s go, Drew.”
They walked outside. Drew shifted his eyes toward the sky. A massive ship hovered overhead, blue lightning zipping down from its belly, covering the mushroom-shaped shield like an electric charge from a tesla coil.
“Stop hesitating and just tell me,” said Segarra.
Drew glanced at his feet. “Sorry…I…uh.”
“Is she dead?”
Drew nodded.
Segarra stepped back, as if that was the last thing he wanted to hear. He bit his lower lip, doing his best to stop his chin from quivering. “And my…son?” Segarra’s voice cracked.
“He is too.”
“Dead?”
“Yes.”
Segarra put his hand over his mouth, taking an even bigger step backward, as if someone had taken a knife and slammed it into his heart. He cleared his throat and rolled his head. He tapped his foot, looking away. “Okay…umm…thank you for keeping my daughter alive. I owe you my life.” He unclipped his gun from his belt and handed it to Drew. “Keep this. It’s an M118 advanced phaser. It will keep you alive and kill any ET bastards that may get into the city.” He pressed the base of the handle with his palm. “You have a one-hundred-and-eighteen-hour charge with this magazine, hence the phaser’s name. You could literally shoot this thing for a hundred and eighteen hours straight without needing a new charge, but I wouldn’t recommend it. At about ten minutes of constant trigger pulling, the gun would melt and your hand would erupt in fire. Keep it near and dear to you like your family.”
Slade was Drew’s father. There was nothing near and dear about the guy. Jaxx, on the other hand, was his uncle. And he considered Jaxx family, who was probably the only family he had left.
Segarra pushed the gun into Drew’s chest as a tear streamed down the guy’s cheek.
Drew grabbed the gun, then gasped and ducked for cover.
Bratatatatat ratatatat!
Machine guns echoed somewhere in the distance.
Bawooop!
Then an explosion, not from above, but somewhere in the city—and it was near. Too near.
Alarms blared and Segarra glanced around. Marines were rushing down the street, rifles in hand. “Get to safety. Use that weapon well.” Segarra rushed to the bar door, quickly opened it and stepped inside.
Drew’s stomach growled.
Crap.
And all he wanted was some damn food. Or some Mary Jane smoke in his lungs.
Now he has to fight? Fight who, exactly? Little green aliens with almond-shaped eyes?
4
J-Quadrant, Solar System - East Rise, Callisto
Rivkah lay on her back. A dim light streamed through the slits between the rocks piled at the entrance of the cave.
A rock fell, then another.
“They’re breaking through,” said Bogle. She rushed to the entrance. “I’ll energetically lift more rocks and stuff the gaps.”
Abdu went to his knees and touched Rivkah’s stomach. “You’re losing life quickly.”
Rivkah moved her eyes to Abdu’s. She wanted to tell him to just shoot her in the head and get it over with. But nothing came out, no matter what she tried to say. Minutes ago she could mumble, murmur grunts when Abdu carried her on her back.
Now…nothing.
“I’m going to send healing energy to you, Miss Rivkah.” His hands vibrated. Rivkah felt the heat radiating from them. A rush of energy ran through her body. She twitched and twitched again.
A crash of rocks pounded through the cave.
“They’re getting through,” yelled Bogle.
Rivkah shook, her hands involuntarily jerking back and forth as if she was being electrocuted. Her energy was coming back, her lethargy diminishing. This Abdu—half, human, half-lion—was a kind of healer Rivkah had never experienced. How the hell was he doing that? He was breathing life back into her—life she desperately needed.
Krackakakracka!
A blast of rocks rained down on Abdu’s back, pushing him on top of Rivkah.
Bogle screamed and flew into Abdu, tumbling over him and onto her stomach.
Abdu pushed himself up and into a crouch. He grasped the rifle on his back and clutched it in his arms. He aimed and pulled the trigger.
Rivkah tried to get up. The power flowed down her arms, but her hands were still numb. She crumpled and fell, her vision shifting from double to triple. She wanted to throw up, but at least her body was working. She ought to be happy, but happiness wasn’t her thing. Especially at a moment like this. Was she going to get her life back, just to lose it to a damned Kelhoon?
A phaser zipped past Abdu and just above Rivkah. It hit a rock, echoing across the cave.
“Can you move, Rivkah?” asked Bogle, her hands outstretched, doing her Chi thing on the cave. Another rumble vibrated against the walls and the cave dimmed again.
Rivkah pushed up on the back of her elbows, shaking her head. “I see two of you, Abdu.” She shifted her eyes to the cave entrance. “I see two entrances. Good job, Bogle. You built a wall there.” It was the first time she had given the beauty queen any type of compliment. Rivkah blinked several times. There must be something really wrong with her to say anything nice about Bogle.
“Bogle rebuilt the wall at the entrance rather well, buying us a few more minutes,” Abdu responded.
“We need to hurry down one of the back tunnels,” said Bogle.
Rivkah went to get up, then sighed. “Son of a mother’s…” She shook her head. “I still can’t move my legs.”
The cave lit up and Rivkah’s eyes went wide. Did the Kelhoon burst open the entrance’s new make-shift rock wall? One look told her they hadn’t. It was Bogle. In her hand, she had a small fire flaming a few inches off of her palm. Two palms—Rivkah was still seeing double. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Bogle moved forward. “I’m not kidding you. You could do the same if you knew Chi like I do. It wouldn’t hurt for you to practice it as much as you can.”
“Hold still,” said Abdu, placing his giant hand on top of Rivkah’s head. A sting sunk deep into her skull and through her brain, then zapped down her spine. Her body jolted and shivered, then sat up straight, as if working on its own. A moment later, her vision corrected.
The guy was a real-life miracle healer.
“Again,” said Bogle off in the distance and deeper down a tunnel. “Chi isn’t just for fighting.”
Rivkah wiggled her toes in her boots. She twisted, ready to get up. It didn’t happen. “I still can’t move my Goddamn legs.”
Abdu picked her up and thrust her over his shoulder. Pounding filled the cavern. A rock fell from the entrance wall and a ray of light burst through. “Time to get moving, Rivkah.” Abdu dashed forward and Rivkah bounced up and down on his wide shoulder. The lion was moving fast, catching up to Bogle.
“This way,” ordered Bogle.
Abdu dashed left and ran through another tunnel vein. A cool breeze brushed against Rivkah’s legs and lower back. It meant an exit was near. It also meant sensation was returning.
More static blasted Rivkah’s hearing. She grimaced and pressed her hands against her ears. “What the hell—” Her vision tunneled and narrowed in on Bogle, even though Bogle was in front of Abdu, and Rivkah’s face was at Abdu’s furry back. To see Bogle would be impossible.
Rivkah’s sight moved up through the ground, seeing roots, red and gray rock, then ice, and snow. Her view lit up with natural light as her vision shifted from below the ground to above it. Her sight hurried forward, over the snowy terrain, around a hill, finally stopping at a Kelhoon transport ship.
Humans, bound in chains, were led out of the ship by Kelhoon troops with rifles. All the humans were young. There were dozens. Most were girls, no more than four to ten years old. A Kelhoon glanced up at the sky as a roar ripped across the atmosphere. An Agadon carrier zoomed across the heavens, lightning cutting into the atmosphere and surrounding the giant craft.
The Kelhoon lifted his rifle in the air, hissing in anger. He didn’t like this new Agadon threat. He then pushed a young girl to the ground in anger, taking it out on her.
That son of a bitch. “Where is this?” asked Rivkah. Her sight shot forward, heading toward a walled city with rounded structures inside, along with glowing sticks that rose above the walls, much like street lamps.
“Kelhoon terraforming torches,” said Rivkah. Her time in the Secret Space Program, dealing with these Kelhoon assholes, hadn’t been a complete wash.
She moved over the walls. Green grasses and wild flowers were scattered across the land. In sharp contrast, human children connected by shackles and chains, walked in a straight line toward a domed warehouse and were forced inside by Kelhoon soldiers.
She gasped. Were they headed for slaughter? She couldn’t let this happen. Above all else, saving these kids was her priority.
A memory surfaced and with it heat surrounded her heart. Her father had chained her up when she was a child for neglecting their dog, for forgetting to feed their border collie on a particular morning. Her father made them change places. The dog went into the house while she was chained to the dog house.
It lasted two days. Two days in the freezing rain, with nothing but dog food and dirty water.
She’d do anything to change positions with these children. No one deserved what they were about to face.
Except the asshole who’d sold them out and forced them to leave Earth on the back of a damned lie. Colonel Slade Roberson had said there was a habitable planet, ready and waiting for them out in the stars. Callisto was there for the taking, he said. A land of milk and honey, he said. There’d be no more war or famine or suffering, he said. But it was all smoke and mirrors. Slade thought only of himself and his powerful chums. Earth was in danger of eco-collapse and massive flooding and he wanted off-planet, asap. He’d evacuated the rich and powerful and left the rest of humanity to rot. He was a
primo asshole and if she ever saw him again, she wouldn’t hesitate for a second. She would take him down, in shackles and chains, and force him to grovel at her feet.
Shit, why am I thinking about that loser? These kids need me.
Rivkah shook herself and racked focus. She had to stay inside her vision, altered as it was.
Her eyes shifted from the warehouse to a castle. She panned in on a tower that sat in the middle of it. There a man stood. No way. He was a human, strong and toned. It couldn’t be. She zoomed in more. How in the name of all that is holy is that possible? Rage hit her like a bullet train slamming into a wall at two hundred miles per hour. It was him.
It was Slade.
Her subconscious had raced ahead and brought him up from the deepest recesses of her memory. She screamed, then jerked as she came back to her present location. She was staring at the fur on Abdu’s back as she jostled up and down, her stomach and hips bouncing uncomfortably off and on his shoulder.
“We have to get to Slade,” she informed them.
“Who?” questioned Abdu.
“The son of a bitch who betrayed us.” She couldn’t find the words. How do you describe the man who sold the world? He’d gone a step further. She cleared her throat. “Now he’s done worse than merely betray us. He’s not just a self-serving jerk. He’s a collaborator, a puppet for the enemy. He’s become a Kelhoon human farmer,” growled Rivkah.
“First, we must find safety,” said Bogle.
She ignored Bogle. “Where is he?” whispered Rivkah, asking her vision, or her Chi, or whatever it was that had sent her traveling across Callisto to the walled city encircling a large castle. And just like that, she knew where he was. “Once we get out of this cavern, we head south to kill that bastard.”
The tunnel dipped and inclined.
“Uh oh!” Abdu came to a screeching halt. “Your legs work yet, Rivkah?” he asked.
Rivkah wiggled them. “A little. Why?”
“We’re at the exit and there are several—”
An explosion rocked Abdu backward and off his feet, tossing Rivkah off his back and onto her side. She rolled and gingerly pushed herself up, her legs wobbly, her head pounding from a god-awful headache.
The Complete Atlantis Series, Books 1 - 5: Ascendant Saga Page 73