The Ascension Myth Box Set

by Ell Leigh Clark

  Giles started getting to his knees, but his body had gone limp, and the fear from what had just happened was catching up to him. He nodded anyway. “Yeah. Think I may just crawl, though,” he said, carefully trying not to glance down at the drop, even though every curious bone inside him wanted to see the carnage he had narrowly escaped.

  Sean nodded and scrambled to his feet, keeping an eye on Giles behind him to make sure he was following.

  They made their way carefully to the cave, and arrived panting, relieved to have made it and to be out of the heat.

  Giles, already on hands and knees from crawling, collapsed on the soft sand and rolled onto his back. Sean made his way deeper inside, and found a wall to slump against while Giles recovered from his near-death experience.

  “So, do you think we need to worry about booby traps?” Sean asked, glancing into the darkness of the cave, waiting for his eyes to adjust.

  Giles rolled over onto his front, now thoroughly covered in sand. “Dude, you really have watched too many of those old tomb-raiding movies!” Giles laughed to himself, the relief of being alive still settling into his bones.

  Sean glanced back at him. “Can never be too safe,” he said. His tone was more commanding, as if Giles had said something completely inappropriate.

  Giles chuckled a little.

  Sean rolled his eyes as he scrambled to his feet again. “You realize your good humor is a result of the scare you just had, right?”

  Giles sniggered. “Yep. But I intend to enjoy it; and every moment from here on in. No more complaining from me, no, siree.”

  Sean ventured deeper into the cave, carefully eyeing each step before he placed his foot, aware of every single thing around him. His eyes now adjusted to the darkness, he could make out outlines of things. A desk. A picture on a wall. A seating area. He pulled up his holo and projected a low-power flashlight from it, to illuminate the area without destroying his night vision.

  Giles had made it to his feet, and wandered over to join Sean while dusting himself off. He nearly tripped over an edge as the sandy floor of the cave transitioned into some kind of flooring. Catching himself in time, he looked down and stamped his foot. “Looks like he’s upgraded since I was last invited down here,” he commented.

  Sean wandered onward, finding a passageway off the main area. “You remember this?” he asked indicating into the doorway.

  Giles nodded. “Sure. That way lays his prison, where he puts people who have pissed him off. The passage off to the right of there goes to the walk-in safe.”

  Sean nodded. “Guess I’ll start there, then,” he decided, wandering off to explore.

  Giles stood in the middle of the main area and looked around. Then he pulled up his holo as Sean had done, and started searching the place methodically.

  Aboard The Empress

  Brock, Crash, and Molly watched the forward screen as the green-lit missiles headed in their direction. Not a few kilometers ahead of them, The Little Empress languished; suspended in space, still rotating on an off-kilter axis, attempting to regain control from the last blast it took.

  “Looks like they’ve been deploying decoys,” Crash commented, raising his arm to feebly indicate the projectiles coming from The Little Empress.

  Brock shook his head. “It’s not enough,” he said, barely peeling his eyes from his console. “Come on, come on…” he muttered to the array of controls in front of him. “Come ON!” His frustration levels rose and Molly glanced down, vaguely aware that he was working on something.

  Crash turned to read off a screen Molly couldn’t see. “Three seconds till impact,” he reported.

  Molly held her breath.

  Emma’s voice interjected. “They could withstand a couple, but not more than three of those missiles.”

  Molly tried to take in what Emma had just said. It isn’t possible…

  Brock hit a final switch, only then looking up to watch the screen.

  Molly braced herself, not quite sure she had put it together right. Is Joel’s ship about to be destroyed? Is that what Emma is saying? Her heart was in her mouth as the implications of the missiles hitting The Little Empress dawned on her.

  And then their own ship shuddered.

  “What was that?” she asked, still watching the screen and noticing that The Little Empress was still intact.

  There was another shudder. And then another.

  “It’s working!” Brock shouted. “It’s working!”

  Molly was confused, and then she saw the green flares as the missiles hit the forcefield around not just The Little Empress, but their own ship as well. Her mouth opened in shock, and then a smile. “You did it?” she half-asked, half-celebrated, her hand finding its way to Brock’s shoulder.

  Brock was celebrating with a little hand jive. “Oh, yeah. I did it!” he confirmed. “It was tight, but I managed to drop our shields and then, thanks to Emma’s uber processing power, we were able to recalculate and bring them back online around The Little Empress.”

  Crash rolled his head to look at his copilot. “Nice job, Slick,” he said. Brock raised his hand for a high-five, and Crash hit it.

  Molly became aware of her legs going weak, and realized she needed to sit down. She stumbled over to one of the console chairs opposite where she had been sitting before. “Emma, report?” she asked.

  Emma responded immediately. “Shields at eighty seven percent, and holding. The Little Empress is nearly stabilized, and the course is being plotted to bring them in. Expect them to dock in four minutes and twenty seconds - as long as they leave the flying to me, now.”

  Molly sat back in the chair, which tipped her backward in the bucket seat. She closed her eyes. “Make it so,” she ordered.

  Relief flooded through her body. She hadn’t thought that she could actually lose Joel, and then there it was: a semi-routine mission turned nearly fatal. Of course I would have been devastated to lose Jack, as well, now that she considered it. Or any one of my team. But…

  She shook the thoughts from her head, savoring a moment of relief before she slipped out of the console chair and left the cockpit.

  In a daze, she found herself running down to the cargo bay as quickly as she could.

  Kerr’s cave, Northern Province, Teshov

  “Royale! I’ve got it!” Giles’s voice carried through from the other room.

  Sean had been working on trying to crack the safe for the last twenty minutes. In the dark, and the stifling air, he worked through one mechanical combination after another, trying to get the damn thing open.

  His frustration was only heightened when he heard Giles’s voice announcing that it wasn’t even necessary. He scrambled to his feet and stretched his back a little before moving into the main cavern.

  Giles sat at the desk, looking through some papers. He barely glanced up as Sean returned. “It’s there,” he said, nodding at a lump of metal on the desk in front of him before returning his attention to the papers.

  Sean looked suspicious. “And yet, rather than whooping and cheering that we accomplished the mission, you’re engrossed in some old school papers?”

  Giles looked up. “Yes,” he replied simply. He gathered up the papers and folded them into a rectangle several times smaller, then shoved them into the inside of his jacket.

  Sean had picked up the talisman and was inspecting it by the glow of his holo. He turned it over in his hands, trying to figure out what was so special about the lump of metal, which had holes in it.

  Giles rounded the desk. “Shall we?” he said, indicating the cave mouth.

  Sean shrugged and popped the talisman into his own inside pocket, and zipped his jacket up a little. “Sure. I’m ready for a cold shower and a beer.”

  The two men headed out of the cave, leaving the darkness behind them.

  Onboard The Empress

  Molly waited for the cargo hold doors to close before she attempted to hit the airlock butto
n. She stood watching Joel and Jack shutting the ship down, talking as casually as if they’d just done a routine run, or a training exercise.

  Once the cargo doors closed to the outside, the button lit up to her left. She thumped it and leaned on the door, trying to hurry it open. It retracted sideways. She watched the gap widen until it was big enough for her to just slip through. She stepped into the chamber and waited impatiently for the air pressure to stabilize on the other side of the second door so she could gain access.

  Joel and Jack had disappeared from view of the cockpit’s windows. She stamped her feet impatiently, her emotions heightened by the adrenalin.

  Finally, the second door opened, and she stepped quickly out onto the cargo hold’s gridded floor, grateful for the thick boot soles that protected her from the metal grating underfoot.

  A moment later, Joel appeared from around the rear of The Little Empress. He walked casually, still talking to Jack. “Well, that was an epic fail,” Jack was saying.

  Joel scratched at the back of his head, and then looked up, noticing Molly. He looked surprised that she had come all the way down to greet him. He looked back, to see if there was something on the ship he had forgotten, before wondering if she had come to greet them.

  She walked toward them, her pace quickening. She was intently focused on Joel, but remembered herself, and included Jack when she spoke. “I’m so relieved you’re both okay,” she called as they approached. “You gave us quite a scare!”

  Jack’s eyes widened in agreement. “Yeah, we gave ourselves a scare, too. I think I’ve earned a cold one,” she said, slapping Joel on the upper arm before hurrying off, leaving the two friends standing on the deck.

  Joel looked down at Molly, his face damp with sweat and anxiety. “It was a close one,” he acknowledged.

  Molly nodded, slowly recognizing that her brain had stopped working because she was overwhelmed. Joel didn’t press her or put her on the spot. He just quietly swung his arm over her shoulder and walked them back to the airlock. “It’s over now. Apart from the fact that we have to find another way to take out this High Marshall Drudeili.” He chuckled to himself and squeezed his arm around Molly’s shoulders.

  The two headed off down the corridor together in comfortable silence.

  Chapter 9

  Onboard ArchAngel

  “They must have had some way of knowing we were coming. No way they could have had their weapons locked on us at such a distance so quickly. They knew precisely where we were gating in. It’s the only explanation.”

  Molly paced up and down the lab, talking out loud to herself, allowing the others to hear the thoughts that were churning in her mind.

  Pieter had his holo out in front of him, but without a specific bounded problem to solve, he resigned himself to waiting for Molly to decide on the best course of action.

  Paige and Maya sat quietly, trying to look helpful, but coming up with nothing. It really wasn’t their area.

  Defeat hung in the air.

  Joel wandered in, his hair damp from the shower, looking a little brighter, but still stressed out. “I’ve sent the others to get some rack time,” he announced.

  Molly barely registered the comment.

  “Oz,” she asked. “Can we check in with ADAM to see if he has any insights? Any reports of tech that can do this?”

  “On it,” Oz answered over the room’s audio.

  Joel took a stool next to Paige. “Why are we in a lab?” he asked. Maya shrugged. Paige leaned closer to him to whisper. “I think it helps her think better.”

  Oz’s voice came over the audio. “That, and it’s out of the way of prying ears that may be interested in the operation. No one would think to look for us here… unless they got the memo.”

  Joel raised his chin. “Ahh,” he said, understanding. “We suspect a mole.”

  Molly turned to look at him, her ears pricking up. “We can’t rule it out,” she muttered. She turned back to stare at the spot on the wall she had been studying. Joel noticed that she disappeared from behind her eyes and went somewhere else. “We need to know what their edge is. Then we can figure out a way around it,” she mumbled.

  Four pairs of eyes were locked on to her. Not that she was aware.

  Molly’s mind kept churning. “Or we need another way to get close enough to take them out. Longer range missiles.”

  Joel straightened in his seat. “I guess if we had either drones or a longer reach, we could be outside of the orbital range and it wouldn’t make any difference if they see us coming. Unless they scramble jets, there won’t be anything they can do.”

  Suddenly there was a familiar figure leaning against the doorframe.

  “Well, that’s assuming they don’t have a boatload of jets on standby. Which they probably will.” It was Sean. He uncrossed his arms and wandered into the lab.

  Giles appeared behind him, walking in casually as if they were just joining a briefing for a routine mission.

  Molly did a double take, suddenly putting together who they were, and where they had been. “Did you get it?” she asked, looking at Sean.

  Sean pulled up a stool and sat down on the long side of the room, perpendicular to where the others had accumulated.

  He nodded in Giles’s direction, and Giles wandered over to one of the central benches and threw something metallic down onto it. “Piece of cake,” he announced with a casual half smile.

  The talisman clanked and clattered on the surface before coming to a rest. Molly looked at it for a moment.

  “‘Piece of cake,’ my ass!” Sean scoffed.

  Giles shrugged. “All in a day’s work,” he chirped. “So I hear you may have a mole. And a problem blowing up a moon?”

  Molly studied him carefully, still unsure of what to make of him. “Maybe. We just don’t know.”

  Giles raised his eyebrows and turned to face Joel, who was watching the newcomers carefully. “The thing with the long range missiles won’t work. He’ll adapt. He will send out fighters,” he said, nodding in Sean’s direction. “And if there is a mole on board, he’ll know you’re coming even before you leave the ship.”

  Joel folded his arms. “So what are you suggesting? I’m assuming your criticism is coming from a place of having an actual way forward?”

  Arlene appeared, and all eyes turned to her, the thought of a mole now planted in their psyche. She looked awkwardly around the room, feeling judged and surveilled.

  “Hi,” she said nervously. “ADAM told me you were all down here.” She looked at Molly, trying to be natural under the spotlight. “How did it go?”

  Molly turned casually and sat down on one of the lab stools, behind the central bench. “Fine,” she told her, noncommittally. “Apart from the blowing the fuck out of Shaa. That bit was a bust.”

  Arlene suddenly understood at least part of the mood that hung in the room. “So, what’s your plan?” she pressed, looking around at the others who looked less than gloomy.

  Molly idly picked up the talisman and turned it in her hands. “We’re trying to figure that out. Sounds like your boy Giles has something to add into the mix, though,” she said, looking up at him.

  Giles animated himself. “Yes, yes I do,” he said, glancing at Arlene and switching into professor mode. He paced the width of the lab to the windows on the far side of the room, away from the group. Arlene ventured into the room and took a seat next to Sean.

  “I’ve studied this Shaa fella from his public addresses. He’s a megalomaniac. Narcissistic. Driven by power. Ruthless. And at the same time, completely insecure.”

  Giles turned to face the group. “His weakness is not his military. Not his defenses. His weakness is… his ego.”

  Molly leaned on the desk, suddenly paying close attention, the talisman forgotten - at least by her. Had she been paying attention to Arlene, she would have noticed the woman’s pupils dilate when she spotted the metal object Molly had been idly playin
g with in her fingers.

  Giles continued. “So the thing that Shaa wants the most is affirmation that he is on the right track with his grand plan. Deny him that, argue with him, reason with him, and all you’ll get is more resistance from him. And, in the case of a dictator with a large stash of armaments, this will be very painful for all involved. However,” he began pacing again, “what you have is an opportunity to find your way to his side, simply by affirming what he believes to be true.”

  Molly frowned, not quite seeing how this was going to help her blow him up.

  Giles turned to face her now. “You’ll want to choose someone from the Federation, who isn’t a threat. But who could be of use to them for intel. You need someone to surrender to him, to make him think that he’s won them over; someone who can convince him that they’ve switched sides. That will be the biggest stroke to his ego. Indoctrinating someone from within the ranks, and promising them the world… that’s easy - but to have turned someone to his cause from outside his circle? That will give him ya-yas till kingdom come.”

  Molly stroked her chin, carefully considering the information.

  Joel was the first to speak. “So what you’re saying is that we need to put someone on that rock, and let him think they’re defecting?”

  Giles nodded. “Basically, yes.”

  Sean chuffed, folding his arms and straightening his legs out in front of him, and then crossing them as well. “Well, that ain’t me!” he declared. “The guy sounds like a right lunatic.”

  The others just sat silently, watching and waiting to see Molly’s reaction. Giles wasn’t done with his discourse, though.

  “What you really need is someone who would have credibility; someone who is in the Federation, but not of it. Someone who could potentially have access to both sides of the story and have naturally come to the conclusion that he is right in his course of action.”

  Molly was still churning the possibilities.