She felt the gravitation pull of Morutrin Prime’s slow grip from her feet, all the way up to her free-floating hair, which eventually rested on her shoulders. She saw the cargo boxes experience a similar process, from floating in their spots, with chains keeping them in place, to falling to the floor below as the gravity kicked in. She holstered her two sets of daggers, and eagerly awaited the opening of the main bay doors. None of the assassins who fought Avearan had the upgrades Phylarlie now had, and it’s these upgrades she hoped Avearan knew nothing about, that would give her the edge.
… … …
►► Port Shala, Morutrin Prime
► Morutrin System
Avearan used her telekinetic gifts to levitate the red gem in front of her as instructed by the mysterious, alluring woman, Nivrui. What frightened Avearan was that Nivrui never told her that; she just knew it. As Avearan’s mind continued to interact with the gem, the face of the woman and her name etched into her thoughts, much like the human language did when her mind linked with Ella. Even Ella’s name…it just beamed into her memories. Whatever this gem was, it was more than jewelry—an advanced data crystal perhaps?
Avearan’s eyes closed, and moments later she felt her body, her thoughts, tossed into the expanse of space. In a panic, she opened them, but the hotel room was nowhere to be seen. Just the sea of stars, her body, and Nivrui floating next to her. “Excellent, attunement is complete,” Nivrui said.
Another woman manifested next to Avearan and Nivrui. Like Nivrui, she had a similar appearance: the same gown and long dark-red hair. Much like with Nivrui, seconds after Avearan gazed into her captivating eyes, her name etched into her thoughts. “Aviuheart.” Avearan whispered.
Avearan gasped as the imagery of Ella and another human female appeared below her feet. Both of them had been shot in the head with a projectile weapon, and they rested lifelessly. Chloe…the second fallen human name was Chloe. “The one called Ella must be mended,” Nivrui said to Aviuheart.
“There is another, the one called Chloe,” Aviuheart explained. “This life-form must be mended as well.”
Both Aviuheart and Nivrui looked down at the two dying humans while Nivrui said, “This one you call Chloe has not been touched, at least not fully. It’s not right. We should not interfere this much with corporeal matters. Ella is the exception; you have touched her. The one called the Chloe must endure her fate and expire where she lies.”
“The Chloe has encountered the host of Emelia,” Aviuheart said. “If we allow her to expire, then we may spend another five thousand cycles searching for our missing sister.”
How is all this possible? Floating in the middle of space without suffering from the effects of it. The two strange beings rambling about a missing sister and “mending” these humans. Avearan finally spoke up. “I am very much confused right now.”
“You are doing an excellent job,” Nivrui said to Avearan. “Maintain the link to Ella.” That doesn’t explain anything, Avearan thought.
“Bless the Chloe with your aura, as I will bless the Ella,” Nivrui said to Aviuheart. The palms of Nivrui and Aviuheart joined, and a green aura surrounded the two as a similar effect happened to the bodies of Chloe and Ella.
As their palms continued their mystical embrace, Nivrui faced Avearan and said, “The Avearan must have a great many questions to ask.”
“As will the Ella,” Aviuheart said. “But nonpsionic corporeal minds cannot comprehend the answers. The Anna never fully understood; neither did the Gavin.”
Answering questions with more questions, Avearan grumbled internally. She was slowly starting to regret swiping the gem from that Aryile.
“The task is complete,” Nivrui said while removing her hand from Aviuheart. “You may now sever this link. Your mind will need to recover.”
Chapter 13
►► Silver Raven, Pacific Ocean, Earth
► Sol System
“Oh fuck,” was Jazz’s response after the Silver Raven appeared from the blight flash of blue light from its space bridge teleportation.
Teleporting a ship of unknown design directly into the solar system was suicide as far as Jazz was concerned, given the presence of Radiance ships and the new human fleet patrolling the system. Teleporting next to them was worse for the same reasons.
Using the empire’s data of the orbital path of Earth and the proper motion of the sun, the targeting systems within the space bridge were able to locate the coordinates for the exact position of Earth in the void of space. From there the plan was to directly teleport within the atmosphere of Earth and quickly land before being detected…all while hoping they don’t teleport inside a mountain or outside one. Or in their current situation, just a few kilometers above the ocean, with the nose of the Silver Raven pointed down at it.
“Pull up, pull up!” Jazz yelled as the cockpit of the Silver Raven rocked.
“What’s wrong?” Veloshira calmly asked as she fought for control of their ship. “Don’t you want to go for a swim?”
Jazz saw the blue waves of the ocean from the windshield get bigger as they got closer to splashing down. Veloshira’s fingers continued dance with the flight terminals. Little by little, Silver Raven recovered and the sunny blue skies of the horizon came into view.
“Nice,” Jazz said, this time much calmer. “Any signs we’ve been detected?”
Veloshira’s hand tapped a few buttons, causing a holographic display to load. Her eyes scanned the information written in Hashmedai. “None, that I can see,” she reported. “We’re too close to the surface.”
“So we’re flying under the radar basically.”
“Not for long. I’d imagine local-based detection methods will be picking up our exhaust trail shortly,” Veloshira said. “We need to find a place to land right now.”
“Give me a map.”
A 3-D hologram of Earth in appeared in front of Jazz. A flashing blue dot represented the current location of the Silver Raven: Pacific Ocean just off the coast of western Mexico. Goddamn, Jazz thought, I’m really back. Not surprising to Jazz, the scars of war still remained on Earth from the Hashmedai invasion. Sections of Mexico were heavily cratered by orbital plasma bombardments; it was one of the first regions on Earth to get hit. Jazz’s hand pulled away from the Earth hologram, causing it to zoom in closer to the northwestern Mexican region; debris from downed Hashmedai ships littered the area. Who would look for us there?
“We can land here,” he said to Veloshira, pointing to the area in mind on the hologram. “Glass craters and destroyed ships out there.” The hologram vanished afterward. “After that…it’s going to be a long walk to the nearest city.”
Veloshira piloted the Silver Raven to come to a landing at the designated area, a wide crater half the size of a city. Burned and rusted chunks of metal from an off-world source littered the crater and the surrounding area like some kind of junkyard. Most of the debris was heavily melted, suggesting it was hit by plasma then burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere before hitting the ground. Mostly likely, a Hashmedai ship was destroyed by Radiance when they arrived to clear out the remaining invaders who didn’t run away, Jazz figured.
Jazz and Veloshira exited the Silver Raven and made their advance forward to traverse the wasteland, heading north into the United States. Jazz had a hard time believing that at one point there was once a city filled with people where they were now walking. Now it looks like some strange alien landscape. What’s worse? This isn’t the only place in the world like this. When Jazz saw Earth from orbit, he remembered seeing entire cities, large sections of landmasses across the world burning, especially the East Coast of North America, where his family lived.
As they approached what was once the border between Mexico and the United States, Jazz couldn’t help but hold in his laugh at the thought of a random joke that came to his head. Veloshira was an alien, crossing the border in the United States with no permits.
… … …
►► Vancouver, Earth
>
► Sol System
A modest apartment complex in Vancouver helped provide Destiny with a small taste of normalcy in her life. It was also the only time people referred to her with her real name, Rina West. As dedicated as she was to the HLF, and as one of its high-ranking commanders, having the option to step away from the front lines for a few days was something to take advantage of when the chance arrived. If she wasn’t at home, she was helping the struggling Hashmedai community while teaching the human community to accept the Hashmedai as people. She worked in an old local school that was converted into an orphanage for Hashmedai children whose parents were either arrested or killed by joint UNE and Radiance crackdowns outside the Vancouver area. And most recently, she helped kids whose parents who were taken away from a number of global protests around the world, chanting for rights for the Hashmedai who now had to live on Earth. Humans had rights, Radiance races had rights, but Hashmedai currently had none as far as UNE-controlled territory went.
She looked out her bedroom window, staring down at the damp streets below. It had stopped raining. Not only that, but the afternoon sunlight had made a brief appearance through the slowly parting rain clouds. Typical, she figured. It was the last day before she had to head back to the HLF base, and it’s only now it decided to stop raining.
She wore a gray business-casual dress and black stockings. Her ginger hair was tied back, and a small pair of glasses rested comfortably on her face—fake ones of course; her eyes were perfectly fine. Not the typical look for a resistance commander, and that’s exactly what she was trying for.
In the dripping reflection of the window, she saw a Hashmedai man enter with short white hair and dark creamy skin. He was her fellow HLF member and husband, Dollon. The hoodie and jeans he wore masked his psionic implants. Being a Hashmedai psionic caught in the public got the authorities scrambling to their last-known location. Radiance paid top credits for the capture or murder of a Hashmedai psionic. Destiny’s blue eyes shifted away from the window and toward him. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” she said.
“Just here for tonight. Hannah had another vision,” Dollon said.
Destiny grimaced at the hearing the words “Hannah had another vision.”
“That means all hands on deck as of tomorrow.”
Dollon shrugged his large cybernetic-augmented shoulders. “Pretty much.” He walked over to Destiny and wrapped his hands around her hips. Her lips latched on to his, and the two kissed passionately. His hands still firmly rested on her waist while her hands slid in between his arms and around the sides of his chest. She could feel the cold metallic implants through his top. She shut her eyes while their lips continued their exotic dance, and she began to think of the time she finally managed to train him to kiss her rather that lick her, as Hashmedai typically do with their mates.
Not that she hated to be licked; quite the contrary. His experience licking women he’d been with made him quite adept at pleasuring other parts of her body with his tongue. Speaking of which…
“Just here for tonight you said, right?” she asked.
Dollon smiled at her and nodded yes before going in for another kiss. She stopped him, however, and her hands pulled her entire dress off in a matter of seconds. The dress flopped on the floor as she confidently stood with a seductive grin on her face. All she wore now was a black lace bra, panties, and stockings with garters.
His hands now massaged her breasts still encased in her bra. “These are new, aren’t they?”
“So are these,” her hands guided one his down toward her panties. She loved the fact that she managed to get him to appreciate the sexiness of human undergarments, mainly the type she had recently bought. “What do you think?” she whispered into his ear.
“I think I’m wearing too much.”
And so, Dollon unveiled his robust and cybernetically augmented body to Destiny. She smiled and pulled him onto the bed with her. Their lips locked, while her hand wrapped and remained locked around his hard and large member. Dollon banished her bra and then panties from her body, leaving Destiny wearing nothing but the stockings and garters as he penetrated her hard and fast.
Kissing, the desire to see her with partial lingerie on—Destiny had trained him well on the art of human sexy intimacy. The best part of it all? Hashmedai men could climax multiple times in one session unlike human men. Their undying love of each other during steamy romps like this caused their minds to enter the same wavelength, and orgasm at the exact same time, every time. Damn, forgot to grab a towel, Destiny thought as their first synchronized orgasm fired off.
Before returning to the fornication and frolicking, she opened their bedroom window, allowing the cool fall air to chill the room. Dollon’s sweat-drenched Hashmedai body was going to need it to continue. She didn’t care if the neighbors were going to hear or see them; she was a human woman fucking her Hashmedaian husband, an act she wished more people around the world would open up to. The war between their two people was over.
Destiny rolled onto her belly as he reentered her in an attempt to penetrate deeper inside her. Her right hand held on to his hand, like all loving couples do, while the fingers of her left hand massaged her clitoris. She felt his hand hold on to her tighter and tighter as his thrusting continued; he was seconds away from another release. Her wet her fingers went to work faster. A deposit of his seed entered deep inside her as her legs trembled uncontrollably and her moans of pleasure echoed throughout the bedroom.
… … …
►► Los Angeles, Earth
► Sol System
Jazz and Veloshira arrived in Los Angeles after hitching a ride on a train following several hours of walking. Nobody caught sight of them sneaking aboard, of course; their stealth systems ensured that, while the night sky helped mask their slightly visible distortion field. The city hadn’t changed much from when Jazz was last here during the invasion. He was half-temped to see the areas of Cedars-Sinai hospital he shot up during a PTSD-fueled search for Alisha and Hannah.
The two remained in their invisible state as they walked across the sidewalk in the downtown core of the city, getting the lay of the land. As time went on, Jazz noticed that a few Hashmedai were seen in public—keyword was few. And most of the ones he saw were being harassed by what looked like Radiance rangers in combat armor holding rifles. Some got detained and hauled into some kind of patrol vehicle, while a few others were let free. Let`s hope Veloshira is part of that group that can walk free, Jazz thought, for the two will have to shut down their cloaking device soon. The batteries won`t last forever, after all.
After an hour of being in LA, the two stepped out from a dark alley sans their cloaking field to test people’s responses. A few pedestrians launched glances at the human and the pale-skinned Hashmedai woman wearing black trench coats, but most went about their evening. Veloshira did her best to keep her eyes toward the ground, in hopes that few would take note of her orange eyes. Radiance rangers and UNE soldiers periodically were seen in the distance on patrol, forcing Jazz and Veloshira to change direction at the nearest intersection and in some instances backtrack completely.
The presence of patrols seemed to have increased relatively quickly, making Jazz increasingly frustrated. At this rate, the two would have to reenter cloak again, just to slip past these patrols and blockades.
… … …
►► HLF Headquarters, Northern Canada
► Sol System
Destiny stepped foot into the Combat Information Center (CIC) within the HLF base. She was now dressed like the commander everyone within this organization respected: tank top, black cargo pants, and boots. The base was essentially an old Hashmedaian stratosphere frigate that was shot down, but not destroyed during the war. Operators of human and Hashmedai decent attended a few computer terminals, mostly relaying critical information to HLF operatives across the globe. Other stations had teams of hackers, using their talents to gain access to vital intel, or bank accounts; running a resis
tance operation wasn’t cheap.
“There you are,” said Whigli from across the CIC. “Where is Dollon?”
Her feet carried her over toward Whigli. He wore his typical psionic attire of an open long coat with no top underneath while his cybernetic implants reflected the light radiated by the holograms next to him. “Give the man his one day off,” Destiny said.
“If what Hannah says is true—”
“Yeah, yeah, no breaks for anyone for a while,” Destiny cut in. “So what do you have for me?”
Whigli’s hand rested on the shoulder of a young woman who sat at the computer screen next to him. “Eupiar, if you will,” he said.
Eupiar was Dollon’s niece, and as Destiny recalled, she was one of the first Hashmedai human hybrids, an exotic blend of Latino and Hashmedaian features along with red eyes that didn’t glow much. “Chatter from UNE and Radiance patrols in LA suggests they detected the presence of low-level stealth devices in use,” Eupiar reported.
Destiny’s arms crossed, and her eyebrow rose as she muttered, “Stealth.” softly.
Whigli chimed in. “Nodevar, Lettielia, and Phylarlie were the only assassins who came to Earth, and therefore the only ones who would have had cloaking devices.”
“And the Hashmedai are the only people who can develop stealth tech like that, correct?” Destiny said.
“Exactly. Someone from the empire has landed here just recently,” Whigli concluded.
“Hannah predicted that Jazz and another will be here today,” said Destiny. “It has to be them.”
“Well…the UNE along with their Radiance overlords know something is up,” Eupiar said. “I’ll hook you up with the approximate location the patrols plan to search.”
“I’ll take it. Good work, Eupiar,” Destiny said.
“Cheers,” Eupiar replied as Destiny stormed off toward the main elevator.
“I need a fire team with at least one psionic assembled on the double!” Destiny ordered.
Uprising of the Exiled (Splintered Galaxy Book 2) Page 18