A Space Girl from Earth (The Kyroibi Trilogy Book 1)

by Christina McMullen

  “Okay, I can do this,” Ellie said, letting out her breath in a low whoosh as she placed her hands upon the console. Immediately the star map reappeared and she was delighted to see that the green line between Eidyn and Earth still glowed. She gave a diodal command to reverse course and relaxed, settling into the command chair that had appeared behind her.

  “Back to Earth then?” her father asked, folding himself into the chair next to hers.

  “It seems our best hope,” she explained, pushing down the fears and doubts that had crept around the corners of her mind since she first left the planet. “My hope is to find Mom and Julian still there. If nothing else, I want to at least start on familiar ground. Besides,” she added, more to herself, “I get the feeling there’s more to this backwoods primitive planet than anyone’s let on.”

  Indeed, even if Svoryk had managed to capture Julian and her family, there was at least one other person on Earth who might provide some answers. Ellie intended to find out exactly who Vito was and what his role was in this whole galactic mess.

  Chapter 17

  Something was wrong. Instead of the hope that had been swelling ever since the Kyroibi manifested fully, an aching emptiness crept into Ellie’s heart. It was all she could do to concentrate on the command console and relay the instructions to land in the same arctic cavern where she’d found the ship.

  With her father to keep her company, the trip back to Earth did not seem to take nearly as long as the lonely trip out, but it was still too slow for Ellie’s liking. She’d had a million questions, but rather than bombard her father, she used the time to better understand all she’d discovered. Specifically, to familiarize herself with the symbiotic relationship she now shared with the Kyroibi.

  Certainly, there was power. Ellie could feel the rumbling thrum of dominance always, no matter how hard she tried to block it completely. Unlike her mother and Svoryk, she was not drawn to call upon this power. Rather, it terrified her and she did all she could to keep it from surfacing and taking control. She concentrated instead on the knowledge aspect of the Kyroibi, knowing that somewhere in the vast library of her mind was the key to saving her people and taking down the Empire.

  There was the automaton army, of course, but Ellie shuddered at the thought of sending a battalion of soulless machines into war. Stopping Svoryk was the main objective, but was it as easy as that? Books and movies would tell her it was, but she knew better than that. Plenty of Earth dictators and militant leaders had been taken down in her lifetime alone, yet the regions they ruled remain in war torn turmoil. The helpless anger she always felt while watching the news seemed nothing compared to what she now felt. As they approached Earth, she shut out the dark thoughts and turned her focus to the console, watching as they executed a perfect landing.

  The walls faded from view and Ellie shielded her eyes from the brilliance of the sun glittering through the thinner spots in the ice. Her father looked around, clearly impressed by the unspoiled beauty of the natural cavern. Ellie wondered what he would think of the rest of Earth. He said it had been a while since he’d encountered an Earth mindset so she wondered if he even knew what to expect.

  “Um, you’ll probably want to change the way you look,” she informed him. “Humans come in a lot of shapes, sizes, and colors, but none are blue.”

  “Ah yes,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t want to be hauled off to a curiosity show.”

  “These day’s you’re more likely to be cut open by scientists, but… Oh… um… That’s not going to work.” Ellie tried to keep a straight face, but her father’s appearance was too much and she erupted into giggles.

  El’iadryov frowned. “I take it from your reaction, I won’t fit in?”

  “Well, to be fair, New Yorkers have really seen it all. Your clothes are fine, but um… That hair has to go.” She eyed the bright purple Mohawk and mirrored sunglasses combination, wondering if that look had ever actually been in style.

  “Sorry, I’d only ever visited once, to make sure I was doing the right thing by sending your mother out here.” He switched to a more conservative haircut and Ellie nodded her approval.

  “You’ll also need to hide your diodes,” she added, noting that he’d mimicked her medium brown skin tone, which only served to highlight what was seen as an abnormality. “Julian disguises himself as a white guy because they don’t show up as prominently against light skin… Okay that’s just… No…”

  El’iadryov had taken her literally, bleaching his skin tone until he looked like one of the street performers who powdered their faces white and pretended to be stone statues.

  “Here,” Ellie said, pulling out her phone, surprised to see her carrier had really good North Pole reception. She did a quick internet search and handed the phone to her father. “Just pick one of them and let’s go.”

  As soon as El’iadryov settled on a normal, nondescript appearance, Ellie took his hand, guiding them through a controlled pulse back to the city. The sudden bombardment of sights, sounds, and smells of millions of people living in too close proximity to one another was both overwhelming and comforting. But as she led her father to the small courtyard behind her apartment building, Ellie’s heart sank.

  Pulse trails hung so thick in the air that Ellie was surprised the humans of Earth couldn’t sense them. She reached out with her mind and followed the unmasked trail directly to a tropical location where they ended in an abrupt displacement of energy. They’d been captured. At least, she hoped they’d been captured. A sudden darkness squeezed her heart as she contemplated the alternative.

  “El’iadrylline?” her father questioned and she gave a start. She opened her mouth several times, but no words came out. Regardless, her distress and the reason for it displayed prominently on her features. Luckily, the sun was bright enough that anyone who happened to spy her out their window might dismiss the glow as a trick of the light.

  “I feel it too, Ellie, but all is not lost. You have the power to track them.”

  “I do?” Ellie asked, but almost as soon as the words were out, she understood. “The Kyroibi, isn’t it? I can sense them.”

  “Your mother should be close enough to your heart that there isn’t anywhere in the known universe that she could be that you wouldn’t be able to find,” her father explained. “Concentrate. Once you find them, it is only a simple matter of storing the tether for transfer to the ship.”

  Ellie already felt the pull, but it was not her mother she sensed. Her face flamed and she hoped her father didn’t read too much into the emotional display. It was not difficult to rationalize why Julian’s bond was stronger. After all, he’d sworn to protect her and despite knowing it was out of her control, Ellie still harbored a certain amount of distrust for her mother.

  “They’re not far,” she told her father after she pushed aside her personal feelings and figured out how to accurately read the connection. “They’ve barely left the system. That’s odd…” she added as she analyzed the displacement cloud. “If I’m interpreting what my new super-brain is telling me, they left here only a few hours after I did. They should be long gone.”

  “Yours is the flagship vessel of the Kyroibi master,” her father explained. “While the pulse signature tells me they used Eidyssic technology, there’s no way of knowing what class. He could easily be using an inferior ship, but we can’t rule out the possibility of a trap.”

  “All right then, come on,” she said, motioning for her father to follow her around the side of the building and out to the street. “I think there might be someone here who can answer some questions.”

  As they entered the service alley, Ellie shielded her eyes from the sun and realized it was still low on the horizon. It was still early morning. MochaMoka would not be open for another hour at least and she wondered how to best get in touch with Vito. But as they rounded the corner, Ellie spied the stocky proprietor standing near the unlocked service entrance. By the way he waved her over, it almost seemed he’d been
waiting for them.

  “Gertie saw you out the kitchen window. Bout time you got here, kiddo.” Vito surprised Ellie by pulling her into a bear hug before turning an inquisitive eye on her father. “You ain’t Julian.”

  “And you are not Earthling,” her father noted without hiding his own curiosity.

  Vito slid a questioning glance at Ellie, who had watched the exchange in awe.

  “Right, um, Vito, this is my dad, El’iadryov. Dad, this is Vito, the guy who up until a few days ago, I thought was just an Italian bar owner.”

  “Your old man, eh?” Vito held out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you. Though, uh, this could get awkward. You ain’t the jealous type, are you?”

  El’iadryov shook Vito’s hand and was about to question the meaning of his words, but Ellie spoke instead.

  “Does that mean Richard’s here?”

  “He showed up at the back door a couple of days ago,” Vito explained, motioning them both inside. “He didn’t look so hot and uh… to be honest, he still don’t, but that might have something to do with a star-struck Gertie hovering over him. Hopefully seeing you might do him some good.”

  Vito led them up the narrow stairwell to a bright and cheerful apartment that was in every way the opposite of the dark bar below. But Ellie paid no mind to the décor as she stepped into the small kitchen. Instead, her eyes were on the broken shell of a man sitting at the table. Richard looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. The dark circles were endless hollows below eyes filled with more pain than she’d ever thought possible for one human to endure without shattering.

  “Oh Ellie, thank god!”

  He stood in a rush, paying no attention to the wooden chair he upturned as he got up, eyes sparking with life for the first time in days, and wrapped his arms around his stepdaughter.

  “I’m okay,” Ellie said in an emotion choked whisper. “But mom…” she trailed off to wipe away a fallen tear, unable to hold back a sob. “And J-j-julian. Svoryk’s got them. They’re alive, but… D-dad?”

  Ellie trailed off as she noticed Richard’s demeanor change at the sound of the assassin’s name.

  “He’s under Svoryk’s control again, Ellie. He tried to kill me.”

  “Julian? But that’s impossible. He’s under my—”

  “No, Ellie, your mother was right,” Richard interrupted. “He’s not to be trusted.”

  “I assure you, if Julian wanted to kill you, you would be dead,” El’iadryov said from the doorway. “Svoryk never had control of my assassin.”

  Richard looked at El’iadryov, noticing him for the first time and frowned. “Who are you?”

  “Um… Dad…” Ellie’s diodes flared, flooding the already bright kitchen in a blinding light as both men turned to her. “Okay, yeah, this is totally awkward,” she said as an aside to Vito before stammering an explanation. “After um… After you… uh… well, that is… Mom remarried. Here on Earth. This is Richard Whitmore, my stepdad. Dad, um, Richard, this is El’iadryov, my birth father.”

  Richard paled visibly. “Oh dear…”

  “Ah!” El’iadryov turned a knowing smile towards Vito. “So this is what you meant about jealousy.” He turned back to Richard, who was speechless. “Richard Whitmore, the love you have for Isaverlline and El’iadrylline is well evidenced. I am honored and humbled in your presence.”

  “You are? Um… That is, it’s a pleasure to meet you too, it’s just… well, forgive me, but Isaverlline said you were dead.”

  “Mine is a slightly more complicated history but yes, I am afraid that when Julian took my life, it was not an illusion.”

  “You mean, you are dead?” Richard turned to Ellie.

  “Um, it’s kind of complicated,” she said with a sympathetic smile. “Even with this Kyroibi thing working full time, I don’t exactly understand.”

  “There are some secrets that remain a mystery,” El’iadryov answered Ellie before turning his attention back to Richard. “An inaccurate, but explanatory comparison would be to imagine that my consciousness has been downloaded into a computer program. The body you see before you is nothing more than a complicated computer, capable of projecting a realistic image as I so choose.”

  To highlight his words, he allowed his human façade to drop, showing the metallic automaton body he truly inhabited.

  “At the time of my execution, I’d already begun what would have been a long and painful wasting death,” he continued. “With Julian’s cooperation, I was able to spare my family and put into motion a plan for the eventual restoration of peace.”

  “Well, he sure had me convinced otherwise,” Richard said with a small shudder. “If that was acting, I want him in my next film.”

  “Julian was created to slip naturally into any role. That he used such deception to spare your life is quite logical, though I daresay, if Isaverlline believes the assassin to have killed us both, I fear Julian will have a difficult time convincing her of the truth.”

  “I think the word you’re looking for is impossible,” Ellie noted with sarcasm. She was partially relieved that her fathers accepted one another, but El’iadryov made a valid point. Isaverlline had no trust for Julian since he arrived on Earth. She certainly wasn’t going to trust him now. “Which means we need to get out there and rescue them before they turn on each other.”

  “Slow down, kid.”

  Ellie turned to where Vito stood leaning against the counter, staying out of the way of the impromptu family reunion.

  “But—”

  “But nothing, Ellie. This ain’t the time for reckless impatience. You need a plan, but you also need to know what else is out there before you go flying off half-cocked into dangerous territory.”

  Ellie studied Vito for a moment. Unlike Svoryk or even her mother, there was nothing strange or exotic about his appearance. He was short, stocky, with silver hair, olive skin, and the telltale roundness that came from a life of eating well. Here, on the edge of Little Italy, he was almost anonymous.

  Almost.

  “No wonder you encourage the mafia rumors,” Ellie muttered.

  “And keep the lights low,” Vito added with a smirk.

  The longer she studied his face, the more she noticed slight anomalies. His eyes, typically hidden by sunglasses or barely visible in the dim light of the bar, were not brown as she’d assumed, but a coppery orange and framed by heavy lids devoid of lashes.

  “I ain’t no angel, but I ain’t what your pop is thinking I am either.”

  “I’m well aware that certain SiFa interests have set up an illegal mining operation in the nearby asteroid belt,” El’iadryov noted, eyeing Vito with obvious scrutiny. “But I admit I didn’t think many would seek refuge on Earth.”

  “There ain’t a whole lot of us, but there is some SiFa on Earth who got nothing to do with the Paisreatta.”

  “You want to translate that into English?” Ellie asked, sliding a questioning glance over to Richard, who shrugged, indicating he was as clueless as she.

  “SiFa is shorthand for folks from the Sintar-Fhasmyr cooperative,” El’iadryov explained. “These two planets orbit Ghowrn Minor and have one governing body that resides over each of their independent nations. Rather, they did, before falling to the Huptsovian Empire.”

  “And who are the Paisreatta?” Ellie asked.

  “Opportunists, mostly from Fhasmyr, who weren’t too keen on the rules of a lawful system of government, so they took to space, living on ships and whatnot, looking for places like Earth here that might be a little more lenient of the way they conduct business,” Vito explained.

  “Okay, so Earth may be crawling with space criminals,” Ellie said with a shrug. “What does that have to do with us hopping on a space ship and going after Svoryk?”

  “I too would like to know what dangers we might face,” added El’iadryov. “Svoryk’s ship is quite slow. If the pulse displacement signature he left is any indication, the trip to Ghowrn will take them several weeks. Even if Earth is a haven for
those who wish not to be found, there would be no reason to set up an outpost between here and Galaxy Central.”

  “You would think, but my intel seems to think Earth ain’t as remote as it once was.” Vito grabbed a nearby notebook and flipped to an empty page. He drew what looked like a swirling line, but Ellie understood it to be a quickly sketched map of the galaxy. “A couple of years before Svoryk made his mess, some scientists figured out there were potentially habitable planets in the far reaches of the galaxy and happened to be pointing their telescopes right at Earth. The Paisreatta weren’t too pleased to hear someone may be homing in on their territory. Especially now you got those ridiculously fast Eidyssic ships. So they set up a couple of outposts between here and there, just in case those scientists got it in their mind to send an exploratory mission.”

  “Okay, so what you’re saying is if we go after Svoryk, we run the risk of dealing with the space mafia?” Ellie asked. She gave a shudder, thinking about the time she spent hiding out in the orbit of a dead star. Had they truly been alone in deep space? Would the ship or Julian have known if they weren’t?

  “Pirates is a more accurate description,” Vito corrected. “And don’t get me wrong. They ain’t all bad, but they’re still outlaws and an unmodified Eidyssic vessel will most definitely be too good to pass up.”

  “Surely, not even the Paisreatta have the means to track our vessel let alone capture it,” El’iadryov said with a small huff. “El’iadrylline is the Kyroibi. Hers is the flagship craft of the Eidyn exploratory fleet.”

  “They don’t need to,” said Vito. “What do you wanna bet they’re tracking Svoryk’s vessel as we speak? You and I both know it ain’t worth anything to them, but that won’t stop ‘em from camping on their tail in hopes of something better coming along. As soon as you pull up and dock, cloak or no cloak, you’ll be a sitting duck.”

  “Wait, are you saying that we’re going to attempt a rescue while the ships are still in space?” Ellie asked, her mind suddenly full of images of explosions and laser blasts from sci-fi space battles. Not exactly the type of rescue mission she’d been thinking of.