by Jay Cannon
The Euclidian:
The Unforeseen Alliance
Jay Cannon
Copyright © 2012 Jay Cannon (JC)
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever or stored in a database retrieval system without written permission except in those cases of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
For more information contact the author at [email protected].
First edition: December 2012
Cover illustration by Igor Kieryluk
Editing by Joel Palmer
Book design and formatting by Cheryl Perez
For my sons Davon Joharri and Dakar Jorré and all those who dare to chase their dreams.
Prologue
“The Euclidian have arrived on Earth and started stripping it of its resources. Earth’s defenses have been rendered ineffective with the removal of all military vehicles, ships, personnel and nuclear weapons. The XO of the Andrea in his greed decided to overthrow the captain while Morgan and Pico gain unexpected allies.”
Chapter 1
The Awakening
“Somebody stop the pain, the pain. I can’t stand it anymore. Where am I? HELLO! Can anybody hear me? Please help me,” she cried out to no avail. She was in the midst of an overwhelming darkness. Am I blind or have they shoved me into some dark pit? “Oh the pain,” she cried out. I know I’m not dead because the pain I’m experiencing is too intense. But how can I be alive when my body is in so much pain? She whimpers uncontrollably not understanding her condition or her fate. She lets out a low groan and passes out. Hours passed before she came to. She attempted to take an inventory of her surroundings, but her senses were fractured. She couldn’t see anything and was not sure why. The only sound that shared the darkness with her was her own breathing. There was that familiar smell again, a recent smell, but what was its origin?
She tried to feel around for something, but all she felt was the dampness of the floor. She tried to get up, but the pain prevented her and she passed out.
She awoke, but how long had she been lying there? She could feel the hunger inside her, but it was not her focus. Her pain was the distraction she could not ignore. She tried to wipe her face, embarrassed by her beslobbered state.
I soiled myself, I wet myself, my nose is running and I can’t stop crying. I have to be bleeding as well considering how bad I hurt. I can’t possibly live much longer with all this loss of fluid. Is this how I die? Is this how it ends? In the dark. A million light years from home. My fate unknown by anyone I know. I wanted my life to make a difference. I wanted to make life better for my people, but now my moribund life will probably end in a career of insignificance. She started to whimper uncontrollably then passed out.
She came to again. The pain had subsided a bit. Partially due to the numbness that had engulfed the left side of her body. She looked around once more and tried to see something; anything. But there was nothing to see except the darkness. She tried to remember how she got there, but didn’t have a clue.
The last thing I remember was being with that asshole Cobalt. Wang ba dan! Once again I give myself to a man and he screwed me over. Obviously even alien men enjoy abusing me.
Li Xiao thought back to happier times during her childhood. She would spend all day in the rice fields with her parents. In the beginning she would ride in a pouch on her mother’s back. As she grew older she worked beside her mother tending to the rice fields on her father’s farm outside of Nanjing. Her mother’s mother also lived with them. Her mother’s father and father’s parents were killed during the Eight Years' War of Resistance. Her parents did not want the farming life for their daughter. They felt she was a bright child with a future and when Li Xiao became a teenager she was sent to her aunt and uncle’s house in Beijing to go to a private school with her cousins Ema and Maya.
While in school Li Xiao excelled in languages. She liked the new sounds she could make with her mouth. She wanted to find a job where she could use her talent for languages. Maybe she could even prevent another occupation of their land. She decided that she would be a diplomat and see the world. Possibly help change the world. Evenings and weekends she practiced her language skills by being a guide at the Forbidden City or giving private tours of the Great Wall and sites around it. Upon graduating from college she decided to join the military as a way to give back to her country and learn self-defense skills. She spent every day, after basic training, learning small arms, sniper and martial arts techniques.
After completing basic training Li Xiao was assigned to a general who worked with the American military. She was to be his translator and assistant bodyguard. She spent a great deal of time learning how to protect him, though there was little danger of him being attacked. She was more in danger from the foreign officers and diplomats that he met with. They would often get drunk after all-day meetings and come on to her. When going to the bathroom Li Xiao found herself using the Adrien stall maneuver, where she would have one foot on the floor and one on the stall door to keep the drunks from bursting in on her. She learned that maneuver from Adrien, an American friend who worked for the American military as a translator. She met Adrien in a bar in Amsterdam where the women’s restrooms were less than ideal. Adrien warned Li Xiao about patrons bursting into the stalls and taught Li Xiao her technique.
Li Xiao was resigned to the fact that fending off drunken diplomats was probably going to be her destiny until one fateful evening while she was guarding the general and a Chinese diplomat alone. They were leaving a bar in the Soi Cowboy district of Bangkok, when they were approached by three men looking to rob them. The men saw that the general and diplomat were drunk and viewed Li Xiao as little consequence, being she was a woman. They pulled knives on the three and demanded money. When Li Xiao protested, one of the men swung his knife at her and laughed. Li Xiao backed away and took a karate stance.
“You want to dance little lady?” Laughed the assailant. “How about I dog collar around your neck and make you my bitch for the rest of the night. I’m sure my friends would enjoy partying with you.”
“How about you leave before I make you my bitch?” Li Xiao replied. “Otherwise, the only party you three will be attending tonight will be in a hospital emergency room.”
“Just let them have our money so they can go away,” the diplomat protested.
“Too late for that,” the assailant replied. “Cutesy here wants to dance and I’m going to make her dance on the end of my knife.”
The assailant smirked and then jabbed at Li Xiao with his knife. She shifted to the left, broke his right elbow and shoved his knife into his thigh. She then spun to her right to engage one of the other men that was coming towards her. She grabbed him by the wrist, pulled him towards her and chopped him across the throat. He went down gasping for air and the third guy ran off. The general and diplomat stood there looking at her stunned.
The next day during breakfast the general asked Li Xiao if she would be interested in leaving the army and becoming the diplomat’s body guard.
“What about my military obligation?” She asked.
Don’t worry about that,” replied the general. “The army will gladly accept your resignation. After all, being a translator and bodyguard to the Chinese Ambassador to the United States is still serving your country.”
Li Xiao was surprised, excited and honored at the offer. “How can I possibly say no?”
“Then it’s don
e. I’ll start the paperwork once we return to Beijing.”
“Li Xiao,” started the ambassador, “I am delighted that you would accept this position. After saving my life last night I knew you were someone I wanted to add to my team. Welcome aboard,” he stated extending his hand to her.
Her assignment would be in Washington D.C. where she could perfect her English. She loved living there. She had a beautiful little apartment with a view of the capital building. She got to attend diplomatic balls, stay in nice hotels during trips across America and meet the President of the United States. She spent most morning jogging around the National Mall and practicing her martial arts skills.
Her assignment soon took a negative turn when she found out that it required her to be a pawn in diplomatic negotiations, which included that she be more than friendly to foreign diplomats. When she protested, her boss lectured her about the obligations of her position and her patriotic duty. If she refused to support her boss, she risked being sent back to Beijing in disgrace.
She reluctantly agreed to entertain foreign diplomats as ordered. In return she was showered with lavish gifts, to which she quickly became accustomed. A few months later after helping complete a negotiation to the Chinese benefit, she was introduced to the countryman she helped to complete the negotiation. He turned out to be the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations. He was slated to become the Secretary General of the United Nations and wanted her to be his attaché and part-time lover during times when his wife was away. He assured her that she would not have to sleep with anyone else.
“Miss Li Xiao, this will be a very important position,” the U.N. ambassador stated. “You will assist me with all of my foreign negotiations, attend diplomatic social events and travel with me across the globe. I know you have a passion for languages. At the U.N. you will have an opportunity to learn and practice almost any language you desire.”
“Sounds appealing, but New York can be an expensive place to live,” she replied.
“Very true, but don’t worry I have been given an extremely generous budget and I assure you that you won’t want for anything while under my care.”
“Then how can I possibly say no,” Li Xiao smiled.
She accepted the offer and a few weeks later she was staying in a beautiful apartment on the upper-eastside of Manhattan. This time the number of diplomatic events, foreign travel and introductions to foreign dignitaries increased enormously. She couldn’t believe her luck. She finally got the dream job she had always hoped for. She didn’t like sleeping with her boss, but felt it was part of her diplomatic duty. Anyway, she never had time for a real relationship.
A year and a half later that all changed, when she was replaced by a younger, prettier version of herself and given a menial job with a lot fewer perks. In addition, she would no longer be able to afford her posh upper-eastside apartment.
Before being forced to move out she was contacted out of the blue by what she thought was a Chinese agent. He made her an offer to get her job back in return for information about all nuclear weapons that might be a threat to China.
“In addition to getting your job back,” the agent stated, “I can make sure that new floozy is made to scrub toilets while I make you a very wealthy woman.”
“Well, how can I possible say no to that offer,” replied Li Xiao with a smile.
Li Xiao later found out that her benefactor was Cobalt, an alien from another planet that recruited spies in order to gather reconnaissance on planets before they were to be attacked. That’s when she decided to see if she could hitch a ride on the ship from her generous benefactor. Learning Earth languages is one thing. To be able to learn intergalactic languages would just be wonderful.
However, just when she thought things were going well he shot her with some sort of beam from a gun he was holding and the next thing she knew she was waking up in this impenetrable darkness.
Her left arm, which was in pain, was now numb. Her right arm, while still sore, was movable. She pushed along the floor to see what she could feel. The floor was sticky as if some fluid had dried on it. She thought it might be her own blood, but she smelled it and recognized the smell of the Lardexian Mind Bender Cobalt had given her. She could also feel bits of glass on the floor.
Cobalt must have come to visit me, saw my condition and dropped the glass full of the beverage next to me. She began to whimper again, but soon composed herself.
I’ve got to try to move. Try to get up. Maybe I can get out of here somehow.
She twisted her body around to see if she could feel a wall or furniture that she could use to pull herself up. She swung her arm back behind her and it hit a wall that moved slightly. The wall had a familiar feel and sound to it. It couldn’t be! She thought. She made another effort to throw her arm back behind her and this time she attempted to reach under the wall and she grabbed the edge of a door. She recognized the door and started to cry realizing where she must be. She had to be lying in the bottom of her shower. She had no idea what that meant, but knew she had to pull herself to a phone before she died in there.
Li Xiao used her right arm to grab the edge of the shower and pulled herself out of the shower towards the bathroom door. It took what seemed like an eternity to reach the door. She reached for the door handle and twisting it down, pulled the door open. Peering into the adjoining room, she confirmed that it was indeed her bedroom by the familiar clock sitting on the nightstand. The only thing left to do was reach her phone and dial 911. Slowly Li Xiao dragged herself across her floor feeling pain in every movement. Her muscles ached, breathing was difficult and she found it a struggle to keep her senses about her. There were moments when she wasn’t sure where she was anymore. Maybe her disorientation was due to a drug-induced delirium.
She found herself losing consciousness, but fought through it. After what seemed like hours of clawing and crying she yanked the phone from the nightstand, poked away at the keypad and rambled indiscernibly at the voice at the other end. In a daze she went from darkness to looking up at flickers of light as she was pushed down the hallway in a gurney in an emergency room being worked on. In her stupor she saw Cobalt smiling down at her.
“Don’t worry Xiao,” you’re going to pull through this,” his voice said.
“Yea, and when I do I’m going to pull your heart from your chest,” she responded.
“Did you say something?” The doctor asked leaning close to Li Xiao’s mouth. But she had drifted into unconsciousness.
After a thorough examination it was determined that Li Xiao had suffered a dislocated left shoulder, cracked ribs, a bruised hip, two twisted ankles, lacerated lips and a concussion. She lay in her hospital bed medicated for several weeks healing from her injuries. I’ve been given a second chance here and I don’t want to waste it, thought Li Xiao. Once I’m out of this hospital I’m going to focus on making a positive difference for my people.
When Li Xiao was finally released, a nurse wheeled her to the front door of hospital where she caught a cab for home. She arrived home limping, but alive. The first thing on her mind was investigating her shower. With the lights on she noticed the remains of a broken glass and a Jimmy Choo bag with twenty million Euros spilling out of it.
She pushed the money into the bag and sat on her bed to count the money. She dumped the money from the bag onto the bed to count it and in the middle of the bundles of Euros she found some sort of device. It was like a Windows phone, but square and about 13 centimeters on a side. There was a blank display window in the middle, a button in each corner and on the sides and a bar centered at the top and bottom of the device. There was a glowing line at one edge that she decided was the bottom of the device. She turned it over and looked it up and down. She finally figured that it had to of come from Cobalt’s ship. He had left her a gift.
She finally decided to see what it would do. One by one, she pushed each of the buttons until something happened. Pushing the top right button turned the device on. The screen showed the
room where she was sitting. She slid her finger across the screen and the image moved across her apartment and then out the building. She used her finger to slide the display back into her room. She then pinched the screen with her fingers and she saw the image on the screen move above her. When she spread her fingers across the screen she saw the apartment below her. Twisting her fingers around the screen turned the image around on the screen. However, the view only looked down.
Li Xiao wanted to be able to pan around the room. She tried moving her fingers around the screen in different ways with no results. Then she rested her hands on the screen to think and spun her fingers around and she saw the viewing angle change. How clever she thought!
Li Xiao played around with different viewing angles until she had it perfected. She was amazed that she could see the back of her own head. She even looked inside her head, which she found a little creepy. Somehow it was able to show images inside her head where she presumed there would be no light.
She decided to see if she could find her parent’s house outside Nanjing China. She pinched the screen until the image was above the planet Earth. She then slid her finger sideways along the screen and then down until she was over her hometown. She then spread her fingers across the screen until she was over her parent’s house and then inside where her family was preparing for evening tea. She adjusted the angle of the camera so she could see the entire room. Her father was sitting at the table while her mother and grandmother were setting the table.
She watched for a while amazed that she could see them. She then started pressing the other buttons to see what they would do. She pressed the bar at the top and noticed that she could hear them speaking. They were unable to hear her though when she tried to speak to them. She pressed the top left button and it displayed a list of items on the screen using characters she did not recognize. She pressed the button again and the screen was cleared.