Ascendancy: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller

by Randal Sloan

  To make it even more interesting, this was her first flight using the anti-grav plates. She had added all that capability to the simulator and so she had a pretty good idea how the ship would handle with those additions. But Zeke was the one who had flown it the entire time they were on the mission and he had said the ship handled like a dream. She was excited to be trying it out for real.

  Julie was a little nervous because they were flying to the monk island. When she’d last been on the island, she’d just been getting over the sometimes cold, sometimes downright belligerent response she received at times from most of the monks while training on the island. But before she left, all of that had been gone and she’d felt genuinely accepted. She knew in her head that nothing should have changed since she left, but she worried that it had only been temporary. After all, she had been gone a good while.

  The Master had tricked her while she was working her way up the levels of monk membership. She had thought that she had to compete all the way to the top level due to her need to have the monks involved in the world a little more. Especially in regard to her tasks, tasks such as fighting the Organization. What the Master hadn’t told her was that if she defeated him to reach the top level, she would then be the master monk over all of them. Only after she had somehow managed to defeat him in competition had he told her what that meant. He’d told her that she was now in charge of all of them. Of course, she’d gotten him back. She deputized him and left him in charge of the island. As far as she was concerned, he would always be Master to her, and the knowledge he had far exceeded hers.

  Julie was looking forward to seeing her near family and friends that she’d made while living on the island. Despite the attitude of the majority, she’d grown close to a handful of them: Mama Kash, Loraine and Brother John. Julie had lived with Mama Kash and Loraine, and Julie considered Mama Kash as a near grandmother and Loraine as a cousin. Mama Kash had also been her teacher and mentor in learning to use the second sight, and Julie had come to treasure the time spent with her. Before she left on this trip, Julie made a few calls and she had a little surprise for Loraine.

  Julie also looked forward a lot to seeing Brother John. Brother John had been a friend to her when all the other monks were either indifferent or downright hostile. He’d been a big help in her training, and he was one of the main reasons she was here. She knew just how difficult his attempt to swim across the channel between the islands was going to be, since she’d done it herself only a few months ago.

  The other reason Julie was so excited, this time Zeke was coming with her. The last time she was there, he was still in a coma. She was looking forward to showing him some of her favorite spots. The little spot that looked out over the channel between the islands and was also the psychic energy center of the island. The middle mountain range where you could basically see the whole island and where she’d flown with the eagle. She hoped to be able to check on the eagle babies. Why, they may have already flown from the nest!

  She had to admit the other reason she was excited was that she would be able to work out with the monks again and give her mind and body a refresher course in the monk techniques of meditation and hand-to-hand competition. The only negative she saw — she would have to do without her coffee for the two days they were to be there! All the monks served was tea. A very good tea, but it wasn’t coffee.

  Julie turned her thoughts back to their flight to the island. The disadvantage of having a direct flight, Julie knew she would miss getting her pizza in Hong Kong. It’s a shame they didn’t offer delivery. Prior to today, the only way in to the island was by flying in to Hong Kong and then taking a helicopter in to the island. And the pizza at their little place in Hong Kong was nearly as good as the pizza at the little restaurant Zeke had taken her on their first date. Of course, that pizza was still the best in the whole world.

  Most of her flight was no different from any other trip in her corvette. But as they began to enter the thicker atmosphere, the AI automatically compensated for the effects, melding the fields tightly to the ship so that she was able to fly all the way to the island using the drives only. The only impact was a slight loss of performance, but less than ten percent at that. The effect of the drives and the new shields made the ship ride much smoother than before.

  They were flying over the water now and Julie could see the island growing larger in front of them. She began dropping her speed and their apparent weight using the anti-grav, wanting to let Zeke have a chance to see the island on approach. The combination of all the changes to her ship was amazing and she was already anticipating the benefits of landing using the new systems. She believed she could land her little ship on a dime.

  Sitting at a backup station, Zeke reached in his pocket and began to flip the dime he had there. He’d been sitting back enjoying the ride but this was too much to pass up.

  Julie punched him in the shoulder. “You goofball. You had to pick that out of my head.”

  Zeke pretended to be injured but he had too big a smirk on his face for her to take him seriously. The whole thing got Julie laughing out loud, causing Zeke to lose it too.

  But a couple of minutes later they were hovering over the landing pad, most of the monks staring in disbelief. Not the Master, of course. Julie could see a big smile on his face. He was so far ahead of everyone else, he probably knew what she was going to wear ten years from now. But she brought the ship down the last few inches, settling onto the landing pad as she gradually reduced the anti-grav to zero. This was definitely going to revolutionize travel. With a last smirk, Zeke returned the dime to his pocket.

  As Master to the island, Julie exited the ship first, bowing high master to monk. The response to her bow was immediate with the Master returning her bow, master to master as required, and the others the bow appropriate to their station.

  Of course, now it was Zeke’s turn to be nervous. He had never been on the island or trained with them. He had a lot of it up in his head thanks to Julie, but he had nothing in his experience to prepare him. But he knew the bows and when he exited the ship he gave his bow to the Master and the others. One who accompanied a master on equal footing to monks. The monks response required their bows in return. Unfortunately for some of them, they were late in their bows, probably because they were watching the Master for his response. The Master’s bow obviously surprised many of them, because his return bow was master to master instead of the polite welcome they had probably expected.

  Nevertheless, that got the bows out of the way. Not wasting any time, Julie rushed forward to hug the Master. “New traditions, remember,” she told him.

  He laughed, “Still the agent of change. What else are you going to change? You’ve already changed the island and that wasn’t enough, so then you had to change the whole world.”

  Julie laughed too. “Oops. You just reminded me. I meant to bring lots of chocolate. I was going to add it to the monk diet on the island.”

  “Yes, too bad you forgot it. I also wanted to do that, but there are some traditions that even you can’t change, Dear One.”

  “Lucky for me and you, I have some stashed on the ship, that is, if Zeke hasn’t found it.”

  “Who, me?” Zeke came up, miming licking his fingers. “No chocolate on board that I know of.”

  “I’ll have to investigate that later,” Julie told him. “It’s possible a crime has been committed. I may have to interrogate the suspects.” She gave Zeke a kiss that melted him to his bones. “I suspect any guilty party will confess quickly.” Then she turned serious. “I do believe, Master, that a little teaching is due my monk subjects. Those bows to Zeke were much out of sync. They obviously need a lesson.”

  “Yes, I will send notice. Mandatory attendance, say one hour.”

  “Thanks, Master. I guess Zeke and I had better hurry then. I have to introduce him to Master John and then we’re going out to the point for some meditation time. Come on, Zeke, we’d best be about it.” Bowing master to master, the two
went to see Brother John, who was waiting just beyond the Master. Of course, John got his own hug.

  “Brother John, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to Zeke Caldwell, my fiancé. Zeke, please meet Brother John, a very good friend of mine. He was a friend here when I had very few.”

  John smiled at them. “So once again, those that are without sight have to learn. At least they will get the easy way today. If they could see what I see! Although, it’s just as well. The way you two are connected is very personal.”

  “Yes, dear brother, it is.” Julie looked at him intently for a moment. “I don’t mind sharing with you, but to the many, I wouldn’t want it. But what is this about you and the swim?”

  “Yes, I’m going to attempt the swim tomorrow. But I won’t be attempting the last level. That I know I don’t have a chance, nor do I wish to attempt it.”

  “Yeah, some of us only did that because we were tricked into it. I’m still planning my revenge, so you’d better watch out. But that’s for another day. We’ll see you at the lesson, but right now I have something to show my dear Zeke.” She bowed to Master John and grabbing Zeke’s arm, the two quickly left, Julie easily finding the path and leading the way.

  “The first time I came up this path was the first day I went without the chair. So I missed seeing many of the things along the path. I was just concentrating on getting one foot in front of the other.” She started pointing out some of the sights as they passed, the time passing quickly as the two moved easily along the path, walking arm-in-arm.

  “Then we come to here,” Julie told him as they exited the trees and came out onto the little plateau.

  Zeke had listened to Julie’s description of the plateau and the point that it extended out over more than once, and with their connection so many times he had felt like he could almost see it. She even had it set up in in VR for Brian. But imagining it and seeing it in VR versus seeing it in person were two very different things. It was absolutely amazing. The whole island was visible from where they stood. Some of the mountains were higher and some areas were partly covered by trees, but it was all there.

  Looking back the way they came, the various monk buildings were easily visible among the trees. Looking to the sides, he was able to see all the cliffs that fell into the sea on the sides of the island, the sea dashing vainly against the rocks with the spray going high in the air. The mainland was a dark smudge against the horizon on the leeward side. Then Julie led him out onto the point, so that down below he saw the channel below between the two islands.

  “You swam across that?” he asked, gesturing to the view below him, the waves rushing against the rocks at the entrance to the channel and splashing so high into the air you could feel a hint of the spray in the air. The smell of the salt from the spray permeated everything. The whole channel was filled with water madly working it’s way and splashing angrily against the rocks on the sides. He could see the tiny little beach on the other side of the channel from where they stood.

  “Pretty intimidating, isn’t it? I did, but it was at a very low tide, one of the lowest tides of the year, like tomorrow when Master John will be attempting to swim it.”

  They stood there a couple of moments, Zeke watching the mad dash of the water through the channel and off to the sides the waves dashing against the cliffs. Finally, Julie led him to her rock, the nexus center of the island.

  “Can you feel it?” she asked Zeke.

  “Yes,” he told her. “But it’s more that I see than feel. Very similar to the way you feel the fields and I see them, I guess. I bet our daughter will be able to do both.”

  Smiling at their thoughts about their daughter, they both meditated for some time, the peacefulness of the island washing over them.

  Finally Julie roused and told Zeke, “We have to go. We have to teach some monks a lesson.”

  Zeke sighed and got up with her. “You shouldn’t be too hard on them. They’ve never seen me, and I have no formal monk training.”

  Julie laughed. “You misunderstand how I’m going to teach them. They get to watch you try to kick my butt and me try to kick yours. The lesson will be to never underestimate one who travels with a master.”

  Zeke smiled broadly. “So if I kick your butt, I get to be in charge?”

  “Not unless you do the swim first,” Julie cruelly told him.

  Zeke’s face fell. “No way. You were completely nuts to do that. Besides, I’m only hoping for a draw. But it’s going to be a lot of fun anyway.”

  “Yes, and they’ll learn their lesson without a word. Plus, none of the foolish ones will attempt to challenge you after seeing you in action. Much safer for them.”

  Julie led the way back down the path and from there out to the competition area. The monks were all assembled per Julie’s instructions. She bowed to the Master and then bowing to Zeke, she asked him mentally, “Are you ready? Start medium speed and pick up from there?” She felt Zeke’s mental nod and so they began.

  The Master had eagerly watched the two of them as they prepared to begin. He thought he knew what he would see. By the time they were finished, he remembered that even he still had lessons to learn. It had been one thing for him to see the power behind Zeke with his other sight; it was an entirely different thing to see the power demonstrated with his dear one. All the two had done was to match each other one to one for several minutes, gradually picking up in speed until their moves were a total blur. Neither one able to score on the other, but so perfectly matched it was a thing of beauty, a dance really. And then the two had stopped as suddenly as they had started, bowed to the onlookers, and walked off hand in hand.

  #

  Julie had one more very important task to do on her visit. She took Zeke to meet Mama Kash, who she suspected had already seen a lot of Zeke in her visions. Mama Kash could also see auras and she had often been able to tell a lot about Julie’s day before she came to see her just by looking at Julie’s aura. Julie had learned how to see a reflection of those auras through her connection with Mama Kash, so she knew that although her own aura had a lot of bright colors representing joy and harmony with nature, it also had strong dark bands that were deep violet in color representing her deep anger and determination to fight the evil of the Organization.

  But when the two of them entered Mama Kash’s little cottage and bowed to Julie’s mentor, each placing a hand in Mama Kash’s wrinkled and frail hands, Julie was caught totally by surprise by the aura she saw reflected from Zeke. His aura had many of the same bright colors that Julie’s had and she could even see a reflection of their connection in their auras, but his deep violet bands were so dark that they were almost black.

  Even Mama Kash seemed taken aback for a moment, but finally she spoke. “My dear boy, it was one thing for me to see you within visions, but it’s quite another to see you now in person. I have always considered you as the ‘Protector’ of this near granddaughter that I have come to love so much, but that was from a distance. Now I truly understand. You will let nothing come between you and those that you love, but if necessary will release an avalanche of destruction against those that try to harm them, the like of which none other can bring.”

  At first Zeke had been in near shock at her revelation and the view of his aura through his connection to Julie, but he nodded at the end. “Yes, ma’am, you’re right. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her and the others that I love and I’ll do it to the best of my ability.”

  Julie finally had regained her own composure. “That explains some things. Although I can best my fiancé in a purely defensive flight, I can’t touch what he can do in an all-out attack. He’s pretty amazing.”

  Zeke wanted to disagree but he couldn’t. Finally, he said, “When it’s all on the line, especially if it has some possible effect on you, Jules, it just seems to happen. But don’t worry, it’s one of the few things I can do better than you.”

  Julie just shook her head. She knew she felt the same way about Zeke’s abilities. They
were an amazing match, in more ways than one.

  #

  Julie was impatiently waiting in her little room in Mama Kash’s cottage as Loraine finished cleaning up from the evening meal they had all shared. She would have offered to help, but she knew that would have violated the guest relationship they had been granted for the evening. Zeke had left after the meal to sleep on the corvette. He knew Julie wanted some alone time with Loraine, so he couldn’t resist a mental “Have fun!” thought to her as he left.

  Julie smiled as she heard Loraine’s quiet step approaching her door, announcing “Come in!” before she could knock on the door.

  Laughing, Loraine told her, “It still amazes me how you can do that.” She looked at Julie fondly, “I’ve really missed you, sis.” She quickly gave her a hug.

  “I’ve missed you too, sis,” Julie told her before releasing her from the hug. “By the way, I’ve adopted a couple of brothers while I’ve been away, so someday I’ll have to introduce you to them. To be an only child, my family has grown quite large.”

  “Yeah, I saw your VR pics of them. Too bad they're my adopted brothers; If Tim was just a little younger…”

  “You’ve got a young man out there waiting on you, I’m sure,” Julie told her. “Whatcha want to bet Mama Kash has already seen him in a vision and checked him out?”

  Loraine had to laugh. “Ohhh, you’re right. If only I could see him too.”

  “Nope, first rule in visions is that you can’t depend on them for something so personal. Those things are blocked from us and I think it’s for a good reason. But I’ve got to say, you’re looking good. I believe the island life fits well with you. It’s a shame you’re going to have to leave in a few weeks to go away to school.”

  Loraine’s eyes turned sad. “Well, it’s only to the local school in Hong Kong. I had hoped to get in at one of the better schools in Europe or the US, but it just hasn’t worked out.”