Jaxx pushed his control stick forward, zooming toward the earth below. When the altimeter met one thousand feet, Fox and Rivkah started to level out.
Jaxx did the same. His mouth fell open.
In the distance was a vast city over a lake. The lake was so clear, so translucent, so unsullied it had an inner glow, all azure hues and Mediterranean blues. It was easily midday and the sun shone down on the city, which sparkled like a glittering work of art; unlike anything he’d ever seen. The outer rim had small domes which, if he was estimating their distance accurately, were probably equivalent to the size of three or four-story buildings. Attached to each dome was a fully-covered walkway or roadway that attached to larger domes toward the center of the city. The closer to the center of the city the bigger the domes became. The largest dome was directly in the middle.
Crafts flew above the city, some entering through openings in the domes, others exiting. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Neither did they seem alarmed that Jaxx, Rivkah, and Fox’s were approaching in their SF-13 Air Wings, which were quite unlike the Taiyonian craft.
To the west of the majestic city, rivers flowed into a massive lake. Green valleys were below, lined with hills covered with unfamiliar trees, some with purple elephant-ear fronts reaching into the sky; others made up of turquoise feathers that fluttered and hummed as Jaxx zipped by. On the plain, lion-like horses galloped alongside gargantuan land-fish. Creatures working the fields, watched the starfighter pass overhead. It was peaceful, magical even. Jaxx was in awe.
He let his eyes roam the lush and verdant land, taking in these new and unusual sights. A magnificent mountain range towered behind the already-towering city, and that’s where Jaxx first saw them – a dozen enemy starfighters coming over the lip of the range.
“Incoming,” warned Rivkah.
“They’re coming in hot. Ready your weapons,” ordered Fox.
Jaxx flicked off the safety fastened to his control stick, exposing the trigger. This wasn’t good. Beauty had turned on its head and become hell. He was sweating, gobs of moisture running down his sides. He wasn’t cut out for this, no matter what Rivkah said.
“The Taiyonians are here to party,” Fox howled. “Let’s give them a show.”
Fox let loose a few Air to Air Intermediate Missiles, AAIM-5 Darts. He followed with a volley of IC fire.
The Taiyonians fired back, hitting the missiles and blowing them apart, then twisted away from the ion blasts like dancers in ballet practice.
“How did they do that?” said Rivkah.
“Stay focused,” Fox demanded.
The Taiyonians split off. Some right, some left.
Fox spat IC fire and a two Darts directly at the city, then pulled up.
Rivkah followed suit.
Jaxx didn’t.
“Jaxx, fire you son of a bitch! Fire!” yelled Fox.
Jaxx kept his finger off the trigger and pulled up once he saw explosions fill the city, domes arching to the side, tumbling over, crumbling into the gloom of rising smoke.
This isn’t right.
Jaxx banked left, following Rivkah, then heard a beep, then several more. A bandit had Jaxx in weapons’ lock.
And then it happened, as unexpected as it was welcome. Jaxx felt his consciousness expand. His vision was no longer inside the cockpit, his arms no longer by his side. His confidence soared and his fear vanished.
The beeping filled his cockpit, accompanied by several bursts of weapons’ fire behind him. He told his body and his craft to make a sharp descent, which he did. The shots missed but the bandit followed.
Jaxx lifted his craft and leveled out for a moment, then pulled a short loop, just skimming a bogey’s topside. A darkened window covered the cockpit. He still didn’t know what the Taiyonians looked like.
Pulling in behind the enemy, Jaxx intuited that the bogey would pull a hard wingover left, attempting a small turn radius into a quarter loop allowing the enemy to go into an eventual vertical climb. He didn’t know how he knew this, but he did.
Jaxx adjusted his target just left of the bandit. He pulled the trigger, letting out ion blasts. In the same instant Jaxx touched his trigger, the bandit pulled left, just as Jaxx had predicted.
The bogey was hit a dozen times, erupting in smoke and fire.
Jaxx flew through the flames.
“I have two bandits on me, locked and loaded,” screamed Rivkah. “Need assistance, need assistance.”
Jaxx pulled around, several fighters on his tail.
Fox was downing an enemy near the mountain range. He circled around and dove in for another pass at the city.
“I’m coming, Rivkah,” Jaxx responded, twisting and evading more weapons’ fire.
Within seconds, he spotted Rivkah, dancing her Air Wing in every direction possible, avoiding what looked like red-tracer rounds sliding past her wings.
Predicting the enemy’s flight movements, he zeroed in on an empty space in the sky, knowing this would be the trajectory of the bogey, and shot a AAIM-5 Dart. An instant later, the enemy entered the predicted space and blew into flames.
The bandits following Jaxx were nearing target lock. Any second now they’d pull their triggers, ending Jaxx, turning him into a blaze of splendor. Jaxx hoped he’d draw them in closer, precisely for his next maneuver.
He spun a one-hundred-eighty degree turn, slowing himself in the process, surprising his attackers. He lit them up with IC’s, downing the lead starfighter and clipping the wing of the starfighter behind it. The lead ended like the rest, an explosion of hot colors, and the tail fighter twirled end over end, hitting the earth and toppling hundreds of trees as it slid across the hillside, leaving a scorched trail.
“Let’s get out of here!” Fox bellowed.
Fox pulled up from another strafe run, leaving the city full of smoke and light, half of the city now unrecognizable. He was speeding toward Jaxx with enemy fighters on his six.
Rivkah was still being chased, out maneuvering her bandit.
It was either Jaxx saving her or she’d have to pull a lucky one and get off-planet alive. That wasn’t likely.
Fox turned his afterburners on, reaching the clouds. “Get back to Liberty ASAP you two.” He disappeared into the clouds. Jaxx’s heads up display indicating a sonic boom said Fox exited the atmosphere a second later.
“I can’t shake him,” Rivkah shouted. “Leave me and get on Fox’s six, Jaxx. He may need you.”
A beep filled his cockpit and Jaxx’s stomach sank. “We have twelve more incoming. Fall away east and let them follow. Get low, use the terrain as your defense. I’m going to get some to chase me. Understand?”
“Negative, Jaxx. Orders are orders. Get out.”
Jaxx flew in a wide arc toward the twelve incoming and twisted around to bother them as best he could. It worked.
Half of the bandits broke off in perfect unison, as if they were piloted by computers. Jaxx pulled a wide loop and they tailed him. The others kept formation, Rivkah in their targets.
A shrill boomed in Jaxx’s ears. “I’m hit. I’m punching out, Jaxx. I’m punching out.”
“Green button, Rivkah. Hit the green button. Let your fighter heal itself.”
“Too much damage for that, Jaxx. The hole is the size of Alaska. I’m out.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jaxx saw an outburst of fire, dirt, and debris as Rivkah’s Air Wing pounded into the Taiyo forest. His heart thudded dully in his chest until he saw Rivkah falling toward the ground, her parachute ensuring her slow descent.
The starfighter who downed her could have easily picked her off. She was a sitting target. Instead, he pulled a barrel roll, Jaxx being his next target.
Jaxx was suddenly everyone’s target. He broke, turning sharply across his attackers’ flight path to increase his angle off the enemy starfighters’ noses, exposing himself to the bandit’s weapon fire for a brief second. Their shots went wide.
Jaxx angled toward the city, speeding into the black s
moke plumes caused by Fox’s devastating strafe runs. The dozens of enemy fighter’s closed in, part of Jaxx’s plan.
He hit the plume at 2,200 miles per hour and immediately descended and leveled out just above the trees, coming around to sneak a few shots into the back of the pack. Targeting, he let his IC’s cut through an enemy’s tail, then heard a massive pop. A burning sensation spread through his spine like fast-growing roots. The pain catapulted him back into his physical body. He was no longer one with his Air Wing. He was now in his cockpit, his hands gripping the control stick, doing his best to keep his starfighter stable. It wasn’t responding. He had to act quickly.
Already low to the ground, the terrain rushed up at him like a tsunami. Jaxx slid his hand down his seat’s side and punched the ejection button. The cockpit burst open and wind blasted him like an F3 tornado. He was flung up and away from his craft, his parachute opening, his craft crumpling into the dense forest below. Fire rose into the air, a baroom sounding a second later.
The ejection pushed him away from the coming impact, but that didn’t make him invisible.
He floated towards the canopy, watching a bandit round on him. One string of tracer fire and he was a dead man. He closed his eyes, tightening his muscles, waiting for sharp zaps coming to rip him apart. He’d done okay. Sure, he’d disobeyed orders, but he hadn’t abandoned Rivkah and that counted for something in his book.
The air around him buzzed, then shuuushboooom rocked his seat up and down, as if he was riding a jackhammer. He looked up. The starfighter flew right next to him, leaving him to rock in its wake. Perhaps the Taiyonians were consigning him to the predators down below, like they had with Rivkah.
Smoke filled the air and his nostrils. The remains of both his and Rivkah’s crafts sent up pointless smoke signals. He was sinking somewhere between them. Tree branches snapped as his seat hit the top of the canopy. He was alive, but a sitting target. He had no idea where Rivkah was or how he was going to get down.
Jaxx woke, dripping with sweat.
Donny hovered over him. For once, he looked genuinely concerned. He handed Jaxx a dry towel.
“I don’t care what Slade wants,” said Donny. “We can’t go any longer if we want to keep your mind and body healthy. We’ll have to make this a day, Jaxx.”
He lay back on the couch and thought about Rivkah, swinging from a branch on a world millions of miles away. He had to get back. He had to know what had happened next. Slade hated him. Fox hated him. But Rivkah was his friend and he wanted to know he’d done right by her.
For once, though, Jaxx agreed with Donny. He needed to be in better mental shape before he dove back into his past.
40
June 8th, 2018
Underfoot Black, Grenada
There’s got to be a way out of here.
Rivkah was in a hotel-like room. Bathroom, small fridge, and a bed. In fact, it smelled like a hotel. It was as if this place had just purchased all of their items from a Suite Inn, down the street.
Her room was locked from the outside, something that pissed her off to no end.
She paced the room, checking the door handle every so often. There would be no more experiments on her and she wanted out; out of her life, if need be.
She didn’t care if the next person who walked into the room had ten guns or none. She was going to fight her way out of this underground facility. If it was Slade, so be it. The asshole was using her for something she hadn’t figured out quite yet. She was an officer and he was treating her like a piece of shit. She had gone into the Secret Space Program long before he enlisted. Where was his respect? Yes, he had a longer military tenure, but no-one knew space, a starfighter, and a cockpit like Rivkah. No one.
She stopped and put her hands on a short dresser and looked into a mirror on the wall. It was still astounding. She wasn’t used to her reflection. She’d gotten used to a gargoyle looking out at her from the mirror, whenever she was stupid enough to glance at her own reflection.
She touched her skin for the hundredth time. Every time, she had to remind herself she wasn’t imagining it. She was healed. She wasn’t someone people would stare at anymore if she walked down the sidewalk. She would have a whole new life, a different life, a going-outside life, a talking-to-other-people-life if she got out. Maybe there was a reason to live, after all.
Her door clicked and opened.
Captain Richard Fox entered, two guards behind him. “You’re coming with me. You’re our new expert pilot. No one gives two shits or cares about your being here. You’re to do as you’re told. Understand?”
Captain Richard Fox is part of this experiment on me? “I should have known you were involved. You son of a bitch.”
She took a swing at him. He caught it without a flinch, but didn’t realize that’s what she had hoped. She needed to get to the other two guards before she took out Fox.
She brought her other hand up and grabbed the hand Fox used to catch her punch and yanked it downward, pulling him to the ground. In the same movement, she flipped over him and kicked both guards, knocking them to the floor. She landed on top of Fox’s back.
The “Ooomph!” from Fox made her grin. She kicked him in the back of the head for good measure, rendering him unconscious.
Both guards scrambled to get up just as quickly as they’d fallen but Rivkah lurched forward, catching both of their throats in her hands and pinned them to the ground. “You get up, you die.”
She unstrapped a guard’s rifle and raced down the hall. Then she felt him. Someone familiar. She stopped, her body pulling her down another hall like a magnet to its opposite attraction. She ran next to the wall, being pulled, being seduced by some unknown force. She crept up to a door, slowly turning the knob, and peeked in.
She gasped.
There, lying on a couch, was Kaden Jaxx. His eyes were closed.
Another man with glasses sat in a chair by his side.
Jaxx was talking in a monotone voice.
Was Jaxx being experimented on as well?
She clenched her jaw. Screw Jaxx. He deserves it.
Her intuition suddenly ticked up. She was on full alert. Something bad was coming her way.
In a flash, she ducked as a bullet whizzed by and lodged in the wall, just inches from her head. She turned, laying one bullet in a guard’s forehead, then two more in another guard’s chest.
More guards rounded the hall.
She had no way out, so she pushed her way into the room.
The man next to Jaxx stood, hands up, eyes wide. “Don’t shoot!”
41
June 8th, 2018
Portland, Oregon
Drew knew he should switch up his routine. Stop going to the same bagel shop. Leave Portland. But he liked his routine. It grounded him. Also, he kinda-sorta-maybe-a-whole-lot liked the woman who’d been kind to him that first day, when he was starving-hungry. Sure, she had a boyfriend, but these things change. Her name was Anyara and she was studying the subtle energies at the Portland School for Chakric Arts.
“Delicious?” asked Anyara.
Drew swallowed, then took another bite of her creation: stone-ground rye bread, with a touch of honey. He was looking down, lost in thought, worried.
“It’s absolutely delicious, right?” she repeated.
Drew rubbed the back of his neck. “Kinda.” He took another bite.
“Only kinda?”
He looked up at her. “Sorry, Anyara. It’s fabulous. Melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It’s just that...” He trailed off. Drew’s biggest worry wasn’t if he was being followed, tracked, or if Slade would send a team to end his life.
No.
His worry was his mom. He was missing his usual weekly visit with her. He thought that asking her the same questions over and over would get old and tiresome. It didn’t.
She was too young for Alzheimer’s. Statistically she was in one of the youngest inflicted age groups. And even if she didn’t know it, she needed him. He kept her tickin
g. He kept her mind active.
Or, perhaps, it was that he needed her. She was all he had. She was all that was familiar to him.
He needed to talk with her now.
Drew swallowed his last bite.
“You want to take some of last night’s remains?” She smiled. “For the pigeons?”
Drew lowered his head, embarrassed to ask for what he really wanted. “Yeah. Can I have some of your brioche?”
She smiled and pulled a paper bag from under the counter. “One loaf, or two?”
It was their little joke. He had only the money he made from juggling and he gave most of that to her in tips, so he never bought a whole loaf.
He gave her a wink, though he hadn’t winked in years.
“Be careful out there,” she said.
“I’m always careful. I only juggle in the day time and only to prime numbers.”
Anyara shook her head. He was convinced she didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but it made him feel good when she smiled, so he tried to make her smile whenever she broke away from work, to check in on him.
He walked around the corner of a building and down a sidewalk. He had ditched his burner phone right after his disastrous interview, so that Slade and his GSA heavies couldn’t track him. But he really, really wanted to talk to his mom. Nothing to do but head off to his corner in the park, juggle up some cash, and buy a new burner.
Half an hour later, he was talking to one of the nicely-frosted blue-haired ladies who held down the front desk at his mom’s place of residence.
“Tanner Springs Assisted Living Center. How can I help you?”
An image of his mom’s pink Tanner Springs sweatshirt popped into his head. He asked for Laura.
“Just a moment, sir.”
Drew sat on the sidewalk, gas fumes pummeling him.
“Hello?”
Drew coughed. “Hi Mom.”
“Well, aren’t you a stranger. Drew?”
“Yes, it’s me,” he replied, grinning. She knew who he was. It had been years since she remembered his voice.
“Where have you been, young man?” There was a tone. Not anger. She never got angry. Not really. No, irritation perhaps. Or frustration.
Project Atlantis (Ascendant Chronicles Book 1) Page 20