James smiled. “Who wants to know?”
“I do,” Sarah said while her hand pushed Amanda. “If Amanda is getting fucked tonight, I can’t be in the hotel room.”
“C’mon, Sarah,” Amanda said.
“Do you like chilling?” asked James.
“Why, yes,” Sarah replied back.
“Do you like Netflix?”
Sarah responded by jokingly unbuttoning the top of her dress, allowing her cleavage to hang out more. Whistling and gawking from the males at the table commenced. Gavin was the exception—Anna whispered something into his ear, a disgusted look on her face.
………
Sarah and James both placed empty glasses down on his kitchen countertop. His apartment wasn’t very large—a typical bachelor pad with kitchen, washroom, and living room that doubled as a bedroom. As Sarah expected, Amanda took one of those fit air force guys back to the hotel room Sarah was sharing with her. Not that Sarah particularly cared. There was plenty of space to spend the night.
“So…now what?” Sarah said, grinning toward James.
“Now we chill and watch Netfl—”
Her finger sealed his lips shut. “How about we cut to the chase and do whatever the hell Amanda is doing right now?” She pulled her finger back, grinning at him.
“It’s funny because I was serious about watching a movie,” he said.
“How about no,” Sarah said. “Wait, you’ve been drinking—you don’t know what ‘no’ means.”
“You’re right,” he said, pushing her toward the fridge. “I don’t.”
Their tongues wrestled as he continued to hold her against the fridge. Her fingers aggressively slid through his hair. A seemingly never-ending series of kisses landed across her neck. She moaned in ecstasy before shouting, “And that’s the way I like it, bitch!”
She felt his hardness as he grinded his hips along the side of hers. Let’s see what else you can do. She thought. Fiery passion led them to the couch in the living room. James’s body launched backward onto the sofa as Sarah’s hands pushed him. In a matter of seconds, Sarah had pulled her entire dress off. She grinned as James’s face came to a full pause. He was no doubt stunned at the sight of her tight body.
“What’s wrong, big boy?” Sarah taunted. “You were giving out all that good shit a second ago.”
He stood up, but she pushed him back down and slid his shorts and boxers off. Her hand ran up and down the shaft of his member, while he removed the last of his clothing. The sight of his abs made her grin. So you aren’t really a push over, she thought. Her lips wrapped around his shaft, sliding it in and out of her mouth at a steady pace. Her left hand gently glided across his fit abs in a soothing way, down toward his legs. Her other hand reached back to unhook her bra and then slid down below to remove her damp panties.
Minutes later she was on top of him. He was inside of her, thrusting upward, as she yelped in pleasure. The noise she made easily drowned the sloppy sounds of his glazed member moving deeper inside her, especially when her hips moved from side to side—“the swirl and twist,” as she liked to call it.
“Easy there—the people next door might hear you!” James pleaded.
“I don’t give a fuck,” she said and moaned as his hands firmly gripped her hips.
Sarah later layback on the couch as the two switched spots. Her legs rested atop his shoulders as he thrusted like a jackhammer. She clenched her fist around the soft material of the couch, squeezing hard, the tips of her fingers turning red. Her legs and toes quivered. She saw his hand reach down to where the magic was happening and braced herself—his inevitable pullout was near.
………
The whistling sound of Sarah’s cell phone awoke her the following morning. It took her a good five minutes to muster the strength needed to crawl over to the nearby coffee table where the phone had come to rest the previous night. It was a night she didn’t regret one bit—the mere thought of what happened put a devious grin on her face.
Alex, 10:06a.m.: Hey, babe, how’s your trip?
“Who’s hitting you up at this time?” asked James, with a hint of sleepiness his voice.
She turned to see that he, too, was waking from his sleep on the couch with her. She sat up and slid her fingers across the screen of her phone.
“My boyfriend,” she said as her text ringtone blared again. “Fucking idiot.” She aggressively hurled the phone aside.
James stared at her for minute, a confused look on his face. “Uh…boyfriend?”
“Yes,” said Sarah. Her confirmation triggered a disgusted look on James’s face. “Oh, don’t give me that shit. Everyone cheats once in awhile, and if you don’t, then you’re stupid.”
James laughed. “Is that so?”
“Pretty sure your buddy Gavin is nailing that Dianna chick,” Sarah said. “It’s not like Anna is giving him any in her prego state.”
“I know he was a bit of a fuckboy in the past. But now? Naw, he’s totally devoted to her.”
“You can’t truly be happy with one person. There is always another who can do things that partner can’t or won’t do.” Sarah leaned her body closer to James and shot him a triumphant smile. “Case in point, I had an orgasm last night. I never have those with him.”
………
Hilemei, Gengei, Xyniea, and Odelea all sat down in their respective seats aboard the Abyssal Explorer’s transport ship. There were two seats up front in the cockpit and two long chairs in the middle behind the cockpit. The sides of the shuttle were long sliding doors, which served as its entrance.
Gengei’s fingers danced across the terminal as he performed one last final check of the systems before strapping on his seat belt. Everything good to go. A holographic projection of Captain Ueyei appeared before them.
“We’re entering the planet’s orbit now. This will be the closet this ship has been to their world. If we’re going to reveal ourselves, let’s not hold anything back,” said Ueyei’s hologram.
“Agreed, Captain,” said Hilemei.
“May the gods’ light watch over you.” Ueyei’s hologram vanished.
“May the gods’ light watch over us,” chanted Hilemei. The rest of the three repeated in unison.
The floor over which the transport floated opened, revealing what was under the ship—the blue planet. White blinding light from the engine of the transport flared up as the transport began its descent and exited the ship into the vacuum of space. Once all was clear, its main engines on the back fired, launching the ship toward the planet.
The four watched out the main window of the transport as the blackness of space slowly transformed into blue skies. Those blue skies became populated with white clouds as the transport swam through them. Gengei asked Odelea if they were still heading in the right direction, and she nodded as she recognized the eastern coast of the large landmass below them.
Chaos passed forth as security detail on the White House lawn guided their weapons in the air. There was an unidentified aircraft heading directly toward them. Word traveled fast to the team below that something from space had showed up and launched an object directly at them. Was it a weapon? A ship? A big joke from NASA? Nobody knew, but nobody was taking chances. The US president was already being evacuated to a bunker underground.
People in the streets were ordered to get away. Many dispersed with haste as they saw the speed at which the dark yellow object came at them. Some stuck around to take pictures and record video on cell phones—media reps would pay good money for stuff like this. The object slowed its speed and hovered over the White House lawn. It was an alien spacecraft of some sort, no doubt. Dressed in black combat gear, White House guards surrounded it, pointing their P90 rifles forward and slowly walking closer to it as it landed and the glow from its engines vanished.
Gengei took notice of the black-clad humans aiming their projectile weapons at the transport. “They want to fight?” he asked rhetorically.
“They are taking extra precau
tions,” said Odelea. “Remember, this is a species with a long history of committing sneak attacks on their own kind.”
The four removed their seat belts. The gravity on this world was different from what they were used to on other planets. Only Odelea and Xyniea had stepped foot on this world previously. Xyniea reached to the overhead storage racks above, grabbing her magnetic rifle.
It was standard-issue weaponry for all Radiance Union soldiers like herself. It had a long gray barrel with a scanner on the front and a holographic projector on top. It operated by using a magnetic field to send a projectile out from the barrel at incredible speeds. Its ammo was literally a slab of metal placed into the rifle. Nano machines cut away at pieces of the metal, molding it into the desired shape of the bullet.
Armor piecing rounds? No problem. This rifle could instantly make and fire one as the trigger was pulled. Smaller rounds could be made to reduce the amount of material used for ammo. This was effective for situations in which ammo needed to be conserved—even harpoon-like rounds could be made. At the front was its battle scanner, which not only relayed tactical information to the user but also determined what type of rounds should be used on a target. One could shoot a heavily armored target with piecing rounds and then turn to shoot an unprotected target with normal non piecing shots. The computer scanned the target and selected the right round for the job; it also took into account gravity and weather conditions. One could also disable that feature and use whatever he or she wanted.
Xyniea’s finger flicked a button on the side of the rifle, and a short humming noise emitted.
“We should take extra precautions as well, then,” Xyniea said with a smile.
Gengei walked over to the same compartment, arming himself with a rifle. “Agreed.”
“Very well then,” Hilemei said. “Commander, you and the ranger take point. Scholar Odelea and I will follow behind.” He then looked at Odelea. “If things are safe, you will be the one stepping forward.”
Odelea nodded, trying to hide her nervousness. The four got up and stood next to the left exit. Gengei and Xyniea were upfront, armed with their rifles, Hilemei and Odelea behind. Gengei reached out to interact with the terminal nearby, and the doors swung upward to open, Odelea saw green grass and dozens of humans pointing weapons at them. A few of the humans developed spooked looks on their faces at the sight of them as they slowly stepped out. No shots were fired—good start. The four continued forward, fully revealing their extraterrestrial appearances to them. The humans held their ground.
Hilemei placed his hand on Odelea’s shoulder and whispered, “Your turn.”
With anxiety in her step, she walked forward in between Gengei and Xyniea, folded her hands, and placed them on her belly. She took a deep breath and then spoke to the humans in their language.
“Ravi de vous rencontrer.” She quickly covered her mouth with her hands. That was the wrong language for this region. She tried again. “Pleased to meet you.” English—how did she forget after talking about this with Gengei not long ago? Nerves must have been messing with her thoughts.
One of the humans replied back. “The pleasure is mine.” He lowered his weapon. “Welcome to Earth.”
“May we speak with your leaders?” Odelea asked. “We have important information to share.”
Every news channel in the world was broadcasting the images coming from the White House followed by video taken by astronauts onboard the International Space Station of the alien ship in orbit. These were some of the headlines typically displayed: “We are not alone!” “First contact with extraterrestrial” “Exclusive footage of White House aliens” “UFO lands: wish to speak with leaders of the world.”
………
A burst of blue light had Jazz, Chidorli, and Phylarlie materialize in the Royal York hotel room where Jazz and Kroshka were staying. She was nowhere to be found. Jazz walked about the room, frantically searching for her. Her purse, too, was gone. She had left.
“Fuck!” Jazz yelled at the top of his lungs.
His cell phone beeped. Now that he was finally back on Earth, he was able to get a clear phone signal. His hands interacted with the phone’s touch screen to discover several text messages had been sent to him during the time he was up in space.
Paul, July 26, 5:36p.m.: Bro that fight at the mall? Was that you?
Paul, July 26, 5:37p.m.: Cause the 5–0 is going nuts looking for you, it’s on the news and everything talk to them if you didn’t do it
Alisha, July 26, 8:57p.m.: You’re in the news yet again, this time they have pictures of you. When are you going to stop this?
Aunt Anathia, July 27, 12:32p.m.: UFO on white house lawn, oh lord have mercy
Aunt Anathia, July 27 12:33p.m.: Stay safe Jake I got a bad feeling about this
Destiny, July 27, 12:36p.m.: omg check the news, aliens at the white house wtf
The last messages made him forget the first ones. What the fuck? Indeed, he thought.
………
Chris and Keys stood in a dark room, looking at their newly acquired prisoner from Afghanistan via a two-way mirror in an interrogation room. The man they had captured sat in a chair with little emotion on his face. Word about the events in Washington had made its way to this underground base in Nevada.
“So you remember that time you said he’s just a Marilyn Manson freak, not an alien?” Chris said to Keys. “And that he shouldn’t be brought to this black site?”
Keys took a longer look at their prisoner’s platinum-blond hair, red eyes that glowed in the dark, and the slots on his fingers—which had claws pop out at one point when they were using advanced interrogation techniques on him. “Holy fuck” was all Keys had to say.
Chapter 6
Ten years ago…
Noylarlie stood in the solarium of her suite in the palace’s main tower. She gazed at the setting sun, the only place in the city from where it could be seen right now. The suite was located on a level high above the clouds. The forecast called for freezing rain. The sun appeared as a giant dark-red orb in the sky, giving the surrounding upper world a crimson look and the clouds below a deep pink.
She had spent the last seven months adjusting to the sudden change in her life. The suite was a massive step up from the quarters back at the psionic facility, and her assignment to keep people of certain groups in line was even better.
At the end of the suite was her bedroom, and in it was a beautifully decorated bed with a large canopy. Next to the bed was a bathing area—a small pool with a waterfall-style fountain pouring fresh cold water into it. A living room was located in the center, featuring a round table and four large soft chairs. The entrance to the solarium was on one end of the living room, and the exit to the suite was on the opposite end.
As nice as the view was, she felt time slipping away—she would have dinner with the royal family soon. She left the solarium and entered the living room, motion sensors detecting her entrance. Soft dim lights slowly came on, reflecting light off her exquisite vermilion gown. The shoulders, sleeves, and back of the gown were black and see-through. Revealing, it wasn’t a typical outfit most cyber augmented psionics wore, but that was OK as she was not heading out to the field.
The servants assigned to her did an excellent job fixing her long black hair—it was nicely parted, with some covering the left side of her face. Her makeup was also taken care of, while other servants cleaned up her suite. Nice to be on the receiving end of a servant’s duty for once. The door chimed to her suite; her escort to the dining hall had arrived.
The dining hall was located a few floors above, directly in the middle of the palace, and as such had no windows. A single light from the ceiling shone down on the square dining table and chairs, which were centered in the room, so nothing else outside of that could be seen. The rest of the room was completely dark—this was where servants, who waited to be summoned, stood with carts full of prepared meats and drinks.
If meals, drinks, or plate removal was ne
eded, they stepped out of the darkness and toward the table to do what was required and then stealthily stepped back into the darkness.
Empress Y’lin sat at one end of the table, wearing the same outfit she had worn when Noylarlie first encountered her. The chair Y’lin sat on was large, made of fur, and covered in glowing orange gems. The chair next to her was of a similar design, meant for the emperor no doubt—too bad he was dead. Many years ago the royal family visited a Hashmedai colony that suffered a surprise attack by a Radiance orbital bombardment. The emperor never made it out alive.
On the side of the table next to Y’lin sat her eldest child, Prince Akeia. Noylarlie’s eyes took notice of his slim but fit figure. He wore a dark-blue shirt and slacks, the shirt not fully buttoned up, revealing his chest and pale skin. His platinum-blond hair was cut short and faded at the sides. Opposite him sat his younger sister, Princess Kroshka. She wore a gray skirt, sheer blouse, and a pendant that matched Y’lin’s, with a gem that had a glowing sphere within its center. The same orange gems in Y’lin’s chair were present in the barrettes that adorned Kroshka’s long hair.
Noylarlie took a seat at the end of the table opposite Y’lin, sitting between two older military men in dress uniform. One looked familiar to Noylarlie. She stared a few seconds longer before turning her attention to Y’lin, who now spoke. “Thank you for joining us today, Archmage.” Y’lin took a sip of her gray sparkling wine before continuing. “This is Captain Jerut Whitestar of the forty-fifth fleet.”
The familiar man to Noylarlie’s left turned to her and smiled. Now I remember—you were always visiting the academy.
“And to the right of you is Vice Admiral Himton Strongfist also from the forty-fifth,” Y’lin said. “And up here, we have my two stunning children whom you may have met already, Kroshka and Akeia.”
Y’lin’s two offspring waved at Noylarlie. She nodded, keeping her bedroom eyes on Akeia for a brief moment. “Settling in nicely I assume?” said Akeia.
“Yes, the servants do their job well,” said Noylarlie.
Celestial Ascension (Splintered Galaxy Book 1) Page 10