by S. H. Jucha
EMPATHS
A Pyreans Novel
S. H. JUCHA
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by S. H. Jucha
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Published by Hannon Books, Inc.
www.scottjucha.com
ISBN: 978-0-9975904-8-7 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-9975904-9-4 (softcover)
First Edition: September 2017
Cover Design: Damon Za
Formatting: Polgarus Studio
Acknowledgments
Empaths is the first book in the Pyreans series. I wish to extend a special thanks to my independent editor, Joni Wilson, whose efforts enabled the finished product. To my proofreaders, Abiola Streete, Dr. Jan Hamilton, David Melvin, Ron Critchfield, Pat Bailey, and Mykola Dolgalov, I offer my sincere thanks for their support.
I wish to thank several sources for information incorporated into the book’s science. Toby’s bone replacement (BRC, pronounced brick) originated from the website of EpiBone and commentary by CEO Nina Tandon.
The El car diamond-thread cable concept was borrowed from Penn State Professor John Badding and Dow Chemical Company senior R&D analytical chemist Tom Fitzgibbons, who isolated liquid-state benzene molecules into a zigzagging arrangement of rings of carbon atoms in the shape of a triangular pyramid — a formation similar to that of diamonds.
The shielding of ships with boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) was borrowed from NASA. The experimental material is thought to be useful as a key structural and shielding material in spacecraft, habitats, vehicles, and space suits that might be destined for Mars.
Despite the assistance I’ve received from others, all errors are mine.
Glossary
A glossary is located at the end of the book.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Murder
Chapter 2: Secrets
Chapter 3: The JOS
Chapter 4: Captain Cinders
Chapter 5: Ship Search
Chapter 6: Crew’s Decision
Chapter 7: Hidden Away
Chapter 8: Harbour
Chapter 9: Rendezvous
Chapter 10: Dingles
Chapter 11: Anxieties
Chapter 12: Stalked
Chapter 13: Honora Belle
Chapter 14: Annie
Chapter 15: Downside
Chapter 16: Triton
Chapter 17: Rumors
Chapter 18: Exposed
Chapter 19: Arrested
Chapter 20: Rescued
Chapter 21: Jessie
Chapter 22: Exploring
Chapter 23: Discovery
Chapter 24: Trial
Chapter 25: Spryte
Chapter 26: Alien Site
Chapter 27: Challenge
Chapter 28: Oops
Chapter 29: Get Them Out
Chapter 30: Double Helix
Chapter 31: Cantina
Chapter 32: Sasha
Chapter 33: Launch
Chapter 34: Recovery
Chapter 35: Reunion
Chapter 36: Dinner
Chapter 37: Slush
Chapter 38: Emperion
Chapter 39: The YIPS
Glossary
My Books
The Author
-1-
Murder
Aurelia sat on the edge of the bed, waiting in trepidation. Her hands were deeply entwined in the coverlet to prevent tugging on her short robe, which didn’t begin to cover her slender legs. She jerked reflexively when the room’s door opened and her tormentor, Dimitri Belosov, strolled in, his eyes sparkling in anticipation, and his mouth formed in a lascivious sneer.
“You know I don’t like it when you’re not ready when I enter,” Dimitri snarled, when he spotted Aurelia in her robe. “Strip,” he ordered.
Aurelia fingered the robe’s tie, but anger smoldered deep inside her, and she attempted to fan its flames.
“Reluctant, are we?” Dimitri said, a cruel smile twisting his lips. “I was going to be generous today, but it looks like you need another lesson, cousin. Get the ropes.”
A shudder went through Aurelia at the prospect of being tied up again. Numb to the sights and sounds around her, she walked to a bedroom nightstand and opened a drawer containing Dimitri’s favorite devices. For several months, she’d suffered unimaginable abuses at the hands of her cousin. Dimitri was the governor’s nephew, and Aurelia was trapped in the governor’s home and made Dimitri’s personal companion.
Thoughts of suicide crossed Aurelia’s mind many times, but she feared her mother and sister, who were also prisoners, would pay a price for her act. Worse, the thought of leaving her younger sister, Sasha, to the likes of Dimitri revolted her.
Anger, frustration, and humiliation welled up inside Aurelia, swirling together, brewing a storm, and overcoming any fear she had for herself and her family. Pushed one step too far, Aurelia desperately grasped the growing courage that insisted she fight back. She focused her power, released her controls, and pushed the terror at Dimitri that she’d suffered at his hands.
The seventeen-year-old Dimitri eyed his cousin, waiting for her to turn around with the ropes he’d requested. He ached to see the shame on her face. His hunger was nothing personal — any girl would have satisfied what his darkness demanded.
Markos Andropov, the Pyrean governor, had two children with Helena Garmenti. Markos had given Dimitri Helena’s eldest daughter, Aurelia, as a companion to his nephew, with the strict admonition that the relationship was to be strictly platonic. Dimitri obeyed the restriction for two weeks. His first furtive attack on his cousin released the blackness that grew inside him since he was a child. With each encounter, Dimitri promised greater acts of revenge against Aurelia’s mother and sister, if Aurelia ever said anything to anyone.
“I’m waiting,” Dimitri announced. “You know what happens when I’m kept waiting.” Suddenly, his pulsing anger was overridden by unfounded doubt. He glanced hesitantly around the room but saw nothing untoward. He considered ratcheting up his threat to Aurelia, but his anxiety, instead of fading, escalated into unreasonable alarm. Dimitri swung around, searching the room for danger.
Unable to locate the source of the creeping nightmare, Dimitri backed toward a point where he could observe the entire bedroom at a glance. His body broke the sensors of the double doors, which led to the balcony, and they slid aside. Dimitri’s heart raced in panic, and he broke out in a cold sweat. Swinging his head to and fro, he was frantic to spot the source of his impending doom.
Backing onto the balcony, Dimitri glanced overhead, ensuring the attack wasn’t launched from overhead. Hundreds of meters up, the dome’s transparent panels filtered Crimsa’s weak pink light.
Aurelia sensed her tormentor’s full-blown dread. A small voice inside her mind screamed at her to stop, but there was no turning back once she’d started. Instead, Aurelia pushed, sending the horror created by sensing creatures crawling over the skin. Dimitri wouldn’t receive her imagery, but he would be overwhelmed by the unsettling and unreasonable feeling of his skin under attack.
The more Aurelia saw Dimitri swipe at his arms and face and heard him whimper, the harder she pushed. She was desperate to end her torture and had no thought for the outcome of her actions.
Dimitri wailed and pleaded for the terror to cease, but the more he cried, the worse it got. His heart pounded in his chest, and sweat rolled down his face. An overwhelming desire to end the nightmare engulfed him. Relief lay only meters below. Succumbing to the sweet temptation, Dimitri leaned against the railing and tumbled over. As he fell to the rocked walkway below, he thought with relief: Now, it will end.
Aurelia ran to the balcony and stared at the body below. Blood from Dimitri’s crushed skull splattered the walkway. Her eyes darted around the grounds, searching for witnesses. Spying none, she raced back through the bedroom into the corridor beyond. In her panic, she could think of only one place of sanctuary, her mother’s quarters, one floor up. She ran down the corridor, accessed the disguised actuator, and dashed through the hidden panel as it opened. She raced up the servants’ back stairs, which ended at the third floor. Tripping the hidden catch to open the door to the family’s quarters, she burst into the room, crying.
Aurelia’s mother, Helena, was brushing the hair of her younger daughter, Sasha, and Aurelia’s distraught emotions were broadcasting so strongly that Sasha broke into tears. Helena hushed Sasha, sending her to the girls’ bedroom, and hurried to embrace Aurelia.
Through tears and sobs, Aurelia told her story, her entire story — the months of sordid transgressions by Dimitri, despite the governor’s admonitions, and the nephew’s perverse intentions only moments ago that had caused her to rebel.
“Mother, I pushed with all I had,” Aurelia wailed. “All the darkness he ever visited on me, I returned tenfold. He cried and screamed and begged, and still I didn’t stop. He backed into the balcony railing and fell over.”
Helena held Aurelia, miserable at the thought of what her beautiful and sensitive daughter had endured. “How badly is he injured, daughter?”
“There was blood everywhere, mother. It came from his head, and his skull was oddly shaped.”
Cold fear struck Helena’s heart, and she fought to prevent her emotions transmitting to her daughter. Both of her daughters were sensitives, empaths, as was she. Young Sasha had already exceeded her mother’s power, and Aurelia surpassed her capabilities by the time she was nine. Thereafter, year over year, her older daughter only grew stronger.
The governor had hoped that Aurelia could attenuate Dimitri’s darkness and promote a sense of well-being, but neither Helena nor the governor imagined the nephew possessed the deviant proclivities Aurelia described or that he would employ blackmail to silence her.
“You must run, Aurelia,” Helena urged her daughter. “No good can come of this. Dimitri belongs to one of the domes’ premier families. They will demand justice, and the governor will be forced to offer them a sacrifice in hopes he can keep his secret. Your only hope is to run. You must make it to the El and escape to the station, but don’t go to security. Trust no one until you reach Harbour aboard the Honora Belle.”
While Helena raced to open a hidden panel, artfully concealed inside a clothing closet, sixteen-year-old Aurelia stood frozen. She had fled to her mother for safety but was being told that there was none to be had in her arms. She closed her eyes, and her thoughts faded into hopelessness only to be buoyed by waves of love. Aurelia opened her eyes to find her mother standing before her, pushing with all her strength. Aurelia dropped her mental guards and let her mother’s affections wash through her mind.
“Here, daughter,” Helena said. She shoved a c-chip ring into Aurelia’s hand. “Wear this. There’s not much coin on it, but it might help. And take these,” she added, handing Aurelia a hand-drawn map and a set of instructions. “Use these to guide you to the El, but you must get clear of our dome as fast as you can without attracting attention. The governor’s people will be hunting for you. Once you exit our dome, you can study the remaining details.”
Aurelia slipped the c-chip ring on a finger, while Helena ran to the bedroom, calling to Sasha, “Come daughter, hug your sister goodbye. She’s leaving.” When Sasha hesitated, Helena projected strength, saying, “Your sister is in trouble and must flee for her life. Hug her, return to your room, and crawl into bed. You must appear to be asleep, and you never saw your sister return to our quarters. Now, go, say your goodbye quickly.”
The two sisters fell into each other’s arms. Sasha was in shock at the thought of losing her sister, but streams of love overrode her fear. Tears stung her eyes. Her sister always sensed her darker moods and lent her strength. This time, rather than play the passive and enjoy her sister’s mental ministrations, she pushed back with her love.
“Enough,” Helena announced sternly, breaking into the sisters’ farewell. “Sasha, go to your room and remember what I said.”
As Sasha waved goodbye at the bedroom door, Helena shoved clothing into Aurelia’s arms. She could see her daughter mentally struggling and sought to break her out of her daze. “Come, Aurelia, there’s no time to waste.” She tugged on the robe’s belt, and Aurelia mechanically stripped the garment off. “Dress in these,” Helena instructed. “You must appear as a privileged Pyrean.”
Aurelia required her mother’s help to don the unfamiliar fashions of a wealthy, young, Pyrean girl. The dress, what there was of it, draped and clung, with hidden fasteners to artfully reveal swaths of young skin. The shoes defied description. Impractical was the first thought that occurred to Aurelia. They were flamboyantly delicate.
Once her outfit was complete, Aurelia turned to a viewer, dutifully turning in a circle, and a set of lasers translated her image into a 3D projection. Aurelia scarcely recognized herself, and she turned a questioning look at her mother.
“I have tried to prepare for this day, child of my heart,” Helena said. “My plan was that one day all of us would escape together, but you must go now. When you reach the El, you must change into these.”
Helena opened a stylish shoulder bag, which matched the fabric of Aurelia’s dress. “There’s a cap, to disguise your hair, coveralls, and ship shoes. You must take on the appearance of an El tech and that means, when the gravity disappears, you remain relaxed, as if you’ve done this many times before. The instructions I’ve given you will tell you how to board the El. Ensure you hide the clothes you’re wearing when you change into these.”
Aurelia felt her mother pull her around and lay a mist mask over her face, activate it, and study the application of preprogrammed makeup on her face. Aurelia turned back to the viewer. The face of a young, pretty, privileged Pyrean girl stared back at her, subtle shades of color and glitter flowed across her face in rivers. The youth of Pyre loved artful camouflage. Her mother grabbed Aurelia’s long, straight hair and twisted it into a knot on the top of her head, shoving two trans-sticks through the knot to hold it in place. The bright, glowing trans-sticks, which constantly shifted colors, hid their function, which was to relay a person’s comm-dot.
“Place this in your ear,” Helena instructed, handing her the comm-dot. “The device isn’t active, but if you’re approached, and, daughter, looking as you are, you will be, wave them off with a finger and pretend you’re conversing with your sister. Remember, you’re one of the elite. You choose who will receive your attention.”
With Aurelia’s transformation complete, the two women hugged, pushing enduring love at each other. Then Aurelia slipped out of the room into the third-floor corridor. She navigated down two flights of back stairs to reach the ground level. She slipped through the side garden and past decorative gates to reach a ped-path.
Aurelia found balancing on the delicate shoes a challenge. I’m running for my life and I might as well be hobbled, she thought angrily.
Helena was right about one thing. Aurelia had little time to study her instructions and set out in the right direction before three young men in an e-trans glided silently up behind her.
“Hey there, pretty one,” one youth said, running his hand down the back of Aurelia’s thigh.
If Aurelia hadn’t dealt with Dimitri for the past few months, she might have jumped out of her skin. Instead
, she turned a cold eye on the youth, pointed a finger at her comm-dot, and imperially waved her fingers, shooing the youths along.
The boy in the control seat of the e-trans said, “Resume,” and the vehicle accelerated to its usual speed. None of the threesome reacted blatantly to Aurelia’s dismissal. Her manner of attire indicated she was someone of importance, and they didn’t dare anger the daughter of a powerful family.
Luck was with Aurelia. An empty e-trans passed her, responded to its programming, and turned around to crawl beside her. Recalling the actions of the youth, who had been in the other transport’s control seat, Aurelia climbed in behind the screen. She opened her instructions but couldn’t find anything about how to order the vehicle.
Mother, I guess you weren’t any more knowledgeable about the grounds outside the governor’s house than I am, Aurelia thought. It hit her that Helena was only a year older than she was now when she was kidnapped. One moment, her mother was topside, enjoying her teenage life, and, the next, she woke up in a bedroom in the governor’s house downside. It occurred to Aurelia that Helena must have gathered snippets of information throughout her adult life on Pyre to put together her plan. Thank you, mother, Aurelia thought, wishing she was hugging her one more time.
“Destination, miss,” Aurelia heard, snapping her out of her reverie.
“The El, please,” Aurelia said, with all the authority she could muster.
“Yes, miss. Travel will be through four dome connections and take approximately twenty-eight minutes,” the voice said.
A smile plastered across Aurelia’s face. For the first time since Dimitri fell to his death, she felt hope. But, it was quickly vanquished by a rush of guilt He didn’t fall to his death, Aurelia; you pushed him. Maybe not with your hands, but you pushed him, nonetheless, she thought.