by J P Waters
“I’ll look after her,” Mona said, slicing through the tension like a knife.
“But won’t you be with Jayson?” Olie said, surprised.
“No. I have no interest in fighting the rokes. I prefer my previous duties.” Mona said matter-of-factly.
“She decided on her own,” Jayson said. “Who was I to force her? She’ll be maintaining the house and experiments while I’m gone.”
“I’ll need someone new to care for with both of you gone,” Mona said, flashing Olie another smile.
“Thank you, Mona,” Olie said, still processing the news, but genuinely grateful.
“Of course,” Mona replied. “Gerry is at most one-half as high-maintenance as either of you. I’ll enjoy the rest.”
Chapter Forty-Six
The next day Olie drove her bike to the coast instead of going on her morning run. She needed to clear her head, but her eyes kept welling with tears as she moved at 120 mph down the highway outside where Aberdeen had been swallowed by the rising sea. She hugged the curves on the rocky coastline, thinking about what exactly she’d gotten herself into. Shipping off with Deep Dominion was going to be different than Mars—a tour and a destination were not the same. There was no built-in return date. She was likely to never see Jayson again.
But what did it matter to her if he risked his life? He was a big boy; he could make choices for himself. Knowing that he’d be continuing the fight against the rokes while she flew away, though, tied her stomach in knots. She knew space was what she wanted—what she needed. But she couldn’t escape the feeling that Earth needed her too. And that Jayson would need her as well—maybe more than ever.
As Olie took the next turn she saw an errant roke roll into the road in front of her. She swerved hard to miss it.
“Fuck!”
Her bike’s protective cyclesphere kicked in just before she went into a skid, tipping over into a roll before leaving the road behind. The cyclesphere toppled over the side of the road and down a rocky hill before skidding slowly to a stop on the beach.
She was alone on a rehabilitated beach when the cyclesphere finally beeped to certify it was safe and deflated. Climbing out of the leftover material, Olie removed her helmet and kicked the vehicle, cursing herself for being so careless while driving. Her anger faded only slightly when she realized the accident had saved her the trouble of having to sell the bike. But that didn’t change the fact that she needed a ride. Checking her band to make sure it had survived the crash, she started to put a call into Jayson before stopping herself. It was an instinct she needed to break sooner rather than later.
Olie sat down on the beach and looked at the wrecked bike and the cyclosphere material littering the sand. She sighed and turned her gaze to the water while she figured out her next move.
The water was beautiful and still that day. Hardly any waves stirred in the endless expanse of shimmering water. As she looked, she saw something begin to rise out of the water before her. At first, she thought it was some kind of naval drone, but as it came out of the water, she saw that it was far too big to be a drone. It looked more like the surfacing of a nuclear submarine, but much larger. The object continued to rise until it was towering over the billowing sea. Olie’s mouth hung open as she watched the water rush off the object and expose its true form: a ship. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. She pegged the size of the ship at 300-400 meters wide, bigger than any ship she had been on, or seen, in the Martian conflict. Olie shaded her eyes from the sun as she stared out at the vessel. It was joined by several others, all slowly rising out of the sea. Each one was shaped roughly like a triangular prism, a pyramid, with ornate detailing that looked almost Viking. Giant tidal waves lapped at the sides of the ships as they rose.
Olie watched as the ships levitated into the air and slowly ascended toward the atmosphere. Before she could process what exactly she was seeing, they rocked slightly, almost as though they were shaking off the water, and fired up some kind of engine. The ships made an ear-piercing whine, and then shot off into the sky. They were completely out of sight just a few moments later, leaving Olie wondering what their departure meant.
They were clearly some kind of ships or vessels, but nothing American. They might not have even been… from Earth. Had she just witnessed alien ships leaving Earth? Olie checked her band and did a quick bloodscan to make sure there weren’t any foreign chemicals in her body that might have caused her to hallucinate. The scan came up clean.
Her thoughts went to Jayson. If those ships, alien or not, were leaving Earth, they would encounter resistance at both Moon and Martian checkpoints, and that meant war. Would Jayson be on its front lines? She thought of Lane and Raquel, too, and of the thousands of rokes that remained to be dealt with. Dealt with by a military that now almost certainly had other problems on their hands.
How could she run away?
Standing alone on the beach, she stared into the deep blue sky, questioning what she’d just seen. Whatever the ships were, they would be engaged by the Martian Air Force. Olie had to wonder who would survive. She’d been so sure that Deep Dominion was what she wanted, but in the aftermath of the ships’ exodus all she could think of was the people she cared about, and how much danger they might be in. Olie bent down and picked up what appeared to be a shell, only to realize it was a shard of a roke egg.
Traveling with Deep Dominion meant hypersleep, and she started to think about what would happen to Earth while she was sleeping. Her stomach turned.
She dropped the shard and began to think about the Deep Dominion ships leaving from Portland in the coming weeks. The colonists of Deep Dominion were leaving Earth to explore, to leave the pain of the past behind and pursue the excitement of the future. A few weeks ago, that had been all Olie had wanted.
Olie turned and began the difficult climb up the sandy hill, back to the side of the road. When she finally reached the top of the hill and found herself at the road again, she saw a caravan of National Guard transports speeding down towards the beach.
She was sweating from the climb, and slightly out of breath, but she felt a wave of calm sweep over her.
Each black National Guard vehicle sped past her except the last one, which stopped right in front of her.
The door slid open halfway, and the driver, a young soldier, leaned out. “Miss, are you alright?”
“Yes, soldier. For the first time in a while, I’m fine,” replied Olie. The soldier nodded, shut the door, and took off to join the rest of his caravan.
Olie tapped a two-word message to Jayson on her band:
I’m staying.
Thank you
Thank you for reading The Roke Discovery! Much like roke hunting, the process of publishing this book required hard work and determination. We hope you’ve enjoyed the final result.
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The Roke Discovery is book 1 of the The Roke Series. Keep an eye out for updates on more books from this series.
Thank you for being a part of this adventure!
- The Team Behind JP Waters
About the Author
JP Waters is a collaboration of authors, nerds, writers, and editors who love Science Fiction. Want to travel to breath-taking dystopian worlds, meet imaginative mystical creatures, and take part in jaw-dropping action? Look no further than JP’s books. Get ready for adventure.
This is the first book by JP Waters.
To learn more about JP Waters visit JPWaters.com
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