Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Brandon Ellis (ebook reader for comics txt) 📖

“It’s okay, Betty. He’s a friend of mine.” Shaughnessy winced, no doubt remembering Jaxx had knocked him out not too long ago.

The nurse backed off. “Is this some kind of joke? Did Dr. Murray set me up?” Her eyebrows drew low.

“No joke. It’s just that Jaxx, well, can be kind of an asshole sometimes.” Shaughnessy’s expression remained tight, his eyes a bit narrowed at Jaxx.

Jaxx walked into the room. “I’m sorry, Miss, but I don’t like giving information.”

“I’d say.” She huffed and disappeared around the corner, her footsteps loud on the corridor floor.

Jaxx put his hands up. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me in Slade’s quarters.”

“Yeah, what did come over you?”

“I don’t know, but—”

“Does Slade know you’re here? Did he see you?” Shaughnessy looked around Jaxx.

“No. Do you know where he is?”

“I wouldn’t go searching for him if I were you. After the medtechs woke me, I saw Slade exit the room. He mumbled your name and his tone wasn’t pleasant. Don’t know if he noticed me in his room or not. I’m crossing my fingers he didn’t.”

He did, but Jaxx didn’t have time to explain what occurred after he sent Shaughnessy into dreamland.

“We need to turn this ship around.”

Shaughnessy shook his head. “Not going to happen.”

“We have to try.”

“And how do we do that?”

“I know how to fly a ship. If I can slip into the bridge, I can steer this thing away from Callisto and back toward Earth.” He knew it wasn’t that easy, but he had these odd powers that may keep him safe and others away from him while he flew the craft home.

It was a simple, basic plan, but right now his options were more than limited.

“Are you crazy? They won’t give you access to the bridge. And if by chance you broke in, you don’t have the codes to access the flight console. I guarantee it. Plus the people in the bridge, the captain, the crew, I’m thinking they won’t stand back and watch you take over.”

“But you have the codes.”

“The hell I do.”

“You memorized the codes to Slade’s and Martelle’s suites, but not their access codes to anything else?”

“No, man. I already overstepped my bounds with their suite passcodes.”

Jaxx pinched his lips together. “It’s on Slade’s Lectern. I guarantee it.”

“Don’t go back in there.”

“I have to.”

Shaughnessy curled his arms around his chest as if in a self hug of protection.

“Please?” asked Jaxx.

“No. You’re going to get yourself thrown in the brig and I don’t want to see that.”

“A lot of people will die if I don’t do something.”

Shaughnessy rubbed his forehead a little too hard. “Dammit, Jaxx.”

Footsteps came down the hall, hard, fast, heavy. Jaxx tilted his head. That didn’t sound good. He poked his head around the doorway. A male doctor, white coat, stethoscope around his neck, and the nurse, marched in his direction, the corridor lights bouncing off the top of the doctor’s bald head in quick succession as they passed one ceiling lamp after another.

Jaxx faced Shaughnessy. “Slade’s suite passcode, please.” The footsteps came louder. He flared his nostrils, an energy balling up in his gut. “Shaughnessy.”

Shaughnessy relaxed and his arms flopped to his side. “2468WDWA.”

“2468, who do we appreciate?” A sports reference.

“Yes.”

Jaxx took a few steps toward his friend and snatched the ID badge off Shaughnessy’s shirt. Shaughnessy reached forward. “What are you doing?”

Jaxx threw a quick wave and rushed out of the room. The doctor and nurse stopped, the doctor’s hands in the air. “Sir, every member of the ship’s passengers, whether you’re the president or the executive officer or whomever, must be logged into the hospital, visitor or not.”

“Here.” Jaxx tossed Shaughnessy’s badge at the man.

The doctor fumbled with it as Jaxx ran toward the hospital wing’s exit.

Shaughnessy’s voice boomed down the hall. “By the way, I’m doing fine. Thanks for asking, Jaxx.” Jaxx couldn’t only hear his sarcasm, he could feel it as he left the hospital.

Jaxx slowed in the busy starship corridor, eyes to the floor, head down. He picked up his pace. He’d take the long way to Slade’s office. If soldiers or medtechs were still in the guy’s room, Jaxx would have to wait it out in hiding. But once he had his chance, he’d use the code, break in, and get the bridge’s access codes off Slade’s Lectern.

Because it was time to turn this ship around.

18

M-Quadrant, Solar System - Starship Atlantis

Only several hours after the debacle in Slade’s quarters, the colonel’s suite was shut, door closed. The guards and the medtechs gone.

With no one in the corridor, Jaxx placed his ear against the Slade’s door. No sound. He crossed his fingers and toes, and everything else he could imagine. He pressed Slade’s passcode into the panel. The door whooshed open and he walked inside. The door shut behind him.

The lights automatically clicked on, and he froze. He listened again. No breathing. No footsteps. Just him. A kitchen to one side, cabinets, sink, stove, and a refrigerator. The bed with a nice wooden frame sat across the room from the Lectern. On the other side of the room, a bathroom.

The Lectern beckoned him forward. He recalled how Shaughnessy activated the large device the last time they were here and swiped his finger across the edge of the Lectern. It blared to life. A holographic image materialized in front of him, mirroring an operating system back home minus the holographic display. He touched a file icon labeled Starship Atlantis, his finger pressing through the icon. The file spun and opened to another screen with a dozen more files, all labeled.

“Where are the bridge’s access codes?” He scratched his temple and leaned on one leg. He scanned the myriad of titles in front of him. But one in particular caught his eye. He knew it wasn’t flight control codes or access to the bridge. But he had to see it. He pushed his finger through a file titled Callisto Agendum.

Inside, documents, blueprints, correspondences, and other digital papers