Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

Arun ripped off her helmet. Her tone was so harsh, I thought for a moment she was going to point her blaster at Tong. “Get us inside!”

“I’m trying,” Tong said, placing his hand on the black rock surface again. “It’s not—someone has overridden my access code.”

“Someone?” I looked at him in half confusion, half anger.

“We need to start CPR,” Arun said, running over to me and helping to place him on the floor. “We need to get him breathing.”

I obeyed, already preparing to accept the idea that Ricky was gone.  I started chest compressions on my unmoving friend, while Arun tilted Ricky’s head back and pressed her lips to his.

“Tong, what are you talking about, that someone changed the access code?” Stacy asked, trying to make sense of what was happening behind me. “You’re the only one of your race that should be awake. That’s what you told us. That you alone were awoken.”

“I—I don’t know. I don’t understand,” Tong replied, wringing his hands in a very human like gesture.

I had my right hand over my left, both placed on his chest, counting the compressions in my mind as we worked on him.

Arun pressed her lips to his one more time when Ricky coughed up blood. She rolled him onto his side, a concern still dominating her features.

I sat back on my heels, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Easy, easy, you’re safe,” Arun said, cradling his head in her lap. “We’re here.”

“What the hell is going on?” I rose to my feet in anger. The happiness of Ricky being alive vanished as the reality of our new problem set in. Tong had led us on a wild goose chase, and I wasn’t letting that go.

To my surprise, Stacy was already on the case, towering over Tong with a firm grip on her weapon. She wasn’t pointing it at the alien, but the ferocity in her voice told me that action wasn’t far behind. From the look on Tong’s face, he understood that too.

“Answers now,” Stacy said. She still wore the dark helmet on her head, her face hidden to us. “Why won’t the doors open?”

“They should have,” Tong said quickly, panic edging into his voice. “It couldn’t have been the Rung. They wouldn’t have been able to get inside. It had to be one of my own, a Remboshi.”

We all looked over to the pyramid.

“Whoever is inside,” I said, shouting to the pyramid. “Whoever you are, we need help for our friend. We are not your enemy. Please, please, let us inside. He’s dying.”

The stone pyramid remained silent.

Anger started to build in my chest. I didn’t ask nicely often, and I never asked twice.

“If you are one of my own race, then please believe what we are saying,” Tong said, picking up my tactic. “The Great Dawn has come. Our salvation is at hand. I’m not sure how or why you woke early, but our salvation is nigh. You must be familiar with the prophecy. He is here, he is the Great Dawn, and I can prove it.”

Tong came over to me with an excited look in his eyes. He reached for my necklace.

Maksim had broken the chain, but it was still in my pocket. I got the idea of what he was trying to accomplish, so I fished the medallion out and handed it to him.

“Look! Just look! This is the symbol of the Great Dawn,” Tong said, lifting the medallion into the sky and toward the pyramid. “Just look.”

Once more, the pyramid was silent for a moment.

“I’m going to rip this thing open with my bare hands if that’s what it takes,” I growled.

“You would not be able to get in,” a voice came from some hidden speaker set in the pyramid wall. “You moronic beings would not be able to get in.”

We all exchanged looks with one another. The voice sounded like Tong’s. It spoke haltingly and slowly, over-pronouncing the T’s and S’s just like he did.

“Who are you?” Tong asked, his confusion mirroring my own.

If this is a Remboshi like Tong, how the heck does it know how to speak English? I asked myself. It was a thought in futility. There was no way for me to know.

“I am Remboshi like you,” the voice said in broken English. “I’ve been watching, monitoring your progress. I know you believe they are the Children of the Dawn but I am not convinced. No, no, I am not convinced at all.”

“Look, just look, if you are a Remboshi, then you know the symbol that was foretold of his coming. Just look,” Tong said, lifting the medallion he held in his hand toward the pyramid again. “You must also know who I am. You know that our people trusted me and me alone to awake when the Dawn arrived. If you do not trust them then trust me.”

The pyramid grew silent.

I took the opportunity to look over at Ricky. He didn’t look good. Arun had him on his side, stroking his hair and whispering soothing things into his ear. If Rick hadn’t been on death’s door, he would have loved that.

Arun caught my gaze, everything she couldn’t say out loud in her tear-filled eyes. She shook her head.

We needed to get him in. I knew that.

“It does appear that the medallion is the same symbol as the one we were foretold to watch for,” the voice said thoughtfully. “Is aid all you seek here?”

“Aid and the use of the weapons and gear left for us,” Tong said. “Pardon my candor, but you are not supposed to even be awake. I was supposed to bring the Great Dawn here for supplies and, if there was no threat, to awaken the first installation of our people.”

“But I am awake, I did awaken. Now what do I do?” the voice hummed to itself. “Maybe I’ve been talking to myself for too many years now. Maybe I do need to branch out and make new friends. Okay, I’ll let you in. Hold on.”

“How do you speak