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

The helicopter touched down, its body slicing through the men and women in police garb, yet the they still hadn’t moved an inch. Drew jerked back. The police, along with their vehicles, disappeared.

A young man, hair smoothed back in an overabundance of hair gel, fixed his tie as he stepped out from the copter and buttoned his suit, yelling something at Drew.

Drew put his hands out. “What?”

The young man waved Drew over, the swirling air from the rotor blades kicking up dirt and tiny gravel, slapping Drew across his face.

“Sir,” said the man, coming closer. “President Jefferson Kennedy has asked to see you. Please join us in the helicopter and we can get you to him.”

Drew’s eyes swept across where the police were only moments ago. “Clever.”

“They’re holograms. Very advanced.” He cocked his head to the side, gesturing for Drew to get in the helicopter. “This way, Sir.”

Drew took a step forward, then remembered. “I have to get Mya.”

The young man’s eye brows lifted. “The young girl?”

Drew nodded.

“She’s already well on her way.”

Drew turned, seeing a young woman carrying Mya to the helicopter. Mya looked at Drew for help.

Drew rushed over and grabbed her from the woman.

The young man put his hand on Drew’s back, prodding him forward. “The President is in communication with Starship Atlantis.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Trust me, that’s not the only surprise you’ll see.”

Drew stopped, his arms tightening around Mya. He could take her and get back in his car, turn tail, and find Mya’s father, who could probably protect her better than he could. But protection would be difficult racing through a war zone.

“I need to find this girl’s father.”

“We have all records of military personnel. We know where her father is.”

“Good.” Drew took a few steps forward and only feet from the helicopter, he halted. How could they possibly know this girl’s father was in the military?

42

J-Quadrant, Solar System - Flood of Dawn, Callisto

Fox left in his Oospor Class 9 Dropship in a hurry. Jaxx guessed Fox would orbit Callisto in wait for the Secret Space Program’s arrival, where he’d help pound the Atlanteans to shit. Why the Atlanteans let the prick leave, Jaxx didn’t understand. Fox would just be another asshole coming down to take the Atlanteans away from their civilization, most likely to enslave, beat, use them for bartering tools, or worse.

Jaxx sat at a picnic table. The table didn’t have legs and instead hovered in place. The bench he sat upon was soft like a cushion. He pressed his lips together, baffled with it all, especially with Fox. Not because the guy had left, but for his lack of excitement that Fox was gone. Something in him missed the guy—a guy that would kill him at any chance he could get. How could you miss a guy like that?

He rubbed his face. His stomach growled.

Rivkah approached on a path, holding a book so huge and thick he was surprised one person could carry it alone. A few men and women in combat uniform strode behind her, the trees surrounding the area fluttered on the breeze. Their pinkish-yellow leaves and golden needles shimmered in the artificial light from the glass dome above.

Past Rivkah, trees in the distance cascaded from hill top to hill top, accompanied by domed structures dotting the hills. A plethora of waterfalls plummeted everywhere.

He dropped his forehead into his hands. It was a beautiful city, but almost too beautiful, too concocted as if these people spent their entire life constructing, fixing, creating, and designing the greatest city in the galaxy. A city that would be gone in a matter of weeks, especially since the Kelhoon were already here.

He hung his head, pressing his forehead more into his palm. The Kelhoons were beatable. But even if they held off the Kelhoons, the Secret Space Program was on route. There was no way the Atlanteans could fend off both militaries. It was a logistical impossibility. The best the Atlanteans could do would be to leave, find another home, one that was putrid enough that not even the Golgath Boars of Panzea would find enjoyment there.

An image of a bi-ped human type creature with a hair-like mane, large furry ears, a pig nose, prominent tusks, and barrel, stout body came to his mind. Where the hell had that come from? He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that was a Golgath, probably another race he had met during his stint with the Secret Space Program. The memories were returning; faster now. And they were sticking.

When he’d worked with Doctor Donny, back in Underfoot Black, he’d had trouble holding on to the simplest memory from that time, but now he was seeing entire swathes of his own history in full, living color. If there was one thing he needed to do, it was apologize to Rivkah. No wonder the woman hated him. She believed he’d left her for dead, or at least left her burned to a crisp when her ship had gone down. He hadn’t, but she didn’t know that, or rather, didn’t believe it.

Rivkah whistled, bringing Jaxx to the present.

“Jaxx, you with us?” asked Rivkah, smiling pleasantly for the first time in...Jaxx couldn’t remember when. A part of him wanted to jump up and give her a hug, then a kiss, then more. The energetic pull seemed more and more intense every time he saw her. A flood of erotic desires almost oozed out of him. Did she feel the same?

Even if she did, he couldn’t sense it from her, couldn’t read her mind, as if she psychically masked it from these odd powers they both shared.

The ground shook, then the table. It almost rocked Jaxx onto his back. A thunderous roar filled the domed city and a bright flash lit up the pinkish-purple sky. He glanced to the east. An explosive cloud grew on the horizon.

Rivkah dropped the book on the table and shifted her hands