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

enjoy the scene around you as we depart for our temporary new home. Our inertial dampeners will afford you the ability to move around as if you were in your own home. Remember, once aboard the Orion, the trip to Kronos Five will take six weeks. As you know, the planet has been specifically selected as a prime location to begin a new colony. Both the atmosphere and lush resources will ensure that we have a smooth transition.”

Arun continued speaking, but I was too busy searching the hundreds of gathered Transients for Ricky. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I’d even lost track of Boss Creed. No doubt, he was somewhere below having the same issue.

“Our Cognitive’s name is Iris, and through the miracles of hard light, she is able to appear anywhere on the ship,” Arun explained, stepping to the side of the raised platform and motioning with an open arm to her left. “Iris, would you like to introduce yourself?”

I looked up for a moment. Even with the ship about to take off and Ricky still lost in the crowd, I didn’t want to miss seeing a real Cognitive in person. It was amazing. Right in front of my eyes, a woman appeared out of thin air. She was tall with short white hair and pale skin. A blue glow shimmered around her. She also wore a grey uniform and held a friendly smile on her lips. For an artificial person, she certainly looked real enough to me.

Everyone was looking in one direction at Arun and Iris. The place was as silent as a tomb. This may be my only shot, I thought.

“Rick! Ricky!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the entire room.

Iris, who had been going over safety procedures, immediately stopped speaking. Every head in the room turned in my direction. I ignored them all.

“Rick!” I said again.

I was starting to get shushed by those around me and receiving plenty of rude stares, but I didn’t care.

“Dean, is that you? What are you doing?” Ricky’s voice came up to me from somewhere to my right.

I followed Ricky’s voice. He was just below the bridge, about thirty yards to my right. I breathed a sigh of relief. That was, until I saw the same thug that had run from me at the end of the alley moving through the crowd. He had a hard stare in his eyes and something shiny in his right hand.

8

It was one of those times where there was nothing else to do but put all your eggs in one basket and go for it. I took off down the bridge. From the corner of my eye, I could see the suits on the ship moving into action, but none of them were close enough to stop me and my insane plan.

The bridge had a chest-high railing on the other side. I pounded down the bridge and climbed over the side, grasping the edge with my hands and vaulting myself over.

I aimed myself at the attacker, managing to crash into him with a heavy thud, feet first.

People were shouting all around me. I didn’t care, not right now. I needed to make sure this man didn’t have the chance to do what he’d come to do.

Other Transients began trying to pull me off him. One guy put me in a headlock.

“Back off!” yelled Ricky, taking a swipe at the guy holding me. He fell off my back a moment later.

The man underneath me wasn’t putting up much of a fight. That snapping noise was his head bouncing off the floor, and I was pretty sure he had a concussion.

For the moment, I remained content to just sit on his chest. In his right hand, he carried a plastic shiv he’d snuck past security.

Moments later, I was surrounded by several suits carrying stun batons. The yard of hard metal crackled blue with a dangerous electric current.

“What are you doing?!” Arun yelled out loudly. I looked up to see her standing alongside the suits.

“He had a weapon and was about to hurt someone,” I said, pointing to the shiv as I raised my hands and backed away.

Arun searched me with her bright blue eyes, like she was trying to decide whether to kill me or thank me.

“He’s telling the truth,” Boss Creed said, panting as he ran up to our group. “He’s telling the truth. He was only trying to save his friend.”

“You saved me?” Ricky asked, swallowing hard as he finally realized what had just happened. “He was going to stab me like a pincushion, and you saved me?”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” I muttered.

“Seize the man on the ground and secure him before we depart,” Arun said. “The airlocks have already been sealed, so put him in an isolated area.”

The suit immediately moved to obey, leaving me in a bit of a conundrum. If the doors were sealed, how was I supposed to go back?

“We’ll want a full report from you too,” Arun said, looking at me. “Once we’re on our way, I want to sit and speak with you.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said, still coming to grips that I was on my way to the Orion. “I need to get off this ship, though. I’m not supposed to be here.”

“H-hey, don’t listen to him,” Ricky said quickly. “He’s just dazed from the fight. He’s on the list and everything.”

He gave me a suggestive look.

I didn’t really know how to feel.

Part of me knew I wanted to be here, escaping the planet in a metal box aimed at the stars. The other part was wondering if I could get off right now, even if it meant jettisoning myself through an airlock.

The crowd in the room relaxed as the concussed man was lifted by the suits and taken away. Ricky apologized to the man who had grabbed me by the neck.

“Sorry—sorry, no hard feelings, right? You were attacking my friend and I had to stop you,”