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

They cuffed the woman and hurried her out the room. Her screams of injustice echoed through the hall.

They pulled the chief to his feet.

Several of his workers were there, eyes wide, wondering what the hell just happened.

Ken pointed at them. “Tell them to slow this ship. If they don’t, we’ll do it ourselves.”

Blood trickled down the chief’s forehead. He jutted his chin out, trembling with anger. He spat on the floor, his eyes cold. It looked like he wanted to rip every one of these intruder’s throats out. “To what speed?”

“Half of what we’re doing now.”

“Uncuff me.”

Ken’s lips tightened. “Not until you give that order.”

“The hell I will. This is a mutiny.”

“Take him to the brig,” said Ken.

The guards pushed the chief through the doorway and down the hall. Ken watched as they left with still a dozen troops standing next to him.

“Workers, listen up!” he shouted. “From orders higher than the president, we’re taking this flying boat to half the speed we’re at now. Do you understand? If you don’t, you’ll have to answer to my friends here.” He patted a guard’s shoulder, then walked out of the room. John Shaughnessy, physicist and the second-best interpreter of alien languages and artifacts, was on his mind.

11

Edge of M-Quadrant, Nearing Jupiter - Starship Atlantis

Slade rushed the punching bag and took a swing, punishing it. He’d taken the entire government, heading them straight for a new world. No, it wasn’t a world. It was a moon.

He went into a roundhouse kick, breaking the bag off its chain. It fell to the floor, dust popping up like a cloud. Slade planted his feet, driving his knee into the middle of the bag. This bag was Jaxx and Rivkah all rolled into one and he reared back for an elbow to the top of it. He wanted to rip the punching bag apart.

“Stop,” yelled Andrea Cross, a doctor he’d found to replace Doctor Donny, the wise-old man who accidentally took friendly fire during the riot in their underground base, back on Earth. The guy had been a genius, but Andrea Cross was smarter and more enthused with Slade’s ideas and especially this experiment he was currently conducting...on himself.

Slade stepped back, taking a deep breath. “Why?”

She marched over to a display monitor, studied it, tapped something on her holographic data pad, then went to the next monitor, repeating the same steps. She shook her head. “No different.”

Slade dropped his chin, anger rising in his chest. “So, Jaxx’s blood is no good? It doesn’t work on me?”

Andrea shrugged.

They’d taken Jaxx’s blood—which had given other subjects super-powers—and injected it into Slade, yet Slade felt the same. No difference with movement, power, or speed.

“I don’t give up that easily, Slade. We’re missing something. Maybe we shouldn’t have mixed Rivkah’s blood in.”

“Then find what we’re missing, doctor. Mixing the vials should have made me more powerful. I’ve spent the last two days working my ass off without the results we’re looking for.”

“Results don’t always come right away, Colonel. You may expect the impossible with the snap of your fingers, but I’m patient.” Andrea tapped her fingernail against her teeth, thinking out loud. “What does Jaxx do before he exhibits his power?”

Slade shrugged. “Bring up the cameras in my admiral quarters and reverse the loop. The recording will show he kicked Shaughnessy’s and Fox’s ass. Mine, too. You’ll see how he threw me and Shaughnessy across the room. That—”

The door to the examination lab slid open.

Slade swung around, irritated at the sudden intrusion. A flash of adrenaline rose without control. His body convulsed and his head whipped back as a sharp energy leapt from his chest and toward the door.

Craig stood there, his arms by his side, nonchalant until he was picked up off the ground and thrown backward. He flailed his arms before he hit a wall, yelping like a whipped dog, then slid down, landing squarely on his ass, his eyes like saucers.

“Holy shit,” said Slade, tripping and falling, landing on his side. The energy that left him had a recoil to it.

Andrea rushed to Slade’s side, placing both hands on his slippery skin, his body scorching hot. She pulled her hands back. “It’s your emotions. Your emotions are the switch that will power…well…your new powers. That’s what we’ll start working with.”

“What the hell was that?” said Craig, cringing and rubbing the back of his head as he got to his feet.

Slade and Andrea looked at each other, keeping their faces as straight and tight as their mouths.

Craig’s nostrils flared. “What the hell is going on here?” Rage filled his eyes like fire in a wood stove. “You better tell me or I swear I’ll throw you both behind bars right now.”

“We’re testing a wavelength weapon, invisible to the naked eye,” replied Slade, keeping his eyes centered on Craig’s.

Craig’s gaze swept across the room. “I see no weapon.”

“In the computers, Mr. President. It’s a frequency emitting—”

“Slade, I didn’t become President because I’m an idiot. I can smell a lie a mile away.” Craig moved his gaze to Andrea. “What are you testing?” He threw a fist in his hand.

Andrea looked at Slade.

Slade cleared his throat. “You’re dismissed, doctor.”

She dipped her head and backed out of the room, purposely inspecting her holographic pad instead of Craig.

Craig went to stop her, most likely to show her who was in charge and that it wasn’t Slade. She walked by too quickly and Craig smacked his hands together. “Do not usurp my authority again. You don’t run this ship. I do. No experiments of any kind, Colonel, shall go on without my knowledge or consent from this point forward. That was one of our agreements in the beginning and if you go against that agreement again, I’ll have your balls in a bear trap. Understand?” He widened his stance, chest out—an effective technique to intimidate a politician. Sometimes it worked on high military personnel as well. Only sometimes. They were used to being bullied, so many of