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

Fox was behind Okbak, his arm wrapped around Okbak’s neck. His legs were draped around the alien’s stomach as he arched back, closing Okbak’s air way with the crook of his arm.

Okbak flailed, reaching for Fox, battling to get this pest off of him.

“You kill him, Fox, then you kill our mission,” screamed Jaxx.

“Screw this mission,” said Fox, squeezing tighter.

“Fox, listen to me. He is a key, just like I am. We are all the key to this scewed up prophecy that we can fulfill if…and only if…you don’t kill Okbak. He is part of the plan. And he knows it.”

Fox shook his head, his eyes moving about like a crazy man. He breathed heavily, his mouth turned up into a smile. “Nah, this sentient Being right here is a dead lizard walking.”

Jaxx closed his eyes and shot his consciousness at Fox, doing his best to take over Fox’s mental state. An energy helix wrapped around Fox’s brain and Jaxx touched one etheric strand after another. Jaxx convulsed, connecting to Fox’s thoughts.

Jaxx whispered in Fox’s mind. “Let go.”

“Never,” responded Fox. “You can’t—”

“Drop Okbak and leave now,” whispered Jaxx. “You are to find Rivkah. Leave me to my own devices. I’m working this one alone.”

Fox dropped Okbak.

Okbak grabbed his throat, wheezing. He took quick breaths, his arms dropping to his side. He slouched up against the wall. The big lizards was spent; close to death. Close, but no cigar. The lizard-lord lived.

Fox stood. “Let’s go, Jaxx. Break yourself out of this damn electric jail cell and let’s get the hell out of here.”

Jaxx shook his head slowly. “I’m here to stay. Go, Fox. Now. More Kelhoon are coming and you may be the only chance we have—I have—to survive.”

The door opened and a Kelhoon soldier entered. And then two more. They rushed to their downed leader.

“Go, Fox.”

The soldiers paid Fox no heed. They were more concerned for their leader than anyone else in the room.

“Stupid move, Jaxx.” Fox gave Jaxx the middle finger and hurried out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Okbak murmured something to his troops. They exited the room as quickly as they came, most assuredly going after Fox.

Okbak took a few seconds to catch his breath, slowly pushing himself up to a standing position. He clutched his neck. “You’ja are passionate about this-a. What you-jo want to say, Jaxx?”

“I’m offering you a way to live—a way for your species to remain, for the time being, on Callisto without conflict from me and my friends, including what is left of the Atlantean rebellion. I’m also giving your race a chance to survive a galactic genocide by the Agadon.”

Okbak touched his belly and cackled. He leaned up against the wall to stay up right, his breaths coming even faster. “We hab…zz…the Atlanteans and are-ja gathering more of…zzz…them every-jo day.”

“Your race’s survival depends on you hearing me out.”

Okbak dug into his satchel clipped to his belt. He pulled out a small, oblong device. “You put on. I k-then listen to what you have-a to say.”

Okbak walked forward, the device between his index finger and thumb. He slid his hand between the electric bars. He gave a nod to the device and then dipped his head at Jaxx. “If put on, I listen.”

Jaxx put his hand out and Okbak dropped the device in Jaxx’s palm. “Agreed.”

Okbak blinked several times, his lips upturning. “Put…zzz…on. Now.”

Jaxx turned the device over and over in his palm. It didn’t look like the gizmo he’d removed from behind Fox’s ear, but he was leery of putting any Kelhoon device anywhere near his cranium.

Okbak’s lizard lips were compressed, neither smiling nor grimacing. His eyes gave nothing away. Jaxx did a quick scan of the Kelhoon’s aura, but all he got was a cold, hard brush off. Either the lizard was cloaked or had no soul for Jaxx to read.

“Put…zzz…on…” said Okbak, pointing at his throat. “Sign-a of good-yo faith…zzz…between us two-ya races.”

Jaxx weighed his options. He wanted to no more blood on his hands, regardless of the color. He wanted peace with the Kelhoon, so they could rout the Agadon scum. He caught himself. Yep, he was cool with Agadon blood being on his hands. He was faced with a choice: trust Okbak or not. An alliance lay one way, death in an electrified cage the other. Bottom line: no choice.

He pressed the device to his throat. “Argh,” he yelled. His head jerked back and a bolt of electricity zipped through him. The oblong device slid around his neck and nestled under his ear, coming to rest in the exact location Fox’s brain-controlling device had been. He felt the prongs pop out of the device and break his skin, then force their way into his cerebral spinal fluid, taking over his central nervous system. He cringed, his mouth opening on its own, and his voice escaping from deep within his belly. “You piece of intergalactic lizard shit. We made a deal. This was not…” He fell on his back, screaming, willing the pain to leave him, wishing he’d listened to Zara, Kiyo-zan, or even Fox. At that moment, he realized being alone and doing this on his own was the exact opposite of what they all needed—of what he needed.

An instant later, he was still as a rock. The screaming had stopped, the thrashing, even the thinking. A fog covered his mind. His mouth opened. Something in the deep recesses of his brain spoke for him. “What shall you have me do, Prime Chieftan?”

18

J-Quadrant, Solar System - Outskirts of Namuh Farms, Callisto

A Kelhoon soldier grabbed at Rivkah. She pushed the warrior’s arm away with her forearm and shoved him in the chest, pushing him backward. He lost his balance, his rifle spinning in the air, and tumbled down the hillside.

Abdu kicked another warrior’s rifle from his claws and side kicked the Kelhoon. The grunt fell back against another Kelhoon. Abdu caught his rifle and