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

3 May 23rdUnderfoot Black, Grenada

Jaxx yawned and pushed the sheets off. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. It had been a long night. He slept in a hotel-like room in Underfoot Black. Yesterday sucked. Slade sucked. The scientists looked at his work and dismissed his ideas as mere stupidity. He sloshed out of bed and went into the bathroom. Jaxx looked in the mirror. Puffy, blood-shot eyes stared back at him. He had tossed and turned all night. With everything that had happened the day before, he slept little.

He leaned over and splashed water over his face. “Pyramids on a Jupiter moon? It has got to be real. Why else would they take the time to find me in Peru, in a private chopper? They wouldn’t.” His stomach churned. “This shit only happens in movies.”

Clothes on, he hurried down the hall to the Research and Investigation Operation Underfoot Team’s room. RIOUT for short.

He opened the door and all heads turned his way.

Slade leaned forward with a squint. “You’re late, Jaxx.”

A clock on the wall displayed five past seven. In the morning. Not the evening, the morning; practically dawn. Jaxx took a few steps toward Slade then stopped, stunned at what blared on the screen just behind him.

“The Lady of Atlantis?”

Slade turned nonchalantly and crossed his arms over his belly. “That’s not the Lady of Atlantis.”

Jaxx walked up next to him to get a closer view, mouth open. “That’s sure as rain the Lady of Atlantis. A limestone statue found in 1897 at L’Alcudia, an archaeological site on some private estate in Spain. I know that statue. I’ve studied it for years. The giveaway is the wheel-like coils covering her ears. It’s a device of some sort with symbols etched in the stone that I still haven’t been able to decipher.”

Slade sniffed at Jaxx’s clothes. “Ever thought of taking a shower, Jaxx?” His affect was flat; totally unnerving. “We know what the Lady of Atlantis is. That may look just like her, but it’s not the same one.”

“Jaxx,” a man interjected. “You’re thinking of the Lady of Elche.” He held out his hand. “Dr. Jon Shaughnessy.” The man was short and pudgy, with a receding hairline. His glasses were two sizes bigger than they needed to be, and he seemed to be the only scientist that didn’t look Jaxx up and down with disdain. He adjusted his glasses for longer than necessary. A nervous tick, perhaps. Jaxx sympathized. This “Underfoot Black” cave-office-research-room gave him the creeps, too.

Jaxx shook his hand. “I’m sorry, but the official name is inaccurate. Mainstream archeology claims that the statue was created in the 4th century BC. It doesn’t match up with any other artifacts dating back to that era, especially given the location it was found. The clothing is completely different, along with the way this statue was created. It’s chiseled in almost pinpoint perfection, as if a laser was used to carve it.”

Slade gestured over his shoulder toward scientists huddled over their computers, assiduously ignoring Jaxx, Slade, and Shaughnessy. “They’ve nicknamed the statue Princess Leia.”

Jaxx shook his head. “Those huge hair spools on each side of the woman’s head aren’t what you first perceive. It’s not hair. It’s headgear that connects all the way around to the back of the head. I believe it’s some type of technology.”

Slade nodded. “It’s not Lady of Atlantis, or Lady of Elche, or whatever the hell you want to call it. This one is the size of the Statue of Liberty.”

Shaughnessy patted Jaxx on the shoulder. “Well, nice to meet you. Love your work. Gotta go. I’m on the clock.” He gave Slade a half-ass salute, “Aye-aye, Colonel man.” Then walked back to his computer station to study the hieroglyphs on his screen.

Slade ignored the doctor. His arms crossed, he faced Jaxx. “This statue is also on Callisto.” He pointed at the images displayed on the screens throughout the room, taking the entire array in with a sweep of his arm. “Everything here is on Callisto. So, look at them with fresh eyes.”

That couldn’t be. To Jaxx, they were clearly human made. A human-looking statue? Man designed these structures. To make things more confusing, if what he was looking at was real, it was a never-before touched archaeological site. The only way such structures could be so pristine was if man hadn’t scraped away at it for years, or weather elements were such that it was rarely touched by wind or rain.

Slade made his way to the door. “Also, Jaxx, Shaughnessy will be your partner on this project. He’s the only one who can stomach your theories.” Slade let the door slam behind him.

Jaxx turned and watched Jon Shaughnessy comb over ancient symbols.

Jaxx then glanced at his new colleagues. What the hell was he supposed to do? None of them gave him any hints, nor any direction.

“Mr. Jaxx, over here.” It was Shaughnessy, his pasty face engulfed in a smile. “You can take my place.” He stood and slapped his seat, then waived Jaxx over. “Just help me with this, will you? Do you know mdju netjer?”

Jaxx took his seat, brushing a laptop under the desk with his foot. It was powered on, connected via a USB cord, obviously collecting data from the computer Shaughnessy was just using. Smart to have a back-up. “That’s the language of the Gods, attributed to Thoth.”

“Exactly. I’m learning as I go, but I have no clue what I’m looking at here. Deciphering it is a bitch. Half of these symbols aren’t in the dictionary we’ve been given.”

“It’s because half of these aren’t ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Where are these located...on Callisto?” It was almost too ridiculous to say.

“On a domed structure, next to the pyramids.”

Jaxx studied the glyphs and symbols.

Shaughnessy rubbed his chin. “What languages am I looking at, then?”

“Half mdju netjer or Atlantean, which many Egyptologists have dubbed Egyptian, the other half are Sumerian symbols.”

“You can read them?”

Jaxx stomach tensed. Once again, he didn’t want to answer the