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

pulled her arms toward herself, attempting to bring the Being closer. Maybe a knee to the groin, if it had a groin, would do the trick. She shoved her knee where it counted. A sharp pain shot up her leg as the demon brought his knee up and deflected her attempt. He dragged her onward.

Was he taking her to the devil? Why was she destined for hell? Why would God allow this to happen?

No. She was a good person. She tried to stop Gentry. She did good in the face of wrong. Maybe hell had been her destination all along? Even before the nuke, before Gentry destroyed his own ship, before she enlisted in the Secret Space Program.

She closed her eyes and prayed. She’d repent, throw herself on the will of God. That’s all she had left.

She exploded out of the liquid. She took a long gasp of air, coughing and spitting the viscous goo out of her mouth and nose. The Being threw her over its shoulder and carried her, her body jostling up and down as it walked.

“What’s…” she coughed. “Going…on?” Her eyes darted left and right, the goo interrupting her vision.

The Being bent down on one knee and gently rested Bogle on her back, then rolled her onto her side.

Bogle vomited, all the contents of good and evil leaving her, and memories surfaced—the times she’d gone to church and embraced her Lord and Savior; the time she spent all day preparing a Thanksgiving feast for a homeless shelter, the smiles she saw, the happiness for giving, for being in service to others, for giving hope to those who thought hope was all but gone. But was it enough? A few good deeds and wham! Bam! Thank you ma’am! Heaven?

Couldn’t be. She’d seen so much wickedness and done so little to stop it.

And, then the evil flashbacks, memories she stuffed down, wishing them away forever, the ones she’d almost forgotten. She vomited hard and deep, remembering the time she didn’t listen to her boyfriend, wouldn’t talk to him because she was “too busy” only to find him hanging from a rope a half hour later, pale as death.

The time she beat the ever-living shit out of her younger sister for being “in the way, all the time.”

She vomited again and again, images sliding in and out of her awareness like a PowerPoint presentation, leaving her with no energy. No emotion.

But breath…it left breath.

She rolled onto her back and blinked, the stars of the galaxy twinkling through a rectangular opening in the ceiling. A gossamer-thin fog spanned the gap. Did she fall through that fog? How? She glanced around, coughing more. Lights everywhere. To her left, a flight console and a view screen off in the distance. She was in a ship.

The contents of the pool drained and the Being stepped to her side.

Bogle expelled a quick breath and sucked as much oxygen as she could, desperate to right herself and crawl away.

Across the room, in letters three-feet tall, a message flashed on the viewscreen. “Call Kaden Jaxx home.” Bogle blinked. She had to be hallucinating. None of this made a lick of sense. But there it was; the message Princess Leia had been transmitting to the stars. “Captain Katherine Bogle: call Kaden Jaxx home.”

10

M-Quadrant, Solar System - Starship Atlantis

Rivkah dropped from the vent and into a small cupboard. She waited for ten whole minutes before jimmying the latch and easing the door open. The room, which wasn’t large, was dominated by a work table. In the center of the table, there was titanium armored suit.

She felt him, before she saw him. He must have heard her when she was in the ductwork, because he hadn’t made a sound and had managed to sneak up behind her. She spun about to face the asshole before he could get a drop on her.

He licked his lips. “Hi, Rivkah.”

Rivkah pointed the stun rifle at the man. He was thick, almost a foot and a half taller than her, a scar across his cheek. “Who are you?”

He put his hands up and walked closer. “Put that down, Rivkah.”

“Step any closer and your head turns into a bloody mess. You’ll be dead before you hit the ground.” She stepped forward, tightness in her eyes. “Or, keep coming. I don’t care.” She aimed at his head.

He knew she wasn’t joking. This was Rivkah. She didn’t know what a joke was. He stopped. “Well?” He cocked his head toward the titanium suit. “Aren’t you going to apologize?”

She glanced at the suit then back at the man. “SA Nick Cole?”

“You guessed it. You really screwed up my suit, Riv. You owe me an apology.”

Screw that. Rivkah Ravenwood apologized to no one. “How did you get on this ship?”

He tapped his temple. “My helmet was un-fazed, so I was able to track Slade on Grenada and convince him to take me along for the ride. Then we came after you and that traitor Jaxx. You see, I’m quite handy.” He dropped his hands and leaned back against the table. “I was like a gift dropped straight from heaven for our Slade pal.” He grinned. “And, sorry about your head.”

She went to touch the back of her head, still slightly throbbing. He did this? No. It was Slade. She saw his face before she blacked out. Or, maybe it wasn’t; just a figment of her imagination. It didn’t matter. “Where is the launch bay?”

“Why? You planning on running again? Flying your ass out of here?”

Rivkah didn’t respond because he was right. One minutes she could be out of her and so long ship, so long Jaxx, so long everyone who screwed with her life.

Cole laughed. “The same old Rivkah. When you’re not doing so well, you quit and run. Run to your little Jaxx boyfriend?” He mimicked running with his index finger and middle finger. “Is that what your daddy told you to do when he learned you joined the military? To run away if you