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

get in any trouble? He didn’t want your sweet ass to get a scratch, to burn like you did?”

Whoopa.

Rivkah pulled the trigger, the stun dart sizzling past his head.

Cole instinctively ducked, though the shot was wide on purpose.

He stood and turned. The dart sparked in the thick, metallic wall. “You didn’t like that, did you?” He straightened and gave her sarcastically innocent eyes. “Daddy issues?”

Her heart hardened and she bit her cheek. Blood trickled into her mouth. “Either tell me where the launch bay is or you’re a sizzling pile of human flesh in a matter of milliseconds.”

He leaned back against the table again. He slipped a tool in his hand. He shook his head. “Rivkah, you’re so violent. And that’s a stun weapon. How about—” He threw the tool at her, his reflexes fast. But she saw it coming. She dodged and pulled the trigger. Cole ducked and rushed her.

She shot again and Cole rolled, sweeping Rivkah’s legs out from under her. She lost grip of her gun and flipped onto her back. The stun rifle flew out of her hand, clanked loudly against the floor, slid across the room and hit the wall.

He came down with a fist at her throat. A kill punch. She caught it and squeezed, then kicked him away. With her new Jaxx-power-strength, she hung onto his fist like a hook in a fish, even after he jerked back from her foot’s impact into his stomach. She pulled him down as she leaped, her head against his chin.

He crashed against the table, his titanium suit tumbling against the ground. Metal against metal echoed in the room and Rivkah ran over to her weapon, taking aim but he was gone.

The table was on its side; the only place he could hide. She held her rifle out and rounded the table with caution. She’d just put a few darts in his chest and be on her way.

“Don’t shoot, Rivkah. Please. I’ll tell you where the Launch Bay is.”

Yes, he was behind the table.

“What deck?” She knew he wouldn’t tell her. He was the type of soldier that would rather die than divulge anything to an enemy, even if the enemy only needed to know where the toilet paper was.

She came around. Blood oozed out of his mouth. He held a few teeth in his hand. “Nice, Rivkah. I respect a woman who can kick some ass.”

She pointed the rifle at him. “Why aren’t you on Star Warden? I’m sure Slade would have let you leave this ship and find your way back up Admiral Gentry’s ass.”

He started to stand, then Rivkah shot a dart at his feet.

He stood anyway, wiping the blood from his lips. “It’s DAWD.” DAWD was a Secret Space Program term for 'Dead as a White Dwarf'.

She jerked back, shocked to hear that a Star Carrier, let alone Star Warden, had been blown out of the cosmos.

Like a flash, Cole snatched his titanium suit and bull rushed Rivkah.

Rivkah jumped back, firing several shots, the dart’s electrical output sending shocks through Cole’s hands and down his wrists. He held on, pushing forward, pummeling Rivkah, smashing her between the suit and the wall.

All the emotions trickled from her heart and through her body. She failed again and she was so damn tired of failing, on the losing end of every stick. She crouched and lunged into the suit. “Enough.”

Cole was thrown back into the table, the titanium suit hitting against the ceiling and then the floor.

She fixed him in her sight, the stun rifle against her shoulder, her finger on the trigger. “Bye, bye, Cole.” She pulled the trigger over and over. Too many bolts and the guy would never get up again, like a death sentence in an electric chair. She made sure to sink too many bolts, and watched the evil bastard’s life drain into the next.

11

J-Quadrant, Solar System - Callisto

Bogle awoke on a hard floor. The smell of roses wafting in the air. The Being loomed. He wore a long piece of white fabric like the ancient Greeks wore, held in place by hefty pin at the shoulder and a futuristic belt full of colorful buttons around its waist. A rose in his hand, he extended it to her.

She shook her head and slapped the rose out of his hand. It was a trap, a trick, a way to get her to let down her guard. It was the devil’s work, tempting her with simple beauty. She didn’t want the thorns of death anywhere near her.

He reached into his tunic and pulled out a purple hexagonal crystal about the size of a quarter. He crouched, touched his chest with the crystal, then pointed at her.

Her stomach clenched. What did he want? Was he going to incinerate her with a flipping crystal?

He touched his helmet. The air hissed as if a seal unlocked. Then he slipped the helmet off. Definitely a man. Sandy-blond hair, gleaming blue eyes, the guy had a short mustache and beard. He was healthy. Beyond healthy. His skin glowed and he moved fluidly.

He held out the crystal with one hand, pointing to her chest with the other. He spoke, his tone strong, “Locus de pectore.”

Bogle’s wrinkled her brow. “I don’t understand.”

Soft beeps came from the bridge. Computer-like holographic displays were set back into what appeared to be a large cockpit. The cockpit window was just above the displays, and the remnants of Star Warden floated in the distance in front of Jupiter. The planet’s tan-glow lit the dark void all around.

Her stomach jumped to her throat and she vomited again, remembering the dying, spinning men and women sucked out of the Star Carrier. Everyone, dead. No doubt in her mind. But her status was up in the air. Was she dead or alive? This must be hell, or some weird afterlife she wanted no part of. She needed to be strong; to keep the faith.

The man narrowed his eyes; his brows down in concentration. “Locus de pectore.”

She