Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (best novels to read in english .txt) 📗

built, both on Earth and on Callisto. It was either by the strange hum that these two Atlanteans produce or from a technology that synthesizes with a Being and uses the Being to make those humming sounds. Or maybe they just have mutant powers like Jaxx.” Slade wanted to say like me as well, but he managed to keep his mouth shut on that score. It was a gamble just telling Craig what he’d learned from Jaxx’s whackadoo books, let alone that he’d been transfused with Jaxx’s blood. No way he wanted the President to know he had the same energy as Jaxx. He didn’t want to become some Government lab rat. Based on Craig’s slack-jawed look and saucer-like eyes, the man wasn’t going to ask where Slade had come by this radical information.

Craig eyed the women in awe, his mouth still slightly agape, doing his best to process this new data. “What do we do with this whole…thing.” He waived his arms around, indicating everything inside this pyramid.

“Look up,” ordered Slade, pointing to a ceiling.

Craig did. “It’s a ceiling. Why?” The ceiling glowed purple—obviously the source of the light inside the pyramid. “Oh, I see. That’s where the light originates. So this pyramid has at least one more floor?”

“Look more closely,” said Slade.

The ceiling went from purple to transparent. Above that ceiling appeared a black craft, perched like an eagle—on its back skids, wings down like a resting bird, its nose much farther off the ground than the stern.

It, too, was hovering.

The craft was shaped like nothing Slade had ever seen in all his years in the Secret Space Program.

“What the hell is that?” inquired Craig.

“I’ve not been up there yet, but I can’t wait to fly it.” Slade glanced around, like a child in a candy shop. “I just have to find my way up there.”

The humming sounded louder. They shot each other a look, then turned back toward the two women in meditation.

The large block hovering between the women rose higher and spun faster.

“Are they waking up?” Craig moved away from the two women.

Slade threw up a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about them. I want to show you something else.” He marched over to one of the walls. He placed his hand on a hand mold in the wall, just like he did to open the pyramid’s entrance. The partition flashed, changing from black to transparent. The transparent door didn’t open. Inside was a nice sized room. The walls were lined with weapons of all kinds. Not only were there ray guns, cannons, and ion blasters, there were futuristic bows and arrows with round tips, and thick swords, some for six-foot-tall people and others that seemed to have been made specifically for twenty-foot high Beings.

Several tables sat in the middle of the room, one on which had a hologram of Earth spinning on its axis, the moon orbiting it. Strange hieroglyphs were digitized above Earth, streaming across the screen. Jaxx could interpret exactly what those glyphs meant; one reason to keep the sniveling asshat alive. Slade rubbed his hands together. “What I wouldn’t give to get in that room and try those weapons out.”

“You haven’t figured out how to get in there?”

“Nope, but I will.”

A beep sounded and Slade glanced at his watch. He pressed on the digital display. “I’m in the middle of something. Is this urgent?”

“Moofkaja Rivkah janashanka,” came the reply.

“You found Rivkah? Where?”

“Koonjaka noija.”

“I’ll be right there.” Slade clicked off his watch’s comm link. He grabbed Craig’s arm.

Craig held his ground. “What are you doing?”

“Rivkah found us. But she’s trapped with nowhere to go. We have her.”

“Just kill her already.”

“I will, and when I do, it will be slow and hideous.”

17

J-Quadrant, Solar System - East Rise, Callisto

Kajka Okbak stood slowly, his hand on his holstered weapon. Two Kelhoon soldiers were at his side. “Who did-kja this-a.” He flicked his finger several times toward the green blood streak on the ground, then made a clicking sound with his throat—an indication that he was more than pissed.

“I did,” replied Jaxx. “In fact, I disintegrated him with my powers and I’ll do it to you if you don’t listen to what I have to say.”

Okbak hissed and scaly flaps lifted on the back of his head, making him look like he had a reptilian mane. “Do not…zz…threaten me.”

Jaxx nodded over at Fox. “Your master puppet—Mr. Fox— stopped me from killing two other grunts of yours. They left in a hurry. Is that how you train your minions? To run when they’re a little out matched?”

Okbak turned his eyes to Fox. “Jijoshaja moovja noja.”

Jaxx stared at Fox, unblinking, hoping he would cooperate, would find it in him to act like the Kelhoon slave he had been less than ten minutes ago.

Fox turned his phaser toward Okbak and gave the green monster a cold stare, deepening his tone. “You asked me if what Jaxx said was true?” He snorted. “Screw you two. I’m done with this.” Fox pulled the trigger.

A Kelhoon soldiers jumped in front of Okbak. The photon bolt dug into one of the soldiers, twirling him in the air, green blood splattering across the wall. The soldier scrambled to his feet, trying to remain in front of Okbak, but one more shot brought the grunt to the floor, limp and lifeless.

A second soldier positioned himself in front of Okbak and aimed, pulling his rifle’s trigger.

Fox jumped out of the way, the ion bolt blasting his phaser out of his hand. The phaser twirled in the air and exploded. Gun shrapnel riddling the wall.

Jaxx went to one knee and brought down the universal energy that was tied to his DNA. His hands burned until he couldn’t hold it any longer. He drove his hands to the ground, plunging the energy toward the Kelhoon warrior.

The soldier froze, then lifted off the ground and soared across the room. His face hit firmly against the wall and an ear-splitting crack erupted inside the room. The Kelhoon dropped, motionless.

Jaxx brought