Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (easy to read books for adults list txt) 📕

dropped his arms by his side. The cockpit lit up in white and blue. He shifted on his feet and crossed his armored arms across his metallic chest. He had to wait it out. He’d been through too much combat to have any anxiety over the unknown. It was part of his life. A part he no longer feared.

But the dropship not cooperating irked him.

His craft stopped and red, yellow, green, and gold clouds of energy dispersed outward as his dropship came to a full halt. Something caught it; something powerful.

A beep came through his comm. “Welcome, Captain Fox. I hope you remember who I am.”

28

Unknown

Rivkah jolted awake and sat. The last thing she remembered she was in some type of hazy reddish, purplish cloud after she followed Jaxx into the star portal, or whatever that dumbass called it. Now, she was in a room, no, a dome—and made from crystal?

She twirled around. She had been laying on a bed of some type, soft in texture, but also crystalline in nature. It glowed with an inner warmth. Not much inside at all, except the bed and the dome walls, which acted as a soft light that highlighted a cobblestone floor.

A strange sensation pulsed from her chest and up her throat. Then a sting zapped her skull. The sensation split like roots, and a bright light flashed in her mind’s eye. She gasped as she slapped her chest with her hand. Something hard and smooth was embedded in her skin—a blue crystal-like device.

Lips down-turning, she scowled. “More experiments?” Would they ever leave her alone? Last month had been a bitch. She’d been in a place she didn’t want to be—Underfoot Black—where they experimented on her for who knows what, and here she was again, being a guinea pig for God knows who.

She picked at the device and tried to flick it off. When it wouldn’t budge, she pinched it between her index finger and thumb. She twisted it to pry it loose. It didn’t hurt. It didn’t pinch. And it didn’t move.

She thought of Jaxx. He has led me into shit storm after shit storm. Will I ever learn?

He was like that dreaded carrot and she was the donkey.

But Jaxx wasn’t around her at the moment. She knew it. If he was, the creepy magnetic pull that seemed to continually draw them together would indicate he was close by.

She took a deep breath, then exhaled. Hopefully Jaxx was far, far away, and she wouldn’t be possessed by the strange, odd powers she hated more than him. Powers that only worked when she was in close proximity to him. And it was screwed up that she missed him and loathed him at the same time. Missed his beating heart flowing through her veins, missed his archaeologist-geek alter ego telling her his boring theories and findings. She missed the pilot who could out-fly anyone in the cosmos, even her.

The connection was gone and she was alone. Cursing his name would do nothing.

She stood and the bed vanished. She jumped back in a start and waved her hand in and out of the space that was once the bed. “How—”

A couple of knocks echoed inside the dome and Rivkah turned, her arms and hands in her standard Muay Thai defensive position.

A woman who wore a Secret Space Program uniform, folded her hands in front of her, and faced Rivkah. The woman appeared out of nowhere.

“I’m sorry to bother you. They wanted me to talk with you.” She looked down, sheepish. Her shoulders drooped forward like a fearful dog. She glanced up and corrected herself by straightening into an erect posture. “You’re one of my heroes.”

That was last thing Rivkah wanted to hear. It was the last thing she’d ever consider being. She laughed. Flattery would go nowhere, except up their asses. She lowered her eyes. “No one puts their hands on me. No more.” She eyed the walls as if they were one-way windows, and as if scientists observed her from the other side. “I’ll die before I let you touch one hair on me, and I’ll take many of you with me.”

The woman took a step forward. She whispered, “I don’t trust them, either.”

“I don’t trust you, Missy.” Rivkah raised her back leg high in an overextended kick, then brought it down as hard as she could.

The woman reacted slowly and covered her head with her hands and arms, ducking and screeching.

Mere inches from the back of the woman’s head, Rivkah’s foot stopped and an electric shock ran through her. Something yanked Rivkah away. Her heel missed the intended target.

Rivkah fell to the floor. The dome vanished. In its place was a garden of trees, bushes, and flowers. Beneath her hands was a slate path. It led to a forest of strange trees.

Rivkah stood and stepped back. “Who are you?”

“I’m Executive Officer Katherine Bogle.”

Rivkah ignored Bogle and gazed at a large Greek-like Parthenon on a hill in the distance with more odd-looking trees around it. “Are you part of the Secret Space Program?”

“Yes,” said Bogle. “I’m here now, though, and I’m just as confused as you. Probably more so. And right now, I don’t know where the Secret Space Program is.”

Rivkah backed up more. “This is a trick. A trap.”

“No,” Bogle shook her head. “Well...maybe...”

“Well, what the hell do you know?” Bogle was worthless. Rivkah continued to walk backward, her feet on the rock path that led to the forest. A forest of rainbow colors. Forests shouldn’t look like that.

“She knows little, my child. She is scared and expresses her fear differently than you,” said a voice from the trees where Rivkah headed.

Rivkah spun on her heels, fists up and ready to strike.

A woman, blond hair, blue eyes, strolled out of the forest, her long gown dragging on the path. “You are to help us, Captain Rivkah Ravenwood.”

Rivkah clinched her fists tighter. She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t come near me.”

“The prophecies state you and two others will help us. One is