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

Craig put his foot against one of the doors, keeping the elevator door open. “I am sick of your bullshit secrets. You will tell me what’s down there. Now.”

“Again, trust me,” said Slade. “You will want to see this with your own eyes.”

Craig shook his head. “Last chance, Slade. You tell me what I want to know or I’ll have you demoted so fast, your head will spin off its axis.”

“Below is Callisto’s central pyramid. Things are happening down there and inside that pyramid that, like I said, will blow your mind.”

12

J-Quadrant, Solar System - East Rise, Callisto

A Kelhoon soldier pulled Jaxx’s arm, in attempt to get him out of his hut-like prison. The dome was barely big enough for the two of them to stand, but the Kelhoon muscled in close, heaving at Jaxx to get him out of his cell and into the main hall, where his cohorts were doing a bustling trade in Kelhoon Assholishness, marching prisoners from one end of the room to the other, while shoving and prodding and cussing at them.

Jaxx didn’t budge, his Chi running on full strength. It’d take a handful of elephants to move him. Jaxx gazed down at his hands. The energetic cuffs weren’t something he’d experienced before. It singed the hairs on his wrists, but hovered a few centimeters off his skin even when he moved.

The Kelhoon wrapped his arms around Jaxx and went to body-slam him.

The Chi running through Jaxx strengthened his legs, rooting him more in place. “I’m not moving until I see the one in charge. We need to ta—” Jaxx grunted in pain and cringed, his teeth clattering together. The cuffs wrapped tightly around his wrists, and stung him with a thousand volts of electricity. Jaxx fell to his knees, his body shaking and spasming.

The cuffs loosened, moving back to their original position a few centimeters above his skin.

Jaxx shook his head. “Is that the best you got?”

The Kelhoon lifted the butt of his rifle and slammed it across Jaxx’s cheek.

Jaxx fell to the side and out of the hut-like cell, the Chi diminishing. “Now, that was an asshole move.” Jaxx jumped to his feet, his eyes nearly burning a hole through the Kelhoon warrior. Jaxx thrust his arms forward, releasing a wave of energy right at his captor’s solar plexus.

The Kelhoon’s head whipped back and he tumbled across the cold floor.

“Get your leader. And don’t worry, I’ll let myself back in the cell.”

The Kelhoon warrior backpedaled on the ground, then scrambled to his feet. He eyed Jaxx for a moment and made a few clicking sounds in his throat. “Goowajka.” He slapped his rifle against his chest and walked away from Jaxx.

Jaxx dipped his head and yelled over his shoulder, “Tell el-presidente, or whatever the hell you call the head honcho, that I would also like to speak with my brother. You know, the other ugly, white pale guy that looks a little like me?”

The Kelhoon didn’t look back or respond. He headed for a horde of Atlantean warriors in chains. Many were bleeding and more were distraught, their heads down in defeat. They were being led out through the doors at the far end of the hall. Jaxx didn’t know if it was for slaughter or for the Kelhoon’s lucrative slave trade.

Jaxx took a stride forward, ready to bash the heads of all the Kelhoon soldiers leading the Atlanteans to their inevitable doom. But he couldn’t intervene. It was one man against a dozen, heavily-armed Kelhoon. In any case, he had a mission that was more important than even himself. “Damn Kelhoon pricks.” Swallowing his heart back down his throat, he glanced back at his domed prison. Didn’t look like much. The roof was metallic and the floor plain cement.

Zzzzzzzzzmmmmph!

He thought too soon.

A cage of fizzing, blue electric fire bars surrounded him. His newest jail sizzled, sending steam wafting toward the ceiling as the bar’s flaming energy hit Callisto’s cold air. The bars closed in on him, forcing him back into his hut. No sooner had he crossed the threshold, the hut’s door clanked closed and locked, plunging him into darkness. He turned. It was just Jaxx, this cage, and empty space all around. Not a Kelhoon warrior hell-bent on enslaving his race to kingdom come was in sight.

But, really, what race was he thinking to protect? He was a mix of Human and Atlantean, a DNA cocktail that granted him powers, the likes of which he’d only seen in comic books.

Powers.

He brought up his Chi, glad he was doing this mission alone, not putting Zara, Kiyo-zan, or anyone else in harm’s way. He figured he’d convince the Kelhoon leader to join him in the fight against the Agadon

“I don’t think so, brother.” A chair squeaked across the floor as someone stood.

Jaxx jumped. He hadn’t seen or heard or felt another presence in his cell.

His brother, Fox, stepped from the darkness, his eyes cold, his face expressionless. “You’re not convincing Kajka Okbak of anything. And if you bring up your Chi, then I’ll bring up mine. The best we’ll get out of it is neutralizing each other.” Fox came up to the bars, baring his teeth.

“You may be powerful, Fox, but you don’t know these powers like I do.”

Fox smirked, pacing around the energetic cage. “I’m pretty powerful myself. I’ll knock any attempt of your escape out of the park. You try to fizz out those cuffs, I’ll fizz out your brain.”

Then Jaxx saw it—a device behind Fox’s ear. Jaxx closed his eyes. His vision expanded and through his third eye, he zoomed in on the device. He examined it, went through it like a needle through water, and watched the device’s algorithms and thought forms penetrate Fox’s mind. This wasn’t just a translation device or communication unit, it was a mind-control device.

“If you’re so powerful, why do you have a Kelhoon device behind your ear?”

Fox touched the oval implant behind his ear,