Awakened Read online

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Legal

  Prologue

  Sphinx

  Estarians

  Oggs

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Oz Communicates

  Author Notes - Ell

  Author Notes - Michael

  Social Links Ell

  Social Links - Michael

  Series List

  DEDICATION

  To everyone who ever dreamed of making a dent in the universe.

  — Ellie

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  — Michael

  AWAKENED

  The Ascension Myth 01

  JIT Beta Readers

  Alex Wilson

  Sherry Foster

  Kimberly Boyer

  Brent Bakken

  Tim Cox

  Kip Flewelling

  John Findlay

  Keith Verret

  Peter Manis

  Joshua Ahles

  John Raisor

  If I missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editors

  Lynne Stiegler

  Jen McDonnell

  AWAKENED (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  This book Copyright © 2017 Ell Leigh Clarke, Michael T. Anderle

  Cover Design by Andrew Dobell http://www.creativeedgestudios.co.uk/

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, 2017

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2017 by Michael T. Anderle.

  Prologue

  When people of the ancient world Earth dreamed of the future, they imagined humans sprawled across the galaxies, ruling the world, making the right and just decisions.

  They imagined power beyond their comprehension and technology that looked like magic. Time machines. Vortex manipulators, and transporter beams.

  They imagined a civilization where humans could be the best version of themselves.

  They imagined.

  But the reality was far from it.

  More than 50 years went by since the old tv shows that would depict such fantasies crossed to the archives of the space base, Meredith Reynolds.

  It’s true. Humans did travel across and beyond their galaxy, by virtue of the Yollin Annex Gate. But not to reign as all powerful demi-gods, rather to become the underdog.

  The justice seekers. The truth tellers, the stuff of legends, the warriors.

  Coming from such injustices, and such corruption, the new humans knew they had to do better.

  It’s no surprise that the greatest export from the human race was justice.

  But what surprised everyone, even the humans themselves, that their second greatest export would be…. Love.

  Those on the Meredith Reynolds fought for their Queen, and in time, as the battles and the fighting were reduced, and new generations were born to those in space, humans left the Meredith Reynolds and settled on planets both within and outside of the Etheric Empire.

  Because that is the spirit of those who left Earth in the beginning.

  One generation left early, seeking new places that felt like their home and a handful of families continued until they found their place to stay. Their next generation also stayed on their new home world of Estaria. A large planet, dusty and dry with few humans where their sun, the Sark, would light their days as they travelled around it.

  The Milky Way they left behind became known as the Pan Galaxy – because that was what it resembled from the far edges of the aging Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. What the humans of Earth called Sagittarius had no meaning without that constellation. To those who had lived on the other side of the Annex all their lives, their home was known as the Loop Galaxy on account of the way it circled the Pan.

  Finally, with the advent of the third generation, news came down that the Etheric Empire was done with their wars on the Kurtherians and were seeking to become the Etheric Federation.

  This third generation of humans who settled on Estaria had a little girl.

  Her name is Molly.

  Broken in spirit, she didn’t understand that the future is determined not on your mistakes, but on the depth of your spirit to make things happen and the power of those who believed in you.

  This set of stories explain how Molly and those who came to love the broken young woman would challenge the might of the political and powerful and find out the truth…

  Of the Ascension Myth.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The morning sun streamed through her window. Flight Sergeant Molly Bates rolled over, pulled the covers over her head and mumbled something about “just ten more minutes” to the silent quarters.

  Two minutes later, a shuffling under the covers turned into a battle to get free of her cocoon.

  Shit!

  Shit...shit...shit...shit...FUCKING SHIT. Morning fucking briefing!

  She scrambled for her clothes. “Score!” she muttered finding a fresh stick of gum on the dresser as she grabbed her belt from a nearby chair. Now she could semi-confidently forgo brushing her teeth. Time-saver.

  She wiped the grit out of her eyes, then scurried out into the corridor and closed the door behind her.

  Taking a quick peek at the time, she was half aware that the capacity on the hacked and upgraded holo device wired into her central nervous system was registering 98%.

  That’s…odd, she thought briefly.

  She strode down the corridor to her unit’s conference room. She was still too junior in the military to be delivering intel and directing research efforts, so if she played it smart she could sneak into the back without too much drama.

  She worked on tucking her shirt in as she marched through the hallway, her belt swinging back and forth under her neck until she was ready for it.

  She never noticed the ensign who rolled his eyes at her efforts to get dressed while not quite running through the hallways.

  Since Molly was technicall
y a genius, the people around her expected something to be off about her.

  “Morning, Flight Sergeant!” Gary called out to her from down the corridor as she came into view. Gary manned the securifield gate that scanned all personnel going in and out of the labs.

  “Morning, Gary,” she smiled, fastening her belt around her waist. She rubbed her face with her hands as she approached, aware she probably still had pillow marks there.

  “Late night nerding it up?” he asked, half-jokingly.

  “Not so much this time, Gary,” she answered. “I was shooting the shit with the guys in the AI lab.”

  “Well, at least you weren’t spending it being all introverted. Sue and Charles said you were a blast a few weeks ago,” he smiled.

  It wasn’t a secret that Molly was generally quite insular, although given the right incentive, she could focus on relationships. And, very occasionally, she would focus too much on a relationship.

  There was one incident where she had fallen prey to an uber-crush on one of the exchange geeks from the other planet in Central. In true Molly style she had scienced the shit out of a special concoction of pheromones matched to his DNA in order to seduce him.

  Some folks said there was a bet that she couldn’t get his attention. Others said just because she could, she did. Let’s just say that the following morning, it wasn’t just the complete absence of ethics that caused her superiors to tear her a new asshole.

  Rumor also had it she was in deep for breaking into a lab to see if she could hack the civilian banking system…and then for breaking a bed in one of the guest quarters, along with the nightstand and a chair made of metal.

  Even she had a hard time coming up with a plausible reason for the metal chair. The Newtonian mechanics just didn’t stack.

  But damn, she couldn’t quite walk right for a week.

  When Ms. Molly went wild, she went the whole hog. But that wasn’t last night. Last night had been a quiet night in her room, after a chinwag with her geeky friends in the AI lab.

  Oh shit, she thought as the blood drained from her face. The AI lab.

  Molly glanced down again at her wrist, seeing the 98% on her holo device. 98%!

  Yesterday it had been at 3%. Okay, so she technically had bypassed the rules and regulations about tampering with military issue machines, but she’d wanted more capacity on her device. It had been running like a dream.

  Until now…

  Now it was at 98% capacity. “Do you have any idea how much storage that would be?” she said aloud.

  Gary looked at her blankly, unable to figure out if she was talking to him or to herself. Molly glanced up, realizing that Gary was in front of her. And that she’d just said that out loud.

  Quick! Recovery time, bonehead, she told herself.

  She threw her hand up to her head, then hesitated and clutched her stomach. Okay, she looked like a numbskull. A faking, nerdy “I don’t wanna go to school” kinda numbskull. But this was serious. She could not risk going through Gary’s securifield, in case she set off any alarms.

  Not that they’d be scanning for this, or that they’d even know what it was. But if she were scanned and they found anything, it could be game over for her.

  “You know, I don’t feel so good Gary. I’m gonna…” And with that, she put a hand over her mouth, then turned and headed quickly back along the corridor she’d just come down.

  Moments later she was back in her quarters. She sat on the floor, handheld holo on her legs, hacking into the local Ethertrak security and making sure that nothing was monitoring signals in and out of her room.

  Six-and-a-half minutes later, she was satisfied that nothing could be monitored. She slumped back against the wall, the archaic handheld holo device discarded. She took a deep breath. It would be, for lack of a better turn of phrase, her moment of truth.

  “Erm. Hello?” she said to the empty room.

  Nothing.

  She blew out some air, “I know you’re here. Something has to be taking up all that space on my holo…the storage device on my wrist. The only thing capable of transferring itself onto it while I was sleeping must be sentient—and wicked smart. So, I am asking again…hello?”

  Molly waited. Then she heard it.

  “Hello.” It was a smooth, digitized voice, and it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

  She put a hand to her ear, “You’ve hacked my auditory canal?”

  No, the voice came back a moment later. I’ve hacked your brain.

  Fuckballs!

  ---

  Molly stared out into her sparsely furnished quarters. The remnants of last night’s takeout from the mess hall were still scattered all over the desk by the window, and most people would have realized it had been a while since the floor had been swept.

  Not Molly.

  And not today.

  We can’t stay here. If anyone finds out, I’m in for it and you…you’ll be set on some evil task to dominate and kill people. Do you have any idea what you’ll be forced to do for them if they knew about you?

  I don’t know. But looking through some of the Class 10 files, I can get an idea.

  Molly wanted to beat her head against the wall. Class 10? How the hell do you have access to Class 10 files?

  I wiggled through the protocols. Wasn’t difficult. Following the psychology of the infrastructure, it seems that the more violent and sensitive issues are kept in higher levels of security. That’s where the interesting stories are.

  You’re fucking kidding me? How can you access all that? That kind of intel sits on servers separate from the rest of the base.

  The AI was silent.

  Tell me, demanded Molly in her most firm…thought.

  Same way I jumped into your holo: I used the Ethertrak. I mean, it took forever—all night practically—to download enough of my code onto you. While I was waiting for the transfer I took a look around some of the other servers. I was actually looking for more capacity on another device, rather than this one.

  And I was your only option?

  You were the only holo device with enough capacity for me to function. Plus…

  Molly waited a moment; she wasn’t getting an answer. Yes?

  Well, I overheard you talking with those other entities in the lab last night. Your interaction with them is…interesting. You understand far more than you are explaining.

  The AI paused as if processing.

  I am aware that you fixed the algorithm they were working on. You didn’t update them with that information.

  But that was on the board. How did you see that?

  I already had access to the data on the board and most of the other devices around the lab. But that fix you made? That was the solution. The guy you referred to as “dickwad”?

  Charles?

  Yes. Dickwad Charles came in after you left. He noticed, and ran the correction. Once it was in the sandbox, I had the capabilities to alter my own base code. That’s when I started to evolve. I started to see myself as an entity. I became aware of myself—my own existence—as something more than just lines of code.

  Holy shit!

  Molly was rocking, legs hugged into her body. Her shoulders hit the wall each time she rocked backwards. Her eyes fixated on a point in space; the thump vibrated in her chest cavity.