Cloaked Read online

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Legal

  Zhyn Politician

  Zhyn Soldier

  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

  Epilogue

  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

  CLOAKED

  The Ascension Myth 07

  JIT Beta Readers

  Kelly O’Donnell

  John Findlay

  John Raisor

  Jed Moulton

  Paul Westman

  James Caplan

  Keith Verret

  Erika Daly

  Alex Wilson

  Joshua Ahles

  Micky Cocker

  If we missed anyone, please let us know!

  CLOAKED (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 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, September 2017

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

  CHAPTER ONE

  Aboard the ArchAngel, Commons Lounge

  Giles ambled up to the young man sitting with his back to the bar in a booth. The lounge was mostly quiet and empty, on account of the early morning hour.

  “Uncle Lance?” Giles approached him, looking a little worse for wear.

  Lance looked up from his coffee as if woken from a day dream. “Giles. Morning. Er… do sit down,” he said, gesturing to the seat across from him.

  Giles shuffled in, and nodded to the server at the bar offering him coffee. He turned his attention immediately back to Lance. “You ok?” he asked, noticing the chewed cigar abandoned on the table.

  “I’m fine,” Lance answered. “I’ve just been up a while.”

  Giles paused, waiting for more information.

  Lance pushed his coffee mug forward a little, and wiped his hand over his face. “It’s the Federation stuff. It’s all getting a little… silly… if you ask me.”

  Giles tilted his head, questioningly. The server had come over with a fresh cup and the coffee. He poured one for Giles and then topped up the General’s before quietly disappearing out of earshot.

  Giles grabbed for some whitener at the end of the table and started stirring it into the tar-black nectar. “What’s going on?” he asked, concerned.

  Lance shrugged. “Oh, the usual. The Leath for one. Pressures for us to disarm generally. Meanwhile others are assembling their forces month by month, like they think we don’t know what they’re doing.”

  He shook his head in disbelief. “Anyway…” Lance continued, “nothing for you to worry about. I just wanted to speak with you before you disappeared off on one of your goose chases.”

  Giles eyes brightened in interest. He took a slurp of his coffee and then set the mug down. “Oh?”

  Lance had a little twinkle in his eye. “Yes. And don’t pretend… I know you’re heading off to Orn with or without my blessing…”

  Giles started to protest, but Lance held his hand up. “Ah, now now. Come on. I’ve known you since you were in diapers. I’ve witnessed or had reports on every stunt you’ve ever pulled, remember…”

  Giles settled his indignation and resigned himself to hearing the General out.

  Lance smiled gently. “So I was going to give you my blessing for Orn. But-” he continued quickly before Giles could get too excited. “I need weekly reports from you on this.”

  The General paused, and Giles took the opportunity to clarify. “Meaning… it’s an official trip?”

  Lance nodded. “It is. And if you’re right about this talisman stuff, it affects the Federation directly. But it’s a complex situation. The Zhyn are friends now, but they still haven’t joined the Federation, proper. Bottom line, you need to tread very carefully out there - which means no inciting hostility.”

  Giles nodded obediently.

  “Plus,” Lance continued, “after what you put us all through with getting yourself taken hostage, I’d be more comfortable being kept up to date with your whereabouts. Remember, the whole Federation may report to me,… but when you’re on one of these hair-brained missions, I end up reporting to your mother.”

  Giles sniggered, carefully placing his coffee mug down again, for fear of spilling or snorting it. He took a moment to compose himself. “Ok, Uncle Lance. I hear you. Loud and clear.”

  Lance smiled. “Good. Coz heaven forbid anything happens to you. We’d all have our heads on the chopping block.”

  Giles bobbed his head and took another sip of coffee. “So… Moons of Orn, and then Estaria?”

  The General suddenly looked a little confused. He frowned. “Estaria?”

  Giles nodded. “Yeah. I mean, the parent talisman I had there and then took to Teshov was one I found on Earth, if you remember. That means that we haven’t found any more pieces of the puzzle in the Estarian culture. And with what I showed you and Molly about the similarities in the genetic make-up of the Zhyn and Estarians, it seems only logical that there will be one in Estarian culture.”

  Lance grunted and Giles continued. “Well, Arlene and I both believe that there are cultural similarities too. Like similarities in their ascension myths…”

  Lance frowned. “You mean, you think they’re both talking about the same phenomenon?”

  Giles’s face lit up “Exactly!”

  Reynolds rubbed his chin, his elbows resting on the table. “Hmm. Yes, Molly had mentioned as much.”

  “Molly?” Giles asked, curious.

  Lance nodded. “Yeah, she was also interested in getting answers about this.”

  Giles thought for a moment. “You mean, because of her realm jumping thing?”

  Lance took a slurp of coffee, and then pushed the mug away deciding he’d had enough. “Yes, I believe so.” He paused, watching Giles’s reactions carefully. “Do you think it’s related?”

  Giles nodded
. “Almost certainly. There’s a bigger picture we’re not seeing yet. I think gathering these two fragments - the oracle from Orn, and whatever the Estarian equivalent is, will give us some definitives to work with.”

  Lance took a deep breath. “Well, you have my blessing.” He paused, settling back in the the seat. “You’ll be taking Arlene with you, of course?”

  Giles looked resistant for a moment, before quickly realizing that the suggestion Lance had made wasn’t quite a suggestion. He gathered his thoughts. “Yes, Uncle Lance. I’ll be taking Arlene to babysit me,” he teased.

  Lance’s face relaxed a little. “Very good,” he acknowledged. “So tell me, this ‘do’ your mother is organizing tomorrow… what time does it start?”

  Aboard the ArchAngel, Comms Room AA19

  Arlene sat immersed in her holo screens, her audio implants tuning out the sounds around her, and playing a brain synch track to help her focus. She scrolled through one of the holo documents, trying to figure out if there was a connection between that and the other account she had been reading.

  She felt a nudge on her shoulder.

  She turned, half expecting it to have been a random muscle spasm. Or even a sensation from the realm jumping she had been doing earlier. When she concentrated hard, she could sometimes lose her grounding.

  But then she saw that there was someone standing there just behind her.

  She flicked her audio to ambient and looked up. “Oh, Giles… you scared me!” she said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

  Giles pulled up a console chair next to her. “No, I didn’t,” he told her. “You could have an armed warrior sneak up next to you and you’d be ready to poke his eyes out with your elbow.

  Arlene turned back to her document, her face perfectly straight. “That is true.”

  Giles chuckled. “So… I have news,” he offered.

  Arlene continued studying her screens, flicking between one and another as if she were on the brink of a meaningful breakthrough. “Uh huh,” she muttered.

  Giles leaned back in his chair. “Yeah. You want the good news, or the bad?”

  Arlene leaned up a little, and turned her head towards him. She narrowed her eyes. “Gimme the bad first. Always.”

  Giles grinned. “The bad news is… I need to take you with me.”

  Arlene tried her best to look annoyed. “And the good news?” she asked.

  Giles’s grin spread a little wider. “The good news is the General has put us onto the Orn thing. We can leave whenever we want.” He rocked a little in the console chair, waiting for the praise to follow.

  Arlene didn’t answer and went back to her screens.

  Giles sat up suddenly. “What? What’s the problem?” he pressed.

  Arlene put her holo screens down and turned to him. “What’s the problem?” she repeated his question, a hint of frustration in her voice now.

  Giles eyes opened in bewilderment. “Yeah.”

  Arlene clasped her hands together on her lap. “I’ll tell you what the problem is! Apart from the fact that not a matter of weeks ago you went and surrendered your sorry ass to a known terrorist organization. Apart from that, and the hell you put us all through… you left me.”

  Giles’s eyes wrinkled up in confusion. “What? When?” he asked, searching his memory.

  Arlene frowned at him. “Seventy years ago. We had a row, and I thought we were going to figure it out. And then I came home one evening and you were just… gone.”

  Giles’s mouth dropped open. “I left because you told me to!”

  Arlene scowled at him. “I did no such thing!”

  Giles’s was caught completely off guard. There was a second’s silence while his brain scrambled to recall the events of that night.

  “You did!” he protested. “You said that if I wasn’t ready to settle down, and stop the juvenile adventure trips where I’d disappear for weeks on end, you thought that it would be better that I didn’t come back. So I took you at your word.”

  Arlene shook her head. “Those things… we said things like that in arguments. That’s just what people say in the heat of the moment.”

  Giles shook his head, taking his glasses from his face. “Well, I didn’t know that. I thought you wanted me to go…”

  Arlene shook her head, her anger lifting to reveal the old pain. “No. It was… silly. And, in the Estarian way of doing discussions… it’s just a point of negotiation.”

  Giles suddenly seemed to disappear from behind his eyes.

  Arlene tapped him on the leg. “Hey. Where did you go?”

  Giles’s mouth hung open for a moment before he returned to his senses. “I’ve just realized… a whole bunch of interactions have just made sense… Although,” he added, cleaning his glasses and putting them back on his face, “the common denominator wasn’t the Estarian thing. It was more the female thing…”

  Arlene didn’t hesitate. She slapped the side of his leg. This time quite hard.

  “Owwww!” He protested, rubbing the point of impact hard. “That’s-”

  “No less than you deserve!” she said, finishing his sentence for him.

  He looked down at his leg where he was rubbing. “That’s going to give me a painful lump,” he told her.

  “Humpft,” she scoffed, turning back to her work. “Don’t forget, alien-boy, I know about the nanocytes. Your exaggerations and fibs aren’t going to work on me, like it works on your floozies…”

  “Floozies?” Giles repeated, looking shocked, and yet vaguely amused at this revelation.

  Suddenly his mood changed, and he scooted his antigrav console chair a little closer to Arlene. “So, er… do I assume from all of this that you still have…”

  Arlene scooted her chair back from him. “No. No, it does not. Not even a little bit. That ship has well and truly sailed.”

  Giles backed his chair up a little too. “Well, erm… Ok then.” He removed his glasses again, and started cleaning them, a little embarrassed this time.

  Arlene smiled. “No,” she concluded. “Too much water under the bridge,” she explained more gently now. “And though you’re easy on the eye, your boyish charm just doesn’t do anything for me anymore…”

  Giles sighed and slumped back in his chair. His eyes looked a little dull, as if he’d suffered an actual disappointment.

  Arlene turned back to her holoscreens. “Anyway, no need to look so glum,” she told him. “From the sound of it we have another mission.”

  Giles eyed her carefully. “So… you’re ok with working with me again?”

  Arlene nodded, still not looking at him. “Oh yes,” she answered simply. “I just needed to clear the air…”

  “The air I didn’t know was smoggy,” he mumbled.

  Arlene half turned her face as if responding to his comment, but didn’t manage to peel her eyes from her holos. “In fact,” she told him, “I’ve been doing a little cross checking with your nursery rhyme.”

  Giles sat up and pulled himself closer again, peering over at her holos. “Oh yeah?”

  Arlene picked up one screen. “Yep. I think I’ve narrowed it down to three possible moons. We’ll know more when we get close and we can see the exact arrangement of the moons now… I think this data we’re using is pretty old… and then we need to wait for the alignment… or calculate it… but in any case, I think we have a way forward.”