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  She huffed, and stood, noisily stomping her boots together like an impatient child. He ignored her and moved through the room. Molly watched him disappear along the wall.

  Something started humming, and lights started flashing here and there. A glow started up around the periphery, as if the room was waking up.

  Joel’s voice came through the darkness. “What did you do?” he hissed.

  Molly used her normal indoor voice. “Nothing. Jeez.” But now, with light revealing more of the detail of the room, Molly moved closer to an object in front of her. It seemed like a console. Or table.

  Console… definitely a console.

  There was another in front of it, and another to the side.

  Molly looked over as far as she could see. The walls were becoming illuminated, and the size of the room was quickly becoming apparent.

  Molly stood with her mouth open. She was standing in what could only be an operations room. Consoles hummed, and screens started flickering on. There were giant star maps plotted on a holo over on the far side of the enormous room. Maps she didn’t recognize. Space she’d never seen before.

  She looked across at Joel, who was crouched a little, having been stealthily moving through the darkness. Now revealed in plain sight, he looked like a doofus.

  “Ops room?” she asked him.

  Joel stood up straight and looked around, hands now on his hips. “Yup. Ops room.”

  Molly grinned, the excitement of childish adventure spilling out of her. She jumped up and down on the spot silently squealing and clapping her hands together.

  Joel looked over at her, grinning at her enthusiasm. “You look like you’re gonna burst.”

  “Eeeeeeeee!” she squealed audibly this time. “I think I might.”

  Well that’s another way to kick me out of your circuits.

  Molly ignored Oz, noticing another door on the other side of the control room.

  Joel looked over the equipment and wandered over to one of the consoles. “Looks like super advanced shit. Enough tech here to run a war…”

  Molly was already heading towards the next door. She jogged past him, catching his attention. His eyes followed her as she approached the door that would lead them deeper into this place.

  Joel realized what was happening. “Wait!” he called after her.

  Without hesitation, Molly pushed her way through the second door. Again, she stepped into blackness, her night vision shot to bits from the lights coming through next door.

  “Molly!” Joel was calling after her. “Are you sure you want…” and with that he was standing right beside her, also straining to see into the darkness.

  She stepped inside, and generators started to hum. Lights started coming on at various points. The pair stood watching, trying to make out what was there. There was lots of space… but after the space, there were racks. Racks and racks of…

  “Weapons!” Joel breathed.

  Molly wandered over to the racks. These were some big ass guns and stunners. She ran her fingers over a couple of them. “Don’t recognize any of these from my time in the military. They look kinda hi-tech.”

  Joel had moved over to one of the racks and was examining one without touching it. He peered closer, able to see more with each second, as the ambient light increased gently. “Yep. Definitely nothing here from the Sark System. This is alien.”

  Molly giggled. “So FUCKING cool!” she exclaimed.

  Joel stepped back out from the racking to see her emerge from another row, and walk briskly down the aisles.

  “Shit!” she said now in her outdoor voice, calling back to him.

  Joel started jogging to catch up to her. He had no idea how big this room was, but it was starting to feel like a warehouse. An underground frikkin’ warehouse behind a secret door, which someone had let them venture through.

  His internal conspiracy theorist suddenly went nuts: Maybe it’s a trap. Maybe it’s a government organization that they’d happened upon, and now they were going to kill them. Maybe it was a recruitment center for terrorists.

  Shit - he should give his conspiracy theorist voice a fokking name, at this point.

  Molly interrupted his thoughts. “Big fuck-off artillery down this way…” she told him.

  He caught up to where she was standing, looking down an aisle with different types of racks holding shells, bombs, and all kinds of badassery.

  “Enough to run a war,” he repeated.

  Molly nodded. “Looks about right,” she said. “You recognize any of this shit?”

  Joel shook his head. “I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s all from outside our system. This tech is too advanced. We’d need to look at it more carefully to figure out some of this shit. All I can say at this point is that it doesn’t look like someone was just trying to put on a fireworks show for the local PTA meeting.”

  Molly glanced over at him. She grinned the biggest grin he had ever seen. His heart stopped for a moment. And then she was gone.

  “Hey, wait up…” he called after her. She was jogging back through to the ops room.

  “Come on!” she called excitedly. “I wanna see what’s behind door number three!”

  ***

  Meanwhile, back in the workshop, Brock had re-emerged with a fresh mocha from upstairs. He went back to his workbench and reactivated the holo frames he had left out.

  He paused. Something felt… different. He looked around his workspace. Everything was as he had left it.

  He started reading one of the holo screens, getting his head back into what he’d been doing. Absentmindedly, he reached for his mocha, and brought it to his lips. To sip it, he had to pull his eyes from the screen. He lifted his head up and tipped the cup back, allowing him to take in a mouthful of the beautiful, hot nectar.

  And that’s when he saw it.

  Across the workshop, the door. The door was opened. His eyes went wide. His heart went to his mouth.

  His mouthful of mocha sprayed all over the workbench.

  “HOLY FUCK WITH A DEVIL ON THE ICE CREAM!!!” he shouted without thinking.

  “Molly!” he shouted. “Molly! Molly!”

  He ran towards the stairs, then back to the workbench to see if he could call her on her holo. Then he changed his mind again and decided to try and find her.

  Conference room, he thought.

  He scrambled towards the stairs, nearly falling over himself. He had his foot on the first step when he heard voices.

  Molly’s voice.

  From THE OTHER SIDE of the open door.

  He barely remembered getting there, but next thing he knew, he had covered the length of the workshop and was at the door, watching Molly and Joel come out of a room off to the left, down a very short corridor.

  “It’s incredible!” Molly said to him excitedly. Her face beamed.

  Brock stepped back away from the doorway.

  Molly looked at him. “Brock, what’s wrong?”

  Joel looked at him too. “He’s gone… pale.”

  Brock looked down at his arm, and pinched it with his other hand.

  Joel grinned. “Not dreaming, buddy. Come on, Molly wants to check out that door at the end of the corridor.”

  He beckoned for Brock to follow. “I have the job of stopping her from setting off any booby traps, or starting up the Etheric Wars with the shit we’re finding in here,” he joked.

  Brock couldn’t believe how relaxed they were. His eyes still wide and his heart now beating out of his chest, all he could do was nod. He took a few steps forward.

  Molly skipped off to the double doors at the end of the corridor, followed closely by Joel.

  Brock silently and cautiously traipsed after them.

  Now more confident they weren’t going to step into a room holding a monster or a trap, Molly burst through the double doors to find herself standing on a platform, overlooking what could only be described as a hangar-deck.

  As the lights slowly started coming on, it became a
pparent that this was where they kept the ships. Starships. Actual space-going starships! None of the interplanetary shit they’d been playing with.

  No, these were the things of the legends. The things that they had assumed existed in other systems where civilizations would trade with and fight each other.

  Dozens of ships were all around. And they had guns, and missiles, and all kinds of “toys” for blowing things to shit.

  But there, in the center, was a ship to rival all ships. It looked like it could carry at least a hundred troops, and took up most of the deck. But that wasn’t what had instantly grabbed Molly’s attention. Painted on the side was something that made her squeal with sheer delight.

  She couldn’t believe it.

  Her head spun, and she felt dizzy.

  After all these years, searching the far reaches of the dark web, tracking someone who was by all accounts untraceable, she had begun to believe the rumors that maybe she had never existed.

  That perhaps she was just a legend to make children eat their vegetables, or keep empires in line to protect the humans.

  But here was proof. Real, actual evidence. Her childhood hero was real.

  And just as badass as she had imagined her to be.

  Painted on the side of the ship was an image of a human female skull. With fangs.

  FINIS

  Author Notes - Ell Leigh Clarke

  May 17, 2017

  Hey Ascenders!

  First of all, thank you sooooo much for buying, downloading and reading Book 2. I’m guessing you’ll have also read Book 1 as well, and for that I am immensely grateful.

  You’ve been changing my life through your words and actions. More on that in a moment.

  Yoda

  I’ve been deeply amused to see that the Yoda references have been catching on. MA was bitching the other day about how his page has been bombed with people pulling his leg about it. He also suggested that he might learn to do Yoda-speak.

  I have yet to see this.

  MA still has my unending gratitude for the continued mentorship in the ways of the Force: for the hours discussing story plot, book covers, stats, continuous and tireless encouragement, laughing at the scenes I send over, and more recently the finer points of AI development. (To be discussed in Book 3).

  Michael, thank you. You’re still my Yoda.

  Reviews

  Wow - you folks are amazing. I was thrilled this morning to see that Awakened has got 52 reviews, giving us a 4.8 average, and 5 FULL pretty stars.

  MA says this is very rare for a Book 1.

  I blame the pixie-wielding HORDE of awesome though. Thank you for doing this: for reading, for reviewing, and for being so open with your praise.

  Not only that, but I just wanted to say that on a personal note some of your comments both in the reviews and on the fb page have not only been deeply touching, but also emotionally validating and healing.

  After reading some of the reviews about how you loved Molly and identified with her, and how you couldn't wait to hear more...and so many words of encouragement to me as a new author... it was just... overwhelming. In a good way.

  I had no idea that Molly would be so welcomed into the Kurtherian universe.

  And you guys have made *me* feel so welcome too, being allowed to write in your space. I feel like I have finally found my tribe.

  This kind of support, this kind of tribe that I have found with you, the fans of all things Kurtherian Universe, is LIFE CHANGING. And I’m not just talking about having a book that hits obliterates the best sellers list.

  I’m talking about the kind of comments that make it ok to be broken, or outside a few standard deviations of “the norm”. Hearing things like “Yeah. Me too. I can identify with Molly” have also been transformational for me.

  Words cannot begin to express the depth of what this has meant to me.

  Truly, thank you.

  But about that **outright obliteration** of the charts…

  Have you any idea what that was like to watch?

  You guys smashed it.

  You got AWAKENED to:

  #1 in Metaphysical & Visionary

  #1 in Metaphysical

  #1 in Galactic Empire Science Fiction

  #1 Colonization

  # 1 in fokking Space Opera!!!!

  Space Opera!!!!

  (**Peel Ellie down from ceiling**)

  I never imagined this might be possible. And certainly not for something I've written.

  I was amazed when it hit the top 12 for *all* science fiction too.

  **In-fucking-credible!**

  Just goes to show the power of the KGU fans. EPIC!!

  Needless to say, there were several hours when I needed peeling off the ceiling, and as I confessed on a few facebook posts, yes, I did have a little cry.

  That was, until the pitch-fork touting fae started prodding and I was forced to get back to writing Book 2 – the product of which you now hold in your hands.

  Reviewers

  Massive gratitude bombs must go to you awesome folks for posting some incredible reviews on the ‘Zon. As you know, as indies we live or die by the reviews you post, so I’m incredibly grateful for those who took the time to say some lovely words. You’re the best!

  Reviewers include:

  Sharon, gjh, OldArcher, Lori, and KRGOS, Dragon Caver, flyingonempty, Rae, CEMattoxS, India51, Sherry, Kris, Rosemary, Ogidog, Amazon Customer, J Kling, Nancy, Terrence, Holly, Thavy, Lorraine, YoB, Travis, Frank, M. Brown, James, Gene, KLJ, C Necheles, Dave9969, and Nathan, Kelly, unfortunately, Adam, "Readalot", Kristin, and Dean.

  "Amazon Customer" and “Kindle Customer” has made a few appearances too.

  If I missed anyone, I’m so sorry. We went through the pages a few times to make sure we caught each name, but it’s possible a few have slipped through the gaps, or shown up as "Amazon Customer" and “Kindle Customer”.

  Special thanks

  Special thanks must also go to our team of amazing JIT-ers, (posted in the credits at the beginning of the book).

  You’re my saviours, catching details that we missed when we made adjustments to plots, as well as typos and commas.

  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

  Meat vs Veggie

  Ok, so now is as good a time as any to confess that the meat on the pizza debacle has some root in real life. At some point on a phone call before MA and I started writing we ended up talking about pizza.

  As you do.

  It came up that I was vegetarian. MA was appropriately dismissive of the entire lifestyle choice and declared pizza has to have meat on it.

  We agreed to disagree and moved on.

  It wasn’t until we were hanging at a conference in Austin a few weeks ago and had to order pizza, that this became an issue. (Read: DRAMA). In the end we opted for the risky choice of half veggie, half meat, and then just hope that the boundary conditions held adequately.

  But holy fuck… if you’re veggie and you ever do this, be warned! No matter what they tell you, or how much they cajole, it is NOT safe. I repeat. It is NOT SAFE.

  I soooo nearly ended up biting into a stray piece of pepperoni. It wasn’t even funny.

  Yet, something MA found immensely amusing.

  On a related note, I also discovered that the man does not each vegetable.

  Not ever.

  Not even a sprig of lettuce.

  How he is even still alive I will never know.

  I’m blaming nanocytes. Or an unearthly connection to the etheric.

  Ellie x

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