Ki Book One (5 page)

The man began to speak in a muffled voice.
He did not pull out a large radio,
he did not shout either. It was as if his men
remained in easy contact with him, wherever he was.

Using the wall as traction, Jackson kept on
pushing into it with his feet and thrusting backwards. Soon he was
out of the corridor and the soldier was out of sight.

The further Jackson moved through the house,
the more that floating feeling began to wane. The furniture around
him did not hover as high, and the sensation in his limbs all but
dwindled.

By the time he reached the front door, his
feet were almost touching the ground.

The blue light around him was a trickle now.
With one final push, it ended, and his body landed back on the
ground with a thump.

The jolt shifted through Ki, and she stirred
against him.

She started to wake. He brought his gun down
before she could see it.

Eyes fluttering, a groan escaped her
lips.

“
What... what’s happening?” her voice was
small, her words croaked.

“
We’re out of the house,” Jackson loosened
his grip around her. He no longer had to question her story. It was
clear she could not be a Tarkan spy. The soldiers that had come for
her were almost beyond imagination. Almost....

He’d heard the stories as a kid. His
grandmother had been particularly fond of telling them. The
Zeneethians were the third race, the hidden race. Beyond any
technology either the Tarkans or the Ashkans possessed, their
sophistication was incredible.

They were meant to be a myth. No one had
ever found any evidence of their existence. According to the
legend, they lived in the sky. Yet as telescopes had improved, no
one had ever seen a single floating city.

If the men in his house weren’t
Zeneethians though, who were they?

As he hesitated, Ki’s lethargy lifted. He
watched the muscles of her face tense, her eyes open wider.

“
Where are they, where are the Others, the
Scouts?” she pushed away from him, though she still couldn’t stand.
Despite her passion, her body hadn’t yet woken up
properly.

“
You mean the soldiers? I’ve warned them
off, they’re still at the back of the house.”

She shook, lurching back
. “We don’t have much time. We need to get
out of here before they call for backup.”

She pushed away from him, breaking his grip
around her. Though she stumbled, somehow she stood. Then she turned
around wildly, searching her surroundings.

She gasped, staggering past him. Turning, he
saw where she was headed.

There was... something out in the hay
field.

Sleek and large, it looked like a truck
without wheels, though the body was continuous save for one
rectangle door.

It was pure white like the armor he’d just
seen.

She kept stumbling towards it.

“
What are you doing?” he ran towards
her.

“
Need to get away,” she tripped, falling to
her knees, but pushed herself up before he could lean down to help
her.

He grabbed onto her arm, intending to steady
her, but she yanked free. She reached the ship, flattening her
hands onto the hatch-like door and running her shaking palms down
it. As she reached the bottom, she pushed in, and with a hiss it
opened forward.

Swaying backwards, she threw herself
inside.

“
What is this vehicle?” he came up beside
her, but the door was not big enough for them both to lean inside
at once.

“
Scout ship.” She disappeared inside, her
bare feet left dangling out the door.

They were muddy and cut. No doubt from her
trek through the field. Seeing the smeared blood and dirt sent a
pang of guilt twisting through his gut.

He’d done that.

Yes, she was Tarkan, but it had become
abundantly apparent she was no spy. Whether she was a priestess as
she claimed was a moot point. Those soldiers were desperate to get
her back. And they clearly had no scruples about how they did
it.

She fidgeted around, feet finally
disappearing inside the vehicle.

He latched onto the hatch and pulled his
torso inside, amazed at what he saw. There were four seats and a
dashboard filled with flat panels that were covered in softly
pulsing, moving lights.

Ki, still on her stomach, was under the main
dash. She was trying to pry open a panel, but her shaking fingers
kept glancing off.

“
What are you doing?” he climbed
inside.

“
Try... trying to get to the crystal
inside. Powers the ship.”

He moved forward. Crouching beside her, he
periodically raised his head to stare out of the windscreen before
him. There was no sign of those white soldiers. Yet.

He knew what he should do. Take her around
the front and threaten to shoot her, to ensure those futuristic
soldiers truly surrendered.

Instead he shifted forward, latched his
fingers around the panel she was trying to open, and yanked it off
himself.

She looked at him. Her features were still
slack with fatigue, but her frown softened. Then she turned
immediately, flopping back on the ground and plunging her hand into
the circuits beyond the panel.

His brow twitched up, lips dropping
open.

The circuits were made of a slim, flexible,
silver filament. That was not what caught his breath though. It was
the glowing lattice structure lodged inside them. It sent periodic
pulses through the wires, a soft hum filling the ship.

Without warning, she latched her hand on
it and pulled it free. Sparks erupted from the wires. Instinctively
he grabbed her shoulders and wrenched her back. She didn’t seem to
care that the sparks landed against her skin and clothes, singeing
them. Instead she spluttered as she stared at the device, quick
tears tracing down her cheeks.

It was exactly the same as the one he’d
destroyed in the house. A unique, complicated blue structure unlike
anything he’d ever seen.

She pushed past him, flattening him against
the seat nearest as she scrabbled towards the door.

He followed. “What is that?”

She fell out of the ship, landing on the
ground with a groan, but instantly raising her head to check on the
stone. Crawling forward on her stomach, she held it up to the
light.

He saw a glint travel across the surface,
lighting up the blue crystal structure as she clutched it with a
white-knuckled hand.

He jumped out of the vessel, leaning down
beside her. His gun was still in his hand. He should pull her up
and take her around front. He needed to ensure the Guards could
overcome those soldiers. Yet the prospect of grabbing her again and
forcing the gun against her head....

He’d always followed orders. He’d been a
model soldier. Now he was a science officer in the Royal Academy,
he worked with the military developing new technologies, not just
for defense, but weapons too.

He knew the costs of trusting the Tarkans.
All Ashkans did.

She tried to stand, but her hands buckled
out from underneath her. As her face slammed down, she brought the
device up instantly, trying to hold it back up to the
sun.

“
What are you—” he began. Then he
stopped.

He heard footsteps coming around the side of
the house. Ducking down, he brought his gun forward.

Before he could entertain the hope it was
the Guards, he saw that glinting white armor.

Stomach sinking, he went to push his back
flush with the vessel, intending to use it for cover. Then he
stopped. Snapping down, he tucked an arm around her middle and
brought her with him.

“
Activate ship’s defenses, flush them
forward,” someone snapped. He recognized the voice. It was the
distorted baritone of the head soldier.

Getting ready to push himself away from the
vessel, Ki suddenly locked her legs in place, keeping them
anchored. She brought up the stone.

He understood. It must run the ship. Without
it, whatever the soldiers were planning would not work.

There was an electronic beep, followed by
the whirring down of an engine.

“
Ship has been disabled, engines down,” one
of the other soldiers noted.

“
We have to get out of here... I’m, I’m
sorry.” Realizing there was only one thing to do, Jackson brought
his gun up.

She batted it down, bringing the device up
again, reaching her hand forward, trying to lift the stone out of
the ship’s shadow.

He grabbed her hand back before she could
offer the soldiers a target, moving her around as he did, pushing
further behind the ship and out of sight.

She kept trying to bring the device to the
light.

“
Don’t,” he hissed in her ear.

“
Need to get warm. Needs to be
warm.”

“
Why? What are you doing?”

“
Only escape.” She turned to him, pushing
the stone into his chest. “Breathe on it. Warm it. Won’t work when
it’s cold.”

Though he needed all his wits, he still took
the stone. She pushed it further into him. Closing her hand around
his.

The stone was cold to touch. It felt like it
was eating the heat right out of him, reaching down to his bones
and taking every trace of warmth it could.

He went to drop it, to yank his hand back,
but she fixed her fingers harder around his.

“
Our weapons will work now,” the head
soldier said. He was only meters away, rounding the side of the
ship. Soon he would be in view.

They were out of time.

“
Sorry,” Jackson brought the gun up, pushed
his arm around her neck, and got ready to stand.

She resisted, bringing her hand up and
grabbing at the device.

The soldiers came into view, one by one,
their weapons levelled.

He pulled himself up, arm still around her
neck. It was as loose as it could be while still making it appear
as if he held her firmly.

“
Release her.” The main soldier stepped
forward, gun fast in his grip.

“
I will shoot her,” Jackson pushed the gun
into her temple and hated himself as he felt her flinch against
him.

“
Do not make enemies of us. We will destroy
your village if you get in our way. Kill her, we will eradicate an
entire province. Millions will have you to thank for their
deaths.”

Swallowing, he didn’t release her.

Through the entire confrontation, she did
not stop moving. With her sleeves pulled over her hands, she
fidgeted with the stone out of sight.

“
Release her. This is your final warning,”
the lead soldier stepped forward. As he did, he shifted his head
subtly.

It would be a sign. An order to one of the
other soldiers.

“
This better not kill me,” Ki shuddered
back into him. As she did, light began to leak from between her
sleeves.

“
She has a levi device,” the lead soldier
screamed, the distortion in his voice not hiding his
desperation.

The light began to envelop
her, streaming so fast from the
crystal she held that he had to shield his eyes with his
arm.

“
Hold on,” she snapped at him.

Latching a hand over his arm and bringing it
back to her middle, her body began to push up against his. She had
not jumped. She was starting to float, and as he held on, she
pulled him up along with her.

It was the oddest sensation, his feet
lifting off the ground gently, body filling with that same light,
airy feeling.

The soldiers toted their weapons and he
flinched, getting ready to act.

“
They can’t do anything. They won’t shoot
this close to me, and their ship is disabled.” Ki breathed heavily,
her chest tight against his arm.

They floated up, higher and higher, the
stone moving them with no trouble against the pull of gravity.

He began to stiffen, body locking in place,
arm tightening around Ki out of desperation. He could see his house
below, he could see right into one of the chimneys.

“
You’re choking me,” Ki pushed against his
arm.

“
Sorry but we’re... we’re
flying.”

“
Levitating,” she corrected.

They were above the tallest trees now, and
he could easily see around the house. The Guard truck was open...
but there were no bodies. No sign of people at all.

“
What have they done? Where the hell are
the Guards? What did those soldiers do?” he strained his neck to
look down. “We have to go down and check on them.”

“
We can’t go back down.”

“
I have to find them,” he kept straining,
but the higher they floated, the less he could make out.

“
Leave it. You can’t find them. More...
will be on the way,” her words were slurred, her body doubling
forward as she spoke.

“
Hey, Takar—” he began. “Ki. Ki, are you
alright?”

Her breathing started to slow. Dropping
forward, her arms brushed loosely against his own.

She was about to faint.

Quickly he grabbed at her hand and closed
his fingers around it, locking the device in place before she could
drop it.

“
Ki, Ki,” he tried to wake her, but she lay
loose against him.

The effects of whatever drug those soldiers
had injected her with had obviously returned.