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Ajha Lann, a dawning psion grew up under the wing of an older girl. Together they scrounged for food and avoided capture by the gangers in the ruins of Farringay. Left on her own when Mikki is captured by gangers, the voices in her head seemed to get louder but one presence is stronger than the others. It gives her hope of something better for her future.
Calan Narcaza’s mother, the former Michelle Marlow was born
in the ruins Farringay outside the Starport Compound. Little had changed since
his father went to Earth to find Chelle and claim her as his mate. Calan knows
the dangers, but he has felt Ajha Lann reaching out to him from several years.
He knew that for her to reach him over such interstellar distance could only
mean that she was his psion mate.
His brother Jamerin brings Calan to Earth in his starship,
though he is skeptical about leaving his baby brother on his own. Then they find
a cyborg in stasis at the industrial complex that Calan bought to give refuge
to the people struggling to survive in the city ruins. They wake him.
Calan and cyborg Rax Ven become allies building the Refuge together
and facing off with the Overlords and gangers in a final showdown.
EXCERPT:
End of Excerpt
EXCERPT:
“Are you sure about this, Calan?” Jamerin asked skeptically.
“This place is barely civilized even now---hardly any better than when I got
Lara and Xaver out of here five years ago.”
“It’s never going to get any better if nobody tries to make
it better,” Calan said. “All they ever did was rebuild little pockets of
civilization here. They never went any farther in Farringay after they finished
the starport and residential compound.”
“What do you think you’re going to do by yourself?”
“First I’m going to set up the clinic in that industrial complex I bought and see what
develops.”
“The gangs in Farringay are just as bad as when Dad came
here to get Mom before they ever dreamed of us.”
“I can deal with them. I’m not hindered by any stupid psi
laws like they used to have on Aledus. I’m strong enough to protect myself with
psi.”
“Except against Tregans,” Jamerin reminded.
“Telepathy doesn’t work, but telekinesis will work.”
“Calan, I know you’ve got skills. I just hate leaving you
here on your own. Most of these people are barely civilized.”
“You taught me everything you learned for Aledus. I’m not as
strong as you were then, but I’m strong enough to fend off a bunch of thugs.”
“These are not nice people.”
“Some of them are. Those are the ones I want to help. You
got a couple days layover before your passengers get here. Why don’t you come
out to the complex with me and have a look around?”
“And help you set up the solar array and the power storage
cells.”
Calan grinned. “It did cross my mind… But I want you to get
a look at the place as well.”
“Sure, why not? Not much to do on the ship while we’re
waiting. We didn’t come to Farringay the last time. We landed out west to get
Lara.”
The three of them took the pedestrian belt through the
starport to meet the hovercraft that was being towed to the hover lot outside.
This was no sleek little flyer. It was a six-passenger hover tram with three-ton cargo capacity.
Calan had to be prepared for anything from scavenging for
material and supplies to moving people. He had bought the industrial complex
from the Federation. It had been used by the cyborg warriors for two centuries
while they were building the Farringay Starport and complex.
Things had started to turn around until the cyborgs had put
in their time and left Earth for the cyborg colony. The cyborgs did a lot, but they ran out of support after five hundred
years. The Federation abandoned the cyborg project before they finished so Cyborg
Command invited all their active cyborgs to come to Phantom. Some stayed at
Starport City, but most had left.
Calan had only seen holographic pictures of the facility and
read the assessment reports. That complex would provide refuge for a lot of
people, and the building was reasonably secure.
After all this time it would need a good cleaning, but he
had bots for that. Getting power to the building was first on the agenda. Then they
could check to see if the well was still operational. Calan knew from the start
that public utilities were a thing of the past in Farringay except for the
starport compound.
It had been no different where his family built their home
on Oltarin. Their farm complex was entirely
self-powered. Calan’s bots could probably
restore water to the complex if there were still water available from the
aquifer it tapped.
The hover tram was waiting for them when they left the
starport, and the doors opened
automatically as Calan approached the pilot side. The three climbed in, and Calan gave the command for the preset
coordinates of the complex.
It was a ten-minute flight from takeoff to touch down in
front of the main entrance to the sprawling building. There were also some
outbuildings. Since the building had been abandoned for centuries, they weren’t
surprised to find the front door opened. No doubt the building had been
scavenged more than once in all that time.
Structurally, the building was sound because the cyborgs had
made sure of it. They were designed to be efficient at whatever task they were
given.
The three psions stood
before the entrance and scanned the building telepathically for mind
signatures. All three of them frowned then looked at each other.
“I felt it, too.” All
three expressed at once.
“ It’s faint---like
maybe he’s in stasis. He’s definitely male.” Calan indicated. “But where?”
“One of those outbuildings on the east side,” Jamerin said.
Calan concentrated his consciousness in that direction.
“Yes, I think it’s that one.” He pointed to one about a quarter mile away.
“I’ll unload the runabout, and we can
scoot over and have a look.”
Calan gave a command, and
the back of the hover tram lowered into a ramp exposing the roomy cargo
compartment. The runabout was a small wheeled vehicle that held four people and
ran on crystal power. It rolled down the ramp
on command, and the three of them climbed
onto it. It wasn’t speedy by any means, but it was faster than walking.
The building was a nondescript gray steel building two
stories high probably used as a shuttle port. Its front door was locked, though
not for long. Calan took out his mini tablet and scanned the lock mechanism. A
holographic image popped up from the tablet showing the lock in detail.
Once he knew how it worked, he manipulated it
telekinetically, and the door popped
open.
The interior was mostly dark with dim shafts of light
penetrating the few dirty windows in the
building. All three of them engaged the flashlight features on their tablets as
they stepped into the darkness. Their innate psionic ability already told them
there was no other living being inside other than the faint consciousness
signature they had all sensed.
As they shined their
lights around the building, it was mostly
empty. There was a room with a locked door at the back left corner of the room.
Calan strode across the concrete floor and opened the lock the same way he had
the lock on the building. The entity they had sensed was in that room.
The inside of that room was even darker than the rest of the
building. Against the wall, there was a
tall cabinet covered with a tarp. One tiny light blinked intermittently behind
the tarp, so Calan reached up and pulled the canvas off the chamber.
“Sweet Mother of Life!” all three of them exclaimed at once.
“A cyborg!”
End of Excerpt
