The Epherium Chronicles: Echoes (21 page)

Her heightened senses captured everything about him and his whole body smelled like cinnamon. At least he’d eaten a food with a spice she liked. She could hear his heartbeat racing. Hers joined it.

Sanchez’s comm band buzzed. She noticed Captain Hood’s ID on the call. She tapped him on the shoulder and backed away.

“We just can’t catch a break, can we?” he said with a sincere grin.

She returned his smile. “No, I guess not, but we’ve got plenty of time.”

“Maybe you do,” he blurted out, his cheeks flushed.

She laughed and gestured toward the door. “You should go. He’ll need you on the Command Deck.”

“You know, we need to do this right. Start over from the beginning. There’s so much I don’t even know about you. Hell, I don’t even know your birthday.”

She agreed. She’d learned so much about him from his record, his actions and her senses, but there were things about her that no one knew. Perhaps it was time to share. “It’s August first, twenty eighty-five.”

She watched his eyes flutter as he calculated her age.

“You look pretty hot for a seventy-year-old, Maya.”

She rolled her eyes at him, and he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “We’ll start over tomorrow. I’ll carve out some time. I promise.”

“I’d like that.”

Sanchez stared deep into her eyes once more then headed toward the door. “I can’t believe I’m in love with an older woman.”

Maya laughed again. She couldn’t believe she could learn to love anyone other than her family. It had been a long time since she’d felt this close to anyone else and having Sanchez in her life lessened the blow of Kadin’s betrayal.

She sat down at her desk, and her terminal beeped. There was a message, with the sender marked unknown. When she opened it, the face filling her screen was Kadin’s.

Her eyes narrowed, and the joy in her heart turned to anger.

“Hey, sis.” Kadin’s wry smile only fueled her contempt for her brother. “I don’t have a lot of time. Remember what I told you on the ledge in the chasm?”

She paused the message, closed her eyes and visualized it.

Maya exited the cave mouth onto a wide ledge under the mists of the chasm. Kadin was standing on the edge, his back toward her. She drew her pistol and took fast aim at the center of his back. “Stop! Don’t make me shoot you, Kadin.”

He looked back at her over his right shoulder. “You won’t shoot me. We’re family.” His voice was smug and confident.

She changed her aim to his head. “I wouldn’t count on that. I know you were there when Father died. I saw your face in the shadows in the hall.”

Kadin lowered his head and laughed. “So that’s what Jared sent you, huh? Yeah, I was there.” He turned around. “I didn’t kill him. I don’t know who did, but I know why he died.”

She felt the spike in his breathing and heart rate and took a step closer. “I know you’re lying! You can’t hide that from me.”

“Really? Father did. Did you know what plans he had for us?”

“We were his children! He created us to cure Altaine’s disease,” she snarled, studying him.

“He had to take excessive amounts of bone marrow once we reached the proper age. The process had a high mortality rate.” He pointed his finger at her. “I loved him too, but he was using us. We were nothing more than a lab experiment!”

She was so angry she couldn’t tell if he was being truthful anymore. “Why would I believe a traitor? You turned your back on the
EDF
, your team and me!”

“I found powerful new friends, Maya. They aren’t afraid to use their gifts to achieve what they want.” He sighed. “Come with me, sis. You don’t need them.”

“You’re wrong,” she fired back. “I need them more than ever.”

He backed up to the lip of the ledge. “Take all the time you need. You’ll see that I’m right and I’ll be waiting.” He stepped backward off the ledge and onto the canopy of a small one-man craft.

She kept her aim even as the canopy closed over him, but didn’t fire. He was right. She couldn’t. He was family.

His small shuttle banked away, and she dropped her pistol to her side. Above her, a similar craft’s engines started and moved to join Kadin’s in escape. In resignation, she watched them leave. She knew about her father’s death. Her brother was a witness to everything that fatal day. She needed him, but she’d just let him go.

Maya blinked away the past and resumed the message.

Kadin’s eyes were serious and his tone dark. “My offer still stands.”

She switched off the terminal and glared at the darkened screen. “I’m going to find you, brother, and next time I won’t let you hurt anyone else.” After a few deep, controlled breaths, her anger eased. She turned and walked over to her sword hanging on the wall. She let her fingers trace the blade. The cool metal gave her focus. She’d let the concept of family prevent her from stopping him. Images of her father’s death flooded back to her mind. Her family was calling out for justice and in that moment, she vowed to make it right.

* * * * *

About the Author

T.D. Wilson was born in 1968 in Troy, Ohio, and has been an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy from a very young age. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and has supported the systems and networks in several of the largest Supercomputing data centers in the world. His early thirst for adventure in reading began as he explored many of the great stories of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As his reading scope expanded, Mr. Wilson was fascinated by strange new worlds from the magic of Middle Earth and Narnia to the far reaches of space in
Star Trek
and
Babylon 5
. As a science fiction author, he strives to integrate a realistic flavor to his worlds by providing his readers a feel for the real science in science fiction, a topic he loves to discuss with his friends and readers. Mr. Wilson still lives in Ohio with his wife and their two sons.

See how The Epherium Chronicles began with
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THE EPHERIUM CHRONICLES: EMBRACE
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Hope.
Captain James Hood of the Earth Defense Forces remembers what it felt like. Twenty-five years ago, it surged through him as a young boy watching the colony ships launched by mega-corporation Epherium rocket away. He, like so many others, dreamed of following in the colonists’ footsteps. He wanted to help settle a new world—to be something greater. Then came the war…

THE EPHERIUM CHRONICLES: CRUCIBLE
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Earth Defense Forces Captain James Hood is on the mission of his life. The Cygni solar system is just one space-fold jump away. One more jump and they’ll have reached the fledgling colony that Earth desperately needs if the human race is going to survive. But a plot to derail him has already damaged his ship, threatened the lives of his crew and cost him time. Time the colonists might not have.

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ISBN-13: 9781426899201

The Epherium Chronicles: Echoes

Copyright © 2015 by Tracey D. Wilson

Edited by Rhonda Helms

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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