Brax

Brax

The Tellox Book 3

by

Kelly Lucille

Copyright © 2018 Kelly Lucille

For Smashwords

All rights reserved

Table of Contents

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 ONE

Ariel woke up groggy and with the headache from hell. She wondered in a vague way, while her mind struggled to focus, if this was what the legendary college hangover felt like. It made her question why anyone would drink to excess twice if that was the case. It took her longer than it should have for her brain to click into gear, but when it did the shot of adrenaline through her already abused system was jarring.

She was not in the efficiency apartment she rarely used, nor had she fallen asleep at her desk, or on the sofa she used from time to time at her MIT lab. She was definitely not back at the cozy yellow farm house she grew up in where her sister Sara somehow managed to keep everything smelling like lemon polish and the wisteria from her other sister Megan's lush garden. None of those places had the capacity to be as pitch black as what she was experiencing now. Nor did any of them have a cold metallic flavor in the air, or echo with the sounds of weeping and hushed sobs.

The dark was absolute. But it was more than that. She might not have Sara's intuitive understanding for the feelings and intentions of others, or her sister Megan's sensitivity to the natural world, but even she could feel the despair and fear that drenched the darkness around her.

The hum of circuitry was everywhere. An offshoot of her own talent, one she had never admitted to anyone outside of her unique family, was that she could feel the hum of technology whenever she was in proximity with anything with a circuit. Her affinity and abilities with computers were not wholly based on her mathematical abilities with code but more an inherent ability. Right now, wherever this was, the whole place felt like one big buzz to her senses.

Canned recycled air, her mind started to catalog, complete darkness, excessive energy that tasted foreign in a way she had never known, and a strange surface material. She could not use her eyes, but she could feel the deck beneath her, and it was not a natural substance, like wood or carpet, or even concrete, rather it felt coldly metallic, and glass smooth. Besides the obviously filtered air, she scented a mélange of people and scents, nothing overly masculine to her nose, mostly perfumes, and scented shampoos probably, and some subtle whiffs of nervous sweat. She stretched her arms out and hit another person. She heard a gasp as the appendage she touched jerked away.

Sorry, she said automatically. And forced herself to sit up, despite the pain in her head throbbing in time with her heart beat. A heart beat that she had to force slowly into submission by cutting off her fear and worry and concentrating completely on the facts of the situation and acquiring as much data as she could. I don't know where I am, she tilted her head in the direction she assumed the next warm body was located and spoke through the pain in her head. Can you tell me how we got here and why?

There was such a long pause she was sure the other person was not going to answer, when somewhere to the left of her another spoke up tentatively. We are on a Tellox ship. Ariel could not completely swallow her emotional reaction to that news. But after a quick hitch in her belly she let it go and focused on the voice that was still speaking. I don't know why we're here.

There was a battle, another female voice said, this one sounding younger, less sure and farther away. Some of the sobbing quieted as it seemed more people started listening. I don't know how many, but some died. A small sob of pain was quickly swallowed. There was no warning, they just came and took people off the street. My brother tried to fight them but... Her final words were a stark whisper of pain. I think they killed him.

You were at the MIT campus? Ariel asked quickly trying to focus her and everyone else away from their grief.

I don't even know where that is, she said sniffing and drawing in a deep wet sounding breath. We were at the mall. It's my birthday. That last bit seemed to break the girl and she started crying in earnest.

The mall? Was it located in Cambridge? What that today? She somehow doubted it was in Cambridge, if the girl did not know where MIT was. She asked anyway, because it was an important piece of the puzzle.

Her last memories were slowly returning to her. She knew that she was at the campus finalizing her departure and packing up her lab to take back to California with her. Her sister Sara had disappeared months ago, and she and her sister Megan were circling the wagons and determined to stick close together until they found her. This too could be the answer to more than one question. If people have been taken from all over, and at different times, maybe Sara had as well.

As quickly as the thought occurred her mind assessed it and lowered the probability to almost nil. Nothing about this situation matched the silent disappearance of her sister months ago, and if there had been many taken that way someone would have noticed. She would have found it in her searches. Even her less than legal hacks into government databases had come up with nothing.

Sacramento, the girl finally answered. And it was March 3rd.

Ariel crossed her legs to find a comfortable position for her aching body. It was not bruising she was feeling, as if she had been beaten, more like her whole body was waking up from sleep with way more pain then she had ever experienced when her foot fell asleep at her desk. Is everyone from the states? she asked, raising her voice to be heard by more than those few around her. America?"

Since all she heard were yes's and yeah’s she moved on to the next question. I was on the East Coast and, she stopped and tilted her head back to birthday girl’s general direction. What is your name?

Vera, she said after another long moment where she seemed to be assessing whether to answer. But everyone calls me V.

Alright, Ariel called out again in as loud and commanding a voice as she could make it. Everyone from either the East or West coast?

A few people named other cities, no small towns, up and down the coastal states but nothing South or North of the border. A large chunk seemed to have been taken from the MIT campus like her, but most of the others felt like random swipes in populated city areas, such as malls and other public areas with a lot of foot traffic. Then a small voice far across what Ariel was fast realizing was a cavernous space spoke up. I'm from Grass Valley, Ca.

That was a little too close to home being only a few miles from her own hometown. She licked suddenly dry lips. Grass Valley, tell us your name, and please describe yourself.

Even the hold outs seemed to stop crying and listen, understanding from her tone that she meant to be answered. She needed the answers, hoping she was jumping to conclusions without enough data. But why only the coastal big cities, and the MIT campus, and one small town so near to her own as to be practically neighbors?

Taylor, the girl said finally. My name is Taylor. I'm five foot three, 120 pounds with brown hair and green eyes. I'm 26.

Ariel sucked in a breath as she struggled to breathe. The girl could have been describing her sister Sara but for the slight difference in age and weight."

She forced herself back to data gathering with an effort that made her slowly dwindling head pains flare. Alright let’s narrow this down. I was taken March 3rd as well, in Cambridge at the College campus. I also have brown hair, long, but my eyes are honey brown. At least that was what her sister always called them. That or whiskey eyes. But that was neither here nor there. I'm five foot nine and 132 pounds. She did not share her age, and she would not if she could help it.

There were a barrage of women talking after that, throwing out data that for anyone else might have been confusing. Ariel had what her other sister Megan called a special brain. She could capture and extrapolate like nobody’s business, and it was one of the many reasons she was considered a genius from the age of two.

She let them call out jumbled answers until the voices turned to unhelpful speculation and venting worry. Then she put her fingers to her lips and let out an ear-splitting whistle that shut everyone up. Her grandfather had taught her that, along with how to rebuild a car engine and catch a fish. Please be quiet until we have all the information we can get. Anyone male?

No one answered.

Anyone over the age of forty, or under the age of 18? Besides her that was. She was not going to be eighteen for a few days more. But she was tall and mature for her age, so people just assumed she looked young for her age.

One voice spoke up, the woman had a clear no-nonsense tone that Ariel found reassuring. I'm forty-two. I'm told I look young for my age. My name is Ivy, brown hair, five foot five, weight 150. Blue eyes. Also taken March 3rd. Sacramento, Ca. Probably in the same attack that V described.

Anyone else? Ariel asked. Under eighteen or over forty, besides Ivy?

No one answered. Anyone with hair that is not brown?

No one Answered. "So, lets understand the facts that we have, and if you have more feel free to add. We have Tellox warriors descending on two coasts in the same day. All big cities but for the MIT campus and Grass Valley. Only women taken and in full view of the public without any degree of stealth that one would assume the highly advanced