Solatium: An Aurora Rhapsody Short Story Read online

  What if the assault didn’t happen tonight at all? She’d had no reason to assume it would be tonight, none but her desire for it to be so. Or maybe something had gone wrong like she’d feared—

  —the doors opened, freeing a cacophony of chaotic noises and startling the guards. Eli burst forth out of the doors at a full run while yelling at his men and gesturing behind him. They dashed inside.

  He looked ridiculous, splashing clumsily through the puddles on the sidewalk as he lumbered forward, wheezing from the exertion.

  But no one was chasing him.

  He was going to get away.

  The hilt of the blade she’d purchased sat clenched in a death grip in her hand; she’d been holding it so tightly her fingers had started to cramp.

  The edges of her vision blurred. Her awareness narrowed to encompass Eli Baca and nothing else. Drug trafficker, mob minion, violent and brutish thug. A 24th century feudal lord wielding the power of life and death over all he commanded.

  An unexpected calmness settled within her as she crossed the street, her pace deliberate but unhurried.

  Mia stepped onto the sidewalk in front of him. He failed to recognize her in the long coat and hood, and made to veer around her.

  She took a single step sideways to block his path, activated the blade and plunged it into his heart.

  Eli was fat, but her blade was far from tiny. A bloom of red unfurled to dye his sweaty shirt crimson as he gaped at her in shock and confusion.

  She reached up with her free hand, pulled the hood off and leveled a cold, malevolent glare at him. “You don’t own me anymore.”

  Then she retracted the blade and stepped away. He collapsed at her feet.

  The world rushed back in around her. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears and flushed her skin hot. Commotion overflowed the entrance to the facility.

  She looked up to see her intelligence agent friend run out the door, gun raised. On spotting her he raced over. His gaze never shifted from her to the body on the ground, not even when he stepped around it to place a hand on her shoulder. “Are you hurt?”

  He was bleeding from a cut above his hairline; the blood joined with raindrops to stream down his temple and trail raggedly along his cheek. Separate, different blood seeped from his lower lip.

  She swallowed, wondering how her throat could be so dry amidst all this rain. “You are.”

  He exhaled in a kind of winded scoff. “I’m good. Got whacked in the head is all.”

  “Caleb!”

  The shout drew his attention. He turned toward its source, a stranger exiting the building. “Over here.”

  When he turned back to her, she cocked an eyebrow. “‘Caleb’?”

  He shrugged. “Sorry.”

  The other man jogged up to them, though he limped noticeably and cradled his left arm against his abdomen. He was older, with shoulder-length hair and a slightly wild beard. “Ma’am.” He nodded curtly in her direction, then focused on Caleb. “I think everybody’s down, but we should blow it soon.”

  Caleb offered her a hand. “We need to get to a safe distance.”

  She accepted it and let him lead her across the street while her mind whirled with conflicting thoughts and unfamiliar but heady emotions. She wasn’t in shock, but she could be accused of being somewhat dazed.

  They continued on to the end of the block before stopping. Caleb produced a small transmitter from his pack and held it out to her. “You’re supposed to be on your way to Romane—but seeing as you’re here instead, would you like to do the honors?”

  She stared at the transmitter, then at the building, then at the transmitter.

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to. I only thought….”

  She snatched the transmitter from his grasp. “Damn straight I would.”

  “Now, you want to—”

  “I know how it works.”

  Eyes fixated on the building, she moved her thumb to the signal trigger and depressed it.

  A cascade of explosions ripped apart the walls and night became day as roiling red-gold flames surged upward and outward. The sound followed, a multi-tonal roar that grew as secondary blasts flared. Debris fell to the street alongside the rain, and a dust cloud made its way to them.

  Laughter bubbled up from deep in her chest. Not at the people dead inside, for some small part of her heart mourned them. Some of them. No, the laughter was for herself.

  She was free.

  Caleb gently removed the transmitter from her hand and returned it to his pack. “Congratulations. Vengeance is yours.”

  She shook her head. “Not vengeance—justice. Punishment meted out for crimes committed.”

  “Are you going to be okay? We have a bit more work to do here, but after we’re done I can help you get clear.”

  She smiled and started backing down the street. Toward the spaceport. Further, to where there would be stars ahead of her.

  “Thank you. But I’m going to be just fine.”

  Caleb watched her walk away. His brow furrowed, which sent a fresh trickle of blood flowing out of the cut on his head. He’d gotten it when one of Eli’s men had hit him with a pole. A damn metal pole.

  He glanced at the inferno now engulfing the block, then back at Mia, who now rapidly disappeared into the night.

  “Don’t you dare go after her.”

  “I didn’t say I was.”

  “But you were thinking it, and I’m telling you, don’t.”

  He huffed a tired breath and crossed his arms against his stomach. “You think you know everything there is to know, so enlighten me—why not?”

  Samuel leaned on the façade behind him to take the weight off his injured leg. “You have got to get over this romantic bullshit. We can’t afford hearts and flowers in this job.” He pointed to the burning building as sirens heralded the approach of emergency personnel. “This is your job—this is your life. Blood and death and pain and vengeance and justice. And sometimes it sucks, but it’s worth it.”

  Caleb sighed, but not in resignation. “I know this is the job, and it is worth it. But I refuse to believe it’s my life. Not only and not forever.”

  Samuel pinched the bridge of his nose and waved dismissively with his other hand. “Fucking romantic.”

  Caleb turned back to gaze down the street…and found it empty. She was gone. He felt a faint tinge of regret, but he put it aside. Something told him she was, in fact, going to be just fine.

  See Caleb and Mia again, four years later—and meet Alexis Solovy—in Restless Vol. I: An Aurora Rising Short Story, now FREE on Amazon and other retailers.

  Then the truly epic adventure begins:

  STARSHINE

  AURORA RISING BOOK ONE

  (AURORA RHAPSODY #1)

  Available in eBook, paperback and audiobook

  Space is vast and untamed, and it holds many secrets. Now two individuals from opposite ends of settled space are on a collision course with the darkest of those secrets, even as the world threatens to explode around them.

  The year is 2322. Humanity has expanded into the stars, inhabiting over 100 worlds across a third of the galaxy. Though thriving as never before, they have discovered neither alien life nor the key to utopia. Earth struggles to retain authority over far-flung planets and free-wheeling corporations while an uneasy armistice with a breakaway federation hangs by a thread as the former rebels rise in wealth and power.

  Alexis Solovy is Earth Alliance royalty, her father a fallen war hero and her mother an influential military leader. But she seeks only the freedom of space and has made a fortune by reading the patterns in the chaos to discover the hidden wonders of the stars.

  Nothing about her latest objective suggests the secret it conceals will turn her life— not to mention the entire galaxy—upside down. But a chance encounter with a mysterious spy leads to a discovery which will thrust Alex into the middle of a galactic power struggle and a sinister conspiracy, whether she likes it or not.

  When faced with
its greatest challenge, will humanity rise to triumph or fall to ruin?

  Aurora Rising is an epic tale of galaxy-spanning adventure, of the thrill of discovery and the unquenchable desire to reach ever farther into the unknown. It's a tale of humanity at its best and worst, of love and loss, of fear and heroism. It's the story of a woman who sought the stars and found more than anyone imagined possible.

  ***

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  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  I published Starshine in March of 2014. In the back of the book I put a short note asking readers to consider leaving a review or talking about the book with their friends. Since that time I’ve had the unmitigated pleasure of watching my readers do exactly that, and there has never been a more wonderful and humbling experience in my life. There’s no way to properly thank you for that support, but know you changed my life and made my dreams a reality.

  I’ll make the same request now. If you loved SOLATIUM, tell someone. If you bought the book on Amazon, consider leaving a review. If you downloaded the book off a website with Russian text in the margins and pictures of cartoon video game characters in the sidebar, consider recommending it to others.

  As I’ve said before, reviews are the lifeblood of a book’s success, and there is no single thing that will sell a book better than word-of-mouth. My part of this deal is to write a book worth talking about—your part of the deal is to do the talking. If you all keep doing your bit, I get to write a lot more books for you.

  This time I’m also going to make a second request. My stories are independently published, written by one person and worked on by a small team of colleagues. Right now there are thousands of writers out there chasing this same dream.

  Go to Amazon and surf until you find an author you like the sound of. Take a small chance with a few dollars and a few hours of your time. In doing so, you may be changing those authors’ lives by giving visibility to people who until recently were shut out of publishing, but who have something they need to say. It’s a revolution, and it’s waiting on you.

  Lastly, I love hearing from my readers. Seriously. Just like I don’t have a publisher or an agent, I don’t have “fans.” I have readers who buy and read my books, and friends who do that then reach out to me through email or social media. If you loved the book—or if you didn’t—let me know. The beauty of independent publishing is its simplicity: there’s the writer and the readers. Without any overhead, I can find out what I’m doing right and wrong directly from you, which is invaluable in making the next book better than this one. And the one after that. And the twenty after that.

  Website: www.gsjennsen.com

  Email: [email protected]

  Twitter: @GSJennsen

  Facebook: facebook.com/gsjennsen.author

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  Find all my books on Amazon:

  http://amazon.com/author/gsjennsen

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  G. S. JENNSEN lives in Colorado with her husband and two dogs. She has become an internationally bestselling author since her first novel, Starshine, was published in March 2014. She has chosen to continue writing under an independent publishing model to ensure the integrity of the Aurora Rhapsody series and her ability to execute on the vision she’s had for it since its genesis.

  While she has been a lawyer, a software engineer and an editor, she’s found the life of a full-time author preferable by several orders of magnitude, which means you can expect the next book in the Aurora Rhapsody series in just a few months.

  When she isn’t writing, she’s gaming or working out or getting lost in the Colorado mountains that loom large outside the windows in her home. Or she’s dealing with a flooded basement, or standing in a line at Walmart reading the tabloid headlines and wondering who all of those people are. Or sitting on her back porch with a glass of wine, looking up at the stars, trying to figure out what could be up there.

  Title Page

  Aurora Rhapsody

  SOLATIUM

  Pandora

  ______________________

  Starshine: Aurora Rising Book One

  Author’s Note

  About the Author