Star Child Read online

  Book 3

  STAR CHILD

  RINGS OF POLARIS

  S A G A

  PAUL ALAN

  “Give a kid a book, and you change the world. In a way, even the universe.”

  – Neil deGrasse Tyson

  © 2015 by Paul Alan Gober. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

  Published by Rebog Production 10/31/2015

  ISBN: (sc)

  ISBN: (hc)

  ISBN: (e)

  Library of Congress Control Number:

  Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

  Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

  This book is printed on acid-free paper.

  Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

  Star Child, book 3 in the Rings of Polaris SAGA, is strictly a work of fiction and any characters within this book resembling any real persons is purely coincidental.

  Dedicated to Alexander

  Note: This should only be read after Rebel Lexis (book 1), and Giants of Mars (book 2) for full understanding of the sequence of events in the Rings of Polaris SAGA.

  PART 1 BLACK STAR DESCENDING

  T HE DESCENT

  The vertical airshaft descended for miles, nothing spanned the huge divide but a howling wind. Jason stood at the very edge of the abyss, and wondered if the boosters had enough juice to catapult him over the expanse. They were designed for lower gravity environments such as the outer moons of Saturn but not Earth. “It’s not the fall that’ll kill you but the sudden stop,” he thought before turning around. He needed to create plenty enough space between himself and the approach; traversing the concrete gap would require the Ersatz Suit’s top speed.

  Jason’s heads-up display gauged the void’s distance to 49 feet when he leaned forward and pushed off on his back foot. His body mechanics flawlessly moved within the military grade exoskeleton. Grunting heavily to a sprinting speed of twenty-five miles per hour, he quickly closed in on the edge. Fog began developing on the inside glass, hampering his visibility but he was too close to abort the jump. He activated the suit’s four lift boosters, launching magnanimously over the airshaft, and down the horizontal service tunnel straddling the other side.

  “BONG!” echoed throughout the service tunnel. Jason’s skull rang like a bell when his helmet struck the concrete wall. The airshaft’s strong updraft had significantly enhanced the suit’s flight characteristics, sending him much farther than planned. He was a bit shaken on impact but otherwise unaffected from the blow. Albeit, he wished he had previously calculated the upwind prior to hurdling himself across the dead fall.

  Ahead was the access door he had been searching for. Surprisingly, the entrance looked very simple, and nothing complex about the door said difficult; no rail guns guarding the entry, or any other type of security measures were visible. “Mitchell Thacker’s INTEL was good, the service door was forgotten in the bureaucracy of things,” he thought.

  While wearing the Ersatz Power Suit, Jason’s super strength was evident when the door buckled under his strain. “HISS,” pissed the ventilated air when the compression seal broke free. “CLANK” slapped the air after pulling the heavy metallic door from its hinges, and tossing it to the concrete floor.

  The door opening led into another cavernous airshaft; there was only a small iron-grated platform for him to stand on. Metal ladder rungs descended along the shaft’s wall.

  Eying the long treacherous drop, Jason spoke into his visor. “Well, I can’t complain too much, Thacker did get me inside as promised.” Jason had made a deal with Mitchell Thacker and Rengar Falger. If they helped him out, he would not kill them, simple as that.

  Despite being dangerous, climbing down in the large suit would be slow, and cumbersome. Although, there was no way he was going to leave the Ersatz Suit behind. The planned mission would not succeed without its cloaking ability.

  Nervously searching for the first metal rail protruding from the concrete wall, he insecurely stretched his leg into the black bottomless pit. A stomach tightening sensation gripped Jason’s midsection. Something maddening inside of him was calling out, and driving his sinister processes into the black empty void. Pure veridical hatred carried his emotional weight into the darkest of descents.

  Matching his black visceral fortitude, a blind drunken aversion welled up in the eyes. “I will avenge Lexis’s death,” he thought while climbing down in the shadows. “There is a saying: When you go seeking revenge, dig two graves.” He thought, “Am I to become the righteous executioner for vengeance’s sake?”

  After descending for several hours, his muscles twitched and burned. Not only by the climb. He was physically exhausted from his journey, for the last several days he had traveled one-third the breadth of the Earth’s surface to get to this point. Overwhelmed by several factors; sleep deprivation, Lexis’s death, and an all-consuming rage had effectively eroded his physical and mental stamina. He was in a motley state when he decided to stop and rest.

  Locking the Power Suit’s arms through the rungs of the ladder, he would get some badly needed sleep. The exoskeleton outer-skin or otherwise known as Ersatz Suit System is comprised of a very complex polysynthetic fibrous blend of materials. Designers amalgamated Synthetic Spider Silk, Chromatophore Threading, and Reactive Smart Fibers to achieve military desired specifications. The inventers intertwined them all within artificial Dermal Denticle’s lattice.

  Also, the Power Suit could disappear in all spectral wavelengths. To do this, engineers first looked at tackling the visual range, and despite the extinction of Earth creatures, Mother Nature’s past held the answers. When they peered in the dead history, they marveled at the once ocean found cephalopod’s camouflaging ability. The extinct sea creatures could easily change the patterns of their skin to match against any watery background. SYNTECH was able to synthetically copy the biological functions of the creature, thanks to the vast genetic database the Polaris Corporation coveted; hence, the Chromatophore Threading was born, and used for the Ersatz Suit’s very most outer layer.

  To give the suit’s skin strength, regenerative properties, and the famed sharkskin feel, engineers looked at another extinct sea creature because of its incredible protective functionality against errant environmental factors. A synthetic selachimorpha dermal denticle structure was developed, creating the perfect matrix for the skin.

  Next they added more strength. The tensile strength of spider silk was nearly five times stronger than that of steel. However, SYNTECH people genetically improved this by a factor of two, improving the armor protection immeasurably.

  For full cloaking ability, and integrated skin control, Reactive Smart Fiber was meshed to govern functionality. Not only did the Reactive Smart Fiber control the Ersatz Suit System’s skin but its gold infused fibrous conductive properties helped generate the electromagnetic force field needed to shroud the wearer in a veil of spectral diffusion, causing the suit to literally disappear under infrared, radar waves, and any other type of electronic sensor.

  Resting in a near exhausted state, Jason began weeping over the death of Lexis. When he closed his eyes, images of her beautiful face momentarily entered his mind before her head exploded from the plasma rifle Learner had pulled the trigger on. The whole scene haunted him. Psychological, his status was nearing th
e breaking point in the darkness. Sleep would help remedy his psychosis.

  Jason dozed off and as long as the protective suit’s arms remained locked into the ladder’s rails, he had no real fear of falling. Weaved over the exoskeleton’s integrated Nano-carbon chassis was a super strengthened fibrous Muscle System; it would easy hold his weight over the pitch-black drop.

  Oceans of stars speckled at the emptiness around the spiraling galaxy, and drifting below the visual enormity Jason passionately kissed Lexis in a trance-like state. The immense stellar beauty glimmered down on them in an incalculable blaze of cosmological splendor, all paled in comparison to her warm touch. Her sweet embrace calmed his inner demons as the astral light show surrounding them became oblivious.

  They tenderly aroused one other’s passions; obsessively challenging the deep love they shared. Desires intensified with every tender stroke.

  Her legs encouragingly squeezed around his muscular frame when she said, “You can find me!”

  She then passionately moaned in succession, frantically pivoting her waist.

  Jason was vehemently transfixed on her desire when she said again, “You can find me, Jason!”

  Their naked physiques began encouraging each other, and Jason fervently looked into Lexis’s eyes, and he so much wanted to tell her that he loved her when she blurted again, “Find me, Jason!”

  Snapping out of his dream in a state of despair, he wondered about his dream’s message. “Find me, Jason. What’s my subconscious trying to tell me?” Nothing made any sense. He was lost, and felt that all his pain would disappear if he could once again, look into her eyes. “I could easily vanish in the iris of her love.”

  Jason gathered his composure, and decided to resume his downward descent. His muscles tensed when he detached his left arm from around the ladder rung while gripping the steel with his right. He then reached down searching with his foot for the next ladder rung but when he tried transitioning his right hand down, his Power Suit would not let go of its hold. Something was wrong with the Ersatz suit. Jason began panicking in a sweaty rush of knee jerking movements; he pushed and pulled with all his might but ominously there was nothing he could do that would unfreeze his right arm from the ladder. Perilously, he now hung more than ten miles over what seemed like a conniving bottomless pit. He surmised he must have damaged the suit’s mechanics on his jump.

  “OK, what do I do now? Think.” Jason talked to himself trying to resolve the hairy situation he found himself hanging from. “What are my options? A: sit in this fucking suit and die, or B: I can disengage from the belly of the suit and carry on my objective.”

  He was now feeling the pressure of a potential failed covert mission because he needed the suit for stealthy movement. To leave the Ersatz Suit behind would be disadvantageous. Jason took a deep breath, and then gave the voice command to disengage.

  “PISH!” The seal of his helmet broke open. Jason felt a cool breeze rush across his face when the helmet’s front section folded upward. Subsequently two bulky chest segments unlocked, splaying open after unlatching from the abdominal section. Jason then pulled his arms from the suit’s upper torso where he sat partially exposed to the airshaft’s hollering wind. The deep roar hummed at a calamitous near deafening pitch causing him to waver momentarily before slumping forward. Jason now reached deep inside the pelvic area of the exoskeleton, unlatching the abdominal segment, triggering it to collapse outward. He temporarily stared at the weapon still attached to the suit before pealing off his tight fitted long sleeve shirt. He then tied the shirt around the eighty pound rail gun, creating a makeshift sling. “No way I am going in there without it.” Without the rail gun, the likelihood of his plan succeeding decreased tenfold.

  Twisting his shoulders, Jason pulled the sling over his neck, before unfastening the weapon from the arm of the suit. He then contorted his body out between the suit and ladder rungs. Every muscle tensely constricted from the exosmic movement of squeezing under the Ersatz Suit. It was a rigorous and arduous feat, endangering him by expelling a great deal of energy.

  A bleak insidious vigor again washed over him, recharging his inner strength. Dancing around in the corners of his mind, he began to descend with hateful thoughts of punishing plots.

  And in a vengeful fit, he roared, “Lexis!” Filling the dark vacuous airshaft.

  Rung after rung, a black malice continually bathed his motivation. With each and every vengeful step into the sinister appearing depths, the unknown was his destination, and death dealer was his intent. It did not take long for the makeshift sling to start hurting, zapping his strength. When his muscles began to weaken, he soon realized the heavy rail gun was becoming more of a liability than an asset in the long climb.

  Jason began to succumb to fatigue after climbing for some time. He paused, locked his arms around a ladder rung, and scraped off a piece of skin from his sweaty elbows on the rusty metal. Trying to hold fast in the dark, his leg muscles burned twisting in tightening knots. Copious amounts of perspiration gushed from every pore. With a hint of delirium, Jason now began doubting his own strength, and physical presence. He metaphorically thought, “I’m so small in this vast emptiness.” This was relating to his sense of self-worth in the grand scheme of the Polaris Corporation.

  A searing pain squeezed at his neck, and shoulder muscles tore from his sockets. His arms dithered under the heavy load of the rail gun as his sweaty palms tightly gripped to the weapon’s sling. The worst pain rose from the bottom of his feet, and they felt as if thousands of stinging needles were being plunged into the meaty flesh of his soles.

  A plaguing heat exhaustion capered around in synaptic gaps, twisting the nerve center of his medulla oblongata. Fatigue was pushing Jason to the brink, and all he could do on the ladder was hold on. His muscles strained under the heavy weapon’s burden but he still refused to let go of his grip on the rail gun. Not another inch could he move. He fought back against the losing battle, and thought, “Death before dishonor!”

  Glancing into the gulf, he felt there was a quietness looming below, calling, and telling him, all his pain would be absolved. His breathing became laborious, and the world began spinning. He closed his eyes to counteract the dizzy spell. His knee’s buckled from the weight of the weapon, and a loud buzzing noise pierced his head. Everything went black when all his muscle loosened; nothing could stop him from passing out. The heavy weapon of vengeance pulled him from the ladder; he fell backwards into the black empty void.

  Jason woke in horrendous pain. Hanging backwards in a 90 degree angle, his right forearm dangled unnaturally. The rail gun’s weight had snapped his bones with ease in the fall. Although, there were no bones protruding from his skin, the damage was extensive. A small iron-grated platform had stopped his tumble into the endless darkness.

  In shock, he sat up supporting his severely fractured arm, and looked up at the simple service door with hope. “My plan has gone to hell and back,” he thought while grimacing in agony. Battered, bruised, and broken, Jason stood there on the platform trying to turn the locked door handle.

  “Son-of-a-bitch! What else can go wrong?”

  Locked in the airshaft, with no way out except through the door, nailed home the thought of getting out of the tunnel alive, and made it his only and overriding priority. “Lexis would have easily figured a way out of this situation,” he thought while sitting down on the metal-grated platform.

  His arm sagged, and his head pounded while looking up into the blackness from whence he came. He searched for the Ersatz Suit. Jason pondered his conundrum, he had only one play left but that would require setting his arm.

  “I couldn’t have fallen more than twenty-five feet,” he mumbled, before continuing in thought, “Any higher, I would have broken my neck.”

  The topless man gingerly wiggled on his back, pulling at his tight pant legs with his feet. The fabric stretched until giving way to the kinetic energy of his heels. A throbbing pain squeezed his core, and an excruciating
pain shot through his arm; a jaw-tightening scowl nearly broke the enamel off his teeth. Pulling the pants from around his ankles had nearly caused him to pass out as tears of agony welled up in his eyes from the sudden jerk.

  The dark vacuity absorbed the paleness of his complete nakedness as he teased one leg around a rail of the grated-platform. Gnawingly, he chewed and teethed at the material until tying a knot in the pant leg. The deed practically exhausted him to the point to where he could barely manage tying the other leg around his lifeless forearm, the angle made it near impossible.

  Naked, he sat down on the metal grate, and braced his feet up against the metal newel. Preparing for the monumental task of medically setting his disfigured arm, and like a woman practicing for childbirth, Jason took several deep breaths. And after plunging himself into a state of near hyperventilation, and in one swift movement, “CRACK!” His radial and ulna bone popped into their correct anatomical position. With all his leg’s might he had wrenched back, pulling his arm straight again. The hurt overwhelmed his consciousness causing a fit of screaming pain before passing out.

  Jason finally stirred awake and felt a wetness coming from his backside. Blood oozed from his butt cheeks. The force of kicking out from the newel had caused the metal grate to tear away the skin. However, the overriding pain of his broken arm nullified whatever else he suffered from.

  Part of the railing hung loose, most likely caused from his hard landing. He pried the metal back and forth until breaking it free; the fourteen-inch portion of steel would make a good splint. He looped his pants around the metal before fastening it into a sling around his arm. They say ingenuity derives out of necessity, and when Jason gazed up, it dawned on him what he needed to do next. Exploring the ladder rungs, he again wondered, “How far is the Ersatz Suit? Can’t be more than a hundred fifty, two hundred feet.”