Feels Like Falling: a Science Fiction Space Opera Adventure: a Wolfegang standalone novella (2.5) (the Wolfegang series) Read online

  Contents

  Feels Like Falling: a Wolfegang Novella

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Author's Note

  Feels Like Falling

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Don't Miss This!

  FREE Short Story

  My Delicate Destruction: Prelude

  My Delicate Destruction: Chapter One

  My Delicate Destruction Chapter Two

  What's Coming Next?

  About the Author

  Feels Like Falling

  a Wolfegang Novella

  Jillian Ashe

  FEELS LIKE FALLING

  THE WOLFEGANG SERIES

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Copyright © 2017 by Jillian Ashe

  ASIN: B01MZ0FF8H

  ISBN-13: 978-1543276053

  ISBN-10: 1543276059

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, locations, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Dedicated to 20Books Group as a thank you,

  for sharing so much invaluable knowledge.

  I wouldn’t be where I am today

  without you.

  This book is written to be read as a standalone.

  You will not need to have read any of the series prior to this book to understand and enjoy the content.

  Though if you are a stickler for reading things in the proper order here is a list of the Wolfegang books in order based on the time line of events:

  The Wolfegang Archives: Capt. Chase Wolfe

  Access Granted

  Red Team (Release Date Sept 2017)

  The Wolfegang Series:

  My Delicate Destruction

  Riding on Whispers

  Feels Like Falling: a Novella

  When Elements Collide

  Far From Safe

  Give Me Chaos

  Feels Like Falling

  Chapter One

  Hyperspace feels a lot like falling. It pulls through the navel and the stomach drops out like a free-fall on a rollercoaster. Each time we went through a jump I felt nauseated. Clinging to one of the heavy cargo boxes I braced myself as we entered normal space. Once we leveled out I straightened and took a deep breath before going back to my original task. The cargo-hold was empty and the lights flickered overhead as the ship regulated.

  Captain Wolfe’s voice crackled over the intercom. “Kat, have you found the seeds yet?” His deep voice practically vibrated through the transmission.

  The labels I needed to scan weren’t always in the same location on the cargo boxes and some were difficult to find. There had to be a better system. I tapped the comm on my belt to respond. “Are you sure they’re not below?” I asked. “I haven’t been able to find the boxes you sent over.” I pulled out the plex from my back pocket and checked the serial numbers and titles again. Basic seeds for the outlying planets shouldn’t be difficult to find, but who knew. There was very little about the year 2518 I knew the details of. Laws regarding the galactic transportation of seeds weren’t something I’d looked up over the last few weeks.

  “You can go down and check,” Wolfe said. “We will need these seeds to trade for the equipment our client requested.” Wolfe was my captain, though I knew he wanted to be more. Our relationship needed to remain at just friends until I could figure out my life. There was still so much I had to hide from him – like the fact I was born five hundred years ago.

  He still hadn’t filled me in on the exact job and I didn’t know if it was exactly legal or not. It didn’t bother me either way. When I had been listed as a fugitive from the Federation a lot had become irrelevant.

  “Let me help you, Katerina.” Ricky’s quiet voice came from behind me. “It will go faster with two pairs of hands.” The Olkchen held up his slightly orange-tinted hands, the longer-than-human fingers ended in sharp nails I knew could rip my skin to pieces. Despite all this I was relieved. Ricky was my friend and the only real ally I had on the ship.

  Ricky shoved aside a heavy box and tapped a quick little code into the floor. A panel slid aside and the dark hold below was revealed. The alien jumped down first and I knew he would catch me. Despite his small size his kind was outrageously strong.

  I didn’t need his assistance despite the distance. Dropping into the dark space below was familiar and I landed lightly next to Ricky, my eyes quickly adjusting to the lack of light. His hand reached out and steadied me.

  “You shouldn’t be doing so much,” Ricky chastised. “You’re still healing.”

  The giant scab across my lower back from the pulse rifle blast was tight, but it held against the strain. I was sick and tired of bed rest and this small task was exactly what I needed. The boredom had become suffocating after the captain and I were severely injured on a top-secret military base. Clues led me to believe my brother was there but all we’d found was a man who worked for him. To find Kris I was supposed to figure out how to decode and read the crystal on the necklace Smith had given me.

  I shook my head and started scanning the illegal cargo below. The wild goose chase aggravated me, but I was lucky. I had Wolfe and the crew to help me find him. Without them I would never manage. I’d probably still be stuck on Earth in some prison, poked and prodded by scientists.

  My plex dinged with a code-match; finally. I tucked the plex back in my pocket and grabbed the smaller box of cargo. “Ricky, will you help me with this?” While getting shot in the back hurt like a bitch, I’d been healing well. The wound was scabbed over and hardly hurt. The state of it not too long ago though…I doubt I would have survived if I’d been a normal human.

  “Let me get that. Find the other two boxes so we can load them up on the lift.” Ricky picked the box up like it was full of cotton fluff and not heavy seeds. “If you open your back up again I’ll be furious.” My personal medic hated me as a patient. He shot me a look. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed you purposefully doing things you shouldn’t.”

  I glared back at him as I scanned the second box, and then kicked it so it slid across the floor to him. “What do you expect me to do if Wolfe asks to look at it? What do you think he’s going to say when he sees I’ve healed too fast? He’s going to think I’m a freak and put me back on a planet where the Federation will find me.”

  Ricky tossed the second box on top of the first and reached the third as I finished scanning it. He picked it up before I could do anything. “He wouldn’t do that, Katerina. If for no other reason than he owes you his life.”

  I grumbled and stepped up onto the lift platform. Ricky activated the device and we rode up in silence. The light from the main cargo-hold shone down and brightened until we reached the main floor. My screwy genetics still freaked me out. There was so much I didn’t know about them and I still had no idea what the doctors did to me while I was in cryostasis. There had been no way to guess doctors in 2017 could even manipulate genes the way they had. Curing mine and my twin’s cancer was up in the air,
but genetic manipulation? I was a science experiment that accidentally succeeded. The problem was I had no idea what they tried to accomplish in the first place before the earthquake.

  Ricky helped me load the cargo into the small transport ship. “Aside from the life debt, you mean too much to the captain to turn in.”

  This subject always made me uncomfortable and I wished he would drop it. “Look Ricky, I know you’re his friend and you can read his mind and all that, but just because you’re a telepath doesn’t mean you need to try and push people into a relationship. I’m fully aware of how Wolfe feels. I’m not ready yet.” I gave him a look as we loaded up the last box, careful of the stairs. “You know that, you’re the one who has to listen to my thoughts.”

  Ricky shrugged and we set the box down. He could have done it by himself, but he allowed me the illusion of being useful. “It doesn’t hurt to try.”

  I tapped my comm and headed down the transport ramp back into the enormous cargo-hold that also operated as a small docking bay for the smaller ships thanks to the two-door airlock system. “Captain, the cargo has been found and is loaded on the transport ready to go.”

  Silence for a few seconds and then his voice came over the tiny communicator on my belt. “Excellent. Celeste and I will be down shortly. Make sure you both have what you need.”

  I nodded even though he couldn’t see me; at least I didn’t think he currently monitored surveillance of the ship. “So what exactly are we doing with the seeds?” I asked Ricky, tapping my transmission off.

  He followed me up the metal stairs to the main level of the ship, tier two. “An old contact of Wolfe’s on a border planet needs medicine for a plague outbreak. There are vaccines for the disease, but they are expensive and the Federation doesn’t always send the medicine to the outbreak sites on time which causes numerous deaths.” He shrugged. “It is how it is with most planets under Federation rule, but the planets and people on the edge of Federation space suffer the most.”

  “So the medicine we’re trading for isn’t illegal?” I clarified, turning left towards my quarters. Ricky followed behind me and waited patiently as I keyed in my passcode. The door slid open and he leaned against the frame as he watched me gather what I needed.

  “No the medicine isn’t illegal, but not taking it through customs is. If they waited for the Federation’s shipment, half the population would be dead before it arrived.”

  I didn’t know what to say in response so I buckled my holster on and slipped my jacket over it. The moon we’d be landing on had an excellent market per the search on my plex. They had anything you could imagine available, including items which were hard to find on the outer edges of Federation space. Weapons were allowed which gave me an idea of the kind of environment it was. Most places allowing weapons didn’t cause too much trouble, it was when the Federation interfered things got ugly.

  There was nothing else I thought I needed, I checked to make sure I still had my plex and my fingers came away wet; blood. Damn it, now I had to change.

  “All the Gods, Katerina, will not save you if you do this again.” Ricky yanked up the back of my shirt and he hissed through his sharp teeth. “I’m going to need to clean and wrap this again. Bring a change of clothes to the infirmary. You will do as I say this time or I will restrict you to your quarters as your medic and not even the captain can override those orders.” He whipped around and stalked towards the infirmary. Ricky was pissed.

  I winced as I heard him reach the infirmary and he started clanging about as he gathered supplies. It wasn’t like it was a simple surface wound, no my entire back had been split open and a part of my spine exposed with extensive nerve damage. If I didn’t have the genetic enhancements I did I’d probably never walk again, let alone a few weeks later. Ricky had every reason to be furious with me, but he was the only soul in the entire galaxy other than my twin brother who knew what a freak I was.

  There was no way I would chance someone else finding out, especially not Wolfe. I didn’t think I could stand the revulsion bound to be on his face when he learned the truth. I entered the infirmary and watched Ricky open a new set of sterilized tools.

  He gestured at one of the med beds impatiently. “You know I can’t sew this up, Kat. So it would be best if you are careful as I’ve warned you to be on multiple occasions.”

  I stripped off everything up top except my bra and lay down. “I know,” I murmured. There was still an irrational fear someone would ask to see the wound and then I’d have to explain. Ricky already had to tell Wolfe he’d managed a transfusion from the captain’s blood and with his surgical expertise and tools I was able to walk again. Anything else wouldn’t have ben believable. I’m sure the captain wondered about it. He was the one who had to carry me back to the Wolfegang and off of the Federation base.

  Ricky cleaned the wound and then had me stand so he could wrap it tight. “Don’t open this again, Kat. I swear…I’ll have Wolfe keep you on the ship instead of allowing you on these job trades.”

  I yanked my clean shirt on and glared at him, annoyed at all his blustering. “All right, all right I’ll be more careful. It’s not my fault I can’t tell when I’m overdoing it.”

  Ricky sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It was moments like this when I was reminded exactly how old he was. The Olkchen had a lifespan of hundreds of years. I hadn’t been able to coax Ricky into telling me his exact age yet, but I knew it was at least over three hundred.

  “Then please act like you might break if you do more than eat, sleep, or walk.”

  Nodding I buckled the holster back on with my small pulse pistol. “I promise.” Easier said than done.

  I flicked my eyes to Ricky to see if he’d heard that last thought. He quirked an eyebrow at me, but said nothing more. “Let’s head down to the transport before Wolfe is angry we’re late, you know his military mentality.” I did know his habits well, early was on time and on time was late. My grandfather had operated the same way.

  We made our way back down to the cargo-hold. Celeste stood in front of the transport with her arms crossed. I always forgot she was taller than Wolfe until they stood side by side. The Sarmations were an extremely humanoid species. She could pass as a human if it weren’t for the purple freckles on her temples and the violet color of her eyes.

  “Where were you?” she demanded. Celeste also did not like me or humans generally speaking.

  “I changed her bandage,” Ricky responded.

  She tsked in annoyance and glared at me as I moved past her. Grateful I didn’t have to explain I climbed onboard the transport and buckled into one of the passenger seats. The captain and his first mate sat down as pilot and co-pilot. Ricky sat in the chair next to mine and strapped in. I made sure the harness was tight across my chest. Landing on the surface of a planet was never a smooth ride. We rattled through the atmosphere and then finally leveled out when we hit the right altitude. Slowly I let go of the arms of the chair and shook out my hands. Wolfe and Celeste smoothly landed the transport on the small trading planet.

  “Kat, stick close,” Wolfe warned. “It’s easy to get lost here.” He swung one of the cargo boxes up and onto one shoulder before slamming his fist on the button to open the transport door. The ladder descended to the ground as the door slid open and I watched the other two take the last cargo boxes before I followed the captain down the steps.

  Carefully I stepped down and made a face, mindful of Ricky’s attention. I was essentially useless; more of a decoration than a working member of the team. Ricky slowed down a bit until we walked side by side. “Soon you’ll be healed enough to help. Relax and enjoy it while you can.”

  I wasn’t the ‘sit around and do nothing’ type of girl.

  The captain knew exactly where we needed to go and we followed close behind as he traversed the narrow alleys and crowds of people – both alien and human. The air was a bit thinner than I was used to, and soon my breathing was ragged which was a sign I still wasn’t full
y operational. With my new genes it took a lot more to tire me out than some thin oxygen.

  The sellers yelled out their wares in Standard English but much of the haggling was done in native tongues I couldn’t understand. There was food, machinery, weapons, and medicine among some more questionable items. I caught Celeste staring at some kind of raw meat, but she didn’t slow down. We had to deliver the seeds before anything else and with the urgent requirement for the medicine we wouldn’t stop to shop. It seemed I wasn’t the only one disappointed about it.

  Wolfe stopped in front of a dark shop with curtains blocking the view inside. Paint covered the plas-glass and the name of the place wasn’t in Standard or Japanese. The captain waved us forward. I stayed close to Ricky as my eyes adjusted to the dim light. When the interior became visible I noticed it wasn’t a shop at all but a café. Wolfe went straight to the back and around the bar. I hesitated before following. It was strange no patrons were in there, though I could smell their version of coffee; java as they called it now.

  When I passed through the curtain separating the back from the front I saw Wolfe clasping a smaller man’s arm as they spoke in Japanese. So this man was human then. The smaller guy looked up at the rest of us and gave a nod before turning to the back wall. His hand went flat against the surface and a hologram popped up to scan his prints. A camouflaged door unlocked and slid open.

  “You want the payment in credits?” he asked Wolfe. His Earth accent was thick compared to the humans we’d met in other parts of the galaxy.

  “No, in medicine Tral. I sent the transmission yesterday with the exact amount and type we needed in trade.” Wolfe didn’t look concerned, so this must be a part of the trading process. I was still new to the whole smuggling and underground business deals thing.

  “Right, right, well I heard about the outbreak on Ishi and you know whenever there is an outbreak the prices go up.”