Seeking Sirius

Edwards Reminick Laure

Description

Alexa Jane Alden is seeking a way to get back-from 950 years in the future!One Master, of time and sound, is capable of this feat. But first she must locate that man, among billions. Before he becomes unavailable, for years!As well, Alexa also must deliver the package entrusted to her by her meditation teacher. And protect it, from all those who will do almost anything to possess the prize!

Sujets

• Science fiction

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 août 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781622873722
• Langue: English

Extrait

Seeking Sirius - Book One of the Crystal Ceres Series
Laure Reminick


First Edition Design Publishing
Seeking Sirius

Book One of the Crystal Ceres Series

First Edition Design Publishing
Seeking Sirius
Copyright ©2013 Laure Edwards Reminick
ISBN 978-1622873-73-9 PRINT
ISBN 978-1622-873-72-2 EBOOK

LCCN 2013946464

August 2013

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com




CREDITS
Cover Design - Deborah E Gordon
Back Cover Graphic (Alexa) - Judith Hans-Price
Author Photo – Reny Parker

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ─ electronic, mechanical, photo-copy, recording, or any other ─ except brief quotation in reviews, without the prior permission of the author or publisher.
For my husband, Allen



My deepest thanks
To my beta readers: Cecile, Celeste, Doris, Duncan, Jessie, Moira, Nadine, StellaVera, and Marcus


And Coyle Schwab, Master Cessna 195 Pilot


And to my father, Gene Edwards, from whom I have my love of reading
Chapter 1

Cold from the hard cement floor seeped up through her trousers. Sitting there, she rolled her head and uncrossed one leg to stretch out a cramp. “Hello?” Nothing but stuffy dimness echoed back.
Soon the acrid smell of motor oil identified her location. “Oh, this is the hangar.”
A distraction from the discomfort was the sound of a small aircraft powering past the half-open door. The roar was unmistakable, so any confusion evaporated. Adrenaline prickling her skin, she grabbed the white plastic bag on her lap and sprinted.
Outside, however, the silver and red airplane was already taking off. She came to a stop. “Alexa left without me! I can’t believe it!”
Why would her friend do that? What possible reason? Dread welled up; could Alexa have found out about that time? No way, Mac would never tell. Baffled, Rachel stood there and watched as the plane disappeared into the sun.
Not too much time passed before she noticed her feet were Hot! “Where are my boots?” Jumping from foot to foot on the blacktop, Rachel also realized she was wearing faded cargo pants. And a yellow T-shirt, with a smiley face. What the heck?
The plastic bag she carried contained a newspaper so she dropped it to the ground and stepped on. Relieved from the scorching heat on her feet, Rachel took time to study the environment around her. Everything was as it should be: air hot, puffball clouds playing in the sky, cicadas shrilling their music. Yet it felt as if the whole world had changed. What is going on? She threw out her arms in confusion.
From the terminal a man ambled over. Faded jeans and ancient Jedi Master T-shirt hardly covered his belly. “Rachel, what are you doing here? I thought you were flying with Alexa.”
She turned to him. “Hey Morty. I don’t know! I went to the hangar to get the newspaper you sold me,” she pointed to the bag under her feet, “and looks like Alexa left me behind.”
Morty shook his head. “Why did you want that old thing anyway? You already know what happened.”
“It’s so weird.” Rachel rubbed her face and said, “I can remember being with Alexa in the plane.” She almost fell off the bag when a gust of wind kicked up. “But maybe the memory is from when I flew with her before, or something.”
Morty waved at her as if she was nuts. When he turned to leave, Rachel picked up the bag to follow and unfolded the thick bundle. “Hey! You sold me a newspaper with writing on it.”
He grimaced, and reached for the paper.
At that moment, Rachel recognized the script as her own. Hard to miss the all-cap style she cultured while dating an engineer. Bright purple ink screamed at the top:
ONLY FOR THE EYES OF MAC OR RACHEL
RACHEL, IMMEDIATELY CONTACT MAC
She pulled the newspaper to her chest. “Never mind,” she said in a small voice. “It’s fine.”
After Morty shrugged and took off back toward the office, she reread the note, standing on one foot then the other. Even after a third and fourth pass, nothing made sense. More bizarre, her writing also flowed around the margins, mentioning places and people she’d never heard of.
She tiptoed to the nearest shade at the hangar and located her mobile phone in a pocket on the pants. Then punched the autodial. Instead of Alexa it was their friend, Becky, who answered. “Rachel? You calling about Alexa’s phone? She left it here at th—”
“Do you know how to contact Mac?”
Chapter 2

Near the perimeter of the small airport, Alexa Jane Alden radioed the tower and announced, “This is November5337Victor, departing on runway 1-8.” Seconds later, the Cessna 195 reached takeoff speed. Alexa pulled back on the yoke and the plane lifted into the sky.
She always got a rush from that almost human leap, but this time an odd, twisty sense began coursing through her brain. Disturbing, because it was a conviction that something just turned very wrong.
Alexa glanced around the cockpit. Motor sounded normal. Vibrations were minimal, and no smell of burning engine oil or anything else could be detected. It couldn’t be her pre-flight jitters; they always disappeared by this time. Alexa punched her curls back into a barrette.
The emotion was astonishingly strong. Almost despair. And too similar to the awful day her father disappeared at sea. I just have Mac now. Please, no more loss.
It was different from the feeling 15 minutes earlier. That had been intuition, to leave Donny Dixon behind. He had arrived more than 20 minutes late and then delayed them another 10 minutes to go to the airport office. And I woke up before dawn to get in my meditation and leave early . Donny sat in the backseat of the plane, crinkling paper and tossing things from his duffel bag.
By the time the plane approached cruising altitude, the sadness had begun to disappear. Still Alexa wondered if she should scan the airport. She tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear and twisted to peer out the window. Two figures, barely discernible, stood on the airport’s empty tarmac.
She glanced at her friend, Rachel Mulligan, who was also turning around from looking at the field. It even appeared she shivered a bit.
“Wonder who’s down there,” Alexa said into the headset. “Think there’s a problem?”
Rachel rubbed her face. “I don’t know.” She checked her mobile phone. “Nah. They’d call, or radio you if anything was wrong.”
Not satisfied, Alexa decided to review her standard to-do list: Handled that detail. Okay. That’s done. Yes. Oh, oops. She reached to pick up her purse from the floor between the front seats and felt around inside. Then she investigated each pocket on her cargo pants. “You know what,” she said, “I forgot my cell phone.”
“You worry too much,” said Rachel. “They know my number.” With that, Rachel turned her attention to a puzzle book using her funny pen. The purple ink could about blind a person.
Alexa worked to keep wings level when the plane pitched up and dropped. Even her bag bounced around. Happily, afterwards she realized the strange sensation was almost gone. She glanced at her friend’s outfit and said, “Wearing your man-killer uniform, I notice.”
Rachel had been refining this look since high school. “I think that cute gallery owner in Nassau likes kids,” she replied and grinned. “I want him to notice me.” The same tiny pink shirt with a deep V-neck, supercharged by a push-up bra, had once attracted the attention of every guy in a bar. Alexa smiled, remembering how the men almost fell over each other. Add the tight designer jeans Rachel wore today, and va-va-voom.
Alexa never felt comfortable that way. Though she wouldn’t mind being a bit less petite, her red-gold hair and unusual aquamarine eyes generally attracted all the attention she could want.
Rachel stopped biting a cuticle and said, “I thought Mac was supposed to fly you to the Bahamas.”
“He was called away on business, as usual,” said Alexa, without taking her eyes off the plane instruments.
“Do you really think he’ll take time off to go with you to the Himalayas?”
Alexa sighed. Her parents had trekked in that region before they were married and she wanted to replicate their route. Her mother’s stories about esoteric destinations had tugged at her since she was a child. After the trip with them honored, perhaps she could settle into her own life.
“I hope so, I would love to travel to those places.” Alexa shrugged. “There’s still a lot to do. Thank goodness, we still have almost a week before the wedding.”
Armstrong MacPhearson, her lovable workaholic fiancé, had called two days ago about a quick flight to close a business deal. “I know, I’m supposed to come get you. I got the message from Brahmaji,” he said. “Still, Fahlsteder suggested the deal. And for him to fund the new lab, I must bring back a signed contract. I told you new investors require a lot of strokes. I’ll be back to help with the wedding details as soon as I can, I promise.”
Alexa didn’t bother to protest since she recognized airport sounds in the background.
However, if Mac thought a signed contract would finalize his investor, what a shock when last night that man telephoned Alexa to say he intended to leave the Bahamas, perhaps forever. Such a shame, because Mac had been so excited about his interest. Before Fahlsteder hung up, he asked, “Do you still want to sell your airplane?”
When she said yes, he seemed to relent a bit. “If you get it here tomorrow, I may decide to stick around.” His tone implied nothing would happen otherwise.
“It’s possible I could do that,” she said.
“I’ll make it worth your while.”
She tried to contact Mac, but her messages on his cell phone refused to produce a response. Ultimately, the thought of losing the opportunity to sell the plane helped her over any reluctance about piloting the craft.
In th