Read Online Odyssey Rising by Michael T. Best - Free Book Online Page A

Griffin, Havasuli and Rickards.
    All four guys in yellow barreled in, overriding Theo’s lock. They looked like old-fashioned moon astronauts bathed in yellow plastic.
    “Come with us,” Larson Jensen requested.
    “Not today, Larson.”
    “Captain’s orders.”
    “I’m going back to the Ark with the rest of you,” Theo said.
    “Not going to happen,” Larson Jensen said as he aimed a syringe into Theo’s side. “This is for our survival. It will calm you.”
    “I am calm,” Theo said.
    “You can be calmer. Trust me.”
    Instinctively, Theo tried to swipe the syringe out of Larson’s gloved hand but it was a futile attempt since one of the other yellow suited guys chopped into Theo’s hand before he was able to make contact with Larson.
    The shot wasn’t deadly, only for his safety and theirs. The syringe shot knifed through his skin and Theo felt a sharp prick.
    Theo flailed. His arms swung into a wild windmill.
    “You bastards.”
    “For the greater good, Theo. For the greater good.”
    Within a minute or so Theo’s body felt weak and his eyes were heavy. By his side there were two men in yellow hazmat suits and they pushed and guided him down a narrow gray hallway.
    “Walk with us, Theo. This is for your survival,” one of the yellow men said.
    “Liar,” Theo shouted.
    “It’s going to be okay.”
    The blood pounded in his head. His fingers were numb. His toes were lifeless. It was his whole body. With each forced step his eyes darted to either side. He took confused steps. The tranquilizer shot gained full control of his muscles and his reflexes. His eyes began to droop and his head began to spin and spin and spin.
    They’ve shot me like some animal ready for slaughter, Theo thought briefly as he tried to regain his strength. It was already too late.
    Theo’s long legs slogged to jelly and gave way for just a step. Beside him, the men in the yellow hazmat suits held his body up. The pinkish color was already draining from his cheeks and his breath became labored.
    Theo’s father – his brilliant father – had forced him to come up here to the stars and now – now with two yellow men pulling his along like a little child, like an animal – he felt forced – to what? To die? To struggle? To kick and scream? For what? For progress? For the greater good? For exploration? All because of some tiny, alien parasite that no one could see?
    At the end of the gray hallway a white door opened automatically.
    “Get in the Escape Pod,” one of the yellow men said to Theo.
    “No way!”
    “You have to go,” the yellow man said.
    “I have to go home,” Theo said. “I have to go to the Ark.”
    “First, we have to make sure everything is okay,” the yellow men responded.
    Before proceeding through the white door Theo’s arms flailed again in a windmill and he broke free from the yellow grip of the security team.
    His consciousness felt apart from his physical body. Where was he? Why was he? How would this end? When would he get back to the Ark?
    Theo ran back down the hallway. His head was light. His eyes were blurry and sleepy and the walls appeared to cave in around him. His head now was spinning and he kept running but at the end of the hallway there were two more people in yellow.
    Theo had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.
    When he stumbled and tripped to the floor, eyes a blur and muscles weak, his hand reached out to the hallway wall and he slumped like a sleepy bear beginning hibernation for the winter. There was no justice, no meaning to these moments and like his anonymous text-messaging adversary had said: Just remember, brainwashed lackey monkey butts, no one ever said life was fair.

COMMUNICATION ENTRY:
    FROM: [email protected]
    TO: [email protected]; [email protected]
     
    Dear Theo and Ravi,
     
    This is the hardest message I’ve ever had to write. Please read it all before you guys start hating me.
    On Earth, the human race has encountered countless microbes of differing