Atonement (Earth Evolution Series Book 3) Read online

  ATONEMENT

  Earth Evolution Book 3

  KD Jones

  Copyright 2016 KD Jones

  License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1:

  Chapter 2:

  Chapter 3:

  Chapter 4:

  Chapter 5:

  Chapter 6:

  Chapter 7:

  Chapter 8:

  Chapter 9:

  Chapter 10:

  Chapter 11:

  Chapter 12:

  Chapter 13:

  Chapter 14:

  Chapter 15:

  Chapter 16:

  Chapter 17:

  Chapter 18:

  Chapter 19:

  Chapter 20:

  Chapter 21:

  Chapter 22:

  Chapter 23:

  Chapter 24:

  Chapter 25:

  Epilogue:

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  It was dark and cold amidst the rubble of what was once a prospering Earth city. Almost all of Earth’s land and waters were destroyed years ago by a nuclear disaster. A small portion of their people survived in underground domes created and mandated by its governments, and in lawless subway tunnels. It was luck that the alien Drastan fleet was passing and picked up their recorded distress signal. Even though the recording was over five years old, his uncle, Commander Estro ordered the fleet to come to Earth to offer assistance, but not all of the humans welcomed them.

  Lt. Quinn Estro hid behind the wall of a partially destroyed building, and watched as a hooded figure moved toward the back of a parked earth vehicle called a van. The hooded person opened the back of the van and pulled a box out before he shut the door moving off in the opposite direction. The van moved away and Quinn suspected it was going to one of Earth’s domes.

  He followed the man with the box, trying to keep to shadows, but when he stumbled on some rubble making noise, he realized he was still too close. The man glanced back in his direction.

  “Who’s there?” When Quinn didn’t respond, the man began to walk faster. Quinn picked up speed, but the man panicked and ran full out. Quinn chased him down on foot and tackled him from behind, but the man punched him on the jaw and managed to break free, disappearing into the shadows.

  Quinn rubbed his bruised chin. It was nothing that a quick healing shot wouldn’t fix but his ego was less easily repaired. He should have been able to subdue the man. His biggest flaw was constantly underestimating his enemy. That’s how he had gotten captured and tortured a few months ago by the resistance rebels.

  He sighed getting up to his knees. He reached for the box and pried it open. Inside the box was a mixture of black and alloy metal pieces; the scent of explosives filled his nose. He pushed the metal pieces to the side and froze.

  “Son of a bitch!” The bottom of the box was full of Drastan weapons. His uncle Devlon was going to be pissed.

  Inside the Earth Dome

  Frazier Collins stared out at the group of people trying to cram themselves inside the room for the resistance rebels meeting. He didn’t like to think of himself as a resistance rebel, he felt he was more of a liberator.

  They had suffered a great loss during the nuclear disaster, which almost wiped out the people of Earth. It ruined any chances of living topside for many decades to come, but Earth’s people survived the worst and were making strives to begin again.

  Frazier was right there ready to help take over the government when it finally caved from the ideals of democracy, but his plans to become its dictator were thwarted when an alien race called the Drastans made their appearance.

  The aliens were ruining his plans by making the remaining governments more self-sufficient. He wasn’t fooled by their humanitarian work, and he didn’t trust they had good intentions. He knew they were planning something. He was counting on it so that he could instill suspicion and fear in his followers.

  “Everyone settle down.” He motioned for his assistant to flash the lights to get people to stop talking. Once he had their attention he began his speech. “Our contacts behind the scenes have informed us that there is another mating between a human and a Drastan being planned.”

  The uproar among the men made him smile to himself. They didn’t like the idea of these aliens taking Earth women for their own, and he fed their hate. “Lt. Colonel David James, leader of dome 57, is selling his youngest daughter to the Drastans for weapons and supplies.”

  “How is he getting away with that? Why doesn’t the government stop him?” An older man yelled out. The crowd was in agreement with him, yelling their complaints.

  “Those alien bastards are after our women! They need to be eliminated!”

  Frazier let the crowd get a little bit worked up before he motioned for the display screen to be turned on. Images of the pregnant human woman, Maggie James, who was married to one of the Drastans appeared.

  “This is what we believe the Drastans are here on Earth for. Our informants tell us that the Drastans have almost no females left to repopulate their own planet. They have been scouring the galaxy looking for alien life forms that are compatible. Here on Earth, we have more women than men so they think they can take what they want and kill the men. Who's to say once they have the children needed they won’t kill off all the Earth women too?”

  “No! They have to be stopped!”

  “We won’t let them do that, will we?” He asked, leaning forward placing his hands on the podium.

  “Never! Kill the Drastans!”

  “Small steps. We’ll get rid of these bastards and reclaim Earth for ourselves!”

  *****

  Drastan Command Ship orbiting Earth

  “I’m not looking forward to the next meeting with the Earth’s government officials. They always act so self-righteous.” Commander Devlon Estro grumbled as he lowered himself down onto the large sofa with a hard angry thump, almost making the large furniture legs break.

  Jared—who was sitting at a nearby desk in Liam and Maggie’s suite—looked up and glanced over at his father frowning, “I thought things were going smoothly.”

  “It was going smoothly, until one of the Earth representatives started making demands for more weapons,” Liam answered for Devlon.

  “What do they think we are here for? To give them more means of destruction so maybe next time there will be nothing left at all.” Jared couldn’t believe the gall of these Earthlings.

  The individual people were fine. Like many of their own race, they just wanted to survive. It was the Earth’s government officials that were so hard to deal with. They purposely selected who they thought should survive and left the rest of their people to die. That didn’t sit well with Jared, who had dedicated his whole life to saving people.

  The Earth government didn’t count on the resilience of the citizens they turned away. Desperate to escape the nukes the humans sought cover underground in tunnels called subways. Once used as a form of transportation, the subways now sheltered the rest of humanity.

  A loud metal sound came from the kitchen making all three men to look in that direction. “What’s going on in there?” Liam called out.

  Their youngest brother Kyle poked his head out to look at them. “Nothing, I picked up a hot pan and dropped
it.”

  “That was our dinner,” Liam growled out with concern.

  “Hey, I’m the one cooking the dinner. Besides, it just had hot water in it. The food is fine.”

  “Whew, that’s good. I’m starving.” Liam sighed with relief.

  Kyle glared at him. “I’m fine too, thanks for asking.” Jared watched his younger brothers tease each other with good humor. He loved them, but he was glad they all now had their own separate living spaces.

  Ever since his brothers mated with a pair of sisters from Earth, they found living in their own spaces more convenient whereas before the three brothers had shared a living unit with their father. Maggie, his sister-in-law, had said they were used to the bachelor lifestyle. He wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but he was set in his ways. He liked everything in its place, and he appreciated an order to things.

  “Where are Maggie and Rachel?” Devlon asked, stretching his feet out on the couch.

  “Maggie’s getting a checkup and Rachel is going with her.”

  Devlon sat up and looked at Jared. “Why aren’t you there? Aren’t you her mediko?”

  Jared shook his head. “I’ve released her care to Mediko Tanner.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “I’m too close to her and it has become awkward between Liam and I.”

  Devlon raised an eyebrow, “Awkward how?”

  Liam growled out, “I do not want Jared looking at my mate naked.”

  “He’s a mediko, there’s nothing personal about it,” Devlon insisted.

  “It’s personal to me.” Liam folded his arms across his chest.

  “I’ll still review all her vitals and labs. I’m just leaving the regular physical evaluations to someone who is just as qualified, but not related to us.” Jared scanned the results sent to him from the current group of medikos giving medical treatment to a tribe down in the subway tunnel.

  “Damn, they’re going to need more radiation treatment.” Jared commented out loud.

  “What’s that?” Devlon asked.

  “It looks like I’ve got to make another trip down to the subways.”

  “Why do you need to go?”

  “I want to access my team’s work in person and I need to check on the treatment supply. I’m not sure why they are using up the supplies like this; it doesn’t make sense to me.”

  Devlon looked at him a moment before sighing. “I don’t like you going down there so much, but I know if I refused, you would find a way to go anyway. Just be careful, there’s more evidence of the resistance rebels causing problems.”

  Jared was surprised that his usually stoic father expressed concern for him. “I’ll take security with me.”

  “Good, that makes me feel a little better,” Devlon admitted.

  Wow, his father had really changed since his brothers mated and were expecting their first children. He had begun to show more affection and interest. It was both odd and comforting.

  Jared stood up and walked to the door. “I need to go prepare for the next visit.”

  “Come by for dinner tonight.” Liam called out.

  “Is Maggie cooking?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think I’ll pass. Have a good night!” He chuckled when he heard Liam grumbling something about having to suffer the cooking on his own. Maggie was wonderful in many ways but cooking was not her thing.

  Chapter 2

  Earth Subway System

  “Mediko Lane where do you want me?” Lily asked, as she came into the medical tent set up for radiation treatments. Those with more severe radiation sickness would be transported to the Drastan command ship for extreme treatments.

  After Maggie’s non-stop pestering, Lily and her son Thomas had moved to the command ship permanently. Now, she and Thomas only came down to the tunnels to visit friends and to help with giving treatments. She was still hopeful that eventually her whole tribe would agree to move to the command ship, one of the other ships in the fleet, or even to one of the Earth government Domes.

  Unfortunately, her tribe leader was stubborn and a little bit paranoid. Jerry worried that if their tribe gave up their spot in the subways that they worked hard to claim, they won’t have anywhere else to go if the Drastans suddenly returned to their own planet.

  “Sorry, Ms. Tyner. What did you ask me?” The mediko was blushing.

  She looked at him with a smile, “Call me Lily. I asked where you would like me to start? With the treatment shots or with the scanners?”

  “Oh, please help with the scanners, thank you.”

  She picked up one of the hand held scanners that the medikos used to scan the patients. It showed their vitals and any broken bones they may have, but it also could detect if there was radiation sickness. That was the biggest thing they were looking for.

  Almost every person in her tribe and the other subway tribes had some level of radiation sickness. It was stronger in some, but thankfully, she and Thomas only had mild cases, and were easily treated. A small number had such advanced stages that there was not a lot that could be done for them, like the elderly woman in her early seventies waiting in the little makeshift waiting area.

  “Mrs. Gordon, how are you doing today?” Lily walked over, and hugged the woman noting how frail Mrs. Gordon felt in her arms.

  “I’m feeling much better dear. Whatever those aliens gave me helped with the nausea.”

  “I’m going to take your vitals, if that’s okay.”

  “Go ahead. Where’s your young man at?”

  “Thomas? He’s playing with some of his friends for a little bit. Molly said she would keep an eye on him. I’ll get him back before lunch.”

  “That’s nice, I’ll stop by Molly’s subcar to see Thomas later. I was talking about your handsome alien man, that doctor Jared.”

  Lily knew she was blushing; she could feel the heat rising to her cheeks. “Mediko Estro is not my anything.”

  “You can’t fool me girl. I was young once and my George looked at me the same way that young Jared looks at you.”

  “What way is that?”

  “There’s heat in his eyes. I tell you what, when the two of you are in the same place the temperature rises something fierce.” Mrs. Gordon fanned herself with her hand.

  “It’s not like that. His brother married Maggie and I’ve been studying their medical technology so I can assist the medikos in treating our people. I’m not looking to date anyone.”

  Mrs. Gordon shook her head. “Well, after your last boyfriend, I can understand your hesitation. Not all men are like that awful Taylor.”

  Lily blinked surprised at Mrs. Gordon’s disgruntled voice. Normally Mrs. Gordon was very sweet and hardly ever said anything bad about anyone. “I thought you liked him.”

  “He’s not as bad as that other one that hurt Maggie, but still. I don’t see Taylor making himself useful. When he comes through he never even stops to check on any of us. He’s as selfish as I ever saw one.”

  Lily suddenly felt uncomfortable, and she looked around. “Does he come by here often? I haven’t heard from him, or seen him in months.”

  “He stopped through here right before you and Thomas returned this visit.”

  “Where does he go?”

  “He doesn’t say. He’s not happy with the aliens that’s for sure.” She leaned forward to whisper. “I think he’s recruit’in.”

  “Recruiting for what?”

  “He done got himself involved with those resistance rebels. This is just hearsay from an old woman, mind you. I can’t help but call it like I see it. There are groups of people that go tribe to tribe. They don’t do any kind of trading; they just have these secret meetings. Then they leave, sometimes taking people with them.”

  “Have they ever approached you?”

  Mrs. Gordon snorted. “Honey, I am too old to be caught up trouble like that. Besides, I like these aliens. They are some fine specimen of men. If I were ten years younger, I would be chasing them around these tunne
ls.”

  She smiled at her fondly. “Just ten years younger huh?”

  Mrs. Gordon winked. “One thing that never fails, every time that group comes by with Taylor, he asks about you. He was furious that you had gone up to the command ship.”

  Mrs. Gordon bent over coughing. Lily patted her back gently handing her a rag. She saw spots of blood on the rag. She frowned as she glanced at the readings on the scanner. Mrs. Gordon’s vitals were steady but there was damage to her lungs. Lily couldn’t be sure she was reading this right. “Hold on one minute Mrs. Gordon. I want to confer with Mediko Lane about this reading.”

  She walked through the makeshift partition to where the young mediko was entering data on his computer. “Mediko Lane, could you check the readings on the scanner for Mrs. Gordon. I’m not sure I am reading this right.”

  He took the scanner from her and scrolled through the vitals and then the scans of her organs. He looked up at her in concern. “I’m sorry Lily. There’s not much more we can do for her except make her comfortable.”

  “What about a lung transplant?”

  He shook his head. “It’s spread to her kidneys and is making its way to her heart. The only thing the treatments would do now is slow it down.”

  “There has to be something we can do. She is a sweet old lady who never did any harm to anyone.” Lily was fighting back tears.

  “We can make it as easy on her as we can. Does she have family here?”

  Lily shook her head. “No. Her husband died years ago before the nukes hit and her children and grandchildren were supposed to be going to one of the Domes in Washington DC, but she hasn’t been able to contact them yet. How long does she have?”

  “If she remains here in the tunnels—six months to a year. If she left from here and get the treatments needed, maybe two years. Would she be willing to leave the tunnels and go to the Drastan command ship? She would be monitored better there.”

  “I don’t know if she’ll want to leave. This has been her home for years now and the older folks seem more inclined to stay here. They don’t like change. I could ask her.”