Triorion Omnibus Read online

  Triorion: Omnibus

  L. J. Hachmeister

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2019 by Source 7 Productions, LLC

  www.triorion.com

  First Edition – Omnibus

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, events and situations portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Cover art and design by L. J. Hachmeister and Nicole Peschel

  Illustrations by M.J. Erickson, Jacob Mathews, Jeremy Aaron Moore, and Michael Webber

  Source 7 Productions, LLC

  Lakewood, CO

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Triorion: Awakening | Book One | L. J. Hachmeister

  Novels by L. J. Hachmeister

  Triorion Universe

  Short Stories

  A Note from the Author

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  The journey has only begun...

  Triorion: Abomination | Book Two | L. J. Hachmeister

  Prologue

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  Chapter VIII

  The saga continues...

  Triorion: Reborn | Part I | Book Three | L. J. Hachmeister

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  The adventure continues—

  Triorion: Reborn | Part II | Book Four | L. J. Hachmeister

  Chapter VII

  Chapter VIII

  Chapter IX

  Chapter X

  Chapter X

  Chapter XI

  Chapter XII

  Chapter XIII

  Chapter XIV

  Chapter XV

  Chapter XVI

  Epilogue

  Coming Soon!

  Acknowledgements

  L. J. Hachmeister

  Triorion: Awakening

  Book One

  L. J. Hachmeister

  Novels by L. J. Hachmeister

  Triorion: Awakening (Book One)

  Triorion: Abomination (Book Two)

  Triorion: Reborn, part I (Book Three)

  Triorion: Reborn, part II (Book Four)

  Triorion: Nemesis (Book Five) [TBA]

  Triorion Universe

  Blue Sky Tomorrows

  Shadowless: Outlier (Volume One) [TBA]

  The Laws of Attraction [TBA]

  Short Stories

  “The Gift,” from Triorion: The Series

  “Heart of the Dragon,” from Dragon Writers

  “Prisoner 141,” from Parallel Worlds [TBA]

  “Soul Song,” from Unlocking the Magic

  “The Waking of Jim Walker,” from Crash Philosophy [TBA]

  A Note from the Author

  Sometimes I can’t believe how long I’ve been working on this series, or how many different twists and turns it’s taken over the years. It’s been interesting to see how time and experience have influenced how I’ve shaped the characters, and how some things—Jetta’s orneriness and Jaeia’s quiet sweetness, Jahx’s pursuit of the greater truths of the universe—have been that way from the day my pen first hit the paper.

  I hope you enjoy book one and will continue on with Jetta, Jaeia, and Jahx in the following books as they travel across the Starways. If you would like to support this series, I encourage you to post your honest reviews and share this series with your friends and family. Your reviews and ratings make all the difference in this ever-changing publishing world.

  All the best to you, and happy reading!

  Dedication

  This omnibus is dedicated to Ronnie

  The most otterly awesome person I know

  Prologue

  The monster came at night, as he usually did.

  Wake up, Jetta told herself as he body-slammed the front door of the apartment, taking it clean off its hinges.

  Wake up!

  Angry footsteps tromped toward the bedroom where Jetta and her siblings slept at the foot of their aunt and uncle’s bed.

  Not real. This isn’t real.

  Caught halfway in a dream, she couldn’t rouse herself until she heard her uncle’s voice:

  “Get the children!”

  Jetta sat straight up, panicked. In the confusion of her siblings’ cries, she watched her uncle tumble out of bed and push the dresser in front of the bedroom door. This can’t be real. Please, oh, please—

  “Aunt Lohien—” Jetta started, tears already sliding down her face as her aunt rushed to her side.

  Slender arms wrapped around her tiny four-year-old body. “Listen to me, Jetta. Take your siblings and hide.”

  A tender kiss from her aunt lingered much longer than usual on her cheek. In that moment, Jetta knew. This is goodbye.

  “No, Aunt Lohien,” Jahx said, tugging on their aunt’s shirtsleeve.

  “Please,” Jaeia pleaded. “Hide with us.”

  “Here,” Lohien said, prying off the air ventilation grate on the side of the wall. Fists beat against the bedroom door. A drunken howl signified a hunger that would not be satisfied with blood alone. “Hide in here. Don’t come out until he’s gone.”

  Her triplet siblings, just as emaciated as she, slid easily on hands and knees into the dark space of the air ventilation system. Wiggling in backward, Jetta went last, helping her aunt re-secure the grate on the wall as Galm and the wooden dresser lost their battle. Cheap clapboard splintered, and the monster got through.

  Lohien poked her fingers through the slats of the grate, a smile trembling on her lips. Eyes, already burdened with a sadness Jetta could never understand, tried to convey one last sentiment of strength and love.

  “Jetta, don’t worry. You will find a way. You will survive,” she whispered, then turned away.

  “What are you doing?” the monster screamed, barreling straight for their aunt.

  Jetta, what’s happening? her siblings cried in the back of her mind. Biting her lip, Jetta shut out her brother and sister from the telepathic connection that bound them together, not wanting them to see the horror unfolding in the bedroom.

  “Yahmen, stop, please stop!” Galm pleaded, backing into the corner with his hands held over his face.

  Of course her uncle did nothing to stop his brother, Yahmen, from brutalizing him or their aunt.

  Why won’t you stop him? Jetta cried, angry and horrified as Yahmen landed blow after blow on her feeble adoptive parents.

  Jahx pulled at the toes of her bare feet. In the back of her mind she heard his reasons and insights, but she didn’t want them. It didn’t matter that Galm was a timid, kindly soul who wouldn’t hurt the lowliest creature on their rotten world. Why won’t he protect our aunt?

  (Why won’t he protect us?)

  Grabbing their aunt by the hair, Yahmen dragged her toward the front door, laughing and taunting their uncle as she screamed. “You did this to yourself, brother. This is your debt. If she doesn’t satisfy me, it’
ll be those little street rats next.”

  “No!” Galm cried, hobbling after him, face bloodied from the beating. “Please, not my wife, please, Yahmen!”

  Screams and laughter echoed down the corridor of their apartment complex. Jetta waited for what felt like forever before pushing out the grate and crawling back into the bedroom. The usual angry fights and drunken moans carried through the walls, but not the voices of her aunt or uncle, or the monster.

  Stay here, Jetta said through their telepathic connection, instructing her brother and sister to remain in the bedroom.

  “No way,” Jaeia whispered, latching onto her sleeve. Their brother, eyes wide with fright, stayed plastered to Jetta’s side.

  Then be quiet, she said, tip-toeing through the living room and to the front entrance. With her siblings in tow, Jetta peeked around the broken frame of their front door.

  A junkie, sprawled out on the stained green carpet of the corridor, caught her eye. “This place will take your soul,” he mumbled.

  Whatever he said next came out in a frothy babble, seized by whatever drug lit his circuits.

  Not Fiorah. Yahmen, Jetta thought, but shoved her feelings aside before they had a chance to take hold.

  A whimper and a groan came from the stairwell. The yellow, calloused hands of her Cerran uncle appeared on the top step. Grunting, Galm hoisted up his broken body to the third floor corridor.

  Jetta weaved around the rest of the junkies and drunks lining the corridor to help Galm the rest of the way. Jaeia and Jahx followed suit, doing the best they could to assist their uncle.

  “I’m sorry, children. I’m so, so sorry,” he sobbed, leaning on the wall and limping back to their apartment.

  Gleaning the answer from her uncle didn’t keep Jetta from asking the question out loud. She wanted him to say it. Some ugly part of her, angry with her uncle for his weakness, needed him to stand accountable. “Where’s aunt Lohien? What will Yahmen do to her?”

  Stopping short of their apartment door, Galm slid down the wall, tears streaking down the clotted patches of blood on his face. “I—I...Why did I...? My fault, this is all...”

  “Jetta,” Jahx said, pulling her around to face him. Blue eyes would not let her look away. “Please. We’re all upset. Let’s go inside and help Galm get cleaned up.”

  There’s no excuse for this, Jetta replied back silently, shaking with rage and heartache. I want my aunt back. I don’t want to be afraid anymore!

  “I know,” Jahx whispered, cleaning off the tears from her face with his sleeve. Two other arms found their way around her body and pulled her in close. Jetta allowed Jaeia to hug her, needing her sister’s strength.

  “I won’t let Yahmen take you, I promise,” Jetta said, holding on tight to her siblings. Fear and hatred found their way into her words. “No matter what.”

  Chapter I

  Jetta pressed her ear against the warm pipe running through the drillship’s main engine core. “Sounds like there are minerals accumulating in the connector ports. We’ll have to fix the cooling system or take the ship to the surface to fix it.”

  Her brother and sister looked up from the jigsaw puzzle of the subcoolant processor spread across the grated floor of the engine room, their eyes wide with fear.

  “Yahmen will never stand for that. It’ll slow business,” Galm mumbled, staying hunched over a console with a readout of the overheated drilling modules.

  Jetta disregarded her uncle and scooted over to her siblings, navigating around the intricate highway of pipework. “We can’t just leave this—the main lines will rupture by first shift tomorrow.”

  Jaeia, her identical sister, sat back on her heels and wiped the sweat from her brow. It was getting late, and the heat from engine blasted down on them as fiercely as the midday Fiorahian suns. “I don’t know how to fix this, Jetta.”

  “Jahx?” Jetta said.

  Her triplet brother set down his tools and clutched his belly. Jetta should have known better. Fixing such a complex problem was out of the question, especially in their condition and without the proper knowledge.

  “No, Jetta,” Jahx whispered, reading her thoughts.

  “We have no choice,” Jetta said. We have to risk digging inside someone’s head.

  Subconscious protests arose from both her siblings. Hunger had collapsed all three of their bellies, and the dead heat from the machinery lent feelings of suffocation.

  We can’t, Jahx said, moping the sweat off his face with his shirt. None of us are in any condition to—

  Then we’re dead no matter what, Jetta snapped.

  Everyone’s already clocked out, Jaeia said, trying to reason with her. Even the laborminders returned to the surface hours ago.

  Of course, Jetta thought bitterly. Yahmen sent his work enforcers home because he knows we can’t possibly complete this task. This is just another game to him.

  Old taunts and teases played out in her head: “Fiorah is no place for Deadskins. No place for an ugly launnie like you.”

  Jetta shoved close a nearby interface portal. We’ve survived this rotten world, and we’ve taken Yahmen’s abuse for years, she thought to herself. If only people knew what I could do, they would be a lot more careful of what they said to me—and they wouldn’t treat me and my siblings like throwaway five-year-old kids.

  “Not everybody’s gone home,” Jahx whispered, still holding his belly.

  Jetta followed her brother’s gaze to Galm. Staring blankly at his workstation, their uncle’s lips moved in a silent conversation with old haunts. With arthritic fingers curled in on themselves he periodically wiped his forehead, leaving a streak of grime.

  At first she scoffed. His mind is practically mush.

  Gently, Jaeia redirected her thoughts. He wasn’t always like this. Remember when he was a building maintenance manager? He fixed everything.

  “Okay,” Jetta said, but her brother caught her arm before she could turn.

  “No, I’ll do it.”

  “You’re not in any shape to—”

  The intensity in his eyes betrayed the sickliness of his body. Any argument Jetta tried to put up dissolved. As the most gifted of the three siblings, Jahx possessed the skill and caution required to glean from their uncle. Jetta hated taking a back seat in the matter, but with her brother’s pain and her sister’s worry crowding her mind, she had no choice.

  “Uncle Galm,” Jahx said, crawling over to tug at his trouser leg. “Can you help me with this?”

  Galm turned his head, but did not look at Jahx. “Is it time to go home?”

  “This won’t work,” Jetta muttered. If they didn’t get Galm focused on how to fix the coolant subprocessor, they couldn’t steal that information from him, at least not without him knowing.

  Jetta’s stomach growled audibly, and Jaeia’s followed suit. “Jahx, just let me do it,” she said, trying to move her brother aside. Who really cared if Galm detected them? After all, no one took him seriously, and most of the time his sentences came out in toothless gibberish.

  After grabbing a few pieces of the processor, Jaeia put them on the console in front of Galm. “Do you remember how these go together?”

  Jahx put a hand on Jetta’s knee, keeping her from interrupting as Jaeia continued to gently pry. “I know this part goes here, and this part goes here—but what happens when you have a broken routing wire?”

  Galm stared blankly at the pieces, eyes withdrawn to some part within himself.

  “Uncle,” Jahx said, trying to coax him back. “You’re always so good at fixing things. I remember when you helped me repair the refrigerator.”

  Jaeia chimed in. “I remember when you helped Aunt Lohien fix the air conditioner.”

  Jahx gave Jetta a nudge, trying to elicit her participation.

  I can’t remember anything like that, she grumbled through their psionic bond.

  Jahx stood up on wobbly legs, his belly singing with pain. He placed his hand atop Galm’s, blue eyes searching their un
cle’s wrinkled face. “I know you’re tired, uncle. We are too.”

  Tears brimmed Galm’s eyes. “I am so, so sorry.”

  “Enough,” Jetta said, shoving her brother and sister aside.

  Closing her eyes, Jetta dove into her uncle’s head. The same chaotic whirlwind of sounds and images she had weathered many times before, but never understood, accosted her senses. Discomforting emotions, complex and laced with manifestations she had no way of coping with, played out in her head like a living nightmare.

  Jetta blew past screaming matches with Yahmen and the forceful removal of their Aunt Lohien from their apartment. She tried to shield herself from his sorrow and anger, but as deep as she burrowed into his mind, she could not protect herself from the consequences of her telepathic invasion.

  “You cannot take my wife!” Galm screamed, fighting to break free from his brother’s hold. Trapping Galm’s leg against the wall, Yahmen kicked down with all his might, shattering his kneecap. Pain exploded across Jetta’s mind, and she bucked away from the memory.

  Rising from the festering pits of her uncle’s unconscious, new hells unfolded, drowning her in unconscionable miseries. Jetta squirmed away as Yahmen’s menacing face appeared around every turn and bend in Galm’s mind, his hulking figure eclipsing any other reality.

  “You can never escape me,” he hissed, black eyes bleeding into the shadows.

  Panic rained down on her from all directions. She didn’t know whose fear infused her with adrenaline reaction, or how many heartbeats pounded in her ears.

  I should have known better! Jetta reprimanded herself.

  Jetta clawed her way back through the clogged disorder of her uncle’s mind, Yahmen—or some feral animal—cackling just behind her.

  “You are mine!”

  A blackened, gnarled hand shot out of the shadows. She narrowly missed the grasp of its growing fingers.