Lance was thinking this might be a good team to move over to some of the expected research on the spacecraft. He had asked Frank to do a deep background check on Jeffrey and Tom and would wait to get a response from him. But it might hit sixty degrees this afternoon and sunny, so he could get to know Jeffrey a bit better on the golf course.
“That sounds fine, I can do that.”
Pete decided to hang with the General while Scott wanted to stay with Nathan and listen in on the discussion.
After everyone met at eleven, Lance suggested that he and Jeffrey go golfing instead of listening to the techno-speak for hours. Jeffrey thought this was a great suggestion. Darryl turned out to be a good golfer with an incredibly long tee off. They ended up making him tee off from the golds. Pete didn’t have much of a game and neither did Jeffrey. The General did pretty well.
Lance didn’t get any feedback from Frank all afternoon, so they dropped Jeffrey back off at the Patriarch Research offices and picked up Scott, who was more than ready to leave. Nathan had a couple of more items to review with Tom and he would drive their rental back to the airport later. Ecaterina had them all on an American Airlines flight, first class, to Miami that night.
They all decided to go and play a few games at the Aria and then left to go to the airport themselves. Pete had been surprised to find a paycheck deposited in his bank account. While all of his expenses had been covered, this was the first time that he had earned his own money and was pretty proud of the event. Darryl and Scott tried to get him to celebrate by buying everyone dinner. He smiled and passed on the option. He did lose $500 on the slots. It hurt a lot more when he lost his own money.
The General took this time to set up another reminder to call Patricia. He had been in a meeting yesterday when his reminder came up and now it was too late to interrupt her. Maybe tomorrow would be better.
Brasov, Romania
The ride from Stephen’s house back to Brasov had been pretty uneventful. Even taking Gabrielle in daylight wasn’t too risky. If they could have, they would have left her back at Stephen’s house, but they didn’t want to risk landing the craft on land again. Once they took off it was going to be the SEA AXE or nothing. Hopefully nothing didn’t mean sinking into the Atlantic Ocean!
Ivan had come back to Brasov with them so he could stay with Gabrielle as much as time would permit. This caused Stephen to join them. From Brasov, the two of them were going to move on to Germany and meet with the European Pack Council. Stephen needed to get a handle on Europe so he decided to go and see the Weres directly.
Bethany Anne had tried to get Ivan to introduce Gabrielle to his mother, but Ivan wanted nothing to do with that idea at all. He told Gabrielle it had nothing to do with her vampire status. Then, to prove his point he had to tell what happened to his sister, Ecaterina, when she left to go to America with Nathan. Gabrielle was amused at this. “What if I just explain I can’t have children?” Ivan didn’t have an answer to that.
Presently, Gabrielle was wrapped up as tight as they could make her. Their helicopter pilot looked at Gabrielle a little funny. Bethany Anne explained she was very sensitive to the cold. It was a bit difficult to get her into the chopper at first, but they managed. Bethany Anne heard Eric tell Gabrielle she should have laid off the bonbons. She didn’t hear a ‘fucking ouch’ from Eric, so she could only presume Eric had something coming later.
John and Eric had the backpacks. These were heavily packed and sized appropriately for the men to carry. Other than the basics for going deep into the backcountry, the guys also had eight packs of blood in case Gabrielle or Bethany Anne had an urgent need. The guys would prefer not to be the first choice should either of the ladies get hungry.
The helicopter pilot was as good as the website had claimed. Bethany Anne had him hover fifteen feet above a flat area. John and Eric tossed the backpacks and the four sets of skis out. The group had no plan to use the skis during their trek up the mountain. But four people had flown onto the mountain on the pretext of skiing, and not having skis would just cause questions. The sun had set behind the mountain, so there wasn’t any direct sunlight and Gabrielle had peeled a layer off her outfit.
Eric had his feet out the door and yelled back to them in the copter, “Ok, looks about fifteen feet. How are we going to make sure that it’s safe to jump down?”
Gabrielle yelled, “Thank you for volunteering!” Eric had barely turned around before Gabrielle’s push jettisoned him from the copter to land below in a large snowbank.
John looked over the side. “Seems safe enough.” He jumped on his own to land near Eric. Bethany Anne pointed to Gabrielle and then the door and the woman was out quickly. Bethany Anne looked around to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind then patted the pilot on the shoulder, stepped out on the helicopter landing skids, shut the door and dropped down. She barely had to flex her legs on landing. The pilot pulled up and away gently before the engine got louder and the helicopter left them.
“Gott Verdammt, Gabrielle! What was that shit for?” Eric was still getting snow off of his face. “I could have been killed!”
“If you had eaten fewer bonbons, you might not have landed so hard.” Gabrielle was busy taking her outer coats off.
Eric was smiling at her, “Ah, my payback was a bitch. Boy, a little testy on the weight comment, much?”
Gabrielle stopped to consider his comment. The payback really was a little over the top and she wouldn’t normally have cared about the comment. But she had been miserable inside all of the clothing and the fat comment had stayed with her the whole trip. “I guess an apology is in order, Eric. I’m sorry for not making sure you would be safe enough before pushing your ass out of the helicopter.”
Eric finally stood up and grabbed the backpack John was holding for him. “Wait, what? What do you mean ‘safe enough?’”
“I should have made sure you wouldn’t be dead before I could give you some blood to heal you. I trusted the pilot to make sure we weren’t over a canyon or something.”
“So, no apology for pushing me out?”
“God, you are such a whiner Eric! You live and nothing is broken. Be thankful for that at least. You made fun of a woman with a fat joke, that I didn’t drain you dry right then was a very restrained response in my opinion!”
Eric looked over at Bethany Anne who had been watching the two of them go at it like siblings. “A little help here?”
Bethany Anne shrugged her shoulders. “Personally, I think you’re lucky and it was an invaluable lesson. You should know better than to push a woman on certain subjects and if you didn’t, now you do! That you joked to a female vampire that she was fat was insanely stupid on your part. If Killian hadn’t been cleaning up his act, I would swear you got that comment from him.”
Eric turned to John who just shook his head and pointed to Bethany Anne. “What she said.”
As Bethany Anne got ready to head in the direction of the cave—at least the direction according to TOM— she thought about the last time she had seen this type of stupidity from a guy. It was on the school playground when the boy liked the girl but didn’t know how to say anything. Fucking great. She looked over her shoulder at Gabrielle, “You don’t have any sisters, right?”
“No.”
Bethany Anne turned back around and started going through the snow. “Good. Let’s go, people… and you too, Eric.”
John had left the skis under a nearby tree. He sure hoped no one found them and thought the four of them dead.
He turned around, shouldered his pack and started walking towards the group, where Bethany Anne was beckoning him. “Hey, mountain, get up here and break trail for the little woman, would you?”
John grumped, “The little woman can bench press me.”
“Stop your excuses, you big hunk of man meat. I considered throwing Eric, but then I’d have to heal him if he went over a ledge.”
Eric said, “Geez, you ladies really stick together. Would it help if I apolo
gized?”
Gabrielle stopped to look at him. “It might at that.”
Eric spread one of his arms out as if he was a gallant gentleman. “Then, please accept my apology for my lack of decorum and irresponsible comment before.”
“Apology accepted.” Gabrielle nodded her head and Eric smiled in return.
John passed the two of them by. “If you guys get any nicer to each other I might have to throw up.” Both of them turned and looked at John, their eyes narrowed.
Oh, fuck. Now he had the two of them gunning for him. He sure hoped they found the saucer quickly.
He passed Bethany Anne. “Which way?”
She pointed up the side of the mountain. “See that stand of trees?”
“Barely.”
“Oh, crap. Sorry, forgot your sight isn’t as good. Tell you what, Beefalo, go straight for a hundred yards through those two trees fifty feet ahead of you and maybe I can lead from there.”
John decided to bite his tongue. He already had two in the party aiming his way, he didn’t need all three! Now he needed to figure out a way to get Eric in trouble with Gabrielle again. “Right, one snow path coming up!”
Bethany Anne looked behind her. “Eric, get your skinny ass up here, too. No need to let all that manly meat go to waste, use it to make my path easier to walk!” She smiled at Eric who wasn’t sure which way to take that comment. Did he reply to the ‘skinny ass’ part or the ‘manly meat?’ Or neither since he was still reminded of her question to John back on the plane and he didn’t want her bringing that question up again.
“Yes ma’am!” Eric took off behind John.
“We’ll catch up in a second.” Bethany Anne turned to Gabrielle and waited till he was out of earshot. She barely whispered, “You know he likes you, right?” Gabrielle looked stricken, and then her eyes followed Eric as he walked away.
Gabrielle whispered back, “Well, this is a pickle, isn’t it?” Gabrielle was happily connecting with Ivan right now and didn’t want a three way romance. She had grown out of the desire to pit two men against each other back in the twenties, the 1820s to be exact. Her shoulders slumped. “I’ll have a talk with him.”
“See that you do, I can’t have my Guardians dealing with internal trouble, capiche?” Gabrielle nodded. Bethany Anne turned around and double-timed it to catch up to the guys, Gabrielle right behind her.
TOM was true to his word. They were safely in the cave system that went to his ship by midnight. They stopped a little ways in to rest, eat and drink before working their way through the caves out to the other side. They were going to get caught in the early morning, but no direct sun if they hurried. Bethany Anne told the guys which direction and they headed off in a hurry.
Bethany Anne, don’t you want to warn John?
Huh? Bethany Anne had been thinking about Paul Jameson and hoping that he had gotten the new pilot situation sorted out.
Warn him about what?
About the ship?
What about the…
“Ow! What the fuck?” John was twenty yards ahead of her, rubbing his forehead with one hand while the other was held out in front of him.
Oh yeah, it’s invisible.
Not invisible, it warps light around the ship.
That distinction isn’t important right now TOM.
“John, you ok?”
“Yeah, I think I found the ship.”
Bethany Anne hurried to catch up to the two guys. “Yeah, sorry I forgot to mention it has a method of bending light to make it seem invisible.”
Eric looked excited. “You mean like in Harry Potter and the …” He stopped as all three adults turned as one to stare at him. “Hey! I like the story, it’s my weakness…”
Bethany Anne snorted. “I thought the History Channel was your weakness.” She reached around until she found the indention that covered the locks. Pressing the indention caused it to slide aside and she keyed in a sequence from memory and the cloaking stopped. The door opened and Bethany Anne strode on in. She called out, “Watch your heads, especially you, John!” The four of them got onboard and she keyed the door closed. She couldn’t believe she was back here again so soon.
She went to a portion of the wall and slid her hand across an area a little lower than where a normal location would be on a human sized door. She pushed it and the door slid to the side. “This was TOM’s old quarters.” She walked in and turned around, “This was where the pilot slept. Except for the medical room and the science room everything else is built smaller. TOM’s race isn’t as tall as ours. You can drop your packs here, gentlemen.” The three of them followed her into the smaller cabin.
Both men and Gabrielle were looking around in wonder. They had followed Bethany Anne because it was what they did. However, they all had to admit that until they got on the spacecraft it had seemed rather fantastic. Now, they were really on an alien spacecraft and everything Bethany Anne had been telling them was true.
They really did need to save the world from aliens.
“Hey!” Bethany Anne snapped to get their attention. “The piloting area is cramped as hell, so no one can join me there. I’m going to go and work with TOM for a few minutes. You guys camp here or look around. If you look around, and I’m looking at you Eric, don’t touch anything or we might just drop out of the sky later. Hate to go splat on the bird’s first flight in a thousand years.” Bethany Anne walked out of the room.
The three of them broke out in huge grins. Gabrielle was the first to break the silence. “We’re on an alien spacecraft! Can you believe it?” The two men just smiled with her, until Eric stopped and looked back at the door. “Did she say this was going to be the first flight in a thousand years?”
Both John and Gabrielle stopped smiling and looked back at the door as well. John spoke up, “Does this ship have liquor?”
Bethany Anne smiled as she listened to the three of them talk. She thought that they had followed along too agreeably. Now she realized it was because they hadn’t considered the reality of getting on the spaceship in the first place. Now, they not only were on the spaceship, but she was prepping the little girl to come online again.
TOM, what do we need to do?
We will need to bring the main subsystems back to ready status and then check all of the results.
How long will this take?
Hours would be my guess.
So, we aren’t leaving tonight, that’s for sure. I don’t want to take this out during the day. Since we have at least eighteen hours, will that help the planning?
Sure, a proper prep time is about twelve hours, so taking into account we are using your body to do this and you will have to hunt around for the correct controls we should get done in plenty of time.
You know I can swing over to vamp mode and we can run through this pretty damn quickly, right?
TOM hadn’t considered that.
It won’t help in this case, we need to bring the subsystems online in order. The power should be good for another few thousand years so we will start with that.
The spies in the sky won’t see a thermal bloom, will they?
No, this craft goes through the icy edge of space, we don’t lose any energy. We won’t even melt the ice on top of us until I want to.
Bethany Anne smiled. Listen to yourself, you’re getting a little big for your britches back in your crib, aren’t you?
She felt the satisfaction TOM was giving off.
Yes, It feels good to do something I know how to do, and can do well.
Well then, Pilot TOM, let’s get this craft ready to rock and roll!
Yes Ma’am!
7
Carpathian Mountains, Romania
While the power was coming online, Bethany Anne went to find Gabrielle and together they went into the medical room. Bethany Anne shut the door behind them. The room stood just as clean as the last time she was here. The pod was in the middle with about four feet of space all around it.
Gabrielle looked at th
e pod in the middle of the room. “So, this is where we all started?”
Bethany Anne nodded. “Yes. About one thousand years ago, Michael stumbled across this ship and into that pod. How? I’m not really sure yet. Neither Michael nor TOM have ever told me that part. TOM started the genetic modifications but due to ignorance, they were incredibly painful for Michael and while he struggled through most of the pain, he woke up before TOM was able to tweak anything. He got out of the pod and left the area. His nanocytes weren’t properly modified for the human genotype and each time a vampire created another vampire, the mutations got worse. That’s why the children can be anything from almost as strong as the parent to pretty weak.”
Gabrielle walked forward and put her hand on the pod, “It looks like a white coffin.”
“You don’t watch much science fiction, do you?”
“No, not so much.”
“It shows. No, this is a medical pod. All of the instruments are inside this shroud. Once you lay down inside, you’ll go to sleep and the medical process is handled by the computer.”
“How does it know what to do?”
“I have to program it. If you come around to this side, there is a …” Gabrielle used her vampiric speed to join Bethany Anne and started looking at what she was talking about, “dashboard right here.” Bethany Anne looked at the vampire who was suddenly at her side, “Um, are you a little anxious?”
Gabrielle looked at her and shrugged. “Does it show?”
“A little. Here, use this.” Bethany Anne reached for a long rectangle that she pulled out into a bench. “Sit there.” Gabrielle sat down. “Here’s the story, so you know what you’re in for. This is on a need to know basis and unless I tell you otherwise, no one needs to know, understand?” Gabrielle agreed.
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 67