4
Denver, CO, USA
Kevin McCoullagh was staring, his mind unable to process what his eyes were seeing. There was a black… something, hovering silently just a few feet above his head.
“Kevin!” Sounds began making sense again and he realized his name had been called multiple times. He saw Lance wave both of his hands in a shooing gesture, “You need to move back, they want to land here. Chop chop, man!”
Kevin backed up until he was in the main alley. He looked left and right to see if anyone was coming. The alleyway was clear. The craft settled into the spot where he had just been standing. It wasn’t overly large, maybe ten to twelve feet tip to tip and six feet wide. It was all black with what looked like a glass windshield that wrapped partway around both sides. He couldn’t see into the glass. There were three small wheels. It kind of looked like a tiny version of a Black Hawk helicopter without a rotor, or propeller… or engine. In fact, he had no idea how it was moving at all. The craft’s nose cracked straight down the middle and opened up. A damned large Hispanic man stepped out and surveyed the alley professionally.
A voice called to the man from inside, he couldn’t see who, yet. “Eric, get your ass out of my way. This thing might be fast, but a girl needs to stretch her legs.”
The man turned to face the person talking to him and smiled back at her. “Need a hand?”
“To get out? No. But I will eat it if you don’t pick me up some steak by the time I get back. Something smells fucking delicious!”
Kevin’s mind was racing. That voice was familiar, damned familiar. He saw Lance walking back up the steps while Eric reached in and pulled another person up from the craft.
Oh. My. God. She was young and holy crap was she gorgeous… that was when he realized just who he was staring at. He stepped towards them as Lance came around the other side. He took another step. “Bethany Anne?” The woman had just hugged Lance and turned to face him.
He was staring at Lance’s daughter. But, not. She was different. She was taller. He checked quickly, she wasn’t wearing high heels. In fact, she was dressed like she had just come from an operation. She had on tactical boots and vest, but with leather pants instead of tactical cargo pants.
Kevin thought they were really tight, really nice and tight leather pants. He heard Lance clear his throat. Kevin felt his face flush. God! He had just been caught staring at the boss, by the boss’ dad! He officially wanted to crawl into a dumpster. In his mind he shook his head, he so sucked around women.
She approached him and didn’t hesitate to give him a hug. “Kevin! Good to see you again. It’s been a while.” She stepped back and started snapping her fingers in front of his eyes. “Hey! You in there?”
Lance grunted, “I think your appearance caused his synapses to overload. You might need to slap him around to get him to reset.” Eric snorted at the comment.
Bethany Anne looked over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at her dad. She turned to Eric. “Do you mind getting him into your seat? We shouldn’t be gone more than thirty to forty-five minutes. We don’t have time to let him reset here, he can do that upstairs.” Bethany Anne sported a wicked grin as she pointed a finger skyward.
Eric nodded and walked over to Kevin. “Let’s go, your legend isn’t faring so well. You need to buck the fuck up and get your mind in gear.”
Kevin jerked his head around when Eric spoke to him. He tensed a little, this man was beyond dangerous and he was only trying to help him get moving. Kevin nodded and started towards the craft. It was obvious what she wanted. Kevin quickly reviewed as much as he could of this evening’s conversations. He stared at Lance as he stepped in, guided to the right as he got in. He pivoted and sat in the left seat. Kevin’s mind finally clicked. He tried to lean out, but the harness had been locked while he was still processing. He called out to Lance. “Hey, you’re telling me you flew one of these in to see me? Where the hell did you park it?”
Lance came around so he could look into the Pod and smiled at his previous number one, now number two. He pointed up. “I understand about twenty-three thousand feet up. Not too much competition for parking space up there.” Lance stepped back and hugged his daughter again. Bethany Anne stepped in. Turning around fluidly she sat down and grabbed the straps to click across her chest.
She called out to Eric, “Hey! Make sure it’s medium, not red. Lots of garlic butter if they have it. I do loves me the rolls at this place.”
Eric made a face at Bethany Anne. “Garlic? God, your breath is going to be awful on the trip back.”
“What did you just tell Kevin? Buck the fuck up? Stop your whining or you can fly back coach, Mr. Escabar.”
Kevin could see everything outside clearly, even in the dark. But he couldn’t hear anything past, “Hell no! You’re not showing up anywhere near Gabrielle without me by your side!” Then the noise stopped when the doors shut. He watched as Bethany Anne touched an area on the glass. It lit up and displayed several illuminated panels. There were maps, notes, information and a row of button controls. But it was like the information was projected right into the glass because he could see through it to the outside.
Kevin’s mind started spinning, he was in some sort of advanced craft and about to…
The epithet left his mouth without so much as a request for permission when the craft left the ground at a mind numbing speed. “OHHH HOOOOLY SHIIIIIIITT!” He reached out to brace himself. He had his left arm pushing against the wall, his right seeking a handhold on the seat. It seemed that mere seconds had elapsed when Denver went from a large portion of the night to practically nothing then they were above the clouds.
He finally registered what Bethany Anne was saying. “Last chance Kevin. If I have to pull your hand off my leg, I’m going to make you pay me twenty bucks for copping a feel.”
Kevin yanked his right hand back. In his shock he had grabbed Bethany Anne’s leg and had been squeezing it as hard as he could. He hadn’t made much of a dent. What the fuck was happening?
All of his questions suddenly took second place, compared to the beauty of the stars as they lit up the window. Bethany Anne swiped her hand across the glass. All of the controls and displays that had been projected onto the glass disappeared, leaving only the view of the horizon and space.
He was in space!
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Kevin just nodded his head.
Bethany Anne put one of her feet against a brace welded to the door specifically for her to do this. She put an elbow on her upraised knee and rested her chin in her hand. “I could stay up here forever, if I had the choice.”
Her melancholy caught Kevin by surprise. He turned to look at her. “What? Why? Why don’t you have a choice?” He turned to look back out and continued to admire the view.
She spoke, “TOM, take us east, I want to see the sun rise.” Kevin felt his body pushed back in his seat. Although very noticeable, it wasn’t painful. Turning, she answered his question. “Because all of this that you see has a date with destiny. The technology allowing us to move around so quickly right now is not human technology, but alien.”
That caused him to turn and stare at Bethany Anne. “Alien? Like, not from Earth aliens?”
She nodded. “Yes. The not from this planet type of aliens.” She let him ponder that for a minute.
He looked around the vehicle for a minute, trying to understand what he was seeing. She waved her hand back across the glass and all of the gauges, displays and controls glowed again. He studied the cockpit information more closely.
He saw their location on a map, airspeed and altitude, but most of the screen seemed to be for communication and data. It had nothing to do with actually flying the craft.
He searched for the name she had said earlier. “I take it ‘Tom’ is flying this craft?”
“Not exactly, but he is my personal pilot.”
Now I’m a pilot?
Well, you’re not a very good computer professi
onal. Don’t make me whip out the ‘what have you screwed up lately’ card, all right?
Good point. Let me know when your ladyship wishes to go back down.
Kevin asked, “If he isn’t, who is?”
Bethany Anne smiled. “Not so much a ‘who’ as a ‘what.’”
Kevin looked over at her. “What?”
Bethany Anne pointed over his shoulder and slightly behind him. “Look back that way.”
Kevin craned his neck back to his left and stopped breathing. They were being tailed by a real U.F.O.. “Is that what I think it is?”
Her voice was soothing, which was nice considering how much was being thrown at him at the moment. “If you think it’s an alien craft from another galaxy and older than you are? Then yes, it is. If you are thinking it is a figment of your imagination, then no.”
Kevin’s right hand touched the glass, aching to reach out and touch the alien craft. “It’s beautiful…”
“It brought an alien to earth, about a thousand years ago”
“Why? I mean why did they want to come here?”
“The alien that ended up here belongs to a nonviolent faction, they are pacifists to a degree. So, they were looking for help to fight a second set of nasty aliens. The nasty types basically want to conquer the galaxy. They are bent on subjugating the peaceful aliens. And they will eventually work their way around to us.”
Kevin turned back around, “This is what Lance was talking about, when he said, ‘think bigger than big,’ right?”
She nodded her agreement. “One of the biggest things my team had to come to terms with is that I’m working to save our planet, not just the nation I came from. From up here, it’s priceless. The beauty is exquisite. From up here, you don’t see the ugliness of people hating people. No brothers fighting brothers, no nations fighting nations. I’m not interested in saving a particular nation so they can win over other nations. That mess needs to be dealt with the old fashioned way. My task is to make sure the idiots down there survive long enough to figure it out.”
Kevin was an inquisitive sort, and he wasn’t slow. “So, people who work for you leave their nationality behind?”
“In a nutshell, yes. We’re here to save that big blue ball. We have to focus on the bigger picture—not the little stuff that nations can and should do. We can’t focus on fixing that mess at the same time we are focusing on building our fort.” The Pod turned towards the stars, the moon coming into view from behind them. “See all of that space?” Kevin nodded. “That’s how much area we have to try to protect.”
Kevin whistled quietly. “That is one hell of a fort!”
“Yup. You know how we’re going to prepare to make that happen?” Kevin shook his head. “We’re going to introduce a lot of technology the world hasn’t seen before. Some we will license to bring in needed revenue, some we will use to build craft to help us get out here. Guess what one of our biggest problems is right now?”
Kevin thought for a moment. “Supply line.”
Bethany Anne looked back out the window. “Got it in one! We can’t be out here and have our supply line cut down below. Want one guess as to where we have put our stake in the ground back on Earth?”
“Holy crap. The base is going to be your central logistics location?”
“Yup. Now do you understand why the General wants you to join the team so badly?”
Kevin’s shoulders tensed. “I understand some, but I don’t understand why he doesn’t just run it himself. He said something earlier at dinner, but I guess I don’t have all of the pieces.”
“No, probably not. I tasked my father to shepherd over a thousand companies. And a lot of them are global, with locations in most of the countries of the world. They’re throwing out enough technology that it will fund us in the beginning stages. He’s going to place a bunch of the highest level R&D people into special sections at the base. I assume he’s shown you all the new areas under construction?” Kevin nodded. “So we are creating the safest location possible to produce the newest, most advanced technology the world has ever seen. We are placing it in the middle of the most powerful nation in the world. At least, they are presently.”
Kevin’s mind was racing. “How are you planning on fighting the aliens? Will it be ship to ship, ground to space, on the ground, what?”
Bethany Anne sighed, here came the part that was always the most disturbing.
“Kevin, the aliens have been searching for help. When they came to our planet, their plan was to genetically upgrade humans to help them with their war. In the last thousand years, some of those upgraded humans have been running around and form the basis of our folklore concerning vampires and werewolves.”
Kevin looked at her, disbelief clearly written on his face. He gestured out the window. “I’m sorry. I’m mostly okay believing in aliens and stuff. Hell, there’s a U.F.O. right behind us. But vampires? Seriously Bethany Anne, I’m going to have to put my foot down and call bullshit on that.”
Why did it always have to come to this? she wondered.
Kevin was relieved to find that out in space no one heard him scream.
5
Queen Bitch’s Ship Polarus, Mediterranean
After Bethany Anne’s final reveal Kevin hadn’t been able to think very coherently. They had talked a little while longer and then she had taken him back to the alley. Eric was allowed back into her Pod once she confirmed her dinner order was correct. Blowing a kiss to her father, she left the two men and took off.
TOM had taken them almost straight up and then over to the Mediterranean. She took a catnap en route. Bobcat, William and Marcus had designed special exterior coatings. Once layered onto the Pod the result was a radar signature the size of a golf ball. Flying at the speeds they did, the Pod barely registered on any radar system. If someone did notice something, it was usually ignored as a faulty reading.
When they got back it was time to replace Darrell with Scott in the Pod-Doc. She checked Darrell’s readings and then opened up the Pod-Doc and helped him get out. He had only been in the machine for five days. Bethany Anne followed TOM’s instructions for cycling the machine. After fifteen minutes it was Scott’s turn. She told Darrell to go eat something and then rest a little.
As Darryl got dressed, Eric pointed out the whole death walking vibe he was giving off and suggested he should start working on how to control it.
Once she was done with the guys and the Pod-Doc, Bethany Anne went to her cabin on the Polarus. She had argued that since Stephen was now the owner of the ships, he should occupy the main suite. He refused, proclaiming that ‘Queen cooties had already infested the rooms,’ smiled and walked out. She couldn’t get mad at the man. The more she was around him the more she could see the similarities between Stephen and his brother.
She tried to get Stephen to spill the beans about Michael, but he wouldn’t do it. Bethany Anne even threatened to replace him as ‘favorite vampire’ and he still wouldn’t budge.
Damn the man! She had relented and admitted his title was still safe.
Bethany Anne walked into the meeting room and nodded to her two sea captains, then to Stephen and Dan. Her father was back at the base helping Kevin get adjusted to his new role and providing whatever background information he needed. For the time being, John was with Lance.
Her father had complained about John’s shadowing him and pointed out there was security already on the base. Gabrielle had answered the call and explained that was the reason he only had one guard. If he wanted to keep acting like a petulant child, she’d assign a second guard, too.
Frank and Nathan walked in behind Bethany Anne. Eric was shadowing her, but he took up station outside. Ashur came into the meeting room and dropped down on the floor behind her chair.
Dan called the little meeting together. It was a discussion regarding using the sea assets now that they had craft capable of getting into space.
It took a little while, but everyone came to the agreement that the Pol
arus would become the floating center for design. To win the upcoming battle for the planet they would need to develop new vessels and doctrine. This meant designing larger ships for use in space. Determining crew size, crew needs and skills. They would be in contact with Team BMW who would move their shop to Colorado. The Ad Aeternitatem would become the fleet’s aircraft carrier, so to speak. The Polarus would take the role of a screening vessel and would have the job of protecting the Ad Aeternitatem. They agreed on a budget to modify the two ships. There were shipyards next to Stephen’s warehouses at the port. They would use his contacts to help decide where the modifications should be done. The Guardians would take over protection detail for both ships with Killian and Ecaterina on over watch full-time.
Bethany Anne asked Nathan about Ecaterina and his face broke out into the biggest smile she had ever seen from him. Bethany Anne knew they had gone back to Ecaterina’s uncle after she was well enough to travel. She had needed a couple of hours in the Pod-Doc after nearly dying in Turkey. The trip had helped her immensely to adapt to her new body changes. Apparently the three of them had gone to the European Pack Council to make them aware that a new family had entered the group. Ecaterina could have claimed and stayed with Nathan and the APC. But Ecaterina was proud of her heritage and had even made her uncle come along. The way Nathan told the entertaining story, Ecaterina had grabbed her uncle by the earlobe and dragged his ass off of the mountain.
Ecaterina and Nathan had also spent a few days with her brother on the trip to her hometown. Nathan even admitted that she had introduced him to her parents on the trip back. You would think Nathan was now her mother’s most favorite man in the world. When were they getting married and, was Ecaterina pregnant already? Not that her mother was judging them, of course. Things were ‘different than when she was young.’ That’s when her father interrupted to say that her mother wasn’t a patient woman before their marriage, so he wasn’t sure why she was carrying on about ‘not judging.’ Nathan started laughing at this point because Ecaterina’s mom turned on her husband and the Romanian started flying fast and hard. The two used this time to quietly pack and then say their goodbyes. Nathan admitted he thought Ecaterina’s father was the wisest man he knew.
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 132