Deuces Wild Boxed Set: Books 1-4: Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  The vibrant atmosphere was the same this morning in the bustling mess hall as people hurried through breakfast to begin their day’s work. It warmed Nickie to see the confidence returning to the colony, and it was also satisfying to know she’d had a hand in hope returning.

  John stood up with his breakfast tray. “Will you all come to see me off?”

  There was a round of yesses from everyone around the table, but John’s eyes rested on Nickie as he spoke. “Great. I’ll be leaving as soon as my pre-flight checks are done. I have to get this plant back to my father.”

  They gathered at the airfield a short time later to say their goodbyes. John went to each of them to give them his thanks for their part in his success.

  Keen slapped John on the back and laughed loudly. “You know, we made quite the team out there.”

  John grinned and returned the gesture. “That we did. But I have to get back with the plant and claim my place as future leader.” He hugged Nickie tightly. “When I’m done back home, I’m heading out of this quadrant. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime?”

  Nickie tilted her head. “You’re going back to the Federation? Then no.”

  John grinned his easy grin. “Nuh-uh, the other way.”

  Nickie frowned. “But there’s nothing out there.”

  He winked at her as he entered the Briar Rose. “That’s what we want you to think.”

  The door to the ship closed behind him, leaving Nickie standing on the airstrip with her mouth opening and closing in indignation.

  “You ok?” Adelaide asked.

  Nickie growled and stalked toward the Penitent Granddaughter. “That man!” She stopped and looked back at the others. “Well, are you coming? Ship can’t leave without its crew.”

  Chapter 19

  Nickie

  Rebus Quadrant, Aboard the Penitent Granddaughter, Bridge

  The ship lifted into the atmosphere. The mood on the bridge was one of celebration and excitement for the new beginning they had grasped. When they were well underway, everyone undid their harnesses and began talking about where they would go next.

  Nickie watched them from her customary position in the captain’s chair with her feet crossed on the console. These were her crew. Hers. She settled in.

  Durq flitted from person to person, never staying for more than a snatch of conversation. Nickie saw the improvement in his confidence, though.

  She remembered the quivering mess he’d been when she’d rescued him from being his former shipmates’ dinner and grinned at the sight of his creepy-ass smile, which now that she’d seen it a few times wasn’t so creepy anymore.

  Keen pottered around after Grim, who was gratefully showing him the ropes and enthusing about being able to devote himself to his art. Adelaide stayed at her console, already deep into the Granddaughter’s technical manuals.

  Nickie hadn’t experienced this before. Sure, she’d lived alongside it, but she’d always held herself aloof, never fully immersing herself in the concept of belonging. She had come to the conclusion long ago that she would rather be alone, but now she realized that she wanted something more than solitude.

  She knew she still had a hell of a long way to go, but she didn’t feel the maybe anymore. She felt the tiny beginning of hope.

  It is good to see you this close to contentment.

  Nickie broke from her reverie at Meredith’s interruption. I guess I do feel pretty good about things.

  Will this good feeling extend to sharing your space over a longer period of time?

  Nickie considered the question for a long moment. I don’t know. Before I would have said they all come with too much baggage, physical and emotional. I would have run screaming from it. Now…it doesn’t seem like such a big deal if someone leaves their gear lying around or wants to talk about their day.

  And what about the prince?

  Nickie’s mouth twitched. Him? He’s a pain in my ass already. I kind of like it, though. I want to know what he was being all mysterious about before he left.

  She got up out of her chair to speak. “Okay, crew, it’s time to stop the chin-wagging and get on with finding our next adventure.”

  Keen stood to attention. “What are your orders, Captain?”

  Nickie sat down again. “Oh. Um, I haven’t gotten that far yet. Before John left, he said something about heading away from his homeworld. In the opposite direction from the Federation.”

  Keen’s frown mirrored Nickie’s earlier confusion. “But there’s nothing in that direction. Just empty space.”

  Nickie shrugged. “That’s what I thought, but John hinted differently. I can’t resist a mystery.”

  Meredith joined in via the speaker. “I have scanned in that direction, but this Skaine technology is not picking anything up.”

  Nickie waved a hand. “See? It’s fucking odd. There must be something out there. So, orders…wanna go and poke around and see what we find out there?”

  Keen hurried to his seat and began strapping in. “Yes, Captain!”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Adelaide chirped.

  Durq clapped with excitement.

  “Permission to whoop?” Grim asked.

  Nickie grinned. “Permission granted. Set a course for the mystery, Meredith.”

  “Already done,” Meredith replied. “I’m just awaiting the order.”

  Nickie put her feet back up on the console and twirled a finger. “Make it so.”

  Unknown Location

  The purloined message on the screen was paused on John Deblanc’s earnest face. It was a lucky intercept, caught by chance. It could be nothing, but it could also be exactly what he’d been searching for.

  He played it to be certain before he notified anyone else:

  “Hi, Mom, Dad. Sorry I kinda disappeared for a while there. I didn’t mean to worry you so much that you sent someone after me.”

  John appeared suitably abashed for a moment, then he grinned and held up a bunch of plants with their roots wrapped in cloth to the camera. His message continued:

  “The legends were true, and I made it through the volcano alive. I have the cure for Dad!” He stashed the plants and faced the screen again. “I have so much to tell you both, but I know you’ll want to hear this first. I went to find the woman you sent to come help me. You must have known I’d find out. Anyway, did you know that you sent an actual Grimes after me? Anyway, I’m on my way home now, and I’ll tell you both all about Nickie and her crew when I get there. Love you both.”

  The video ended and the young prince’s face froze on the happy-go-lucky grin once again.

  The message remained paused.

  A few moments later there was a knock on the door of the office.

  “Come in,” the viewer of the message called.

  The door opened, and a woman strode in and perched on his desk. “Hey, what’s up?” She glanced at the tablet on his desk. “Ooh, who’s the cutie?”

  He slid the tablet over to her. “Prepare yourself.”

  She frowned and took the tablet. “What is it?”

  “Just watch.”

  She pressed Play and watched the short message in silence.

  Then she watched again, and again.

  She was about to play it a fourth time when the tablet was tugged gently from her hands. She looked up with tears tracking down her cheeks. “Does this mean…”

  Barnabas nodded. “Yes, Tabitha. She is beginning to heal.”

  FINIS

  Author Notes - Ell Leigh Clarke

  August 12, 2018

  Thank yous!

  As always massive thanks goes out to MA for working on this project with me… even while he’s gallivanting across half the continent… and otherwise. (He’s probably already told you he was in Asia for a few weeks this month!).

  Don’t worry, chap. We held the fort while you were gone… and while there is video footage of Jeff and I pulling your leg in your absence while we worked on the covers, it’s only going up on Patreon… so
you won’t see it!

  Bwhahahahahahah :D

  JIT and Steve

  Huge gratitude bombs going out to our dedicated and relentless JITers. Without you we’d be making boobs of ourselves will silly errors. Thanks for catching them. And for the positive feedback. You have no idea how helpful it is to know that we’re on the right track! You’re the best.

  Thanks also to Zen Master Steve. Goodness knows how he manages to do all he does… and keep a cool head… but it’s super appreciated. Thanks Steve :)

  (Ooops. Microsoft put a fancy emoticon in there. I’ve fixed it. Text only! I got it!)

  Aside: Last book Steve ended up having to reupload the book after going through and taking out a bunch of emoticons in the author notes. Apparently, MA and I are the worst.

  It makes me wonder if we should be more expressive with our language… rather than resorting to the short hand of millennials. Perhaps that’s something to consider. After all, we do put “writer” on our tax returns. I think with that identity we might need to embrace some form of writerly responsibility. Or at least word-smithery.

  I will try harder.

  Reviewers

  I’d love to extend a HUGE thank you to our amazing Amazon reviewers. It’s because of you that we get to do this full time. Without your five-star reviews and thoughtful words on Amazon we simply wouldn’t have enough folks reading these space shenanigans to be able to write full time.

  You are the reason these stories exist. So, truly, thank you.

  Readers and FB page supporters

  Last, and certainly by no means least, I’d like to thank you for reading this book… and all the others. Your enthusiasm for the world, and the characters, is heart-warming. Your words of encouragement, and demands for the next episode, are the things that keep us going through the looooong hours of writing, punching and plotting.

  Thank you for being here, for reading, for reviewing, and for always brightening my day with your words of support on the fb and Patreon pages.

  Thank you.

  E x

  Solo Deuces

  This episode was particularly tricky to write, partly because MA was ‘out of pocket’ for most of the time of writing. Not only that, and this may come as a complete shock to you, but I’m writing this having finished punching the Nickie side of the story and still not seen anything about Tabitha.

  I mean, sure, we had a story meeting about the larger theme and what Tabby needed to accomplish… but details? Beats? Words? Nada! So, as I’m writing this, I hope it works.

  I mean, I think it has in the past. To be fair we had practice at this with the last two Dark Ages books. But as I’m typing my scrivener file is open and where the Tabitha scenes will go I have place holders saying: “Tabitha”.

  Fingers crossed he gets it to me before Steve needs the file for Editing and JIT! ;)

  MA says Tabitha, I say Nickie

  Explain that when I label my files, coz I write the Nickie part. Sometimes forget, and get confused when MA sends me Tabitha stuff.

  Of course, he gives me grief for this, proclaiming it to be a Tabitha book…

  MA and “You’re right”

  You’re right isn’t something that MA says willingly or often.

  It normally involves tonnes of reasoning (which is mostly futile) and waiting for him to emotionally come around to a different way of thinking. It happens. But it can take anything from a few minutes (of tantrum or push back) to several months of just not mentioning it.

  It’s often worth the wait.

  The other day he called me from China while I was having a lie down. (The recovery from adrenal failure is still progressing well, but I can’t keep going all day yet). He asked about some of the words we’d been working on and I told him I had a problem with some of the sentence structures so I was punching them.

  It was a minor point.

  But… whether it was because he’d just woken up, or because he was taking it personally, he insisted on seeing what I was doing.

  Ellie: dude, we’ve done like 16 books together? Surely at this point you can trust my judgement.

  MA: no. it’s not that. And the logic doesn’t follow.

  Ellie: how come?

  MA: because in those 16 books I wasn’t reading for this.

  Ellie: and? It clearly wasn’t something you wanted switching back. And besides, clearly you trust my judgement in order to write that many books with me. And can I just say: Dark Ages?

  MA: waffle waffle.

  Ellie: So I’m right?

  MA: waffle waffle. A few moments of randomness go past.

  Ok. Yes. You’re right. Ok. Fine.

  (beat)

  MA: Shut up.

  MA and business decisions

  Later in the same conversation we were talking about some business-y stuff. I was gently asking questions to figure out what his motivations were… and giving an alternative viewpoint on stuff he may or may not have considered already.

  He sounded grumpy, so I thought I’d try and smooth it over.

  Ellie: hey, look, I’m the only one who will say these things to you. So do you want me to stop?

  MA: waffle waffle. No.

  Ellie: coz I can stop. And then… you can just do whatever you want, in total peace.

  MA: waffle waffle.

  Ellie: But you know I’m right. And you’d-

  MA: yes. You’re right. Ok? Do you want to get it on a recording?

  Ellie: no. It’s ok. It’s more important that you understand that I’m right, than I hear it!

  MA: Hahahaha. (beat) Shut up.

  I know. He’s got a tough job.

  But at least he can admit it when someone else is probably right. Well done, Yoda. Well done. :)

  Labor Day

  If you’re a long-term reader of my little corner of the Kurtherian Universe you’ll already be aware that I moved to the US about a year and a bit ago. I spent my first year in LA and then at the beginning of this year moved to Austin, Texas.

  And this will be the first year that I’ll be celebrating Labor Day like a native.

  Woot!

  It’s all thanks to Amy.

  Amy is one of my writer friends. She hangs out at my place quite a bit. You may have seen pictures of us going to see movies or hanging out in the local café. Anyway, we’ve started watching old movies (that we feel we ought to have seen before) at my place, using a projector set up. (Coz projectors, like bow-ties, are cool! – you should excuse the Doctor Who reference if you’re not familiar with the show.)

  When we watch movies at the theatre there are strict no talking rules - under pain of death from Shelia the Velociraptor.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K9g18kEx-0

  At my place there are no such rules.

  Or velociraptors.

  And so, we stop the movie every so often when we want to talk. It’s a hoot. And we discuss everything from the profound to the ridiculous.

  My writing about this in the last author notes led Amy to suggest that we should probably do this on a live stream. So that’s what we’re going to do. It’s open to all levels in Patreon, and we’re even taking a vote on which movie you want us to watch. You can even watch the movie along with us. In fact, I’d recommend that, because then you’ll see what we’re talking about.

  It’s going to be a kind of Labor day “watch-along”.

  I’m psyched.

  Now, full disclosure: Realistically the event is going to be over with by the time you read these notes – unless you read SUPER fast. So… what we’re going to do is put a full recording of the live stream up for anyone to see if they join after the event.

  Again, this is any tier you join at… just a bonus for being a part of the family over there.

  We’re even having a poll to determine which film we watch. We’ve tried to keep them all a little British, or British vs American, for maximum humor. (Amy regularly does an Ellie accent, and is gradually teaching me some American, which is highl
y amusing. For her.)

  The movies in the mix are:

  The Full Monty,

  Sherlock (TV show),

  Four Weddings and a Funeral

  Bridget Jones's Baby,

  and Hot Fuzz.

 

  I’ve only seen two out of the five, so I’m looking forward to broadening my horizons!

  If you’d like to check it out, here’s the link to the poll.

  https://www.patreon.com/posts/cast-your-vote-20894279

  Kisses and the missing text generation

  MA and I were talking about the back-matter layout of the new Nickie books. I was asking if the link to my fb page was still being included, simply because there is no Oz in this series to do the reminding before the author notes.

  MA checked.

  MA: Yep it goes in after you put ‘e’ and ‘x’.

  Ellie: (thinking for a moment) You mean ‘Ex’? That’s my initial and then a kiss.

  MA: I thought a kiss was :-x... like in a face?

  Ellie: I think you might have missed a generation of texting.

 

  MA and his Self-Journal

  MA was making some reference to his to-do list and it reminded me of his Tony Robbins calendar thingy. I asked him about it.

  MA: I’m not using that anymore. I’m using that one you suggested.

  Ellie: Panda?

  MA: No, the Self-Journal.

  Ellie: Oh great. That one is awesome. (I used to give them out at my business masterminds because they’re so effective). How’s it been for you?

  MA: Yea, good. The one time I used it it helped.

  Ellie: (Blink blink).

  MA: Shut up.