Times Like These

by Jan Stryvant

  "Where's Sampson?" Roberta asked when Sean came back.

  "Making me a little sister, I hope!" Sean snickered.

  "You didn't!" Jolene said, laughing.

  "Actually, if he hadn't, I was going to suggest it," Roberta said, smirking. "Sampson always wore his heart on his sleeve, and I know he's always had a thing for Louise."

  "And my mom has a thing for him," Sean said. "I think she was always worried about what I'd think if she took up with someone else. Well, I'm 'out of the house now', as they say. Besides which, now I won't be paranoid whenever he's around Rob."

  "Good point," Jo agreed. "So what's next on your schedule?"

  "Talk to dad over there when he wakes up and see about putting together three teams to go through a small portal one of these cycles."

  "That's the real reason you opened that gateway, isn't it?" Keairra asked from where she was sitting on the couch by the First's sleeping form.

  Sean nodded. "I figured if I could open one from here, then if worse comes to worse, I can open one from there, and we can all escape back into our own world and not end up trapped like Stell was."

  "And dragging both Sampson and the First back?"

  "Was just icing on the cake." Sean winked at her and then grinned. "I love it when a plan comes together!"

  "Why do I have the sudden urge to throttle him?" Keairra asked Estrella.

  "Because he's quoting some obscure modern culture reference," Estrella replied. "I'm still getting used to it."

  "The A-Team is not obscure!" Sean protested.

  "Our husband, the dork," Jolene said with a smile.

  "Well, if you'll both excuse me, I have to go round up twenty thousand lycan collars and silver tags for all the new guests."

  "Aren't all the machines in Vegas now?"

  "Almost all. There are still a couple down in Dae's home in the local dwarven halls, but that's why I've got to go make arrangements. I think we only have a thousand in stock here, but with all the recruits we have coming through, I'm not even sure about that."

  "Not having to worry about one's clothes being destroyed is definitely something I would love to experience," Keairra said with a pleased expression. "So by all means, go find us some collars, Sean."

  "I think you've been dismissed, Husband!" Cali laughed.

  "Apparently. I'll see you all around dinner," Sean said with a wave and went outside to get started. He definitely had a lot to do, but first he'd check on the stocks of collars and tags. Back at the ranch, they'd always kept a couple thousand handy because of all the recruiting that'd been going on. Then he'd call the group managing the machines in Vegas and put in one hell of an order.

  After that, he'd call a meeting and bring everyone up to date on the situation.

  #

  Betty was sitting in the new mess by herself. The guys were all still back at the barracks at the 'Ranch', but they'd evacuated all the civilians, support, and non-essential personnel the other night, and that had included her.

  She wasn't exactly happy about that, and neither was her boyfriend Josh, or any of the other Marines she'd been staying with, but the order had been given, and as she was still human; they weren't going to be making any exceptions.

  She was bunking with Elliana, Steff, Julia, and Kate again. Stewart had rescued the four girls from some sort of cult that made the one she'd been in look like kindergarten. Betty wasn't up on all the details, but they still called Stewart 'The Voice', and would do whatever he said without hesitation.

  The fact that he wasn't screwing them, when they all obviously wanted him, impressed the hell out of Betty. Those girls were hot, and she'd never met a man with that kind of restraint before—not one as young as Stewart, at least. The four of them went around like cats in heat, and she'd be shocked if they were sleeping alone come tomorrow night.

  Of course the first month she'd been here, she hadn't been all that different. She'd gone a little crazy, and pretty much had been bed hopping like a bunny. When she'd found the Marines—or perhaps it would be better to say they'd found her—she'd quickly narrowed her own focus until she'd ended up sleeping with Josh, and only Josh. He was older than her, but not too much older, wiser, more experienced, and the kind of guy no one liked to mess with. He'd even been teaching her how to shoot, use a knife, and anything else handy if she had to defend herself.

  Her head came up then as the mess went dead silent. Looking around, she saw a lion enter the room. It wasn't Sean or Adam; she knew what both of them looked like now.

  Then another lion entered right behind him, and another, then a string of lionesses who were all chatting with each other. As she watched, they trooped over to the chow line and made their way through it, teasing the stunned servers who quickly got their wits back, and then headed for the tables.

  Elliana, Steff, Julia, and Kate immediately waved at the lions, flagging them over to their table, already whispering to each other about finally having a shot at one. Betty cringed a little; she knew lions were like kings, and you had to do what they said. But she really had no interest in getting comfy with anyone other than Josh anymore.

  "This seat taken?" a lioness asked, looking down at her.

  Betty shook her head.

  "Great! Julia and Shin! I found a spot!"

  Betty blinked as two other lionesses came over and sat on the other side of her.

  "I'm Umnsalo, or just Uma for short," the lioness said, sitting down. "You had that 'deer in the headlights' look when the 'four temptresses' over there flagged the boys down, so I figured maybe you'd could use a little insulation."

  "I'm Betty. You know about them?"

  "Course I do; what one lion knows..."

  "We all know!" Julia and Shin said with a chuckle from their seats.

  "And trust me," Uma continued, "we all heard about those four when Sean's student took them in. I think the boys are definitely going to be keeping them occupied for a while. So what's your story?"

  "Don't you know?"

  "Wouldn't be asking if I did. You're obviously human, attractive, and you're not looking for anybody, which leads me to guess you already have a man?"

  Betty nodded. "Josh, he's a Marine, and he's still up at the ranch."

  "She's that kid the preacher shot," Shin said and then stopped to give her a pat on the leg. "Sorry to hear about that, must have been rough."

  Betty blinked again. "Umm, I think I'm over it. Well, except for what happened to my father."

  All three of the lionesses nodded. "He did it for you, you know."

  "No, I don't know," Betty whispered, looking down.

  "Well, you do now," Uma said. "He redeemed himself, and you should remember him for that; he obviously loved you very much. So, thinking about becoming a lycan?"

  Betty's head came back up at the sudden change in topic. She looked at Uma, who was focused on eating her dinner.

  "A lycan, are you thinking of becoming one?" Uma asked again between bites. "If your boyfriend is one, well, I'd think you'd be considering it too. All the Marines are jaguars, right?"

  "Josh is, but some of them are tigers or bears and stuff."

  "So thinking about it?"

  Betty blushed. "Well, yeah, I have been. You're all so strong and tough and self-assured," Betty's voice lowered. "Something I'm not, really."

  "You came up to Sean's place and got yourself a Marine boyfriend. Sounds pretty self-assured to me," Shin teased.

  "I didn't have anywhere else to go!" Betty protested.

  "So you went straight into the arms of the devil after getting shot?" Shin winked. "Sounds like you started thinking for yourself and decided to find out the truth."

  "I wanted security," Betty said and blushed again. "I wanted to be safe."

  "If you wanted safe, you would have gone back to Los Angeles," Uma said. "You were looking for something more than safety, and it sounds like Josh is it, right?"

  Betty thought about Josh then and smiled.

  "Yup, she's hot for
Josh alright," Julia said, glancing over at Betty, causing her to blush yet again.

  "So, the rules are pretty simple," Uma said. "If you want to have kids with Josh, you have to be a jaguar like he is."

  "So I should let him bite me?" Betty asked.

  "Ugh! Then you'll look like his sister!"

  "What?"

  "You tend to look like whoever infected you. Tell you what, as soon as we're done eating, let's go check out all the jaguars here and see if we can't find a nice, hot one so you'll have a little surprise for your Josh when he gets back."

  "She's already hot," Julia pointed out.

  "Well then, she'll be even hotter!" Uma said with a snicker.

  "But I haven't made up my mind yet!" Betty protested weakly.

  "Yes you have, you just won't admit it yet."

  "And how do you know that?"

  "Because you're still sitting here and haven't run away."

  Betty looked down at her feet, embarrassed. Because it was true. Now that she knew she couldn't have a family with Josh unless she was a jaguar like him, she wanted it. She wanted a future with him, and from the things he'd been saying lately, she knew he wanted one with her, too.

  "Okay, let's go!" Uma said a few minutes later, standing up. Looking around the mess she raised her voice, "Hey! If I wanted to find a really hot looking jag fem, where would I go?"

  "Sean and Claudia's casino!" a couple of the guys called back.

  "That's in Reno!" Betty said. "I don't have a car!"

  "Which one of you is driving?" Uma asked.

  "What's in it for me?" one of the men asked.

  "A fun time with three lionesses?" Shin replied with a grin.

  "Well, Dad always said I'd die young," the man said and stood up. "I'm Doug. Let's go."

  "Don't worry, Doug. We promise to go easy on you!"

  "Where's the fun in that?" Doug asked with a grin as they followed him out the door.

  #

  Sean took his seat at the head of the conference table and looked around the room. They were still setting up the displays they'd used in the old one back at the ranch. While Sean might be willing to stage the helicopters out of there for their current sorties, he wasn't going to leave his command post so close to the front lines.

  Just about everyone had shown up for this unscheduled meeting. Sean suspected the several hundred lions now wandering around the installation had something to do with that.

  "Alright, so as you've probably noticed, there are a few more lions walking around outside this afternoon than there were this morning."

  "I'd hardly call a hundred 'a few'," Claudia grumbled.

  Sean smiled. "Well as there are going to be a lot more coming through, I think you'll consider this to be 'a few' by the time this little exercise is over."

  "How many are we expecting?" Maitland asked.

  "Just about all of them," Sean said. "That is, all the ones who aren't already here."

  "I take it that's a lot?"

  Sean nodded.

  "Um, how will that affect command, and our units? Will you still be in charge?"

  "I'll still be in charge. Most of the lions are only going to be passing through here to other assignments. Those who stay will either be answering to me, or they won't be dealing with anyone here but me."

  "So in short," Adam said, speaking up, "nothing here is really going to change, other than we're going to end up with a few more lions to help with the fight."

  "So they all came back, didn't they?" Vincent Powers, the liaison to the magic user's councils, asked.

  "Yes," Sean said looking over at him. "The lions have all returned. Well, not all, but most. I've been discussing this with the one in charge, and he agreed to my requests for help, as well as some of the others he's been getting."

  "So what does this mean for the immediate future?" Bill asked.

  "Well, I think we're going to need to borrow some of those Air Guard C130s for airlift. A number of them are going to South American and Europe. So we'll need transport. It might help if we can fly them from here to some of the major airports that are still functioning. I'm getting collars and tags for all of them as they come through, and I suspect we're going to be supplying either firearms or swords for a fair number of them, at the very least the ones who'll be staying here to help us out. Probably have to make armor for a lot of them, too."

  Sean turned towards Major Harper and Major Vanderberg, his two supply heads. "We're going to need a lot of weapons to outfit all the lions coming through. I suspect they'll be better served if they show up, wherever they're sent, armed. So if we can swing it, I'm going to need battle rifles, sidearms, and of course ammunition for them."

  Major Joyce Vanderberg nodded, making notes on the pad before her. "Sure thing, Sean. How many are we talking?"

  "Probably twenty-five thousand."

  Sean noticed that the room got quiet enough you could hear the air conditioner blowing.

  "Did you say twenty-five thousand?"

  Sean smiled., "Could be more, could be less. But that's a good number to start with."

  "How many lions are there, anyway?" Vincent asked.

  "A lot more than twenty-five thousand," Adam said with a snicker.

  Sean nodded slowly. He knew no one really wanted the number of lions known, and there really were a lot more than that.

  "We're also going to need to clothe them. So set us up with whatever you can get your hands on. I suspect a lot of them will probably just run into town or Reno and buy what they need."

  "Will we need to give them money?" Deidre asked.

  Sean shrugged. "I don't know, maybe? I'll have to ask."

  "Well, let me know so I can set up a cash draw for them."

  "You got it," Sean agreed.

  "Where are they all coming from?" Vincent asked.

  "I'm not at liberty to share that information," Sean said, looking over at Vincent. "Or anything at all related to it."

  "You know Arthur is going to go crazy over this, same for Joseph."

  Sean chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure they are. If we have the opportunity, I'll see if I can't schedule a meeting."

  "How soon do you think I can get my hands on a bunch to use for Reno's defense?" Chad asked.

  "I think that'll depend on how fast we can get them geared up and trained on the weapons. I'll have to talk to a few people, but hopefully I can get a couple hundred for you in a few days."

  "Just remember," Adam warned, "they're lions, not soldiers. So warn the officers and the NCOs you put 'em with not to mouth off to them, or they'll be regretting it."

  "I'll be sure to warn them," Chad said with a nod. "Just as long as they understand that I don't want them causing problems in the ranks. It's going to be bad enough that I've got all these 'gods' walking around everywhere. I'll probably have to put them in their own separate units."

  "That's a good point," Sean said, thinking about the effect all these lions were going to have on his combat troops. He was already seeing some of those effects here at his base. "Guess I'll have to warn everyone to be on their best behavior until the troops get used to them."

  Sean looked around the room. "If there's nothing else, I guess we'll call it a day until tomorrow's normal brief. Dismissed."

  Sean sat back in the chair and watched as everyone got up and left, except for Chad, Maitland, and Adam, who all came over and sat with him, Roxy, Daelyn, and Cali, who had also stayed.

  "Does this mean you're going ahead with your plan to go through a gateway?" Chad asked once the others had left the room.

  Sean nodded. "This was the first step. Now I have to browbeat someone into agreeing with me."

  "I take it that's the head lion?"

  Sean nodded, and then smiled. "But I have a secret weapon."

  "Oh?"

  "He's my father-in-law."

  "Umm, I'm not so sure that's the kind of thing you can count on."

  Adam chuckled. "Sean's been calling him 'Dad' for ages now. Trust
me; he has a weak spot for him."

  "Does that mean he's your father too?" Chad asked.

  "Nope. Estrella and I have the same mother, different fathers."

  "Really?" Chad asked, looking surprised.

  "Well, when you live forever, sometimes things get complicated. I wouldn't worry about it."

  "Good, cause I got enough problems of my own already. That djevel army looks like it's going to start driving south here in the next day or two."

  "Well, we're in a new gate cycle now, so I don't think we'll be looking to push out anytime soon. How long do you think we can hold the ranch?"

  "We'll have to see how this push goes. A week? Two? Hard to say, Sean, until I see what they're willing to commit. Once we have everyone out of there, I'm not going to be making any stands to hold the place; I'll just be trying to slow them down on their drive to Reno to give our engineers as much time to fortify it as possible."

  Sean nodded. "Sounds good to me. Now let's go find our guests and get some dinner."

  Home Front

  The First sat up as Sean and the others walked into the room, Keairra standing beside him; Sean noticed the First really did prefer his lion form. Keairra was in her hybrid form, however, as well as the six other lionesses, who were now all seated around the room.

  "Everyone," the First said with a bit of a purr, "allow me to introduce my wives you haven't met yet." Pointing with his paw, he went clockwise around the room. "Saf'kij, Jipouet, Peym, Nibisa, Dienna, and Sasha."

  Each of the lionesses gave a short nod as the First said their names. Sean had met Nibisa, Sasha, and Peym before, but not the other three, though he'd seen them around. There really were a lot of lions Sean had never met. Another task for another time, he guessed.

  "When's dinner?" Peym asked.

  "Hungry already?" the First asked.

  "I haven't eaten in a couple hundred years, so yeah!" Peym said with a laugh.

  "It's nice to meet you all," Roxy said with a smile. "Dinner is now. Then I'll show you where your room is. Oak's still getting it cleaned up, but it should be ready by the time we're all done eating."

  "Sounds good!"