Unfortunately, this president had all the hallmarks of a shiny-eyed idealist who had risen to power and discovered too late that the mantle was both heavier and more complicated to wear than anyone who had not held the responsibility could comprehend. “Give yourself a break.”
The president shot Bethany Anne a look of incredulity. “You just told me I’m incompetent and that my people are going to die because of my actions. I’ll be resigning as soon as this crisis is over.”
Bethany Anne sighed. “You could do that. Or you could take your lumps and choose to be better in the future.” She only half-heard the reply since her focus was on the comm feeds coming in from the response teams being transported in all over the city. “My people are working in the hotspots to protect the public until your military arrives.”
The president smoothed the wrinkles out of her clothing. “I need to speak to the people and persuade them somehow to stop this madness. What do I say? They believe in the things Isaiah has told them strongly enough to cause harm to others.”
Bethany Anne already had a solution in mind. “Get ready to make your broadcast. I have a plan.”
Daolagen Space, Ooken Destroyer
“Dammit, BA.” John’s armored boots left spiderwebbed prints in the crystal as he walked the dying ship with his Jean Dukes Special held loosely by his side. “‘Get me an Ooken, John,’” he grumped. “Like it’s just a case of going to the store to pick one up.”
That was not an option? the EI in his armor snarked.
“Unfortunately not,” John answered with regret. “I’ll have to make do with you telling me where the bastards are hiding so I can snatch one and get out of here.” He glanced back at the hole Sayomi had given him as an entrance, noting that the ship was already healing itself. “I’ve got to get the transporter tech for the Sayomi. It’s a pain in the ass getting Sayomi to shoot me a door.”
You don’t need Sayomi to do that. I got a wrist cannon design from Commander Silvers’ EI that will suffice.
“Helpful little fucker,” John remarked. “Let me have the cannons.”
His EI obliged, and his wrist plates shifted to form the cannons. John familiarized himself with how to use them before repeating his request for the location of the nearest Ooken.
There are approximately thirty Ookens in a room one level below us, the EI replied. You can access the level via the duct on your left.
“Any that aren’t in a group large enough to cause me serious issues?” John clarified, pulling the grate off the duct and peering into the eight-by-eight aperture in the wall.
There was a pause while the EI checked. No. This is the smallest group. I recommend you get a move on before the ship receives orders to Gate out.
John muttered a curse and powered up the cannons before climbing into the tube. “Inform Sayomi we’ll need extraction from the deck below this one in exactly five minutes.”
Done. What is your play? the EI asked as John descended the duct. Because while I’m able to amplify your ability to alter the hive mind’s perception so the Ookens cannot see you, it’s not going to mean a thing once you start shooting.
“I only need one shot,” John told the EI. He paused to check that the corridor was empty before punching out the grate and exiting the duct. “Where is the room?”
The squalling hive mind gave away the Ookens’ location before the EI answered.
John grunted. “Never mind. Sayomi ready?”
I’m coordinating with her.
Going in. Extraction on my signal. John still had a ways to go to get used to the EI in his head, but that was nothing compared to how he felt pulling directly on the Etheric to manipulate the hive mind. He wiped the Ookens’ acknowledgment of his presence from their consciousness and entered the room with his wrist cannons ready to go to Plan B if necessary.
There’s a Plan B? the EI inquired.
Yeah, it’s ‘shoot the shit out of everything in sight and hope the video of my heroic death teaches future generations how to go out in style.’ John focused on the largest Ooken in the room. It was easily three times his size and fit Bethany Anne’s command, which had been “Bring me the biggest, ugliest fucker you can find.”
Well, shit. That one should do her well enough.
It was just a matter of maintaining his illusion while sneaking past the other twenty-nine Ookens in the room, subduing the chosen Ooken without killing it in the process, and getting himself and his prize back to the Sayomi in one piece.
Hero complex much? Sayomi cut into his thoughts unexpectedly. Or did you forget I was here?
Why the hell are you inside my head? John demanded. You can’t be inside my head.
That was not a desirable tactical decision? the EI inquired, its voice laced with confusion.
Of course it was, Sayomi assured the EI. But as you are aware, the man has a thick skull.
I could exchange you for the scout fighter Bethany Anne offered me, John told Sayomi.
Sayomi laughed. As if. Now, if you want a hole in the side of that ship, I suggest you get the hell out of the blast zone. I have disabled the destroyer’s shields. Firing in three…two…
John closed the gap between him and his target when the wall imploded. The EI magnetized his boots and locked his arms around the Ooken’s head, stunning it with a punch to the temple.
The Ookens fought to hold on as they were sucked out of the breach, screeching at John. Locking tentacles, they plugged the hole with their bodies
John dropped and pinned his Ooken to the floor with his knees, freeing himself to pick them off with his wrist canons. All you did was piss them off. Where’s my extraction?
Incoming, Sayomi announced, and the Ookens blocking the hole were scattered by the puck that came flying in. I believe your exit is clear.
John grabbed his Ooken and ran for the open cargo hold Sayomi had angled to face the hole. He flung the Ooken in ahead of him and jumped the gap, deactivating his helmet after Sayomi sealed them in.
“Where now?” Sayomi asked.
John applied another love tap to the Ooken’s head when it stirred. “Daolagen. Bethany Anne can wake it up.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Daolagen, Senate Grounds
Chaos had been crowned king in the absence of logic.
Thousands of citizens had ignored the president’s plea for them to stay indoors and headed for the Senate to defend their way of life against a takeover by the cult, arming themselves with whatever was at hand.
The military had arrived in the city too late to prevent the majority of the people from reaching the center of the trade district, and once there, it was a straight shot along a mile-long avenue to the colony’s seat of government. The soldiers formed an uncertain perimeter around the enormous open courtyard between the avenue and the Senate building, doing what they could to contain the riot without using lethal force since their superiors had no clue which group was which and they had orders not to engage the general public.
Whipped up by Isaiah, the cultists clashed with the mob waiting for them in the courtyard. The uproar drowned out the president’s emergency broadcast playing on a holo above their heads and on every screen around the colony.
Michael strode through the courtyard, heading up the sweeping line formed by the team, pondering his children’s efforts to show mercy while taking absolutely no prisoners. K’aia and Trey used their staffs to keep their space clear of cultists who were furious their nonhuman selves were besmirching their whatever-the-fuck these people were so precious about.
Christina showed less restraint, as expected for a Pricolici, but Kai was the one who surprised him. The young Walton, recently enhanced, had no compunction about laying the smackdown on the unenhanced.
Michael smiled. At least one of them got to cut loose.
While a massacre would solve the problem in the short term, it wouldn’t please Bethany Anne to have the news of the return of his salted earth policy precede them for the remainder of the to
ur. The children had it handled.
He at no point felt he needed to step in for their protection.
They were doing what they could to split up people locked together in animalistic struggles for survival, but the layout of the courtyard worked against them, and fights broke out again as soon as they moved on to break up the next group.
Michael’s rain made no difference. Similarly, Alexis’ physically separating people with bursts of concussive energy was doing little to stem the violence. They fought regardless of the downpour and the soldiers behind a hastily-erected barrier on the Senate steps blasting them with water cannons.
Bethany Anne exited the Etheric beside Michael and touched his shoulder. “You never saw a Black Friday sale, I’m guessing.”
“I saw a crusade or two,” Michael replied. “There is no honor here, just human beings brought down to their basest level by contrasting beliefs.”
Bethany Anne didn’t disagree. “It’s about to get messier.” John, do you have my Ooken?
It’s taking a nap right now, but I have to keep knocking the fucker out every five minutes or so. It’d be peachy if you took possession sometime soon.
I have one more thing to do, Bethany Anne told him. Stay close, and keep it subdued until I’m ready.
Michael raised an eyebrow, hearing the exchange.
Bethany Anne waved off his concerns. “I’m about to drop in on Isaiah. It’s about time I deliver that object lesson I was talking about.”
She called Alexis over. Gabriel stayed with the others, still working to quell the people around them. Alexis greeted her with, “Hey, Mom. You won’t believe what I have to tell you.”
“Start with the location of the temple,” Bethany Anne instructed. “This needs to be stopped.”
Alexis grabbed Bethany Anne’s arm as she sent the information to her HUD. “Wait, Isaiah has a memory you need to see.” She explained what she’d seen in the back of the cultist’s mind. “He’s not aware he met a Kurtherian.”
Bethany Anne drew her katanas. “I have a feeling our little zealot will be renouncing his leaders very publicly in—let me see—five minutes.”
She gave them instructions for her return, then cut through the Etheric to the temple, locking onto the eight remaining mental signatures in the complex as her exit point.
The guards died before they’d registered her moving through them at super speed. Bethany Anne had no stomach for playing with the unenhanced. Isaiah, however, was a different matter. She slowed so he could see her and sheathed one of her swords. “Isaiah, I presume.”
Surprisingly, he didn’t cower. “And you are Bethany Anne. I knew you would come to kill me. It won’t make a difference. Another will take my place.”
Bethany Anne lifted a shoulder. “I’m not here to end your life, but to open your eyes to the fact that you have been mindfucked by a being with more power than you could comprehend.”
Isaiah faltered. “Why should I believe you?”
“You don’t know me,” Bethany Anne told him. “All you know is what you’ve been made to believe. If I wanted you dead, we would not be speaking. I would rather save a life than take one.”
Isaiah’s uncertainty grew. “I don’t understand.”
“Come with me.” She crossed the space between them and took Isaiah by the shoulder, pulling him through the Etheric to the scene of the riot. Isaiah fell to his knees as they emerged on the steps of the Senate, losing his footing on the bloody water slicking the ground.
Bethany Anne hauled him to his feet by his collar and pointed at the mass carnage occurring in the courtyard. “This is your doing. You have divided these people, and for what? Because you believed a lie.” She shook him as she spoke, resisting the urge to smack his stupid head clean off his shoulders.
Isaiah shook his head. “I’ve seen proof.”
“You’ve seen photos out of context and been fed a bunch of half-truths,” Alexis admonished as she joined them. “If you really wanted the truth, you could have found it.” She indicated the holo above their heads to Bethany Anne. “We’re ready to take over the emergency broadcast. The courtyard has been secured by the president’s men. Are you ready?”
Bethany Anne nodded. “Do what you can to restore his memories.” John, time for your pet to wake up.
Oh, it’s awake, he assured her.
Bethany Anne made another trip through the Etheric to the Sayomi and took hold of the Ooken, securing it in her mental grip.
John waved as she vanished back into the Etheric without a word.
Bethany Anne created a platform of solid air to hold her above the courtyard. There were still thousands in the waiting crush. The motion of the crowd made her feel seasick. She scanned the crowd to make sure all the exits had been blocked according to her instructions and was satisfied.
The rioters hadn’t noticed the military pulling back. Bethany Anne doubted anything short of an earthquake would distract them from their bitter purpose.
So she provided one.
The fighting turned to panicked screams when the flagstones rippled at Bethany Anne’s command. The screams turned to puzzlement when the tremor ceased immediately, and the fighting resumed in some places.
Bethany Anne held the Ooken down with one foot and lifted her katana as the holo switched from the president’s face to the camera feed Alexis had on her. The people not fighting reacted with shock to the sight of a fifty-foot former Empress hovering above them, which Bethany Anne helped along by pushing out a wave of fear. Could I get some lightning over here?
Coming right up. Michael supplied a strike that backlit Bethany Anne as she made her platform descend to float over the people’s heads. The fighting slowed further.
Again.
This strike she caught with the blade of her katana and redirected over the heads of those nearest, amplifying her voice to be heard over the entire courtyard. “The fighting ends now, or I will have no option but to give you a reason to recall why unity is survival in these dark times. This, for those who have not viewed the public information broadcasts, is an Ooken.” She eyed it. “A particularly large example, I should add.”
“You wouldn’t release it,” someone called.
Bethany Anne singled out the speaker. “I have every intention of releasing it if you people don’t get yourselves to-fucking-gether.”
The holo showed every bit of the weariness that pervaded Bethany Anne’s very being. The people stared at the Ooken with horror. Those who had come here to stand up for what was right and found themselves in over their heads began to filter toward the exits, where the soldiers identified them before allowing them to leave.
“Now that I have your full attention…” Bethany Anne shoved the Ooken into the Etheric, retaining a connection to it in case that attention wavered, “what those of you who came here because of Isaiah need to understand is that I always had the power to rule if that was my wish. I have one desire, which is to remove the possibility of any species or race being used by the Kurtherians who remain on this plane of existence.”
She lowered herself to the Senate steps and had Alexis bring Isaiah over to be included in the holo. “Dad helped me to unlock his altered memories. He’s not going to be any trouble.”
“Is this true?” Bethany Anne asked Isaiah.
Isaiah bowed his head, tears of shame running down his face. “It’s true. I remember now.”
He looked out, his eyes drawn to the blood running down to pool in the low areas. His people stared at him.
A man who was tricked. A person who wanted to be somebody. His arrogance. His downfall.
“I was nothing more than the pawn of the Kurtherian who has used my arrogance against you, against me, against us all.”
Many of the cultists in the crowd took their leader’s admission badly. Bethany Anne manifested a barrier from Etheric energy to prevent them from rushing the steps. “You are angry. That’s okay. Devolving into further violence is not, and the Ooken is still an opti
on for anyone who finds civility unattainable. This man has been lied to just like you, and he is willing to face the consequences of his actions.” She stared at those who had vengeance in their eyes and asked, “Are you?”
Bethany Anne returned the broken man to Alexis’ care and faced the crowd. “This lack of unity weakens us all. You are precious to me, but you are only a few of the billions of people I hold myself responsible for. If I can’t trust people not to engineer a second Worst Day Ever the moment I leave, how the fuck am I supposed to fight for you? Look around. Look what you have become.”
Her words echoed in the silence as the people returned to their senses and faced the countless dead Isaiah had just viewed littering the courtyard.
Bethany Anne felt the shift as the people came face to face with what they’d done to each other and to themselves. “The cost of failure is what drives us not to repeat our mistakes. Redemption will be your own to find, and I suspect the majority of you are in sore need of it. This is my one and only offer. Go home. Make amends with your loved ones. Remember what it is to be kind to each other.”
Leaving Daolagen Space, QSD Baba Yaga, Top Deck
Satisfied that the recorded confession Isaiah had made following the end of the riot on Daolagen was safely in her father’s hands, Bethany Anne tracked the aroma of post-op pancakes through the family quarters to the source and found the twins with Michael in the kitchen.
As always, having just the four of them together was all Bethany Anne needed to be reminded of why she was willing to deal with the shit that came with her life. Michael’s smile was the smile of every lover, the twins’ laughter an echo of that heard in millions of homes across dozens of galaxies.
Alexis waved her spatula, keeping her attention on the griddle where she had eight pancakes cooking. “Hey, Mom. You’re just in time.”
Return Of The Queen: The Kurtherian Endgame™ Book Eight Page 24