by Justin Sloan
“Perhaps, but my calculations say that will not be the case.”
Suddenly Willom gasped. When he spoke again, his voice was again that of a male cyborg Grayhewn. “She’s gone. What have you done, Kalan? She’s gone! I can’t feel her anymore.”
Kalan hesitated. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“No! I know I told you that, but the truth is more complicated. I didn’t escape her space station; she kicked me out! She’d decided I was a pointless experiment, one that wasn’t worth finishing. I’ve managed to stay alive since then with the help of a diagnostic computer I stole from her, but I know I can’t stay alive forever with just that.”
Kalan’s eyes widened. “That was your price for selling me to her—you wanted her to upgrade you.”
“I wanted her to finish what she’d started. To make it so I could survive on my own without that damn computer analyzing me every couple hours and patching the bugs. And now that will never happen.”
He started to push himself shakily to his feet.
“Don’t get up, Willom,” Kalan ordered. “I may be able to find you help, but you have to cooperate.”
“It’s too late for that!” Willom screamed.
He lunged, but Kalan was ready. He fired point-blank.
This time he hit the broken eye socket and the round went all the way into Willom’s head.
When he went down the light went out of his remaining eye, and he did not get up again.
Kalan took one last look at Willom’s body. The first Grayhewn he’d found on this journey, and he’d turned out to be a crazed and traitorous cyborg.
Still, Kalan felt a little sorry for Willom. Maybe he’d been a good guy once, before Aranaught’s experiments had broken him.
Kalan forced himself to turn away, since he still had other problems to overcome. He was trapped in an unfinished outpost in a remote region of a moon. Who knew if this place even had food stocked away?
Then he remembered something else: Wearl! She was still outside the airlock, injured and alone.
He ran to the airlock and scooped up his helmet. As he put it over his head, he heard a familiar voice.
“If you are there, would you please let us in? We’d really like to save your ass, but we’re trapped outside the airlock.”
Kalan smiled. “Jilla?”
The Pallicon laughed at the sound of his voice. “Kalan! You’re alive.”
“I am! Do you know if Wearl is alright?”
“She’s with us. Hurt, but she’ll make it. Now, will you open the damn door?”
“I’m coming.” Kalan took one last look back at Willom’s body, then he opened the airlock and greeted his friends.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tol’s Moon
It wasn’t until the second day of planning with Commander Arlay that Kalan contacted them to say he was inbound with the parts they needed.
“We’ll have the Grandeur up before you know it,” he finished, then signed off.
"Did he say where he was coming from?" Robin asked.
Valerie shook her head and returned to the planning table. They had just settled back in when one of the locals came running over, shouting about something incoming on the ground.
"On the ground?" Arlay asked, face scrunched in confusion. "Who or what is it?"
"You might want to have a look for yourself," the soldier said, then led the way.
At the windows, Arlay took the tactical viewers from the soldier and had a look while Valerie squinted at her side.
"Prepare to fire," Arlay commanded.
"Wait!" Valerie strained her vampire sight, then let out a whoop of joy. "Don’t shoot! That's my friend."
"Kalan?" Robin asked, trying to see at her side.
Valerie nodded, looking again and then taking the tactical viewers to see if they helped any. It wasn't by much, but they made the image slightly clearer. There was Kalan in the seat of a sort of dune buggy, flying over a ridge with a metal trailer hitched to the back.
"That daredevil better slow down," she said. "If our parts are in there, he's as likely to lose them as break them with all that clattering about."
Arlay wore a doubtful look on her face. "We're screwed."
"No, ma'am." Valerie stood tall, thinking about her friend, about how he was coming through for her now as he had in the past. "If he's here, it’s going to be all right."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Remember how your friend there was so interested in finding the real Bandian?"
"Yes?"
Valerie beamed, then gestured to the rising dust clouds and swirling methane in the air.
"You're kidding," Arlay said, dumbstruck.
"He's on our side, and he's the real deal." Valerie watched the vehicle approach, watched it slide along the ground and come to a stop where the guards had gone out to meet it. "Take that away from him, and he's still a great warrior. Still a friend we're glad to have on our side."
Just then the guards raised their rifles to aim at the dune buggy and Valerie yelped, "Commander?"
Arlay jumped to her comm system and hit a button, sending a message across the base. "Let them through, they're on our side."
As the soldiers backed off Valerie relaxed, then turned to Robin. "Let's go see what parts he's brought with him so we can get our bird in the air."
They made their way down and waited inside for him to enter and take off his helmet, then Valerie stepped forward with a wide grin. "What the hell took you so long?"
"Me?" He scoffed. "I was out there hoping you two would come to my rescue. Imagine my surprise when I had to save my own ass."
"With a bit of help from us," Bob said, strolling in behind him.
“And then we had to find your parts in the junkyard. That took a whole day.”
“There’s a junkyard?” Valerie clasped hands with both males and Jilla, then nodded toward where she assumed Wearl to be based on a floating layer of sand and dust.
"We have a lot of catching up to do," Kalan said, glancing around, “but first let's put Bob to work on that ship of yours.
"You have the parts?" Arlay said, stepping forward to greet them. "I'll send some of my soldiers to help out with this ‘Bob.’ Short for ‘Robotic,’ I presume?"
"What, Bob?" Kalan laughed. "Sometimes I wonder, but no."
Valerie had a good chuckle at that, and soon they had all cleaned up and made their way into the inner halls. The commander set them up in a spot where small streams of escaping gas had been lit to create a calming fire, and they gathered around it. Kalan and Valerie took turns updating the others on their adventures.
“So you managed to destroy your ship?” Valerie asked.
Kalan nodded. "We seem to get hit by it all, don't we?"
"Definitely seen our fair share of troubles out here," Valerie agreed. "It's like the universe wants to ensure we never get bored."
"Could be that," Robin added, "or it could be that you're constantly avoiding the dry ground. Don't be surprised when you're wading through puddles to find yourself covered in shit."
Everyone looked at her with shock. As Robin's lip curled Valerie burst out laughing and Robin joined in, then the others.
"We really have found ourselves in a lake of it, haven't we?" Valerie agreed. "If you all hadn't shown up, Kalan… Man, I would've hated to have to tell our superiors that we lost the Grandeur."
"So what's next, then?" Kalan asked.
"We're going after them," Valerie replied, nodding to Arlay, who had just joined them and looked positively giddy.
"As a matter of fact, we've decoded the map," Arlay replied, stepping up next to Valerie. With a flash of an object on her wrist, she projected an image onto the ceiling. It wasn't clear because of the light from the fire, but… "There," she said, pointing out an image of a small star system in the opposite direction of where Valerie understood the Etheric Federation to be. "That's our destination. That's where the enemy is headed, and that's where we'll find the
Lost Fleet."
The others stared up at it in awe. The journey would be anything but easy and was certain to take time and courage, yet Valerie could tell as she looked around the room that not a single one of them would balk at the mission.
FINIS
Author Notes - Justin Sloan
Written Written December 21, 2017
Valerie's Elites is going strong, thanks to you all! We greatly appreciate all of the kind words we've received via messages, Facebook posts, and reviews on Amazon.com. Please keep them coming!
What we've been especially glad about is the warm reception toward Kalan and his buddies. It's a whole new storyline of new characters, so was a bit of a risk -- but you all told us you love it, so yay! Thanks to PT for being the driving force behind that awesomeness.
As you can see, we're taking Valerie into exciting places she hadn't gone before. She's definitely gone outside of her comfort bubble. I think one area I'd like to get into more is looking at Garcia, Flynn, and Robin in coming books. We need to get to know them more, for those readers who didn't read the Reclaiming Honor books. If you are in the group that hasn't, you might want to consider doing so. The introduction to Robin was one of the most fun parts of a story I've had. She's got character and is a badass. And if you're enjoying Valerie, good to get more of her backstory, right? I like to think of it like you're starting off on a fun science fiction adventure, like Jack Reacher in space, but you get to go back and read all those earlier stories too. Kind of fun, right? I hope so!
For those of you reading these as they come out, there might be a slight delay in book 3, because daycare is apparently closed for two and a half weeks, and I'm going to be the one with the kids all day. That means... writing is at a minimum. But don't worry, the rest of the Age of Expansion authors have plenty of books coming! And we promise not to take TOO long.
Other than that, I've been having fun with my new Facebook readers group--care to join? It's called The Sloan Zone, and readers can join us and have fun chatting about whatever in there. I try to pop in and join in conversations, post cool things that relate in the news, and have a good time interacting with you all. I recently did a poll in there to see what readers want, because I have several books and series planned but wanted to see which ones excite you all the most.
So far, hackers in space with genetic engineering stuff has won, with dragons in space playing a close second. By the way, Shadow Corps is dragons in space, so it's a good sign that people voted for that, because it shows they liked those. Awesome. I also have covers already for both of those, so stay tuned! In the meantime, join us over there and cast your vote! I also have a freebie pinned to the page. Yay.
As for this book, once again thank you to Michael for bringing us into this world, Craig for managing the Age of Expansion, Lynne for editing, PT for writing with me, and for all of you amazing beta and JIT readers. You are amazing, and we couldn't have done it all without you!
Author Notes - PT Hylton
Written December 21st, 2017
Thank you for reading Death Defied. This was a fun book to write, and it sets the stage for all the cool, ambitious, funny, exciting things we have planned for books three and four.
One of my favorite parts of writing this story was thinking about artificial intelligence and what advanced technology like that could mean for everyday people. As you saw in Willom’s case, it can go to pretty bad places. But technology can lead to some awesome things too, like me being able to type these words on my computer and you being able to read them on an e-reader.
This week, my family and I are vacationing in Florida. I spent the morning on an isolated Key, snorkeling and searching for sand dollars with my daughter. It’s been a great way to recharge, and it’s inspired a few ideas for my Storms of Magic series (don’t worry, Michael, I’m working on getting those covers updated).
Part of the fun of writing Valerie’s Elites is that Valerie and her team hit that intersection between technology and human emotion. On the one hand, Valerie’s flying around on a spaceship. On the other, she’s all about old-fashioned justice.
Justin and I were thrilled at your positive response to book one, and I hope you liked this installment even more.
Thanks once again to Justin, Michael, Craig, Lynne, Steve, the JIT readers, and the whole team at LMBPN Publishing. It’s an absolute pleasure working with y’all. (I’m from Tennessee; we say y’all.)
So what’s coming up for me in 2018?
The second book in my Vampire World series is almost finished and will be hitting virtual shelves at the beginning of February. The first book, The Savage Earth, was very well received, and I’ve kept the readers waiting too long for the sequel.
I’ll be returning to the Storms of Magic series with a new story arch that I’m very excited about. I can’t say much yet, but let’s just say it’s going to be an exciting new direction for Abbey and her friends.
And, of course, we have a lot more Valerie’s Elites for you.
I can’t wait, and I hope you join us on this ride. The best is yet to come.
From sunny Florida,
PT Hylton
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Written December 26, 2017
First, THANK YOU for not only reading through the story, but also reading through these author notes at the end to read mine as well.
SaaaAAAWWWEEEEeeeTT!
One year ago, in December of 2016, Justin and I released our first Valerie book, Justice Is Calling (Reclaiming Honor Book 01). In it, we wanted to tell the tale of a female Vampire (not usually an easy thing to accomplish in The Kurtherian Gambit Universe) and place her in the post WWDE (World’s Worst Day Ever) timeframe.
Then, Justin asked one day, “What do you think about Valerie meeting Michael?”
I thought that would be a cool twist as my Michael character was going to be coming back from the dead (so to speak) and I could see Valerie and Michael crossing paths as Michael went from the old United States to Europe as Valerie was moving from the old area of France over to the old United States.
Then, Michael would tweak her and allow her to be able to ‘go into the sun.’
It would be her version of being born again, back into Humanity.
Now, with this series Valerie is taking her friends and finding a new life out in the stars and I couldn’t be happier that you are taking the trip(s) with her (and us) as she finds her way, kicking ass and dispensing that human concept called Justice.
One fist at a time.
Justin and PT are amazing writers and we are blessed to have them both collaborating with us here in The Kurtherian Gambit. I hope you enjoy the Age of Expansion.
Perhaps the question isn’t why aren’t we in the stars yet, but if we go back far enough in history do we find humanity tried to go to the stars, but we got shut down?
(Yes, that is a new thought…It’s the curse we authors have with EVERYTHING. I can’t see a normal person purchasing a loaf of bread without wondering if there is a nefarious reason they are purchasing bread.)
Great, now I have a new modification to human history I need to go write into the stories.
Damn…
Publishing
So, I just dropped Capture Death, the 20th book in The Kurtherian Gambit series focusing on Bethany Anne. It was a success, and is still a success and will probably do very well for me over the next twelve months.
But… (you knew there was a but coming, right?)
That leaves only one book left in the first series ( of 21), the seventh in the third Arc before we either start a new series with Bethany Anne, or call it #22 and continue on with The Kurtherian Gambit.
I don’t know WHAT to do about that and frankly, I’m a little concerned I’ll choose wrong.
The challenge, as I’ve mentioned before, is that selling “book 22” is a LOT more difficult (at some level) than selling a “book 1.” Last time, I went ahead and made the first book of the second arc book 8 and I’ve been v
ery happy with that decision.
I think I might go with book 1 for the next series with Bethany Anne and Michael not because of anything other than thinking to myself, “God, I’m writing book 24!” vs. “Wow, I’m only on book 3!”
Personally, the second feels more refreshing. I probably need a new framing of the statement in some way, otherwise book 1 is going to win.
It looks like Jacob, the older of the twins, might (just might) write some stuff. He has written some fan-fiction (for RWBY) and Chrishaun-Keller Hanna has invited him into Shaman States of America later in 2018 if he chooses to do so.
If he does, then he will follow Joshua who wrote fan-fiction first, and then branched out to his own stuff. Although Joshua wrote his own book, and Jacob might write into an existing Universe.
I’m wrapping up these author notes as the sun goes down over the horizon so that I can work on the story beats for the next book.
Keep your powder dry.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael
Other Books by Justin Sloan
SCIENCE FICTION
RECLAIMING HONOR (Vampires and Werewolves - Kurtherian Gambit Universe)
Justice is Calling
Claimed by Honor
Judgment has Fallen
Angel of Reckoning
Born into Flames
Defending the Lost
Return of Victory
Shadow Corps (Space Opera Fantasy - Seppukarian Universe)
Shadow Corps
Shadow Worlds
Shadow Fleet
War Wolves (Space Opera Fantasy - Seppukarian Universe)
Bring the Thunder
Click Click Boom
Light Em Up
Syndicate Wars (Space Marines and Time Travel - Seppukarian Universe)
First Strike
The Resistance
Fault Line
False Dawn