“He should try bragging to his fellows how easy it will be to crush the tiny human under his feet, only to have the human change into a Koron-dak in front of his eyes. Between you and me, Captain, it was all I could do not to pee right in the middle of the floor,” Kiel offered.
“I couldn’t tell, you seemed to be fighting very admirably to me,” Kael-ven said. He had quit trying to get his people to stop calling him Captain. “Well, until he threw you up to the ceiling and you landed on J’llock.”
“Yes, I remember his eyes growing larger as I came down. He didn’t listen to get out of the way,” Kiel snorted.
“Once he gets out of bed, he would do well to work out with the martial team to enhance his reaction speed,” Kael-ven said.
“That is almost adding insult to his pain, but I will do it, Captain. So, now that you have the pleasantries out of the way, what can I answer for you?”
“Your pain medicine must be wearing off,” Kael-ven chittered. “You are more forthright than usual.”
“My apologies, it is being around these humans. When we are in meetings, they seek to find the solution and do not allow caste or role to get in the way.”
“True. Let me explain what I learned from Frank Kurns and why I believe we are most fortunate that the humans are focused on the Kurtherians.”
“It would be nice if someone could get rid of those galactic assholes, sir,” Kiel said.
“Yes, but you are thinking as a Yollin again. You are thinking what we might overtake if we didn’t have to worry about a Kurtherian clan showing up and causing us trouble.” Kiel-ven grabbed a flaking piece of skin, popped it in his mouth and started chewing on it. “I’ve had enough hints from the Queen’s people. They are building an enormous space station.”
“Please, tell me it will not be a larger design of the hideous one at the Moon?” Kiel asked, his voice almost pleading.
Kiel-ven chittered. “No. I did find out that the hideous station at their Moon was a temporary base. It is their first space station, I understand, and eventually would have been abandoned or enhanced at some level. They are a ‘practical before pretty’ type of species. Or, I understand that this group is at least.” Kael-ven sighed. “They are going to make sure Yoll cannot attack their home world.”
“How can they possibly achieve that?” Kiel asked. “We are in four solar systems. We will rally around the King.”
“No, we will rally around the Monarch. It is what we have done for generations upon generations, and now I understand how Bethany Anne intends to protect her world from Yoll,” Kael-ven looked at the floor and then back to Kiel. “How dangerous do you believe this human, Peter, would be if there were many of them?”
“Very dangerous, Captain. He heals, he is unbelievably quick, and he has natural offensive weaponry. He does not have an exoskeleton, so he does not have as much armor perhaps.” Kiel shrugged. “Not that it mattered in my case.”
“What if you had to fight him wearing a suit of armor?” Kael-ven asked.
“It would be a much more even fight. The advanced speed of the armor would offset a lot of the speed advantage he displayed. The armor would take a lot of the beating. I assume he wouldn’t fight me that way. I certainly wouldn’t.”
“No. I’ve been introduced to another person, a female, Jean Dukes is her name.”
“Another?” Kiel laughed. “Females were pretty rare on the space station, now you can’t fling an arm out without hitting one. Where were they then?”
“Apparently, there were orders to protect them. Unlike Royleen’s first assumptions, they aren’t stupid, although they may be lucky.”
“Is there a world of these beings down there?” Kiel asked. “Because if so, it is a world of Demons and perhaps our failure to notify the King…” his voice ground to a halt.
“Do you play Kabesh, Kiel?” Kael-ven asked him.
“The bones, sir?” Kiel asked to Kael-ven’s nod, “I have at times... yes.”
“Every time Yoll has subjugated another race, we threw the bones. This time, we came up all white. It was bound to happen sometime. One way or another, this will change Yoll forever.”
“Our names will end up slaughtered in the history books,” Kiel said, remembering how he had thought by now, he would be rich back on Yoll.
Kael-ven unhooked his legs and stood up. “I’m not so sure of that, yet. I think that Yoll has been subjugated already for many, many generations.”
Kiel turned his head, “By who?”
Kael-ven stopped at the door. “By the Kolin, Kiel. By the Prime Rulers of the First Caste. Remember, we are here by the King’s decree to subjugate other species. This time, a species refused our offer.”
Kael-ven took a couple of steps and stopped, looking back. “Kiel, think on this. If the human Peter turned into a Koron-dak, what does his Queen turn into?”
The door closed behind Kael-ven, leaving Kiel to consider his question. At first, Kiel laughed off the thought that the little human female did anything of the sort… Then he remembered her punch and rubbed his chest.
Did she change shape? Could she change shape?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
German Ship Adler
“This is butt-fucking cold,” Craig muttered as he turned around to find Melissa behind him. “Oh, sorry ma’am!”
“Apology accepted,” Melissa said as she walked around him. “I needed to feel what really cold was, so inside it feels warm by comparison.”
“That’s… logic of a sort,” Craig said. “But I’m pretty sure I would just grab more clothes, ma’am.”
Melissa stomped her feet on the ground. “How do they get so cold, so fast?”
“The blood,” Craig started, then stopped. “Sorry, rhetorical question, right?”
Melissa turned to look at the soldier.
Craig turned around and then back to Melissa. “Something wrong?”
“No, yes… maybe?” Melissa said. “I’m not trying to be a bitch, but you’re using words I don’t expect to hear from people in the service.”
“What, rhetorical?” Craig asked and laughed. “Ma’am, it can be pretty damned boring on a lot of our tours. Plus, we have to do more than just pushups and swim forever.”
“Sure, shoot guns and kill things, right?” Melissa asked.
“Sure, that too,” Craig allowed, not taking offense to what was the truth. “But we also usually speak multiple languages, sometimes with different dialects. We have to understand the religious and societal rules where we are stationed as well as all of the different skills both physically and mentally to move up and advance.”
“How many languages can you speak, Craig?” she asked him.
“Not including English, I can speak Spanish, Pashtun and some German,” he answered.
“I’ve never asked Terry how many he can speak,” she mused.
“Terry? Shit… oh, sorry ma’am,” Craig got a little red in the cheeks. “He can speak at least six that I’m aware of.”
“Six? Wow, I didn’t know that,” she looked around at the sea, so cold and so deadly as their ship passed, occasionally seeing ice in the distance bobbing up and down. “I hope we don’t become another Titanic.”
“Fat chance of that, we have the equipment to stop that from happening,” Craig said.
“Good,” she turned back to him. “Why did you say six you are aware of?”
“Terry?” Melissa nodded. “Because he can be a tricky SOB,” Craig said, his eyes sweeping the water. “The guys and I always try to figure out something new about Terry all the time.”
“Why?”
“Well,” Craig put an arm out and moved Melissa closer to the wall. “Hold on, I can feel the ship turning a little, the wind is about to get pretty biting if you don’t move next to the wall, here.”
“Thank you.”
“No worries,” Craig looked out over the water. “You know that Robert, our lead, and Terry go way back, right?”
“Yes, he says th
ey were good friends when they were younger?”
“Yes, they did a lot before they enlisted together and then when they got on the teams, they stayed together. Those two have twin senses. Every time they got into a bad firefight, Robert had a sixth sense about it. And damned if every time that happened, Terry had somehow procured extra weapons that helped them get out of the… ah…” Craig stammered.
“Just say it, Craig. Believe it or not, Ph.Ds. can cuss quite well.”
“Okay, so Terry always seemed to have special weapons that he shouldn’t have had whenever they got dropped into the shit, and it all went to hell. In this business, you find out who has the luck, you know?” Melissa nodded, but didn’t have a clue. “So, all the guys learn quickly to ask Robert if he has that itch.”
“Anytime Robert has the itch, Terry has the answer?” Melissa asked.
“No, not all the time. Sometimes we saw some action when Robert had an itch, but Terry didn’t have anything special, and it was never too bad. Anytime that Robert had the itch, and Terry had an answer for it?” Craig chuckled. “Well, we knew it was going to suck tar babies then, ma’am.”
“That’s what happened over in the pit?” Melissa asked.
“The sandpit? Yeah. It was the first time those two had been together for a lot of years, and it’s like it never stopped, this connection they have.”
“So, Terry had the box brought on the trip.” Melissa stated.
“Yeah, but then the President asks a favor from TQB, and we get a group of rainmakers dropped on the pricks jumping our ass, and problem solved.”
Melissa looked around. “Terry hasn’t brought in a wooden case this time, I checked,” she said.
Craig crooked his finger in a come here gesture and pointed to the bow of the ship.
Melissa’s eyes crinkled up, and she took a step into the wind. “Oh my! This is cold.” She looked towards the front of the ship, the bow lifting high in the air and slamming down. There was a man up front.
“What the hell is he doing up there?” she asked, her voice rising. “He’s going to freeze if he doesn’t fall into the water!” She turned around and stepped quickly back over to the wall. “Sorry, my momma didn’t raise a fool.” She looked back at Craig. “What’s he doing? He’s going to freeze or fall off or something equally bad.”
“No he isn’t,” Craig said. “His name is Samual, and he’s been there with that medium weight jacket for the last four hours.” Craig looked back over to the man up on the bow of the ship. “Terry didn’t have a box join us this time. Samual is one of the two men that Terry pulled in to help.”
Craig turned back to Melissa. “Ma’am, I’m not trying to scare you, but I know a little of what Samual and his friend can do. The boys and I are sure.” Craig looked back out over the water and spoke to her, as well as to the wind.
“This mission is screwed.”
—
Terry went up to the bridge of the ship. “You wanted me, Captain?”
“Ja, Terry,” the Captain said. “We are getting updates that the Americans are about ten hours behind us. If you guys want to get in ahead of them, you will need to get going as soon as we can get you in close.” He nodded to the stern. “You can take the smaller craft, and we can run further west, maybe draw some other attention if you want?”
Terry chewed on his lip. “We have five kilometers to go to the first entrance. If we… yeah, we can do this. I’ve got to go make plans, thanks, Captain.”
“No problem, ja?”
Terry waved and turned around. He headed towards the stern, his thoughts whirling.
—
There were two sharp raps on her door, and Melissa heard Terry’s voice. “You decent?”
“Yes,” and before she turned from her work towards the door, he had it open. “What is it?” she asked.
“We have the U.S. Navy a few hours behind us. We’re going to have to take the smaller vessel and the snowmobiles.”
“Weather?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Looks fine. Well, fine for Antarctica.”
“Who?”
“You, Dr. Tooch, Mr. Jameson, Robert, Richard, Samual, Craig plus some supplies. If we don’t find anything, we’ll try to jump back on the ship in thirty-six hours and head out. The information the German government provided will be considered bad at that point.”
“No storms heading this way?” she pressed.
“Huh? No. Well, you can’t ever be sure with either of the Poles, but no, why?” he asked.
“Just checking, wondering what can go wrong out there,” she said.
He scratched his chin in thought. “Well, plenty. I can tell you about the problems during...”
“Stop!” Melissa had her hand up. “You don’t need to recite the facts from a dozen different Wikipedia articles, thank you,” she said. “Will the U.S. Navy kick us out?”
“We have the right to be here, and maybe they won’t find our cave entrance. If they do and we tell them we’ve contacted Germany, they still might stay out. Possession is nine-tenths of ownership. They might choose to eject us, but I don’t think so. And, like I said, they still have to find us. The captain is going to take the ship in another direction to work to throw them off the scent if he can, give us a few more hours.”
“Okay, when do we leave?” she asked.
Terry’s voice got soft. “Melissa, you still want to do this?” he asked. “It’s going to be miserable out there, and there’s always a chance of dying. In the Antarctic, there’s an even better chance of dying.”
“Terry, I’ve taken the money and frankly, I would be pissed with myself if I miss the opportunity to find an old Nazi base and see it firsthand,” she replied.
He shrugged. “Okay.” He stepped to the door before turning back to her. “Pack as many spare socks as you can, and make sure you have spares of everything.”
“Hey, we can snuggle for warmth, can’t we?” she smiled.
He grinned and winked at her. “I don’t see why not, I’m good with the other guys spooning for warmth if they need to.” He stepped out and closed the door on her laughter.
USS Cowpens
Captain Forstal turned to answer the question. “Yes?”
“Sir, we have unidentified ships coming over the horizon,” radar operator Andrews spoke crisply.
“Distance?” he asked.
“Seventy-five miles, close to the ground and sir,” the radar man paused, “they’re coming in faster than anything we have.”
“Speed?”
“Mach 12, sir.”
The Captain’s lips pursed. “Communications, see if we have any reason that TQB could be out here.”
“Aye-aye, sir,” Tinbert said.
“Bring the Phalanx online, inform the Ford and the Wasp of our intentions,” the Captain commanded.
Another voice spoke up, “This is the Cowpens…”
—
“Squad leader, Navy ships are pinging us at this time,” Dorsal called over their comms. “The LHD Wasp is damned impressive.”
“Agreed, number two,” Antony said. “Remember, try to scare them, not sink them.”
“We have radar lock,” Evert said. “They’ve seen us.”
“Split up and do some damned impressive maneuvers,” Antony instructed.
Tyler quipped over the open line, “You know everyone, fly like an alien.”
—
“Holy Fuuuuddgge,” a voice called out on the bridge. The radar pings became solid aircraft and flew past the three ships and went in four different directions so fast if you blinked, you missed it.
Doing ninety-degree turns.
“We have UFOs.”
“Four bogeys, random directions, random directions. Speeds all over the map.”
“No fire, no fire,” the Captain called out. “Where the hell did those bogeys go?”
“Two straight up, one east, one west. All are turning back and heading our direction.”
“Do we have Mark
One Eyeballs on any of these?”
“We got saucers, okay, we had saucers,” another called out as two of the flying objects went past the three ships.
“Anybody get my call out about TQB?” The Captain asked.
“Sir, those don’t look like TQB ships.”
“Who the hell knows what they have?” Captain Forstal asked.
“Well, sir, we saw them on radar,” Andrews replied.
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 22