TOM, where is the system to… oh… here it is.
—
“All right everyone, stay frosty, I’m sure they’re going to turn soon. When they do, cut across the turn and we’ll… WHERE THE FUCK DID IT GO?” Antony yelled. “Anybody got a lock?”
A bunch of negatives came back to him. “This is bullshit!” He looked around, “Back to the Navy ships, we know they’ll end up there.”
Evert called over the comms, “Sir, that’s TQB. The base says the ship matches the same as the Japanese event.” There was a pause. “Except for a few differences, sir.”
The four ships turned and headed back towards the Navy ships. “And what are those, Evert?”
“Big ass guns, sir,” came the reply.
—
“Sir, we’ve lost the TQB ship, and the four UFOs are coming back in this direction.”
“Prepare the missiles,” Captain Forstal said. “No firing without permission.”
—
Antony gritted his teeth but made the hard call. “We need to get the Navy out of here before TQB gets back. Permission to attack the ships, we’ll sink the USS Cowpens if the Navy shoots at us again. We tried to be nice, that didn’t work.”
—
Captain Forstal thought about his options. “Bogey’s back in ten seconds, sir. Command on missiles?”
Two seconds later, “Sir?”
Captain Forstal nodded to himself. “Denied, lock them down.”
—
Bethany Anne hit the blue button again. “You guys ready back there?” Almost immediately, she received affirmatives, “Okay, time to let our unknown and unwanted friends understand something about the new and improved G’laxix Sphaea…”
Bethany Anne hit the buttons to turn off the cloaking device. Appearing from thin air, the ship cast its shadow over the USS Cowpens. She sat on top of them as a protective hat, guns aimed towards the four UFOs.
“My ride is a bitch,” Bethany Anne said, “and she is now going to fuck you up.”
She hit the blue button. “Light them up!”
—
“UFOs heading toward us, sir.”
“We have a ship on top of us, sir!” The suddenly appearing shadow dimmed the light coming through the windows.
“Timmons, get me information from outside!” Captain Forstal called out.
“UFOs firing, TQB is already firing back, sir.”
“Get us out of here, move it people!” Captain Forstal ordered. “I don’t want to be underneath that ship if it comes crashing down.”
—
“USS Cowpens moving out from underneath us,” Marcus said.
“That’s fine, they probably don’t want to be underneath this fight, not that I blame them,” Bethany Anne responded.
—
“Hit, hit, hit!” Tyler sang. “My defensive shield is down sixty-two percent.”
“Fucker packs a wallop,” Spencer replied. “I’ve fired four rods, three hit, one destroyed. No damage to them.”
“SHIT SHIT SHIT, dammit, where did it go?” Tyler asked as seconds later, the four ships passed by where the big ship had just been.
—
“TQB is playing hide and seek again sir,” Timmons came back inside. “It was there, hanging in the air firing off something from their guns then poof, disappeared and I could feel air movement, so I’m pretty sure they took off somewhere.”
“Son of a bitch,” Captain Forstal said. “Give me Wasp and Ford, we need to vacate the area.” He turned and sat down in his chair and got comfortable. “We can’t hit those four little ships, and they can’t hit the TQB ship. We are so outclassed here it’s damn embarrassing.”
—
“Navy is leaving,” Evert said as he looked at his systems. “Operational task number one completed.”
Antony answered, “Yeah, it’s the unexpected added challenge I’m thinking we’re going to come up short on this time guys.”
“Fuck, we aren’t supposed to be the ones with the inadequate toys,” Tyler complained.
“Yeah, but if they don’t find us then we can live to pay them back another day,” Antony said. “I’ve got confirmation from Director Brown. He leaves the decision to me so split up. Make sure we know where the fuck that ship is and let’s disappear. Don’t go straight back to base and confirm they aren’t following you. Break apart alpha alpha gamma in ten, folks.”
“See you guys back at base,” Spencer said.
Ten seconds later, Antony’s voice came over the comms, “Go!”
—
“Bogey’s leaving, sir,” a voice called out.
“We have TQB on radar,” Kelly said.
“Where are they?” Captain Forstal asked.
“They have taken up a position between us and land, sir,” Kelly answered.
“Seems like they’ve decided they don’t want us landing,” Timmons commented.
“Hail the ship, see if they’ll talk,” the Captain commanded.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Dulce Lake New Mexico, USA
Director Patrick Brown was waiting for his team to arrive back in the underground hangar, his hands clasped behind his back as he chewed on the inside of his cheek thinking about the situation.
Majestic-12 had a lot of resources, some that TQB probably wouldn’t consider using if they had them. Now, TQB had stymied an effort to acquire information that had gone back to their own beginning and stopped them from gaining the one thing Majestic-12 had been coveting for decades.
How to reach out and speak with the aliens in Alpha Centauri.
Whether the aliens were truly in Alpha Centauri, or somewhere else, they had never been able to confirm. It didn’t matter. Majestic-12 could prove that the technology Maria Orsitsch and her group of mediums speaking with the aliens had received did work.
And it had been nothing that Earth had seen before in its history. At least, not anything an Earthling had devised.
Which meant the aliens were still ahead of the Earth with their technology and Majestic 12’s focus was to acquire superior technology.
Through whatever means necessary.
Now, other humans with connections to aliens were acquiring technological assets and prohibiting Majestic-12 from doing their stated duty. One they had been accomplishing for both the United States and the United Nations (whether they understood it or not). It was time their relationships in the United Nations paid back the help they had been provided in secret for so long.
Patrick was going to call in a lot of debts owed.
The modified alien spaceship Dr. Eva Hocks and her team had reviewed from the video was superior to what they had, and what they had access to themselves. Worse, it had shown that even their offensive options were limited. Majestic 12 was as limited compared to TQB as the world was compared to their own technology.
An arms race is an enjoyable competition when you happen to be laughably ahead of everyone else. Not so nice, Patrick thought, when you were behind and didn’t yet have a plan to get the advantage back again.
The first ship to arrive was drawing into the hangar, the lights glistening off of her side. Patrick could see the marks the Navy’s guns had made on the ship. He noted there was one hole in the bottom before Spencer set his ship down.
Soon, two more ships came into view. Patrick’s eyebrows lifted when he got a good look at Tyler’s ship. It was blackened on one side. That must be where TQB’s gun hit Tyler’s ship and reduced the shield so much. More than enough to cook the outside of the ship, as well. They would probably be down one ship and pilot if they had gotten two hits on his ship.
Patrick pulled his tablet out of his pocket and dialed a number. “Eva? It’s Patrick. I need one of your teams to come down and assess Tyler’s ship… It’s severely burned on one side. Yes his shield was in place. Yes, I thought you’d like to see the damage so you might be able to figure out what they’re using. No, his ship won’t go anywhere if you need to finish your meeting. Ye
s, goodbye.”
Patrick hit the end call button and considered the plans. Contact the United Nations, get this damage checked out, see if they could modify the shields to handle this threat in the future, and figure out if they could salvage anything from Antarctica.
Berlin, Germany
“This,” Dr. Schäuble pointed on the map, “is where they found the base. Just like the old maps and notes from World War II said they would be.”
The agent from Germany’s Federal Intelligence Operations sighed, “We were so close. Those damned Americans and TQB…”
“Not entirely,” the doctor interrupted. “Whoever attacked the Americans caused TQB to get involved. Now, our team is still down there, but they are not leading the research.”
“Fine, it’s semantics at this point,” the agent replied. “We had the information and possibly the people to explain it all to us in the same place.”
“Do not think we are without hope,” Dr. Schäuble encouraged. “Dr. Tooch is very, very good. He has already provided many insights in the last three weeks down there.”
“Oh, I know we are not without hope, Dr. Schäuble,” The agent replied. “Not only is Dr. Tooch very good but our agent Mr. Jameson can be quite crafty as well.”
Dr. Schäuble looked at agent Weisz for a moment before nodding his head in understanding. He had been wondering which of the people on the trip were plants all along. While he suspected half the crew, he had not expected the occasionally brash capitalist Mr. Jameson to be one.
Dr. Schäuble thought to himself, Keep one’s eyes open and one’s brain willing, and you can learn something new every day.
—
“Captain Forstal?” the voice rang across the bridge. “Call sir.”
“I’ll take it in my stateroom,” Captain Forstal replied.
Jack picked up his coffee from his chair and walked to his stateroom, closing the door behind him. The call came in and he picked it up. “Captain Jack Forstal here.”
Jack listened for a moment, his eyes opening slightly at the level of the political person on the other side. He pursed his lips. “Sir, I’m not going to begin to track down how you came to be reading the early documents from myself and the crew about the incident in the Antarctic. However, I reviewed everyone and signed off as them being the truth.”
The man on the other side of the line, apparently not hearing what wanted to hear, started getting warmed up.
Jack pulled out his chair and sat down. He had been in the profession long enough to know that for blowhards like this, let them rant and rave and then send them on.
Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, Jack was able to interject, “I might understand how you could think that, but it simply isn’t true. TQB did not fire on any Navy vessels. They did appear very close to our ship, but it was in a defensive position as the four UFOs came back to our location once they lost track of the TQB vessel. In the estimation of myself and my crew, TQB was trying to protect our ship and did not, at any time, instigate or aggravate the event with the U.S. Navy.”
Jack pulled the phone away from his ear and reached to grab his coffee, taking a sip, then another, before he set it back down and continued his talking.
“Well, I’m sorry to aggravate you sir, but those documents have all been signed appropriately, and they will not be modified. Perhaps you can discuss this situation with someone higher, sir.”
Jack winced when the man, in frustration, yelled and slammed the phone down. Jack hung up his phone and sat back, thinking.
This was the second request to change the records he had received this week.
QBS ArchAngel
Bethany Anne sat in the captain’s chair, reviewing some notes from Yuko in Japan and an update from Barnabas on Tabitha’s ongoing investigation.
The click-click-click of Kael-ven’s four legs could be heard, and soon he arrived at the bridge, asking permission to enter.
“Permission granted,” Bethany Anne said and turned in her chair to watch the alien approach her.
“You wanted to ask me something, Captain?” When she sat in this chair, Kael-ven refused to call her anything else. In a way, she understood and agreed with him.
“Yes, I do. This has to do with the support promised for your ship. As always, if I go beyond your personal ethics, please explain them to me.” She recognized his chittering as agreement before the translation node spoke in her ear.
“Good. Down below in the ice cave my people are about to wake up some humans who have been asleep for a while. We don’t believe they know anything about the rumors and truth swirling about regarding TQB, aliens, and space.” She reached over and grabbed her water. “So, I want to wake them up, but I want you to be there with me.”
“Me?” Kael-ven asked, surprised. “Why would an alien down there help the humans wake more easily?”
“Because, everything we have been able to deduce says they contacted, or received contact from, aliens, a long time back. The theory we have going is if those we wake see an alien with us, they might be more receptive to us, not less.” She put the water back down. “Probably the only group this will ever work with, by the way. Damned happy you’re around.”
“Standing with you somewhere is wholly within the contract, Captain.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed. “But here’s the second part, Kael-ven.” She paused a moment then asked, “What do Yollins know about acting?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tokyo, Japan
Akio took point as he and the team supported Yuko’s trip to the building for the National Diet, the upper and lower houses of the legislature.
This time, like before, Yuko had argued, and Akio had agreed to no swords. He had, however, added a significant number of hidden weapons.
Some in plain sight. Yuko understood her role and allowed him to provide the hairpins she would wear in case he had need of them.
Furthermore, many materials did not set off the metal detectors she expected they would go through.
Once inside the building, they were directed to a smaller room. Two guards outside of the room confirmed their identities. Yuko and Akio were the only two to enter.
Two minutes later, three additional men joined. They bowed respectfully, and the first started the discussion.
“I appreciate you doing this, Vicereine. We have difficult news coming from our contacts in the United Nations for Queen Bethany Anne.” None of those in the room sat down.
“We appreciate your support,” Yuko said. “What can you tell us?”
The Prime Minister nodded. “There are many, many members of the UN that are making allegations about TQB, some of them outrageous. However, the outrageous then make the highly unlikely seem plausible. It is not just one faction, either. There are many countries, smaller ones and larger, who are working to suborn and implement rules and regulations against TQB. Due to our acceptance of Queen Bethany Anne’s legitimacy, we have been targeted on multiple fronts. It is unlikely, without Japan suffering significantly, that we can continue to give the same level of support outwardly as we have been doing so far.”
“What kind of timeframe do we have, Prime Minister?” Yuko asked.
He blew out a breath. “I doubt we have more than three months, Vicereine.”
Boston, MA, USA
Fred walked into the room, stopping at the chess table. He looked over the pieces and grimaced. He was playing Charles now, and so far, he hadn’t figured out a way to get out of checkmate in three moves.
He continued into the empty room and raised an eyebrow.
There was a manila envelope in his chair labeled ‘National Intelligence Estimate - TQB Antarctica.’
Fred picked up the document and set his papers down before turning around and dropping into the seat. The older he got, the more the body gave way. It was a shame, really. His mind was in tip-top shape, he was more powerful, with his brother David and their friend and partner Charles, than many small countries and the cold-hearte
d bitch Time was stealing it all away.
Death came for everyone, it seemed, except for those in TQB.
He started unwinding the string that kept the envelope closed and slid his hand inside to pull out the report. Fred had worked hard to get the three ship captains to change their reports.
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 25