But the bastards wouldn’t do it.
As Fred read through the report, a small smile began to play across his features, and a twinkle appeared in his eye.
Oh yes, yes yes! Fred heard the other two men coming in and he turned around to see David first, with Charles behind him.
“Was this you, Charles?” he asked as he held up the National Intelligence Estimate.
“It was,” he replied as he looked down at the chessboard. Noting nothing had changed, he continued into the room.
“Well played, how did you get it changed?” Fred asked.
“Senior Military needed the NIE quickly,” Charles answered, sitting down. “So, opportunity number one.” He pulled out his laptop and opened it up. “The National Intelligence Office has a grudge against TQB, and I was able to have a couple of IC analysts word their responses in such a way that the NIO could choose, and show he had cause, to tweak the response. He did so, such that TQB was now the aggressor in the dust-up down south. When that,” he nodded to the document in Fred’s hand, “gets circulated, everyone with a grudge against TQB is going to pile on.”
Fred looked down at the paper and started reading from the top and murmured, “Checkmate.”
Schwabenland, Antarctica
It had taken Barb and Frank two weeks to find the appropriate person to help the team. Dr. April Keelson knew the history, she was German, she was both a medical officer and understood engineering.
Finding her had had the same chance as finding a purple spotted unicorn. Actually, a little less likely than the unicorn. But, Barb and Frank had done it. Dan had decided to take her interview himself, and it had been pretty eye-opening.
Dr. April Keelson had been abrupt, in his face, and very hard to impress.
Until he took her on the Pod ride that Barb had suggested, then she became putty in his hands. It was, Barb had said, a take on something Jean Dukes had said one time. Find the right lever, and you could get a female to change her attitude in a second.
—
Cold. She was so cold.
She heard the same gurgling noises of liquid moving through pipes she remembered when she lay down to wait for the aliens to arrive. But in reverse, leaving the stasis chamber.
She and her people had lost hope after so many decades, so much time waiting for them to come and pull them out of this frozen wasteland, and allow them to join them in space. Away from the hell of war, or the subjugation of her people to the cruelty of those who didn’t understand they had been forced to work with Hitler.
Maria felt the slow introduction of warmth to the stasis chamber. It was a design given to them by her benefactor.
She had offered her full belief and support to the engineering team that what they built would save them all for the time when they could go to the stars. Now, she would find out if it was true.
Had they been saved?
The chamber’s top hissed as fresh air came into the system. She had two humans dressed as doctors appear over her. One, a female, said, “Maria Orsitsch?”
Maria nodded.
“Lie still while we figure this out. I’ve only done this five times and so far, I’m good five out of five so don’t ruin anything for me,” the abrupt woman with a German accent said to her.
Maria’s mind was racing. Why was a German woman helping her? What happened to the plan?
The doctor released the mask from around her face, and gently pulled it away from her hair. “Sorry, you’re going to be in there a few more minutes. The aliens didn’t do anything for hair growth, and we need to cut some away.”
Maria nodded weakly.
“Doctor?” Maria heard a voice from behind the abrupt woman. She turned and nodded to someone and the two medical people stepped aside, and two new faces appeared.
This time one was an alien.
“Don’t worry, Maria. My name is Bethany Anne. This,” she nodded at the alien on the other side, “is Kael-ven. Rest and gather your strength.”
The alien chittered something and then it was translated. He spoke in the language of the Aldebarans. “Welcome back, Maria Orsitsch, we look forward to talking to you soon.”
The doctor spoke up. “You two go now, we have a lot to do,” and pulled the lady back out of the way.
The doctor didn’t fail to see the tear making its way down Maria’s face.
Conference Room, QBS ArchAngel
The room was full. Bethany Anne had requested all of her top people, and many of their second level people as well. For example, not only was Jean Dukes there, but her main second was as well. The first row included her father, Patricia, Dan, Frank, Barb, Stephen, Barnabas, Admiral Thomas, Captains Wagner and Jakowski, Nathan and Ecaterina and a roomful of others as Bethany Anne stood up front.
The Yollins had not been invited to sit in.
She stared out at the room and in moments, the talk had stopped. Bethany Anne smiled. “We’ve had an interesting time for the last few months.” She started pacing. “First, we’ve gotten everything we could ask for from our Japanese connections regarding manufacturing tools. I understand that the build of the Yollin mining equipment is ahead of schedule?”
William nodded from the second row.
“Good, we have food, we have shelter, and we have water, thanks to Dr. Brown-Williams and Marcus. We have a plan for our first Battle Station.”
“What’s the name?” Bobcat asked, and Bethany Anne stared at him. “Sorry!” he looked around and slid a few inches down in his chair.
“I’ll get to the name in a moment, Bobcat,” she replied and then continued, “We have our first alien acquisition up and running with better armament. It worked very well, I might add. The teams went for a joyride in an area with plenty of rocks, and I understand they defeated the rocks soundly.”
She smiled as a few up in the top rows started whistling and clapping.
“Just remember, you murdered defenseless rocks,” she said, “that weren’t shooting back.” She paused. “But, that brings us to our challenges of the moment.”
She stopped pacing and looked at her people. “We still need to be here while we get the battle station built and it would behoove us to see if we have any additional people that would, or could, help us when we go through the annex gate. We have a lot of intelligence coming up from Earth, and I daresay they are really, really unhappy with us. In fact, our companies are taking a serious pounding in the stock markets…”
She smiled. “If we actually still had an ownership percentage in the companies, I might be worried.” There was some laughter when a few realized that she sold her portions of the companies when they were worth the most. “Now, we’ve moved into precious metals and other tangibles that can be traded without traces. Unfortunately, I’m afraid our name is going to be mud.”
Bethany Anne stood a little straighter. “The reason is, I refuse to provide the technology and alien access the world is demanding. Further, they really don’t like that such a small group is thumbing their collective noses at them. Finally, they scream bloody murder when we allow people, of their own free will, to leave their countries and join us. The problem, as they see it, is we are grabbing the cream of the crop.”
She shrugged. “The way I see it, slackers and malcontents who are allergic to hard work and those missing a backbone don’t want to take up the call.”
“AD AETERNITATEM!” someone yelled, and soon everyone took it up. “Ad Aeternitatem! Ad Aeternitatem! Ad Aeternitatem!” Bethany Anne smiled and put up her hands and the crowd quieted down.
Bethany Anne surreptitiously wiped a tear from her right eye. “Damn, ArchAngel, are you getting the dust out of here?”
“Yes,” the EI answered, her face showing up on the large screen behind Bethany Anne. “I am. Don’t blame my air purification system on your inability to handle your overload of emotions!”
Okay, who the fuck is giving me away to ArchAngel?
>>Uh, that might have been me.<<
Seriously ADAM
? Damn, a pretty female EI comes along, and you go and stab me in the metaphorical back.
>>She asked a question, I answered.<<
She’s getting sneaky. Good job.
>>Good... job?<< ADAM asked, confusion coloring his question.
I’ll explain why some other time.
“I’m sure it was random, ArchAngel,” Bethany Anne answered to a few chuckles in the audience.
“As I was saying, we’re getting hit pretty hard. So, I’ve decided that we’re going to lay low for the time it takes us to build our new home, the QBBS Meredith Reynolds. I want to get it as far along as possible. Perhaps, if we don’t show ourselves, the noise and pissed off people will go away.” She got a ‘woot woot’ from the audience from the few that caught the name. She glanced at her father, who had a small smile on his face, nodding his agreement with her choice.
There was some murmuring out in the audience that had to do with hiding out. “That doesn’t mean we won’t visit Earth, but we’ll need to be more circumspect about it,” she clarified.
“What happens,” Dan asked. “If they try to draw us out?”
Bethany Anne shrugged. “Depends on what they’re doing. If it’s something we can let go, I’ll let it go. My ego isn’t so large I have to give it a pillow at night. But if they do something egregious? Well,” she turned to point to John, Eric, Akio, Darryl, Gabrielle, and Scott, “Them,” and then she turned and pointed at Barnabas, Stephen and Tabitha, “Them.” Next, she pointed to Admiral Thomas, Captains Wagner and Natalia Jakowski. “Them and whoever Admiral Thomas has coming up for the new ships.” And then she pointed to Peter, Todd and the Wechselbalg Guardians and Guardian Marines. “And they will reply for me.”
“What if they keep pushing?” Dan asked.
Bethany Anne’s face went dark, angry and lines of red energy suffused her face as her eyes blazed. “They had better not cross my pissed-off line, or they will receive the reply from me personally. If I have to answer?”
Bethany Anne never finished the question as the room erupted in shouts when Bobcat yelled out, “You learn not to fuck with the Queen Bitch!”
FINIS
My Ride is a Bitch
For a minute…
(Check out the next page)
AUTHOR’S NOTE for My Ride is a Bitch October 4th, 2016
First, THANK YOU FOR READING THIS BOOK (and these author notes).
It has been thirty-four days since the last release (We Have Contact) and it feels easily like three times that long. More for personal challenges than anything related to book writing (although that, too).
One small, but funny story. My wife is tired of ‘bitch’ in my stories (well, to be fair, in the titles). I tried to explain that bitch is a derogatory term that has been turned around in The Kurtherian Gambit and is a badge of honor now.
However, since she doesn’t read the books, my explanation only goes so far. Wives, it seems, can be pretty annoyed by the term bitch and you, by God, are guilty until proven innocent and you WILL go through multiple trials to be declared innocent.
I’m not through all of those trials, just so you know. Lord, not even close. Tack on she’s Hispanic, and the evil eye is done with a foreign accent that makes you concerned and confused at the same time.
I promised her I would not use the term bitch in any more book titles for the Kurtherian Gambit… I didn’t tell her I already had all of the future book titles and I knew I was not using the it for any future book. So, no harm, no foul, right?
I promised not to use it, she is happy.
So, let’s get off that story because one day she might read this and I want to say if my beautiful, wonderful, long-suffering wife is reading this…
I LOVE YOU HONEY! ;-)
Now, about that little bit of German Speech…that I didn’t get right!
Below is from one of my fans Mor Itz on the Facebook Forums. He and Bjorn Schmidt quickly told me that a little German I had Bethany Anne speaking was wrong. This happened because I placed a snippet (early chapters) out on http://www.kurtherianbooks.com and they noticed I said something in German that didn’t work and therefore was wrong.
As in, not even understood by Germans wrong. That’s pretty damned wrong. Often, here in the United States, if someone says something, we will get what the intent is—not so much with my little effort to have Bethany Anne tell the three German Mercs they were ‘Gutter Swine’…No thanks to you, Google Translate.
Google Translate, fastest way to say something wrong in a foreign language invented to date (used by Authors all over the world).
Here is Mor Itz’ comments from Facebook (our conversation) explaining the new and improved German choice.
Mor: I’m fine, thx and you? Schweinehunden is a form of plural from Schweinehund that would fit there. It has multiple meanings:
1. It can be used as an affection if said with a smile between good friends, like when someone does a practical joke that doesn’t hurt anyone but is really embarrassing.
2. As an insult it is a person who has no conscience and would do depraved things (like tying a girl to a bomb) and also calls the heritage of said person into doubt (the dictionary I have here translates Schweinehund to bastard but that is not entirely accurate). It is mostly a mid level insult, however immigrants from Turkey take it way more personally and can get violent. Otherwise, it is used for almost anyone. From the person who just bumps into you on the way to the bus to the worst criminals one can imagine.
Bethany Anne speaking to Yuko’s parents:
Now, I provide these translations below understanding that: 1) They are also from Google Translate (damn) and that I don’t have any Japanese fans that can correct me like I have in Germany (double-damn!)
あなたには、美しくて知的な娘がいます。彼女は、私の個人のチームの大切なメンバーです。あなたは誇り高いはずです
is
You have a beautiful and intelligent daughter. She is a valuable member of my team. You should be proud.
Bethany Anne finishing her speech to the people in the stadium:
*ご支援に感謝します、ユウコのような強い娘が、ニール州から、私たちの世界をより安全な場所を作り、助けることができる国であるためにあなたに感謝します。貴重なお時間をいただき、ありがとうございます
is
Thank you for your time, thank you for your support and thank you for being a country where a strong daughter like Yuko, from right here in Neru Province, could help us make the world a safer place.
New Shoes
Ok, wife went on a business trip for her job to China and Japan in between books 12 and 13. Not unusual, most fans know I started writing in part because my wife leaves for long business trips. She came back with extra stuff.
Again, not unusual. She will pick up things here or there usually as small gifts to give away. Unfortunately, something new arrived in this luggage that hasn’t happened before and it concerns me.
It was a pair of shoes.
That’s not a scary thing… yet.
No, what’s scary is the NAME on the shoes. You see, when my wife travels for her company, they are always staying in hotels in the nicer part of the city. This makes sense because the business meetings happen there for her. BUT, it is what else is in that part of the cities that I’m starting to understand should concern me.
Shoe stores… NICE shoe stores.
When she was in China, she was in one of the nicest portions of the most prestigious city… or at least one that HAD MORE HERMES STORES THAN THE WHOLE STATE OF TEXAS.
She succumbed to temptation.
I hope she starts traveling here in the US only. In Dallas, there is only one (1) Hermes store in the whole city. I checked. Then, I checked Las Vegas… there are three Hermes stores just around the lower strip area alone.
Son of a bitch.
I’m not saying anything. But, I see a pair of shoes and think what a
ll men think…
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 26