“ArchAngel, open this door,” Bethany Anne said and the ship’s voice came out of the speakers near the door. “Yes, Bethany Anne.”
Sadhi looked down as the doors opened and they walked through them. He turned to look at his boss who still hadn’t dropped him.
“If you should ever be stupid enough to argue with the wrong people, trust me when I tell you that Bethany Anne and her Bitches have a rough way of teaching.”
Peter opened his grip, and Sadhi dropped to the ground. “Now, you two grab your tablets and open the book on important people. I want you to write up your story on what just happened and maybe a few ideas on how to make damn sure you can tell when the Queen comes knocking, got me?” he growled.
“Well,” Ken offered, “the scary as shit red eyes are a unique characteristic.”
Peter laughed. “You should be happy. Usually, she isn’t in such a good mood when those fuckers show up.”
“That was a good mood, sir?” Sadhi asked, his hand trembling some as he pulled up the documents Peter told him to review.
“Fuck yeah that was good,” Peter said as he turned around, calling over his shoulder as he walked away. “Your ass would be dead otherwise.”
His answer seemed to hang in the air long after he had turned the corner, his steps receding down the hall.
Schwabenland, Antarctica
Dr. Abesemmins’ credentials passed along with those with him. He looked around at the large cave mouth, cleared and hosting different types of vehicles. Some built recently to go outside the cave, some looking as if they had been built during World War II.
Some of unique design, but made a long time ago. Abesemmins wished he could go take a look, but his job was clear.
Get in, take notes, ask questions, go back to his job in Washington D.C.
The Schwabenlanders were all looking older. Fit, but definitely older. Hell, if his people waited long enough, they would be able to come back after they all died within the next couple of decades and take what they wanted.
Or, considering how strong one of the guards looked, perhaps they were not so frail.
Half of the group was ushered into a tiny waiting room, and the door clanged shut behind him. Abesemmins noticed the guy behind the glass.
“State your business,” he said, his Germanic accent heavy. J.J. Aspens spoke up.
“U.S. delegation to meet with Ms. Orsitsch.”
“I understand you have twelve with you, Dr. Aspens?”
“Yes,” J.J. responded. “We have another six outside waiting.”
“Makeup of the people outside?”
“Two ladies, four gentlemen.”
“Understood, Dr. Aspen. Welcome to Schwabenland.” The door on the other side of the small room unlocked as a buzzer went off.
Abesemmins walked out with the rest and a minute later, the others came out of the chamber.
“Doctors?” A middle-aged woman spoke from Abesemmins’ right. He turned, and she continued, “If you would all follow me?”
They started out after her as she called out in a pleasant voice, “Please don’t leave the group, that is very dangerous.”
Abesemmins nodded. They had been told of the potential havoc awaiting those who went sightseeing in the base without permission.
The results were often deadly.
Abesemmins guessed there weren’t too many lawyers in Schwabenland and if they had any to begin with, their curiosity had been fatal.
It took them about five minutes to walk to the conference room, through hallways that had nothing interesting to see. Abesemmins, usually good with underground locations, suspected they were close to the entrance and their starting point. However, they must have planned the trip to skip certain areas.
Interesting.
Jean Dukes’ R&D Lab
“Hey boss,” Jean Dukes called out from the back of the room. She was hunched over, pointing to a design hologram that one of her engineers had projected just above his desk.
“No, don’t push the envelope right here. The gravitics will warp at that juncture, and we’ll have a problem. Trust me, we went through this years ago when we built this ship. It drove Marcus and TOM nuts.”
“Don’t want that to happen again, do we?” her guy said before beginning subvocalized commands to the computer running the design software.
Bethany Anne walked up and nodded for Jean to step away.
Jean winked at Eric. “What’s up, hombre?”
Eric winked back but didn’t answer. He continued looking around and at her people. Jean had a long conversation about trusting her people with John a while back. She finally realized that none of the Bitches assumed anything bad about her people, but what about mind control?
With aliens out there, and what she had been told about Bethany Anne’s skills, it was a possibility.
Jean turned back to Bethany Anne. “Boss?”
“Just checking in and finding out how we’re doing with the projects,” Bethany Anne replied.
“Ah, management by walking around,” Jean stated. “Okay, Project T113,” she jerked a thumb behind her, “is slightly ahead of schedule if we can fix this gravitic problem that buzzkill back here…”
“Hey!” the engineer called out and then decided instead to focus really hard on his project when both ladies turned and stared at him.
Jean turned back to Bethany Anne. “As I was saying before buzzkill rudely interrupted me, project T113 is on track, slightly ahead. Trying to push this much metal and skipping through the Etheric is giving everyone migraines.”
“What about TOM’s engines?” Bethany Anne pressed.
“TOM doesn’t know exactly how that works. He was a pilot…”
“Not an Etheric fusion warp drive scientist,” Bethany Anne finished for her. “He reminds me of that fact all of the time.”
Not all of the time.
Every time I ask a question about your engines.
I push the buttons, calculate the accuracy of the location based on the Kurtherian pulsar and gravitic wave information in the database and select my next target. Then, hit the button when there’s enough power and reserve in the engines and cross my fingers.
It’s that ability to cross your fingers and hope that made you a pilot, TOM. Bethany Anne replied. An unusual characteristic in your people.
True.
So, I know you know a bunch more. I think you just might have a little Kurtherian rocket scientist in you, yet.
Bethany Anne could feel TOM considering her comment. She needed TOM mentally in the game. If she could just get him to admit that he might be able to contribute to this project, as a real skill and not a hack, it might help their game some.
Maybe.
Satisfied her project working with TOM was on track, Bethany Anne continued with Jean Dukes.
“So, we come to project Gauntlet,” Jean started.
“That’s the Guardians’ favorite. I’m surprised Peter wasn’t in here and only had two of his lackeys outside.”
Jean made a hmmmm sound. “That explains why we didn’t have as many interruptions as before.”
Bethany Anne asked, “You didn’t know you had two guards outside?”
“Well, yeah, I knew. But I hadn’t put two and two together that Peter did it because he noticed how many random people would come in and interrupt us trying to finish Gauntlet.”
“Did it work?”
“Well, yes,” Jean turned towards another workstation. It was stand-up desk height and three feet on each side. Wood on the surface, it was a computer encased inside metal underneath. The wood top provided a place for those standing around to set their tablets down as they talked.
Bethany Anne walked up and took a second side of the desk as Jean pulled up the computer and started going through the complicated login procedure before Gauntlet came up in the hologram. There were three sizes. One fit a huge, seven-foot tall humanoid, one fit a robust male and another fit a strong female.
“These suit
s allow the Wechselbalg or the Guardian Marines to jump in, suit up and empower themselves to be a one suit walking badass.”
“The biggest one?” Bethany Anne could guess, but she wanted Jean to answer.
“Uhhh,” Jean smiled. “Well, Peter, Nathan, and Ecaterina wanted something they could use if they were Pricolici.”
“What’s the backup if they go rogue and won’t change back?” Bethany Anne stuck her hand out and rotated the mech-suits in front of her.
“The suits internals have been calibrated to ascertain if we have a mentally competent being inside the suit or not. If they won’t change back, it can be recalled back to the ship, or it will lock up, and one of them will be pissed off when the override opens the suit.”
Bethany Anne grimaced. There were only a handful, including her, who would be on hand if they couldn’t find a way to get one of the Pricolici to turn back.
“When did I authorize,” she pointed to the big suit of armor, “that?”
Jean mumbled into her computer voice node, and a form showed up. “Ah, it was during one of the get togethers in All Guns Blazing.”
TOM, when is she talking about?
Ahhh…
I thought you were always paying attention.
Well, if I’m not otherwise focused, yes.
For an alien, you sure act like a male.
Point of fact, I am male.
Then my assertion that a guy is a guy is a guy, no matter what species he comes from, is now proven.
There was a silence before TOM replied, How long have you been setting up this joke?
I have to do something to keep you on your toes.
>> I have the information, Bethany Anne.<<
Great, ADAM.
What constitutes a male? Tom cut back into the conversation.
Huh?
Well, we can discuss the…
Hold it right there! Bethany Anne interrupted. No bringing in the whatchamacallits from Kurtherian System four four seven or some shit.
Why not? They are a real species I assure you.
Really? Because I have no idea if you’re making this shit up or not.
So, I can only bring up species you can confirm?
>>It was during the conversation you had with Peter and Nathan during little Christina Bethany Anne’s party.<<
Bethany Anne was thinking back to the party when TOM interrupted again, What about species you can confirm?
Huh? Sure, species I can confirm work, TOM.
Jean Dukes noticed Bethany Anne’s classic conversation-with-voices-in-my-head face and waited for a second before Bethany Anne’s eyes went rolling up.
“Remember now, boss?”
“Yes!” she huffed. “Those two snakes set me up!” She puffed a stray strand of hair out of her face.
Jean pointed at the largest Gauntlet. “The Proc-101 there’s going to get scrapped?” she asked.
Bethany Anne shook her head. “No, don’t misunderstand me. I’m good with,” she pointed to the hologram, “those. As for the boys, I’ll be ready for them next time. It look’s like our favorite Saint will be involved, too.”
Jean nodded sagely. For the last three years, Saint Payback-is-a-Bitch had become almost a religion unto itself among Bethany Anne’s people.
—
Captain Kael-ven’s four legs clipped down the hallway. He nodded to the two Wechselbalg guards that stopped any humans from entering the Yollin space on the ArchAngel without permission. Occasionally, a few new recruits rotating onto the ArchAngel would come down to the Yollin quarters to see if they could see the somewhat reclusive Yollins.
Last month, a couple of self-professed geeks damn near had a heart attack when they had been stopped by the guard only to find Captain Kael-ven behind them when they turned around to go back.
Both just stood there, looking up at him, stupefied.
“Do you mind?” he asked them. “I need to get by to go to my room,” he said as he stretched out his arm to point down the hallway.
The two geeks shook their heads silently.
“You have to move first,” he patiently explained to the two humans. Finally, the two Wechselbalg guards picked the two humans up and moved them next to the wall so the Yollin captain could continue on his way peacefully.
This time, there were no sightseers.
The door to Kael-ven’s suite opened and shut as he walked through. He had figured out that ArchAngel was capable of telling the Yollins apart and didn’t mind opening his door for him. He felt like a member of the First Caste every time he walked into his room.
“Captain Kael-ven, you have a call from TOM,” the speaker announced after his door closed behind him.
“Answer please,” he replied and walked to his sitting couch.
TOM’s voice came through the speaker, “Hello Kael-ven. I’m sorry to be short with you, but I need to run a bunch of alien races past you…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Bethany Anne’s Suite
Bethany Anne, Ashur, John, Darryl, and Jean Dukes appeared in the specially built Queen’s transference room. It was a thirty-foot diameter, fourteen-foot high room with simple rubber flooring and two sets of doors. One set went into her private chambers, the other led out into the guarded hallway.
The rubber floor was there to help soften the fall if someone had too much momentum when appearing, and it was easy to clean should blood be a problem.
Ashur shot forward, skidding to a halt at the outside door and barked.
“Welcome home, Ashur,” Meredith, the Operations E.I. for the base station said through the speakers. Ashur bolted out as soon as the E.I. opened the doors.
“Don’t be getting into a fight with Bellatrix!” Bethany Anne called. “And kiss the puppies for me!” The four of them heard his chuff in response, and John and Jean snickered.
“It’s a lot easier,” Jean said as the four of them headed towards the conference room through the same set of doors, “to think you aren’t crazy when I can understand his communication.”
“I don’t know,” Bethany Anne said as the doors slid shut behind them. “I kind of enjoyed it when no one but me knew he could communicate. You guys should have seen the looks on your faces.”
“Oh, uh, I always thought we hid it well,” Jean said.
Bethany Anne laughed.
“You do realize besides reading minds, even if she isn’t trying, she gets a feeling for what you’re thinking?” Darryl asked Jean.
“Nooo,” Jean drew the answer out, “but that might be a little embarrassing to learn now!” She shot a dark look up at her man, who shrugged as they continued down the hall.
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 30