“He also,” ADAM continued, “severed any agreements in place with foreign countries related to TQB.”
Peter grabbed his tablet and started hitting a couple of buttons, then swiping. “Well, that’s pretty much a turn over and show your throat response.” His face dropped. “That’s totally not fair,” he complained, and Todd leaned over to see what was on Peter’s tablet. Both men looked over at a very smug General Lance Reynolds.
Then, everyone at the table looked over at him as he said, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”
Bethany Anne eyed her father. “Let me guess, you said the President would finally capitulate before we left?”
“Maybe,” he answered his daughter.
“No maybe,” Peter answered, looking at his tablet, “ADAM,” he called out, “How many hours ago did the President order the cessation of hostilities?”
“A little under sixteen,” ADAM replied.
“He made it with three hours to go,” Peter told the table.
Lance shrugged. “Not like I wouldn’t have done the same thing with or without the bet, my hands are clean.”
Bethany Anne asked the table, “Okay, now that we’ve harassed the General, who voted against me beating the President?” Three faces around the table got the slack-jawed look of people who hadn’t considered their bet from that perspective.
“It isn’t so much against you,” Admiral Thomas said, “as it was assuming the President would continue to be an unteachable, arrogant, insufferable asshole.”
Peter and Todd both pointed at the Admiral with the leader of the Guardian Marines commenting, “What he said.”
“Right,” Bethany Anne said. “Now we know who won that test of wills.” She continued, “Let’s hear Kael-ven summarize what he projects will happen based on typical Yollin strategies. And then, Admiral Thomas will brief us on our countermeasures. Finally, I want boarding plans from Peter and Todd, and then our backup plans and the backup plans to those backup plans.”
Bethany Anne reached forward and unscrewed the plastic top off her precious bottle of Coke. “God, I’m going to miss this,” she murmured as she took her first sip. “It’s going to be a long one, guys, so we have food coming in a little while. Let’s speed it up and raise a hand if someone is going too fast.”
She smirked. “Time is of the essence, gentleman, and I’m ready to kick some more ass.”
General Reynolds kept his face neutral when he noticed Peter, Kiel, and Kael-ven making pained faces.
Lance was getting to really know his daughter, the multi-faceted woman she had become. Her softer side had been around and growing when Michael had been here. Now? Well, now that she had a taste of letting her inner bitch out, she was going to keep going for more until three years of clamping down on that urge to visit violence with violence was satiated.
Until she met the Yollin King, he doubted Bethany Anne would be able to stuff her Queen Bitch back in the bottle.
He listened to Kael-ven’s concise explanation of the expected Yollin Navy’s tactics and what they needed to do to counteract them.
It was time to cross the line.
—
Jian woke up slowly and recognized the top of the medical Pod opening up, a slender arm pushing it. “How are you feeling, Jian?” Dr. April Keelson asked the young Chinese man.
Jian blinked a couple of times. “Are you speaking Mandarin?” he asked, confusion in his voice. “I don’t remember you speaking Mandarin earlier.”
“No,” Dr. Keelson answered, helping Jian move his legs out of the medical Pod. “Sorry, this Pod is our version of the original. We’re working to build more Pod-docs. These aren’t nearly as nice.”
Jian moved his leg around to help the doctor. She continued, “You’ve had TQB technology placed inside your head that translates my words.” Jian stood up, feeling remarkably good.
“What about Shun and Zhu?” Jian asked. “And what all was done to me?”
“Your partners got out of their medical Pods very early this morning. Their bodies have been tweaked, and they have been injected with a Guardian Marine nanite pack. They’re a little more tired than you will feel since, for you, we had to figure out what was going on with your nanites. Once we figured it out, it was corrected.”
“What was corrected?” Jian asked, accepting the clothes and starting to get dressed. He had lost any sense of modesty years ago in the military. He just didn’t care anymore.
“Most of the problems with your nanites were psychosomatic.”
“You are telling me it’s all in my mind?” Jian asked, pondering the implications.
“No, not all of it,” she explained, handing him his boots. “Your existing nanites are now reprogrammed and enhanced. What you received from your parents had instructions that are counterproductive to working in the Queen’s forces. They wouldn’t have let you think for yourself. By keeping yourself calm throughout your life, you never triggered any of these effects.”
Jian kept quiet as the doctor checked his other vitals. While she had never seen any of the Pod-docs, the original, or the new ones, mess up, she was going to double check everything.
After a while, he broke the silence, “So, do you know how I start a change?”
—
Tabitha made it back to the Meredith Reynolds thanks to the Queen, as she hadn’t wanted to spend the time racing across the solar system in the G’laxix Sphaea. Now, she had changed out of her clothes, finally got clean, and was ready to drown a few fucking sorrows in a beer.
Just not at All Guns Blazing.
Too many people would know her, and cheer her the fuck up. Right now, she really didn’t want to be cheered up. Sometimes, people didn’t understand that a girl just needed to wallow in the dumps for a little while to really get it out of her system.
Guys? They wouldn’t understand. Her Tontos would leave her alone, but even them being around was a comfort of a sort.
No, she needed to find a place inside the Meredith Reynolds that would let her buy alcohol, drink enough that her nanites couldn’t burn it off too fast and allow her a chance to be maudlin.
Over a guy.
She rolled her eyes and started paying more attention to where she was. She had ridden the tram inside the world and found herself on the inside docks. Meaning, the blue-collar production was done in this area. That created an opportunity for a few bars and places to eat that supported those working their asses off.
She didn’t think anyone would expect one of the Queen’s Rangers to drop in. She had grabbed a cap and stuffed her hair under it, trying to take away some of her sexiness. She smirked.
Like that was possible.
She took a deep breath and let it out. Yeah, not even pretending she was the hottest sizzle on this floor was cheering her up. She came to one of the bars in the hallway and peeked in the little window. It was a long room, bar along one side and booths for four on the other with a pathway between.
Her kind of place at the moment.
She turned, stepped out of the way of a woman with some dogs, went to the door of the establishment and went in. There were two guys in the first booth. To Tabitha’s chagrin, she must be pushing so much ‘poor me’ vibe, they didn’t even look up to acknowledge a female passing by.
Damn, she really was in a bad place.
She walked towards the other end of the room, as far away from the door as she could get. She slid into the booth, her back to the door so no one could possibly see her. The booth went up high enough that even John’s tall-ass head would be blocked.
“What can I get for you, sweetie?” a slightly older woman asked her.
Tabitha looked up and smiled. “Whatever you have as close to 200 proof as you can get, and the bottle.” Tabitha paused. “Probably the bottle’s sibling, while you’re at it?”
“Guy or leaving the family?” The waitress asked. “Card?”
Tabitha fished around in her jacket until she found her Etheric Card. It had ci
rcuitry in it to allow the banking system to work. It also had a tiny symbol with what group you worked with. Hers had a little stylized “QR” with the number 2 under the letters. It had her details encrypted, and when she put her finger on the sensor the waitress handed her, it lit green. The waitress pulled out the card and glanced at it.
“I’m sorry, but your card isn’t good here,” she told Tabitha.
Tabitha looked at the card, dumbstruck. It wasn’t that she used it much, but according to Barnabas, almost nothing should be denied. She looked up at the waitress and realized something was wrong when the lady was smiling down at her. “Sweetie, you’re a Queen’s Ranger. I don’t need to know what you did that caused your mood, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to charge you for liquor to help you get over the nastiness.”
Tabitha sat there a moment, dumbfounded. “Excuse me?”
The lady looked up to the front of the little bar. “Mind if I take a seat?” Tabitha shook her head and pointed to the other side of the booth.
“My name is Pearl,” she started and waved a hand at the bar. “I chose to open this bar to make some extra money when I immigrated here.”
“What did you do before?” Tabitha asked. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have. No one gets into the Empire without having earned it.”
The lady waved away her concern. “Sweetie, It ain’t no big thing. I was a firefighter in New York City. I was one of the first responders. My body was crushed when the buildings fell. Our Queen found out about me, and some of her people contacted me in my hospital room, where I was counting down the days until someone would pull the fucking plug on me, you know?”
Tabitha nodded.
“I didn’t believe it at first. But hell, I’d seen the news. It’s all you can do if you’re stuck in bed, your existence a dance between pain you can’t handle, and filling yourself so full of drugs you can’t recognize your own child’s face. Well, it was hard. I’d lived for so many years like that.”
“Why didn’t you,” Tabitha got out, before stopping her question. “Pearl, I’m not usually so stick-my-foot-in-my-mouth, I’m sorry.”
Pearl was a lady who looked like she might be in her early thirties, maybe late twenties but the eyes threw Tabitha off. She reached over and patted Tabitha’s hand. Then Pearl leaned out of the booth and called out to someone behind Tabitha. “Hearts and minds, J.D., you know where the beer is, get it and don’t forget to charge yourself.” Pearl leaned back in before leaning back out. “Hell yes you should leave me a tip, you ungrateful bastard!”
Tabitha could hear the man laugh as he popped the top of a beer behind her somewhere.
Pearl came back to the conversation and Tabitha’s unanswered question. “Because my family members were never quitters. Maybe death had tried to squish my life back on nine-eleven. But that bony-motherfucker didn’t know who the hell he was messing with. I was already an obstinate bitch, but being with my brothers and sisters in the FDNY taught me a new measure of backbone, and we had a saying that we shortened to NS squared.”
“So, NS*NS?” Tabitha asked Pearl after a moment.
“That’s right, and we showed those terrorist sonsofbitches they can attack us right in the middle of New York, but we would rise up from those ashes madder than hell and ready to kick their asses back past the Stone Age.”
Tabitha smiled. THAT right there! Right where that lady had been was the strength, the core, of Bethany Anne’s Empire.
“What’s it mean?” Tabitha asked.
“I’ll get back to that in a second,” Pearl said. “I want to finish up my story before J.D. drinks too many and I lose count. He’s a sweetheart, but damned if he doesn’t forget shit.”
Tabitha turned and leaned out of the booth as Pearl commented from behind her, “The guy with the black hair, that’s J.D., he’s my husband.”
Tabitha turned back to Pearl, a question on her face. “Oh, I could emigrate no problem, cause of my service, but when they asked me about my spouse and realized he was one of the best city operations people in New York? God, I was never so proud of a man than that day as I was for my husband.”
Pearl leaned forward and whispered, “You realize how much shit men and women like him put up with? God, no one appreciates what it takes to run a big city. Twenty-two years of his life and all he had were certificates on his wall, some yellowed with age. When we accepted the opportunity to immigrate, J.D. had a connection to Meredith for his job right away. That EI is freakishly smart, but it also learns from experience.”
“Meredith works with your husband?” Tabitha asked.
“Oh, all the time. J.D. is in working heaven. Meredith has multiple cameras in here to talk with J.D. and J.D. can work from the bar for the rest of his life. Beer doesn’t make him fat, and he won’t get drunk if he drinks in moderation. Now, he’s an important and recognized part of the first human city in space.”
Pearl clasped her hands in front of herself. “I know you’ve probably seen her often, but I’ll tell you this. When the Queen came to our home a week and a half ago, to check on him and me and to confirm some solutions to minor issues?” Pearl smiled. “Well, I owe that woman the rest of my life, for doing that for J.D.”
Tabitha stared at Pearl for a moment. Bethany Anne?
Yes?
Did you meet with a Pearl and …
J.D., yes, last week. Meredith couldn’t explain something in a way I could understand. So, I took Eric and Ashur and went and talked with them. Sometimes, Meredith can’t express why humans act a certain way. It’s why you need people who know, not just data. Data lies in extraordinarily accurate ways.
Okay, thanks.
No problem, bye.
“Pearl,” Tabitha smiled. “Bethany Anne didn’t do that for J.D.”
“What?” It was Pearl’s turn to be confused.
“I checked with her, she didn’t come by to just be nice and pat your husband on the back. She needed J.D.’s human way of explaining something that Meredith, with all of her data, couldn’t.”
Pearl paused a second. “So, she needed to come by my house, to talk with J.D.?”
Tabitha nodded. “You might be surprised about how much Bethany Anne is willing to do, but to randomly check on someone? She doesn’t have the time. If she heard something, she might. But if no one said anything, she wouldn’t know to go touch base with your husband. No, you need to understand that J.D. got a visit from the Queen because the Queen needed J.D.’s explanation.”
Pearl wiped a tear from her face, and Tabitha leaned forward over the table. “What’s wrong?”
“I was a firefighter, Sweetie,” Pearl said. “A woman in a man’s world ain’t easy, but if you kick ass and take names? Well, the good guys don’t give a shit what your tackle is, and my guys were the best.” She nodded down the row of booths toward her husband. “In his profession, it’s all politics and crap. When the Queen herself showed up, it proved to J.D. that at least he was appreciated. Now, when he finds out the Queen not only needed his help but sought him out special because she needed something from him?” Pearl smiled. “That will make his other twenty-two years all worth it.”
Tabitha reached out and put her hand on Pearl’s. “That’s what makes her special, and you.”
Pearl looked up. “Me?”
“Yeah, you.” Tabitha agreed. “I’m just another person Bethany Anne saved a long time ago. My life is better because she came blazing through it like a meteor streaking through the sky. Now, she touched your life a week and a half ago. You know what? I needed you to be here for me today so I could ground myself again. And here you are. I may wish you never went through the pain that you did after the towers collapsed, but I can tell you I have one new friend now, one I’m really proud to have.”
Pearl smiled. “Me? Honey, I’m not anyone special…”
Tabitha lifted her hand and cut her off. She reached into her jacket and pulled out her tablet. Pearl watched Tabitha with curiosity. “Achronyx?”
�
��Yes.”
“Do you know where I am?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the name of this place?” Tabitha asked, raising an eyebrow to Pearl who blushed and looked away.
Her EI’s voice came back immediately, “Tabitha, the bar you are in is named NS Squared.”
“And what does that stand for?” Tabitha pressed.
Pearl spoke aloud at the same time as Achronyx answered.
“Never Submit, Never Surrender.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Arti-sun Engineering Group
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 75