“To the Queen!” The three men stood up.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Outer Docks
For once, it was quiet on the vast viewing deck of All Guns Blazing. Everything in the outer docks had been shut down in anticipation of going through the Annex Gate. All but absolutely essential people had been ordered to relocate into the inner decks, as far away from the outside as possible.
No one knew for sure if the Annex Gate could handle their fleet. It was a calculated risk, and the result was one that gave them enough cushion that Bethany Anne was willing to take that chance.
Not that she liked even a less than two percent failure rate.
John and Eric had positioned themselves down at the two landings that allowed people to venture up to the deck, giving her the privacy she needed. No one should be around, but that wasn’t good enough when ensuring Bethany Anne privacy.
The privacy to cry, to sob into her hands as she faced the place where the Earth stood, one shiny little dot amongst many others when viewed this far away.
It was both the root of her greatest pain and the reason of her greatest love.
Duty.
Honor.
Protect.
Many of the friends she’d made since meeting Michael in the darkness of the vault in Colorado came to mind. Some, like Gerry, stayed on Earth. Her team had healed him, healed his body, and he had taken another wife.
She hoped he would be happy.
Others, like Mary Brennan, Martin’s wife, had chosen to come with her. Every once in a while, a cake with one piece missing would show up in her suite. Mary would send a note letting Bethany Anne know what new things had gone on in her life.
Many of her people, her closest friends, had spent the last six months going through the emotional rollercoaster of preparing for the future while saying goodbye to the past.
Except her.
She had been too angry, far too angry to give a flying fuck about those on Earth that attacked her, her people, and who had said too many things and didn’t understand the emotional ripping of her soul when she couldn’t help everyone.
The vile epithets that had been thrown at her, the hatred for her decisions that had been placed on her shoulders. They had become her armor against this, this moment right now.
The moment when she was forced to accept that Michael was not coming back before she left. There wasn’t going to be a happily ever after where the two of them went across this gate together. One hand holding the other’s, each holding Jean Dukes Specials spitting slugs at the enemies. She smiled as she wiped away tears.
It looked like she could be romantic if she would just let herself.
She forced herself to look again at the little light, the one that represented the main motivation for those on this asteroid who had picked up their lives and followed her. It was full of assholes, that was for sure, but it was full of good people, too.
People that drove around, picking up food from those willing to give, and deliver it to those who needed. It was full of teachers who taught for the love of seeing a child understand, and cops that understood law was better than anarchy.
Even, she had to admit, politicians who understood representation of their constituents was a sacred honor. She only had ADAM’s research to confirm an honest politician existed. She thought the two words were mutually exclusive, never to be put together in the same sentence.
A corner of her mouth lifted. It wasn’t all heaviness going forward. She would be back, God willing, and when she returned Michael better be waiting for her, or…
She choked back a sob.
Or she would spend the rest of her many long days searching for his ass, with a woman’s righteous anger even hell itself would hesitate before offending.
She would miss the seasons’ newest shoes, but hopefully, they would have a new fashion designer, or two, maybe three in her little empire.
Unlike others in her group, she had her only living family member with her. She wasn’t making that sacrifice, although she hurt for those that were. Humanity’s first true space base station, cut out of an asteroid, bore her mom’s name.
The Meredith Reynolds. You would have thought those on Earth would have picked up on that clue, but nope.
It was her responsibility to protect the Earth. It was her Honor to be chosen, to be merged with TOM, to be given this opportunity to not die, but to move forward with determination to accomplish what others had not.
It was her duty to shoulder the responsibilities that came with the role.
She looked down at the floor and smiled. Perhaps her dad was wrong. Perhaps she didn’t need to take care of the Yollin King before the softer side could have a moment.
She just needed the safety of her Own to give her a bit of privacy to cry. To allow herself a moment to expel the feelings she had been hiding from, the people she was leaving behind, the memories that might not be ever experienced again.
She turned and reached for a couple of napkins on a table to wipe her face, then turned back and looked toward the Earth.
I’ll save your ass one more time, she thought, whether you appreciate me and my people, and our sacrifices, or not. We love you, and those living there, more than you can ever know.
She turned and started walking towards the stairs to go down, throwing the napkin into a trashcan on her way out.
Because that’s who we are, she thought as her steps going down the stairs reverberated through huge viewing room.
Where for just a moment, the Universe had watched the Queen Bitch weep.
CHAPTER SEVENTY
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
“You know, I’m not really happy about this,” Bethany Anne said from inside her closet.
“Kicking alien ass?” Gabrielle asked, sitting down on Bethany Anne’s bed, running her hand over the bed linen.
“What?” Bethany Anne stuck her head out of the closet. “Kicking alien ass? No, that doesn’t bother me.” Her head disappeared again.
“Then what are you talking about?”
Bethany Anne’s voice came back from the closet. “This changing my title.” Gabrielle heard a bump and a small swear word, then a frustrated, “Again!”
“You’ll get over it.” Gabrielle looked around the bedroom. “It’s good to be the Queen.”
Bethany Anne stuck her head out again. “You been watching Mel Brooks with Eric?”
Gabrielle turned to look at Bethany Anne and smiled. “You know, some of that stuff is funnier when you lived it.”
“Yeah,” Bethany Anne replied thinking about the history Gabrielle must have been a part of. “Some, maybe.”
A few moments later, Bethany Anne came out of the closet, armor sparkling, her black hair tied back and holding her Katana.
“What, no pistols?” Gabrielle asked, standing up from the bed.
“Do you really think I’ll need them?” Bethany Anne winked.
Gabrielle’s smile ended as she thought about the near future. “Only if some sons-a-bitches get past my dead body.”
With that, Gabrielle turned and took the front with Scott and Darryl swinging in behind her, John and Eric taking up the rear after Bethany Anne passed.
Humanity was about to take the war to the Kurtherians.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Ship’s Deck
Black Eagles slowly rose off the deck, some manned by people, some manned by EIs. Each human pilot had an EI wingman, and had practiced for months, pairs against other pairs, as the EIs had learned the flying styles of their partners.
It was time.
Humans might be leading this fight, but the children and grandchildren of ADAM would be right there with them.
Bethany Anne wasted no opportunity, nor did her father. People had heard his gruff, ‘if you ain’t cheatin, you ain’t trying’ for a long time. While humans had always been good at warfare, so were other species. Some of the differences? Some of those species didn’t war against their own people. Therefore, their ability to continue to get better was li
mited by how many species they could fight in any given generation.
Humans, on the other hand, were born to fight. They were the perfect species for Kurtherian enhancement. The only problem? Normal humans fought enslavement by any of their own race, it wouldn’t have been different if it were aliens. It just wasn’t in a human’s DNA to accept subjugation.
Now, leadership on the other hand?
Yes, humans were born to follow leaders: the bigger, the better, the baddest and the best.
Humans loved kicking ass and taking names.
Now they were about to be unleashed on a species which had already subjugated others, had been scouting Earth to determine whether to subjugate humans and desired only to continue their efforts to enslave others.
That shit, Bethany Anne had declared, was about to stop.
QBS Coach’s Revenge
Captain Maximilian Wagner looked around his ship, the newly christened Coach’s Revenge and nodded to his number one. Unlike others, Max knew the power of his EI, and he reduced his team crewing the ship to just seven, plus himself.
A total of eight humans, fourteen repair bots, six universal bots, another twelve Marine bots, and whoever he was transporting at the time, like the Guardians and Guardian Marines below.
The EI’s name was shortened to Revenge. His ship was similar to the G’laxix Sphaea, modified for humans and tweaked for war, not scouting.
“Revenge, make sure our people are ready, confirm doors closed, make sure our guests are ready to go, and put us in position,” Max said to the EI as he sat down in the captain’s chair. He reached over and grabbed a small box that had been delivered to him before his team left the all-captains meeting with Admiral Thomas. He put the box in his lap and opened the gift, thinking the blue suede bow a nice touch.
With the bow untied, he pulled off the top and looked. Inside was an 8x10 framed photo of the Ad Aeternitatem from Earth. He lifted the frame out and turned it over, a smile on his face. Bethany Anne had signed the back and listed the date that he first received that fateful phone call, the one that got him into this whole mess.
There was a scrap of leather inside the box. He didn’t need a note, although one was included, to know this leather came from the captain’s chair of the Ad Aeternitatem. There was a safety pin included. He smiled and used the safety pin to affix the piece of leather to the outside of his captain’s chair arm, where he would never accidently hit the leather, even if a missile made it through their shields.
“To Eternity, my Queen,” Max Wagner said softly. He looked up at the screen. “Bring us online, Revenge.”
The alarm sounded throughout the ship letting everyone in the ship know.
The Coach’s Revenge was going to bring the pain to the Yollins.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Yollin Quarters
Captain Kael-ven, the one-time Yollin Annex Scout Ship captain, walked down the hallway in the Yollin quarters and waited. Soon the doors opened, and the Yollin mercenary company attached to Queen Bethany Anne came out. The first figure was Kiel in mechanized armor.
Not his normal armor, no, not this time. Kiel was in one of the new suits created by Jean Duke’s staff for Kiel’s team. They were silent as Kiel came walking down the hall, except for the clip of their boots hitting the ground.
“You look good,” Kael-ven greeted Kiel.
“Thank you, Captain.” Kiel grinned. “Are you ready for this?”
Kael-ven shrugged. “Who is ever ready for revolution and anarchy?” he asked his friend. “If someone should claim they are ready, they are either deceivers of themselves or idiots. However,” he put a hand up and pointed to himself, “I will play my role. Yollins have been under this slave system on our own world for too long. It is time we stand up and decide for ourselves, as humans do, what our future will be.”
Kiel chittered his laughter. “You understand that your leadership will be a very short one if your decisions don’t happen to match the ones Bethany Anne would make, right?”
“Fortunately, I expect my decisions will be acceptable to Bethany Anne.” Kael-ven put a hand on his friend's armored shoulder. “It is time.”
Kiel nodded to his old captain and then Kael-ven stepped aside, allowing the rest of the mercenaries to salute him as they followed their leader into battle.
For the first time in Yollin history, Yollins from the Chloret and Mont castes were following an alien back to Yoll to overthrow their own King.
This would not be a bloodless revolution.
QBS Coach’s Revenge
Shun looked over at Jian and laughed. “You need to stop pulling up the pants.”
Jian grabbed his pants and pulled up. “I know they’re loose in case I change without stripping, but they feel like I’m about to be naked in five seconds,” he complained.
“I say you do what the Americans say and go commando!” Zhu laughed at his friend. Both Shun and Zhu were in Queen’s Guardian Marine uniforms. They had their gear, they had their upgrades, and they had the desire to keep fighting.
“I’m not sure I can focus properly on the fight if my tree limb is hanging out over the water like that,” Jian said.
As they talked, Tim came walking by in tight fitting jeans and a t-shirt that showed off his chest.
Shun put out a hand. “Tim?”
The man nodded and shook his hand. “Shun.”
“Can you tell me if you plan on changing your clothes or not?”
Tim looked at Jian, then rolled his eyes. “Jian.” At his name, he looked up. “Someone is playing a practical joke on you. It’s done to every new Wechselbalg the first time they go out.” Tim stepped to the side so that he wasn’t staring through Zhu, lifted his hands to his mouth and yelled, “Hey! Numbnuts. No, the OTHER numbnuts. Get Jian the right fucking clothes before I make you wear this shit!”
Tim watched the team members move for a moment and then nodded sharply. Turning back to the guys, he said, “Sorry, they really shouldn’t have done that before such a big operation, but... traditions. Well, that’s why we call them tradition. The new clothes will fit tight, but they rip easily. You’ll get another two sets. I suggest,” he said to Shun and Zhu, “each one of you takes a set. That way, if Jian changes to a cat, destroys his clothes, and changes back to human, you can get him in clothes so he isn’t fighting when the frankfurter is out of the bun. Remember, if you absolutely have to, you can shoot Jian. He’ll heal from your weapons, he might not heal from the enemy’s.”
Tim nodded to them as he stepped around Shun and continued down the hallway.
Within a couple minutes Jian was in his new clothes that fit significantly better as his friends packed the spares away.
Jian put his hand out in front of him. Zhu put his hand on top of Jian’s, and Shun placed his on top of both.
Jian lifted his chin. “For Bai.”
“For Bai,” Zhu and Shun agreed.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Military Operations
The military operations room was huge. It was fully three stories tall, with desks along the second and third stories, a wall of projection screens and a place in the middle with over 5,625 cubic feet of space for a three-dimensional hologram representation of the battle.
As needed.
Lance walked along the floor, chewing on his unlit cigar. He had three shipping containers of the cigars stashed away that he hadn’t told anyone about. Not his friends, not his wife, not his daughter.
Especially not his daughter.
He expected Patricia already knew. He didn’t hide anything from her, he just didn’t tell her and should it come out, Patricia would be able to say that she hadn’t been told. It was the best defense he could offer her. He suspected how much shit was going to be tossed in Bethany Anne’s direction for her ginormous shoe collection, and didn’t want anyone to start pointing at him.
Let’s face it, you could store a LOT of cigars in the same amount of space as just one box of shoes.
“Queen arriving…” a fe
male’s voice was barking out when it was interrupted.
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 77