However, his duty to Bethany Anne and their people had to be a priority at this moment in time. Not just because his honor demanded it, but because Tabitha had never been able to keep a secret from him.
This was beyond personal.
No one fucked with his family and lived. Tabitha was not going to lose Peter, and if Michael had to walk through the gates of Hell to return him to her, then that was what he would do.
His children stirred and woke when he pushed open the nursery door.
He helped them dress, and they all went to the kitchen.
Michael went to the fridge to get the children’s lunch. He’d gotten used to preparing the afternoon meal while the twins were asleep since they always woke up ravenous.
Michael let everything else slide for the moment to concentrate on the time spent together. He nodded and said the appropriate things while they ate and Alexis and Gabriel chattered happily about nothing.
He enjoyed his time with just the three of them. Fatherhood was this strange thing he still didn’t quite understand even after doing it for just over four years now. Small children had been singularly uninteresting to him, except the ones who needed his help. That was until Alexis and Gabriel came along.
Now he couldn’t imagine life without them, and their lives would be so very different without him.
The thought brought Peter’s predicament to the surface.
Michael needed to get to Bethany Anne, and together they would bring Peter and the other thirty-six back. Tabitha would not be left to raise their child without him.
Alexis blinked at Michael over the rim of her beaker. “Uh-oh. You have your serious face on, Daddy. Is someone in trouble?”
Michael caught himself frowning. He chuckled and patted his daughter’s hand. “We’ve got some bad neighbors, sweetheart. I need to go help Mommy take back what they stole from us.”
Gabriel grimaced. “Can we go with you?”
Michael’s chuckle deepened. “Unfortunately, my brave boy, you have school.”
Gabriel’s face dropped.
Michael raised an eyebrow. “In the Vid-doc with your Aunt Addix.”
The children brightened. Michael winked, knowing the next part would be what swayed them. “It’s a brand new scenario.”
The twins shared a look.
Alexis made a face. “What about you and Mommy? Will you let Phyrro tell us what is happening?”
Michael nodded once, knowing he had them.
High Tortuga, Space Fleet Base, Security Pit, Addix’s Office
“Can you do all that without an issue?” Addix leaned over to turn the air conditioning up a touch and sat back in her chair while she waited for her asset to talk.
“I can do most of it,” the male voice confirmed, “and I can arrange for the rest to be outsourced to trusted colleagues of mine.”
Addix’s mandibles twitched as she contemplated the risks of involving outside parties in her investigation. “That will have to suffice. I want to know the root cause of the attempted kidnap on my charges. I do not want to find out that there was a larger issue further down the line that you failed to inform me about.” She paused to allow her words to sink in. “Am I making myself clear, Commissioner?”
“As crystal,” the commissioner replied sullenly. “You have my word, Spymistress. I will get to the bottom of this.”
Addix cut the connection and looked up, sensing Michael’s presence a moment too late.
Michael smirked and entered the office. “Good afternoon, Addix.”
Addix waved him in and indicated the visitor’s chair. “Have you come to get my report?”
Michael slid into the chair across from her desk. “That, and to ask if you would take the children for their lessons this afternoon. Bethany Anne needs my assistance.”
Addix inclined her head. “Of course.”
Michael smiled and settled into the comfortable chair. “Thank you. Now, what happened on Colonnara?”
Addix’s mandibles rippled with anxiety. “I have prepared a full brief on the events, but the short version is that a gang comprised of a Yollin, a Baka, and a couple of humans managed to distract me long enough to snatch the children.”
Michael held up a finger to interrupt. “How did they do that?”
Addix hissed. “By attacking my senses,” she replied sourly. “They had some noxious kind of spice in a jar which one of them smashed at my feet. By the time I’d recovered and killed the Baka who’d dropped the jar, the Yollin and the humans had taken Alexis and Gabriel.”
Michael frowned. “But you tracked the children using your implant, yes?”
Addix hung her head. “To my shame, no. I have to admit that I allowed my fear to overwhelm me in the heat of the moment. It was Alexis who thought fast enough to give me a lead to find them.”
Michael remained impassive. “You could not predict that you would be attacked in such a way, but you should remember that we have our children updated so that this situation does not occur again.”
Addix nodded. “I will. In any case, the four responsible are dead by my hand, and I have assets investigating Colonnara to ensure we were not the attempted victims of a ransom ring.”
Michael nodded. “That was an appropriate response.”
Addix’s mandibles clicked. “Yes, well. I was somewhat annoyed with my initial reaction. It would have been better to keep the Yollin alive until I learned what she knew, but my focus was on getting to Alexis and Gabriel.”
“That was because your emotions were in control,” Michael reasoned. “It’s only natural since you care for them. And it was only a small part of the excursion. By all accounts they had a fantastic time—kidnap included if you listen to them talk about it, and Bethany Anne was more than moved by the movie.”
Addix perked up at that. “I am happy to hear it! The twins and I had a very interesting time making it.”
Michael smirked. “I can imagine. I thought you made a striking Kael-ven, by the way.”
Addix chuckled. “As I said, we had an interesting time. Alexis and Gabriel had their hearts set on making the movie even after the kidnap attempt, so it was no trouble to find another reenactment specialist.” She shifted in her seat and took a pad and pen from the top drawer of her desk. “What is on the children’s learning schedule for today?”
Michael laced his hands behind his head and leaned back in the chair. “I was thinking of ways to make math fun for Gabriel. Alexis eats engineering for breakfast, but my son is less enthusiastic when it comes to extending his knowledge of technology further than how to use it.”
Addix tilted her head. “How do you intend to teach this?”
Michael broke into a grin as he got up to leave. “By throwing them—and you, of course—in at the metaphorical deep end.”
Immersive Recreation and Training Scenario: Shipwrecked In Space
The scenario began in a large airlock. Addix found herself in a vaguely familiar exosuit, one of the newer models, by the look of it. She leaned forward to look at the console and saw the twins in the video link on the monitor. “How are you doing, children?”
“Great” Gabriel bounced up and down in his harness, causing his exosuit to copy the motion. “We’re in a space adventure!”
Alexis was similarly chipper. “Did you review the scenario objectives? This is a colony ship, and we have to get the colonists in their stasis pods to their new home.”
Michael had provided Addix with her own version of the scenario objectives. Addix had read them on her way to the Vid-doc room, and she knew that they weren’t going to make it as far as the colony. She had been surprised to discover that the timeframe for this scenario had been stretched so that she and the children would experience time at a slightly accelerated rate.
“This is a little deeper than I was expecting, Michael,” she muttered. She wasn’t actually too surprised. After all, she knew Eve well enough, even if Michael remained a mystery to her. While she suspected Michael’s easygo
ing, teasing manner was a thin veneer over a rigid and unforgiving nature, she knew damn well that Eve’s sense of humor contained a dark streak a mile wide.
The airlock began to cycle and the light above the outer door flicked from red to amber, then to green before the hatch opened. The twins moved as one for the exit, but Addix stopped them in their tracks.
“I will go first to make sure it is safe. Wait here a moment, please.” Addix walked her exosuit out the hatch and into the open area around the airlock. She shifted in her harness and tapped the button on the console to engage her exosuit’s magnetic feet. Once she was anchored to the hull, she tethered herself to the guide rail before allowing the children to take a single step outside the ship.
Simulation or not, she didn’t want any of them to go out as space-cicles.
She turned the upper body of her fifteen-foot exosuit around and carefully maneuvered the robotic arms to assist Alexis and Gabriel one at a time out the airlock hatch, securing each of their smaller two-legged exosuits to her tether as well as the guide rail.
The exosuit felt strange to Addix. It was designed for her four legs, but all four were set to keep the main bulk in a low crouch against the outside of the ship, meaning that inside the cab, her body was set in a similar position.
Addix nodded when she was satisfied that the video link between their suits was still working properly outside the ship. “Are you both comfortable in the exosuits?”
“Yes, Aunt Addix,” they chorused. The children’s faces on her monitor were full of excitement and nerves.
Addix nodded, her mandibles twitching happily. “Before we begin, I want you both to remember to keep awareness of your tether at the front of your mind. Check it regularly, since its sole purpose is to prevent you from dying if for some reason you become detached from the ship.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “We’re not going to get launched into space. Aunt Addix. That’s just silly.”
Addix shrugged. “Silly, but it would be foolish to take the risk. We are not designed for floating around in a vacuum, Gabriel. This is why we need to respect the systems which allow us to take our tiny tin cans and search out that next adventure.” She swept a robotic arm to encompass the ship around them. “Without our ships, we are planet-bound.”
Gabriel frowned. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. I just thought that maintenance was boring.”
“It’s really not,” Alexis told him. “Like this relay we’re about to fix. At the moment it’s not causing a problem, but if we don’t repair it, the relays around it will have to keep compensating, which causes a strain on the system.”
“Very good, Alexis.” Addix picked up the box containing the spare parts for their repair task. “We’re about to move, so check your tethers.”
The twins checked dutifully.
Addix smiled, although they couldn’t see it. She brought up the repair ticket on her screen and flicked it over to be shared with the twins. “As you can see, this coupling relay needs replacing.”
The twins reviewed the information.
“This is challenging,” Alexis enthused. “I like this scenario, Aunt Addix. I hope there are more tasks like this before we reach the colony site.”
Gabriel huffed and started shadow boxing. “I hope not. I’m already bored. Aunt Addix, can we spar in the exosuits when we’re done here? I bet I can punch really hard with it on.” He went to switch stance and almost toppled, forgetting that his feet were anchored to the hull. “Oops.”
Addix chuckled. “If we complete the scenario quickly and well, then I’m sure we will have some time to play afterward.” She checked the balance of the box and set off along the walkway ahead of Alexis and Gabriel.
Gabriel pumped his fist, recovered from his embarrassment. “Yeah!”
Alexis snorted. “And we’re back to subtlety again. All you want to do is hit stuff.”
Gabriel turned to his sister as they took slow and deliberate steps after Addix. “Are you saying it wouldn’t be fun?”
Alexis shrugged, which looked odd when her exosuit made the motion along with her. “Well, no…”
Gabriel pointed at Alexis to prove his point. “There you go, then. Looks like even subtle people like hitting stuff.” He chuckled merrily and moved ahead to keep up with Addix.
Alexis sniffed as her brother clomped off, still laughing quietly.
Alexis followed them, her interest caught by figuring out how her exosuit worked. She lifted each foot a few times, and after a little hesitation, she tried to jump—without success.
“We can’t have you floating away,” Phyrro cautioned. “One foot must remain on the ship at all times.”
Alexis was delighted to hear the voice of their EI. “Phyrro! Are you the one controlling the anchors in our boots?”
Phyrro’s avatar popped up on her monitor screen. “I am integrated with all of your equipment,” he informed her.
Addix cut in, “Since we are in a scenario that requires the use of technology, you are permitted access to Phyrro. He will be acting as the ship’s EI for the duration of the task.”
Alexis pursed her lips in thought. “That explains the intuitive reactions of the exosuit.” She looked at the double line snaking out from the back of Gabriel’s exosuit; one leading to her Aunt Addix and the other to the guide rail that ran beside the walkway. “I think we should be able to jump since we’re tethered twice.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel agreed. “We could just float along like balloons instead of walking all this way.”
Addix chuckled. “Of course, but when you get hit by a fragment of rock traveling at the speed of sound, we will have to begin the scenario again.”
Gabriel huffed. “I suppose walking is fine,” he conceded.
As Addix led the twins along the walkway, she looked up at the skyline created by the various-sized housings, checking off the enormous stenciled-on designations on the side of the units against the one on the ticket as they passed.
Addix saw the designation she was looking for. “This is the relay housing, children.” She stopped by the base of the twenty-foot housing and placed the box down on the walkway.
She tethered the three of them to the bar beside the access panel, then gestured to the recess above the panel. “Which of you would like to do the honors?”
Alexis waved her exosuit’s arm. “Oh, me!”
Gabriel was paying more attention to a meteor shower in the distance.
Addix nodded. “Very well.”
Alexis brought up her exosuit’s hydraulic controls and selected the setting to extend the legs to their full length.
“You have me to do that,” Phyrro offered.
Alexis giggled as the sudden elevation tickled her stomach. “I know, Phyrro, but look—I can do it by myself. If I get stuck I’ll ask for help, I promise.”
Alexis guided her robotic hand inside the recess and pulled the lever to activate the access panel release mechanism. She stepped her exosuit back as the front of the panel slid to the side and the cradle holding the defunct relay came forward on its tracks.
Addix opened the cradle and peered inside. “Okay, children. What do our instructions say is the first step?”
The repair went smoothly at the start. Alexis and Gabriel worked their way through the instructions, with Addix and Phyrro assisting them each step of the way.
The twins were about halfway through fitting the replacement components when the starlit skyline was suddenly thrown into sharp relief by a flash of light and the ship convulsed beneath their feet.
“What is it, Aunt Addix?” Alexis cried, grabbing the cradle to stabilize her exosuit. “What just hit us?”
The ship shook again immediately after another flash of light.
“I believe we should get back inside the ship.” Addix walked to the bar and undid her tether. She moved her exosuit quickly and precisely to attach it to the guide rail before doing the same for the children’s tethers. “Be quick, now.”
Add
ix ushered the twins in front of her, not letting them out of her sight for a second while they made their way back toward the airlock.
Alexis gasped. “Our objective! What about the colonists?”
“We will work it out,” Addix assured her. “Although I believe our to-do list just got a lot longer.” Gabriel’s face on her monitor was set in serious lines. “We are almost at the airlock now.”
The hatch came into sight up ahead.
Alexis put on a short burst of speed, seeing their goal almost in touching distance. She was yanked backward when her tether snagged on the rail. “I’m caught, wait for me!”
The light flashed again while Alexis was untangling her tether. The three of them looked up as they made a dash for the hatch, and this time they saw the meteor streak toward the ship.
The hatch was locked.
Alexis called for Phyrro, but the EI did not reply. She looked at the approaching meteor through her exosuit’s window. “What do we do if we don’t have Phyrro to open the hatch and let us inside?”
Gabriel reached out a robotic arm and tugged at the manual release. “We get in by ourselves.”
Chapter Twelve
Devon, First City, Warehouse
Demon’s tail swished from side to side as she padded through the ground floor of the warehouse on her way back from her nighttime hunt. Although she had been told to expect it, she was unhappy to find that her usual route through the maze of crates and shipping containers the previous occupants had left behind had been rearranged in the few hours she had been gone.
She heard the heavy lifting equipment operating somewhere in the maze and decided it would be easier for her to see what was going on from the office. Demon followed the path through the new configuration all the way to the back of the warehouse, noting the locations she picked up the warning scent of explosives as she walked.
Demon sniffed the air and looked around as she left the maze and headed across the open space at the back of the warehouse. Mark and Jacqueline had cleared the area around the bottom of the stairway to the office. The scent of the fresh sawdust they had spread on the floor hung heavily over the musty smell she usually associated with the building.
The Kurtherian Endgame Boxed Set Page 55