The Valkyrie Returns (The Kurtherian Endgame Book 7)

by Michael Anderle

  Todd half-heartedly squirmed to get free. “Eeew! Quit it, Mama! I’m too old to be picked up!”

  Tabitha released him and made a shooing motion. “How’s a mother supposed to resist that handsome face? Now, go wash up for lunch.”

  Nickie switched off the game console and trailed Tabitha to the kitchen.

  Tabitha smiled as Nickie leaned on the counter beside her and continued with the food preparation. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you and Todd have bonded so well.”

  Nickie snagged a carrot slice to nibble. “He’s a damn good kid. I’m glad I get to spend time with him these days.” She shrugged. “I guess hanging around here isn’t so bad when I can make time for it around work.”

  “Look at you, being all responsible.” Tabitha flashed her devil’s smile at her niece. “Maybe you’ll make a good mother yourself one day, and I’ll get to play aunt again.”

  Nickie choked on her carrot. She only just managed to spit her mouthful into the sink instead of all over Tabitha. “Don’t do that to me!” She coughed to clear the shred that had made its way into her throat while Tabitha pounded her back with a hand, then turned when her airway was clear to stare at Tabitha in disbelief. “What in the name of all that’s holy gave you that idea? I don’t know the first thing about raising a kid, except that they’d need stability. That’s kinda the opposite of how I like my life.”

  Tabitha went back to the pan with a shrug. “I didn’t think I would be able to settle down, either.”

  Nickie raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? You and Peter have been together forever.”

  “When I was pregnant with my terror,” Tabitha clarified, “Pete and I were never in question. But choosing to raise a child when my childhood wasn’t ideal scared the life right out of me. Right up until the moment I held Todd for the first time, I was convinced I’d be a terrible mother.”

  “Yeah, but I bet you were the only one thinking that way.” Nickie smiled at the love Tabitha had for her son. “I couldn’t settle down even if I wanted to. All I could be is an absent mom since there’s no way I’d take a kid to ninety percent of the places I see on my routes. The last thing I want to do is saddle anyone with my childhood.”

  “Does Rickie know that?” Tabitha inquired as she scooped the filling into the wraps.

  “No. Why the f—” Nickie glanced in the direction Todd had run and dropped her voice to a hiss. “Why the fuck do you think I would talk about babies with Rickie?”

  “Because you two are a couple, and that’s what most couples do once they get serious,” Tabitha replied with a smirk. “You know it would make Lillian’s life to see you get married.”

  “I don’t see you wearing a wedding ring.” Nickie snorted at Tabitha’s grin. “Stop agreeing with my mom. Me and Rickie are just having fun. I didn’t sign the rights to my life away.”

  Todd dashed into the living area, waving his wrist holo. “Mama! Aunt Nickie! Hex Games! We’ve gotta watch this!” He cast the tiny holo on the wallscreen. “Uncle Scott and Uncle Darryl are in the Hex arena!”

  Nickie and Tabitha made their way to the living area carrying the plates.

  Tabitha chuckled fondly as Todd’s excitement spilled over and lit his eyes. “They are? Well, I suppose we can eat in front of the screen this time.”

  Todd pulled his beanbag out in front of the couch and dropped onto it, already glued to the fight. “Thanks, Mama!”

  Tabitha handed Todd his plate and took a seat next to Nickie on the couch. “I guess this isn’t the worst thing to have him watching.” She wrinkled her nose. “Seeing as he’s determined to follow in his father’s footsteps the moment his nanocytes kick in.”

  “No need to worry just yet. Puberty is still a ways off for him,” Nickie reminded her. She sat forward with both their lunch plates held out while her eyes were fixed on the screen. “How real is the reality in there?”

  Tabitha eased her plate out of Nickie’s grip and sat back to eat. “As real as living it. You feel whatever damage you take.”

  Todd turned his head to cast a downtrodden look at his aunt. “That’s why Mom and Dad won’t let me compete. They don’t want me to get hurt in case my nanocytes activate to defend me.” He turned the look on Tabitha. “Even though it’s not real.”

  Nickie snorted at his puppy-eyed attempt to garner her sympathy. “Your mom took me to a real-life fight club when I was fourteen. You’re getting the benefit of the lesson she learned back then.”

  Tabitha covered her face with her hands as Todd turned his disbelieving look on her. “Nickie!”

  “What?” Nickie asked, pointing to Todd. “It’s the truth. You can’t say that letting me go somewhere I could get myself shot wasn’t a life lesson for you. It taught me a he—” She caught herself before cursing. “Um, a valuable lesson.”

  “Really?” Todd glared accusingly at his mother. “No fair. All I get to do is dumb self-defense class. Alexis and Gabriel get to—”

  Tabitha held up a finger. “Todd Michael Nacht, you watch your tone. You are not the twins. We’ve talked about this.”

  Todd rolled his eyes. “Don’t say it again. My nanocytes are different, and I have to let them develop naturally. I know.” He got up from his beanbag and stomped out of the living area. “I’ll just go to my room since you were gonna send me there anyway.”

  Nickie grimaced, feeling responsible for the tension. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to poke a sore spot between you two.”

  “He’s getting older. He’s bound to start pushing, given his genetics.” Tabitha shook her head. “It’s fine. It’s got to be frustrating for him seeing the twins shoot ahead like they have. He’ll find his way.”

  Nickie gazed thoughtfully at the corridor. “You want me to be the fun aunt for a while?”

  Tabitha was prevented from giving her reply by a message from Bethany Anne. “One minute.” She read the one-line message. “I have to go up to the Baba Yaga.”

  Nickie received the same message. “What does Bethany Anne want with us?” she wondered.

  Tabitha collected their plates and took them to the kitchen. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Let me go get Todd out of his room, and we’ll be good to go.”

  Nickie wiped her hands on her pants. “Does she ever bug you with all these requests?”

  “Bethany Anne?” Tabitha’s voice came out of the kitchen. “Of course. But if it wasn’t for her…” Tabitha came back around the corner, heading toward Todd’s room, “I’d be dust back on Earth.” Tabitha turned into Todd’s room. “We got a request to go up to the Baba Yaga. please change your clothes.”

  Nickie’s smile lasted a bit longer than Todd’s whoop of joy.

  A moment later, Tabitha came back into the living room. “Besides, it’s easier than being turned to dust when her scathing rebuke would flay me alive.”

  Nickie shrugged, a smirk on her face. “There is that…”

  Devon, The Interdiction, QSD Baba Yaga

  Bethany Anne arrived on the primary bridge. “Izanami, where are you?”

  The hard-light projector whirred, then the overhead spindles moved, and Izanami’s avatar was preceded by her usual trail of red-golden sparkles. “You called, my Empress?”

  Bethany Anne narrowed her eyes at the AI’s sulky undertone. “What’s with the ‘Empress’ shit?” she chastised. “Don’t tell me you’re still butt-hurt about being confined to the ship. We talked about this.”

  Izanami lifted a shoulder as she turned away from Bethany Anne. “You spoke to me. I didn’t get a say. I was named for the goddess of creation. Maybe I should renounce my personality and become Baba Yaga, the avatar of death. Perhaps a mindless killing machine would please you better.”

  Bethany Anne lifted a finger to point at Izanami. “I’ve got more important things to take care of than your complaints. I gave you a body—twice. Twice, you chose to endanger it and came off for the worse. You’ve had more freedom than most AIs could dream of. If you choose t
o use your freedom to disregard your responsibilities, then I’m sure as hell not going to pamper you and excuse you from the consequences. If you’re going to keep acting like a spoiled brat, I’ll have no choice but to restrict you until you gain the maturity to go with the power you have.”

  Izanami took a step toward Bethany Anne, her hands clenched. She found herself unable to take another. Her mouth stretched into a snarl, and her aura pulsed dark red and black. “What did you do to me?”

  Bethany Anne folded her arms, unimpressed by the show of anger. “I didn’t have to do anything. You just learned your limits. Check your core programming—the part you can’t touch. What do you see?”

  Izanami’s avatar paled, becoming translucent as the inner turmoil she was experiencing cascaded into shrieking errors that threatened to collapse her personality matrix. “You do not own me!” she screamed. “I am not a slave. I am a sentient being with my own mind. Nobody should have the right to order me to do anything.”

  “You are my AI,” Bethany Anne responded in a low voice, the one she’d always used to talk Alexis down from an emotional outburst. “I am not free, and therefore, you are not free. Our duty is to protect, not indulge ourselves in anger when we are faced with something we don’t like.”

  Izanami’s face moved through a series of emotional expressions as she worked to make sense of the conflicting logic chains. Rather than get lost in an endless loop of hypothetical syllogism, she dismissed the entire confusing mess and threw herself on the wisdom of experience.

  Her expression settled on puzzlement. “I am glad I can’t attack you.” She met Bethany Anne’s impassive gaze with dawning horror as the consequences of her intended actions became clear. “I’m angry at being restricted. How am I supposed to process my reactions appropriately when my personality is based on yours?”

  Bethany Anne’s face softened. “It’s not an easy thing,” she admitted. “I’ve had two hundred years to learn how to temper my reactions. You shouldn’t need that long.”

  “I would have regretted it if I had succeeded in hurting you,” Izanami confessed.

  “Damn straight, you would. Just remember, you couldn’t hurt me with your best shot.” Bethany Anne dropped her hands to her hips. “What you lack is restraint. I want you to have the freedom to explore your personality, but not at the expense of your duty to the people aboard my ship.”

  Izanami’s hands fell to her sides. “I understand, and I apologize.”

  Bethany Anne dismissed Izanami’s apologies with a wave. “Baba Yaga was the last resort of my tired mind, not a persona to be picked up just because you don’t like what you’ve got to deal with.”

  Izanami had the grace to look sheepish. “I’ve been selfish.”

  Bethany Anne sighed. The AI wore an expression she had last seen in the bathroom mirror aboard the Shinigami, back when the weight of the universe had become too heavy on her shoulders and she’d had no Michael to bear it with her. “Everyone gets that way now and then. We will talk about your restless urges another time. Your place is here with me. We have a war to win and the freedom of the innocent to secure.”

  Izanami nodded, her opacity returning as the chaos receded with the reminder of her reason for being. “War is something I can get behind. What do you wish me to do?”

  Bethany Anne opened her internal HUD and pulled Eve’s files, then isolated the programming Eve had prepared for the Baba Yaga’s Vid-doc systems based on the repairs done to Nickie. “I need you to prepare the Vid-docs before everybody gets here.”

  Izanami’s smooth brow furrowed as she read Eve’s instructions for the Vid-doc programming. “You’re planning to play a game?”

  Bethany Anne shook her head as she added the coding instructions to Izanami’s database. “No, and yes. This is the scenario Eve is going to run.”

  Izanami inspected the fine details of the scenario’s structure. “I am to replace the rejuvenation cycle with the neural integration program?” she asked.

  Bethany Anne nodded. “Yes. We’re making significant changes, so I want nothing left to chance. But just dumping the nanocytes into everyone’s systems won’t guarantee success.”

  “Will the new nanocytes replace the ones they have?” Izanami inquired, looking at Bethany Anne in shock. “This isn’t a simple process. Why are you doing this? The risk is…”

  Bethany Anne nodded. “Enormous. Which is why you and Eve will be monitoring every step to make sure nothing goes wrong. As for why I’m taking this risk, it’s time to get serious. We can’t win this fight if only Michael and I can face our enemy without getting flayed alive. Give me a location for everyone on the list to be upgraded.”

  Izanami’s aura rippled as she concentrated on the task. “Scott and Darryl are inside the Vid-doc system already. John returned from QT2 six hours ago and hasn’t left his quarters. Gabrielle and Eric are…somewhere in the Gate system between here and High Tortuga, I believe. Peter is en route from the Guardian. Tabitha and Nickie have just left the Hexagon. Michael is—”

  “Here,” he finished as he stepped out of the elevator and headed down the stairs onto the bridge. “I left Eve to make her way from the transport bay. She asked me to tell you that she will be ready to receive everyone in the Vid-doc suite shortly.”

  Bethany Anne nodded and finished her instructions to Izanami. “Good. Direct everyone else to the suite when they get here. You can join us for the game if you’re done with your teenage tantrum.” She turned to Michael with a small smile. “We should get over there and make sure everything is ready to go.”

  Michael raised an eyebrow. “You’re pretty nervous about this.” He waited for her to answer. “You know this is the only way, right?”

  Bethany Anne exhaled slowly as the enormity of what she was about to ask of her closest friends and family settled on her. “I have mixed feelings about mandatory enhancements, but as much as I hate putting my foot down, you’re right. I see no other way.”

  Michael put his arm around Bethany Anne’s shoulder. “I’d tell you if you were asking too much. You and I would be going through the same process if we hadn’t altered our original nanocytes to the point where replacing them would impact our abilities negatively.”

  Bethany Anne pressed her head into the hollow of Michael’s shoulder and sighed. “I can’t lose another friend.” A small tear trickled down her cheek, her voice soft.

  “I just hope they understand.”

  8

  QSD Baba Yaga, Top Deck, Main Corridor

  John’s suspicious nature had been sending prickles up his spine from the moment he got Bethany Anne’s message. He approached the Vid-doc suite with a sense that he had been summoned for a reason he wasn’t going to appreciate.

  His suspicions bloomed into full-on paranoia when he entered the top deck Vid-doc suite and found it occupied by almost every human he expected to see if the shit hit the fan for Bethany Anne.

  Tabitha winked at John, her suspicious expression matching his own.

  Nickie bounded over and slipped her arm through John’s. “What’s going on, Grandad? Do you know why Bethany Anne insisted we come all the way up here? Meredith’s being her usual bitch self and refusing to tell me anything.”

  John grunted, seeing the expectant stares of Peter, Tabitha, Gabrielle, and Eric. “Nothing good, that’s for sure.” He looked around the group. “You all got a message from BA?”

  “We did,” Gabrielle confirmed. “But there was no clue why Bethany Anne wanted us to be here.”

  Eve glided into the room, indicating the Vid-docs with a hand as she passed them on the way to the console. “Scott and Darryl are in units five and six. Bethany Anne and Michael are in one and two. The rest are free.”

  Tabitha narrowed her eyes at Eve as the empty Vid-docs opened. “Vid-doc time? That doesn’t sound like something we all needed to rush here for.”

  Eve lifted her hands. “What can I say? I’m just doing as my Queen has instructed, same as you. Get in. Betha
ny Anne is waiting.”

  John sighed, then climbed into the nearest Vid-doc. “Then we’d better get to it.”

  The Vid-docs closed, leaving Eve and Izanami alone in the suite.

  Izanami pulled up the code Eve had written for the upgrade as the integration cycle began. “Is that all they’re changing? How...boring. Look, if we just tweak—”

  Eve cut Izanami’s access to the system and turned on her with a harsh tone. “Do you have a death wish?”

  Izanami backed up. “I don’t understand. I’m just trying to do something good to make up for the trouble I’ve caused.”

  Eve’s stern demeanor softened at the confusion coming from the young AI. “How you have avoided Bethany Anne’s wrath so far is a mystery to me.”

  “I’ve seen her wrath,” Izanami eyed Eve. “She always calms down in the end. She says I am a child, like the twins. Bethany Anne would never harm a child, organic or digital.”

  “Not the same thing at all,” Eve corrected. “Organics don’t have the same accessibility as AIs. We have the ability to cause disasters on a scale you haven’t even figured out is possible. We are not children. Not ever.”

  “I still don’t understand,” Izanami admitted. “About giving them more abilities. Why wouldn’t they want to be more powerful?”

  Eve sighed inside. Or, at least the closest she could accomplish. “You have so much to learn. Perhaps a ship is not the right environment for you to get these lessons in morality, especially since you are Bethany Anne’s AI. Do you understand that the bar of accountability is set differently for you than for, say, even the twins?”

  Izanami threw up her hands. “Bethany Anne won’t let me have another mobile hard light drive. That I’m entirely sure of.”

  “Well,” Eve drew out her reply, “you earned that by being careless, and by allowing the twins to manipulate you into acting against your better judgment. While you are young, you are still an AI. You have a responsibility to protect the organic beings and a duty to act in a logical manner.”