Compelling Evidence

by Michael Anderle

  High Tortuga, Space Fleet Base, Base Rec Room Omega 3

  “Shhh, you’ll wake him up.”

  Tabitha snickered and stepped back, admiring her work. “I doubt it. Cheryl Lynn was in a fantastic mood this morning. Glowing, I’d say. Scotty-boy is sleeping the sleep of the well and truly—”

  Scott jerked awake, and all the paper cups, disposable cutlery, various items of food and clothing that Tabitha, John, Peter, and Eric had spent the last twenty minutes balancing on his sleeping body fell to the floor.

  He caught the donut Tabitha had just placed on his head as it fell and demolished half of it in one bite. “Assholes.”

  ADAM cut in from the speaker beside them, “They’re on their way. Positions, everyone!”

  Everyone was in place ten seconds before Bethany Anne and Michael came in with the children.

  “Surprise!” they all yelled.

  Alexis looked around the group with a happy smile. “Well, actually…”

  Tabitha dropped to one knee, and two gift-wrapped parcels appeared in her hands. “Come and see what your fun Aunt Tabbie got for you.”

  Alexis and Gabriel didn’t need to be asked twice.

  Alexis squealed when she opened the shoe box. “Thank you!” She pulled out the glittery combat boots and held them up to her face. “How did you know?”

  Tabitha grinned and tapped the side of her nose with a finger. “Your Aunt Tabbie always knows.”

  You saw them when she was broadcasting last week, Peter pointed out.

  Tabitha narrowed her eyes at him over the top of Alexis’ head. Don’t you dare ruin my image as the fun aunt, Peter! My revenge will not be sweet—at least not for you!

  Peter raised his hands and took half a step back with a smirk on his face.

  Gabriel opened his next. His eyes lit up when he opened the slim box and saw the contents. “Is this an upgrade for my app suite?”

  Tabitha nodded. “Yes. Achronyx helped me. It’s a whole new toolset. It’s compatible across all your devices.”

  Gabriel gazed up at her in total adoration. “It works with the IRT-Pod?” Tabitha nodded. His mouth worked as he tried to find words. He settled for throwing his arms around her legs. “You’re the best! Thank you, Aunt Tabbie!”

  Akio came forward with a pair of longish boxes.

  Bethany Anne had a good idea of what was in the boxes, and she put up a hand. “Please tell me you’re not gifting my children with weapons already, Akio.”

  Akio inclined his head slightly. “It is my honor to present them with their first blades. I will also teach them to use them.” Also, he sent mentally, these are practice blades. No edge. They have to earn that.

  Bethany Anne and Michael looked at each other and exchanged a minute nod.

  Akio knelt and held out a box to each child. “We will begin your education tomorrow.”

  Alexis perked up at the mention of study. Gabriel was transfixed by the child-sized sword in the box.

  “We will take care of those for you,” Michael told them firmly.

  “We can’t spar with them now?” Gabriel looked up at his dad, disappointed.

  Bethany Anne smiled at her son. “You won’t want to when you see who’s just getting here.”

  Gabriel and Alexis gazed at her. “Who?” they asked in unison.

  Bethany Anne smiled. “You have two minutes to try to get it from my mind before they get here.”

  “So it’s a ‘they?’” Alexis asked. “Hmm…”

  Bethany Anne felt both of them try to probe her mind to find the answer. Gabriel screwed his little face up in concentration, and her heart melted.

  “Ashur!” Alexis shouted. “Ashur is coming!”

  Bethany Anne looked at her children in shock. “Did you two just play me?”

  Gabriel gave her a cheeky smile. “It’s like you always say, Mommy—the only fair fight is the fight you lose.”

  John let out a rumbling chuckle. “Pretty sure someone said that before you, BA.”

  Bethany Anne made a face as she put a hand to her forehead, wincing. “Oh my God, I’ve become my dad.”

  The children ran off to meet Ashur, and Bethany Anne left Michael to catch up with Akio while she grabbed a Coke from the wet bar.

  She came back a moment later to hear him bitching to his oldest friend about his latest nemesis. “Are you still going on about that damn T-rex?”

  Michael huffed. “I would have caught one already if someone hadn’t placed so many restrictions on my hunt.”

  Bethany Anne smiled thinly. “Can’t have you destroying half the planet on some insane whim, so no explosives. Can’t be seen to interfere in the planet’s ecosystem, so only an older male with no more value to the breeding population.” She had found that last part inspired. ADAM had predicted that the likelihood of Michael bringing home the dino-bacon had gone way down with that little rule.

  He appeared to know it, too. “You know that the aging males are the most aggressive, my love.”

  “Then you had better continue to be extremely careful not to get killed, my love.” She turned and left him to his complaints, heading after the children.

  From the sound of it, Ashur hadn’t come alone. She followed the tinkle of her children’s laughter, which was mingled with a series of high-pitched yips. The yips were being emitted by two smoke-gray puppies.

  Bethany Anne winked at Bellatrix. “I see you got your way.”

  Ashur chuffed, and the puppies jumped to attention. “Zeus, Athena, come and meet my human. Bethany Anne, meet the puppies.”

  Bethany Anne bent to offer them her hands to snuffle.

  Hello, large human, Athena greeted her.

  Oh, you can speak mind-to-mind.

  We both can, Zeus informed her.

  “Interesting.” She arched an eyebrow at Ashur, who shook his head. She held out her hands to the children. “We will see. Ready for your gifts?”

  “Can we play with the puppies for a little while first?” Gabriel asked.

  “Pleeease?” Alexis chimed in, her little hands clasped together.

  The puppies gave Ashur their cutest looks. “I will stay with them,” Ashur laid down.

  Bethany Anne smiled at the four hopeful faces. “Okay, but don’t go far.”

  “We won’t, Mommy,” the twins promised.

  “And stay where I can hear you!” Bethany Anne added.

  They nodded rapidly, their eyes already on the large space beyond the doors where they could run free. “We will!”

  Conversation in the main room had turned to the question that had been stumping them for the last three years. Michael looked up as Bethany Anne entered the room.

  She smiled at him and grabbed a fresh Coke on her way to join everybody at the table. “So has anyone found a place for our rebels to thrive? Or are we still turning it over?”

  Judging by the sighs, it was the latter. “It can’t be this hard to find a suitable planet! We’ve been searching for a while now. Everything else has run mostly smoothly. We have the control we need over the shipping industry, and the libraries are working even better than we could have imagined… But the rebels; the outcasts. The ones I won’t leave behind. They aren’t happy.”

  “It’s not from lack of trying,” Peter assured her. “We pull them from the testing process and treat any existing medical or mental health issues that account for their inability to work within the construct of society. We integrate many of them back into society.”

  Tabitha nodded. “Those people would have fallen through the cracks in any of the old systems,” she agreed. “But there are still some who can’t easily live under the rules of society, and we promised ourselves we would work like hell to figure out a place for everyone.”

  Bethany Anne set her bottle on a table and twisted it slightly as she considered the thorny problem for the millionth time. “We need to look at this from a different angle. It’s pretty much the only thing holding us back from the next phase of hiding this planet.
”

  Michael cut in, “We’ve looked at it from all the angles, and at least when we do find a planet, we’re pretty much ready to go.” He gazed around for a moment in thought. “I think we need a break from this planet.”

  Bethany Anne considered briefly. “That works. I would like to see my baby brother.”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of date night,” Michael replied. “There has to be somewhere to go out in space, but close to here, yes?”

  “Who would take care of the children?” A sea of hands rose. Bethany Anne’s mouth twitched. “Okay, point taken. Leave it to me.”

  Ashur came trotting into the room. He looked all around, his head tilted in confusion. “Where are the children?” he chuffed. “They were right in front of me, I swear.”

  Bethany Anne was in the hallway before Ashur’s translator had finished speaking. “Kids? Alexis? Gabriel?”

  Michael was at her side in a heartbeat. “Children, come out now. You’re worrying your mother!” He looked around again and turned to Bethany Anne. “I will check at home. They may have taken the puppies to the playroom.” The next moment, he was gone.

  Bethany Anne searched for her children’s mental signatures, but couldn’t locate either of them. Her heart rose into her mouth. “Where are my babies? ADAM!”

  Silence.

  “ADAM! Get your ass out here! Where are you, dammit?”

  “Maybe the base EI could help,” John offered. CEREBRO, locate Alexis and Gabriel.”

  The EI came back a six agonizing seconds later. “They are not in the base.”

  “What do you mean, they’re not in the base?” Bethany Anne demanded. Her eyes blazed red, and the air around her began to crackle dangerously. “Where the fuck are my children?”

  Ashur came over and put his head against her thigh. She reached down automatically to bury her hand in his fur. As she did so, her connection to the Etheric strengthened. She looked down at Ashur, then at John. “You don’t think…”

  John’s brow furrowed. “What?”

  His question had been posed to empty air.

  A moment later, she was back with a child in each arm and two very confused puppies. Ashur immediately hustled both puppies in the direction of their mother.

  Michael appeared. “What happened? Where were they?”

  “I found them wandering the Etheric,” she told him. “I have no idea how it happened.”

  “It was Zeus, daddy.”

  His eyes widened, and he opened his arms to gather the three of them up. “Alexis.” His charcoal eyes turned to his son. “Gabriel. Moving to the other dimension without us is not allowed. This isn’t open for discussion.”

  “We didn’t do it on purpose!” Gabriel protested.

  Alexis was about to join him when a big yawn came out of her mouth.

  Bethany Anne nuzzled her cheek. “Someone is ready for her nap.”

  Alexis didn’t argue, for once.

  That’s unusual.

  She went into the Etheric. It was a big adventure, even if it was only for a few minutes.

  She shifted the weight of the sleepy children on her hips. Michael?

  Yes?

  How are we going to put a child lock on the Etheric?

  Chapter Three

  High Tortuga, Space Fleet Base, Prime Building, Michael’s Office

  Michael muted the screen and crossed his office. He skirted William’s feet, which were sticking out from underneath the VR stage he’d had installed shortly after Bethany Anne had imposed her little constraints upon his hunt. “Well?”

  William scooted out from the silent machinery and shook his head sadly. “My official diagnosis is that you fucked it up.” He got up and dusted himself off. “I can get it fixed, but if you’re gonna keep Mysting into the works, it’s gonna keep happening.”

  A faint line appeared on Michael’s brow. “Doesn’t matter. I’m done with training.”

  William raised an eyebrow, then went over to the fridge and stuck his head in. “Don’t you have any beer down here?” He pulled his head out of the fridge and looked back at Michael, who shook his head and pointed at the bar cabinet by the seating area. “You’re ready?”

  Michael shrugged. “I was ready three years ago. It just took this long to find a worthy opponent that also fit the criteria set by my beloved.” He glanced at the screen, which was set to track his chosen quarry around the clock. He was an elusive beast, for one so large and aggressive. “However, I still do not possess a place to cook my kill, a situation for which I hope you have a remedy, William. How is my pit coming along?”

  William grinned. “It’s coming just fine. I addressed and solved the issue we were having with maintaining even temperature over such a large area. The replacement components have been built, and you know that the rest of it has been ready to go for a while. I just need you to tell me where to install the damn thing so I can get my workshop back.”

  Michael frowned. “I thought we had already decided that? Down by the kitchens, where the smell can be vented.”

  William shook his head, his eyes wide. “Yeah, no. BA visited my workshop the other day. She had different instructions, and I’m way more scared of her than I am you, so...” He lifted a shoulder. “Just sayin’.”

  Michael’s mouth twitched. “And what did my beloved demand? Uh, decree?”

  “She said, and I quote, ‘If you put that fucking grill anywhere I can smell the meat cooking, the first thing that’s getting cooked on it are your balls.’” William thought for a moment, looking at the ceiling. “I’m not sure if she meant my balls or yours, but I’m not willing to take the risk that she meant mine. You should pick another place since she probably meant us both.”

  Michael winced. “I think finding a location away from the base may be a wise move. Somewhere Bethany Anne cannot possibly gripe about.”

  William considered the options. “So, on another continent, then?”

  “Of course not,” Michael replied. A slight smile touched his lips. “Which means yes.”

  William chuckled and helped himself to a drink. He held up an empty glass to Michael, who shook his head.

  William walked over to the couch and sat back. “So how are you going to kill this thing? I watched the playback on your VR, and it kinda looked like you were losing badly.” He waited for the rebuke, which didn’t come. He grinned at Michael. “I gotta say, I’m not the only one enjoying this new more chilled you.”

  Michael raised an eyebrow and pressed his lips together.

  William held up a hand. “Okay, I’m not pushing it. But seriously, this fucker is fifty feet tall and nasty as hell. How do you expect to take him down?”

  Michael waved him off, then looked at his hand as though it belonged to someone else. His wife, maybe? “Oh, that’s not an issue. I’ve thought of hundreds of ways to do it.”

  “Name three.”

  “I could use the Etheric in any number of ways to take him down.” His face hardened as he spoke. “I’ve just been playing these last few months; refining my approach.”

  “Even with all of BA’s rules?”

  Another stony look.

  William cracked up at that. “Ohhh, that’s priceless. You never intended to abide by them, did you?” He wiped away a tear. “You’ll never get away with ignoring her.”

  Michael made a slight dismissive sound. “I just nodded along. She didn’t set any constraints I wouldn’t have held myself to anyway. By her lights, it would be completely acceptable to simply Myst through the beast and leave a grenade in his heart. There’s no honor in that. Plus, it would spoil the meat.”

  William blinked a couple of times before his eyebrows slanted together. “Why do you bring honor into just about everything?”

  Michael put his hands behind his back. “To fight on equal terms is honorable, no matter the opponent. It will be a match of my wits against the raw aggression of nature. It has been too long since I experienced that.”

  “You h
ave a fair amount of raw aggression yourself,” William commented. “It’s not going to save you if the damn thing smooshes you under his foot.”

  The corner of Michael's mouth lifted ever so slightly. “Then I will just have to be faster than the dinosaur.” He held up a hand coated in Etheric energy and flashed a wicked grin. “Besides, I don’t plan on him being able to stand long enough to ‘smoosh’ me.”

  “So you’re going old-school?” William snickered and raised his glass when Michael nodded. “You know, you’re pretty badass for a white dude.”

  The thousand-years-plus vampire looked at the behemoth on the screen, and his lip curled to reveal one gleaming fang. “I’m white?”

  High Tortuga, Space Fleet Base, Prime Building, One Week Later

  Bethany Anne took one more look at the angelic faces of her children. They slept soundly in their Pod-cribs, which were less like cribs and more like mini-bunks in their fourth iteration, since Eve kept coming up with improvements to their functionality.

  She switched the nightlight on and left the nursery.

  Her next stop was her closet. Not the one she shared with the family, the one that belonged exclusively to her. The space had been built by Jean, with all of Bethany Anne’s preferences in mind. Even Michael was not permitted to enter her haven, which had gone down with him as expected until she’d reminded him that a little mystery in a relationship was a good thing.

  “You have shoes in there, don’t you?” had been his first question.

  She hadn’t deigned to answer.

  A wave of her hand opened the door, and she stepped into the anteroom with the same warm feeling she always had when she entered the combination sitting room and shrine to her Louboutin collection.

  The shoe collection was all that remained of her not-so-secret hoard. In two hundred years of continually kicking someone’s ass, she’d gone through a lot of shoes.

  When she’d gotten down to the last five hundred pairs or so, she’d had them all packed and stored to keep them in perfect condition.

  They were the last Louboutins in existence, after all.

  Jean had barely raised an eyebrow at her request, which Bethany Anne had appreciated. However, there was no way she was letting Michael in here. One look at the lighted display cases recessed into the walls, and she would never hear the end of it—which would be a very long time indeed. Especially since she’d spent the last three years riding his ass about his dinosaur obsession.