“I understand it went well enough.”
“A damned miracle, if you ask me.” Lance smiled at Patricia, who was still happy as a kitten in a box of freshly-dried socks. He looked at Thomas. “I’m more shocked she got something to work for William than that we got the Annex Gate moved and everyone believing that shit blew up.”
“I understand we are at a funeral at the moment?” Thomas replied. “Have to say, this party isn’t what I expected.”
“Only those on the very inside will ever know. Maybe in a hundred years—or sooner, if we have to admit we have the ships—everyone will know we pulled off the biggest damned con this galaxy has ever seen.”
Thomas raised his drink. “Eat your heart out, David Copperfield,” he said, and took a swallow.
“I saw him three times in Vegas.”
“Any good?”
“Amazing,” Lance admitted. “Never did figure out most of the shit he did. Even his stupid-assed duck trick was pretty good.”
—
Bethany Anne stabbed a reddish fruit that was a bit more tart than a strawberry and held it under the chocolate fountain. “What’s going on with Dad and Bart over there?”
Patricia didn’t look over her shoulder. “He wanted some time to speak with Thomas about his future, so he asked me to play in the chocolate.”
Bethany Anne nodded, then leaned in to Patricia and bumped her with her shoulder. “I never thanked you for your message to Baba Yaga.”
“Wasn’t to Baba Yaga, it was to my daughter,” Patricia answered, “and you are welcome.”
“Speaking of daughter…” Bethany Anne got a bit closer and waited for exactly the right moment before asking, “will I be getting any brothers or sisters?”
Patricia threw a hand over her mouth as she involuntarily coughed, trying to not spew its contents all over the fountain. Bethany Anne laughed and handed her a clean napkin. Patricia wiped her mouth, looked sideways at Bethany Anne, and hissed in a whisper, “I thought you didn’t read the minds of family?”
“WHAT?” Bethany Anne’s eyes went wide. “You guys are thinking babies?” She grabbed an extra plate, tossed on a handful of items, and dumped chocolate on the top, then grabbed Patricia’s elbow, pulled her out of the line, and headed for an empty table. “Come with me, Mom!”
—
“Uh oh.” Thomas nodded to the fountain. “Bethany Anne is up to something.”
Lance looked at where Thomas was nodding. “What happened?”
“Bethany Anne said something to Patricia that made her cough, and next thing you know Bethany Anne did that vampy speed stuff with a plate of food and moved Patricia over to that table to talk.”
“Huh.” Lance rubbed his face. “No idea.”
—
Patricia allowed herself to be directed to a chair before she looked at Bethany Anne. “You didn’t read me?”
“No!” Bethany Anne shook her head. “I said it as a joke to make you do a spit-take!”
“So I gave myself away?” Patricia’s eyes narrowed. “You playing fair here?”
“Yes,” Bethany Anne assured her. “I won fifty credits from ADAM.”
“You’re a horse’s ass, ADAM!” Patricia noted, knowing the AI could hear her.
“He says he’s sorry, but he didn’t know either. Divulging the information is all on you.” Bethany Anne picked up a red fruit. “These are good.” She licked the chocolate off her fingers. “So, brothers and sisters?”
“Oh, just one, I hope,” Patricia answered. “I stayed off the baby wagon with the wars that were going on, and now I figure there are no more excuses.”
“Dad wants more?” Bethany Anne asked.
“Lance has been ok with it forever, I think,” Patricia admitted. “I’m the one who has been hesitant, since I didn’t want to raise a child alone.”
“Going to go for a specific sex?”
“Goodness, no!” Patricia shook her head. “Whatever happens, happens. We will make sure the baby is healthy, so I hope something happens before TOM leaves, but other than that, no.”
Bethany Anne listened for a moment. “He says to tell you that he will be here for you as best as possible.” There was a pause before Bethany Anne asked, “How soon?”
“Well, there will be a lot of practicing.” Patricia took a bite of her chocolate-covered food.
“Eww!” Bethany Anne squeezed her eyes shut and put her fingers in her ears. “Lalalalala!”
Patricia had to get Bethany Anne to help her stop choking after her laughter caused what she was eating to go down the wrong pipe.
—
Tabitha looked down at the furry face staring up at her. “No!” She shook her head. “There is no way I’m feeding you chocolate, you little rat!”
“I’m neither little nor a rat.” Ashur puffed out his chest and struck a pose. “I’m the White Avenger!”
Tabitha chuckled. “What are you avenging?
“The inability of dogs on Earth to metabolize the theobromine in chocolate, which poisons them. As the duly authorized representative of my species, I’m here to consume all the chocolate available.”
Tabitha shook her head. “You know Snow has already downed a gallon, right?”
“What?” Ashur whined, looking around. “Where is that child of mine?”
Tabitha pointed to a far corner. “Over there with Kael-ven and Kiel. Kael-ven didn’t know chocolate was poisonous to dogs, and Snow didn’t care since the nanocytes in your bodies protect you.”
“Hummph.” Ashur looked up at Tabitha. “Help a fellow out?”
“Fine!” Tabitha grabbed a nearby bowl. “But if you make a mess, you better blame someone else for your fix!”
—
“Bethany Anne?” William walked up behind her.
“Hmmm?” Bethany Anne had a spoon full of chocolate in her mouth and didn’t look like she was willing to take it out.
“Can I talk with you?”
“Mmmhmmm,” Bethany Anne agreed. The two of them walked over to a mostly clear area. She raised an eyebrow, talking around the spoon. “Wat’s uh?”
William chuckled. “Chocolate got your tongue?”
“Mmmhmmm.” She pulled the spoon out of her mouth. “This stuff is delicious!” she said, and smiled. “What’s up?”
“I need to ask you a question about your trip.”
Bethany Anne put the spoon back in her mouth. “Mmmhmmm.”
“You guys are going to be gone a while, right?”
“Mmmhmm.”
William breathed in and then exhaled, looking Bethany Anne in the face. “Can you find a use for me?”
She pulled out the spoon. “Always, big guy.” She looked around. “Everything ok here?”
William waved a hand, “Oh, as perfect as ever, but you know Kathy?”
“Ahhhhh.” She nodded her head. “You want to see what’s going on, and she is slated to come?”
“She loves her job, and I wouldn’t want to see that change because of me.” He nodded to those walking around. “Tina’s here, so the team is still rock-solid, and I need to move on a bit. Kathy has shown me that if it isn’t her it will be someone,” he smiled, “and frankly, I rather hope it’s her.”
Bethany Anne leaned in and asked softly, “Want me to put some vampire voodoo on her?” Her eyes crinkled in humor.
“No!” He shook his head as he chuckled. He put up his fingers an inch apart. “Well, my lack of self-esteem wouldn’t mind it much, but that isn’t the right future.” He looked at her doubtfully. “Could you?”
Bethany Anne pursed her lips and her eyebrows narrowed. “I bet I could do something short-term, but long-term?” She shook her head. “I’m not sure I want to find out if I could do that for love. I know I can make that shit happen for other reasons.” She made a face and turned to look at him. “For love, it just seems so wrong.”
“Got to believe they love you without outside influences?” William sighed.
“Oh, hell no.�
�� Bethany Anne chuckled. “Please! A woman—or a man for that matter—uses all sorts of outside forces to woo a person. Hell, Gloria Vanderbilt had a jeans line that probably snared more men than perfume during certain years back in the 70s on Earth. No one is guiltless when love is on the line.” She rocked her hand back and forth. “I’ll qualify that to say those who don’t seek the attention at all are probably guiltless, but most of us?” She shook her head sharply this time. “Nope.”
“You don’t think it’s silly?”
Bethany Anne patted his arm. “William, this is the most courageous and honest-to-God effort you have made for your love life, and Kathy is good people.”
“She was pretty amazing on that date.”
“Yeah.” Bethany Anne sighed. “I’m sorry I crashed it. I really wanted it to go well for you.”
William chuckled. “Kathy enjoyed it a lot, and once it came out I was William from Team BMW, it was probably good to let her get hit with all of us at once. She acclimated, and my fame wasn’t as big a deal when she compared it to yours.”
“Oh shit!” Bethany Anne’s hand went to her mouth. “Did I mess that up for you?” Her eyes were wide with concern.
“No no no no no!” He shook his head. “I mean, I seemed fairly normal again after you and Gabrielle came in. It helped her see me as part of a group, and she liked being next to me. She felt safe.”
“A good feeling.” Bethany Anne sighed. “Ok, so you want to come on the trip to Earth?”
“Yes,” he assured her, nodding as much to himself as her. “Yes, I do.”
“Done!” Bethany Anne stood up. “Now, I smell chocolate cake,” she said, and strode off, sniffing the air.
CHAPTER TWELVE
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
“We need supplies, and we need to keep stuff hidden,” Dan informed the team as they sat around the table. “We can’t use the biggest ships for obvious reasons, and it will look damned funny if we send ArchAngel II or Ranger Prime in and out all the time.”
“I don’t know.” Bethany Anne rubbed her chin. “Is there a place you need to clean up before we go?”
“Other than Devon?” Barnabas asked.
“Yes,” she agreed, “other than Devon. Although that would have been a great idea.” She scratched the tip of her nose. “Why is it always the tip?”
“What?” Barnabas looked up from his tablet as Dan smiled.
“Why is it always the tip of your nose that gets itchy? Why not the little flare-out parts?”
“What about some of the space stations on the frontier?” Lance suggested. “Send Ranger Prime and ArchAngel II on one trip, swing them by the system-that-shall-not-be-named and then show up on a fly-the-flag. Ranger Prime continues, and accrues a little newsworthy notice. ArchAngel comes back here to work for a little while, and we load her back up.”
“And how do we get that much stuff on her?” Admiral Thomas asked. “You know they are paying very close attention to our ship movements.”
“Shinigami,” Dan answered. “No one can find her, as we are well aware.”
“Are you willing to ask her to be a glorified truck driver?” Admiral Thomas asked. “Because between you and me, I’d rather not.”
Bethany Anne harrumphed. “She’s not a big deal. Meredith?”
“Yes, Empress?”
“Patch me to Shinigami.”
“Done, Empress,” Meredith finished.
“This is Shinigami,” said a deeper voice.
“It’s me,” Bethany Anne said. “I need you to make a shitload of secret trips between here and,” she looked at the others, “Yoll?” They nodded, so she said louder, “The planet Yoll and possibly a few other locations, and the ArchAngel or possibly other ships, in a clandestine manner.”
“Why?”
Bethany Anne rolled her eyes. “Because I’ll kick your ass if you don’t,” was what she was tempted to say, but it came out as, “Because we need to absolutely positively not allow anyone to see us move supplies to the area-that-shall-not-be-named, and you are the best we have.”
“Yes, I am,” her ship agreed. “Who will I be working with?”
Dan spoke up. “Let’s start with Meredith, and if you could work with Reynolds perhaps to locate a completely safe midpoint, maybe you can figure out a way to get stuff to him, unload, and go back.”
“If you will provide us the needed supplies, we will work this out quickly.” Shinigami confirmed.
“Excellent,” Bethany Anne exclaimed. “Talk to you later.”
“Goodbye,” was all Shinigami said before she cut the connection.
“Not much of a conversationalist,” Lance commented.
“I blame myself for that,” Bethany Anne told him. “I’ll work with her.”
Lance just nodded.
She looked around. “Ok, did we just finish in like five minutes?”
“Assuming our resident Witch AI handles her stuff, then yes,” Dan answered.
Bethany Anne stood up and sighed. “I’ll go have a word with her right now.” She took a step to her left and disappeared.
“That,” Lance nodded to where Bethany Anne had been a moment before, “is still unsettling.”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Grimes Residence
Jean stirred the quasit potatoes and grabbed a fork to taste the dish. “Mmmm.” She put the fork down and reached for the butter, looked at the large mass of potatoes, down at the butter, and tossed all the butter into the bowl. “You can never have too much butter,” she murmured.
While her husband was a keeper, he absolutely was not a chef—unless mass destruction was on the menu. Then he was one of the best.
An Iron Chef in the culinary art of bloodshed.
Fortunately, he didn’t bring that home. At home he was a mountain of a man with a heart twice as big as he was. Early in their relationship, Jean had been forced to fight a few issues with jealousy regarding Bethany Anne. It wasn’t until John admitted to a few of his early decisions about dying for the woman—that he just had no desire to die in bed because of the woman—that she understood he followed Bethany Anne out of love and respect.
Which was a very male trait. They might love their leaders, but when they respected them through and through?
They would walk through the abyss of hell, kick whatever and whoever’s ass they need to, and climb out the other side covered in the ichor of the demons they had destroyed.
However, Jean was the woman he loved. She didn’t need to be a leader, just Jean Dukes.
Friend.
Partner.
Lover.
The one who would come up behind him, slip an arm around his waist, and kiss him gently. Tell him she needed his arms around her and settle into that big comfy man-chest and purr like a happy kitten.
When she did that? Hell, he would happily keep his cock-blocking socks off the floor, whistling the whole damned time.
Bethany Anne had put them together, and Jean understood Bethany Anne would fight anyone—including herself—who tried to tear them apart.
It had allowed Jean to eventually realize she could have a child or two—or ten—with this man. So far it had been one daughter, and now a grandchild as well.
John’s genes were evident in their daughter Lillian Marlene, but they had flared up something fierce in their granddaughter Meredith Nicole. That little girl was as obstinate as the day was long already, with a chip on her shoulder that seemed to grow an inch larger each year she was alive.
The front door opened, and Jean peeked out of the kitchen.
“’Lo, honey,” John called.
She blew him a kiss. “Hey, sweetheart!” Jean ducked back into the kitchen. “Dinner will be ready soon, so you have time to move all that junk you just put on the front couch to the proper place.”
She shook her head as he grumbled, but the subsequent noises made it obvious he was moving everything.
By the time he came into the kitchen, she had finished the potatoes and was pulling
a baked fish out of the oven. “Yollin redfish?” John asked, leaning over to smell the goodness.
“Don’t make me spill this on your face!” Jean told him, lifting the pan onto the top of the counter.
John had moved aside. “You’d have to hit me with it.” He shook his head. “I still don’t know how I married someone so violent.”
“You thought it an endearing trait once upon a time,” Jean told him. She lifted the two slices of fish with a spatula and placed them on the plates. “Dish the potatoes for me?” she asked as she put down the spatula and swept the two plates to the table.
She was sitting down, their drinks already poured, when John came up beside her. “How much?”
He held a large spoon, ready to serve her. “Three spoons, please. The rest is yours.”
John placed three large spoonfuls near her fish and turned to his side of the table. His portion of fish covered the plate, so Jean always put out another plate for his sides. This time they had the potatoes and a green vegetable—which John wasn’t fond of, but he always took one small bite to let her know he appreciated the effort.
Even if he couldn’t stand the food.
Soon, they were eating and sharing their day.
Jean started on her vegetables. “Who has coverage for Bethany Anne tonight?”
“Scott and a Guardian,” John answered. “Now that we are all getting used to the idea of her not being Empress, Bethany Anne is having a fit about always having two of us around her. She thinks one is enough.”
“You would think after the Baba Yaga episode you guys would be on her like flies on honey.”
“Now there’s a phrase I haven’t heard in a while.” John cut into his fish and took a bite. “Not that we have flies in space.”
“Not anymore,” Jean countered. “Meredith went on a spree to kill them that first decade, remember?”
John chuckled. “Yes, she singlehandedly elevated the R&D research efforts for your team to create the tiny drones we used to kill the flies—”
“And keep out the spies,” Jean nodded. “Funny how that worked out for us.”
“How’s Lillian?” John asked.
Jean snorted. “Doing well, and thinking she is going nuts because Nickie is giving her so much trouble.”
Life Goes On Page 11