Piece-of-shit EI. When they finished this operation he was going to give 988 a piece of his mind.
He was about to reply to her when he noticed that his ship’s shields were flaring orange, and 988 was having to twist the ship to protect the open deployment door. “Having a bit of a mess at the moment, boss,” he told her and then his eyes opened wide as the sensors located a particle that was infinitesimally small in the scheme of the universe.
But to a ship that was flying as fast as his was, it might as well have been a planet. “FUCK!” he yelled as he was thrown violently to his left. The anguished scream of bending metal grated in his ears like fingernails on a chalkboard.
The lights blinked out, and a moment later red lights flared on the bridge. “Everyone ok?” he called, trying to get himself sorted in his safety webbing.
“Who are you talking to?” his EI asked. “It’s just you and me here.”
“Well, fine.” Thomas coughed, then reached over and grabbed a rag, spitting blood from his mouth. He had bitten his tongue during the crash. “Are we ok?”
“I maneuvered back around, and have released eighty-seven percent of the BYPS satellites.”
“What happened to the rest?” he asked, trying to unbuckle himself.
“They are no longer on the ejection rails. They were dislodged during the collision.”
“Dammit!” He hung his head; the EI had been right. “Ok, help me figure out how to get back there and get those satellites back on their tracks.”
“It will take you eighteen hours, minimum.”
“Is that with or without sleep?” Thomas asked, leaving the bridge and heading to the heavy-suit locker. The satellite’s hold wasn’t pressurized and aired up, so he had to switch to a working suit and do this manually.
“There was no sleep in that estimate,” 988 clarified.
“Of course there wasn’t,” Thomas mumbled.
The EI spoke again as he walked down the hallway. “Captain Silvers of 202 is requesting to speak with you.”
Thomas shook his head. He was going to have to work the next eighteen hours straight to fix as much of his fuckup as he could. He didn’t want to rehash his ex-girlfriend’s scathing rebuke for his rashness the whole time.
“Let her know our sitrep, and tell her I’ll speak to her when I have deployed my packages,” he commanded.
Since he’d given her information, hopefully when he finished fixing his mistake she would just give him one barrel from the shotgun instead of both before she flayed him alive.
—
Eighteen hours later, Thomas dragged his exhausted ass into the captain’s chair. His hair a mess and the sweat in the suit was wafting up to his nostrils. He needed a damned bath.
However, it was time to pay the piper.
Or at least his commander.
“988, please see if Commander Silvers has time…” Thomas had no more than spoken her name when she popped into the display, her green eyes blazing in anger and her red hair disheveled.
Her annoyance was evident in her voice. “You are a real piece of work, Thomas!” was what she kicked off with. “If it wasn’t for updates from your EI, I wouldn’t have had updates at all!” Her eyes seemed to see him for the first time as he patiently sat waiting for her to wind down.
“You look like hell,” she said, her voice softening. “I bet you stink like bistok shit.”
“Yes, Commander.” He lifted his left arm and sniffed his armpit, making a face for the camera before dropping his arm. “I do believe that bistoks would run from me at the moment.”
“My reports suggest you’re going to be within the envelope for mission success with your effort to manually get those BYPS packages out of your ship.”
“Really?” Thomas looked around his cockpit, wondering which screen would give him his updates. He couldn’t think too clearly at the moment. “That’s nice,” he finally said, returning his attention to Nickie.
Her eyes narrowed. “For what it is worth, Thomas, as your commander I agree with your risk assessment and how your team worked out the mistake. With the two of you working your asses off you got the packages deployed, and it will be written up in a proper format for your jacket.”
Thomas blinked and his mouth opened just a touch. “Well, thank you.”
Her eyes narrowed, and some of her anger returned. “Personally, however, you owe me for my shit sleep last night. It would have been nice to have heard your voice tell me you were ok, jackass.”
She cut the video signal.
It wasn’t until he’d gotten twelve hours of sleep while his ship was slowly making its way back toward the fleet that he wondered if she had wanted him to help her sleep better.
Being relatively smart after his long rest, he wisely chose not to ask her.
He would know she wanted him in her bed when she clubbed him over his head, dragged his addled ass to her suite, and tossed him on the bed herself.
Tokyo, Japan
The city had suspended work and school, and everyone who could had gone outside.
They were coming.
Their anxiety was laced with excitement. Those who were excited held the shoulders of those who wanted to believe but feared everything new.
Especially when the ‘new’ were massive spaceships coming from unknown parts of the galaxy.
The pundits on television were showing clips from an archived movie called Independence Day and explaining that the ships would be arriving through the atmosphere with the fire roiling off their outer skins. Due to the incredible amount of heat their ships would be radiating, there would be massive flaming balls coming down through the atmosphere to land—or rather crash—and kill anyone too close.
The reality, as it turned out, was similar, yet completely different.
There were many clouds the day the Queen returned, and her ships gracefully pierced the planet’s atmosphere, descending over the course of thousands of miles as they headed across the Pacific Ocean toward the islands of Japan.
Those on the ground looking to the east started pointing when the clouds were pushed out of the way as if something massive was parting them.
Then a ship broke through the curtain of white, and the people on the ground collectively drew in their breaths. A few called to those around them to look at what they were already seeing.
Then more started pointing—something else was in the clouds. Moments later two more ships broke through, and now there were three ships majestically slicing through the air.
On the south side of Yoyogi Park, six individuals strode through the entrance and walked toward a large open area.
Two were obviously of Japanese heritage, and two were younger Americans. The fifth was a smaller being, either an older child or a short adult.
And there was also a man in an overcoat, with a cowboy hat covering his short hair.
No one paid attention to the weapons they had stashed about their bodies. Japan was very aware of those who could change into creatures, and while the citizens had not supported weapons before WWDE (World’s Worst Day Ever), they’d had to learn to live with the risk of shooting one another when their only other choice was being gutted by werewolves.
It wasn’t in the DNA of the Japanese to lie down and accept defeat without a fight. After WWDE when the werewolves made themselves known, the Japanese took a hard look at their laws, and weapons were back on the table.
You had better know how to use them, however.
The six that walked through Yoyogi Park wore their weapons as an extension of themselves.
Especially the two older men.
—
Michael gazed at the three massive spaceships headed in his direction, then turned to Akio and nodded to the sky. “She sure knows how to make an entrance, doesn’t she?”
“Hai!” Akio agreed, a small smile playing on his lips.
His Queen had come back, and he had retained his Honor and brought her loved one back to her—no matter how many times Michael had tried to g
et himself killed in the process.
Which had been a lot.
QBS ArchAngel II, Bethany Anne’s suite
“Hell, no!” Bethany Anne told Gabrielle, who was pointing to the armor in the closet. “I’ll not be stuck wearing a full set of armor!” She jerked her thumb toward the ground. “I’m going down, and I’m going down now. I can feel him!”
“At least put on your chest armor!” Gabrielle argued, holding out the two pieces. “Let’s not get shot in the chest, shall we?” she asked Bethany Anne, who stopped and looked at what Gabrielle was offering her.
Bethany Anne blurred, and Gabrielle found that the armor she’d held a moment earlier was now missing.
“Bethany Anne?” She looked around and stepped into the armor closet. “BA?” Her muffled voice was audible outside of the bedroom. A moment later, she came out to find John and Eric suited up and waiting for the two of them.
Gabrielle flicked her hand. “Let’s go. She’s already split.”
John smiled at Eric, who shook his head. “I know, I know,” Eric said as the three of them left the suite and started toward the ship’s bays. “You won!”
Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, Japan
There were two distinct scenarios available to those who had chosen Yoyogi Park from which to view the arrival of the Queen.
One group watched as a smaller craft flew out of the capital ship in the middle of the formation and headed toward the park.
The other group was near the six in the clearing when a woman and a white dog suddenly appeared ten feet above the ground. She looked around for one second before spotting the man she was searching for.
She had on boots, black leather pants, and a black blouse over a skintight shirt of some alien substance, and she wore a gold necklace. She and the dog floated the few feet to the ground and started walking toward the six. The man in the cowboy hat strode ahead of the others, his eyes for her alone.
That their bodies crashed together hinted at the speed at which they had been moving, and their subsequent torrid kiss proved these two knew each other.
Very well indeed.
The other five stopped some ten paces back.
The two separated, and her eyes flashed as her hand streaked upward to slap the man.
Who caught her wrist.
“Let go of me!” Bethany Anne snarled, then hissed, “You owe me for dying!”
“I think not.” Michael shook his head. “Let’s not discuss these last one hundred and fifty-plus years. My Honor demanded I come back, and here I am.”
“I didn’t say,” she growled, “that you should take so fucking LONG!” She ripped her arm out of his grip and poked him in the chest with a finger. “Do you know how much shit I’ve had to put up with in the last century and a half?”
Before Michael could say anything, she poked his chest once more. Neither noticed the Executive Pod arriving on the park’s lawn some fifty yards behind Bethany Anne. “They made me a Gott Verdammt EMPRESS!” she raged, her eyes blazing red. “And what were you doing, huh? Playing dead? Lying around on your ass, I bet!”
“I don’t believe healing from a nuclear explosion is the same thing as lying around on my ass,” Michael retorted. He was now being reminded of the other side of Bethany Anne, but then, one couldn’t be attracted to fire without the possibility of getting burned. “While the Etheric Realm was pleasant when I woke up—”
“The Etheric Realm?” She arched an eyebrow. “That’s where you were sitting around playing tiddlywinks?”
Michael saw John, Eric, Darryl, Gabrielle, and Scott come up behind Bethany Anne, and a couple of others had also exited the Pod. Akio let him know that he would greet the new arrivals, since it seemed Michael had his hands full.
He focused on Bethany Anne again. “The reintegration of my constituent atoms took a long time. Using the—”
She stopped him by poking his chest again. “Constituent atoms?” she exclaimed, her eyes flashing red. “Don’t you go using big scientific words on me when I’m mad at you!” She looked him up and down. “I don’t think you understand the concept of groveling!”
—
Eric whispered to John, “Did she slap him?”
“Tried,” John whispered back. “Michael grabbed her hand before she could hit him.”
Eric shook his head. “Should have just let it happen. That would have been enough.” He flinched the smallest amount when Gabrielle smacked his arm. “See?” He pointed to his wife. “Just take the hit, and they’re all better.”
“I don’t think that’s in Michael’s DNA,” John said doubtfully.
—
“So!” Bethany Anne retorted to the last thing Michael told her. “Think this is challenging you?” She shoved Michael off his feet. His body disappeared, and she put her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you think about how to answer me politely while your ass sits in the Etheric until I come get it!”
Bethany Anne turned to her friends. “What?” she asked, jerking a thumb over her shoulder as she stomped toward them. “He needs to understand how to act around me when I’m pissed.”
Bethany Anne noted the exact moment their expressions changed to shock, and started to turn. She was halfway around when two large hands pushed her hard, throwing her toward her people.
She landed in the Etheric and rolled over to jump up, expecting an attack, but all she saw was Michael. He was ten feet away, his eyes glowing dimly. “You,” he told her, “have been spoiled.”
“I’m spoiled?” Bethany Anne screamed, her voice muted in the white mist. “You rank piece of fetid fish food!” She pointed a finger at him.
He interjected, eyebrow raised, “What, no ‘fuck?’ As in ‘fucking rank piece of fetid fish food?’”
Bethany Anne twisted her head left and popped her neck, then did the same thing on the right. She whispered, “I’ll feed you to the fucking fish, you gag-sacking dried-out cockroach-sodding bunghole-filler!”
Michael pursed his lips. “Does that mean you want it in both orifices?”
It took Bethany Anne only a microsecond to parse his question before her eyes flared red.
—
Akio shook hands with the men while Gabrielle hugged Yuko and Eve. The two of them introduced Gabrielle to Mark and Jacqueline, the young adults Michael had picked up in the old US.
The entire group walked around the spot from which the pair had vanished in case they should suddenly reappear. John smiled at Akio and asked, “Did Michael upgrade?”
Akio nodded slowly. “I think he is in much better control of his powers than when you last met him.” He sighed. “This might take a while.”
Just then Bethany Anne stepped out of the Etheric, her hair floating around her head. “MEN!” she shrieked. “Can’t live with them, can’t leave them on the side of the road when you’re done with them! URRRGH!”
An arm reached out of thin air and pulled her backward, and her body disappeared.
A microsecond later Michael stood where she had been. “Women!” He harrumphed. He wiped off a sleeve and reached up to set his hat on his head, but a hand snaked out of the air, grabbed his hat, and disappeared. Michael whipped around. “She did not just take my fucking hat!” He took a step and disappeared again.
Everyone looked at the empty spot for a second and then resumed their discussions.
Akio pointed toward the two people the guys didn’t know. “Here, let me introduce you to Michael’s wards.”
“‘Wards?’” Eric asked.
“Is that like kids?” John asked.
“Oh, goody!” Scott exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. He rubbed his hands together. “Does Bethany Anne know Michael has kids?”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Seventeen,” Mark said aloud as the ten of them glanced at the action. This time it was Michael who dropped out of the air some ten feet above the ground. His body slammed to the Earth, only to jump up a moment later and disappear once again.
“Is it only me, or is this a
weird way to greet your lover after a long time?” Jacqueline asked. “I mean, Mark makes me mad, but I don’t think that after a hundred and fifty years I’d fight with him like this.”
Mark eyed his girlfriend. “That’s good to know, I guess.” Jacqueline elbowed him in the ribs, to the chuckles of the others.
“I was thrown by the kiss, actually,” Eve put in. “I get update feeds from ADAM when Bethany Anne is here, and let me tell you—the fighting that’s happening on the other side is dramatic.”
“Probably just two alphas reasserting dominance.” Gabrielle sighed. “Bethany Anne hasn’t truly had to answer to anyone, and Michael still has that ‘I’m the ArchAngel’ thing going on.” She tapped her lips. “Although I think he was probably ok until she tried to slap him.”
“Michael is working to be a good man,” Akio told her. “He’s come far in becoming human again.” He shook his head. “Allowing someone to slap him, even his love, isn’t something he has worked on though, I can assure you.”
Bethany Anne appeared twenty feet in the air and fell to the turf, rolling twice before she kicked off the ground. She was gone a half-second later.
“Eighteen,” Eve announced.
“Who wants to bet on the number of times they show up before they kiss and make up?” Darryl asked.
“Twenty-seven,” John replied immediately. “Closest wins, ties on either side of the guess go to the person who chose the smaller of the two numbers,” he qualified.
Jacqueline scrunched her nose. “How does that work?”
“If one person suggests twenty-eight, and another thirty,” John explained to the young werewolf, “and the number is twenty-nine, then twenty-eight wins.”
“I’ll take thirty-five,” Scott piped up.
“Any reason you guys are going for odd numbers?” Eve asked.
Darryl shrugged. “Aren’t they just numbers?” he answered. He was thinking about the last few times one or the other had appeared when Michael and Bethany Anne both slammed into the ground. Bethany Anne was still arguing as they rolled for a half-second before disappearing. “I’ve got twenty-three,” Darryl told the group.
“Did she just call him a crusted bunghole of a space-zombie?” Mark wondered. “And that was nineteen.”
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