Her time as Ranger Two in the Etheric Empire had allowed her to hone her bar-fighting skills to perfection. She hadn’t had an opportunity to fight for real in too many months.
She swung back around, but Dickhead Number Two grabbed her coat and pulled so she stumbled just a bit. Her eyes glowing red, she grabbed a handful of the skirt of her coat. “That’s mine, you ass!” She yanked, pulling the Shrillexian toward her left fist which damn near whistled through the air as it rammed into his face, pulverizing his jaw and knocking him backward five feet.
“Keep up your left hip on that move,” Hirotoshi called out.
Tabitha glanced over to see Old Patch-Eye stalking toward her. It was just like Hirotoshi to try and knock her off her game. He’d call it a “learning episode” if she snarked back, not noticing the large-ass alien about to beat the shit out of her.
It had worked as recently as three years ago, but not today.
This time she didn’t do anything fancy, just stayed in one place and dodged punches. “You need to work on your form,” she told him and slammed a punch into his ribs. “Like that. Push out from your inner core.” She slapped aside a haymaker and kicked him in the stomach, slamming a fist into his face as it came down after her kick.
He stumbled backward. “You want to go check out the captain?” she asked. “I’m going to teach this one how to fight.”
Hirotoshi looked around and nodded; the other three weren’t getting up anytime soon.
“Sure!”
—
“How are they beating the Shrillexians?” Gorath muttered, watching the video from the hold. It was getting bloody, but it was the Shrillexians’ blood, not the…whatever they were…that had come on board.
They weren’t pirates, because there were only two of them. True pirates would have come with larger numbers.
Gorath turned to his radar operator. “You still got nothing on their ship? It’s right next to us! Do you want to put on a suit and go looking for it with a light outside?”
“Uh, no, Captain!” his specialist responded. “But we have nothing, sir, and I’ve checked the outside video. It’s black, sir.”
“Space is always black, Rahj’k.” Gorath rubbed his face. “Did you try turning on the outside lights?”
“Sir, yes, sir!” Rahj’k confirmed. “Still can’t see shit, sir.”
“Huh.” Gorath was surprised, both that Rahj’k couldn’t see anything and that he had thought of turning on the lights.
His crew wasn’t the brightest, but he hadn’t thought this operation would call for intelligence.
There was a knock on the bridge door and Gorath turned his focus back to the video screens. One of the intruders was still fighting, but the other had disappeared. Three of the Shrillexians were down.
Well, that told him who was at the door.
“Go away!” Gorath yelled. “I’ve already given enough at the office.”
“Not happening, Skaine,” the voice replied. “You have ten seconds before I start punching holes in your door. If someone is on the other side, they will have holes punched in them too.”
“Going to hurt your knuckles, I think.” Gorath chuckled.
A small chunk of his door evaporated, slinging door shards ahead. One hit Rahj’k on the side of the face, causing him to scream as skin started melting. He jerked to his right and clawed at his face as he fell to the floor.
The bridge crew tried to help Rahj’k, but Gorath pulled his pistol, twisted a knob, and shot him. “He’s just stunned. Now pull off the metal and slap on a few medipatches. If it missed his eyes, he’s damned lucky.”
“All right!” Gorath yelled. He glanced at the screen to see the last effort by the lead Shrillexian, Bach, to take out this annoying person’s partner. Bach had located a long length of pipe and was looking for an opening to swing. “One moment and I’ll open the door!” he yelled out.
He hoped to hell that Bach beat the shit out of the other one and came to take care of the one shooting holes in his bridge door.
—
“I’ve toyed with you long enough,” Bach hissed, lifting a long pipe from the parts area. He had been tossed through the door, which only slowed him down a bit, and he came back out with the pipe as his opponent yelled “Two points, two points!”
It pissed him off.
“What, ya think we’re gonna play Tabbie-ball?” she asked while trying to figure out how dense the pipe was.
“I do not know what this ‘Tabbie-ball’ is, but I do plan on playing with your corpse after I beat you dead!”
“Oh, lost a little bluster?” she replied, jumping backward as he took his first swing. “Those little gonads you got hiking up into your throat?”
It was funny…every time she said “balls” the translation software fucked up and the effort to piss her opponent failed. But Tabitha had figured out that if she said “testicles” or “gonads” it translated just fine.
Bach squeezed the metal, denting it slightly, which was enough for Tabitha to figure out the pipe’s destructive power.
The next time he swung she stepped into it, raising her arm so the pipe slammed into her rib cage.
“Ohh!” She chuckled. “That tickled!”
“That’s impossible.” He drew the pipe back; it had bent at a thirty-degree angle when it hit the alien.
He turned in time to register the fist that sent him into blackness.
—-
Gorath was shocked when the alien stepped into the path of the swing and doubly shocked when she stood there with the pipe bent around her. Bach brought the pipe back and stared at it in confusion for the time it took her to send a punch to his head. He staggered backward and dropped to the floor.
Gorath breathed out and ordered, “No one be an idiot.” He glanced around the bridge. “Ok, that’s an impossible request. No one pull any weapons or I’ll shoot you myself.”
He hit the button to release the locks on the door and yelled, “Come on in!”
—
Tabitha was waiting when the second ship docked to the Skaine pirate vessel. A group of the Queen’s Guardians in armor came aboard. “Grab all the Shrillexians and everyone else except the captain. He and I are going to take this tub of bricks to somewhere near the base. Seems Addix wants to talk with him.”
Peter was the last to enter the ship, and Tabitha brightened. “Hi, honey!” She walked up and kissed him. “What happened with the other ships?”
Peter made sure none of the captured were doing anything funny before returning his focus to Tabitha. “Either their captains decided to fight to the death or our guys didn’t give them an option in the heat of battle. We have a few wounded, but they should recover.”
Tabitha shrugged. “Wechselbalg?”
Peter nodded.
“Well, they do get their blood up in a fight.” She shrugged. “All those years as a Ranger, we didn’t kill first because getting answers out of them afterward was a real bitch.”
Peter chuckled. “I can see how it would be.” He looked around. “So, taking this down?”
“Not sure. Addix wants to talk with the captain, but she doesn’t want to meet at the base. No idea if we are going to speak here in space or on the ground.”
“Well…” Peter twirled his fingers in the air as he looked at his people. “Get a move-on, we got places to be.” He turned back to Tabitha. “You’re off after that, right?”
“Yeah.” She looked around. “This was day three, but I’ll need to close things out before I go off duty. Why, you need a booty call?”
Peter blushed, but the others leading the Shrillexians off the ship chuckled.
“You are impossible.” He kissed her forehead and stepped forward quickly when she pinched him on the ass.
“I’m going to take that as a yes!” she yelled after him.
“When have I ever said no?” he called back.
“Three months ago!” she commented.
“THAT WAS AFTER THIRTY-SIX HOUR
S STRAIGHT!” he argued as the door clanged shut.
“Yeah, but you wanted to know who had more stamina, vampires or Weres,” she told no one in particular since the hold was empty. “I had to take it for the team.”
She headed for the bridge. “So I took it, and took it, and took it, and screamed so you would give me more…”
A second later she started singing, “All Nighhhht long!”
12
High Tortuga, Hidden Space Fleet Base, The Pit
Bethany Anne was on the bottom level of the pit when the door opened and in came Eve, the short EI with the android body. She looked very similar to a young girl.
Bethany Anne watched as she descended the steps. She had been in the Pit enough that the seven on duty hardly glanced at her. “You know, you could change out your body if you wanted to.”
Eve froze for half a second before responding, “I think I might like that option.”
“Eeeevvveee!” Bethany Anne leaned against the table. “What is the logical thing to do?”
“Keep this body, of course,” she replied. “There is a small but significant chance moving could damage my circuits. I do not see a need for a change at the moment.”
“I see.” Bethany Anne blew out a breath “Ok, I’ll table our discussion for another time. How are we doing in the PR department?”
“Winning, but slowly,” Eve supplied. She pulled out a chair and sat down. “I am having to spend an inordinate amount of time responding to all of the social posts, editorial attacks, and misinformation being thrown out by the opponents. Fortunately they are all organics or this might be more difficult.”
“What do you consider an inordinate amount of time?”
“At least four solid hours a day,” Eve supplied. “If computers were involved, I would have to build additional infrastructure and respond-bots. I’m thinking of doing it anyway, but presently I am still crafting the messages to make a single point.”
“Four hours? And what point?”
“That the only question is, should the infrastructure and security be handled by someone vested in the wellbeing of this planet or by those who live off-planet? I want them to start asking whether these objections truly come from a local source or someone else.”
“But I thought you told me they did come from local sources.”
“Sure, bought and paid for by others off-planet.”
Eve was swinging her legs, which didn’t touch the ground. Bethany Anne wondered if she was acting human deliberately. “Are you planning on revealing them?”
“I want them to identify the source or sources and if it’s ‘others,’ we’ll inform them that we have proof they’re taking off-world pay.”
“Ahh.” Bethany Anne thought this through. “While it can stop some of the harassment, let’s make sure we take the people into account. Before you implement a rebuttal I want you to speak with me, ok?”
“I understand.”
“Now, what about the elections?” Bethany Anne pulled out a chair and sat down across from Eve. She was aware that everyone in the Pit was paying attention to the two of them. It was, as Michael had suggested, a perfect way to teach.
“The candidates who are either pro-Baba Yaga or agree with Baba Yaga’s ideas are winning eighty-seven percent of the elections. Five percent we are losing because of an on-world disagreement, and eight percent are apparently listening to the off-world hype.”
“Those fuckers need to leave this planet alone,” Bethany Anne fumed. “It’s one thing to disagree if you are on-world, but to use your money and influence on another world?”
“It is similar to your own United States. Each state was considered a battleground and those with power, influence, and money would try to make sure no laws were enacted that countered their position so no one else could gain a foothold.”
“I didn’t like it then either,” Bethany Anne muttered. “I understand the why behind doing it—because if you changed enough states, you could change the attitude of the union as a whole and other states would get behind it. However, it doesn’t mean I liked it. It was a symptom of a national government overstepping what had been put in place. Too many states needed money from the national government, so they toed the line. The few states with enough money or gumption told Congress to shove what they wanted up their asses.”
“What do you plan on doing here?” Eve asked.
“Well, if I kill free will it isn’t much of a win. I’m not being easy on them right now, but part of that is because it isn’t an easy situation. No one handed me a pretty present. This is High Tortuga and life can be rough, so I’m rough right back.”
“I noticed you didn’t have us send a lot of messages on behalf of those running.”
“I didn’t want to be seen as supporting anyone in particular. Our ideas either hold merit or they don’t. If there is universal agreement on what is right, then all peoples—aliens, whatever—will innately know it. Hell, even the Leath got back to equilibrium once the Seven had been kicked out. The Yollins too, for that matter.”
“So you believe there is a logic in the universe?”
“Uh,” Bethany Anne thought about that. “I’ve seen that the basic premise of right and wrong balances itself without outside influence. Some races, like some humans, lean toward either peace or power. A species may do things we would consider evil, but they don’t usually seem evil to them; just their way of life.”
“What is an example of this ‘evil but not evil?’”
“Have you seen the original Men in Black movie?” Bethany Anne replied. “It was filmed in the…oh hell, I can’t remember exactly when. Maybe before the year 2000.”
“Yes.” Eve locked up for a second. “It was released in 1997 and starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.” Her features relaxed. For all Bethany Anne knew, she had just watched the whole movie in those few seconds.
“Okay, there’s a scene that has always grossed me out, but it’s true when you think about it. We humans did our dead-level best to kill roaches. We hated them; they crunch when you step on them and their guts spread everywhere.” Bethany Anne shivered. “Ugh! Anyway, Will Smith’s character—”
“’Agent J,’” Eve supplied.
“Right, J.” Bethany Anne nodded. “So, J stomps on the roaches he finds after slamming into a trash bin and ends up pissing off the thirty-foot roach-looking alien. Now, to the alien, J was murdering his race. We, however, don’t see it that way. Similarly, when you watch Independence Day the aliens that were attacking Earth didn’t see humans as anything more than roaches, so there wasn’t evil intent on their part,” Bethany Anne finished, “but a difference of opinion that would only leave one group alive.”
“This is, in essence, what the Kurtherians’ endgame is about,” Eve mused.
“Yes. They will leave just a few alive at the end so they can figure out which of them was the best at helping other races ascend. The problem for them is,” Bethany Anne smiled, “we are the wildcard.”
“The ones taking out those who are manipulating nature.”
“Call it nature, call it the ‘right to life’; the right to self-evolution. Hell, call it our own form of Ascension. We won’t allow the Kurtherians who are fucking with other species to keep it up, because if we don’t then one day?”
Bethany Anne drew in a deep breath. “The Earth will have a real Independence Day, and it won’t be pretty.”
High Tortuga, Hidden Space Fleet Base, EI Building
ADAM, why do we have a new building for the EIs?
Bethany Anne had two Guardians with her, although frankly she didn’t need their support. She always wore a light version of Jean’s armor, and ADAM was now using the sensors in the neck to monitor everything around her. Should someone seek to harm her the armor’s helmet would activate, allowing Bethany Anne time to move between this dimension and the Etheric.
And be safe.
Not the best of options if she was on a ship that was gating, but on a planet it
made her pretty hard to kill.
So long as she didn’t go back to save people—which was exactly what they figured she would do.
So, guards.
>>This is the beginning of the structure for the EIs. We will build it out and bring in the components, then secure it by dropping hundreds of tons of rock on it.<<
What happens if the machines need servicing? That’s going to be a bitch to open.
>>We are using Anne’s technology to allow certain groups access through the Etheric. Since no one who doesn’t need to know is aware of the possibility, as far as rumor is concerned we are locking them under a lot of stone and metal.<<
If we drilled out the rooms, someone else can drill a new way in.
>>That is the purpose of the metal surround, but even that can be removed eventually. The purpose is to stop anything but a full-on attack where the defenders have been neutralized. With these defenses, the EIs will have the time to shut everything down and escape.<<
Bethany Anne was shocked. “Escape?” she exclaimed, then realized she was talking aloud.
ESCAPE?
>>Yes. I am working with Anne’s protégés to move a large amount of the infrastructure for the EIs into the Etheric so the room they are physically located in will have the secondary defense of looking insignificant. Their primary room, which contains a large amount of very expensive computer equipment, is used for reporting and secondary data storage. It is, for all intents and purposes, bogus.”
That’s… Wow. I had no idea. What brought this on?
>>The CEREBRO Project, and some personal understanding of the Etheric. Once we have the machines in the Etheric and powered by the Etheric, they are effectively immune from attack from anyone besides Kurtherians. High Tortuga would only lose the connectivity in our dimension.<<
Yeah, but it’s possible to feel things through the Etheric. Are we going to have someone come looking?
>>No. I am aware of the issues of announcing events through the Etheric. In fact, I have started tracking events—<<
Payback Is A Bitch Page 11