The answer from the pilot was quick. “Yes, two humanoid and bipedal. One animal, four legs. Much smaller than the two humanoids."
"Sounds like one of their dogs,” the captain said aloud.
Security Chief Ster-hel looked at him. "You mean like the ones that the Empress has with her most of the time? That white four-footed dog?"
The captain wanted to roll his eyes. Ster-hel was fascinated by those animals. No, not fascinated, he was mentally unstable about acquiring one. "I could not tell you if it is the same kind. I guess we will find out when we get there."
The ship’s engines started to whine in a rising crescendo as their pilot slowed them down and directed more energy into gently landing the craft. For all the pilot’s bitching, Captain Maek-ven felt the cost of the ship was appropriate. The technology on it might be a little old, but it did fly very well and was in good shape. He went to the hatch and slapped his hand on the button to open it. The ramp lowered to the ground as the pilot gave the all-clear over the intercom.
Ster-hel, weapon drawn, went out before the captain. In a meeting like this, no matter what species you were, you wanted to demonstrate trust and mutually-assured destruction.
There was no way the three little guns up in the rocks could harm the airship enough to keep it on the ground, but it could probably kill the captain, and that was enough. Now, Ster-hel could probably kill at least one if not both of the adults out there, but more than likely he and the captain would die too.
Ster-hel gave the all-clear, and Captain Maek-ven continued down the ramp and set foot on Yollin soil once more. He looked around at the location where the human had wished to meet.
He was impressed with the selection. It stopped any significantly larger ships from being able to land, and also offered plenty of locations to hide guns. The human had to understand that they would have enough technology to find additional bodies, should there be any here. So far, he seemed to be playing on the up and up.
Captain Maek-ven had paid attention to the information that was available on the humans, so he identified the other as a female of their species. Considering how close they were standing, they might be in a relationship.
It would be even better if both were junkies for this drink. Perhaps he could get spice he could plant, given enough time.
Unfortunately this exchange was for spice that would not sprout, although he would still take the product to a geneticist to see whether they could yank enough DNA out of the spice to propagate it.
It took Ster-hel and Captain Maek-ven another few minutes to make it over to the three humans. Well, two humans and...
"What is that?" Security Chief Ster-hel pointed toward the animal.
Captain Maek-ven wanted to palm his face in frustration. If his security chief blew this opportunity to purchase the drink’s necessary ingredients, he would personally shoot one of his toes off.
Christina was enjoying running around in her four-footed form. She didn't mind being in a wolf at all during this episode. It was rather fun when aliens mistook her for an ignorant beast.
For whatever reason she was advanced for her age, intellectually as well as in the ability to transform her body. Aunt Bethany Anne suspected her intelligence was a byproduct of the upgraded genetics from her parents and the nanocytes that had helped mold her body in her mother’s womb.
Her ability to transform was most likely due to her mom’s and dad’s advanced nanocytes. Her parents were completely loyal to her aunt, the Empress, and had enjoyed the benefit of ‘being turned up to eleven’ after they had spent time in the Pod-doc.
Christina watched the ship land and had to agree that whoever the pilot was had done a good job. It took them but a moment to disengage the back landing ramp from the ship and lower it to the ground.
After a few seconds, someone came out with a weapon and looked around. Christina watched as the Yollin carefully checked out the area before heading a few feet in their direction and looking around again—obviously a security person of some type. He turned around and yelled back to the ship, and seconds after that, another Yollin came out. This one looking like he was in charge.
She sat on her haunches, tongue hanging out, as the two of them headed in their direction. It wasn't long before the one in front pointed at her and asked what she was. Christina turned to look up at her parents, wondering what they would answer.
It annoyed Nathan that the first words out of their contact’s mouth sounded like a verbal attack on his daughter. "Nathan," Ecaterina gently whispered, "now is not the time to become an overprotective daddy. We have an operation to complete, so you need to keep your anger in check."
Nathan kept his voice down as well. "You wouldn't have to tell me that right now if the two of you had stayed up on the Meredith Reynolds."
"I am not spending the next twenty years of my life waiting for you to come back from operations. Perhaps if you have to keep your family in mind, you won't try too many risky activities."
While technically true, allowing the family members to come along on the operation wasn't a significant burden.
Christina's aunt had made sure that the little girl had incredible armor created just for her. Plus, she had a new type of repulsion harness around her chest that utilized gravity that, according to Jean Dukes, would stop projectiles.
Nathan hoped they never had to test it, especially here in the middle of nowhere.
"That—" Nathan pointed at his daughter, "is a small version of a wolf. It is an animal that comes from our home world.” He nodded to the captain. “Now, if I have assuaged your curiosity, perhaps we can continue with our deal?"
For once, this whole operation looked like it was on the up-and-up.
From a security standpoint, Ster-hel thought this was great. The longer the human and his captain talked, the more time Ster-hel had to figure out the difference between the animal the Empress had with her and this one near the two humans. As far as he could tell, they weren’t too dissimilar.
He had to have it.
He bided his time while the captain continued negotiating the deal, and within ten minutes or so the two shook hands. Ster-hel maintained situational awareness as he heard the whine of the antigravity pallet bring the payment from their own ship. Ster-hel noticed the hoverpad from the human ship made no noise whatsoever.
The male continued watching the two of them as the female replaced the spice from her pallet with the Yollins’ payment.
Soon enough the Yollin captain nodded to the human, and the two pallets headed back to their respective ships. The captain nodded to Ster-hel as he passed him and continued walking toward the ship. Ster-hel kept the two humans in his view. As he took two steps backward he started to turn around, but then looked back at the humans.
"How much for the wolf?"
The male human shook his head. “She is not for sale."
Ster-hel chuckled. Everything was for sale.
He had been doing black-market forever, and it was only a matter of negotiation. Besides, they had a ship full of weapons and now the spice. He would get the animal one way or another.
He snickered, flipping on the arming button for his pistol. "Everything is for sale. I said, ‘How much for the wolf?’ How much is that little animal really worth to you? Is it enough to die over?"
Captain Maek-ven had made it approximately one-third of the way back to his ship when he heard his security chief ask how much the humans wanted for the wolf. He closed his eyes and hung his head as he walked another few steps.
This had almost gone well. He had turned to yell at his security chief to get his bony little ass back in the ship and stop harassing the humans when he saw the security chief flick off the safety on his pistol, activating it.
It was obvious that the weapon was armed, and he was using it to threaten the humans. If they were able to get out of this without a major altercation, he was gonna rip Ster-hel to shreds for such a breach of operational procedures.
The captain's
eyes opened wide in alarm when the male changed forms.
One moment he was angry, but still human. The next he was towering above both his security chief and the female, who was trying to talk to him. The creature’s roar shook the walls of the small canyon, and although his security chief tried raise his weapon to fire it, only two shots hit the ground in front of him, throwing up dirt.
But it was too late.
The snarling creature yanked the pistol out of the security chief’s hand and crushed it in his paw while reaching for his neck. His roar of a challenge reverberated through the canyon as Ster-hel screamed in pain.
The captain turned and ran toward the ship, yelling and waving his arms. “Dammit, Ber’knick, start those engines! Rev them to red, I don’t give a shit! Get ready to blast us out of here!”
It took him but a moment for his feet to hit the metal of the landing ramp.
The ship's pilot had been monitoring what was going on, but it had gotten pretty boring after a little while. Apparently the human and his captain were getting along just fine; the security chief was keeping him up to date.
When they requested the money, the pilot directed the ship's computers to take the payment out on the pallet.
He started his preflight checklist, occasionally looking up at the video monitors to make sure nothing was going wrong. After a few more items, he looked up a second time. The captain was walking back, so he really focused on completing his checklist.
He had another four items crossed off when he heard the captain yelling for him to get ready to take off.
He started rushing through the checklist, skipping those things that he felt were unnecessary. He could hear the captain’s running click-click, click-click through the ship and his panicked yell reverberating down the hallway. “What the hell are we still doing on the ground, Ber’knick?”
The pilot tossed his checklist away and slammed his hand down on the emergency lift as he heard an unworldly beast screaming at them. Ber’knick asked Maek-ven, "What the hell is going on?"
The captain stopped right outside the cockpit. “That idiot decided he wanted the animal, and even though I told him to leave well enough alone he disobeyed orders. Now he's gone and pissed off one of those humans who can change into…something! Hurry up and take off."
“I've got to give it another fifteen…" A severed arm slammed into the cockpit's windshield, screeching downward as its exoskeleton scraped in its journey and leaving a smear of blood down the glass.
The pilot, his mouth wide open, watched as it slid down the glass and spat the alien equivalent of "Fuck me!" He turned his head back to the controls, punched two buttons, and pulled on the yoke, and the ship rose quickly into the air.
2
Tabitha strode into her suite and called for her roommate. “Anne?"
She walked over to the kitchen table and dropped off her tablet. When she turned around, Anne was coming out of her room. The girl seemed in better spirits than when Bethany Anne had brought the her to stay with Tabitha.
Sure enough, Jinx, one of Ashur's and Bellatrix’s puppies, scooted out of Anne's room a moment later.
"Hey, R2, what's up?" Anne turned around and bent over with her arms held open, and Jinx jumped into them while Tabitha shook her head. Now that she was on the receiving end of playful nicknames—the kind she commonly gave Barnabas—she realized it could be quite annoying from someone much younger than oneself.
Saint Payback was truly a bitch.
Tabitha answered, "It's not ‘R2,’ it's not ‘Ranger Two,’ it's not ‘Queen’s Ranger Two,’ and it's not just 'Two.' The name is ‘Tabitha.’ It's also not ‘Tabby’ with a ‘y’ or ‘Tabbi’ with an 'i.'"
She looked the young woman over.
"How about ‘Tabbie’ with an ‘ie?’” Anne smiled, wondering what the Ranger would say next.
“If the Tontos and I didn't need to leave shortly, I would make you eat that question. Further, I don't think you have enough bruises on your body for the amount of workout time you've been spending." Tabitha raised an eyebrow as she checked the teenager out.
Anne quickly shook her head. “Nope, workout time won't be necessary. ‘Tabitha’ is what you want to be called, ‘Tabitha’ is what you will get. As for the bruises—” She waved a hand up and down her body, "Bethany Anne suggested that I needed to know self-defense as a researcher, but did not have to work out as hard as the rest of the team."
Tabitha drew her eyebrows together. "Is that the truth?"
Anne looked at her roommate and bit her lip, finally deciding to nod her head in the affirmative.
Bethany Anne?
What is it, Number Two?
Tabitha rolled her eyes before responding, Is it true you told Anne she didn't need to work so hard on her physical training because she was going to be doing research?
Have you ever known me to suggest such a thing?
No, I haven’t, so you can imagine my surprise when your new Etheric Researcher suggested that this was exactly what you had said.
Huh, so my new Etheric Researcher is acting all teenagerish if I understand you correctly?
That's the way it appears.
Okay, since you have to go out with the Tontos on the slave issue, I'll make sure to take care of this with Peter. He will have some insights on how to get the best results from recalcitrant teenagers.
Very well, I will consider this a closed issue.
Bethany Anne added, You can let Anne know Peter is going to have new instructions from me when she is due for her training session three hours from now.
Will do, my Queen. Have a great one.
You, too. Go kick some pirate ass.
Tabitha smiled. Oh, I intend to. This ought to be a hoot.
Make sure you say hello to the twins for me.
Tweedledee and Tweedledum? I will.
Bethany Anne cut the connection between the two of them and Tabitha raised an eyebrow. "Bethany Anne says that Peter will have new instructions for your workout when you see him in three hours."
"Three hours!" Anne's face displayed shock. "I'm supposed to be meeting a couple friends in the library in three hours."
"I suggest that next time you do the workouts that you were told to do instead of trying to get out of them. I especially suggest...” Tabitha reached up and tapped the side of her head, "not lying to a Queen’s Ranger who can talk to Bethany Anne directly."
Anne's eyes closed when she realized her mistake, and she turned around and kicked the air in the direction of the couch. "God, it was so much easier getting away with stuff when it was only my mom and dad."
Tabitha pursed her lips. “I understand you're doing well with your dad now, is that right?"
Anne turned back around to face her roommate. “Yes. We spoke a couple weeks ago, and he apologized for not intervening with Mom when she got so upset with me all the time. He says Mom is going to therapy sessions before she tries to connect with me again.” Anne shrugged. "I'm okay with it all now, but it was pretty scary in the beginning when I thought I’d be on the outs with my parents."
Tabitha walked over to the young woman and put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in for a hug. "You don't need to worry about that. Your parents will forgive you, no matter what the problems are. You might just have to give it some time. They love you, but your mom was under some incredible strain, and she broke. That's nothing against her, and really, it helped a whole lot. Now we understand classes that needed to be created for those of us who weren’t coping as well as we had hoped once we left Earth. Some of us get so involved with the next goal, we forget that a lot of those who are supporting us might have their own troubles and difficulties."
Anne mumbled a response into Tabitha's chest. “Brgrlfllrrrckraghen."
Tabitha pulled away and looked down at the teenager. "What did you say?"
Anne smiled. “I said, ‘I can't breathe!’” Anne pulled Tabitha back in for another hug before releasing her. Anne continued, "I know that
now, but it was pretty scary when the Queen emancipated me. I'm super-excited to be working on Etheric research, and it's kind of cool that I sometimes get to talk to my dad about it as well."
Tabitha turned and headed to her own room in the suite. “Well, he did all that work with that stupid black-ops shell company, so some of this is not that far out from what he was working on.”
Tabitha’s voice now came from her room. “So, who knows, maybe you and your father will be famous researchers into Etheric Travel!"
Tabitha didn't see the small tear that Anne reached up and wiped away as she waited for a moment to get her emotions in order. “Maybe. That would be pretty rad."
Tabitha's voice called, "Hey, so, while I go on this operation, what you going to be doing?"
Anne walked to Tabitha's door and leaned against the opening, crossing her arms. "I've been told that I will get my own small suite in about three or four days, so when you get back you won't have a roomie anymore."
Tabitha looked up from the little gym bag of extra supplies she was taking with her. “Really?” Tabitha looked around her room. “God, it will be so good not to have to be so clean all the time."
Anne looked at her with surprise and annoyance on her face. “What? Are you saying you're not naturally this clean?" She pointed to all the areas around the room that were spotless.
Tabitha chuckled. "Hell, no. I'm only this clean because I have a teenager here sharing my suite all the time. I had to set a good example. If you weren't here, I would have been messy. When I know somebody is coming over, I will throw it all into a basket and stick it somewhere in the back of the closet. I'm not that much older than you, for Pete's sake."
Anne continued looking at her roomie, and finally she threw up her hands and turned around. "I'll bet you I'm cleaner than you are unless you put in the extra effort."
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set Three: Books 15-21, Never Submit, Never Surrender, Forever Defend, Might Makes Right, Ahead Full, Capture Death, Life Goes On (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 25