“I did!” Marcus argued.
“The hell you did,” Bobcat replied. “If there had been an earthshattering kaboom mentioned, I would have remembered that shit.”
“I did mention it. The information is on page seven,” Marcus countered.
Bobcat grimaced, waiting for the pain to subside. “Seven? Page seven?” Marcus nodded and Bobcat raised his voice in frustration. “Page five to nine are all math calculations!”
Marcus nodded. “Right! In the middle of page seven, there are calculations that expressly show that the chances of something like this happening are significant.”
William leaned around Marcus, causing Bobcat to focus on his other friend. “What?”
William smiled. “You should take a remedial math class, buddy.”
Bobcat rolled his eyes. “Like you knew that shit either.”
William wisely kept his mouth shut.
One week later
The QBS Achronyx flew by the misshapen hunks of metal and debris that had been the Yollin force.
“Damn,” she whispered. “What the hell did Bethany Anne do this time?”
“It seems,” Hirotoshi said, “she was a little put out by the attacking Yollins.”
“Ya think?” Tabitha replied. “I’m put out when they don’t have chocolate cake for dessert on Friday nights. I hope to hell this is a little more than ‘put out.’”
Tabitha.
Tabitha’s eyes flew open and she stared at Hirotoshi, then pointed to her head.
“What do you want me to do?” Hirotoshi asked. “Talk to her for you?”
She wanted to punch him.
Yes, my Empress? she replied.
My condolences on Shin’s death. He was a brave warrior, and will be sorely missed by your team.
Thank you, she replied, her sadness seeping back in. She felt a hand on her shoulder and reached up to squeeze Hirotoshi’s.
I am in the middle of too many engagements to step away. The fleet from the Straiphus System arrived last night, but I needed to let you know that you have another roommate now. I will catch up with you later tonight if you are awake.
I’ll be awake. It isn’t Anne, right? Because teenage girls can be such a snarky pain in the ass to deal with.
Uh huh, Bethany Anne sent. Tabitha could imagine the Empress rolling her eyes, and she smiled. Bethany Anne continued, My meeting is about to start. You should be happy to know that your roommate is male, not female, and certainly not a teenager.
Oh, good. Tabitha replied. Then realized what that meant. You have a guy living with me? Holy crap, Bethany Anne. What are you trying to do, hook me up? I’m already around a bunch of men all the time. It’s going to mess up my game.
Tabitha, your game is lame. You haven’t been getting anything in that… Oops, gotta go. Don’t worry, he’s not a man.
The communication connection disappeared.
“What did she say?” Hirotoshi asked.
Tabitha, lost in thought for a moment looked up slowly. “Well, I have a new roommate, but it isn’t a girl or a man.” She blew out a breath before complaining, “What the hell? She gave me a boy as a roommate?” She thought about being seen naked by a kid by accident and started shaking her head. “Oh no! This shit isn’t going to work.”
Tabitha continued shaking her head. “No, no no no no!” She looked up at Hirotoshi. “How do you tell your Empress there is no damned way you are going to become a freaking babysitter for her?”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Military Operations Room
As Dan Bosse left his Special Operations office he looked over his options for building a team, and walked over to the Operations room to find the General. He stepped in and sat down in Admiral Thomas’ chair for a moment. “You called?”
Lance smiled. “Yes. I thought you might want to see this.” He pointed to the display.
“What is it?” Dan asked. “That’s not our system, nor Eubos or Straiphus.”
“No, this system is actually a couple Gates away. You are looking at the attacking force from the kingdom there.”
“Why do they want to attack us?”
“Well, they don’t anymore. You are watching them turn around and head back home.” Lance looked at the Special Forces commander. “It was your idea to place the tracking and Etheric communication pieces in the tablets we sell to the aliens. Doing that helped us learn we might have had a problem.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Dan admitted. “It doesn’t give me anything to do right now, but it’s good to know that the idea worked out.”
“Oh,” Lance waved a hand at him, “you will be busy soon enough. The Navy put on a big show recently, and the ESD beam from the Meredith Reynolds just scared a whole damned kingdom’s navy away.”
Dan smiled. “Good. It’s about time us little Special Forces guys get a piece of the action.”
Lance smiled. “Yes, the little guys.”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
Tabitha hugged Hirotoshi, Ryu, and Katsu and headed toward her suite. Shin’s funeral would be the day after tomorrow. He would be honored along with those from the Battle of Straiphus, then there would be a private ceremony with Bethany Anne, Barnabas, and a few others.
Rangers.
She smiled at those she passed along the hallway and finally took a right toward her alcove and door. She stopped ten feet away, remembering she had a little guy for a roommate now.
She was seriously going to give Bethany Anne a piece of her mind. She wasn’t a damned babysitter. By “a piece of her mind,” she meant she was going to get on her knees and beg Bethany Anne to take the boy and give him to someone else.
She might have had little game before she left, but she was feeling the old Tabitha coming back to the surface. A little guy was going to be date-night kryptonite.
She blew out her breath and walked forward, and Meredith opened the door for her. When she walked in nothing seemed amiss, then she frowned. She could smell Jinx and Anne in the suite. They had to have been here recently. Maybe Bethany Anne’d had the teenager watching the boy while Tabitha was out?
Tabitha walked forward and tossed her bag on the table. “Hello?”
Hello.
“Good, you are here,” she called. “I’m Tabitha.” She walked to the room Anne had used before Tabitha had left to start the Eubos operation.
I know who you are, Ranger.
“Good, now if you would just come out and introduce yourself?” Tabitha called as she looked into the room. Nothing seemed messed up. No one was using this bedroom. Perplexed, Tabitha turned around.
My name is Dio.
It was then that Tabitha looked down to see the German Shepherd lying on the floor looking up at her.
“Oh, shit.” Tabitha put her hand over her mouth. “You are Jinx’s brother.”
Yes, my Ranger, I am.
Tabitha went back carefully over every word Bethany Anne had said, and immediately saw where the Empress had allowed Tabitha to make all sorts of assumptions.
She didn’t have a young boy as a roommate, she had one of Ashur’s and Bellatrix’s children as a partner. While she had been around Dio before she hadn’t paid any attention, because it was Anne and Jinx who had hung out with the puppy. Plus, Tabitha hadn’t been very good company at that time.
Tabitha collapsed onto the couch and closed her eyes, trying to remember what the rules were for any of the puppies and who they chose. She heard Dio get up and move to the couch, and he jumped up beside her. He laid down and placed his head on her lap and she started to pet him, knowing full well this was a bad move if she wanted to figure out a way around having to keep the young dog.
Some time later, Tabitha woke up. She wasn’t on the couch like she would have expected; she was in bed, tucked in. She looked around, and noticed the two eyes staring at her in the dim light. “Dio?”
Yes?
“What happened?”
I called the Queen, and she came and picked you up, and tucked you in bed.
“Seriously?”
No. The Queen came to talk with you, and you were asleep on the couch. I explained you came home and collapsed. She did that scary red eyes thing, and then picked you up and tucked you in. She told me to stand guard until you woke up. She also said that if I needed to wake you I would have to bite you, so I’ve been on the edge of the bed watching out for you.
Tabitha’s eyes teared up, thinking about the pup sitting on the edge of the bed willing to attack someone for her.
Just like her Tontos…
“Come here, Dio,” she told the dog, who walked across the bed. Tabitha patted the covers next to her. Dio took the invitation and laid down against her side, and Tabitha put an arm over him. “Meredith?”
“Yes, Ranger Tabitha.”
“Lock my doors, and give me a heads-up if any of my guys need me. Otherwise, anyone lower in the chain of command than Barnabas needs to go away. Dio and I are going to go to sleep.”
“Yes, Tabitha.”
The lights blinked out in her room.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, All Guns Blazing
John held Jean Dukes as she cried as silently as possible, her tears soaking his chest.
Bethany Anne looked out of the glass into space.
In the distance there was a large number of caskets, the remains of those who had fought valiantly and died on the ArchAngel and the many other ships in the Straiphus System. The video of the ceremony was going out to all who wished to see it.
Both the humans and the Yollins.
Bethany Anne’s voice was even, but full of emotion. She was resolute, yet warm. “There are those who will wonder why our generation chose to take the battle out to the stars when we had the chance to stay at home and change our own world.”
“The problem with waiting for a bully is that you give them power over you instead of taking the fight to them. Whether they look like you do or they look different, bullies cross all species, all systems, and all types of peoples.”
“There are those who don’t understand who we are as a people—who humanity is. They see our guns or our ability to wage war or our violent tendencies, and judge us. Perhaps—just perhaps—their ignorance will be enough to provide us the peace we crave.”
“What they miss is the ability of humans to sacrifice for each other; to sacrifice for an ideal. We aren’t the only species who can do this, but it is an important aspect of humanity that we share.”
“I am going to speak about one such human. I am going to tell the story of one man who left the service on my home planet to follow me many years ago.”
Bethany Anne took a deep breath and held it for a moment.
TOM, keep my emotions in check.
I’ve got your back, Bethany Anne.
Bethany Anne released her breath.
“I’m going to tell you the story of Chief Engineer John Edward Rodriquez and how he sacrificed his life in the Straiphus system, giving his all to keep the Etheric Empire safe…”
Jean Dukes couldn’t keep her crying quiet any longer.
Planet Yoll, Capital City, Shool District
The park was mostly deserted. Night was coming, and many of the Yollins in that area were starting to eat.
The seven toughs figured the small alien family would be good for a mugging. The elite populace had currently stopped their attacks on humans for religious or political reasons, but the humans often had something that could be sold.
So the seven Yollins walked across the street, assuming this would be an easy score. They spread out, forming a half circle around the arguing couple. An arguing couple who ignored them.
The little human, however, smiled at the Yollins. The little alien seemed happy when they showed up.
“Hey!” Mu’tek shouted. As the leader of the group, it was his responsibility to make the demands.
Neither of the adult humans turned toward him; they just continued arguing. He looked down, and the little alien stuck her tongue out at him.
That was damned annoying.
“HEY!” he shouted again.
Both humans turned toward him and shouted, “WHAT?” in unison.
Mu’tek opened his arms. “You haven’t paid the toll for using this park. You need to pay both the toll and the penalties now.” One of his gang snickered. “I want any technology.” He waved his hand. “And your clothes. You humans have so many different sets, I think I’ll start collecting them.”
“Oh, fuck you. Go away and leave us alone,” the human male responded.
Mu’tek’s eyes hardened. “I asked politely, but you refused.” He looked to his left. “Maybe we let Grel harm the little girl?”
The little girl’s eyes flashed yellow, and she lifted her hand. The middle finger seemed to grow a claw, and she pointed just the middle finger up and toward him.
The female snickered and said to her mate, “Looks like she’s channeling her inner BA.”
The male just shook his head in annoyance.
Mu’tek nodded, and Grel walked forward, but he hadn’t taken two steps when the little alien’s nails changed to claws. Then her eyes went yellow, and she screamed as she ran at Grel. He barely had time to react when she jumped, landing both knees on his chest and knocking him off his feet. She slashed across his eyes, then rode him down and jumped off before he hit the ground. The youngster landed and rolled between the legs of Grel’s partner. She popped upright and turned around, slicing through the spot between his foot and his leg’s armor.
He went down screaming.
It didn’t take long before Mu’tek himself had to fight the little demon from hell. He had his knife out, and managed to stab the little alien. His eyes opened in shock when the knife didn’t penetrate.
The child laughed and said in Yollin, “Jean Dukes armor, bitch!”
She ripped her claws across his throat.
That was the final straw. Four of the Yollin toughs were down, one possibly dying. The other three grabbed the hurt ones, slapping the one holding his head after the little girl had punched him on her way to Mu’tek.
The thugs limped away as fast as they could drag their fallen.
Ecaterina opened her arms, and the child’s eyes faded from yellow and her hands changed back as she jumped up into her mom’s arms. “That’s our little warrior!” Ecaterina said as the two high-fived, and they turned to look over at Dad. “Told you she could take them out!”
Nathan reached over and ruffled Christina’s hair. “Ok, I owe you two ounces of gold and both of you an apology. I guess the three of us are a team,” he admitted. He pulled two coins out and handed them to Ecaterina, then opened his arms. Christina crawled from her mom’s embrace over to her dad and kissed him on the cheek. “Those fucktards were lousy. Auntie Bethany Anne would make them each do a thousand pushups for their bad form.”
Nathan grimaced at his daughter. “What would Auntie Bethany Anne say about you using such language, little lady?”
“She would say drop and give me fifty,” Christina moaned.
“That’s right,” Nathan agreed and put her down. “So get to it. If you think you are old enough to be cursing, then you are old enough to do it right. Next time you curse and it isn’t unique, it’s a hundred pushups.”
Christina did her first pushup. “One...dammit.”
She went down and pushed up again. “Two...shit-faced gargoyle.”
The two adults listened in as Christina continued her pushups. “Thirty-eight...scum-sucking pile of doggie poo.”
“Nah-ah!” Ecaterina admonished the little girl. “That is a repeat from your fifth pushup. Start over.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Christina wailed as she went back down.
“That’s a second fifty now. You repeated ‘fucking,’” Nathan told her.
“This isn’t fair!” she whined.
“On the contrary, it is very fair. Ask Uncle Scott or Uncle Eric sometime. They have had to do the same thing.”
“T
his sucks! It isn’t worth cussing if I have to do push-ups all the time,” she complained.
Ecaterina rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket. She took out the two coins Nathan had given her for losing the bet and returned them. He mouthed “thank you” and gave her a wink.
Epilogue
Yollin System, Three Years Post-Straiphus Rebellion
They say that history is written by the victors, and they are right. The reason is completely logical. Those who lost aren’t around to write anything.
The dead can’t write from beyond the grave.
The latest and most impressive ship built in the Yollin’s new military shipyards slowly and smoothly slid from its moorings as hundreds who watched from nearby ships raised their hands in salute.
The Empress stared in silence as the massive new ship slid into place next to her official Royal In-system Transport Pod. The doors opened to allow the Empress’ transport to enter the ship’s cavernous bay.
It wasn’t long before those in the Transport Pod disembarked and made their way to the bridge, which was built in the center of the massive vessel.
Bethany Anne stopped outside the bridge to look at the six-foot-wide dark-gray stone monument that had so many names chiseled into it, and she rubbed her hand across a few. Turning, she wiped a tear from her cheek as she took the last few steps to the bridge. The doors opened automatically for her.
She nodded to those waiting for her arrival—the Yollin head of the shipyard, those who worked to make this ship useable by both humans and Yollins, and those who had been employed on the massive electronic infrastructure.
Necessary to house the new Intelligence.
She walked straight to the captain’s chair and sat down. The Shipyard Master looked at the Minister of Defense, who winked back at him.
“This is Empress Bethany Anne of the Etheric Empire. Show yourself,” she commanded.
A face, a replica of the Empress herself, slowly brightened into view on the front screens, her eyes flaring red. Some of those on the bridge were shocked to see the face of the Empress on the screens.
Their Empress, however, smiled in satisfaction. “Hello, ArchAngel. It’s damned good to have you back.”
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 46