“What the hell, Achronyx?” Tabitha asked. The loud concussion from the puck hitting the blast door hurt her eardrums. “For all that noise, you can’t even perform?”
“You said without causing decompression,” the EI reminded her.
“Well, yeah,” she agreed. “I just thought Skaine doors would be easy.” She watched the puck wobble back past her, moving slowly enough that she could track it with her eyes. “That puck is looking a little worn out.”
“It is barely holding together,” Achronyx replied. “This is the last shot for this puck.”
Tabitha eyed it. “Give me a second before you try anything!” She reached out and switched off the shield, grabbed the small metal box, and headed toward the other end of the hallway, “God, this is gross!” She carefully walked around the remains. She put her helmet on and activated the internal air. “I refuse to smell that.” She caught her reflection on a shiny surface not covered in blood. “We need better-looking helmets.”
“May I?” Achronyx asked as she stepped around the corner.
“Yes, yes.” She watched the puck as she poked her head around the edge far enough to see what was happening, keeping her hand on her pistol.
The puck jerked ahead but flew down at the floor some five paces from the door. It ricocheted off the floor, angling up to punch into the door near the upper right-hand corner. The door broke out of its frame and went flying into the bridge. The screams and crunching sounds caused Tabitha to wince. “Wow, you suck at flying pucks,” she commented. “Weren’t you supposed to hit the door, not the floor?”
“Who says I missed? If you look at the door, the calculation—”
Tabitha tuned Achronyx out for a moment. In times like this, the EI could make her wish to become a celibate nun.
Well, perhaps a nun. Damn, nuns were celibate by default, right? She couldn’t remember. Ok, not a nun then.
The first shots were fired from the bridge, striking the wall on the other side of the hallway.
“Well, hell,” she muttered and tossed the shield device back down the hallway. “Same shit, different direction.”
She turned her head towards the bridge area. “ARE YOU COMING OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP, OR ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE ME COME GET YOU?” she screamed to the bridge.
“You Ranger Bitch!” a male yelled back. “Skaines don’t surrender!”
“That’s all bullshit,” Tabitha smiled. “I’ve had you titty-suckers surrender before.” She reached down and reduced the pistol to level three. That ensured she wouldn’t puncture a hole through the ship’s walls out into space. Not that she had used a Skaine ship to test that theory before.
No, actually she had totally done that and sent the video out to all the known Skaine hangouts. They got so worked up when you destroyed one of their ships. It had truly been a wonderful experience.
“What’s a titty-sucker?” the captain yelled back. She recognized that he spoke her epithet in his version of human speech. She cross-referenced human to Skaine and called back, “Coh’vichee laile!”
She had to back around the corner and wait out the hail of shots that thundered out of the bridge.
Apparently, Skaines hated that term.
Tabitha smirked as the wall that could be hit from the bridge got torn up by the impacts. Pieces blew off in big chunks and crashed to the floor.
This raid wasn’t going to be useless after all. Provided that big-ass battleship didn’t blow them into infinitesimally small atomic bits, she now knew an expression that pissed Skaines off.
6
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Yollin System
X’Bock turned to the delegation’s Communications Director and asked discreetly, “Is her video relaying to the ship?”
“Of course.” He sniffed. “We continually record everything from the team, and external as well.”
X’Bock turned back. That little tidbit was annoying, but he doubted it would matter when he was finished with his operation.
He sent the kill command.
Bethany Anne walked down the last of the stairs and took two steps toward Legate Addix.
>>We have Ixtali communication.<<
Bethany Anne ramped up her speed.
Gott Verdammt! Bethany Anne’s eyes looked beyond the Legate. From Dickhead Maximus over there?
>>Yes.<<
Make sure you have disabled the Legate’s kill switch and, if possible, knock her out.
>>There is a twelve percent chance she will die.<<
Fucking aliens brought their fucking internal problems to me, Bethany Anne fumed. It’s a chance she took. Make it happen.
In front of her, the Ixtali Legate’s eyes seemed to glaze over and she started to collapse. Not the most enjoyable sight, an alien with all four black eyes staring at you. “Eric!” Bethany Anne shouted, catching the Legate as she fell. The Empress twisted around, tossing the body as gently as possible to him. She continued her turn. “Meredith!” she yelled, her eyes going red. “DROP MY DAMNED SHIELD!”
“Oh fuck,” John yanked his pistol. “Turn on her suit, Reynolds!”
Delegate Tomthum had been watching the different groups attending the meeting area with interest. He had noticed all delegate groups here in the throne room were provided with the same amenities. There were no size differences, and the only difference in rank was indicated by which group met with the Empress first.
The Ixtalis were across the room and to the right of the throne from where the Yaree Delegation had their area. Between them and the throne were a group of Estarians.
He didn’t mind Estarians, but they were rather bland as a race. They were very ‘Greetings to you and also to you’ emotionally nice aliens.
Formal, at times. Even their underground people were polite. As far as he was concerned, a boring people. He was surprised when a human met with the Estarian group. A few moments later, the Estarians followed her out of their waiting area through a door in the back.
Fortunately, that meant nothing was blocking Tomthum’s view when the action started.
Bethany Anne saw that the male Ixtali’s eyes showed surprise when she turned and started heading in his direction. He had subconsciously reached for a weapon, and that was enough of a guilty plea for her.
She formed a ball of electrical energy and threw it across the intervening forty paces. His body was still convulsing when she took her last step and ended up right in the middle of the five Ixtalis. She backhanded the Ixtali who was convulsing.
And he disappeared.
Bethany Anne looked at the remaining Ixtalis, her eyes pinning each one. “Any of you dickless wonders working with the same group as that asshole?” she asked, seeking any clues that might help her.
“Fuck it.” She spread her arms wide and the lines on her face glowing brightly as she broadcast electrical energy. All four spasmed and dropped to the floor.
She looked down at them. “Lock them down for questioning. I’ll be right back,” she told John, then sidestepped and disappeared.
Delegate Tomthum stood there in shock. His eyestalks were all blinking at the same time, and his brain was trying to catch up with what he had just witnessed. This was the alien of the stories, the one who was whispered about. His people had heard the tales and failed to believe.
This was the Queen Bitch.
He waited, trying to slow his breathing as he noticed her Guards and Guardians quickly restraining the Ixtalis after the Empress disappeared.
Neither of her personal Guards seemed worried. One continued holding the female Ixtali Legate in his arms.
Bethany Anne stepped into the Etheric and reached up to unclip her hair, letting it fall naturally around her face. Her eyes were still glowing like embers, and soon her hair started rising as she continued to pull Etheric energy.
X’Bock looked up in shock at the Empress who was only a few feet from him in—he struggled to look around—he had no idea where. He couldn’t move easily, but his eyes were under his control, and what he
saw made him second-guess the belief that this alien was all bluster.
An alien who could blast him with energy and move him into what looked like another dimension wasn’t powerless and full of boasts.
“You have no idea what you tried to do,” Bethany Anne spat out to him. “You wanted to pull the Etheric Empire—MY Empire—away from our efforts to find and get rid of the Kurtherian menace, and for what? Your personal EGOS!”
X’Bock’s four major mandibles opened, but she pulled a red ball of energy and threw it next to his right side. It exploded, burning him in the process.
“I DIDN’T SAY YOU COULD TALK!” she spat. “The only option you have is to die right here.”
X’Bock gritted his mandibles and sent the command to execute himself and trigger the explosive device in his pack, to hopefully hurt this alien as well.
Nothing happened.
“What?” Bethany Anne asked him when he looked surprised. “You don’t think humans have had self-sacrificing sorry sacks of selfish camel dicks trying to use themselves as bombs before?” She spat to the side, “You Ixtalis think because you have gems, you own the ability to trade? That your ability to trade in secrets and stay neutral somehow makes you superior?”
X’Bock looked her in the eyes, realizing that his group had seriously underestimated the alien Empress.
“I’m through being ‘nice Empress’,’” she told him. “Trying to play the political game and smooth over the fucking waters. Well, the Etheric Empire is me, and I am officially beyond pissed off!”
She reached down and grabbed the Ixtali by his robe. “Time to go back, fuckwad.” Bethany Anne threw X’Bock to her right, then took a step in the same direction and disappeared.
Delegate Tomthum was shocked a second time when the vanished Ixtali appeared in the middle of the throne room and flew some twenty paces before he hit the ground, rolling over several times before he smashed into the wall to Tomthum’s right. Next, he saw the Empress, hair flying on waves of energy, step out of nowhere and continue walking toward the Ixtali.
“Try to blame me for killing your Legate!” She hissed as she walked toward the Ixtali. “Plan on using it to create problems for the Etheric Empire!” She spoke louder as she reached for the Ixtali, who was attempting to stand up. As the Empress grabbed him and turned around, he tripped and fell. She dragged him back toward the one named Eric.
“MEREDITH!” the Empress yelled.
Tomthum was surprised when the AI, another alien construct the Yaree were not too familiar with, answered.
“Yes, Empress?”
“Wake up the Legate!”
Tomthum noticed that the Ixtali being dragged seemed very agitated.
Addix’s mind was fuzzy when she received the jolt. All four of her eyes opened, and her brain tried to remember what was going on.
That was when she realized she was being held in someone’s arms. She looked up to see a human gazing down at her.
“Oh…” she mumbled.
“Are you all right to stand, Legate?” the Guard asked her. She was about to agree when she heard the Empress’ voice from her side.
“She better be ok to fucking stand up,” the Empress ground out. “She needs to be part of this.”
Addix saw the Empress walking toward them. As she was being assisted to a standing position, she noticed the rest of her party in restraints on the ground. “What has happened?” she asked. She saw X’Bock dropped to the ground, and she ground her mandibles together.
“If you so much as flinch more than I want you to,” Bethany Anne told the Ixtali she had dropped, “I will send so much energy into you that you will twitch until next week. You understand the Yollin I’m speaking to you?”
X’Bock had been giving her his full attention. He nodded.
“Good,” she replied. He observed the arcs of electrical energy jumping between the fingers of her hands as she stood above him.
Bethany Anne snapped her fingers to get Addix’s attention. “Your number-two guy here sent a kill command to your internal suicide switch. We intercepted and stopped the command.”
Addix subconsciously reached behind her head as her mandibles, both major and minor, started moving erratically. “How is that even possible?” She took a step toward him. “You are not privy to those commands!”
She stopped. “You were given them by the ousted.” Addix seemed to calm down. “It will not matter which one. They have all signed their death warrants.” She sighed. “And now you have reduced me to—”
“Oh no he hasn’t,” the rough voice of the Empress interrupted her. “He already tried to implement his own suicide switch when we spoke a moment ago. Plus, he was trying to trigger the bomb in his pack as well.”
Addix looked at the Empress, shock on her face.
“X’Bock,” Bethany Anne, her voice primal, “you are hereby condemned by the Etheric Empire for seeking to attack us. Your life is forfeit.” She reached down to pick up the Ixtali. “Meredith?”
“Yes, Empress?”
“Set his internal systems to work again in fifteen seconds.”
“Done, Empress.”
“Good,” she looked at the Ixtali, “Have a nice life, however little of it is left,” she told him and pushed him into the Etheric once more.
Bethany Anne turned back to Addix. The Legate, mandibles open, body in shock, stared as she took in Bethany Anne’s ability to cause people to disappear.
“You should always,” Bethany Anne told the Legate, “be careful whom you ask for help.”
Some forty or so steps away, the Yaree Delegate licked his lips.
It seemed like she was talking directly to him.
City of Bouk, Planet Straiphus, Straiphus System
R’yhek looked at the human, his mandibles tapping very gently. “I was really afraid you would say that.”
Nathan waved at the barkeeper and took another two swallows from his drink. “This is really good,” he admitted. “Hell, I would have picked you just for your ability to make this stuff.”
“It takes more science than I would have thought,” R’yhek admitted. “But you are only trying to get me to feel good instead of agitated.”
“We want you to join our team,” Christina jumped in. Nathan turned to look at his daughter in consternation when he noticed she was using her juju on the older Yollin Master At Arms.
And he was falling for it.
“Why?” R’yhek looked at her. “I’m old, I’m beat up, and even with you fixing me, I don’t have that many years left.”
“Maybe,” she replied. “But what years you have, do you want to finish them here?” She waved at the bar. “It’s not a bad place, but we can fill your years with fun, and…” she pointed to herself and then her parents, “with family.”
“Family?” R’yhek looked at the three humans. “You have noticed we don’t look alike, right?”
“Silly!” Christina grinned at him. “Family is what we make it, and who has your back. Besides, who has had your back lately but me?”
Just then, the door to the bar opened and three toughs came in. The humans all turned to see what was going on as R’yhek sighed. “One moment. These three believe they can intimidate an old Yollin mercenary.” He started walking toward the end of the bar to get around and speak to the new entrants.
“Seriously?” Nathan muttered. “Those guys can’t lift their legs to piss in the right direction, much less….”
Ecaterina eyed the three toughs, “Ok, Christina, you took over the negotiations from your father. You had better close this deal.”
“Yes, Mom. I got this.” The younger woman turned and slid off her stool, then reached down and unlocked her pistol. She cricked her neck left and right as she followed R’yhek.
“What are you doing?” R’yhek asked the young female as she came closer.
She looked up at him and winked. “Showing you how I know you have my back.” She jerked her head toward the three waiting for them. “I’ll
call us square.” Christina casually reached out, grabbed one of the heavier chairs, and tossed it up in the air. High enough that R’yhek caught it and realized she had tossed the heavy chair up…
One-handed.
“Hey, spineless shit brains,” she said. The three toughs looked down at the young girl. “That was three names, by the way.” She pointed to each one. “You are Spineless, you are Shit, and that leaves you,” she told the last Yollin, “to be Brains.” She looked him up and down. “So, do you have any?”
“What?” the third Yollin asked, clearly confused.
“Brains.” She shook her head. “Well, that was a bad call on my part,” Christina admitted as she pointed to R’yhek. “He and I are in the middle of a discussion, and you have about as long as it takes me to toss your asses out the door to understand you aren’t wanted here.”
“You and what army?” Spineless asked the short human.
“God, I was hoping you would say that,” Christina answered, her eyes flaring yellow.
“What the hell?” N’nook looked at the bullshit poster on R’yhek’s front door and ripped it off. “Stupid kids playing practical jokes. This came from the prostitute house,” he muttered, surreptitiously scratching his genitals.
“I should know,” he grumped quietly.
He took the two steps necessary to throw the sign away in a public trashcan. There was no reason to let R’yhek know about it; he would just worry about shit he couldn’t control and what people would think about him.
He was a worrier that way. It’s why N’nook liked the old mercenary so much. Until he could make enough money to buy his own bar, he would get his drinks here because of R’yhek. N’nook turned back around in time to see the door to R’yhek’s bar explode outward as a Yollin tough emerged at high speed to roll in the street. N’nook’s eyes widened even further in surprise when another tough back-peddled out of the bar. His face was bleeding, and he was using his arms to try to protect himself from a small … human?
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 52