“All I want to know,” he ground out through the pain that the meds were nowhere near taking care of, “is can I go back?” A moment later he pressed his eyelids together as the sergeant shook his head.
A knock on his apartment door a year later changed his life. It was an invitation to visit TQB’s medical ship, which was based in France at that time. He hadn’t been sure it wasn't a joke, but thank God he had taken them up on the offer.
When they told him he could get back into the game against the foes of Earth, he couldn’t agree fast enough.
Sarah had been his physical therapist, and had gone with him to France. When he had healed, he asked if she would marry him.
She had questioned him before answering, and he had admitted that he wouldn’t have asked her when he wasn’t a whole man. She had told him he was beyond stupid for thinking something like that would matter, then given him an emphatic yes.
His story, including the tale of his lost leg, unfolded on the screen to their son’s rapt attention.
An eternity and a few seconds later the film ended and the lights brightened. During the film Johnny had slid out of his seat and sat on his mom’s lap as she wiped tears away, reliving the love she still felt for Earl.
Johnny had given her hugs during the video to comfort her, and she had returned them.
In the aftermath of the footage the two of them were blankly watching the white screen. The next second they both were shocked when the Empress and John Grimes appeared in front of them.
Johnny couldn’t figure out which of the two he had wanted to look at first as John walked towards him, “You can handle this, Johnny. Your dad’s story is incredible. You were damned lucky to have had him, both of you.” He nodded to Sarah, then stepped out of the room to take up his position outside.
That left only the Empress, who had once again smiled at him.
Just like she was smiling at him right now as he clutched the two forgotten spaceships in his hands.
“Are you playing Rangers?” Bethany Anne asked him.
Johnny nodded.
“Well, Barnabas is going to be happy to hear that,” she told him, then winked. “But I’ve brought two other people who want to make sure they get a word with you before you make any choices for your future, young man.” She stepped aside and waved to the two men behind her. “Let me introduce you to General Lance Reynolds, Military Commander of the Etheric Empire, and Admiral Thomas, Space Navy Commander of the Etheric Empire.”
Both men smiled and they playfully jostled each other to be the first to shake his hand.
Johnny stepped forward, moved the ship to his left hand and reached up. “I’m honored to meet you both, sirs. My name is Johnny.”
Sarah had groped to try and find some tissues as she watched. When someone handed her a handkerchief, she used it to wipe her tears. Realizing it was soft, she saw that it was made of silk. She turned to see a young-looking woman in a purple dress, wisdom in her eyes, smiling at her. “Keep it. I bought it for Lance, but I think maybe it would be an excellent marketing tool to offset Barnabas’ influence.”
And she was right.
Leath System, Sanctified Ground, City of Truth
Torik, the Third of the Seven looked over to the Supreme Fourth, Head of the Military Maliki and asked him. “Our efforts to drive them from the testing’s system is going how?
“Stalemate, Your Holiness.” Maliki answered.
Torik nodded. It was the same answer he had received three times before. Now, with their most recent effort a week in the past, it was just another example of a waste of their resources.
His role was to handle resource management for the efforts to elevate—and incidentally modify—this race. The actual killing of participants in the Testing was designed to facilitate the Prime’s effort to genetically enhance the Leath as a people. That the Leath believed Torik’s clan were gods was to be expected.
Because they effectively were. Power and ability to change whole races and worlds did put them into the godhood bracket. Clan K’gurth, and specifically their branch, were the future of Clan Phraim-’Eh. Now they would explain to those who had cast them out why they reveled in the purity of Chaos.
The math which finds ways to predict the unpredictable chaos of life providing insight, power and wisdom.
“I will take the information you provide and consult with the Seven. We will have instructions before the next Testing for you to implement, Supreme Fourth.”
The Leath military head bowed and left the holy location. He always felt exalted when he spoke to any of the Holinesses. But why would he expect any less when speaking with gods?
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Military Bases Development Offices
Kevin was working at a large table, space displayed by a holographic projector above. Stephanie, beside him, was arguing with him as Bethany Anne, Lance and Admiral Thomas entered the Base Development offices.
Neither of them turned as the three started talking softly between themselves.
“Do they realize we are here?” Bethany Anne asked her father.
“Doubt it,” Lance answered. “Occasionally Kevin would get into arguments back in Colorado having to do with the base, and he could become laser-focused on the situation. Especially,” he nodded at Stephanie, “if it was a spirited debate over engineering versus proper base arrangement.”
The trio listened as the two deliberated the merits of the latest project they had been assigned.
“That,” Kevin pointed to a rather large asteroid and highlighting the huge chunk of rock, “is not going to work well for defense purposes. There are too many odd angles, and it would take a goddamned lifetime to install enough protective emplacements to cover all of the—”
Stephanie, the bi-racial engineer Bethany Anne and her father had hired years ago, wasn’t budging an inch. “We can cut the peaks down!”
Bethany Anne thought she noticed Stephanie’s hand twitch as if she were considering emphasizing the statement with a slap to the back of Kevin’s head.
“Why would we want to spend the time cutting this shit down,” he shot right back, “if we have three other selections, each of which is better?”
“I swear, if I have to force-feed you the mineralogy reports for options 21, 88 and 221B I will do it, page by page.”
Kevin looked at her, “I’ve read them. What I don’t understand is why the percentages matter, since the numbers don’t seem to be that far apart.”
Stephanie stopped a moment, mouth open. Closing her mouth, her eyes narrowed. “You read them?”
“Hell yes, I read them. I’ve learned to make sure I am prepared. Are you?”
Stephanie ran her tongue around her lips a moment. “May I?” She nodded to the display and Kevin waved a hand, offering her the opportunity to take over. She stepped up and touched the four rocks hovering above the table in the display, then spoke. “Reynolds, please get rid of everything but these selections and then provide me the top five types of rock which make them up by percentage, listing below each.”
The three watched, entranced, as the two continued their discussion.
“Left is my selection labeled one, the other three are options. Now, the difference,” she swiped a couple of controls, causing small space ship animations to start attacking all four rocks, “is what can create an unstable dissonance in the core of each asteroid. You will notice that Asteroid 21 has a dissonance frequency similar to Asteroid 88.” She pushed up the controls as Kevin watched, mesmerized.
“Granted, this isn’t the most likely event, but should someone attack 221B using two asteroids at points,” she lifted a hand to indicate, “A here, and B over there, the asteroid will crack. There is a small problem with it.” She pulled her hand back and crossed her arms over her chest. “We could engineer a method of reducing the risk.”
“But why take the chance,” Kevin finished. He was chewing on the inside of his lip, deep in thought. “Ok, you are saying it's a small chance, and I ag
ree. But,” he nodded to the asteroid she had listed as her first choice, “how are we going to get that hunk of rock prepared in a timeline that works worth a damn?”
“En route,” Stephanie told him.
“En route?” Bethany Anne asked, startling the two in front of her.
“Damn,” Kevin put a hand over his heart, “don’t scare a man like that, Bethany Anne. He’s likely to have a heart attack and need mouth-to—ooof.” Kevin finished, Stephanie having punched him in the ribs.
“If you don’t focus, I’ll give you mouth-to-mouth.”
“That was my intent,” he interrupted.
“You didn’t let me finish!” Stephanie eyed him.
“That’s right,” Kevin agreed, “and that is because whatever you have to say will be infinitely less enjoyable than my version.”
Bethany Anne wondered how, after all these years, these two maintained both a working and a personal relationship. Stephanie preferred to keep the two separate, and Kevin preferred to annoy her.
Bethany Anne would have thought the ex-Army man would have been all prim and proper, but not so much.
“En route.” Stephanie ignored her husband. “My thought is we figure out the best solution for the external design for the mobile ESD and then emplace a field like we have here on the Meredith Reynolds to push attackers into a defined funnel, moving them away from locations we are concerned about."
“To some killing fields.” Kevin nodded. “How long would that take?”
“Depends on how many and where,” Stephanie temporized. “If we can agree where the ESD beam will be set up, then we can—”
"Have we heard enough?” Lance asked the others. “I know these two can continue like this for a while.”
“I’m good,” Admiral Thomas admitted. “I think they will have a satisfactory solution…sometime.”
Kevin put up a hand to pause Stephanie and turned to the three. “Give us three days.”
“Two,” Stephanie added after him. “He’s padding our effort here. We will have the core worked out by tonight.”
“The morning,” Kevin corrected. “She won’t be sure about her answers until she has slept and confirmed she agrees in the morning.”
Stephanie paused a moment before nodding. “Yeah, he’s right. Assuming I’m good in the morning, we’ll do the calculations and have our temporary solution to you before noon.”
Bethany Anne nodded. “How long until we are functional?”
Kevin and Stephanie looked at each other. “Twenty-four months?” he asked, and she nodded her agreement.
“Good.” Bethany Anne smiled. “You have eighteen.” Reaching out, she grabbed the two men and they disappeared.
A moment later Stephanie broke the silence. “We didn’t need twenty-four months.” She eyed her husband. “Why did you tell her that?”
“Because,” Kevin replied, “I know Bethany Anne. We really need what, about twenty months?”
She nodded.
“If we had told her twenty, she would’ve given us fifteen,” he finished.
3
Planet Yoll, Second Outer Orbit, New Yollin Navy Spaceyard G’enysis
Admiral Thomas nodded to the Yollin mate who opened the door for him. The Admiral and his Guardian detachment exited the shuttle, stepping into the receiving bay for the new Navy Spaceyard.
Waiting for him was Minister of Defense E’kolorn, with his guards as well.
Admiral Thomas walked over and took E’kolorn’s outstretched hand. “Good to see you again, E’kolorn.”
“Likewise, Thomas,” he answered. The two turned from the large shuttle bay towards the exit and headed to the operations deck of the massive complex. Since the Straiphus Rebellion, Bethany Anne had placed a premium on building a new shipyard for the Etheric Empire. First task was to repair ships damaged in the conflict, then start construction on the latest designs.
“G’enysis tells me,” E’kolorn continued the conversation once they had stepped out of the shuttle bay, “that we have new ship designs in the works that will allow me to share capabilities with the ones you have out here?”
“Sort of,” Thomas admitted. “Perhaps the better way to say it is, we need to come to an agreement on how we should share the budget.” The two of them, guards walking in front and behind, turned a corner. They left a four-person-wide hallway to enter one that was only wide enough for two.
“The new Defender series of Destroyers is going to be capable of either fighting inside the atmosphere, or taking the battle to space.”
E’kolorn caught on and completed the thought. “Or be in space and take the fight into the atmosphere.”
“Yes,” Thomas admitted.
“Similar to the ArchAngel I and the G’laxix Sphaea-class ships.”
“Right,” Thomas agreed, “except we are going to have bigger weapons on these ships, and they are each going to carry up to one hundred marines.”
The two men walked another hundred paces while E’kolorn thought about the ramifications of having this type of resource in his arsenal. The group slowed and came to a stop when they had to pass through security before entering the operations area.
Another two hundred steps beyond security, they were stopped again before being allowed into the operations room, where they left all but one of their guards outside.
As the three stepped through the doors, the remaining guard stepped to the side and took a position against the walls.
“G’enysis,” Thomas addressed the EI running the station.
In the middle of the large circular room was a table. The room itself had seven circular rows of workstations with desks and screens inlaid into the surfaces for the staff. The center table had a holographic representation of the huge shipyard and tiny little dots scooting around.
E’kolorn stepped to the circular table, noting that he could see Yollins in space suits scampering around a superdreadnought that had to have been brought over from the original shipyard, considering how complete it was.
“Nice detail,” E’kolorn murmured as he watched the display.
“Thank you,” G’enysis replied. “I like to keep it up-to-date as the ships are completed for the crew working in here.”
Thomas looked at the eighteen docks that seemed to have activity. “Are we on track for all of them at the moment, G’enysis?”
“Yes sir, we are. Should production proceed as planned, we will probably be deploying most of the ships two percent earlier than currently scheduled.”
“How does that timeframe compare to what the Empress wishes?” E’kolorn asked. He heard the Admiral snort beside him.
“We will be five percent late compared to the Empress’ wishes,” the EI answered.
“What is causing us to miss the Empress’ dates?” E’kolorn looked at the screens embedded in the table and started flipping through them to view the tasks which seemed to have the most flags.
“Mining and materials,” Thomas answered at the same time as G’enysis. “We are working with that group ourselves, but until we figure out the best way to bring the materials from the outer asteroids here at the right time,” Thomas shrugged, “I’m not sure what we can do about it.”
E’kolorn looked back at the enormous hologram. “G’enysis, would you please show me the system?"
The shipyards shrunk as the Yollin planet, the orbiting space stations, and the Meredith Reynolds all came into view as the EI started showing the path to the asteroids. “The problem we have had,” E’kolorn pointed to the small dot representing the mining facilities, “is that we already mined the areas close to us a generation or two back.”
“That is why you use the Eubos system.” Thomas pursed his lips. “You find the Gate system easier?”
“Well,” E’kolorn tapped his mandibles together in thought, “it was until we required this much material at one time. Now we are searching for the right method to procure materials on schedule.”
“Time to get the two bricks out, as
Dan would say.” Thomas ran a hand through his hair. “But I’m afraid we are going to be receiving a lot of pain and still not figuring out anything.”
“Sirs,” G’enysis interrupted, “if we could use the time in transit for production, we could meet the Empress’ optimistic request.”
“Optimistic is a euphemism for?” Thomas asked, not considering he was speaking to the EI.
“Impossible,” E’kolorn inserted.
“Challenging,” G’enysis answered. “I have been in contact with Jeovanni Deteusche in mining, and he is working on the problem.
“Jeo?” Thomas narrowed his eyes. “Why the hell didn’t I think to ask him?”
“Shall I call him?”
“Yes, please, G’enysis,” Thomas confirmed.
It took a moment before Jeo popped into view in the hologram. He started looking around, and the human and Yollin both realized he was figuring out where he was.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, and seemed to take a step back, his head shifting to the edge of the hologram. Then he turned so that he was looking at the hologram himself.
E’kolorn considered it eerie to have a human’s head with its little neck just floating in the air.
Aliens, he thought.
“I see. This is our project management problem, right, G’enysis?” Jeo asked.
“It is, Mining and Materials Senior Engineer,” the EI answered, conferencing everyone into the conversation between the two of them.
Jeo’s head turned toward the Admiral and the Defense Minister and winked. “So, our Empress is up to her standard operating procedure of figuring out how long something should take and then taking away your slack?”
The two nodded their heads. “Yes.”
“Ok.” He blew out a long breath. “We fixed this before by manufacturing some of the materials on Earth instead of in space.”
E’kolorn spoke up. “We have already tasked all the manufacturing resources we can down on the planet. I don’t believe we can build any of the bigger pieces there. It would take too much time to pull them up through the gravity well, with too much risk of twisting them, or worse, of the whole ship being destroyed."
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 72