“Hmmm. I can’t stand the stuff either, but it always works to keep J.D. quiet. I think you might be a good contact.” She tilted her head toward the beer he was drinking. “Consider that a freebie.”
“Well,” Peter shrugged and took a sip, “if you insist. My teacher always said to be polite to ladies.”
“Who was that, your mom or your dad?” Pearl asked.
Peter put the bottle on the table. “Neither,” he told her. “My teacher was John Grimes.”
Pearl gave him a pat on the arm. “My sympathies. That had to hurt.”
“All the damn time,” Peter admitted. “And that was before I started mouthing off. Then life became miserable.”
“How often did you get in trouble?” Gyada asked.
Peter looked at her. “Pretty much constantly. I was a spoiled rich kid with no sense and very little idea just how close to death I was.”
“Death?” she pressed him.
“Yeah,” Peter’s eyes unfocused as he remembered. “I had done some stupid things back on Earth. Had some regular girls take pictures. It was a massive breach of the rules, and Bethany Anne stepped in when the Alpha of the Weres in the US was about to kill me for stupidity beyond the pale.” Peter stopped a moment, thinking. “Or something like that. Anyway, I was really stupid.”
“John put a stop to it?”
Peter reached up to touch his mouth, then moved his jaw left and right. “You might say he knocked the smartass right out me. Along with a tooth or two. My own father told me to get my shit together or they could and would be willing to kill me. I kept my mouth shut that trip on the airplane, but from time to time stuff slipped out and John was there. One time we were in the garage of this house they had renovated to have weights and a place to spar. I said something stupid, and John tossed the barbell he was using for curls to Eric.”
Peter told Gyada. “It took Eric two hands to catch it at that time.”
Leaning back and grabbing the bottle, he continued, “Anyway, he tossed the barbell and weights, backhanded me and caught the barbell Eric tossed back to him. I ended up with my feet above me against the far wall wondering what fucking day it was.” He took a swallow of his beer.
He smiled, thinking back to the memories. “God, those guys would work out to AC/DC all of the time. Their favorite song was Big Balls, but they changed a line to ‘Bethany Anne’s got the biggest balls of them all.’”
“You accepted this treatment?” Gyada asked.
Peter looked at her, eyes serious. “If John hadn’t cleaned me up I wouldn’t be the man you see here. I owe him more than I can ever repay.”
“No, that wasn’t a judgment, Peter,” she told him. “Rather, I come from…let’s say a long time ago, where rough and ready treatment taught little warriors to grow up fast.”
“Oh?” Pearl turned to Gyada, “You’ve never told me you just how old you really are.”
“Well,” Gyada smiled, “perhaps age is the last wall to fall between friends?”
“Well, for women,” Peter agreed. “Not such a big deal for men.”
“Don’t you know everything about women is for women?” Pearl asked him.
“That isn’t true,” Gyada protested.
Pearl turned to Gyada. “Of course it isn’t true, sweetie,” she answered. “but Big-and-Strong-and-Not-Necessarily-Bright-about-Dating-Women here doesn’t need to know that right now.”
“Who says I’m not bright when it comes to dating women?” Peter protested.
Pearl just shook her head. “Boy, I’ve seen how you dress.”
“Hey!” He pulled the shirt up a little. “Flannel is comfortable.”
“And ugly.” Pearl patted him on the shoulder and slid out of the seat to allow Peter more room. “There is no woman in history who has ever looked at a man in flannel and said, ‘I want a hunk of that flannel-wearing man-candy.’ In fact,” she pointed at Peter, “I’m going to make him show up wearing flannel only.”
Pearl turned and stepped across the small aisle to lift the board and slide behind the bar. “Nothing but flannel, head to toe. Just to test the theory.”
Peter looked at Gyada, who was just as flummoxed as Peter. “In a very, very odd way, I think she is right,” she admitted. “But wow, very odd.”
Peter shrugged his shoulders, “After being around Gabrielle and Bethany Anne, Pearl is tame.”
Both of them heard Pearl snort. “Tame?” she called. “I will have to up my game.”
Gyada watched Peter stare at Pearl. He commented in a whisper, “Wow, Bethany Anne exerts a hell of an influence.”
“Why do you say that?” Gyada asked, pulling his attention back to her.
“It’s just…” He shrugged. “It seems I don’t understand women well enough to know the answer. But it doesn’t matter if she is kicking ass or making up smart-ass comments, Bethany Anne causes others to want to stretch themselves. Well,” he smiled, “learning how to fight better so you can stop the ass-kicking I understand. The whole one…” Peter stopped for a moment, looking up and thinking. “Never mind, it’s just people.”
Gyada nodded, “That is how it has been through the ages.”
“Really?” Peter asked, “How many?”
Gyada shook her head, “I’m sorry, youngling, you don’t have enough game to get that answer out of me.”
5
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
Cheryl Lynn was sitting on one of the couches in Bethany Anne’s suite, waiting for the Empress to arrive.
Bethany Anne eyed the PR lady as if she were a bug as she walked past her.
“You forgot,” Cheryl Lynn observed, her head tracking Bethany Anne as she left the meeting room and went into her bedroom.
“Did not!” Bethany Anne responded a moment later. “I remember I’m meeting with Giannini just fine.”
Cheryl Lynn raised an eyebrow as she heard her changing clothes. “Uh huh, and by remember, you mean someone told you?”
“That would be me,” ADAM’s voice announced over the loudspeakers.
“You rat fink!” Bethany Anne groused from inside her bedroom. “I was about to tell you to keep that to yourself.”
“But you didn’t”
“But I was!”
“I can’t read your mind, Bethany Anne,” ADAM continued over the loudspeaker. As far as Cheryl Lynn knew, they could keep up another conversation in her mind at the same time. However, Bethany Anne was normally considerate enough to include others.
Well, when it was convenient for her. Cheryl Lynn didn’t want to give her friend too much credit.
Bethany Anne walked out of her suite wearing a dark red pantsuit with a formfitting, black, long-sleeve shirt under the jacket and a gold chain around her neck. “Well, that is probably to my benefit,” she admitted. “Wouldn’t want you to know all the good things I think about.”
Cheryl Lynn noticed ADAM was quiet, leaving the last word to the Empress.
Bethany Anne thought for a moment, then scrunched up her face. “Where are we meeting them?”
“If your head wasn’t screwed onto your shoulders—” Cheryl Lynn started to say as Bethany Anne’s arm jetted out and grabbed her shoulder. The two of them disappeared.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Mark Billingsley Park
“When do you think they are going to be here?” Giannini asked Sia.
“Soon,” a male voice answered, and the two women turned to see Scott nodding to Samuel and Richard, who were walking around the park to keep an eye out for trouble.
Scott turned to speak to them as he walked closer. “She doesn’t want to sweep in here with an entourage, so we are trying to keep it low-key.”
“Low-key?” Sia asked. Scott noticed she was already looking at her HUD, and the drones had started flying. She had three of them about fifteen feet from Giannini, and two circling at about forty feet to provide images from above.
“Sure. It can become a bit of a circus anytime she goes somewhere,” Scott admitted. “Plus
, this is supposed to be a rather quick interview, right?” He looked at Giannini, who nodded. He continued, “She figured she could pop in here, answer your questions, and then pop out. The guys will watch for any issues outside. I’ll take care of anyone coming too close.”
Scott looked around as he spoke to Giannini. “You don’t get scared easily, right?”
“I’ve been baptized in fire twice,” she answered. “Three times, if you include the riot on Yoll a few years back.”
“Yeah, that was nasty,” Scott admitted. “Sorry it took so long to pull you, Sia, Samuel, and Richard out of J’loong.”
“Well,” Giannini looked down a moment, “it’s not like we had asked permission or for protection. We went there on our own and got stuck in the middle.”
“Good footage, though,” Sia commented. “Any reason we can’t use it, Scott?”
Scott could hear ADAM answer in his implant. >> Nothing was said that would be a problem.<<
“Sure, go ahead,” he replied. “It’s not like you don’t already have permission from Bethany Anne to run around and interview everyone.”
This time it was a female who interrupted the conversation. “Did someone call my name?” Bethany Anne asked.
Inside her HUD, Sia already started editing the footage from when Bethany Anne appeared with Cheryl Lynn next to her. She caught Scott’s reaction to her appearance and compared it with Giannini’s. She kept the surprise off her face and made sure to follow the Empress with Drone Two, keeping Drone One on Giannini and Drone Three on Scott.
Drones Four and Five she set to fly in pre-programmed patterns. They would give her plenty of setting shots to intersperse. She hoped some people would show up so she could get crowd reactions.
She was going to need to request another two drones. That meant a resource request up the chain—which ultimately went to Bethany Anne.
Normally that would cause Sia to be concerned about catching the Empress’ good side, so that the video would help her argue for more resources. But with Bethany Anne, there wasn’t a bad side.
Bethany Anne greeted Giannini and it was go-time.
“This is Giannini Oviedo, reporter and researcher, and I’ve been granted a few minutes with Empress Bethany Anne to give a little background to the latest concerns of those inside and outside the Etheric Empire.” Giannini turned from her camera, the pink one, and focused on Bethany Anne. “Thank you so much for finding the time.”
“You’re certainly welcome,” Bethany Anne replied.
“First, can we get an update about the Yaree, or Karillian, disagreement?”
Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Well, first let’s clarify the terms, shall we?”
Giannini nodded.
“The disagreement, if you will, is a war of opposing belief systems. The Leath are led by a group they call gods. We call them Kurtherians, and they want to exterminate those Yaree who are living on their home world, Karillia. Approximately six months ago, a Yaree contingent headed by Delegate Tomthum requested an audience. During this conversation, they provided the background on six previous attempts by the Leath to subjugate the Yaree world and eradicate any sentient species.”
“For what reason?” Giannini interrupted.
“We only have educated guesses at this time, I hope you understand?” Bethany Anne asked, and waited for Giannini’s nod of agreement. “We surmise that the Kurtherians want to elevate the Leath to a state where they can overwhelm other species. Basically, advancement by warfare.”
“If the Leath are dangerous, why haven’t we heard from other groups about them?”
“We don’t know that others have not been approached, unfortunately,” Bethany Anne answered. “It could be that the Leath have implemented alliances with other races. Or, another reason might be that the Yaree are the nexus of two separate spheres of influence. The Yaree have been very insular in their own relationships, and only explained the situation once they felt we could help them.”
“When was that?” Giannini interrupted. “Or rather, what allowed them to believe we could help them?”
Bethany Anne paused a moment to consider her answer. She finally responded, “It was a multitude of things. However, the main ones were the unexpected display of our abilities with the Ixtali Delegation, who happened to be attending the Etheric Empire court during the same time, and the fact that we had information on them already.”
“Many are asking what the Yaree provide the Etheric Empire—”
Bethany Anne’s eye’s flashed red as she put up a hand. “They needed our help against the Kurtherians,” she told Giannini. “That was sufficient for me.” Bethany Anne put her hand to her mouth and tapped her lips. “Let me be clear. No matter what country our people came from back on our home planet or what type of government they may have previously lived under, the Etheric Empire is not a monarchy with a House of Commons, nor is it a republic or a representative form of government.”
Bethany Anne’s voice went soft, but with steel resonating in every word. “My charge is to keep our home planet safe from any group who would wish to go there and take control. For those who have joined us and forgotten this point, that was your reminder. For those who were born since we came to Yollin space or have grown into an awareness of things outside yourself, you might need to get a refresher on our history. Ask Meredith to get that for you.”
Giannini nodded. She had received the message loud and clear. The problem was that her reporter mouth wouldn’t shut the hell up. Before she could slap a hand over the traitorous mouth, she blurted another question. “If we aren’t a monarchy with a House of Commons or a republic, what type of government are we?”
Bethany Anne smiled, her eyes flaring red. “We are a benevolent dictatorship. Those who don’t like it will be shown the door.”
Bethany Anne nodded to Giannini and then to Sia. As she turned to walk away with Cheryl Lynn, Giannini asked no one in particular, “The Meredith Reynolds doesn’t have a door, so where would they go?”
Bethany Anne turned to answer over her shoulder, a smirk on her face. “Beats the fuck out of me, but I’d suggest they make sure they have plenty of air. This Empire won’t bend a knee to anyone. Not as long as I’m the Empress.”
Bethany Anne winked at the reporter, then touched Cheryl Lynn’s arm and the two of them disappeared.
Giannini finished her closeout and waited for Sia to signal all the drones to return with their cameras off. “She really doesn’t give a shit about the growing concerns of some of those here about another war, does she?”
“Is it a lack of concern?” Sia inquired as she gently socketed her five drones into the small suitcase she used to store them. She had filled five spots with drones, but the suitcase could hold ten. Making sure Giannini wasn’t watching, she reached in and petted two of the drones. “My sweet little video birds, Momma loves you.” She closed and locked the case.
Picking up her case, she finished her thought. “So, is it a lack of concern, or is it a healthy step the fuck up. You got on this horse, so to speak, so stop bitching and cinch your belt and let’s move on?”
Giannini shrugged. “I don’t know, but the trip to meet with some of the other races ought to be fun.”
“Did we get invited?” Sia asked. The two of them started down one of the paths toward Exit Four of the park.
“Yes,” Giannini answered. “She told me in here,” she tapped her head, “just as she disappeared.”
“Well, I guess that last question didn’t bother her, then.”
“Thank God!” Giannini answered. “That damned question slipped out. I’m lucky Bethany Anne doesn’t get pissed over those types of questions.”
Sia reached out, grabbed Giannini around the shoulders, and pulled the slightly taller woman close. “I think she likes that you are willing to ask those questions, not run from them.”
“I think you’re right,” Giannini answered. “What do you think I should pack to meet with the Noel-ni assemblage?”
Sia was quiet a moment. “We are going to meet the Noel-ni?”
“Yes.”
“Is it too late,” Sia asked as the two of them were about to leave the park, “to ask for my vacation time?”
“No,” Giannini answered. “But then I’ll have to take another video producer with me.”
There was a long pause as the two ladies entered the hall. Seconds later, Samuel and Richard swung in behind them. Sia’s voice echoed from just a bit ahead.
“Sometimes, G, you can be such a bitch.”
Leath Dreadnoughts D’leet and Touk
There were seventeen Leath ships in the queue, waiting to gate to the Karillian system. The master gate ship was in position, waiting for the final command.
The military advisors had worked very hard to bring a new tactic to the translocation defense. So far, each time their forces had left the Leath system, they had almost immediately been attacked by uncountable little metal disks. They drained the power of the shields, allowing the real weapons of the Etheric ships waiting on the other side to attack.
The results had been devastating.
Now, their latest ships with their latest technology were arranging themselves to transit. However, the new ships had ten older vessels in front of them.
Those ten ships were barely manned. The job of the ten in front was to run interference. The ships were massive energy sinks, running powerful shields to absorb any attack and push back, creating a large donut of protection with the center open for ships to enter behind them.
Once the ten ships created a beachhead, they would seek to break free of the gate and in the confusion the rest of the group would transit the gate and break through the defenders. Then, after raining fire down onto the planet, their plan was to use additional ships to land the Army and capture key ground areas.
Provided the Navy could keep the protection overhead, those on the ground would take over the final centers of governmental power and the Leath would claim the world as their own.
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 74