“It takes really hot water to get it to relax again,” she admitted.
“Huh.” John pressed the hair down, but it wanted to stick back out. “I wonder what Marcus would think about this?”
Bethany Anne’s eyes locked on John’s as he kept playing with her hair. “I will kick your gonads up into your throat if he so much as whispers he wants me to become a science experiment.”
“Don’t worry boss, I won’t say anything,” he agreed, “but you have to admit it’s kinda funny. However,” he turned and took a couple of steps before dropping back into his chair, “what if he could figure out how you could dry your hair without the negative side effects?”
Bethany Anne’s eyes narrowed as her mind raced in different directions.
“John Grimes,” she told him. “You can be such a bastard sometimes.”
John’s smile took over his face. “You’re going to ask him, aren’t you!”
“No,” she told him. John’s smile became a frown.
“Why not?” he demanded.
“Because I’m going to figure it out with ADAM and TOM,” she replied.
He cocked his head. “You think they’ll have better ideas?”
She shrugged. “Oh, I’ve no idea,” she admitted. “I just know that fewer stories will get around if only they work on it with me.”
“So,” she finished, looking around the group, “if I ever hear of anyone talking about this mess?” She pointed to her hair. “There will be hell to pay, gentleman!”
Karillian System, Shield Vessel Tormucht
“Sir!” Under-Captain Threan braced as the third set of asteroids slammed into their shields. “We can’t hold under this onslaught!”
“Those despicable humans are throwing rocks at us.” The captain of the Shield Vessel Tormucht gritted his teeth. “ROCKS!” he spat. He turned to the under-captain. “Give the signal that all unnecessary crew are to eject and aim for the ships behind us. Hopefully one of our other ships will grab them.”
Two seconds later their shield collapsed and the Shield Vessel Tormucht cracked when a multi-kiloton asteroid penetrated their shields and hit the ship just forward of center. The explosion of detritus and bodies was viewable for a moment before the concussion reverberated to the enhanced energy core, and the ship grew white, expanding into a ball of energy and taking all crew with it.
Leath Dreadnought Touk
The calm voice of the Strategy Oracle spoke through the speakers to those on the bridge. “Eighth shield ship down. We are fifty percent to target.”
Captain Therov of the Touk nodded his head and turned to his communications specialist. “Get me the D’leet.”
Moments later, an image of the captain of the D’leet popped up on his secondary screen and spoke without a preamble. “We ready to call it?”
“Yes,” Therov growled. “Those humans have been sneaky again. We have tested our strategy, and I am showing at best a twelve percent chance of success.”
“I doubt it is that high,” the other captain answered. His bridge lights dimmed a moment before coming back on. He looked around. “I don’t think we have seen all of their tricks in this system.”
“You may be right,” Therov agreed. “I’m with you on this. The gods commanded us to test our theory, and we have found guidance and knowledge.”
“Ok,” he turned his head and nodded to someone off-screen, “give the fallback codes. No, to the third location. Yes, send the command.”
Twelve hours later the Leath ships left the Karillian system.
Admiral Thomas reviewed the damages to the two respective navies. The Leath lost eight of their protective shield ships and one frigate, and three destroyers were damaged.
On their side, they had lost a close-in combat vessel and would have probably six ships which needed repairs. One would certainly have to go back to the shipyard.
However, none of that worried the admiral.
What did concern him was that the Leath had officially stopped following their own doctrine. That meant bigger problems trying to fight them in the future.
When would the Leath show up next time?
9
Leath System, Sanctified Ground, City of Truth
Torik, Third of the Seven, pulled his robes around him as he sat at the table, shrouding his whole face and body. A black mesh veil covered his face, which allowed him to see and speak while concealing his identity.
That was how the Kurtherians kept the Leath from wondering about their looks changing. When they needed another body, they took one from those in the service of the Seven.
He looked at the operative and nodded. “Prime Intelligence One, we appreciate your attendance.”
Prime Intelligence One bowed before the god. “My Lord,” he straightened, “I am at your service.”
“Tell me, what do you hear about our adversaries?” Torik asked.
One was an intelligent Leath; he didn’t believe the Seven were gods. That they asked this question was a stain on their omnipotence. However, the Seven did seem to have abilities so far above those of his race that he understood why some would think them gods.
“We know they are new to this area of space. They took over the Yollin people by besting their king in battle.”
“One on one?” Torik asked, familiar with the king of that system.
“Yes, your Lordship,” One answered. “I understand it was declared official. Once the king was replaced, the leadership of the Etheric Empire started removing the existing caste system from the people. This caused a lot of rancor with the upper classes. Due to the unrest, they had to focus on making sure their new Empire did not disintegrate from the inside.” He paused a moment before adding, “That took them some years.”
Torik waited. When One did not continue, he asked, “Why are they on our target planet?”
“I cannot express complete knowledge of this, my Lord,” One admitted.
“What is your plan for locating the necessary information?” Torik asked. “How are we, the Seven, going to help the next group of beings if we fail to teach the Leath the necessary strategies to implement in our absence?”
“My Lord?” One blinked a moment. “You will be leaving?”
“Of course,” Torik answered. He lifted his hand to capture One’s attention, then insinuated his mind into the spymaster’s, pressing to capture his full attention. Your questions on our godhood have been noted. You will believe we are the gods that we are. You need to realize that you Leath lack effective strategies and tactics. If we were to simply provide you the answers, you could not spread your wings and grow.
A little while later, the door to the meeting room clicked closed as the spymaster left. Seconds later, the door behind Torik opened and The Sixth of the Seven, Var’ence, stepped in closing the door behind her. She too was fully dressed in her official robes.
“Did it go well?” She asked.
“Yes and no,” he admitted. “He will search for more intelligence on our adversaries, but I had to go into his mind to adjust his beliefs. He felt that us not knowing the answers was an indication we were not gods.”
“A logical assertion,” she pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Yes,” Torik agreed. “Sometimes striving to uplift these peoples is so trying.” He looked at Var’ence. “Did you know that our adversaries have killed one of our people?”
“Our clan?” she asked, leaning toward him.
“No, Clan M’nassa. The Yollin king.”
“That pompous ass?” Var’ence leaned back in her chair. “He was always so sure of his own superiority.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean a normal alien should have been able to kill him in one-on-one combat, regardless of his arrogance.”
For a moment both stayed quiet, then Var’ence asked, “You said combat?”
“Yes,” he nodded toward the door the spymaster had just left through, “that is what I’m told.”
Another moment of silence.
&nbs
p; “M’nassa aren’t known for playing fair, so whoever beat him was either very good or very sneaky.”
“I would imagine both,” Torik mused.
Noel-ni Mother Planet Dorasei
D’leck looked around for her daughter. As a Yollin on a Noel-ni planet, she and her daughter were barely second-class citizens.
Noel-ni protected their own. They allowed others to enter their space to be seen as good galactic citizens, but in truth they were a very insular society.
Staying in their space meant you followed their rules, whether you liked them or not. D’leck had followed her husband W’ell to this side of space to get away from the changes that had happened in Yollin space ten years ago.
Her husband had feared the aliens.
She and her daughter had been trying to scrape by when W’ell allowed his own belief in Yollin self-importance to have free reign and had struck a Noel-ni. D’leck had heard about his deportation from a friend of hers at the apartments.
That was three days after his failure to come home.
She wished she felt regret, but truly their marriage had ended years ago. W’ell had figured wrongly when choosing the planet for their migration. If anything, the level of insularity the Noel-ni felt was strongest on this world, where other aliens made up more of society due to political importance.
D’leck and her daughter Sis’tael barely noticed W’ell’s absence. For D’leck it was a little harder, but there was certainly less stress.
With his departure, she had only two of them to worry about. As far as D’leck could tell, W’ell would never be seen again.
There were many worlds the Noel-ni could deport those who broke their laws to. W’ell had struck the child of a mid-grade bureaucrat, who had exerted enough pull to put him on a ship headed for their prison planet. He would not be a prisoner on arrival, but the jobs for an alien there were either going to kill W’ell or cause him to become something he had never been in his whole adult Yollin life to this point.
Humble.
At this moment, she was searching for her daughter in the crowds lining the streets. D’leck wasn’t sure what was happening here, but for the Noel-ni to be out like this it had to be something that tweaked their curiosity, or it was a major event in their history.
D’leck could barely keep up with the annual events; she didn’t track the holidays based across years.
She considered standing up on her back two legs to see across the tops of the Noel-ni, but if she were to accidentally hurt someone, it would go very badly for her and even worse for Sis’tael. They might allow her daughter to be deported with her, but if they couldn’t find her in time then D’leck would be exiled and her daughter would be here on her own.
Not the best situation for a Yollin teenager.
Sis’tael couldn’t see over the heads in front of her. She was careful every time she stepped, since her heavy feet would certainly hurt others and she didn’t want that to occur.
What she did want was to see the alien Empress whom her father had said ran them off their planet. While she had listened to her father when she was younger, her eyes had been opened over the years to his belief in his own superiority.
Frankly, her father was a jerk, and while she hadn’t wished him to go to a prison planet, she wasn’t missing him too much at the moment.
He had truly received punishment for his actions. Sis’tael had heard her mother and father argue many times over the years. Her mother had warned him, badgered him, pleaded with him, and finally told him to do what he needed to.
Two months later he was on a ship heading to the prison planet for striking a bureaucrat’s child. It wasn’t a fair punishment, but what could he expect? Noel-ni could be very touchy, and if there was an infraction it didn’t go well for the alien who committed it.
Ever.
Jhrex, son of a prominent businessman, looked at his friend and winked, a grin on his face. The Yollin in front of him was taking up too much space with her long body, and it was annoying him. His friend looked at him quizzically. Jhrex looked down and opened his hand enough that his friend saw the pin.
It was long enough that it would cause quite a bit of pain, and probably much distress. Jhrex heard the sirens whoop at that moment, and a sneaky smirk graced his face.
When his friend saw the look on Jhrex’s face, he started moving slowly away. He wasn’t sure exactly what Jhrex was going to do, but that look on his face was usually the first indication something was going to go dramatically wrong.
For both Jhrex and whoever was near him.
John and Darryl walked on the road in front of the low vehicle Bethany Anne was riding in while she sat and smiled at the crowds. Eric and Scott walked behind her. The guys had played a round of poker, and the last two to fold had won the front position.
No one expected anything to go wrong, but this was Bethany Anne’s first trip to this planet and it had been a bit of a circus so far. It seemed the Noel-ni had a strong militaristic core to their society. They had seen the videos of Bethany Anne fighting on Karillian, and wanted to see what she looked like without the video touch-ups.
John could hear the whispers as Bethany Anne came into view. Most were surprised to see she looked just like the videos, no special effects required to make her prettier.
Unless the Etheric Empire had technology that made someone look good to regular eyes?
John smiled at that. Here they were in yet another solar system so far removed from Earth he couldn’t figure out the distance, and Bethany Anne’s beauty was a point of consternation with the females. He didn’t think the males noticed as much.
“It’s all real, folks,” John muttered between his teeth as he looked around. More than a few people pointed to the Bitches. The four of them were in their armor, and John was singled out about half as often as Bethany Anne.
“Seems you have a fan club there, buddy,” Darryl remarked over the private channel. “I’ve got three on the right who seem to be taking multiple pictures of you. In fact—” Darryl dropped off the net for a moment.
John glanced around to see who he was talking about before quickly resuming his focus on his area. Darryl finally came back on the channel. “Ok, I’ve got some drones checking them out.”
“Problem?” Scott asked from behind them.
“Just being prepared,” Darryl answered. “We probably have some Intel weenies taking close-up shots of our armor.”
“Fucking good luck with figuring this armor out,” Scott replied. “I’ve stared at it for hours and still can’t figure out how the hell the interlocks work.”
“That’s because you suck at geometry,” Eric told him, keeping an eye on the three in the crowd as the car moved past them.
“New group on my side,” John interrupted. “Seems like we have new activity on extra-high bands to try and… Oh shit, they dropped their electronic devices, and someone is squalling like it hurt.”
“Bet it was BA,” Darryl commented. “Wow, I now count four groups that seem to be focused on themselves and their feet. Probably everyone dropped their devices like hot potatoes.”
“Nope,” Scott answered, “I got one guy causing a ruckus. From what I can tell, looks like he had it locked to his arm for ease of use.”
“Sucks to be him,” John said, listening on his private channel with Bethany Anne. “Yup, it was the boss. She did some hocus-pocus to their equipment. Ok, new trouble, guys, front and center.”
John and Darryl saw the commotion about fifty yards in front of them as six bodies fell into the street. It took them just a second to see that a fairly young four-legged Yollin was in the middle of the mess.
The bodies all seemed to be making a hash of themselves, probably hurting each other in the effort to get back up.
The group of Noel-ni jumped up quicker than the young Yollin could get back on her four legs, and they turned on her, kicking her for an unknown reason.
“Guys!” John called, but he was overridden on the comma
nd channel.
“I’ve got this,” Bethany Anne said. The four Bitches started running then when their Empress appeared ten feet above the fighting and the fireworks started in earnest.
Sis’tael felt a harsh pain in her hindquarter. Her body reacted by surging forward, trying to get away from whatever was stinging her.
The only problem was, there was nowhere to go except over those in front of her. She and a handful of Noel-ni surged into the street. She rolled to the side to make sure she didn’t land directly on an older mother Noel-ni.
Panicking, Sis’tael turned to look into the crowd to see if there was any reason for the pain.
Two of the Noel-ni started cursing her, and she realized she was in serious trouble.
The two yelling at her started kicking her, their feet slamming against her hard exoskeleton. She tried to curl on her side to protect herself from the kicks of the larger Noel-ni, but another person’s foot slammed into her head from the back and she screamed in pain.
D’leck’s head twisted to her left when she heard a scream of pain. It was Sis’tael. D’leck’s mandibles clacked in fear when she couldn’t see what was going on, and the crowd between her and the noise was impossible to get through.
She turned to see if there was any other way to get around the crowd without running them over—which she was probably capable of doing. If she could get Sis’tael out of this situation, there was a chance they could stay together. However, if D’leck ran over the Noel-ni in front of her, she was surely going to be seeing her stupid-ass husband soon.
Another cry caught D’leck’s attention and she set her mandibles together. She was about to start through the crowd when a crack sounded, and just thirty paces away, floating above and looking down on the crowd, was the alien Empress.
It was the alien who had taken over her home planet.
The alien pointed down from where she was floating and looked at the crowd, who was pulling 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 78