She raised her beer in a toast. “Damn right. I can get you in the shower easily, but these babies? Not so much.” She ran her hand over the couch pillow. “It took me two years to get these finished.”
He nodded. “Would have been faster if you hadn’t wanted this shade of purple.”
She shrugged. “I thought they dyed the plant fibers to make the fabric, I didn’t realize they grew the plant with the color in the fibers already,” she agreed. “Now stop dodging the question.”
“No, nothing from Nathan’s contacts. It’s like someone is scanning them and pulling the good stuff out.”
“Or maybe there is just nothing there to find?” she asked.
He pointed his beer at her. “That’s probably the truth, but we just don’t have anything to go on. How probable is it that the white-haired Witch of the Empire can hide herself forever?” He shook his head as he took a swig of his beer. “She will eventually leave clues, I’m sure.”
“Yes.” Patricia nodded. “Lots of dead Kurtherian or Leath bodies. You will just have to follow a trail of skeletons to catch her.”
“Let’s hope they are the Kurtherians,” Lance admitted, his eyes a little distant.
“You worry she has gone too dark?” Patricia asked.
Lance stared into the liquid in his bottle for a moment before looking up into Patricia’s eyes. “Honey, I trust Bethany Anne with all my heart. However,” he chewed on his thoughts for a moment, “we have enough from ADAM and TOM to know that isn’t who we are working with right now.”
Patricia stood up and walked around their coffee table to sit next to Lance and grab his available hand. “She will come back to us, Lance.”
“I hope you’re right, honey,” he admitted, still looking into the depths of the liquid. Hoping he didn’t find his daughter’s dead body on some foreign planet.
All because he hadn’t seen the strain they had placed on her for so damned long. He sighed before taking another sip of his drink. No one in real life was a superman or woman, and he should have known that.
And now he knew his daughter’s limits.
QBS Shinigami
Baba Yaga turned towards her little nightstand and picked up a tablet. “ADAM, have you finished the research for the planet Devon and Lerr’ek?”
“Yes, Baba Yaga,” ADAM answered. He had tried calling her Bethany Anne before, but the result was a tongue-lashing that caused even his Etheric-based brain to hurt. “I have gamed over seven hundred and seventy-two thousand, six hundred and twelve different scenarios depending on who is elevated within the political infrastructure on the planet.”
Her red eyes glanced at the ceiling. “Spill it. I’m not feeling very patient.”
You are never patient, TOM quipped.
Back to the doghouse with you, she told him.
Seriously? TOM asked. Well, shit. One minor acknowledgement of the truth and you throw me into the doghouse again.
What a fucking whining alien you have become. And who is teaching you that language?
The noise in Baba Yaga’s ears confirmed TOM’s incredulous disbelief.
Hey, I cussed when we met and you didn’t change how you spoke.
There must be a certain amount of familiarity before it becomes commonplace.
Are you saying that you fought the good fight for a hundred-plus years and now you have decided to cave in?
TOM thought about this for a moment, wondering where her logic trap was hiding. YEeessssNNnoooooPeerrrrhaps?
Baba Yaga snickered. Wuss. You won’t commit to an answer.
Why do human parents not allow their children to play with certain others?
That isn’t simply a human thing, Baba Yaga countered. I’ve seen multiple alien races forbid it. Except those who are hive-minded, since that IS their thing.
You didn’t answer my question.
I’m giving myself a moment to find your trap, she conceded.
TOM snickered in her head.
“So,” she answered aloud. Bed now made, she left her cabin and headed towards the bridge. “Human parents don’t allow their children to play with certain others so they aren’t a bad influence.” Baba Yaga entered the bridge and sat on her couch. It started molding itself to her, elevating itself and becoming a flight chair.
The video monitors angled up from beneath, giving her additional options for input.
Shinigami had learned that Baba Yaga liked to use all the forward monitors, including the three that were at her own seat and those from the seats to her left and right. This provided sufficient capacity when working problems with the three of them.
An AI, an alien, and an EI as her teammates.
“However,” Baba Yaga continued after belting herself in and selecting screens for her views, “if I remember correctly, it is the older and wiser beings who should be capable of not succumbing to a bad influence. You out-date me by a thousand years or more.”
She turned her head to prepare the second monitor to discuss issues with ADAM in a moment. “Plus you stuck your scrawny alien ass in me, so you forced me to be stuck with your influence.”
“I was bored,” TOM said through the speakers. “And I’ve lasted for over a hundred and fifty years, so give me a fucking break.”
Baba Yaga looked up, her red eyes dimming as a smile curved on her face. A moment later her eyes opened in shock. The lights reflected off them, and her laughter could be heard throughout the ship as she cackled and slapped the closest thing to her in glee.
“Please stop pounding on the monitor arm. You could break it,” Shinigami requested. Baba Yaga stopped whacking the monitor arm, but she continued laughing and instead thumped her own leg.
“Oh…my…STARS!” She sucked air in and reached up to wipe away a tear. “That was fucking PRICELESS!”
TOM paused a second before answering, “Glad you enjoyed it. I’ll be here all night.”
Her chuckles died down. “You’ve used that before and I will get to helping you, but not just yet.” Baba Yaga swiped her hand across the second monitor and started pushing virtual buttons.
“I’m not in a rush,” TOM admitted. “I was trying to make the funny last a little longer.”
“Oh! Well, let me get with ADAM first. Look through his seven hundred and seventy-two billion…”
“Thousand,” ADAM corrected through the speakers.
“Whatever. Once you pass a couple hundred it’s all the same to me,” she muttered. “I file them all under ‘too many.’” She looked up and started reading the latest report from Lerr’ek. Her eyes jerked back and forth and up and down so quickly an observer might have believed she had a muscle tic, or worse.
A ping sounded to her left so she looked over, and her eyes narrowed. She slid her finger up the screen to read the information. Pursing her lips, she asked in a normal tone, “Shinigami, is the information related to N’Var accurate?”
“It is as accurate as Nathan’s contacts believe it to be.”
“What are the chances Nathan and his team have seen this information yet?”
“None,” the EI answered. “I’ve pulled that data out of the stream.”
“Okay, put us on a heading for N’Var. Safest possible speed.”
The stars in the forward view started turning as the ship smoothly accelerated on a new heading. “We will gate in thirty-seven minutes,” Shinigami informed her.
“Understood.” Baba Yaga nodded. “ADAM, are there any options that allow us to support Lerr’ek without going to Plan Number Two?”
“There are four individuals who straddle the line on having done good for others while making their way up the political ladder on Devon. Lerr’ek is going to have to work with these people, but to date none of their negotiations have been in good faith. He has not taken any actions against those in power. He has, however, had to play a high level of defense to make sure none of the accidents killed him.”
“‘Accidents’ is a euphemism for ‘kill him and make it seem an acci
dent?’” She asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay, tell Lerr’ek I appreciate all of his efforts. Let him know I’ll be on my way to Devon soon and to just start the whispers, but leave my name out of it. I don’t need Stephen thinking he can tag me there. Also, tell Lerr’ek that if Stephen asks I haven’t spoken with him.”
“Understood, Baba Yaga.” The EI’s voice went quiet.
>>Won’t Stephen be upset?<< ADAM asked.
Stephen knows the HR rules for Lerr’ek, so he will understand. Lerr’ek will be okay as long as he doesn’t upset me. Telling Stephen that Baba Yaga is coming to Devon would absolutely upset me. Before you ask, I’m not against the social outcasts on Devon. Many of them are just trying to make ends meet. But the dregs of the worst are working their way up the political ladder. I can’t let that group get too far on my planet while I’m gone.
So who are you against? TOM asked.
Fucktards.
“But first,” Baba Yaga hissed aloud. “Let’s see if these juicy rumors on N’Var are my prey.”
3
Devon System, QBS Shinigami
“Transit completed. We are a standard distance away from normal traffic lanes,” Shinigami stated as Baba Yaga checked the information streaming in through the data taps the ship had started grabbing as soon as they could reasonably connect.
ADAM was doing his best to burrow through their security. “Not the worst security,” the AI said through the speakers. “Some of this will take me awhile.”
“Three hours before we can be in Devon’s atmosphere at the highest rate of approach,” Shinigami announced.
Baba Yaga had already explained that the highest safe approach speed was too slow. Shinigami didn’t ask anymore.
“Very good,” the ink-black woman answered as she unclipped herself. “I’m going to the armory.” Two of the video monitors disappeared under the flight couch as she slid from the extended chair.
Two minutes later she walked into the armory and looked around. “I think today we will go for the crimson armor with a black hood and cloak.” She stripped off her normal clothes and laid them to the side, and grabbed an under-armor suit that sealed magnetically up the front. Too bad her actual Under Armour® suit had disintegrated decades ago.
After donning it, she took a few minutes to carefully place the armor on her body one piece at a time. She hissed a moment later. “This shit was easier with a helping hand or two,” she mumbled.
“You can always reach out and ask for help,” TOM quipped. “I’m sure there are a lot of people who would love to help you get armored up.”
“I don’t know if you are being facetious or really trying to help, TOM.” She grunted as she locked the last part of her armored top and pulled her neck opening left and right to get her armor to sit right on her shoulders.
“I live to serve,” he replied.
“Still no clue, you annoyingly obtuse and opaque alien symbiont,” she commented as she pulled on a holster set and grabbed her Jean Dukes Specials. Finally she grabbed her “Star Wars” hooded cloak and walked back to the bridge with it in hand.
Two hours later the ship was silently slicing through the atmosphere, the clouds twisting in the trail of the black ship as it flew toward the City of Cleerk, which was a quarter of the way around the planet.
It was just turning to evening and would be dark in Cleerk soon.
Baba Yaga’s favorite time of the day.
Planet N’Var, Non-allied Space, Industrial Shipping City of Cleerk, Spaceport Air-Traffic Control Room
It was the middle of the second shift, almost dusk, and Baylot was staring out of the air traffic control tower windows into the distance. A movement caught his attention and he turned his head to see a craft at a distance sliding through the city’s airspace.
Not abiding by the laws, where it was flying.
He spoke over his shoulder as he kept an eye on the ship. “What craft is flying in Quadrant Five-Three-Seven?” A moment later Radar came back with, “No ship is in that quadrant.”
Baylot’s face narrowed in annoyance. “Bistok shit,” he mumbled, and reached over to grab a heads-up display helmet. Dropping it over his head, he dialed up the magnification and searched for the ship. Sure enough, it was sliding between a set of buildings.
He reached up to tweak the magnification a bit more and the HUD popped the black ship into stark relief. He could see it well enough to identify a sigil on the wing. “Got you,” he whispered.
“Sir?” a voice called behind him. Baylot put up his hand to forestall any more inquiries as his eyes narrowed in on the sigil.
Then he swallowed and pulled off the helmet.
“Did you find anything?” Radar asked, curious.
Baylot shook his head. “I didn’t find shit.”
No one noticed his hand shaking when he put the helmet down. He turned back and nodded to Radar. “My mistake,” he told her as he stepped out of the office. He could almost feel the Witch’s eyes on him as he walked towards the washroom.
Planet N’Var, Non-allied Space, Industrial Shipping City of Cleerk, Bar
The captain of the local law enforcement squad scratched his head as he looked at the destroyed office.
A young voice spoke. “He isn’t here, but the people in the bar say he didn’t come out.” A second Queegert, its three tentacles drooping to the ground, told the cop. “He said he would be here.”
“Your uncle isn’t the best citizen in the city,” the law officer mentioned to the young Queegert.
“Save me the lecture, Captain D221,” the little female answered, one tentacle flopping up then lying back on the ground. “I’m aware Uncle Jermom isn’t the most law-abiding Queegert, but to me he was a good guy. He said he would be here and wanted to talk to me, so he would have been here.”
The officer looked around to see if anything else made sense to him. He knew seven Leath had come into the building to speak with Jermom, but what he didn’t have was any understanding of what had happened to the boss of this establishment.
He hoped the few patrons outside who were being questioned had some clues. He had just turned to the side when the smaller Queegert next to him started to shiver.
Captain D221 turned when the officer he had placed outside the room started walking in backwards. “Greth, what are you doing?” he asked, annoyed. “I told you to stay outside.”
Greth had his hands up and started to turn sideways, and the captain saw the black-cloaked alien who had a weapon stuck in Greth’s face. A Shrillexian like Greth should have taken the drawn pistol as permission to kick this alien’s ass. “Who are you?”
The alien ignored the captain for a moment and spoke to his Shrillexian officer. “Do I have your undivided attention?” the alien hissed in a scratchy voice, “or do I have to knock the shit out of you before you’ll listen?”
Greth’s eyes focused on the barrel of the Jean Dukes Special between his eyes. He had always wanted to see one of the fabled weapons, but up close and in-between his eyes was not how he had wished his first in-person demonstration to occur. “I bow to your skill, Witch,” he told her. “Do you promise you are here to help and not kill?”
“I told you that already,” she hissed, her eyes red under the cowl. “So long as my quarry are not here, or I’m not impeded if they are, I will leave peacefully.” She looked around the room.
A blink of the eyes and the pistol was gone. Both of her hands were now hidden in the folds of her cloak, but the captain had already noticed the armored fist holding the pistol.
Now it was his turn to stare at the black face framed in white hair hidden under the cowl of the robe. Her glowing red eyes looked him up and down. “Youuuu,” she smiled, sharp teeth showing, “are part android.”
She walked up to him and reached for his face and D221 slapped upwards to knock her hand away, only to look down in surprise when her other hand caught it and held it tight. “Don’t be stupid,” she hissed. “I’m not here to
hurt you. I just seek knowledge.”
“What knowledge are you going to get—” he started to argue when the tips of her fingers touched his forehead.
>>I didn’t know you could connect to androids.<<
I didn’t know I couldn’t, she replied. There is no try, there is only do.
I cannot believe you just said that, TOM interjected as he helped her navigate the connection between the organic brain and the android connections. Nice piece of work here, he commented as they slipped into the brain. ADAM picked up the connection and started his own efforts.
Captain D221 was part-android. His organic body had been partially destroyed some years back in a manufacturing plant explosion when he had been working the second shift undercover to figure out who might be stealing from the company.
When he woke up several weeks later his body had been grafted with the implants, including an upgraded computational cortex that was right behind his forehead.
I am here, an alien’s voice said in his mind.
>>As am I.<< another voice added. >>We will only review that which is pertinent to this investigation, Captain.<<
Captain D221 was barely into his first bit of shock when his memories ran in front of his eyes as if he were watching a video.
Seven Leath? the first voice queried his brain. Then everything he had looked at in this room and outside in the bar flashed through his mind.
“Damnnnn,” she hissed and pulled her hand down. “Those fuckers were here and I missed them.”
The captain put a hand to his forehead. “What have you done?”
The hooded figure knelt to look the female Queegert in her three eyes. “I’m sorry to tell you your uncle is dead.”
The captain started to place a hand on the Witch’s shoulder, but jerked it back when he heard, “Don’t!” Or had he imagined it? Either way, without touching the alien he asked, “Why do you say that?”
The female Queegert asked at the same time, “They took him?”
She nodded to the niece. “Those seven Kurtherians held the Leath people under their sway for decades. They stole bodies to keep themselves going. I don’t know why we don’t have another body on the ground here.”
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 119