Why hasn’t he yet?
His mind is probably overstimulated right now. The math to understand the possibilities is overwhelming his mind in a mad rush of dopamine.
Baba Yaga kept running, glancing back into their own dimension a moment and then changing her direction in the Etheric. Slowing down, heart pumping, she looked around for her stash.
I wouldn’t shoot him with anything metal, TOM advised.
What about energy balls? she asked.
Fifty-fifty on that, TOM answered. He can do metal, maybe he can’t do energy—or maybe he can.
I hate those odds, she replied grimly. She glanced out into her dimension and turned right. In another ten steps the mist parted enough for her to see the shape of her stuff off to her left. Keeping her speed up, she grabbed her helmet, slammed it over her head and locked it on.
I can feel him, TOM told her. We have maybe twelve seconds to get finished putting on all of this armor, grab your other shit, figure out a plan, and execute it.
I HATE this fucking armor! she bitched, trying to lock the snaps into place.
Seven seconds, TOM told her.
Bethany Anne threw her armor on and was sliding the holsters into place for her M1911As when TOM yelled, DUCK!
She dropped to the ground as multiple objects sliced through the mist.
His voice came to her from nearby. “Come on, you don’t have to play like this!” Zill’s Leath laugh sounded like a dog barking.
Baba Yaga’s eyes flared red inside her helmet.
“Oh, there you are!” he said when he caught sight of the red eyes shining through her helmet’s visor.
She strained with everything she had and pushed off the ground, aiming her body at his.
“See, I told you to come to me!” he was saying when her shoulder slammed into him.
She dropped them both out of the Etheric.
“WEIGHT!” she yelled, and ADAM slammed on the antigrav in her suit. She continued moving forward while floating five feet above the ground. She looked behind her to see the Leath’s body rolling across the ground before a huge crack and explosion sent the dirt and his body flying.
She saw an arm go one way, a leg the other. She pulled a .45 and aimed ahead of her. Pulling the trigger three times, she shot at the ground along her future path. The first two rounds slammed into the ground to no effect, but the third caused another explosion of dirt high into the air.
“Drop me there,” she commanded, and ADAM added weight as she glided over to the site of the explosion. Her feet touched down, and she turned as the Leath’s body came to a stop. She exchanged her pistols and looked up. “Weight, ADAM,” she commanded and pushed gently, slowly rising off the ground. She watched the body, her Jean Dukes pistol in her hand. “Wish I had…” She shook her head in disgust and held out her left hand, and a red ball of energy started forming. A moment later she saw the beginning of a Kurtherian start to slither out of the Leath’s body.
“Tempting,” she said to herself as she flung the energy at the Kurtherian. Soon it was flailing about, Zill’s mental screams amplified by TOM as he fried in the energy.
“What was tempting?” ADAM asked through her speakers.
“Letting him slither to see if he set off another bomb,” she replied, and then disappeared into the Etheric.
16
Planet N’Var, Police Station
“Captain D221?” a human male asked, and the captain looked up from his work area. He was in a circular area about five steps across with a small desk built into the entire arc of the wall. The captain was usually alone in this work area. He turned to see two human males and a female.
The female looked suspiciously familiar. He tagged her face and issued a request to find and labeled it “Priority.”
It would be very beneficial if a wanted criminal walked right into his police station.
“Yes?” He turned to give them his full attention while his people worked in the background.
“Ranger Two?” Achronyx said to Tabitha through her bone speaker.
“Hmm?” she answered almost inaudibly.
“The captain tagged your face and sent the request to see if you are a wanted person,” her EI replied.
Tabitha raised an eyebrow and sent the information to Barnabas. “Introductions?” she asked and nodded to the waiting captain.
“Certainly, Ranger Two,” Barnabas said aloud and turned to the captain, who was canceling a work request. “Captain,” he waved a hand to Tabitha, “this is Ranger Two of the Etheric Empire.” Tabitha stepped forward to greet the police officer. “This is the commander of the Empress’ Guardians, Peter.”
Barnabas waited a moment for the two to greet each other before continuing. “and I am Barnabas,” he announced as he stepped forward to greet the captain.
Tabitha added, “My boss.”
She smiled to herself when the captain did a double take upon receiving that information. While she was known through a lot of the systems, Barnabas kept a low profile. Not on purpose, necessarily—he just didn’t go out and get involved in investigations that placed his name in the news very often. Frankly, Tabitha thought Barnabas was still under the assumption that if you knew about vampires, you knew about him.
That didn’t work too well with hundreds of planets and trillions of people. Hell, even when you focused on those important in the Etheric Empire, Barnabas was typically lower on the list.
“So, you manage the esteemed Ranger Corps of the Etheric Empire,” he nodded his head toward Tabitha, “and the infamous Ranger Two?”
Peter coughed, holding a hand over his mouth. Barnabas turned to look at Tabitha who smiled and shrugged. “So I’m ‘infamous.’ Better to be infamous than out-famous,” she paused a moment, “like you.”
The captain shook his head. “You have my deep respect for your patience already, Barnabas.”
Barnabas turned back to the captain. “Yes, I appreciate your sympathy. My Empress does not realize the task she gave me when Ranger Two was moved onto my team.”
“You didn’t get a vote?”
“Who needs a vote for this?” Tabitha asked, waving a hand up and down herself. “It is an obvious solution to almost everything.”
Peter stayed remarkably quiet.
“If there was ever a moment when my Empress abused her powers,” Barnabas left the comment hanging.
The two leaders turned back to each other and Barnabas continued, “We are following up on another of our Empress’ subjects, one named—”
“Baba Yaga?” asked Captain D221, nodding his head. “She was here.”
“Did she kill anyone?” Peter asked, and the captain cocked his head. “Anyone who didn’t deserve it?” he amended
“She put one of my men on mental leave,” the captain replied.
“I’d like to apologize,” Barnabas said.
Captain D221 waved a hand. “He needed it. He was a bit like Ranger Two here, and needed a few moments of reality.”
Tabitha’s head pivoted back to the conversation. “Hey, I represent that remark!”
“Of course you do,” Barnabas answered. “Very well.”
Tabitha looked at Peter, who was staring at her. “I can’t believe I traveled this many light years to be harassed.”
“Your reputation precedes you.” Peter shrugged. “A tart mouth will be replied to in kind.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s very philosophical of you.”
“Wait until I find some tart fruit,” he replied enigmatically, before his eyes returned to studying the police building and those in it.
Tabitha returned her focus to Barnabas and the captain.
“So,” Barnabas continued, “he is okay?”
“Oh, he will be fine. It was a painless reality check for him,” the captain answered. “He is a Shrillexian.” This time it was Barnabas who winced. “I see you know the type?”
Barnabas nodded. “Yes, I have another Ranger who is a Shrillexian. You have my respec
t. They are challenging.” He cocked his head to the side. “You say she didn’t harm anyone?”
The captain put his hands back on his terminal and typed in a few commands. “She killed a Kurtherian, if that matters.”
“I’m sure the Kurtherian was unhappy,” Barnabas temporized, “but we aren’t.”
“Good.” The captain folded his arms across his chest. “Frankly, she went out of her way to save a rather low level criminal.”
Tabitha breathed out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God,” she said as Peter reached over and squeezed her shoulder in support.
“I have to tell you, this Witch is scary.” He reviewed his report once more. “She did leave behind some damage that a few owners are complaining about.”
Tabitha interrupted, “What is the total?”
While the captain turned back to his terminal, Achronyx answered. “A total of fifty-two thousand three hundred and seven credits, of which about thirty-seven thousand credits were tacked on, so the insurance companies paid to get items fixed which Baba Yaga had nothing to do with.”
The captain explained, “Probably about thirty thousand credits, if you ignore the padding. I’ll have to investigate the padding, mind you.”
Barnabas opened his mouth, but Tabitha spoke. “I’ll pay it,” she offered. “Hell, if it will help your team I’ll even pay the padding on top. Just tell those businesses they need to support the local police next year.”
“Is this you personally, or the Empire?” the captain asked. “Do you have a budget?”
“Nooo,” Barnabas drawled. “This would be out of her own pocket.”
“It’s not like I need it, and it would make me feel a little better to help,” Tabitha told them both. “Would this clear up your investigation?”
The captain shrugged. “Yes, although she will have a few citations, including one for touching a police officer in the line of duty.” He shrugged again. “He deserved it, but that doesn’t mean I can let it go.”
“I suggest you offset that with community service if you ever see her again,” Barnabas told him. “If you go for more, you will lose more than you gain.”
“That bad?”
“She has the power to level your city,” he told the captain, “but to be truthful I doubt she would do something like that.”
“Barnabas, she isn’t a cold-blooded killer,” Tabitha said.
“Oh, she can be very cold-blooded about it,” Peter retorted.
Tabitha said, “Not helping, Peter.”
“Be honest, Tabitha,” he replied. “I didn’t say the person wouldn’t deserve it, but she doesn’t have to be angry to enact justice. To others, that seems fairly cold-blooded.”
As the two started arguing the merits of cold-blooded killing, Barnabas and the captain finished their conversation. A minute later the three of them were led out of the police station.
“Where to now?” Tabitha asked as they walked toward the local transit station to take them back to the spaceport.
“I got word from Stephen. We need to head to Devon.”
“Oh, goody.” Tabitha sighed and kicked a small rock down the sidewalk. “Let’s go to a planet on the ass-end of nowhere and pop its pimples.”
“Baba Yaga was spotted there just four nights ago,” Barnabas finished.
Tabitha held up an arm and whistled, then stepped into the traffic and pulled out her badge to slow down a taxi. “We need to get to the spaceport,” she told the driver as she opened the back door.
The two men hurried to jump into the front and back seats of the taxi before Tabitha left them behind.
“You know we still have a queue for takeoff, right?” Barnabas asked. “It isn’t like taking the public transport would have put us behind.”
Tabitha ignored him. “Achronyx? Get with Space Traffic Control and jump that queue. No, don’t use that excuse. Yeah, use E42, that should work. I’ll have Peter fake it.” She stopped talking with her EI and looked at Barnabas. “I have ways, young Padawan, I have ways,” was all she said to him as she patted Peter on the shoulder.
“I hope you act well,” she told him.
Planet Ugaloff
Baba Yaga, without most of her armor, peeked back into the control room she had pulled the Leath out of and dropped the small grenades in.
It was a mess.
She palmed her Jean Dukes and stepped into the room. “Where is everyone?” she wondered. She counted at least seven dead, and one who had a heartbeat, but he was bleeding out too quickly to last much longer without help.
She ignored him.
As she walked around the room, she saw that many of the video monitors had been destroyed.
TOM commented, I suspect they left the room when it suddenly erupted in explosions.
“Good tactical move,” she admitted. “ADAM, are you in yet?”
>>Yes, mostly. One of the computers is giving me trouble.<<
“Which one?” she asked, looking around.
>>How am I supposed to know? It isn’t like there is a map.<<
Look for something that is a different color, TOM suggested.
Bethany Anne walked up and down the rows, stepping over bodies, body parts and splatters of something she would rather not think about. She pulled down her helmet’s visor. “Please vent this air and filter everything else. I don’t want any smell, ADAM,” she commanded as she stopped and looked under a field-expedient desk. “This one?”
Yes, TOM answered. Now, show me the keyboard and start touching the buttons I tell you to touch.
“Left top third one,” TOM began, and Bethany Anne started typing using his commands.
Some two hundred keystrokes later ADAM interrupted, >>Thank you. I’m in.<<
“What were you two doing?” Baba Yaga asked.
He needed a port opened with which he could communicate with the computer. He knows the Kurtherian language, but with no port he had no access.
The monitor in front of them started scrolling symbols.
STOP! TOM commanded, and the symbols stopped moving.
>>Press the top button on the right,<< ADAM told her.
After pressing the button, the screen dissolved to a video and she was face to face with a Leath. “Zill?” it said before realizing it wasn’t looking at its teammate.
“Hello,” Baba Yaga grinned, “two down, six more to go.”
“You,” said the Leath, leaning forward. “The elusive Witch. I see Zill has failed,” she hissed.
“Zill and Gorllet,” Baba Yaga answered.
The Leath waved a hand. “My baggage,” she answered. “You haven’t been playing against my best. One was mental, the other cocky.”
“That is the definition of Kurtherian,” Baba Yaga replied. “You are all cocky. You should be helping others, but instead you play gods and then use your people against each other.”
“Witch, you are too simple to understand the needs of the cosmos and how we Kurtherians fit in. For you to even try would be like a spaceship touching the sun,” she said, her eyes looking into the video. “Instantly vaporized.”
Wow, so humble, TOM remarked.
“It doesn’t matter what you believe. I’m coming for you,” Baba Yaga hissed. Her eyes started glowing brighter, her smile malevolent. “When you are awake, I’ll be coming for you. When you sleep, I’ll be getting closer. When you need to rest, I will be around the corner.”
“You are a pitiful excuse for a sentient being,” the Leath scoffed. “Your warnings are as troubling as the effort to decide what to wear in the morning. It is inconsequential to the beauty of…”
Baba Yaga ignored her ramblings.
ADAM, can you track this message?
>>No. I have tried.<<
Baba Yaga pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the screen, and her eyes narrowed. “See you soon,” she hissed and shot the monitor, destroying it. She holstered her weapon and turned. “It was a boring conversation anyway.”
A step later she disappeared.
Levelot’s face was impassive when the video cut off and she reached up, shutting down the connection. She issued commands to pull up Zill’s transmissions and watched the video she could see. She was able to see the arm that pulled Zill out of their dimension. It took her a bit of searching to find the fight on the plains.
She stood up and pulled her robes around her, then walked out of the room and down a passage, finally entering a formal meeting room with a round table. After sitting down, she pressed a button to summon her peers.
She said nothing as they arrived over the next few minutes, each taking the spot he or she would have in their chambers on Leath.
When everyone had assembled, she spoke.
“Zill is no more.” She waited for a moment, but no one said anything. “We will need to take this effort a little more seriously. When she fights us one-to-one, she has been successful. She shows no hints that she is willing to stop this effort to track us down.”
Behome’t, Second of the Seven—now Six—said, “Do you believe her capable?”
“I have reviewed the video I could access, and she is unfortunately very capable. We will need to limit her Etheric capabilities. She has the advanced technology of the Etheric Empire, and I am sure she draws from their people as well. Her Empress has commanded her to kill us. I am confident in saying she will obey her Empress unto death.” Levelot looked around the table, “Which will be our responsibility to implement.”
“Physically?” Chrio’set, Fifth of the Six, asked.
“Yes,” Levelot agreed. “We have used cut-outs long enough. It is time for us to prove our own ascendance.” They all considered what the new commands would do to their existing calculations.
“Two must go,” Chrio’set suggested.
Behome’t shook his head. “Three,” he told them, “and we need to change our bodies. It is time we drop these shells. They are limiting us.”
Levelot nodded her acceptance of Behome’t’s suggestion. “Three it is. Behome’t, you will be Prime for yourself, Teret and Chrio’set.”
The two other female Leath plugged the assumptions into their own calculations, and the six stayed silent until both nodded their agreement.
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 131