“So,” Kathy accepted the Coke and clinked it with William’s glass, “my date is actually one of the most amazing bachelors in the Empire?”
William smiled, but just looked down.
“Yes!” John called, not even bothering to turn his head. He and Darryl were keeping the audience at a distance.
William chuckled and looked at her. “I’m sorry. I know BA meant well, but I didn’t even know she knew I was going on a date.”
“No, I like it,” Kathy replied. “You didn’t tell me any of this before because you just wanted to get to know me. Everything you have accomplished is obviously not that important to you.” She nodded and took a drink. “You are humble.”
“It’s not any big deal. We’re a team,” William replied, taking a sip of his Dr. Pepper.
“Don’t you like beer?” Kathy asked. She lifted her Coke. “I’m not against alcohol, I just never acquired a taste.”
“Oh, I like beer fine,” he admitted, “but I’m working on my figure.”
Kathy leaned over. “Working how?”
William glanced down to take stock of his body, and blinked a couple times.
“You still think you are hefty, like some of those pictures from back on Earth,” she told him.
William turned to her. “Well, I guess I do.”
“You aren’t,” she replied. “And I’m very happy you decided to reach out to me, Billy.” She winked. “And if you will forgive me, I’ll get over your secret identity and be happy. You’re the most amazing researcher I could know.”
“Damn!” Darryl called. “We have incoming!”
“Bobcat?” William turned around. “I didn’t tell him I was going anywhere!”
“Not Bobcat,” John replied. “Tina, Gabrielle, and Bethany Anne will come through the front door in sixty seconds.”
Kathy looked at John, then the door, at William, then at the door again. “The Empress is coming here?”
William scooted closer to Kathy. “Unless you want her next to you, I’d better…”
Kathy grabbed her stuff and moved to the side, then grasped William’s arm and pulled him closer. “You will protect me, right?”
William smiled.
He rather liked her holding his arm. “She doesn’t hurt friends.”
Darryl and John grunted their opinion.
Kathy leaned over to whisper in his ear, “Thank you for being you. I wouldn’t have dated you if I had known who you were.”
He looked at her. “Why not?”
“Me?” She looked down at herself. “I’m just a chemist in the Navy.”
She was surprised when William stared at her, then she noticed that Darryl and John had turned toward her too. “What?”
“Someone,” they said in unison, “needs a new mirror!”
“No, really!” she told William. “I’m a chemist. Nothing to see here, move along!”
William wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. “Did I tell you that smart women turn me on?”
The bar erupted in applause when the Empress entered the establishment.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Private Meeting Room, Secured Level
Lance walked into the meeting room and patted his daughter on her shoulder. Tina had her head on the table, and he raised an eyebrow to Marcus as he pulled his chair out. “What happened to your newest team member?”
Marcus scratched Tina on the back, but she just groaned. “At William’s party last night, she forgot she didn’t have nano-enhancements to neutralize the alcohol. She tried to keep up with Bethany Anne and Gabrielle.”
Lance looked at Bethany Anne, who shrugged. “It is an important lesson to learn. ‘Know your limits.’”
Tina put a hand up, with five fingers outstretched. “Five,” she got out before the hand sank back down.
“I think,” William said, “she means she went five shots over her limit.”
“They were strong shots,” Bethany Anne agreed, then remarked, “Let’s get this show on the road.” She looked down the table at Admiral Thomas. “What do we need to accomplish for you today?”
“Well, not so much me as you,” Admiral Thomas agreed, “but we have to destroy some ships for the new Federation. This includes the AIs, by the way. Apparently they provide an unfair advantage.”
“Which is the point of war,” Lance said.
“And,” Admiral Thomas continued, “we have to give them confirmation that they can take back to their people to show progress on the Federation dictates.”
“They want to gut us,” Lance said. “Some things we are getting, others freak them the hell out. Our superdreadnoughts with AIs freak them the hell out.”
“Which pisses me off! There is no way I’ll destroy those ships,” Bethany Anne said, “but every time I complain the General asks if I want to come to the Federation meetings. So, how are we going to make this occur, and yet stick it up their asses one more time?”
Dan kicked in, “I suggest we destroy them.” He turned to Bethany Anne and grinned.
“Are you a one-trick pony?” she asked him. “Ok, I get that we aren’t going to destroy them, but we have to do this in front of God and everyone to make it stick.”
Tina’s voice was muffled by her hair. “Do it at the same time as the Gate.”
Dan snapped his fingers. “Perfect!”
“Of course it’s perfect for you,” Bethany Anne grumped. “You propose blowing shit up as the one and only practical solution to every problem we have.”
“All kidding aside—” Dan started.
Bethany Anne leaned over to Frank. “Was I kidding?” she asked.
He shrugged in response.
Dan looked at her, and she waved for him to continue. “Oh, do go on. We are going to blow the shit out of them in front of God and everyone, and yet we—” She stopped talking and her eyes unfocused. “Oh, I get it.”
Dan snapped his fingers again and pointed at Bethany Anne. “Bingo!”
She started nodding. “Ok, that is going to take some seriously amazing efforts. Let’s take some noodling time on this, and come back together in forty-eight hours with details.” She stood up. “Nice job, Tina, working through your pain like that.”
Bethany Anne nodded to everyone at the table and walked out.
Lance looked down the table to Dan. “What just happened?”
Dan pursed his lips. “If I’m guessing correctly, Tina probably said something to see if we could get this meeting done quickly—since she is ready to die—and it actually works in our favor as a method to move the Gate. However, we have a few sticky details to develop in the next meeting. Bethany Anne wants those who have the brains to use them to consider the sticky problems. The challenge is, one of those brains is not worth much presently.”
Everyone looked at the pile of hair that was Tina’s head, which was still lying on the table. She put up a fist. “Go team!”
A few chuckled, and those at the table stood up. Admiral Thomas looked at Bobcat. “You guys got ideas? I really don’t want to lose any of my ships.”
“Possibly,” Bobcat cautioned. “I think I see what Bethany Anne was alluding to, so we will work out the details.”
“Keep me updated,” Lance told them as he walked around the table to leave.
“Me too.” Admiral Thomas nodded, and the two men exited the room together.
Tina slowly lifted her head and looked around at the half-empty room. Dan smiled at her. “Did it work?”
Dan nodded. “It did indeed.”
“Good,” she said as she slowly laid her head back down on the table. “I’ll just take a nap.” She started to snore, her hair blowing out each time she exhaled.
QBBS Asteroid R2D2, R&D
William smiled and waved to the video camera before leaning forward and shutting off the connection.
Bobcat walked into the room. “Kathy?”
“Yes.”
“She ok with everything?” Bobcat asked.
“Amazingly, yes.” Willi
am blew out a breath. “I need a beer.”
“You, sir, are a poet,” Bobcat agreed and continued right past their work table to the fridge. “We got more Mountain Tiger.”
“I’ll take two,” William called.
“Seriously?” Bobcat called back, then started rapping. “Ok, I’m bringing back a six pack. I’m gonna drink it all down, but not like a hack. But a professional, who looks at the crowd and raises a fist, to—”
Tina called as she and Marcus arrived, “Please don’t quit your day job!”
“Fine!” Bobcat told her as William turned to accept his beer. Bobcat held the six-pack behind him. “But you can’t have any of my Mountain Tiger.”
Tina twirled her fingers. “Rap that bit, you’ll be a hit, don’t take no shit from people like me.” She waved her hand at him. “Now gimme!”
Bobcat rocked his hand from side to side. “I’ll give you one because I’m impressed you changed your mind so fast. I’ll ignore the past, and liberate the libation for your mind so we can all unwind!”
Bobcat looked at Marcus, and raised an eyebrow.
“What?” Marcus put out a hand. “Give me one. I don’t rap.” He accepted the beer from Bobcat and sat down. “I prefer metal.”
“Spoken like a true fan.” Bobcat sat down. “Ok, BYPS manufacturing ‘Oh Gawd, we fucked up again,’ Take Two.”
“Is someone recording these conversations for posterity?” Tina asked. All three men looked at her. “What?” She pointed to William. “That stuff Bethany Anne did for William was genius. You guys really do wonderful shit.”
“Spoken like another true poet,” Bobcat agreed. “And yes, everything you do here is recorded.”
Tina swallowed, a blush inching up her cheeks. “Uhhh, everything?”
There was a glint of humor in Bobcat’s eyes. “Don’t worry,” he told her, “it’s all vetted before it can be viewed. So, if you and Dr. ‘N for Nasty’ here did something on the table—”
“I don’t want to know about it.” William interrupted, and lifted his tablet. “Cooties!” he exclaimed, checking under it before setting it back down.
Bobcat continued, “Only R2 and above would know about it before the general group.”
“Who’s above R2?” Tina asked. “Meredith?”
“Sure,” Bobcat agreed. “And ADAM…and that means Bethany Anne as well.”
“Well, shit,” Tina sighed. “I hope Gabrielle doesn’t see it.”
“Have you gotten a scorecard from her?” Bobcat asked, taking a sip of his beer.
“No,” she answered.
“Then she hasn’t seen anything,” Bobcat confirmed.
“So you have?” Tina asked.
“Let’s not delve too deeply into why I have this information, so I can protect the guilty,” he responded. “Back to OG-WFU Part Two, subtitled, ‘How do we transport a bajillion BYPS satellites and not blow everyone the fuck up?’”
“That, sir,” Marcus answered, “is an excellent question.”
“Should be.” Bobcat lifted his tablet. “Says right here you were the one who asked it.” He looked over the top of it at Marcus. “Do you have an answer?”
“No,” Marcus replied, “which was why I asked the question. We have an inordinate amount of firepower stacked in transport vessels the size of football stadiums.”
“Just arena football,” William corrected. “Let’s not be metaphorical here.”
“Big truckers.” Marcus nodded. “And if we set off a chain reaction it will be a supernova, and if that happens on the Earth side of the equation… Well, we won’t live long enough for Bethany Anne to be pissed that we not only fried the Earth to a crisp but killed her love, too.”
“She would be rather upset,” Tina agreed.
“If there were so much as a couple of cells alive,” William thought aloud, “she would regrow us just so she could kill us again.”
“What?” Tina asked in alarm.
“Not really,” Marcus told her.
“Yes really,” Bobcat declared, “but it would probably be Death by Yelling.”
“What if we built in a sensor that confirms they are a set distance from the next BYPS or they can’t come online?” William contributed.
Marcus smiled, snapped his fingers, and pointed to William. “You are the man!”
Tina put up a hand. “Except, how does that work if they are on a ship that goes through a Gate?”
Marcus turned to Tina. “You are not helping.”
She reached over tenderly and patted his cheek. “Seriously, Marcus, you should be able to answer this.” She stood up, grabbed her beer, and walked over to one of the whiteboards, where she picked up a marker and drew a large oval in the middle, then she drew a long three-dimensional block that bifurcated the oval. “The oval is our Annex Gate, and the long box is our ship. Half the crates are in one system, the rest are in the other system.”
“We need to code in a shutdown for an amount of time—” she started to say.
“Can’t leave a back door or we will leave the Earth with a security system that’s hackable,” Marcus cut in. “Even a one-time event might leave vestigial code that allows someone enough access to gain entry.”
“Not if we…” Bobcat was searching the ceiling. “What was the name of the Indian tribe that talked during World War II?”
“Indian talkers?” Tina responded. “Sorry, that was way before my time.”
“I don’t remember the names,” Marcus agreed, “but I think I know what you’re talking about.”
“It was the American Indian Code Talkers,” William responded. “It actually started in World War I with the Choctaw Telephone Squad and other native communications experts, and was expanded in World War II. The Army went to Oklahoma in 1940 to recruit, and the Marines went to Arizona and New Mexico to get Navajos on board in 1942.”
“And this helps us how?” Tina asked. “How were they used?”
“The group used a verbal language,” William answered. “It wasn’t written down, so there was no way for the Japanese to crack it. They had two hundred and eleven different words that had no equivalent, later expanded to four hundred and eleven plus twenty-six words that represented the letters. So, their version of the word ‘ant’ became the word for the letter ‘a.’”
“So we need to insert the code,” Bobcat answered, “in a fashion that no one can find in data files.”
“Yet,” Marcus added. “It has to be something one of the originals would get if we gave a few hints.”
“That’s going to suck major schweddy balls.” William sighed. “Ok, I vote R2 helps with this.
“Or,” Bobcat rubbed his cheek, “we base it off something like lyrics.”
“To songs?” Tina asked. “Like who?”
“Quick!” Bobcat pointed to Tina. “Tell me the favorite band of the Queen’s Bitches in Florida!”
“AC/DC,” she replied. “Oh…that’s brilliant!”
“I take back what I said earlier,” William said. “This is going to be insanely fun.”
9
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, QBS Shinigami’s Docking Area
Bethany Anne appeared in her receiving room along with Lance, John, Eric, and Admiral Thomas. When she left the transportation area she stepped into her kitchen to grab a Coke. “Anyone want anything?”
“I’ll grab something,” Admiral Thomas answered. Bethany Anne walked out of the little kitchen and handed him a Coke.
“Apparently I wanted a Coke,” he said, looking down at the bottle and then after the rapidly retreating figure of the Empress, who was heading toward the dock where Shinigami was located.
“Don’t stress it,” John told him. “She only has Coke in there.”
The four men walked down the hallway toward the dock. “Feels like a clandestine meeting,” Eric said.
“That’s because it is,” Lance grumped. “Had to figure out the safest place to host a meeting, and the answer to that was, ‘in a location no one can g
et into, and on a ship no one can find.’”
When the four men turned the corner, Bethany Anne was heading up the back ramp into the ship to meet the others she had brought to the dock earlier.
“Sure hope this works,” Admiral Thomas said as he walked up the Shinigami’s ramp himself.
The members of the team responsible for the movement of the Gate and the destruction of the superdreadnoughts sat on couches on the bridge of the Shinigami. Four of them were drinking Cokes, but Bobcat’s team were drinking beer they brought with them.
“Mountain Tiger,” he told Dan. “Locals brew it down on the planet. Good stuff. Keldara bastards kicked our asses in the last planet-wide beer festival. We are drinking it to help figure out how to beat them.”
“Uh huh,” Dan agreed. “I’ve tasted the brew, which is amazing. I doubt this is all research.”
“Research can be a lot of fun,” Tina replied.
“Ok,” Bethany Anne interrupted, “let’s get down to business. We have a Gate to move, a Gate to hide, and some superdreadnoughts that need to be destroyed and yet miraculously not.”
She looked around the bridge. “Who wishes to go first?”
“I’ll do this.” Dan stood up. “As Bethany Anne mentioned, we need to move the Leath’s Annex Gate into our territory as part of our war reparations. Now, that’s not the big issue, since the Federation doesn’t have a large problem with it.” He looked around, “However, it’s a big-assed pointer to Earth, and we would rather hide Earth if possible.”
Dan walked to the front of the bridge and faced everyone. “Our plan is to announce that we are going to use the superdreadnoughts to do it, except for the ArchAngel II—which everyone knows Bethany Anne is going to keep.”
“On pain of my size sevens up their asses if they don’t let me,” she grumped.
“Was that a problem?” Tina asked.
“Yes,” Lance admitted. “They wanted all the superdreadnoughts destroyed, but I told them there was no way the Empress would go for that. I got her on the video, and she threw such a hissy-fit they caved in on keeping the one. The knowledge that she was using it to leave the system and protect herself gave them a feel-good way to acknowledge they didn’t want her coming over to the convocation for a personal discussion.”
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 147