Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “You can stick with Baba Yaga. I see enough of my face looking back at me from screens. I don’t need to bump into myself when I’m walking the corridors as well.” She wrinkled her nose and waved a finger at Izanami’s armor. “You need to do something about that.”
Izanami inclined her head. “Of course, my Queen.” A halo of light passed over her avatar from head to toe, leaving behind Baba Yaga’s black skin, white hair, and snow-white armor.
Bethany Anne put a hand on her hip. “How does white not make you look fat?”
Izanami winked. “I may have played with my avatar’s dimensions a little.”
Michael walked out of the elevator just as the transformation was complete. He looked from Bethany Anne to Izanami, who for some reason now resembled Baba Yaga. He saw immediately that Bethany Anne was in need of a distraction before she lost her temper. “You were right about Izanami. She looks…different.”
Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow, a corner of her mouth turning up in amusement at Michael’s momentary confusion. “You look like a man who has just seen a sandwich he’d like to be the main ingredient in.”
Michael wondered for a split second if this was a trap. He had only meant to draw attention to Izanami’s new look, not fall headlong into sudden danger.
Backing down, however, was not in his nature. He decided to bite and take the consequences—in the name of brightening his wife’s mood, of course. “What an imagination you have. I was thinking no such thing.”
Izanami moved to mirror Bethany Anne, her hand on her hip and a smirk playing over her lips. “His blood pressure just rose considerably. I’d say he’s thinking about it now.”
Bethany Anne snickered, her eyebrow arching mischievously at the way Michael’s mouth worked to provide a comeback. “We’re just playing with you, Michael. Don’t have a stroke.”
Michael narrowed his eyes at Bethany Anne. “Oh, well, if this is a game…” He sat back on one of the side couches with his hands laced behind his head and pinned her with his gaze while he let his mind run free.
Bethany Anne’s mouth fell open. “You’re such an ass, Michael.”
Michael raised an eyebrow, his grin deepening. “Hard light technology is a marvel, is it not?”
Izanami looked from one human to the other, knowing there were layers of silent communication between them but understanding none of it. “Now your heart rate has spiked, my Queen.”
Michael snorted. “I’ll just bet it has.”
Izanami rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Organics.” She vanished in her usual spray of falling light.
Bethany Anne folded her arms, enjoying the joke somewhat less now that Michael had turned it back on her. She looked around, coming up empty for anything she could throw at Michael without ripping it from the ship. “Be grateful everything in here is bolted down,” she grumbled.
Michael raised a finger. “Now, there can’t possibly be any reason for you to be angry with me when you are the one who put the thought into my head in the first place.” He paused to amend his defense when Bethany Anne called him on it with a twitch of her eyebrow. “Thoughts, for the sake of accuracy.”
Bethany Anne was about to make sure all of his next thoughts were about her and her alone when she remembered that they weren’t alone on the ship. “Shit, I didn’t think. The children might be listening in.”
Michael waved off her concern. “I permitted the three of them some game time as a reward for their good conduct while we make the trip to Devon,” he informed her. “They were in the Vid-docs before I’d even finished telling them it was an option.”
Bethany Anne nodded, satisfied they hadn’t been overheard. “That’s fine by me. They’ll be rested for Tabitha’s class when we get back.” She ran through her mental to-do list for when they returned. “Speaking of which, I’m calling everyone in for a meeting now that we have Moen contained. After that, you’re going to learn how to harness an Etheric storm. It’s time to stop holding back because I’m afraid to lose you. We will do this together.”
Michael’s eyes flashed red. “It’s about time you agreed with me on that. The weight has been on your shoulders for too long.”
Bethany Anne dropped the snarky comeback forming on her tongue when she realized how much it had cost him to hold back while she risked her life every time she went up against the storms. Michael.
Michael lifted his hands, his expression dark and enticing all at once. I can only be who I am. It may be your duty to protect this whole damned universe, but it is mine, and my honor, to protect you.
Bethany Anne closed her eyes briefly, her focus stolen. She opened them again to meet his gaze. Dammit, you romantic bastard! I’m wearing armor.
Michael crooked a finger. Let me help you with that.
No need. Bethany Anne flickered between the bridge and the Etheric, shedding her armor with a single step toward him. “Izanami, seal the bridge and take us out. I don’t want to be disturbed until we reach Devon.”
Devon, The Hexagon, Training Center
Addix entered the weapons room in search of Tabitha, finding Hirotoshi instead.
The ancient human stood humming quietly to himself as he fed pieces of broken mechanical tentacles from his antigrav cart into the matter recycling unit. He straightened when Addix clicked her mandibles politely to get his attention. “Ah, Addix. How pleasant to see you here, if unusual. Is there something I can help you with?”
Addix skirted a laundry bin on her way over to Hirotoshi. “It’s more, how can I help you help me. I need access to the Bakas, so I’ve come to offer my services with the youths.”
Hirotoshi looked doubtfully at her and raised his hands. “You will have to speak to Tabitha about that. She’s getting rather too much enjoyment by keeping the Bakas all to herself.”
Addix’s mandibles rippled in confusion. “I was under the impression that the majority of the Bakas were against closer relations with us.”
Hirotoshi lifted his hands. “Their leader has allowed her people to join forces with ours for the duration of the war. Whether we reach an actual treaty with them is a different matter.”
“How so?” Addix found a spot to rest against. “Michael led me to believe that we are likely to ally in the face of Kurtherian involvement in this war.”
Hirotoshi’s brow furrowed as he tried to come up with a respectful way to express his opinion. “I don’t know what to say. The Bakas are first-class assholes, although Tabitha is taking steps to amend that.”
“She’s making headway with cultural relations through her training program?” Addix asked.
“You could paint it in that light.” Hirotoshi chuckled as he pressed a button on the recycling unit. He turned back to Addix with a soft grin. “She’s taken a page from Bethany Anne's book and is beating respect into her new students at every opportunity.”
Addix frowned at the matter recycling unit when it made a noise on starting much like two male Bistok clashing in breeding season. “That doesn’t sound very much like Tabitha.”
Hirotoshi looked over his shoulder at the machine, then back at Addix after seeing it was fine. “It is exactly like Tabitha,” he stated. “Trust me, she’s having a ball. Her group is comprised entirely of large males with egos to match their body weight.”
Addix’s mandibles rippled in understanding. “Ah. That must be a sight to behold.”
Hirotoshi flicked a finger toward the exit. “See for yourself if you care to. She’s training the male groups in the outdoor arena all day today. If you hurry, you might catch the end of the current session.”
“I believe I will.” Addix gathered her robe and turned to leave. “Thank you, Hirotoshi.”
True to Hirotoshi’s word, Addix arrived in the six-sided outdoor arena to a cacophony of Baka calls. She made her way to the front row of the bleachers and took a seat to wait for Tabitha’s training session to end.
The opportunity to observe how the Bakas operated was m
ore than useful to Addix’s assignment. What information she had was mostly from hearsay and word of mouth. She had discovered so far that Bakas made little effort to work together outside their family groups, that they were natural fighters, and that their internal battles kept the species from turning their aggression outward.
Addix wasn’t impressed by the Bakas as a whole. They had interstellar flight, but that was all she could see they had going for them in terms of technology. Back in days almost too distant to recall, she would have dismissed them entirely.
Maybe she was biased since her closest encounter with a Baka so far had been the time she’d torn that kidnapper’s throat out on the mall world when the twins were younger.
However, she wasn’t a person to hold the actions of one being against a whole species. She looked on this as an opportunity to educate herself, as well as completing Michael’s assignment to protect Trey.
Addix wondered what Tabitha had done to unite the Bakas despite their allegedly fractious history. The unit of twenty on the sands seemed to have gotten over their rumored squabbles well enough—which was good for them, since Tabitha was taking no prisoners whatsoever among her students.
The Bakas had no chance of misinterpreting Tabitha’s lesson.
Addix’s mandibles twitched in thought as she continued to watch.
Tabitha yelled her own specific brand of encouragement from the top of a six-foot pedestal in the center of the training area. Her body was surrounded by a 360-degree holo display, which she was using to manipulate the mass of tentacled Ooken droids around the base while the Bakas attacked them in twos and threes. “Do you want to die out there? No? Then stop acting like it! Fight together!”
She shifted a quarter-step and set a droid to whip the closest Baka. “Li’Orin, you’re down to one arm, you ass-munch. Where was your backup?”
Tabitha left Li'Orin to work it out, concentrating on using her Ooken droids to push back the rest. “Where did all my warriors go? My infant son has bigger balls than all of you put together.”
The largest Baka hefted his staff at Tabitha like a spear. “Eat these balls!” The spear sailed through the upward part of its arc without incident.
Tabitha twitched her finger on her display as it peaked, her wicked laugh ringing out across the arena as the corresponding tentacle snapped the staff in two. “The Ooken are going to laugh in your faces, right before they fucking eat them. Now put some effort into it, damn you!”
The warriors redoubled their efforts despite the fact they had no chance of taking Tabitha down.
Addix realized this was no training session. These warriors were here to learn a new way to think, and to discover what could be achieved when they worked together. They were already fearsome on the floor with their martial technique and prowess. It was about putting those strengths to their best use in battle for the survival of them all.
One by one the Ooken droids fell to the Bakas until only two were left standing—if the way the misshapen knots of metal gripped each other for support like the last two boards of a lean-to in a gale could be classed as standing.
Tabitha dropped her holodisplay and jumped down to the bloodstained sand to walk through the carnage toward Addix. Her head turned this way and that as she inspected the damage to her students. She winced as she passed the unmoving ones, her voice carrying over the pained grunts of the mobile contingent. “Great job, guys. C’mon, get yourselves to medical.”
Tabitha clapped her hands as the Bakas filtered from the arena. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” She pointed at the three unconscious warriors on the sand. “Or does this unit need another lesson in how not to be assholes to each other?”
She left her students to recover their teammates, making her way to where Addix waited for her. “Hey! Long time no see. How’s it going for you?”
Addix returned Tabitha’s hug carefully. “It is good to see you too, Tabitha. I have been enjoying the freedom of movement I have now that Gabriel and Alexis have no need of a guardian when Bethany Anne and Michael are away.”
Tabitha peered at Addix, curiosity evident in her scrutiny. “Oh, yeah? Who are you spying on now?”
Addix let her gaze drift to the Bakas leaving the arena.
Tabitha snorted. “Yeah, no. Not a chance.”
Addix’s mandibles twitched. “Perhaps I should explain. Michael has assigned me to guard the Baka known as Trey.”
Tabitha raised her chin. “I swear, that man is going to be the death of me. Or himself, if I get to him first.” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Fine. I can use all the help I can get after Bethany Anne invited the whole damn city in to train.”
Addix frowned. “You’re oversubscribed?”
Tabitha placed a hand on her hip. “You did see her speech? I’m not the only one with more volunteers than I know what to do with. Tim’s security teams, Joel’s ground units, even the Guardian has a waiting list of ex-mercenaries looking to step up. Devon loves a fight. Just ask the Civilian Defense Force.”
Addix tilted her head in question.
Tabitha shrugged. “I didn’t pick the name. It’s how we’re organizing them all,” she clarified. “Or at least we’re making it look that way until the kinks are worked out. You know, Bethany Anne did all this and arranged an evacuation with a hell of a lot less. Did not look this difficult to my eyes back then.”
Addix chuckled. “I imagine the motivation there was that Bethany Anne was the one everyone answered to. How is all of this affecting the Hexagon?”
Tabitha’s eyes widened. “Oh, hell, the kids are moving just as fast as the changes are happening. Their latest idea is a behind-the-scenes candid-camera reality show. They want to show the people’s stories—how their lives are changing as they adjust to life in the defense force.” She waved a hand. “Never mind, you’ll see it when it airs. What do you want with Trey? I can’t see his family making it easy for you to cut them out.”
Addix didn’t disagree with Tabitha’s assessment. “They will only see me in my role as Alexis’ and Gabriel’s guard. Besides, you are over-subscribed, yes?”
Tabitha nodded, still skeptical. “Yeah? And?”
Addix patted Tabitha’s shoulder. “Don’t look so worried. I am offering to train the youths on your behalf. While their development is vital to the future, your focus has to be on teaching their parents to stay alive.”
Tabitha’s nose wrinkled as she considered the offer. “I could use the help…”
Addix clicked her mandibles in delight. “Then it is settled.”
Tabitha’s mouth opened and closed. “Um…”
Addix was already at the exit. “Send me the schedule and current training regimens. I will begin first thing tomorrow.”
8
Devon, QBBS Guardian, Commander’s Deck
Bethany Anne left Tim’s office, satisfied with their meeting on the progress with the shipyard. His section of the volunteer forces was training hard, and construction was moving fast enough to please her.
Tim was happy she hadn’t demanded anything too impossible as his reward for efficient management of the station, although Bethany Anne couldn’t come up with anything Tim hadn’t covered—and she’d tried.
Some people just took a few decades to sort their shit out and realize their potential. Tim was one of those. The former bouncer was making the most of his third life, as Bethany Anne saw it. He’d come a long way from the aggressive young man who had come to her so long ago looking for a way to leave the path of destruction he was heading down.
How many people had she taken in with similar stories?
It was no hardship to have missed Rickie. Luckily for the verbally-challenged Were, Tim was smart enough to keep his right hand tucked out of sight when Bethany Anne was onboard, lest he run his mouth one time too many and she cut it off.
Bethany Anne snorted softly as the elevator doors closed on her, luxuriating in the sudden silence. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d had a mom
ent alone in her own mind, but there it was.
Meeting with Tim had left her feeling somewhat nostalgic for the Guardian’s much larger sister station. For old times, when her face opened whatever door she needed—or her boot did.
Then her good sense kicked in. She realized she’d already made the decision not to move her base permanently to Devon. Why else would she be so hesitant to build there? Nor did she want to return to High Tortuga and undo all of her work to hide the planet. No, that place would remain hidden, a safe haven for her people who needed one until they could return to Earth.
Whenever that turned out to be.
It wasn’t so much the Meredith Reynolds she missed as the ability to move as the need took her. Issues with the size and capability of their current home aside, there was much to be said for her ability to remain mobile.
Bethany Anne stepped into the Etheric before the elevator came to a full stop, exiting again on a stretch of the viewing platform that was separated into cubicles for privacy. Sometimes it seemed like the only place large enough to contain her thinking was the universe itself.
She slipped into the farthest cubicle and took a seat on the rectangular box in front of the window. The box shifted beneath her, flowing upward and out to cup her body as she reclined with her gaze on the stars and her thoughts on Moen.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Michael was right about there being a deeper game in action, Bethany Anne wouldn’t have been so easily distracted on the ride here, and the Moen would be a dune or two short of a city.
The single snaggly fucking weed among the well-tended patches of productivity she’d made from the more advanced Ooken locations they had taken, she was relieved to know the truth about them. If they liked it so much on the fence, they could look at the one she’d just put them behind. They’d have a long time to do it.
In the meantime, she had a war to win.
Bethany Anne watched the traffic between the station and the shipyard absentmindedly, the roamers inside the tubes appearing no larger than the miniature AT rover Gabriel and Alexis were building for Todd’s birthday next month.
Finish What You Started Page 9