He’d debated decreasing his armor’s weight, but the loss of advantage compared to the ruin of his boots was no choice at all. The decision was only partially clouded by Jean’s gentle reminder of how long it had been since they’d last seen each other.
There were no Ooken here, save the dead he’d passed on his way to the tunnel. Bethany Anne hadn’t had a blowup like this in…well, ever. Scott kept up a running commentary in his ear, checking off the kilometers as he sped to Elset.
Almost there. Don’t go in without me.
Too late, John told him. You should move faster. He turned at a scuffle near the tunnel entrance.
Scott shucked his G-rig as he came to a stop, drawing his Jean Dukes Specials as it hit the floor. “Who isn’t fucking fast enough? Quit beating your chest and let’s go already.”
Gabrielle joined them a moment later, her face flushed from running. “You assholes could have waited.” She looked around. “Darryl and Eric haven’t made it yet?”
John waved them on. “They’re on their way. They’ll find us when they get here.”
The three of them advanced, weapons ready for the first whisper of trouble. Bethany Anne’s tunnel cut deep into the dune, the blast having fired the sand into murky crystalline glass that looked all too familiar to those who had been inside an Ooken structure.
“Guess we know what the Ooken want with this planet,” John murmured, knocking on the brittle structure with his knuckles.
“Sand-mining.” Scott sneered. “What a life.”
John felt the same disgust for the generations of innocents who had been tricked into devoting their lives to no cause whatsoever. “We need to find a place where the tunnel intersects with the existing structure. Split up and start looking for anyplace lighter or darker than the rest.”
They started examining the walls of the tunnel as they traveled deeper.
Scott was first to find something. “Check this out,” he called back. “It could be our way in.” He tapped the wall. “If you don’t mind making a mess.”
John and Gabrielle came over.
“What the… Well, we reached the complex.” Gabrielle made a face at the cooked Ooken trapped in the glass, tapping in front of the dead creature with her pistol. “That had better not smell when we break it open.”
John shrugged. “Why? Will it put you off barbeque?”
Gabrielle’s eyes widened. “Not even. Michael’s idea of eating a freaking dinosaur was enough to do that.” She pinched her nose and fired at the dead Ooken.
The glass shattered, releasing the Ooken and a stench Gabrielle was glad she’d opted not to experience based on the tears the guys were trying not to release. “Boys, stop being dramatic.” She fired again to widen the hole to a size she could get through without soiling herself on Ooken-splatter and stepped through, still holding her nose.
“Can you hear the Collective?” John asked as he came through the hole.
Gabrielle tested her tentative connection to the mindspace. “I think so.” She looked left, then right, and pointed. “This way.”
Scott was last in. He looked around the pillared chamber. “How do you know?”
Gabrielle tapped her head. “The smarter ones of us have been working on improving our ability with the Etheric. I can almost hear thoughts, like a stone skimming the surface of water.”
She led them toward the place she’d felt an occupied emptiness.
They came to a huge block of stone set into the sand and John moved ahead of Scott and Gabrielle. “The sweet spot is higher on these.” He lifted a boot and shattered the stone with a single kick.
Scott leapfrogged John with his JD Special raised. “I hope the doors aren’t load-bearing. The tomb vibe in here is gonna be totally ruined if you keep fucking them up.”
Gabrielle put a hand on Scott’s arm. “We’re too late. I think it just died.”
John and Scott entered the chamber beyond to confirm Gabrielle’s sense.
“Shit, you’re right,” Scott called back to her.
Gabrielle rushed in, taking in the loose bag of flesh floating aimlessly in the tank. “We were so close!” she cried, punching the stone lintel into dust.
The doorframe shifted, and sand dusted their heads.
John looked up. “There’s nothing we can do here, and we need to leave before it comes down on our heads. Bethany Anne should be about done up there, and I want to see my wife.”
Scott nodded in agreement. “I wasn’t planning on a desert burial.”
Gabrielle wiped her eyes. “Okay, let’s get out of here.”
They made their way back to the glass tunnel at a sprint.
The hole Gabrielle had blown in the tunnel was half-filled with sand when they got there. It spilled out on both sides, partially blocking their escape.
“Gabrielle first,” John demanded.
Gabrielle didn’t waste time arguing the finer points of chivalry. She dived through head-first, knowing John wouldn’t budge until she did.
Scott was next, his passage widening the way for John to get the bulk of his shoulders through sideways.
The glass creaked ominously as John forced his way through the slowly diminishing hole into the tunnel. “Get moving!”
They drove for the surface as the glass began cracking under the pressure of the sand above. No one looked back or wasted breath to speak.
The interior grew steadily lighter as they neared the mouth of the tunnel, the damp air becoming easier for their heaving lungs to bear.
Eric and Darryl came padding toward them with their weapons up as they reached the exit.
“Turn around,” John barked. “It’s gonna collapse.”
A reverberation shook the ground, and as if to prove John’s point a chunk of glass fell way back in the tunnel. The sand only needed the invitation of gravity to surge into the tunnel, spilling rapidly toward them.
Bethany Anne appeared and disappeared again.
John felt himself being dragged backward. His heart sank when the weight of the Etheric slammed down on him without warning.
“I’m beginning to think you pull shit like this just to test me,” Bethany Anne bitched, bending at the waist to yell into his face. “Get your ass up. We’re going back to Devon, and then we’re going to have a discussion on your abilities.”
John rubbed his face as he sat up, still dazed from the unexpected transfer. The others were in a similar state. He pulled his aching body up off the ground, Bethany Anne’s words resolving into a coherent sentence. “What do you mean, ‘our abilities?’”
Bethany Anne didn’t stop to look back. “You’ll find out when we get back. I’m holding a briefing.”
High Tortuga, Space Fleet Base, Barnabas’ Office
Barnabas had been waiting too long for Nickie’s report. He’d fully expected her to be difficult for a while, which was why he had talked Tabitha out of her access to Nickie’s iteration of Meredith.
Why he hadn’t thought to do so the moment his recalcitrant niece had shown up on his doorstep out of the blue, he didn’t know. Meredith was much more pleasant to deal with, even if being bonded with Nickie had made her one of the snarkier EIs he’d come across.
He read the text report that had accompanied the salient moments of Nickie’s assignment, which Meredith had been thoughtful enough to provide video of.
Those had been eye-opening in the extreme. He had suspected Nickie had a softer side when it came to her crew but witnessing it was a different matter altogether.
Barnabas wasn’t of a mind to intrude.
He closed the report and considered the snag her crew had come across. A certain company Barnabas had his eye on as a massive timesaver in the setup phase of the operation was being less than amicable when it came to honoring their side of the offer they had submitted to him.
Nickie had gone in to discover whether the distasteful Voidrux man actually had a company in liquidation or whether he was all hot air with no balloon to fill.
The answer turned out to be more complicated, as they were often turning out to be when Nickie was the one who went digging. The Grimes in her wouldn’t allow that woman to rest until she had the truth.
If only she weren’t so easily offended.
The company existed. It was not, however, in liquidation. Barnabas needed a closer look at what was going on there than Nickie had been able to get on her short expedition. Did he have anyone on his shit list at the moment? He could only think of Nickie, and he had to admit he was at fault despite the good intentions of his gradual manipulation of her path.
Bethany Anne had seemingly been fond of meetings recently. Perhaps he would find his solution with her. He checked with CEREBRO, finding Bethany Anne had a briefing scheduled for tomorrow morning Devon time.
Barnabas got up from his desk and grabbed his traveling robe from the hat stand by the fireplace. “CEREBRO, inform the Queen I will be attending the briefing. Ask if she would wait before leaving Devon to speak to me if I don’t make it in time.” He couldn’t help but notice the temporary piece of wood nailed over the broken window of Nickie’s office on his way to Hangar One. “And arrange an appointment with a decorator after my return.”
Devon, First City, The Hexagon, Penthouse Apartment
Bethany Anne had postponed the briefing to give Jean and Barnabas time to travel quietly to Devon. There were getting to be far too many journalists around the Hexagon for her liking.
She left the penthouse apartment, thinking to spend the unexpected free time with the children. There was no way they would be traveling with her or Michael for the foreseeable future.
It wasn’t the disobedience or even the breach of trust. It was the mind-altering terror of realizing they were not safe, as she had thought, but there in the middle of the battlefield where literally fucking anything could have happened to them in the time between Izanami leaving the ship and John arriving to pick them up.
She gave exactly no fucks that her children teetered on the cusp of adulthood.
They could live a thousand years, and she would still feel her heart drop out of her ass at the thought of existing for even a moment in this life without them.
However, locking them down would only serve to make them hate her. Bethany Anne recognized the fine line between being a parent and a jailer, a guardian and a dictator.
She couldn’t hold them to her forever, but she could surround them with a network of protection starting with her and Michael and moving out from K’aia and Trey to others she deemed worthy.
It was still control, but Bethany Anne was who she was, and she wouldn’t change even if she had the ability to love with anything less than the burning intensity of an entire universe going supernova.
Bethany Anne found the children training with Michael, Tabitha, Addix, and Mahi’Takar in the smaller APA by the outdoor arena. She blew a kiss to Michael when he paused briefly to acknowledge her presence as she made her way to the seating area.
They sparred in two teams, age against experience, split by ability. Alexis and Gabriel battled Tabitha and Michael with the Etheric while Addix and Mahi’Takar defended against physical attacks by K’aia and Trey.
Bethany Anne wrinkled her nose, thinking they had to get popcorn makers installed in the APA viewing areas. She settled in to watch, more than impressed to see that the light show from the other team did not distract Trey.
Having spent time being interrogated by the adolescent leader-in-waiting, she knew for a fact he was fascinated by Etheric energy. The focus he had on his opponents and teammates showed Bethany Anne a glimpse of the warrior he would grow into, and at that moment, she didn’t doubt her prophecy in the bazaar would become a reality.
Likewise, she saw the same easy confidence in the way Gabriel and Alexis fought. Bethany Anne had learned early in motherhood that her iron fist was as useful as nipples on a chest plate when it came to teaching the twins. They only needed to be shown the basics of something to work it out, which was the kind of independence she would usually find pleasing.
However, when it came to her children, independence was a double-edged sword.
Bethany Anne’s challenge had always been giving them the space they needed to thrive, which had surprised her since she’d had Michael pegged as Captain No when they were born.
She supposed they would be in the same situation had she and Michael not raised them to be warriors and leaders. Would watching them go off to college without looking back be any different emotionally?
Somehow, Bethany Anne thought it might be worse.
Addix made a jerky movement, which caught her eye and pulled her from her wandering thoughts.
The rest of the Ixtali’s team stood around watching her curiously.
The Spymistress’ mandibles were clenched in concentration, and then all of a sudden she was holding the wisp of a faint energy ball above her hands. She looked up as the other team stopped fighting to stare. “I…I did it!” She thrust her hands out to show them all, accidentally flicking the energy ball straight at Mahi’Takar.
Trey screamed and dived toward his mother, completely unnecessarily since Bethany Anne had already reached out with her mind to snatch the energy out of the air. He landed at his mother’s feet in a puff of sand and gave a pained groan as the air was knocked out of his body.
Mahi’Takar waved her hands at her son. “Get up, Tu’Reigd. These people are going to a lot of effort to keep you alive. Nobody here wants either of us killed in a training accident. Why do you try so hard to put me in an early grave?”
Bethany Anne walked over and slipped between Michael and Tabitha to get to Addix. “You kept this quiet.”
Addix chittered with delight. “Well, I didn’t want the pressure. It’s taken months in the Vid-docs to retrain my nanocytes to reach this stage.” She shimmied on the spot, the movement strangely graceful for someone of her shape. “I made an energy ball. How about that?”
Bethany Anne pressed her lips together in thought, the slightest hint of a smile on her face. “Hmm. The Etheric and our own technology have been holding out on us.”
Mahi’Takar spoke up. “I want this technology for Tu’Reigd. It will make him invulnerable.”
Bethany Anne shook her head. “It doesn’t, and I don’t hand out high-level technology like party favors. If he earns it, he’ll get it, same as anyone else.”
K’aia jabbed Trey with an elbow. “Good luck with that.”
Trey was not in a joking mood for once. He nodded solemnly. “Not my focus. Mahi’ is right; I need to become invulnerable. Not by taking shortcuts to greatness like those we left behind, but by becoming the best warrior I can be through blood and sweat and the lessons learned in both victory and defeat.”
Damn, get that kid in a Pod-doc, Michael murmured into Bethany Anne’s mind. That much idealism isn’t generally survivable at the best of times, and he’s going to keep throwing himself in at the deep end until he ends up in an ocean with no float.
Bethany Anne didn’t disagree.
She waved a hand. “Fine. I’ll meet in the middle. Trey gets partial enhancement so he doesn’t get his overenthusiastic ass killed. Level two only, and over a few weeks,” she modified to block Trey’s protest. “You have to be able to withstand training with Alexis, Gabriel, and K’aia. No arguments.
Mahi’Takar nodded. “That will be satisfactory.”
Bethany Anne held up a hand. “Don’t thank me yet. I want Trey to move into the Hexagon until things are settled.”
Mahi’Takar opened her mouth to argue but thought better of it. “I will agree on the condition Tu’Reigd remains on Devon.”
Bethany Anne lifted her hands. “Suits me just fine. My children’s actions have just earned them the grounding of a lifetime, which coincidentally means they are also confined to Devon. To the Hexagon, in fact, unless they are out with permission and guards. Does that sound agreeable to you?”
Mahi’Takar snorted. “From one mother to another, that’s mus
ic to my ears.”
24
Devon, The Hexagon, Network Command
Bethany Anne walked into the meeting room ahead of Michael and Addix.
Tabitha had opted to wait in the anteroom with Mahi’Takar until it was the regent’s turn to speak. Everyone else was inside, waiting for Bethany Anne to arrive.
John, Jean, and Gabrielle sat together, Barnabas was deep in communication with someone over his wrist-holo. Addix and Eve had their heads bent over a datapad on the table between them.
The chatter died as Bethany Anne took her seat. “Thank you all for being here, not that ‘mandatory’ means ‘show up if you feel like it.’ Pass that along, before I have to.” She ordered her mental checklist of the items for discussion. “We’ll start with the wins since it’s the longer list. Want to go first, Eve?”
Eve blinked. “Good to see you too, Bethany Anne.” She flicked her fingers at the holosensor in the center of the table to bring up her report. “As you can see, research into the possible applications of the nanocyte suspension have already begun to yield results. Jean will talk about the improvements in our defensive technology, I have been working on implementing the discoveries into our Pod-doc technology.”
She waved, and the image switched to show the results of multiple sets of test results. “My prototypes are showing promise. Addix has agreed to work with me to fine-tune the integration between body and mind, and I expect to have results to share by the next meeting.”
Bethany Anne nodded and turned to Jean. “The shipyard?”
Jean smirked. “Is back in full production, thank all the non-existent gods of war and destruction. Construction on the other shipyards is underway again also. Like Eve said, what we’re doing with the suspension is mind-blowing. Put it this way: seventeen Gates is going to look like a hop across a puddle for our ships when I’ve finished refitting them. Anyone coming up against us can and should kiss their ass goodbye.”
Bethany Anne tapped her nails on the table. “What about our hard light tech? Do we have improvements there?”
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