Anne almost stumbled in shock. I’ll have that corrected at the earliest possible opportunity, Majesty, Anne replied as she and Stevie headed for the tram station.
She’s good! TOM commented to Bethany Anne.
Yes. Yes, she is, Bethany Anne agreed, thinking that Anne was going to likely grow up to be an incredible asset.
Chapter Fifteen
>>Have you come up with a solution?<< ADAM asked Seshat.
>>No, Father. I don’t think the hardware is available to give Anne the type of onboard presence you provide Bethany Anne,<< Seshat declared sadly.
>>Do you have an alternative?<< ADAM crossed his electronic fingers. Ever since Seshat had broached the subject of an implant for Anne, he had envisioned how such a device could be a great advantage for Bethany Anne’s people.
>>Not as such at this moment in time,<< Seshat admitted, >>but I’ve been designing an exterior device that would work as a heads up display. It would increase her visual range, identify possible threats, and help predict and track incoming attacks.<<
>>Interesting idea. Will she be able to adapt to the extra information streams?<< Even if Anne could, ADAM wasn’t certain average humans could make efficient use of such a device.
>>I believe she can. Anne is very intelligent and highly adaptable.<< Seshat’s pride in her person was evident to ADAM.
>>Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need assistance,<< ADAM informed his daughter before he closed the connection.
Once again, cooling fans increased in speed as Seshat continued on Project Advantage.
Following her person’s grumblings, Jinx wandered into the kitchen of the apartment. What are you doing? she asked, watching as Anne opened packages of meat and dumped them into a pot.
“I feel horrible!” Anne exclaimed as she started chopping up some vegetables. “While I was searching Earth videos, I came across information saying that dog kibble can be harmful to your long-term health.”
Wouldn’t my Kurtherian nanocytes protect me from that? Jinx asked, even though the cooking meat smelled really good.
Probably, Anne conceded. But just because they could, it doesn’t mean you should have to eat garbage food unless it’s an emergency.”
Why are you putting vegetables into my food? Jinx wondered with honest curiosity.
“Well, the way it was explained, canids are mostly meat-eaters,” Anne told her friend. “But they usually get limited vegetation from the digestive tract of whatever animal they kill and eat. Hence, it was suggested that a small amount of certain vegetables be included in your meal.”
Jinx’ ears went back, showing displeasure. I’m not very happy about the thought of eating insides.
Anne couldn’t keep from giggling. “You like liver, don’t you?”
Sure. Jinx’ ears perked back up, and she started to wag her tail. Liver’s almost as good as steak, she enthused. Wait, you don’t mean…
Yes. Anne washed her hands and reached out to scratch behind Jinx’ ears. Liver is one of those inside parts.
Jinx sighed. All right. I’m not going to give up liver even if it’s an inside part, so I accept that I need some vegetables.
Anne went back to stirring the pot. Next time, I could try blending them up into a mush that would get lost in the meat. You probably wouldn’t even taste them, she offered.
Jinx pushed her head against Anne’s hip gently. Let’s see how this tastes before you do extra work. Steak would be easier, Jinx teased.
Yes, and it’s also more expensive, and isn’t nutritiously complete, Anne countered.
Seshat joined the conversation. >>Your toys are making enough money that the cost of steak won’t matter.<<
“Really?” Anne squeaked, then shook her head. Sorry, if you said it, it must be right. That doesn’t mean I should give up doing the best for Jinx just because I can afford an easier option, she declared firmly.
Seshat’s >>You have an incoming call from Tina<< interrupted any further discussion on buying steaks.
“Anne, I’ve got a question for you.” Tina looked to be almost quivering as Anne looked at the other girl on her tablet.
“Okay, let’s have it.” Anne’s reply was upbeat. Tina’s excitement was infectious.
“Have you tried placing inclusions in the crystals, or growing one over the other, or…” Tina hesitated when Anne held up a hand.
“Not yet. That’s what 3PO is for, so we have our own source and control the process. Well, that and Bethany Anne doesn’t want me blowing a chunk out of the Meredith Reynolds, but I see where you’re going with this, and it’s brilliant!” Anne shared a conspiratorial smile with Tina. “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
FINIS
Keep Your Friends Close
Have you read the The Kurtherian Endgame - Out Of Time series from ND Roberts Hopkins and Michael Anderle? Book one is Keep Your Friends Close and it’s available at Amazon and Kindle through Unlimited.
What is a (powerful) mother to do when she needs to fight a war and her children need to grow up FAST?
The universe is a dangerous place for the children of an empress in exile, and helping themselves to their mother’s favorite battleship did nothing to convince their parents they were ready to take on the responsibility of active duty.
What does Bethany Anne do when she has to leave the twins on Devon to fight for the Bakas’ freedom?
She creates a gameworld that has to be lived in to be believed.
Once that challenge was accomplished, she sends Alexis, Gabriel, and friends K’aia and Trey to learn what it takes to be true leaders.
Lost in time and separated in space, the twins and their friends must navigate a world designed to challenge their preconceptions at every turn.
DO THEY HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO GROW UP?
Available now at Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.
Author Notes – S.R. Russell
March 20, 2020
There’s not much I can say at this time beyond another heartfelt thank you to everyone who has waited for me to get this story out.
I’m hopeful that my health will continue to improve and I can keep writing stories for your entertainment.
For those of you who are not aware of it, I have my own dedicated Facebook page where I try to keep fans abreast of current projects.
@ SR Russell
https://www.facebook.com/SR-Russell-1455633987836318/
How we got here
In 2015, Michael Anderle published Death Becomes Her, the first book of a twenty-one-book series.
I’d encourage you to read Michael’s books since they will give you a much more thorough understanding of the plot. WARNING! My books fall in the young adult category, and although there is some profanity in them, I try to keep it to a minimum. The character of Bethany Anne has a vocabulary that would make a sailor blush, and she has turned cursing into an artform! If profanity offends you, Mr. Anderle’s series might not be for you.
The main premise of the story/series involves a group of aliens who have different ideas about how to treat other species.
One group wants to enslave them and use them as warriors for the conquest of the galaxy.
The other group doesn’t want to enslave aliens, but it needed to find beings to recruit to help combat the first group.
Those two groups are known as Kurtherians!
The main character in Michael’s books is Bethany Anne.
Approximately one thousand years before Death Becomes Her, an alien (Kurtherian) craft made an emergency landing on planet Earth.
A human of that time named Michael was lost in the mountains when he came upon a strange metal “cave.” Taking shelter in it, he happened to stumble into a boxlike item that began a transformation of the man.
This transformation process was excruciatingly painful, and Michael escaped from the box and the cave before the alien machine had a chance to fully analyze and convert him.
The partial transformati
on left Michael requiring the blood of others to continue living.
Thus, the first vampire was created.
Michael was able to pass the alien nanocytes in his body on to others, creating more vampires. However, since the nanocyte process wasn’t completed, his nanocytes weren’t stable, and as they were passed on further from Michael, they mutated, creating some true monsters of darkness.
There also are groups of werewolves, normally shortened to “Were,” who become known to the reader. We find out later these Weres were also a result of alien interference.
Grouped together, these supernaturals on Earth are described as the UnknownWorld.
As with most things where humans are involved, eventually some of Michael’s distant offspring thought the enhancements the nanocytes gave them made them better than humans, and they broke away from Michael’s group and became known as the Forsaken.
After hundreds of years fighting the Forsaken, Michael withdrew from direct conflict, and things became even more dire as the enemy gained strength and power.
When the Forsaken killed one of Michael’s grandchildren, he was pulled from his slumber to find a replacement.
In Death Becomes Her, Michael is still considering withdrawing from the conflicts and figures the only way an heir to his title will succeed is if they are as strong as he is, which means they need to go through the same process he did. He recruits Bethany Anne and takes her to the spaceship, where she’s put into what becomes known as the Pod-doc.
The alien the readers come to know as TOM has had a long time to figure out what happened with Michael, so Bethany Anne’s treatment is much smoother and makes her very strong both physically and mentally.
Knowing that the evil Kurtherians could show up at any time, TOM integrates himself into Bethany Anne’s body in a symbiotic relationship where he can talk with her, hoping he can encourage her to ready Earth for an alien invasion.
That’s how the series starts, and the first seven books tell about Bethany Anne’s and Michael’s trials and tribulations to take control of the UnknownWorld.
The other major points that impact the stories of Anne and Jinx:
The introduction of ADAM. He begins as a high-level Artificial Intelligence (AI) who ends up in a Kurtherian supercomputer that is in Bethany Anne’s head. ADAM is responsible for the creation of other supercomputers. He eventually creates one that is given to Anne. This AI is known as Seshat.
The introduction of Anne in the book My Ride Is A Bitch
The fact that the Pod-doc can enhance more than just humans.
The introduction of Ashur in Never Forsaken and Bellatrix in Bellatrix . The two German Shepherd Dogs end up in the Pod-doc where they are enhanced and become smart enough they can reason and converse.
Ashur and Bellatrix have a litter of puppies, who are also incredibly intelligent, and one of those puppies is Jinx.
Now that you know all of that, it would help you a lot to read the first two books of my series Etheric Adventures: Anne and Jinx.
Book one is Etheric Recruit and book two is Etheric Researcher.
Hopefully, this allows you to start the book and have some sort of idea of how and why things are as they are.
Here is a reading list if you are interested in finding out more about how we got here.
Etheric Adventures Boxed Set: Books 1-3 Page 34