The Bad Company™ Boxed Set (Books 1-4)

by Martelle, Craig

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  February 17, 2018

  Thank you ALWAYS for not only reading this story, but reading all of the way to the back and through to these author notes, as well ;-)

  I happened to be in London at the same time as Craig, and met those amazing people he mentioned (and many more including Abby-Lynn Knorr (Oriceran), Meg Cowly (Oriceran), Micky Cocker (Kurtherian and others, but we are keeping her here), Dan Willcocks (Age of Madness – Kurtherian) and of course Martha Carr (Oriceran) as well as many others. It was a wonderful time and (while I don’t think any of the other authors outside of those mentioned above read my stuff) HELLO from over the pond!

  Just in case they do read our stuff.

  This latest week, we released TWO books on Valentine’s day. Bethany Anne’s book 21 (and the end to the Kurtherian Gambit saga. Her next book is The Kurtherian Endgame.) Also, Dawn Arrives, the fourth and last book in The Second Dark Ages.

  In those two, the lovers reunite.

  I was the last author leaving the time I call the second dark ages (between WWDE and when Bethany Anne and group surround the Earth with the BYPS system.) We (Craig Martelle, Justin Sloan and myself) wrote twenty-two books during that time with Craig and Justin writing eighteen.

  I wrote four… and half of those four books Ell Leigh Clarke helped me with!

  I just want to say KUDOS to those guys for making this age work out, and giving all of us a playground to work with.

  If you aren’t aware, Terry Henry was a character back in my original series who stayed on Earth, and his wife and child were killed during WWDE (World’s Worst Day Ever) and the time around that event. I had to ask Craig to write a series which was during this post-apocalyptic timeframe because I had learned my lesson.

  Don’t leave big gaps in the timeline, fans are no Bueno on that stuff.

  Now, leading up to THE BIG RELEASE of these two major series and the ONE major event so many readers wished to see (Michael and Bethany Anne getting back together) I received a LOT of questions, but one was at the top…

  “Which book do I read first? Life Goes on (TKG21) or Dawn Arrives (TSDA04)?”

  I answered, “21 then 4!”

  Apparently, I should have answered the other way around. Why? Because that sumbitch MURPHY got ahold of my plans and puckered them up.

  Now, I wrote book 21 first. Had it go through editing, worked it all out and it was ready to go. I wrote (with Ell) the second book because if ANYTHING should happen to the timeline, then Bethany Anne needed to drop first on Valentine’s day.

  It was important. Not only to the fans, but to me personally.

  We (and by ‘we’ I mean Zen Master Walking™ Stephen Campbell) released book 21 first. Ten minutes later, he pushed the button to release Dawn Arrives to make sure everything was copacetic.

  One hour later, Dawn Arrives pops up on the store for fans to start purchasing and Life Goes On is saying it is ‘publishing’ which means the book is supposed to be released to the servers for purchase by the fans.

  It is supposed to mean that.

  I won’t bore you with the details (go to either the Facebook page, or the Facebook group for the gory details, the offers to storm a certain businesses offices and other myriad and often funny comments) but Life Goes On didn’t show up until the morning of the 15th…

  DAMMIT!

  It just goes to show that no matter how many weeks you work towards a goal, it can always be screwed up at the last moment and the only thing to do is smile and work hard on the next project.

  While you grumble under your breath and say AWFUL things about computer servers and stupid processes that don’t work properly. I’m personally hoping the servers weren’t monitoring my speech.

  Cause the next book will take a week, I’m sure.

  THANK YOU for supporting all of us here in The Kurtherian Gambit. We have more (and more and more) stories we want to tell, including one about a big-assed ship.

  We (Craig and I) think you will enjoy that one quite a bit.

  Ad Aeternitatem!

  Michael Anderle

  Liberation

  Chapter One

  Keeg Station, in the Dren Cluster

  Terry pounded the bag. Relentlessly. It didn’t make him feel better, but he didn’t stop. Char ran through a series of leg exercises while Cory sat on a bench nearby, staring vacantly at a wall. They hadn’t left her on her own since Benitus Seven. Her husband of more than one hundred years was gone, his body fired into space after a brief ceremony.

  The blue glow had returned to her eyes, but the sparkle was gone.

  Her parents struggled for normalcy, but it eluded them.

  Aaron and Yanmei walked into the workout room. Yanmei approached slowly, holding her hands in front of her, almost in prayer. “Please join us, Cordelia,” the weretiger said softly, kneeling to be eye level with her friend. “We seek to help you be at peace with the universe and prepare for our travel back to Earth.”

  “Earth?” Terry and Char asked at the same time.

  Aaron intercepted them before they could interrupt Yanmei, who continued to speak softly with Cory. The two women stood together and headed for the corner where the yoga mats were already laid out. Aaron held up his hand and smiled.

  “Forever the teacher,” Char said. He had taught Cory, Kim, and Kaeden back in North Chicago, long ago. He had been a teacher in China when he was taken and modified, turned into a weretiger. Aaron had made the most of it, sadly, until he met Yanmei, a weretiger who had been Terry Henry Walton’s torturer, but that had been a different time and a different place.

  “I am,” Aaron admitted. “Ted has news. Some of us will be leaving soon for Earth, to take the IICS, as Ted calls them, and deliver them to our family and the powers that be.”

  “The Instantaneous Interstellar Communication System,” Terry spelled out. “I expect Cory wants to talk with her kids, tell them the bad news.”

  “We want her to go with us, talk with them in person.” Aaron wasn’t asking. Terry and Char looked at each other and nodded. They would do anything to help their daughter through her depression and on the road to recovery. She would never be whole, but they wanted her to be able to live with her loss. Of all people, Terry knew what it was like. He’d hidden from humanity for twenty years as he learned to cope. His nanocytes had decided that he would live, even when he didn’t care to.

  “A change of scenery will probably help.”

  “Among other things, my friends,” Aaron replied cryptically. “We will help her, with all that we are, because she deserves that and more.”

  Yanmei reached upward and then bent at the waist until she touched her toes. She slowly stretched downward until her palms were on the floor. Cory mirrored her.

  Aaron excused himself and joined them, adjusting Cory slightly before assuming his stance. His long arms touched the floor before he finished bending. After a solid thirty seconds, they rose. Three iterations later, they lunged forward into the warrior pose. Cory slowly assumed the position. Yanmei reached over to straighten one of Cory’s arms, rotating until her arm was under Cory’s, supporting it. Aaron moved to support her back arm. They remained in that position until Cory’s legs began to shake. They stood up and shook out before moving into a new pose.

  In between poses, they didn’t give her time to think. It was the first step on a long road, not to forget but to live a life as it had become. Move forward, one second at a time, one step at a time.

  Char stood and stretched the tightness from her legs. She had overdone it, just like her husband. Terry rotated his shoulder, flexing, twisting, and wincing. After all the years and the treatments in the Pod-doc, it still gave him problems, especially when he worked out like a madman. He folded his hands in front and watched his daughter do something other than cry.

  It had been tearing at his heart, because her grief was so profound, and there was nothing he could do about it. Terry felt the burden of life weighing him
down, not able to shake the crushing mass. Char carried her own angst, every bit as great. No parent could watch their child go through what Cory was going through without having it grate on their very souls.

  It gave them hope to see their friends intervene and slowly lead Cory onto the road to recovery.

  Terry breathed slowly and deeply, licking his lips and picking up his towel. “What do you say we find Ted and ask how things are going?”

  “We have dinner with them tonight. He might get suspicious if we talk with him twice in the same day.”

  “True,” Terry agreed. “Then let’s get changed and walk around. See if there’s any color we can add back into this station.”

  “I know what you mean,” Char said softly. “It’s like everything is shades of gray.”

  “Fifty?” Terry injected lightheartedly.

  “Don’t you start with that.” Char pushed Terry playfully, her purple eyes sparkling for a moment.

  Normalcy. Maybe it wasn’t such a distant thing.

  After one last look at the weretigers working with their daughter, they walked away feeling much better than when the day started.

  Spires Harbor

  Sue and Timmons both stood with their arms crossed. They’d made their arguments, yet Shonna and Merrit looked skeptical.

  “I thought we were pretty convincing, so what will it be? Moment of truth, bitches,” Sue said, looking down her nose at the two.

  “Why do we have to decide right now?” Shonna replied, putting her hands on her hips as she faced Sue. Timmons moved to the side, as did Merrit. If the Werewolves were going to throw down, they wanted to watch.

  Shonna smirked first and Sue laughed. Merrit and Timmons harrumphed in disappointment. “Boys wanted to see mud wrestling, methinks,” Sue intoned.

  “Too bad, fellas,” Shonna said softly. “Of course, we’ll put on our project manager hats again. We need to contract the infrastructure required to build spaceships. I’m not sure it gets any better than that, but how will Char feel about it? I don’t think taking her pack away will do anything to lighten her mood.”

  Sue and Timmons frowned. Ramses had been their friend, too.

  “For the greater good,” Felicity interjected, joining the werewolves on the observation deck of Sheri’s Pride, looking at the beehive of activity surrounding the budding shipyard.

  “We’ve all lost people,” she said softly before speaking more boldly. “They were good people, but we have to move forward. The universe is expanding. We can sit back and watch, or we can grab that bastard and drag it in a direction of our choosing!”

  “Damn, Felicity. What’s got you so fired up?”

  She smiled slyly. “Ted’s home.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder, looking smug as she turned and walked away.

  Sue gave her the hairy eyeball. “You must be one hell of a woman, Felicity. My compliments! There was no amount of time that we were apart where Ted would return feeling amorous. One day or one year. He was always just Ted.”

  Felicity turned enough that they could see her blushing above a coy smile.

  “Ladies! It’s not a competition,” Shonna said as she rubbed Merrit’s shoulders. Timmons pulled Sue into a hug.

  “Let the orgy begin,” Felicity drawled as she walked away, adding an extra swing to her hips. The others stopped to watch her leave. Sue crossed her arms and scowled.

  “Some people make a better fit than others. I don’t want to think about a life without you,” Timmons whispered, racing to the rescue before Sue despaired too long over something out of her control.

  “You are right, you big, husky werewolf.” Sue kissed him on the cheek. “We all have work to do.”

  Sue and Timmons shook hands with Shonna and Merrit to seal the deal. “I’ll talk to Char,” Timmons told them.

  * * *

  Christina strolled along the shopping deck. Marcie on one side and Kaeden on the other. “It’s like you don’t want me to shop, when you know I love shopping. Four shoe stores here and Felicity says that there will soon be six,” she said without looking at either of them.

  “We only want you to buy what we’re selling,” Marcie replied.

  “And that would be?”

  “Backstop us,” Kaeden said softly. Christina stopped and turned.

  “I’ve got your backs, but that’s not what you mean, is it?”

  Marcie moved around the werewolf to be in front of her standing next to her husband.

  “General Reynolds wants someone to transform one of the regional militaries into a viable air-ground task force,” Marcie said matter-of-factly. Christina screwed her face up as she contemplated the words.

  Kaeden translated it into layman’s terms. “A land army just in case someone is trying to be a dick. A show of force, that’s not just show. And we know Dad’s the right person for the job, but he can’t be everywhere at all times. Back on Earth, Marcie, Kim, and I built up the FDG until it was a worldwide fighting force. But there was one drawback.”

  Christina crossed her arms, pursed her lips, tapped one foot, and waited.

  “The enemy was the Forsaken. They made sure not to be wherever we were. It was a lesson in futility. We disbanded the majority of the FDG in favor of small tactical teams, and that’s when we were finally able to engage them straight up.”

  “What’s this have to do with me? I mean, I know you think I’m a one-person army, which is flattering, but training another army? I’m not so keen on that.”

  Marcie rolled her eyes and shook her head as Kae chuckled. When the couple composed themselves, Marcie answered. “We want you to assume my position in the Bad Company. You’ll make a great deputy for Terry Henry. Kimber will take over the mech recon. Kaeden and I are taking over the expansion of the FDG.”

  “I thought Kurtz was doing that, with the other modified Pricolici?”

  “Kurtz is a better tactical commander. He was always a front-line guy, but they need someone who's a little more recruiting, organizing, and strategy oriented. Plus, we want to step back from war for a little bit.”

  Christina’s breath caught in her throat. She looked at her shoes. She didn’t need more, but a new pair would make her feel better. When she looked up, she found Marcie and Kae watching her. “I can’t blame you,” Christina admitted. “Does TH know that you’re leaving?”

  “Yes, but he hasn’t accepted it. That’s where you come in. If he has confidence that you’ll fill my shoes well, then he’ll be more comfortable. All he can see is that his family is being torn apart by something he’s been expecting to happen since we joined his war against evil.” Marcie sighed.

  “It’s something we would do no matter what. Dad thinks he coerced us to join, but Marcie and me? We had two kids, a family, but we were denying who we wanted to be, and that was defenders of the oppressed. The one thing that has made the most sense in our lives is Dad’s commitment to helping others. He always says that if you have the ability to act, you have the responsibility. We believe that. Few people are built for war. Humanity’s basic instinct is to live more sedate lives. Travel for excitement, but return home at the end of a long day to a happy family, a good meal, and a warm bed. My parents have been killing themselves for as long as they’ve been alive to give others that life. The FDG is our chance to do that on a planetary scale. If we can help bring peace by crushing an enemy’s army, then that’s what we’ll do.”

  “I’d say you fuckers were raised wrong, but my parents and their friends raised me to believe that, too. I get angry and in my—” Christina looked around to make sure no one was close by. “—Pricolici form, I want to shred them like cabbage.”

  “Step back from that and don’t change form. As Terry’s deputy, he’ll need you to help him oversee the battle, but when the rubber meets the road and you’re forced into close combat, the gloves come off and you crush your enemies,” Marcie explained. Her lip twitched as the adrenaline surged. She clenched her fists.

  Christina punched her in the
chest. “I’m in. Let’s go buy some new shoes to celebrate.” Marcie smiled, not in humor, but in the way warriors did as they prepared to engage the enemy.

  It was the confidence of someone who was more at home in war than in peace.

  Christina smiled the same way.

  Kae watched expressionlessly. He felt sorry for the clerk in the shoe store. I think I’ll wait outside, he thought. Until Marcie and Christina each grabbed an arm and propelled him between them toward a store called Camper, a store brand taken from the fashion scene of old Earth’s London. Kae groaned and frowned as the women sought a future addition to their wardrobes. Kaeden looked at their feet. They were both wearing shoes. What the hell do you need another pair for?

  He didn’t dare say it aloud.

  Chapter Two

  Keeg Station, TSP’s Fine Dining

  Terry and Char stood in the corridor watching the flashing lights as each restaurant, bar, and store tried to attract customers through their signs and displays.

  “It looks like Chinatown,” Terry said. Char raised one eyebrow. As Felicity pushed for opening Keeg Station to the general public, the shop owners were attempting to expand their reach, and be successful enough to petition for more space.

  “It looks like success, you mean. Capitalism at its finest. It reminds me of Kingston Town.”

  Terry agreed. “Better. It’s the Kingston we grew to like. Vendors hawking their wares. They made everyone happy to be alive.”

  Char’s face turned dark at TH’s comment.

  “Oh, shit. I’m sorry.” Terry wrapped his arms around his wife and hugged her. He closed his eyes to be more present in the moment, more aware of her. She didn’t sob, but he knew she was crying.

  Again.

  Am I heartless? he wondered. Terry’s sadness was for his daughter. He missed those he lost in combat, but he considered it an honor to die in battle, especially while saving another. It was the epitome of sacrifice. Glory to those who die in service to others.