The Kurtherian Endgame Boxed Set: Books 1 - 4 - Payback is a Bitch, Compelling Evidence, Through the Fire and Flame, All's Fair in Blood and War

by Michael Anderle

  Bethany Anne grinned. “I don’t know. That would depend on how the station manager decides to run things. You would have access to whatever services from High Tortuga you wanted to include if you took the position.”

  Giselle pursed her lips. “I want to jump on your offer, but I need to consult with my family first.”

  Bethany Anne nodded. “I understand. Why don’t we use this time as a trial to see if you like the job? You can make an informed decision when this is over.”

  Giselle raised an eyebrow. “You really need a station manager, don’t you, my Queen?”

  Bethany Anne’s mouth quirked. “I knew there was a reason I liked you, and not just because you make the best fucking sandwich I’ve eaten in forever.” She got into the elevator and turned back to lift a finger to Giselle. “Just think about it. But don’t take too long or the job will be gone.”

  Bethany Anne took the time to check in with a couple of the heads of departments before she directed the elevator to take her up to the command center at the top of the station. The mostly-completed command center was for the moment empty, since all work had been halted to direct resources to ship repairs after the battle.

  ADAM, lock the door. She brushed a thick rope of insulation-wrapped wiring aside to get to the communications station. She slid into the chair and regarded the blank screen irritably. ADAM, can you do your thing? I need to speak to my dad.

  >>You could speak to him mind-to-mind on the way back to the ArchAngel II,<< ADAM replied.

  She shrugged, worn down for the moment by grief. I could. I was going to. I…want to see his face.

  Whatever ADAM did brought the monitor to life, and a bare minute later her father appeared on the screen.

  Lance grinned when he saw his daughter, but his grin faded when he saw the hard lines of her face. “Sweetheart, what’s the matter?” His eyebrows knit in concern.

  Bethany Anne allowed the tears to fall in the safety of the locked room. “It’s been a hard few days. I have people missing, a lot more people died today, and I’ve got no choice but to show fucking restraint.”

  Lance hissed. “You were attacked?”

  Bethany Anne nodded. “Kael-ven and Kiel took a couple of techs to pick up the downed scout ship. They were followed. I got the Atalanta out there in time to back them up, but the bastards came back with more ships.”

  Lance put a hand to his forehead. “How many?” he asked carefully.

  She wiped her eyes. “Too many, Dad. Two hundred and thirty-three.”

  Lance shook his head, then looked up at her. “These were the same aliens you fought in the quarantined zone?”

  Bethany Anne shook her head. “No. Different ones.” She sounded young for a moment. Hurt. “These bastards have taken thirty-seven of our people; Peter and Jian are among that number. I’m about to go in, but I wanted to send you the data on this species first.”

  Lance smiled knowingly. “I appreciate you taking the time,” he told her. “Will it get here through our usual method?”

  Bethany Anne nodded. “Mm-hmm. Just make sure whoever retrieves it gives the satellite the correct passcodes this time. It’s a pain in the ass sending everything twice.”

  “God forbid you should have to repeat yourself,” Lance teased.

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Dad, that wouldn’t be a joke even if it was funny. I haven’t got time to take a shit let alone repeat myself. I need to clear this threat, and all I want is to go home and hold my children.”

  Lance sighed softly. “Lord, I remember that feeling.”

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like you started work on extending the family right around the same time you took a job with more time demands than anything you ever did when I was in charge.”

  Lance made a face. “It wasn’t like I had much choice, sweetheart.”

  It was Bethany Anne’s turn to chuckle dryly. “Sometimes we have to miss our kids to keep them safe. Them’s the breaks, Dad.”

  Lance fixed her with a stern look. “Nice to see all that money I spent on a college education paid off. I hope you’re not teaching my grandchildren to talk like that.”

  “Seriously?” She snorted. “Of all the things, you’re pulling me on that?”

  Lance’s stone face collapsed. “No, but it was worth it to distract you for a moment and remind you to be appropriately pissed about this instead of wallowing. Now, how are you planning to get everyone back?”

  “With my help, of course,” ADAM chipped in from the speakers.

  “And mine,” TOM added.

  “I wasn’t wallowing,” Bethany Anne clarified. “I’ve already begun to act.”

  Lance nodded, a proud grin touching his lips. “Thatta girl. Now go back and tell me everything from the start. You're confusing an old man.” He stole a surreptitious glance off-camera as he laced his hands across his chest and sat back to listen.

  “You mean you’re avoiding something,” Bethany Anne surmised. “What is it?”

  Lance huffed. “I never could fool you. Patricia has us going to a wine tasting.” His face said it all.

  Bethany Anne snickered. “Don’t imagine you’ve fooled Patricia, either. But do pass on my apologies for keeping you.”

  Lance leaned back and called over his shoulder. “See, Patricia? It’s not make-work. Bethany Anne needs me.”

  Bethany Anne heard Patricia’s muffled voice in the background. Lance wished her a good evening without him and turned back to the screen. “So. You have a new enemy. They’ve kidnapped our people. Do we know if they’re still alive?”

  Bethany Anne’s face dropped. “I can only hope so. We have a lead on the ship that took them.”

  Lance raised an eyebrow.

  “ADAM made a little friend who is going to lead us right to it.” She tapped her fingers on the console, momentarily absorbed in putting her plan into words. “These are different aliens than the last, and we discovered that they have some mental ability.”

  “What kind?” her father asked.

  Bethany Anne shrugged. “Not certain. We had the ones we captured inside a dampening field, and Michael killed them before we learned much about them.” She rolled her head and shoulders, feeling relief as some of the tension she was carrying eased.

  Lance’s concern was written in the lines of his face. “What if they’re psychically powerful? The grubs almost had you, Bethany Anne.”

  Bethany Anne straightened in her seat. “I’m better prepared this time. I took the time to learn about my enemy while we were fighting them. If they have a similar setup to the grubs, then I’ll be ready with a mechanical solution this time. A purely organic one isn’t enough.”

  Lance gave her a pointed look, his amusement showing clearly. “I’d like to hear you tell Michael his organic self isn’t enough.”

  Bethany Anne shook her head, a smile touching the corners of her lips. “Oh, he’s going, and he’ll be very effective when it’s time to play his part. In fact, I’d almost feel sorry for the sucker-faced fuckers if I gave even one shit about them. But it doesn’t matter. I have a bigger plan.”

  Lance opened his mouth to speak but changed his mind when he saw the angry gleam in her eyes. He shrugged. “I knew you wouldn’t stay quiet for too long.”

  Bethany Anne chuckled. “It’s not in my DNA to hide when trouble comes calling. But the Ooken made the biggest mistake in their soon-to-be-terminated history. They might be strong mentally, but if ADAM’s intel is right, their tech game has gotten no further than the EI stage. I plan to use that to my advantage.”

  “It’s right,” ADAM assured them a little stuffily. “I followed the EI all the way back to its hidey-hole—the planet this group of Ooken have set up home on.”

  Bethany Anne lifted a finger and waved it in a circle. “See?” she teased, copying Lance’s earlier words. “Prepared. I’m calling in Eve and Akio, and Michael is already here. It’s not all bad news. When you get the report, pay close attention to the breakdow
n of their ships’ metallurgical structure.”

  Lance tilted his head. “Oh, yes?”

  Bethany Anne winked at her father. “Make sure you get that report without any hitches and you’ll see.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Immersive Recreational and Training Scenario: Shipwrecked In Space

  Alexis backed out from the maintenance hatch on her hands and knees. “That’s the last power pack. How much time do we have left, Aunt Addix?”

  Addix consulted the game guide. “Three hours, more or less.”

  Alexis frowned. “Is it more or is it less?”

  “Does it matter?” Gabriel asked.

  Alexis rolled her eyes as she gathered her tools. “It does if we have two hours of work to fix this ship and only an hour and fifty minutes to complete it in.”

  “Provided the patches you’ve done to the EI system hold, you have three hours and twelve minutes remaining, and an estimated forty minutes’ worth of tasks to complete.”

  Alexis narrowed her eyes. “We must have missed something. That’s too much time remaining. I knew it was too easy when all we had to do was reboot the core. Quick, get Phyrro online, Gabriel.”

  Gabriel obeyed his sister with a grimly hopeful expression on his face. “Or we just did really well and smashed this scenario.” He flicked the buttons and switches, but nothing happened.

  Alexis stamped her foot, her hands clenched into fists. “I knew it!”

  Then the holoprojector flickered, and Phyrro’s friendly face appeared. “Congratulations, children. I have been watching, and you have both done exceptionally well so far.”

  “So far?” Gabriel asked.

  Phyrro nodded. “If you take a look behind you, you will see a red light flashing.”

  Alexis frowned at the rows of blinking reds and oranges all around the command center. “Which one?”

  Addix chuckled.

  “Good point,” Phyrro conceded. “The one I refer to belongs to the deck containing the stasis Pods, which is coming to the end of its emergency power supply. The power cannot be returned until the substation for that deck is repaired.”

  “What happened to it?” Gabriel asked.

  Phyrro’s head was replaced by a map of the ship. There were two dots on the map: one green, one red. “We are at the green dot. The red dot is the transformer that burned out during the power surge.”

  “Aren’t the maintenance bots fixing it?” Gabriel asked.

  “No,” Phyrro replied. “All power is being diverted from unnecessary systems to keep the stasis Pods running.”

  Addix’s mandibles twitched nervously. “It sounds to me like there’s a danger of the entire system overloading.”

  “That is one possible outcome,” Phyrro admitted. “However, it is not likely to occur—as long as Alexis and Gabriel are quick.”

  “Can I not help?” Addix countered.

  Phyrro made a face. “I cannot see you enjoying the environment, Addix.”

  Alexis picked up her tool pouch and slung it over her back. “Time’s wasting.”

  Addix understood Phyrro’s concern when they got to the access hatch, a two-foot square panel situated at the base of the wall of the maintenance corridor between the stasis deck and the deck below. “Are you comfortable going in there, children?” she asked.

  Alexis gave her a pointed look and knelt to belly-crawl in. “Of course, Aunt Addix.” She adjusted her tool pouch and pressed the camera/flashlight button on her headset.

  Gabriel grinned. “It’s exciting,” he told her. He picked up a long rope and made a loop to attach the bag of replacement parts to his waist. Then he coiled the remainder of it over his shoulder and followed his sister elbows-first into the crawl space, dragging the bag behind him.

  Addix watched their progress via the camera feeds. Once they’d squirmed a short way past the access hatch, the crawl space opened up and they were able to get to their hands and knees.

  The access to the substation was a few minutes’ fast crawl from there, and they soon had the access panel off so Gabriel could lower Alexis down to repair the first transformer.

  Alexis glanced at the safety instruction sticker on the panel. “If only we had time for the jetpack suits.”

  Gabriel had been staring at the suits, which were racked in a locker nearby. “We could…”

  Alexis shook her head firmly. “No. They are a classic distraction. The easy way is never the easy way; haven’t you figured that out yet?” She took the rope from Gabriel and tied it under her armpits. “Just lower me down.”

  Gabriel stole another longing glance at the jetpack suits and took the other end of the rope. He tied it around his waist and braced himself to hold her weight.

  Alexis touched down in the dark and undid the rope. The first thing she noted was the smell of melted plastic or something similarly yucky. She swept the beam of her headlamp over the room as she walked between towering transformers, looking for the source of the acrid scent.

  “Alexis,” Gabriel called. “I’m sending down the equipment.”

  There was a soft thud when the bag met the floor. Alexis turned in time to see the rope snaking back up to the access hatch. “What are you doing?”

  “Making sure you don’t get stuck because the rope fell,” Gabriel returned.

  Alexis grabbed the bag. “Good thinking.”

  Gabriel flashed his light into the room a couple of times. “You’re not the only one who’s smart.”

  Alexis sighed and set off to find the burned-out transformer. Her sensitive nose led her to the offending unit, which still had puffs of smoke coming from the top of the unit. She pulled the manual release and the tank opened.

  Alexis tapped her foot while she waited for the transformer to rise from the coolant. When it was finally fully above the surface, she began the task of stripping out and exchanging the melted coils.

  Thirty-seven minutes later she stood beneath the hatch and called up to Gabriel, “I’m done!”

  Gabriel’s grinning face appeared, and the end of the rope tumbled down. “Great!”

  Alexis caught the rope neatly in one hand and secured it under her arms again. She checked her gear to make sure she hadn’t left anything and tugged twice on the rope for Gabriel to pull her up.

  Addix was glad to see them return in one piece. The three of them made their way back to the command center.

  Alexis dashed over to Phyrro when they arrived. “Did we do it, Phyrro? Are the colonists safe?”

  Phyrro’s head appeared again, this time surrounded by gold and silver sparkles. “Congratulations, children. You have completed this stage of the scenario.”

  Alexis and Gabriel high-fived each other.

  Addix’s mandibles twitched with pride. “You finished this stage with over an hour to spare, which I say earns you both a reward. What do you say to a break? I bet your Aunt Tabitha would like a visit.”

  Gabriel made the gesture to bring up the player menu. “You have the best ideas, Aunt Addix!”

  “We can call Mommy and Daddy, too,” Alexis added. She brought up her own menu and selected the exit protocol. “I hope they managed to smoosh the bad guys already.”

  They woke up inside the Vid-docs, where Eve was waiting.

  She nodded toward the seating area. “I’ve set the call up. Michael is waiting.”

  The twins darted over to the couch, a little bit unsteady on their legs after being in the Vid-doc for a while.

  Addix and Eve watched the children fondly while they prepared a protein-rich snack for them. They tuned out as Michael explained that Bethany Anne was on a call and asked them about their lesson.

  Addix nodded toward Alexis. “She out-thought your scenario easily enough.”

  Eve’s placid face twitched. “I know. That child has the brightest mind. I can only say I am grateful that she is not inclined toward destruction.” She moved her android body around to the table to lay out the snacks. “She is almost ready for the next version o
f the game.”

  Addix’s mandibles worked a second. “You’ve built another game?”

  Eve shook her head. “No, a new and improved version of this one. It is in the final stages of development. It’s mostly the same game, with a few tweaks. However, it’s a big jump for the children psychologically. I did ask about testing it on John and Scott, but for some reason, they weren’t keen on getting into the untested model.”

  Addix snickered. “I can’t see why.”

  The children ran over, chattering and laughing.

  Addix indicated the table. “Small snack, my treasures, and then we’ll be ready for the rest of our day.”

  “Daddy wants to talk to you both,” Alexis called back over her shoulder.

  “I think we're having a sleepover!” Gabriel cheered.

  Addix made her way to the couch and stood behind it, resting her hands on the back to lean in. Eve was right beside her, her head tilted up to Michael’s face on the screen.

  Michael’s face was set in hard lines. “My children tell me they completed their lessons in good time.”

  Addix nodded. “They did. I am going to take them to visit Tabitha before dinner. How are things progressing there?”

  Michael glanced over to check that the children were occupied with their food and lowered his voice. “The situation has escalated. We are about to leave for the system in question, although we shouldn't be much longer than another day or two.”

  Addix nodded her understanding, placing a hand on her chest. “You and Bethany Anne can count on me to keep them safe and sound until your return.”

  Michael smiled fondly at Alexis and Gabriel. “I know we can—which is why I have no issue with Bethany Anne requesting Eve's presence.”

  Eve perked up. “It's about time I got to see some action.”

  Michael raised an eyebrow at Eve’s tone. “Bloodthirsty today, are we?”

  Eve shrugged. “Those bastards took our people. I care for Peter and Jian, Jian especially since we spend much time contemplating existence together. I want to get them back and destroy the ones who took them.”

  Michael nodded in understanding. “Good. Grab Akio on your way.”