Never Surrender (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 16)

by Michael Anderle

  “Same thing,” Tabitha replied before adding, “Make it so, Achronyx.”

  Tabitha snickered to herself.

  —

  The QBS Achronyx was sitting in space a half hour outside of the Annex Gate, as the 3D map was displaying a system star map while Achronyx provided an update about Eubos.

  The EI explained, “There are 112 different space stations, bases on planets, and different major areas. Two of the planetoids have archaeological digs that existed before the Yollins took over this system. There are both Yollins and other aliens in this area of the system. However, King Yoll didn’t mind the illegalities so long as the mining throughput was sufficient. Apparently, the Bible according to King Yoll didn’t apply here. There is a small planet of marsupials which have been forced into slave labor upon occasion. The local Yollins don’t have a reason to help stop slave trading because they need bodies. The local marsupials really aren't that equipped to be in outer space.”

  “It seems we have several issues to handle. First, the present methods of production using slaves. Second, the future change over to a slave-less production, and lastly, dealing with those providing the slaves.”

  “And, what are slaves?” Ryu added.

  “Come again?” Tabitha asked.

  “What do we classify as slaves?” Ryu asked, “What about individuals who are working something off? What about prisoners stuck out here? There are three separate issues which might include debtors, prisoners, legal guard of prisoners (if any) to deal with. All examples of people who would like to be released because they are slaves, and would probably lie through their teeth so we would force the issue and potentially release criminals back into society.” Ryu explained.

  “Well...Fuck.” Tabitha murmured.

  Sometimes, she thought, having centuries old history books walking around with you could be SUCH a molesta y fastidio.

  Executive Prison, Planet Yoll

  Scott was waiting patiently for the Yollin Defense Minister. He had reviewed all of the notes that ADAM had, and asked Kael-ven about his opinion on this individual.

  For an alien, E’kolorn was just a man doing his job to the best of his ability. He had used his only option left to protect the people as best he could. He had no way of knowing that Bethany Anne was bluffing about slamming rocks into the space stations.

  Nor would she have dropped the space stations out of orbit. She would have, however, dropped a puck on the King’s palace grounds. That place would have been a large hole in the ground if she had been forced to continue the fight.

  Cheating aside, the result Bethany Anne accomplished was the best they could hope for from the challenge.

  Scott heard the footsteps coming down the hall and stood up.

  Two Yollins came into the room. One was a guard, the other had a badge of office attached at his breast.

  Dressing a Yollin was about as beneficial as dressing a Wookie would have been. Or maybe a horse, considering Kael-ven. This caused Scott to smile, wondering how a Yollin with four legs would put on pants?

  The Defense Minister, himself having four legs, walked over to Scott and nodded.

  “I am formally taking responsibility for this prisoner, Guard K’lrek,” Scott told him. The Guard looked back in surprise. “What? You thought I wouldn’t?” Scott asked.

  “No,” the guard answered, “I didn’t think it would be formal.”

  Scott lifted his arm and pointed to a device he had strapped to his forearm, “This records everything I do. The Empress is very persnickety about how her personal Guards act. Should I have failed to act accordingly, my next sparring session with her would have been a bit more painful.”

  “Excuse me,” E’kolorn interjected and both men turned to him, “what do you mean, ‘would have been more painful?”

  “It means my healing time for fucking up would be increased due to me getting my ass kicked. Bethany Anne is a high-contact boss. As in, the bigger the fuck-up, the higher the amount of contact. While we get our own licks in from time to time, a fight with her can sometimes be one-sided.”

  “You hit your own Empress?” the ex-Defense Minister asked.

  “How else would you spar?” Scott asked, “Just stand there and take it? That wouldn’t do Bethany Anne any good. Trust me, we know she can take most anything we can throw at her, so if we get a chance, we make sure to teach her a lesson every chance we get.”

  The human scratched his face, “Unfortunately, she doesn’t usually fall for the same trick twice, so we have to figure out new ideas to get through her defenses.” He stuck out his hand, “I’m Scott, I’ll be your partner for today, keep all hands to yourself, and everything will go just fine. If you mouth off to the Empress, which I don’t suggest, you will earn pain. Perhaps not in front of her. However,” Scott pointed to E’kolorn, “she is offering you dignity and an opportunity to act civil. I don’t care how mad you might be, she cares and doesn’t deserve to hear about anything you don’t like, am I clear?”

  The previous Defense Minister thought about it a moment, “If I am disrespectful, you will hurt me later.”

  Scott thought about the answer, “A little blunt, but that is the basic message. Now, don’t fuck up.”

  The two left the prison and got aboard a ship that was floating above the ground. It had a Yollin symbol next to one that, he took a guess, was an alien skull with pointed teeth.

  E’kolorn looked out over the city and the stadium in the distance that had been the end of King Yoll.

  And the Kurtherian that was using the Yollin body like a puppet.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “The new government leadership’s building. We will land on the top, and then go down from there. You will be seen on news video, so it is up to you if you want to walk like a hero or a prisoner.”

  “No beating me to make sure I walk a certain way?” He asked.

  “That’s up to you. However, we have a saying on our planet ‘act like you want to be treated.’ So, if you want to be treated like a prisoner, feel free to act like it, and I imagine I can facilitate your act. I have already reviewed your records. You are treated well, and not abused. It isn’t a hotel, but killing many of our people when we asked for safe passage doesn’t rate you a king-sized bed, either.”

  E’kolorn didn’t argue he was under orders, the aliens knew it.

  Moments later, the Pod landed on the new Government building, and the two got out. They went past the guards stationed at the top. He looked up to see the massive ship the Empress used hovering not that far above them in the sky.

  A warning that idiots flying around wouldn’t be permitted to live, he imagined. He wondered for a moment about their method of propulsion. What he wouldn’t give to know if the Ixtalis had their hooks in them already. Or had the Ixtalis got their hooks in the aliens before they showed up in his planet’s backyard?

  The two of them went down five floors, and when exiting the elevator, passed by more guards.

  When they finally arrived at the last set of doors, there were two more aliens in red armor, like Scott was wearing. One had skin color somewhat darker than Scott, and the other was significantly darker than Scott.

  Neither one seemed to be carrying the wounds that being blown out of a fifth story window would cause.

  The two entered the meeting room and walked up to Kael-ven and Bethany Anne, “My Empress, I would like to introduce you to the former Defense Minister, E’kolorn.”

  Bethany Anne stood up and reached over, holding out her hand as his guard had. He took it, and she shook before releasing his hand. “How was the meeting with your wife?”

  “That was you?” he asked. He had wondered if she was the person who had helped make the meeting happen.

  A Yollin was standing next to the Empress, he held out his hand in the same fashion the Empress had. “No, that was me, my name is Kael-ven.”

  Perhaps it was true, she had a docile Yollin standing in for her?

  Kae
l-ven continued. “I could not confirm for a while why you obeyed King Yoll’s orders, but then capitulated, or encouraged him to fight Bethany Anne when you did.”

  “That was an easy decision. She,” and E’kolorn pointed to Bethany Anne with his head, “could have easily killed those on the Space Stations or pummeled the planet with kinetic weapons. As the Defense Minister, my job was to defend the people. It seemed an easy decision once she requested to fight for the role of King.”

  The Empress pursed her lips. It was odd to see someone with no mandibles, “What if we had decided to start with those types of attacks?”

  E’kolorn shrugged, “Well, then I would have fought you tooth and nail.”

  The Empress seemed to withdraw into herself for a few moments as E’kolorn wondered if he had just messed up.

  “I think you will work well, E’kolorn. I think you will work well, indeed,” she told him.

  Work well on what? he wondered.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Eubos System, Station 182

  Yollin Station Master Denigh closed his eyes, then tapped his mandibles, twice, before turning in his chair and stabbing the call button, “Yes, comms?”

  “Station Manager, we are being hailed by aliens, sir.”

  “Coc’li,” Denigh answered slowly, “there are hundreds of species that we happen to know about, ourselves. Do you have a particular type of alien race, or are you going to make me play five-questions-before-I-put-my-clawed-foot-up-your-ass?”

  There was a moment as Coc’li seemed to parse his comments, “The Humans, sir.”

  “You imbecile!” Denigh stood up, “I’m coming to communications, you should have said that first!”

  Denigh slammed the button again and grabbed his tablet.

  It seems his boring time was officially over.

  So was his curiosity about whether or not the humans would show up in this backward area of Yollin space.

  —

  “Well,” Tabitha looked at the clock, the seconds increasing as she watched it, “the bet is now between Ryu and Hirotoshi as to who wins. We still haven’t heard from the station master.”

  “That was a sucker bet.” Ryu commented, “The manager over there is going to want to be in the communications room. It was unlikely he was sitting in there, and now he is trying to figure out where we are.”

  Tabitha smirked. There were twenty seconds to go before Hirotoshi lost and Ryu won.

  “Well, let’s test that theory, shall we?”

  “Wait, Kemosabe,” Ryu interjected, “That wasn’t instruction to suggest…”

  “Achronyx,” Tabitha spoke out, “Please cancel the cloaking provided we are in no danger.”

  “There is always a danger,” the EI replied.

  “Danger more than one percent,” she clarified.

  “Uncloaking,” Achronyx confirmed.

  “This is Station one-eight-two,” came a voice over the comms.

  Ryu groaned behind her as Tabitha, Katsu, and Shin chuckled. She could hear the small gold coins that were being used as legal tender in the Etheric Empire jingle as they were taken off of the table by Hirotoshi, no doubt.

  “This is the Etheric Empire’s QBS Achronyx,” Tabitha replied, “Ranger Tabitha speaking. Please provide instructions on how to dock, the internal atmosphere, and an opportunity to speak with the Station Manager.”

  “We do not recognize,” the voice came back, “the ship design. It seems based on a Yollin scout vessel, but it is not the same size.”

  “True,” Tabitha replied, “But the connections are standard, I assure you.”

  “Well,” the Yollin voice came back, “I would like to confirm…”

  This time, Tabitha overrode the person speaking, “Look, here is how it is about to go. This is Her Majesty’s Ranger. You will provide docking instructions, or I’ll shoot a hole in the nearest surface in order to dock. Keep dicking with me, and when I get on the space station, I’ll make sure to look three times as hard for infractions. When I find those infractions, I will immediately implement justice. Since I don’t have any serious jailing facilities, I’ll just throw whoever fucked up off the station, without a suit. Have I made myself clear?”

  There was a pause.

  “Please use docking location B-14, it seems we have a few ships leaving quickly.”

  “I’ll just bet you do,” Tabitha murmured to herself. “Achronyx, are there any issues locating B-14?”

  “No.”

  “Then take us there, maintain active defenses.”

  “Understood,” he supplied.

  —

  “Well,” The station manager thought about the discussion after the call disconnected. “I guess that answers the question about whether they are friendly, unfriendly, or willing to put a clawed foot up my ass.”

  “We have four different ships requesting immediate departure,” Comms spoke to the station manager, “We will need to unlock those ships at the right time for balance issues.”

  “I guess the r’cklickn are leaving before the light gets shined on them.” He rubbed his mandible.”

  “Sir, did you see the image of their ship?”

  “Just a glance, why?”

  Coc’li pulled the station's video up and dialed in the magnification.

  “That’s,” the station manager paused a moment, “a lot of guns.”

  “That is not a normal scouting vessel,” Coc’li agreed.

  The station manager pointed to the screen, “Dial up the magnification on the ship emblem.”

  Coc’li leaned forward, “Are those pointed teeth?”

  Denigh stood up, “They aren’t herbivores, not with pointed teeth.”

  The station manager started walking out of the comms’ room, heading towards berth B-14 and called out over his shoulder, “Next time Aliens that conquer our own world show up, how about start off the conversation with that information?”

  —

  Tabitha checked her guns, made sure her equipment was in each pocket and confirmed she had plenty of ammo.

  She dialed the gun down to three. For now, she didn’t want to blow any unnecessary holes in the Space Station’s walls if she could help it.

  She grabbed her soft helmet and stuffed it into one of her pockets. It would help if she was in a bad place, and needed air.

  She considered kicking out her spurs and then decided not to. Those should come out, she decided, at opportune times.

  “Achronyx,” she called out, “Are we good with gravity and air?”

  “Yes, gravity is three percent above the norm, air is acceptable. The additional trace gasses are not detrimental to your physiology.”

  Tabitha reached up to pat between her breasts, just confirming her Ranger’s medallion was lodged there. She had other identification, but it was decided that there would be one medallion that every Ranger would carry. It had chips embedded in the casting that could confirm the validity of the medallion, as well as tell if the wearer was the correct Ranger, and whether that Ranger was alive, or not.

  If not, it would send information through the Etheric to the Merideth Reynolds. That information would be used in the future to locate the Empress’ Rangers that died, and facilitate locating who killed them.

  Tabitha left her cabin and walked up to the bridge, “Katsu, when we dock, make sure you work on their computer systems with Achronyx. I want to know, and have, everything sucked out of their system and any other ships you can get by the time we leave.”

  “Isn’t that illegal?” He asked as he started bringing up the necessary screens to work on her request.

  Tabitha tapped herself on the chest and smiled, “Interestingly enough, we are still under Etheric Martial Law in these areas, so the answer is ‘no.'”

  “And when we revert back to normal Etheric Law?”

  “Then the choice is left up to the Ranger when said Ranger is on an operation. So, since I am the Ranger in question…”

  “The answer will still be ‘su
ck it all dry,'” her Tonto responded. “Yes, Kemosabe.”

  Tabitha left the bridge and worked her way to the docking area. The connection between the ship and the station had been established, and Hirotoshi was waiting for her. Tabitha looked out of the ship to find Ryu and a Yollin waiting for them on the deck of the space station.

  “Shall we, Number 1?” she asked.

  Hirotoshi harrumphed, and Tabitha walked out of the ship with him following, the ship’s door irised closed behind them.