by Natalie Grey
“Maybe you should have had her try the juice,” Barnabas suggested.
Everyone looked at him. While he had said he might be back soon, they hadn’t heard from him since that message.
“Hey!” Tabitha stood up, threw her arms around him, and kissed him on the cheek. “Big B is back!”
“Have a sandwich,” Bethany Anne suggested. “They’re very good. For sandwiches. And I hear this is a hundred-percent-Coke only establishment, so I don’t have to burn it to the ground or anything.”
Carter, who was putting another tray of sandwiches on the table, gulped and slid away hastily with a brief, wide-eyed look of appeal at Barnabas.
Barnabas snickered as he sat down between Bethany Anne and Tabitha. “Where’s Michael?”
“He said he didn’t like sandwiches,” Tabitha said, in the tone of someone who had just found out that a close friend liked to kill puppies for fun. “Bethany Anne was going to persuade him that he should come next time. Then she let me down.”
Bethany Anne laughed. “I’m a huge disappointment,” she said, from around a mouthful of sandwich. “It’s just good I’m not running an empire anymore, or the whole thing would go up in flames. Literal flames. Nukes everywhere.” She smiled at Barnabas.
Barnabas pulled one of the plates toward himself and tucked in. Across the room, he could see Gar talking with some of the other Luvendi. They seemed glad to see him. Perhaps things were turning around here now that Lan and his ilk were gone.
As if Bethany Anne could read his thoughts, she smiled at him. “Things are going well here. This planet is becoming what we meant it to be—a haven.”
“I’m glad.” Barnabas heaved a sigh. “I…have a feeling that I’ll be called away for a while after this. The more I see of what’s out there, the more I realize how much hopelessness there is.” He looked down at the glass in his hands. “How do you keep so many people around and keep your resolve?”
Bethany Anne frowned at him. “You’re not making sense,” she said bluntly.
Barnabas heaved a sigh. Nearby, there was a crash and a shout, and most of the people at the table laughed. It seemed there was some sort of dance contest going on between a Brakalon and some kind of alien with six arms. Barnabas gave a distracted smile at the chaos and looked back at Bethany Anne.
“When I was neutral about everything—”
“Which was bullshit.” She took a sip of coke.
“I know that,” Barnabas said mildly. “It was easier to pretend that everything would work in the long run, though. Now that I am meeting more and more people, getting close to them, hearing their stories—I realize how much injustice there is, and how much it hurts people. Don’t you ever feel like you can’t make a difference?”
Bethany Anne sat quietly for a moment. “No,” she said at last. Her voice was strong, and it only grew harder as she spoke. “Running an Empire was soul-sucking. It was like rolling in a pile of shit all day long. I had to give up everything that was important to me. I hated it. But I would do it all again. Anytime there’s one less bastard out there ruining the universe, anytime there are people better off when you leave than when you get there, it’s worth it.” Her eyes started to glow, though she kept a rein on her temper. “There are a lot of assholes out there. It’s why I was the Queen Bitch, not Queen Everybody-Gets-a-Hug. Let it make you angry. Don’t. Ever. Let them win.”
Barnabas reached out and clinked his glass with hers. “Anytime there are people better off,” he murmured. He nodded. “Someday I hope to have faith like yours.”
“How do you compliment someone and make yourself sound so superior at the same time?” Bethany Anne shook her head. “You’re a snooty asshole, Barnabas. But we love you.”
“I wasn’t trying to sound superior!”
You’re always trying to sound superior, Shinigami weighed in.
“See?” Bethany Anne cocked her head. “And she knows you better than anyone.”
Barnabas gave a laugh and took a drink. “This juice is so good.”
“Good enough that you didn’t tell me there was Pepsi in the basement?”
“A man does what he must to protect what he loves,” Barnabas said simply. “Don’t ask me to choose between my love for my Queen and my love for this juice.”
Bethany Anne snorted.
“Hey.” Carter appeared at Barnabas’ shoulder.
“What can I help you with?” Barnabas turned to him with a smile.
“Nothing,” Carter said, amused. “We just haven’t seen you in a bit. I wanted to see how you were.” He sat on a nearby bench, wiping his hands on the towel he had hooked into a belt loop. “Did you finish another mission?”
“Ah.” Somewhat surprised by the drift of the conversation, Barnabas scratched at his head.
It’s called “making friends,” Shinigami explained. Now, play nice with the other human. You clearly need coaching with this.
“I did about half a mission,” Barnabas told Carter. “You don’t take down something that big just by cutting a few heads off the hydra.”
Carter just smiled. “If there’s anyone methodically relentless enough to pull it off, it’s you.”
“Thank you for your support. It means a lot. How’s Elisa? How are the kids?” Barnabas’ gaze sharpened. “Not upset by what happened before, are they?
Only a few weeks prior, some mercenaries had decided to make a point by taking Elisa hostage, and she had only just managed to hide the children before she was captured.
“They don’t know what really happened,” Carter admitted. “They think it was just a game of hide and seek. We’ve decided not to tell them just yet. Maybe when they’re older.” He shrugged. “Though I hope by then it won’t be a story there’s any reason to tell. Once High Tortuga is everything it can be…well. And it’s not like they’ll get very far in life without knowing that their mother is badass.”
“You make a good point.” Barnabas had heard the story of Elisa sneaking out of the mercenary camp on her own, and nearly killing a Shrillexian in hand-to-hand combat. “I’ll bet she doesn’t take any backtalk about bedtime.”
Carter gave a bark of laughter. “No. No, she doesn’t.”
Hey, Chief. Message for you. Sending it to your tablet.
Barnabas frowned and held up a finger to Carter. He pulled out his tablet and smiled when he saw the picture that came up on the screen.
“What the hell is that?” Bethany Anne asked from over his shoulder. “Jellyfish family reunion?”
“You’re not far off,” Barnabas told her. He pointed. “That’s Jeltor. At least…I think it’s Jeltor? No, that might be Jeltor. It’s really hard to tell, they change colors.”
“You met a jellyfish and named it?” Bethany Anne looked at him like she was a little worried he might need to be committed.
“They’re a species called the Jotun,” Barnabas explained.
“Super-powerful mechs,” John called from across the table. “I’ve heard about their battle suits. What do they look like?”
Barnabas passed the tablet across the table without comment.
“You have got to be kidding me,” John said finally.
“Not at all. They shoot fireballs.”
John handed the tablet back with narrowed eyes. He seemed to think this was a practical joke of some kind.
“They’d make good allies,” Barnabas told Bethany Anne. “They need to clean up a corruption problem, but I figure having allies to hold them accountable would be a good kick in the pants.”
“And it’s not like humans can really get down on anyone else for having corrupt politicians.” Bethany Anne shuddered. “I do not miss Earth.”
Barnabas laughed. “Well. Carter, it was good to see you. Bethany Anne, likewise. Tabitha—Tabitha’s dancing…” He blinked.
“Come on.” Bethany Anne elbowed him. “Stay for a while.”
Yeah, chief. You can kill assholes any day. Relax. Unwind. The universe will still be fucked tomorrow.
Barnabas laughed and drained his glass. “All right. A few more drinks.”
Chapter Thirty
“So you have no idea where the fleet went?” Barnabas frowned up at the speakers. “Really? None? You?”
“Yes. Me. Really. None.” Shinigami appeared in a flourish and swept over to a chair to sit down.
“You have no need to sit, and you’re incorporeal, and you still take a chair?”
“This conference room holds twenty people,” Shinigami pointed out. “And there are four of us on this ship.”
“Okay, that’s a good point.” Barnabas looked at her. “I just don’t understand how they can have disappeared. The Yennai fleet was big. They have to fuel somewhere. Someone has seen them.”
“It’s not out of the question that they have their own fueling stations.” Shinigami shrugged. “In any case, I think it’s safe to say that it’s going to be a long, arduous process of tracking them down and figuring out their location.” She looked up as footsteps sounded and Gar and Tafa came around the door.
“Did we miss anything?” Tafa asked.
“You know, you don’t have to come to the war meetings,” Barnabas said with a smile.
“I know. I like to.” She shrugged. “No reason.”
“She’s basing a series of paintings on you,” Shinigami explained. “Character studies of various moods.”
“Shinigami!” Tafa flushed. She looked at Barnabas, embarrassed. “I made such a nice one of you and Gar sparring that I thought maybe I could do some other ones. Maybe I could come on a mission sometime to see you enacting Justice.”
“No,” Barnabas said. “Embedded journalists are already a bad idea. I refuse to have embedded portrait painters.”
“I’ll wear him down,” Shinigami promised Tafa.
“No, you will not. I am in charge, here, and I say that—”
“Shh. Shh, chief.” She held up a hand. “We have a whole fleet to find. Don’t worry about the portraits right now.”
Barnabas sighed and dropped into a chair. He rubbed his head. “Honestly, the best idea I have at this point is to go back to Virtue Station and lean on one of the bankers until they talk.”
“After what Gar pulled, you are not welcome there.”
“I know. Maybe if I threaten to sic Gar on them, though…”
“Actually, that’s a good idea.”
Gar smiled. “I’m finally scary. I spent my whole life not being scary to anyone, and I'm finally scary. God, I love this.”
Barnabas shook his head with a laugh, but he looked troubled. “How the hell are we going to find this guy if he doesn’t want to be found, though? Even his children didn’t have any idea where he was when he wasn’t at the base. If he doesn’t—”
“Message coming in,” Shinigami interrupted.
Barnabas nodded to her to play it and the screen darkened for a moment before clearing to show Koel Yennai’s face. His eyes narrowed when he saw Barnabas.
“Human.”
Barnabas said nothing. His brow was furrowed slightly. He leaned back in his chair and waited.
“You have signed not only your own death warrant, but that of everyone you have ever loved,” the patriarch proclaimed.
“Most of the people I’ve loved are dead,” Barnabas told him. “Hazard of getting old. The rest can take care of themselves.”
Koel’s lip curled and he growled, “You are not safe, human. There is nowhere you can hide from me. Eventually, someone you love will be caught off their guard, and I will destroy them. One by one, the members of your family will fall. I will take apart your legacy piece by piece. I will destroy it, as you destroyed mine. I had crafted the perfect heir, and you took her from me.”
“Ilia was a living, breathing person,” Barnabas pointed out. “She was not solely your creation. And might I add, she had plans to kill you when you came back to take the AI core.”
“I taught her well, then.” Koel’s face did not flicker. “When she could kill me, she would be strong enough to take my place, and I would no longer be fit to rule. My death would be the greatest gift I could give the Yennai Corporation.”
“Crazy motherfucker,” Shinigami murmured under her breath.
“I will wipe out every human settlement.,” Koel Yennai told Barnabas. “I will kill every alien who has so much as talked to a human. I will make sure that no one in the universe remembers your species ever existed. And I will make you watch all of it before I let you die.”
The call flickered off, and the crew stared at the screens with their mouths hung open.
“Well, that’s convenient,” Barnabas said. He looked around at the others with a smile. “Here we were, so worried about finding him, and it looks like he’ll come to us.”
FINIS
Author Notes - Natalie Grey
June 26, 2018
Thank you for reading Warden! I can only hope you enjoy reading Barnabas’s story even half as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Barnabas is an endless puzzle: someone who likes to watch and act deliberately, but who cannot stand idly by when people are hurt; who believes civility is deeply important, but who has a hell of a temper; who is both kind, and just. What Barnabas tells Gar in Sentinel about flaws is deeply true for him: sometimes it is our best qualities that lead us down the wrong path, and finding our way out of that tangle can be difficult.
As always, I am grateful to my readers for their enthusiasm and feedback. Having a cheering section eagerly asking about the next book is an amazing feeling for an author!
Publishing is a team effort, and so a big thank you also to the whole team behind the Vigilante Chronicles: my beta readers, the JIT group, Lynne and her team of editors, Steve and the administrative team, Jeff, Eric, and of course, Michael!
Thank you to my friends and family for listening to garbled stories and letting me interrupt countless conversations with, “I need to write something down!” Thank you to my fellow authors for their advice and support. I have an incredible community around me and I am thankful for it every day.
Sincerely,
Nat
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
July 2, 2018
THANK YOU for not only reading our story, but making it back here to the Author Notes, as well!
So, I’m sitting next to Joseph (Joey, our youngest) in our home in Texas. He is presently reading Dakota Krout’s Dungeon Born – The Divine Dungeon which I “asked” him to read.
Why? Because he is a young man, off during the summer with only one job and has another forty-five days to go before his sophomore year in college.
He could be writing! (Or working at another job, or volunteering… you get the picture.)
I’ve suggested he read that particular book because it is a LitRPG book that I enjoyed and might help him understand the substance of what a LitRPG book is about.
As an avid gamer, he practically IS the target market for the books.
He has done some remarkable work for such a young guy, and I’d hate to see him dither away his time when he COULD be writing. ;-)
I guess this brings me around to Barnabas, and how I see him as a portion of my own personality. That “dad” part which is always seeing work and striving to better oneself. Fortunately, there is a balance which must be maintained and Barnabas (usually) strives to find that balance.
Impetuous youth? Often not so much.
That is always the fun with Barnabas and Shinigami in these stories.
We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoy making them happen for you.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
P.S. – I was walking with Joseph last night (late—holy crap was it hot and muggy) and asked him what he had read so far this summer. It was only one book.
You will never guess what it was… go ahead…guess!
Ready for it? How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
You can find Joey’s first book—Her Royal Runner—(written and released while he was in high school) Here:
https://books2read.com/JoeyAnderle
Paladin
Vigilante Chronicles Book 4
Chapter One
Coyopa had a reputation as a despicable hellhole.
The planet had disappointed nearly every species that had come upon it. At first glance, clear blue waters held a seemingly-endless archipelago of tiny islands, each with white-sand beaches and an assortment of lush green vegetation.
The islands, however, could and often did move with each major storm, so building was next to impossible. The rains were fleeting and unpredictable, and the vegetation that grew so quickly was poisonous to most species.
