“Did you call her ‘Mom’?” she heard before she blew them both a kiss and dropped the call.
She left the bridge to meet Reynolds and company.
SD Reynolds, Transporter Bay
Nathan entered the bay and was met by a male and a female of a species he hadn’t encountered before. His HUD told him they were the Reynolds’ resident tech geniuses. “Mr. Takal, Ms. Geroux, welcome to Onyx station. My name is—”
“Nathan Lowell, CEO of Bad Company,” Geroux finished smoothly, holding out a hand. “Good to meet you. We should get started moving this equipment before the Queen is done with her meet and greet.”
Nathan smiled as he shook her hand. “Efficient. I bet Bethany Anne loves you.”
Geroux elbowed her uncle, snapping him out of his runaway thought. “One of us has to be when the other is too lost in his thoughts to even say hello.”
Takal chuckled disarmingly. “Uh, hello.”
Geroux rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you get back to your team, Uncle? I’ll get the transporter equipment set up.”
Takal beamed at her. “I couldn’t have come up with a better plan myself,” he told her. “Good to meet you, Mr…”
“Lowell, Nathan Lowell,” Geroux supplied in exasperation.
Takal had already wandered off.
“He reminds me of someone,” Nathan commented to Geroux as he showed her out of the docking bay and into the attached warehouse. “Actually, a few someones.”
Geroux looked at him with wide eyes. “There are more absentminded, alcohol-soaked inventors running around without supervision? Stars preserve us.”
Nathan laughed. “You have met BMW, right? Trust me, he’s going to fit in just fine. Okay, so the transporter module is being transferred to Bad Company HQ, where it’s going to be guarded day and night.”
Geroux consulted the briefing document she’d been given by ADAM. “This building we’re in now is Bad Company premises, am I right? We don’t want this technology to get out.”
Nathan nodded. “We own this level entirely. It’s the unofficial FDG base that serves this quadrant.”
“FDG?” Geroux repeated blankly. “I’ve come across so many three-letter acronyms in this report that they’re all blurring together.”
“Think of them as the Federation’s standing military,” Nathan explained. “There are a few specialist groups associated with them, but it’s the bulk of the troops who’ll be benefitting from the upgrade.”
Geroux nodded, tapping her wrist-holo to activate the antigrav pallet carrying her tools and the cube carrying one of Reynolds’ splinter personalities. “Got it. Okay, well, the sooner you to show us to CEREBRO’s core room, the sooner we can get started on our part.”
Nathan was about to ask who she was referring to when the cube lit up blue.
“Tina is in the core room and wants to know why we’re not there already.”
“Thanks, Engineering.” Geroux sighed. “There goes my reputation for being efficient.”
Nathan shook his head. “I’ll take the blame. Tina doesn’t scare me. Come on, it’s this way.”
Chapter Ten
Federation Space, Nabraxia
Christina and Kai touched down at a dusty spaceport, one of many ringing the sprawling market that covered most of the surface of the moonlet two systems away from Onyx Station.
“I suppose it makes sense to be as near the trade hub as they can get without drawing attention from the Magistrates,” Christina acknowledged as they concluded registration for their ship.
Kai paused to get a look at their surroundings as they exited the spaceport. He wrinkled his nose, finding the faded canvas awnings shielding the market stalls much less impressive than the image of a high-tech space pirate hideaway he’d been imagining on the journey there. “If it wasn’t for the aliens, we could be in any desert on Earth. I thought space would be more…I don’t know, spacey.”
“What do you mean?” Christina asked, heading in the direction of the only definite source of information when you were a stranger in a strange town.
“You know.” Kai kept pace with her as they wended their way toward the likeliest-looking dive bar. “Domes, flying cars. Autonomous buildings where robots do everything.”
Christina snickered. “Robots that do everything, huh? You too good to wash your own pants, Earthman?” She swept ahead of him into the bar.
Kai opened his mouth to protest, then gave a resigned sigh and followed her inside. They headed straight for the bar, and Christina waved to catch the attention of the Torcellan who’d just finished serving a group of Skaines at the other end of the room.
The bartender gave them the once-over before nodding. “What can I get you?” he asked, flipping his towel onto his shoulder.
Christina grinned and scrutinized the chalkboard menu over the Torcellan’s head. “What’s good to eat here?”
“I could eat a whole cow,” Kai chipped in hopefully.
The bartender laughed. “You’re either wealthy or deluded. No beef here, just bistok.”
Christina slapped the bar. “That’s fine by us. We’ll take two sixteen-ounce steaks apiece with all the sides. Put the veggies from my plate on his.” She looked at Kai as she jerked a thumb at him. “What are you drinking?”
“Whatever’s brewed locally,” Kai answered, taking the risk he’d be served something unpalatable for the chance of discovering a decent beer he could take a case of back to the Dren Cluster as a gift for TH.
“I’ll take a Coke,” Christina requested.
They accepted their drinks and claimed a quiet corner booth. Kai sipped his beer and made a sound of appreciation as he licked his foam mustache off. “Okay, this place might be populated entirely by criminals, but they know how to make beer.”
Christina waved a hand. “Oh, well, that excuses everything.”
Kai chuckled. “Exactly.”
They filled the time while they waited for their food with idle chat and people-watching. A group of humans came in and took a booth two spaces down from them just after the waitstaff brought out their meals.
Christina listened closely when she heard the servers complaining about the group as they walked back to the kitchen. “Did you hear that?” she asked Kai quietly.
Kai nodded, having similarly enhanced hearing. “They seem to think those guys are bad for business. I wonder why?”
Christina paused in cutting her steak. “Keep listening. Maybe they’ll say something to enlighten us as to why they’re so unpopular around here.”
Kai nodded and got to work on his food, one ear on the conversation two booths away.
It didn’t take long to figure out who they were. The mood amongst the group of humans was low. Christina and Kai listened in while the group complained to their leader that they were having the same hard time here as they’d had on Onyx station.
“It could have something to do with them trying to convince everyone to join their conspiracy cult,” Kai muttered.
Christina nodded, struggling to concentrate on the objective at hand through her rising anger as the subject of the cultists' discussion turned to their success with Paul Jacobsen and their plans for sowing more chaos when they left Nabraxia. “If it wasn’t that they might give us a lead back to whoever is feeding them this shit, I’d take them out here and now.”
Kai finished his mouthful before replying, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Christina lifted a shoulder and picked up her glass. “Maybe. Are you thinking we should follow them when they leave and find out where they’re staying?”
Kai indicated the group of Skaines with a twitch of his fork. “Great plan, but we should probably make sure they survive so we can put it into action.”
She and Kai noted that the Skaines weren’t the only ones who took exception to the group being there. They were joined by more than a few of the bar’s clientele as they marched over to the humans sitting in the booth.
“Hold off un
til it gets serious,” Christina decided.
One of the Skaines pulled a blaster on the humans.
Kai nodded. “Is that serious enough?”
Christina put down her silverware as she shifted to her Pricolici form. “Does that answer your question?” she growled, sliding out of the booth to plow through the crowd around the humans. “Come on. We need at least one of them alive.”
Kai encouraged the crowd to disperse with a few judiciously-placed elbows as he moved to stand with Christina between the humans and their would-be lynch mob.
Christina held a razor-sharp claw to the soft skin beneath the lead Skaine’s jaw. She took his blaster before he had a chance to react. “I can’t allow you to kill these humans.”
The Skaine went up on his tiptoes to relieve the pressure. “He went for his weapon first.”
“That’s the funniest-looking gun I’ve ever seen,” Kai countered, grabbing a recording device from the cultist’s hand.
Christina half-turned to glance at the device, then released the Skaine leader with a shove and pointed his own blaster at him. “How do you explain that?” she demanded.
The Skaine held up his hands. “Looked like a weapon to me. It doesn’t matter anyway. We came here to tell them to get the hell off Nabraxia. If you’re with them, you can leave too or die.” He looked at his supporters for agreement.
“We’re not with them,” Kai assured the mob quickly before the situation devolved further. “They’re wanted for questioning by the Magistrates.” He realized his mistake when all eyes in the room locked onto them and backpedaled before they were mistaken for law enforcement. “There’s a…bounty on them!”
Christina groaned as they became all that stood between every lowlife in the room and the six people Kai had just put a monetary value on. “Nice move.”
The bar erupted as the race to get hands on the humans rapidly turned into a free-for-all.
Christina bowled the Skaines and their buddies out of the way while Kai ordered the humans to follow him. They vacated the table just in time to avoid being flattened by a Leath and a Yollin who crashed into it with no regard for the humans they were fighting over.
“What’s happening?” one of the humans asked Christina with complete confusion. “We’re pacifists. We don’t want anything to do with this fight!”
Christina grabbed him by the back of his shirt and shoved him behind the cover of a fallen table to shield him with the other humans. “Just stay down and try not to get killed,” she told him, kicking away an alien who looked like a melted candle holding a laser pistol.
Kai fought his way back to Christina and the two of them monitored the brawl, repelling anyone who got too close to the humans crouched behind the table while they waited for an opportunity to get out of there.
“I’m going to throw out a guess,” he ducked a randomly thrown empty bottle, “and say there’s no law enforcement here.” Kai panted as he parried sword strikes with a chair. He disarmed the Skaine attacking him with a flick of the steel legs and mashed their nose with the rim of the seat. “Okay, he’s fugly.”
Christina snorted, caught up in a hand-to-tusk tussle with the Leath, who’d knocked the Yollin unconscious and was now focused on the Pricolici. “Yeah, I can’t see there being a handy Magistrate around.”
She got nicked with the tusk. “Ok, this shit is over!” With a roar, she tossed the Leath into a wall and looked at the growing crowd with dismay. “Did everyone in here call for backup?”
“NO!” Kai moaned when someone tossed an incendiary behind the bar. “NOT THE BEER!”
His lament of despair turned into a cheer when the bar’s owner jumped up from where he’d been hiding and tossed the flaming ball back the way it had come.
The far end of the barroom caught fire, throwing up a cloud of acrid smoke when it spread to the soft furnishings. Just as Christina was thinking they were in real trouble, two humans in steel-blue armor entered the bar at a run.
The taller human lifted his hand in the direction of the fire and surrounded it with a bubble of energy, cutting off the oxygen before assisting the woman in suppressing the fight.
“Who the are hell are they?” Kai breathed, awed by the speed with which they cut through the angry criminals.
His mouth fell open as he watched them take control.
Nothing slowed them down.
They moved like water, their armor flashing with released energy every time they made contact. The majority of the brawlers resorted to pounding the crap out of them with their guns.
Which had no effect. It was like banging on metal with stalks of celery.
Christina shrugged, her confusion growing when the smaller of the two flourished her hands and forced every nonhuman in the room to the floor with a pulse of Etheric energy.
“I have no idea who has Etheric powers like that besides Bethany Anne and Michael,” she admitted. “But it’s definitely not them.”
“How do you know?” Kai asked.
Christina waved a hand. “Because everyone is still alive.”
She thought at first she’d been mistaken when the newcomers revealed themselves. They took their helmets off, and she saw dark hair and a flash of red eyes through the clearing smoke.
The bartender hoisted a boxy rifle in their direction. “Who are you to come into my place of business like this?”
Alexis flashed her eyes at the bartender. “Unless you’re charging people to smash your shit to pieces, I’d be a little more grateful we showed up. Hmm?”
The bartender lowered his rifle in a sudden attack of wisdom. He looked around his place of business, his face draining of color. “What a fucking mess.” He opened his register, grabbing the cash inside with a huff. He didn’t bother bending down when some change fell. “Screw this. I’m going back to Onyx.”
He walked out, leaving the room in stunned silence.
“Everyone stay exactly where they are until I say differently,” Gabriel ordered the people getting acquainted with the mixture of spilled beer, dirt, and sawdust on the floor. “We’re here for those assholes. No one gets heroic.”
“Or greedy,” Kai added. Gabriel looked over. “Sorry, bad explanation on my part in the heat of the moment. They thought they had bounties.”
Christina looked at the twins in bemusement. “Thanks for the assist. Has anybody ever told you that you look like Bethany Anne?”
Alexis laughed. “Only my whole life.” She looked at her brother. “I told you she wouldn’t recognize us.”
Christina’s confusion wasn’t helped with the familiar laugh. “Alexis?” She turned slowly to the grown man. “Which would make you…”
“Gabriel, yeah,” Gabriel gave her a wry smile. “You just lost me fifty credits. I thought you’d figure us out the second you saw us.”
Christina shook her head. “But I saw you just months ago at the gala. You were, well, kids.”
“Long—and classified—story,” Alexis replied, looking at the people on the floor. “What do you say we wrap this up before we get to chatting?”
“I’d say let’s get these people to their ship and get the hell out of here,” Christina told her, motioning for the humans to get moving. She turned to find they had already exited from under the table.
She stopped in her tracks when she saw they were creeping toward the exit. “Would you look at that? Not even a thank you.”
“I don’t think we’ll be welcomed back here anytime soon,” Christina remarked to Alexis as they followed the group out of the bar. “Shame. The food was pretty good.”
Alexis vanished from sight.
Gabriel smiled at Christina’s questioning look. “She’s planting a tracker on the leader.”
Alexis returned a moment later, reappearing by Gabriel’s side. “I read the leader’s mind. He’s called Marek, and he’s thinking about leaving Nabraxia immediately, which means we won’t have long to wait to tag their ship.”
The cultists melted into the crowd.
Alexis grinned, watching them go. “Too easy.”
“Great job,” Gabriel told her. “We should get back to the Gemini.”
Kai nodded. “Same.”
Alexis called Gemini to request a Pod to their location, and they zigzagged through the stalls looking for an open space to land it. “What was your plan before we turned up?”
“To find the group from Onyx Station,” Christina told her. “Which we did. The plan was to track them back to wherever they are staying and wait for them to make contact with the traitor who sent the photo.”
Alexis had scanned the cultists' minds while she was planting the tracker patch on Marek. “They have a handler, but they don’t know his identity,” she told them. “I got that much when I read his mind.”
“We can have Gemini put a tracker on their ship,” Gabriel suggested as they broke free of the stalls and walked into an open square with a fountain in the center.
Alexis pointed at the Pod descending into the square. “Our ride is here. Where is your ship docked?”
Christina gave them the location of a spaceport on the western side of the continent as they boarded the Pod.
They arrived within a few minutes, and the twins dropped Christina and Kai off with a plan to reconvene above the moonlet before Marek’s group had a chance to escape.
Gabriel and Alexis got back to the Gemini and took her up, pausing only to admit Christina’s and Kai’s Pod when they caught up with them.
They arrived on the bridge to find the twins hard at work tracking the cult.
Christina edged around the hard light projection of Nabraxia that took up the central space on the main floor and walked over to Alexis at the left-hand console. “What are you doing?”
Alexis continued to type as she answered, her fingers flying over the keys without hesitation. “We’re hooked into the cameras around every spaceport on the moonlet, looking to find the one the cult are docked at. Ideally, we want to know where they are before they get spaceborne, so until the tracker patch is in range, all we can do is work with facial rec.”
Gabriel turned from his console. “We have a match. They’re entering the port on the southwest side of the market.”
Return Of The Queen: The Kurtherian Endgame™ Book Eight Page 10
