Return Of The Queen: The Kurtherian Endgame™ Book Eight

by Anderle, Michael

  >>They’re kind of isolated because of their trauma,<< ADAM told him. >>But typically, they’re sociable in the extreme. The aim is to find a replacement for the homeworld Gödel destroyed and get the Collectives living under Devon set up there before we hit the factories and rescue the rest of them. I’ve given you the parameters for their needs.<<

  I’ll be in touch as soon as we’re done surveying the planet.

  “What was that?” Jiya asked.

  Reynolds got to work adjusting the ship's sensors, another part of him sending drones to the planet to take samples while the part that was the android shared the addendum to their orders with his first officer.

  Jiya skipped over their instructions and went straight to the information about the Collectives. Her hand drifted involuntarily to her mouth as she read the details of their ordeal as a species. “Those poor beings,” she managed eventually. “Captain, what do we need to do? Scratch that. Specifically, what do I need to do?”

  Reynolds had been thinking along the same lines. The early scans looked hopeful, and the biosphere's makeup was within the tolerances ADAM had given him. “We have the technology we got from the Krokans. We can assist with providing a base for the air breathers to operate from.”

  He had eyes in the drones, but it wasn’t the same as having his actual eyes on the planet. “Want to take a Pod down and scout for possible sites?”

  Jiya grinned. “Does a bear shit in the pope's hat?” Her smile faded at the lack of comprehension from Reynolds. “I guess my Earth studies aren’t sticking as well as I thought.”

  Reynolds shook his head in exasperation. “That’s what you get for asking Tactical to help you study.”

  Jiya lifted her hands. “What can I say? It’s worth the risk. He knows all the best insults, if only I could learn not to mangle them.”

  Reynolds left the bridge with her. “I hope Geroux is enjoying his company.”

  “The others will keep him in check,” Jiya told him with a chuckle. “There was no way letting him near Izanami was going to turn out well for him.”

  “Or me,” Reynolds agreed wistfully.

  They stopped on their way to the Pod bay to pick up a few bots, which Reynolds left inactive in the Pod’s hold.

  It was a bumpy ride until they’d passed through the stormy atmosphere. The world around them became instantly tranquil once they were beneath the surface of the water.

  “Where to, Captain?” Jiya asked, bringing the Pod to a stop a couple of thousand feet from the ocean floor.

  Reynolds examined the scan data they had so far and pointed out a rise in the far distance. “Those mountains may have caves in the valleys. It’s as good a place as any to start.”

  Jiya suddenly felt very small when they reached the mountain range some twenty minutes later. She glanced at the peaks blocking the light filtering down from the surface. “This planet is a lot larger than Krokus-4.”

  Reynolds nodded. “That’s a good thing. The Collectives need the space.”

  Jiya was quiet for a moment. Reynolds glanced at her and saw the excitement she was holding back. “Take us down. I’m going to send out the bots.”

  “What’s the objective?” Jiya asked. She held up a finger. “Wait, I know. We have to find out if the mineral composition will support the strains of kelp the Collectives eat, yes?”

  Reynolds patted her shoulder, happy to see the prospect of action had worked. “Give yourself a gold star. I’m going to send a couple of the bots out to look at the caves the probes surveyed when we land. They have potential for our base.”

  “Our base?” Jiya inquired.

  “You know what I meant.” Reynolds got out of his chair as the Pod touched down in a sandy valley.

  Jiya watched him pace the tiny cockpit with amusement. “I know the human phrase for this situation. It’s ‘Yeah, right.’”

  “The bots are on their way,” Reynolds told Jiya, ignoring her sarcasm. “I linked their AV functions to the viewscreen.”

  Jiya nodded as the viewscreen switched to show six separate camera feeds. She toggled between the audio for each bot and scrunched her nose. “I can’t hear anything except silence,” she commented to Reynolds before muting the audio to concentrate on the videos. “I hope that cave is as spacious as it looks.”

  Reynolds tilted his head when the part of him that was the ship called his attention to sounds beyond most organics’ hearing range. He heard the competing currents, the minute movements of the planet’s crust, and… “Oh, shit.”

  Jiya looked up at the unexpected profanity. “Captain?”

  Reynolds pointed at a phosphorescent light approaching the bots in the cave. “Get us out of here.”

  Jiya acted immediately. “Why do I get the feeling we’re running for our lives?” she quipped as they swung around and she hit the proverbial gas. She pointed the Pod’s nose at the surface, and they shot straight up at full speed.

  “It’s a valid feeling,” Reynolds retorted, wondering if death hurt when you were an AI whose consciousness was split across multiple locations. “We’re definitely running for our lives.”

  Jiya saw the light leave the cave as they shot out of the valley and past the mountain peaks. The viewscreen gave them their first sight of the monster on their tail. The light came from a dangling lure that hung over the rows of huge, jagged teeth that emerged next from the cave.

  “Faster!” Reynolds yelled, gripping his armrests tightly.

  “Fifteen thousand feet to go,” Jiya shot back unnecessarily. “Twelve. Why is it chasing us? We’re not even a mouthful!”

  Jiya let out a small scream as the monster fish splayed its jaws, powering toward the Pod with incredible speed. “Eight thousand feet. We’re not going to make it!”

  “We have to make it,” Reynolds cried, taking control of the Pod to divert everything but shield power to the engines as they reached four thousand feet below the surface. “Hold your breath. I’M TOO HANDSOME TO DIE!”

  The Pod lurched as he fed energy from his body into it to give them a chance of making it. They sped the last fifteen hundred feet with the monster just meters behind them.

  “It’s not slowing!” Jiya cried as they rushed toward the surface. She gripped Reynolds’ hand. “This is it. It’s been a pleasure serving with you, Captain.”

  “Did I hire a quitter?” Reynolds thundered. “We need to keep going,”

  Reynolds pushed himself past the point of no return, knowing it was their only hope. He felt a surge of energy flood his body, using him as a conduit to the Pod. They were thrown back in their seats as the inertial dampers stuttered with the influx of power being applied to the engines.

  “Whooooo!” Jiya screamed, the only release for the flood of adrenaline that swept her body as they broke the surface in a huge plume of spray.

  The monster fish followed a moment later, breaching the water with its jaws spread wide. Jiya breathed a sigh of relief when its teeth closed well beneath the Pod. “You did it, Captain.”

  She glanced at him when he didn’t reply. “Oh, my. Oh, crap! Reynolds!”

  Reynolds was slumped in his chair. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t seeing Jiya, despite her leaning over him.

  Jiya mashed the comm panel with a hand, all her training replaced by the pure panic that the person she loved and respected was gone. “Reynolds is down. Help!”

  Silence rebounded from the speakers, reminding her that they’d sacrificed everything nonessential to getting out of the situation alive. She was trapped in the Pod with no way to get Reynolds the help he needed.

  It’s okay, Jiya. I’m on my way

  Jiya looked around at the sound of Bethany Anne’s voice.

  A flash of light whited out the viewscreen just as Jiya began to wonder if she’d imagined it. The light vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and the image on the viewscreen resolved into swirling gray mist.

  Reynolds looked at Jiya in confusion as his internal processes kicked back in. He fou
ght to lift a hand to his chest. “My body isn’t working properly. Is this death?”

  You’re too hard-headed to die, you ham.

  Bethany Anne's voice inside their heads startled Reynolds. “Bethany Anne? Am I glad to hear your voice!”

  Jiya was glad they weren’t dead, but she wasn’t sure they were out of the fire just yet. “Where are you? Where are we, for that matter?”

  Step outside and see, Bethany Anne replied. Pulling your Pod in here wasn’t easy. I’m sure as hell not dragging it out again.

  Reynolds realized that Bethany Anne had brought them into the Etheric and forced his limbs to move. He made it a few steps before stumbling as his gross motor functions stalled.

  “Are you okay?” Jiya asked, moving to support him.

  Reynolds caught himself on the wall and continued to put one foot in front of the other when he regained control. “I must have given the Pod a little too much. I’ll be fine.”

  Jiya didn’t believe a word of it. She ducked under his arm and helped him to the hatch. “Why are you so heavy?” she griped as a way to keep his mind occupied as they made slow progress to the Pod’s hatch.

  Reynolds didn’t argue, which worried Jiya more than anything. She shored him up a little more and kept them moving.

  “We’re coming out,” she called to Bethany Anne as the ramp descended.

  Bethany Anne took one look at Reynolds and sucked in a breath, sorry she’d taken his complaint lightly. “You don’t look so good. What happened to you?”

  “He fed his own energy into the Pod to get us out of there,” Jiya explained.

  Reynolds shook himself free of Jiya's grip. “I just need to get to my ship and have Takaaaaa—”

  Jiya darted forward to catch Reynolds when he crumpled. She was unbalanced by the weight of his android body and went down with him.

  Bethany Anne was there to catch both of them. She held Reynolds steady while Jiya righted herself. “This is more than a drain on his systems. I didn’t think he’d be so badly affected by being here. I should have considered the metal inside his body would be a problem.”

  Jiya didn’t like the side-to-side wobble Reynolds had. She looked into his eyes. “We need to get you to Takal. He'll be able to restore you.”

  Reynolds twitched, his jaw mechanism spasming as he tried to speak. “Schmurrrr…”

  Bethany Anne's eyes widened in alarm. She picked Reynolds up in her arms as she transferred them to the SD Reynolds. She and Jiya ran for Takal's lab, concerned Reynolds’ slurred speech was an indication his situation was past critical. “Don’t you die on me. I’ll have ADAM to deal with if you do, and I don’t need that at the moment, Reynolds!”

  Takal looked up in surprise when Jiya burst in ahead of Bethany Anne and swept the large workbench clear. He dropped what he was doing when he saw Reynolds and rushed to help Jiya make room. “What happened to him?”

  “I had to take him into the Etheric,” Bethany Anne explained as she put Reynolds on the bench. “It’s fucked with the metal in his body.”

  “He shut down,” Jiya told Takal in a tight voice.

  Takal grabbed a cable and went over to the head of the bench. He peeled back Reynolds’ hair and opened a panel in his skull, then plugged the cable into his brain. The scientist plugged the other end into a connector bank in the bench and stood back. “Hold on, Captain. The way out is coming.”

  “What now?” Bethany Anne asked.

  Takal busied himself at one of the consoles. “Now we wait. He has to extract himself from the damaged brain and follow the path I made to the ship’s core. Then we have to wait for him to reconstruct himself.”

  >>It’s going to be a while,<< ADAM informed Bethany Anne. >>He fragmented his mind and locked away the pieces to save it. It’s going to take another AI to help pull him out and put him back together again.<<

  Bethany Anne stared at the inert android. I’m going to guess it’s more complicated than a jigsaw puzzle.

  >>It’s going to be rough for Reynolds,<< ADAM admitted. >>I should stay with him.<<

  Bethany Anne had a better idea. Reynolds has too much respect for you. What he needs is someone who will inspire him to fight. I want you to help the splinter Reynoldses to take over his and Izanami’s responsibilities until he’s recovered.

  >>You’re going to have Izanami take care of him?<< ADAM asked. >>Just saying, I don’t like his chances.<<

  Bethany Anne’s lips pressed together. You might be surprised.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Federation Space, QGE Gemini

  Gabriel lined up the crosshairs in his HUD with the exhaust port on the cultist ship.

  “There is an extra twenty-six percent chance of success if I take the shot,” Gemini informed him.

  “You’re a glory hog, Gemini.” Gabriel snickered softly. “Have a backup lined up in the unlikely event I miss.”

  Gemini chuckled. “Don’t blame me, blame the humans I imprinted on.”

  “Take the damned shot,” Alexis snapped, her patience worn thin by the long odds of her plan staying on track. “They’re in range.”

  Gabriel ignored his sister’s short temper and focused on hitting the edge of the exhaust port, where the ship’s shields were weakest. A moment later, he pressed the trigger.

  “Direct hit,” Gemini announced.

  “Give us the audio from the bridge,” Alexis requested.

  Gemini played the cultists’ panicked conversation over the speakers.

  “Marek, we’re venting atmosphere on the supply deck.”

  “It’s worse than that. We’re losing fuel.”

  Alexis and Gabriel exchanged glances when Marek ordered them to make for the nearby outpost.

  * * *

  Five days later, the Gemini and the ship they were following came into sight of the telltale light reflected from the dome of New Galaxia, the colony serving the miners working in the ore-rich asteroid fields in the system.

  “Call Christina and Kai,” Gabriel told Alexis, grinning at the thought of impending action. “I’ll call Mom.”

  He opened a mental link to Bethany Anne and waited for her to respond.

  I hope you’re calling to tell me you’re done?

  Not exactly, Gabriel replied. We weren’t getting anywhere, so we set something up. Either way, we’ll have results within the next few days.

  Do I want to know the details? Bethany Anne asked.

  Gabriel laughed. Probably not. I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the deadline for departure and to ask if you’ve heard anything from Grandpa about his end of the investigation.

  Not yet, Bethany Anne told him. He’s meeting us at the edge of the Torcellan system in three days. Unless Akio has uncovered something that needs my immediate attention, we’ll find out what he knows then.

  She paused for a moment. You two take care out there. Give Alexis my love.

  Bye, Mom. Gabriel dropped the link and waited for Alexis to switch off the comm.

  “What did Mom say?” she asked when she was done.

  Gabriel smiled. “She sent her love and told me we’ll find out what Grandpa and Akio have turned up in three days.”

  Alexis sighed. “We have to get that lead before we leave.”

  “We will,” Gabriel assured her. “Are the other teams ready for their chance encounter?”

  Alexis nodded. “I checked with K’aia and Trey, and the warehouse is ready. Christina and Kai found the cult’s dock easily. Are you ready for our part?”

  Gabriel felt his sister’s discomfort with using deception to get the result they needed and reached out to pull her into a brief bearhug. “Tell me how we get past Security here without getting busted for posing as FDG officers.”

  Alexis smiled, his attempt to make her feel better effectively dispelling her misgivings. “I’m not worried about the prospect of being caught.” She handed Gabriel an ID badge. “I had Nathan make these for us. I’m more concerned about what Mom is going to say when we debrief.�
��

  Gabriel chuckled. “She’s going to congratulate you on being smart enough to use every advantage you have.” He grinned. “It’s a good plan. Have faith in yourself, like I have faith in you.”

  “That’s because Mom’s focus will be on me if it fails.”

  “I never said there wasn’t an upside that helped me with my faith.”

  Gemini announced they’d arrived at the colony while they were finishing putting on the FDG armor Alexis had acquired for their entry. They landed at the spaceport and left the Gemini on their roamer to make their way to the military line at the Customs checkpoint.

  Alexis activated the Etheric comm and opened a channel once they were clear. We’re in. Status report?

  Christina’s reply was short. We have eyes on the targets.

  And? Gabriel asked.

  We are good to go, Christina told them. We’ve trailed them to a restaurant.

  Stand by, Alexis confirmed. We’re five minutes away.

  The twins made their way to the location Christina gave them and parked the roamer in the alley between the restaurant and the bank next door, where Christina and Kai were waiting in the shadows for their arrival.

  “Are you sure this will work?” Kai asked with some trepidation as the twins joined them. “I mean, what if they freak out? We don’t know if they have explosives like Jacobsen.”

  Alexis understood his concerns. “We’ve all watched the video. Jacobsen was clearly in physical distress the whole time he was recording. The nanocyte compound needs time to work.”

  Christina slipped her arm around Kai’s waist. “If I see so much as a hiccup from any of them, I’ll take them out.”

  “Or,” Alexis countered, “you could just tell me, and I’ll take us into the Etheric since killing them won’t prevent the explosion. The compound works by breaking the body down from the inside out and converting it to supply the energy the nanocytes need to detonate. We at least got that much from the medical examiner’s report.”