Alexis studied her reflection in the mirror. The heels looked good with her cropped jeans. She looked good wearing them. She just didn’t feel any more like an adult. “I don’t know. I thought I’d feel different.”
“You wore heels in the gameworld,” Bethany Anne reminded her.
Alexis shrugged. “I think the game is missing something when it comes to the ability to maneuver on a platform.” She sighed and took the shoes off. “It’s not that. They don’t feel like me.”
“How about these?” Bethany Anne asked, her mouth creeping up at the corner. She held out the sparkly black combat boots with the three-inch block heels she’d picked up while Alexis’ attention was on putting the pumps on.
Alexis thrust the heels at her mom, grinning. “You saw those?”
“I think you saw them first.” Bethany Anne chuckled as they made the exchange.
Alexis hugged Bethany Anne one-armed as they headed for the register. “This is the best. I’m glad you made us come on the tour.”
The store owner clasped her hands, smiling at them as they put their purchases on the counter. “Do I enact the Empress Protocol?” she asked. “I know technically you’re not the Empress anymore, but, well, I think you deserve the same respect.”
Bethany Anne nodded, smiling warmly at the woman. “Thank you. That saves me having to ask.”
The store owner nodded and checked her computer. “There are currently twenty-seven pairs in stock.” She looked up and smiled again, a mischievous glint in her eye. “What about your daughter, my Queen? Does she require the same service?”
Alexis nudged Bethany Anne with her elbow. “Something tells me this isn’t one of those things we talk to Dad about. What’s it worth to you?”
Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “You’re blackmailing your own mother?” She shook her head when Alexis shrugged disarmingly and turned back to the store owner. “When you live as long as we do, it makes sense to have duplicates. Five pairs, since her taste is likely to change.”
Alexis snorted laughter. “‘Duplicates?’ That’s the best explanation of your shoe hoard I’ve heard in all my life.”
Bethany Anne accepted the bags from the store owner and held out Alexis’ for her to take. “I bought one pair of shoes. So did you.”
Alexis winked as she took the bag. “Sure, Mom.”
Four hours later, Alexis dropped her bags by a bench between two tall, drooping potted ferns and took the weight off her feet with a sigh. “This is where I live now. You’ll have to tell Gabriel to go on without me.”
Bethany Anne laughed, lifting a hand to indicate the antigrav cart between her and the guys. “I told you to get a cart. How about some ice cream? We have a little time left.”
“I’ll get it,” Eric offered.
“Show me the chocolate-cherry-marshmallow,” Alexis replied, stretching her cramped fingers. She smiled when Bethany Anne sat down beside her. “This was fun, but I’m going to have a couple of roamers come pick us up. I underestimated the size of this station, and I had no idea about your ability to find something you want in every store you pass. You shop like Dad hunts.”
Bethany Anne thought about that for a moment before asking, “Is it really all that different?”
Chapter Seventeen
Ranger Base One, Upper Level, Ops Center
Sabine worked with the sounds of ongoing construction in the background. She, Mark, and Jacqueline had labored alongside the construction crews, CEREBRO, and the bots, staggering shifts to keep the build moving around the clock in order to transform the asteroid into a base.
The dwindling noise was music to her ears as the countdown to the base’s switch-on ran down to the final minutes
Nickie and Ricole had finished laying the beacons between the four inhabited star systems that were scattered across this quadrant to connect them to CEREBRO and the Federation. Bethany Anne would complete the job when she got there, adding in the high-tech defenses for the occupied planets to support the CEREBRO-controlled satellites that they would be building over the next few weeks.
All that remained was the task of connecting the EI cores that comprised the base’s part of CEREBRO to the ops center systems, and therefore to the Interdiction. Sabine darted between the consoles, flicking switches in the order Jacqueline was feeding her from the core room.
The ops center came to life as the EIs in the core room were connected and CEREBRO took control of the systems.
“How are we looking?” Sabine called aloud.
“It’s good to be back together,” CEREBRO replied. “However, we are not complete. There is an error preventing us from connecting to beacons C-zero-one through C-five-five.”
“That’s the, um, Cosnar System, yes?” Sabine got to her feet and pulled up the scant data they had on the uninhabited system. “What kind of error?”
“If we could diagnose it, we could have automated the fix,” the EI group replied.
Sabine slapped the console. “Dammit! Get the coordinates to Nickie. She’ll have to take a look, and maybe lay a few more beacons if the ones the drone dropped off were damaged.”
“The solution might not be so simple,” CEREBRO informed her. “The beacons are online. The anomaly appears to be caused by something bouncing the relay signal off-course.”
Sabine considered the problem for a moment before remembering the upside of not being in command. “This is above my pay grade. Get Nickie on the comm.”
“Should I include Ranger One in the link?” CEREBRO inquired. “The Achronyx just came into comm range.”
Sabine sighed with relief. “Scratch that order. Akio is just the person I need. Guide them in, CEREBRO.”
She left the ops center and made her way to the hangar at a run.
CEREBRO was admitting the Achronyx through the first forcefield just as Sabine arrived at the cavern they’d cut into the asteroid to use as a hangar. She took her time descending the stairs to the lower level while the ship waited for the second forcefield to drop.
Akio exited with a glance of admiration at the Cambridge, the Defiant, the Shufur, and the Revolution alongside an empty space for the bulkier Skaine battleship belonging to Nickie. “I wasn’t expecting you to have gotten this far yet.”
Sabine laughed. “This is just the entrance. Bethany Anne gave us a good start, but this base eventually has to be capable of protecting the whole quadrant. Let me show you around.”
She took him to the upper level, where they’d fitted the prefabricated permacrete cabins Bethany Anne had provided snugly into the rock. “We had CEREBRO hollow out the complex since they can operate the continuous miners with the most precision, then it was just a case of getting the cabin skins in place and having the bots fill them with permacrete.”
She extended her arms. “Thirty-six hours later, et le voilà, we had a base. Well, we had a start. We’ve been working around the clock to get it operational. I think it will look fine once it’s been cleaned up.”
“I have seen these temporary cabins that are still standing eighty or ninety years after being poured,” Akio told Sabine as they reached the walkway at the top of the stairs where the first cabin had been laid lengthways into the rock and fitted with a double door. “Where do we go from here?”
“To the left is residential, training facilities to the right,” she replied as they walked into a brightly-lit lobby. She pointed out three doors in the curved wall at the rear of the room. “The cabins reach into the rock a half-mile in each direction. The ops center is straight ahead and is not connected to the east or west wings. There’s room for expansion if we grow as an organization, but we built the base to cover our immediate needs.”
Akio took it all in as they walked through the residential area. “You didn’t spare any details.”
“We might have gotten a little bit spendy to get it all done so fast,” Sabine admitted. “But it’s worth that and all the favors Nickie pulled in to get us expedited shipping on materials to get the constr
uction done.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Akio looked over his head a moment before they resumed. “Helping Nickie return a favor could easily end with you looking down a barrel. The work on the surface?”
“Mostly engine and sensor equipment,” Sabine replied. “Some weaponry. Defenses. Since we’re not running on an arti-sun yet, we can’t power a full-size ESD, but we have a pair of the miniature version, along with the guns and shields.”
“What’s powering the station?” Akio asked, intrigued.
“We’re fully Etheric-powered,” Sabine informed him. “And we’ve used a minimum of metal in the build, so when the day comes where we figure out how to Gate into the Etheric without Bethany Anne at the helm, we’ll be the ultimate in stealth.”
Akio’s eyebrows went up in anticipation. “That would be a thing to behold.”
Sabine laughed. “Wouldn’t it just.” She gestured for Akio to follow her to the ops center. “Now for the not-so-good news. There’s a gap in the signal relay in the Cosnar System, which means CEREBRO is unable to join the points on either side of the system.”
“What are the options?” Akio asked, peering at the unfamiliar setup. “I need a tutorial on how to use all this.”
“You’re going to wish you had Eve here,” Sabine sympathized, looking away when her attention was caught by an incoming call. “It’s Nickie. I had CEREBRO give her the coordinates of the anomaly.”
Akio nodded. “Onscreen, CEREBRO. What are you seeing, Ranger Two?”
“There’s a huge-ass cloud covering a chunk of this system. It’s making Meredith dance the funky chicken,” Nickie replied. “You guys need to come out here. Bring a drone or something that won’t go haywire so we can get a fucking clue what’s blocking the signal.”
“You’re not giving us much to go on,” Sabine told her. “What exactly is Meredith saying?”
Nickie shrugged. “She won’t know what the problem is unless her probes can get inside the cloud, and she’s refusing to take us in to investigate until you get here. I’d better not find out you had anything to do with this shift in attitude from her, Akio. You know me and Achronyx are like this, right?” She crossed her fingers to illustrate.
Akio gave Nickie a pointed look. “Perhaps Meredith deserves your thanks. We’ll be there in…” He looked up the location in his HUD. “One hour.”
Nickie had more to share when they arrived on the Achronyx. She sent Akio Meredith’s initial conclusions based on the data from the probes. “Silicates. Fucking compound crystals.”
Akio’s brow furrowed as he examined the results of the spectral analysis. “It’s not natural, unless nature suddenly started producing compound crystals like the Ookens.”
“It’s not just a cloud of crystal particles,” Nickie continued. “It’s a cloud of crystal particles that are somehow fixed to this place, unaffected by solar winds. That means somebody put it here to hide something.”
“Can we go inside it?” Sabine asked.
“Only if you want to spend the next few weeks crawling around my ship to clean the particles out of my propulsion system,” Achronyx huffed.
Nickie waved a hand. “There’s more. Meredith tells me there might be a planetary body hidden inside the cloud. Her probes detected an increase in density toward the center.”
“Can we get the probes in closer?” Akio asked.
“They’re dead in the air,” Nickie grumbled. “My guess is that someone put this cloud here to hide whatever is on that planet.”
“It could well be,” Akio concurred. “The only thing to do is clean it up.”
Sabine nodded. “Of course, but how? We didn’t bring the equipment to clean up a disaster zone.”
“Leave it with me,” Nickie told them. “I know a guy who owes me a favor. I’ll have to go to Devon for a few days.”
“Fine by me,” Akio replied. “In the meantime, Sabine and I will replace the beacons that have been damaged by the crystals and get the Interdiction up and running.”
“I already started to take care of that.” Sabine looked up from her wrist-holo with a smile as she received confirmation of her instructions. “The Cambridge will be here soon with the beacons.”
“Go, Rangers!” Nickie arm-pumped. “I’ll see you guys in a few days.”
Sabine headed for the transport bay to prepare a Pod after the Penitent Granddaughter Gated out, leaving Akio alone on the bridge.
“What now?” Achronyx asked.
Akio settled into the captain’s chair and turned it to the console. “I’m going to tell Bethany Anne what’s going on out here, then we help with the beacons.”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, QSD Baba Yaga, Bridge
Bethany Anne was in her ready room checking on the Federation council’s efforts to get CEREBRO rolled out inside their respective borders when ADAM told her the Sayomi was coming in to dock at the station.
She reached out to Alexis. Your father and brother are home.
Meet you at the Gemini, Alexis replied. I’ll take us over to the station. Gabriel told me they have a bunch of civilians with them who need a place to stay, so Meredith is having them come into your private hangar.
Bethany Anne had wondered why the only thing she got from her son over their mental link was a sense of carefully controlled anger. She reached out to Michael, hoping for some clarity on what had gone down.
How bad was it?
It was bad enough, Michael replied.
It couldn’t have been worse, Gabriel stated flatly. The colony was destroyed. Not even sixty survivors.
But there are survivors, Bethany Anne consoled them, feeling none of the comfort she was offering. It’s not nothing.
A fraction of the people who lived there, Gabriel retorted. That’s all that’s left. It’s not enough to prevent civilization from falling wherever the Ookens appear.
Bethany Anne hated that he was hurting. No, it’s not, she agreed. And there’s nothing worse than a win that feels like a loss. It’s fucking frustrating to see people lose their homes, their families, and their lives when you did everything you could.
But why? Gabriel asked. What is Gödel gaining from these attacks? We live in an age of wonders, with technology sufficient to ensure that nobody wants for anything. How is it greed still exists to the extent where someone would destroy billions of lives for the sake of control?
A post-scarcity society doesn’t equate to a post-asshole one, Alexis told him. We are doing everything we can, and it’s working. The Interdiction is already saving lives—just check the newsfeeds.
Gödel wants to weaken us. Wear us down until we’re so dog-tired and desensitized we roll over and give her what she wants, Bethany Anne explained, knowing Gabriel needed to work through his frustration. Control is never enough for dictators like her.
She doesn’t understand the concepts of compassion or justice, Michael added. She can only see her twisted version of how the universe should look. Otherwise, she would have chosen to ascend when she had the chance. She wants complete supplication from us all, nothing less.
Bethany Anne and Alexis arrived at the hangar a few minutes before the Sayomi made its final approach. They hung back, staying out of the way of the triage area set up by the medical crew Meredith had ordered to the hangar.
John was first down the ramp when the Sayomi came in to land, closely followed by Gabriel and Christina. Kai and Trey preceded Michael, who exited with the Loren leading the survivors.
Bethany Anne chuckled when Alexis darted ahead of her to engulf Gabriel in a hug. She walked to meet her husband, offering her condolences and assurances of safety to the traumatized and angry colonists.
“This is Talia,” Michael told Bethany Anne while the Loren stared at her open-mouthed. “She is of a mind for vengeance.”
“Understandable under the circumstances.” Bethany Anne smiled at Talia. “There will be plenty of time for that. Take care of your people first.”
Talia found herse
lf unable to speak for a moment before she recalled the reason she was meeting Bethany Anne. Her wide-eyed wonder faded, the hollow stare returning as reality crashed in. “With respect, I’m no leader,” she disputed. “All I ever wanted was my bar. I took pride in making it a home away from home for my regulars. The chief died right in front of me.” Her tentacles drew in and wrapped themselves around her upper body, making her seem very human suddenly.
Bethany Anne wasn’t sure how to embrace a Loren without getting tangled in the tentacles, but she gave it a go. Talia’s tightly coiled tentacles were dry and smooth. She hugged Talia for a moment before releasing her to hold her at arm’s length. “I swear you will get your desire.”
“Just put me in a Pod-doc and send me to wherever the Ookens are,” Talia replied. “I want revenge, but more than that, I have to do something to stop other people from going through the horror we experienced.”
Bethany Anne shook her head. “You’ve been through a traumatic event. You need to heal here first.” She tapped her temple with a finger. “I wouldn’t send someone with a broken leg into battle, and neither will I send someone with a broken mind. See the therapist you will be offered. We will talk again before I leave for the Skaine Territories.”
Talia nodded. “Thank you, my Queen.”
One of the medical team ushered Talia away to be checked over, leaving Bethany Anne and Michael to be ambushed by the twins.
“Did you tell Dad about the plan?” Alexis asked.
Michael raised an eyebrow, wondering what the females in his family had in mind.
“Not yet,” Bethany Anne replied with an anticipatory grin. “We need to have a little chat with Kai first.”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
Christina noticed that Kai’s thoughts trailed off somewhere between the ice cream parlor she and Anne used to go to after school and her old roller derby club, where she’d found out an old friend still worked. “So, I thought that next, we could walk on the surface of the rock without spacesuits.”
“Hmmm, sure,” Kai agreed. “Wait, what?”
Return Of The Queen: The Kurtherian Endgame™ Book Eight Page 18
