Never Surrender

by Michael Anderle

  He had to have it.

  He bided his time while the Captain continued negotiating the deal. Within just ten minutes or so, the two shook hands, and Ster-hel continued his situational awareness as he heard the whine of the anti-gravity pallet bring the payment from their own ship. Ster-hel noticed the hover-pad coming from the human ship made no noise whatsoever.

  The male continued watching the two of them as the female transferred the spice from her pallet, replacing it with the payment from Yollins.

  Soon enough, the Yollin Captain nodded to the human, and they each stepped back. The two pallets moved, each heading back to their respective ships. The Captain nodded to Ster-hel as he passed him and continued walking toward the ship. Ster-hel kept the two humans in his view. As he took two steps backward, he started to turn around, but then looked back at the humans.

  "How much for the wolf?"

  The male human shook his head, "She is not for sale."

  Ster-hel chuckled, everything was for sale.

  He had been doing black-market forever, and it was only a matter of negotiation. Besides, they had a ship full of weapons and the spice now. He could get the animal one way or another.

  He snickered, flipping on the arming button for his pistol. "Everything is for sale. I said, how much for the wolf? How much is that little animal really worth to you? Is it enough to die over?"

  ---

  Capt. Maek-ven had made it approximately one-third of the way back to his ship when he heard his security officer ask how much the humans wanted for the wolf. He closed his eyes and hung his head as he walked another few steps.

  This had almost gone so well. He turned to yell at his security officer to get his bony little ass back in the ship and stop harassing the humans, when he noticed the security officer flick off the security switch on his pistol, activating it.

  It was obvious that the weapon was armed, and he was using it to threaten the humans. If they were able to get out of this without a major altercation, he was gonna rip his security officer to shreds for such a breach of operational procedures.

  The Captain's eyes opened in alarm when the male changed forms in front of his eyes.

  One moment, he was there, angry, but still human. The next he was towering above both his security officer and the female who was trying to talk to him. The creature’s roar shook the walls of the small canyon, and as his security officer tried to pull up his weapon to fire it, only two shots hit the ground in front of him, throwing up dirt.

  But it was too late.

  The snarling creature grabbed his security officer’s hand and yanked the pistol out of it, crushing it in his paw and reaching for the security agent’s neck. His roar of a challenge reverberated through the canyon, and the Captain watched as his security agent screamed in pain. The captain turned and ran towards the ship, yelling and waving his arms.

  “Dammit, Ber’knick! Start those engines, rev them to red, I don’t give a shit! Get ready to blast us out of here!”

  It took him but a moment for his feet to hit the metal of the landing ramp.

  --

  The ship's pilot had been monitoring what was going on. However, it got pretty boring after a little while. Apparently, the human and his captain were getting along just fine, and the security officer was keeping him up to date.

  When they requested the money, the pilot allowed the ship's computers to take the payment out on the pallet.

  He started his preflight checklist, occasionally looking up at the video monitors to make sure nothing was going wrong. After a few more items on his list, he looked up a second time and noticed that the captain was walking back, so he really focused on his checklist.

  He had another four items crossed off when he heard the Captain yelling for him to take off.

  He started rushing through the checklist, skipping those things that he felt were unnecessary. He could hear the captain’s running click-click, click-click through the ship, “What the hell are we still doing on the ground, Ber’knick?” the Captain’s panicked yell reverberated down the hallway.

  The pilot tossed his checklist away and slammed his hand down on the emergency lift as he heard an unworldly beast screaming at them. Ber’knick asked him, "What the hell is going on?"

  The captain stopped right outside the cockpit, "That idiot decided he wanted the animal. Even though I told him to leave well enough alone, he disobeyed orders. Now, he's gone and pissed off one of those humans who can change into…something! Hurry up and take off."

  “I've got to give it another fifteen…" A severed arm slammed into the cockpit's glass, screeching as the Yollin arm’s exoskeleton scraped in its downward journey, leaving a smear of blood down the glass.

  The pilot, his mouth wide open, watched as it slid down the glass, and spat out the alien equivalent of "Fuck me!" He turned his head back to the controls, punched two buttons, and pulled on the yoke, the ship rising quickly into the air.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Tabitha opened the door to her suite and strode in, calling out for her roommate, "Anne?"

  She walked over to the kitchen table and dropped off her tablet. Turning around, she saw Anne coming out of her room. Anne seemed in better spirits than when Bethany Anne had brought the young woman to stay with her.

  Sure enough, Jinx, one of Asher's and Bellatrix’s young puppies, came scooting out of Anne's room a moment later.

  "Hey R2, what's up?" Anne turned around and dipped down with her arms held open, Jinx jumped into her arms while Tabitha shook her head. Now that she was on the receiving end of playful nicknames, as she would commonly do with Barnabas, it could be quite annoying from those much younger than oneself.

  Saint Payback was truly a bitch.

  Tabitha answered, "It's not R2, it's not Ranger Two, it's not Queen’s Ranger Two, it's not just '2', the name is Tabitha. It's also not Tabby, with a ‘y’ or Tabbi with an 'i.'"

  She eyed the young woman.

  "How about Tabbie with an ie?” Anne smiled, wondering what the Ranger would say next.

  “If a few of the Tonto's and I didn't need to leave shortly, I would make you eat those questions. Further, I don't think you have enough bruises on your body for the amount of workout time that you've been spending." Tabitha raised an eyebrow as she looked up and down the teenager.

  Anne quickly shook her head. “Nope, workout time won't be necessary. Tabitha is what you want to be called? Tabitha is what you will get. As for the bruises–” She waved a hand up and down her body "–Bethany Anne suggested that as a researcher, I needed to know self-defense, but did not have to work out as hard as all of the rest of the team."

  Tabitha drew her eyebrows together. "Is that the truth?"

  Anne looked at her roommate and bit her lip, finally deciding to nod her head in the affirmative.

  Bethany Anne?

  What is it number two?

  Tabitha rolled her eyes before responding, Is it true that you told Anne she didn't need to work so hard on her physical training because she was going to be doing research?

  Have you ever known me to suggest such a thing?

  No, I haven’t. So, you can imagine my surprise when your new Etheric Researcher suggested that this was exactly what you had said.

  Huh, so my new Etheric Researcher is acting all teenagerish, do I understand you correctly?

  That's the way it appears.

  Okay, since you have to go out with the Tontos on the slave issue, I'll make sure to take care of this with Peter. He should have some insights on recalcitrant teenagers and how to get the best results from them.

  Very well, I will consider this a closed issue.

  Bethany Anne added, You can let Anne know Peter is going to have new instructions, from me, when she is due for her training session three hours from now.

  Will do, my Queen, have a great one.

  You, too. Go kick some pirate ass.

  Tabitha smiled. Oh, I intend to, this ought to be a hoot.

  Mak
e sure you say hello to the twins for me.

  Tweedledee and Tweedledum? I'll let them know.

  Bethany Anne cut the connection between the two of them. Tabitha raised an eyebrow. "Bethany Anne says that Peter will have new instructions for your workout when you see him in three hours."

  "Three hours!" Anne's face opened up in shock. "I'm supposed to be meeting a couple of friends over in the library in three hours."

  "I suggest that next time you do the workouts that you were told to do, instead of trying to get out of them. I especially suggest ...” Tabitha reached up and tapped the side of her own head " … not lying to one of the Queen’s Rangers who can talk to Bethany Anne directly."

  Anne's eyes closed when she realized her mistake, she turned around and then kicked the air in the direction of the couch. "God, it was so much easier getting away with stuff when it was only my mom and dad."

  Tabitha pursed her lips, “I understand you're doing well with your dad now, is that right?"

  Anne turned back around to face her roommate. “Yes, we spoke a couple of weeks ago, and he apologized for not intervening with mom when she got so upset with me all of the time. He says that mom is going to work with the therapy sessions before she's going to try to connect again with me.” Anne shrugged. "I'm okay with it all now, but it was pretty scary in the beginning when I thought I’d be on the outs with my parents."

  Tabitha walked over to the young woman and put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. "You don't need to worry about that. Your parents will forgive you, no matter what the problems are. You might just have to give it some time before it happens. They love you, but your mom was under some incredible strain, and she broke. That's nothing against her, and really, it helped a whole lot. Now, we understand classes needed to be created for those of us who aren't coping as well as we had hoped, once we left Earth. Some of us get so involved with the next goal, we forget that a lot of those who are supporting us right now might have their own troubles and difficulties."

  Anne mumbled a response into Tabitha's chest, "Brgrlfllrrrckraghen."

  Tabitha pulled away and looked down at the teenager. "What did you say?"

  Anne smiled. “I said, ‘I can't breathe!’” Anne pulled Tabitha back in for a hug before releasing her. Anne continued, "I know that now, but it was pretty scary when the Queen emancipated me in the first place. I'm super excited to be working on the Etheric research, and it's kind of cool that I sometimes get to talk to my dad about it as well."

  Tabitha turned and headed to her own room in the suite. “Well, he did all of that work with that stupid black-ops shell company, so some of this is not that far out from what he was working on.”

  Tabitha’s voice came from her room, "So, who knows, maybe you and your father will be famous researchers into Etheric Travel!"

  Tabitha didn't see the small tear that Anne reached up and wiped away. She waited a moment to get her emotions in order. “Maybe? That would be pretty rad."

  Tabitha's voice called back out, "Hey, so, while I go on this operation with a few of the Tontos, what you going to be doing?"

  Anne walked to Tabitha's door and leaned against the opening, crossing her arms. "I've been told that I will get my own small suite in about three or four days. So, when you get back you won't have a roomie anymore."

  Tabitha looked up from the little gym bag of extra supplies she was taking with her. “Really?” Tabitha looked around her room. “God, it will be so good not to have to be so clean all of the time."

  Anne looked at her, surprise and annoyance showing on her face. “What? Are you saying you're not naturally this clean?" She pointed around the room to all of the areas that were spotless.

  Tabitha chuckled. "Hell no. I'm only this clean because I had a teenager here sharing my suite all of the time. I had to set a good example. If you weren't here, I would have been messy. When I know somebody is coming over, I will throw it all into a basket and stick it somewhere in the back of the closet. I'm not that much older than you for Pete's sake."

  Anne continued looking at her roomie. Finally, she threw up her hands and turned around. "I'll bet you I'm cleaner than you are without you putting in the extra effort."

  Tabitha smiled as the young woman walked away.

  It wasn't that Tabitha was a very messy person; it was just that she was a very busy person and whatever she was working on next had her attention. Slowing down to do something like, oh ... cleaning up dirty clothes, never seem to have the highest priority.

  She finished adding the extra supplies she wanted to her go bag. Stepping back into her closet, she grabbed her work clothes and laid them out on the bed. She was going in her synthetic black leather looking outfit this time, with the extra armor that Jean had supplied.

  She walked back to her closet and started pulling out different boxes labeled with symbols that she had created. They were the different tools and tricks that she enjoyed using as a Ranger.

  She made three trips to the closet and back out, setting boxes down on the bed. She looked at what she had laid out so far, and then considered what she still wanted from the closet and spoke aloud, “Achronyx?”

  Her personal EI came back, speaking from her tablet on the dresser, "Yes?"

  “Do me a favor and order a transfer cart to the suite. I've got too much stuff right now. And then take it down to the ship in Bay 212. I understand that bay will have the ship we are using for our trip."

  Her EI responded quickly, “Request taken care of."

  Tabitha raised an eyebrow. This was the easiest Achronyx had been in the last three days.

  Normally, he was a pain in the ass. If she had time, she would have Adam take a look at her EI and find out what seemed to be wrong with him. However, it was one of those cases where she never seemed to have enough time, or when she had time, she never thought about it.

  He had to be the most recalcitrant EI that she had ever had to deal with. If she didn't know any better, she would swear Achronyx was made up of a bunch of IBM PC Junior's all strung together.

  Tabitha exited her room and crossed the suite toward Anne's. She was going to give the teenager one more hug goodbye.

  Just to make sure that the young girl was doing okay.

  QBBS Merideth Reynolds

  Giannini walked into the little kitchenette she shared with Sia. It was a nice two bedroom, two bath suite often referred to as a roommate plan on earth. The kitchen, living room, and dining room were situated in the middle between the two bedrooms.

  She had the room without the ensuite bath since she was the neater of the two women and would keep it cleaner for guests. Giannini opened the little refrigerator they had, which had technology for cooling she was completely in awe of, and snagged a bottle of beer.

  She looked at the little label that All Guns Blazing had placed on the bottle and raised an eyebrow. It said that it had a hint of berry in it. She reached to her right and opened a drawer, grabbing a bottle opener to pop off the cap. She tossed the cap into a bag with the others.

  She would take all of the other bottle caps back to the guys when the bag was full. She walked into the living room, sat on the couch and grabbed a tablet to turn on the news. She took a sip of her beer and had to admit that it did have a nice hint of berries. She turned the beer bottle around to look at the label again and reviewed the different contents.

  It was raspberry that they used in this recipe, or at least that's what they claimed on the label. Knowing Bobcat, William, and Marcus, it could be anything. So long as it tasted like berries to Bobcat, it probably went on the label that way.

  She picked the tablet back up and scrolled through the different channels that were available from both the internal options and those from the Yollin networks which would be translated. While she could ask the entertainment EI to choose a station, she still preferred to review the information in text form and pick one herself.

  Giannini noticed that one of her favorite Yollin newscasters
had a special on and asked the EI to turn on channel twenty-two. The suite's projector turned on, and a nice forty-eight-inch picture appeared on the wall opposite her.

  She took another sip of her beer as she watched the breaking news about another public riot on the television.

  R’Chkoklet, Planet Yoll

  The young female Yollin reporter turned to view the camera. “Hello, this is Pehl-eck, and I am reporting from the town of R'Chkoklet, in the upper Caste Business Zone. As my camera person pans to the five-story building over my shoulder, you will notice there is a mob of protesters throwing stones at the building and shouting slogans at those inside. It seems there was a violent outburst here just hours ago. Some of the upper caste members have refused to accept the edicts coming from the Etheric Empire. When a traditionally lower caste member refused the commands of three previously upper caste members in a small breakfast shop this morning, they grabbed him and pulled him out into the street.”