>>Hey,<< ADAM complained. >>What about me?<<
You’re grounded. Indefinitely.
>> Whatever.<< ADAM huffed and went silent again.
I don’t know why, TOM piped up, but somehow the Mom voice is worse than the Empress voice.
Bethany Anne rolled her eyes. Can we just focus, please? It’s like trying to think with a bunch of damned squirrels arguing in my head.
It’s about to get a little bit more unpleasant, TOM told her apologetically. I have to make you speak Ooken.
So? She waved off his concern. We’ve done that almost too many times.
Not with a psionic language. I suggest you brace yourself. This is going to hurt.
Bethany Anne considered why she wasn’t more surprised by that information. “I don’t give a shit if it hurts as long as it works.”
Tabitha looked at her with concern. “If what hurts?”
“Speaking Ooken,” Bethany Anne told her quickly. “Okay, just get it over with. It can’t be worse than the headache you caused fucking around with ADAM’s chip.”
Frankly, yes it can. There’s no point in sugarcoating it. I have to overstimulate a part of your brain that humans don’t normally use in this way.
Sudden pressure behind her eyes almost made her scream. Bethany Anne pressed a hand to her eyes, staggering from the intensity of the pain. FUCK! It wasn’t a damned challenge, TOM!
I’m sorry! Almost done.
The shield across the corridor disappeared.
Bethany Anne gritted her teeth and waited. The pressure behind her eyes vanished as suddenly as it had occurred. “Dammit, TOM.”
Tabitha was by her side in the next moment. “You okay?” she asked, her brow furrowed with concern. “It looked like you were going to faint or something.”
Bethany Anne shook off the residual pain. “I’m fine. Let’s go.” She drew her katanas and headed for the now-unrestricted corridor.
Beyond the Gate, Staging Post, Shielded Area
The corridor led Bethany Anne and Tabitha to an imposing set of doors, which Bethany Anne opened with a generous application of her boot.
The two women strode in with their weapons raised—straight into the waiting tentacles of several Ooken guards. There wasn’t even time to admire the huge tank that took up most of the room.
Tabitha ducked out from under the reaching tentacles and tossed a tiny drone into its snapping beak.
The Ooken stepped back, clutching its throat where the drone had stuck.
Tabitha winced when she realized exactly which drone she’d thrown. Bethany Anne?
Bethany Anne turned from the corpse of the guard she’d dispatched as the head of Tabitha’s guard exploded. Really?
Tabitha winced as Bethany Anne wiped a hand down her face to remove the brain splatter. Um, duck?
Bethany Anne narrowed her eyes.
Tabitha made herself busy to avoid the glare. How long do we have?
Bethany Anne flicked her hand to remove the goop. Ten, fifteen minutes maybe until every Ooken here comes baying for our blood.
Tabitha looked around. Then we should start searching for whatever it is they’re hiding before we have to leave everything behind.
Bethany Anne pointed behind Tabitha at the tank, gaping in amazement. They’re not hiding anything.
Tabitha turned her head from one side to the other, trying to understand the dimensions of the creature before her. “Are you a squid? You look a bit like a squid.”
The not-a-squid threw back its tentacles, revealing a familiar-looking beak.
Bethany Anne sensed more to the beast than the animal instinct it was showing them. “I think it might be Ooken, too, without the ‘ook’ part.”
You are correct, TOM cut in. It seems that this is what the Ooken were before they were altered.
By the Kurtherians.
Yes, Bethany Anne, by the Kurtherians. I believe it wishes to communicate with us.
Bethany Anne regarded the creature with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. But it’s an Ooken. They don’t communicate, just attack.
She glanced at Tabitha. “Apparently, TOM and I are going to attempt a conversation with this creature.”
Tabitha shrugged. “I’ve seen weirder things happen. I’ll keep watch.”
TOM established the mental link between him and Bethany Anne and the creature.
We are the Collective, it began. And we wish for death.
Bethany Anne snorted. I figured that out from the way I keep killing you and you all keep turning up on my doorstep again.
The creature thrashed as though it were in pain. They are the Chosen. We are not the Chosen. We are alone.
TOM made a sound of sympathy. Bethany Anne, this being is separate from the hive mind.
We hate the Chosen. We wish them to die. We will help you.
Bethany Anne grinned at the mass of writhing tentacles inside the tank. Well, shit, I guess that makes us friends. What can you tell me that will help?
Everything.
She was hit by a flood containing the sum of knowledge of the mind inside the tank. TOM, are you getting all this?
TOM’s voice was tight. It wasn’t exaggerating. This is a whole lot of data, much of it random. It’s going to take ADAM and me some time to turn it into something you can use.
That’s fine. I can wait until we get back to Devon.
How generous of you.
Bethany Anne shrugged. Actually, you’re right. You can get started now, and I’ll hear it on the way home. She looked back at the solitary creature in the tank. Are you sure you don’t want to come back with us?
The creature was gone in a flash of tentacles. Destroy this place. We will die happy.
Bethany Anne went to find Tabitha.
Tabitha almost ran into Bethany Anne, returning from the corridor just as Bethany Anne left the tank room. “Yeah, um…we should probably get going. I think I just pissed them off more than they already were.”
Bethany Anne didn’t need to try to hear the Ooken’s minds; they were everywhere. Hundreds of Ooken spilled into the corridor, all screeching for blood.
“This way.” Bethany Anne opened a link to the ship as she and Tabitha raced in the opposite direction to avoid being overrun. Izanami, we’re ready for pickup.
The AI replied immediately. The ship awaits, my Queen.
Tabitha fired into the mass as Bethany Anne grabbed her and pulled them both into the Etheric. She dropped onto her ass when they emerged on the bridge of the Izanami, panting heavily around gales of laughter. “That was the craziest shit we’ve done in forever!”
Bethany Anne walked over to the screens and stared at the staging post as the ship moved toward the Gate. “I think we’re far enough away, Izanami. Activate the drones.”
Izanami appeared, dressed all in black. “Of course, my Queen.”
Bethany Anne grasped the Etheric and poured more energy into the drones as they sped away.
“Are you giving them more power?” Tabitha asked in awe. “After seeing what they do without a boost?”
Bethany Anne nodded, her face set in hard lines. “I want to be sure the creature who helped us does not suffer—and that every other Ooken aboard those cubes does.”
A few moments later, dozens of explosions lit the staging post as the drones detonated. The cubes were shredded by the Etheric energy hitting them from all sides.
The whole structure collapsed. Slowly at first, then all at once.
Bethany Anne saw a Gate snap shut near the one back to Devon. “Izanami, take us home.”
Izanami inclined her head. “If you would give me a moment to deliver my blow to this place?”
Bethany Anne smiled. “Go for it, Izanami.”
The AI bowed her head, and the tiny flaws in her avatar ceased to flicker in the air around her for a moment. “It is done.”
Tabitha clutched her hands in front of her chest as a fresh wave of explosions ripped through the remains of the staging post. �
�I always forget how awesome fireworks are until we do something like this.”
Bethany Anne grinned. “Let’s go home, Tabitha.”
Devon, First City, The Hexagon
“I want to see my boys!” Tabitha barged past Bethany Anne and Michael and ran over to where Peter stood waiting for her with Todd.
Bethany Anne grinned at Michael as Tabitha stormed down the ramp at high speed. “Did you ever think she would settle down like that?”
Michael shrugged. “I had those two pegged the first time I saw them together.”
“MOOOOOM!”
Bethany Anne spun at the combined yells of Alexis and Gabriel. She got her arms out in time but was still almost knocked on her ass by the force of her children throwing their arms around her.
Alexis buried her face in Bethany Anne's shoulder, scolding her mother even as she clung to her. “Mom, we were so worried when you dropped off like that.”
Gabriel gripped her in a vice-like hug. “If it wasn’t for ADAM, we would have come after you.”
Bethany Anne understood her children’s concerns. “Heeeey,” she soothed. “It’s all good. I’m home.”
Alexis and Gabriel looked up at her with identical expressions. “We know you’re home,” they mumbled in unison, reverting to ritual as their emotion ran over.
Bethany Anne held her children close, kissing their heads one at a time. “I know you know,” she finished softly.
Michael completed the circle, wrapping his arms around the children while he touched his forehead to Bethany Anne's. “Everyone else is waiting in the conference room for the debrief, and our children have a shuttle to catch.”
Bethany Anne took a second to breathe him in, groaning at the thought of dragging her tired ass to a meeting when all she wanted was a duvet and a soft pillow. “A shuttle?”
Gabriel ducked out of his parents’ embrace. “To the Guardian. We are taking a shift helping out in the orientation lounges,” he told her. “Dad said it would be character-building, but we were going to volunteer anyway, so it all works out.”
Alexis squeezed her mother tighter for a second before letting go. “We should go or we’ll be late.”
Bethany Anne watched her children leave, then turned to Michael. “Let’s get this done so we can go home.”
“Home?” he asked as they set off for the meeting room.
Bethany Anne closed her eyes as the temptation to move the debrief to the morning flickered through her mind. “Mmhmm, which right now means wherever there is a bed I can get into and not emerge from for at least eight hours.”
Michael slipped an arm around her. “You can rest tonight, my love.”
Bethany Anne tucked her head into the hollow of Michael’s shoulder as they walked. “I fully intend to. But, debriefing first.”
“Tomorrow we get up and fight all over again.”
FINIS
NOBODY’S FOOL
Have you started the new weekly Zoo series from Michael Todd (Anderle)? New Soldiers of Fame and Fortune books are coming every Wednesday. Book one is Nobody’s Fool. Get started today!
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AUTHOR NOTES - MICHAEL ANDERLE
DECEMBER 24, 2018
THANK YOU for not only reading this story but these Author Notes as well.
(I think I’ve been good with always opening with “thank you.” If not, I need to edit the other Author Notes!)
RANDOM (sometimes) THOUGHTS?
I often refuse to talk politics, because some readers (like me) are not wild about reading them in my stories, and certainly not in my Author Notes.
However, they get into the stories, since politics are often part of the story (can’t help it, politicians are often assholes.)
The reason I bring this up is due to an explanation to a fellow author about how what we write, at times, can come across as the opposite of what we believe.
Case in point. A few months ago, I received a Facebook Messenger message from a *very* displeased reader who was castigating me about a negative attitude toward the President in the story and assumed I was allowing the present President of the United States to be the point of my irritation.
I was not.
I tried to explain, in as short an amount of time possible, since arguing is usually pointless, that I am a WORLD-CLASS cynic about politicians and politics.
I hate them all equally and assume the worst of them all unless overwhelming evidence contradicts me.
True story—I was writing a Kurtherian Gambit book (somewhere in the first twelve books) when the FINAL Presidential election was being held. I had the new President’s gender as female in the book but had to wait until the election was over before releasing.
A guy won, so I changed the book to fit the new gender. (Hey, I was just going by what the polls were proclaiming. While I did vote, I didn’t vote for either of them.) I was a dick to whichever President won because I didn’t base my character on the real person. It just so happens the gender changed, and it became a man instead of a woman.
Yet, some assume I actually care who is in the office. While I might personally, I don’t do that in my stories.
So, if you think I hate the present President (even if you are reading this in 2026) the answer is I might not hate the person, but I am very cynical about what they are doing for my country.
HOW TO MARKET FOR BOOKS YOU LOVE
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If you enjoyed this or ANY book by any author, especially Indie-published, we always appreciate if you make the time to review a book, since it lets other readers who might be on the fence to take a chance on it as well.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
One of the interesting (at least to me) aspects of my life is the ability to work from anywhere and at any time. In the future, I hope to re-read my own Author Notes and remember my life as a diary entry.
Christmas Eve 2018 Baby!
I’m in California eating frozen candy corns left over from Halloween (actually, I think maybe Thanksgiving… I don’t remember.)
Either way, frozen candy corns are freaking delicious. They aren’t so hard just out of the freezer that it hurts if you rush and chomp on them (not great, but they aren’t a hard candy) and they melt to room temperature pretty fast.
They also, I found out, coat my fingers with sugar, and it messes up my laptop’s keyboard.
Crap.
Also, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas music is stellar!
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Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
BOOKS BY MICHAEL ANDERLE
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
All’s Fair In Blood And War Team
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Cha
pter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Nobody’s Fool
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Books By Michael Anderle
Connect with Michael Anderle
All’s Fair in Blood and War (The Kurtherian Endgame Book 4) Page 25
