“And trying to get TQB to give up their technology,” the President mused.
George’s eyes widened, then he reached across the table to the President’s surprise to grab the other roll of Tums. The President watched the general break the roll in half and put one portion back in front of him before opening the other and eating two tablets. George looked up at his ultimate commander, “I hadn’t thought about that. If those idiots up on the hill do something catastrophically stupid, I’m going to my bug-out hole in the Ozarks.”
“You really fear TQB that much?” the President asked his advisor who had just grabbed two more Tums and popped them in his mouth. “Guess so,” the President finished while grabbing his remaining half-roll to pull closer to himself. “Ok, what else is on your agenda?”
“Cargo,” George answered him.
“Say again?” the President asked, surprised by the change in topic.
“Cargo,” George said. “We are having a bitch of a time tracking everything they are shipping off-world, but if we assume that we are catching even fifty percent, then they are sending an enormous amount of cargo.”
“Where is it going?” the President asked, surprised that this topic wasn’t causing him an ulcer. “I mean, they are a business so buying and procuring cargo isn’t a strange or terrifying turn of events, George.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” the general answered, “We see what looks like a really large spaceship being built. How the hell did it come about so quickly? It takes us five years to construct a Gerald Ford class aircraft carrier. That’s with highly trained people doing it. What the hell are they using to get something together so fast and how the hell are they designing it? How long have they been planning this?”
George grabbed another Tums. “TQB is over a thousand companies, some of which have been in business for hundreds of years.”
The President laughed, “C’mon George, you’re talking as if they are the Illuminati or something!”
George laughed with him, “No, no they aren’t the Illuminati sir. I’m not saying that.” He smiled to the President, waving both hands back and forth in the air in a no gesture.
Because I would know if they were part of us, he thought to himself.
Clan Temple Near Shennongjia Peak, Hubei
Stephanie left her room, leaving and walking towards the sanctuary where she was sure she would find her father, finally.
The voices had decreed it.
She took the turns through the rock tunnels, since most of the compound was inside the mountain, hidden from the outside world for centuries. Only those in highest ranks of the clan ever knew of the inner complex, unless you were in the family of the clan leader.
Stephanie used the back hallways to make it to the temple. She exited out of a little-used door into a darkened hallway that turned left for ten feet before entering the main hallway leading into the temple. She walked into the large room again, the incense and candles reminding her of her dreams.
The dreams of people, and animals, spirits and voices.
The Leopard Empress.
She strode forward, sure of her destiny while also trying to still the child’s fear inside her. The images she remembered now that she was back in the temple were frightening. Changelings, people transforming from human to animals, stalking through the night, killing foes and retreating. The power of the clan disappearing as technology and cities took over her country.
Not retreating, she corrected herself, waiting. Awaiting the right time, the right person.
Her.
The voices had decreed the message and she had accepted it. It was time her clan rose from the shadows and fought again before it was too late. Before they lacked the power to make a choice in the future.
She walked past the main altar and around it, to the small area behind the altar where her father would occasionally stand to fill up the incense burners. She stepped to the side and felt for the lever. There was a lever where her dream said it would be. Moving the catch, a small part of the wall disengaged, allowing her to pull it open. There was no one in the temple so there were no witness seeing the young, attractive woman slip into the wall and disappear.
—
It took Stephanie at least ten minutes to feel her way down the pitch-black hallway. She would step out, make sure her foot was secure as she reached out, keeping the wall to the right guiding her hand. Finally, she noticed a small bluish glow ahead of her. In another minute, there was enough light for her to see the gray floor and her feet.
She was able to move faster at that point.
In another thirty seconds, she let her hand drop as she strode forward, aware that this hallway was in her dream. She entered a stone room, some fifty feet long, twenty wide and maybe twelve tall. It was glowing with a blue phosphoresce that came from the walls.
“Beauuutiiffuulll, isn't it?” There was a voice, harsh and raspy, coming from her right. She jerked around quickly and took a step backward when she saw a … being. A man, yet a tiger staring down at her, its eyes sizing her up but not aggressive. Her brain tried not to run in fear.
He was almost six and a half feet tall, much taller than her normally shorter countrymen. Stephanie noticed that he was as handsome as he was deadly looking. She looked into the eyes as he stood there, arms crossed, looking down at her.
There was something about his eyes, those dark eyes that reminded her of something, or someone. Her eyes opened in dawning understanding.
“Father?” she asked the being.
“Yessss,” the Tiger man bowed his head slightly, “To you, my daaaughter, but alllssso your Prrriest and nowww yooourr Aaahddvisssor.”
Stephanie walked up closer to the figure who stayed still as she approached. She put a hand out and felt his arm muscles, the hair slick under her touch. She moved her hand to his chest when he suddenly started cough-grunting, and she yanked her hand back quickly. “No,” he said, “thhhat ticklesss, notthhing morrre.” There seemed to be a humored glint in its eye.
She smiled, “I think that is enough, I don’t want to be touching my own father like this, but this body, your body is exquisite!” She smiled at it. “Is this what was hidden to me, for those many years? This is what I ran away from?”
The being opened its arms, “Yesss, my daughter. But you have returrrned, and returrrned as my Empressss,” he told her. “Be hhhappy, allll happennned asss it was forrrretolld,” he said in a guttural voice, “If my Emmmprrress allowwws it, I will chaaange baaack too my hhhumann body?” he asked. She nodded and turned around. She wasn’t so slow to figure out that her father would be naked when he was human again.
She’d wait until there was another person to watch change from this form to human before she satiated that curiosity.
A few moments later, her father’s usual voice greeted her, “How is my flower?”
She turned in joy to see him, clad in a simple robe and smiling at her, the blue light reflecting from his eyes, his arms open. She walked and hugged him, feeling his touch for the first time in eight years and it felt good.
It felt right.
It felt like the first chapter was over, and now the next chapter had begun in her future.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Manufacturing Facility 01 - Asteroid Fields
“Ok, can I be the first to say this thing is fucking huge,” Bobcat groused as they walked from the front of the ship towards the back, “I need a damned cart.”
“We have those,” Jeo said looking at the astonished Bobcat, “I figured you would want to see everything and stick your nose in it, so why bother with a cart?”
“Bother already, man!” Bobcat told him, “Shit dude, my legs are going to … well, do nothing, actually. I guess I’m fine physically, but I’m bored out of my mind at the moment. Grab us a scooter and let’s go!”
Five minutes later, the two of them entered the bunk area after rolling through the large hallways. Bobcat got off the scooter and stretched, “Next time I drive. You d
rive like my grandmother.”
“Hey, in my defense, I’m not a pilot,” Jeo argued back while getting out of the cart on the drivers side.
“I know, you’re an engineer, and you drive like one, too.” Bobcat retorted as he stepped up to the door and stopped perplexed, “What, isn’t this going to swoosh?” Bobcat looked over at Jeo, who was rolling his eyes in exasperation.
“No,” Jeo replied, “you get no swoosh.” He placed his palm on a circle next to the door, and it split down the center to open, “No automatic opening right now except in a few really trafficked areas that still need closed doorways unless someone is walking through. Otherwise, all doors stay closed all the time in case we get a hole somewhere.”
“Bring those doors back out, but half way,” Bobcat asked. Jeo played with the controls, and the two doors slid halfway out. Bobcat looked at the connections, “Nice work. So, if you get a depressurization from inside the room, they pull this way, compressing the seal on one side. If the depressurization comes from the hallway, then the reverse is true. Sweet.” Bobcat slid between the doors to enter the larger room. It was an oval, “Why an oval?” Bobcat turned back to Jeo, who had fixed the doors, and they slid shut behind him as he entered.
“The plans called for a more organic feel. Research suggests that humans need to live in places that aren't all rectangles, straight lines, and corners.” He shrugged, “Not my area of expertise, but it allowed us to alter the plans minimally. Plus, the few non-engineers who have been in here say it has a nice feel.”
Bobcat looked around the room. “Needs a few potted plants,” he remarked as he counted the doors, “eight rooms?”
Jeo shook his head and walked over to one of the doors, “No, sixteen. Dual sleep chambers. The area out here is for standing and general socializing.” He hit the circle at the top. The door slid open, while a small hole also appeared on both sides of the wall with a rod. “This is for the person who uses the top. The step here is for a shorter person who wants to step up. Otherwise, they can grab that bar above and slide in, or crawl in, their choice.”
Bobcat walked over and remarked, “Seems like a pain in the ass to me.” He put his right foot in the hole and easily grabbed the pole to slide into the cubicle. His voice came out of the area a little muffled, “Fucking nice, though! Shit, you can sit up in here. Shelves, hell, even a place to stand if you need it.”
“Yes, that’s why there is an area blocked out of yours for the person below. If you need to do some sort of standing, you have eight square feet of space.” Jeo told him as he stuck his head in, “This way, we barely use more space than a shared compartment, but it works to keep it private.”
“Works until you need three,” Bobcat said, “then what?”
“We build a bigger ship?” Jeo answered. “Hell if I know. We are just proud of the small things we are doing here.”
“Yeah, you really should be,” Bobcat said as he played with a small door, “Holy shit, a six-pack altar.”
“What?” Jeo asked, trying to see around the corner to find Bobcat pointing at something out of his view.
“A six-pack altar,” Bobcat said grumpily, before shutting the door, “a fridge you philistine!” He started sliding on the bed again as Jeo stepped back and as Bobcat slid out of the cubicle. “That’s actually a nice little cubbyhole,” he admitted.
“I like to think so,” Jeo agreed.
“What does the Captain's room look like?” Bobcat asked.
“I should have shown you when we were near the bridge, but it looks very executive.”
“And Bethany Anne’s?”
“Palatial,” Jeo admitted.
“Her special room?”
“For at least two hundred pairs of shoes,” Jeo agreed.
“Not that room,” Bobcat snorted, “Although if we can increase that, we might want to. I mean her appearing room?”
“Yup,” Jeo said, “Room for eighteen if they are friendly.”
Bobcat thought about that for a second, “We need to see if there can be a backup room, just in case we need more. I’d hate to be the eighteenth son-of-a-bitch in the group and find my elbow or something else in a wall when we rematerialize.” He said.
“Ah, good point,” Jeo admitted. Neither wanted to find out what would happen if the molecules merged.
“Ok,” Bobcat stopped looking around, “I’ve seen everything I want to see, when can I take her out?”
“Come again?” Jeo asked, surprised.
“Take her out? You know, sea trials?” Bobcat responded before rethinking his comment, “Ok, space trials?”
“But, half of her insides are still open. We haven’t confirmed all of her gravity engines are connecting properly, and we have no supplies!” Jeo told him.
Bobcat barked, “Samantha?”
Samantha’s holo-video head showed on the port wall, “Yes, Bobcat?”
“Can we take this hunk of metal out right now?”
“Negative, Bobcat. It will take a minimum of seventy-six hours on our projected timeline to be able to move.”
Bobcat looked over to Jeo, “You have seventy-two.” He winked at the stupefied man and walked out.
Jeo heard him yell from the hallway, “Hey, I’m taking your cart!”
Jeo waved towards the disembodied voice and turned to sit on the floor, “Samantha, bring up the project plan, we need to adjust some things.”
“I understand, Jeo. How many levels of padding do you want me to pull from the plan?”
“If we pull all of it, how many hours does that buy us?”
“We can make minimum requirements to get underway in forty-seven hours,” she told him.
“Ok, let’s see what we can add back in so we aren’t at a minimum when we hit seventy-two hours.”
“Yes Jeo,” she responded.
“And Samantha?”
“Yes?”
“Transfer your core intelligence to this vessel, leave a copy behind for me. You are now the E.I. of this ship until Bethany Anne overrides it.”
“Yes, Jeo.”
Tabitha’s House – South America
“Sneaky?” Gabrielle asked Tabitha.
“Yes, sneaky!” she replied.
The two of them were down in her workout room. She told the Tontos to leave them alone when she told them Gabrielle was coming for a visit. It was going to be ‘girl talk’. She snickered when the two men looked at each other, and she could see the agreement in their eyes to be somewhere else.
Probably anywhere else.
Tabitha had called Gabrielle and asked her for advice, and help. So, Gabrielle jumped in a Pod and came over an hour later, with Ashur.
Tabitha had met them out on the lawn as the Pod came to rest. “Heya big guy!” Tabitha smiled when seeing the big German Shepherd, who chuffed his greeting, allowed Tabitha to hug him before continuing to the kitchen. Tabitha turned to stare at the quickly receding backside of the dog before turning to Gabrielle with a question on her face.
“He hasn’t eaten in a while. He was waiting for dinner when I asked him if he wanted to come visit you. So, he’s probably heading for the kitchen.”
Tabitha grabbed one of the two bags that Gabrielle had brought along and gave her a quick hug, “And a heya to you too, big sis.”
“Watch it, punk.”
“Hey, it wasn’t older sis!” Tabitha grinned, then added, “as in older, older, really much older…”
“The beatings only get worse as your disrespect continues,” Gabrielle told her.
“Did I say older?” Tabitha stopped, “I meant wiser and charming, and let’s not forget forgiving, too.” She finished when Gabrielle snorted.
“I’ll bet, so what’s eating at you, Grasshopper?” She asked as the two walked towards the house while the Pod disappeared back into the sky.
“I’d rather wait to tell you inside,” she admitted, “downstairs in the workout room.”
“Ok, works for me. Let’s check in on the four-legged tr
ash compactor and then we will get settled in,” Gabrielle agreed.
Sure enough, Ashur had two of the Elites, the brothers Kouki and Shin, offering him food and he was eating what they were offering. “Make sure he doesn’t become a glutton,” Gabrielle told the two as the ladies left Ashur eating to travel down the hall and down the stairs. The two nodded their understanding to the back of the quickly-receding ladies.
Gabrielle unzipped the two bags after dropping them on the workout room floor. “So, you are continually getting your ass kicked, what did you expect?”
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