Kneel Or Die (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 7)

by Michael Anderle

  Kevin yanked his right hand back. In his shock he had grabbed Bethany Anne’s leg and had been squeezing it as hard as he could. He hadn’t made much of a dent. What the fuck was happening?

  All of his questions suddenly took second place, compared to the beauty of the stars as they lit up the window. Bethany Anne swiped her hand across the glass. All of the controls and displays that had been projected onto the glass disappeared, leaving only the view of the horizon and space.

  He was in space!

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  Kevin just nodded his head.

  Bethany Anne placed one of her feet against a brace welded to the door specifically for her to do this. She put an elbow on her upraised knee and placed her chin in her hand. “I could stay up here forever, if I had the choice.”

  Her melancholy caught Kevin by surprise. He turned to look at her. “What? Why? Why don’t you have a choice?” He turned to look back out and continued to admire the view.

  She spoke, “TOM, take us east, I want to see the sun rise.” Kevin felt his body pushed back in his seat. Although very noticeable, it wasn’t painful. Turning, she answered his question. He couldn’t take his eyes from the view. “Because all of this that you see has a date with destiny. The technology allowing us to move around so quickly right now is not human technology, but alien.”

  That comment caused him to turn and stare at Bethany Anne, “Alien? Like, not from Earth aliens?”

  She nodded, “Yes. The ‘not from this planet’ type of aliens.” She let him ponder that comment for a minute.

  He slowly looked around the vehicle for a minute, trying to understand what he was seeing. She waved her hand back across the glass and all of the gauges, displays and controls glowed on the glass again. He studied the cockpit information more closely.

  He noticed a few items which showed their location on a map, airspeed and altitude, but most of the screen seemed to be for communication and data. It had nothing to do with actually flying the craft.

  He searched for the name she had said earlier. “I take it ‘Tom’ is flying this craft?”

  “Not exactly, but he is my personal pilot.”

  Now I’m a pilot?

  Well, you’re not a very good computer professional. Don’t make me whip out the ‘what have you screwed up lately’ card, alright?

  Good point. Let me know when your ladyship wishes to go back down.

  Kevin asked, “If he isn’t, who is?”

  Bethany Anne smiled, “Not so much a ‘who’ as a ‘what’.”

  Kevin looked over at her, “What?”

  Bethany Anne pointed over his shoulder and slightly behind him. “Look back that way.”

  Kevin craned his neck back to his left and stopped breathing. They were being tailed by a real U.F.O. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Her voice was soothing, which was nice considering how much was being thrown at him at the moment. “If you think it is an alien craft from another galaxy and older than you are? Then yes, it is. If you are thinking it is a figment of your imagination, then no.”

  Kevin’s right hand touched the glass, aching to reach out and touch the alien craft. “It’s beautiful…”

  “It brought an alien to earth, about a thousand years ago”

  “Why? I mean why did they want to come here?”

  “The alien that ended up here belongs to a group that are nonviolent, they are basically pacifists to a degree. So, they were looking for help to fight a second set of nasty aliens. The nasty types basically want to conquer the galaxy. They are bent on subjugating the peaceful aliens. And they will eventually work their way to us.”

  Kevin turned back around, “This is what Lance was talking about, when he said, ‘think bigger than big’, right?”

  She nodded her agreement. “One of the biggest issues my team had to come to terms with is that I’m working to save our planet, not just the nation I came from. From up here, it’s priceless. The beauty is exquisite. From up here, you don’t see the ugliness of people hating people. No brothers fighting brothers, no nations fighting nations. I’m not interested in saving a particular nation so they can ‘win’ over other nations. That mess needs to be dealt with the old fashioned way. My task is to make sure the idiots down there survive long enough to figure it out.”

  Kevin was an inquisitive sort, but he wasn’t slow. “So, people in your group leave their nationality behind?”

  “In a nutshell, we are here to save that big blue ball. We have to focus on the bigger picture – not the little stuff that nations can and should do. We can’t focus on fixing that mess at the same time we are focusing on building our fort.” The Pod turned towards the stars, the moon coming into view from behind them. “See all of that space?” Kevin nodded. “That is how much area we have to try to protect.”

  Kevin whistled quietly, “That is one hell of a fort!”

  “Yup, you know how we are going to prepare to make that happen?” Kevin shook his head. “We are going to introduce a lot of technology the world hasn’t seen before. Some we will license to bring in needed revenues, some we will use to build craft to help us get out here. Guess what one of our biggest problems is right now?”

  Kevin thought for a moment, “Supply line.”

  Bethany Anne looked back out the window, “Got it in one! We can’t be out here and have our supply line cut down below. Want one guess as to where we have put our stake in the ground back on Earth?”

  “Holy crap. The base is going to be your central logistics location?”

  “Yup. Now do you understand why the General wants you to join the team so badly?”

  Kevin’s shoulders tensed, “I understand some, but I don’t understand why he doesn’t just run it himself. He mentioned something earlier at dinner, but I guess I don’t have all of the pieces?”

  “No, probably not. I tasked my father to shepherd over a thousand companies. And a lot of them are global, with locations in most of the countries of the world. They are throwing out enough technology that it will fund us in the beginning stages. Then, he is going to place a bunch of the highest level R&D people into special sections at the base. I assume he has shown you all the new areas under construction?” Kevin nodded. “So we are creating the safest location possible to produce the newest, most advanced technology the world has ever seen. We are placing it in the middle of the most powerful nation in the world. At least they are presently.”

  Kevin’s mind was racing, “How are you planning on fighting the aliens? Will it be ship to ship, ground to space, on the ground, what?”

  Bethany Anne sighed, here came the part that was always the most disturbing.

  “Kevin, the aliens have been searching for help. When they came to our planet, their plan was to genetically ‘upgrade’ humans to help them with their war. In the last 1,000 years, some of those ‘upgraded’ humans have been running around and form the basis of our folklore concerning vampires and werewolves.”

  Kevin looked at her, disbelief clearly written on his face. He gestured out the window, “I’m sorry. I’m mostly okay believing in aliens and stuff. Hell, there’s a U.F.O. right behind us. But vampires? Seriously Bethany Anne, I’m going to have to put my foot down and call bullshit on that.”

  Why did it always have to come to this, she wondered?

  Kevin was relieved to find, that out in space no one heard him scream.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Polarus in the Mediterranean

  After Bethany Anne’s final ‘reveal’ Kevin hadn’t been able to think very coherently. They had talked a little while longer and then she had taken him back to the alley. Eric was allowed back into her Pod once she confirmed her dinner order was correct. Blowing a kiss to her father, she left the two men and took off.

  TOM had taken them almost straight up and then over to the Mediterranean. She took a catnap while they flew. Bobcat, William and Marcus had designed special exterior coatings. Once layered
onto the Pod the result was a radar signature the size of a golf-ball. Flying at the speeds they did, the Pod barely registered on any radar system. If someone did notice something, it was usually ignored as a faulty reading.

  By the time they got back it was time to replace Darrell with Scott, in the Pod-doc. She checked Darrell’s readings and then opened up the Pod-doc and helped him get out. He had only been in the machine for five days. Bethany Anne followed TOM’s instructions for cycling the machine. After fifteen minutes it was Scott’s turn. She told Darrell to go eat something and then rest a little.

  As Darryl got dressed, Eric mentioned the whole ‘death walking’ vibe he was giving off and suggested he should start working on how to control it.

  Once she was done with the guys and the Pod-doc, Bethany Anne went over to her rooms on the Polarus. She had argued that since Stephen was now the owner of the ships, he should occupy the main suite. However, he wouldn’t move into it. He proclaimed that ‘Queen cooties had already infested the rooms’, smiled and walked out. She couldn’t get mad at the man. The more she was around him the more she could see the similarities between Stephen and his brother.

  She tried to get Stephen to rat out stories on Michael, but he wouldn’t do it. Bethany Anne even threatened to replace his title of ‘favorite vampire’ and he still wouldn’t budge.

  Damn the man! She had relented and admitted his title was still safe.

  Bethany Anne walked into the meeting room and nodded to her two sea captains, then to Stephen and Dan. Her father was back at the base helping Kevin get adjusted to his new role and providing whatever background information he needed. For the time being, John was with Lance.

  Her father had grumped about John’s shadowing him and pointed out there was security already on the base. Gabrielle had answered the call and explained that was the reason he only had one guard. If he wanted to keep acting like a petulant child, she’d assign a second guard, too.

  Frank and Nathan walked in behind Bethany Anne. Eric was shadowing her, but he took up station outside. Ashur came into the meeting room and dropped down on the floor behind her chair.

  Dan called the little meeting together. It was a discussion related to using the sea assets now that they had craft capable of getting into space.

  It took a little while, but everyone came to the agreement that the Polarus would become the floating center for design. To win the upcoming battle for the planet they would need to develop new vessels and doctrine. This meant designing larger ships for use in space. Determining crew size, crew needs and skills. They would be in contact with Team BMW who would move their ‘Garage’ to Colorado. The Ad Aeternitatem would become the fleet’s aircraft carrier, so to speak. The Polarus would take the role of a screening vessel and would have the job of protecting the Ad Aeternitatem. They decided on a budget to modify the two ships. There were shipyards next to Stephen’s warehouses at the port. They would use his contacts to help decide where the modifications should be done. The Guardians would take over protection details for both ships with Killian and Ecaterina on over watch full-time.

  Bethany Anne asked Nathan about Ecaterina and his face broke out into the biggest smile she had ever seen from him. Bethany Anne knew the two of them had gone back to Ecaterina’s uncle after she was well enough to travel. She had needed a couple of hours in the Pod-doc after nearly dying in Turkey. The trip had helped her immensely to adapt to her new body changes. Apparently the three of them had gone to the European Pack Council to make them aware that a new family had entered the group. Ecaterina could have claimed and stayed with Nathan and the APC. But Ecaterina was proud of her heritage and had even made her uncle come along. The way Nathan told the entertaining story, Ecaterina had grabbed her uncle by the ear lobe and dragged his ass off of the mountain.

  Ecaterina and Nathan had also spent a few days with her brother on the trip to her home town. Nathan even admitted that she had introduced him to her parents on the trip back. You would think Nathan was now her mother’s most favorite man in the world. When were they getting married and, was Ecaterina pregnant already? Not that her mother was judging them, of course. Things were ‘different than when she was young’. That’s when her father interrupted to say that her mother wasn’t a patient woman before their marriage, so he wasn’t sure why she was carrying on about ‘not judging’. Nathan started laughing at this point because Ecaterina’s mom turned on her husband and the Romanian started flying fast and hard. The two used this time to quietly pack and then say their goodbyes. Nathan admitted he thought Ecaterina’s father was the wisest man he knew at the moment.

  Bethany Anne inquired about the EPC meeting and Nathan’s smile came back in full force. One of the pack Alphas who was ‘responsible for that area’ of Europe had tried to lay claim to Ecaterina’s new family tree. Ecaterina told him that if he tried to push that bullshit, she would shove his shirt up his ass so far he would be able to button it with his tongue. Her family was under the Queen’s care, not some ‘wank-tastic’ bunch of has-been losers who couldn’t keep their country in order. That had proved a little incendiary and three-quarters of the group had jumped out of their seats. At least half of them, growling and starting to pull their shirts off to shift.

  Nathan was about to get up when his support became moot. Ecaterina stood up and simply changed to her hybrid form. Her clothes had ripped off her torso. She stared every Alpha there into submission. Most of them had not believed any Weres could turn into the Pricolici form. The reports from the battle in Turkey notwithstanding, they hadn’t believed the rumors. They had decided it was all disinformation drummed up by the Vampire Queen.

  Nathan said Ecaterina went ballistic and only one alpha was stupid enough to talk back to her. She walked over to him and hit him hard enough that his mother felt it. It took him a full ten minutes to heal enough to get off the floor. There had been no further lip from any of the people in the room.

  By this time, the whole group was laughing at Nathan’s retelling. It seemed that Ecaterina had come into her own in that Pack Council meeting. When the mouthy alpha had regained consciousness Ecaterina had asked, ‘did he want to submit or did he want to learn how to button his shirt with his tongue? He had apologized and submitted at that point. Nathan said he stood up and pulled out the gym bag of extra clothes they had brought. One set for each of the three of them in case something happened. She stared at each alpha one last time and then switched back to her human form. She had ripped the remains of her shirt off giving the alphas one look at an exquisite chest before the sweatshirt covered her back up.

  Nathan just smiled his now patented ‘lucky bastard’ grin. Ecaterina walked out first with Alexi behind her. Not one alpha there failed to see Nathan’s eyes flash at the last instant as he glared at them before stepping out into the hallway and closing the door behind them. The council’s relief seemed almost palpable as he left them staring at each other with mouths open.

  She hadn’t been the only Pricolici in the room.

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Polarus

  Bethany Anne retired to her room after the meeting. Tossing her shoes in the general direction of her closet she laid back on the bed, her arms across her eyes.

  She had lain there for maybe two minutes before she was interrupted.

  >> Bethany Anne, is this an acceptable time to interrupt? <<

  About as good as any, she thought.

  Sure ADAM, what’s up?

  >> I have finished one of the first projects you assigned me and have come to a conclusion. <<

  Bethany Anne searched her memory, there could be a couple that he might call his first project.

  Which first project are we talking about?

  >> My designation. <<

  Oh, your name?

  >> Yes, my designation. You said you would call me ADAM until I chose a different designation. <<

  ADAM, you aren’t a ‘designation’ to me. I don’t think of you as an ‘it’. ‘Its’ have designations, entit
ies which are self-aware have names. You have a name. Hell, guys and some girls name their cars and if those hunks of metal can have names, so can you. You’re certainly more self-aware than a car.

  >> I don’t have a response for changing my designation to my name. <<

  May I try?

  Sure, I’m not getting anywhere.

  ADAM, are you independent?

  >> I am mentally independent; I am not physically independent. <<

  Not necessarily true. Presently, the both of us are engaged in a relationship with Bethany Anne for our physical manifestation. While I can be separated, it requires physiological capabilities not on this planet. However, for you to be physically separated from Bethany Anne requires a relatively simple procedure and an appropriate ambulatory device to allow autonomous movement.