WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12)

by Michael Anderle

  “What the HELL,” Cheryl Lynn called over her shoulder, “makes you think I’m getting pregnant again anytime soon?” The two of them heard the ding of the microwave.

  “Oh hell sweetie,” Gabrielle walked in carrying three drinks and an instant popcorn bag, “out of the three of us here, you are the only one to successfully pop out a couple so there is that, plus…” Gabrielle handed the drinks out, kicked off her shoes and crawled onto the bed as well, before continuing, “the two of us have been shut down by the man…err…alien himself.”

  Bethany Anne took the offered drink and popcorn bag, opened the bag and popped a couple in her mouth before speaking, “No, Cheryl Lynn is shut down by the very same alien doctor until she says otherwise.” She dropped another handful of popcorn into her mouth and rolled her hand in a ‘get along’ gesture to Cheryl Lynn.

  Cheryl Lynn made a face and looked at Gabrielle, “Fine, but if this gets out, I swear I’ll go research how to painfully kill a five-hundred-year-old vampire.” Gabrielle crossed her heart, mimed locking her mouth with a key, and made a tossing gesture over her shoulder.

  Have you already told your Dad? Bethany Anne asked.

  Oh, HELL Yeah! However, it isn’t nearly as much fun since he is infatuated right now. He is all sympathetic about the chemicals and emotions that go haywire. I’m getting a little back from my episode with Ivan.

  Finally get over that?

  Yeah, it took a couple of months.

  And?

  I burned two dolls in effigy. Although, it was mostly just a physical thing.

  The first time you were cheated on?

  No, not exactly. They were in a ‘we are going to die’ situation. But, it’s the first time it was with another vampire female. That hurt my pride. More so because she is a dingbat and needy. I’m totally blaming the ‘about to die’ part’

  Two dolls?

  One for each. Hey, pass that popcorn over.

  Bethany Anne reached over and offered her popcorn to Gabrielle “Want some?”

  “Thanks!” Gabrielle replied as she grabbed a handful. Bethany Anne then put the bag in front of Cheryl Lynn.

  “No thanks, watching the figure,” Cheryl Lynn said.

  “That’s not who needs to be watching your figure, I’m pretty sure Scott is supposed to do that,” Bethany Anne interjected, “Besides, you can’t get fat or anything, that was also adjusted.” She popped a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

  “Wait, what?” Cheryl Lynn asked, confused, “What about my figure?”

  Bethany Anne started chewing on the inside of her cheek, “I think we have a serious issue here. It isn’t something TOM can fix.” She rested her head on her hand and tapped her lips, “I think we are going to have to be blunt, it might be the only way.”

  “Whoa!” Cheryl Lynn’s eyes went back and forth as the two women started moving off the bed. “Let’s not and say we did, you two!” Her voice raised an octave, concern flooding her mind. “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing we shouldn’t have done a long time ago, I think.” Bethany Anne said, “Plus if we don’t deal with this right now, it could totally fuck up your relationship with Scott.”

  “What can? How?” Cheryl Lynn turned on the bed as Gabrielle closed the two outer doors and then Bethany Anne’s door again.

  “Mirror?” Gabrielle asked.

  “In the closet, grab the full length. Don’t forget you have to unclip it or it won’t move.” Bethany Anne said as she watched in humor as Cheryl Lynn was now crab-walking to the middle of her bed. Bethany Anne walked around to the other side of the bed and said, “Ashur?”

  Ashur’s sudden barking freaked out Cheryl Lynn, and she bolted away from him, right into Bethany Anne’s waiting arms, “Come along Cheryl Lynn, you need this medicine.”

  Cheryl Lynn tried to lay limp and heavy in Bethany Anne’s arms and realized it was a fruitless exercise. The stupid woman could carry her like she was a piece of paper, “Fine!” She put her feet under her when she was off of the bed, “What are we doing?”

  “Well, first you are getting undressed,” Bethany Anne told her.

  “Do WHAT?” Cheryl Lynn’s head turned when Gabrielle came out of the master closet with a large mirror. “Oh, HELLL no!”

  Bethany Anne smiled, “Oh, heeelll yes,” she told her friend, “You can either do it and save the clothes, or I can just rip them off.”

  “Sometimes,” Cheryl Lynn grumped as she started to unbutton her shirt, “I really hate you, boss.”

  ADAM, I’m going to need your Photoshop skills soon. Go find me pictures of a woman that has Cheryl Lynn’s body structure, but is heavier.

  >>I need a picture.<<

  Let’s let her get undressed first, she needs to really be smashed over the head with this.

  >>Ok, Can you provide me a couple of pictures of the room before she is in front of the mirror?<<

  Sure.

  Gabrielle raised an eyebrow when Bethany Anne moved away from Cheryl Lynn and waved for her to step aside. Bethany Anne took some pictures with her tablet and winked to Gabrielle.

  “Ok, now that I’m disgraced,” Cheryl Lynn huffed as she folded her clothes and put them on the bed, “Now what?”

  “Stand in front of the mirror and we can get started,” Bethany Anne told her. “Don’t worry about the pictures, they will be deleted, and ADAM handles the security on this thing, so you are good.”

  Ten minutes later, pictures taken, Bethany Anne called out, “Ok, that’s enough now. You can get your clothes back on.”

  Looking at her tablet, Bethany Anne said aloud, “ArchAngel, turn on the display on the wall opposite my bed,”

  “That is location two in my setup.” A voice, similar to Bethany Anne’s, but with a slightly electronic edge to it, spoke from the speakers in the room.

  “Ok, let’s rename it main wall for this room,” Bethany Anne said as she retrieved the popcorn bag, “Ok ladies, we shall have a new Cheryl Lynn here in just a few minutes.

  Cheryl Lynn frowned at her Queen, her boss, and her friend and thought perhaps she was losing her mental grasp of reality with all of the stress on her shoulders. However, she climbed back on the side of the bed before she felt Gabrielle push her to move further. “Take the center, patient, I’ve got the other edge.” Cheryl Lynn continued on to the middle and Ashur adjusted to fit between her and Bethany Anne.

  “Damn good thing this bed is huge,” Gabrielle said. The four of them fit on it easily, with another couple of feet to spare.

  “Tell me about it,” Bethany Anne said, “It’s like I’m not special if I don’t have a huge bed. What the hell am I going to use all this space for, anyway?” Ashur chuffed, and Bethany Anne responded, “Well, he needs to get his ass up here for that to happen.”

  Cheryl Lynn turned to Gabrielle and raised an eyebrow. Gabrielle just shrugged in response.

  “Ok,” Bethany Anne started, “I’m going to show you some pictures. Some of these pictures are you, some are other ladies. The heads have been switched around. I want you, Cheryl Lynn, to tell me which one of these bodies is actually yours, ok?”

  “Yes…sure?” Cheryl Lynn answered confused, “How am I not going to guess my own body? I’ve got a birthmark.”

  >>Please, like I couldn’t figure that out?<<

  “ADAM says he has taken care of that issue. So, stop making excuses and here we go.”

  “Oh, nice ass,” Gabrielle said on the first picture, “Someone tell ADAM that he should not be sneaking nude pictures of me and pasting them on the Internet.”

  Cheryl Lynn chuckled, “Ok, that isn’t me. I’m comfortable enough to admit I can understand why that might be attractive to men.”

  Bethany Anne rolled her eyes, “Please, we woman are the worst about judging other women. If we don’t like it, we diss it. If we like it, they are sluts and whores if they look at our men,” Bethany Anne was interrupted.

  “We claw their fucking eyes out,” Cheryl Lynn finished as she reac
hed over Ashur to stick her left hand into the Popcorn bag. “Oh?” she looked between the two woman, “Too obvious I’ve got it bad?”

  “I’m just thankful you weren’t in this mode when the guys were getting photographed.”

  “They are NOT doing Queen Bitch’s Calendar part two.” Cheryl Lynn said, her voice emphatic, “No freaking way.”

  Gabrielle leaned forward to look around her to Bethany Anne, “Wow, the tiger has apparently surfaced.”

  “No kidding, so, let’s go on to image two,” Bethany Anne flicked a hand across her tablet.

  “Mine,” Cheryl Lynn immediately piped in, “Kinda flabby. Told you this was going to be easy.”

  —

  The ladies went through the images and ADAM was careful to tag all of Cheryl Lynn’s, and all of those she claimed were her.

  “Ok, are you ready for the great answer to life, the universe, and everything?” Bethany Anne asked as they finished the last picture.

  “Sure, lay it on me Dr. Obvious,” Cheryl Lynn agreed.

  “Ok, on the left are all of the positive body comments you had, on the right are all of the bodies you say are yours. ADAM, please place an X on each body on the right where Cheryl Lynn got it wrong.”

  Cheryl Lynn started watching as the twenty-something bodies started receiving an X placed on top of them. He grayed them out each time as they were crossed out at the rate of one a second. In less than thirty seconds, all images had a large red X on them.

  “What the hell, that can’t be right.” Cheryl Lynn said and turned to Bethany Anne, “I know my own body.”

  “Well, let’s finish this, shall we?” Bethany Anne replied, “ADAM, remove the right images off the screen and every figure on the left that is Cheryl Lynn, move to the right.”

  Cheryl Lynn gasped when the third image moved to the right. Her mouth opened as each second, another image moved over until twenty something seconds later, all of the images were identified as Cheryl Lynn.

  She had tears running down her face.

  “That,” Bethany Anne pointed to the wall, “Is what Scott sees each and every time he looks at you. Well,” she paused, “he sees that with clothes on, anyway.” Bethany Anne turned to Cheryl Lynn, “Hey, this is what we all see when we see you, but that other body is what you tell us YOU see in the mirror. You need to own the reality, and not keep forcing the negative thoughts about yourself into this new relationship.”

  “Is that,” Cheryl Lynn asked quietly, “truly me? No bullshit, no photo manipulation? Are you totally honest with me?”

  Bethany Anne’s heart almost broke at the feeling of raw emotion coming out of Cheryl Lynn. If she could possibly go back in time and beat the shit out of her ex-husband for feeding into the emotional dystopia, she would. Bethany Anne kept Cheryl Lynn’s eyes on her own as she spoke aloud, “ADAM, reveal all of the original images of Cheryl Lynn.”

  Cheryl Lynn turned back to the wall screen as the group of pictures disappeared to be replaced one at a time. The first picture came up, and a red line went down from the top to the bottom of the image. Each time, for each picture, as it went over the head, the original disappeared and Cheryl Lynn’s was shown. As the reveal uncovered the hidden information, Cheryl Lynn consistently saw the birthmark she knew about, and two that she had not known about until now.

  Nothing else was ever changed.

  By the end, Cheryl Lynn had her hand over her mouth and was silently sobbing.

  After a few minutes, the two vampires could hear her tiny voice, “I’m beautiful,” she whispered, between her sobs.

  Gabrielle reached out and put a hand around Cheryl Lynn’s shoulder, “Now own that knowledge and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.”

  Cheryl Lynn just nodded her head in understanding, too choked up to respond right then.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Yollin Deep Space Ship - G’laxix Sphaea

  “It is… ugly.” Captain Kael-ven T’chmon said as they watched the images coming in from the small video drone. He wasn’t sure if this world’s scanning ability could locate his ship in the cold of space, but he preferred to be safe. “It looks like it is made out of blocks, randomly assigned and stuck together.”

  Communication specialist Melorn, sensing his Captain was in a conversational mood added, “It is rather large, Captain. Each of the main components seems to be pretty significantly sized. With the,” he looked down at his analysis report, “two hundred and twelve parts, there must be a large group of aliens in the station.”

  The Captain grunted his understanding, “Melorn, do we have a way of stopping their communications?”

  “A moment, Captain.” Melorn got to work, switching his systems to track all known frequencies, even those discovering hundreds of solar turns previously, “Yes, we are following a minimum of traffic from that,” Melorn nodded to the screen, “that … thing… to communication satellites at the gravity equilibrium point for the dead moon rock, sir.”

  Melorn reviewed the listing on his amber screen, “So yes, we can block all of these transmissions with an appropriate jamming torpedo, sir.”

  “Interesting,” Captain Kael-ven T’chmon leaned forward on his couch, “They are not in direct line of sight of the planet, and if we disrupt the communications we can strike their station, and achieve additional intelligence.”

  Space Station One - L2

  “Coach,” Adarsh rapped on the side of the door leading into Coach’s small working area.

  Coach looked over to his compatriot and raised an eyebrow, “Is it Bree again? I swear, if she bitches about the coffee beans one more time, I’m liable to space the new grinder Marcus sent over for her.”

  Adarsh gave a small grin and a tiny nod, “No, this isn’t Bree, or ReaLea, Kris, or even John.”

  “John hasn’t been bad since the last set of Wechselbalg come on board. Every time he gets antsy, he goes and either gets his ass whooped, or gives an ass whoopin’ and everything is fine in the world again.”

  “Coach,” Adarsh thumbed a finger at the door, “Can I close this?”

  Steve raised an eyebrow and nodded his head. Adarsh stepped in the container and closed the door behind him, making sure it didn’t clang throughout the containers near them. He turned around, “Coach, did you watch the updates on the efforts to find the enemy ship?”

  “Certainly. Plus, we are running a few different efforts to see if it is anywhere in our area of responsibility.”

  There was a pause before Adarsh asked, “Coach, have you guys considered light?” He continued, “Either absence or variance?”

  Steve reached up and lifted up his baseball hat, scratched his head and put it back on, “Variance?”

  Adarsh nodded, “Let’s assume the ship is as cloaked to us as our Pods are to those on Earth. What would happen to any of the existing efforts?”

  “Well, we would probably be failing, but how the hell could we tell if we are failing, or they aren’t actually there in the first place?” Coach shrugged, “Hell, for all we know, they left out some other door.”

  “Right, very true. But, what all are we trying, do you know?” Adarsh pushed.

  “No. Here,” Coach reached behind him and grabbed a chair from the desk behind him, “sit your skinny ass down and let’s go through what we are doing.”

  Yollin Deep Space Ship - G’laxix Sphaea

  Captain Kael-ven T’chmon looked over his shoulder as the bridge entry beeped before opening, allowing a member of his small task force on the bridge. The highest ranking military member of his team waited before Kael-ven turned back to his command arm and hit the sequence to allow Kiel into the protected area of the bridge.

  Kiel was a third tier member of the Yollin society, two-legged, not four. While there were some second tier, four-legged members of the military, they would hold superior positions and would not find themselves on an unimportant deep space mission such as his.

  Which was saying what exactly for him being here?

&n
bsp; Kiel waited for his Captain to start the conversation. “Kiel, have you reviewed the data acquisition from the foreign station in this gravitic point outside of their dead satellite.” Kael-ven turned to Melorn, “What are they calling the satellite?”

  Melorn turned his head from the reports the system was providing, “Sir, we have a ninety-two percent match. They call it the Moon, sir.”

  Captain T’chmon turned back to his military leader, “So, this station outside of their moon?”