It was time.
—
When Ch’urn kicked out again, the female accepted the kick to her ribs and rode it out of the trap he had been working to get her into. She slammed to the floor of the hold, rolling a couple of times before bouncing up.
He didn’t mind. He needed to warm his muscles up anyway. While it might have been nice for his ego to lock her into the corner and beat her to death using the walls as his anvil, finding that she could give him a longer fight was a pleasant surprise.
He cricked his neck as he walked over to where she was waiting. This time her eyes were flashing yellow. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but they were brighter this time.
“Pretty eyes,” he remarked. “Sorry you won’t be able to use them after this fight. Then again, you probably won’t find that too concerning considering the rest of your damage.”
“Well,” her voice was deeper now, “I think it’s time to let you in on one of Mother Nature’s little secrets.”
That didn’t sound ominous or anything, so Ch’urn raised his fist to slam it down on her head.
His fist was stopped in her hand, but not her human hand. This one was large—an animal’s hand. Her claws were digging into his skin and his blood was dripping onto the floor.
Her Pricolici face stared down at him; he had to look up to see her now. Then her howl pierced the hold.
She had been playing with him!
—
Mark sighed. “I told them they wouldn’t like it if they made you angry, but oh, no. They just had to go and offer you a fight. Well, it’s going to fucking suck to be them.”
—
X’ern spun toward the hold when he heard the howl and reached for his pistol, but his body jerked twice. He turned his head; both the Noel-ni and the human had their pistols up.
When had the human pulled her gun?
He slammed into the floor, the pain from the bullets finally hitting him.
Why had he gone for his pistol? Because that was what you did when monsters were near.
—
When he heard the shots behind him, Mark glanced over his shoulder. One of the pirates lay on the ground with blood streaming out of two holes.
He could have put an old-fashioned half-dollar over the punctures, they were so close together.
—
Ch’urn swung with his left, only to have his fist caught in her other hand, the nails piercing his skin. He grunted as his strength and hers opposed each other. She leaned down and got in his face, her yellow eyes damn near glowing.
“I thinkkkkk youuu neeed to learrrrn to exxssspect thee unnnexsssspppectteed.” Then she spread her arms to pull him toward her and slammed her forehead into his.
Most combatants didn’t do that with Zhyn, because their ridged and bony heads could mess a fighter’s skull up.
Ch’urn stumbled backward, the pain stunning him for a moment. She was shaking her head.
Score one for the Zhyn and their hard heads, he thought. That was when his vision returned, and instead of three of her there was just one in his vision again.
His jaw dropped.
The split on her forehead from his bony ridge was healing right in front of him.
“Oh…damn.”
—
The pirates licked their lips as they watched the fight, occasionally glancing at the other human.
He seemed supremely confident, barely taking his eyes off them to see what was going on with his partner before returning to his vigil.
X’ern was on the ground behind him, bled out by now. Certainly dead.
He didn’t seem to care. He definitely wasn’t a normal trade representative. He had obviously been in fights before, and this one wasn’t bothering him in the least.
A moment later, H’ick walked backward into the hold, followed by a human and a…
FUCK!
A few in the hold followed J’erlong’s gaze to the Noel-ni.
Their despair was palpable. You could kill a Noel-ni, but it was a hundred percent guaranteed that many on your side would die in the attempt. It was rarely worth fighting one of them. Perhaps if she had been the only one to open the doors, Ch’urn would have risked it, but these humans had been smart.
They hadn’t shown her until the end.
The trap had been sprung…and the pirates knew they had lost.
—
Sabine hissed to Ricole, “What the hell just happened?”
The Noel-ni was staring at the monster in the middle of the room. “What happened to Jacqueline?”
“Huh?” Sabine flicked her eyes to the fighters. “Oh, she is in her Pricolici form. They must have offered her a chance to fight and Mark gave her the option. He’s too nice to her sometimes.”
“I heard that!” Mark called, still facing away from them.
“You are!” Sabine argued, “I’m sure you would have preferred to be out there kicking his ass, but Jacqueline flutters her eyelashes and sashays her ass and you are all, ‘why sure, you can have this!’”
Mark snickered; she was right.
“She’s beautiful,” Ricole watched the fight, occasionally glancing around the room. While she hadn’t been in many battles, she recognized when the desire to keep fighting had left. These pirates had lost the will to keep going.
“Beautiful?” Sabine looked from Ricole to Jacqueline and back. “Huh. Wouldn’t have thought that, but from your perspective she probably just went from a zero to something attractive.”
Mark spoke up. “You think maybe you two can hold the fort? I’m going to check the bridge.”
“What, you aren’t going to watch the end of the fight?” Sabine asked, both of her Jean Dukes in her hands. She strode up next to Mark and winked at the pirate on her left. “Hi, I’m Sabine. I’ll be your killer today if you so much as twitch in the wrong direction. Understand?”
He nodded, eyes wide in fear.
H’ick melted into the group of pirates as Ricole holstered her pistol. “Why did Mark leave?”
“Hmm?” Sabine glanced at her. “Hey! Why don’t you have your pistol out?”
Ricole smiled, her teeth gleaming, “I’m Noel-ni.” Her hand blazed down, returning with the pistol aimed at a pirate across the hold. Sabine noticed that his hands shot up in the air. “Our pistols are always ready.”
Sabine smiled. “I think you and I are going to be long-term friends, Ricole.”
She holstered hers as well and looked around, “Anyone want to try us?”
—
Jacqueline was aware of Mark leaving; it was a bit of a letdown. She rather liked it when he watched her kick ass, but he was right: someone needed to make sure that no one else did something stupid while they were fighting. Sabine was capable, but she didn’t get into the technology like Mark did.
She grimaced. He was probably on the bridge stroking a dirty video interface and speaking sweet nothings into the tech-whore’s ears right now.
Her eyes flashed yellow as she slapped an incoming punch out of the way and slammed a left into Ch’urn’s stomach. His eyes bulged just a bit, and she followed it with a right hook across his chin, leaving a two-inch gash where she cut his skin.
She didn’t use claws. Peter’s comment about, “We can get intelligence out of living pirates. If you bring me dead ones we can’t get shit!” still rang in her ears.
She was a fighter and she didn’t fear battle, but she didn’t need an ass-whipping from Peter to remind her that he wanted the pirates, and especially the captain, alive.
Time to end it.
She grabbed Ch’urn’s arm and twisted and he screamed in pain. She whipped her left leg around and slammed her foot into the left side of his skull. She kept hold of his arm as he tumbled and it ripped out of its socket.
He didn’t scream this time. His head had connected with the floor; he was out.
DAMN! She bent down, worried she had killed him.
He moaned…
THANK GOD!
S
he nodded to Sabine and headed toward the bridge in her Pricolici form. If Mark was stroking any technology, she would tear apart both the bridge and Mark’s ass.
She was a jealous bitch; he’d known that when he fell in love with her.
High Tortuga, Hidden Space Fleet Base, the Queen’s R&D Lab
Bethany Anne made her robe into a small pillow and put it on the ground, then sat down cross-legged and rested her hands on her knees.
Please tell me, TOM commented, you aren’t trying to do a yoga pose?
Nope, Bethany Anne answered. I’m trying to find a position I can handle for a few hours. I suspect I’m going to lose track of time…so ADAM?
>>Yes?<<
Make sure everyone stays out, and figure out a way to interrupt me if they need me. Tell Michael I’m working in my lab.
>>He is asking where your lab is. I’ll leave out the other comments about too many burrows in this ants’ nest.<<
R&D section. Let him know you will update him every couple of hours, but expect me to be… TOM?
What?
How long will I be out?
I’m supposed to know this how? You have done most of your learning on your own.
That’s because you weren’t forthcoming with the information in the past.
I wouldn’t be now either, but you are pushing the issue.
TOM, I can’t help protect when I’m not safe.
You have some of the most advanced armor—
Which you and I both know can be destroyed, even if it can take a lot of damage. Plus, what good would it do if I was able to step into the Etheric but not take my people with me?
You can.
Only if they are near me. I need to be able to do more, and I’ve got the feeling that you haven’t been very informative.
You are young, TOM told her.
Not anymore. We humans grow up fast, and it’s time to agree—or disagree—that I protected the Earth as well as I could.
>>Do you believe that?<< ADAM cut in.
I’m…at peace. Bethany Anne sighed. Some things I can’t change, and humanity being themselves is one of them. I don’t have to like what happened or ignore the tears, but I can work to provide options for the those left on the planet. But I don’t think I can do that without understanding the Etheric better. And to do that, I have to practice, and to practice I have to understand the basics.
The basics. TOM thought for a moment before sending a mental sigh. That is a tall order. It will take years, or even decades.
What else am I going to do, TOM? I’ve got a child to raise, a husband to ravish, a world to rebuild, and a bunch of fucking Kurtherians to hunt down and kill. I might as well add learning all about the Etheric to the mix. Just make sure I don’t do anything dangerous while I’m pregnant.
There is no way for me to know if what you are trying to do will hurt your child, but I won’t allow you to run any more risk than you already do in your normal Etheric efforts.
Well…damn. She thought about her trips through the Etheric as well as her efforts to pull in Etheric energy to make the little light balls. What about what I have done so far?
Unlikely to have increased the risk to the child beyond that of your constant Etheric connection. Before you go down that path, I believe all human females do things which could hurt their child’s gestation.
Bethany Anne blew out a breath. Okay, you're right. I need to drop it since there isn't anything I can do about it right now anyway.
TOM’s voice changed when he went from casual conversation to explaining as if from a dais. Bethany Anne had understood his people had a religious connection to the other dimension, but to hear him sound reverent was a new experience.
The Etheric, he began, is both right next to us and far away. It represents the space between two fingers pressed together, and the infinite width of the universe. It is, in one form or fashion, what was at the beginning and which created all life, and yet holds within it the destruction of the future.
Not like that doesn't sound ominous, Bethany Anne quipped. When TOM didn't respond, she apologized out loud. "I'm sorry.”
TOM went on, ignoring her outburst. You have touched the energy of the Etheric and gained the ability to move within it, and you can step from this dimension to that one. Most beings cannot accomplish this without their physical body dying.
Was that what did you for Glorious Pain in the Ass?
If you would allow, I will answer that question later.
Of course. Bethany Anne chastised herself. She needed to allow Tom to express what the Etheric was without her constant interruptions. It had been a long time since she had been a simple student and her anxiety was acting up.
It is a little bit more difficult to express the Etheric to you since you have such a variety of experiences with it already. You will undoubtedly take the instructions I am giving you and try to fit them into the box of your experience. That may help you in the short term, but will hold you back from understanding the full truth in the long run.
TOM waited a moment for Bethany Anne to interrupt with another question…and was pleasantly surprised when she stayed quiet.
He continued, The Etheric can be molded to your reality, and you can move that reality from there to your present dimension. TOM stopped. You can ask questions.
Okay. Bethany Anne struggled to refine her question. Is this what I am doing with the energy balls? Am I imagining the ability to coalesce spheres of energy and manipulate them? Pulling dangerous orbs of power into our dimension from the Etheric?
That is a good way to explain it, yes.
So if I wanted to create a fully-formed battleship, for example, I could accomplish that as well?
Technically? Nothing in my understanding of the Etheric would forbid it, but I don't know of anything so complex ever being accomplished, and I have examples going back hundreds of millennia.
What would it take to accomplish something so large?
TOM chuckled. If you had but the faith of a mustard seed…
17
High Tortuga, Hidden Space Fleet Base, the Pit, Eight Weeks Later
Addix entered the Pit and looked around the darkened room. The video wall was dimmed at the moment. She found Bethany Anne speaking to one of the many analysts at a desk on the second level.
She made her way to Bethany Anne, listening as she finished her conversation.
“No,” Bethany Anne told the analyst, “I don’t want to handle this. Push your intelligence to the local police force; provide them with everything we know. Make sure the leader knows we will wait for his or her response and their results. If we hear nothing in…” Bethany Anne paused for a moment, clearly thinking through what it might take to solve this case, “three days we will reach back out for further information.”
Bethany Anne turned to Addix, her belly larger than when the Ixtali had seen her last time. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
Bethany Anne gestured for Addix to follow her as she moved to the large table in the middle of the floor. “What’s up?”
“Some of our external resources have been hearing rumors of a fleet being put together—for what purpose, no one knows yet. However, we can confirm that mercs are involved, and some with Navy fighting skills have shipped out and aren’t showing back up at other ports we have under surveillance.”
“And you think this is going to be aimed at us?”
“I cannot say,” Addix replied. “My staff is aware of three different conflagrations which could reasonably cause one of the combatants to arm themselves in this way. However, we have decent access to resources and we have no indication that any of the six are building a Navy fleet.”
Bethany Anne snorted. “Navy?”
“I am not trying to quantify the quality, merely point out that we might have a fleet visiting us in the near future.”
Bethany Anne frowned. “If someone comes at us we are going to have to destroy them totally—or fight with less su
pport than we actually have. Knowledge of full strength cannot get back to anyone else, period.” Her lips pressed together as she looked at Addix. “We don’t know who is after us yet?”
“No,” she admitted. “So far there have been too many cutouts, often ending in death at many of the junctures. Even the pirates we have captured have nothing in their databanks which would suggest a connection to potential enemies.”
Bethany sighed. “Translation, ‘we don't know shit.’”
“Yes.”
“Any idea how likely an attack is within the next few days?”
“Unlikely. I believe they are still recruiting at this time, so at best we are talking about a couple of weeks.”
Bethany Anne chewed her lip. “I will get with the Admiral for practical dispersion of our ships. I don't want to have them sitting up there with their thumbs up their asses for no good reason. See what you can find to narrow down a potential time of engagement and I will take care of the rest. Unfortunately," her eyes were hard, “if they attack us, we can leave no survivors.”
“Understood.” Addix turned to leave.
ADAM?
>>You want Admiral Thomas?<<
Yes. Tell him his retirement has just been cut short. Plan a meeting for this afternoon at four after the MPPS education meeting. In fact, ask him to join us for those discussions. I'll have snacks.
>>He is in Thon now. He will be back in time, he says.<<
Good. When she looked around the room one of the analysts, Charles, had his head up and was looking at her. “You just got voted in, Charles.”
“Um, ‘voted in?’” he asked. “For what?”
She smiled. ‘I’m hungry. What do we have that can be brought in?”
—
Bethany Anne was sitting at the table and nursing her mocha after lunch. Admiral Thomas, the man who had been responsible for running the fleets of the Etheric Empire, was chatting with Stephen on her right. Michael’s seat next to her was empty, and Addix and Peter were at the table as well.
Michael appeared out of thin air—or more accurately out of the Etheric—but to most it looked like he just materialized. “Sorry.” He glanced at a clock on the far wall. “Oh, I’m actually early.”
Payback Is A Bitch (The Kurtherian Endgame Book 1) Page 15
