Etheric Researcher: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Etheric Adventures: Anne and Jinx Book 2)

by S. R Russell

  When she opened the door, Anne found E on guard. “I need to head to school, but Jinx and Dio want to hang out together today. How do we handle that?”

  “It’s my turn to accompany you to school,” E stated. “I’ll call one of the others to cover Jinx and Dio.”

  “Would you ask Guardian Connors?” Jinx requested. “He could shift, and we’d all look kind of the same.”

  Dio chuffed his amusement, then barked in agreement.

  —

  When he arrived, Connors was somewhat hesitant to agree to Jinx’ plan. “I won’t have any comm gear to call for help if I’m in wolf form.”

  “Not a problem,” Jinx countered. “I’m in constant contact with Seshat, so we would just let her know who to contact if we needed assistance.”

  Since Guardian Connors secretly thought that three canines trotting abreast through the halls would be kind of cool, he agreed to Jinx’ plan. Once he was confident of Seshat’s ability to contact Abigail, he and the two German Shepherds waited for E and Anne to head out.

  Once the women had gone, Arthur stripped and shifted into his wolf form. He wouldn’t have hesitated to shift in front of Abigail or E, but he felt a little uncomfortable at the idea of stripping in front of a teenage girl.

  Jinx and Dio persuaded Arthur to head to one of the parks for a game of tag. They spent the next hour burning off a lot of pent-up energy, with the side benefit of entertaining the humans who were visiting the park. Finally tired and somewhat overheated, the three of them called a halt to their game.

  “Hey, why don’t we go get some ice cream?” Jinx suggested.

  “How are we going to pay for it?” Dio wanted to know.

  “Umm, I’ll have Seshat ask Anne if she’ll let her make the payment.” Seconds later Jinx told the other two, “Seshat says Anne’s agreed to the plan, but I have to tell you to make sure I’m not panting before we order.”

  “Why’s that?” Arthur barked.

  Jinx’ ears flattened.

  “You still get sick if you eat while you’re hot?” Dio asked his sister.

  “Yes.” Jinx whined. “I’ve tried it a few times since I’ve been with Anne, and I still get sick every time.”

  “If we just walk you should be cool by then,” Arthur offered after making a calculation in his head.

  Dio rolled to his feet. “Let’s go,” he said eagerly. “Tabitha isn’t very good about sharing her ice cream.”

  “Does Tabitha see you as a dog or as a guy?” Arthur asked Dio.

  Dio thought about the question for several seconds. “I don’t know, why?”

  “It’s been my experience that if a female is self-medicating with ice cream, she’ll often share with another woman or her pet but rarely with a guy,” the Were explained.

  “I’m not sure,” Dio admitted. “I’ll have to… Hey, what’s that noise?” He stopped, ears fully erect, trying to locate the noise he had heard.

  “This way.” Connors had identified the direction of the sound and turned down a side tunnel.

  At the next intersection, Jinx heard a panicked female voice coming from the left passageway. She spun and darted that way, and had only traveled a few yards before the tunnel opened onto a construction site. Jinx stopped so abruptly at the scene in front of her that Dio ran into her rear end. Somehow a plank had been left partially extended over an open pit, and a toddler had managed to crawl along the plank and was now over the pit, crying. A woman—Jinx imagined it must be the mother—was screaming, “Get back here, Joey!”

  Jinx grabbed the woman by the back of her blouse and pulled her away from the plank. “Hold her,” Jinx told her brother.

  Leaving Dio and the Were to deal with the woman, Jinx dropped to her belly and crawled to the edge of the pit. Watching the little boy, she rolled onto her back and stuck all her feet in the air. He stopped crying and peered at Jinx intently. She rolled upright and stuck her rear end in the air, wagging her tail vigorously. Remembering that a human this young would not have an implant and therefore would only hear dog noises, she tried to stick with happy sounds. She yipped softly and spun like she was chasing her tail, then stopped and dropped to her belly.

  Score, Jinx thought as the toddler giggled in response to her actions. Jinx shuffled back a few inches and yipped at the boy again. Come pet the doggy, she thought as she put her nose between her paws and wagged her tail again. The boy reached toward Jinx, so she rolled onto her side and waved a paw. Then she got back to her feet and spun in another circle. She moved a little bit farther away before she laid back down, then reached out a paw and yipped again. The little boy the woman had called “Joey” smiled and made a happy burbling sound, then started to crawl toward Jinx.

  Jinx flopped onto her side again and waved her paws at the boy to encourage him to keep crawling to her. It took several seconds, but eventually little Joey crawled to her neck. Jinx heard Dio growl; she imagined he was keeping the woman under control. Jinx carefully gripped Joey’s diaper with her teeth and moved backward, dragging him away from the pit. Joey laughed and clapped his hands as he was lifted off the ground. She turned and held the boy out to the woman, who had sunk to her knees. The lady took the boy, and hugged him tightly as tears streamed down her face.

  “What the hell were you doing?” Guardian Connors was in human form, crouching behind Dio to cover his nudity.

  The woman blushed. “I just stepped into the passageway to take a call from my boyfriend. I swear I only set Joey down for a second to dig out my tablet.”

  “As you just found out, it only takes a second,” Arthur told her.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Why does it seem like Anne and I run into all the weirdos? Jinx wondered as she licked up the rest of her ice cream.

  “What do you mean?” Dio asked his sister.

  “I never hear Dad or Mom talking about crazy people here on the MR,” Jinx answered Dio’s question. “You either, now that I think about it.”

  “You want my opinion?” Guardian Connors, now back in wolf form, asked.

  Jinx looked at the Were. “Sure!”

  “Ashur is with the Empress. Bellatrix is with Yelena, who dates Bobcat from team BMW, and Dio has Ranger Two as a partner. None of those people spend a lot of time with the ordinary folk here on the Meredith Reynolds.” Arthur stepped to a container that the ice cream vendor had filled with water and set down for the dogs. After lapping up a few mouthfuls, he turned back to Jinx.

  “Your Anne lives an ordinary life. She goes to a regular public school. She doesn’t have fame or guards or fear to keep Joe Average away from her,” the Were explained.

  Jinx snorted. “Anne seems to be earning her own fear factor.”

  Arthur nodded in understanding. “You might be right, but her combat abilities don’t come close to causing the same fear as when the Empress or a Ranger walks into a room.

  Jinx thought about it. “That makes sense. You think people are on their best behavior around the others?”

  “That,” Connors replied, “and the fact that the Empress and the Rangers don’t normally deal with the ordinary. They usually deal with people on one end of the spectrum or the other. Either they deal with the elite of society or the dregs.”

  “Do you think it’s worth it?” Jinx asked the Were.

  “Being important enough that you don’t have to deal with Joe Average?” the Were asked. At Jinx’ nod of agreement he continued, “There’s not enough money in the universe for me to put up with the crap the Empress has to go through every day.”

  Dio entered the conversation. “Tabitha has made the same observation.”

  Jinx chuffed her laughter at the two males. “I guess Anne and I need to quit complaining about the crazies we meet.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  It was two days before Bethany Anne was able to pull together her fact-finding debrief. Anne, Jinx, and Stevie were shown into a meeting room that had media screens covering two walls.

  “Grab a seat.”
Bethany Anne pointed to some chairs as they entered.

  As Anne took one of the indicated seats she waved at Marcus, who had stood when she entered the room. She sat and nodded a greeting to William as Marcus resumed his seat.

  Stevie settled into the chair next to Anne’s.

  “ADAM, would you please run the video footage that you and Seshat have been studying?” Bethany Anne requested.

  Everyone was fascinated as the video showed the rubies fly toward each other. There was a flare as the rubies approached each other, and its shape shifted from a disk to a spear as the distance between them diminished. Just before they touched, there was a brighter flash and a sphere of energy shot out. Everyone in the room blinked as the wave front raced toward the camera and the screen went black.

  “The energy blast destroyed the camera Seshat was using to record the testing,” ADAM announced when the video had ended.

  “May we see that again?” Anne requested.

  “Sure, ADAM,” Bethany Anne prompted.

  When the video got to the point where the gems flared Anne called, “Stop, please.”

  The video froze.

  “Would you advance it frame by frame from here?” Anne asked.

  “Certainly,” ADAM responded, and he displayed the video one frame at a time.

  “Stop!” Anne exclaimed as the flare from the rubies morphed from a disk to a spear shape. She got out of her chair and walked to the screen.

  “What?” Bethany Anne asked.

  “That shape,” Anne’s finger traced the spear of energy. She looked at Stevie. “It’s possible!”

  Stevie nodded and Marcus asked, “What’s possible?”

  “I want to make an energy sword like the ones from the movies. Sort of like Bethany Anne’s sword, but one that other people can use,” Anne told the scientist. “I wasn’t sure before; that’s why we were testing. But if we can figure out how to direct the energy to one side of the reaction,” Anne’s finger traced one side of the energy pattern, “then it could be used without cutting the wielder in two.” She ran her finger along the opposite side of the spear. “It just might be possible!”

  Bethany Anne stayed quiet until Anne returned to her seat. “That leads us to the next step—finding you research space that won’t cause the destruction of the MR.”

  >>Anne, I’ve been reviewing all the survey data the Yollins did on asteroids in the system, and I think I found the perfect one for our research station.<<

  “The Yollins have several mined-out asteroids…” Bethany Anne was explaining.

  >>All too large, and without the structural safety we need.<<

  “Excuse me?” Anne held up her hand.

  “What is it?”

  “Those things were strip-mined for their minerals.” Anne relayed what she was hearing from Seshat. “They weren’t hollowed out with the intention of retaining atmosphere or any concern for whether they’d hold together if there was a large explosion inside them.”

  “The model I’ve just run indicates that several of them would come apart if there was a large explosion in their interior space,” ADAM told the people in the room.

  >>Let them know that there’s an asteroid in the survey that is ideal for the situation.<<

  “Seshat says that she has come up with an ideal candidate.” Anne didn’t question Seshat’s conclusions, she just reported them to Bethany Anne.

  “Oh?” Bethany Anne’s right eyebrow rose. “Which one?”

  >>Sierra Alpha Four-seven-six-one.<<

  “SA Four-seven-six-one,” Anne parroted.

  “ADAM?” Bethany Anne asked.

  “Asteroid Four-seven-six-one was surveyed by the Yollins,” ADAM reported to Bethany Anne. “It was shown to have concentrations of valuable metals, but for some reason was never mined.”

  >>May I speak?<<

  “Seshat would like to tap into the room’s audio system so she can join the conversation,” Anne informed the Empress.

  “As long as she doesn’t end up in a pissing match with ADAM, fine.” Bethany Anne made a “get on with it motion” with her hand.

  Seshat said, “Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I spent the last two days researching the Yollin asteroid survey reports. The data suggests that the asteroid in question was far enough away that it wouldn’t be profitable to ship the mining equipment to it. However, with a few puck engines it should only require five days’ travel to place it in a stable orbit behind and outside the Meredith Reynolds.”

  “How do you plan to turn a chunk of solid rock into a research lab?” Bethany Anne was curious to hear Seshat’s reply.

  “The Empire would advance us the cost of rental for an XR Twenty-one mining machine and a YV Eighteen extruder. I have enough bandwidth to run both machines simultaneously,” Seshat claimed. “If the Yollin survey is correct, we can extract enough precious materials to repay the cost of the rentals.”

  ADAM? Bethany Anne asked.

  >>One second, Bethany Anne.<< ADAM was silent for two seconds. >>I haven’t searched the data like Seshat apparently has. If the survey figures she just sent me are accurate—and I see no reason the Yollin surveyors would falsify the numbers—at current market prices Seshat would break even in thirty-one hours of operation.<<

  Nice! Thanks. “I’ll get Admiral Thomas to assign someone to move your asteroid, and ADAM will set up a fund Seshat can use to rent the equipment she needs.” Bethany Anne smiled as she gave Anne that information, but the smile faded as she continued, “I will require receipts and an expense report, and Seshat will need to check with ADAM if it looks like expenses are going to exceed the funds in the account. Anything else we need to worry about right now?”

  Four people shook their heads, so Bethany Anne rose to her feet and clapped her hands once. “Great, let’s all head out then.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Living in interesting times indeed, Stevie thought as she dodged Jinx’ attack. She didn’t like to fight, but now she was in a training room with Jinx and Guardian Connors, who were teaching her canine combat techniques.

  She’d spent most of her teen years insisting on being called Stevie, yet somehow she hadn’t objected when Anne started calling her “Steph.”

  Stevie yipped as Arthur’s claws swiped across her hip, ripping out fur and leaving bloody gashes in their wake.

  “Focus!” he growled. “You should never have allowed me to get close enough to do that.”

  “Sorry,” Stevie whined, her ears drooping.

  Jinx panted. “If it helps, think that you are trying to protect someone. I pretend I’m protecting Anne, and if I goof up she’ll get hurt.

  It was thinking about Anne that distracted me in the first place, Stevie thought to herself. She imagined Anne injured, fighting for her life, depending on Stevie to keep enemies off her back.

  Jinx and the male Were seemed to shrink and Stevie found herself standing above them. “Huurrttt mmyyyy pacckkk maatttee, willll youuuuu?” the Empire’s newest Pricolici howled.

  Anne, we need you in Training Room Three like right now! Jinx sent to her person as she dodged the angry monster Stevie had become.

  —

  Anne was out with Abby and E, shopping for a little more furniture for her new apartment.

  Anne, we need you in Training Room Three like right now! The urgency in Jinx’ mind-voice hit her like a slap in the face.

  “Hold still!” she ordered her guards, then grabbed them and stepped into the Etheric. She’d been practicing Etheric travel ever since she’d seen what Bethany Anne could do.

  Pulling her passengers with her, she shifted her location and peeked out. Crap, this was Room Two. She shifted her location once more and peered out again.

  Yep, this was the place. Jinx was dodging a Pricolici. No wonder her call had sounded urgent.

  Anne stepped into the training room. She didn’t waste time looking at Abby or E, just snapped, “Stay here!”

  “Hey, Steph, you never told me you
could do that.” Anne’s tone was calm and conversational as she started toward the Pricolici.

  Stevie heard the voice of the person she was supposed to be protecting. It sounded normal, not hurt. Stevie stopped swatting at the annoying dog, and when she saw Anne walking toward her she let go of the wolf she was strangling.

  It only took Stevie two bounds to cross to where Anne was. She slid to a stop in front of the girl and sniffed for blood.

  —

  What’s going on? Anne asked Jinx.

  I told her to pretend she was trying to protect someone, and she shifted into that and mentioned us hurting a packmate. I think she imagined you getting hurt, and somehow this form doesn’t let her separate imagination from reality.

  —

  “Look, I’m all right,” Stevie’s pack leader said as she held out her arms and turned in a circle. “But I’m not hugging you while you’re seven feet tall and have daggers for fingernails.”

  Stevie looked at her hands, Oh, no shit, she thought when she saw the four-inch-long claws. Suddenly Stevie felt the cool air of the training room on her skin, and she looked down at herself in shock. She was standing in front of Anne naked, as in having no clothes on.

  Anne was a little surprised to find Stevie in front of her in her birthday suit, but she tried her best to act as if it were completely natural. Steph had obviously stressed out over something, and she didn’t need more dumped on her right now. “That’s better,” Anne remarked, and opened her arms. She had to kneel, because with a muttered “Crap” Stevie shifted into wolf form.

  She wrapped her arms around Stevie's furry neck. “Are you okay?” Anne felt the nod on her shoulder.

  “Can we talk about this somewhere other than here?” Stevie’s wolf whined at her.

  Anne was pleased to discover that whatever it was about her that had allowed her to understand Ashur, back when they first met, seemed to work for Weres in wolf form. “No problem,” Anne confirmed. “Let’s all head back to my place, and I’ll ask Sergeant Wendville to send over some food.