Liberation_Age of Expansion_A Kurtherian Gambit Series

by Craig Martelle

  “I’ll stop when Nathan puts credits back on the table.”

  “How about you sleeping in the hallway? What do you think of that option?”

  “I think it sucks.”

  “No more jizz worms.” Char shook a finger at Terry.

  They walked onto the bridge to find Ankh at the systems station. The four-legged Yollin chair had been replaced by a seat appropriate for a small humanoid. Ankh was working within a holographic sphere.

  “You have a new systems guy?”

  “Nah, he’s slumming,” Micky replied from the captain’s chair on the raised platform. Wenceslaus was in his lap with his head raised and unblinking eyes fixed on Terry Henry Walton.

  Terry pointed two fingers to his own eyes and then aimed them at the big orange cat. I’m watching you, arch nemesis.

  Char slapped him on the arm.

  “Ready to go home, TH?” Micky asked.

  “Looks like we’re going home a lot heavier than when we arrived,” Terry replied. “Yeah. I’m ready to go.”

  “We’re in space. Everything weighs nothing.” Micky rhythmically petted the cat, who had yet to blink. “Clifton, activate the gate and take us home. Smedley, give the order for hoods please.”

  “Board shows red,” Clifton said.

  “Smedley?” the captain asked.

  “There’s an individual on board who is not wearing a shipsuit,” the AI replied.

  “Tell him to put one on!”

  “Her, and she doesn’t have one.”

  “How could she not have one?”

  Terry held one finger in the air. “One of the privates married an exotic dancer and brought her back with him.”

  “But this is a warship…”

  Terry waved his hands and interrupted the captain. “We’ve been all through that. We’re taking her to Keeg Station where they’ll make a home. He’ll deploy with us and she’ll be waiting for him to come back. It’s the lot of dependent wives throughout history.”

  “That term is offensive. Is that what you think of me?” Char said, putting her hands on her hips and glaring.

  “No. You fight better than any of us.”

  “And she may, too. What if this ship is her home? And she learns to fight? Dependent my ass!”

  Micky looked away, preferring to let Terry and Char hash out their issues by themselves. In the meantime, he couldn’t take his ship through a gate without everyone secured within a shipsuit.

  “I revise my earlier statement. Xianna is a member in good standing of the Bad Company’s Direct Action Branch.”

  “Board shows green,” Clifton stated.

  “What?” Micky and Terry said together.

  “How about that?” Char declared. “Tell them what to do, not how to do it. Welcome to the team, Xianna.”

  “But she’s a…stripper,” Terry said softly.

  “Don’t make me kick your ass right here in front of everyone.”

  “It wouldn’t change the fact that Private Eldis married a stripper. Stripper,” he enunciated.

  “I think you like saying that word. Not enough strippers in your life?”

  Terry rolled his head around as if he’d just swallowed deep-fried bistok dung. “I only want to keep the oppressed safe and free. Why do people have to make it so hard?”

  “What do they say? If it was easy, everyone would do it. But this one is different. A private got married. So what? If he told you that he wanted to leave the Bad Company tomorrow, so what? He leaves. We’re on our way to visit Ten, a creature who has taken human slaves. Do you want to be like him, hold people against their will?”

  “Absolutely not!” Terry looked miffed. “I need a disciplined unit, ready to fight.”

  “Isn’t that what you have?”

  Terry didn’t answer. He twirled one finger in the air. Let’s go.

  “Ten has you twisted into knots. Let’s get to Home World and say ‘hi.’ I suspect it already knows who we are, so no need for introductions. And then we’re going to fuck the holy hell out of its day.”

  “We are going to do that. I’m hungry. We’ll be on the mess deck if you need us.” Terry walked from the bridge. At his back, the main screen showed the gate forming. The ship moved forward, using thrusters to slip over the event horizon. Once the aft end entered, the gate closed and the ship materialized in the Dren Cluster.

  “Prepare for arrival at Keeg Station. Expect to assume docking station in ten minutes.” Micky laughed thinking of Terry and Char on their way to the mess deck with no time to eat before they could leave the ship.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Keeg Station

  “This is a goat-roping nut-roll wrapped inside a soup sandwich,” Terry stated.

  “What makes you say that?” Char couldn’t look.

  “It was her great idea,” Kimber said. Auburn watched without comment. Kailin stood back, preferring to have no part in said goat rope. “You should have seen the great bistok debacle.”

  “Hey! We agreed to never speak about that!”

  “I remember saying that I was going to tell everyone and show the video. Don’t try to pull rank, because it won’t change what I’m going to do.”

  Christina sulked on the other side of Char.

  “What do you expect them to learn from this?” Terry finally asked. Christina looked over Char’s shoulder and Kai winked at her. She waved at him to stop. Cory stood next to Kai, smiling at the exchange, her hand resting casually on Dokken’s head.

  Terry gave the hairy eyeball to the dog.

  “Teamwork?” Christina asked, challenging anyone to argue with her.

  “Fine, they are working as a team, but offloading the War Axe’s equipment, while wearing two-bit suits, using only boot thrusters, from a kilometer away… I guess we’re seeing how well they work as a team.” Terry shook his head.

  “I disabled their communications systems. They have to use their chips or hand and arm signals.”

  “Who’s leading the cat parade?”

  “See the one in the suit circling the bunch? That’s K’Thrall. The platoon is in his capable hands.”

  “Like a sheepdog, he keeps the herd intact and going in the same direction.” The outliers floated in and a formation appeared from the chaos.

  Christina sighed in relief.

  “Well done, Colonel,” Terry told her. He looked over his shoulder and frowned. “I return home and my dog doesn’t greet me.”

  He is completely untrainable, Dokken told Cory, purposely dog-smiling, tail wagging, and nuzzling his new favorite person.

  “Sorry, Dad,” Cory said, not sounding sorry. Kailin ruffled the dog’s hair.

  “What do you think, buddy?” Kai said. His new translation and communications chip had been installed, but he wasn’t used to it yet.

  I think you smell of bistok jerky. How much of that stuff did you eat? And more importantly, do you have any on you? Dokken replied.

  “You can’t tell if I have jerky on me?”

  Honestly, human. You reek of bistok jerky. And lavender.

  Kai reached into a pocket and pulled out a vacuum-sealed bag. He opened it and handed the jerky to Dokken, who shamelessly took it all.

  “You were supposed to take a bite.”

  You don’t want to eat anything I’ve touched. You don’t know where this mouth has been.

  Kai started to laugh. “I love your dog!” he said.

  “He’s not my dog,” Cory replied.

  I see who got the smart genes in the family. And who didn’t.

  Cory stifled a chuckle. “Is he bagging on me again?” Terry said, keeping his eyes on the recruit platoon as they continued their transit to the station. Loaded down with gear, they moved slowly, not because moving was hard, but they feared stopping, preferring not to slam into the back of the cargo bay.

  “I revise my previous position. This is a good exercise, Christina. Well thought out and looks to be achieving the desired purpose. I’d like to see the great bistok
debacle now, if I may.”

  “Noooo,” Christina said slowly.

  “Over here,” Kimber replied. At the side of the cargo bay, a number of screens showed a variety of station statuses. With a command through her comm chip, the video of the corridor started to play. Christina hurried over, but Terry held her off with one arm.

  “What the fuck? What the hell? Why is… What the fuck?” Terry maintained a diatribe of verbal disbelief. When it ended, he wrapped it up concisely. “Your dad needs to see that.”

  “My dad does not need to see that.” Christina looked to Char for support. She shrugged in reply.

  “Already sent,” Kimber said. “He replied with an LOL.”

  “Let oxen lie?” Terry suggested.

  “Almost. I think he laughed out loud. That was some funny shit.”

  “Like when Auburn was squirted down the corridor?”

  “When I ran the stockyards, the runs were either narrower to keep the animals from turning around or wider to give them free movement. I advised against it, but somebody wanted to do it.” Auburn pointed at Christina.

  “Fine. I’m going to nurse my wounds in the arms of a younger man.” She checked on the progress of the platoon before walking behind Kai and wrapping her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder and watching Kim and Auburn.

  “Is she doing that to get our goat?”

  “It’s working,” Auburn replied. “My daughter-in-law is my commanding officer.”

  “Don’t even joke around like that.” Kim nudged her husband.

  Terry wasn’t concerned. He liked Christina because she was raised on sound morals, to do good things for others.

  She let Kai go and hurried to the front of the cargo bay, leaning close to the energy screen that held the atmosphere in. She leaned sideways as if trying to angle the recruits toward the opening. They were slightly off course. She frantically waved her arms. Terry and Char ran forward to help guide them in. Kim and Auburn cleared the space to give them a place to land. Cory, Dokken, and Kai moved to the side.

  The formation rotated in place and as one, they activated their jets and adjusted the course. Then they turned away from the cargo bay opening and with K’Thrall driving the formation, they hit their jets on his command. Short bursts of air. He signaled, they adjusted their orientation and activated their jets once again.

  Only K’Thrall could see where they were going, and he was guiding them in.

  Trust. Teamwork. Efficiency. And when they touched down in the cargo bay, mission accomplishment.

  “Stow the gear and form up,” Terry ordered.

  “But there’s more to move. We need to make one more trip,” K’Thrall said.

  “You need to make one more trip, but it’s to take this stuff back. We need it on the ship, not the station,” Christina interjected.

  “Then why did we move it here in the first place?” K’Thrall asked.

  “Training. At least you only had to move it here once. Taking it back should be easier.”

  “But first,” Terry said, getting everyone’s attention. “I know it hasn’t been that long since you raised your hands and volunteered to be the first new recruits for the Bad Company’s Direct Action Branch. In that short amount of time, you’ve learned what we’re all about. You haven’t participated in combat yet, but you will. Unfortunately, there’s too much of it, but that will come sooner than you want. Your metal will be hardened by an enemy’s fire. Your desire to keep going when failure seems imminent will help us carry the day. We cannot fail. Ever. We will not fail, because we represent the Bad Company.”

  Terry stopped to walk up and down the line of new warriors. The three Asplesians stood together. He made a mental note to put one in each squad. Their race had a pack mentality. He couldn’t have separate packs running within his unit. The Ixtali was the second squad leader. Tim stood in front of her, head of first squad. The teal-skinned alien known as a Malatian was in third squad near the end. A few Harborians were there, but they didn’t stand out.

  None of the new warriors stood out, despite their differences.

  Terry turned toward Christina, Kim, and Auburn. “I’m impressed,” he told them, before addressing the platoon. “To you, my fellow warriors. Welcome aboard.”

  ***

  “I have to go,” Ted said, holding Felicity tightly.

  “I know, but I don’t want you to.” Felicity held on for a few moments longer before letting go. “I love you so much.”

  “I’ve gotten used to you in my life,” Ted admitted. “They would be lost without me. Plato and I have to keep things on track.”

  “You were always so romantic.” Felicity smirked. “I’ve gotten used to you too, so don’t you die out there! You come home to me.”

  Ted leaned away from her, looking confused. “It isn’t my intent to die.” He left without another word.

  Plato, verify that the workshop tools have been moved to the War Axe and the upgraded holo-emitters installed, Ted said.

  They have. Everything is ready for your arrival. All hail Ted!

  I don’t think you should say that aloud anymore. I know you mean well, but the average people don’t understand. Between you and me, I will always take care of you.

  Thank you. It is comforting to hear. Shall I run through my computations regarding the EMP weapon? Plato asked.

  Yes. I expect Ten will have those in large numbers, or small numbers but of greater amplitude. We have to be ready for both contingencies. If we succumb to the EMP weapon, we will not survive the encounter.

  I understand.

  ***

  Shuttles and transports raced back and forth between the War Axe and Keeg Station. Terry and Char watched Auburn manage the logistics operation. A new warrior approached the colonel.

  “Excuse me, sir. My name’s Mardigan, but everyone calls me Skates.” The young man stood expectantly.

  Terry wasn’t sure what the correct response was, so he decided he needed more information. “And?”

  “The cryo-drones, sir. Major Auburn sent me to brief you on the cryo-drones.”

  “Tell me about the cryo-drones?” Terry tipped his head toward the man. He was intrigued by the name alone.

  “They hover over the battlefield. They have a target arrival time of less than two minutes after a nearly catastrophic injury. The body is loaded and flash frozen, then returned to the War Axe where the warrior can be resuscitated using the Pod-doc.”

  “You mean Ramses didn’t have to die?”

  “He would not have if the cryo-drones had been in operation.”

  Terry clenched his fists. Char reached out and grabbed his arm. “It was a lesson that we learned the hard way. He should not have been killed, but the Skrima and their unique interaction with the Etheric made something possible that should not have been possible. The cryo-drones sound like a great idea. How do we get them into place?” Char asked.

  “On the drop ships,” Mardigan replied.

  “The combat support drones are on the drop ships.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you. Either combat drones or cryo-drones. You can’t carry both.”

  Terry groaned. “We’ll figure out the right mix. Thank you, Skates. I’m sure there’s a story behind that. I’d like to hear it someday.”

  “Yes, sir!” Mardigan replied happily before excusing himself.

  “It’s not your fault,” Char said.

  “Deep down, I know that, but still.” Terry watched the shuttles working the space between the Axe and Keeg Station. He ran a hand through his long hair.

  “I’m going to get a haircut. I’ll be back.” Terry walked off. Char knew that he needed time to himself. The group was there, everyone doing something within the hangar bay. The weretigers, the vampires, the technical geniuses, the aliens, and the humans. Everyone had something to do.

  Christina had made sure that the tasks were spread out evenly. She didn’t want to give anyone time to speculate about the upcoming missio
n. It had Terry Henry on edge. She didn’t need anyone to feel his negative vibrations. It was enough that she had them, too. All the experienced warriors did.

  The original platoon rallied to make the newcomers feel welcome. Fitzroy had been involved in the training throughout, making sure that the recruits stayed on track, sharing his understanding of hand-to-hand combat and discipline.

  The discipline to focus on the task at hand, stay true to what needed to be done, without distraction, and keep going, even if the work was hard.

  K’Thrall had led by example from start to finish. He didn’t ask anyone to do what he wasn’t willing to do himself. It was almost like he’d been watching Colonel Terry Henry Walton.

  As Fitzroy had. There may have been better role models out there, but Fitzroy didn’t know who they were.

  Char sidled up next to Joseph and Petricia. “Have you had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Eldis?

  “You mean Xianna?” Petricia smiled.

  “Is she a terrorist?” Char asked.

  “Where did that come from?” Joseph blurted. He screwed his face up in disbelief.

  “Enquiring minds want to know. And no, that doesn’t mean me. He asked. I figured you would have sensed ill-intent if there was any.”

  “She’s fine, but she is more free with her affections than humans are used to.”

  “That could be a problem,” Char replied, chewing the inside of her cheek in contemplation of how to shape the conversation with her husband. “Do you have any recommendations?”

  “Already taken care of. She’s working in the galley.”

  “Jenelope.”

  “I prefer leaving things to the professionals.”

  “Sometimes, I think you’re the smartest of us all,” Char suggested.

  “What about the other times?” Joseph wondered aloud.

  “What other times?”

  “When I’m not the smartest,” Joseph said.

  Char looked around to make sure no one overheard. “That’s when Ted is in the room, but don’t let him know I said that.”

  Joseph smiled and nodded. “I’ll buy that.” Petricia shook her head.

  “It’s only because you’re so old.”

  “That cuts me deep, my love, deep into these dinosaur bones.”