She was going to need to request another two drones. That meant a resource request up the chain—which ultimately went to Bethany Anne.
Normally that would cause Sia to be concerned about catching the Empress’ good side, so that the video would help her argue for more resources. But with Bethany Anne, there wasn’t a bad side.
Bethany Anne greeted Giannini and it was go-time.
“This is Giannini Oviedo, reporter and researcher, and I’ve been granted a few minutes with Empress Bethany Anne to give a little background to the latest concerns of those inside and outside the Etheric Empire.” Giannini turned from her camera, the pink one, and focused on Bethany Anne. “Thank you so much for finding the time.”
“You’re certainly welcome,” Bethany Anne replied.
“First, can we get an update about the Yaree, or Karillian, disagreement?”
Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Well, first let’s clarify the terms, shall we?”
Giannini nodded.
“The disagreement, if you will, is a war of opposing belief systems. The Leath are led by a group they call gods. We call them Kurtherians, and they want to exterminate those Yaree who are living on their home world, Karillia. Approximately six months ago, a Yaree contingent headed by Delegate Tomthum requested an audience. During this conversation, they provided the background on six previous attempts by the Leath to subjugate the Yaree world and eradicate any sentient species.”
“For what reason?” Giannini interrupted.
“We only have educated guesses at this time, I hope you understand?” Bethany Anne asked, and waited for Giannini’s nod of agreement. “We surmise that the Kurtherians want to elevate the Leath to a state where they can overwhelm other species. Basically, advancement by warfare.”
“If the Leath are dangerous, why haven’t we heard from other groups about them?”
“We don’t know that others have not been approached, unfortunately,” Bethany Anne answered. “It could be that the Leath have implemented alliances with other races. Or, another reason might be that the Yaree are the nexus of two separate spheres of influence. The Yaree have been very insular in their own relationships, and only explained the situation once they felt we could help them.”
“When was that?” Giannini interrupted. “Or rather, what allowed them to believe we could help them?”
Bethany Anne paused a moment to consider her answer. She finally responded, “It was a multitude of things. However, the main ones were the unexpected display of our abilities with the Ixtali Delegation, who happened to be attending the Etheric Empire court during the same time, and the fact that we had information on them already.”
“Many are asking what the Yaree provide the Etheric Empire—”
Bethany Anne’s eye’s flashed red as she put up a hand. “They needed our help against the Kurtherians,” she told Giannini. “That was sufficient for me.” Bethany Anne put her hand to her mouth and tapped her lips. “Let me be clear. No matter what country our people came from back on our home planet or what type of government they may have previously lived under, the Etheric Empire is not a monarchy with a House of Commons, nor is it a republic or a representative form of government.”
Bethany Anne’s voice went soft, but with steel resonating in every word. “My charge is to keep our home planet safe from any group who would wish to go there and take control. For those who have joined us and forgotten this point, that was your reminder. For those who were born since we came to Yollin space or have grown into an awareness of things outside yourself, you might need to get a refresher on our history. Ask Meredith to get that for you.”
Giannini nodded. She had received the message loud and clear. The problem was that her reporter mouth wouldn’t shut the hell up. Before she could slap a hand over the traitorous mouth, she blurted another question. “If we aren’t a monarchy with a House of Commons or a republic, what type of government are we?”
Bethany Anne smiled, her eyes flaring red. “We are a benevolent dictatorship. Those who don’t like it will be shown the door.”
Bethany Anne nodded to Giannini and then to Sia. As she turned to walk away with Cheryl Lynn, Giannini asked no one in particular, “The Meredith Reynolds doesn’t have a door, so where would they go?”
Bethany Anne turned to answer over her shoulder, a smirk on her face. “Beats the fuck out of me, but I’d suggest they make sure they have plenty of air. This Empire won’t bend a knee to anyone. Not as long as I’m the Empress.”
Bethany Anne winked at the reporter, then touched Cheryl Lynn’s arm and the two of them disappeared.
Giannini finished her closeout and waited for Sia to signal all the drones to return with their cameras off. “She really doesn’t give a shit about the growing concerns of some of those here about another war, does she?”
“Is it a lack of concern?” Sia inquired as she gently socketed her five drones into the small suitcase she used to store them. She had filled five spots with drones, but the suitcase could hold ten. Making sure Giannini wasn’t watching, she reached in and petted two of the drones. “My sweet little video birds, Momma loves you.” She closed and locked the case.
Picking up her case, she finished her thought. “So, is it a lack of concern, or is it a healthy step the fuck up. You got on this horse, so to speak, so stop bitching and cinch your belt and let’s move on?”
Giannini shrugged. “I don’t know, but the trip to meet with some of the other races ought to be fun.”
“Did we get invited?” Sia asked. The two of them started down one of the paths toward Exit Four of the park.
“Yes,” Giannini answered. “She told me in here,” she tapped her head, “just as she disappeared.”
“Well, I guess that last question didn’t bother her, then.”
“Thank God!” Giannini answered. “That damned question slipped out. I’m lucky Bethany Anne doesn’t get pissed over those types of questions.”
Sia reached out, grabbed Giannini around the shoulders, and pulled the slightly taller woman close. “I think she likes that you are willing to ask those questions, not run from them.”
“I think you’re right,” Giannini answered. “What do you think I should pack to meet with the Noel-ni assemblage?”
Sia was quiet a moment. “We are going to meet the Noel-ni?”
“Yes.”
“Is it too late,” Sia asked as the two of them were about to leave the park, “to ask for my vacation time?”
“No,” Giannini answered. “But then I’ll have to take another video producer with me.”
There was a long pause as the two ladies entered the hall. Seconds later, Samuel and Richard swung in behind them. Sia’s voice echoed from just a bit ahead.
“Sometimes, G, you can be such a bitch.”
Leath Dreadnoughts D’leet and Touk
There were seventeen Leath ships in the queue, waiting to gate to the Karillian system. The master gate ship was in position, waiting for the final command.
The military advisors had worked very hard to bring a new tactic to the translocation defense. So far, each time their forces had left the Leath system, they had almost immediately been attacked by uncountable little metal disks. They drained the power of the shields, allowing the real weapons of the Etheric ships waiting on the other side to attack.
The results had been devastating.
Now, their latest ships with their latest technology were arranging themselves to transit. However, the new ships had ten older vessels in front of them.
Those ten ships were barely manned. The job of the ten in front was to run interference. The ships were massive energy sinks, running powerful shields to absorb any attack and push back, creating a large donut of protection with the center open for ships to enter behind them.
Once the ten ships created a beachhead, they would seek to break free of the gate and in the confusion the rest of the group would transit the gate and break through the defenders. Then, after raining
fire down onto the planet, their plan was to use additional ships to land the Army and capture key ground areas.
Provided the Navy could keep the protection overhead, those on the ground would take over the final centers of governmental power and the Leath would claim the world as their own.
The signal went out and the ten shield ships started pushing forward, the first disappearing through the gate.
Ten shield ships, four battleships and the two massive dreadnoughts slipped through the gate, all guns powered.
Karillian System
Admiral Thomas sat in the belly of the superdreadnought. “Reynolds, where are we going?” he asked the EI of the ship in a calm voice, grabbing his cup of coffee.
The admiral hadn’t even finished his question when a hologram of the system was displayed above his operations table. The Yaree planet was to the left—behind them for all practical purposes—and there was a small red spot halfway through the system. “Well, damn.” The Admiral exhaled, looking at the new gate.
The little spy EI they kept in the Leath system had let them know how many ships they would be facing, but the Leath had been too damned smart. They had changed their entry area, so his group would have to fight all of them.
Right now he was in Reynolds, of a design similar to ArchAngel II’s but with fewer people aboard. Reynolds had not worked with humans in his efforts before, and therefore preferred to have bots on his ship. The only reason Admiral Thomas was on Reynolds along with his staff was because they had left ArchAngel II back in the Yollin system to transport Bethany Anne on her good will tour.
Internally it was known as the “We aren’t out to eat your babies tour.” It seemed a few of the newsies were starting to paint Bethany Anne as a horrible monster.
Nothing like kicking some serious ass to make some groups scared of you.
Plus, what was attractive to humans had scared the hell out of a couple of the alien groups, and caused a couple of others to send marriage contracts. Cheryl Lynn didn’t even bother with asking Bethany Anne if she wanted to answer the requests.
Cheryl Lynn figured it would be less inflammatory that way.
“What the hell?” Admiral Thomas exclaimed as he looked at the best information they had at the time. It wasn’t real-time, but their closest sensors were only a light minute away.
Captain Natalia Jakowski stood up from the Captain’s Chair and wandered over to the admiral’s area. As of this moment she had confirmed all of Reynolds’ questions related to permissions for the ship’s movement, and it would be a little while until their group reached the Leath.
“Natalia,” Admiral Thomas pointed to the ships that had come through the gate, and how they were building a large sphere, the later ships sliding into the protection provided by the first ships, “thoughts?”
“Seems like what you would typically do, protect the…” She paused a moment, leaning forward. “Are those their two big ships sliding in late?”
Reynolds answered through the speakers. “Yes, those are their two largest ships. This is in direct contrast to the last operation where they brought the big ships in first.”
“And had their asses handed to them,” Natalie added. She reached forward and zoomed in on the ships as close as she could. “Those ships in front look…wrong.”
Admiral Thomas put his mug of coffee to the side and rested his elbows on his chair arms. Leaning forward, he reached out and twisted the hologram so that he was looking from the back. “They have set up a defensive position with those ten ships. I imagine they are a bitch to bust through to get to the inner core, which is another set of ships that won’t be easy to crack.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Sonofabitch, they are upgrading their tactics.” Thomas looked to his left and flipped a tablet screen to review other sensors. “We don’t seem to have any other ships coming in sneaky.”
“Well, none that we’ve found.” Natalie walked back to the Captain’s Chair. “If they are sneaking properly, we won’t.”
“Too damned true by half,” Admiral Thomas admitted. “I hate this defensive bullshit, but we can’t attack their system any more than they can attack ours.” He looked at the screen where Lance Reynolds’ face stared at him. “Dammit, Reynolds. Can’t you give me another avatar to look at?”
“Why?” the EI replied. “Does the general’s face bother you, sir?”
“It’s like having BA looking over my shoulder,” he told the EI. “Lance is good, but I don’t need to see him all the time.”
The visage on the screen changed, and Admiral Thomas looked at it for at least fifteen seconds. “You know what, Reynolds, forget my complaint.” He could hear Natalia trying to cover her snickering. “I’d rather look at a general of the Army, than a brewmeister. Take Bobcat’s face and flush it. I’ll look at Lance.”
“As you wish, Admiral,” Lance’s face replied.
Thomas looked at the map. “Reynolds, provide me with the locations of our asteroids with offensive capabilities on the hologram.”
The map started exploding with different colored areas all over space.
“Good.” Thomas nodded as he cracked his knuckles. “Let’s get to work.”
Ixtali System, Ixtali Nation’s Floating Court, Two Months Later
Ixtali Court Member Addix stood in front of the giant two-story clear membrane in the dark. The room, easily big enough to hold a hundred who were mixing and mingling and up to a hundred and fifty if they got close, was empty but for her and one other who had just entered.
Addix continued looking out into space at the massive ship of the human Empress, and the ship’s escorts.
“It is impressive.” Court Member Jondence spoke quietly, maintaining the reverent feel of the moment as he stepped up beside Addix.
“The ship?” Addix asked, turning to Jondence.
He nodded.
“Jondence, that ship doesn’t compare to the Empress. I know you and the others think she played with my head, my emotions. Just do me a favor, if any of you intend to be inflammatory, give me enough warning that I can get out of the way.”
Jondence’s hissing laughter soon had Addix laughing as well. “We laugh, but I’m serious.”
He put up a hand. “I’m well aware you are serious, Addix. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have backed you for so many years. Of all of us, you had the clear eyes we needed to meet with the Etheric Empire in the first place. It would be devastatingly stupid to choose you for the negotiations and then ignore your recommendations.”
“Even when the recommendations are ripping apart the fabric of our society?” she questioned, a hint of doubt in her voice.
Jondence’s four mandibles made the sign of confidence. “You have now survived two attacks on your life to bring us this information. Those who would use our own technology against us have proven your argument, probably better than you might ever have done. This,” he pointed to the Etheric Empire superdreadnought, “is but the proper time to announce what we have already approved in the court. The die of the future has already been cast. Now we wait for time to show us what the future holds in its hands.”
The two of them took another long look at the superdreadnought. While they were watching, a battleship slid down the flank, dwarfed by the motionless ship.
“Is that a Skaine battleship?” Jondence asked.
“Yes,” Addix answered. “It seems one of their police groups—Rangers, they call them—captured a Skaine battleship.”
“Remarkable,” Jondence muttered, his mandibles chittering in surprise. “Simply remarkable.”
CHAPTER SIX
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
Yelena pursed her lips. She could see Bobcat sitting at their kitchen table, his shoulders hunched. She could tell he was sipping a beer and thinking.
He wasn’t happy.
She folded the towel in her hands and inhaled deeply before letting the breath out, and with it the hope that he was happy with what he and his two best friends had accomplis
hed over the years. She had not only listened to the stories Bobcat had told her, but had also sought out a few of Bobcat’s friends in the past couple of months.
He was slipping into a sort of funk. Not a depression really, she reassured herself. He was here for her. She had his heart, but she needed to trust that by supporting him, she let him fly and be who he was born to be.
Kicking ass and taking names in a way only he and those two brainiac kids could. In the last few years she had been happier than she deemed would have been possible for a woman who had previously thought going to work in an expensive suit would provide her bliss.
Now she was happy with Bobcat, the dogs, and beer. Oh, they had close friends, but for a while it had mostly been her, Bellatrix and Bobcat.
A siren call had him as well, and Yelena had felt the jealousy and fought it. Both the jealousy and the siren call. Just because she understood it didn’t mean she didn’t have selfish reasons for it to go the hell away.
She opened the closet door and placed the towel inside. Closing the door, she settled her shoulders and started toward the man she loved.
Sometimes there was pain in doing the right thing.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, All Guns Blazing, Viewing Deck
“So,” Tina, Cheryl Lynn’s oldest, glanced at the scientist, a smile on her face as the two of them looked at stars they couldn’t have seen worth a damn from Earth, “do you remember the first time we went out in a pod?”
Marcus pulled back from looking through the ancient telescope the two of them had set up in the glass-walled room of All Guns Blazing.
He looked at the young woman and smiled. “That was a while back!” Marcus chuckled. “What I specifically remember is your mom chewing my ass out for not asking her permission.”
His eyes glazed over for a moment, but Tina caught it. Since the fateful time Marcus had interceded on her behalf, and because of her time in the Etheric Academy, she had grown into a perceptive woman who cared about what this man did with his life.
And what he didn’t.
“How come you haven’t gone sightseeing or done other things?” she asked him.
Might Makes Right (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 18) Page 5
