It's Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 9)

by Michael Anderle

  Graduation Day. Well, that’s what everyone considered it. The teams were trained ‘up’ to newbie status.

  Everyone could run, jump, shoot and follow orders. Some preferred the land, a few preferred the water. Almost everyone loved space.

  In the last few weeks, they had all been rotated up and down. They had been up in space and been assigned for a week on the Polarus and the Ad Aeternitatem.

  They had trained in the desert, the marshes, the cold and then they learned what cold really meant. They swam, they ran, they cussed, and then they did push-ups. Lots and lots of push-ups.

  Following the push-ups, they slowly learned how to curse correctly. Which is to say they cursed up to Bethany Anne’s standards. To Jennifer, it seemed that the Queen’s Own Guard Eric had enjoyed the opportunity to lay out the push-up punishment the most. Rumor had it that he was the one who received the most push-ups from Bethany Anne, and her desired for others to stretch their linguistic abilities.

  Doctor, heal thyself, Jennifer thought.

  She wasn’t big on cursing, so it never was a real problem for her as others were occasionally straining to get through their second and sometimes the third set of push-ups for the day. Jennifer wondered if this was Bethany Anne’s point. If you were cursing just going to be crass, it wasn’t acceptable. But if cursing was needed (and even Jennifer admitted that sometimes it was), then do it with creativity.

  Turn something vulgar into an art form.

  So far, Eliot Debose was the undisputed no-curse-word cursing winner with ‘you scurvy looking demented llama sniffer’. He admitted he had spent half of his breakfast and all of the morning run thinking about it. It had, he said, a particular way of rolling off of his tongue he enjoyed.

  Jennifer was wearing the fatigues the Wechselbalg had been issued two weeks before. She walked to her position and waited. Someone had removed the chairs for today’s meeting.

  Straight up at fourteen-hundred, the door opened, and Dan Bosse, Peter Silvers from the Guardians, Kevin McCoullagh from the base, and, surprising everyone, Stephen from the Polarus came walking in and stepped onto the platform.

  Dan Bosse didn’t wait but walked right up to the front of the little stage. He nodded to both the Vampires and the Wechselbalg.

  “Gentleman, and ladies.” He smiled, “Which is what you are in public. In here, together, we are comrades and confidants. We have our missions, we have our priorities, and we have our orders.” He held up a legal size manila folder, “In here, I have your orders.”

  He dropped his hand back down. “Behind me, you have the main people who are going to accept your last oath. Some of you are looking to join up, not just for four years, but for the duration of the conflict. You have learned enough about Bethany Anne, this group, and about yourself that you know you fit in.”

  He looked back to the Vampires, “Some of you made an Oath due to Honor. Honor taught you over decades.” He turned back to looking at them all. “Please know that this request, this ‘final’ Oath is one of four years, or your life until released.”

  Jennifer started looking around. It became obvious which of the Wechselbalg had decided to commit. They were the ones studiously NOT looking around.

  “Bethany Anne won't be here for a while. Unfortunately, she is in Australia at the moment. Because we are on a schedule, I’ve asked Stephen, Michael’s brother who I believe everyone here has met, to stand in for her.” He grinned as he turned around to look over his shoulder, “Stephen?”

  Stephen stepped forward. He was wearing a uniform from an older war. The patches were not there anymore, but you could tell it was carefully cared for, and one could imagine the scenes the clothes could speak about.

  Stephen pursed his lips and spoke softly. “When it comes to Bethany Anne, I would be the worst person you could ask for an objective opinion.” Jennifer found his voice a little hypnotic. He wasn’t preachy, he wasn’t loud. She just felt his words soak into her mind. “When I woke up that fateful morning with my houses bell clanging me out of my stupor, I had no idea that life would change so drastically.”

  He paused, nodded to himself before continuing. “When I forced myself to get up, it was obvious after waiting for twenty minutes that the idiot at the front door wasn’t going to take ‘there is no one home’ to heart. So, in my body racked with age at the time, I made my way to the front door. Each step as I got closer became easier, and do you know why?”

  Everyone was now intently involved in Stephen’s story. Jennifer knew Bethany Anne was the one who brought him back awake. Since getting ‘inside’ the circle, she had made it her hobby to learn everything she could about the Vampires. She had started with a crush on Akio, the new Queen’s Own but he was gay.

  Talk about a way to crush a girls heart. Why did the good ones always have to bat for the other side?

  So, she tried to find out more from the other team until her first night on the Polarus. She had been walking across the deck heading towards the back when a solitary figure practically glided through the darkness to stand at the very back of the ship, and she stopped. She tried to not interrupt what she could tell was a moment for the figure.

  It took her a moment to sort the scents from the wind to let her know it wasn’t a Guardian, nor a human. That left a Vampire, and as far as she knew, there were only two on the ship.

  Barnabas, which always seemed to be walking around in Monk’s robes, and Stephen. She was startled when he turned slightly and spoke over his shoulder towards her, “It’s ok, you can breathe back there.”

  Jennifer looked back and forth trying to figure out how to step away respectfully when he called her to come to the back. There was nothing she could do but to walk and take her medicine. The only problem was that if speaking with Stephen was medicine, she wished she could be sick the rest of her life.

  She had it bad. Really bad. She was head over heels for the second oldest Vampire in existence - way to cock-up her future. At least she wasn’t pining away for Michael, who was the oldest Vampire in existence AND totally in love with her boss.

  Well, she had requested either space or land and was giving four years to the group. There was no way she was going to suffer the rest of her life wishing she could have more than she had any right thinking about with Stephen.

  Knowing her luck, she was probably giving off enough pheromones around him that she might as well flip her hair over her shoulder and look back coyly at him. Or, better yet, say something exceedingly stupid.

  Then snort.

  She focused back on Stephen as he answered his own question, “I was approaching the door now with anticipation because whoever the female human was on the other side, she smelled delicious!”

  He smiled as everyone caught on to what he was saying. He, completely ignorant and being an ‘old time Vampire’ was thinking Bethany Anne was a snack. Maybe one he wouldn’t drink from, but he was drawn to her.

  “The only problem with my snack, as you might have learned by now, is that she hits, hard, and has zero respect for age and wisdom.” He made a grimace, “Especially old Vampires that try to take a bite out of her.” The chuckles increased a little more.

  “So, you know what happens? She feeds my soul.” He turned to look at Peter, “She tends to find the part in you that you need most, and show you how to claim it again.” He turned back to the group. “For some of you, it is respect for yourself, or trusting others. Maybe it is hope, possibly peace.” Stephen shrugged, “What I can tell you, is that your position, your job, your role is needed. The need is bigger than you, me, or even Bethany Anne. It is for the future. Your children, maybe. Perhaps your brothers’ or sisters’ children. Conceivably, for those you work with – or you may die with. It is a possibility. Another day is never promised.”

  He paused, introspective. “I can tell you that if Bethany Anne had not arrived on my doorstep, rang that bell until hell froze over, I would not be in front of you today. I was one last sleep away from walking into the Sun.�
� He looked down at his feet and then up again to make Jennifer feel like she was the only one he was speaking to. “But now, I will never see a more glorious sight than someone new coming into my life, because the World can change in an instant when they do.”

  He broke eye contact and finished, “You are about to go out. Whether here, to sea, or to space, and you will take a little piece of your class with you. Be resolute, protect people, stand for what is right because Bethany Anne expects nothing less, and nothing more from you.” He stood straight and saluted the class. Jennifer could imagine him on the fields of World War II saluting an officer.

  “Ad Aeternitatem.” He held his salute.

  One hundred and fifteen salutes were crisply drawn, and one hundred and fifteen voices shouted, “AD AETERNITATEM!

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Space Station One - L2

  Space Station One was coming into view. Jeo Deteusche had been preparing for this trip for the last four weeks, and he was beyond excited.

  It had taken his previous company exactly seventeen minutes and forty-three seconds to escort his disrespectful ass off the premises when he finished blasting the CEO Sean Truitt with both barrels.

  God, that had felt good.

  It had taken seventeen minutes because Mr. Truitt decided to spend five of them blasting him back with all the vitriol his stress had created. As far as Mr. Truitt was concerned, Jeo Deteusche wasn’t going to be able to find one company on the face of the Earth which was going to hire him. Not if that company had ANY connection to them at all.

  Jeo didn’t give a shit; he was leaving Earth, so Mr. Truitt was absolutely right in that respect. In less than thirty-six hours the final paperwork to hire him had been signed and returned. He read the document twice and stayed on the last page, just staring at the final signature.

  Bethany Anne, CEO.

  He had been in a stupor, just admiring the fact that his Employee document had her signature (in red, no less) when he received a personal phone call from the CEO herself, thanking him personally for joining their group and asking him how soon he could pack up his life?

  He had looked around his apartment, then considered what he was going to need in a base or on a ship and told her, “Let me hug my parents goodbye and let them know as much as you will let me, and then I just need a place to show up.”

  Her laughter had caught him off guard. “I’ll tell you what. I’m aware how much you went through when you quit. I’ll have Cheryl Lynn help with any apartment packing details, and you go see your parents for say three days unless that isn’t enough?”

  Jeo considered three full days with his mom and grimaced, “That’s probably pushing the largest amount of time I can love my Mom in one sitting, but I don’t imagine I’m coming back for a while?”

  The CEO answered him, “No, I would plan on being gone a minimum of three and most likely at least six months. If you want to impress your parents, then let them know I’ll send a ride for you at nine PM Thursday night at your parent's address. Will this work?”

  He agreed it would be perfect. He spoke to Cheryl Lynn, who connected him with a moving company and helped get rid of his car as ‘he wouldn't need it anytime soon’.

  His first day and a half with his parents had been a little strained. They believed the TV anchors who had been lambasting TQB Enterprises with negatively-slanted news questioning whether any of their technology was real, while simultaneously accusing TQB of withholding technology the world desperately needed. Jeo pointed out those were two mutually exclusive perspectives.

  His dad didn’t take too long to see Jeo’s point of view, since he tended to believe TQB was on the moon anyway, and his mother finally came around to thinking that the company must be ‘ok’.

  When he received a text on Thursday night that his ride was ‘out in the back yard to pick him up’, he was shocked. Then, he whooped with delight.

  His father asked him what his text was about, but Jeo had jumped up and was already grabbing the two suitcases that had been by the front door and was walking quickly towards the back.

  His mom asked him ‘are you staying?’ His dad caught on and almost beat him to the back door.

  Sure enough, right before they opened the door, there was a knock. Mr. Deteusche opened the door to find a rather large and imposing Hispanic man smiling down at him. “Hello, I’m Eric; Bethany Anne has asked me to pick up Mr. Deteusche from this location to take him to France tonight.”

  “Oh, my God...” said Mrs. Deteusche from behind her son and her husband. Both of them turned around as she continued “You're one of them!”

  She looked up into her son’s quizzical expression, “You don’t know, do you?” Jeo shook his head. “You are being picked up by one of the ‘Four’.” She turned back to Eric, “You are one of her ‘Four’, aren’t you?”

  Eric looked thoughtful, “Well, I could be. But which ‘Four’ are we talking about?”

  Mrs. Deteusche elbowed her husband aside and reached out to shake Eric’s hand, “You protect her, don’t you? I saw a special about the four men who seem to be around her all of the time. You're always with that really big guy, James…No, John!” She beamed up at Eric.

  “Yes, I’m one of those Four.” Eric replied, “I’m heading over to a meeting on the Polarus and Jeo here needs to get accustomed to his group a little before we take him to his post.”

  “And where,” Mr. Deteusche asked, “will Jeo’s post actually be?” He turned to look at his son, “He claims he doesn’t know.”

  “Really?” Eric turned to Jeo. “No one told the lead on mining and manufacture of metals in space where his post is going to be?”

  Jeo shook his head, “No, I figured I would either be in Colorado or possibly on the ships they talk about on the News.”

  Eric grinned, “Jeo, there is one thing Bethany Anne doesn’t mess with, and that is inefficiency. Where do you believe she would have her new lead of Industrial Outer Space Mining and Manufacturing?” He paused a moment, then helped him out, “The hint is in the title.”

  Jeo’s eyes lit up, “Outer space!”

  Eric nodded, “Hell yeah! Buddy, you are just going to the Polarus to meet, greet, and get some work done. Your final destination in a few days is your new office on Space-Station-One.”

  His father looked confused, “Don’t you mean Moon-Base-One? Or is there a new space station up there, like Skylab?”

  Jeo wanted to face palm in embarrassment, “That’s ISS dad, the International Space Station.”

  His dad merely winked to Eric.

  Eric replied, “Well, I hope you realize that if you spill this information, you could be endangering your son’s life, but we have a Space Station at L2, that’s Lagrange Point 2 out beyond the Moon. Jeo’s home and office will start there and then move as quickly as he can help get us into production out to the mining area.”

  “Oh,” his mother answered, “Is that on the moon then?”

  Eric looked down to the shorter lady, “No ma’am. Although I don’t know for sure, I imagine Jeo knows the most likely location for mining; it is his occupation after all.”

  “Holy crap,” Jeo breathed, “I’m going out to the asteroid belt, aren’t I?” Before Eric could respond, Jeo continued, “With your technology, we don’t have to worry about Delta-V or crossing the Earth's Orbit or even water, right?” Eric just nodded, “So, take those out of the equation and we want to go after Type M asteroids for metals and outer space manufacturing. No wonder Ms. Bethany Anne told me minimum three months.” He asked, “How long would it take to get out to the Asteroid Belt?”

  Eric shrugged his shoulders, “Beat’s me. I doubt that distance and time is a factor. Probably more of a short timeframe on this project.”

  “Short…Timeframe?” Jeo asked.

  Eric looked at his watch, “Here, let’s get your gear stowed and we will talk. We need to be on the Polarus in thirty minutes.”

  “Right, of course!” Jeo hugged his Mom goodbye
and shook his Dad’s hand. Grabbing his suitcases, he walked out into the backyard. Even with the back porch light on, the black Pod holding a foot off of the ground was difficult to see. “Is that sucking light in?”

  Eric answered, “Well, I can tell you it is not reflecting most visible light rays, so if that is the same as ‘sucking’ them in, then yes.” He opened the front hatch, “Store your gear back there.”