TOM was amazed at how fluent her understanding of Kurtherian was, even if her Kurtherian speech was slow and methodical at best. Over the following weeks between TOM and Shen, they managed to teach her the basics of Russian and English.
She stubbornly refused to tell either of them of her past stating that it would be disrespectful to their leaders. When asked who she believed they were, she pointed to Boris and Janna. Everyone had smiled when they heard that.
She would be in for a bigger shock when or if she finally met Bethany Anne. She had identified the leaders of this base, so it could be said at least she hadn't lost an understanding of human leadership roles. When she wasn't practicing the language with TOM and Shen, Janna familiarized her with modern amenities. Although she still refused to wear a bra, complaining that they were torture devices, she did take to wearing other undergarments.
Boris busied himself continuing the setup of the defenses of the town, and the training of the men and women with weapons. They drilled in the responses they should take in an emergency. He insisted that everyone in the town should at least know how to fire a weapon, both rifle and handgun. He would not have a town under his protection be such an easy target again.
Gyada was unsettled by the fact that she could no longer hear the voice that had been her constant companion for centuries. She was now without that companion. Janna suggested that perhaps a young Were at her side would aid her. Allow her to adjust to this new and confusing world. Help her find a feeling of balance and purpose.
Moscow, Office of the Department of Settlements, Russia
"So, you called me here, Evgenni. Pulled me out just as the first buildings of my new settlement are going up. What the fuck is going on you son-of-a-bitch? We had an agreement. I could choose two places to settle my people from existing NVG bases. There was no restriction on this, yes? With how many decided to stay away we decided only one." Boris glared at the political appointee. Evgenni was sweating heavily, despite the cool in the room they were in.
"Boris, this is not the agreement we made. The agreement was you take over any two bases that the NVG had held in Siberia and settle there." Evgenni responded in a calm tone despite the obvious fear he held for Boris. Through the sweat and the light fidgeting, he was actually holding up extremely well. "I am sure that some sort of arrangement involving military personnel assisting in the security of..."
"Yob tvoyu mat'! Evgenni, you stupid son of a bitch. I will not risk having my people killed on political orders after what they have already been through. Do you understand pizdyonysh? The government did nothing... NOTHING... To protect my people when the NVG went after them them the first time. The military was involved in attacking them." Evgenni's face was steadily getting redder as Boris continued, and he opened his mouth to interrupt. Boris raised a hand to forestall any comment. "You let a proklyatyh nemeckih fashistov… German neo-Nazi... gain an incredible amount of influence and power within and without our military, and you expect me to sit here and accept you putting military forces amongst the people I protect? Nyet. I will support the government as I can, but my people have been through enough. Hell, for all I care you can deny the military's protection if someone externally decides to target the town." Boris sneered at the political appointee.
"Boris, please, it is not the time of the Reds. We do not kill people out of hand. They're not looking for traitors in the way the Reds did. Your people are loyal children of the Motherland. We simply wish to be more involved in case someone does go after you."
"No, Evgenni. You keep pushing, I'll bring Bethany Anne into these discussions." The bureaucrat's eyes went wide, and face went white at the mention of Boris’ Czarina. Evidently, word about her had penetrated the Russian bureaucracies. "Part of the reason I cannot allow what you suggest is that Bethany Anne will be providing us additional support in protecting the town. It will also enable us to be available to assist the government should any... unusual... Problems pop up again." Evgenni's shoulders stiffened significantly at the mention of "unusual problems."
Boris continued, "But to deal with these unusual problems, we need freedom from government interference. Many of the actions we will need to take will be somewhat… Grey. It is, therefore, better for everyone for the government to not have to acknowledge that they even occurred. If the military notices comings and goings of certain people from there, eventually someone who doesn't need to know will connect those movements with events in other regions of Russia."
"Boris, I am under orders here. I need to get something out of this, or I may as well throw away not only my career but my family's well-being." A look of hopelessness crossed Evgenni's face. "Please, isn't there something you can do?"
Boris thought about that for a minute. There were actually several things he could do. "I will make an offer to you, and provide something of interest for the government. We are getting housing delivered manufactured from the leftovers of the space mining operations. Basically, solid formed rock walls that can be fitted together to make a house. I will ask Bethany Anne to also provide the government with several samples of this material and make it available for the Russian government to purchase upon request at a discounted price."
Evgenni twitched nervously in his seat, "And you offer for me?"
Boris smiled. "You're a brave man Evgenni. Not many would have the balls to face me down like you have. So I offer you this." Boris pulled a pair of radio transmitters from his pocket. "If your family and yourself find others harassing you, contact me through these. We'll reach you far faster than anyone could imagine. And we will offer you a place in our community. If you choose to assist me by giving me further information of any rumblings against our town that would be welcome, but my offer of assistance to you in troubling situations is not contingent upon it. It is only contingent upon you convincing the government the that the deal I am offering now is the best one they will find provided by me and Bethany Anne. Understood?"
There was a wave of gratitude and relief across Evgenni's face. "Thank you." He sighed "I know you're trying to do your best to be fair, Boris. But we are all caught between rocks and hard places these days."
Boris nodded and shook Evgenni's hand. Those radio transmitters were only slightly different from standard. Even if Evgenni handed them over to the government, there wasn't anything Bethany Anne objected to governments having involved in their technology or manufacture. It was well worth the risk of the Russians getting a hold of them for the potential of future early warnings of problems from that same government.
Besides, Boris had to wonder why Evgenni had been chosen to be the government’s emissary. No one was ever chosen to be an emissary to him for nice reasons.
CHAPTER NINE
New Romanovka , Archangelsk, Russia.
Boris dreaded the day that Frank turned up. He would be obsessed with getting the details of her life before Gyada had been trapped in the cave, although she would be reticent about it from what he had seen. Boris wasn't sure if it was because she didn't remember it, or if it was because it was painful for her to remember.
To say Bethany Anne was frustrated with Boris' slow progress in both deciphering the Beast, and extracting information from the computer would be an understatement. Every report he'd sent her for months had said, “We need more time” and Bethany Anne was not a patient person. After the first month, Boris had handed the task of daily reporting to Janna, because Boris was sick of hearing frustration in his Tsarina’s voice that he fully understood and could not fault.
But he could also do nothing about.
Finally, after she had felt confident enough in her Russian to fully explain her story, Boris had sent a report which had taken some of the stress from both Janna and himself. Boris even suggested that Marcus and TOM question her knowledge to see if she might be able to aid them. Both with insights about the unknown alien and to test what knowledge the AI had taught her in its boredom. She had already shown a quick adaptation to several items that were far beyond
the era she was from as if something was finally clicking in her mind.
TOM had been enthusiastic about the idea, Marcus less so. He grumbled about damned theoreticians not having enough real-world knowledge to understand the problems. Bethany Anne had slowly worn him down on the issue. After all, what was the harm in having another person who understood the theories in detail to bounce ideas off of?
Gyada expressed some concerns about being shifted off to passive work. She had been confined for so long she wanted to get out of there. See what the world was now like. Go further, see the stars if she could. She had slowly come to understand the possibilities of her acquired knowledge as she had been taught the last century’s history. More so once she had talked to Marcus and Team BMW.
Gyada's restlessness and impatience hindered her integration into the modern world and the town. People found it uncomfortable to work with her for any length of time due to the constant fidgeting and obvious desire to be doing something more active or outdoorsy.
None of the command group were comfortable with throwing her straight into the militia training programs. They had no idea how controlled she was, and any Were who lacked iron control was a risk to those they trained with, especially humans.
So Boris set aside a part of every morning for her to train with him and either Janna or Danislav and three of the wolves. At least it started out as three of the wolves.
Training one-on-one with her in human form, she was an even match with Danislav although she could sometimes manage to take down two of his friends. The form her hand-to-hand fighting took involved getting in close. She was a small woman, so focused on throwing and grappling them. All in all, it was a wise choice for a smaller opponent against a larger. With everyone involved being Were, there was no way she could have taken them punch for punch. After a few days, male competitors started wearing cups regularly. She had no qualms about going for vulnerable places.
When one of them complained about it to Boris, he'd raised an eyebrow at her, getting her to answer. "Stop whining like a baby. If you are unprepared by training for what might happen in combat, you won't be ready for it when it occurs."
And they looked at Boris with slightly pleading expression, he'd shrugged and told them, "What she said. There is nothing wrong with her using such moves. As long as she doesn't try to break a neck or back, I'm a happy man."
Fighting in their other forms, however, was a different matter.
Gyada stood inside a circle of the wolves the first day. They snarled and snapped in an attempt to unnerve her. Her form was much smaller than most of the werebears the Weres had encountered. Their overconfidence showed when the first one charged in only to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck by Gyada's mouth and thrown across the room with a yelp. There was a solid cracking sound when one of its legs hit the wall. Even with the Weres ability to heal fast, that Wolf would be out of this fight.
The three remaining wolves started circling back and forth. Their goal was to make her lose track of one of them so that one could dart in and hamstring her. To say it was a spectacular failure was an understatement. She managed to toss the one that tried to hamstring her against a wall with a remarkably dexterous twist of her back paw. Gyada then grabbed the one that had feinted to distract her by the scruff of the neck and threw him into the third.
She moved that little bit faster than they were expecting, catching them off guard. She wasn't quite as fast as Boris and Janna, but she was faster than the average werewolf. Once they changed back, she scolded them for hesitating. For thinking too much before attacking.
She still didn't seem to recognize how much the world has changed. Her companion, a lithe Mongolian female Were called Nergui, was the one who suggested they run her through rifle and pistol training with a group of normal humans. Paul had been reluctant to allow it, but eventually caved in when it was pointed out to him that she was no more a danger to the other human trainees than they were to each other.
Paul ripped a gun from the hands of one of the other trainees within a couple of minutes of handing them out, for failure to follow the order to keep the muzzle pointed away from everyone, preferably towards the ground. He raised the gun and it barked as a shot fired from it.
"First thing when you get a gun, check the damned thing doesn't have a bullet in the chamber before you do anything. When it is first handed to you, check that it is unloaded. Even once you’ve checked don't point towards something you don't wanna destroy. Got it kiddies?" Murmurs of agreement had followed. Considering some in the group were definitely older than Paul, Gyada found this amusing, but she made sure that she followed his instructions. It was evident he’d trained people with these weapons before.
When she saw how much destruction even the smaller 'pistol' did she was significantly more cautious about everything around her. She also stopped being so focused on being allowed to roam. It was clear that they were worried about her being injured by something she simply hadn’t seen as a threat.
She is also unsure why those guns that had fired at her earlier hadn't done more damage to her. After all, Boris and Janna had no problems tearing her flesh with their claws when they trained with her. It was a question, but not one that needed a quick answer. Despite everything, she felt the guns were an inappropriate tool of war.
They offended her sensibilities.
Philosophically, she seemed to consider guns cheating. War was brutal, and she'd let slip that she had been a shield maiden amongst the Rus. In her opinion, they were items for pure destruction, not suitable for honorable warfare. She had no objections to archery, and even crossbows were grudgingly acceptable as real weapons of war, but on some level, guns were killing machines used by the masses.
Perhaps it was the relative lack of skill required to become proficient with them. Gyada had spent years learning how to use a sword, axe, and shield properly in warfare. The basics of learning how to use a gun took minutes. And in some ways she was correct. The weapons massively increased the number of people able to be put on a frontline, as soldiers no longer had to be trained for years on end and supported by a large population base. They could be conscripted and given a few weeks training, then sent to the battlefront.
Gyada's considered opinion appeared to be that the clashing of the massive armies of the twentieth century in World War I and World War II were simply a crude attempt at population control. She could respect the skill of individual generals in outmaneuvering and outthinking their enemies. All she saw in such massive forces was the pointless sacrifices of many lives. From a certain point of view, Boris could see her point. It wasn't unlike Bethany Anne’s methods. Bethany Anne didn’t focus on using large forces. She focused on training the best small forces she could.
With the speed, strength, and skill that a Were or a vampire could bring to bear, each individual of her rather smaller forces could probably take on a company of ordinary soldiers. They were trained to the level of special forces and had additional enhancements that were force multipliers beyond that.
Something didn’t quite mesh here for either Janna or Shen.
Yes, Gyada had literally centuries to consider consequences, but why would a late Dark Age person consider such things? How would she have thought about the concept of it initially? They wondered what was in the Kurtherian computer’s database and what it had taught her beyond her understanding of the Etheric. Marcus had described her theoretical understanding of Gravitics as exceptional.
What else, they wondered, had she learned?
CHAPTER TEN
Gyada's Past
Finally, Gyada felt that she had a good enough grasp on Russian and English between them to talk to them about her past with minimal interruptions for clarity. If she didn't know the right wording in one language, she would switch to the other
"I was born, oh, I am not really sure how long ago. Shen has suggested somewhere between eight and nine centuries. It was in the country you now call Sweden, what was then called Svitjod. My father wa
s a renowned warrior, a wearer of the bear shirt. I was his third daughter, though he had six sons. All of us were raised as warriors, as befit the get of the champion of the King of Svitjold." Her tone slowly changed to a rhythmic and melodic cadence as she spoke, as if letting the story tell itself.
"Children of my father, and his father before him had an ax placed in their hands before they took the first milk from their mother's breast. Some say his line could trace itself back to Tyr, although he never claimed that. He simply focused on making sure his children carried on the legacy of skill and loyalty to their leaders. He had maintained and strengthened in his father's name. He expected the same from us."
"A tale reached us from the Finns, who our then-King had friendly contact with. It was about a land beyond theirs. This land had been a prosperous kingdom, but when its ruler died his eight sons fell to squabbling over who was best to take his place. This had resulted in a conflict that lasted many years and stripped the kingdom of warriors. Now, the King of the Finns was a wise man. He felt that with only one son to come after him, annexing that kingdom would stretch his resources to the point it would make his nation vulnerable."
Revelations (The Boris Chronicles Book 3) Page 6
