CONTENTS
Dedication
Legal
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Author Notes - Ell
Author Notes - Michael
Social Links Ell
Social Links - Michael
Series List
DEDICATION
To everyone who ever dreamed of making a dent in the universe.
— Ellie
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
To Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
To Live The Life We Are
Called.
— Michael
Giles Kurns: Rogue Operator Team
JIT Beta Readers
Micky Cocker
James Caplan
Paul Westman
Kelly ODonnell
Daniel Weigert
Joshua Ahles
Kimberly Boyer
Tim Bischoff
Peter Manis
Larry Omans
Thomas Ogden
AbH Belxjander Draconis Serechai
Keith Verret
If we missed anyone, please let us know!
Editor
Joe Brewer
Giles Kurns: Rogue Operator (this book) is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
This book Copyright © 2017 Ell Leigh Clarke, Michael T. Anderle
Cover by Jeff Brown www.jeffbrowngraphics.com
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
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Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US edition, November 2017
The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2017 by Michael T. Anderle.
PROLOGUE
Question: how do you tame a rogue space archaeologist?
Answer: You don’t.
When Professor Giles Kurns discovered a crucial piece of intel while being held prisoner by the exiled former Zhyn High Marshall, he returned to the ArchAngel command ship with a compelling argument for him to be allowed to reopen an old research project.
But this time, it was more than intellectual curiosity.
This time, the continued existence of the Federation, and perhaps all species in the Loop and Pan Galaxies were at stake.
Having convinced General Lance Reynolds of the imminent significance of his findings, Giles and his partner in crime, Arlene Bailey, set out to the Orn System for a spot of tomb raiding.
Together with the Empress’s old covert ops warship, fully equipped with Gate technology and a rather spunky AI, they embark on a swashbuckling adventure of danger and intrigue to uncover the truth about the Ascension Myth.
CHAPTER ONE
Gaitune-67, Safe House
The safe house was a buzz of activity.
Joel could barely contain his enthusiasm for the return of their old friends. “I can’t believe it!” he exclaimed, clasping hands with Giles in a manly handshake.
He called over to Molly, the boss of their operation, but couldn’t take his eyes off Giles. “You go to the university to do a recruitment talk, and you come back with the Giles-ter…and Arlene!” he exclaimed, seeing Arlene following Molly out of the basement door from the hangar deck and into the safe house. The pair disappeared off on a hush-hush mission months ago, without so much as a goodbye, leaving the crew of the Sanguine Squadron intrigued as to what they were up to.
And missing their friends.
They’d been through some intense and interesting times, fighting side by side for survival, and to keep war from breaking out between the Federation and the Zhyn Empire.
And now, they seemed to be back. But for how long remained to be seen.
Joel shook his head in amazement as Paige, the budding business person, integral team member and self-elected hostess, breezed past quickly and began fussing around the common area to give their guests somewhere to sit.
Crash and Pieter were quickly persuaded to pause their holo games. They weren’t that concerned, on account of Oz (the AI) thrashing them mercilessly. Paige started picking up their beer bottles, her heels clipping busily as Giles and Arlene hugged the ever-growing spontaneous welcome party as news of their arrival back on the asteroid, Gaitune-67, spread through the base.
Paige strode out to the kitchen, carrying empty bottles and trash. “If you want to keep playing,” she called back to Crash and Pieter, “just take it down to the workshop.”
Pieter stood up stiffly. The first time in about four hours. “Are you kidding? And miss this?” he called back as she disappeared. Giles caught his eye and headed over, giving him a man-hug.
“How you doing, kid?” he asked, patting Pieter on the back firmly in a hug a little too tight for Pieter’s liking.
“Ugh. I’m ok,” he said awkwardly as Giles released him. “So where’ve you been? You just disappeared from the ArchAngel.”
Giles looked caught off-guard. “Well yes. We er… had pressing business to attend to.” Pieter nearly rolled his eyes at the standard company line.
Paige had resurfaced from the kitchen carrying beers and a new trash bag to grab the rest of the trash that had been left strewn around by the boys having a game night. “Let him get in and sit down before you start grilling him,” she fussed at Pieter, shuffling him out of the way so she could continue with mission-hospitality.
Giles pushed his glasses up his nose as Paige thrust an obligatory beer into his hand. “Thanks!” he said, trying to smile amongst the kerfuffle.
Pieter didn’t budge. He stood awkwardly still looking at Giles. He ruffled his hair trying to think of what else to say.
“Let him sit down,” Paige’s voice instructed him again as she scooped up an empty pizza box along with some more empty bottles and disappeared into the kitchen for the second time.
Pieter moved out of the way to let Giles into the lounge area. But Giles was also distracted, scanning the faces that had shown up and were lining up to embrace Arlene.
Arlene was clearly more popular, he noticed.
Jack and Maya had just been released from hello hugs and were heading his way. But Giles was looking for someone else.
Before he knew it Maya had snuck up on him and was squeezing him tight. Giles tried not to spill his beer. “Hi!” she greeted him. “Long time, stranger. How have the adventures been?”
Giles grunted and bobbed his head agreeably. “Yes, all going
-” His response was interrupted by Jack stepping in to hug him. She was a little more polite in her distance and quickly released him. “Yes, it was good,” he continued. “Some success. But we hit a dead end, which is why we’re back… for now…” he answered to the expectant faces looking back at him.
Maya’s eyes lit up as she glanced briefly back at Arlene, now talking with Molly and Brock, who had just emerged from the basement with screen-face. He’d obviously been taking the time to continue on with whatever pet project he had permission for. It was a stark contrast from his normal, bubbly self.
Maya peeled her attention back to Giles. “So you’ll be staying?” she inquired enthusiastically. Her eyes darted back to her as yet oblivious, but would-be mentor, Arlene.
Giles put one hand in his pocket and tried to feign politeness. “Yes. For a little while, at least. Tell me, is Sean about?”
Maya took a second to process the question, her distraction now evident even to Giles. “Er… yeah he should be,” she said.
Jack interjected. “I think he was down in the gym. The base gym,” she relayed helpfully.
Maya snapped out of her distraction and back into her usual ‘helping’ mode. “Lemme go find him for you. You relax,” she told him, indicating to Jack and Giles to sit. “I’ll be right back,” she added as she scurried off between her teammates chattering away with Arlene.
***
Within about twenty minutes Crash and Joel had brought Giles’s and Arelene’s overnight bags up to the safe house, leaving the Scamp Princess powered down on the hangar deck.
The team sat around in the common area, which Paige had managed to return to some semblance of order only to have a new set of empty beer bottles materializing on the mocha table.
“So come on,” Pieter insisted. “Tell us about what happened,” he pressed now that everyone was settled down and had a drink in hand.
Arlene looked at Giles. “I think you’re the better story teller,” she winked, pleased with herself with how she deftly moved the responsibility of recounting the last couple of months over to him.
Giles narrowed his eyes, completely aware of her tactic. He leaned forward, taking a deep breath and placing his beer bottle on the table. “Well,” he started, “I have no doubt that Arlene will interrupt at appropriate points, but I’ll at least start the story.” His eyes had a glimmer of humor in it as he glanced around the assembled team. His gaze landed on Molly, who looked equally intrigued as the others to know what they had missed while he had been out of communication. He felt a flutter in his chest knowing that she was paying attention.
“So, as you know,” he continued,”after we all got back from the Zhyn mission Arlene and I continued doing some digging into the mysteries of the talisman that Sean and I had retrieved from Teshov.”
Brock interjected. “Ah, yes, we never did get to hear about what happened there.”
Pieter chuckled, his beer bottle almost to his lips. “Yeah, Royale is nearly as tight lipped as Crash,” he interjected.
Crash glanced at him, narrowing his eyes and then pointing two fingers at his eyes and then at a slightly tipsy Pieter.
Just then Sean arrived, his hair still wet from the shower and wearing a track suit with a towel around his neck. He wandered into the lounge area, poking his ear with one end of the towel.
Giles looked up at him. “Speak of the devil!” he grinned, springing to his feet and stepping over Pieter and Crash’s legs to greet Sean. This was clearly the person he’d been waiting for.
“I knew my ears were burning for a reason!” Sean chuckled, clamping his hand in Giles’s and then pulling him closer for one of his famous bear hugs. The two men slapped each other on the back in a show of mutual appreciation.
“How the devil are you?” Giles grinned back.
Sean bobbed his head excitedly and repeatedly. “You know, can’t complain,” he told him. “No one would listen even if I did,” he said dryly. “Besides, this lot keeps me busy,” he said, nodding affectionately in Molly and Joel’s direction.
Paige handed Sean a beer and moved over to give him some space to share the couch she and Brock were occupying.
Molly squinted at the pair. “Since when did you two become so chummy?” she asked.
Joel added his commentary. “Yeah, and how come we’re just noticing it now?”
Sean did a little wink as he sat down and took a swig of beer.
Giles answered the question. “It was probably since he saved my life on our Teshov mission,” he mused. “I’ve heard stories about the great Sean Royale, but until that moment I just assumed he was a jerk.”
Sean stopped with his beer bottle at his lips and lowered it, his mouth open in mock amazement. Then he pretended to look hurt, his eyes drooping at the sides. He clutched his hand to his chest. “You kill me with your words, Kurns!”
Giles chuckled. “Come on, you’ve got to admit it, even the AIs don’t like you!”
Sean chuckled. “You know that’s just coz they’re jealous about how much everyone else likes me, right?”
Giles grinned, picking up his beer bottle, pointing at him. “Yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night,” he told him, jokingly.
Sean finally took another sip of his beer and then set it down, lounging back on the sofa. “Yeah, whatever, mate. Weren’t you about to explain your mysterious disappearance without saying goodbye?”
Giles composed himself. “Yes. Yes I was…”
Brock pointed at him. “Hey, and then you have to tell us about Teshov. Sean Royale has a habit of keeping secrets, so we still don’t know what happened there while we were all busting our asses on the Shaa mission.”
Giles nodded. “Ok. I’ll come back to that shortly, because actually, it’s kind of relevant to our mission after the ArchAngel.”
He settled down and continued his story. “So, as I was saying, the reason we left the ArchAngel so quickly was because the General gave us the ‘OK’ for a mission that was prompted by something I discovered while I was being held captive by that Shaa asshole.” He shuddered at the thought of the escapade where he had narrowly escaped with his life.
Sean chuckled playfully. “Ah yes, the one we had to rescue your reprobate ass from…”
Giles nodded. “The one and the same.”
Molly had been quiet, taking it all in and exhausted by the evening’s events. Only now did her curiosity prompt her to interject. “So what did you discover?” she asked. This was the first she was hearing about the lead and it was likely that if it had anything to do with the talisman stuff Giles had shared with her, it might also hold some answers to her realm jumping abilities she was still learning to control.
Giles waved his hands. “More of what I shared with you in that first meeting when Uncle Lance brought you to the lecture theater,” he told her. “But perhaps I should start at the very beginning, to catch everyone else up?”
Molly nodded her agreement, and everyone settled in for the story.
“So there’s something that I didn’t explain to you,” Giles continued, looking over at Molly with a serious expression on his face.
Molly indicated that he should continue.
“You see,” he explained, “I was… economical with the full story because it wasn’t relevant at the time.” His eyes dropped to his beer bottle and he fiddled with the label as he spoke now. “It’s not like it was a big secret. Uncle Lance knew the crux of it… but not the details I shared with you when we were first talking about it.”
Molly regarded him with a narrowed eye, trying to read between the lines of what he was saying. “You’re referring to the talisman I take it?”
“Yes, exactly,” he confirmed, still studying the bottle in his hands.
Sean cut in. “The one we went to retrieve?”
“Exactly,” Giles nodded, only now looking up to meet Sean’s eyes, and not Molly’s. “Except at the time I had led you to believe that the story started where I was asked to look after it by the Es
tarians. But that wasn’t the whole story.”
Molly frowned, glancing briefly at Joel for his reaction. “So what is the whole story?” she pressed.
Joel’s expression was blank as he awaited the details.
“Well it all began many many years ago,” Giles explained. “Long before even Arlene and I crossed paths. I was included on a mission to Earth; the place on the other side of the Gate where our ancestors came from.”
Paige’s eyes lit up. “You’re talking about the origin of the humans?”
Giles nodded, smiling at her perception of his race. “Yes. Humans,” he confirmed.
Paige was half human and half Estarian, but because of her blue skin most folks just assumed she was a bizarre looking Estarian rather than anything else. Apart from anything it meant it was nearly impossible for humans and Estarians to mate because of their DNA structure. Nevertheless, Paige was a miracle. And an anomaly.
Giles now held everyone in rapt attention - as he so often did when he lectures.
“The mission was to swing back to Earth to build up its defenses against another Kurtherian assault. And to rescue a certain vampire. This vampire will remain nameless, but he had been stranded there since the war against the Kurtherians broke out.”
“Why nameless?” Brock asked, leaning forward and shuffling his butt back into the sofa a bit more to get comfortable.
“Because this particular vampire wouldn’t like the idea of being rescued by anyone. And, besides,” Giles added, “he’d probably tell the story quite differently… like he wasn’t being rescued.”
Brock grinned. “Ah, but we know it is a he then!”
Giles pointed with his beer bottle in hand. “Or,” he added, “maybe I’m just throwing you off track?” He winked before trying to return to his story.
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