Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set Three: Books 15-21, Never Submit, Never Surrender, Forever Defend, Might Makes Right, Ahead Full, Capture Death, Life Goes On (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets Book 3)

by Michael Anderle

  Kiel said, “You should have been with me for my recruitment meeting—a complete fabrication.” Kiel’s voice went an octave or two higher. “Superior exoskeleton, best in the galaxy.” His voice returned to normal. “What a big bowl of Bistek-barook shit,” he finished.

  Bethany Anne’s face scrunched up in confusion. “When did you two become Abbot and Costello?” she asked.

  “No idea what or who you are talking about,” Kael-ven replied. “But I assume a certain fatality about one’s future brings about whatever,” he waved his right arm, “you speak about.”

  Matrix barked, and Bethany Anne looked down at the puppy. “You might be right Matrix. They just might be trying to delay the inevitable.”

  The two Yollins turned their heads to glare at the German Shepherd. Kael-ven spoke, “Traitorous canine, thy name is mud. You just wait until you’re old enough to spar with her, you’ll understand, and I hope I’m here to see it.”

  This time, it was a questioning ‘yip’ from Matrix, and Kiel laughed without mirth. “See? Now you understand. Life seems funny now, but after this ass-kicking, you will know your future, and I will enjoy the thought of how my blood and pain will bring you fear.”

  Bethany Anne rolled her eyes. “Wow, who knew a Yollin could be such a drama queen?”

  The two Yollins turned as one and walked over to the side of the room to grab weapons from the rack.

  “At least I’m now royalty,” Kiel said excitedly.

  Matrix was sitting on the floor by Kiel, who was lying on his back next to the wall where he had collapsed just moments after placing his weapons back in the rack. “Stop licking me, Matrix!” Kiel moaned. “This is not helping my ego one bit.”

  Kael-ven was on the sitting couch the team had brought in for him, rubbing his back. “I appreciate the light workout today.”

  “I only wanted to think about how someone would fight something what, twice your size?” she said as she stretched on the floor. “So I needed to focus on determining your weak spots.”

  “Rumor has it three times my size, but we do not believe that. First, how would he be so big? Second, the King does not show himself outside of his inner circle. Those who are willing to share agree he is three times larger than I am. But, could they be fabricating the truth so to support the rumor? No one knows.”

  Bethany Anne looked up at the Yollin. “I’ve always wondered if you know why someone taps your natural armor, but it doesn’t cause you pain?”

  He made the Yollin equivalent of a shrug. “I can feel the punches and occasionally if you are trying to get my attention the blunt force spread across my muscles underneath hurts, but nothing like a concise punch.” He lifted his left hand to play with his jaw, making sure it was still in place and working correctly.

  “Well, without seeing if I can cut you up,” she started.

  Kael-ven interrupted, “Yes, I do appreciate the queen’s magnanimous decision not to use me for that particular research project.”

  “Keep interrupting me, and we shall see,” she replied. “And who is teaching you magnanimous?”

  Kiel’s voice groaned from the side of the room as he pointed up at the nearest speaker. “Blame Meredith,” he said.

  “Meredith?” Bethany Anne spoke, and the EI answered.

  “Yes?”

  “What are you teaching the Yollins?”

  “The appropriate history that could provide insight on how a new Yollin government might be created once the current administration is replaced,” the EI replied.

  “We are studying both monarchies and dictatorships,” Kael-ven said. “Magnanimous decisions for those vanquished was a point of discussion between myself and Meredith.”

  He smiled as Bethany Anne shook her head in resignation.

  A Few hundred yards inside Entrance 1, Dulce Lake, New Mexico

  This time, one of their trips to track down rumors seemed a little different to Jesse. The light from his flashlight hit the far wall and beamed back and forth across the rocks on the cave floor. A scratch on a rock caught his attention, and he turned his flashlight back to see a relatively large boulder. He called out to his friends Edward and Colin to hold up a moment.

  Getting close, he could tell that the scratch was recent, it wasn’t something that had been around for a long time. Further, something very hard had to have been used to create such a gash in the rock. He took his hand out of his glove and touched the cut.

  It was sharp.

  He looked at the angle, slashing downwards, and wondered what it could have been. He turned and allowed his flashlight to travel back towards the opening and then turned back around to consider where, if something in fact was moving, would he find the next mark?

  He started walking towards his friends, feeling that this time was different. Alien TV, a very small YouTube channel, might have unearthed something real. His flashlight continued along the floor. Unfortunately for him at the moment, it missed a few footprints where something heavy had to have passed.

  So far, he hadn’t noticed the non-human tracks next to the human ones.

  Aboard the G’laxix Sphaea, Earth Orbit

  Captain Natalia Jakowski stirred her hot chocolate while she dialed up her favorite strike team. Secretly, she was wondering what the two guys would use as an excuse to try to not head down to Earth this time.

  Further inside the ship, Samuel was having a conversation with Richard when the captain of the ship’s voice came over the speakers, “Boys?”

  Richard rolled his eyes. The captain couldn’t be more than in her late thirties, and that was probably giving her a few years, and she called them boys? “Yes, Captain?”

  “We have visitors in the Dulce Lake base. I need you two to go down, acquire information and confirm what’s going on. I’ve been in communication with ADAM and I understand we might have a few civilians poking around.”

  “Civilians?” Richard questioned. “I don’t remember our contract stating that we needed to help civilians, do you Samuel?” He looked over at Samuel who had a smirk on his face.

  Richard winked at his friend.

  The captain replied, “I believe the contract, if that’s what you’d like to call it, is between you and Gabrielle. I don’t think I need to be the lawyer in this little discussion. Would you like me to get Gabrielle on the line, boys? I understand she’s going to be coming through the ship here shortly. I can certainly ask her to pause for a moment and speak with you if you require clarification, Richard.”

  Richard’s eyes grew large, the smile dropping off of his face. “Noooo, Captain. Let’s keep Gabrielle happy and not bother her with trivialities, shall we? She might be on a date with Eric. I don’t suppose we can get a Pod out of here relatively quickly? We would like to head down Earthside and perhaps get a bite to eat before we rush over to New Mexico.”

  “Richard, what kind of food are you talking about? We have both human food and blood, although I was under the impression that you don’t need blood anymore?”

  “Well, to be truthful," Samuel jumped in, “blood is a bit of an acquired taste. It’s similar to always having your mother’s cooking at home. You don’t like it that much when you're always eating it, but after you go away to college for a few years, even the worst of mom’s cooking tastes delicious.”

  “I’ll have to take your word on that, Samuel. My mother happened to be a chef for a local hotel. Therefore her cooking was always delicious. For me, I went the other way. I got into eating too much Taco Bell at college, and although it was unhealthy as hell, the grease was damned delicious. Now, I understand Gabrielle is going to be here in ten minutes with the Queen. So, did you want to get on that Pod before they arrive or are you planning on being here during the lockdown when the Queen comes?”

  The two vampires reached over and grabbed their backpacks and quickly made for the door, Richard yelling back over his shoulder, “Captain, I don’t know why you’re still talking. There’s nobody in the room at the moment. Those two in
dividuals happen to almost be to the Pod bay.”

  The captain could hear the door slam as she reached up to turn off her microphone.

  Mark Taversty looked up the readouts he was reviewing. “I thought the Queen wasn’t going to be here for at least an hour.” The captain winked at him with a smile on her face.

  She called to the ship’s EI, “Sphaea? You should probably let the Pod bay know that they have two incoming vampires, and they will likely be running.”

  Down on Earth, a small group of military trucks, tarps across the equipment they were carrying, were traveling down Highway 64 through the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation heading towards the location where an explosion happened.

  Two black attack helicopters passed over them heading north.

  4

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Docks Meeting Rooms

  Bethany Anne, Ashur, Matrix and General Lance Reynolds appeared in the outer docks Transport Room. Meredith opened the doors, allowing them to leave the chamber. Once they had walked out, the EI confirmed nothing was inside then closed and locked the doors behind the party.

  While no one had yet transferred through the Etheric into space already occupied, the computer simulations that ADAM had run calculated a substantially large explosion. Since energy and matter were transferable, the simulations showed solid items occupying the same space would cause some of that matter to convert back to energy.

  Neither of the objects would appreciate the explosive result.

  It was Meredith’s responsibility to make sure that didn’t happen to the Queen or any of those who traveled with her. Reynolds, the military EI for the Meredith Reynolds, was her backup and confirmed her results every time.

  Finally, ADAM would triple check their results every four hours to make sure nothing was amiss with any of the sensors Meredith or Reynolds used.

  The two humans and two German Shepherds walked down the hall and entered a room that had a table, eight chairs and two video monitors on opposing walls. The video screens were nothing but white paint on the walls for the projectors that were affixed to the ceiling. Meredith could use projectors to create 3D holographic images should it be necessary.

  Bethany Anne and Lance had barely sat down when they heard a loud knock, and the door opened. Scott, who had gone ahead of them earlier to fetch her errant research and development team, stuck his head in and winked. He opened the door a little wider, and Bobcat stuck his head in.

  He smiled at her. “Yes?” he asked, but he didn’t step further into the room.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, do come in Bobcat, just one of the three men I’d like to see at the moment," Bethany Anne purred.

  Scott inclined his head, and Bobcat walked into the room. He came in with all the willingness of a man told he’d be walking the plank.

  He was followed by William and then Marcus, all three of them swallowing and looking back and forth at each other. Bethany Anne waved to the chairs. “Take a seat gentlemen. We’re all adults here, and we should accept the responsibility of the actions that we take, no matter how long ago they happened, am I right?”

  Bobcat pulled out his chair and slowly sat down. “Well, boss, I think we’ve all learned great lessons in the past, and we don’t need to rehash those lessons whatsoever.” He finished by pasting a wide smile on his face, turning up his boyish charm.

  William smiled. “I completely support Bobcat’s assertion. I feel I’ve already learned big lessons in life myself, and…”

  Bethany Anne rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up you guys. If I wanted to tear you a new asshole I would’ve just come down to your lair and done it again. I want you to understand what we’ve tried to accomplish since the three of you helped destroy an unknown alien base on the Moon.”

  Marcus interrupted, “To be fair, we didn’t exactly destroy it. We were caught in the web like an insect and were working our way back out of the web. It wasn’t through diabolical or devious intentions that said base was destroyed.”

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “So, I am to understand that the three adult males in front of me have decided that the ‘kids did it’ defense is now finally retired, and we’re going to the ‘we were running for our lives defense?’”

  “I don’t know,” William answered, a gleam in his eye. “Are we on trial here? Has anyone ascertained precisely why we’re here before we try to defend ourselves? I think we might be getting ahead of ourselves, and making assumptions. It isn’t like I can claim innocence and say ‘we were on the Moon at the time’ since, well, that was true. Can I say I was at home and would that make any difference?”

  Lance looked at them. “No.”

  "Well, shit,” Bobcat said. He looked at his friend and held his hand out. “Well, we tried. Nice knowing you William.” He looked past William to his other best friend. “Nice knowing you too, Marcus.”

  Bethany Anne put her hand to her head. ”Would you stop being so melodramatic? It’s like I have three little girls in front of me. You aren’t on trial here.”

  Bobcat said, “Not to put too fine a point on this, boss, but have you seen your face in the mirror lately? It’s not like we don’t know when you’re angry.”

  Bethany Anne looked over at her father. He lifted up his hand and twisted it letting her know that she was exhibiting extreme annoyance, not quite to the anger stage.

  She worked to calm herself a little, and the red glare of her eyes diminished slightly. She apparently wasn’t over the fact that these guys had been the adults partially responsible for the destruction of a previously unknown alien base.

  They were supposed to be advising and teaching their first class of Academy students, not letting them run amok on the face of the Moon. She sighed. No, that wasn’t true. How do you let people become adults? You give them freedom and then help them figure out their mistakes.

  It was just damned unfortunate the mistake caused so much lost opportunity.

  By the time anyone understood that there had been an alien base on the Moon, the team had already triggered a self-destruct sequence on their way out and it was all over but the digging through the debris.

  Having received probably one too many ass chewings due to the kids, Team BMW probably overreacted about keeping the mistake of losing their students on the Moon a secret until they could fix the problem.

  Barnabas, having tracked down some rumors, informed her of the errors and Bethany Anne had gone into team BMW’s laboratory and ripped the three men new assholes for over fifteen minutes. Meredith had confirmed that Bethany Anne had not once duplicated the same combination of curse words the whole time.

  She did not expect them to make that mistake again.

  “Let me allow the general to take the next part of this conversation,” she said as she worked a bit harder at holding back her irritation.

  They did not need another bitch session from her. She didn’t feel like it was appropriate when the only reason she was mad was having to review the findings after the fact.

  No matter how bad she wanted to vent more frustration.

  The general spoke up, “Unfortunately, a lot of the locations you talked about, the research lab with the Russian and other remains were unreachable. We believe that the whole floor got crushed. We were able to drill down through the regolith and enter another couple of places in the base. The team encountered and destroyed a couple of the robots, and we were able to get samples of the technology which allowed TOM to extrapolate which part of the galaxy they came from. So far, the teams are reviewing the data, and it’s questionable whether or not we’ll be able to break into it since the systems seem to be in the areas that were demolished as you guys left the base. What I’d like to know is if you’ve had any more thoughts about exhibited behavior of the security and operations droids you ran across?”

  “Some,” Marcus said. “Frankly, the programming seemed to focus on continued support and enhancement of the operational facilities of the base, or the security. I’ve wondered whether or n
ot the two of those directives were crossed or merged accidentally. We believe the base has been there a substantial amount of time, and somehow those commands got crossed. If that’s true, then whoever set the base up expected to come back. Based on TOM’s estimate the base is a few thousand years old or more.”

  “So, this might have happened three, four or even ten thousand years ago?” Bethany Anne asked.

  Marcus paused a moment before answering, “We think this might have been a base from perhaps even twenty or thirty thousand years ago,” he said.

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “That long?”

  Marcus shrugged. “Well, no one has any good explanations for the Egyptians and many of their advances. We can’t even date the age of the Sphinx accurately. If our guesses are right, this base might have been a location for aliens working to facilitate their knowledge using the Egyptians.”

  “Well,” William said as he scratched his neck. “I guess Ancient Aliens are going to be pissed if they find out we destroyed their proof.”

  “Interesting that you should mention the History Channel show,” ADAM said through the speaker system. “It seems we have a group from a small YouTube show, called Alien TV Podcast researching the Dulce, New Mexico Base at the moment. They’ve found one of the cave entrances and are following the cavern towards what’s left of the XJ-12 base.”

  Bethany Anne threw a hand up in frustration. “Can’t this shit just leave me alone for two damned weeks? Just two weeks. After that, it’s the world’s fucking problem. Okay, ADAM, give me an update. What’s going on and who’s doing what about it?”

  "Presently, Captain Jakowski has Richard and Samuel heading toward New Mexico to ascertain what they know and perhaps extract the alien hunters themselves,” ADAM replied.