“May I enter, Honored Shi-tan?” the larger alien, bald head and all, asked.
“Of course, Representative…”
The older being, his gray skin sagging, smiled. “You may call me ‘Surce,’ but it is only a temporary name.”
“I understand, Representative Surce.” Shi-tan stepped aside. “You and who?”
“Oh, they will stay outside, Shi-tan,” the representative said as he stepped aboard the smaller ship. “They are only there in case I don’t come back. I know of your pride, Shrillexian,” he nodded to the taller being, “and I trust we have business. I’m not here to screw you over, therefore I don’t fear for my life. In fact,” the representative asked as Shi-tan punched the code to close the airlock, “now that I’m on your ship with your permission, aren’t you honor-bound to protect me?”
Shi-tan smiled. “Yes, but since the only one who would harm you is you, I’m not too worried. I’m not here to stop you from killing yourself.”
“It would be a bit of a problem if I committed suicide, wouldn’t it?” Surce asked.
Shi-tan started down the short hall to his lab, commenting over his shoulder, “We are under full-time surveillance, with authenticity code. If you kill yourself, I have to trust I am in a legitimate polity. If I am not, then it wouldn’t matter what I wanted. The court would punish me regardless of the truth.”
“You are most cynical,” Surce replied as he followed the Shrillex, looking around the ship as he walked behind the tall alien. “I admire that in a contact.”
“Truly?” Shi-tan turned to look at Surce. “I find that interesting.”
The aging alien shrugged. “It is true. It means a contact has a good head on their shoulders, a thinking head.” Surce looked past Shi-tan into the small room and recognized the lab equipment. “You said you have a solution for us?”
“Yes,” Shi-tan agreed, “but before I pull it out, I want you to see what I’ve done, in case these new aliens are tricky.”
Over the next half-hour, the bounty hunter explained all his tests to the representative and what the results had been.
All tests had come back negative.
“And what is on this tablet that makes it so important?” Surce finally asked.
“The king’s son is now under the protection of these new aliens, and that tablet has the information you need to move forward with his apprehension. The bounty lists half-payment plus bonuses for information. I have spent a long time tracking him down. It is my belief he will be there for an additional twenty-two turns.”
“Is that so?” Surce murmured. “You provide us not only the location of the boy, but also a legitimate reason to attack those providing him refuge.”
Shi-tan kept quiet.
Surce smiled. “Yes, bounty hunter, you have done well. You have done very well indeed.”
Surce’s eyes lit up as he considered the opportunities this might provide, and how his king could use the excuse of grabbing his son in the Yollin System to acquire the needed permissions to send his warships across the territories of others. “Twenty-two turns?” Surce finally asked.
Shi-tan nodded his agreement.
“That is just enough time.” He waved toward the box holding the device. “Give me the tablet. I will confirm you have fulfilled the bounty, and give you enough bonuses to make it the full value without providing the boy, provided the tablet confirms your information.”
“Your technical people?”
“Bah, we need to move on this.” Surce frowned. “They will hold the tablet, like you, for another fifteen turns and then require us to sign that they did everything correctly. Show me how to operate this tablet, and the payment will be in your account before we finish.”
“Of course, honored Representative,” was what Shi-tan said aloud.
What he thought was, you fool!
QBS Achronyx, Meeting Room, Eubos System
“So, three of them, one of us,” Tabitha said aloud. She and her four Tontos were looking at the map. There were three designations for Skaine ships. Thanks to the information pulled from Chrillen’s ship, they had a good idea what type of ships they would be fighting.
“It isn’t the ships, Kemosabe,” Hirotoshi admitted. “It is those on them who are innocent that we need to think about.”
“Well, fuck,” she answered, leaning back in her chair. “How the hell do we get on a ship only slightly larger than our own?” She pointed to the main ship’s icon on the screen. “It’s not like we can offer them a bottle of wine so they will invite us to come aboard!”
“Why not make sure they have slaves on their ship?” Ryu asked. “We are only assuming they still have innocents there.”
“You cannot assume they don’t,” Hirotoshi replied.
“Both of you are right,” Tabitha agreed. “We need to make sure, but if they don’t have passengers, do we agree that blowing them out of the sky is the right decision?”
“Yes,” Hirotoshi advised. “We have proof they have carried slaves in the past. This is a designated slaver ship, with two support vessels.”
“Which are also armed,” Ryu butted in.
“Troy,” Katsu offered.
“What?” Tabitha asked.
“Why not use the Trojan Horse technique, like was done in the battle for Troy?”
“Perhaps because large wooden horses don’t fly too well in space?” Tabitha answered.
“No, they don’t,” Hirotoshi agreed, “but we happen to have a Skaine ship. What if we can convince them to come get it and connect it to their vessel?”
“I have to imagine they can scan the vessel somehow, and anyone inside will be seen,” Tabitha argued. “Then they just fill it full of holes.”
“How are they going to find bodies?”
“Hell, easily,” Tabitha pointed to the five of them. “Heartbeats, ambient temperature differences, uh…” She shrugged. “That’s enough right there.”
Shin nudged Katsu and winked. “Easy-peasy.” Katsu smiled and nodded back.
Pretty soon all four vampires were smiling at their boss, who was confused. “Why do I think I missed the class on whatever-the-hell-it-is that has all four of you smirking at me?”
“Because,” Ryu answered, “we are vampires. We can stop our heartbeats and reduce our ambient temperature to match that of our surroundings.”
“Well, I can’t!” Tabitha argued. “So…”
“You, Kemosabe,” Hirotoshi told her, “will not be on the ship, so your inability to accomplish this is irrelevant.”
“No no no no!” Tabitha argued. “The hell I’m going to allow you twat-waffles to have all the fun and leave me out of it!”
Hirotoshi shrugged. “I don’t think you have a choice. We all have to do what is needed to accomplish the mission, Ranger Tabitha—or have you forgotten the command of the Empress?”
Tabitha’s lips pressed together. “No, I haven’t forgotten.”
She looked at her men. “But if any of you get killed, I’m going to figure out a way to haunt your ass.”
Skaine Slaver Ship Kalifo
“Captain, we have communications coming in from those who claim they are part of the Etheric Empire. They are hailing us.”
“Put it on the loudspeakers. This should prove interesting,” Gyrm replied to his Comms Specialist.
It was but a second before the alien’s voice could be heard through the speakers, “Attention, Skaine Slaver Ship Kalifo. Ranger Tabitha of the Etheric Empire commands you to shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded, or we will blow your ship out of space.”
Gyrm turned in his seat to ask, “Is that a proper translation?”
“Sir, I didn’t have to translate it. It is coming across in Skaine.”
“You have to give them twenty points for sheer audacity,” Gyrm commented, “but then you take away two hundred points for stupidity compounded by ignorance.”
He tapped his armrest. “What’s a Ranger?” Then he smiled as he called to h
is bridge crew, “Do Skaines allow anyone to board our ships?”
“NO!” every Skaine on the ship’s bridge yelled back.
“That’s RIGHT!” Gyrm called back. “Get me a connection to this Ranger. Let’s have some excitement.” He reached for the button, but then stopped and commanded, “Make sure everyone gets ready for battle, but leave the alarms off. We wouldn’t want them to learn about Skaines and our natural predilection for cheating.”
QBS Achronyx
“How very nice to speak with you Ranger Tabitha,” the Skaine captain’s voice said over the comm. “However, I’m sorry to say our ships are not capable of shutting off the engines. The power is routed through our engines, so everything, including our life support systems, would stop working.”
Tabitha bit her lip. She should have seen that answer coming.
“You will prepare to be boarded, Skaine ship Kalifo. You are in the Etheric Empire’s territory, and you are charged with both acquisition and selling of slaves.”
“Sorry, we thought this was Yollin Territory.”
“There has been a change of leadership in Yoll.”
“Even so, I don’t think I have committed such an act, Ranger, to be treated this way. We are simply providing a transportation service for those who wish to get off their worlds and find suitable employment in this system with the mining companies.”
“Captain…” Tabitha let the question hang.
“Gyrm,” he replied.
Tabitha snorted, but thankfully the noise didn’t pass across the line. “Gyrm. I am in possession of one Skaine slaving ship at the moment. I can afford to add another ship to my new armada. Prepare to be boarded.” Tabitha cut the line.
Skaine Slaver Ship Kalifo
“Intelligence!” Gyrm spat. “Is she being truthful?”
A moment later, his intelligence officer bit off a curse. “Sir, she is correct. We have the second ship, confirmed as the Gothwick.”
Gyrm ground his teeth. Allowing her to acquire Skaine ships wouldn’t be beneficial if Skaines were to keep their reputation. Further, the ships were damned expensive. He needed that ship back in the fold.
He stabbed a button. “All guns, prepare to fire at minimally safe distance. We need to kill this Ranger’s ship while keeping the Gothwick safe. Weapons!” Gyrm called. “Don’t you dare mess up the Gothwick!”
“Sir,” his weapons officer came back, “She’s keeping the Gothwick between us at this time.”
“She’s not a stupid bitch, I’ll give her that.” Gyrm tapped his fingers against his chair. “Weapons, how many missiles do we have?”
“Four, Captain,” was the immediate reply.
“Engines,” Gyrm called, “we are going to push four missiles around the Gothwick to attack from both above and below. I want full power immediately so we can go above the Gothwick and our guns can finish this Ranger off.” He paused, then added, “Pilot, don’t you hit my new ship, either!”
There was chuckling around the bridge.
Skaine Ship Gothwick
Hirotoshi, Ryu, Katsu, and Shin slowed their bodies’ internal processes down, allowing their core body temperatures to match that of the Skaine ship. Occasionally, a beat of their heart would send blood coursing through their system.
But each beat was minutes apart.
Each of Tabitha’s Tontos was carrying the smaller wakizashi as well as one of Jean Dukes specials at their sides. None had on full armor, but they did have the chest and back shields the Queen had developed to go under almost any clothing. They would have to be responsible for their own heads this time.
It was no different than when they had been on Earth. Now they just practiced the ancient art of kicking ass in another solar system.
Ryu thought about his past, and how he had ended up on an alien ship floating in the middle of nothing. His parents—long since dead—would never have believed that in the upcoming centuries their son would follow a woman from South America to implement a ‘no slavery’ edict of an Empress born in America.
Hundreds of years after he was born. Ryu smiled.
As Bethany Anne would say, “This is the shit!”
QBS Achronyx
“So, any guesses, Achronyx?” Tabitha asked, waiting for the game to begin. Four of her closest friends were on a ship she was using as a shield against laser fire, hoping that Skaines valued that stupid hunk of metal more than they wanted to blast her to bits.
“I cannot guess, Ranger Tabitha,” the EI replied.
Tabitha lost it. “Look, you hunk of fucking metal!” she spat. “You know damn well the term ‘guess’ means to estimate or suppose something without sufficient information to be sure of being correct. That’s the same fucking thing as calculating the odds. Pull that vacuum tube out of your metaphorical ass, you stuck up Intel Pentium chip with an FDIV bug, and give me a Gott Verdammt guess!”
There was a momentary squelch over the speaker. “No need to get ugly,” Achronyx responded.
“I’ll call you a fucking TI 486DX2-80 next time, you cranky-ass computational curmudgeon,” Tabitha whispered to herself as she watched the monitors and her men in the other ship. “Give me any more shit, and I’ll rewire your math co-processors, too.”
She started biting a fingernail. “This had better work, or I’ll reverse-haunt all four of your asses, you vampiric Japanese motherfuckers.”
Tabitha confirmed she was locked down. “Ok, Achronyx, I’m confirming you have control. You are handling this little play. Don’t you fuck it up, or we are beyond dead.”
“The calculations say—” Achronyx started before Tabitha interrupted.
“Don’t tell me the odds, you shit. Just make sure it fucking works,” Tabitha retorted.
“MISSILES INCOMING!” Achronyx called.
Skaine Slaver Ship Kalifo
“FIRE!” Gyrm called, and the Kalifo rocked as the heavier missiles ejected from the ship. “ENGINES GO!” he followed up, glee on his face. There was nothing like combat to cause the body to feel the excitement of every second. The force of acceleration pushed him down in his chair as explosions rocked on the other side of the Gothwick.
Two shots rang out from his guns and hit small pieces of floating debris, but...
“WOOOOOO!” Gyrm yelled. “It’s gone.” He looked around as his ship flew over the top of the Gothwick, plenty of space between the two ships as they went in search of the Ranger’s ship.
“Krahgin,” Weapons swore into the silence. “Perhaps four missiles were a little much?”
QBS Achronyx
“SHIT!” Tabitha screamed as the explosions rocked the ship. “Stop getting the paint messed up!”
Some of the damage reports went from green to orange. “Bethany Anne is going to be pissed.”
She was rocked violently in the captain’s chair again. The lights dimmed, then there was calm.
Achronyx came online. “We are out of the area of the destruction, and both our shielding and the ship’s ability to cloak are intact.” The video came online, showing the Skaine’s ship flying over the Gothwick and two more explosions occurring before they slowed and poked around where the Achronyx had just been.
“Why are those damage warnings orange then?” Tabitha pointed to the pilot’s displays.
“I scratched the paint,” the EI replied.
Tabitha chuckled. “Maybe, just maybe, you might not be such a Cyrix chip, Achronyx.”
“I’ll try to do better next time,” he responded.
Tabitha unbuckled from the restraints and stood up, stretching. “Ok, he took the bait. Apparently he wants the Gothwick, so let’s follow his ass.
20
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Private Office of General Lance Reynolds
“Bethany Anne, you cannot go!” Lance was arguing with his daughter and Empress. Depending on who he was speaking to, it was a frustrating experience.
Both father and daughter had heads of granite and stubborn streaks light-years long.
Bethany Anne, her lips compressed, tried her best not to yell at her father because she sure as hell would yell at her General. She took a deep breath…
“FUUUUUCK!” She slammed her hand down on the desk, the crack of the wood breaking lost in the bang of her fist hitting the desk in frustration.
Well, that didn’t go well, TOM said.
WHAT the hell are you talking about? Bethany Anne focused inward, trying not to walk five feet to the wall and kick it. She had lost one pair of Jimmy Choo’s in a moment of frustration, and although that was bad, the sheer pain of shattering the bones in a foot couldn’t be overemphasized.
It fucking hurt.
You are yelling at the man responsible for dealing with the entire Etheric Empire military. Although everyone is doing it for you, he has the responsibility of making sure Straiphus is handled while leaving enough power here to protect the Meredith Reynolds and you.
THAT’S what I am trying to argue! I can make a damned difference in Straiphus—I know it.
Not if everyone knows you are gone from the Meredith you can’t, TOM retorted. You would cause more problems than you might solve. What royalty risks their bodies in wars?
The old Europeans, the ones in the Biblical times, those in China in…
How about lately?
How the fuck am I supposed to know? she retorted.
TOM dearly wished he could roll his eyes. He was tempted to try and roll Bethany Anne’s eyes, but that would cause her to bitch forever and he couldn’t send her outside to vent her frustration.
Unfortunately, she had recently figured out a way to give him a mental jolt if he was working with someone else and ignoring her. He was pretty damned sure that his life-changing decision to jump into her body had now officially turned around to soundly bite him on his non-existent ass.
While he could do stuff to her, she had figured now out how to slap him back.
Sometimes he wondered if any Kurtherian alive had thought their tactic to engage with other alien species would come to this? He would agree that he was happy he was with her.
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) Page 40
