Forever Defend Read online

  “Greetings, Empress,” one of the two in the center bowed with only his eyestalks.

  Bethany Anne worked very diligently to stifle the snort of surprised laughter that wanted to erupt from her throat.

  Seriously? TOM asked.

  It was CUTE! Bethany Anne argued. Those tall things all just bowed in the middle like…like…

  Like three eyestalks bowing on the top of a head. I get it.

  Grumble Gus, she shot back before she replied to her visitor.

  Bethany Anne smiled. “Greetings, Delegate Tomthum.” She tipped her head to all of those with him. “I apologize for asking all of you here, but since there’s no one else left in the room to speak with me today, I figured this way you wouldn’t have to retell the story to the rest of your team.”

  “The story?” Tomthum asked, one stalk turning to the other prominent individual in the group.

  If she viewed their fashions as a statement of importance.

  “Yes, the story.” Bethany Anne answered. “And may I have the names of your group?”

  Tomthum, his rather large mouth smiling, turned to his left. “Certainly!” He waved a hand. “Let me introduce you to sub-Delegate Caspise.”

  Bethany Anne received another three-eye-stalk bow. She nodded in return, and fortunately, TOM didn’t say a word. She wasn’t sure if TOM understood that he had just missed an opportunity to make her laugh at an incredibly inopportune moment. “Greetings, sub-Delegate Caspise.”

  “Greetings, Empress.” he replied.

  “These two,” Tomthum continued, “are Keth and Bonn. Their role among our people is support.”

  “Don’t you mean they are guards?” Bethany Anne wondered aloud as all six of their eyestalks swung in her direction before they returned to scanning the room.

  >>Wow, talk about physical cues.<<<br />
  It could be a natural reaction. However, some of them probably use it against those that assume too much. Easy to believe they mean one thing by it, and the next thing you know, you come against a master who uses physical cues to deceive you.

  >>Has anyone informed you that you have a very suspicious mind?<<<br />
  Of course.

  >>Lately?<<<br />
  I’m sure.

  >>How lately?<<<br />
  Uhhh… Bethany Anne blanked a moment.

  TOM jumped into the conversation. Three days ago. Stephen mentioned it at lunch.

  That’s right!

  >>Almost made it seventy-two hours. That might be a record.<<<br />
  Et tu, ADAM?

  >>Not really. I just needed to know for the betting pool.<<<br />
  Bethany Anne kicked him out of the conversation for a second, annoyed that not only was she a part of yet one more betting pool, but her damned AI friend had just gigged her.

  He could be entirely too smart by half sometimes.

  “I suppose you could call them guards, but you have to forgive us. We aren’t always seen in the best light.” Tomthum smiled once more.

  Damn, that’s a lot of teeth.

  >>Imagine the toothpaste commercials for their race.<<<br />
  Bethany Anne sighed mentally. Wow, the shit that goes on in my head at these meetings. It’s a shame no one will ever know.

  TOM sent her a gentle mind-bump. It’s how we keep you sane.

  Yeah, unfortunately, that’s too damned true, she agreed.

  “I’ve been informed about that,” Bethany Anne agreed. “But let’s save that discussion for a minute.” She nodded to the last person in the group. “And the last in your party?”

  “May I introduce you to Ship’s Captain Teth?” Tomthum waved to the shortest Yaree in the group. His eyestalks bowed, but Bethany Anne could swear he was a bit vacant.

  “Welcome, Ship’s Captain.” Bethany Anne nodded to the last of the group. She had five bodies and fifteen eyes, not all of them looking at her. She couldn’t imagine what she would do with three eyes that could look in different directions.

  Imagine if I could just use one of those eyes. TOM mused.

  Let’s not and never mention that idea again.

  Why not?

  I can only imagine the interesting comments if suddenly one of my eyes went straying off to look at God knows what. You could give something away.

  Like what? I’m not interested in alien bodies, so no one is going to wonder about you checking out the latest piece of alien tail.

  No, worse.

  Ok, you are going to have to help me out here a little, Bethany Anne. I could understand if I looked at the wrong person or alien…

  TOM, what is most interesting to you?

  Math.

  Exactly.

  There was a slight pause.

  Oh. TOM’s mental voice was soft. Everyone knows you hate math.

  Yup. Might as well put a damned ‘Kurtherian in residence’ sign above my third eye.

  “Thank you, Empress.” The reticent Yaree took a step back.

  “Ok, guys,” Bethany Anne said, as she eyed each in turn. “I’m assuming you’re all males of your species, right? I’m not trying to offend anyone here.”

  Well, hell, TOM interjected. You just killed an Ixtali in front of them, kicked another’s ass, and did all sorts of stuff that probably would make a grown bistok pause before attacking you. Even if you offended them, I doubt you would get any lip.

  And Dad says my version of a political discussion doesn’t have an upside! Bethany Anne retorted.

  Tomthum turned his two outside eyes in separate directions as if he were confirming they were all males before all three eyes turned back to Bethany Anne. “Yes, all males, Empress.”

  “So, let’s get down to business.” She pointed behind them. “I’m not terribly happy with gabbing for its own sake, and I’ve been informed that information has been shared with the Universe’s various races.”

  “It has,” Tomthum admitted. “That is one of the reasons we requested an audience.”

  “Because I don’t like to chat?”

  “No, because the usual sycophants that would be around leaders are absent, to be truthful.” Tomthum’s large lips pressed together. “Empress, you have said that you do not know much about our people. How accurate is that?”

  Bethany Anne sat back in her chair and crossed her right leg over her left. “It’s as accurate as it needs to be, Delegate. I don’t know much about you since I don’t have a relationship with the Ixtalis for data downloads on everyone and everything. While I have the knowledge, the Yollins have acquired, the data on your people seems to disappear between three hundred and fifty to five hundred years ago. And there is so much information in some places a person can’t tell truth from dross. We can recognize a concerted effort to hide the truth.”

  Tomthum nodded his understanding.

  “Now, I can guess a small part of your present needs, and I can admit something that will probably cause you to go catatonic on me. However, since the knowledge won’t really affect these discussions too much—”

  “What knowledge, Empress?” Tomthum interrupted, as politely as he could. When the Empress started talking, all fifteen eyestalks turned toward her, including the guards’. The captain’s eyestalks seemed to shrink just a bit.

  “Well, the first is, your poison won’t work on me.” Bethany Anne answered. She pointed to Tomthum’s partner. “And there is no way my team would allow any sort of explosives inside here, plus,” she tapped her dress, “this protection from Jean Dukes can take any knife you can throw. Further…” She stood up and took one step down and disappeared.

  The five Yaree turned around. Their two guards pulled out elaborate wires that started glowing blue as they whipped them in an elaborate pattern.

  Only to fall to their feet a microsecond later when John casually shot them both. The captain dropped a second later.

  Eric turned to John. “Wasn’t me,” John told him.

  “Fainted,” Bethany Anne announced as she reappeared a moment later, still standing at the top of the steps. “As I was
about to say, Delegate,” Bethany Anne stepped back to her throne and sat down, “my guards get really annoyed when someone comes here to have a discussion and then tries to kill me if they fail so their secrets don’t get out.”

  “The only reason you haven’t been spaced,” Bethany Anne went on as the two left standing stared up at her, “is because I understand just enough of your concerns to want to know more about those that are attacking your world.”

  “Our world, Empress?” Tomthum swallowed, but looked at his two guards. “Dead?”

  “No, knocked out,” the huge guard answered from Bethany Anne’s right. “Killing, we have found, is always a damned mess to clean up. Much easier to stun and toss out the trash toward the sun when you need to.”

  Tomthum breathed in deeply. This whole day had not gone in any way, shape, or form as his team had planned.

  The second group had been led away, the Ixtalis had something serious going on, the Empress’ face had flared red before the meeting…

  And now, she knew something about the Yaree that he was honor-bound to keep secret.

  “Do you know the story, Empress?” he asked. “I presume you have some way of reading our thoughts to know this much.”

  Another voice came from the speakers in the room. “This is ADAM. Who says the Empress needs to read minds when you leave so much in your computer systems?”

  Tomthum wanted to rub his eyestalks in annoyance. He was an idiot. Why assume she could mysteriously read minds if they had something that was powerful enough to get through the security of their systems and pull it straight from their ship?

  “Ah, forgive me,” he finally replied. “With all the powers you have demonstrated,” this time, he nodded his head in her direction, “I just jumped to the conclusion you could read minds.”

  “So,” Bethany Anne ignored his comment, “what is it about your home world that is so important that you need help? And if we don’t give you that help, then you are willing to kill to keep it secret?”

  The two guards were slowly waking up, with Tomthum’s sub-delegate whispering to them as they opened their eyes.

  Bethany Anne sure hoped he was telling them to settle the fuck down, or next time John might not be so lenient. He really did hate cleaning the floor. She had told him in no uncertain terms that if he killed someone who wasn’t trying to kill her, it was his ass that was mopping up the blood.

  That went for all of the Guards. So far they had successfully stunned everyone when it had been a problem. However, one day she just knew that there was going to be blood and guts all over the place.

  “First, let us do away with this charade,” the Delegate declared. “We, the Yaree, as we are now known, were called by another name in the past.” He pointed to his people. “Before Yaree, we were the Karillians.”

  >>Oh, damn.<< ADAM sent Bethany Anne.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Five minutes later.

  “Are you shitting me?” Bethany Anne asked, her voice reinforcing the shock her face was displaying. “You want to know if we can help with a set of aliens sent to destroy your world in two freaking months?”

  Bethany Anne? TOM interrupted.

  NOT NOW! she sent back.

  “Well, we realize it is a fast turnaround,” Tomthum admitted.

  “FAST?” Bethany Anne wanted to pull out someone’s hair. Not hers, because it was presently looking fantastic. Not stressing all the damn time had done wonderful things for her split ends.

  She considered yanking Tomthum’s eyestalk instead, since he didn’t have much hair on his leathery purple body, at least not where she could see it. “Fast, for an effort to save a world, is not two months away in another Gott Verdammt galaxy! If I understand you correctly, you have had seventy years.”

  BETHANY ANNE! TOM repeated, more emphatically this time.

  WHAT?

  Do you remember the seven years with Kael-ven?

  What? Oh… Are we talking six Earth months? Fuck, I get this shit screwed up all the time with the translations. Sometimes they seem to be using Earth, then Yollin then standard date schemes. I fucking hate dates.

  And math, TOM added.

  Yeah, that shit too, she sent, then, thinking in a softer tone, Sorry for yelling at you.

  No problem.

  “Ok, I’ve had an update on the timing situation,” Bethany Anne announced, her voice calm once more. “It seems the translation was telling me we had a third as much time as what you meant to tell me.”

  “That matters,” Tomthum confirmed. “And it’s better?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say it was superb,” she clarified. “But it beats the hell out of two months.”

  “Ok, new plan.” Bethany Anne looked up. “Meredith?”

  “Yes, Empress?”

  “Provide the Delegate’s team with quarters, set up proper security, and find out what we have to feed them. Let everyone rest and call the military leaders for a meeting in the morning.”

  Tomthum cleared his throat, his eyestalks watching the Empress.

  “Yes?” she asked him.

  “May I ask why you chose to help us so fast?” She thought Caprise’s eyes did a fair imitation of rolling in disbelief that the delegate had asked that question.

  “Because,” John spoke up. “Our Empress will always and forever defend the defenseless.”

  Bethany Anne stood up. “Eric, please see to their needs and then meet with Gabrielle and me.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he told her, and started down the stairs. “Ok, Karillians, grab your stuff and let me show you where you are going to be staying.”

  John moved next to Bethany Anne.

  Tomthum turned to bid the Empress goodbye, but she and the large guard had already disappeared.

  Damn, he sure wished he had kept an eyestalk on her.

  —

  John and Bethany Anne appeared in her personal quarters. “Gott Verdammt!” She practically vibrated with energy. “You know what TOM’s telling me?”

  “Nope,” John answered, one eyebrow raised as Bethany Anne headed straight to an area that she had created a while back but rarely went into.

  Bethany Anne spoke aloud, “Meredith, open the vault, please.”

  A solid door disengaged from the wall. In her bedroom Bethany Anne had a huge bed, more for Ashur and the others to jump on or for the occasional girl’s movie night.

  She also had a couple of dressers, and of course her large clothes and shoe closet. Bethany Anne had continued to acquire pairs of shoes over the years and had finally decided that she needed to move out her weapons and armor to make room.

  She’d had a separate room built for that purpose. Now the door was opening, and Bethany Anne strode into it with a spring to her step.

  John reached down to touch the collar of his shirt. “ADAM, send code 222x3 to Dan, please.”

  In another part of the Meredith Reynolds, Dan Bosse was reviewing the latest information he could find regarding the surprise military meeting Bethany Anne had called in the morning.

  “Dan?” the voice interrupted his thoughts.

  “Yes, ADAM?” He looked up.

  “John Grimes is sending you code 222x3 from Bethany Anne’s room.”

  “Oh, shit...” Dan’s voice sputtered.

  “Dan,” ADAM went on, “I don’t have any records of this code. Can you illuminate me?”

  “Yeah, but you have to promise to keep the meaning secret unless Bethany Anne expressly requires you to answer,” Dan replied.

  “I do.”

  “Ok. In short, he is telling me we are about to have an apocalypse.”

  “How? What does that code have to do with an apocalypse?”

  Now how the hell were they going to deal with her? Dan wondered. If John sent the code, it meant that he believed she was preparing for one and he didn’t think he could change her mind by himself.

  Dan tapped a finger on his desk as he thought about it. “Because if you use ‘x’ as a multiplier, it gives
you the number 666. It means Bethany Anne has decided that the Empress is going into hibernation and the Queen Bitch is back.”

  Just what the fuck happened in her meetings today? Dan sighed as he started typing in the code to get Lance on the phone.

  “Oh, shit!” ADAM replied.

  -----

  Tabitha, Hirotoshi, and Ryu stood in front of Barnabas, who was eyeing his team lead and her top two assistants.

  He had reached out to Hirotoshi and Ryu a while back to ask if they wanted to become Rangers, and the response on their normally calm faces had been telling, more telling than Hirotoshi’s answer.

  “No,” Hirotoshi replied, a small smile playing along his lips. “There are Yin and Yang. And there is Kemosabe.”

  “And her Tontos.” Ryu nodded his agreement.

  Hirotoshi had winked to Barnabas, positively shocking him. “We are her Tontos, and we will always be with the Kemosabe.”

  Barnabas had never brought it up again.

  Now the three of them were standing in front of him in his temporary office on ArchAngel II. “Ranger Two, how am I supposed to commend you for bringing a Skaine battleship in?”

  Tabitha shrugged. “Hey, they just wanted a piece of Achronyx’s tail.”

  “I’ve seen the video already,” Barnabas answered drily. “But by accomplishing this feat, you caused poor Achronyx to require assistance to get into ArchAngel’s hold. You guys fried so many areas of his engines that the mech boys aren’t sure what to do about it yet. You all could have been nothing but tiny little particles spread out over the universe right now. There is a reason, I’m told, that those limiters are in place on a ship.”

  Tabitha sniffed. “Not our fault they under-engineered Achronyx’s body.”

  Barnabas just stared at his Ranger a moment. “They under-engineered the Achronyx? That ship design was state-of-the-art.”

  “It was when we received it, Big B.” She smiled. “What say we get Achronyx some upgrades?”

  Barnabas was exasperated. “To what?”

  “I understand there is a Skaine battleship available, right?” Hirotoshi asked.