WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) Read online

  “Yes, Captain, we have been reviewing the information we are provided so far. While it would be easy enough to destroy, and it doesn’t look like entering the station will be challenging, we do not know if those inside are prepared for a sudden and catastrophic loss of atmosphere.”

  A short bark of laughter erupted from the Captain, “That would cause a problem for the acquisition of live subjects if they asphyxiate before you can grab them.” Captain T’chmon agreed, “Suggestions if I need at least a couple to question?”

  “Well,” Kiel temporized, “We have located certain areas we suspect have more activity.”

  “Using?”

  “Vibrations analysis, Captain.”

  “Interesting, go on.”

  “We have located two such areas. If this species is similar to most we have in our database, they are likely some sort of recreation area and an area for food consumption.”

  “So, you are thinking to do…”

  “Two attacks at those points. If we use the attack sleds, we believe we can ram their walls and then eject our members after the seal completes.”

  “That seems a little, oh, I don’t know, let’s say abrupt?” Captain T’chmon asked his leader. “Is there an option two?”

  “Yes. If the Captain would be so kind as to pull up the holographic?” Captain T’chmon turned in his chair and hit the appropriate controls. A large holograph of the station appeared in front of the Captain's chair.

  Kiel held his two arms out, the two opposable thumbs on each hand touching, “May I?” With his Captain’s permission, Kiel opened his thumbs and started manipulating the Captain’s hologram. This was the third deep space mission Kiel had been a part of and so far, his latest Captain did not seem nearly as allergic to those of the third tier as the previous two. Kiel opened his arms to increase the magnification. He pushed his right arm to the left to spin the display, “You can see these little circles on the sides. If we are able to acquire the correct specifications, we can manufacture, in perhaps one-third a solar day, a connector. We believe these connectors are for temporary ship connections.”

  “Who believes this?”

  “Scientist Royleen and myself.”

  Captain T’chmon nodded his understanding. He wasn’t a big believer that the third and fourth tier members of society were mentally retarded compared to those in the second tier. It wasn’t because he personally had seen overwhelming evidence as much as he had seen the proof that he wasn’t significantly less intelligent than those of the first tier.

  Logic dictated it was a social construct. He would worry about it another day. For now, it allowed him to trust the intelligence and the advice from those on his team without prejudice.

  Like, how to attack this space station and acquire information on this species.

  Clan Temple Near Shennongjia Peak, Hubei

  Stephanie Lee looked around the small room. She had her father, always a shadow at her shoulder, protecting her. The four leaders who had come when their Empress called were each on a side of her rectangular table. It had taken her five minutes to figure out they didn’t understand the new situation and why she was worried.

  “Esteemed Kings,” She bowed ever so slightly in each of their directions, “we have come to a pivotal point in our future. Those that have created the Sacred Clan and those that have ruled it for generations have, unfortunately, not been allowed the time necessary to implement the primary strategy using stealth.”

  She paused, took a sip of her tea and then continued, “Part of the reason is another Alien group has attacked our country and uncovered our existence. The present leaders of China have been stopped from acquiring the technology from this other group.”

  “These are the vampires? The offspring of Michael?” King Qin asked, respectfully.

  “Yes, so it would seem. They have been working for years now to build up their technology base and surprised the world by leapfrogging all super powers.” Stephanie Lee waited for a question.

  And she received one.

  “This is what the Chairman wanted, their technology?” King Li asked. King Li had been alive over ninety years, although you would not know it looking at him. Unfortunately for Stephanie Lee, most of her people did not keep up with current events as much as she might wish.

  “Yes, not only China. They are a very, very influential business group connected in every major country in the world. There were many killed, on both sides. This private war, however, was not broadcast in the news.” Stephanie Lee paused, “I have made connections with the representatives of the business group here in our country, and I am willing to bring them into the fold. However, we need to protect this location until we can remove the treasure China seeks.”

  “What treasure is that?” King Li asked, “Is it something easily taken, in our clothes?”

  “Unfortunately, no. I’m told it took almost three years many centuries ago to move most of the components from the original location into our hidden sanctuary. I am going to share with you three what makes the Sacred Clan the way we are, and then we are going to agree on a method of extracting the most important pieces from this location as quickly as possible.”

  Stephanie Lee glided up to a standing position from sitting on the ground, “Come, you four will be the first non-priests in ten generations which have laid eyes upon the sacred room.”

  The kings all stood up, looking at each other in confusion.

  What treasure could the Chairman and his people want so badly?

  TQB Base, Australian Outback

  Yuko clicked to minimize the heavily-customized Metasploit program window and left open two other windows that had scripts running and sat back.

  It was getting close to time to move out of Australia. The General, or Mr. Lance, or if she could get herself to say it, just Lance, had been spreading the word that they would be leaving pretty soon to transfer to ArchAngel. Another few days and everything that was already on the ship (and her people) would be in place, and then ADAM’s group would be going up.

  She exhaled slowly, thinking about her new future.

  “Yuko?” ADAM spoke into her ear.

  She smiled, “Yes?”

  “Do you have a few minutes?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Do you mind taking a walk? Some of your responses might be personal.”

  “Oh, no problem.” Yuko stood up, grabbed her white sweater from the back of her chair and called out to her group as she walked out, “Going to take a personal call, send me an alert if you need me!”

  She got a few responses, half the group probably had their headphones blasting their favorite music as they traveled the dystopian digital web doing bad things to bad people for good reasons.

  She went through the large meeting and eating area and waved to a couple of friends from the Wechselbalg group. She had been taking a few martial arts classes to increase her body strength. Even though she was a goddess on the Internet, she was a wilted flower in real life.

  She had aspirations to be a rose with thorns.

  “Ok, ADAM, what are we talking about?” She walked to the edge of the protection area, not wanting to trust that no one was aiming a missile at them right at that moment.

  “I want to ask you, if I may, about your conversations with your father?” He asked.

  This time, she exhaled loudly, “You haven’t shared have you?”

  “No.”

  “Ok, good. I would not want to waste Queen Bethany Anne’s time with something so unimportant.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “He is a typical arrogant father. Always right and never listening or worse, hearing.”

  “What are you telling him?”

  “I thought you were reading my emails?”

  “While I am aware of their contents, that does not mean I understand the emotions behind them,” ADAM explained.

  “I have tried to explain on multiple occasions that I am working for a company that is trying to benefit the world. He see
ms constitutionally incapable of believing that I have made something of myself. He believes that women should be at home, attending to the house and feeding babies. Aiieee.” She stomped her foot on the ground. “He upsets me so much!”

  She started walking to the right dodging the occasional small boulder in her way. She was careful to stay within the safety perimeter net. “I have no idea how my mother is able to stay with him.”

  “Could it be that she had expectations taught to her from another generation?” ADAM asked.

  “Well, of course. Don’t misunderstand me, I understand how she could be dealing with it. It is what she knows, but it is not what I know. If my father knew when I lived at home what I had been doing on the Internet, I am sure he would have banned me a long time ago. However, since most of my hacking was done with ASCII screens, and code, even when he was looking over my shoulder, it meant nothing to him.”

  Yuko stopped at a boulder and jumped the few inches to sit on the top moving back to a comfortable position. “I know, I know … it is like so many other things. My parents and perhaps those of their generation still think in the past, regardless of how our cities and our people have accustomed themselves to technology. My father has had a cell phone for ten years, but he only uses it to make calls. He refuses to understand how text messaging works.”

  “If you could change him with a snap your fingers, how would you have him act?”

  Yuko had to stop and think about that for a second. The first response made her realize that she should not snap her fingers and change her father. At least, not against his will because then anything he said wasn’t real. “That was not a nice question to ask me,” she finally admitted.

  Adam replied, “Whether it was nice or not, I can’t judge. I am merely asking how you would like him to change if you could make it happen.”

  Yuko pondered his question a few minutes in silence. She watched as what looked like a star glided slowly through the sky. She wondered if it was a satellite, or was it the ArchAngel up there? “Adam, where is the Defender right now?”

  “It is on station near the transition point the alien ship used to enter our galaxy.”

  “Oh, just curious.” She sighed heavily, “I don’t know that I have an answer to your question. If I ask for what I want, it isn’t my father anymore that is reacting to me. Perhaps, I would wish the opportunity to prove to him without any doubt, that what I am telling him is true. Then, he will be left with his prejudices laid out plainly. I will just have to accept, if that were to happen, what he would do at that point. If he chose to hold on to his dogma, I would have to be able to walk away and know that I tried.” She looked around and put on her sweater against the chilling night.

  “Very mature answer,” ADAM came back with, after a few seconds.

  “Thank you, that means a lot to me, Adam,” Yuko said into the night.

  Hundreds of miles above the Australian outback, the world’s first truly artificial intelligence, told his host he appreciated her advice.

  He was able to use it to help his friend.

  CHAPTER TEN

  QBS ArchAngel, The Bitch’s Workout Area

  Bethany Anne stood in the middle of the workout area, practice swords resting at her side. “Eric, I’m pretty sure Gabrielle is ok with being asked on a date to a restaurant, not necessarily would she look forward to the same type of invitation to an ass-kicking.” She moved her two swords around, limbering up, “So, is this about her, or about you?”

  Eric, stretching on the floor looked up to his boss, “Well, a little of both, perhaps?” He leaned back to grab his foot and put his head on his knee. His voice muffled, he continued, “I need to prove to her she doesn’t have to protect me again, and to myself, I’m up to speed.”

  “Up to speed, or superior?” Bethany Anne asked.

  Eric rolled backward, pushing off with his arms to flip in the air, landing back on his feet. “Well, can I admit between us that my culture is very male dominated?”

  “This isn’t about your culture if you think domination is going to be a good thing,” Bethany Anne warned.

  “It isn’t domination, boss, it is equality. I screwed up in South America. That caused a somewhat childish reaction with me around her, and then we got into our rhythm. Now, I think that stuff has fallen by the wayside, and I like the woman. Still, I’m not going to be thought of as that guy. If we are going to have a good, solid opportunity, I need to know I’m not that guy anymore.”

  “And so, training with me is going to do what, exactly?”

  Eric looked to Bethany Anne, worry in his eyes, “Get me ready for Stephen, I hope.”

  Lowering her swords, Bethany Anne asked, “Stephen?”

  “Yeah,” he called over his shoulder as he went to the wall to pick up the other two swords, “another culture thing. I know I’m a grown man, she’s a grown woman and let’s not talk about age here. However, my culture and my mom, God rest her soul, would be livid if I don’t ask her Dad’s permission to date her.” He walked back and finished, “Don’t get me wrong, I need to be ready for Gabrielle’s swords, too.”

  “Well…shit.” Bethany Anne said, “That’s kind of romantic. Are all Hispanics this romantic?”

  Eric smiled and walked to stand ten feet in front of Bethany Anne, “We are Latin, there is a reason Latin and love both start with the letter L.” He grinned then admitted, “and lust, have you seen our ladies?”

  “Yes,” Bethany Anne settle into a guard position, “and are you going to talk about how the men are known for cheating?”

  Eric shrugged, “You can’t judge every Hispanic man based on …”

  Bethany Anne jumped forward slashing down, “Every stereotype about cheating Hispanic men?”

  Blocking the attack and bringing his sword around, Eric answered, “It’s a cultural thing. Hispanic men are focused on the man is the man, the woman is the woman.” He counterattacked which was blocked, “Men have to always prove they are male. It’s why boxing is so prevalent.”

  “And sex?” Bethany Anne asked, blocking Eric’s attempts. They were keeping a slow rhythm going while they spoke.

  “It’s like fighting, another way to prove you are a man in the culture,” Eric responded, the sweat starting to show as Bethany Anne didn’t let up the attack. He could sense that she was making sure he had the basics down. If he screwed up, the mistake was going to be painful.

  “I’ve always wondered why the women accepted that shit,” she replied, switching up the attack style. Eric barely caught on in time before he figured out the rhythm. She thought to keep this going until it seemed he had the response in his muscle memory. The Pod Doc’s enhancements helped.

  “Well,” Eric responded, finally catching on to the sword style, “it’s not like they are OK with it. However,” Eric tried to swing an attack into the mix, but it was quickly batted away, and he had to fight to get his rhythm back.

  “Stop being so impatient with your attacks. You have to seek to own the defense, and you don’t. It’s a weakness you have, always trying to prove something.”

  He nodded his understanding, then continued their conversation, “So, the women aren’t ok with it, but they think of it differently. For an American woman, who think their men are in love with the other woman when it’s probably really sex. Love and sex are the same thing to American women. In Latin culture, the women think that there is love, and there is sex. They aren’t going to be ok with infidelity and by God…” Eric had to stop a moment when Bethany Anne changed up the attacks on him before switching back again. He handled the transition pretty well.

  He would give himself a B-minus on that one.

  “So,” he continued, “they aren’t going to be ok with it, but it doesn’t hold the same stigma against them with women and friends close to them as it would here. Well not up here in space, but in America.”

  “Huh,” Bethany Anne started walking around Eric continuing the sword attacks, making him move left, then right as
she kept switching up her attack angle, “Why do you think American men cheat less?”

  “Infidelity is a huge social no-no in the U.S. Most family and friends are going to ostracize the guy except his immediate family and very closest friends,” he replied, deciding against an attack he would have usually tried.

  “Not if you are a singer or actor, I think,” Bethany Anne replied, “but then people love the superstar and are willing to forgive them more.”

  Eric stilled his breathing and worked to remember what John told him.

  Then, he attacked.

  —

  Pleased with Eric’s attack, Bethany Anne allowed him to continue setting the higher pace. John was right, Eric had been practicing the advanced vampiric tactics.