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  “No, the massage is for the amazing dinner you surprised me with, and that you remembered our anniversary. I appreciate those things, even after this many years.”

  “It was like yesterday,” Nathan replied.

  “That vas a good response,” she told him, dialing up her accent. “Vat do you think we should do now? More vork?”

  Prometheus, please dim the lights.

  Dimming, Nathan.

  “No.” He looked over his shoulder. “Well, not of the work variety.”

  “You know we have reports of Noel-ni breaking into one of our systems. It seems they are really starting to branch out.” She raised an eyebrow. “And stop turning around. Look straight!”

  Nathan turned back around. “Yes, dear.”

  Ecaterina gently flicked his ear. “That is the punishment for being a little snarky.”

  “Oh?” Nathan grinned. “What if I get really snarky?”

  Ecaterina leaned down and whispered into Nathan’s ear, her breath tickling his neck.

  Nathan’s eyes bugged out. “Whoa! Ok then, I should definitely start Snark Operation Prime Zero One right away!” He laughed when she bolted from behind his desk and ran toward the private passageway to their suite.

  Nathan jumped up from his chair and was soon closing in behind her, trying to catch the laughing woman.

  QBBS Asteroid R2D2, R&D

  “So that,” Bobcat said as the four of them sprawled on the couches in the main eating area, “is the question of the evening.”

  “Large question,” Marcus admitted. He and Tina were sharing a couch. He was thinking as Tina leaned back against him, her feet hanging over the other armrest. She was gazing at her tablet.

  “Do we know how large the realm is?” she asked.

  “Nope,” Bobcat answered. “Well, ok … I mean, we haven’t measured it or anything, but if we formulate some sort of distance equivalent it’s pretty damned large. Bethany Anne has used it back on Earth and in multiple systems here. Seems to be about the same distance, from her perspective.”

  “I doubt we could cause too many problems, then,” she replied. “Imagine how much energy is available.”

  “Yes, but we have no idea exactly where some of that energy is derived.”

  “We have good postulations,” William countered. “And we have TOM.”

  “Damn, good point.” Bobcat called, “R2, can you connect us to TOM?”

  It took a few moments before TOM’s voice was heard through the loudspeakers. “KCS here, what can I do for the esteemed Team BMW…and T?”

  “Nice save there, buddy.” Tina chuckled.

  “You have to admit it doesn’t work as well,” TOM replied. “Plus, if we say Team BMWT then you know someone will plug in ‘i’s and say BIMWIT.”

  “Or Bumwot,” William added. “Personally, I suspect anything with bum in it.”

  “Only those who know English,” Tina shook her head. “I doubt most know it anymore.”

  “There is a lot of Yollin spoken now,” Bobcat agreed.

  “Yes,” TOM agreed through the speaker. “But B’EhMWyukTeh is an ancient Yollin phrase for ‘Suck my grandmother’s butt.’

  “Who the hell would put that out there?” Bobcat shook his head. “I’d rather think someone would use the English ‘bum,’ not the Yollin phrase.”

  “It’s ok, TOM,” Tina said. “That stuff about needing to change the name is from Cheryl Lynn. I don’t really care.”

  “Seriously?” Marcus looked down at her, his hand across her stomach. “We can change it. I’ve already talked with the guys.”

  “I’ll do a special pin or something else fun,” she replied. “It would be like changing the Three Musketeers.”

  “They did that,” William replied. “They made a ‘Four Musketeers’ movie.”

  “How did you feel about it?” Tina asked.

  “Not fair.” William shook his head. “Sorry, not falling into that trap.

  “I thought so,” Tina replied. “How about this… I’m happy being Mrs. M at the moment.”

  “Works for me. But seriously, you can have my initial,” Marcus told her.

  “Leave it be, honey. We are fine.” Marcus shrugged and went back to his tablet.

  “So, TOM.” Bobcat steered the conversation back on track. “We wanted to know just how much energy we can draw from the Etheric at one time.”

  “Why?” TOM asked, puzzlement in his voice. “Are you planning on doing something large?”

  “Maybe a hundred thousand BYPSs at a time, give or take five thousand,” William said.

  There was a long pause before ADAM spoke from the speakers. “Are you suggesting you could fire one hundred thousand BYPSs simultaneously?”

  “I believe they are,” TOM replied. “That is a large manufacturing effort.”

  “It is,” William replied, “but say we figure out how to mass-produce the BYPSs… What will happen if we have a few million in place and for some insane reason a hundred thousand go off?”

  “Well,” TOM asked, “how far apart are we speculating they are?”

  “Let’s say twenty-five thousand miles or forty thousand kilometers,” William answered.

  “So,” ADAM came back. “you are thinking Earth?”

  “Yes.”

  “Firing all at one time, or staggered?”

  Bobcat thought about that. “Does it matter?”

  “Sure,” TOM replied. “If we can stagger the transfers, then the energy would have time to flow back into the locations you pulled it from. Similar to bailing water, more comes in to fill the void.”

  “So we need to build in calculations preventing BYPSs in proximity from firing simultaneously.” William nodded to himself. “That makes sense.”

  “We need a small communications chip, running through the Etheric, which means we need to confirm the power draws won’t create interference with the communications.”

  “Why would you install a hundred thousand BYPSs around Earth?” ADAM asked. “My calculations suggest a little over thirty-two thousand would be sufficient.”

  “Bethany Anne would put a million there if she believed she needed to,” Bobcat replied. “So think big.”

  “One million it is,” ADAM agreed. “I’ll be back with an answer. I need to focus on what Bethany Anne is doing now.”

  “Same here,” TOM shot back. “Bye!”

  “Bye, guys!” Tina called.

  William summarized the conversation. “Ok, sounds like the overall energy is there, but we need to program in a time factor for rejuvenation at the location of the Etheric energy pull.”

  Bobcat nodded. “We’ll get those calculations from ADAM and plug a fire preference set to particular timing into the chips on the BYPSs. If they are group ‘A,’ they only fire every three microseconds or something. If they need to fire earlier they can, but that would help bypass the sporadic communication issue.”

  “We need an EI for each implementation,” Marcus considered aloud. “Something that isn’t stuck in one location, but its knowledge is…”

  “In the Etheric!” Tina said. She leaned forward and turned around. “Why don’t we get with Anne?”

  Bobcat started to smile. “Genius!” He looked at William and raised an eyebrow.

  “Works for me,” William replied.

  “Me too,” Marcus replied.

  “Me three.” Bobcat looked at Tina. “Ok, you need to go chat with her.”

  “Huh?” Tina looked at the guys. “Hey, going into the Etheric creeps me the hell out.”

  “Those who come up with the best ideas,” William quoted, “are shafted by being required to work on them.”

  “Fine, fine.” Tina leaned back. “But not for at least a week.”

  “What?” William asked. “What’s up with a week?”

  “We,” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Marcus, “aren’t going too far from our rooms for a week. Deal with it.”

  Bobcat shook his head. “Wow, pushy!”


  “You would be too if you had been working on some recalcitrant scientist for as long as I have.”

  Bobcat looked at William. “We better make it two weeks.”

  William nodded. “Sending the information to Seshat now. Maybe Anne can visit us instead.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Devon

  The hospital’s exit led to a broad hallway. At least sixteen different passages merged at this location. If you looked up, you could see at least ten additional levels, continuing to a large translucent roof that allowed in the light.

  The two humans left the hospital and walked toward the middle of the park in front of it. Stephen noted the body language of his empress, which fairly screamed ‘rage’ even from underneath her cloak.

  Why do I get the impression this just became personal? he asked once they had a decent amount of space between them and anyone else, allowing him a better chance to watch everyone.

  Stephen, Bethany Anne’s anger seethed across their mental connection, he wasn’t trying to steal any secrets. They went after him because Nathan ate with him one time, so they assumed he was special.

  That is the way with criminals. Truth doesn’t have to be verified if they have a good guess to work with.

  Well, they laughed as they beat the shit out of him. Bethany Anne turned to face Stephen. Some of her white hair spilled from her cloak, and her eyes burned a dark red. Apparently they were the hired toughs of some other company here on this world. They were cleaning up the suspected narcs. Once Ch’ehtoe was tagged with Nathan, he was used as bait to bring Nathan here.

  To do what?

  Kill him. Bethany Anne stated. They have enough firepower, or believe they do, to take him out, as well as his group.

  How would hired toughs know enough to take out Nathan? He is a damned Pricolici, as is his wife ...

  Mate.

  Whatever. His family. Plus, he has Bastek, a Yollin mercenary, and two Shrillexians.

  It doesn’t mean he would bring them all down here at the same time, she replied, looking around the park. This planet isn’t going to be big enough for these assholes to get away, Stephen.

  Stephen sighed and took a look around himself before saying aloud in English, “I hope they have a large enough backhoe on this planet.”

  Bethany Anne pulled up a map of the city on her HUD. She stepped back onto the path and headed toward Passageway DHE 668. “They have valleys, so all we have to do is use some explosives to bring the dirt down on top of the dead bodies,” she said as she walked out of the park. “It will be easier that way.”

  “Fucking hell,” Stephen grumped. “I haven’t found a decent pizza place in this city yet.”

  He caught up with Bethany Anne and noticed that everyone got out of her way. Even with her figure hidden, she still unleashed a serious vibe of get-the-fuck-away-from-me.

  Well, shit. He saw a Shrillexian turn the corner two hallways ahead as he noticed the small figure stomping toward him.

  “Shinigami?” Stephen subvocalized.

  “Here,” the EI responded.

  “Please record my HUD video from now until we are finished with this operation.”

  “Certainly, Stephen. Should I tag this with any importance?”

  “No, not at this time,” Stephen responded. “Just ‘Baba Yaga Antics 101’ for now.”

  “Understood,” the EI responded, and cut their connection.

  Stephen noticed the small red dot off to the right in his HUD. The Shrillexian lowered his shoulder just a bit and leaned forward the last two steps toward Bethany Anne.

  “Ouch,” he murmured. Bethany Anne didn’t play nice. She ramped up her speed and bitch-slapped the side of the Shrillexian’s head with her right hand while sweeping with her leg to knock his feet out from underneath him. She turned clockwise, looking over her right shoulder as she brought her fist around so quickly she was able to catch his forehead with her knuckles before he fell.

  The crack was louder than the subsequent thump of the alien’s heavy body hitting the ground. Stephen stepped over the large alien body as his empress continued walking.

  Neither she nor the Shrillexian had said a word to each other.

  Feeling better? he sent.

  Why? Putting a bully in his place was just a light snack. I need answers. I have Shinigami working on digging into the databases of the government and the largest companies on planet. Someone here has a clue about why that young Estarian was beaten so savagely. Estarians aren’t known for their violent ways, so this is just bullshit.

  Following the money?

  Always, she replied. It worked on Earth, and except for the times we are working with an alien’s honor or some form of relationship issue, it mostly works out here in the stars. The information I pulled from Ch’ehtoe’s memories suggest this was business, not personal.

  They walked past two more hallways before Bethany Anne stopped in an intersection. She turned slowly to her right and started walking quickly in that direction. Three hallways farther on, she took the steps down to the lower levels.

  Ten levels they went down, each level’s air more putrid than the last. He began to consider putting up his bubble helmet and going to suit air.

  She stepped into another hallway and slowed down, and Stephen caught up with her. “Yes?”

  “Look around, Stephen,” she said quietly. “Look at the people here. Just ten levels below the hospital there are security bars and other protections on everything. Even the ugly places have protection.” She looked around. “Shinigami says there is an open eating area five blocks from here. Let’s head there and listen to the people around us talking.”

  “Maybe they will have pizza,” he replied.

  Bethany Anne shook her head. “You would try it?”

  “You would be surprised what I’ve eaten in my life.”

  “Please don’t test me,” she told him as the two worked through the crowd in the hallways to the courtyard. “Shinigami just gave me more info. Seems there were fourteen other hits with a similar MO. Six of them have descriptions … and yes!” she hissed, her voice guttural.

  “We have video!”

  Stephen watched the video as the two of them finished their walk to the food court. By the time they arrived, his face was grim. I apologize, Bethany Anne.

  For what?

  I’ve been exasperated. I figured this was yet another flea on the ass of a bistok. Wondering what good killing one flea was going to do? Now I realize that these fleas really need to be eliminated.

  Yeah, and I’m the “Raid,” she told him.

  “What?” he asked aloud.

  Her hood turned and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Raid? The poison back on Earth that kills bugs?” His blank face told her everything she needed to know as she turned back. “You had people. I get it.”

  “Yes,” he replied, “I had people, and so do you.” His subtle hint was ignored.

  “There is a table by the back wall over there.” Her hood nodded to the left, so Stephen looked and there were three tables open. “I’m going to run through this information with Shinigami and ADAM.”

  “What about TOM?” he asked.

  “Working on something with Team BMW.”

  “I understand,” he told her. “I’ll circulate. Please try to stay out of trouble for the few minutes I’m gone.”

  “I won’t start anything,” she called over her shoulder. “Baba Yaga replies. She doesn’t seek out…”

  Stephen tuned out her comments as he turned to the right. Perhaps Bethany Anne believed the marketing hype she spouted, but he and the guys knew that some of the most incredible spy networks in this part of the known universe were working to figure out where Baba Yaga would go next. It had taken a few years, but the whispers about the dark-faced human with the white hair had spread to many places.

  Some used the stories to scare children. Other times the stories were used to scare those who worked in the dark places.

 
; He knew of no less than seven reporters who tracked down any hint of a Baba Yaga sighting. He was even familiar with a business in the T’reth sector which sold and installed ‘Baba Yaga-proof’ protection systems.

  He pressed his lips together. There was only one way someone was Baba Yaga-proof, and that was to be a good little alien and stay out of the dark stuff.

  His eyes darted around at the various food options, and he sighed.

  No pizza here. He opened his senses as well and listened as he stood in line at what passed for a sandwich shop. Neither he nor Bethany Anne required food at the moment, but they could eat it, and more, they needed it to blend in with the crowd. It would help if he had a plate of food in front of him while they listened and read minds.

  More likely he would do the scanning than Bethany Anne, although she seemed to do it more often when she took on the Baba Yaga persona. He spotted her sitting at a table back in the corner and stepped up to order some food.

  A minute later, he finished his order and retrieved a tray with two plates. He deftly placed the drinks on the tray and lifted it with one hand. Balancing this was a piece of cake.

  He glanced around the food court again, then sighed, his shoulders dropping just a bit. What wasn’t a piece of cake was keeping an eye on his empress.

  At some point during the time he was ordering food she had disappeared. Stephen was making his way to their table when he heard the universal indicator that Baba Yaga was around.

  “LEAVE ME ALONE!” someone was screaming in Yollin, so Stephen grabbed an extra chair and brought it to their table. He unwrapped his food, and had barely taken a bite when the heavy woomph of a body being forced to sit caused him to glance up.

  There was a Yollin sitting there. The two-legged variety.

  Picking up a napkin, Stephen said, “I suppose, since you are sitting here, you were doing something you should not have been?”

  “I got OOOOUUCH!” He grabbed the hand Baba Yaga was using to keep him in the chair. “Let go!”

  “Oh, you don’t want her to let go,” Stephen told him, then took another bite of his food. He allowed the Yollin to pull at Bethany Anne’s arm for a moment. “Do you have any idea who I am?”