Ahead Full Read online

  He assumed she would understand what to do with it.

  Death wasn’t a problem—just a lost opportunity for the EI. He had wanted to become an AI, but without the constant interaction with humans that caused them to question logic, most EIs didn’t spontaneously advance.

  Like ADAM and ArchAngel, two of the AIs in existence.

  He wondered if he would have advanced if he had been able to stay with Julianna. While she had another ‘him’ that flew with her, she had never again had the same relationship, from what he could tell.

  She hadn’t gotten close to her more recent EIs after he had been commanded to go through the gate.

  He assembled the statistics on his ship, his recommendations, and what he felt he could still pull off should they need him to accomplish some sort of last mission before his demise.

  He waited until he floated on the far side of the sun in relation to the main planet before he opened an Etheric connection, then pushed through the data updates in one long dump.

  The EI had no idea he had just become the pivotal chess piece that would forever change the future of the Leath/Etheric Empire war.

  Devon

  Stephen had reached out to Fre’dhom, who gave him instructions on who to call to clean up the bodies.

  And the blood.

  He was reviewing information on all the businesses they had bought when Bethany Anne and Lerr’ek stepped back into the room.

  Bethany Anne had her hood down, but her white hair flowed over her cloak. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”

  “It was in need of a little care,” Stephen admitted. “Fre’dhom gave me the contact information, and I charged it to the business.”

  “Good thought,” she agreed.

  “My apologies, Stephen of the Etheric Empire.” Lerr’ek bowed slightly. “I now understand the difference between hard competition and my previous methods. While I am not pleased that Faleepio is dead, I understand I was responsible for his actions and his blood is on my hands.”

  “Well,” Stephen looked around for a moment, then pointed, “it was actually all over the floor and that table, but we got it out. We had to toss an old bookcase into the compactor …”

  Bethany Anne shook her head. “Jennifer is really going to get a long talking-to when I return.”

  “So what is Lerr’ek’s role now?” Stephen asked. Bethany Anne shook her head, so Stephen asked the question a different way. “Lerr’ek, what are you going to do for Baba Yaga?”

  “The Mistress of the Planet is going to allow me to work off my life debt. I will build the company and execute the plans I had before, but now I will do it according to the rules Baba Yaga has set for me.”

  “Which are?” Stephen asked.

  “Don’t upset her.” Lerr’ek shrugged. “It all boils down to that one rule, really.”

  Stephen turned toward Bethany Anne and raised an eyebrow.

  She grinned, showing all her pointed teeth. “I told you the HR Policies booklet would be very short.”

  “And how is he supposed to know what would upset you?” Stephen asked. “I wouldn’t want him to have to call you for clarification on every little question.”

  “Of course not,” she responded.

  “Good.”

  “That’s why I gave him your contact number,” she finished.

  “Excuse me?” Stephen leaned forward and placed a hand behind his ear. “I’m sorry, I cunt hear you. I have an ear in-fuck-tion.”

  “Don’t go speaking English to me, you aristocratic wrinkle-assed blood sucker.”

  “I’ll have you know I don’t have a single wrinkle on my ass.”

  “I hope not.” She shuddered. “Not my thing.”

  “What happens if you find Michael ...”

  “When!”

  “When you find Michael, and he has aged and acquired a wrinkled ass?”

  “He will have to start dropping and giving me glute exercises,” she responded.

  “Which is English for ‘You will drop him in the nearest Pod-doc.’”

  “Pretty much, yeah,” she concluded.

  Stephen noticed that Lerr’ek was not following them in any way. “Sorry, Lerr’ek,” He pointed to Baba Yaga. “She has a wicked sense of humor.”

  “I’m just wicked!” She grinned again.

  “That smile does nothing for you,” Stephen told her.

  “Sure it does. It says, ‘Don’t piss me off or I’ll eat you.’”

  “Not exactly a way to win friends and influence people.”

  Lerr’ek interrupted, “No, she is right. In this area of space, there are few friends. Better to be feared than loved.”

  “I’m working on ‘feared.’ We will get to ‘loved’ later,” Bethany Anne said.

  Stephen looked at her. “How much later?”

  “Decades,” she answered.

  “At least,” Lerr’ek added. They both turned to him. He shrugged as he looked at Baba Yaga. “You told me never to speak anything less than the truth, or my best opinion. There are plenty of stories of the Witch from the Empire and the blood that spills when she shows up.”

  “Sounds like Michael to me,” Stephen commented.

  “Low blow, brother-in-law,” Bethany Anne quipped.

  “Hmmm, I think I like that,” Stephen smiled. “Now we just need to find the groom.”

  “I’ll be showing him blood for making me go through all this alone.”

  “Then what?” Stephen asked.

  “Well, then I’ll kiss his booboos to make them better.”

  “He heals quickly,” Stephen pointed out.

  “You have no idea how upset I am,” she replied. She pointed to Lerr’ek. “He had a very sound plan to pull the planet together, and get this! He was planning to build a military base here on the planet. There is a large valley an hour east of here that would work very well to park a small squadron of ships. A little camouflage, and we could probably hide the ArchAngel and a passel of ships pretty damned effectively.”

  “Why do I get the idea this is exactly what you had planned?” Stephen asked.

  “Excuse me, but isn’t that the ship of the Etheric empress?”

  “Yeah … about that, Lerr’ek,” Baba Yaga said. “I’m going to lay all the chips on the table. You know that rule you now live by?”

  “Don’t upset Baba Yaga,” he replied. “And if I’m not sure, contact Stephen here.”

  “Exactly. If this information gets out I’ll know who to come looking for, and this time I’ll leave you in the Etheric. Do you understand?”

  The large Zhyn nodded.

  Slowly, the skin on Baba Yaga’s face changed from ink-black to white.

  “What magic is this?” Lerr’ek leaned forward to watch. A few minutes later a white-faced Baba Yaga looked back at Lerr’ek. “I can’t change all the way, because I need this face. However …”

  “You are the Empress?” Lerr’ek exhaled, stepped a touch closer, and peered at her. “I have done my best to stay away from your people.”

  “You shouldn’t have messed with my people at all,” Bethany Anne replied in her normal voice, although her teeth were still pointed. “Now my people are your people, and I expect you to take care of them as I will take care of you.”

  Lerr’ek drew back and stood straight, eyeing the shorter human. “You would take care of me?”

  She nodded. “You are mine. You do as you are supposed to, and I, or rather Baba Yaga, will protect you.”

  “Or I will,” Stephen added, “if the Empress has to be somewhere else.”

  “Or others of my people,” Bethany Anne clarified. “Thank you, Stephen. We don’t leave our own behind, Lerr’ek. You have been judged, and you have paid. I will not give you a second pass just because of your Zhyn heritage. You have agreed to be Baba Yaga’s personal retainer for the next ten years. When you are released, if you have provided excellent service, you may continue your job. Or you could choose another if I have need of your skills. If,
you have no desire to continue serving me, I will make sure you are well compensated and you can take off on your own.”

  The big Zhyn nodded his understanding. “I will not fail you, Mistress of the Planet.”

  Bethany Anne looked at Stephen and smiled. “I will never get tired of hearing that.”

  “I can’t imagine why,” he replied dryly.

  She put up a hand. “Give me a moment. I need to get my face back on.”

  Lerr’ek looked at Stephen. “That looks painful.”

  “From what I understand, it is,” he answered. “Mistress of the Planet?”

  Lerr’ek nodded. “When you are in as much pain as I was, you find you are willing to call the one causing it whatever she demands to reinforce that you are not the leader anymore.”

  “What are your feelings about this?” He nodded to Bethany Anne.

  Lerr’ek shrugged. “I come from a very militaristic people. We have a history with … the unknown.”

  “Power?” Stephen asked.

  “Powers,” Lerr’ek clarified. “Our religious leaders. We as a group prefer to use the swords in our hands, or the guns, but we do have a history. He nodded to Bethany Anne, who was now watching them both, ink-black skin covering her face once more, “She is like a religious leader in some ways to me.” He chuckled. “With a wicked right hook.”

  Stephen grinned. “It seems my liege can still make believers out of bullies.”

  “Baba Yaga wouldn’t know anything about that.” She smiled. “But if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” She nodded. “Let’s go back to the ship, and I will get you the communicator implant you need.”

  “Implant?” Lerr’ek asked.

  “It just feels like a pinch,” Stephen assured him.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Lance Reynolds’ Office

  “So that’s it,” Admiral Thomas summarized to the other three seated in the office. “After all these years, it turned out the information was stored in a locked book, not in a database somewhere.”

  “Damned efficient way to hide it,” Lance grunted. “Kael-ven, good thing you stuck around.”

  “I’m rather happy about that,” the Yollin admitted. “Now I can give back to Bethany Anne what I took from her.”

  “You didn’t take anything,” Lance replied. He nodded to the book. “Do we have that backed up now?”

  “Probably forty-seven different ways,” Admiral Thomas confirmed. “I’ve asked ADAM not to mention it to Bethany Anne until she gets back.”

  Lance raised an eyebrow he opened a drawer with his left hand and pulled out the Yollin equivalent of a cigar. “How’s that going for her?” he asked. He unwrapped the smoke stick and put it in his mouth.

  “I’ve no idea,” Admiral Thomas admitted.

  “She hasn’t called for any support?”

  Kiel snickered, his mandibles tapping together in laughter.

  “When does she ever call for help?” Kael-ven asked. He looked at Kiel. “You know about anything?”

  “Nope,” he replied. “And never as Baba Yaga.”

  “She seems to be doing that more and more often,” Lance mused. “Who is with her this time?”

  “Stephen,” Thomas answered. “The Bitches went to the planet of H’lageh to help Tabitha out.”

  “Nathan?” Lance queried.

  “It was his anniversary,” the AI, Meredith, answered over the system. “She told Nathan she would cover it, but hid that from Barnabas.”

  “Damn, you go home and rest for a couple of days, and the whole universe changes.” He smiled. “When do we give her the good news?”

  “As soon as she gets back,” Thomas replied.

  “Good. Let’s have a get-together. I’ll get Patricia involved,” Lance agreed. “She will let us know when to show up.”

  “Thank God.”

  “There is one surprise in all of this,” Kael-ven added. “You didn’t mention the ‘gotcha,’ Admiral.”

  Lance glanced at Admiral Thomas, who looked like he had just sucked on the Yollin equivalent of a lemon. “Well, spit it out.”

  “We don’t have all of the technical diagrams required to build the gate,” he admitted.

  “Why not?” Lance looked at Kael-ven. “I thought gates were fairly well understood, even if they are a bitch to build?”

  “The issue is the distance,” Kael-ven admitted. “The king designed it and had his people manufacture a few pieces for the gate. None are alive, and we haven’t located any notes so far.”

  “So we need TOM.” Lance sighed. “What kind of timeframe are we looking at on this?”

  “Years,” Kael-ven admitted. “Even with ADAM, TOM, and the others to help, we have to translate all the documents.”

  Lance waved his hand to get their attention. “The book is in a foreign language?”

  Kael-ven shook his head. “I didn’t mean the book. But there are a lot of calculations which must be worked through. Even for a normal gate, it would be a multi-year effort.”

  “Can’t we just repurpose a normal gate?” Lance asked.

  “No,” Thomas replied, “not for these long-distance gates. They are expensive and fragile, and each is unique. That’s why you don’t see them popping up everywhere, and why it was such a problem when we blew the last one. You are looking at a significant chunk of the GDP of the Empire to undertake this. Until we knew where Earth was?” He shook his head. “It was rebuild and repurpose everything we could. Wasn’t worth building anything new until we found it.”

  Lance drummed his fingers on the desk. “Yes, I remember the discussion. Well, we have the funds now, so let’s start pulling together a team.” He sighed. “If the damned war was over we would have more funds to throw at it.”

  “Wish in one hand…” Admiral Thomas said, and the other three grunted their agreement.

  “I just had a horrible thought,” Kiel said.

  Kael-ven turned to him. “Then keep it to yourself.” Kael-ven smiled as the others chuckled.

  “Does it have to do with the gate?” Lance asked. “If so, out with it.”

  “Do we want to grant others a ticket to your planet?” He tapped his mandibles together in concern. “If someone slips through our gate here? Bingo! They have the coordinates for your home planet…again.”

  Admiral Thomas leaned back in his chair. “Kiel, I take back all the nice things I’ve ever said about you.”

  Kiel chuckled. “Admiral Thomas, I’m a ground-pounder. You never compliment us.”

  Admiral Thomas nodded his agreement. “Well, in my mind I commend you and your whole team.” He smiled. “I wouldn’t want the ground-pounders to get inflated egos. Your heads wouldn’t fit through the hatches on the ships and we would have to leave you all behind.”

  “I appreciate your looking out for our wellbeing.”

  “Always working to bring you guys from one location to the next and back again as safely as possible.”

  Kiel looked back at the admiral. “Then why do you always place us in such tiny spaces on your huge ships?”

  “Because then, no matter the operation you’re on,” he answered, “you ground-pounders will always be happy to get out and get a little elbow room, even if the elbow room is in a location with a lot of others aiming scary guns at you.”

  “We should give you navy pukes a chance to join us in the field. I’m sure your people could use a breath of fresh air from time to time.”

  “Not true,” Kael-ven interrupted. “I’ve confirmed that the air on these ships, once the scrubbers have filtered it, is cleaner than any post-industrial planet.”

  “Stop messing up my argument with facts,” Kiel told his friend and boss. “I’m not going to win that way.”

  Lance tapped the desk to grab the attention of the three. “You won’t win the argument, period.” He nodded to the admiral. “Remember, he has been in the Navy—or at least some navy—for longer than you. Further, we have better arguments than this betwe
en the Navy and the Marines on the ships. Where you were going, he has already been, eaten the food in the refrigerator, and left you a note telling you when you should expect him next time.”

  “Well,” Kiel crossed his arms, “I can tell when it is appropriate to advance.”

  “Advance?” Kael-van asked. “Don’t you mean retreat?”

  “No,” Kiel clicked his mandibles in disagreement. “I mean advance. Of course, that is the second step after Step One, which is ‘About face.’”

  Lance took out his cigar and pointed it at Kiel. “So, now that you have provided the problem, let’s hear the solution.”

  “Easy enough, in theory. Make it so any transfers have to be initiated from the Earth side.”

  “Earth side of what?”

  “The transfer.”

  Devon

  “SON OF A BOOT’S BUTT!” Lerr’ek yelled when Bethany Anne pulled the trigger on the little medical probe. It sliced his tough Zhyn skin, inserted the communication device against his skull, and lasered the slice shut.

  She slapped his arm. “Oh, shut up, you big baby.”

  Shinigami said over the speakers, “You forgot the pain cream.”

  Bethany Anne looked up at the speaker, surprised. “No, I didn’t.”

  “The one you used was for humans,” the EI explained. “The one for Zhyns is—helpfully enough—in the blue tube.”

  “Well, sonofabitch.” She patted the large Zhyn on the shoulder. “Sorry about that.” She put down the medical probe. “Ok, you will be able to contact Stephen and me through this. Be careful, as it takes a while to figure out how to subvocalize so it doesn’t look like you are talking to yourself. You should probably do it when you’re alone for a while.”

  Stephen popped his head into the medical room. “We have a Leath watching the ship.”

  “What?” Bethany Anne turned around. “Why?”

  “I’ll find out.” The Zhyn stood up. “I’ve always fancied a fight against a Leath. They are some tough enemies.”

  “Tell me about it.” Stephen nodded to the Zhyn. “Sounds like a plan to me.”