Forever Defend Read online

  William put up a hand. Kiel hoped someone had thought to tell the owners of the bar they were pulling this operation. “Hold up.” William glanced at Kiel’s hands and feet.

  William looked at Shi-tan. “License?”

  The bounty hunter pulled out the paperwork the other human had provided. William took it, turned it so he could read it, and started mumbling.

  “Blah blah blah,” William’s eyes kept going down the page. “Bounty Hunter Shi-tan.” William looked up. “That would be you?”

  Shi-tan nodded.

  “Ok.” William looked down at the paper. “Don’t speak much.” His eyes kept roaming. “Blah blah blah, Kiel, a Yollin to be delivered to…” William looked at Kiel. “Bad Company?”

  “It’s a family thing,” Kiel answered, looking embarrassed.

  “I’ll bet.” William turned. “Bobcat!”

  “Here!” The two aliens heard another voice respond from inside the bar. William continued, “We have the guests for Bad Company here!”

  “Oh?” Another human came out of the bar. “All right, walk with me.” He gestured to Shi-tan and Kiel and headed back into the bar.

  Shi-tan grabbed Kiel’s arm and pulled him along. Hopefully, this meeting and the money transfer would happen quickly.

  He was dying for a Coke.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Medical Wing

  Bethany Anne sat down by Eric, her hand rubbing his back. “I know that no percentage is small when your kids are the ones we are talking about, Eric. But really, we are going to make this happen for you both.”

  Eric nodded, not saying anything. Darryl and Scott were her guards for the afternoon, but they stayed outside the room.

  Eric looked towards her. “We always come out the other side, boss.” He nodded to the Pod-doc that held Gabrielle. “Now we are messing with the same technology which gave us our abilities. And without our world’s first true AI and an alien I’ve never physically met, my first babies would probably die.”

  Bethany Anne took the one hand off his back and clasped both in front of her. Right now, her heart was so damned heavy. They were protecting the defenseless, but all they could do was rely on her friends.

  “They are as real as you or me, Eric,” she started, but his tiny nudge stopped her.

  He looked her in the eye. “Bethany Anne, I’m not saying anything against them. They are as real to me as they can be without touching them. I know, as we all do, that they are helping you hold it together. For that, I’d go into battle for them any time.”

  Bethany Anne could feel ADAM’s shock and TOM’s determination.

  “So, I know they have our back.” He nodded to his mate. “Gabrielle is trusting them with everything right now.” He sighed. “Our babies…”

  “Your boys, I’m told,” Bethany Anne added, almost in a whisper.

  Eric turned. “Say what?”

  She pointed to her head. “I’m informed by ADAM and TOM that you guys have twin boys. The Pod-doc is delicately transferring them to their location, as it helps Gabrielle’s healing. There is some nanocyte reprogramming being done as well.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “There is always a new fuck-up with technology. I just wished it wasn’t with…”

  This time, Eric’s hand on her knee stopped her.

  “It might as well be us, BA,” he told her. “We are here to protect our family, and more. I wouldn’t wish this situation on another couple just so my own family wasn’t in danger.”

  Bethany Anne nodded her understanding. She felt like dirt for even slightly suggesting that was where her thoughts were going. “I know, Eric.” He put an arm around her shoulders, and she leaned in.

  “Boss, don’t think we haven’t seen you struggle the last few years.” He took a deep breath. “Want to talk about it?”

  Bethany Anne chuckled just a tiny bit. “Lay the worry of the Empress on the father’s shoulders as his two boys are being pulled from his wife, who is also my friend?”

  “No,” Eric told her. “Tell your friend that you fucking hate all of this jibber-jabber-walkie-the-talkie-bullshit and you are ready to give some fuckers the just desserts they really have earned.”

  “Was it really so easy back on Earth?” Bethany Anne asked. “It sure seems that way.”

  “Well, you allowed the governments to take care of the people then, and you still do.”

  “Yeah, and they went and fucked it up good, didn’t they?” She sighed.

  “That’s what has you down the most?” he pressed.

  Bethany Anne’s tears rained down her face, and she turned into him. Eric strained to hear her as she sobbed into his shoulder. “Those fuckers didn’t last ten goddamn years!” She stuck her hand out, and Eric grabbed a cloth on his right and gave it to her.

  She reached under her hair to wipe her tears. “The very short message we got from Akio and Yuko… I can’t believe those fuckheads killed so many of our people.”

  “It’s not on your shoulders,” Eric told her. “You can’t protect them from the Kurtherians and other assorted assholes on Earth. You know the Kurtherians are going to fuck us up any time they can.” He breathed in. “The ones on Earth fucking us up was a possibility, but it had seemed like they had walked away from the brink each time.”

  “All our friends, Eric.” She spoke quietly. “What could I have done?”

  “After the gate exploded with the data we needed?” he asked. “Not too damned much.”

  The two stayed like that for a while, just sharing in their pain. “It will take us some time to build another gate and figure it out,” Eric told her. “Even the new ArchAngel can’t gate that far and that Kurtherian asshole you killed had some of the knowledge we need inside his head. So, he fucked us once more from the grave. So be it.” He smiled. “Pencil prick is still a dead motherfucker.”

  Bethany Anne chuckled, then hiccupped. “Watch your language!” she told him.

  “What?” Eric asked. “You’re going to deduct points for lack of creativity here?”

  “No,” Bethany Anne slowly sat back up, “but Gabrielle is going to be pissed if you curse around the kids.”

  There was a pause before Eric breathed out slowly and whispered to her.

  “I’m fucked.”

  TOM’s voice came out of the speakers a few moments later. “Mother and babies are doing well. Gabrielle is being infused with additional Etheric Energy, and the reprogramming of her nanocytes for future integration is almost complete. She will be up within thirty minutes.”

  Bethany Anne stood up. “Let me get some water to wipe my face.” She looked down at Eric. “Thank you, I needed that little bit of release.”

  He nodded his understanding. “Me too.”

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Barnabas’ Office

  Barnabas steepled his fingers as he sat behind the desk in his office watching the emotions play across Tabitha’s face.

  She finally decided which one to lead with.

  “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?” she yelled, slapping her hand on his desk. Barnabas had long ago upgraded his desktop to stone.

  Bethany Anne often had a similar reaction to his pronouncements, and he had lost two desktops to cracking so far. He was hoping this one would last longer.

  “I am not, Ranger Tabitha.” Barnabas spoke normally, ignoring her outburst. “You are an officer of the law, NOT the military!”

  “But EVERYONE knows that BA is going to be fighting!” She threw a hand out behind her, pointing toward the core of the battle station. “It’s a done deal. Hell, even Team BMW is starting to pull their thumbs out of their asses and get busy with new technology!”

  “I agree,” Barnabas answered, “that everyone is worried about her, Tabitha. I can understand your frustration. However, our job is to protect the innocent. Do you think you and the Tontos are going to add anything to the battle between the aliens and the Karillians to make her safer?”

  “FUCK YES!” Tabitha spat
back, her eyes starting to glow red. “I won’t allow another fucking asswipe to kill one of my friends, Barnabas!”

  “Tabitha.” Barnabas stopped a moment. “I’ll tell you what. If I can prove that you could potentially hurt Bethany Anne by trying to get in on this, will you consider settling down and thinking it through logically?”

  Tabitha was breathing heavily. She wanted to shove the desk down her boss’s throat. He wasn’t arguing with her, and it wasn’t a fair fight.

  “What?” she asked, then caught up with what he had said. “How can I hurt Bethany Anne?”

  Barnabas nodded. Now he had her mind instead of just her emotions engaged. “Who is the baddest fighter we have?”

  “The Empress,” she answered, then her eyes narrowed. “You aren’t about to tell me someone is better, since she hasn’t fought much lately?”

  Barnabas chuckled. “No. She might not have been in any engagements, but she still routinely kicks everyone’s ass.” He put up a finger. “That’s Bethany Anne’s level. Now, who is next?”

  “The Bitches, Gabrielle, maybe Stephen.” She sat down in one of the two chairs facing his desk. “Then probably everyone in Nathan’s league is three, and the Guardians and Guardian Marines, if you take them together, are four.”

  “Where is your team in that hierarchy?” Barnabas asked.

  “Oh, we are level three, no problem,” she told him. Her stare dared him to contradict her.

  “I’ve been talking with Lance, Tabitha. I can truthfully tell you that no one except the fighters at level two have been assigned to accompany her.”

  Tabitha blinked a moment at him. “Nathan?”

  He shook his head. “He has another task. He won’t even be on the world, which is the front lines.”

  “So if we are with them, we are the weak link.” She sighed. “That fucking sucks.”

  “Plus, need I remind you for the thirtieth time,” Barnabas leaned forward, his elbows resting on his desk, “you are law enforcement, not military. And frankly, I don’t want to lose you.”

  Tabitha’s face was emotionless for a moment before a small smile played at the edges. “Are you saying you like me, Big B?”

  “I’m saying,” Barnabas leaned back in his chair, “that you’ve grown on me, and your brand of trouble would be sorely missed.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “In about a decade or so,” he finished, a small glint of humor in his eye.

  Tabitha finally started nodding her acceptance. “Are you really sending us on vacation?”

  Barnabas raised both eyebrows. “It depends on your definition of vacation,” he answered. “Do you remember the description of the town of Mos Eisley?”

  “What, the wretched hive of scum and villainy?” she asked, perplexed at the change of direction.

  Barnabas reached into his left-hand desk drawer and pulled out a packet. He tossed it to her.

  “Exactly.”

  Personal Ship Powerdrive, QBBS Merideth Reynolds

  Shi-tan got up from his bed, trying to remember why the hell his body felt like it had been beaten.

  Senseless.

  He groaned as he stood up, and padded toward his medical closet. Before he could open the door, he stopped.

  There was a dark red folder with a white emblem on the cover on a small table nearby. There shouldn’t be anything on his ship he hadn’t put there.

  He reached up to his face, but yanked his hand back down, opened the door, and stepped into the medical closet. He looked in the mirror.

  His face was…damaged. This, he thought as he examined it, was really bad. Had he been in a bar fight last night?

  That’s when the memories came flooding back.

  He had delivered Kiel, the supposed mark, to the bar, and had been led to another area that wasn’t out in the open. In fact, he thought it might have been rather recently added to the bar, and the human had needed a key to get into the room.

  Inside, he found a Yollin and six humans. Three looked maybe like one of their blood families. Three were not.

  One of the latter three was the Empress, and the other two were definitely her guards. He whispered to his mark, “You are not getting out of this so easily this time.”

  The mark just shrugged.

  “Kiel,” The Empress had nodded. “Nice to see you back in one piece.”

  “I do my best, Bethany Anne,” he admitted.

  She turned to Shi-tan, who was now on guard. “First, please check your account and confirm we have paid the bounty.”

  That wasn’t what he had expected to hear.

  Shi-tan ignored the feeling in his stomach and pulled out his tablet. It took him a moment, but he confirmed that the money was there. While he verified the transfer, one of the humans came up and unlocked Kiel’s cuffs.

  Shi-tan looked a second time. “Why is there more?” he asked.

  “A small bonus for arriving quickly and keeping the mark in good condition,” She replied.

  He looked around. “Why do I get the impression this isn’t a company issue?”

  “Well, it kinda is,” one of the male humans answered him. “I’m Nathan, by the way.”

  “My apologies,” the Empress replied. “Shi-tan, please be introduced to Nathan,” she pointed to the female next to him, “his mate Ecaterina, and their daughter Christina Bethany Anne Lowell. And this is their company employee, R’yhek.”

  He didn’t fail to catch the Empress’ name in the younger human’s moniker. Warning received: hands off that child.

  She turned to her right. “This is John Grimes.”

  Shi-tan was proud of himself. He didn’t grimace. Shrillexians loved a good fight, but they didn’t love a good ass kicking if they couldn’t get a few licks in. He had seen enough of the John Grimes’ videos.

  Even he doubted he would get more than one good punch in, and that was only if he was enraged.

  She turned to her left. “And this is Darryl.” Both humans nodded in his direction.

  He nodded back.

  “You have met Kiel, of course,” she continued. “However, you might want to know that he is the Captain of the Empress’ Yollin Mercenary force, not a family member who stole a bunch of money.”

  Kiel looked at Bethany Anne. “Just remember you lost the bet.”

  “Yeah, yeah, no one knows the mercenary faces,” Bethany Anne agreed. “You were right.”

  She focused on Shi-tan. “This has actually been a recruiting operation, Shi-tan.”

  “For a company,” Nathan told him.

  Shi-tan glanced at him. “Mercenary?”

  “No,” Nathan told him. “Profit.”

  “And for me, loyalty.” Bethany Anne added. “Let’s see if we can provide enough assurance that your Shrillexian desire to fight will be amply served, shall we?”

  For the next four hours, Shi-tan had his ass handed to him so many times it was brutal. He had done well against the Yollin, Kiel, once he tried.

  However, that Yollin must have trained with the humans, because no Yollin Shi-tan had ever fought before had done so well against him.

  Kiel deserved Honor.

  Then he fought the little human. He was able to win that bout too. He was told he could use anything but killing moves, and twice he had hit her hard enough to toss her across the room.

  “You lost, Christina,” the one named Ecaterina called when she stood up and started heading back into the fight. “He beat you two-zero.”

  “But,” she turned to her mom, “we were having FUN!”

  What race’s youth enjoyed an all-out battle? he wondered. Other than Shrillexians, of course.

  She received Honor.

  Then it was his turn against the mom. That was going well until she changed, then it went to shit for a little while. It was everything he could do to hold her off until he finally, barely, took the third point. Honestly, it could have gone either way.

  Ecaterina received Honor too.

  Next he got his ass
handed to him by Nathan. Ecaterina was a bit miffed when Nathan used tactics she didn’t know about. “You should practice with the Bitches more often, honey,” he growled.

  Nathan might possibly receive Loyalty, but he wasn’t sure yet.

  He was allowed to rest for a while, to recoup his energy and come down off his fighting high.

  And they kept bringing him as much Coke as he wanted to drink.

  When Nathan held out a hand to help him stand back up from a particularly hard landing, he whispered, “We will make a Pepsi drinker out of you yet!”

  Shi-tan grimaced. He had tried Pepsi already, and it wasn’t the same. But if there was nothing else to drink but Pepsi, maybe he could stomach it.

  When the break was over, Shi-tan was surprised that the Empress stepped up. “Tell me, Shi-tan,” she asked him. “Who has received Honor, and who Loyalty?”

  Shi-tan reached up to scratch his throat. “All have Honor.” He pointed to Nathan. “I’m not sure on Loyalty yet. I need to see if I can learn his tricks.”

  “Yes,” Ecaterina looked at her mate, “me too.”

  Nathan just shrugged. “All it takes is to be willing to take an ass-kicking from John, Scott, Darryl or Eric.”

  Ecaterina waved that off. “Maybe I’ll talk to Gabrielle.”

  Bethany Anne took control of the conversation again. “Now it is my turn. This is a full contact fight, Shi-tan. You came into my base and took information related to Aerolyn, the son of the king, and sold it to his enemies. They then decided that perhaps it was time to attack us, that we were weak.”

  She looked at him. “They chose to turn around.”

  Shi-tan had actually been proud of the fact that he might have started an interstellar war, but now that he was in front of the Empress, maybe it had just been his blood talking.

  Bethany Anne continued, “There are no rules. You may try to kill me. You will submit your Loyalty to me, or I will break so many bones in your body you will take a year to heal.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I know you Shrillexians heal fast, so I’ll break the bones into enough small pieces that it takes a while.”