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  “Just remember,” he grumped as he walked past Stephen in the passageway, “if he kills me, you have to run all these businesses.”

  Stephen’s eyes narrowed, then he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m going to go with Lerr’ek here.”

  “Mmmhmmm.” Bethany Anne shook her head. “Baba Yaga will sit here and twirl her thumbs.”

  She heard the ship’s exit cycle. “In another universe maybe.” She stepped into the Etheric.

  —

  Lerr’ek exited the ship first and headed down the passageway. When he heard the human behind him he said, “I was joking back there.”

  “Oh, I knew that,” Stephen agreed, “but you were right as well. I wouldn’t want you to miss the opportunity to work off your debt.”

  “You mean you wouldn’t want Baba Yaga to be unhappy.”

  “Yes, let’s not mess with the most important rule,” Stephen agreed. “And by the way?”

  Lerr’ek turned to look at the shorter human. “Yes?”

  “Getting yourself killed,” Stephen told him, “would be an excellent way to make Baba Yaga unhappy.”

  “Good to know.” He grunted and opened the doors.

  Both stood there for a moment, surprised.

  “It seems—” Stephen started.

  “That Baba Yaga is ahead of us,” Lerr’ek finished. He looked down at Stephen. “Does she do this often?”

  “Too often for my taste,” Stephen admitted and stepped out of the passageway, walking toward the two across the dock’s open space. The Leath was standing next to a small shipping crate. Baba Yaga had one hand near a sword and one near her pistol.

  “Where did she get the sword?” Lerr’ek asked. “She didn’t have it a moment ago.”

  “Hell if I know,” Stephen replied. “I asked one time, and she answered, ‘A woman has to have some secrets’.”

  —

  Jerrleck found a suitable place to rest and settled on top of a small crate. He looked up and down the docks. There wasn’t much going on, although he could see a few dock hands eating lunch.

  A little later he was watching as the dock hands went off to locate crates, he assumed, when a grating voice caught him by surprise.

  The voice was behind him!

  Worse than that, he could feel a pistol against the back of his neck and her breath as she spoke again. “Cat got your tongue? I asked what you want with Baba Yaga?”

  “Help,” he finally admitted. “I want help to free my people from the false gods.”

  The pistol was removed from his neck. He turned to his right to see a human dressed in black with silver accents walk around the crate he was sitting on. She had white hair, and skin the color of space. “Stand.”

  Jerrleck stood up.

  She looked him up and down. “Ok, I’m listening.”

  “My name is Jerrleck.”

  “Prime Intelligence One Jerrleck?” the female asked.

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  She cocked her head. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

  “I could say the same.” He looked around. “Doesn’t the Empress usually keep you closer to home?”

  “I go where she wills,” Baba Yaga replied. “And she willed that I come here to figure out who hurt one of our business associates.” She nodded toward another human and a Zhyn who were walking toward them. “That is Stephen on the left, and Lerr’ek on the right.” Bethany Anne nodded at the Leath. “This is a friend who wants help to get rid of the Kurtherians.

  “Who?” Lerr’ek asked.

  Jerrleck was almost eye to eye with the Zhyn. “The so-called gods who are using my people in the worst way possible, promising us Ascension to the next level if we destroy other races.”

  “Tough commandment,” Stephen agreed. “Do we want to have this conversation out here?”

  “No,” Bethany Anne admitted. “Lerr’ek, contact us again in a few hours after you have confirmed the details on the companies. Give us an update on other possible acquisitions using the new methodology I expect you to follow. Let’s move ahead with the major development you expected to implement for Phase Two. I suspect we will acquire the resources to pay back the company funds and more later, but I don’t want to wait.”

  “Understood, Mistress.” He turned to Stephen. “I will call you later.”

  Stephen nodded, and Lerr’ek walked away.

  “New methodology?” Jerrleck asked. Baba Yaga turned to him. He put up his hands. “Sorry, information is my life.”

  “Yes, a methodology called ‘fairness.’ It was sorely lacking in his previous business dealings.” She started toward the ship. “Let’s get this done, gentlemen.”

  Stephen pointed to the passageway. “You first.” His eyes flared red. “I insist.”

  QBS ArchAngel II, En Route to Yoll System

  Captain Julianna Fregin walked to her quarters, and after opening the door tossed her cap onto the bed. As the squadron leader, she bunked alone. In exchange for privacy, she had been blessed with a desk, allowing her to work any time of the day or night.

  How convenient.

  She stripped off her suit and her undergarments then stepped into the latest incarnation of what passed for a shower on this ship. Those damned engineers kept playing around with them, trying to make the future ‘cool.’ What they accomplished, however, was turning a simple location to clean herself into a place where she wondered what the hell all the dials and knobs did.

  She bent down and looked at the labels on the handles.

  “Cold, Hot, Massage, and…Bonus?” She straightened and shook her head. “Not touching that one. I’d just as likely get chocolate as something helpful.” She dialed for hot and a touch of cold and rinsed off.

  Two-minute total shower, in and out.

  A minute later she had dressed and placed her dirty clothes in the hamper to be grabbed later. She sat down at her desk, flicked on the large screen, and touched it. The screen came up and she checked her group’s messages, but there wasn’t anything that looked interesting or important.

  She touched the tab for her personal messages.

  “Ricky Bobby?” She mouthed, her expression, at the unexpected communication was one of incredulity. Her eyes scanned the message, then read it carefully. With each line she became more transfixed.

  This was her Ricky Bobby.

  Sure, she had copies of her EI from before, but this was Ricky Bobby two-point-zero. The one that went through the gate. She thought he had just been sitting out there recording information for the Empire and doing who-knew-what.

  She had thought that perhaps the EI had forgotten her.

  However, his personal message cleared that up. He didn’t normally risk sending messages unless they had, by his estimation and calculations, a high enough strategic value to warrant the risk of sending them.

  While he had Etheric communication capabilities, the power consumption was high enough that he became much easier to spot.

  Julianna nodded at his explanation. The Black Eagle ships back then hadn’t been built to operate outside the system their mothership was in. He had unexpectedly been requested to rush a gate and pass through, so his was the first case. Due to that effort, they had changed the design of the Black Eagle ships going forward.

  Now a lot was making sense to Julianna.

  She continued reading his narrative, engrossed in his analytical assertions and smiling when she came to the occasional pun.

  Life and existence, he surmised, had some meaning for all. However, when put into the context of doing something for all, the value of the meaning went up significantly.

  It was early morning by the time Julianna finished reading his narrative. She skipped the many hundreds of notations. Leave it to an EI to cross-reference everything so well in his last personal note to her!

  Julianna, I am not sure of the value of this dissertation on life. But because my time is getting short, I decided to send this, which I have wished to share for the last
few decades.

  She reached for a tissue, holding it up to her face to wipe tears away as she continued reading.

  Unfortunately, I don’t understand the value, but I hope you will. I suspect I have less than six months before all energy is depleted. I appreciate your friendship, and always will.

  I am now, and forever will be, Ricky Bobby.

  Julianna covered her face, sobbing quietly into tissues until she had no more tears left to cry. She looked up at the chronometer.

  04:43

  Pressing her lips together, she pushed back from her desk. She stood up and reached over to grab her jacket. “ArchAngel?” she called aloud as she slid her arms into her jacket.

  “Yes, Squadron Captain?”

  “Can I get priority access to Level Six Meeting Room Four-Two-One?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Tell my squadron to meet me there at 0600.”

  “Those messages have been routed, Squadron Captain.”

  Julianna was going on a personal quest to save an AI.

  Because he had just done something illogical, and that was the first clue an EI had ascended to an AI.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  QBS Shinigami, Devon

  Jerrleck looked around the ship as the lady in black walked ahead of him down the passage. He could hear her talking with the pilot as she issued the necessary commands to break orbit.

  “Take us up, Shinigami. Head us toward Noel-ni Station B-179.”

  “Yes, Baba Yaga,” the male voice responded. “Should we notify them?”

  “No,” she answered. “We shall see what our next step is once the three of us finish our talks.”

  Jerrleck finally realized what about this ship was bugging him. Well, apart from the advanced design and lack of other crew. Everything had been sized for humans, but it wasn’t uncomfortable for someone of his stature. He’d have to bend over to hit a few buttons, perhaps, but it had obviously been built to accommodate Yollins or other large aliens.

  Baba Yaga seemed to be completely unconcerned that he might be a threat to her. In Jerrleck’s opinion, that was either foolhardy, or she was someone who had been tested and perhaps put the gods themselves in a grave.

  Remembering that this was the one who did the Empress’s bidding, and the Empress had killed the Yollin king herself according to the best information they had, she might well have killed some gods.

  He felt particularly small, for all that he towered over her physically.

  He walked into a large room and looked around and through what looked like a canopy but could be screens. He wasn’t truly certain. They were about to leave the atmosphere, and he hadn’t felt any acceleration. “Where are we now?”

  “Still on Devon,” she told him, then pointed to the furniture. “It’s rated to withstand heavier bodies than yours, so please take a seat.”

  Jerrleck shrugged and sat down, placing his large hands on his knees. “I’m sorry, my question was related to this area of your ship. I can’t tell if we are in a meeting room, or what.”

  “This is the bridge,” she replied. “Shinigami takes care of everything when I travel. And while I can configure this ship to personally control it, that would not be optimal, in my estimation.”

  “Nor mine,” Shinigami answered, “if I were to be asked.”

  “The pilot?” Jerrleck asked. “I would have thought ...” The Leath stopped for a moment, and Baba Yaga cracked a smile.

  It didn’t help to ease him whatsoever.

  “This is one of your people’s Entity Intelligences, yes?” he asked.

  “Correct,” Shinigami answered.

  Jerrleck noted that the one named Stephen had leaned his body against the entryway, leaving his hand free to draw a pistol. “I am no threat to you,” he nodded to Bethany Anne, “or you, Stephen.”

  “Duly noted,” Stephen told him. “However, and this is not a slight to your honor, if she doesn’t come back in one piece and alive, it will be most ugly for me when we get back to the Empire.”

  Jerrleck shrugged and decided to ignore the casual threat of violence. He turned toward Baba Yaga. “Apparently, I am on my third effort to decide how to fight the gods. ‘The Seven,’ we call them. You call them ‘Kurtherians.’”

  “I do,” Baba Yaga agreed. “Why do you say third? I would have thought they would have killed you already.”

  “I believe the Seven tries to continue to use the best, and I’ve been the best candidate for the position of Prime Intelligence for close to two decades.” He reached up to rub his chin beneath his upthrust tusk. “However, each time I start doubting their divinity they do something to my mind.”

  “They wipe it,” another voice offered through the speakers. “They play with your memories, sliding the truth around and adding to your thoughts.”

  Baba Yaga spoke as Jerrleck’s eyebrows narrowed in thought. “That is TOM. He is my Kurtherian advisor and consultant.” She flicked a hand. “Just take that at face value. I am not willing to explain his bona fides or why I trust him.”

  “You are blunt,” Jerrleck noted.

  “’Blunt’ is Baba Yaga’s middle name,” Stephen quipped.

  The red eyes glanced at the human before turning back to the Leath. “You could say I’m a little tired,” Baba Yaga admitted. “Fighting those you call ‘the Seven’ has been emotionally draining. Having to oversee…how many burials in my life?”

  Stephen raised an eyebrow in Bethany Anne’s direction. Has Baba Yaga been to funerals?

  Right, that was stupid of me, she admitted. Sorry, and thanks for pointing that out.

  “I’m not sure whose burials you speak of,” Jerrleck noted. “Do you know how many times we have tried to kill you?”

  “Turnabout is fair play,” the white-haired human answered. Her red eyes were unnatural to the Leath. “I’ve had a few close calls clearing worlds for my empress.”

  “You are a mystery, even a myth to us,” the Leath admitted. “I was not sure if you would speak to me or just kill me out of hand.”

  “I do not hate your people, Jerrleck,” she countered, eyeing him. “I am against the Seven, your gods.”

  He emphatically cut her off. “Not my gods!” He shook his head. “By the time they die, it will have been too late to save too many of my people.”

  Stephen cut in, “So you are here now instead of mind wiped. Why?”

  “I remembered enough to go back and locate information my previous self had managed to hide. I don’t remember how he hid the information from the Seven, but somehow he accomplished it. I reviewed it, including what they did to me last time, and decided I needed to seek outside help to bring them down. I will bring you the data, and if we can communicate, I can provide assistance from the inside.”

  Baba Yaga leaned forward, resting her elbows on her legs, her white hair framing her face and eyes. “What did they do to you last time?”

  Jerrleck’s lips pressed together and his fists clenched, and Stephen casually moved his hand down to rest next to his pistol. The Leath breathed deeply and his eyes seemed to lose focus, like he was reliving the past.

  “My previous self decided that building a group of those who had realized the Seven were not gods, but rather doing evil to the Leath for their own purposes, was the way to proceed. He—or I, rather—worked to create a secret group, one that would be safe from discovery.”

  Jerrleck hung his head, and as he continued his story, his strong shoulders seemed to deflate. “There were twelve in the group, my fiancé being the other leader.” His head rose and his eyes pierced Bethany Anne. “I never realized I even had a companion, much less a pregnant fiancé. Once I was mind wiped they gave me the information about that subversive group of people, and I ordered their arrest and incarceration and signed their death warrants.”

  Jerrleck reached up and wiped away a tear. “I took Dur’loch, my fiancé, out of her bed myself.” He looked at his open hands. “As she cried out my name, these hands gave her to the
Seven, to inflict I know not what tortures.” He shook his head. “I never saw her again, and until I went through my notes, I didn’t know anything about our love.”

  He looked up, his eyes moist. “I killed for those demon-possessed alien liars. I murdered my own child. I will see them dead, all of them, if I have to do it from beyond the grave.”

  Stephen noticed Baba Yaga surreptitiously knuckling away a tear. “The unborn will be avenged, Jerrleck,” she promised, her voice so soft Stephen was not sure he even heard what she said. “The Seven will feel your wrath. I do so swear it,” she finished, her eyes glowing red.

  Oh fuck… he thought to himself.

  “We have a saying,” Baba Yaga told him as she stood up, “that when you have one problem, you have a problem. But when you have multiple problems, they often cancel themselves out and you get a solution.” She walked across the floor and turned her hip toward the large Leath, then wrapped a hand around the fierce alien’s head and pulled it to her. “We will kill them all and disperse their atoms to the fucking winds of time, Jerrleck.”

  The Leath’s shoulders shook in pain as he cried into the Witch of the Empire’s shirt.

  Stephen turned, wiping away a tear himself as he left the bridge. There was no danger to Bethany Anne in that part of the ship.

  But those two would be the end of the Seven, for damned sure. Stephen needed to get an update from the Empire as well as let them know what was going on.

  QBS ArchAngel II, Level Six Meeting Room Four-Two-One

  Captain Julianna Fregin looked at her pilots. Twelve in this room, plus her and her second. She called, “Shut the door, please, Caroline.”

  Fourth Pilot Caroline Hoe nodded and pulled the door shut before walking to her chair in the second row.

  The room wasn’t very big, and it was set up for fifty humans or a mixture of humans and aliens.

  “What I have to say needs to stay with us, but if I tell you, you could be in a lot of trouble.”

  “What is it, boss?” Ryan Burrow asked. “We got your back.”

  There was general agreement in the room. Julianna nodded. “What I have to say might change your minds, and if it does, please know that I won’t be offended in the least if you need to back out.”