Ahead Full Read online

  “So,” Lance continued, “and sorry for interrupting, William.”

  “No worries,” William replied. “Your call.”

  “The problem,” Lance continued with a nod to William in the vid link. “will start if the Etheric Empire starts trying to locate all this unobtainium.”

  “Wait,” Bethany Anne put up a hand. “Is that the real name? Unobtainium?”

  “No, of course not,” Lance replied. “The metal’s name is a bitch to pronounce, so I call it that. Anyway, if we start purchasing most of the supply, you know full well others will find out and try to figure out what we are using it for.”

  “So…buy it through shell companies?” she asked.

  “Already talked with Nathan,” William answered. “He says that they are creating new shell companies because the old ones were uncovered by some competitors. A group of Noel-nis. He isn’t going to be ready for at least two months.”

  “Noel-nis?” Bethany Anne asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Where are the supplies located, William?”

  “There is one company out of Noel-ni, and one company out of the Zhyn empire.”

  ADAM, where do those companies get their supplies?

  >>Devon. How are you so lucky?<<<br />
  Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. However, I’m going with ‘I’m good and lucky.’ We haven’t informed anyone that the Mistress of the Planet is Baba Yaga, right?”

  >>No, not yet.<<<br />
  Lance put a finger up to William when he noticed that Bethany Anne’s eyes had lost focus.

  Don’t tell anyone. I’ve officially decided to keep the info out of circulation except for Stephen and us. Please pass that to Stephen.

  >>Done. Acknowledgement by Stephen is pending. He has a “Do Not Disturb” note up. Shall I disturb him?<<<br />
  No, I’m sure he is in the middle of horizontal gymnastics with Jennifer. Have him connect with you when he comes back online.

  >>Understood.<<<br />
  Send a request to Lerr’ek to ascertain our production capacity for this unobtainium stuff my dad needs.

  “Ok,” Bethany Anne returned her focus to the two men. “ADAM informs me that we can go straight to the source and bypass those two companies. Apparently, the new owner of one of the major mining companies is in a bit of a financial bind. We order, they will produce to the best of their abilities.”

  “Can they handle the secrecy?” Lance asked. “We don’t need this getting out.”

  “I feel certain we can deal with that,” Bethany Anne told him. “If not, Baba Yaga can visit them.”

  “Well,” Lance stuck the cigar back in his mouth. “That would scare them enough to keep their mouths shut. William?”

  “Sir?”

  “We will get you the new production setup, but figure the company will need time to increase their production, and we will need to confirm their ability to stay quiet. In two months, we will stop our purchasing and move ops to Nathan’s shell companies. Stay on top of this. I want those BYPS for Admiral Thomas ASAP.”

  “Yes, sir.” William threw a salute with a smile and signed off.

  Lance turned to Bethany Anne. “Ok, you all Coked up?”

  “You make it sound kinda bad like that,” she protested.

  “How about ‘have you had your Coke today, and do you now feel harmonious?’”

  “Yes.” Bethany Anne crossed her legs. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  Lance leaned back in his chair. “We were thinking of throwing you a large party, but with this information you brought back we don’t have time.”

  She raised her right eyebrow. “Ok?”

  “We have the location of Earth,” he told her, watching her face.

  “What?” she whispered. “We have Earth?” He nodded. “How?”

  “Believe it or not, it was in an old book in a research office.”

  Bethany Anne leaned forward. “When can we go?”

  “That’s the bad part,” he admitted. “Not for almost twenty years.”

  “Why the fuck not?” She frowned and put up a finger. “Wait one moment. ADAM and TOM are explaining.”

  Lance often wondered what went on in her head when all three carried on a conversation in there.

  “Oh, shit.” She looked at her dad. “So we need lots of calculations, lots of building very difficult technology, and it is just going to take a while?”

  “That about sums it up,” he admitted. “Some of the know-how was with the lead research scientist.”

  “Who is now dead, the bastard.” Bethany Anne smiled. “I know, that wasn’t polite. However, if he were currently alive, it would have been convenient.”

  “And the king of Yoll,” Lance smirked. “Whom you killed.”

  “May hell eat his soul for eternity.” Bethany Anne sighed and leaned back. “I wouldn’t bring him back, but over the decades that asshole’s death has bitten me in the butt more than once.”

  “True.”

  Bethany Anne put up a finger. “So we have the location.” She put up a second finger. “We have to build a fucking expensive special gate.” She put up a third finger. “And we need to get done with the war to focus on the gate?”

  He nodded. “Well, a few other items too, but they probably aren’t finger-raising-worthy,” Lance looked at her, weariness in his eyes. “Why do I sense you have something to tell me?”

  Bethany Anne smiled. “Because I do.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Secure Meeting Room

  Bethany Anne sat down at the head of the table. She nodded to Lance on her left, and Admiral Thomas on her right. On Lance’s side of the table were Dan Bosse, Peter, and Frank Kurns. Next to Admiral Thomas sat Kael-ven and Kiel.

  John Grimes and Eric were inside the door, and Darryl and Scott were on guard outside.

  “Ok, people.” She smiled at Kael-ven. “I meant that universally, of course.” He merely bowed his head slightly. “We have an inside person, none other than Prime Intelligence One Jerrleck.” There were a couple of amazed whistles from those who didn’t already know who Bethany Anne had spoken to. She continued, “We have one of our own to bring home, and seven Kurtherians who need to go visit their late ancestors permanently.” She looked around the table. “Does anyone think we shouldn’t do this? Speak now, or forever hold your peace.”

  Kael-ven clicked his mandibles together. “How trustworthy is this Jerrleck?”

  Bethany Anne thought about it for a fraction of a second. “TOM and I both read him. He is as focused on getting the Seven out as he can be,” she answered. “With his permission, we concealed some of the information in his memories. We obviously couldn’t wipe it all, or he wouldn’t know what he needed to do and why.”

  “What does he remember?” Lance asked.

  “He knows the general plan, but no specifics,” she answered. “I didn’t explain what the plan was, which would get their Navy riled, because I didn’t know at the time. Now,” she nodded at the admiral, “we have multiple challenges which might cancel each other out, or not. That is your cue, Admiral.”

  “Ok.” He looked around. “We are as far ahead in production of Navy ships as we could ever expect to be at any time, and for once we haven’t had to display all our new technical abilities by trying to save a planet. So, we have the ability to draw them directly into an ambush. We have thirteen pilots willing to beg the Empress’ permission to implement a high-risk run into the Leath system. These volunteers are practically demanding a chance at what potentially is a suicide mission. We have an inside person to fan the flames of support in Leath, and then BAM! We close the gate.”

  Kael-ven shrugged his shoulders. “The Leath are hot-headed, but I fear they are not as hot-headed as we were when you humans first arrived. They have learned to be wary of us as a group. Would they not expect a trap?”

  “We have never targeted their main system,” Lance replied. “These idiotic thirteen are going to do something rathe
r ambitious, and they will certainly need to look like they are going to return-jump, but will actually divert to somewhere else.”

  “We need a dummy ship.” Bethany Anne’s eyes narrowed. “We need to jump in with a ship, send out the twenty-five, the carrier gets destroyed and the now-twenty-six …”

  “If they all make it back,” Admiral Thomas cautioned.

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Any who don’t make it back will be court-martialed for failure to adhere to orders. Since that won’t look good on their records, they all better make it back.”

  Admiral Thomas smiled. “Yes, ma’am.” He made a few notes on his tablet. “Duly noted.”

  “So, we need a dummy ship. We can do that,” Kael-ven commented. “Even a dummy ship needs a small crew.”

  “I’ll get them back,” she said, then her eyes narrowed. “And I know just how to piss them off.”

  Behind the group, John looked at Eric and mouthed, “Baba Yaga?”

  Eric rolled his eyes and nodded his head vigorously.

  Bethany Anne turned around, catching Eric looking at John. His head stopped mid-nod, then his eyes looked sideways to see Bethany Anne pointing two fingers at her eyes, and turning her hand to point to Eric’s eyes. “Yes, I do have eyes in the back of my head, Mr. Escobar, so don’t you be giving me shit from the peanut gallery!”

  Bethany Anne turned back around and Eric’s eyes tracked to John again. His face was fairly consumed with a smile.

  “You asshole!” Eric mouthed to his friend.

  John shrugged and went back to watching the room.

  John 01, Eric 00, John thought.

  “Before I was so rudely interrupted,” Bethany Anne continued while Kiel tapped his mandibles together in humor, “I was saying that I can pick up the crew in Shinigami, then pipe some serious shit through their airwaves with ADAM.”

  “I don’t know.” Kael-ven turned to her. “Do you think that will be enough?”

  She smiled. “If losing face to me doesn’t do the job, I have an ace in the hole who speaks their language.”

  “Oh, you do fight dirty.” Lance chuckled. “I like that.”

  PLEASE tell me I get a chance to tell those seven they can kiss my Kurtherian ass?

  You want to? Bethany Anne replied, surprised.

  Not only yes, but HELL YES! TOM replied. I’ve seen enough of them to know they have broken faith with our ancestors. I would be happy to have a few words with them.

  “Ok, slight change of plans.” Bethany Anne shrugged. “Seems that TOM is adamant about speaking to the Seven.”

  There was quiet around the table for a moment. “Peter?”

  “What?” the leader of the Guardians replied.

  “We are going to have to go to the surface to rip out this cancer, but I don’t think they will appreciate us killing their gods.”

  Peter shrugged. “Sucks to be them.”

  “Is there a way to make them hesitate?” Kiel asked, and all the eyes turned to him. “If we can just get a small percentage to actively fight for us, or a decent percentage to lay down their arms and not fight against us, we might be able to do this with significantly fewer casualties.”

  Dan spoke up. “That would be nice. Our ground-pounders are ready to deliver some serious ass-kicking, but the fewer we kill, the better the eventual relationship between the Leath and the Empire will be.”

  “That is the simple truth,” Frank added. “At least, it hasn’t seemed to change much whether I study our history back on Earth or alien history. Hell, even Giles…”

  Lance snorted, and Frank glanced at him before continuing. “Giles has compiled notes from his studies of alien races. He contends that most of them not associated with a specific religion tend to hold onto anger and resentment. Those races have very long memories, and it causes flare-ups down the line.”

  “How is Giles?” Kiel asked. “I haven’t heard his latest antics.”

  “That’s because Barbara is working overtime to keep him focused on his studies, but aliens seems to be his fascination,” Frank replied.

  “The little whippersnapper even tried to duck into a meeting over at All Guns Blazing last week he didn’t have clearance for.”

  “How did he get in?” Kiel asked.

  “He stole my ID,” Frank replied. “He looks enough like me that no one questioned him when he came in.”

  “Wasn’t Meredith on top of that?” Kael-ven asked.

  “I was,” the EI for the base replied, “but when I asked Lance about it, he said to allow the subterfuge to teach Giles a lesson.”

  “Unfortunately,” Lance looked at Kiel, “It didn’t work the way I’d planned. What it taught him was that he could get himself into places by having balls the size of asteroids.” Lance turned to Frank. “Tell Barbara I apologize. I didn’t think that would happen.”

  “For what it’s worth,” Peter added, “the two Guardians who were working security were sent to remedial security training.”

  Kael-ven snorted. “You kicked their asses?”

  Peter smiled. “Well, that was the punishment,” he replied. “The training they went through afterwards made sure they understood how not to have that particular result happen again. It was embarrassing.”

  Lance turned to him. “You don’t have to be too hard on them, Peter. Giles has a charisma level I can’t even begin to fathom, it’s so far off the charts. Plus,” he nodded to Frank, “between Frank and his mother, he has an incredible desire to know shit. Some of which doesn’t concern him and is probably more of a burden than a blessing.”

  “Barbara blames herself,” Frank admitted. “Says it was her genes that caused the problem.”

  Bethany Anne interrupted, “When she talks with me, she always blames you.”

  Frank waved a hand. “That’s in public. In private she takes the credit.”

  “Credit?” Kael-ven asked.

  Frank smiled. “Oh, you don’t think we aren’t proud of him, do you? That boy is going to figure out the secret to life, the universe, and everything one day.”

  “If his need to know doesn’t get him killed first.” Lance qualified.

  “Unfortunately true,” Frank agreed.

  Bethany Anne rapped on the table. “Ok, Giles aside, let’s get back on track. TOM and I are responsible for upsetting the Kurtherians badly enough that they chase us. I’ll make the carrier blow up, then fake a problem with the Shinigami and we will escape using one of the Leath gates.”

  “Which one?” Lance asked. “Or are you talking about their latest?”

  “I have very good intel that their temporarily sidelined gate, which they used for their last expansion effort, is active. We will have the control codes, and will set them before we go. The problem is they will be set back to the original location.”

  “Which means you and the others will be going into the new system they plan on attacking.”

  “Right,” she agreed.

  “That will make them up their timeline, since they will presume you can’t gate.” Frank was writing down notes in one of his books when he looked up. “Wait, you know where their next attack is going to be?”

  “We do,” Admiral Thomas admitted.

  “Well, let’s get with it,” Bethany Anne stood up. “We have precious little time to make this happen, and a lot of balls in the air.”

  Lance stood up. “Dan, if anyone complains?”

  Dan chuckled. “I’ll give them a pair of bricks and ask them to pound their reproductive organs until a solution presents itself.”

  Kiel winced.

  “Very sex-neutral,” Bethany Anne commented. “I approve.”

  “That wouldn’t work for a Gatt’wellian,” Kiel said as the meeting broke up.

  “What’s a Gatt’wellian?” Peter asked.

  “Another alien species. They have a different response to pain,” Kiel answered. “Pain causes them to increase their sexual efforts.”

  Peter shook his head. “To what purpose?”<
br />
  “Well,” Kael-ven took up the story, “the males are eaten at the end of the impregnation, so the scientists believe it allows them to die in orgasmic bliss.”

  “Damn.” Peter shook his head. “That makes losing your virginity a life-altering event.”

  “Life-ending, in fact,” Kiel agreed.

  Bethany Anne just shook her head as she left the room.

  They would get their shit together for the attack.

  They always did.

  This time, she thought, it’s for all the marbles.

  Had she done enough? Could they get the Leath to follow them? Also, could they perhaps save more of them than they destroyed? Would that be a good thing?

  The answers would come soon enough.

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Empress’ Suite

  Bethany Anne kicked off her shoes and closed the door to her room. She switched from her meeting clothes into a robe and went to her bed, turned around, and just fell over backward.

  God, is this ever going to end?

  This is God speaking. A familiar voice chuckled. The answer is “yes, soon.”

  It was supposed to be “soon” thirty years ago, Bethany Anne replied. And when did you start answering for God, TOM?

  Well, I figured you wanted some sort of reassurance, and unless I’m overruled I like my answer.

  Tell me about it. She waved her arms up and down the bedspread. How do they get this cloth so smooth?

  Do you really want to know?

  >>Yes. Do you?<<<br />
  No, ADAM, I don’t, she replied.

  Are you worried? TOM asked, his voice changing as he spoke to her. Before he had been focused on stuff, but she could tell that he was now totally focused on her.

  TOM, I’m always worried, she admitted. We fight and we fight, and the bad guys keep getting away. If they get away one more fucking time, I think I’ll just go nucking futs.

  Nucking futs… Oh, one of your sayings.

  Yeah, one of those. I’ll go fucking nuts. I mean, how many humans and Yollins have those assholes killed? Generations on the Leath side, and how many Yaree? How many on the worlds where we fought them? I’ve looked, TOM. The Leath are aggressive, but so are humans. What would their future have been if they had been supported by a group of good Kurtherians?