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  “Yes. This is a confirmed attack that occurred a decade ago some twelve systems away. The ship with the bite taken out of it was a mid-range transportation vessel, which issued a request for help. The two warships belonged to a Tulet group which was in-system. The smaller warship didn’t do well; it got too close to the creatures. The battleship was able to pummel the creatures from a distance, and the report says two died but seven disappeared.”

  “Son of a bitch!” Baba Yaga waved a hand. “Turn it off. I’m a believer.”

  TOM’s voice came on. “Just like that?”

  “Yes,” she admitted as she sat back down on her bed. “There is no reason to ignore it. I don’t know why I wouldn’t believe there could be creatures that used space like our oceans back on Earth.”

  She turned towards her nightstand. “Now, let’s figure out our future steps.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds

  Lance nodded to Admiral Thomas as he sat down with a cup of something akin to coffee in his hand. Team BMW plus Tina, Jean Dukes with three of her team, and six Yollin specialists in gate technology surrounded a large table.

  “Thank you, everyone. I appreciate you being here,” he started. “Use your tablets if you want to know who is who. I’ve hated the ‘Go-around-the-table and introduce yourself’ thing for two hundred years. Technology has improved, so use it.” He turned to the woman sitting four chairs to his left. “Jean?”

  Jean Dukes nodded. “It’s going to take us a while to pull that oversized gate out of the Leath system.”

  “No choice,” Lance replied. “We got it as part of our war reparations and I’m not leaving a back-door like that anywhere. In fact,” he tilted his head toward Admiral Thomas, “I don’t know if I want it here in the Yollin system either. If we can hide that big sumbitch and keep it safe, we need to do that.”

  “With what?” Jean asked. “The Meredith Reynolds is the biggest gun we have.”

  Lance nodded to Team BMW. “We’re starting large-scale production of the BYPS setup. Let’s plan on using those, plus we need a dead-man switch on the gate. I’d rather blow it up than give someone a straight shot back to Earth.”

  Bobcat spoke up. “Can we perhaps not blow it to shit and gone?” He flipped his hand over and back. “I’ve seen the requirements to build another of its type, and while not unique, it would make a banker pucker their butt to have to write another check like that.”

  “I’ve seen the cost just to move it,” Lance agreed, “and that is a pittance compared to the actual effort to build one of those behemoths.” He turned to Jean. “Do we have an EI ready for the gate?”

  She shrugged. “ArchAngel II says we don’t need a true AI on that fucker, so yes. I’d have preferred to chat with ADAM and TOM on the subject, but I understand that the few comments we get back from them consist of ‘Give them time?’”

  Lance nodded. “Yes. Their comments are, ‘She’s safe, she hasn’t found the Seven, and she hasn’t destroyed a planet…yet.’”

  “Not exactly the most comforting message,” Admiral Thomas said.

  “Yet brief and accurate,” Bobcat tossed in.

  “This isn’t a Baba Yaga meeting,” Lance’s eyes narrowed at the humans in the group, “so let’s focus. We don’t need to give our Empress a reason to concentrate on this project herself, so this gate needs to be moved safely, effectively, and quickly.” He looked down at his tablet, his eyes narrowing at a new number.

  “Meredith,” he continued, “is this new projected time to move the gate accurate?”

  “Yes, General,” the station operations EI replied. “We have done the numbers, and it will take…”

  “Decades.” Lance sighed. “Less costly than building, but more than I’d hoped.”

  “Not much we can do,” Admiral Thomas said as he looked at his tablet. The rest of the people around the table started doing the same. A couple of the Yollins had their heads together. Arguing over something to do with the update, he figured.

  “Okay, as Dan would say if he were here instead of on Leath, ‘Grab some bricks and start slamming some nuts until someone figures out a solution to make this happen a little,” he looked at his tablet once more, “no, a lot faster.’”

  The teams worked on options for another thirty minutes before Lance called for a stop. “Get with the main team liaison and work through the communications group. Bart, Jean, Bobcat and team, please stick around.”

  It took five minutes for everyone to finish up their last few questions with each other and step out of the meeting room, but soon there were only seven of them.

  “Ok.” Lance looked down the right side of the table, which held Bobcat, William, Marcus, and Tina, and then back up the left with Jean and Admiral Thomas. “We need to deal with getting that big-ass circle here faster.”

  “It’s not going to be ‘snap your fingers’ fast, Lance.” Admiral Thomas looked him square in the eye. “Can’t fight physics on this.”

  “Not worried about a little time, but I’m sure as hell worried about that much time.”

  Bobcat scratched his cheek. “I’m sure we can cut it…maybe in half at least. But,” he pointed a finger up, “we need time to mass-produce enough of the BYPSs to surround a planet and seed them in Earth’s system on likely routes. We can’t build them fast enough to leave here in ten years anyway.”

  “When we get Bethany Anne back I’ll let her deal with that issue,” Lance replied. “That’s up her alley anyway.”

  “Anyone got a system that needs to be cleaned up?” Jean asked. “She seems to like to straighten out systems. I suggest we give her nothing but a ride and drop her off, then we all get to bet on how many months it will take her to sort out the world.”

  “I would give her weeks,” Tina popped in.

  “Less than two,” Bobcat replied, smiling at Tina, who was thinking about the bet.

  “Not too much to clean up in the Empire anymore since the Rangers have been working so hard,” Marcus commented. “I’ve heard that even Tabitha is bitching about being bored.”

  Jean leaned forward. “That’s true, I’ve heard the same. I understand Barnabas is actually eager to find a new criminal organization or two.”

  Lance tapped on the table. “Focus, people! Tabitha isn’t our problem at the moment.” He sighed. “I’m personally hoping that Bethany Anne will focus on getting to Earth and securing that area. It would be nice if there was a Michael at the end of the trip.” He looked around, a small smile playing on his lips. “Might as well wish for Santa Claus to swing our way, too.”

  “Well, if this were a romance story we would get our happily ever after,” Jean told him. “All by the end of the first book.”

  “How the hell do you write one book about a love that spans over a hundred years and finish it with a happily ever after?” William asked. Everyone turned to look at him and Jean raised an eyebrow. “Love is ephemeral.” William snapped his fingers. “It’s here one moment, gone the next.” He smiled and waved a hand when he noticed everyone staring at him. “Uh, forget I said anything.”

  Under the table, Tina squeezed Marcus’ leg and nodded in their friend’s direction. Marcus looked at her and then at William, who wasn’t paying attention, and then back at her again. He leaned over to whisper “What?” in Tina’s ear.

  Tina rolled her eyes to the ceiling as she squeezed his leg again. She loved her man regardless, but sometimes he was annoyingly clueless.

  “The ability of romance writers aside,” Lance continued, eying Jean, who smiled back in reply, “this is real life, not a book. Let’s assume we won’t have the power of Michael to bring Bethany Anne home to us. Once we get her back, we need to have something exciting for her to do.”

  “That doesn’t involve taking over another race?” Admiral Thomas asked.

  “Assuming she gets the Kurtherians?” Jean added.

  “I pray she doesn’t find any more Kurtherians,” Lance heaved a sigh. “Let’s hop
e Baba Yaga doesn’t burn any worlds in the process.”

  The rest of the meeting was over in five minutes and Lance said his good-byes to Jean, whom he hadn’t seen in a couple of weeks, and Tina, who hadn’t been at the last meeting involving the three amigos.

  He walked out of the meeting room and picked up his Empress’ Guards as he headed back to his own quarters. Once they passed the military guard post, which protected many of the suites for those in the higher-ranking jobs on the Meredith Reynolds, his security team retired to their own barracks as he walked toward the suite he shared with Patricia.

  After he stepped in he loosened his tie and tossed it over the couch, then called as he walked into the bedroom, “Pat?”

  He thought he heard a muffled noise so he followed it back out of the master bedroom past his office and down the hall to the guest room at the end.

  Where he found his wife with her head under the bed.

  “Problems?” he asked as she pulled her arm and head out from under the bed.

  “Yes!” she exclaimed, a bright glint to her eye. She held up her hand and grasped a small object in triumph. “Jean’s granddaughter Nickie was over here last Tuesday and was playing in here. She left behind a toy and has been complaining to Jean ever since.”

  “I just left Jean,” he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “not fifteen minutes ago.” He scrunched up his face. “Where was I when she was here?”

  “You were out flying around and discussing where the new hidden R&D locations could be with Bartholomew.”

  “I remember.” He stepped out of her way as she went around him and headed towards the living room.

  She waved the item over her head. “I’ll get this back to her later. The ladies are going to get together.”

  “To gossip?” he asked, a smile on his face as he followed her.

  She never slowed down, nor did she turn around as she set the little toy on the counter. “Stop smirking, and stop looking at my ass.”

  “But—” he started.

  “No butt,” she countered.

  “I wasn’t saying b-u-t-t,” he clarified as she turned around. “I was saying ‘but I wasn’t smirking.’”

  She eyed him. “You were smiling.”

  His smile cracked his face. “Exactly!”

  She put a finger in his chest. “You didn’t argue about where your eyes were.”

  He stood a little straighter and put a hand on his chest. “That is because I am strategically smart enough not to engage in an unwinnable argument.”

  “Uh huh. Then why are you harassing me about gossip?” she asked. “You know we are there to catch up on everyone’s families.”

  “Because I’m positive there is gossiping.” He raised an eyebrow in question.

  Patricia kept quiet.

  “And I like to keep you engaged. I’ll know I’m seriously in trouble when you don’t care if I compliment you or anger you.”

  “The opposite of love isn’t hate—” she started.

  “It is indifference,” he finished as he put his arms around her and kissed her forehead.

  Her face was pressed against his chest so her voice was a little muffled against his shirt when she said, “You have the ability to make me go from pissed off to happy in two seconds, so I think you are still safe General Reynolds.”

  “Good,” he told her as he reached up with his right hand to play with her hair. “I’d like to think I haven’t bored you yet.”

  “See that you don’t.” She patted his side. “There was a pool boy on L3 who looked appetizing.”

  Lance chuckled. “There aren’t any pools on L3,” he told her. “That’s the level for waste and trash.”

  He waited a moment for her to check with Meredith to make sure he wasn’t lying before she spoke.

  “Oh.” A moment later she changed the subject. “Anything on Bethany Anne?”

  He kissed her one more time before he stepped over to the counter and picked up the toy, which was a replica of the original ArchAngel. “She sure was a pretty ship,” he said aloud, remembering how she had looked in Earth’s atmosphere. He set it back down and walked to the couch.

  “No,” he admitted as he sat. “She has done a damned fine job of dropping off the face of reality.”

  “Nothing from Nathan?” She stepped into the kitchen and pulled out two beers, opening the tops and going back into the living room.

  “Thank you,” he said as he reached up for one.

  She looked down at him. “Who says both of these aren’t mine?”

  “Feeling lushy tonight?” he queried, looking at her with a patient face and leaving his arm still outstretched.

  Patricia eyed him before handing him a beer. “You’re lucky I don’t turn one of these over on your head.”

  He accepted one of the beers. “Thank you, and I was never in any danger.”

  “Oh?” She sat down on the opposite couch. “What makes you say that?”

  “While you wouldn’t hesitate to drown me,” he winked at his wife, “you wouldn’t soak the couches in beer.”

  She raised her beer in a toast. “Damn right. I can get you in the shower easily, but these babies? Not so much.” She ran her hand over the couch pillow. “It took me two years to get these finished.”

  He nodded. “Would have been faster if you hadn’t wanted this shade of purple.”

  She shrugged. “I thought they dyed the plant fibers to make the fabric, I didn’t realize they grew the plant with the color in the fibers already,” she agreed. “Now stop dodging the question.”

  “No, nothing from Nathan’s contacts. It’s like someone is scanning them and pulling the good stuff out.”

  “Or maybe there is just nothing there to find?” she asked.

  He pointed his beer at her. “That’s probably the truth, but we just don’t have anything to go on. How probable is it that the white-haired Witch of the Empire can hide herself forever?” He shook his head as he took a swig of his beer. “She will eventually leave clues, I’m sure.”

  “Yes.” Patricia nodded. “Lots of dead Kurtherian or Leath bodies. You will just have to follow a trail of skeletons to catch her.”

  “Let’s hope they are the Kurtherians,” Lance admitted, his eyes a little distant.

  “You worry she has gone too dark?” Patricia asked.

  Lance stared into the liquid in his bottle for a moment before looking up into Patricia’s eyes. “Honey, I trust Bethany Anne with all my heart. However,” he chewed on his thoughts for a moment, “we have enough from ADAM and TOM to know that isn’t who we are working with right now.”

  Patricia stood up and walked around their coffee table to sit next to Lance and grab his available hand. “She will come back to us, Lance.”

  “I hope you’re right, honey,” he admitted, still looking into the depths of the liquid. Hoping he didn’t find his daughter’s dead body on some foreign planet.

  All because he hadn’t seen the strain they had placed on her for so damned long. He sighed before taking another sip of his drink. No one in real life was a superman or woman, and he should have known that.

  And now he knew his daughter’s limits.

  QBS Shinigami

  Baba Yaga turned towards her little nightstand and picked up a tablet. “ADAM, have you finished the research for the planet Devon and Lerr’ek?”

  “Yes, Baba Yaga,” ADAM answered. He had tried calling her Bethany Anne before, but the result was a tongue-lashing that caused even his Etheric-based brain to hurt. “I have gamed over seven hundred and seventy-two thousand, six hundred and twelve different scenarios depending on who is elevated within the political infrastructure on the planet.”

  Her red eyes glanced at the ceiling. “Spill it. I’m not feeling very patient.”

  You are never patient, TOM quipped.

  Back to the doghouse with you, she told him.

  Seriously? TOM asked. Well, shit. One minor acknowledgement of the truth and you throw me into the do
ghouse again.

  What a fucking whining alien you have become. And who is teaching you that language?

  The noise in Baba Yaga’s ears confirmed TOM’s incredulous disbelief.

  Hey, I cussed when we met and you didn’t change how you spoke.

  There must be a certain amount of familiarity before it becomes commonplace.

  Are you saying that you fought the good fight for a hundred-plus years and now you have decided to cave in?

  TOM thought about this for a moment, wondering where her logic trap was hiding. YEeessssNNnoooooPeerrrrhaps?

  Baba Yaga snickered. Wuss. You won’t commit to an answer.

  Why do human parents not allow their children to play with certain others?

  That isn’t simply a human thing, Baba Yaga countered. I’ve seen multiple alien races forbid it. Except those who are hive-minded, since that IS their thing.

  You didn’t answer my question.

  I’m giving myself a moment to find your trap, she conceded.

  TOM snickered in her head.

  “So,” she answered aloud. Bed now made, she left her cabin and headed towards the bridge. “Human parents don’t allow their children to play with certain others so they aren’t a bad influence.” Baba Yaga entered the bridge and sat on her couch. It started molding itself to her, elevating itself and becoming a flight chair.

  The video monitors angled up from beneath, giving her additional options for input.

  Shinigami had learned that Baba Yaga liked to use all the forward monitors, including the three that were at her own seat and those from the seats to her left and right. This provided sufficient capacity when working problems with the three of them.

  An AI, an alien, and an EI as her teammates.

  “However,” Baba Yaga continued after belting herself in and selecting screens for her views, “if I remember correctly, it is the older and wiser beings who should be capable of not succumbing to a bad influence. You out-date me by a thousand years or more.”

  She turned her head to prepare the second monitor to discuss issues with ADAM in a moment. “Plus you stuck your scrawny alien ass in me, so you forced me to be stuck with your influence.”