Forever Defend (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 17) Read online

  Her voice dropped down a little as she flashed him a smile and shrugged her shoulders. “Sucks to be them.”

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Yollin System

  The main meeting room, also called the ‘throne room’ when Bethany Anne wasn’t around, was filling with dignitaries from three different alien groups.

  The Ixtalis had come back. After their first attempts had gone fantastically wrong—using spy technologies to capture information about the humans and/or trying to get them to trade for their gems—they had sent a second trade mission.

  The second mission had never even made it onto the Meredith Reynolds. They had held one video meeting with Bethany Anne during which the Ixtali Legate had demanded that the Etheric Empire engage in trade. Bethany Anne had simply looked at the Legate on the screen, then turned her head to speak to someone off-screen. “Tell ArchAngel I wish her to remove a ship from my presence.”

  The Ixtali Legate’s ship had made it back through the commercial gate damned quickly when the Leviathan-class super-dreadnought on their sensors had started moving in their direction.

  The Yollin ships waiting in the third ring to go through the gate had snickered as the Ixtalis negotiated with a freighter captain to exchange places in the queue to facilitate their departure.

  This third time, the Ixtalis had sent a bigger delegation, complete with two high-ranking officers. Surprisingly, they had asked politely for a chance to speak with Bethany Anne. No trade required, no technological efforts to subvert anything.

  No one on the Meredith Reynolds had believed them, but so far the Ixtalis had acted in good faith.

  Her first meeting with them would be held this morning.

  Her second meeting of the day was with a group of tall blue bipedal beings that reminded her of light blue basketball players. Well, ones with non-human noses, anyway.

  Her final meeting looked to be the most interesting. This group, the Yaree, was an alien version of Earth Gypsies who searched the stars. The nicest thing you could call them were archeologists. The worst? Possibly grave robbers.

  Either way, this delegation supposedly wanted to pay tribute to the new Yollin Royalty. Bethany Anne had a bet on the side with TOM over what they really wanted. ADAM was holding the money and would decide who had won the bet.

  —

  The large Yaree ship, a sphere with a large pyramidal-looking structure jutting from the back, held off from the QBBS Meredith Reynolds at the coordinates provided by the humans.

  Inside, Delegate Tomthum reached up to his right eyestalk and scratched it halfway down. He had three eyestalks, all of them able to turn in different directions. Presently, he was looking at the screens ahead of them.

  “Do not,” he told the other three on the bridge with him, “move us from this location.”

  The shallow eyestalk-bobs he received from the captain and crew provided the Delegate with comfort. This was the opportunity his people had waited on for generations.

  Most aliens did not know the true history of the Yaree. Considered nothing more than wandering hucksters or thieves in better quality space ships, they were scorned and reviled in bars all over the Systems.

  No one had been tasked with sharing the true story of their people with an outsider for over two generations.

  This small group had been tagged at the last Festival of Assembly to seek out a meeting with the leader or leaders of the people who had taken out the rumored Kurtherian Leader of the Yollins.

  They were directed to divulge the true story to this alien Empress.

  Or kill her to keep the truth hidden until another race might show themselves to be trustworthy.

  Most doubted they had the time to find another to help them, if this group failed.

  City of Bouk, Planet Straiphus, Straiphus System

  The bar wasn’t dingy, not as bars in Bouk went. The large Yollin ex-mercenary wiped down his drinking establishment’s tables and kicked over one of the few couches that seated the four-legged Yollin elite who would occasionally come into the bar.

  Many of the owner’s patrons enjoyed using the long couch. If it hadn’t been such an expensive proposition and a waste of good floor space, R’yhek would have just purchased couches and replaced all his normal chairs with the more expensive furniture.

  That would have shown he didn’t have an issue with the new rules, elite seating for everyone!

  He stood up from cleaning a table and reached back to shove his carapace into place. The damned thing had been blasted out of position in a different life and it would occasionally slip when he bent over to clean.

  By Yoll, it hurt when it did that.

  He rubbed his mandibles in thought and eyed the space. He rarely, if ever, was full-up in here. He looked around.

  Maybe if he took out a third of his tables to give him extra floor space, he could upgrade all the chairs?

  The door to his bar opened, and he turned to see who was entering this early in the afternoon. It was usually someone who had pulled a double shift and was just getting off work.

  His eyes widened in surprise when he had to look down, and then down some more, to see who had entered.

  The alien seemed tiny.

  And it was human.

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Yollin System

  Bethany Anne looked at John, who was blocking the exit from her rooms. “You have GOT to be shitting me!” she fumed, trying her best to shoot lasers at him from her eyes.

  TOM chose that moment to pay attention to what she was doing.

  That’s not going to work

  Why the hell not? I can throw fire-fucking-balls!

  You have also figured out eighteen other neat tricks. But attenuating light at the intensity of a laser isn’t going to do your eyeballs any good. You will spend all your time in pain while you heal them.

  Bethany Anne huffed. You’re a damned party-pooper.

  “Nope,” John returned simply. He held out the large case with one arm. She knew it was heavy as shit, and she considered standing there until he either had to use two hands or let it drop.

  Then she could make a break for it and run around him on the right, bouncing off the wall to get through the door. Or she could just walk through the Etheric and bypass him.

  But that wasn’t how these games were played.

  “You can stand there,” John told her, “and make me hold this all afternoon.” He smirked when her eyes told him he had guessed her thoughts. “But let me inform you that this box isn’t very heavy, and I recently had Jean add a new feature to my armor.”

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow and bent at her waist to peer under his outstretched arm. “Sonofabitch,” she murmured. She took a step forward and reached out to feel along his side and underarm before confirming with the man who was staring down at her with a grin on his face. “Your arms lock?”

  He nodded.

  She looked closer at the geometric designs in the armor. “What is this fucking design?” She traced it with her index finger to figure it out. The armor plates linked, and yet each seemed to slide beneath the next.

  “It’s something TOM came up with.” She gazed back up at John, who winked as he told her, “It involved lots and LOTS of math. I just zoned out.”

  “That figures,” Bethany Anne grumped as she reached for the case. John released it before she got a hand on it, but she snagged the handle before it could fall six inches. She pivoted and turned back to her quarters, asking over her shoulder, “What color?”

  John lowered his arm. “Why, your favorite, of course!”

  “Hey!” she protested, as she turned to close the door to her bedroom holding the box. “No one can see me bleed wearing this color!”

  The door closed and John grinned. “Well, yours or anyone else’s blood, anyway.” He looked around the personal meeting room for the Empress of the Etheric Empire and raised an eyebrow, then walked the fifteen paces to the cooling unit and opened it.

  There were at least four types of beer,
including a couple of Yollin beverages, in the top third of the unit.

  The bottom two-thirds was filled with red bottles with a completely (mostly) legal swoosh along the side. Bethany Anne had said she doubted the Coca-Cola company could bring her to court in another galaxy for trademark infringement, and besides, it helped her remember what home was like.

  She had her Cokes in the lower part of the fridge because cold air was heavier than warm air and she liked her Coke just this side of frozen.

  He didn’t find one Pepsi in the bunch. He closed the door and smiled. Ecaterina must not have been in here lately.

  A moment later his Empress came out of her room decked in a blood-red suit of armor that gripped her body like latex. He was surprised to see that her boots had two-inch heels. “What is that shit?” he murmured.

  When he looked up, she winked at him. “I told Jean if she didn’t figure out how to give me heels, she could keep the next suit of armor. Apparently,” she looked down at her feet, “this armor can be manipulated to be flat for fighting or have heels.”

  She started toward the door. “What else can it do?” she asked as John Grimes, her friend, guard, and presently amused guy shook his head and followed her out of the suite.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Pirate Ship F’zeer

  Captain Brell examined the two officers responsible for the boarding action. He pointed to the Skaine on his left. “Officer Strill, you are responsible for making sure the bridge is under our control. Shoot one of the bridge crew as an example. Be certain you point out something he has done wrong before you blast his head off.”

  “What if they haven’t done anything wrong, sir?” Strill asked. “I know we are supposed to find something, but…”

  Brell wanted to slap his officer. Unfortunately, Strill was the most competent to accomplish this operation he had available. His previous boarding officer had died in a poorly-executed bridge encounter. “Skaine always find someone to kill. It keeps the sheep docile.”

  There was a moment of silence as Strill thought about Brell’s comment. That was Skaine 101, but until his people had to do it, they rarely thought about the why.

  Strill finally worked it out in his head. “I understand, sir.” This time, Brell thought there was something new in his voice. A moment later, the captain smiled. It was the sound of a backbone growing.

  About damn time.

  “Make it happen, both of you.” Brell looked at them. “I want them to show respect for Skaines, and I want this to be the F’zeer’s life-changing haul, got that?” His stern visage made the impression he was looking for. Given that the F’zeer had supposedly been recognized and its information sent back to the misbegotten Etheric Empire—and that bitch of an Empress—was it too much of a risk to seize the K’Leen II, or should they just blow it?

  Brell’s eyes narrowed as he turned his head to his right. “Officer Mobik, I want you to see what type of engines they are using and if they are in perfect working order before you lock them down.”

  Mobik replied, “Sir, engines are never in perfect working order.”

  Brell smiled, his eyes alight considering the result of a poorly working engine. “Precisely!”

  —

  “Pirate ship coming alongside External Sector One-One-Five, Ranger,” the Captain’s voice came over the speaker.

  “Seven hundred and seventy-fucking-five!” Tabitha spat out and then jumped up, pointing to Hirotoshi. “Ha!” She turned her face toward the speaker. “Thank you, Captain. We will be there in a moment.”

  “That would be appreciated. The Skaine are known for their rather aggressive methods of keeping a ship’s crew in line.”

  “Yeah.” Ranger Tabitha grimaced as she locked her tools around her body. She couldn’t bring her favorite coat on this trip. “The Skaine didn’t get that memo.”

  “Or,” Ryu set his headgear in place and spoke through his subvocal connection to Tabitha, “they might not see it until Achronyx bypasses their security and places it in their queue.”

  Hirotoshi, Katsu and Kouki stopped at the door before they deployed to protect the ship from the inside. Hirotoshi winked to Katsu but spoke to Tabitha and Ryu. “Then he back-dates the memo to show they always had it.” He paused a second. “That’s not very Rangerly.”

  Tabitha smiled but stayed quiet. As the three went down the hall, Katsu’s voice traveled back to her, “But it is very Tabitha.”

  —

  “Have I told you,” Tabitha said conversationally, as she and Ryu paused in the doorway of the small, specially-built exit from their hidden section of the ships hold, “that I am starting to like these zero-gee trips?”

  Ryu looked around at the brightness of space. The ship they were about to leave had slowed to almost stationary. The pirates had caught them at a logical and tenuous location. They didn’t have enough velocity to escape, and the ship was turned the wrong way, anyhow. These large commercial ships were useless for any sort of maneuvers. “That is because we have the flight suits.”

  “Well, perhaps.” Tabitha admitted as their suits pushed them away from the K’leen II toward the F’zeer. “Huh, would you look at that?” Tabitha pointed toward the location where the ship’s name was supposed to be painted on the outside. “Seems like the captain’s database was accurate.”

  Ryu looked in the direction her arm was pointing and had to admit that the poorly-erased name gave lie to the F’zeer designation. Tabitha toggled the HUD command to enable her helmet-cam to take pictures.

  “You know they will probably try to sabotage the ship, right?” Ryu asked. After all these years with Tabitha, he still couldn’t figure how strategically aware she would be in any given situation. Usually, she was intelligent enough to overcome the advantages his age difference and accumulated wisdom gave him.

  Other times she would step off the top of a building, forgetting it was three stories down.

  It was always a tossup which Tabitha he would get.

  As the two of them drifted down the length of the K’leen II, Tabitha unclipped two pucks from her belt. Both were about three inches in diameter. She casually tossed them toward the back of the F’zeer and ignored where they were headed. “Achronyx, make sure those pucks end up someplace that will cause massive problems with their engines.”

  Her EI’s voice came over her implant, “Engines always have problems with them, I understand.”

  “Yes, they do, you know?” Tabitha mused as the two of them engaged their suits’ cloaking abilities. While a sharp alien might still be able to see them if one should be looking, there wasn’t a technology known that would be able to locate the two humans as they broke away from the protection of the commercial transport and headed for the pirate vessel.

  “Are you into their computers yet?” Tabitha asked her electronic companion.

  Achronyx came back, his voice modified to sound offended. “Katsu could have broken their security blindfolded.”

  “Yes,” Tabitha mused, “but you didn’t answer my question. Are YOU in their systems?” She chuckled.

  “Is that supposed to be a joke?” the EI asked. “Please clarify, because I am working to alleviate your concerns where my communications have caused friction in our relationship.”

  “Uhhhh…” Tabitha came back after a couple of seconds. “The hell, Achronyx? When did you start caring?”

  “I notice you didn’t answer the question,” the EI responded. Tabitha couldn’t tell if his voice sounded smug or curious. Before, she would have assumed smug.

  “I’m off my damned game,” Tabitha muttered. This time her comment wasn’t passed through to her EI.

  QBBS Merideth Reynolds, Yollin System

  A couple of jump gates away, inside the most powerful woman in the galaxy, an AI was…chuckling.

  If only to himself.

  Bethany Anne put a hand up to stop General Lance Reynolds from making a comment. He had barely raised an eyebrow when she went inside herself to have a conversation.


  Why are you laughing, ADAM?

  >> ADAM isn’t here right now, please leave a message after the beep.<<<br />
  >>Beep.<<<br />
  Cut that shit out. Who are you fucking with?

  >> Wait, why would you think I am presently messing with anyone?<<<br />
  You live inside my head. Perhaps, just perhaps, I’ve learned a trick or two over the years. Now, who is it?

  He paused long enough for Bethany Anne to register his hesitation before he answered.

  >>Tabitha.<<<br />
  Bethany Anne mentally chewed on that answer for a small part of a second, looking at the different ways ADAM could interact with her Ranger, and why he would.

  Are you messing with Achronyx?

  >>Well,<< he gave her the mental equivalent of a sniff, >>she keeps complaining about Achronyx, so I thought I would modify his code. With his permission, of course.<<<br />
  Make sure it doesn’t affect an operation. She was just about to return to the conversation with her dad when she added, and keep me in the loop.

  The General’s eyebrow was still raised in curiosity, as he had waited less than a couple of seconds before she came back to him.

  Pirate Ship F’zeer

  The pirate ship’s hatch unlocked and allowed Tabitha and Ryu to enter. Its warning systems had been hacked to prohibit notification of anyone inside. Both humans deactivated the protective shield that had facilitated their short spaceflight. The shield had kept radiation and other nasty things away from them, and heat, oxygen and pressure near them so they didn’t die while in space. Tabitha wrinkled her nose and whispered, “Why is it that Skaine ships always smell so nasty?”

  Ryu nodded in agreement. “It would be nice if they would sanitize a little more before we came over to kill them.”

  “No shit,” Tabitha agreed as she checked her weapons. She unsnapped a couple of secondary weapons, making sure they were loose and available.