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  “It’s been fourteen days,” Bobcat grated out.

  “Yeah, but we’ve had a bet …” William had continued before Lance cut in.

  “GUYS!” They turned to the Leader of the Etheric Empire’s defenses, “Save it for later, ok?” The three men nodded.

  Bobcat stuck two fingers up, pointing to William, then his own eyes, then to Marcus and back to his eyes again before mouthing silently ‘we will talk later’ to the both of them.

  William smiled, and Marcus tried to stifle a laugh.

  Barbara, sitting next to Frank, asked, “You said ‘vice’ earlier Lance, is she cracking or something?”

  “Oh, nothing like that,” Lance agreed, “It’s just you know that we are about to leave the system and we need to get a jump on handling a potential problem before it becomes a real issue. I’m sure none of us want to see her suffer withdrawals.”

  Lance looked around to all of Bethany Anne’s closest friends and allies before asking, “How are we going to solve her Coke addiction?”

  CHAPTER TWO

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Queen’s Suites

  “Bethany Anne,” Meredith, the Operations E.I. for the QBBS Meredith Reynolds spoke from the speaker. Although Meredith could have routed the information through ADAM, they tended to work like humans expected. “Scott says he is ready to pass Yelena, Ashur, and Bellatrix, plus their five offspring through if you are ready?”

  Bethany Anne blinked once as she processed the information. Then, she jumped out of her bed, rushed into her closet, slid out of the nice suede shirt she was wearing to grab an old t-shirt and throw that on. Tossing off her pajama bottoms, she slid into a pair of leather pants.

  Puppy nails can scratch, and if they happened to get their fur all over her, the t-shirt was much easier to wash ... or just ditch. She couldn’t remember if the puppies would shed, but no use chancing the nice suede top she liked to lounge around in.

  Walking back out of her closet, the doors shutting behind her, she wrapped her hair in a ponytail and called out. “Ok, let them in.” She passed through her bedroom’s doors to enter the more public area of her suite.

  Just in time to get ambushed by five German Shepherd puppies.

  Two came at her from the front, two came from the couch having jumped off the sofa arms. The last was trying a sneak attack.

  Bethany Anne took her step and disappeared.

  Scott, listening, but not able to see inside the suite from the doorway smirked when he heard a ‘YIP!’ of surprise. This was followed by another yip when it sounded to him as if one of the puppies had landed on the other.

  “So, letting them in early are you?” Bethany Anne, now only two feet in front of her guard, had caught his face full of glee.

  His eyes darted back to where she was supposed to be and then back to where she was, staring at him with her hands resting on her hips.

  “Aaaahhhh,” Scott started, but then Yelena’s voice, coming out of the suite’s meeting room, saved his ass.

  “Oh!” Yelena came around the corner to see Bethany Anne outside her own suite, “there you are!”

  “Hello, Yelena!” Bethany Anne smiled and waved to the woman before looking Scott in the eyes. “Just remember,” she whispered as she walked past her guard and back into her suite, “the Saint goes both ways!”

  There was a ‘chuf’ behind him, and Scott turned his head and looked down at the large white dog, “Yeah Ashur, I think we are both going to get it for that effort.” Behind Ashur, Bellatrix chuffed as well, and Scott smiled, “Yes, I know you told us, but it was funny, right?”

  Bellatrix shook her head and turned around to go back into the room. Scott shrugged to Ashur and turned back to watching the hallway. Scott’s position guarding Bethany Anne’s suite was a little ceremonial as anyone making it down the long hallway through Meredith’s scans was already checked for damn near everything. But, at least one of her four closest guards would be here even if standing here was a completely superfluous action.

  No one was going to see Bethany Anne, without at least one of her Bitches checking them out first.

  —

  “Take a seat, Yelena,” Bethany Anne pointed to the couch. “Not you,” she told Ashur, “Mr. White Mountain of fur and hilarity. Take your hairy traitorous ass back out to Scott. You two can console yourselves while we women figure this out.” Ashur chuffed, stuck his nose in the air and jogged back out of the room.

  Bellatrix, Yelena’s all black German Shepherd that had been saved on an operation in Europe, jumped up on the couch. Yelena sat next to her, one of her legs on the couch, one hanging off. Her black hair matched the female German Shepherd’s exactly. Bellatrix chuffed, and Yelena smiled and responded to her friend, “Yes, Ashur really didn’t want to stick around to chat about this, so he’s happy bullshitting with Scott.”

  Bellatrix put her head down and watched her five puppies roaming around the room. Well, four of them. Matrix, one of the boys, all black except for four white socks, sat next to the couch, watching the three of the ladies on the couch talk.

  Bellatrix chuffed to Bethany Anne who regarded the female, then slowly raised an eyebrow, “You’re shitting me, right?” Another chuff, “Seriously? All five of them?” Bethany Anne looked up to Yelena who shrugged her shoulders.

  “I know, right? It’s like five individual little puff-balls who usually can’t agree on what they want to eat all zoomed in on one idea and now it is written in stone.”

  Bethany Anne chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Where are they on their maturity level?”

  “Probably early teens, human wise.” Yelena answered before Bellatrix chuffed, “True, Matrix is pretty focused.”

  Bethany Anne turned to look down at the black male who was looking up, but his eyes seemed vacant. “Why does he look like he isn’t with us right now?” she asked.

  Bellatrix chuffed and the sense of someone being home returned to Matrix’s eyes. He barked back at his mom and looked at Bethany Anne turning his head sideways. “Ok,” Bethany Anne spoke to the pup, “You got my attention, what is it Matrix?”

  The little guy barked twice, “Uh,” Bethany Anne turned to look over at Yelena, her brow furrowing. “Ok, I get that the five little ones want to search out and find their human partners, but why is Matrix talking to me, but I don’t get the idea he is talking to me? With Ashur as my partner, wouldn’t that be weird?”

  Yelena looked between Matrix and Bellatrix, “Any help here, Trix?”

  There was a few moments of chuffing and high-pitched barks, with an occasional lower bark from Bellatrix as the two women listened to the conversation between the dogs.

  After a little while, Bethany Anne’s eyebrows just about made it up to her hairline.

  TOM!

  Yes?

  Have you been talking with Matrix?

  Yes.

  How are you doing that?

  I can reach out and speak to minds, Bethany Anne, as long as the other minds are capable of communication. The puppies, like their parents who have been through the Pod-doc, are certainly capable of communication.

  What …uh…what have you been talking about?

  He likes to talk about space and being ‘out there.’

  Out where?

  Space.

  Yelena noticed the Queen was having an internal discussion and waited. Then, Bethany Anne closed her eyes and put her head in her hands.

  “Is everything ok?” Yelena asked.

  “Yes,” she answered, then shook her head and changed her reply, “No.”

  “What’s wrong?” Yelena asked, wondering what could have changed Bethany Anne’s carefree attitude from a moment before.

  There was a pause before Bethany Anne answered. “My resident Alien has acquired,” she peeked out from between her fingers, looking down at Matrix who was staring back up at her, his little tongue hanging out. “A four-footed friend who wants to go see space with him. Which means seeing space with me, too.”

 
Matrix sat back on his haunches and braced a little straighter before barking up at Bethany Anne.

  So, can he stay with me? Tom asked his best friend in the universe.

  Bellatrix chuffed, and Matrix turned to look at his Mom and barked back.

  “Ashur!” Bethany Anne called out to get her companion’s attention.

  Scott called back into the room, “Sorry, he left a couple of minutes ago to grab something to eat.”

  Bethany Anne slowly lifted her head and leaned back on the couch, allowing her head to rest back, and looked up at the ceiling, “That little shit knew,” she grumped after a moment or two, “I’ve been played.”

  Yelena was able to successfully keep a grin off of her face, but Bellatrix chuffed, and Matrix jumped into Bethany Anne’s lap. She barely noticed him curl up as she absently petted the young German Shepherd. Her mind on a million other things as she stared up at the ceiling.

  Yes, Yelena had to agree, you’ve been had.

  How the hell, Bethany Anne was wondering, Does one have a ride-along alien that acquires a dog he can communicate with? Who the fuck thinks this shit up? Seriously, somebody stop this damned asteroid, I need to get off…

  Bethany Anne could tell TOM was talking and the pup was, as far as Bethany Anne could determine, communicating right back.

  Fuck my life… she thought as she realized she was petting Matrix and rolled her eyes in exasperation, One more fucking time!

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds - All Guns Blazing

  Shun smiled to the bouncer outside of the most famous bar on the asteroid, All Guns Blazing. The bouncer, a large Were by the name of Tim who had been with the Wechselbalg group since the beginning, nodded to the trio. When Tim was at the door, rarely were there any problems inside the bar.

  A few of the people inside knew Shun, Zhu, and Jian. While the Weres were interested in meeting Jian, Shun had learned that it was passed around the back channels to give the quiet Chinese man some personal space. Therefore, most Wechselbalg were interested, but not nosey.

  Or you answered to one of the Queen’s Own.

  As a genetic Werecat, Jian was a bit of an anomaly on the Meredith Reynolds. Shun thought there might be two others on the ship, at least if the rumors were true.

  Shun took the entrance that went to the bar side, as opposed to the more family oriented side and nodded to the bartender on his way to a tall side table, with three chairs around it. The proprietors of this place didn’t believe in trying to shove too many people too close to each other.

  Now that Shun understood the makeup of some of the people, and their propensity to fight?

  It made a lot of sense.

  Zhu and Jian were at the table, talking when Shun pulled up his chair. He had barely sat down when a waiter swung by and dropped two Snow beers on the table. “Xiè xie” Shun called out to the waiter who raised a hand over his shoulder to acknowledge the thanks as he deftly caught a bottle that was tipped over and grabbed another empty on his left as he walked to the bar.

  Some of these people were so damned dexterous they should join the Royal Circus, he thought.

  “We have news,” Jian spoke up. Shun turned to his friend and raised an eyebrow. Stephen, the Queen’s confidant, had found out Jian was a Wechselbalg before his two best friends had known. Because of this, and even though he was incredibly reserved in his speaking, and the least likely of the three of them to speak, he ended up as their liaison with the Etheric Empire.

  Now, it had come down to the end of the choices they had to make. The three needed to figure out and decide what to do, next.

  “We have been provided the option of sticking together, choosing military jobs, or civilian jobs,” Jian told his friends.

  “But, they have jobs for us?” Zhu asked, and Jian nodded. “Good, I’m getting bored,” Zhu commented as he looked around, “I’ve got to figure out how to pay my bar tab."

  Shun smiled. Zhu was a hard worker from his country upbringing, and the three of them had been physically working out with each other, taking advantage of the many facilities available to those on the asteroid. Heck, they even had an area where you could enhance or reduce the gravity. One time Jian wasn't paying attention, and he moved the control to three Gs. It had been painful just to move. Getting up off the floor would have been worse had Shun not thought just to call out for Meredith's help. The E.I. quickly returned the gravity to normal.

  “First, let me confirm which way we are going, military or civilian?” Jian asked looking at his two friends.

  Zhu shrugged his shoulders, “I’m not done paying those aliens back, yet. Those bastards started everything that ended up killing Bai, and they are still out there." Zhu mentioned pointing his hand towards the observation deck.

  Shun nodded, “Agreed. I’m not satisfied. What did the English playwright say? I’ve not had my pound of Kurtherian flesh, yet?"

  “Ok, good thing you two agreed because I already told them we were choosing the military.” Jian smiled at his two surprised friends and shrugged his shoulders, “What do you want me to say? I’ve known you two long enough to finish your sentences.”

  “How could you finish our sentences when you don’t speak a whole sentence?” Zhu asked as he picked up his own Snow beer, using it to point at Shun, “He talks, Bai and I argued, and you chose to act like the silent and wise type,” he finished and took a swig of his beer. “God, I’m going to miss this when we transfer out of this area.”

  “That’s because I am silent and wise,” Jian agreed. “Or, at least I’m still wise,” Jian admitted, “and I was wise enough to hear you confirm my smart selection before I told you, right?”

  Shun picked up his beer waved it in Jian’s direction and took his swig of acknowledgment. “Ok,” he started, setting his beer down, “now that we understand you have been hiding your wisdom from us because you are a wise but selfish bastard, what is the rest of the news?”

  Jian looked between his two friends for a moment before speaking, “I’ve been asked if I want to be upgraded to full Cat,” Jian laid it out on the table. Zhu, who had his beer halfway up to his mouth stopped, and then lowered his beer which chunked when it hit the table top.

  None of the men spoke for a moment, “Options?” Shun asked.

  Jian shrugged, “In the military here, there are different groups. The Rangers, not our style. The Guardians for Wechselbalg and the guardian Marines who back up the changelings. They form teams, and there are always two Marines with one changeling.”

  Shun started slowly nodding while Zhu looked at him, confused. “So, Zhu and I would be the Marines?”

  Jian nodded his head in agreement.

  Zhu’s eyebrows had narrowed before realization hit, “So, we three would be a team?” He pointed to Jian, “You would change," he then pointed to Shun and himself, "and we would protect you?”

  Jian nodded.

  Zhu smiled, “Hell yeah! You take a clawed hand,” Zhu said as he put his fingers out and slashed through the air, “and rip each Kurtherian a new asshole while Shun and I keep all the other bastards off your back.” He looked over at Shun, smiling.

  It was Shun’s turn to be confused, “You are okay with Jian being a cat?”

  “What?” Zhu replied, “Why not? Wouldn’t you want to be a cat if you could? I might have shot them as often as I was able, they were the enemy after all. But you can be impressed, even envious, as you kill them, and look at how hard they were to kill! Never fail to appreciate what you can about your enemy, or you lose an advantage to them.”

  “Sounds wise,” Jian answered slowly, “But why am I surprised this wisdom is coming from you?”

  “Well, I read it.” Zhu explained, smiling, “But, it still fits. Nevertheless, the bigger question is if you wish to do this Jian?”

  Their little area grew quiet as Jian became the focus of his two friends, and after a minute he nodded his head sharply. “I’ve talked with my parents, and they agree. It would honor Bai to take what the Kurther
ians meant to use as a way to subjugate humanity and use it to keep humanity safe instead.”

  “Well,” Shun smiled, “Seems like we have an agreement, what’s next?”

  Jian shrugged, “We have to meet a small group of Guardians for a test.”

  “So?” Zhu said, “What could be so hard about one more test?”

  CHAPTER THREE

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds - Queen’s Workout Area