Through The Fire and Flame (The Kurtherian Endgame Book 3) Read online

  “I am not ignoring it,” Akio countered. “I simply do not know how to resolve it. Sabine is like a daughter to me.”

  Michael led them through the clearing and onto an animal trail. “You mean you’re afraid she’ll shoot you full of holes if you break her heart.” He looked at Akio and saw the misery his friend was in. “Okay, joking aside, it is only going to get worse if you don’t deal with it.”

  Akio continued to look at his feet as they walked. “I will deal with it. As soon as I know how to do so without hurting Sabine in the process.”

  Michael gave his old friend a hard look. “That is only going to hurt her more in the long run. I told you what to do. You just need to place someone who is attainable—but also good enough—in front of her. Distract her. She knows deep down that it can never happen between you two.”

  “Set her up?” Akio winced. “That would be…beyond awkward, and perhaps not honorable.”

  Peter made a rapid revision of his predicament. “I thought I had it bad, but your situation puts mine in perspective. Relationships are hard.”

  “Women are the root of all confusion,” Michael sympathized, patting him on the back. “If we just remember that, then it’s not such a shock when they turn the world upside-down on a whim.” He looked over when Peter didn’t react to his half-joking wisdom. “What’s up? Are you and Tabitha having problems?”

  Peter shrugged. He was still confused as to what had set her off this morning. “Not so much problems. At least, I didn’t think so? Tabbie’s my best friend, and we get on great most of the time. She’s just a bit…um…fiery at the moment.”

  Akio chuckled dryly. “Isn’t fiery the middle name of all Hispanic women?”

  Michael joined in with Akio’s laughter. “I don’t think that’s reserved for just the Hispanic women in our lives. Anyway, I thought you liked that about her.”

  Peter huffed and kicked out at a protruding tree root. “Fieriness I don’t mind. But she’s been worse than her usual snarky self recently. I’ll be honest, I agreed to come on this hunt to avoid whatever she came up with to call me out on today.”

  “Call you out?” Michael enquired.

  “Scream and throw stuff at me to emphasize whatever point she’s making,” Peter clarified. “Followed by tears when I don’t get it. I would get it if she just made sense, you know? Even when I agree with her, she’s not happy. Don’t get me wrong, the making up is worth it. I just wish I understood what was going on with her.” He threw up his hands in defeat. “If she wants to break up, then she should just say.”

  Akio sighed. “Women are difficult.”

  Peter chuckled. “Yeah, well, don’t let a woman hear you say that. Especially not Tabitha.” He looked around as Michael adjusted their trajectory. He looked left, then right. “Do you know where we are or are we winging it?”

  They turned again as Michael made another small adjustment to their course that led them deeper into the jungle. “A little of both, actually.”

  He jumped a log, barely touching it at about ten feet off the ground before landing softly on the other side. Akio and Peter followed. “We look for higher ground so we can find the path made by our prey. I don’t want to use the satellites to locate the beast. That’s a sure way to attract Bethany Anne’s attention again. If we keep things quiet, she doesn’t worry.”

  Peter nodded. “Makes sense.”

  Michael smirked. “Of course, it does. I know my wife. This is not my first hunt, but it’s the first one in a long, long time that is not about tracking down someone who had done us evil. I intend to enjoy every minute of it…now that there is no danger of my wife turning up and taking my kill because ‘I might get hurt.’”

  Peter snickered. “Shit, yeah. I forgot you’ve been around long enough to hunt real dinosaurs.” He dodged the tree limb that came flying at him. “Hey, you can’t get mad at the truth!”

  Michael turned to Akio, his face set in immutable lines. “The bait we brought to attract the T-rex is a bit too talkative. I think I’ll pick next time.” He ignored Peter’s grumbling and kept walking ahead until they reached a break in the jungle at the top of a low rise.

  Akio pointed out the broken line in the sea of trees that indicated the path they were looking for. “We have our T-rex.”

  In the distance, they picked up the faint sound of trees being uprooted and tossed aside as the moving mountain forged its way through the jungle.

  Michael was already halfway down the rise. “We have to catch up to it first.”

  It didn’t take them long to reach the path the T-rex had ripped through the pristine jungle. They clambered over the uprooted trees and brush piled high at the sides of the makeshift track.

  Peter was first to make it onto the trail. He gaped at the wide tract of destruction. “Great fucking toad balls.” His eyes narrowed when he noticed a four-foot tree broken like a twig. “I thought you said they didn’t get that big on this part of the continent?”

  Michael didn’t pause to look around.

  He vaulted the log Peter had used to get onto the path and set off immediately in the direction the dinosaur had taken. “They do not,” he called back “This one is away from its usual stomping grounds, which I find to be odd. I’ve been watching it since it left its regular territory. It has crossed most of the continent in the last few weeks.”

  Peter trailed after Michael and Akio. “What’s so odd about that? It’s a big continent.”

  Michael looked distant as he walked. “They do not usually leave their territory, at least as far as I have observed to date. I’m almost certain it is searching for its death.”

  “What makes you say that?” Akio asked.

  Michael walked on a bit, skirting a bit of water before he answered, “Maybe I am wrong, but it is definitely searching for something.”

  “What if it just wants to be the biggest bad?” Peter suggested. “It could be looking for combat. You know, some young pup who was dumb enough to be willing to take on Daddy T-rex.”

  “Also possible,” Michael acceded. “However, it has fought many battles in the time I’ve been observing it and has yet to meet its match. I believe it to be the largest creature on this planet. Whether it is simply looking for death or is also seeking combat, I will offer it the honor of both.”

  Peter’s eyes shone. “That reminds me of this documentary I saw when I was a kid. There was this lion, and he was the biggest, nastiest fucker on the savannah until one day he broke his leg on a hunt. It kind of healed, but then a couple of younger lions came along and drove him out. So he went round fighting until he…”

  He noticed Michael and Akio staring at him. “What?” He looked behind him and then used a hand to check his hair. “Do I have a spider on me?”

  Open Space, System QTC-12-T, QBS G’laxix Sphaea

  The ship Gated in a safe distance from the nebula and headed for the debris field kissing the edge of the cloud that was all that remained of the battle between the EI Lorelei and the unknown enemy ship.

  Kael-ven got out of his captain’s chair when he saw the wreckage come into range on the viewscreen. “Scan for everything, Kiel. And I mean everything. We do not want to be blindsided by a surprise attack because we turned off the cloaking too soon.”

  Kiel turned his head to look at Kael-ven without getting up from his station. “I love how you issue these orders despite knowing I began to scan the nebula the instant we left the Gate. There are no emissions that can’t be explained. We’re clear to get over there and investigate the crap out of this place.”

  Kael-ven shook his head and indicated the screen. “The scout ship techs are suited up and ready to go.” Two spacesuited figures left the ship and floated toward the empty battlefield on long tethers. “Bring up the comm links.”

  Kiel turned back to his station, and a moment later the bridge was filled with the hiss of the two techs breathing inside their helmets.

  Kael-ven waited the extra moment, and a pair of windows s
howing the camera feeds from their helmets appeared in the top corners of the viewscreen. The techs moved rapidly toward the fragmented ships, using their thruster packs to compensate for the solar wind.

  “Mellor, Robinson, report.”

  “It’s eerie out here,” Mellor answered in an awed voice.

  “Focus,” Kael instructed. “Do you see the core?”

  The feeds panned jerkily as the techs split up and searched among the dead ships for the EI cores.

  Robinson stood on the Lorelei’s one remaining wing and pulled herself through a jagged tear in the side of the ravaged scout ship. She tapped her shoulder-mounted flashlight to increase the brightness. “I’ve got it.”

  Mellor floated up and landed beside Robinson on the wing. “I bet you’re glad the Queen insisted on this design now.”

  Robinson looked up from where she was unbolting EI Lorelei’s cradle. “No, I’m not. They were a bitch to build. Wings are cool and all, but not the most practical place to put the heat exchanger.”

  Mellor laughed. “Are you kidding me? They act like elephant ears. You’re probably still sore she didn’t pick your design over this one.”

  Robinson rolled her eyes and flicked a bolt at him. “So what if I am?” She bent over and tugged the cradle holding EI Lorelei’s data core free. “Come on, let’s get back to the ship before the captain has a conniption.”

  “I can hear you,” Kael-ven’s dry voice reminded them.

  “Sorry, Captain,” Robinson trilled. She stuck a tether on the cradle and passed the other end to Mellor before doing the same again with another tether and attaching the other end to her suit. She glanced at Mellor. “Ready?”

  He nodded that he was. The two techs launched themselves toward the G’laxix Sphaea. Almost immediately after they boarded, the ship moved away and Gated out of the system again.

  2

  High Tortuga, Southern Continent

  The three men followed the trail until it spat them out abruptly at the edge of the jungle. They continued to follow the path of torn-up dirt and the odd uprooted tree across a wide, grassy scrubland that dipped and rose gradually all the way to the uplands in the distance.

  Michael shaded his eyes against the strong midafternoon sun and looked into the distance. “I can see our quarry.” He pointed at the slow-moving shadow on a far-off hilltop. It vanished over the other side as he watched. “We’re closing on it.”

  “Then we should get going.” Peter wasted no time taking advantage of the more open ground. “Race you!” he called back.

  Michael broke into a run. “The young and the ignorant.”

  Akio’s lips pressed together in what could almost be called a full-on smile on the man and sprinted up the hill past Michael. “You’re quite fast for an old man.”

  Michael opened it up another notch, leaving Akio in his dust. “And you’re pretty vocal for the one in last place.”

  Peter stepped it up as the two vampires sped past him, and the three accelerated over the scrubby hills. They leapfrogged as they ate up the miles between them and the confrontation that awaited them. The wind in their faces felt good, and every so often it carried the roar of the beast in the distance to guide them.

  Peter stopped at the top of a hill and looked around. “Hey, Michael, I think you’re right.”

  Michael slowed and came up beside him. “I’m always right. The question is merely which instance of my being right are you referring to?”

  Peter gestured to the empty land around them. “I can’t think why else the T-rex would come here. There’s nothing but insects and grass.”

  “Nothing except our T-rex,” Michael corrected. “I can smell him; we’re close.”

  They descended the slope and ran up the next, closing the gap between them and the dinosaur. As they neared the top the wind shifted, and the almost-melancholy roar of the T-rex came, muted slightly by the distance.

  The gradient gradually leveled out onto the windswept uplands they’d seen earlier. They came upon the T-rex on a wide plateau that stretched toward a scraggly tree line before it dropped off.

  Peter nodded over to the dinosaur on the far side. “I wonder if it’s lost its mind?” The T-rex was within reach at last. However, when they finally got near enough, they saw that it was acting oddly. It stomped and tore at the bare ground around it for no reason Michael and the others could decipher.

  A rogue gust of wind hit them from behind, and the dinosaur’s nostrils flared when it picked up three humans’ scent. It turned around and zeroed in on the three men, stamping its feet and roaring a challenge.

  “Looks like it wants a fight,” Akio remarked dryly.

  Michael dropped his pack on the ground beside him. “I will be more than happy to offer it one.” He pulled his shirt off and held it out to Akio, and accepted the two swords Akio offered him in return. He tilted one of the swords to examine the edge in the light, then turned to Peter and Akio with a serious expression. “You will both remain out of this. It is my fight alone.”

  Peter looked longingly at the rampaging beast. “It’s just like you not to share, but okay.” He sat down cross-legged and folded his arms. “Next time you invite me to go hunting, I’m staying home.”

  Akio gave Michael a sharp nod. “As you wish, my friend.”

  They both grinned as Michael’s anticipation spilled over.

  Akio eyed the T-rex appraisingly. “Have you considered that maybe Bethany Anne has a point about how much meat we’re going to take home?”

  Michael’s mouth twitched. “With all the Wechselbalg around? Not for a moment. We will have the barbeque to end all barbeques, and my wife will eat her words as a side with the delicious steak I grill for her.”

  Peter wrinkled his nose and spoke up. “I dunno about delicious. Reptile meat is an acquired taste.”

  Michael shrugged. “If by ‘acquired’ you mean everyone will try to acquire seconds after they taste it, then yes, it is.” He adjusted his grip on the swords and started to cross the plateau. He looked over the edge as he drew close to it. The drop below was not one he wished to test his indestructibility on.

  The T-rex narrowed its eyes and roared, and Michael moved forward to meet it. The plateau was dead silent as Michael and the T-rex stared each other down. Even the insects ceased their shrilling.

  The massive reptile roared and scored the ground with its heavy claws as it pawed and stomped.

  Michael let his own roar rip and charged across the grass at the ten-ton beast crashing toward him, its footsteps shaking the ground.

  Planet Colonnara, Orbit-to-Surface Transfer Platform, The Lady Princess

  The Lady Princess slid into the dock, and Addix and the children joined the river of shoppers spilling out of the ships around them. They, like the others, moved toward the Customs desks in front of the transfer corridors leading to the shuttles.

  Addix noticed there were a few children accompanied by nannies in the crowd. Some of the nannies were having an easier time than others. She was among the former, although “nanny” was not the best descriptor since she was there in her usual role of guide and protector rather than any kind of authority figure.

  She was looking forward to some quality aunt time while they were on Colonnara. The planet was, in essence, a gigantic shopping mall in an affluent area of space near the edge of the Federation. She’d been surprised when Michael and Bethany Anne had allowed this excursion.

  But they knew that she would lay down as many lives as it took to keep Alexis and Gabriel safe, including her own if it came to it.

  They were less accepting of her indulgence of their offspring, but Addix didn’t care. She planned to make their trip off High Tortuga a memorable one.

  She loved the two tiny humans as though they were her own, and although their parents may have been correct in their assessment of her as somewhat of a libertarian when it came to child-rearing, they had conceded that it was important the twins had room to learn from their mistakes.

/>   She took their hands to lead them from the shuttle when it landed and the airlock hissed open. They got onto the escalator, and the children tried to run ahead.

  “Not yet,” Addix told them. “We’re almost there.”

  The tunnel widened as it led them to the massive doors to the entrance. Addix couldn’t hide her amusement when the twins tugged their hands out of hers and darted onto the open court with eyes almost as large as hers.

  “This place is insane!” Gabriel turned a wide circle as he tried and failed to take in the many levels of the shrine to conspicuous consumption they’d arrived at. “I’ve never seen so many different stores.”

  Alexis looked at Addix with a worried expression. “It’s bigger than the whole base!”

  “We can access a map of the station.” Addix chuckled as she placed a protective hand on each of their shoulders and guided them along the concourse. “We will eat first, and then we will shop. Your EI can be our guide.”

  Alexis tapped her wrist-holo to call Phyrro as they walked. The EI’s warm face appeared in 3-D above the device.

  “How can I help, Alexi—” Phyrro’s head turned from side to side. “I was not informed we would be leaving High Tortuga. Why are we on Colonnara?”

  Alexis grinned. “Because we’re buying a gift for Mommy. Can you connect to the station network and bring up the map?” She turned to Addix. “Maybe we can buy her some shoes? She has a room full of them, though. She probably doesn’t need any more. I know Daddy thinks she has enough already.”

  Addix’s mandibles twitched in humor. “I’m not sure you should be telling me this, Alexis.”

  The twins shared a knowing look. “We know you won’t tell, Aunt Addix,” Gabriel told her.

  “Mommy loves shoes,” Alexis continued looking up at the alien. “Did you know she has a room that’s full of them? I went in there once.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Gabriel contested. “We’re not allowed in there. Not even Daddy is allowed in there.”

  Alexis stuck her tongue out at her brother. “Did too, Gabriel. ADAM let me in to look at them.” She lifted her nose in the air and kept walking.