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

  “What’s the matter, dear?” Giselle asked. “You don’t like the vanishing ship?”

  The admiral sighed. “As if Shinigami wasn’t a big enough pain in the ass.

  “Now Bethany Anne has another ship I can’t find.”

  Ooken Splinter World

  The Gate brought them in on the outskirts of the system, into which they slipped unnoticed. “How the hell did you manage to build a stealth Gate, Eve?” Bethany Anne asked, her eyes drawn to the shorter AI. “There’s no trace of it.”

  Eve smiled secretively. “My Queen asked to go unnoticed. I merely provided.” She moved her android body around the bridge as she spoke, checking this console or that and making adjustments as she went. “All you need to know is that it worked.”

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Maybe for now, but you will explain it to me—and to William—when we return home.”

  Eve nodded, her attention elsewhere. “Interesting. This is not a true star system.”

  The viewscreen showed the system. There was a decent-sized planet orbiting what certainly looked like a star.

  “It’s not a star,” Eve assured them. “It’s more like an Arti-sun, although they’re running it on deuterium. How barbaric.”

  “I know, right?” ADAM chipped in. “Who uses nuclear energy these days?”

  “People without access to the Etheric,” Bethany Anne answered. “Another tick in the ‘We’re More Awesome’ column.” She resisted the urge to stare into the artificial star directly. The last thing she needed was to have to wait for her retinas to heal. “Is it stable?”

  Eve made a weighing motion with her hands. “As long as nothing happens to upset it.”

  The corner of Bethany Anne’s mouth twitched. “Good to know. What else do we have?”

  Izanami took over. “There are a number of ships in-system. Seventy-three, by my count. Varying classes, although there are groups that appear to be preparing to leave.”

  Bethany Anne tapped her fingers on the arm of her couch. “TOM, ADAM, we need a distraction over there. Prevent those ships from leaving no matter what. And we need to get a message back to the base to tell them to prepare.”

  “On it, Bethany Anne.”

  I’m pretty sure we can cause some trouble over there, TOM added.

  Bethany Anne nodded. “I have an idea. Take us in, Izanami.”

  “As my Queen commands,” Izanami replied.

  Bethany Anne smiled. “I like you. You’re much more respectful than Shinigami.”

  “I was made from two mothers,” Izanami replied, her personal breeze rippling her hair on the screen. “When you ask me to go to war, you will see my harsher side.”

  “Izanami,” Bethany Anne told her sadly. “You were born into war.”

  Devon, First City, Warehouse

  Sabine took in the destruction as she and Jacqueline headed back to the main warehouse at a brisk jog.

  There were more holes than walls by this point. The steel skeleton of the building showed through in many places, and small fires were burning everywhere they looked.

  However, the only people they saw were dead invaders.

  “Looks like the funnel worked,” Jacqueline remarked happily. “You know what that means, right?”

  Sabine flashed her baby blues and grinned. “Fight’s on, baby.”

  They broke into a full-on run, each trying to outdo the other as they pelted toward the makeshift fighting ring.

  They heard fire from blasters and more traditional ballistic weapons above the yells and grunts of hard combat as they neared the main warehouse.

  “Looks like Mark’s having fun!” Sabine shouted to be heard above the racket. He was. Jacqueline bounded off to give him some backup and Sabine took the stairs to the walkway to relieve Ricole.

  “It’s about damn time!” Ricole snarled. “You guys have been having all the fun.”

  Sabine gave her a knowing look. “And you didn’t enjoy setting off the traps?”

  Ricole frown turned up slightly. “Okay, maybe a little bit. But I want to fight now.”

  Sabine swept a hand toward the door. “Go ahead. Keep an eye out for Demon, I haven’t seen her since it began.”

  Demon padded noiselessly along the top of the crates stalking the Skaine, who seemed aware that something was following it, but not what. It hurried through the maze, cut off from the rest of its companions by Demon’s careful herding.

  This night had been fun so far. She had killed many, and there were still many more who had come to her home intent on harming her family.

  They would all die at her teeth and claws.

  The Skaine looked over its shoulder nervously, the hand holding its weapon shaking more with every step it took.

  Foolish coward. The Skaines were happy to be brave when they were in a group, but separate them from their pack and they were as vulnerable as any of her usual prey.

  If only they tasted as good.

  Demon purred, and the Skaine nearly jumped out of its rubbery blue skin.

  Ricole couldn’t wait for as long as it took to walk down the stairs.

  She vaulted the rail and used a conveniently-placed Estarian as a landing pad. She drove her claws into his head as she landed and left him to bleed out while she moved onto her next target.

  Jacqueline and Mark were back-to-back on the east side of the ring, and the Guardians around them fought hard against the thugs and mobsters. It was amusing to see that the ragtag mercenary bands had been disbanded—as well as dismembered.

  The teams tightened their circle, driving the action into the center of the ring. The walkway outside the office remained untouched.

  So far.

  Only the most serious of the hardasses remained at this point, the criminals and a ragtag band of Skaines who fought in tight formation despite having clearly shit themselves. Or maybe that was what Skaines smelled like; Ricole had never been close enough to a Skaine to get a whiff before.

  Either way, it was rank.

  Ricole masked the smell with a large light fixture and a chunk of the ceiling it was attached to—both of which crashed down on the Skaines when she helped the already collapsing light fixture by shooting it out at the weakest point.

  Ricole grinned when a vibration passed through the floor, another series of her traps going off somewhere in the warehouse.

  Mark looked toward the maze—and took a knife to the back as a result of his distraction.

  Demon was nowhere to be seen, but Ricole had the idea that the mountain lion was the cause of the sporadic screaming she’d been hearing from the maze all night.

  20

  Splinter World, In Orbit, The Izanami

  Izanami’s red-eyed avatar floated above the floor of the bridge dressed in traditional Japanese clothing overlaid with finely-worked armor. She made no attempt to appear human. Her avatar’s war face was painted as smooth as stone, and the air around her glitched sporadically. “My Queen, I will be waiting with my entire arsenal at the ready, prepared to swoop in with all flamethrowers blazing at a moment's notice.”

  “You have flamethrowers?” Michael asked.

  He grinned at Bethany Anne, who rolled her eyes and got back to fixing her armor. “Not the most practical weapon in space. I’m loving this new armor, though.” The latest model didn’t require any of the usual strapping or harnesses. You just slapped your sword to your back and you were good to go.

  Izanami looked at Eve.

  Eve smirked. “Don’t look at me. You’re a big AI.”

  Izanami turned back to Bethany Anne, who had her foot up on one of the couches to slip a few knives into her boots, and smiled, her chin tilted proudly. “I have much more than a simple flamethrower at my disposal. I was created for my Queen. I have ‘all the bells and whistles,’ as Jean so succinctly put it when she was installing my Gate drives.”

  Bethany Anne looked at Eve. “So it was Jean who came up with the stealth Gate drive?”

  “Installing my design
s,” Eve clarified. “She may have tweaked a little as she went, but that can never be a bad thing when it’s Jean doing the tweaking. Izanami is Shinigami, but without all the, um…quirks.”

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Shinigami has quirks? Perhaps Barnabas has a little quiet in the updates.”

  Eve looked away just as Izanami interrupted. “We’re approaching the colony.”

  Bethany Anne narrowed her eyes. “Nice timing, Izanami. What do you have on scans?”

  Izanami frowned, which somehow did not crease her perfect face. “I am unsure. There is a blank spot running the entire length of the ravine, from which I’m getting nothing. Something is blocking me.”

  Eve tilted her head. “Oh. Me too. How?”

  “Get it up onscreen,” Bethany Anne walked around her couch to get a closer look at the screens. There were endless fields of machinery before them, ending abruptly as the land fell away. “There’s nothing down there.”

  “There is,” Eve insisted. “Look, I sent a drone.”

  The tiny insect-shaped drone dropped off the side of the cliff, then its signal dropped off the monitor.

  Bethany Anne frowned. “Okay, there’s something down there.”

  Izanami vanished and then reappeared a second later. “I have a geothermal reading. That’s the best I can do.”

  She projected it on the screens, and Bethany Anne, Michael, and Akio got up to turn a slow circle while they examined them.

  Akio frowned. “I can make out shapes, but not what they are.”

  Eve stood and pointed at the screen showing the far end of the ravine, which was actually the result of some ancient cataclysmic volcanic eruption. “There’s another anomaly. They’re running the colony on geothermic power. There’s clear evidence of that if you look at the steam vents here, and the heat signature leading back into the valley.”

  “Good catch.” Bethany Anne followed the suspiciously straight lines of heat that culminated in an ever-so-slightly-less-dark square on the screen. “It goes out here,” she pointed out.

  Eve nodded. “That would be the power plant.”

  “It is likely that the colony’s security is based in one of the nearby buildings,” Izanami put in. “Perhaps this one.” She highlighted a larger building, and then another, much larger building in the center of the colony. “Although this one is another candidate, with a high probability of being the place they would keep hostages.”

  “Okay, so we have aliens with mind-powers. They only have EI, but they’re powerful as all hell. They have access to tech that can block my efforts to look before we leap. They’re comfortable with different levels of tech—from different species.” Bethany Anne stopped her pacing. “Fuck, they look like they’re made from different species. What are these people? Are they scavengers?”

  “What would the Kurtherians want with a scavenger culture?” Akio asked.

  Bethany Anne shrugged. “I don’t know. I left them limping pretty badly the last time we met.” She began to pace again. “They might not have had much choice after I beat seven shades of shit out of their sorry hides. My question is how these aliens have tech that can outdo mine if they aren’t controlled by the Kurtherians?”

  Nobody had an answer for that.

  “No ideas?” Bethany Anne sighed impatiently. “Then we go find out for ourselves what’s down there. Akio, Eve, you take the building near the power plant. Michael and I will take the one in the center of the colony. ADAM, you do your thing and make sure we don't get caught by whatever passes for security here.” She held out a hand to Eve. “Let’s go.”

  Bethany Anne and Michael stepped with Eve and Akio, taking them through the Etheric from the ship to the ground. They came out a couple of kilometers from the ravine that marked the edge of the colony.

  Bethany Anne felt the heat and almost wished she could sweat. “Why are these places always so fucking hot? I’m starting to get Tabitha’s point. Next mission, we go somewhere a bit more temperate, so I don’t cook inside my armor.”

  >>I can fix that.<< ADAM adjusted the armor’s inner temperature controls.

  Thank you. Bethany Anne breathed a sigh of relief as the coolness spread across her body. “Okay, that’s marginally better. Let’s go smoosh some wriggly-mouthed motherfuckers and get Peter home to Tabitha and their baby. Preferably before she has the baby.”

  Michael raised an eyebrow. “It isn’t too far to the colony, and we have a rough idea where our targets are located.”

  >>I'm in their systems.<< ADAM paused. >>Okay, I have control over colony security. Um…<<<br />
  Um, what? Bethany Anne demanded.

  >>Hold your horses a second. They have something similar to CEREBRO, except this EI group is entirely slaved.<<<br />
  Bethany Anne frowned. Can you deal with it?

  There was no mistaking ADAM’S dry tone. >>Are the Skaines born to steal, lie, and cheat?<<<br />
  Then have fun taking care of the problem.

  >>I'll do my best,<< he replied, and was gone.

  Michael's concern rocketed. Did he say whether he still has control of the colony’s security?

  Bethany Anne didn't have an answer, and ADAM wasn't picking up. Izanami, do we have control?

  Not at this time, the AI replied. And I am a little busy assisting ADAM.

  What's going on? Eve asked. Do you need my assistance?

  No. We have this, Izanami assured them. However, I advise caution in using any Etheric powers.

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. Do you think they can detect the Etheric?

  I do not know, the AI admitted. Which is why I’m advising that you remain aware of our lack of knowledge and act accordingly.

  Caution is our middle name on this, Bethany Anne assured them all. We are all resistant to mind control, but that means just the four of us against thousands of aggressive aliens on their home turf. She looked into the maze of machinery. I have complete faith that we can get everyone out alive without the entire colony learning we’re here.

  Akio joined Bethany Anne to look out across the sea of machines. First, we have the distance between our present position and the colony to cover.

  The four made their way through rows of irrigation pumps, which grew in size as they crossed the fields until the derricks they passed were gigantic metal monstrosities that blocked out huge portions of the sky and towered over the landscape.

  They moved in pairs, covering each other as they picked their way between the derricks, avoiding storage tanks topped by guard towers.

  Can’t we go through the Etheric? Eve asked.

  Bethany Anne shook her head. That would make things too easy for them if they can detect Etheric energy being used. She led them toward the point in the maze where they would split up, a junction that connected the network of railcar tracks that ran everywhere they looked. But even then, no. It’s a chore to haul your metal ass through it, and I have no idea what’s down there.

  Eve shrugged and moved ahead.

  The four threaded their way through the spaces between the tracks. There was plenty of other probably-very-important machinery, which was all working noisily in the background to mask any sounds they made.

  Bethany Anne led the group to the shadows under the leg of one of the derricks. Once she ascertained the area was clear, she turned to talk to the others and found them looking around with similarly vigilant expressions. “Maps up.”

  Michael and Akio made the required eye movements to bring the rough map up in their helmet HUDs.

  Bethany Anne nodded, satisfied. She switched to using her helmet’s comm. “Eve and Akio, you know where you’re going.” It was a statement, not a question.

  Akio returned her nod with a minute one of his own.

  Eve grinned. “We’re going to go poke around by an active volcano to look for our people.” She tilted her head. “Oh yes, and be ready to cause mayhem if we need to do so to rescue everybody.”

  Michael’s lips pursed. “You look entirely too excited by the
prospect of causing mayhem.”

  “What can I say?” Eve shrugged. “I haven’t had a good fight in forever.” She blinked and set off, done waiting. “Akio, let’s go.”

  Bethany Anne waved Michael on and ducked into the shadow of a storage tank at the head of the passage while she waited for him. “Keep in communication,” she called after them, “and stay out of sight. I don’t like the two of you being off on your own while we’re in the middle of Tentacle Central.”

  Akio chuckled. We will be perfectly fine. We managed for quite a while on Earth without either of you, remember?

  Bethany Anne rolled her eyes as the two of them vanished into the shadows of the machinery a few hundred feet away, heading in the direction of the power plant. Bethany Anne watched the dots that represented them on her map move correspondingly.

  She and Michael then headed toward the ravine, where they hoped to find a reasonably safe place to descend the sheer cliffs that protected the Ooken from detection.

  Michael passed Bethany Anne, moving ahead of her to clear the upcoming intersection between the path they were on and a railcar track up ahead. He held up a hand to stop Bethany Anne and indicated a pair of Ooken guards at the mouth of the passage a little way along—right where Bethany Anne and Michael needed to go next.

  Protect yourself. I learned a new trick, Michael told her. He unleashed a wave of despair that would have driven a lesser woman to her knees.

  Of course, the Ooken had no warning. Consequently, Michael's adjustment to the brainwaves around him left them immobilized, their tentacles writhing as their bodies were paralyzed by indecision.

  Bethany Anne just raised an eyebrow and waved a hand at her husband as the two guards fell to their knees with their tentacles still twitching uncontrollably. That's nice.

  Michael grinned. Your lessons have been most informative, my love. Do Akio and Eve know where to get picked up?

  Bethany Anne shrugged and tapped her helmet. Ask them.

  Michael glanced at his HUD. Oh, yes. Eve, you have our rendezvous location?