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  Chris Billings raised his hand, “Yes Chris?”

  “Sir, why do we need to know the full story?”

  “Because you, me, Natalia here and every one of you have been chosen to be the forward team in this war. I hope you all have your big boy and girl pants on tonight, because we are about to become the floating version of Area-51.”

  “Holy shit!” That was from one of Todd’s marines.

  Max looked over at him and he mumbled, “Sorry sir.” Max tipped his head.

  “While I can’t agree with the interruption, I do agree with the sentiment. Our job is to become the holding location for an alien craft which if anyone in the world finds out about it before we are ready, could literally cost us all our lives and the world its future. If you don’t think you’re ready to be on this ship, with this responsibility, then you can move to the back right now and Dan will take you back to the Polarus in the morning.

  “Sir?”

  “Yes Natalia.”

  “Why would you let anyone leave after they have heard the stories and seen the video?” Max could see a couple of heads nod in agreement.

  “Because every one of you has been tested and I trust the testing agent's assessment that you're all highly ethical. However; the reason you won’t leave until the morning is because you will be visited by someone who will take the knowledge of everything you have witnessed tonight back out of your head. Unfortunately, you might lose a few days instead of a few hours, but you won’t be a danger to this mission or yourselves. This is literally a situation of loose lips will sink this ship. I’m sorry, but I believe you have to know the whole truth to make a decision that is this monumental in scope. Every person that stays with me tonight is making a pact with every person on this ship that we are in this until the end.”

  “Max?” Captain Wagner turned around to look at Dan behind him.

  “The Queen’s Guard has a word for this, it’s ‘Aeternitatem’. The whole Latin would be ‘Ad Aeternitatem’ but it means For Eternity.” Dan looked at every person in the room, meeting every pair of eyes for at least a second or more before moving on to the next. “When you become one of Bethany Anne’s guard, you're in the closest ring of trust we have because you are protecting the one person who might be able to save humanity if the major powers don’t get their shit together. I can only recommend to you, but I think that for those who stay, you need to rechristen this ship to better represent your mission. He is literally vouching for every one of you to Bethany Anne.” The weight of the knowledge affected all that listened to Dan, “A SEA AXE is actually just a type of ship, it isn’t a real ship name. The original owner never changed it from the documentation and that is how it got christened. I can only recommend, but I think that for those who stay, you need to rechristen this ship to better represent your mission. I’ll be around if your Captain needs me, I’ll let you talk this out.”

  Dan nodded to Max and left the group to their silence, their contemplation of everything they were just told.

  Todd Jenkins spoke up into the silence, “Over the last day, you guys have asked me about my experience fighting Bethany Anne’s guard. Well, considering the bombshells being dropped tonight let me tell you a little more.” A couple of people had to move their chairs to see Todd better.

  Max spoke up, “Mr. Jenkins, would you be so kind as to stand up?”

  Todd stood, “Certainly.” He looked around, “When Bethany Anne and her team were getting ready for the Costa Rican operation, there were two vampires in that room. One was hundreds of years old and wicked fast with her swords. She easily could have decimated a troop of my marines. She had with her the Queen's Guard, the ‘bitches’ as Bethany Anne likes to call them.” Todd’s smile permitted a few to feel comfortable laughing a bit. “Now that I’ve fought against these four guys, it would be an honor if I could be on a team that was even good enough to get a draw against them, much less a win. These guys have been fighting the Forsaken we saw on the video for years on occasional ops and close to a year and a half or more continuously. By the time I got to work with them they had already been training with Bethany Anne for at least a month or more and I have to admit those terrorists didn’t have a fucking chance in hell. I was on Bethany Anne’s team to start getting a little of my edge back and I had to get it back fast. They didn’t care if I had been on the beach for six months, you're either in the game or dead as far as they are concerned. Suffice to say, I was dead a lot!”

  More laughs at this. Todd wasn’t too worked up over his bad showing against the team.

  “However; my partner in all of this was the second vampire, Bethany Anne.” A few shocked faces on this from those who hadn’t already guessed that Bethany Anne was the other vampire. “She was indescribably fast, fierce and furious. She was brutally hard on her own team and Gabrielle, forcing them to dig deep to beat her. They never did. She had them so pissed off that they formed a team so smooth you would swear they had all grown up together since childhood. This includes a vampire that they hadn’t met and who hadn’t worked with anyone herself for a hundred years. Time after time, she put them down. One of the guys arms got broken in one of the fights and Gabrielle, the second vampire, healed him. Make no mistake, if you stay here on this ship, whatever you choose to name her, you will be tested, you will be tried and you will be forced to be better than the Navy ever thought you could be. The stakes aren’t for our own country. But for our country and every country across the world as well. When I was in the marines, my family, my friends, my loved ones knew I fought for them. Not everyone appreciated what I did, but they knew it. If you stay, no one might ever find out about your sacrifice except those of us here who will be with you through the whole damn thing. ‘Ad Aeternitatem’.”

  All of the heads turned and followed Todd’s progress as he sat back down.

  “Sir?” This time, Natalia's voice was soft, almost reverent in her speech.

  Max looked over at her, “Yes?”

  “Where might we have some paint, sir?” Natalia’s voice got a little stronger, as if she had come to a decision.

  “And what might we be painting right now, Natalia?”

  “A new name, sir.” Max just looked at her as did everyone else in the room.

  “And what would that be?”

  “Respectfully, I think we need to rechristen this boat by the oath we all take who stay to see this through.” Max started nodding his head emphatically.

  “Make it so, Natalia.”

  She stood up at pointed to the chief engineer, “Are you staying?”

  Mark Simmons, Chief Engineer for the SEA AXE pursed his lips and made a decision, “Yes, you need me?”

  She nodded and looked at all of them, “Yeah, you and everyone that is going to crew the ‘Ad Aeternitatem’ need to come with me, I want that name changed before Bethany Anne arrives tonight!”

  “Fuck yeah!” The marines had all jump up and pumped their fists. It was a unanimous agreement and most everyone quickly followed Natalia Jakowski out of the room. Max watched as the single person left, Chris Billings, came up to him.

  “Not staying, Chris?” Max just smiled at him, no judgment on his face.

  Chris was smiling, “Hell yes I’m staying! I just want to know if you think I might have a chance to get into the Guard and if so, would if offend you that I don’t stay on the ship?”

  Max put his hand out to shake Chris’s. “Chris, each of us need to take this knowledge and move to where we can help the best. Whether that is in the Guard or on my crew, I’ll respect you, and support you, wherever you decide is best. Until then, sailor, get your ass out there and let’s get this ship named correctly!”

  Chris straightened up and pulled an exceptionally fine salute for Captain Wagner, “Sir, I’ll do better than the Navy ever believed I could!”

  Max saluted him back, “I’m holding you to that, Chris, now get moving.”

  Chris dropped his salute, turned around and started jogging out of the room.
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  Max looked around at the empty room, he had the finest crew he could possibly ask for and smiled to himself. Ad Aeternitatem indeed.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Miami Fl, USA

  Nathan and Lance retired to Bethany Anne’s living room. Darryl, Scott and Pete were next door pumping iron. At first, Darryl and Scott had issues with Lance being alone in the house without a guard. Nathan decided to let understand a little more about himself.

  They had all changed to more comfortable clothes and went to the challenge area in the large workout slash martial arts gym the team used. Lance and Pete had leaned against some of the workout equipment out of the fight area. Nathan first bested Scott, then Darryl. Finally, Nathan had them both attack him and while it was certainly closer, Nathan was able to incapacitate the both of them. Nathan reached down to pull Darryl up off the mat.

  Darryl spoke to Nathan as he got up and reached for a towel. “Ok, I think we can agree you are worth two guardians!”

  Nathan smiled, “Guys, this was just a scrimmage. If I was going for broke, I would have just shot you both earlier. I don’t get into fights unless I have to. With Wechselbalg, fighting without arms between us is traditional. The fact that the two of you almost got me means two things.”

  Scott had grabbed the ibuprofen bottle they normally used after working out with Bethany Anne and popped four before washing them down with his orange gatorade, “What would those be?”

  “First, you are two of the fastest and meanest humans I’ve ever fought.” Pete tossed Nathan a towel so he could dry off. “The second is I need to get my ass back into practice as well. These last few months haven’t provided enough time for me to workout.”

  Darryl walked to the towel basket and dropped his in, “I’m good whenever you want to go at it. I think I’ve learned two holds so far I need to work with you and I know you used at least three breaks in that last fight I haven’t yet figured out.”

  Scott added, “If they aren’t the same ones that I encountered, then I have some as well. Where did you learn all of that?”

  Nathan smiled as he dropped his towel in the basket, “Guys, I’m decades older than you. I've had a little more time to acquire skills.” With that, he looked over at Lance, “I’m going to take a fast shower here, then we can go back to the other house?” Lance just nodded his agreement.

  When Nathan had left, Scott looked over at Darryl, “Dude, we are going to have to do better than that to make sure we impress the locals.”

  Pete looked at them both, “Locals? You mean the Wechselbalg who will be coming down?” Ecaterina hadn’t finished her plans for the guys up in New York, yet.

  “Yeah,” Darryl sat down on the mat and started stretching his muscles. “The plan is to take them all through one match and make sure they realize we humans are some of the nastiest you can meet before we teach them how to go up against Nosferatu.”

  Pete shook his head, “Guys, I don’t think you need to worry.”

  Scott dropped down near Darryl and started his own post fight cool down and stretch, “Why is that? Nathan took us both out pretty easily and then took us both on and won.”

  Pete just shook his head, “Guys, you need to understand that Nathan Lowell is a force of nature in the Wechselbalg community. There are parents that scare their kids who’ve been naughty by saying ‘Nathan Lowell will come for you’ if they don’t act right.”

  Scott looked back at the door where Nathan had left the room, “Really?”

  Peter bobbed his head up and down emphatically, “Really, really. There was a chance that Nathan would have killed me for my screw ups if Bethany Anne hadn’t worked out this setup with my dad.”

  Darryl just shook his head, “I find that hard to believe.” Darryl switched to stretching his other leg.

  “Don’t, I asked Nathan about it myself on our trip up to New York. It was one of the options on the table if Bethany Anne didn’t have any ideas. I had broken the rules and I was too full of myself to do anything about it. My dad was working with Gerry to see what could be done. If Michael had been involved, he would just have killed me and been done with it so anything was a step up above instant death as far as I’m concerned.”

  Scott was flexing his arms above his head, “Damn, that had to be cold to hear that.”

  “Well, as a Wechselbalg, you hear enough stories to know you don’t ask Nathan Lowell a question unless you want the hard answer. I still have to double check myself around him from time to time.”

  Darryl grunted as a particularly tight muscle got his attention, “He seemed like such a regular dude for so long when I was around him, I had no idea he had these moves.”

  Pete walked over to the stereo and started looking through the CD disks to play something for his workout. “That would be because the only thing Nathan Lowell respects is a vampire. I imagine Nathan could have killed you more easily than taking you both down, but that is a guess. There isn’t one Wechselbalg with any common sense that doesn’t get concerned if they hear Nathan is in town, for any reason. I’ve heard of families taking impromptu vacations on the rumor he was flying into town on Were business. God, you guys have a lot of AC/DC here.”

  Scott piped in, “So many of the songs match our life, it’s like they are the soundtrack for TQB guards.”

  Darryl mentioned, “It started with Bethany Anne playing ‘Big Balls’.”

  Scott continued, “Then Back in Black.”

  “Hell’s Bells.”

  “Highway to Hell.”

  Darryl reached over and fist bumped Scott, “That’s fighting the Nosferatu baby! Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.”

  “Thunderstruck.”

  “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution.”

  Scott sang, “Rock and Roll ain’t NOISE POLLUUUUTION! Bedlam in Belgium!”

  “BallBreaker!”

  Lance just shook his head, “You guys could do this forever, couldn’t you?”

  Pete looked through the CDs, “There’s got to be over 20 CDs in this box.”

  Scott looked over at Pete, “Hey! Be careful. John has a couple of Australian only releases and he will beat you down if you break any.”

  Pete pulled his hands away from the CDs, “Which ones?”

  Scott scrunched up his face, “Ahhh, one is the Australian only version of High Voltage, can’t remember the other.”

  Darryl started singing, “I’ve got big balls…”

  Scott joined in, “You’ve got big balls…”

  The both of them yelled out the final verse, “But Bethany Anne’s got the biggest balls of them all!” They high-fived each other.

  Nathan came into the room as the two of them finished the chorus. He looked over at Lance, “Do I want to know?”

  “AC/DC.”

  “Ah, ready?” Lance got up and waved to Pete while the other two guys finished laughing and they walked out of the room to the front door.

  Back in the workout area, Pete asked, “Are you sure you want Bethany Anne knowing you’re singing that?”

  Darryl looked over and had the biggest smile so far today, “Shit man, she’s the one who taught us to sing it that way! If you're in the guard, our whole workout regimen is to try and match her balls, buddy! So plug in the tunes and start your ball-bustin, chop chop!”

  Nathan heard the guys laughing and smiled as he closed the door.

  Lance grinned with Nathan as they went through the newly created gate between the houses. William had been working while they had been out.

  Nathan started the conversation, “Did Frank get back with you on our guys in Las Vegas?”

  “Yeah, both cleared easily. If Bethany Anne is happy, I think we need to pull in some of the brain trust in Vegas on to the project with our new acquisition.”

  Nathan just looked at Lance, “Really? I thought this discussion was going to be about Adam.”

  “Adam? Oh, ‘and Eve’. Yeah, ok. That works for me.” Being accustomed to talked around a subject in case of someone li
stening in, Lance had no problem catching up to Nathan’s naming of the possible Strong AI. “Well, if we keep the core of the group together, they can work on both at the same time. I don’t know what we do with Jeffrey necessarily, he has a family. He has enough knowledge but it was Tom Billings that did most of the detail work, right?”