The Bitch is Back

Prologue

Orbiting High Tortuga, Red Rock, Federal House of Arbitration

General Lance Reynolds missed the days when everyone was too afraid of Bethany Anne’s retribution to step out of line.

He sighed. What he would give for a little more fear of his daughter in others’ lives.

Almost a hundred and fifty years had passed since she had taken the cream of the Federation’s military and pointed them guns-first at the Kurtherians.

Lance had remained as Chief Arbitrator, or as he had come to think of it, Chief Babysitter of the Federation Council.

Cigar in hand, he had watched council members age out and a new generation of political hopefuls arrive in his chambers.

These shiny-eyed ingénues arrived with the misapprehension that all information was created equal and had no fucking clue how hard Lance worked to ensure they retained the freedom to get economically slaughtered by the better-informed.

Then there were the representatives from Jeddah-class planets, those terraformed to order after the Armada’s departure as part of a rehabilitation program for deprogrammed cultists. That effort was still going strong as an arm of the Federation’s penal system.

Representatives from these planets had been groomed from birth for the council. Pampered by their uber-wealthy families, most had never encountered the word “no” in their spoiled lives until they crossed Lance.

They were catspaws whose only purpose was to further their families’ goals.

It seemed to Lance that his daughter’s reward for providing peace and stability was to become a historical footnote. She was the Federation’s Genghis Khan, a long-vanished conqueror, a myth. Lance and the others she had left behind were regarded as relics of the past.

Impediments to progress, he had been told.

He was worn to the bone from staving off policies that undermined the Federation’s ideals.

Would he facilitate a trade deal that favored one party over another because the underdog didn’t have the wherewithal to negotiate for fairness?

No.

Would he approve the acquisition of this star system’s resources and ignore the pre-space civilization that was there?

Hell, no.

Would he go along for the ride while people were denied their rights to ensure such-and-such quota was met?

Fuck, NO!

Trouble from the larger powers inevitably caused economic unrest among the smaller member states, many of whom relied on the exports they made to the main players to support their local economies.

Unstable economies led to civil unrest, as the Federation had discovered during the most recent generational shift.

Lance swore under his breath. Had anyone heard him, it would be obvious where his daughter had learned to curse.

The military back on Earth taught their people very well.

Family-run powerhouses had emerged during that period of instability, building colossal financial empires to fund their political aspirations. For two generations, the premier families had been spending like they were allergic to money to supplant democracy with their rule.

There were still those loyal to Bethany Anne and the Federation’s founding principles. However, that group was dwindling with every decade that passed.

Lance’s patience had been slowly but surely ground down with every retirement, every death, every loyalist who lost their seat to a grandchild of the premier families, looking to tighten their grip on commerce in their home territories.

The tide was turning, and Lance and his inner circle had been wondering for some time how much longer they could hold it back.

Take the debate—and he used the term incredibly loosely—unfolding in front of him right now. The fight for freedom of information was coming to a head.

The chamber was in an uproar as Harkkat, cantankerous and far too dangerous to try to remove even at his apparently advanced age, was yet again refuting the Ryleah family’s claims that private funding was needed to maintain the standard of education provided by the Libraries. The family had been pushing for privatization of the Libraries for the last forty years.

Elamonn Ryleah, the current representative, had the floor. “This is proof that public education is inadequate for today’s needs.”

“Provided by whom?” Harkkat inquired sharply. “All I see here is proof of governments that are disgruntled they can’t control the flow of information to their citizens due to said citizens choosing the Libraries over institutions offered on-world.”

“Because the Libraries are free!” Ryleah retorted.

“Free and uncensored,” Harkkat emphasized, lifting a finger. “As they were meant to be.”

Ryleah changed tack, sensing he’d missed his chance to ruffle Harkkat’s feathers. “Control should not remain with planets ruled by Interdiction laws. MPPS’ goals are out of line with the Federation’s.”

“I find that difficult to believe since both systems were founded by the Queen,” Harkkat responded, amused by the reach. “Next you will tell the honorable representatives that democracy is no longer a core value we ascribe to when it conflicts with our private interests.”

“The Queen is not relevant here!” Ryleah shrilled, his tone reaching heights of superiority he was going to find it hard to climb down from if he shifted his attack to Bethany Anne.

To prove the point, shouts of outrage came from the loyalists. They were swiftly countered by the families’ rebuttals. Within seconds, every representative in the room had found something to object to.

Angry echoes filled the chamber, rebounding from the coffered ceiling. Lance cut the PA system before they were overwhelmed by feedback.

He banged his gavel. “Order! The Consul is speaking. We will hear him.”

“The Interdiction planets are still entitled to representation in the Queen’s absence,” Harkkat continued when the interruptions from the benches had died down enough for him to be heard. “The Libraries belong to Bethany Anne. They are funded from her purse and will continue—”

“The Interdiction has no right to a monopoly on the education system!”

“Two strikes, Representative,” Lance warned, aiming the gavel at the focus of his ire. “One more interruption and Ryleah will be excluded from this session.”

Harkkat laughed at Ryleah’s suggestion. “For there to be a monopoly, you would first have to provide an alternative that is fit to compete with the Libraries. Create institutions your people can trust, and they will choose them. The Libraries will continue to be provided with adequate funding to ensure that no Federation citizen is denied access to education.”

He turned to face the benches before continuing. “There are few places to seek higher education on Ryleahan planets because the only opportunities the premier family makes available to their people are low-paid, low-skilled labor in the factories and warehouses—which the family happens to own.”

“You can’t say that!” Ryleah objected, looking at Lance for support.

Lance pinned the protesting representative with a cold glare. “Does your family offer access to accredited higher education for its employees?”

“Yes!” Ryleah stuttered, then paused for a moment before he created a real mess. “Well, yes…in a limited capacity. There are overheads to consider, and—”

“So, no,” Lance concluded, giving him the same consideration he’d shown Harkkat. “Then I fail to see what you are objecting to, Representative. Continue, please, Consul.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.” Harkkat pressed his fingers together. “Furthermore, my investigations have turned up proof that the institutions funded by the premier families are offering courses pirated from the Library syllabus and that those courses are being altered to fit narratives that benefit the investors.”

Lance frowned and leaned forward, eyebrows drawn together. “Elaborate, please, Consul.”

Harkkat’s lip curled. “An apt example would be the history program taught to Ryleahan school children, which makes no mention of the seven thousand Ryleahan troops currently serving aboard the superdreadnought Aeternus.”

Lance wasn’t easily shocked. He swallowed his urge to order the arrest of the premier family. “I need to see evidence of this erasure.”

“Submitted already, Your Honor,” Harkkat assured him. He turned back to Ryleah. “The Libraries are not for sale or subversion, unlike many of the faces I see before me.”

That sparked a fresh round of objections, and no banging of his gavel was going to work to quiet them or appease the growing anger in his belly.

Lance finally lost his shit somewhere between Ryleah’s supporters yelling at Harkkat and everyone else yelling at them for the disrespect the premier families had shown their military heroes.

“ENOUGH!” he roared. “I’ll hold every one of you in contempt if you don’t shut the fuck up right now.”

Silence followed the shock of the Chief Arbiter cursing in chambers.

No one dared break it.

No one but Ryleah.

“I call for a vote.”

Lance planted his palms on either side of the screen embedded in his desk and leaned across the polished wood. “You don’t have the authority, Representative.”

Ryleah sneered. “I have the backing to force it.” A hesitation. “Your Honor. Progress must be served.”

More than half the council called out in support.

Lance narrowed his eyes. That slimy little third-generation fuckwad had planned this—or rather, his family and their allies had. He got to his feet, taking his time to examine the faces and assess who was afraid, who was hiding their satisfaction, and who had been left out of the plot. He saw too many put on masks of indifference.

His retinal camera was feeding it all to the space fleet base, where Barnabas, Stephen, and Anna Elizabeth were on standby.

“What the inexperienced in this room call progress, those of us who have been here to guide the Federation from the start call a return to ways we abandoned for the good of all. I have done my damndest to uphold the values this Federation was built upon. I made a vow to do right by every citizen, and even if we don’t see eye to eye, no one can cast doubt on my efforts to do my duty to its fullest.”

He reached out mentally. Meredith, stand by for my order.

Acknowledged, General, Meredith replied.

Lance returned to his seat. “Education was not universally accessible before Bethany Anne instituted the Libraries, nor was it impartial. The result of restricting the people’s access to education was a wealth divide that could not be breached and poverty on a mass scale. I see six, no, seven people in this room who might remember what a bread line looked like. The rest of you have no idea what you are asking for. Nevertheless, if the council wishes to vote, we will vote. On your heads be it.”

Ryleah smarmed as the vote was taken, exuding confidence in his expected victory.

Lance got to his feet when the result came through to the private screen embedded in the desk in front of him. He had a moment to consider his reaction before the result was displayed on the wall screens and the families’ representatives threw up a cheer. Meredith, initiate protocol: Rome Has Fallen.

Confirm, General? Meredith requested.

Confirm, Rome Has Fallen, Lance repeated.

This is a sorry day, Meredith remarked.

That it is, Lance agreed gravely. Here it is, all the same.

A flurry of encrypted messages left Red Rock, transmitted through the Etheric by Meredith.

Lance lifted his chin and turned to the representatives. “Get the hell off my asteroid. I am dissolving this council with the authority vested in me by the Federation charter and by Queen Bethany Anne Nacht on the grounds it is no longer fit to serve the people.

“I have recalled the Queen—or as you will get to know her very soon, your Empress.”

He vanished into thin air, leaving his robes of office pooled on the floor. Harkkat was the next to be transported out by Meredith, followed by the loyalists.

The families had a mixed reaction. Some cheered, while others began to panic.

Ryleah called for calm. “We won!” he boasted, arms raised in victory. “The General can’t scare us with ghost stories! The Libraries are ours!”

“Not if we are dead,” a familiar voice called.

He whirled, expecting his father’s close ally, the representative of the Fallas family, to be celebrating with the others. The old Torcellan was pale even for his kind. “What is it?” He eyed him with his head cocked. “Are you sick?”

“Your father should have consulted me before setting this in motion.” Fallas gripped his arm. “It went much further than it should have.”

Ryleah grinned. “What do you mean?” He looked around in glee. “We got the old coot to quit. He’s not here to stand in our way anymore.”

The pure, shortsighted arrogance of youth had left the old Torcellan long ago. He shook his head. “Ryleah, you have the wisdom of a Kerflerick gnat. You don’t understand, you fool. The General was the only thing standing between us and the Queen’s wrath. We needed him.” He moaned, despair seeping into his tone. “We are in very real danger, young Ryleahan.”

Ryleah laughed as he walked up, then clapped him on the back. “The Federation is ours for the taking! Even if everything the humans say is true, even if Bethany Anne is still alive, which I doubt, do you really think she can cross the universe to get here before we’ve taken over the CEREBRO network?”

Fallas was delayed from answering when the doors were flung open and armed Guardians marched in.

He slipped away from Ryleah and ran out as the Guardians began forcibly removing the former representatives. The old Torcellan had decided the only thing to do was take his children and grandchildren and run while he still had a chance to distance himself from the other families.

Chapter One

It could be said that Bethany Anne was fragile.

Not like a flower, whose petals shriveled and dropped off at the first hint of frost. The Queen Bitch was fragile like an unexploded landmine, liable to blow up in your face if you crossed the line. However, she could be relied on to operate within the law—to an extent.

Baba Yaga was her own law. Death personified.

If she came for you, all you could do was hope your affairs were in order before you kissed your ass goodbye.

General Ahmaann discovered that a little too late. His ribs cracked, and he felt bones in both his left arms snap as he rebounded off the grime-coated alley wall. He crashed heavily into the trash cans opposite the side door of the strip club Baba Yaga had just thrown him out of.

The silhouette of Death filled the doorway, her white hair washed pink, then blue, then red by the dancing neon lights out in the street.

The general’s heart rate soared as pain shot through his body. He squeezed his eyes shut, faking unconsciousness to give himself a minute to think his way out of his predicament.

“Aaahhhmaaann. I am all out of patience. Think very carefully about the next words out of your mouth.”

Her voice raked its claws down Ahmaann’s soul. All thoughts of weaseling his way out vanished with the click of her heels on the dirty concrete. Each step she took toward him thrust the stake of fear deeper into his heart.

Baba Yaga pulled him out of the detritus and the grimy metal lid of something dropped off his shirt, the clanging as it hit the ground punctuating the gravity of his present situation.

Gripping the front of his shirt in one hand, Baba Yaga captured the underside of his scaly chin with a needle-sharp fingernail and tipped his head up, forcing him to look her in the eye. “Where has Gödel hidden the missiles? Hmmm?”

Ahmaann couldn’t talk. He wanted to. The Kurtherian had done something to him when he’d agreed to let her people use the wasteland south of the equator.

Death was so close—her breath on his face. Her eyes bored into his and he felt exposed, as though she saw every dark secret he kept hidden.

The red glow from Baba Yaga’s eyes sent a shiver down the general’s spine. His time was up. Why had no one told him that humans were far worse than Kurtherians?

He tried to talk. A bolt of pain struck his skull from the inside before the words made it from his brain to his mouth.

Baba Yaga rolled her eyes when the general’s eyes and nose fountained blood. “Fuckdammit, not another one. Michael!”

The general panicked when a human male stepped out of thin air.

Baba Yaga slapped the scream out of his mouth, sending him flailing into the trash once more. Her teeth flashed as she curled her lip in disgust. “Get a fucking grip of yourself, asshole. You have a choice. Play nice, and you will die quickly. Fight this, and you will discover how much worse the pain can get before you die.”

Ahmaann curled into a ball, clamping his arms over his head as his mind was attacked from all directions. “I’ll do whatever you say,” he begged before his back arched, the pain ripping through him. “Just make it stop!”

Michael cut through Gödel’s traps and took the information from his mind. “There’s a hidden base…” His voice trailed off as he turned around.

Baba Yaga was gone, and in her place stood Bethany Anne. An angry Bethany Anne.

“Motherfuckers!” she growled through clenched teeth.

She vanished into the Etheric as Ahmaann breathed his last.

Michael shook his head as he looked around, his shoulders relaxing. “Is it too much to ask that she wait for me just once?” He frowned as he forwarded a video of the encounter, along with the preprepared dossier detailing the general’s crimes, to the city’s law enforcement and main media outlets.

He stepped into the Etheric and traveled to the location he’d gotten from the general’s grubby little mind before it collapsed. He fully expected to walk into carnage.

The base had not been reduced to a smoking crater in the ground. No one inside the perimeter was screaming. The building wasn’t even on fire, which was all the proof he needed that Bethany Anne wasn’t yet here.

Michael reached out mentally. Bethany Anne?

He couldn’t sense her anywhere on the planet. He extended his search into the Etheric and felt his link to her faintly. She was in there somewhere, but not anywhere near.

When he replayed the moment she’d left the alley in his mind, he realized she had been looking straight through him.

Michael chuckled dryly. That didn’t tweak his ego at all, and no one could prove it had. But…

Who had she been cursing?

ADAM wasn’t around to answer either. That meant Bethany Anne was moving at speed and had already crossed a vast distance.

A chill passed down Michael’s spine as her face at the moment she’d vanished burned into his inner vision. She had become rage incarnate.

The base would have to wait.

He needed to know where his wife had gone.

QSD Baba Yaga, Bridge

“What do you mean, Mom’s gone AWOL?” Alexis demanded after materializing on the bridge of the Baba Yaga with Gabriel.

Michael fixed his daughter with a look that could freeze water. “I don’t know how much clearer I could have been in my message.”

Gabriel shook his head. “You were kinda growly, Dad. All we got was that Mom looked at you weird, then vanished. We got over here as fast as we could.”

Michael winced. “I apologize.”

Alexis saw the strain in her father’s shoulders and felt guilty about her abrupt entrance. She walked to him and hugged him tightly. “We’ll find her, Dad. Talk us through it.”

“Tabitha just docked,” Izanami announced from the communications station, where she was conducting a search of the subspace network for any sign of ADAM.

Michael sighed. “One moment we were interrogating the general, the next she cursed out loud and was gone. She wasn’t at Gödel’s base, and I can’t reach her in the Etheric.”

“What the hell, Michael?” Tabitha yelled as she stormed out of the lower-level doors, her face streaked with mascara-tinted tears. “You have to know where she went!”

Michael lifted his hands. “As Bethany Anne would say, it beats the shit out of me.”

Tabitha launched herself at Michael. “I’ll beat the shit out of you if you don’t get your ass in gear and find my best friend!”

“What do you think I’ve been doing for the last hour?” He understood that Tabitha’s attitude came from a place of fear, but it didn’t mean he had to deal with her shit right now. “I called so you could assist with the search. Not so you could blame me for Bethany Anne having her own mind.”

Tabitha’s face got very red.

The twins approached the ticking Tabbie-bomb with caution, but she brushed off their attempts to comfort her and pummeled Michael’s chest with her fists. “You weren’t here when she broke before! We have to find her before she gets too far away to track.”

Michael wrapped her in a hug and let her run her emotions out before steering her gently into a chair.

“It’s too late for us to track her,” he admitted with regret. “She’s light-years from here.”

Gabriel called for calm. “Going off half-cocked isn’t going to help us get her back. We need information. Can anyone reach ADAM or TOM?”

Alexis waved a hand. “I can try to get them through the Etheric.”

Izanami turned to face them. “Wait, I’ve got something coming through on Bethany Anne’s subspace channel.”

>>Dammit, I’m trying, Bethany Anne. I can only get a one-way connection at this distance.<< ADAM sounded very far away and more than a little stressed. >>We’re headed for High Tortuga. Bethany Anne’s orders are to meet her at Red Rock. Lance has initiated the Rome Has Fallen protocol.<<

Tabitha’s knuckles turned white as she increased her grip on the arms of the chair. “ShiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIT.”

The twins looked at Michael and Tabitha in confusion. “Why do you two look like you just heard someone died?” Alexis asked.

“What is the protocol Grandpa Lance initiated?” Gabriel asked at the same time.

Tabitha forced her fingers to let go of the chair. “Martial law, kids. He’s fired the council, which means the Federation has been corrupted.”

“ADAM didn’t say ‘Baba Yaga’s orders…’” Michael’s frown grew deeper as everyone’s attention turned to him. “She dropped the disguise when she got the message from Lance.”

Tabitha pouted. “So what?”

“Is Mom okay?” Gabriel asked quietly. The words sounded small.

Michael drew out his thought slowly. “What is heading for the Federation is not the same woman who felt the need to separate her feelings from her duty. She has no need to hide behind a persona. The Federation has earned a visit from the Queen Bitch.”

“She’s still mad at them for allowing Gödel’s cult to get a foothold,” Alexis recalled. “A hundred and fifty years clearly wasn’t enough time to let that wound heal.”

“And for the lengths she had to go to when she stepped down as Empress and they tried to hobble her military capability,” Gabriel added.

“How about for being such a shitshow that she had to step up in the first place?” Tabitha supplied.

Michael nodded, concealing the flash of regret he felt about the part his first death had played in Bethany Anne reaching her breaking point the first time. However, that was the past, and his wife was no longer walking through life with only her grief to keep her company.

They’d had almost two centuries together to heal those wounds.

No one knew Bethany Anne like he did. She wasn’t in the same place emotionally as she had been when Baba Yaga made her first appearance. His concern shifted to the Federation and what she would do when she got there. He could still see her face in his mind. “Believe it or not, you have never seen your mother lose her temper to the full extent she is capable of.”

Tabitha snorted. “I’d feel sorry for the council if the assholes weren’t so…”

“Deserving?” Gabriel offered.

She tapped a finger on her lips before pointing at him. “That fits,” Tabitha decided. She pushed out of the chair. “Lance would never walk out without a damn good reason. It isn’t in him to quit. Whatever they have coming, they deserve it.”

Alexis, practical as always, pointed out the obvious. “She’s traveling through the Etheric. Even Mom has to rest. If we leave now, we might catch up with her before she gets to the Federation.”

Michael wanted more information. “Alexis, meet me in the meditation chamber in thirty minutes.”

“What are you going to do?” Tabitha asked.

Michael didn’t turn back. “I’m going to take care of that base. Then I need to contact my brothers.”

The Etheric

Bethany Anne crossed the Etheric at supersonic speed. Violent clouds of supercharged mist trailed in her wake for hundreds of kilometers.

Lightning illuminated the turbulence surrounding her, the friction she generated electrifying the flow field her motion was creating. She’d had Tom reconfigure her inner ears to protect them from the rolling sonic boom that accompanied her as she inexorably rode her rage toward the Federation.

For the first couple of hours, she’d been too preoccupied with perfecting her pace to process her emotions. For anyone else, that would have meant finding out just how fast they could run. For Bethany Anne, it meant finding the velocity where she met so much resistance that she had to divert extra energy to her nanocytes to keep her skin and armor intact and maintaining it just below that.

Rome Has Fallen.

Bethany Anne had no information beyond the notification she’d received from Meredith. Those three words carried the weight of trillions of lives dangling over a precipice.

The only one she cared about right now was her father.

It was unlikely the Kurtherians were responsible, even indirectly. It was hard to get an attack of that size together when every time a clan put roots down, a superdreadnought emblazoned with the Queen Bitch’s emblem showed up to bomb them out of existence.

No, the activation of the protocol meant Lance believed the Federation was no longer viable.

This fuckery was internal, and it ground Bethany Anne’s gears like nothing else.

All she’d ever wanted was to help those who were powerless to help themselves. The strength of her desire had gotten her an Empire, one that ran mostly because the General had made it so.

He had taken the mantle from her when she stepped down, but intergalactic rule had seared the imprint of its weight on her soul and could never truly be forgotten. She alone understood the depth and breadth of his burden—because it had been hers first.

Thanks to him, Federation citizens went to sleep at night safe in the knowledge that they would not wake up in the morning to find they and everything they owned now belonged to large aliens with even larger guns

Lance didn’t need guns. He fought from the House of Arbitration, wielding Bethany Anne’s Justice to enforce equality for all and harmony between the multitude of species that made up the Federation. All citizens were equal in his eyes. He tackled every challenge to the Federation charter head-on.

Everything Bethany Anne knew about playing the long game came from Lance. The General didn’t break.

He didn’t break.

But now, it was obvious he had.

The lightning increased in intensity as Bethany Anne indulged her imagination in deciding what she was going to do to the persons responsible. However good it felt to push the boundaries physically, it felt better to let the lid off the anger she’d spent nine-tenths of her life repressing.

It had begun with learning how vampires were made and that the Nosferatu existed because they gave in to a “voice” that tempted them to embrace evil.

She knew there was no virus producing that voice. The only battle the ones who chose the dark side had fought was with their own morality.

“Choose power,” the voice told them. The Nosferatu had ignored the familiarity of it, surrendered their free will, and regressed to an animalistic state to absolve themselves of responsibility for the killing sprees that had driven Michael to lay down his strictures.

There was always a choice. She was done with people choosing wrongly.

The UnknownWorld aside, human governments had chosen to react to TQB with avarice and suspicion.

The Yollins had chosen to fracture as a society rather than accept the equality she’d demanded.

The Leath had chosen to fight brutally for the oppressors they worshipped.

The Skaines had almost chosen extinction rather than bend to Bethany Anne’s zero-tolerance policy on slavery.

After she had a few star systems under her belt, the tactics had turned political, but it was all the same game. Wherever there was opportunity, predators circled.

As Empress, her habit of skipping past the politics and her hands-on approach to thinning the pack had bought her the same reputation Michael had had in the UnknownWorld when she inherited it.

She had wanted better for the Federation. She had practiced patience and restraint, letting go of the things she didn’t have room on her plate for. She had tempered her reactionary nature for the sake of the many.

Well, fuck patience. Her father had been dishonored, and she was all out of restraint. Fuck taking a step back, and fuck giving the council any freedom what-so-fucking-ever from here on out.

They had forgotten about the consequences. Democracy would prevail if she had to rip out the spines of the treacherous shitsquibs and use them to beat the lesson into their replacements to ensure her rules stayed fresh in their minds for more than a generation.

Bethany Anne’s emotions tore outward through the Etheric.

Contrary to everyone’s concerns, she was, for the first time in a long time, completely and utterly herself. In a corner of the mindspace, ADAM and TOM monitored Bethany Anne’s physical state—optimal—and the integrity of her armor’s systems—not so optimal.

>>She hasn’t said a word since she had you fix her hearing. That was fourteen hours ago.<<

I’m not going to interrupt her, TOM told him. If you want to volunteer to be the first digital entity to be torn a physical asshole, be my guest.

>>One of us has to do it,<< ADAM persisted. >>Her armor needs some downtime.<<

I can hear her thoughts. There’s no way I’m bringing her attention down on me.

ADAM showed him the armor’s projected lifetime if Bethany Anne kept pushing it past its limits.

I hate you, TOM grumbled.

Bethany Anne heard them, yet she perceived none of the logic. She’d tuned them out, leaning into the exhilarating rush of the Etheric pouring through her body while she pushed herself to maintain her course at speeds no human was meant to endure.

You need to take a break soon, TOM warned.

Bethany Anne laughed. Why in fuck’s name would I do that when I can power myself infinitely from the energy around me?

You can, TOM agreed. Your armor is a different matter.

>>It needs time to regenerate,<< ADAM added.

Bethany Anne began reducing her speed. Well, shit. How far did we get?

>>You want the distance, or the nearest planet?<<

Planet. Preferably one that has fast food and Coke. None of that Pepsi shit. I’m hungry and thirsty, not desperate.

Chapter Two

The closest planet inhabited by a sentient species was pre-industrial. Bethany Anne usually avoided civilizations that hadn’t yet discovered the combustion engine, let alone interstellar travel.

However, her armor’s integrity was failing.

The nanocyte and Bl’kheth DNA-infused fabric looked like it had been sandblasted in Hell. Her beautiful coat had frayed at the edges. Her boots had lost their luster.

Bethany Anne exited the Etheric in the largest city on the most densely populated continent. She pushed her hood back but hid herself from the minds of the locals while she assessed the place.

She was next to a river that was fronted by a clay-brick promenade. The promenade was crowded with shoppers browsing the stalls of an open-air market. The people were blue-skinned humanoids, kind of birdlike with narrow, beaky faces and short arms that made Bethany Anne think of the T-rex in Jurassic Park.

Something tells me they don’t have fitted sheets on this planet, she commented.

This planet hasn’t moved beyond pastoralism, and that’s what you went with? TOM spluttered.

Bethany Anne and ADAM laughed.

They won’t have Coke, either, TOM grumbled.

I don’t see why you would be cut up about that, Bethany Anne told him. It’s not like the lack of caffeine will bother you.

TOM snorted. Walk a mile in my shoes when you’ve been denied your fix.

You don’t wear shoes, Bethany Anne pointed out. And I don’t need caffeine to function.

She weighed the choice between altering her body to look like the aliens and projecting an illusion that did the same. She settled for subtly altering the perception of those around her so they saw what they expected to.

Then she followed her nose, searching for the smell of cooking meat.

It was pleasant to be nothing more than another face in the crowd. Bethany Anne took her time strolling past the stalls selling everything from the woven baskets with large, looping handles she saw many people carrying on their backs to clothing and home goods, live animals, and butchered ones.

The people were healthy and relaxed, another thing Bethany Anne hadn’t seen for a long time. There was clearly a social and economic structure that placed some above others, but she didn’t see any signs of oppression or slavery.

How has this planet avoided being taken over by the Kurtherians? she pondered, her nose wrinkling as she inspected a tank of crustaceans that looked to be all claw.

>>Could be they missed this star system?<< ADAM guessed. >>There’s no technology to pick up, and the gravitational anomaly I registered on this side as we came in could be providing some kind of protection.<<

What’s your take, TOM?

They have evolved in ways we haven’t seen anywhere else. I won’t argue with ADAM’s theory just yet.

The stall with the cooking smells came into sight near the end of the promenade. Bethany Anne looked at the menu, which was written in a language her translation software hadn’t encountered yet.

With the patience she was famed for across the galaxies, she dismissed her HUD and looked at the photos on the board instead.

The options were: noodles with meat, noodles with veggies, plain noodles, and something that looked pretty much like a noodle-filled taco if she didn’t pay close attention to the fringe of tiny feet along the edges of the crispy shell.

She glanced at the people in front of her to see what they were using for currency and manipulated the trace elements in the air to manifest a handful of the metal tokens.

A little weirded out by the feet, she chose the plain noodles and paid, then took a seat at one of the tables overlooking the harbor. No one noticed the solitary human sitting with them.

Bethany Anne scooped up a few noodles with the two-tined implement the vendor had given her and popped them into her mouth absentmindedly as she watched the activity around the ships.

The noodles objected to being chewed.

Bethany Anne spat the squirming “noodles” back into the cup and wrinkled her nose as she put it on the table. When I said I wanted fast food, I didn’t mean so fast it tries to escape while I am eating it.

You saw the foot-taco, TOM managed through his laughter.

I tried not to see the foot-taco, actually. Bethany Anne pushed the cup away with a little burst of Etheric energy when one of the wormy creatures flopped over the rim. It dangled half-in, half-out, its pendulous sway sending a shudder down her spine. Yeah, no. Is there somewhere on this planet I can get food that knows it is food?

>>I’m going to guess no?<< ADAM apologized.

Bethany Anne sighed, then got to her feet. What am I supposed to do while I wait for my armor to regenerate?

She cut off their replies, picking up a strong sense of evil intent somewhere in the harbor. Never mind. Ask, and the universe provides.

TOM and ADAM knew there would be no diverting her in this mood.

Bethany Anne had already abandoned the cup of worms. She tweaked her perception filter to make people’s eyes slide away from her as she made her way to the docks.

Has the translation software figured the local language yet?

>>If you had waited twenty seconds longer, you would have known you were ordering live bait for lunch,<< ADAM replied.

Well, that just plain sucked.

Bethany Anne shrugged off the consequences of her impatience and activated her HUD.

She walked briskly past fishing boats, one-and two-masted cargo ships, and passenger ships, touching the minds of everyone she passed.

Most of the people were doing legitimate work. She tuned out the clamor of ships being loaded and unloaded around her to zero in on the raised voices that belonged to the sense of impending fuckery that had attracted her attention.

Her head snapped to the left when the sounds of a fight breaking out came from nearby. The evil she was searching for was there.

Bethany Anne found the exit to the side street leading away from the harbor. She skipped through the Etheric and came out on top of the harbor wall, then ran across the smooth stones until she found her quarry.

Four of the people below wore matching uniforms and were guarding four smartly-dressed men carrying a velvet-curtained palanquin.

The eight antagonist assholes in the walled-in side street had swords and pikes, and their faces were covered.

Everyone else had cleared out, but Bethany Anne felt the eyes of an audience in the windows overlooking the street.

The bandits looked like business had been booming. They all had shiny swords and plenty of jewelry. Bethany Anne scanned their minds to be sure and found they were part of a larger gang that had amassed a small fortune by kidnapping the country’s wealthier citizens and holding them for ransom.

In contrast, the guards’ minds showed her they were loyal and good-hearted, and the palanquin bearers were well-paid and well-treated. Their employers were good people whose family ruled the country fairly.

The two noblewomen hiding in the palanquin had been afraid of being waylaid by the gang and were terrified about what was going to happen to them if their guards were overcome.

Bethany Anne’s eyes narrowed, and a spike of annoyance flared in her chest. I have time to get the location of the gang’s headquarters and remove them while my armor does its thing, right?

>>If you are fast, why not?<< ADAM answered. >>The nano-fabric needs another ninety minutes.<<

TOM couldn’t suppress the concern in his voice. What happened to not interfering in the development of pre-space species?

You’ve been watching too much TV with Reynolds. Bethany Anne’s eyes blazed red as she dropped her perception filter and released a wave of fear.

Everyone in the side street stopped what they were doing and looked around for the source of the bone-deep terror they felt.

All eyes turned to Bethany Anne, who leapt lightly to the street.

She concentrated Etheric energy on the ground beneath the bandits’ feet.

Before they had a chance to react, they were solidly encased in chest-high stone drawn from the street.

Bethany Anne lashed out with a fist and crushed the windpipe of the first bandit who opened his mouth to speak.

He sagged in his rocky prison, gasping to draw air into his crushed trachea. The others stared at Bethany Anne, awestruck.

She stalked past the bandits. “You picked the wrong day to pull your bullshit,” she told them. “I’ll deal with you in a minute.”

She turned to the guards, her features softening. “Are you all okay?”

The guards had recovered from her emotional gut-punch. Seeing that the terrifying alien was only mad at the bandits, the senior guard spoke up.

“Who…no, what are you?” he asked. “The earth moved at your command. We have never seen anything like it.”

Bethany Anne’s mouth twitched. He hadn’t loosened the grip he had on his sword. “I’m a bad-tempered bitch who fucking hates bullies. Looks like I got here just in time to help you guys out.”

The guard adjusted his shield, wary of her magic. Everything about this pale woman told him she was a warrior through and through. “Do you mean to attack the Princess?”

His men reaffirmed their stances around the palanquin. There was no fear in their eyes. No resignation to certain death, just determination to do their duty.

Bethany Anne shook her head and smiled, moved by the dedication of the four men standing strong in defense of the women peering through the curtains. “No. I have seen in your minds that they are just rulers.”

The curtain twitched. Bethany Anne wiggled her fingers at the princess peering at her, and the gap in the curtain snapped shut. “I’ll take it from here.”

The senior guard let out a sigh of relief. “Then, with your leave, Lady, we will depart.”

Bethany Anne smiled. “Get the princess to wherever she’s supposed to be,” she told them. She flicked a finger at the bandits. “These shitstains and their friends won’t be bothering anyone for much longer.”

“You would have the kingdom’s gratitude for it,” the guard assured her.

He bowed from the waist, and the others did the same. The bearers picked up the palanquin nervously and moved off without saying a word.

The bandits were less than pleased to see their payday leaving the side street, no questions asked. However, their current predicament took precedence.

Bethany Anne scrutinized the sorry lot of them with distaste. The one she’d punched in the throat had expired while her attention was on the victims. “Which one of you is the leader here?”

The seven who were alive glanced at the one who was not.

“Dammit,” Bethany Anne muttered. She turned her ire on the remaining bandits. “Who gets the honor of being the head prick now that he’s dead?”

No one wanted to step up. Bethany Anne arched an eyebrow. “Well, one of you needs to start talking.”

“We don’t know anything,” one of the bandits blurted.

He realized his mistake when Bethany Anne backhanded him.

Bethany Anne flicked the bandit’s blood off her knuckles, her expression as cold as ice. “I’m allergic to bullshit. It makes me break out in uncontrollable acts of violence.”

She flourished her free hand for effect as she pulled on the Etheric to free the right hand of each bandit from the stone simultaneously.

Next, she drew on the Etheric and manifested a katana made of lightning. The bandits followed the arcing blade with wide eyes, connecting it with their exposed hands in their imaginations.

“Last chance,” Bethany Anne told them. “This blade will cauterize as it cuts, and I have more time than you have body parts.” She didn’t, but that was privileged information, and they didn’t need to know.

She lifted her sword. “Where is the rest of your gang hiding?”

Their stubborn refusal to accept fate had cost the bandits a hand apiece before one of them had squealed, accepting Bethany Anne’s offer of a quick, clean death in return for the location of their gang.

The squealer had told her they were currently camped in the forest east of the city. He’d also given her a list of landmarks as directions.

Apparently, the bandits moved from place to place to avoid capture by the Royal Guard.

Bethany Anne left the city, threading her way through the crowd waiting to gain access at the east gate.

The demarcation between the city limits and the agricultural land beyond was abrupt and happened almost immediately after Bethany Anne left the protection of the walls.

Moving at a speed that obscured her from unenhanced eyes, she followed the road through the verdant farmland and crossed a bridge over the lively river that was her first landmark.

Bethany Anne came upon a village at a crossroads, her second landmark. She left the road and cut across a rolling fallow field to reach the final landmark, a stone well standing in the shade of the trees where the forest met the grass.

The camp was a couple of kilometers into the forest. The trees were not the strangest she’d seen, but their bright red bark and snow-white foliage were beautifully eerie.

The moon had risen by this time. The leaves captured its light, taking on a phosphorescent glow.

Bethany Anne heard nocturnal insects and wildlife stirring in the nooks and crannies as she passed beneath the canopy.

Sounds made by people hit the edge of her hearing range. Cruel laughter filtered through the trees, shattering the otherwise-peaceful ambiance.

Bethany Anne veered toward the sound.

Getting closer, she counted three dozen bandits gathered around a campfire. They were drinking and carousing, having a grand old time and laughing drunkenly as they one-upped each other with tall tales.

Bethany Anne wasn’t planning on making conversation. This was an extermination exercise.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t give them a taste of their own medicine.

She flooded the area with Etheric energy and sent it into the sky. The moon vanished behind the dark clouds she pulled out of thin air.

A peal of thunder broke up the revelry around the campfire. A few of the bandits began gathering their belongings to take back into their wagons.

“Where are you going?” the bandit whose anecdote had been disrupted called. “Story’s not done yet!”

A wicked smile played on Bethany Anne’s lips. She amplified her voice, pushing fear. “Hey, assholes! I have a story for you. It’s called, Saint Payback is a bitch, and she’s coming for you.”

Dread accompanied each syllable, her words cutting the night.

The bandits, either to their credit or their overwhelming stupidity, did not run away pissing themselves.

They grabbed their weapons and bunched together, scanning the tree line warily. The soft glow from the canopy lent depth to the shadows, the half-light only adding to their confusion.

Bethany Anne stepped out of the shadows and someone fired a crossbow at her, although whether it was purposeful or a premature shot, no one would ever know.

She caught the bolt in mid-air and hurled it back at the bandit who had fired it. “Nice try, ass-biscuit.”

The bolt hit him square between the eyes and kept going. It erupted from the back of his skull and pinned the person standing behind him to a tree.

Bethany Anne raised an arm and called lightning to her hand. Her eyes blazed red as she reformed the energy into the shape of her favorite katana. “Is any other fucker here feeling brave? No? Good. My turn.”

A few of the bandits managed to regain control of themselves and ran.

Bethany Anne was faster.

To the bandits standing in the center of the camp, it looked like she had vanished. The next thing they saw was the deserters dropping like flies.

That got them moving, fear of Bethany Anne’s powers or not.

Those with swords and shields came at her in a rough formation led by one particularly vocal bandit as she slowed, taking a running leap to use the chest of the lead bandit as a springboard as she brought the lightning around in a deadly arc.

Six down. Well, fuckity-fuck, her boot was stuck in the bandit’s chest.

Bethany Anne wrenched her foot free and whipped around, narrowly avoiding the blade of a meaty-looking bandit who wielded his broadsword two-handed.

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. He was built like a brick shithouse, a giant compared to the rest of his species.

The other bandits seemed to think he was the shit, judging by the circle forming around them. The dumb fucks had actual hope in their eyes as they called his name, cheering him on.

Bethany Anne released the lightning and plunged her hand into his chest. “You are the bad guys,” she stated as she pulled her hand out. “You don’t get to win.”

His eyes widened when she showed him his still-beating heart.

Bethany Anne had moved on by the time his brain got the news that he was dead.

This was by no means a fair fight. The bandits were woefully outnumbered and outclassed, much like their victims had been. Bethany Anne tore them to pieces without breaking a sweat.

The campsite was soaked in blood when she killed the final bandit a few moments later. So was she.

It only took a few seconds to clean the rapidly stiffening blood out of her hair.

She looked down at her gore-soaked clothing and hesitated before activating the nano-fabric’s self-clean function. Please tell me my armor has fully regenerated, ADAM.

>>Go ahead,<< ADAM confirmed.

Bethany Anne unclenched her teeth once the mess was gone. That’s better.

Are you going to inform the royal family about this? TOM inquired.

Bethany Anne shook her head as she opened the Etheric. My armor is fully functional. Time to go.

Chapter Three

High Tortuga, Northern Continent, Space Fleet Base

The main ops room of the security pit thrummed with the murmured conversations of the analysts, agents, and various support operatives working on the Federation’s multi-pronged response to the attempted coup.

The families had no idea who they were fucking with.

Lance recognized the faces. He saw seasoned operatives who worked under Barnabas, Anna Elizabeth’s agents, and administrative liaisons from both Stephen’s staff and the Bad Company.

There were even a couple of Ranger uniforms in the crowd.

Somewhere deep in the bunker, Frank Kurns and his people were listening and feeding a steady drip of information to the pit.

Those who spotted Lance as he walked through the ops room gave him deferential nods of respect.

He returned the respect.

These people protected the Federation. Few of them would ever see the front lines, where the balance was measured in blood. Their battles were fought on spreadsheets, across public message boards, in courtrooms, and in the media. Not with physical force, but with obsessive attention to detail and terrier-like tenacity.

Lance left the ops room through the secure door on the far side of the pit and made his way along the corridor to the smaller meeting room. Barnabas, Stephen, and Anna Elizabeth were waiting for him.

“Come, join us,” Stephen invited as Lance closed the door. “CEREBRO, lock us down. Nothing in, nothing out until I call for you again.”

“As you wish, Stephen,” the EI group responded.

Lance made a beeline for the refreshments table, ignoring the tingling of the hair on the back of his neck in response to CEREBRO activating the room’s security bubble. He chose decaf and a pair of chocolate chip cookies. “I appreciate you all waiting while I secured passage from Red Rock for our allies. Akio and Nickie send their regards.”

“How are things going up there on the Rock?” Barnabas asked.

Lance took a seat at the table and dipped one of his cookies into his coffee. “Exactly as we planned.” He stuffed the coffee-soaked cookie into his mouth and chewed quickly. “I missed breakfast and lunch. I know I can replenish my energy from the Etheric, but it doesn’t fill your stomach.”

“We won’t tell Patricia you were filling up on sugar when we had a perfectly good fruit basket available,” Barnabas promised with a wink.

“It’s all sugar in the end.” Lance gave the apple Barnabas was eating a skeptical look, then demolished the second cookie and swept the crumbs away. “The families are too outraged at being thrown out of the House of Arbitration to do more than send in the lawyers.”

“A fat lot of good that will do them,” Barnabas commented, carving a slice from his apple with his knife.

“It does us good,” Anna Elizabeth responded evenly.

She preferred Barnabas in a level mood. The ancients had smoothed their tendencies to choose bloodshed as a solution. However, when they were moved to great anger, there was always the risk they would revert to the scorched-earth policy of the past. “While the lawyers are distracted by the misapprehension that they can reverse the dissolution of the council, we have breathing room to dismantle the families’ power base.”

“I have my people coordinating with Frank,” Lance told her. “The families haven’t yet gotten their asses in gear to carry out whatever their end game is.”

Stephen pushed his coffee cup away. “We know exactly what they want. Once they have control of the Libraries, they intend to corrupt the education system on the Jeddah-class planets so they can manipulate the people and force a mass secession.”

Anna Elizabeth folded her arms, annoyance pinching her features. “Projections from Dawnseeker University show a bleak outcome if the families are allowed to continue unchecked. Finding out they have been using their power within the private universities to distort knowledge of other cultures and even remove their own history should be shocking, but I’m afraid I saw it coming.”

“We all did,” Stephen supplied wearily. “But we were right not to act until they made their move. I cannot help but think of the people whose lives will be disrupted when we redress the balance.”

Barnabas put his knife on the table and reached for his brother’s shoulder. “That is why we have foresight. For long enough, the families have cried ‘Freedom!’ knowing nothing of the sacrifices that were made to give them the liberty to do so. It has given us ample opportunity to prepare for this day.”

“True, but we have come to a nexus point we revisit over and over, one the short-lived lack the longevity to see the futility of. Yet again, there is a group of people whose desire to have others bow to them in the ascendancy.” Stephen was a man with a gentle heart. Once upon a time, he had retreated from the brutal reality of life.

Then Bethany Anne had called him to service. She had given him the strength to reclaim his life, and further, inspired him to make something more of it than he had in the previous centuries.

Since Bethany Anne left High Tortuga, he and Barnabas had endeavored to care for the people in her name. More recently, he had protected High Tortuga from the worst of the families’ manipulation, all the while feeling the frustration of being powerless to protect more than his own corner of the Federation.

Stephen’s expression was severe. “The time of standing aside is over. We need to put our plans into action before the families have a chance to make their next move, or we risk the stability of the Federation. If this progresses to war between the planetary states, there’s nothing to prevent society from returning to the way it was before Bethany Anne came along and changed things.”

Lance frowned. “This isn’t the time to give oxygen to our worst fears. My counterattack went into effect the moment I initiated the coup protocol. What else are we doing to fuck with their efforts?”

“We are going to teach the families that everything they have is built upon infrastructure controlled by a much larger and more powerful family,” Barnabas informed him. “They are but children compared to the Nacht.”

Barnabas’ smile was serene. Lance knew better than to mistake the ancient vampire’s expression as anything but contemplation of the carnage to come. “Why does that sound like you’re planning to eviscerate them?”

“Because we are,” Barnabas replied. “Financially, at least.”

Stephen flicked a finger to activate the holodisplay embedded in the table. It showed a list of names. “Barnabas is simplifying. When Bethany Anne proposed the creation of the terraforming program, she created a fund and opened it to anyone in the family who wanted to invest. That money went into creating the infrastructure the families built their fortunes on, including the banks they use.”

“Talk about biting the hand that feeds you,” Lance groused, scrutinizing the list.

He knew every person on it well and considered many of them to be family. “I remember the fund. Patricia made a killing on an unexpected neodymium deposit some years ago, and she’s never let me forget I turned that particular investment down.”

“Your holdings are nothing to be sniffed at,” Stephen consoled him. He selected an icon, and information on some of the investments he’d made over the years replaced the list of names. “As you all know, I have been acting as the fund manager since Yuko decided to spend more time with her great-grandchildren. When I received your message via Meredith, I enacted a program I’ve been working on with CEREBRO’s help. Every contract between the fund and the family-owned companies has been canceled.”

Barnabas nodded. “Disrupting business is a start.”

“Not enough of one in my view,” Stephen told him. “I have also frozen the personal accounts of the families and their closest associates.”

Lance snorted. “That’s the no-punches-pulled attitude I was looking for. I mentioned my counterattack. I have the power to effectively put these planets into administration, and by God, I intend to make them squirm. Arrangements are underway for forensic auditors from all over the Federation to descend on the governments of the affected member states.”

Anna Elizabeth let out a little gasp. “That is an extreme measure. What about the cost?”

Lance’s lip curled. “The families can eat it. Fuck them. I’m going to ferret out every single skeleton those entitled fuckers have hidden in their closets, and I’m going to use what my people find to string the bastards up by their heels. What these people need is a dose of MPPS to knock the delusions of superiority they inherited along with their fortunes out of them. Everything we find that was acquired by dishonorable means will be confiscated by the Federation and redistributed to deserving parties.”

“That’s a little Robin Hood, don’t you think?” Anna Elizabeth didn’t look like she disapproved.

“Who is protecting the auditors?” Stephen inquired.

Lance’s grin promised trouble. “Nickie was looking to stretch her legs. You know how she gets. Akio will remain at Ranger Base One while she takes command of the mission.”

There was a twinkle in Barnabas’ eye. “So, we have cut the families off from their money, caused chaos in their businesses, and distracted them—and their armies of lawyers—by ripping back the curtains on their attempts to subvert Federation law. What are we doing to regain the people’s trust in the Federation?”

Lance didn’t miss Anna Elizabeth’s smile. “We were not the only ones to have foresight. I take it you have the media campaign sewn up, Anna Elizabeth?”

Anna Elizabeth’s tone made it clear how she felt about getting to take the gloves off. “We have content going out on multiple platforms, led by an exposé on the gray areas the corporations have been using to exploit their workers.”

Lance cocked an eyebrow. “How do you intend to get full coverage for that? Four of the nine major news platforms are owned by the families.”

Those four platforms were the only approved media on many planets owned by the families. They were polluted with propaganda produced by the owners.

The Premier Families are working hard to make life fair for you despite the Federation restricting us.

Your life is hard because this group is using up the resources. Because other planets are getting a better deal.

We care. The Federation does not.

Hate and fear were shoved down the people’s throats like they were geese in a foie gras factory, and there was no regulatory body in sight to demand they report the truth.

It was on their news channels, their social media, and the shows they watched on the holonetworks, and in the advertising they were exposed to.

These messages were on every screen and in every level of communication from memes to state-produced documentaries. It was twenty-four-seven exposure to content designed to create divides and erode their trust in the benefits of unity and universal access to basic necessities.

Anna Elizabeth smiled in Barnabas’ direction. “With a little help from my friends and colleagues.”

Barnabas leaned forward, steepling his fingers on the table before him. “I have been tracking activities the families would prefer stayed behind closed doors for many years now.”

“As have I. The families want to play dirty? I will air their dirty laundry for all the Federation to see.” Anna Elizabeth looked like the cat that had gotten the cream. “Link and Phina have teams making the rounds of the major broadcasting corporations and social media outlets to ensure we get their full cooperation.”

“Do you think that will be enough to sway the public?” Lance asked, although he knew the answer.

Anna Elizabeth’s smile grew. “Oh, yes. The families may have money to burn, but they are vastly outnumbered by the people whose quality of life has been gradually reduced year after year while their leaders grow richer. They support the families out of a mixture of fear they will lose their jobs if they speak against their employers and ignorance.”

Lance knew public support also came from the legions who believed the families were their saviors and treated them like celebrities.

“What the families have done is remove hope,” he growled. “The people under their control have no hope of improving the situation. They cannot earn their way out. They cannot educate themselves without the Libraries. People who are denied the basics don’t just fall into financial poverty, they become intellectually impoverished. Their daily lives and their decisions focus on the need to eat and keep a roof over their children’s heads. We did not spend the last two hundred years eradicating need for a bunch of self-aggrandizing, power-hungry idiots to destroy it all.”

Nobody disagreed with that.

“Everything will change once we expose the truth they have suppressed,” Stephen reasoned. “When the people realize they have the Federation’s support in overthrowing their oppressors, surely they will rise up.”

Anna Elizabeth nodded in agreement. “While our efforts in the banking system will deny the families access to their liquid assets, our follow-up on the media campaign will trigger public boycotts of the corporations.”

Lance had another concern. “We need to provide support for the people affected by us kneecapping the families financially. It’s going to be messy.”

“What’s the alternative?” Anna Elizabeth asked softly.

Lance didn’t sugarcoat it. “Bethany Anne arrives and starts removing heads.”

“Plan A it is.” Stephen looked around the table. “We all realize that Bethany Anne is going to remove heads whatever we do?”

“Which is why we get ahead on damage control,” Lance told them. “While we have a duty to ensure that the Federation can recover, my daughter will not have those concerns in mind until she is done removing the root of the cancer in our society.”

“I would not care to be in the families’ shoes when the Queen arrives,” Stephen agreed.

Barnabas chuckled. “Speak for yourself. I intend to join Bethany Anne when she arrives and provide any assistance she requires in dealing Justice.”

Stephen looked at Barnabas. “You are overly bloodthirsty.”

“I am appropriately bloodthirsty,” Barnabas returned dryly. “I am a vampire, after all.”

“Have you heard from Bethany Anne since you sent the alert, Lance?” Anna Elizabeth asked, trying to keep the conversation on track.

Lance shook his head. “I have not. That worries me because it means she is not aboard the Baba Yaga. I’m expecting to hear from Michael or one of the twins in a day or so.”

Stephen lifted a shoulder. “We can use the delay. Do you really want Bethany Anne to arrive without having burned some of her temper off?”

Open Space, QSD Baba Yaga

Michael was in Bethany Anne’s ready room, reading on his HUD with the lights low when Izanami’s avatar appeared.

The AI cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your brooding session.”

Michael would have gotten mad if her snark didn’t remind him so much of Bethany Anne.

The AI lacked the danger Bethany Anne would present in the same situation, however, so reacting gave him no pleasure.

Izanami’s eyes widened. “Wow. Not even a bite?”

“You read the report from Lance,” Michael stated, ignoring her question. “You know how Bethany Anne is going to react when she finds out.”

“That’s what I came to talk to you about,” Izanami told him. “I picked up a large concentration of residual Etheric energy on a planet a few light-years from here.”

“How large?” Michael sat up in the chair, dismissing his HUD.

“Large enough that only Bethany Anne or Gödel could have produced it. Since we know Gödel is in the wind, it can only have been caused by Bethany Anne.”

“What are we waiting for?” Michael was relieved to have something to focus on. “Alter our trajectory to put us on course for that planet.”

Izanami smiled. “We are already en route.”

“Good. Get me the twins. No, wait. Tabitha.” He waved his hands and made for the door. “Just have everyone meet me in Transporter Bay One. I need John and Peter, too.”

Chapter Four

Bethany Anne stepped back into the Etheric after the second time her armor needed to regenerate.

She was feeling good, having taken out a slave ring on the planet she’d just left.

This was almost a vacation.

Almost.

She was nearing the Federation. She could feel the pull of the Etheric energy the CEREBRO network emitted.

Soon she would be able to connect, but for now, she was happy to remain hidden.

She wondered how far behind Michael was.

Bethany Anne’s good mood evaporated when her armor’s functions came online and she received a slew of messages.

“Where the fuck are they coming from?” she demanded. “I’m offline for a reason.”

>>The long-range subspace transceivers are new,<< ADAM explained. >>Don’t worry. I’m hiding us from the network for the moment.<<

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “We have access, right?”

>>You see your messages.<<

“What crawled up your ass?” Bethany Anne retorted. “In fact, don’t tell me. You can have a time-out while I read these.”

She cut him off and blocked TOM out before he opened his metaphorical mouth and pissed her off further.

The voice in the back of her mind that was all her own therefore had plenty of room to heckle Bethany Anne, telling her ADAM had been snitty because she had been a bitch first.

“You can shut the fuck up, too,” she growled.

The mist was thicker here. The closer to the CEREBRO network she got, the closer she got to the perpetual storms its power sources created in this dimension.

The storms protected the Federation from being attacked from inside the Etheric. The downside for Bethany Anne was that denser mist meant more resistance and more frequent stops for her armor to take care of itself.

Plus, there was the risk that the speed she was traveling at would cause a power surge and destroy the network.

Not a desirable outcome.

Once she was inside the Federation’s borders, it would be safer and more economical to leave the Etheric and complete her journey in a ship.

She would cross that bridge when she came to it.

Bethany Anne set off at a brisk run, fast for a human but nothing spectacular. She concentrated on her breathing to center herself before she dealt with her correspondence.

She opened Michael’s note first, needing to feel her connection to him as soon as she saw his name. He was right behind her, and from his tone, she had some making up to do once they were clear of this crisis.

Alexis and Gabriel weren’t happy about being left out of the action. Gabrielle’s message was abrupt, her hurt contained in a few clipped sentences. Tabitha hadn’t held back in her sixteen-page, all-caps, profanity-laden rant. John’s simple, WTF, BA??? spoke volumes.

She read every word, knowing she was going to hear it all from their lips when the Baba Yaga caught up with her.

“Fu-uuuck.”

Okay, so, a lot of making up, her conscience piped up.

Bethany Anne pushed away the guilt and moved on to the encrypted report from her father.

It was thorough. She appreciated him spearheading the efforts to minimize the repercussions of the families’ dick move. Even now—no, especially now— she had no time for the bullshit that was politics.

He had assembled an interim court to stand in until the Federation Council could be reestablished.

Although the move on the Libraries had been blocked, Bethany Anne found herself ratcheting to a higher plane of rage than she had known existed when she discovered the lengths the families were willing to sink to in order to gain control.

“Those stinking rectal protuberances are fining their employees for using the Libraries?”

She continued to read and discovered that fines were not the only punitive measure the family-run corporations had instituted behind the Federation’s back.

Still, it was the worst.

There was another message from Michael. She checked the timestamp. Eight hours after the first bunch had been sent.

Everyone has had some time to calm down and realize we could not leave the Dargoran situation unresolved. Reynolds has stepped in to cover the planet and we are underway, following your trail.

I know how you are feeling right now. The last time I felt this way, every second in the North American Pack Council got promoted to Alpha whether they wanted it or not.

But I am not you. You will bear the weight of what you do forever. I know you will do what is necessary, whatever the cost to yourself. All I ask is that you listen to your conscience. It has never steered you wrong.

Bethany Anne’s eyebrows met, and a small furrow formed on her brow as she considered the loving advice of her husband.

Any other time, it would have been good advice.

Not this time.

The Bethany Anne Michael was trying to reach had checked out.

He hadn’t seen the coldness his death had plunged her heart into. Or the fervor with which she’d thrown herself into creating an empire where no one’s love got evaporated by some prick with a fucking nuke—and no, she still wasn’t over that.

The Federation had been built on her heartbreak. On her sheer fucking determination that people should treat each other with basic compassion and respect.

Everyone was not equal, but every sentient being in the universe had something to offer and the potential to become more.

She had no empathy for those who had been given every advantage in life and squandered it on conquest for the sake of getting their boots licked by the weak.

Those rat-licking funge-sacks deserved every painful microsecond of what was coming to them.

And she was going to make damned sure they got it.

Bethany Anne composed a single message and resumed her supersonic speed.

Bethany Anne had cleared her head enough to allow TOM and ADAM back in by the time she reached the outermost subspace array.

She was still angry; that wasn’t going away without a resolution.

“I’m sorry. It’s not you I’m angry with, either of you.”

ADAM grumbled a response.

“I shouldn’t have snapped,” she admitted.

You are not the only one who is angry, TOM assured her.

>>Are you going to blow up again?<< ADAM inquired, his tone playful.

“I want to avoid blowing anything up just yet,” Bethany Anne shot back, a smile sneaking out.

She cocooned herself in an air bubble before opening the Etheric, matching the frequency to the ambient Etheric energy emitted by the array.

Helmet still deployed, she created a walkway from her position to the access platform of the largest of three satellites that made up the array.

“Can we access the network without giving our presence away to CEREBRO?”

Bethany Anne’s HUD activated as ADAM patched her in. “Excellent! Dad’s report said the fuckfaces at the top scattered to the stars the minute they realized they’d lost control.”

So we look under every rock until we find the one they scurried beneath, TOM stated.

Bethany Anne’s lip curled. “That would work if the alliance between the families was based on trust. Unfortunately for them, behaving like a clutch of Great White sharks in the womb only makes it easier to destroy them.”

>>I have something. A vacation home owned by one Travian Ja’Kol has just received a delivery of food and other supplies.<<

One eyebrow arched. “Ja’Kol is?”

>>The guardian of Jessamyn Ca’Shal.<<

That name Bethany Anne did recognize. “The Torcellan child whose parents died under suspicious circumstances and left her a billion-credit company?”

ADAM confirmed it was. >>I’m looking through bank records. It appears the first investigator assigned to the case also died under mysterious circumstances.<<

Bethany Anne’s lips drew tight as she accessed the data. “Looks like a straightforward homicide to me.”

>>His replacement was apparently convinced he shot himself in the back,<< ADAM snarked. >>She closed both cases as accidental and retired a few months later with three million credits in her account.<<

“Where does the money trail lead, or is that an obvious answer, too?”

>>Full house on the scumbag bingo card,<< ADAM told her. >>Everything leads back to Ja’Kol.<<

“Then I guess we have our starting point.” Bethany Anne sat cross-legged on the cold metal and closed her eyes.

What are you doing?

A corner of Bethany Anne’s mouth tipped up as she reached out with her mind. “I’m getting us a ride.”

Planet Ryleah

Xadia

Elamonn stalked the halls outside his father’s study, his nervous pacing driving his sister quietly crazy.

“Will you sit down!” Xadia hissed.

The heir apparent to the Ryleahan empire turned on his half-sister with a snarl, exposing the jagged papillae that lined his mouth and throat. “Watch your tongue, sister. Lest I have it torn from your head.”

“I’d like to see you try, little brother,” Xadia retorted with a laugh.

Her guards took a step forward. Elamonn threw up a hand in disgust, having left his guards to watch over his heir.

His second wife had been looking at her stepson oddly recently, and Elamonn was too fond of the boy to lose him to her ambitions for her own future children.

Xadia’s mocking laughter continued. “Father might be disinheriting you right now.”

That was not one of Elamonn’s concerns. It wasn’t that strange to be excluded from a discussion with the shareholders. There were company secrets he would not be permitted to know until he was the head of the family, and he accepted that. Mostly.

However, his half-sister’s presence in the family home was bewildering since she had been disinherited when it was discovered that her mother—a high-ranking member of the J’naal family—had been trying to siphon off the Ryleah fortune.

It had to suck, knowing the only reason you had been born was so your parents could get their hands on someone’s money, but that was how it was in this part of the Federation.

Not that they would be part of the Federation for much longer.

Xadia had married well, assassinated all the right people—including her first two husbands, if the rumors were to be believed, and blackmailed the rest until she was in a financial position to give the Ryleahan side of her family the finger.

Ryleah Logistics’ reliance on her willingness to do business with them bought her more leeway than Elamonn liked.

Her fawning on the public was unbearable. It sickened him how she shifted all the praise for her success onto the Federation.

She refused to take credit for turning the rundown shipyard she had purchased with her inheritance after her mother died into a shipbuilding empire that outshone its competitors. Instead, her whole public image was built on paying forward the opportunities she’d made the most of to climb back to the top.

Of course, the media loved the disinherited-heiress-makes-good story. Whoever heard of encouraging the masses to dream?

His damned sister, that was who, which further protected her from any permanent repercussions her outrageous behavior might cause.

It drove him around the bend, but the company came before family feuds, and the lawyers had to do something to earn their retainers.

Elamonn was distracted from his internal tirade by the arrival of two humans.

“Who are you?” he demanded, stalking over to them. “How did you get in here?”

“Answer one question at a time,” the female human told the male in a stage-whisper. “This one looks to be a politician. We don’t want to confuse him.”

Xadia snickered, adding to Elamonn’s embarrassment.

“Now, now, Shinigami,” the man chastised, although there was an undercurrent of amusement in his tone, “There’s no need to add insult to injury.”

Elamonn was losing the thread. “What injury?” he demanded.

The man punched him in the face. “That one, to start.”

Elamonn clutched his bleeding snout as the man strode past.

He paused and offered Xadia a half-bow before kicking in the doors to the boardroom.

Barnabas was delighted by the reaction to his entrance. He had decided to shake the dust off his old monk’s robe for this not-so-friendly visit.

He tucked his hands into the sleeves as the porcine aliens around the table stared at him in shock. A quick scan of their minds told him the Ryleahan at the head of the table calling for his guards was the head of the family.

“Your guards are indisposed, Ochan,” Barnabas informed him.

“I would describe them as very much disposed of,” Shinigami commented. She fixed the shareholders with an icy stare as she leaned against the wall with her arms folded loosely.

“You would not be making light of it if you had seen inside their minds,” Barnabas responded darkly.

“I saw their expunged criminal records,” Shinigami told him. “I thought you went easy on them.”

“We have bigger fish to fry.” Barnabas inclined his head toward the Ryleahans. “I am here on behalf of the Nacht to inform you that your business is no longer wanted.”

Elamonn and Xadia had come to stand in the doorway as their father and the upper echelon of the family stared at the intruders.

Ochan finally regained his voice. “We have no business with you. You have no right to be here, human.” He spat the word like it tasted bad.

Barnabas wasn’t surprised to encounter speciesism. “I have every right to be here,” he replied, starting a mental tally of the disrespect he intended to punish them for when he returned with Bethany Anne.

“I imagine you were attempting to fathom the cause of the difficulty you are having with reaching your suppliers and contractors, or maybe you noticed your personal accounts have been blocked?”

That got their attention.

The family erupted into threats and accusations.

“SHUT YOUR TRAITOR MOUTHS!” Barnabas pushed a pulse of fear along with his command. “This would be amusing if not for the hardships your behavior has caused the people under your rule.”

“We are rich!” Elamonn squeaked, still gripping the doorframe. “We buy companies that run worlds. We have a right to shape policy for the worlds whose economies we support!”

Shinigami cracked up, slapping her thigh. “That’s a good one. Bitch, please. Your ships land on the worlds we own.”

“You are nothing,” Barnabas informed them. “Barely worth the attention of the real wealth that supports the Federation. You are annoying mosquitoes, and I am the prelude to the hand coming down to crush you.”

Shinigami, show them.

The wallscreen came to life, showing the news anchor on the family-approved holonetwork announcing the list of planets and companies that had renounced their ties to the families.

“New ruling by the Senate on planet Dre’ler. Ryleah Logistics ships are no longer permitted in their airspace.”

“Phlarion Mining Corporation stocks plummet in value as workers unionize in response to the revelations that have recently been brought to light about company practices.”

“Minet Industries has closed the doors on their factories by order of the Interim Court established by General Reynolds. Here’s what he had to say earlier today…”

Ochan’s face grew redder and redder. He picked up a paperweight from the table and launched it at the wallscreen as Lance’s face replaced the anchor. “This won’t stand!”

“It has already happened,” Barnabas informed him. He was distracted by a tickle at the back of his conscious mind. The sensation increased, then he felt a familiar presence.

My Queen.

Barnabas. You don’t sound too happy to hear from me.

Apologies. You got here a few hours before the time I had in the pool.

Oh, well, then that’s understandable. I need a ride, but finish up here first. I want to see where this goes.

Barnabas didn’t miss a beat. Only one member of the family was innocent.

He removed a holofile from his robes and tossed it across the table. “Here is the documentation relating to the severance. The families will fall in line with the rest of the Federation, or you will become nothing more than the footnote you tried to make of Etherian history.”

Elamonn scoffed. “I doubt the new ruling body will see it your way. We own the council, Red Rock or no Red Rock.”

The temperature in the room dropped sharply, and fear beyond anything Barnabas could produce permeated the room.

Shinigami moved to cover Barnabas, whose face had gone slack while Bethany Anne used him as a conduit.

The Queen spoke from everywhere at once.

“I am the ruling body, and I find you unworthy. The sentence for failing your people is total annihilation.”

Her voice tore strips down their souls.

Every Ryleahan in the room was besieged with visions of a fully vamped-out Bethany Anne.

“Sleep well tonight, assholes. I’m coming for you.”

“Congratulations,” Shinigami announced. “You have escaped the cage you felt was holding you back. Now, that also happened to raise the bars that stopped the lions from eating you, but that was also your choice.”

“They know, Shinigami.” Barnabas caught the broadcast thoughts of the family as Bethany Anne receded from his mind.

Those who hadn’t believed in Bethany Anne were caught up in epiphany. All the stories they had dismissed as childish fables came back to them in a rush.

Blind panic overwhelmed the rest, terror gripping those who had been involved in suppressing information about Bethany Anne and were now faced with the reality of the Queen Bitch in IDGAF mode.

Their bravado wilted as the understanding that they now had nothing set in.

There was no escape, no excuses, nowhere to hide.

The dissolution of the council had given Bethany Anne the freedom to play hardball.

Xadia pointed an accusatory finger at her father, brother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. “You brought this on yourselves. I will never see anything more satisfying than the looks on your faces right now.”

She turned on her heel and swept out of the room, her guards following.

Shinigami hitched a thumb after her. “I kind of like her.”

Barnabas had one more thing to say. “You have been Judged,” he told the Ryleahans.

He left the room and sent a mental search for the disinherited daughter. She was already halfway across the compound, and Bethany Anne was not a woman to be kept waiting unless prolonged pain was your thing.

“Call the ship, Shinigami,” Barnabas requested. “I hope that young woman has better bodyguards than the rest of her family’s assassins.”

Shinigami sashayed along the corridor at his side, the click of her heels echoing off the polished marble. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Barnabas glanced at her. “That the whole family hates Xadia, which is an indication she is not corrupt? I touched her mind as we walked in. She is not like the rest of them.”

Shinigami grinned. “Great minds, my friend. I checked her out as well. She’s actually pretty decent to her employees.”

Barnabas had gotten that much from the Ryleahan’s mind. “It would be delicious if she were to be the one to keep whoever survives Bethany Anne’s judgment in line.”

Shinigami snickered. “Oh, hells, yes!”

Chapter Five

Bethany Anne’s eyes snapped open when the bright spark of Barnabas’ energy pinged her peripheral consciousness.

She jumped to her feet, wide awake, and skipped through the Etheric to the Shinigami.

She exited the Etheric into the ship, triggering the security system.

Shinigami’s avatar appeared wearing full armor as the bulkheads slammed shut.

She opened her mouth to flash her fangs but forgot all about them when she saw Bethany Anne standing there with her hands on her hips.

Then she vanished and reappeared wearing a deep red cowl-neck jumpsuit, a black silk bolero jacket, and softly ruched, black western-style boots with four-inch heels.

All this happened in less than two seconds.

“Welcome aboard, my Queen,” Shinigami greeted Bethany Anne. “We are on the bridge.”

“I remember the way,” Bethany Anne told her with a laugh.

Bethany Anne assessed Shinigami’s mannerisms as they walked down the bridge access corridor. The AI had perfected her imitation of humanity. “Tabitha would definitely approve of that outfit.”

Shinigami gave a little hip-wiggle. “I have her to thank for insisting I put some junk in the trunk. It comes in handy when we are undercover and I have some sleazeball mark to distract.”

She glanced at Bethany Anne’s armor. “I’m so jealous of that nano-fabric. What does an AI have to do to get her hands on some of that?”

Bethany Anne shook her head. “You don’t. It was a one-time deal.”

Shinigami’s smile faded. “No fair.”

Bethany Anne laughed at her pout, so much like Tabitha’s, and pulled a small box from her inside coat pocket. “I brought you a gift.”

Shinigami waved her holographic hands at the box. “Open it!”

Bethany Anne lifted the lid and pressed a finger to the tiny sphere inside. “It’s for those days when you need an avatar with a bit of punch.”

Shinigami’s eyes lit up when the sphere came online and offered her a secure connection. “A mobile HLP drive? I am no longer jealous.”

“Try it on,” Bethany Anne urged, her grin matching the AI’s.

Shinigami vanished again, and the hard light projection drive launched out of the box and lit up.

Bright golden light erupted from the sphere, rapidly forming into a vaguely humanoid shape.

A moment later, the wobbly human shape began to resolve. Another moment and it gained features, then Shinigami stood there.

Bethany Anne held her arms wide. “How about a hug?”

Shinigami wrapped her arms around Bethany Anne and squeezed. “This is a wonderful gift. Thank you, Bethany Anne.”

“You are welcome,” Bethany Anne told her with feeling. “I need you comfortable with it before we arrive at Garandel Four.”

Shinigami vanished, and the mobile hard light projection drive flew to a compartment in the wall that opened for it.

Bethany Anne smiled.

“What is at Garandel Four?” Barnabas inquired, his voice coming through the open bridge door.

He appeared in the doorway a moment later, and Bethany Anne ran the rest of the way and grabbed him in a hug. “It’s been too long,” she told him, her voice tight with emotion. “It’s so good to see you.”

Barnabas returned her embrace, discombobulated by the intensity of Bethany Anne’s presence. The vitality of her was overwhelmingly uplifting. “I only wish you were not returning under such vexing circumstances.”

Bethany Anne released Barnabas almost as soon as she’d initiated the hug and breezed past him. “You’re going to just love this. We’re taking a side trip to rescue Jessamyn Ca’Shal.”

Barnabas tipped his head to the side in confusion. “I thought the main branch of the Ca’Shal family were all killed in a freak ship implosion?”

Bethany Anne offered him a sad smile. “The child survived and has since been held captive by Travian Ja’Kol, who is acting on behalf of the rest of the family. The fuckers got one over on everyone by burying any information about her on the basis that she is a minor. They’ve siphoned off over a hundred million credits already this year. As for the child, well, I can’t imagine she will be safe when the cash cow keels over and dies.”

All mirth was gone from Barnabas’ demeanor. “We are going to step in, right?”

Bethany Anne nodded. “Fuck yes, we’re stepping in, and on, and right through any fucker who gets in our way.”

“And afterward?” Barnabas inquired. “Who will care for the child?”

Bethany Anne pressed her lips together in thought. “Well, shit. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

Barnabas had an idea. “Let me make a call. It may take a little while to pinpoint the location of the person I have in mind.”

“I can help with that,” Shinigami offered.

Bethany Anne waved Barnabas on. “Go for it. I’m going to raid the galley while you two get to work.”

“I could eat,” Barnabas called after her.

“I just bet you could!” Bethany Anne trilled over her shoulder.

She returned fifteen minutes later with two grilled cheese sandwiches apiece for her and Barnabas and a six-pack of Cokes she’d had to get ADAM to convince the food processing unit to give her.

“Why is it all you have to drink around here is juice?” she asked as she handed Barnabas his food.

“I like juice,” Barnabas replied.

“Well, your food processing unit knows the recipe now.” Bethany Anne popped the top on one of the Coke cans and held up a finger while she drank every last drop.

Who doesn’t need caffeine? TOM teased.

Who likes sleeping on the fucking couch? Bethany Anne shot back. “Did you find who you were looking for?”

Barnabas nodded. “I want to run this past you before contacting Xadia. She is…prickly.”

“I would be too if I’d been born into that family,” Shinigami cut in. “I’ve never met anyone with the last name ‘Ryleah’ that I wouldn’t measure a prison cell for. They are the worst of the lot. Calling them ruthless, corrupt, and greedy gives ruthless, corrupt, and greedy people a bad name.”

“This Xadia is a Ryleahan?” Bethany Anne paused with her sandwich in her hand.

Barnabas nodded. “She is Ochan’s daughter from his first marriage. She was raised by her mother. She has all the sharklike tendencies of her father’s side of the family and all the heart of her mother’s. I believe she could be trusted to protect the child, although I am less confident she will agree to do so.”

Bethany Anne was going to have to do something to keep all of these families straight in her head. “You don’t think she will take on a child?”

“I think she has enough guards to suggest regular attempts on her life—”

“Probably paid for by that shit-suck brother of hers,” Shinigami growled.

Barnabas lifted a shoulder in response to Bethany Anne’s questioning look. “My money is on her father.”

Bethany Anne tapped her fingers on the table while she thought. “Call her.”

Xadia appeared on the viewscreen a few moments later. Her snout wrinkled as she took in the three humans.

Her eyes landed on Barnabas. “I recognize you. How did you get past my security?”

Barnabas gifted her with a beatific smile. “Forgive me. We didn’t have an opportunity for introductions at your father’s home. My name is Barnabas, and this is Queen Bethany Anne Nacht.”

Xadia scrutinized Bethany Anne with open curiosity. “If that is true, I am impressed.”

Bethany Anne rolled her eyes. “Everyone wants proof.”

Xadia’s gaze flicked between Bethany Anne and Shinigami. “Forgive me for saying so, but humans all look the same to me.”

Bethany Anne flourished a hand and made her eyes turn red. Her fangs descended at the same time she manipulated the air to blow her hair so she looked like one of those godawful official portraits that probably still hung in the throne room of the Meredith Reynolds.

“Satisfied?” she asked, pushing fear across the connection to remove all doubt.

Xadia shivered involuntarily and nodded. “My apologies, Your Highness. What can I do for you?”

Bethany Anne dropped the vamp act and sat back down. She crossed one leg over the other and fixed the Ryleahan with a piercing look. “You understand why I am here?”

“My father and brother have been incredibly stupid,” Xadia answered. “And now they and their associates are going to reap the reward. I know who you are and what you stand for. I have nothing to fear from you.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “You seem sure of that.”

Xadia smiled, revealing pointed eyeteeth. “I think if that were not the case, this conversation would be happening in the dead of night, and I would not survive it.”

Bethany Anne couldn’t argue that. Some of her family might yet meet that end. “I have a job for you. Did you know that Jessamyn Ca’Shal is alive?”

Xadia’s expression made it clear she did not. Her surprise turned to anger as Bethany Anne broke the situation down for her.

“She needs a new guardian,” Bethany Anne finished. “Someone who can be trusted.”

Xadia’s surprise morphed into shock. “Me?”

Bethany Anne nodded. “Yes, you. What do you say? Will you give this child a safe home?”

Xadia stared at her blankly for another moment, then nodded. “Yes. If you are truly here to set the Federation right, I will help you in any way I can.”

Barnabas nudged Bethany Anne. “I told you she was decent.”

Xadia looked away, her movement suggesting she was writing something down. “Arrangements will have to be made—”

“I will take care of everything after Barnabas and I have removed her from the prison her family put in place to control her,” Bethany Anne promised. “We will be in touch.”

She ended the call and picked up another half of a sandwich. “How long until we get to the Garandel System?” she asked Shinigami.

“One hour seventeen minutes,” the AI replied.

QBS Shinigami, Orbiting Garandel IV

Bethany Anne spent the remainder of the journey composing an update for Michael, her children, and everyone else she’d pissed off.

Then she went to see what goodies Barnabas and Shinigami had stashed in the ship’s armory.

She found Shinigami preparing for battle. The AI wore old-style ceramic plates over black leather. She was stuffing the pockets of a bandolier with grenades.

Bethany Anne pointed at the molded breastplate. “Nice, but do you even need that much protection?”

Shinigami touched her fingers to the Queen Bitch emblem in the center of the ceramic plate. “No, but I’d like the assholes we are about to teach a lesson to know who is providing it.”

She turned and dipped her hands into the locker behind her, retrieving an identical breastplate that she held out to Bethany Anne. “Twinsies?”

Barnabas entered the armory before Bethany Anne had a chance to reject the hell out of matching outfits. He was looking resplendent in armor of his own, which also had the unmistakable vampire skull emblazoned on the breastplate.

He broke into a wide smile at the sight of the breastplate in Shinigami’s hands. “Ah, how wonderful! I see we all decided to make a statement.”

“The same statement, it seems.” Bethany Anne accepted the extra armor, unable to throw water on his enthusiasm. “Fine. But if one single photo gets back to the guys and they give me shit for this, I’m coming for you both.”

Bethany Anne had her Jean Dukes Specials with her, but she liked to carry a blade and not one she had to keep manifesting out of thin air.

Shinigami tracked Bethany Anne’s wandering gaze and swept a hand at the array of weaponry racked around the armory. “Help yourself. I have my gal’tak.”

She pointed at a double-ended pole with curved blades on each end. “We can’t use energy weapons down there.”

Barnabas’ eyes narrowed. “They wouldn’t?”

“Wouldn’t what?” Bethany Anne didn’t like the look on either of their faces.

“The shielding is a trap,” Shinigami told her. “It’s designed to burn up if it’s exposed to certain frequencies. The ones most energy weapons discharge.”

Bethany Anne’s eyebrow arched. “That sounds like it should be all kinds of illegal.”

“It is,” Barnabas growled.

“So any muscle Travian has will be armed with basic weapons?” Bethany Anne wasn’t worried by any firearm less powerful than a Jean Dukes Special.

“He has plenty of muscle,” ADAM cut in over the speaker. “Jessamyn has a device that connects to the CEREBRO network. I’m patched into the estate’s security cameras, and I count over a hundred guards.”

Bethany Anne frowned. “Why so many?”

ADAM told them Jessamyn’s net worth. “I know this isn’t the time for a cultural lesson, but you should know that it’s pretty common for the families to hire assassins to…how can I say this…”

“Hasten their receipt of an expected bequest?” Barnabas offered acidly.

“I wouldn’t have put it so eloquently,” ADAM admitted.

“I’m going to eloquently beat the shit out of everyone in that house,” Bethany Anne snarled.

“We have seen this type of shielding before,” Barnabas informed Bethany Anne quickly, seeing that she was holding onto her temper by a single frayed thread. “A year ago, maybe a little longer.”

“That was fourteen months ago,” Shinigami clarified. “You’re talking about that nest of assassins on Vetari Prime?”

Barnabas nodded, his brow furrowing. “I thought we killed them all. Perhaps I did not dig deep enough into their finances.”

Bethany Anne’s eyebrow rose. “You think they moved their base here and recruited more people?”

Barnabas shrugged. “It seems a little fishy to find the same banned technology in two places connected to the families.”

“There’s no such thing as coincidence.” Bethany Anne tested a couple of short swords before finding one of alien design that had the heft and balance she was looking for. “This is nice work.”

“It was a gift from a dignitary whose wife we rescued,” Barnabas supplied.

“We can’t go in through the Etheric without damaging Shinigami’s body,” Bethany Anne reasoned.

“I’d prefer we didn’t,” Shinigami commented. “There’s a moat surrounding the walls, which are thirty feet high and eight feet thick and covered in gun turrets.”

Bethany Anne looked up from secreting a throwing knife in her boot. “I assume ADAM will take care of the automated defenses?”

“No. I have a burning desire to see you hotfoot it across the grounds, chased by bullets,” ADAM shot back. He laughed. “I found something interesting in Shinigami’s scans. The sub-basement in the east wing looks to have been fitted out as a panic room. If you trigger the defense perimeter, it is likely the guards will move Jessamyn there.”

Bethany Anne sheathed the short sword. “Works for me.”

“How do you want to do this?” Barnabas asked.

“We’re going to climb that wall and kill everyone in sight.” Bethany Anne slipped a final knife into the sheath on her wrist. “There’s no way anyone in that house isn’t aware of what they’re complicit in. I’m not in the mood for subtlety.”

Jessamyn Ca’Shal was old enough to be glad she wasn’t old enough to be married.

She was also smart enough to know that Travian “Call Me Uncle” Ja’Kol was as slippery as they came.

He had total control over her life until she reached her majority, by which time she would be destitute because he was helping her cousins steal her birthright from her.

Unless she killed him.

Most twelve-year-old girls, even Torcellans of her social standing, would not have considered such an extreme idea.

However, life was different for the obscenely rich families who had bought up many planets terraformed in the last great expansion.

Every member of the Ca’Shal dynasty was born a billionaire. Jessamyn’s great-grandparents had purchased the Garandel System when they were young and built a financial empire using its abundant resources.

Jessamyn had been born into a world where assassinating one’s rivals—and the chances of being assassinated by your own—was common discourse around the dinner table on the rare occasions she saw her parents.

As with many of the families, it had become fashionable to gift new babies an entourage of bonded servants, including an advocate to represent her interests in family matters. Jessamyn’s first steps had been not toward her benignly neglectful mother and father or one of her flock of nannies. She had toddled to her advocate.

She had been brought up by the man the family trust had appointed as her legal counsel at birth. Farthem had been there for every report card, every recital and concert. He’d made sure she had the right tutors and arranged her extracurricular activities and nice guards to accompany her. He’d made sure she had the best of everything.

He was the one who had taught her about the ruthlessness of the world and what it would take to survive to adulthood. When she had been bullied by another girl at school, he had risked administrative reprisals and broken protocol to have the girl’s family shipped to the frontier.

He had loved her in a stern sort of way, and she missed him more than anyone she shared blood with.

Travian only came to see her when he wanted her seal or signature on something, and he restricted her in every way to get what he wanted.

He had removed her from the boarding school she attended on Torcellan Prime “for her safety” and locked her up in his house.

He had dismissed her tutors, her guards, her stylists, and her social media team. She hadn’t seen or spoken to any of her friends since the accident.

“Accident.”

Jessamyn should not have survived the implosion that had destroyed the ship and killed her parents. Farthem had stuffed her into an escape pod, bleeding heavily from his injuries.

She would never forget his last words or what she had seen on the datapad he’d pressed into her hand before sealing her into the pod as the ship disintegrated around him.

She knew without a doubt that her cousins would have her killed if they ever discovered she knew they had paid Travian to stage the malfunction.

Oh, how she hated him.

She laid in bed at night and pictured in glorious detail the day she would remove him from her life.

Travian had no idea how she felt. The egotist believed she was a grateful little airhead heiress, an act that pained her only slightly less than dying horribly at his hands would if she didn’t keep up the facade.

He visited her once a week, bringing some unsuitable gift paid for with her own money.

Last week it had been a tiny, hissing, fur-covered predator with eighteen sharp claws and a mouth full of needle teeth that he swore humans prized as pets.

The beast had scratched Travian and escaped into the crawlspaces of the house. Jessamyn let it stay on the principle that there were now two beings in the house who detested her legal guardian.

Beast lay on the windowsill, cleaning his ears with delicate swipes of his deadly paw.

Thinking of beasts, she expected Travian would return to the house at any time. They normally ate dinner at opposite ends of the great table in the dining hall after he had gotten her seal on whatever business documents he needed her approval for.

It was his usual day to visit, but she wasn’t sure he would keep their appointment. What had started as a rumble in the rumor mill that the Federation Council had been dissolved had grown into a catastrophe for everyone who had supported the Ryleahans.

Which included Travian.

He didn’t know she had access to the CEREBRO network. She had seen him on the newsholos last week, abusing his duty to act as her voice.

She did not support that smug fool Elamonn Ryleah, and neither had her parents.

She intended to make that clear to Travian while she watched him breathe his last.

The only question she’d had in her mind since viewing the video on the datapad was how she could avenge her parents’ murder when the murderer was her only advocate?

She wasn’t strong enough to confront Travian directly, and the huge number of guards he’d placed here were loyal to him, making it nearly impossible to set a trap.

Farthem would have known exactly what to do. It was his voice Jessamyn had channeled while she slowly but surely learned the flaws in the net surrounding her. She knew the shift changes by heart and which guards were alert and which were complacent and likely to ignore her as long as she remained in her rooms.

Jessamyn listened to the voice in her mind that sounded just like her protector. She had to be sneaky, or she would not survive.

Hidden in a drawer of the dresser in her closet was a small bag filled with crushed poison pellets she’d collected from the basement during the early hours two nights’ past.

It wasn’t an ideal solution, but she was out of options. She had to help herself because no one was coming to save her.

The basements were full of nasty creatures, and the house was full of even nastier guards. The guards didn’t dare touch her, but they would tell Travian if they caught her deviating from the schedule he set for her.

She was under surveillance around the clock.

Or so they thought.

What they didn’t know about was the secret passage hidden in the crawlspace between her closet ceiling and the roof.

Getting the poison had been scary, but it had been a little less scary when she realized Beast had decided to hunt where she was walking.

Jessamyn thought about the little bag constantly. She only had one chance. She could not make her move until she knew exactly what she was going to do.

So, she had waited and continued to watch, formulating her plan with the patience of a glacier while Travian funneled her wealth to her cousin Kiaty and his wife.

The upset with the council had changed everything. Jessamyn felt she couldn’t wait any longer for courage to arrive if she was to save her family’s legacy.

She scratched Beast under the chin as it liked. “Today’s the day, Beast.”

Beast made the rumbling noise she figured meant it was happy.

“That’s right,” she told the Earth creature.

Travian would be out of her life.

Then she would find herself a new advocate and take revenge on her cousins for Farthem and her parents.

Chapter Six

Aboard the QBS Shinigami, Orbiting Garandel IV

Barnabas offered Bethany Anne the copilot’s seat in the Pod as the hatch sealed shut.

“I can’t sit still right now,” she told him, heading for the rear compartment.

“Then hold onto something because a ship registered to the girl’s guardian has just left Garandel Three,” Shinigami informed her.

Bethany Anne paused in the doorway. “Then you’d better haul ass. I want to be in place when the weaselly wank-splat arrives.”

Shinigami slipped into the pilot’s chair, and the Pod lifted off.

Barnabas turned inward while Bethany Anne paced the narrow strip of floor between the benches in the back.

She couldn’t shake the lightness of heart the mission ahead engendered in her. It was hard not to revel in having the freedom to engage in hands-on action after chasing Gödel’s scrawny ass across the galaxies for so long.

When the Kurtherians realized that no being with free will was going to choose subjugation and switched to mass cloning, the war had descended into a numbers game Bethany Anne found too fucking tedious for words.

Bomb this location. Blockade this one. The Armada made an art form of stamping out the Kurtherian threat. Wherever Gödel’s minions dared to settle, the Queen’s superdreadnoughts annihilated them before they flooded the sector with clones.

It wasn’t quite equivalent to the duties she’d had as an Empress. She was not tying herself to these nascent governments, for one.

However, there were many parallels. More often than not, in the last half-century, the closest she came to getting her boots on the ground was during the diplomatic and relief efforts that followed her people grinding the Kurtherians in the locale into paste.

While she had been better prepared to shoulder the responsibility this time around…

Fuck it. There was no way she could deny it. It felt so damned right to be here, helping an individual who had no power to help herself.

“We are in position,” Shinigami announced as she brought the Pod in to land behind a rocky outcrop a short distance from the estate’s walls.

“Where is Jessamyn now?” Bethany Anne asked, returning to stand at the door.

“In her room,” Barnabas answered.

Shinigami put the video feed from the estate’s security system on the viewscreen embedded on Bethany Anne’s side of the dividing wall. “You can track her with this. I’m attempting to get access to Ja’Kol’s ship’s systems.”

Bethany Anne narrowed her eyes. “Is he using the CEREBRO network for navigation?”

Shinigami nodded.

“ADAM, you’re up,” Bethany Anne commanded. “I want a copy of everything on that ship’s computer sent to High Tortuga for analysis. The Torcellan government can deal with the rest of Jessamyn’s family.”

“Should I prepare a press release?” ADAM asked, using the speakers to be heard by everyone.

Bethany Anne shook her head. “Not just yet. I want to make sure she’s going to be safe with Xadia before I spook the other families.”

“The media could provide an extra layer of security,” Shinigami commented.

“And it wouldn’t be the first time I have used them that way,” Bethany Anne told her. “However, this child has been circled by sharks for too fucking long. The only thing I want is to get her to Xadia, where she can be taken care of.”

Bethany Anne had gotten a sense of long-standing frustration from the woman but no duplicity. Still, she sided with caution for the sake of the child. “After,” she added, “we make sure she is the suitable guardian she was presented as.”

“I will do a deep mind-read on Xadia when we meet up with her,” Barnabas offered, understanding Bethany Anne’s caution. “One thing we know about the families is their culture has bred consummate liars. While I do not believe Xadia to be hiding evil beneath her empathetic exterior, it is better to be sure than sorry.”

“Travian’s ship just broke the atmosphere,” Shinigami interrupted.

Bethany Anne grinned. “Showtime.”

The Pod opened, and three shadows streaked toward the walls through the falling rain.

At the landing pad on the west wall, the crew of Travian’s ship was silently cursing the dual hindrance of the ship’s computer experiencing a major error and their employer’s resulting bad mood.

The ship’s engineer was on his knees by the main hatch, tools strewn around the open control panel as he tried every trick in the book and a few that weren’t to coerce the hatch to give.

“How difficult is it to open a Federation-be-fucked hatch?” Travian bawled, his knuckles turning a delicate shade of pink as he clutched the valise containing his only hope of making it out of the clusterfuck the Ryleahans had unleashed alive.

He spun to face the pilot and his first officer. “That wasn’t a rhetorical question!”

The Noel-ni pilot was the only one who dared answer. “The computer is down, sir. There’s a manual release on the hatch in the cargo bay.”

Dread pricked beads of ice-cold sweat on Travian’s skin. He had been in panic mode since Elamonn had stopped answering his calls.

Kiaty Ca’Shal, on the other hand, had been sending constant threats over an open network and neglecting to put even the most basic encryption on his transmissions.

If the Ca’Shals didn’t get him, the law would.

Travian couldn’t avoid the Ca’Shals forever, but he could trick Jessamyn into transferring twenty million credits to the various shell companies he’d been funneling everything he’d skimmed through and hightail it out of the Federation before they got him killed.

“Go take care of the manual release,” Travian ordered.

They made their way to the exit hatch in the belly of the ship, the pilot glancing surreptitiously over his shoulder every now and then.

He had nothing to fear from Travian, who knew the value of a loyal pilot.

He clutched his valise to his chest, one hand cradling the remote activation device for the estate’s defense system, while the pilot fiddled with the hatch release mechanism.

It seemed to take an eternity, but the hatch finally emitted a sharp hiss as the hydraulics kicked in, and it swung open slowly.

Travian missed the two shadows that blurred past him as he bolted onto the ramp.

He almost crashed into Bethany Anne as she emerged from the gloom gathered at the base of the ramp.

Bethany Anne repelled Travian with a pulse of fear. ADAM, do you have the perimeter defenses locked down?

>>You’re good to go,<< ADAM confirmed.

Travian skittered sideways, his instincts taking over. “Wha… Who…”

He couldn’t see the face beneath the hood. Had Kiaty sent an assassin to kill him?

“You’ll wish for the easy death Kiaty’s assassin would have given you,” Bethany Anne told him, pouring liquid malice into her words.

Travian’s blood froze in his veins when she spoke. It couldn’t be…

Her eyes glowed red as she pushed her hood back, revealing a porcelain-smooth complexion and crimson lips parted to accommodate her long fangs.

Bethany Anne’s voice was silk over steel. “You are guilty of the murder of Lorian and Sorenta Ca’Shal and Farthem Knox and of abusing your position as Jessamyn Ca’Shal’s legal guardian. You have been Judged, Travian Ja’Kol.”

Travian swallowed hard, trying not to void his bladder. He clung to his valise, unable to move a muscle.

How did she know?

His eyes drifted away from the Queen Bitch’s terrible stare, then back again. His heart lurched at the sight of heat glowing cherry-red along the edge of the sword she held in her right hand.

“I have a policy when it comes to morally reprehensible assholes,” Bethany Anne informed him. “Especially those who hurt children.”

Somehow, through the terror gripping him, Travian remembered the button in his hand.

He just couldn’t remember how to make his fingers or any other part of his body move.

Travian didn’t see her sword move. One moment his right hand was there; the next, he was staring at a messy stump at the end of his wrist where it had been.

Bethany Anne snatched the falling hand out of the air and pried the device out of its clenched fingers. She dropped the hand and flicked the blood off her fingers with a snarl.

Travian’s disbelief was outweighed by the searing pain that kicked in as his eyes caught his brain up on events. His mouth worked, the sounds coming out of him barely resembling language.

“How the fuck did you get as far as you did if a little pain turns you into a gibbering fucking mess?” Bethany Anne snapped. “You are pathetic. Let me guess. It’s not so empowering when someone bigger and badder than you comes along and gives you a taste of your own medicine.”

Travian waved his abbreviated limb. “I didn’t murder anyone!”

Bethany Anne’s lip curled. “No. You paid people to sabotage their ship instead.”

Her gaze flicked to Barnabas and Shinigami, who had emerged from the ship. Were there any innocents aboard?

Barnabas shook his head. We can expect the same inside the house. He replaced all of the girl’s associates with people he trusts.

“I thought playing with your food was distasteful?” he commented aloud.

Travian’s frantic mind fed him the memory of his grandmother telling him stories about the former Empress and her inner circle building the Etheric Empire on the blood of their enemies. Was that literal? Did they feed on blood? He lost the battle with his bladder.

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Classy, Barnabas.”

Barnabas flashed her a grin. “I thought so.”

Shinigami leered at the trembling Torcellan. “Why is this miserable specimen still breathing?”

“He won’t be for much longer.” Bethany Anne tossed Shinigami the security device as a distraction to lower Travian’s guard while Barnabas took the information from his mind.

Travian’s eyes followed the button’s arc. He didn’t realize his life expectancy had dwindled to mere seconds.

He looked down at his chest as a sudden warmth blossomed there and saw the shining edge of the Queen Bitch’s sword protruding from his sternum.

Once again, he hadn’t seen Bethany Anne move. His lips moved in silence for a moment, then his chest heaved as shock took over.

Bethany Anne leaned in to whisper in his ear as she twisted the hilt of the sword. “Burn in Hell, you fucking child-abusing prick. Enjoy an eternity of knowing Jessamyn will get back everything you and her shit-licking family stole from her.”

She ripped upward as she tore her blade out of his body.

Travian slumped to the cold stone, his lifeblood pooling beneath him.

Bethany Anne steadied his corpse with her foot before wiping her blade on it. She sheathed her sword, then she picked the body up and tossed it into the moat. “Fuck him.”

“Him and everyone else like him,” Barnabas concurred.

Shinigami crushed the device in her hand. “I couldn’t agree more. Let’s go kill us some asshole guards.”

“I’m not done,” Bethany Anne told them. “Barnabas, show me your memory of inside the ship.”

Barnabas did as she requested, and Bethany Anne focused on setting off a chain reaction in the engine’s core.

“Are you done now?” Shinigami inquired.

Bethany Anne nodded, satisfied she was going to get the undivided attention of everyone in the house. “We have maybe thirty seconds before that ship explodes.”

“This way,” Barnabas called, peering at the pitch-dark stairwell cut into the wall.

“No time,” Bethany Anne told him with a glint of mischief in her eyes.

Barnabas started to raise his hands in protest, but she grabbed him and Shinigami by the arms and threw them over the wall in the second before the ship was obliterated.

Bethany Anne leapt and was propelled over the wall by the shockwave. A sharp pain lanced her scalp, but the cut healed instantly.

She landed in a roll, flowing to her feet to look for Barnabas and Shinigami.

The AI had landed in a crouch. Barnabas threw Bethany Anne a pained look.

“A simple, ‘Jump!’ would have sufficed,” he grumbled.

Bethany Anne stuck her tongue out at him. “Serves you right for being a smartass earlier.”

“Just earlier?” Shinigami snorted.

Barnabas conceded the snarkathon, sensing the guards making their way out of the main house. He tilted his head, a wicked smile appearing as he reached out to tap their minds. “No need to call the guards. They’re here, and our suspicions about them being an assassin cell were right on the mark.”

Judging by the number of assassins that came at them from the house and the side building across the courtyard, Travian must have been paranoid as all hell even before the families had attempted their coup.

They spread out, blocking the entrance to the house with a wall of muscle and steel.

Barnabas whooped and ran at them with his sword arm raised.

Bethany Anne exchanged glances with Shinigami. “I was going to take them out with a few energy balls. Looking at him, it would be a shame to spoil his fun.”

Shinigami laughed. “I wouldn’t advise energy balls. Not unless you want the shielding to burn up.”

Bethany Anne drew her sword as they darted in to support Barnabas. “Noted.”

She grabbed the assassin nearest to her by the arm and flung him into the six closing on her.

The owner of the arm took down two of his comrades.

Unfortunately, she forgot to temper her strength, and the arm came off in her hand.

She looked at it for a moment. “Well, shit.”

Never one to waste an opportunity, Bethany Anne used the bludgeon to crush the skull of the next assassin stupid enough to come at her, then launched the mangled limb at another who was swinging a longsword like he was the big dick in the brothel.

The absolute certainty of being in the right these murdering sons of no fucker who cared had infuriated her.

Bethany Anne dropped the sword, her eyes blazing red and her nails lengthening to claws as all thoughts of fairness receded.

She tore into them, counting the humans, Torcellans, Shrillexians, and other species she’d bled to make free as they died at her hands.

“Un-fucking-grateful.” She slashed a throat, then disemboweled someone else, her claws cutting through their armor without resistance.

“You had the liberty to be whatever you wanted to be, and this was the best you could aspire to?”

She screamed, releasing the pent-up energy with her voice. Those nearest clutched their ears as the blast of Etheric energy ruptured the delicate inner workings.

The assassins who retained their hearing weren’t going to live long enough to get the full benefit of her rant.

Bethany Anne looked into their eyes and saw the fear that comes with having privilege snatched away.

She couldn’t help but think about the suffering of those she had seen freed from Kurtherian rule.

“This is the Federation!”

She plucked a charging Noel-ni off his feet and launched him into the wall.

“We are supposed to be the fucking example!”

She grabbed a Shrillexian by the front of his armor.

The force knocked his helmet off.

“This shit!” Bethany Anne headbutted the assassin, driving shards of his nose into his brain.

“Is not!” Duck, slash, two more dead.

“Supposed to happen—” Kick, twist, punch.

“HERE!”

The moratorium on energy weapons inside the shielding put the assassins at a distinct disadvantage. Their early confidence had been smashed by the vehemence of Bethany Anne’s attack.

She didn’t give a shiny shit.

Strength of will without strength of character was worthless.

She wanted people to be free, but there would be times when she had to put her foot down.

So, she did.

The assassin’s skull burst under her boot and Bethany Anne moved on, sending more to their version of the afterlife on the wings of her burning diatribe.

Bethany Anne was hyper-aware, the ambient Etheric energy rising around her connecting her to every living thing in the courtyard.

To her rear, Barnabas and Shinigami moved faster than the unenhanced eye could track, scything down the assassins too cowardly to attack the screaming vampire head-on.

Flying body parts and cutting epithets marked Bethany Anne’s path toward the door. Still cursing up a storm, she grabbed a pair of assassins who were trying to pincer her by their throats and smashed their heads together.

She stepped over the resulting mess and pinned the remaining assassins at the door with a cold red glare.

They quivered as she lifted her sword and pointed it at each of them in turn. “Which one of you cock-knocking wastes of good oxygen wants to die next?”

It was over in seconds.

Every single asshole in front of her had chosen to use their freedom to their own gain.

To a certain extent, she could deal with people who sat on the fence, but those who stepped over the line deserved everything she dished out in the name of St. Payback.

Bethany Anne, Barnabas, and Shinigami stood in the courtyard, which now resembled an explosion in an abattoir. The two biological humans breathed heavily as their adrenaline wound down.

Shinigami looked from Bethany Anne to Barnabas, covered in red from head to toe, then at her own blood-and gore-soaked armor. “Maybe we should clean up before we rescue the girl.”

Jessamyn heard the explosion and ran to her window. Unable to see what was happening from that distance, she grabbed her telescope and swiveled it around to point at the landing pad.

Travian’s ship was in pieces, the remains a smoking wreck on top of the wall.

Jessamyn’s hands dropped away from the telescope, her mind churning with questions. Had they been attacked? Where were the guards to take her to the safe room? Was Travian dead?

She appreciated the universe paying him back for what he had done to her family, if so. She hadn’t actually wanted to go through with her plan, but she would have done it out of necessity.

Jessamyn returned to her telescope when sounds of a disturbance in the courtyard below floated up to her window.

She knew exactly what to do to evade assassins or kidnappers. Before she started her first year at her boarding school, Farthem had arranged for her to take a course with some of the other girls in her class. They had been put through different bad situations to teach them how to stay alive if someone tried to use them as leverage against their parents.

She had to get to the crawlspace.

But first, she needed to know who her assailants were.

Jessamyn faltered when she looked through the telescope again, unable to process that the carnage below was the remains of the guards who had been standing there just a few moments previously.

Three figures remained upright. Even in the low light, she could see they were covered in blood.

One looked up at Jessamyn, their red eyes glinting malevolently in the dark.

She let out an involuntary scream and sprinted for the crawlspace, scooping up Beast as she ran.

Chapter Seven

Bethany Anne spotted Jessamyn peering down at them.

The girl screamed when their eyes met and vanished from the window.

Bethany Anne sighed. “I’ll go find her. You two get back to the ship and tell Xadia we’re on our way.”

Barnabas and Shinigami left Bethany Anne standing alone in the middle of the stinking mess.

Bethany Anne released a wave of Etheric energy to burn away the bloody mask coating her from head to toe, then walked into the house.

The lights were out, but she didn’t need them.

She made her way to the third floor and counted doors until she came to the one that correlated with the window she’d seen Jessamyn at.

Opening the door, the first thing she noticed was the scent of a cat.

Those fuckers seemed to be everywhere.

Bethany Anne stepped inside and closed the door.

The room was empty, the only occupant of the window the telescope swinging slowly on its gimbal.

She sensed the girl’s mind somewhere nearby.

Her fear was strong, tainting the air with pheromones. Bethany Anne followed the trail to a closet.

Knowing the girl couldn’t walk through walls, Bethany Anne bypassed the need to find the entrance to the crawlspace behind by cutting through the Etheric.

She emerged in a warm, dry space with enough room to stand.

As she looked around, Bethany Anne had to squeeze her shoulders in to turn in the narrow passage. She went a few steps and found a trail of smallish footprints in the dust coating the floor.

“Jessamyn?” she called. “You there? I’m here to help you.”

No answer, although she didn’t expect a smart child to reply.

The passage led to a descending staircase that twisted and turned. Bethany Anne paused at every landing, her eyes sweeping the dusty floor for Jessamyn’s unerring trail.

ADAM, are we heading for the panic room in the east wing?

>>It looks that way,<< he replied.

A hiss as the sudden attack came was the only thing that saved the kitten from being stepped on.

“What the…”

Bethany Anne lifted her foot—kitten attached—and pried the vicious fluffball off her boot. “I thought I smelled a cat.”

She held the kitten up to get a good look at it. It seemed healthy enough, if somewhat psychotic.

The kitten didn’t appreciate being handled. It yowled, its tiny legs paddling furiously as it tried to scratch its way free of Bethany Anne’s gentle-but-firm grip.

Bethany Anne flashed her eyes, and the kitten stopped fighting and observed the first predator it had met that was fiercer than itself since it had left its mother with feigned nonchalance.

She smiled. Damn thing was cute. “That’s better, you murderous feline. You must belong to Jessamyn, hmm? Let’s get you back to her.”

Beast was, well, a beast.

He had squirmed out of her arms when they got to the basement, darting off to chase critters.

Jessamyn was lonely without the animal’s company.

No one had come to the safe room to tell her the attack was over. The people in the courtyard had frightened her deeply.

Who could kill so many guards so fast?

More importantly, while the guards weren’t very nice to her, they were her only protection.

It wouldn’t be long until Kiaty or his awful wife came to find out why Travian hadn’t returned.

Her fear was rising. If the red-eyed assassins failed to find her, Kiaty wouldn’t think twice about killing her and blaming it on them to get around the clause in her will that stated no one involved in her death could inherit her estate.

She felt another layer of Farthem’s protection crumbling and burst into action, taking her datapad and leaving the safe room behind.

She had to find a way off the planet before she was completely vulnerable. The datapad had the access code for a one-person shuttle hidden in the old boathouse by the lake.

Jessamyn crept through the basement-level rooms, sticking to the deepest shadows. Darkness was her friend.

Every time she heard movement, she froze until she’d established it came from basement critters and not the killers.

She missed Beast. She felt braver down here with the little murderball by her side.

A new sound sent Jessamyn scurrying for a hiding place behind a stack of crates: the click-click of someone walking slowly toward her.

The accompanying feeling of being in the presence of a deadly predator set Jessamyn’s heart racing.

She clamped her hands over her mouth in case the sound of her shallow breathing drew the attention of the killer, closed her eyes, and prayed for them to pass without finding her.

Bethany Anne found the empty safe room and continued tracking the girl through the maze of interlinked cellars and storage areas. She slowed her pace as she neared the crates the girl had crouched behind.

Why are you hesitating? TOM asked. Get the child and let’s go. Lance is waiting.

Bethany Anne shook her head. I don’t know if she caught the whole fight, but she definitely saw me standing in a pile of her dead guards.

She briefly considered planting a suggestion to sleep in the girl’s mind and dealing with the introductions when she got her to the Shinigami, but that would only traumatize her more.

Whatever I do right now, she is going to be terrified.

>>She is already terrified,<< ADAM supplied. >>Just listen to her breathing.<<

Bethany Anne realized the residue of her power draw from the Etheric was leaking into her surroundings. Fuckdammit, I’m doing that? TOM, can you mask the effect?

To some extent, yes. It will require reducing your intake of energy.

Will it cause permanent damage?

Well, no, but you might notice your reaction times are a hair slower while your intake is reduced.

Do it.

TOM made the adjustment.

>>What now?<< ADAM asked.

Bethany Anne looked at the kitten curled up in her arms. I guess I’ll start by saying hello.

She walked to the crates where Jessamyn was hiding with her arms held over her face. It broke Bethany Anne’s heart to see the child making a smaller target of herself in the corner.

She took a knee and let the kitten go. “Hey, Jessamyn. I need you to understand that I’m not here to hurt you. I’ve got a friend of yours who is missing you.”

The kitten sauntered over to Jessamyn and bumped its head against her knee. It let out an imperious mew! before striding off with its tail in the air.

Jessamyn uncovered her face and risked a surreptitious glance at Bethany Anne. Her brow furrowed in confusion when she saw a beautiful human woman instead of the monster she was expecting. “You don’t look like a killer.”

“I am most definitely a killer, but you have nothing to fear from me.” Bethany Anne sat back and rested her hands on her crossed legs. “I get that you’re really scared right now. My name is Bethany Anne.”

Jessamyn’s curiosity was piqued. “Like the human Queen?”

Bethany Anne graced her with the smile that had launched worlds. “That’s me.”

Jessamyn didn’t have any trouble believing her. “Why are you here? The danger to the Federation is Ochan and Elamonn Ryleah. They want to own the council.”

“I will get to the Ryleah family,” Bethany Anne assured her. “But it’s not just the plot to subvert the council that is endangering the Federation. You needed my help. Did you know those guards were here to prevent anyone from rescuing you?”

Jessamyn shook her head. “I didn’t, but it doesn’t surprise me.”

Bethany Anne wondered how a child her age had gotten so cynical. “Well, it should. When I found out what Travian was doing, I couldn’t just leave you here.”

Jessamyn looked at Beast, who had abandoned her in favor of getting its tummy scratched by Bethany Anne. “Beast likes you.”

Bethany Anne laughed. “That’s his name? It suits him. He attacked my boot.”

Jessamyn giggled, the absurdity of the situation making her a little giddy.

Bethany Anne shooed the kitten off and got to her feet. “Are you willing to come with me, Jessamyn?”

Jessamyn regained her composure. “Where do you want to take me?”

“First to my friend’s ship, then to a safe house where you will be protected by people who understand your way of life.” Bethany Anne held out a hand. “What do you say?”

“Can I stay with you?” Jessamyn asked, picking up the kitten.

Bethany Anne shook her head. “I have to take care of the group threatening the Federation. It’s too dangerous for a child.”

Jessamyn considered Bethany Anne’s answer before taking her outstretched hand resolutely. “I’ll come with you, but I want a new advocate before I meet my guardian.”

She tilted her head in curiosity when Bethany Anne’s eyes unfocused.

Bethany Anne looked like herself again the next moment and smiled at Jessamyn.

“Done. I think you’re going to love my choice.”

Jessamyn doubted it. “No one can replace Farthem. He was one of a kind.”

Back aboard the Shinigami, Bethany Anne showed Jessamyn to her quarters and made sure she and Beast had everything they needed before kicking Barnabas out of his stateroom so she could call her father.

Lance answered on the third ring. His worry lines faded at the sight of his daughter. “Hey, Princess.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “I was never a princess-y kind of girl, and you know it.”

“True,” Lance conceded with a rueful smile. “You were always more the kid most likely to get written up for fighting. Makes a father damn proud to know there’s not a bully in the universe that can beat on his kid.”

He beamed, his cigar waving as he wagged a finger at her. “How are you doing out there? Meredith says you made it to the Federation a couple days ago.”

“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Bethany Anne couldn’t resist poking her father. “I have Jessamyn Ca’Shal onboard.”

Lance’s eyes widened, and he dropped his cigar in the ashtray Bethany Anne couldn’t see. “Why in God’s name do you have a twelve-year-old heiress with you?”

“Her family is a bunch of thieving dickheads.” Bethany Anne filled him in on the situation. “They hid what they were doing from everyone else, but they couldn’t hide it from ADAM. I’m taking her to meet Xadia Ryleah while I assess if the woman is suitable to replace the corrupt sonofabitch I executed as her legal guardian. Then I’m going to introduce Ochan Ryleah to the sight of his intestines.”

Lance was thrown again. “It sounds like you don’t need my help figuring out who the key players are in this.”

“I need all the information I can get,” Bethany Anne told him in all seriousness. “If you can save me from chasing my ass in circles putting fires out, I’ll be grateful.”

Lance chuckled. “Fair enough. But maybe give the families another twenty-four hours before you drop a mountain on them?”

Bethany Anne narrowed her eyes. “Why?

Lance tapped the side of his nose with a finger, smiling the smile of a man who had everything under control. “That would be telling. You should come by the base at High Tortuga tomorrow and see for yourself.”

Bethany Anne scrutinized her father, but he wasn’t giving anything away. She pressed her lips together. “I’ll be there.”

Ardoran III, Sixth Moon

Xadia had changed her mind about taking on the child and changed it back six times since speaking to the Queen.

When she had been looking into the clear, cool expression of the human, she had felt supreme confidence in her ability to protect the young heiress from the machinations of both their families.

Kiaty was a brash individual, not prone to outbursts of intelligence. Easy to handle.

It was only after she’d had a few hours to rattle around her home that the doubts began to set in. Her brother was powerful. So was her father, although he didn’t hate her with the same intensity Elamonn did.

She had no compunction about crossing them either privately or publicly, although a public confrontation would piss them off and was therefore preferable.

However, if she had a child’s wellbeing to consider, they gained instant leverage.

She hated to give them any advantage.

Yet, she couldn’t turn away an orphan.

The building’s EI announced the arrival of a QBS ship at the docking spar above her lunar retreat.

Xadia waved her hands to close the holoscreen she had been working on and instructed the EI to grant the ship passage through the base’s shielding.

She left her study and made her way out of the house and through the hanging gardens to the base of the landing spar. Tiny jewel-bright birds hovered around the nectar-rich flowers of the vines that draped from the elegantly carved lintels connecting the columns along the path.

The sound of the stream trickling through the garden did nothing to calm Xadia’s nerves. She took the elevator to the top of the tower to await her visitors.

The QBS ship swooped in, its momentum arresting over the elevated landing pad.

Xadia held her breath as the ship made a vertical descent. The hatch opened, and three humans and an adolescent Torcellan stepped onto the ramp that appeared.

Nothing could have prepared her for the shift in reality that preceded the Queen.

Xadia felt a weight lift from her spirit.

This woman made everything she had believed power to be seem like gilt on brass. The very air held its breath in anticipation of Bethany Anne’s command.

This was what it was like to meet a legend in the flesh.

Xadia dropped to one knee and bowed her head. She found herself unable to speak, overwhelmed by the Queen’s presence.

“Welcome to my home, Your Highness,” she managed after a long moment.

While Xadia was gathering her composure, Bethany Anne glanced at Barnabas. Well? Does she pass?

Barnabas nodded, withdrawing from the Ryleahan’s mind. She is loyal to the Federation. You might want to consider having her replace her brother on the new council.

I haven’t decided if there is going to be a new council yet. I’m going to speak to Xadia, then we’re heading straight for High Tortuga. My dad has something set up for tomorrow that he didn’t want to tell me about.

If you want to be at High Tortuga by tomorrow, I need to stay with the ship and take care of some maintenance tasks, Shinigami informed them.

Then I will remain here and help you, Barnabas offered.

Bethany Anne put a hand on Xadia’s shoulder. “Please get up. I don’t need worthy people to kneel before me. That’s the kind of ego-correcting bullshit I save for assholes who only understand fear.”

Xadia got to her feet, confused by the lack of protocol. Seeing that Bethany Anne could be taken at her word, she offered Jessamyn a sympathetic smile. “Hello, Jessamyn. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances. I was sorry to hear about Farthem. He was a good man.”

Bethany Anne took a step back to give them space.

Jessamyn hesitated when she saw that her new guardian was a Ryleahan. She glanced at Bethany Anne, uncertainty in her eyes.

Bethany Anne smiled. “It’s okay, Jessamyn. I promise.”

“You are welcome here,” Xadia told Jessamyn, smiling earnestly.

Jessamyn looked Xadia in the eye. “If Bethany Anne says you are worthy, then I will trust you, too.”

Bethany Anne turned to Xadia. “Did your other guest arrive yet? I don’t see any other ships.”

Xadia pointed at the pool house two levels below. “He is getting settled in. I can have the EI ask him to meet us in the study.”

“That would be best.” Bethany Anne offered Jessamyn her hand. “Your advocate is here. Let’s go say hello.”

Jessamyn took it, and they made their way into the main house.

A matronly human in a crisp white uniform brought in a tray with a large plate of cookies, a pitcher of the Ryleahan equivalent of sweet tea, and four tall glasses.

She smiled at Jessamyn and dipped her head respectfully in Bethany Anne’s direction as she set the tray on the table, then stopped to tell Xadia that her grandson sent his thanks for the textbooks she’d sent before leaving.

“Eleanor’s grandson lives on Ryleahan Prime,” Xadia told Bethany Anne in response to her inquiring look. “My father and his friends are foolish to pursue their anti-education sentiment. I hope one of the things that will change with your arrival is the end of their attempts to privatize the Libraries.”

Bethany Anne accepted the glass Xadia offered. “The Libraries are not public property. They belong to me, as my father has made clear. We should wait for Jessamyn’s advocate before getting into this. We have some decisions to make.”

“What kind of decisions?” Jessamyn asked.

“The kind you are too young to be included in without your advocate,” Bethany Anne answered firmly. “Even with someone looking out for you, this situation is too dangerous. I swear on my honor that no one in your family is going to take advantage of you again, Jessamyn.”

Bethany Anne saw the impending argument and cut it off with a raised finger. “I raised twins with superpowers, and they never once changed my mind once it was made up. My decision is final.”

Jessamyn considered for a moment, then nodded. “You’re going to make sure my advocate isn’t another bad guy like Travian.”

Bethany Anne laughed. “Well, yes, but I don’t think I need to.”

The door opened, and a slender young Torcellan entered the room.

Jessamyn’s eyes darted to him, recognition lighting her delicate features. “Jorthem? Jorthem!”

Everyone in the room felt a tug on their heartstrings as Jessamyn shed the wariness she’d worn like a protective cloak and flung herself into the young man’s arms.

“I always thought I’d become your child’s advocate,” Jorthem told the beaming girl. He chucked her under the chin when the specter of his father dimmed the light of her smile. “Hey! It’s okay. I’m here now. Everything is going to be fine.”

He bowed to Bethany Anne, then extended a hand to Xadia. “Jorthem Knox, at your service.”

“Why don’t you two catch up while we talk shop?” Bethany Anne suggested.

Xadia pressed a button on the wall. “Eleanor is excited to show you your rooms,” she told Jessamyn. “If there’s anything you would like changed, just let her know.”

Jessamyn smiled. “Thank you, Xadia. Thank you, Bethany Anne.”

Xadia was apprehensive after the Torcellans left the room. “What don’t you want to talk about in front of Jessamyn?”

Chapter Eight

Bethany Anne crossed one leg over the other and steepled her fingers on her knee as she scrutinized the Ryleahan. “You’re an astute woman, Xadia. What do you think is going to happen when I’m done here?”

“Well, the council will be reinstated.” Xadia paused. “Those who do not earn the sharp side of your Justice, at least.”

“Not everyone has earned death,” Bethany Anne told her. “But those who crossed the line? Whose crimes cannot be paid for in anything but blood? They are worm food.”

Xadia had an inkling her half-brother might escape with his life. Her father, however, would be on the second list.

With them both discredited, Xadia had a good chance of overturning her father’s disavowal of her. Especially if she had the support of Bethany Anne, and therefore the Chief Arbiter. “You want me to represent Ryleah.”

“You are the highest-ranking member of your family who qualifies for office,” Bethany Anne informed her. “You will have to take over Ryleah Logistics.”

Xadia nodded. “I understand. My mother would have found great joy in Ochan getting what he deserves.”

“What happened with them?” Bethany Anne asked.

Xadia’s teeth clenched out of habit. “Ochan’s father and my mother’s father were business rivals. J’naal Shipping and Logistics was Ryleah’s biggest competitor until my paternal grandfather put them out of business. Ochan married my mother so he could absorb what remained of her family’s business interests, then he treated her like an unfavored possession.”

Her jaw relaxed as she remembered the fiery spirit her mother had been. “She gave as good as she got with the scripts she accepted.”

Bethany Anne had looked the woman up, and “scandalous” was the polite way of describing the life Xadia’s holostar mother had led. “I have a theory about Saint Payback never failing to make good on what she owes.”

“My mother would have agreed with that sentiment,” Xadia told her amiably. “She lived to be scandalous. Human journalists described her as ‘the hedonist’s hedonist.’”

Bethany Anne smiled. “You may not be flaunting a new boy toy to the media every time you step onto the red carpet, but you are notorious for fighting the reforms Ochan’s group has been doing their best to push through.”

Xadia grinned. “Any day I can be a thorn in that heartless bastard’s side is a good day, in my view. I will stand for the people on my homeworld, Ryleahan or any other species.”

Bethany Anne got to her feet. “That’s all I needed to hear. We need to go find Jessamyn and Jorthem and get the paperwork for your guardianship taken care of so they can get on with unpicking the mess her family has made of her estate.”

She checked in with Shinigami to find out how soon they could be ready to leave before continuing. “How quickly can you arrange to be away from everything for a couple of days?”

“I can have my assistants take care of things for me. Why?” Xadia asked, thrown by the speed with which Bethany Anne had switched tracks.

“The General is expecting me at High Tortuga soonest, and I want you there on Ryleah’s behalf.”

Xadia activated her wrist holo and started moving her calendar around. “I’m in, but what’s going on at High Tortuga?”

“The Interim Court is based there,” Bethany Anne told her. “Dammit all if my dad hasn’t got me wondering what they’re doing. I have a feeling whatever he has set up will be just as entertaining for you as he hinted it would be for me.”

High Tortuga, Northern Continent, Space Fleet Base

Lance hummed as he worked on the final details of Operation Robin Hood with Meredith.

A knock on the door pulled his attention from his screen. He looked up and saw his wife’s smiling face. “You are a sight for sore eyes.”

“Humming means you’re having fun,” Patricia commented, closing the door behind her.

“I’m about to put the cabal in their place, thanks to a little help from Barnabas.”

Patricia widened her eyes theatrically. “Oh, they’re one of those groups. How quaint.”

“They’re about to get their quaint asses handed to them.” Lance slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her into his lap as she leaned down to kiss his cheek.

Patricia conceded with a squeal, which he muffled with his lips.

They parted breathlessly a few moments later. Patricia leaned into Lance with her arms around him, weak at the knees after the unexpected display of passion.

She looked into his eyes, which were still dancing with fire. “What’s gotten into you?”

Lance grinned. “Can’t blame a man for wanting to show his beautiful wife some affection.”

Patricia laughed. “Bethany Anne is on her way here, isn’t she? It’s almost over.”

Lance nodded, still grinning. “Everything is falling into place. I’m going to have those nut-dragging sons of bitches off my back once and for all.”

Patricia booped the tip of his nose with her finger. “You deserve at least fifty years of peace and quiet to run the Federation the way it should be, darling. Bethany Anne will deal with the heads of the families.”

“Only fifty?” Lance laughed.

“I’m not a magician, dear,” Patricia replied. “People will be political.”

Lance stood, scooping Patricia up with him. “I have a couple hours before the Baba Yaga is due to arrive. Mmmm?”

Patricia laughed, tipping her head back to expose her throat as he nuzzled her neck. “What about whatever you were doing when I came in?”

Lance strode toward the door to their personal quarters. “Meredith was just humoring me. Everything is under control.”

QBS Shinigami, Open Space

Bethany Anne was trapped.

Outwardly, she tossed and turned, her eyes flitting rapidly. Her hands opened and closed, her nails cutting into the mattress as she grasped at the bed linens.

Internally, her mind fought to escape the grip of Armageddon.

Bethany Anne was a puppet, drawn forward by invisible strings connecting her to the creator of her nightmare through interlinked scenes of incomprehensible destruction tumbling one over the other. Worlds on fire and the people she knew and loved dying in agony as they cursed her for failing to save them.

Gödel knew she was holding a tiger by the tail, yet she persisted in attacking Bethany Anne in her dreams.

She had no choice but to go wherever she was taken. The only constant was her knowledge that if she could just catch Gödel, it would be checkmate for the Kurtherian.

One hundred and fifty years of this torture. Bethany Anne was getting close to the fucking psychotic uber-cunt who stalked her sleep.

What Gödel didn’t understand about Bethany Anne, about humanity in general, was that the intent to instill fear was more likely to inspire a violent reaction.

Homo Sapiens, the murder-monkeys of the race for hominid supremacy on Earth, had learned to kill that which they did not understand.

If the veneer of civilization was shattered, the monkey brain took charge with a vengeance, and all bets were off.

TOM and ADAM monitored Bethany Anne’s physical and mental state but were locked out of the reality she was experiencing.

>>Trust Gödel to show her ugly mind when Bethany Anne was starting to relax a little.<<

I’d hardly call mutiny in the Federation relaxing. TOM huffed.

>>You don’t believe me? Just look at how well she’s been sleeping.<<

Until now.

ADAM sighed. >>Until now. I guess it was too good to last.<<

It would last forever if we could get in there with her and backtrack Gödel.

They knew exactly what she was experiencing, having spent countless hours examining Bethany Anne’s memories of previous dreams for clues to Gödel’s location.

Additionally, having lived aboard her for so long, they were able to read her neurochemistry and know what she was feeling.

A surge in dopamine, adrenaline, and norepinephrine told them she was gaining on the Kurtherian.

>>You think cutting loose to get here opened something up for her?<<

TOM neglected to reply, his focus taken up with reading the complex reactions to the current stimulus Bethany Anne’s body was undergoing.

That bitch was going to ruin her apology to Michael if she didn’t get out of here soon.

She leaned into her run and blocked out her emotions.

It might not look like it to Gödel, but the game had shifted in Bethany Anne’s favor—and that was exactly how the Queen wanted it.

Bethany Anne let the Kurtherian believe her attacks were weakening her.

In fact, she had provided an outlet for Bethany Anne to desensitize herself to her fears about her family being taken from her as the cost of removing the Ascension Path from the universe.

Before Gödel died, Bethany Anne would be sure to rub salt in the wound by thanking her for her part in overcoming the weakness that had held her back.

She would admit that even now, the thought of losing Michael again, or worse, Alexis or Gabriel, spurred a stronger protective urge than was perhaps necessary.

Okay, it drove her into a killing rage.

But she no longer feared it.

The moment Martin Brennan’s death had brought the fact that she was playing for keeps into sharp focus, a little voice had been born in her mind.

It spoke up every time she sent someone into danger. It was the reason she’d upgraded those closest to her. The reason she pushed her people so hard. The reason she had locked everyone she loved in a bunker on High Tortuga for three years after giving birth, and the reason she had been the tough parent, contrary to everyone’s expectations.

That voice was no longer living rent-free in her mind. Somewhere along the line, Bethany Anne had accepted that everyone she cared about was responsible for their own choices.

Michael had initially been against her allowing Gödel access to her psyche. He had relented on hearing her reasoning, which saved him having to get used to the idea since there was no way she was walking away from a chance to get her hands—metaphysical or not—around Gödel’s throat.

It was a path for her to end the war of attrition, the bloodshed, the oppression, the brainwashing. All of the endemic fucked-up-ness the Seven had inflicted upon the societies they had interfered with would end with the final Kurtherian’s death.

Gödel was at the other end of the connection. Generating infinite hells designed to grind down Bethany Anne’s spirit took a lot of thought and energy on the Kurtherian’s part.

Inevitably, she slipped, and her subconscious leaked clues about what was on her mind.

Not this time. It had been a while since Gödel’s last attempt on Bethany Anne’s sanity. She must have been saving up her malevolence because this dream sequence was gut-wrenching in its clarity.

Maybe somewhere in that cracked mind of hers, she missed Bethany Anne’s attention.

In truth, her heart wasn’t in her battle with Gödel right now. It was aching for the Federation and the turmoil being caused by Ochan Ryleah and his associates. She was also aware that Michael was almost within mental reach.

While she would normally be searching for a way to get to the Kurtherian’s mind, this time she was running to break free, feeling like there was no point in winning the war if the home she was fighting to protect was destroyed in her absence.

Just like that, the dream broke, and she was lying awake in a mess of shredded linen and mattress stuffing.

Bethany Anne eyed the mess with annoyance as she swung her legs out of bed. “Dammit. Not another mattress.”

She pulled on a short robe and ran her hands through her hair, wondering what the consequences of cutting Gödel off like that would be for those in reach of her temper. “ADAM, get a message to Admiral Thomas. Tell him the captains need to watch out for one of Gödel’s nasty surprises.”

>>Done,<< ADAM confirmed a moment later. >>I thought you would like to know the Baba Yaga docked at High Tortuga while you were asleep.<<

Bethany Anne’s heart skipped a beat. She glanced at the outfit she’d hung up before crawling into bed. “How long until we get there?”

>>We’re thirty minutes out.<<

“Fuck. That’s cutting it fine.” Bethany Anne ran for the shower.

High Tortuga, Space Fleet Base, Queen’s Hangar

Michael’s relationship with honor was simple: a person’s actions defined them as honorable, or they did not.

The complexity came when he was in the presence of the dishonorable and how it was appropriate to deal with them in this modern era.

He studied the information packet Stephen had forwarded to his HUD after their reunion, familiarizing himself with each point of attack the Interim Court had in play against the families.

He and his brothers came from a time when a person’s reputation meant everything. These modern times required the gray areas to be considered, something he had little patience for.

Some immortals found it disheartening to encounter the same problems afflicting societies over and over. Michael—the period of despondency that had led to Bethany Anne replacing him notwithstanding—had come to appreciate the way these things rolled around like clockwork.

This situation had been brewing for four generations, and the problems on the involved planets were entrenched in society. It was exactly the kind of shit that had made him sleep for longer and longer periods back on Earth.

He admired the wide-ranging sanctions Lance, Stephen, Barnabas, and Anna Elizabeth had orchestrated now that the breadth of the situation had come to light. However, his thinking ran along the lines of a guillotine being just as effective a solution and a hell of a lot less expensive and time-consuming.

Michael was not the ruler people needed, and recognizing that did not bruise his sense of self. His definition of honor was extremely narrow. Had he been in charge, he would be presiding over a very well-ordered empire where no one dared put a foot out of line.

It wasn’t an effort he cared to go to.

Unlike him, Bethany Anne woke up every day and chose peace.

She was prepared to go to whatever lengths it took to protect people’s right to succeed or fail on their own merit.

Her drive to wipe out injustice had taken them farther than any human being could imagine, but it was her destiny, not his.

It didn’t stop him from getting frustrated when he had to rein in his instinct to exterminate anything that stole her smile.

Bethany Anne’s arrival was imminent. She was so close that he had been able to sense the attack on her mind, yet far enough away that he had been unable to prevent it.

None of this was sitting well with him.

His mood surrounded him. The ground crew who had been eating in the break room when he’d arrived had made themselves scarce, finding it impossible to relax surrounded by the simmering frustration occupying the space around him.

Being left behind stung. It didn’t matter that he understood why Bethany Anne had left him standing in that alley.

His frustration would pass the moment she was in his arms. It was impossible to be mad at her when she was close, and judging by her last message, she would be very much in his space shortly after the Shinigami arrived.

Making up was much sweeter when he wasn’t the one doing it.

He sent out a feeler, trying to gauge his wife’s thoughts.

She was locked down. Interesting.

Michael found his bad mood dissipating, replaced by curiosity.

He closed his HUD and turned to the window that looked down on the hangar floor.

The crew his mood had scared off were getting active, which told Michael that the Shinigami was closer than he had estimated.

He left the lounge and headed downstairs, reaching the hangar floor just as the ship eased past the inner shield.

Barnabas and Shinigami were the first off, accompanied by a female Ryleahan he didn’t recognize.

Barnabas let out a cry of joy when he saw Michael waiting.

They met in a silent embrace. As two of the three oldest humans alive, they needed no words to reaffirm their bond.

Barnabas released him, his eyes shining with emotion. “Did Stephen cry when he saw you? I bet he did.”

Michael had a shine in his own eyes. “Reunion is a powerful thing. This war has taken us far away from one another.”

He glanced over Barnabas’ shoulder at Shinigami and the Ryleahan.

“This is Xadia Ryleah,” Shinigami told Michael. “Introductions will have to wait.”

Michael was about to ask why when Bethany Anne stepped onto the ramp. The rest of the universe ceased to exist for him.

There was only her.

Then her arms were entwined around his neck, and his hands were in her hair, and her mouth was on his, and—

She pushed him into the Etheric.

Michael recovered his balance and put himself out of arm’s reach. “Is this your idea of an apology?”

Bethany Anne dropped a hand to her hip, a wicked smile playing over her lips. “You want me to apologize with everyone watching?”

He wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily. “‘I’m sorry I left you holding the body’ is so hard to say?”

Bethany Anne’s eyes glittered.

Michael’s heart beat faster. There was that thin ice he was so dangerously attracted to. Now to make sure he didn’t fall into the icy water and miss out on his apology. “I was worried about you.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “I look this good, and you’re still mad at me?” She snapped her fingers, and her clothing vanished. “Maybe I’m losing my touch.”

A stray breeze told Michael his clothing had also vanished.

Bethany Anne’s mouth curved up. “Maybe not.”

She pounced.

Chapter Nine

Barnabas hurried Shinigami and Xadia out of the hangar, citing the need to introduce the Ryleahan to the rest of the Interim Court. “Bethany Anne and Michael may be a while.”

“At least they took it into the Etheric where we can’t hear them,” Shinigami commented, sashaying ahead of the group.

Barnabas grimaced. “Speak for yourself.”

Xadia looked at him, puzzled.

Barnabas shook his head. “You don’t want to know. The General is waiting for us in the security pit.”

“There’s a pit?” Xadia was familiar with the human tendency to give things cute names.

She was therefore surprised to find that “the pit” was an actual pit, complete with a sunken floor and three-tiered levels lined with workstations radiating outward from the center.

The walkways around the workstations hummed with analyst activity.

“This way, please,” Barnabas pressed.

The group skirted the room as Barnabas led them to a corridor off the pit, where an elevator took them deeper into the planet’s crust.

“Just how far down does this thing go?” Xadia asked when the car had been descending for a full minute.

Barnabas chuckled, wondering what the newcomer would make of it if he told her why the base went so deep. “Again, you don’t want to know. We’re here.”

“Welcome to the war pit,” Shinigami announced as the doors opened on a smaller version of the ops center.

Two guards stepped in front of the elevator, relaxing when they saw Barnabas and Shinigami accompanying Xadia.

“This is Xadia Ryleah,” Barnabas told them. “Your mother has chosen her to represent the Ryleahans.”

He turned to Xadia. “Meet Alexis and Gabriel Nacht.”

Gabriel offered his hand. “Good to meet you.”

His pleasant smile faded, and his eyes unfocused for a moment. He blinked. “I’m sorry. I have to go take care of…a thing.”

He vanished into the Etheric.

Alexis knew that look meant Jiya. She smiled warmly and slipped an arm through Xadia’s. “Don’t mind my doofus brother. He’s in love. Let me help you get introduced to the other representatives while Grandpa catches Barnabas and Shinigami up on today’s operation.”

Xadia blinked, unable to process the famous faces she saw around the room. “Right, General Reynolds is your grandfather. I’m sorry. This is surreal, like walking into a history book.”

“Take your time.” Barnabas smiled. “You have had an eventful week, my dear. Rest assured that you are amongst friends here.”

“Nothing is happening until Mom and Dad get here anyway,” Alexis told Xadia as they moved off. “Everyone who isn’t on duty is in the rec room watching the newsholos.”

Xadia’s eyes widened when she realized she hadn’t received a single ping since entering the base. “My holo is down.”

“Not down,” Alexis modified. “Blocked. If you consent to CEREBRO accessing it to check for spyware, it can be approved, and you’ll get access to the base network that matches your clearance level.”

Xadia let the EI group in and received her clearance a moment later. “What did people do without CEREBRO?”

“Messenger pigeons.” Alexis chuckled at her look of confusion. “I’m kidding. It was mostly just the same in the central systems before we built the CEREBRO network. Communications were patchy along the frontiers, which was any place out of easy range of a Federation outpost.”

“They don’t teach it that way on my homeworld,” Xadia told them.

Alexis snickered. “They won’t have to. Just wait.”

Bethany Anne stepped out of the Etheric into Lance’s office at the bunker with her hair loose and her makeup perfect, and not a stitch out of place on the appliqued red tank top she wore with her leather pants and tall boots.

She also wore a small smile of victory.

The combination of her ass and those pants never failed to make Michael forget he was mad at her.

Her sudden arrival startled Lance.

“A little warning would be nice when you’re going to do that,” he grumbled, getting up from his desk.

“Where would the fun be in that?” Bethany Anne walked over and threw her arms around him. “Hi, Dad.”

Lance leaned into the embrace. “Welcome home, Bethany Anne.”

Bethany Anne released her father with a snort. “Some welcome. Who called in the clowns?”

“That’s why I asked you to meet me here before we got started with the fun and games today.” Lance gestured at the informal sitting area comprised of four soft chairs around a circular table. “Our planning uncovered another player. You remember the Baldere?”

Bethany Anne had to think back. “No… Wait, they were folded into the Federation when I closed the borders. They were complete dicks about it if I recall.”

Lance couldn’t disagree. “Well, the government is in it up to their eyeballs with Ochan Ryleah. Behind closed doors, of course. Multiple manufacturers have been supplying his companies with unregistered shipments of raw materials.”

“There’s that fucking name again,” Bethany Anne cut in. “Is there any part of this Ochan doesn’t have a hand in?”

Lance shook his head. “Not as far as I can tell. It’s impossible to prove he’s involved when no one knows where he’s hiding the dirt. His cutouts have cutouts, many of them legitimate businesses that have no clue they’re being made complicit in his crimes.”

Bethany Anne rolled her eyes. “This is on Baldere?”

“That’s right.” Lance grinned. “Today’s efforts are in part intended to maneuver them into getting sloppy.”

Bethany Anne narrowed her eyes. “Just what have you got planned?”

Lance’s grin got smug. “Audits. I sent Patricia and Cheryl Lynn to smoke Ochan’s allies on Baldere out. Your brother went along, too. Said it would be fun to watch his mother put her skills to use for something other than matchmaking for him.”

Bethany Anne burst out laughing. “Serves them right. The families were allowed to keep accruing power because it suited the governments to have the income their businesses generated flow through their coffers. They are about to reap the whirlwind they have sown.”

Then her eyebrow made a curious curlicue. “Kevin is still single?”

Lance lifted a finger and stabbed it at the air between them. “Don’t you start, too.”

Bethany Anne held up her hands, still laughing. “Okay, okay. I’ll forget about introducing my baby brother to every eligible female I know. The Torcellan issue is a hell of a lot higher on my list, anyway. What the fuck is going on with them?”

“Not all of them,” Lance clarified. “Just enough to upset the balance of their society.”

He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. “It started with a shift in public opinion about the roles males and females are expected to take in the family. Ochan capitalized on a growing political movement aiming to overturn the inheritance laws the government has introduced over the last sixty years or so.”

“I was surprised to find out Jessamyn inherited her fortune from her father.” Bethany Anne frowned. “Why were these laws allowed to pass in the first place? It sounds like they contravened the Federation Charter.”

Lance lifted a shoulder. “They were supported by the people and introduced gradually. We don’t interfere with local law unless it’s causing stress on the state.”

Bethany Anne nodded. “They were always a matriarchal society, right?”

Lance nodded. “Until Lorian Ca’Shal inherited his mother’s estate and won a legal battle to keep her name. It caused an uproar in every part of Torcellan society and shined a spotlight on the more vocal proponents of males being accepted as the head of the family.”

“Now we know why Jessamyn’s parents were murdered.” Bethany Anne sighed. “How bad is it on Torcellan?”

Lance shared the CEREBRO intelligence with her. “Our efforts in the media have forestalled planet-wide rioting, but a number of red zones have emerged in the residential quarters of the major cities. The Torcellan government has requested we give the task force they have formed time to address the issue.”

Bethany Anne waved a hand. “The Torcellans were always peaceful, but sure, let’s allow the baby agency free rein.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Fuck, no!” Bethany Anne banged her fist on the arm of her chair. “The planet needs to go into administration with the others. I want boots on the ground before the week is out, and I’m going to take care of the red zones personally. I didn’t find that shit acceptable back on Earth, and I sure as hell don’t want to see it in the Federation.”

Lance grimaced. “Are you positive you’re not acting out your grudge against Kiaty Ca’Shal?”

Bethany Anne lifted a shoulder. “So what if I am? Something isn’t adding up. How does he benefit from this?”

“He doesn’t, now that you have Jessamyn in a safe place,” Lance told her. “But his wife stands to lose out on her inheritance if Torcellan law changes to put her older brother ahead of her in the line of succession.”

Bethany Anne contained the anger that was threatening to flare up. “Is there a shortage of resources inside the Federation I don’t know about?”

Lance shook his head slowly. “I see where you’re headed. As a man who has walked that dead-end road too many times, my advice is don’t try to figure out their logic. They’re operating on greed and the delusion that they are untouchable.”

Bethany Anne put her head in her hands, which muffled the growl of frustration she let out.

Lance leaned over and patted her shoulder. “I know, sweetheart. I know.”

Bethany Anne lifted her head and considered the reason for her father’s empathy. “You’ve been putting up with this bullshit for too long, Dad. You should suit up and come to Torcellan with us.”

Lance laughed. “I’d love to.”

Bethany Anne caught his rueful tone. “But you can’t. I get it. I’ll make sure I kick ass for you.”

Lance got up from his chair to pull her into a hug. “That’s good enough for me. Ready to watch the fireworks on Baldere?”

Bethany Anne grinned. “You bet.”

Bethany Anne looked around as they walked through the bunker to the war pit.

She hadn’t been down here since leaving High Tortuga for Devon over a hundred and seventy years previously.

“Stephen didn’t bother to have this place remodeled, I see,” she commented, seeing signage for temporary residential areas for the Interim Court tacked to the wall of the corridor that led to the old Guardian Marine quarters.

“No one wanted to keep living here after three years of being underground,” Lance replied. “Most of the space was mothballed, but we kept this part ready to house the council in an emergency.”

“Makes sense to have the representatives down here where assassins can’t get at them.” Bethany Anne strode ahead, sensing Michael and Alexis nearby.

Everyone in the war pit stopped what they were doing and got to their feet when Bethany Anne walked in.

“Just say something encouraging,” Lance murmured under the applause.

Bethany Anne turned narrowed eyes on her father. “A little warning everyone was down here would have been good.”

Lance winked. “Yeah, payback is a bitch, Pumpkin.”

Turning her brightest smile on the room, Bethany Anne raised her voice. “This is the General’s party. I’m just here to admire the good work you’re all doing. Let’s take down some crooked motherfuckers!”

She punched the air as everyone cheered, then gave her father a little shove forward while she escaped to the partitioned seating area on the upper tier where Michael was sitting alone.

“Barnabas said something about snacks,” Michael told Bethany Anne as she took a seat beside him on the couch overlooking the pit. “He and Shinigami went to the kitchens.”

Bethany Anne snuggled up to him. “Where are the twins?”

Michael pointed Alexis out in the crowd below. “Gabriel is here somewhere.”

“Is he still moping over Jiya?” Bethany Anne liked the girl, but that was her baby boy. They had been on again-off again for a few years now, and it hadn’t always been smooth sailing with them.

Michael shook his head. “He hasn’t mentioned her recently. I think they may have put their romance to bed for the final time.”

Bethany Anne slipped her hand into his. “Look at you, developing a sense of humor in your old age.”

He gave her an amused look. “I’ll let that remark go since you apologized so nicely earlier. It’s a pity it didn’t do much for your frustration level.”

Bethany Anne dropped her head back and groaned. “It’s going to take more than a quick tumble in the Etheric to make a dent in my frustration.”

She turned her head to eye Michael speculatively. “Now, if we had a few months, you’d be talking my language.”

Michael lifted her hand to his lips. “Just say the word, and I’ll make it happen. Gödel isn’t going anywhere.”

Bethany Anne couldn’t say yes, not while she knew her nemesis would be wreaking havoc wherever she was.

Michael captured her chin with a finger and tipped her face up to be kissed. “Duty first. Then we will have the rest of our lives to take care of your frustration.”

Alexis made a face as she walked up. “I should have known the sexual tension belonged to you two.”

Bethany Anne scooted over to make space for her daughter and patted the cushion. “No tension here, sweetie. Your father took care of that.”

Alexis plugged her ears with her fingers. “I’m not listening. It’s bad enough living down the hall from you guys. Your sexcapades are going to put me in therapy.”

Michael waved a hand. “You could always, I don’t know, move out?”

Alexis sat down, folding her arms and pouting. “I like being at home—when you’re not using the place as an erotic jungle gym.”

Barnabas and Shinigami joined them, bringing popcorn in paper bags.

“This is almost like movie night,” Barnabas enthused as he handed out the popcorn.

Bethany Anne accepted hers with a smile. “It’s nice to see some traditions didn’t get lost.”

She spotted Xadia looking out of place and waved her over to sit with them.

Introductions were made, and everyone chatted for a few minutes while the analysts got into place at their stations.

The lights dropped at Lance’s command and the pit was plunged into darkness, broken only by the blinking lights of the holoscreens and the green glow of the digital clock on the wall counting down to zero.

Then the huge wallscreen came to life with multiple live feeds on standby. Lance got up from the central table where he was sitting with Stephen and Anna Elizabeth and called for everyone’s attention.

“Your counterparts in the field are standing by outside their target locations. Our job is simple: provide overwatch, record everything.”

He waved a hand as the feeds activated. “We are live!”

“What am I missing here?” Xadia whispered to Bethany Anne as the sound of quiet murmurs filled the room. “How have the targets been identified?”

Bethany Anne pointed at the Ryleahan’s wrist holo. “CEREBRO belongs to me. There isn’t any part of the Federation that doesn’t rely on the network in one way or another.”

Xadia was beginning to get an idea of just how much of the life she took for granted was underpinned by the Queen’s generosity.

Bethany Anne took her expression for distaste. “You don’t like the idea of Big Brother watching?”

Xadia stared at her blankly for a second. “What?” She shook her head. “No. I was thinking how ungrateful you must believe we are.”

Michael leaned forward. “Children are often thoughtless. A good parent understands that and teaches them to consider more than themselves.”

Onscreen, the breach teams made their moves.

Bethany Anne picked out Cheryl Lynn and Patricia standing at the back of one group while the professionals did their jobs.

Planet Vermott, Custom Printing Solutions Head Office

Patricia and Cheryl Lynn hung back as the advance team went in.

It was something of a shock for the Balderians passing a quiet hump day in their cubicles on the second floor when the stairwell and elevator simultaneously opened and armed people of various species wearing uniforms that marked them as serving the Federation Council stormed in.

Arrlaxx

Down in the basement, Arrlaxx, a lowly Ardaki systems clerk who had been tricked into coming here by a Skaine of all people and hated her job and her bosses with a passion, was wiping data as instructed by her manager when they burst into the server room with their weapons pointed at her.

“Step away from the server.” The instruction came from the helmeted Guardian Marine in the lead.

Arrlaxx held her hands up and slowly backed away. “You took your time getting here! I was running out of irrelevant data to purge!”

Sergeant Ga’van was a Yollin of many years’ experience. He didn’t lower his weapon, although the female wasn’t Balderian. “Explain yourself.”

Arrlaxx pivoted a single finger toward the servers in the next room. “Everything you are looking for is in there,” she told him quickly. “I had to follow orders or get blacklisted, so I followed them to the letter and began purging the system, starting with records of employee debts.”

Corporal Ferris, Ga’van’s human second, laughed. “Malicious compliance, Sarge. I think she’s okay.”

Ga’van lowered his rifle. “Stay with her while we have CEREBRO verify her story.”

Up on the twenty-sixth floor, Patricia and Cheryl Lynn stepped out of the executive elevator onto carpet so deep it muffled the sounds of their heels as they strode toward the office of Beizan.

The CEO in question jumped to his feet, his skin mottling in anger.

“What is this intrusion?” he yelled, spittle flying from his lips in his rage.

“Have your mouth take a knee, asshole,” Patricia told him in the tone she’d been using for three hundred years to let macho military men know where they stood in her pecking order.

She turned to Cheryl Lynn with a sweet smile. “Would you like to take the lead on this one, dear?”

Cheryl Lynn’s return smile could have launched a thousand ships. “Don’t mind if I do.”

She dropped a hand to her hip and fixed him with the look that could make a Queen’s Bitch back up.

Sure, it was the one she’d married, but the effect was the same.

“You look like a man who doesn’t ever hear the word ‘no.’ That’s going to make what’s about to happen pretty damned unbearable for you.”

Beizan gaped at the two human women and their armed guards, wondering if he’d fallen asleep at his desk and tumbled into a nightmare.

“You’re not dreaming,” Cheryl Lynn assured him. “Beizan, you’re under arrest by order of the Interim Court. Cuff him, boys.”

Beizan regained his senses when two of the faceless guards broke away, one of them retrieving a magstrip from his belt.

If they got that magstrip around his wrists, it was all over for him.

He pulled the mini blasters he kept strapped to the underside of his desk and pointed them at the humans.

A sly grin split his face when the guards hesitated. He shifted position and strafed both guards with a bright burst of laser fire.

It bounced off their armor and hit the fish tank, shattering the glass, then arced up to take a chunk out of the ceiling.

The guards still standing dived to cover Patricia and Cheryl Lynn with their bodies as Beizan fired again.

The smell of burning hair filled the enclosed room. Cheryl Lynn saw the tackle coming at her and sidestepped to evade being sacked. She drew the energy pistol she had in a holster under her arm and returned fire, scoring a direct hit on the Balderian’s right hand.

The blaster exploded. Beizan dropped the remains and dived behind his desk, giving Cheryl Lynn a window to check on everyone. The guards Beizan had fired at were injured but alive.

“You good?” she asked Patricia.

Patricia checked her singed hair and nodded as she got up from the floor. “Nothing my hairdresser can’t fix. Kevin saved me from the worst of it.”

Patricia took her son’s hand and let him help her back to her feet

“Get them to the ship,” Cheryl Lynn instructed.

“Respectfully, ma’am,” Kevin began.

“Don’t you ‘Ma’am’ me, Kevin Anthony Reynolds!” Cheryl Lynn retorted. “I learned to defend myself from Bethany Anne. One measly little pissant office-jockey with a peashooter isn’t going to be a problem.”

“Did you forget I’m armed and dangerous?” Beizan squawked from behind the desk. He nursed his bleeding hand against his chest, keeping his remaining blaster ready in case they came around the desk.

The women stood there with identical folded arms and icy expressions.

“Give yourself up,” Cheryl Lynn told him. “There’s no other way out of this than in cuffs or a body bag.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” he screamed. “You are my hostages. Sit down while I figure out how to use you as leverage to get off-world.”

The women exchanged glances.

“Attacking us was your last mistake,” Patricia stated. “You don’t want to do this the hard way, trust me. Put your weapons down and step away from the desk.”

Both women felt the surge in Etheric energy that signified the CEO’s time had run out.

Beizan dropped the blaster, his uninjured hand flying to his throat when it was crushed by an invisible force.

He gasped, clawing at the hand—he realized it was a hand—gripping his trachea.

A female voice as sharp as steel and every bit as deadly spoke in his ear. “You should have gone quietly, fuckface. The penitentiary program is survivable. I am not.”

Fear drove Beizan’s heartbeat to a dizzying rate as the hand lifted him bodily, seemingly without effort. “I’ll go with them!”

He forced the words out as his vision turned white.

The owner of the hand made herself visible. “Too late.”

“Told you, asshole,” Patricia muttered.

Bethany Anne released the pressure on the Balderian’s throat just enough to keep him from slipping into unconsciousness.

She brought him around to look her in the eye. “That is no longer an option. You had a chance to face the music for your support of Ochan Ryleah’s treason. You chose to commit a crime that carries the death penalty instead.”

Beizan squealed in pain as Bethany Anne forced her fingernails to grow.

She squeezed and snapped his windpipe. “No one fucks with my family and lives.”

Chapter Ten

Bethany Anne returned to High Tortuga as quickly as she’d made the jump to Baldere, leaving the rest of the operation in Cheryl Lynn’s and Patricia’s capable hands.

She exited the Etheric and collected Michael and Alexis, then confirmed Gabriel was aboard the superdreadnought before making the final jump to the bridge of the Baba Yaga.

“Set a course for Torcellan Prime,” Bethany Anne instructed as she took the command chair. “And inform my Own we have a teachable moment for the group there that believes itself to be above the same laws as the rest of the Federation.”

Alexis shielded her mouth with her hand, glancing at her father. “She means the terrorists, right?”

Bethany Anne turned her upper body to look at Alexis. “Damn straight, I mean the terrorists. This isn’t some backwater planet where the only way to address issues of inequality is to use force.”

Alexis leaned over the chair and hugged her mother. “I know that when the people are hurting, you hurt for them. We’ll deal with the terrorists.”

Bethany Anne put her hand on her daughter’s arm and squeezed. “Go get ready, and if you see your brother, tell him he’s in the doghouse unless he has a damn good reason for not being here when I got back.”

Alexis snorted. “You know it’s something to do with Jiya.”

“No excuse.” Bethany Anne pressed her lips together. “You can tell him he will be assisting Izanami with overwatch for this operation.”

Michael took Alexis’ place after she left and began massaging Bethany Anne’s shoulders.

She relaxed into the pressure of his thumbs on her knotted muscles. “True love is never easy. They will work it out, or they won’t. Left a bit…”

Michael obliged. “I should think this outing on Torcellan Prime will be an outlet for your frustration.”

He paused, drawing a noise of protest from Bethany Anne. “Unless, of course, you are considering arresting the leadership.”

Bethany Anne twisted her head to look him in the eye. “Are you… I can’t tell if you’re being serious?”

Michael winked at her.

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow, a hint of amusement touching her lips. “Okay. Who the fuck are you, and what have you done with my stick-up-the-ass husband?”

Michael laughed. “Show me some terrorists, and you’ll see him soon enough.”

Bethany Anne broke into a laugh. “You’re an ass, Michael.”

“I’m an ass who makes you laugh,” he corrected, stealing a kiss. “I will team up with Barnabas. Alexis wanted some mother-daughter time.”

Bethany Anne twisted a little more in her chair to get a better view as he walked away. “Fine by me.”

Torcellan Prime, Equatorial Region, Planetary Capital, Equalist Quarter

Kiaty Ca’Shal

Kiaty Ca’Shal hurried along the back streets, his vision obscured by the hooded cloak he wore to conceal his identity.

Curse this situation! This was no time to leave his followers unattended. However, without control of Jessamyn, he was back to being dependent on his wife without the cabal’s support, and now Elamonn Ryleah was here in the capital to add to the pressure he was under.

At least Ochan hadn’t come in person or dispatched an assassin to remove him from the equation permanently.

The old bastard was too wily to discard an asset with everything to lose. Kiaty’s future depended on the cabal’s victory and their support in pushing the equalist movement.

Life was a dangerous game. The risk-averse won nothing.

Kiaty nursed a flicker of hope that he could do much more than recover the hundred million credits that had evaporated when his hidden accounts had been deleted.

He wanted more than the right to keep his name after marriage. He was the eldest living Ca’Shal.

He wanted what would have been rightfully his almost anywhere else in the Federation. He wanted everything that was wasted on Jessamyn, and he was willing to spill as much blood as it took to gain control of the Ca’Shal fortune.

His precious niece had no idea that the father she idolized was the author of the equalist manifesto tearing their society asunder.

Similarly, if his wife discovered he was the one stoking the fire now that Lorian was dead, he would be in the divorce court as fast as Lucia could have her lawyers file the papers.

Kiaty took comfort in the knowledge that no one would approach him as he made his way through the quarter. His guards ensured that from their places six feet in front of and behind him.

Most of the residents in the quarter were disaffected males drawn to the equalists by the promise of a life where they were as valued as their sisters. Kiaty’s conscience told him the equality he sought for them could be bought peacefully if he was willing to work for it over time.

It wasn’t enough.

He needed to see it in his lifetime. To experience it for himself. More than he wanted an equal footing with his wife, he wanted his son to be more than an accessory on his wife’s arm when he was old enough to marry.

All this had gone through Kiaty’s mind when he’d made the decision to betray Lorian and join the cabal. His brother should have been by his side, but Lorian had rejected Ochan’s advances and made his life the price of admission for the equalists.

Kiaty was too invested to fan the flames of regret, however. While the seductive picture of the future Ochan had painted when recruiting him had yet to come about, the movement had the attention of the government and the people.

Those locals who recognized his cloaked form crossed the street, nodding respectfully. They had similar dreams they were willing to die for. They, like him, had cast aside the luxury of pacifism for the sake of their sons.

Kiaty just had to keep his chin above water until they succeeded.

He shed his cloak and stashed it in a trash can after leaving the equalist quarter, making sure no one but his guards were around to see him leaving the taboo zone.

Elamonn’s shuttle was parked outside the warehouse attached to his sorting office when Kiaty arrived.

Kiaty went inside to meet him.

The Ryleahan was waiting in the sparse room off Kiaty’s office, accompanied by two Shrillexian bodyguards.

He didn’t acknowledge the guards. “Why are you here?” he asked Elamonn. “Your father made his expectations clear when we spoke.”

Elamonn sneered, exposing a line of stitches in his upper lip. “You can’t even keep a child locked up. My father has decided that your operation needs some oversight if he is going to continue investing in it.”

Kiaty hid his reaction, knowing he had no choice but to throw in with the cabal. He pointed out Elamonn’s lip with a cocky grin. “I hear that you were no more prepared to deal with the humans’ interference than I was.”

Elamonn lifted a hand to the injury Barnabas had caused. “Yes, well. We won’t be caught unaware again.”

He closed the case he had open on the table, cutting off the soft glow the equipment inside emitted. “This building is secure. Is there somewhere we can sit and talk about the status of your part of the plan?”

Kiaty indicated the door with a hand. “This way. My office.”

In the fireworks factory where Kiaty had left three of his inner circle to take care of this cell’s preparations for their next big statement, the masked equalists worked in purposeful silence.

The males packing undetectable explosive devices provided by their leaders into the bases of festival lanterns were all aware that the government wanted to crush them. So were the group who were re-packing the modified lanterns into their original shipping crates, everyone waiting in the yard to load the crates into the vehicles, and the drivers due to deliver the lanterns.

They had no fear of capture. If their cell failed, there were others scattered across the planet, each with its own plan to sow terror. Everyone in the factory wore the equalist torc around their necks. The torcs were more than a statement. Each had a device embedded in the metal that would render everything in a six-foot radius into its constituent atoms when activated, and they were prepared to use them.

The task force formed with the intention of uncovering the equalists’ identities and imprisoning them was impotent, too afraid to come into the equalist strongholds to make significant progress in dismantling the movement.

The government would unknowingly trigger their own destruction. At dusk on festival night when the lanterns were lit, the resulting explosions would bring the physical representation of their oppression crashing down on their heads.

The equalist objective was mayhem, a message of fear the government couldn’t ignore. If they could not immediately have the progress they sought, they would take it by force.

While everyone inside the fireworks factory worked, a single cloaked Pod came in to hover above the building. Sixteen other Pods were getting into position to take out the other cells, each with a team of two aboard.

Alexis was paired with Bethany Anne. She opened an audio link from the Pod to the Baba Yaga, where Gabriel had remained aboard with Izanami. “Overwatch, what do we have down there?”

“It’s registered as a fireworks factory belonging to Ca’Shal Enterprises,” Gabriel answered.

Alexis let out a low whistle as the drones she’d sent into the building came online. “That’s a lot of explosives and a lot of people. How do you want to do this, Mom?”

Bethany Anne saw that most of the terrorists were on the first floor. “What is that the drones are picking up around their necks?”

“I’m almost certain those are suicide devices,” Alexis told her with a grimace.

“That’s not the only location tied to Ca’Shal in this area,” Gabriel added. “There are three more facilities in that quarter of the city.”

Bethany Anne frowned. “You know this because?”

“Kiaty Ca’Shal is an idiot,” he replied. “He used CEREBRO for everything.”

Bethany Anne tapped her fingers on the armrest of her chair while she thought for a moment, then turned to look at Alexis. “You remember that merc base we took out a couple years ago? The one Gödel rigged to blow?”

Alexis recalled the extensive cleanup afterward. “I remember. You want me to modify the RAT I built?”

Bethany Anne nodded. “Soonest. No one will die unless they choose to.” She got to her feet, her mouth set in a tight line. “These assholes won’t be finished for a few hours. We need some backup. Have you located Kiaty Ca’Shal?”

Alexis grinned. “It was hardly a challenge. You’re going to love who else is here.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

“Elamonn Ryleah’s ship bypassed planetary Customs three hours ago.” Alexis showed her a still image of the ship she’d recovered from a deleted file in a computer registered to one of Ca’Shal’s associates who worked on the Customs platform. “He took a shuttle to the surface. What would you bet that we’ll find him with his buddy Ca’Shal?”

She returned to her keyboard, forwarding the evidence to the relevant authorities while Bethany Anne updated Gabriel.

Bethany Anne left the comm open while she walked to the weapons locker and retrieved her katanas. “Gabriel, where is that shuttle right now?”

“It’s in the parking lot of a sorting office on the other side of the city,” Gabriel came back a moment later.

Alexis searched the local CEREBRO network for information on the business.

“That office is owned by Ca’Shal’s wife,” she informed Bethany Anne. A mischievous twinkle appeared in her eyes. “You know, his wife would have his balls if she found out he was using her business to hide equalist activity.”

Bethany Anne gave her daughter a skeptical look. “How would you know that?”

Alexis rolled her eyes. “You would know too if you watched the entertainment news.”

Bethany Anne’s lip curled. “Yeah, no. I have a PR team for that… And a daughter, apparently. What’s the juice on the wife?”

Alexis splayed her hands, her eyes wide. “Juicy is right. The whole thing was, like, the biggest scandal. The marriage was hastily arranged so their mothers could save face after Lucia was jilted at the altar by Lorian, who married for love. Everyone knows Lucia is a traditionalist, and she hates Kiaty for embarrassing her. Now that we took back everything he stole from Jessamyn, he’s probably dependent on her again.”

Bethany Anne lifted a shoulder. “Not if he’s being bankrolled by Ochan Ryleah. That’s probably why Elamonn is here.”

Alexis closed her holo and turned to the Pod’s navigation controls. “Only one way to find out.”

Bethany Anne opened the Etheric onto the office, remaining invisible to the two conspirators and their guards for the moment.

“Tell your father he’ll get the shipment on time as long as he provides the support he promised to install the equalists in government.”

Bethany Anne touched Alexis’ elbow. Looks like we found out Kiaty’s value to Ochan. Can you find out what the Ryleahan needs from him?

Alexis closed her eyes and sent feelers into the Torcellan’s mind. Oh, not good, Mom. He has a manufacturing plant off-world producing antimatter warheads.

Bethany Anne clenched her teeth, her eyes flashing red as she bit back her anger.

Elamonn’s beady eyes almost vanished as he felt real fear for the second time in his life. “What was that?”

Kiaty shook off the sensation. “It’s nothing. We need to focus. My people are putting themselves at risk to fulfill our side of the bargain. I need to know what your father is doing to uphold his.”

“My father cannot uphold his part without those warheads,” Elamonn stated, looking uncomfortable. “The humans have forced our hand.”

Bethany Anne had heard enough.

She stepped out of the Etheric, revealing herself as she drew her katanas.

Alexis followed, taking out the guards with her Jean Dukes Specials.

Kiaty screamed and fainted when presented with the bloody reality of the violence he had invited to his homeworld.

Elamonn scrambled out of his chair when the two almost identical human women appeared from nowhere.

Bethany Anne lifted her sword and pressed the tip to Elamonn’s throat. “If you want to continue breathing, sit down and stay very fucking still. Alexis, wake that gutless crybaby up.”

Alexis wavered for a second between giving the Torcellan a little mental zap and just kicking him awake.

“Today,” Bethany Anne ground out.

Alexis buried her boot in Kiaty’s gut, preferring not to touch his mind.

Kiaty came around, resuming his high-pitched whine when he saw that Bethany Anne and Alexis were really there. His eyes rolled back in his head again.

“You’re not getting away with this so easily.” Bethany Anne blasted him with icy air, shocking him back to consciousness. “Wake the fuck up. It’s time to answer for your crimes.”

Kiaty had the nerve to be offended. “My only crime is being willing to do whatever it takes to free my people from female oppression.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “If that were true, I would not be here. You had enough support from your people to file a legitimate case with the Federation Council. Instead, your greedy ass joined up with a bunch of other greedy assholes. You murdered your own brother and imprisoned your niece, and you have used violence against your own people to bully what you want from them.”

Bethany Anne removed her katana from Elamonn’s throat, her eyes glowing bright with righteous anger. “What you want is fame, power, and wealth. What you have earned with your choices is death.”

She turned to Elamonn again as Kiaty’s head hit the floor with a wet thud.

Alexis folded her arms. “What about him?”

The Ryleahan’s face had drained of color.

Bethany Anne grabbed Elamonn by his ear, flashing a cold grin when he squealed at the pressure on the sensitive organ. “This spoiled rotten shit is coming with us.”

Chapter Eleven

Torcellan Prime, Eastern Continent

There were three red zones in close proximity to Tordurma, the country’s capital city.

Michael and Barnabas headed to the northernmost zone, John and Darryl’s Pod went south, and Scott and Peter went west. Gabrielle and Eric had a rural location registered to a shell account of Kiaty’s to check out.

They had met with Commissioner Farlen, the Torcellan task force leader, to be briefed on the equalist cells embedded in the mostly male communities around the city.

“What this clusterfuck needs,” Scott announced over the speaker, “is some testosterone.”

“Said no female on this planet ever,” John replied with a laugh.

“That’s what got them into this situation,” Michael commented. “Balance between the sexes is vital to success as a species.”

Peter snorted. “Anyone here not remember Michael’s thousand-year gig as a patriarchal tyrant? ‘Death to the dishonorable’ sound at all familiar?”

“Ah, but it was equal-opportunity tyranny,” Michael countered in good humor. “Male or female, dishonor was dealt with the same.”

“I can confirm that,” Barnabas chipped in. “They all died screaming in the end.”

Gabriel called from the Baba Yaga. “Mom just reported in. Hers and Alexis’ targets are all carrying suicide devices. Mom said don’t get your asses blown up.”

“It’s like she knows us,” Scott quipped.

“Blow your own ass up,” Peter shot back. “Leave mine out of this.”

“Yeah,” John agreed. “Your wife is a civilian. The rest of us are with women who know what the consequences of stupidity look like.”

Peter made a sound of agreement.

“This is why I stay single,” Darryl told them. “Nobody to chew my ass out if I cut loose and catch an injury.”

“No one waiting at home to offer you some comfort while you ‘recover,’ either,” Scott pointed out.

“Says who?” Darryl retorted. “I’ve got a holodex full of comfort. All I have to do is pick up the phone.”

Scott burst out laughing. “Get the man-slut!”

Darryl booed him. “Jealousy is ugly, dude. I can’t help being what the ladies are looking for.”

“Not even Natalia?” Barnabas’ innocent inquiry was met with a chorus of sucked in breaths.

“The one who got away,” Michael mouthed silently.

“My bad,” Barnabas apologized.

“There are too many fine females in this universe for any one of them to tie my ass down for long,” Darryl replied, not bothered in the slightest by the reminder.

“Gentlemen, focus on what matters,” Michael reminded them as the Pods arrived at their separate locations. “Which is that my wife will have all our asses in a sling if the equalists succeed in their endeavors.”

Barnabas leaned over to Michael. “An excellent point. If everyone is in position, we should get to work.”

“Everyone have their targets?” Michael checked.

“Affirmative,” John confirmed.

“I’m looking at the sonofabitch right now,” Scott growled.

“Then we are good to go,” Michael told them. “Everyone switch to internal comms.”

Darryl called the lightning down on a nearby power transformer, plunging the neighborhood into darkness.

The windows of the houses lit up one by one as the residents found flashlights and candles.

Those who came out onto the street to see what the problem was quickly ducked back into their homes when they saw the two human giants walking with grim purpose toward Councilor Tumo Lakimi’s favorite hangout.

In the still of the night, the Torcellans spoke in hushed voices.

Unlike the people in the equatorial cities, these were ordinary civilians whose lives had been overturned by false promises of peaceful protest to affect change. They had initially supported Lakimi’s move into politics, but his involvement with the crime lord Michael and Barnabas had on the naughty list had brought violence and disruption to their way of life, and they wanted him gone.

John felt satisfaction when he heard them whisper Bethany Anne’s name in hope. The people remembered.

Their target was ensconced at a bathhouse he owned. The building was beautiful, the carving on the trim and stonework intricate even by Torcellan standards.

John took a second to admire the effort that had gone into it before turning to Darryl. “I don’t feel like knocking. Do you?”

Darryl shook his head. “Nah, I think we should make a big entrance.”

John nodded, drawing his old reliables. Every component of his Jean Dukes Specials had been replaced or upgraded over the decades, but they still fit his hands perfectly. “Make a hole.”

Darryl grinned. “Coming right up.” He rubbed his hands together, drawing lightning from the air.

He announced his and John’s arrival with a double bolt that blew the heavy wooden door to splinters.

The attendants scattered as the Queen’s Own made their way inside the building.

John shot the first three armed males who stumbled out of the smoking wreckage in the hallway.

He bent to check the closest, finding no weapons except the plasma rifle he was carrying.

Darryl knelt briefly by another and pulled back his shirt collar. The torc he wore was thin and inert. “I’m not seeing a suicide device.”

“Me neither.” John passed the information to Gabriel. “Stay alert. There’s no saying we won’t come across someone dumb enough to choose explosives as a fucking fashion accessory.”

Darryl’s reply was cut off by a barrage of plasma bolts from the other end of the hallway. “These assholes shoot like stormtroopers,” he called, dropping into a roll to get to the cover of the closest doorway as plaster dust rained down on them.

John reached for the equalists’ minds and blocked their ability to see him and Darryl. “Six of them, three on each side.”

“What about our target?” Darryl fired, painting the wall with the brains of the Torcellan poking his head around the doorframe.

“Downstairs.” John took out the two who rushed out, shooting blindly in response to the loss of their comrade, then waved Darryl ahead.

They split at the doors where the equalists were hiding and took out the remainder.

“Have these assholes had any training?” Darryl complained as they made the stairs and were ambushed by another group of males who barely knew the barrel from the butt of their weapons.

It was over in seconds.

John pointed out the oily makeup the equalists wore to disguise their features as they stepped over their bodies. “Maybe they came from the circus. They’re fucking clowns.”

Darryl grinned as John entered the stairwell. “I dated a goth girl once who would be so into that shit.”

“You’re shitting me.” John looked over his shoulder at Darryl.

Darryl’s chuckle echoed in the enclosed space. “I shit you not.”

A creak ahead drew their attention. They had their Jean Dukes Specials aimed at the door when it opened.

John lowered his weapon when three barely-dressed female attendants darted out and stopped short with a flurry of frightened squeals when they saw the armed humans.

“Get out of here, ladies,” he told them, standing back. “We only want the equalists.”

The tallest attendant pointed at the door they’d just come out of. “That handsy pig is in there. Make him suffer, you hear me?” She ushered the younger females past John and Darryl without looking back.

John’s brow furrowed in anger. “Did you see that bruise on her face?”

Darryl’s expression was identical. “Mmhmm.” He paused to holster his Jean Dukes Specials in favor of his combat knife before heading for the door.

John broke into an icy grin as he followed suit. “I like your thinking.”

Six wide, shallow steps led to the baths, the cavernous space split by mosaic screen dividers to create private spaces.

Scented steam filled the air, obscuring their vision. However, these were two of the Queen’s Own, and they didn’t need to see their targets when they could identify every distinct heartbeat amidst the sounds of hissing steam and running water.

The slap of flesh impacting flesh and a soft feminine cry of distress followed by brash male laughter alerted them to their target’s exact location.

John and Darryl slipped into the fragrant cloud, separating to take care of Lakimi’s guards without alerting him and endangering the attendants.

John had an especially deep hatred for any male who raised his hand to a helpless female. He wasted no time on the guards, slitting their throats without giving them the honor of knowing death had come.

They had no honor.

Darryl met him at the final screen, which John tossed aside as though it were made of rice paper rather than stone.

The women screamed and scattered, leaving Lakimi alone in the sunken pool.

John took one look at the male lounging in the shallow end while young female attendants waited on him.

“Darryl, does this look like equality to you?”

“It does not,” Darryl replied coldly. “And I’d put money on none of these young ladies being Mrs. Lakimi.”

“There is no Mrs. Lakimi,” the Torcellan told them, looking around for his guards.

“It doesn’t surprise me that the only company you can get is what you’ve paid for.” John dragged the last guard he’d killed out of the shadows and threw the body into the pool. “Looking for him?”

Lakimi jumped out of the pool in panic as the blood spread through the water.

Darryl moved faster than the unenhanced eye could track and grabbed the Torcellan by his hair. “Not so fast, asshole. You like hitting women, huh? How do you like a taste of your own medicine?”

Darryl backhanded him, shattering his nose and sending him reeling toward John.

The Bitch switched to his Jean Dukes Special and shot him in the right knee. “This is the day you die, fuck-knuckle. Choices can be easy or hard, but a shitball like you doesn’t deserve a choice. You’re going to be in a world of hurt before I’m done with your abusive ass.”

Lakimi sobbed through the pain. “All I did was balance out the scales. Males deserve equality!”

“You call setting yourself and your buddies up in this little pimp palace and beating on the women here getting equality?” John scoffed. “Dude, you’re screwed up. There are guys all over this planet working to make things right in your society. You are not one of them.”

Darryl growled. “Let’s just shoot him and get gone already. He doesn’t know anything.”

Lakimi started pleading for his life. “I know I’ve done wrong. I’ll do better, I swear. Just give me a chance, and I’ll renounce the equalists and—”

John slapped the words out of the Torcellan’s mouth. “The problem with people swearing they’ll be on their best behavior is that they inevitably revert to their rat-shit ways as soon as they feel like they can get away with it again.”

The report from his Jean Dukes Special was enhanced by the steamy air.

“This weak-ass POS isn’t worth our time,” John ground out as he holstered his weapon.

“You got that right,” Darryl agreed. “You think we’ll make it to Parnal’s house before Michael and Barnabas get done having all the fun?”

“Only one way to find out.” John opened his comm to Michael.

Michael acknowledged the imminent arrival of the other two teams without missing a beat as he carved his way through the equalist soldiers defending the home of the crime boss Destry Parnal.

He wondered how anyone lived here without being driven mad by the sheer ugliness. Parnal lived halfway up a mountain in what could only be described as a castle. Of course, Michael would never have such poor taste as to mash together the many competing architectural styles of the towers connected by some insane architect’s vision of security and grandeur.

Behind them, the barbican lay in ruins. Ahead was a hodgepodge of soaring pillars and steep steps that fronted the bristling façade of the main entrance.

Michael passed the information to Barnabas that neither team had met with any resistance worth a damn. It appears our target kept the best of his cell to protect him.

Barnabas’ laughter filled the mindspace. All the more for us to take care of. It shouldn’t surprise you that this reprobate hung his allies out to dry.

No surprise here, Michael commented dryly. You may wish to pick up your pace if we want to be done here before the others arrive.

Barnabas’ robe whirled around him, his slashing claws cutting four equalist throats so fast the blood of his enemies was carried in their wake. The wave of droplets fell to the white stone as he paused and turned to look at Michael. How long?

John and Darryl, ten minutes. Scott and Peter, three minutes. Michael didn’t miss the renewed energy in Barnabas’ next attack. Stephen tells me you have been eager for battle recently. I see his point.

What’s to see? These people act outside the law, so they deserve vigilante Justice. That, dear brother, is kind of my specialty. Barnabas gave Michael a serene smile as he pulled his hand out of the Torcellan’s chest cavity and crushed the heart he had just extracted to bloody pulp. Stephen has always been a touch sensitive.

Michael had no argument to refute that logic. He was forestalled from telling Barnabas so when a hail of glowing arrows came whistling from the windows on the third floor.

The two vampires vacated the spot a split second before the sizzling projectiles vaporized the ground they’d been standing on.

Archers? Barnabas blurred into action. Distract these bozos. I’ll meet you up there.

The equalists on the ground took advantage of the break to launch another attack, but Barnabas was already in the wind.

Michael grabbed the nearest attacker, using him as a combination shield and battering ram to clear a path to the building as another salvo of arrows rained down on him.

I’m in, Barnabas reported.

I will be there momentarily. Do NOT kill those archers without me! Michael tossed the Torcellan pincushion aside and leapt for the smooth stone wall.

Just as he Mysted, two pucks impacted the courtyard.

Scott’s voice came over the comm. Did someone call for assistance?

No! Barnabas yelled. We have this completely under control. Why don’t you see if Gabrielle and Eric need some help?

Nice try, old man, Peter chimed in, the growly tone of his mental voice letting Michael and Barnabas know he was in his Pricolici form.

Michael had reached the third floor and chosen a window. The archer leaning out of the window screamed when Michael’s invisible hand grabbed him around the neck.

Peter, get your furry derriere down here and cover the perimeter from the ground. Make sure no one escapes. Michael tossed the archer to his death and reformed his body once he was inside the room. Scott, stay where you are and provide aerial cover. When John and Darryl get here, have one of them take my Pod and join you.

A howl of joy cut the air as Peter launched himself out of the Pod.

Michael shook his head in amusement as he made his way to the door.

Barnabas was waiting on the other side. “Nice move, having them take care of the minions while we move on Parnal.”

Michael burned the blood off his hands with a pulse of Etheric energy. “There are plenty to occupy them.”

Barnabas nudged him with a shoulder as they set off walking. “You can’t fool me. You’re enjoying some bro time.”

Michael chuckled, nudging him back. “Guilty. What do you know about this Parnal character?”

“Beyond what was in the brief?” Barnabas shrugged. “Nothing. Frank was pretty thorough. He’s acting on Kiaty Ca’Shal’s orders and is involved separately with the Ryleah family. That’s enough in my book.”

Michael paused at the head of a staircase, sensing a group of four descending from the floor above. “There’s someone coming.”

Barnabas grinned and flexed his extended nails as he touched their minds. “More equalists. Goody.”

Michael raised an eyebrow but said nothing as he readied himself on the opposite side of the staircase from Barnabas.

The two Torcellans in the lead were dead before they knew what was happening. The two behind saw their comrades snatched by the shadows and started firing their plasma rifles, getting off a couple of shots apiece before they too met their ends at the vampires’ hands.

The commotion gave their position away. An alarm started blaring overhead, and shutters clanged down over the doors and windows.

Michael grimaced. “Enough of this. We need to find Parnal.”

Barnabas pointed above their heads. “He’s up there in one of the towers.”

Michael opened the Etheric and waved Barnabas in. After closing it behind them, he was relieved when the alarm was cut off. “We’ll find the bastard this way.”

“You know we need an opening to look through,” Barnabas told him.

Michael waved a hand and the infernal screeching returned, albeit at a reduced volume.

They spent the next few minutes popping in and out of the Etheric as they checked the towers.

When they found the one Parnal was hiding in, the Torcellan was waiting. Seeing Michael and Barnabas, he jumped to his feet and vanished in a flash of blue light.

“What was that?” Barnabas asked.

Michael wasn’t sure. “He must have some kind of translocation technology.”

Barnabas scowled. “Then he can’t have gotten far. That kind of technology only permits short hops.”

He extended his senses, searching for the reciprocating energy spike in the nearby towers. “Got him. Three towers to the right.”

They walked the Etheric to find Parnal absent.

“Northeast tower,” Barnabas told him.

There was no sign of the Torcellan except the trace of exotic energy to indicate he had been there.

What the fuck was that? Peter yelled over the comm.

Our target, Michael told him. Track him. Keep him on the move.

“They’re in the west wing,” Barnabas supplied.

Michael lost his patience. “Fuck this. It’s like playing whack a mole without the moles. He thinks he can outsmart us. He has no idea I’m willing to bring the whole place down on his head.”

Barnabas nodded, having figured out Michael’s plan. “Have Peter move inside. We need to keep the pressure on him while you get everyone in place.”

He vanished into the Etheric.

Michael opened the comm. John, are you and Darryl here yet?

Forty-five seconds out, came the reply. We had to take care of a couple of equalist ships heading your way.

I’m going to assume that was Parnal’s escape plan. Michael thought fast. He’s going to realize no one is coming. Peter, work with Barnabas to herd him to the large hall on the ground floor.

Peter acknowledged the order.

John, Darryl, Scott, I want you positioned to bring those hideous towers down on the main building. Michael paused. Wait. How many explosive pucks do we have?

Enough to bring that mountain down, Darryl informed him.

Chapter Twelve

Destry Parnal chuckled in relief as he evaded the humans for the third time. He was feeling a little lightheaded, but he would be safe aboard his brother’s ship and halfway across the Federation before the nasty aftereffects of making three or four jumps in a row kicked in.

He would have to thank Ochan for the emergency transporter device when he got to Ryleah. The humans had almost caught him by surprise. Luckily, he’d been wearing the device, and now all he had to do was keep leading them a merry dance around his home until rescue arrived.

The device, meant as an emergency evasion measure, sent him a short distance in one of six pre-programmed directions. With a plan of every coordinate in the castle it was safe to jump from memorized, he could play this game for as long as he needed to.

He exited the jump from the northeast tower to his study and almost collided with a monster canid.

The monster alien cursed and made a grab for him.

Only Parnal’s quick thinking saved him from becoming a snack. He slammed his hand on the vambrace, activating the device, and ran for the next jump coordinate the moment his atoms were all in their proper places.

What ensued next was a frantic chase.

Parnal made a series of jumps that sent his vision swimming, all thoughts of what the device was doing to his body fleeing. The gigantic upright canid crashing through solid stone walls like they were made of meringue in pursuit of him was the greater threat.

He still had the upper hand, even with the killer beast they’d sent to sniff him out roaming the halls. Right now, though, he was feeling the pressure increase with every jump.

This wasn’t the future he’d seen when Ochan had spun his vision of a Torcellan where the male child of a concubine like him could be seen as legitimate.

He jumped again, and this time his stomach objected. It wasn’t fair. From the moment of his conception to this moment of running for his life, he had succeeded against all odds due to his knowledge that he deserved better than the hand life had dealt him.

He wiped his mouth and jumped again. He would survive this, too.

No, you won’t.

He missed his spot and tripped on a bump in the rug. Where had that voice come from? The jumps must be playing tricks on his mind.

He got to his feet, aching deep in his bones.

He lifted his arm to make the next jump and found the screen of the device was damaged. He tapped the display, but nothing happened.

Another howl split the air as the lights went out.

He had to keep going until his brother got here.

Your brother isn’t coming, Parnal. We blew his shitty ship out of the sky.

Parnal froze. He hadn’t imagined it. That voice was human. It belonged to Death.

If what the human said was true, his only hope was the escape pod hidden under the mountain.

But how could he get to the cave without the transporter device? That canid was still here, blocking his route to the secret passage in his study.

With no other recourse, he ran, willing his jelly legs to carry him.

The next howl sounded farther away, encouraging him to pick up speed as he made his way to the heart of the castle.

Everywhere he went, he had to avoid tripping over the corpses of his men.

Doubt crept in as he realized the capability humans had for savagery when angered. It was nothing like the cold calculation of the cabal, where murder was outsourced like any other corporate need.

The tremble in his legs had spread to his entire body by the time he reached his study. He had to get into that pod and put himself into stasis before transporter sickness set in and he lost cellular cohesion.

The floor pitched suddenly under his feet. He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating the undulation that passed through the building.

A shrill whine made him pause as he stepped over the remains of the door and wall. He looked up, realizing the sound was coming from outside his head.

Not just outside his head. Outside the castle.

The first puck hurtled through the roof. It crashed through the ceiling and into Parnell before his fracturing mind could process what was happening.

It was followed by another and another, all three detonating on impact.

High above the smoking crater that was all that remained of the castle and most of the mountain beneath it, Michael looked on in satisfaction.

He reached out to Bethany Anne. Our target is taken care of.

You seem pleased.

We can compare our experiences of leveling mountains later. Did you get Ca’Shal?

Him, and Elamonn Ryleah.

Now who sounds like the cat that got the cream? Is either of them alive?

Elamonn is. I let Gabriel out of the sin bin. The twins and I are about to return to the capital to take out the largest cell. Can I interest you in some quality family time?

Always. Michael received the coordinates Bethany Anne sent. Meet you there.

The Pods met briefly above the equalist quarter. Bethany Anne, Michael, Gabriel, and Alexis transferred through the Etheric to the roof of the fireworks factory, freeing up their Pods for Darryl and Peter.

Barnabas went alone to investigate the small depot Gabriel had found. John and Darryl veered off to hit a facility six blocks south, while Scott and Peter headed for the nightclub Kiaty Ca’Shal had been a silent partner in.

Izanami closed the comm as the teams split up, replacing the open channel with individual links to her on the Baba Yaga.

Bethany Anne gathered her family around a skylight. “This is what we’re going to do. Alexis has a remote access tool that will disable the explosive devices the fucknuggets are wearing.”

“We don’t want the whole factory to blow,” Alexis told her father and brother. “Between the devices the equalists are wearing, the lantern bombs, and the contents of the storerooms, there’s enough explosive material in that building to take out power and water for the whole city. The resulting deaths would be in the thousands.”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. “We didn’t come down here just to watch Alexis press buttons, right?”

Bethany Anne shook her head. “Hell, no! Everyone in there is planning to murder the government. Activate your HUDs.”

Michael gave Bethany Anne a curious look as he obliged and found a new app waiting to be opened. “What do we have here?”

“I had the drones map the factory earlier and uploaded it to the app.” Alexis grinned. “My tool also connects the explosive devices to the app. Anyone who tries to detonate their device will appear in red in your HUD map.”

Gabriel grinned. “You turned it into a game?”

“I call it ‘Self-Induced Karma.’” Alexis wiggled her eyebrows. “Justice isn’t a game, Gabriel. But yes. I gave them a chance to choose right. You and I will move the explosives into the Etheric while Mom and Dad keep the terrorists occupied.”

Michael pulled Alexis in for a hug. “You have a big heart. I assume you have informed the commissioner that her people will be able to access this area to arrest those who surrender once we are done?”

Alexis nodded. “I told them to stay back until I send the all-clear. They have to take care of the lantern bombs that have already been delivered.”

Bethany Anne drew her Jean Dukes Specials. “Let’s hope they listen. We are not here to hold their hands. Everyone ready?” Everyone confirmed they were. “Release your RAT, Alexis.”

“Done,” Alexis confirmed a moment later. “Aaaand…the suicide devices have been neutralized. We’re good to go.”

“Almost,” Bethany Anne told her. “ADAM, patch me into the building’s PA system.”

>>You’re in,<< he replied a moment later.

“Now we’re good to go,” Bethany Anne told them, stepping into the Etheric.

A commotion came from the yard when Michael appeared there.

The twins had the loading area where the lantern crates were stacked.

Bethany Anne came out on the factory floor, surprising the few hundred equalists milling around the space left when the lantern crates were moved to the loading area.

“Surrender if you want to live,” she commanded, her voice coming from every speaker in the factory. “The authorities are on their way to take you into custody. Anyone resisting will be shot.”

It was no shock to her when many of the equalists chose to disregard her order.

A few went red in her HUD, sheer panic at being caught motivating them to trigger their suicide devices. Her Jean Dukes barked in the stunned silence, dropping them instantly.

Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red. “I said, surrender or DIE!”

The equalists chose to die, seeing a single human as no challenge. They pulled various weapons and came at her.

Bethany Anne released a wave of Etheric energy, knocking the guns from their hands before the fucking idiots blew themselves up by accident.

“I’m trying to save your worthless fucking lives!” She punched the next one who rushed her in the face. “You want to do this the hard way? Well, fuck you! Every one of you!”

In her frustration, she forgot to pull her punch. The Torcellan’s head exploded, spraying blood and brain matter over those his body took out.

Michael appeared by her side as the equalists closed ranks. “I smell fear.”

“They’re not scared enough,” Bethany Anne told him.

Her HUD lit up with red outlines, too many for them to shoot in one go. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding.”

Michael shrugged. “Less burden on the prison system.”

Realizing they couldn’t take the easy way out, those who didn’t run turned on Bethany Anne and Michael, screaming obscenity-laced bullshit about freedom that would have been cute if they hadn’t been willing to blow the city to shit two seconds previously.

Michael’s eyes blazed red, and the air around him started to crackle.

“Hold your temper until the twins are done,” Bethany Anne reminded him.

“I have no issue exercising self-control,” Michael growled as he turned to Myst and darted into the mob. But I will not suffer those who dishonor you to live.

Restricted from simply blasting them with fire and lightning, Bethany Anne holstered her pistols and got hands-on.

They wanted to inflict pain on their world, pain that would ripple outward through the Federation.

They were about to learn the true meaning of pain.

Screams marked Michael’s progress. Bethany Anne tore the Torcellans limb from limb, giving no quarter to any who showed up red in her HUD.

She wanted Ochan Ryleah’s blood for the damage his scheming had caused Torcellan society. Just like Kiaty, the equalists were too far gone to be saved. Their deaths would cause an imbalance in society where none had existed before Ochan had enticed them to take the violent route.

It struck her as she smashed two skulls together that the one species that wasn’t adding to this problem was humanity.

For once.

Whether that was because they hadn’t forgotten the lesson she’d given their grandparents’ generation or because they were fucking grateful for the protections of living in the Federation, she would have to find out some other time.

Right now, her attention was on the people threatening the stability everyone relied on to live in peace and prosperity.

A surge in the Etheric as the twins flashed in and out, moving the remaining explosives on the factory floor into the Etheric, distracted Bethany Anne momentarily.

She missed the Torcellan swinging a length of pipe at her, but her armor absorbed the impact and sent the reverberation back up the arms of her attacker instead of breaking her arm like he’d intended.

Sorry, Mom! Alexis called in the mindspace.

Bethany Anne snatched the pipe as the shock forced him to drop it and launched it at him, spearing him through the chest. Are all the lantern bombs secure?

Yeah, everything that might go boom is safely inside the Etheric, Gabriel confirmed.

Bethany Anne pulled the pipe out of the corpse and swung it two-handed, clearing a space around her before opening the Etheric and slipping out of the mob.

She exited where the twins were standing by the door, knowing what was about to go down. Michael, did you hear that?

One bolt of lightning after another slammed into the equalists, giving Bethany Anne her answer.

Bethany Anne stood back and watched Michael. “Let your father work his emotions out,” she told the twins.

She lifted a shoulder at their questioning looks. “They pissed him off shit-talking about me.”

Alexis scowled, releasing the energy ball she’d formed in her right hand. “They deserve everything that’s coming to them.” She grabbed Gabriel. “Come on, we should go and meet the task force.”

Bethany Anne only had eyes for Michael, who had de-Mysted in order to get the satisfaction of getting his hands on those who had insulted her.

The Torcellans would be here to take the survivors into custody in a few minutes, but until then, she had a little time to appreciate the man in action.

Picturing me naked is somewhat distracting.

Your tone suggests otherwise. Bethany Anne’s mouth curved. You know what seeing you defend my honor does for me.

You just like how my ass looks in this armor.

That too.

Michael released the lightning as the last few equalists fled. Show’s over. The commissioner is here.

Bethany Anne pouted. Spoilsport.

Our day isn’t done. We can pick this up on Ryleah.

A haughty Torcellan woman in full riot gear strode through the door, followed by six females in identical rigs.

She took one look at Michael standing at the center of a pile of dead Torcellans and drew her sidearm. “Freeze!”

The task force operatives clicked into gear and spread out as they drew on Michael.

They missed Bethany Anne standing by the door.

“If you want to keep breathing, I suggest you cease pointing your weapons at my husband.” Bethany Anne pushed fear as she spoke.

Hearing a feminine voice, the commissioner turned, lowering her weapon when she saw Bethany Anne. “My apologies, Your Highness. Stand down, team. These are the Etherians who came to assist us.”

Bethany Anne wasn’t impressed. “You knew we were still in here. You saw a male and assumed he was a threat.”

The commissioner had the good grace to look embarrassed. “The equalists have us all on edge.”

“So you further marginalize half your people?” Bethany Anne gave her a withering stare. “What a shitshow. How many males died because Ochan Ryleah was able to exploit them? Their blood is on your hands too, Commissioner. The government had the opportunity to meet the needs of the whole population, but instead, you chose to entrench yourselves in maintaining a status quo that favors one sex over another. That’s not what the Federation is about. I am more powerful than any planetary state. Every citizen has the right to an equal start, and I choose to maintain that status quo, even if it means wiping the slate clean and starting again with a government whose ideals match those I set out in the Federation charter.”

She looked the commissioner in the eye, and to her credit, the Torcellan did not look away.

Bethany Anne raised her voice to make sure every Torcellan there heard her. “This is the only chance Torcellan gets to get its shit together. Am I making myself clear? There will be a hearing at Red Rock in one month to review the planet’s amended constitution. If the amendments do not get personal approval from General Reynolds, Torcellan will remain in governmental administration along with Ryleah, Baldere, and the other planetary states that can’t be fucking trusted to rule themselves until Torcellans remember how to treat each other with basic fucking respect.”

The commissioner’s face colored. “I’ll pass that up my chain of command.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “See that you do.”

Time to leave, she sent into the mindspace. Everyone back to the Baba Yaga.

She stepped into the Etheric with Michael and the twins, leaving the Torcellans standing open-mouthed.

Chapter Thirteen

Returning to the Baba Yaga, Bethany Anne made her way to the cell on deck fourteen where Elamonn was enjoying his stay under the supervision of Izanami.

Bethany Anne dropped the little hatch in the door and looked in at him.

The Ryleahan was scrunched against the wall on his bunk with his arms wrapped around his knees. He looked up when Bethany Anne opened the door to the cell, his expression that of a sulking child. “I want my lawyer.”

Bethany Anne offered him a dry smile. “And I want intergalactic peace so I can go home. Looks like we’re both shit out of luck. Get up.”

Elamonn might have been a petulant child, but he had the same sharp mind as his sister. He saw the truth that everything his family had done had come around and dropped the act. “Are you planning to execute me like you did Kiaty?”

“Your ride is here. If I was going to kill you, you’d be dead already.” Bethany Anne stepped back and waved him out of the cell. “Your sister believes you can be redeemed. I think you’re going to prove her wrong, but she did me a favor, so I’m obligated to let her make her own mistakes in judgment.”

Elamonn hesitated on the edge of the bunk. Xadia had spoken up for him? Why in seven hells would she do that?

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to come in there and get you? Move your rotten ass. This way.”

Elamonn obeyed. He was silent for a moment as he walked behind her. “I’m worth nothing to you dead.”

Bethany Anne stopped and turned, her eyes flashing red. She grabbed the front of Elamonn’s shirt, pulling him in for a closeup of her fangs. “You’re worth nothing to me either way. Let me break this down for you in a language you can understand: you’re fucked. Before today is over, you will be on a transport headed for the nastiest, coldest, most godforsaken fucking rock in the Federation, where—if you survive the first night—you will spend the next thirty years breaking rocks for the privilege of three meals a day and a roof over your head. That is the mercy Xadia bargained for. Ryleah Logistics belongs to her now. Your greed, your efforts to erode the rights of your people, your willingness to view those people as nothing more than faceless assets? This is what it has bought you.”

She shoved him ahead of her. “Keep walking.”

Bethany Anne returned to the top deck after depositing Elamonn in the holding cell of the prison transport shuttle that had come to collect him.

>>You have numerous requests for contact from the Torcellan government,<< ADAM informed her.

Bethany Anne stopped outside the door to the family quarters she shared with Michel and the twins. I did what I went there to do. Tell them my deadline stands and reroute their requests to the Interim Court.

Lance’s troops would be arriving on Torcellan Prime within twelve hours to institute martial law, and there was nothing they could do to undo the situation except get their shit together.

Bethany Anne closed herself off from everyone and everything on this side of the door. She needed to be with Michael and the children. Surround herself with their love as a counterbalance to the anger she had on behalf of everyone who had been affected by the Ryleah family.

She crossed the threshold into their family quarters and was hit by the succulent aroma of chili. The spice blend smelled like the twins’ recipe, and her stomach voiced its appreciation for one of her favorite meals.

“Hey, Mom!” Alexis and Gabriel called in unison.

“Dinner smells good!” she replied, shedding her boots at the door. “Let me get changed before we eat. I won’t be a minute.”

Michael’s laughter filtered through from the den. He walked out a second later and came over to slip his arms around her waist. “A minute on which planet?”

“I’ll kill you dead right now,” Bethany Anne told him, her tension dissipating with her laughter. She wrapped her arms around her husband’s neck and kissed him. “I’m still gross from Torcellan. I need out of this armor.”

“That makes two of us.” Michael brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. “Dinner won’t be ready for another half-hour.”

Bethany Anne’s mouth curved up. “In that case, I’m going to take a shower.”

She scooped up her boots and headed for her bathroom. Michael watched her go with a scowl that he couldn’t prevent becoming a smile. “Damn woman.”

He returned to preparing the den for family night with a shake of his head.

Bethany Anne left her dressing room twenty-five minutes later, barefoot and dressed comfortably in a soft black sweater and yoga pants.

She instantly relaxed in the muted blues and greens and fabricated dark oak of the den. The compartment had just undergone a remodel to accommodate the modular sofa she had been unable to resist having made after Gabrielle had shown her a similar model in a catalog.

The company that had built it was based on deck nineteen, their selling point being the smart features they built into their designs. Everything was programmable, from the texture of the upholstery to the structure of the storage compartments hidden in the armrests to the layout of the modules, making it the perfect accompaniment to Michael’s latest obsession with entertainment systems.

Presently, the couch was set up for watching a movie. Positioned the perfect distance from the holoscreen wall, each of the deep reclining seats had heat and massage functions, a pull-out lap table, and personal lighting.

Michael turned from the control panel as she entered the den. “You’re just in time to choose the movie.”

Bethany Anne returned his smile and walked over to the kitchen area. “The chili smells divine.”

“Chili dogs.” Michael continued adjusting the lighting so they could eat while retaining a cinematic ambiance. “Gabriel was caramelizing onions last time I was in the kitchen.”

Bethany Anne groaned. “They cook for us, and you want them to move out again?”

Michael chuckled. “No. They are our children. They belong with us for as long as they want to share our space. It’s not like they cramp our style.”

“I think we might be cramping our daughter’s.” Bethany Anne got herself three Cokes from the fridge and put them in the cooler in her armrest before sitting down to scroll through the movie choices. “They’ve been home for almost five years. Gabriel is looking to settle down. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen the signs.”

“I have,” Michael agreed. “However, I don’t see Alexis leaving the nest anytime soon. She likes to be close to you.”

“It’s going to be so empty with them gone again,” Bethany Anne murmured, only half-listening. “Maybe…”

Michael held his breath. Whatever she said next, his reaction had to be one that didn’t land him in the doghouse for the next decade.

Bethany Anne flashed her million-watt smile at him. “If we sacrifice the APA and take a few square feet from the bridge, we can split this deck into three separate homes. I can move my ready room to the mezzanine, and I will approve Izanami’s request to have the hard light projection unit upgraded on the condition it also shrinks by a third.” She turned in her seat to rummage for a datapad.

Michael sighed internally and thanked his lucky stars that his wife funneled her restlessness into remodeling projects and not expanding their family every time one of the children moved out.

“That could work,” he agreed cautiously.

Bethany Anne looked up from the screen and narrowed her eyes at him. “What, no argument?”

Dammit, he’d conceded too quickly! “We will have to move to another deck while the remodel is happening.”

The twins came in at that moment, chattering between themselves as they guided the antigrav cart stacked with covered serving dishes.

“Remodel?” Alexis uncovered the first serving dish. “Sweet! Which part of the deck?”

Bethany Anne smiled. “I’m thinking of changing the layout of the whole deck.”

Alexis dropped the lid of the dish with a clatter. “Is this because I keep giving you and Dad crap? ‘Cause you know I’m just joking, right?”

“We know,” Michael assured her. “You are a century and a half old. Don’t you want some space of your own?”

Alexis dropped a hand to her hip and pouted suspiciously at Bethany Anne. “Why now? Have you run out of shoe space finally?”

Gabriel was conspicuously silent.

Bethany Anne knew better than to push her son for his thoughts. He would open up when he was ready. “It’s just a thought.”

Alexis snorted. “Well, I thought we were having family dinner, not discussing kicking us out.”

Bethany Anne laughed. “Extending our living quarters to give us all some privacy is hardly kicking you out.”

Alexis tilted her head. “Oh. Okay, I suppose it’s not the worst idea.”

“We can talk about it after the movie,” Gabriel cut in.

Everyone looked at him.

He blushed. “The chili is going cold.”

Bethany Anne’s Mom senses were tingling.

Let it lie for now, Michael requested privately.

Bethany Anne found that hard. Do you know what’s bugging him?

I do not. But we work as a family because we don’t intrude upon each other. He’s a grown man. He’ll share when he’s ready.

Bethany Anne didn’t like it, but it was true. They were lucky they had children who came to them when they needed help.

“What are we watching, anyway?” Alexis asked, giving her brother a sideways glance when she reached out and found his mind locked down.

Bethany Anne got up to serve herself from the cart. “The Princess Bride, of course.”

The movie went as it always did, with everyone calling out their favorite lines, Alexis and Gabriel acting out the fight scenes while Bethany Anne pelted them with popcorn, and Michael encouraging their rowdy reenactments.

Bethany Anne savored every minute, knowing the time to kick back and refill the well was all too short. She refused to let the Federation’s issues intrude on this sacred moment with her family.

As the credits rolled on the screen, Alexis produced a deck of cards and waved it hopefully. “Izanami says we still have a couple of hours to Ryleah.”

Bethany Anne got to her feet, brushing off a few kernels of popcorn for the little bot roaming the parquet floor in search of crumbs. “I’m game, but not until I’ve been to the bathroom.”

Michael stood and stretched. “Anyone want anything from the kitchen?”

“Mmm, Coke,” Bethany Anne called back. “I’m out.”

Alexis waited until they were both out of the room and grabbed Gabriel’s arm. What are you hiding from me?

Gabriel clammed up even tighter. He grabbed the control pad for the couch and focused on altering its configuration so the seats faced each other across a table that folded out of the storage compartments and slotted together.

Tell me! she insisted. Gabriel! Nothing can be so bad that you can’t tell me.

It’s not bad, Gabriel replied tightly. I just don’t know how Mom and Dad are going to take it.

Bethany Anne returned, putting an end to Alexis’ inquisition.

“What are you two conspiring about?” Bethany Anne asked, seeing the flush on Gabriel’s cheeks.

“No conspiring here,” Alexis replied, flashing Gabriel a hurt look.

Bethany Anne hated this part of being a mother. She was tempted to take just a tiny peek inside her son’s head to see what he was stewing over, but she had more respect for him than that.

Instead, she joined the twins in picking up after dinner. She stacked the empty plates and Coke bottles on the cart, pausing to put a hand on Gabriel’s arm between loads. “Whatever it is, we are here for you.”

The redness in Gabriel’s cheeks deepened. “I know, Mom.”

“Where was that attitude on my thirty-sixth birthday?” Alexis grumbled.

“You had a subdermal LED implant that covered your entire back, arm, neck, and half your face,” Bethany Anne reminded her. “I had to put up with you flashing like a fucking billboard every time you walked into the room for six months.”

Alexis rolled her eyes. “You always have to bring the tattoo up. It was fashionable, Mom.”

“It grew on me,” Michael admitted, returning with Cokes for them all and a bowl of chocolate-covered mini pretzels. “You looked like a pop art princess.”

Alexis waved a hand. “See? Dad liked it.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t pretty,” Bethany Anne retorted. “It was annoying as shit, and the guy you got it from was a crawling douche-canoe.”

Alexis glowered. “You don’t like anyone I date.”

“Because no one you’ve introduced me to is good enough for my girl,” Bethany Anne shot back.

“On this, I agree with your mother.” Michael put the pretzel bowl next to the box of poker chips Alexis was unpacking and took a seat. “Shall we begin?”

You can thank me for diverting Mom and Dad later, Alexis sent to Gabriel as she cut the cards.

I’m thanking you now. I’m not avoiding it. Just…

Processing, Alexis finished for him.

Yeah, Gabriel replied. That.

Alexis had an idea what her brother was digesting. “What made you decide on the remodel?” she asked as she dealt the first hand.

Bethany Anne sensed the exchange. Alexis would get it out of him and tell her. “I like what we did in here. I feel like a change, and really, as much as we like you to be at home, you have your own lives to live.”

She glanced at Michael as she answered. Are you getting anything from Gabriel?

I’m not trying to, Michael replied.

Gabriel kept his concentration on the cards in his hand and the carefully constructed barrier he’d placed around his thoughts. “We’re headed back to the Armada once this situation is dealt with, right?”

Bethany Anne nodded. “The sooner, the better. Gödel has given up trying to hack into my brain while I sleep for the moment. I don’t like it when she’s quiet.”

“Reynolds is pissed he lost her trail after Dargoran,” Gabriel let slip.

Bethany Anne repressed her urge to jump on his comment. “He said as much in his report.” She looked at her cards. “Check.”

Michael opened the bet. “Torcellan is back under control. The Ryleahan conspiracy has been brought to light. I cannot imagine we have much more to do here.”

“Besides rooting out every resource Ochan has and depriving him of it before I deprive the bastard of his head, you mean,” Bethany Anne ground out.

Alexis raised, pushing a small stack of chips to the pile in the center of the table. “Even I can’t argue for clemency for that man. What he’s done is more than unconstitutional.”

Michael frowned. “He won’t be getting any mercy from me or your mother.”

“Fold. You all look too happy with your hands.” Gabriel threw his cards down. “Do we have his location yet?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Bethany Anne scrutinized Alexis, then Michael, then pushed her whole pile of chips in. “I’m going to win this hand, then we’re heading to the armory. We’ll take a couple of the scout ships and go ahead to Ryleah. Turn that fucker’s house upside-down until we find a clue as to which rock he’s slithered under.”

Gabriel made a decision. “I can’t go. The reason I wasn’t here when we met up with you, Mom…I was in the Vid-doc, visiting Jiya.”

Bethany Anne glanced at Michael. “You two got back together?”

“We didn’t break up,” Gabriel told her, reaching into his breast pocket for the photo he had printed after his visit. He took a deep breath and put the photo on the table. “Jiya has been having some hormonal shifts. She’s pregnant.”

Chapter Fourteen

Planet Ryleah

Ochan Ryleah studied his reflection in the mirror. He caught sight of a stray bristle protruding from his left ear and scowled, reaching for the nasal trimmers.

A healthy show of bristles was a fine thing for a Ryleahan male to have, but not when it was coming from the ears.

It was his lifelong habit to project utter control, beginning with his appearance. He expected the same of those beneath him, as many a former employee who hadn’t met his exacting standards had learned to their detriment.

He spent a moment admiring the polished gleam of his tusks, then turned from the vanity and left his dressing room via the door to his bedroom.

Ochan gave the decanter of eighty-year-old Yollin whisky on his nightstand an anticipatory glance as he passed his four-poster bed hung and dressed with rare Dorillian silks.

Only the best for the most powerful man in the Federation.

His valet waited outside the door. He gave Ochan a stiff bow. “Sir, the rest of the group has already called in. I have them on hold.”

Ochan waved a hand. “Let them wait until I’m ready. Did you ensure that fool Ca’Shal used the correct security protocols this time? The last thing I need is him giving CEREBRO a way to listen in on my plans. I’m sure that’s how those humans found us.”

The valet knew sugarcoating the news would only shift Ochan’s ire onto him. However, years of surviving his job had taught him how to handle the mercurial personality of his employer. It was a good thing his salary put most of the company executives’ to shame. Gods knew he earned it. “Kiaty Ca’Shal has not joined the holoconference yet, sir.”

“He is too late to participate in this meeting.” Ochan would find out why Kiaty was late and punish his tardiness accordingly.

“There is news from Torcellan you need to see, sir,” the valet intoned.

Ochan’s snout wrinkled. “Spit it out.”

The valet erred on the side of discretion and simply handed him a datapad containing the reports from Ochan’s spies on Torcellan.

Ochan’s face reddened as he absorbed the information that his son had been captured by the Queen. The vein in his temple pulsed as his blood pressure shot up.

Perhaps the Nacht were too formidable as opponents. Or perhaps he had invested in the wrong child.

Elamonn’s foolishness had cost the cabal the advantage. Ochan had done what he could to teach him to channel his drive to be feared by those beneath him, but the boy had no subtlety. Still, the Bitch Queen had not killed him.

He would have executed her son in a breath. He had no such weaknesses.

“First Vermott, now this. We needed those warheads.”

The valet knew Ochan better than to be surprised he placed his material losses over the wellbeing of his son. “I took the liberty of informing Harlia Nardoon she needs to double her company’s output, sir.”

Ochan nodded. “At least someone fucking listens to instructions. How did she take it?”

“She promised triple, sir,” the valet replied. “In return for a visit with her mate and children.”

Ochan waved a hand. “Make it happen.” Cooperation was conducive to any profitable business relationship, as long as it was his partner doing the cooperating. Having someone’s family under his control tended to put them in the frame of mind to agree with him.

How long before the Nacht arrived on Ryleah? Perhaps some of them were here already, awaiting the Bitch Queen’s command. Ochan’s sense of security began to crumble. “Prepare my ship once the meeting is underway. We will be leaving by nightfall.”

He headed for the conference room, the valet following at a discreet distance.

He walked in to see ten staticky, amorphous blobs hovering over corresponding devices placed around the large table that dominated the room.

The valet opened the door, then walked quickly to the refreshment stand to pour Ochan’s drink. “The connection is not as stable as it would be if you were routing through the CEREBRO network,” he apologized.

Ochan scowled. The move on the Libraries had triggered a cascading failure in the schedule for takeover he had spent his formative years planning. He should have had a controlling share of the network by now.

Ochan lifted a shoulder. “That’s to be expected. You may leave.”

He took a moment to familiarize himself with the controls for the holoconference system he’d acquired at great cost from a Loren out of the Cosnar System before admitting those waiting to the room.

He would have gotten it a lot cheaper if said Loren had not been guarded by a strange-looking human-model android with homicidal urges and very large guns. He shivered, recalling the android’s cold-eyed stare boring into his skull.

He shook the memory clear as the blobs around the table resolved into faces Ochan recognized.

They were all clearly annoyed to have been kept waiting, but none had the tusks to say so, which returned Ochan’s sense of security.

He spread his hands in welcome. “Thank you all for joining me.”

“What happened to Ca’Shal?” The demand came from the CEO of Minet Industries.

“You are well aware that Kiaty Ca’Shal is dead, Gorten,” Ochan replied offhand. “He offended the humans. If you are done, we have business to attend to.”

“I’m not done, Ryleah!” His chameleon-like eyes swiveled in opposite directions around the table, looking for support from the others. “Who is to say the Queen won’t show up on any of our worlds? She made a mess on Torcellan.”

“The Ca’Shal corporation is now in the hands of a child!” Wendix Lankrum, a representative of Lankrum Intergalactic Inc., stated. “More, without the support of the Baldere and the equalists on Torcellan, we are weaker.”

Ochan let them air their dissent. It gave him an idea of who was wavering in purpose and who deserved his continuing investment. “No.”

Silence fell as the syllable left his lips.

“We are NOT weak. We have taken some unexpected losses, but nothing that will forestall the plan.”

“You said that when that insufferable blowhard Reynolds evicted us from the House of Arbitration,” Gorten grumbled.

Ochan made a mental note to have the man murdered in his sleep if the Queen didn’t take care of him first. His son was an idiot, but his malleability was infinitely more palatable than his father’s eternal pessimism. “You forget that we are prepared for resistance. It is time we stopped cowering in fear. We are the heads of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the Federation.”

“We were until the Nacht resurfaced and we discovered that everything we have built rests on a foundation owned by them.”

Ochan turned his attention to the speaker, the hooded Skaine. “We will wrest control of our infrastructure from the Nacht and use that new power to drag the Federation into the future. A future we mold.”

“If we don’t end up dead like Kiaty Ca’Shal,” Gorten interjected.

Ochan leaned over the table. “If you are unable to avoid detection by the humans, then you are clearly not worthy of founding the new order.”

Gorten flushed with embarrassment and anger. “I am more than capable of protecting myself, Ryleah. You, on the other hand, have lost both your heirs.”

“I have only one heir,” Ochan stated coldly. He saw a teachable moment in the situation. “Elamonn has a lesson to learn. A few weeks of incarceration before I step in to rectify the matter will do him good.”

Gorten laughed. “I’m cold-blooded, but that’s icy. What if he doesn’t survive?”

“One of my other children will get a chance to prove themselves,” Ochan told him without emotion. “Enough sticking your nose into my personal life. We have more urgent matters. Where are we with preparations for the next phase of the takeover? I want to know how soon we can move.”

The consensus around the table was that the next phase could be moved up with some effort and a significant cash injection. Some had fared worse than others when the Nacht-owned banks had acted to defund the cabal. Ochan heard the individual status of each family’s part in the plan, approving or rejecting their requests for more funding as he saw fit.

He dismissed the cabal and made his way to the hangar where his ship was waiting to take him to his bolt-hole.

Ochan mostly banked outside the Federation and therefore had been largely unaffected by the strictures the others had found limiting their ability to access their wealth. His businesses across the two hundred and three worlds he owned were suffering in the short term, but when he owned the banks, it would be as easy as a few signatures from him to pull them back into the black.

High Tortuga, Space Fleet Base

Lance was considering moving down here until the crisis passed, or at least setting up a room where he could catch a few hours’ sleep between developments.

His back ached from sleeping in his chair, as he often did when there was no point returning home and disturbing Patricia.

He ordered a strong black coffee with loads of sugar from the food processing unit and sipped it slowly while he smoked his morning cigar and ran through a mental checklist of everyone he had on his calendar that day.

Patricia didn’t need to know he was too tightly wound to eat breakfast. She was shaken and had been on his ass about taking care of himself as a distraction from the close shave she’d had on Vermott.

Feeling guilty, he had the food processing unit make him a toasted bagel before leaving his office and ate it on the way to the war pit to meet Frank.

“How are Barb and Giles?” Lance asked in greeting when he arrived at the meeting room.

“One is going to be the death of me. The other is the light of my life,” Frank answered, looking up from his screen with a wry smile. “I’ll leave you to figure which is which.”

Lance snorted. “You won’t win that game when I’m playing. My daughter is currently tearing her way through the Federation with a hard-on for every asshat who has given us trouble in the last few decades.”

Frank smiled. “It feels good, right?”

Lance plucked a fresh cigar from his pocket and lit it, savoring the rich taste. “Damn straight. Nothing like the taste of retribution in the morning.”

He grinned. “Speaking of, what do you have for me? Tell me it’s good, Frank. Bethany Anne isn’t the only one with a boner for back-dealing bureaucrats.”

Frank nodded. “Young Arrlaxx was extremely helpful, which just goes to show what happens when you force good people into bad situations.”

The Baldere were dealing with the situation, being the kind of people to take care of business themselves. Lance had no sympathy for Beizan’s cronies. He hoped the dungeon they were currently residing in was nice and damp and full of whatever equivalent Vermott had for rats.

Frank chuckled. “Oh, I have plenty of those on my watchlist. What you really want is the information I got from the cabal meeting yesterday.”

Lance leaned forward in his chair. “Ryleah took the Rangers’ bait?”

Frank waggled his eyebrows.

“The Skaine?” Lance’s voice was hopeful. The Vermott operation had uncovered a paper trail leading back to a Skaine who had been providing migrant workers from all over the Federation to cabal-owned planets, locking them into contracts that left them owing the companies by the time their salaries had been adjusted for every expense they had unwittingly agreed to cover.

Frank gave him a Skaine name. “Even Ochan doesn’t know the identity of this player.”

“Like he cares as long as he gets his shipments.” Lance had considered his approach to taking down the wannabe slavemaster. “This prick has lied to innocent people for the last time.”

“How are you going to deal with him?” Frank inquired, his eyes sliding to his ever-present notebook.

Lance shook his head. “No notes today, Frank.”

Frank pouted. “How is a bestselling author to get his next book out if the inspirations for his characters are being stingy with the details?”

Lance snorted. “You’re a funny sonofabitch, Frank. There’s only one way to deal with an out-of-line Skaine.”

Frank sucked in a breath. “You want to unleash that hurricane?”

Lance lifted a shoulder as he pulled on his cigar. “Fucker unleashed her on himself the minute he acted on his delusions.”

QSD Baba Yaga

Poker chips and cards scattered everywhere, ending the game. Bethany Anne was on her feet without recalling telling her body to move.

“Jiya is WHAT?”

Gabriel’s mouth opened and closed.

Michael’s reaction was a little more subdued. He smiled. “Congratulations, son. How is Jiya?”

Bethany Anne blurted, “Pregnant!”

“Are you okay, Mom?” Alexis inquired with concern.

Bethany Anne held up a hand. “Give me a minute.”

She had to work through the shock. Her son was a grown man, not the boy she saw when she looked at him.

He and Jiya were a good match, having similar temperaments. However, their relationship had been rocky, mostly since they were on different ships and normally at different ends of whatever galaxy they were in.

If Bethany Anne was objective, she would admit that Gabriel’s habit of internalizing his emotions was also a factor, but no one ever said a mother had to be objective about her children.

Bethany Anne got up, walked around to Gabriel, and put her arms around him. “I love you, Gabriel. You and Jiya are going to make great parents. But you need to go now.”

Gabriel extracted himself from her arms and looked at her in confusion. “What do you mean, I have to go?”

Bethany Anne smiled. “Jiya needs you by her side. Alexis, you too. Your father and I can resolve this situation without you.”

“I’m going with them,” Michael decided on impulse. “One of us should be there. Jiya’s family can be a little overwhelming.”

Bethany Anne somehow always managed to be busy when the descendants of Jiya’s sisters descended on the Armada for a visit.

Alexis was conflicted. She had been looking forward to handing out Justice to the Ryleah family. “Never mind her family. Jiya and I didn’t exactly part on good terms.”

Bethany Anne saw the hesitation in her expression and raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so maybe Gabriel isn’t the only one going through some stuff right now. I get that you’re going through a period where you need to be at home with us, but your brother needs you more. You two are going to the Reynolds.”

The Gemini departed an hour later, leaving Bethany Anne alone in the hangar where the Gemini was usually berthed alongside the ten ships in the QBR—Queen Bitch’s Retribution—fleet, including Tabitha’s ship, the Achronyx II.

Bethany Anne sensed Tabitha’s presence and sidestepped a split second before she dived out of the Etheric, gunning for Bethany Anne.

Bethany Anne grinned as she stuck out a foot and tripped Tabitha. “You will have to disguise your energy signature better than that if you want to catch me out,” she told her.

Tabitha recovered, throwing herself into a roll and flowing to her feet. Her face was set in a pout when she faced Bethany Anne. “I owe you one for fucking vanishing again, you asshole. You scared the shit out of me!”

Bethany Anne understood, and she was prepared to deflect Hurricane Tabitha’s hurt feelings, thanks to Lance. “Hold the fuck up. I haven’t even seen you since the Baba Yaga got here. You can’t be that mad at me.”

“Wanna bet?” Tabitha retorted. “You can’t just fucking outrun everyone who is trying to protect you! What if Gödel attacked you in your sleep and no one was there to pull you out?”

The slight tremble of her bottom lip melted Bethany Anne’s heart. She thanked her lucky stars Michael and the twins weren’t here to drop her in it as she hugged Tabitha. “I’m sorry you were worried, but I’m not going to take you avoiding me and then throwing a tantrum when you do show up.”

Tabitha accepted the embrace for all of 0.3 of a second, then shrugged her off. “I’m mad. Deal with it.”

Bethany Anne folded her arms and let her eyebrow do the talking.

Tabitha rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. “Ugh, fine. I won’t be mad.”

Bethany Anne smiled. “Good. I’m glad you’re here now. Tracking you down was next on my list after this.”

Tabitha dropped a hand to her hip. “Why have you got that look?”

Bethany Anne tilted her head in question.

“The one that says you want to break stuff and you can’t,” Tabitha clarified, waving a finger at her face.

“I could break stuff,” Bethany Anne told her. “But this is more your thing, and I wanted to give you a release for your anger so I don’t have to watch my back for my best friend attacking me out of the Etheric.”

Tabitha had the good grace to blush. “Yeah…”

Bethany Anne flashed a grin. “You were this close,” she held her thumb and forefinger apart, “to surprising me. Now. If you have forgiven me, there is a nasty little ass-crumb Skaine who has reinvented slavery for the modern era. I want you to find him.”

Tabitha’s lip curled in disgust as Bethany Anne gave her the rundown. “Find the desiccated wank-bandit? Or find him and annihilate him and everyone associated with him? I like the second option. You’re going to pick the second option, right? They still ought to remember the last time they pissed me off.”

Bethany Anne lifted a shoulder. “As far as I am aware, the vast majority of the Skaines are law-abiding citizens. However, if you find that they are harboring a collective desire to return to their old ways, you have my permission to make an example. Show them that their nostalgia is misplaced.”

Tabitha pounded a fist into her palm. “Finding out there’s a Skaine who dared to cross the line is making me all kinds of nostalgic.”

She glanced at the space the Gemini had vacated. “Where were the twins in such a rush to get to?”

“They’re headed back to the Reynolds with Michael,” Bethany Anne braced herself for Tabitha’s reaction. “Jiya is pregnant.”

Tabitha’s mouth dropped open. “No shit! For real?” She jumped around, squealing when Bethany Anne nodded. “No freaking way! You’re going to be a grandma!”

Bethany Anne stopped in her tracks. “Shit. I hadn’t thought about that!”

Tabitha threw her arms around Bethany Anne, still jumping on the spot. “Who cares? I get to be an aunt again!”

Bethany Anne bore the jiggling with dignity. “I don’t know what my grandchild will call me,” she told Tabitha as they broke apart, “but it sure as hell won’t be ‘grandma.’”

Bethany Anne contacted Gabrielle next. How is the leader of my Own feeling today?

Bloodthirsty, the reply came. We should be crushing Kurtherians, not leaving the Armada a superdreadnought down to deal with a bunch of greedy children.

This situation has us all riled. Bethany Anne stated, allowing her emotions to flavor her mental voice. Which is why the Queen’s Bitches are going to take out the rest of the cabal while I pay Ryleah a visit.

Bethany Anne forwarded the information packet from the General. Everything Frank dug up is in there. Ignore the Skaine name.

Gabrielle chuckled. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess Tabitha is taking care of that.

It’s not exactly a slam-dunk, Bethany Anne responded with amusement. Before I go, I didn’t want you to hear on the grapevine. Michael and the twins are headed back to the Armada. Gabriel and Jiya are going to have a baby.

She shut Gabrielle out before the mental squeals blew her brain up and stepped into the Etheric, smiling.

Chapter Fifteen

Planet Ryleah

Bethany Anne tasted fear as she stepped out of the Etheric.

She concealed herself as she extracted a handful of marble-sized drones from a pouch on her utility belt and had ADAM activate them as she tossed them into the air.

Find whoever is in trouble.

Ilori shook as she pressed herself into the small space between the dumpster and the alley’s wall.

The bullies were coming.

Ilori had been born here, the same as her bullies. It wasn’t her fault her parents had come here to find work. It sucked that they didn’t care.

They were rich, she was poor. They were Ryleahan, she was Ardaki. They only saw their differences, and they made every day of her life hard because of them.

Her skin rippled through the rainbow, her emotions too conflicted for her natural defense to figure out a strategy that would save her from the Ryleahan kids.

Ilori got to her feet as the cruel catcalls came closer to the alley.

“Maybe she climbed the walls,” Utec jeered. “Little lizard, you can’t hide from us.”

There was no escape. If they didn’t find her today, it would be twice as bad tomorrow.

Ilori shrugged her school bag off and hid it behind the dumpster. Her parents couldn’t afford to replace it again.

Swallowing her fear, she forced one foot in front of the other and went to meet her tormentors head-on.

The drones showed Bethany Anne a little reptilian girl and the five much larger Ryleahan boys closing on her hiding place.

I thought everyone on this planet was Ryleahan?

>>CEREBRO’s last census recorded approximately one hundred thirty-five thousand Ardaki living in small communities around the centers of manufacturing,<< ADAM informed her.

A migrant worker population?

ADAM paused as he dived deeper into the data. >>I’m not sure. The Ryleahan archives are not clear.<<

What else does CEREBRO have? What about the Ardaki side of the story?

>>It’s confusing. Their ancestral mythology has this as their planet of origin, but CEREBRO can only tell me they don’t have a homeworld listed for the species.<<

Bethany Anne frowned. That can’t be right. This is a Jeddah-class planet, right?

>>Yes,<< ADAM confirmed. >>Arclan Ryleah purchased the planet from the penal program. There was the standard investigation to find any legitimate claims to the planet before it was sold, but I can’t find anything in the records to support an Ardaki claim beyond one second-hand reference to oral tradition.<<

Stories?

>>Stories, yes. They don’t upload anything personal to CEREBRO as a people. That could be cultural, but…<<

It looks like Ardaki culture is repressed on this world, Bethany Anne finished for him. She frowned. Work with CEREBRO. Find wherever the main population of Ardaki is living in the Federation. I want to know the truth.

>>On it,<< ADAM confirmed before exiting the mindspace.

TOM cut in, The girl is in real trouble. The gang has found her hiding place.

Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red when she saw the cruel intentions on the boys’ faces. Oh, fuck no.

They’re just children, Bethany Anne, TOM cautioned.

I don’t give a shit how old they are, Bethany Anne retorted as she ran for the alley two blocks away. A bully is a bully, and I hate bullying.

What is the girl doing? TOM exclaimed, watching through the drones as she hid her belongings behind the dumpster. She’s going to get the crap beaten out of her.

Bethany Anne pulled to a halt at the opposite end of the alley from the bullies. No one saw her, and they wouldn’t until she decided to allow it. She’s standing up for herself. She’s done taking shit lying down. Good for her.

You’re going to let this happen?

Bethany Anne smiled, drawing on the Etheric. No, not like you’re thinking.

The girl was five feet away from the five Ryleahan boys, her shoulders squared. “Leave me alone!” she yelled, her skin rippling crimson and black.

“Look at the little lizard,” the largest of the boys jeered as his companions urged him on. “She thinks she has the right to talk back to us. Don’t you know, lizard? Your kind isn’t supposed to get ideas above their station.”

The girl’s stance faltered for a moment, then her anger overrode her sensibilities and she flew at the ringleader with her claws extended.

Bethany Anne released a tendril of the energy she’d gathered and sent it to envelop the girl.

Ilori almost stumbled, but the energy supported her body, giving her the strength she had prayed for so many times since her torment had started.

Don’t worry. Bethany Anne allowed the girl to see her. I’ve got you, honey. Let it out.

Ilori made a fist and swung at the ringleader.

Utec wasn’t expecting an Ardaki to hit back. Neither was he expecting the previously meek and mild little female to hit harder than his father.

His snout split as Ilori’s fist connected, powered by the energy Bethany Anne had gifted her. “That’s for every time you pushed me into a locker!” He fell to the ground, and she leapt on him with the fists flying. She continued to pummel him while his friends looked on, stunned. “This is for everyone you picked on. Tripping us. Trashing our lunches. Making us do your homework. Making us carry your stuff. This is for treating us as less than you. This is for my parents—”

Bethany Anne chose to step in at that point. “These boys aren’t responsible for their parents’ actions,” she told Ilori softly.

Her appearance terrified the boys. They’d all seen Bethany Anne on the newsholos, painted by the Ryleahan broadcasters as a bloodthirsty monster set on destroying their way of life.

Ilori smiled at the Queen, then turned back to Utec, her chest heaving with exertion and the adrenaline coursing through her body. “You will never lay a hand on me or my friends again, or I’ll do more than bloody your nose!”

Her skin was the violet of her pride in her actions.

Utec scrambled away from Ilori. “I’ll destroy your whole family for this!”

Bethany Anne walked around the girl and picked the adolescent male up by his bristles. “You got exactly what you deserved. Get out of here before I lose my temper.”

She tossed him lightly into his friends, who caught him, and the gang scurried off, swearing their revenge.

Ilori’s skin turned a bilious green as soon as the boys were out of sight. “They’re going to tell their parents.”

Bethany Anne smiled. “Good. I can teach the parents a lesson I can’t teach their nasty children.”

“They know where I live.” Ilori barely heard Bethany Anne as fear replaced the righteous anger that had compelled her to fight back. “Oh, I’ve been so stupid! I have to get home before the police get there.”

Bethany Anne took a knee and put her hands on the girl’s shoulders, sending her a wave of calming energy as she looked into her eyes. “There’s no need to be afraid. What’s your name?”

“Ilori,” the girl replied, her voice glum.

Bethany Anne saw an opportunity to learn more about the Ardaki way of life. “Well, Ilori, I’m Bethany Anne, and I’m not going to let you or your family suffer because those pint-sized assholes think hurting those weaker than them is a fun way to pass the time.” She led Ilori out of the alley. “Where do you live?”

Ilori gave her directions to a street on the opposite side of town, and they set off after she had retrieved her bag.

“Thank you for saving me,” Ilori mumbled as they crossed into a part of town that looked rundown in comparison to the affluent area where they’d met. Everyone here was Ardaki.

The people on the streets avoided eye contact with Bethany Anne, side-eyeing Ilori with a concern they were too afraid to act upon.

“It looked to me like you were all ready to save yourself,” Bethany Anne praised. “You remind me of another little girl I met recently. She didn’t give up either. What is those kids’ damage, anyway?”

Ilori explained that it was not a normal thing for Ardaki to attend the Ryleahan Academy. “All the scholarship students are treated that way. It makes us tougher, and we learn to stick together. Not that it helped me today.”

“The teachers allow it?” Bethany Anne frowned.

Ilori nodded. “They encourage it; say it keeps us from getting ideas. My parents were so proud when I won the scholarship. I don’t want them to take me out of that school, so please don’t tell them.”

Bethany Anne promised nothing for the moment. “So, Ardaki don’t get the same access to education as Ryleahans?”

Ilori shook her head. “Not unless they are one of the five who pass the entrance examination each year. The Academy is only open to Ryleahans otherwise.”

She turned her head and scrutinized Bethany Anne. “Are you going to tell my parents what I did?”

Bethany Anne saw she could lose the girl’s trust if she didn’t answer honestly. “I feel like I have to tell them you are being bullied. Wait,” she told Ilori as mistrust crept over her in shades of brown. “The bullying has to stop. Not just for you, but for your friends, too.”

Ilori pulled away from Bethany Anne. “You will get us expelled, and then any chance we have of making a better future for ourselves will be gone! I’m studying economics. Do you know what other Ardaki my age are doing? They are working in low-skilled jobs for Ryleah Corp. They won’t ever get promoted. Won’t ever have the credits to own their own homes. I have the chance to give my family a better life. I’ve worked my whole life to make that chance happen. Don’t take it from me!”

Bethany Anne was taken aback by her passion. Just how bad had things gotten here? She held out her hand in a conciliatory gesture. “Hold up. I’m not about taking opportunities away. I’m here to correct the imbalance in your society the Ryleah family has caused.”

Ilori’s skin tone rippled. “I don’t believe in saviors.”

“Good, because I’m not looking to be venerated.” Bethany Anne dialed back the bite in her voice, knowing the girl’s attitude was justified. “Justice will prevail for every Federation citizen, I swear it, Ilori. My people are reopening the Libraries as we speak. I sent Elamonn Ryleah to a penal colony for the next thirty years and stripped him of his wealth. My next target is Ochan Ryleah, but I saw you needed someone at your back.”

Bethany Anne’s eyes shone red, her emotions escaping as light.

Ilori lost her shades of suspicion and turned pink with curiosity. She believed Bethany Anne meant every word. She also realized that her skepticism of the media hadn’t gone deep enough. Her new friend was definitely powerful, but was she powerful enough to make the Ryleahans change? “How will you change the minds of people who believe we are less than them because we are not the same? What happens when you leave, and they make things twice as hard for us?”

Bethany Anne’s heart ached for this girl and her people. “Humans have a saying: ‘Same shit, different day.’ For me, it’s ‘Same shit, different species.’ I have the power to destroy this whole planet with a thought.”

Ilori turned white.

“I wouldn’t,” Bethany Anne assured her. “That’s not how I work.”

“Then how?” the girl pressed.

Bethany Anne swept a hand to encompass the whole Federation. “When I brought humanity to space, we encountered slavery, prejudice, and oppression of all kinds, and we wiped it out. I created the Federation with the mandate that every citizen gets an equal start. Equality, freedom, and Justice are the tenets the Federation was founded upon, no matter what you have learned from the Ryleahans.”

Ilori snorted. “I didn’t believe them anyway. It was the Federation that made the government open the Academy to Ardaki. Then the government came up with the entrance exam to keep us out. ”

“The cabal’s attack on the education system got my attention in a way they will regret for the rest of their lives.” Bethany Anne smiled. “You can help. Tell me how your people came here.”

Ilori pointed out a two-story house at the end of the block that was surrounded by three patrol cars with the Ryleah Corp. logo on the doors. “That’s my house. They got here before us!”

Bethany Anne held Ilori back with a hand on her shoulder. “Let me handle this.”

She strode ahead, skirting the gathering crowd with Ilori trailing behind her.

The Ardaki gave her space. The Ryleahans, not so much. Three of the Ryleahan officers blocked Bethany Anne’s way.

“Move along, stranger,” the middle Ryleahan barked. “This is none of your business.”

Bethany Anne moved her head to see the boy with the busted snout standing slump-shouldered by the front door of the house with an older male Ryleahan wearing business attire and yelling into his wrist-holo. She decided that must be the kid’s father. Or his advocate, which was more likely based on what she knew about Ryleahan society.

The two were accompanied by another musclebound officer and two scared-looking Ardaki.

Ilori let out a cry of fear when she saw her parents and ran over to them.

“There she is!” Utec exclaimed, pointing at Ilori. His eyes flared as his gaze landed on Bethany Anne. “That’s the human!”

“She is the Queen of the humans,” Ilori yelled, putting herself between her parents and the Ryleahans.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Bethany Anne demanded. “Anyone who lays a finger on that girl or her parents is going to be in a world of hurt.”

She saw one of the officers moving to apprehend Ilori and knocked him off his feet with a blast of Etheric energy. “I said, keep your hands to yourselves.”

All but three of the others drew their weapons and pointed them at Bethany Anne.

Bethany Anne opened the Etheric around the officers and pushed them in with another blast of kinetic energy. She pointed at the three who had wisely left their sidearms in their holsters. “Don’t fuck with me, or you’ll join your buddies. Get in your cars and go.”

When they didn’t move, she turned her hand and manifested an energy ball. “I don’t repeat myself,” she warned.

The senior officer waved the other two back to the squad cars, keeping his eyes on Bethany Anne. “My superiors are going to hear about this. Diplomatic immunity doesn’t cover murder.”

Bethany Anne was in his face in an instant. She shoved the officer onto his car, denting the hood. “Fucking nothing in the Federation Charter covers officers of the law terrorizing the people they’re supposed to protect, you arrogant fuck-knuckle. Be grateful I want someone to tell your bosses I’m coming for them, or I’d make you part of my example.”

The officer held up his hands and backed toward the door of the car.

He was inside with the engine running when Bethany Anne heard him mutter, “Lot of effort for a few worthless Ardaki.”

“Fucker, what did I tell you?” Bethany Anne flung the energy ball into the car.

The officer’s screams filled the street for the few seconds it took him to die.

“This is why I let three of you live,” she told the other two. “Anyone else want to piss me off?”

They gunned their engines and tore out of the neighborhood.

The Ardaki all stared at Bethany Anne as she wiped her hands off. “That,” she pointed at the rolling dust cloud, “Is not how the Federation works. You have been treated like shit by the Ryleahans for the last time. Anyone who wishes to start over on a new planet is welcome to leave with me. I have room for you all on my ship. Those who wish to remain here, do so knowing you will be released from your contracts with Ryleah Corp.”

That caused a ripple of panic in the gathered citizens. Bethany Anne touched their minds, finding many were afraid to lose even the meager income they had. None of them could see themselves leaving, despite the hardships they had suffered at Ryleahan hands.

“Federation support is on the way to make sure all Ardaki are taken care of. No one will be left destitute. We will help you negotiate better contracts with Ryleah Corp’s new owner.” Bethany Anne diverted her anger for the moment, storing it for when she found the bastard responsible for this. Ochan Ryleah had much to answer for.

ADAM, contact my father. We need a full-scale relief operation here. These people need support while they adjust to the new reality.

>>Done,<< he responded a moment later.

How can anyone bear this? TOM asked, overwhelmed by the psychic contact.

They bore it because it was their lives, and now we will do everything we can to help them recover their identity as a people. Bethany Anne withdrew from their minds and walked back to Ilori and her family. “Are you okay?”

Ilori threw her arms around Bethany Anne. “I changed my mind about saviors. Maybe once in a while, they do come through.”

She turned back to her parents. “Kiri, Onai, meet Queen Bethany Anne.”

They bowed, murmuring, “Your Highness,” in shocked unison.

Bethany Anne held up a hand and smiled. “Please, just Bethany Anne. You have a hell of a daughter. She stood up to five of those thugs without knowing I was there to protect her.”

Their gazes shifted to Ilori, who squirmed on the spot.

“I would be honored if you would sit and talk with me,” Bethany Anne added, to Ilori’s relief. “I want to know if what I found regarding Ryleah being the Ardaki homeworld has a basis in truth.”

Chapter Sixteen

The house was sparsely furnished but warm and welcoming.

Bethany Anne took a seat at the kitchen table and accepted the hot drink she was offered by Onai.

Kiri placed a plate of what looked like biscuits on the table with a pot of fruit preserve before sitting with them. “Thank you for intervening on Ilori’s behalf,” she told Bethany Anne with a grateful smile.

Ilori read her mother’s tone and flushed with embarrassment. “I didn’t start it.”

“I think it’s time you tell your parents what you have been through,” Bethany Anne pressed in a soft voice.

Ilori nodded, her eyes shining. Her parents listened with growing dismay as she told them everything she’d hidden from them. The relief of expelling the frustration she had held inside brought tears to her eyes.

Kiri and Onai held their daughter as she cried.

Bethany Anne sipped her tea, giving the family their moment. She put her mug down when Ilori’s sniffles began to dry up. “You acted with courage, Ilori. But our time is short. I have to leave to find Ochan Ryleah soon, and I need to know if his grandfather stole this planet from your people.”

Kiri flushed crimson. “No one believes those stories anymore.”

“You would be surprised how easily the truth gets blurred over time,” Bethany Anne told her. “Your people don’t use the CEREBRO network to socialize, which has made it difficult for me to get to the bottom of my suspicion that the Ryleah family fudged the investigation somehow.”

“’Investigation?’” Onai echoed.

Bethany Anne nodded. “The Jeddah program has a committee dedicated to assessing ancestral claims on terraformed planets before they are sold. I have my people looking into the possibility the process was subverted in this case.”

“What would that mean for us?” Ilori asked.

Bethany Anne pressed her lips together. “For a start, the deed Ochan Ryleah has will be voided. Ownership of Ryleah will be returned to the Ardaki people.”

Kiri gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “Ardaki aren’t allowed to own property!”

Bethany Anne’s heart hurt. How had this happened to Federation citizens? “Yes, you are. The Ryleahans have committed so many crimes against your people, it might take some adjustment before you feel comfortable with how things should be.”

Onai got to his feet, his skin showing the deep blue of resolution. “I’m going to fetch Farzai. She is the eldest Ardaki. She knows our history better than anyone.”

While they waited for him to return, Bethany Anne gently questioned Kiri, learning that the Ardaki had been restricted using every method Federation law allowed a government to control an unruly population.

They weren’t allowed to gather in groups, weren’t allowed to live outside the designated communities, and were denied representation at all levels of government as non-natives.

Bethany Anne had ADAM pull the official records and found that each violation of Ardaki rights corresponded to falsified reports of rioting and looting.

Kiri told her about the sit-ins her parents’ generation had attended in their teens. “They were beaten and jailed. Some just vanished. The Federation stepped in and forced the government to let us into the universities, but those who made it out of prison were changed. My father used to wake up screaming.”

Onai returned with an elderly Ardaki he introduced as the Honored Mother Farzai.

Bethany Anne got up to greet her. “Thank you for coming, Honored Mother. I understand this might feel like a risk for you, but I’m here to end the injustice against your people.”

“I heard what you did, and I liked it,” Farzai proclaimed, peering myopically at Bethany Anne. “And I’m too old to care if I get dragged to jail.”

Bethany Anne laughed. “I don’t think the Ryleahans will be stupid enough to come into this neighborhood again.”

“You overestimate their intelligence,” Farzai grumbled, taking a seat at the table. “What I want to know is why you want to speak to me. This boy makes no sense.”

Onai colored with embarrassment, but Bethany Anne just smiled, enjoying the old lady’s crusty attitude.

“I need a little help figuring out who really owns this planet,” Bethany Anne explained. “Onai thought you were the best person to set me straight on your people’s history. How did the Ardaki end up here?”

Farzai bared her teeth. “Trickery, that’s how. We were enslaved by the Skaines until the Rangers put an end to slavery. By that time, we were scattered, lost. All we had to remind us who we really were was the stories we passed from mother to child. With no homeworld to return to, those of us who survived slavery came together and became nomads, roaming the galaxy in search of a new home in the ships you provided us.”

Bethany Anne searched her memory but couldn’t recall the Ardaki. “There were a lot of people the Rangers freed from Skaine control. How did you end up on this planet? And why do your people believe this is your ancestral home?”

Farzai colored pink with pride. “We have long memories. There are landmarks across the planet that correspond with our natal stories. We came here when Ryleah Corp. bought this planet, drawn by the promise of a fresh start on a new world. What we didn’t know was the Ryleahans had no intentions of sharing this planet with us. Our links to the Federation were slowly eroded over many years. We built the cities, farmed the land, laid the roads—everything the Ryleahans didn’t want to dirty their hands with. In return, they outlawed property ownership, refused our right to vote, and restricted us to the ghettos they had us build. Any Ardaki who disobeys is thrown in prison, never to be seen again.”

Bethany Anne seethed. “The Federation owes the Ardaki an apology. More than that. This level of injustice should not have remained hidden for so long. I can’t make up for what you have suffered as a people, but I swear, I will move heaven and earth to make it right going forward.”

Farzai waved a hand. “We know the fault lies with the Ryleahans. The Federation came twice, and each time the Ardaki who met with the representatives were acting under duress.”

Bethany Anne heard their stories with a growing sense of guilt. She couldn’t be everywhere at once; she understood that logically. It didn’t take the sting out of knowing she could have probably done something more to—

What could you have done? TOM cut in. The Ryleahans are a bunch of no-good, double-crossing, morally bankrupt liars.

>>What he said,<< ADAM agreed. >>I’ve scoured the archives, and whatever the Ryleah family did to subvert the law was covered up so well that neither CEREBRO nor Meredith were able to see a problem.<<

For once, Bethany Anne didn’t tear her companions a new one for cutting into her thoughts. All she could do now was listen and then make sure it didn’t happen again.

Ilori sat silently throughout, seeing her parents as if for the first time.

“I remember them taking us from our homes,” Kiri spoke up in a quiet voice, working her hands over one another to calm her nerves. “Both times, my mother and father swore they would do whatever it took to protect me. I didn’t understand until years afterward that they sacrificed their chances to be free to save my life.”

Onai nodded. “Mine, too. I had nightmares for a long time. I guess I was afraid of the Federation after that.”

“Many of your generation feel that way,” Farzai supplied, her voice comforting. “I am old enough to remember the propaganda that led you to think that way.”

She met Bethany Anne’s gaze. “I am also old enough to remember a time before your name was forbidden to us.”

Bethany Anne didn’t want to insult the woman by asking her age. Some things transcended species. “How long do Ardaki live?” she asked instead.

“Long enough,” Farzai answered. Her eyes became misty with reminiscence. “I was an infant when you freed Yoll. I was bonded to my mate shortly after you defeated the Leath. I was made a widow in the riots the Kurtherian cult caused. I raised my grandchildren here on Ryleah. Now, I am honored to be alive to witness your liberation of my people, my Empress.”

Bethany Anne wiped away a tear as the old woman bowed her head. “I haven’t been an Empress for a long time, but you are still my people. I will return, and when I do, it will be to tear the Ryleahans down like they have done to you.”

Farzai got to her feet. “Come with me, if you will. It’s time we shared our history.”

Ochan Ryleah’s Premier Residence

Farzai had shown Bethany Anne the secret tunnel leading to the underground cavern where she read from the Ardaki Book of Sorrows to her people whenever they were able to gather without being caught. As slaves, they’d had no access to digital storage, and the Ryleahan prohibition on their culture curtailed personal expression on digital platforms, so the many volumes in the Honored Mother’s care were the most valuable possessions they owned as a species.

The Ardaki recorded their history in these books, handed down from one Honored Elder to the next, going back generations. Bethany Anne had taken time to scan the contents of each handwritten, exquisitely illustrated volume to be uploaded to the CEREBRO network.

Which meant she now knew everything there was to know about the Ardaki.

She’d left Farzai instructions to gather her people and get them to the Baba Yaga until the Ryleahan threat had been removed.

Bethany Anne passed a number of Ardaki working to maintain the extensive grounds as she made her way to the main entrance.

They downed their tools and stared at her, unsure of what to do about her presence on Ochan’s property.

“I am not here for you,” Bethany Anne told them gently, switching off her translation software to speak to them in Ardaki.

Communicating in their language had the desired effect.

“Why are you here?” one asked.

Bethany Anne smiled. “I’m here for the Ryleahans. The Honored Mother is waiting for you at the meeting place. She will take you to my ship, where you will be safe from any repercussions from my punishment of the Ryleah family.”

She continued up to the house, knowing the answers the Ardaki deserved were hidden there. Ochan was too arrogant to do anything but hide the evidence in plain sight of every Ardaki who worked for him.

She didn’t bother to wait for anyone to let her in, taking the floor plan information from the Ryleahan steward’s mind as he ran away. The doors blew open, torn from their hinges by the blast of kinetic energy she sent ahead of her.

Bethany Anne strode across the gold-threaded marble floor, thinking to herself how little the décor differed from any other dictator’s taste she’d had the misfortune to encounter.

Just once, she’d like to walk into one of these places and find comfortable furniture that looked like it could be used or color schemes in muted tones, but no. Ochan’s home was red and gold and cold. Boring as shit, uninspired, and claustrophobic despite the enormous square footage.

The clicks of her heels echoing, Bethany Anne left the reception hall with its split staircase and made her way into the west wing of the building.

Ochan’s library was impressive, but books that never got read were nothing more than dead words.

She climbed the spiral staircase she came to, her hand gliding along the polished hardwood railing.

She sensed ADAM’s and TOM’s back and forth in the mindspace, but for the moment she tuned it out, focusing on building her profile of Ochan up as she read his life from his home.

The bathroom was filled with grooming equipment, all of it high-end. He was vain and didn’t care for anything but the best.

His closet confirmed her assessment: row upon row of immaculately pressed and tailored suits, drawers filled with shirts still in the packaging.

Bethany Anne didn’t see a laundry basket. He was wasteful.

His shoe closet would have been enviable to most. Bethany Anne wrinkled her nose, unimpressed, and moved on to the rooms Ochan used to entertain.

The cabinets and chillers were fully stocked with fashionably expensive drinks and snacks. The furniture was oversized and made from the hides of some poor creatures.

There was an Alict-skin rug in front of the fireplace. Bethany Anne checked and found it was genuine. Murdering an endangered feline to decorate his home was the least of Ochan’s crimes, but it pissed her off all the same.

Her target was all about his image. She got it.

She dipped into the mindspace. What do you two have for me?

>>Everything,<< ADAM told her. >>Well, everything but the location of his hiding place.<<

Well, shit.

Indeed, TOM agreed. It was a stroke of genius, having Talia con that bastard into bringing our conference call technology into his home.

Did he use our tech to discuss his escape with anyone?

>>Nope, looks like he left his family high and dry.<<

Bethany Anne wasn’t so sure. She contacted CEREBRO. Get me the base commander of the terraforming project Elamonn Ryleah is serving time on.

There was a pause, then a measured voice answered. Is this authentication code for real?

Bethany Anne smiled at his tone. This is Bethany Anne.

The man on the other end sucked in a breath. This is an honor, my Queen.

Bethany Anne immediately liked anyone who got her title right. You may call me Bethany Anne. Who am I speaking with?

Commander James Howard…um, ma’am. I’m sorry. It feels disrespectful to call you by your given name. What can I do to assist you?

I need to know if anything strange has happened at your base since you received Elamonn Ryleah. His father is in the wind and may be planning to stage a breakout.

No sign of uninvited visitors, ma’am, the commander responded. Nothing out of place, either. I mean, we tracked a few rogue asteroids passing through, but that’s not unusual for these parts.

Bethany Anne had requested the Ryleahan get sent to the ass-end of nowhere. Thank you, Commander. If the situation changes, have CEREBRO contact me.

She dropped the connection after they had said their goodbyes and continued her search.

You think Ochan is going to try to spring Elamonn? TOM inquired curiously as Bethany Anne entered Ochan’s study.

Yes.

>>Nothing in his profile suggests he has any loyalty to anyone but himself,<< ADAM added.

Bethany Anne tilted her head as she viewed a portrait of Ochan that hung over his desk. It’s got nothing to do with loyalty and everything to do with ROI. Elamonn is the child he put his effort into grooming for succession. Losing that investment means he has to either suck it up and try to make amends with Xadia—as likely as ice cubes in Hell—or start again with one of his younger children.

The alternative is risky for him.

Bethany Anne pressed her lips together. Not if he contracts the breakout to an outside group. Let me see all outgoing calls Ochan made between Elamonn’s trial and the time he left this building.

She took a seat at the desk, sinking into lumbar support fit for a king as she scrutinized the list ADAM gave her. Start with known cabal members. Somewhere in here is a clue to the weaselly wank-splat’s location.

There was a moment’s silence between the three of them as ADAM did his thing.

>>I have an invoice from a company that provides off-grid living solutions,<< he supplied. >>Also, I dug back through the family’s private archive. There was a payment of half a billion credits made from Arclan Ryleah’s personal account to an out-of-Federation bank account around the same time the terraforming committee was investigating any ancestral claims to this planet.<<

That by itself isn’t evidence of subversion.

>>What if we add it to the information that the committee’s CIO took retirement a few months after the sale closed?<<

Still circumstantial. Nothing I can use to return the planet to the Ardaki. Bethany Anne sighed. Maybe my dad can help. Send him what we have, and let’s get back to investigating Ochan. Where is the company he bought from based?

>>Leath,<< ADAM informed her.

Well, fucksticks. Bethany Anne tapped her nails on the desk. Do we have anyone there at the moment?

>>Roka is currently based at the QBBS Exuberant.<<

Bethany Anne smiled. Close enough. Send her a message. I want to see any unfiled documentation the company has for the job they did for Ochan.

>>Done. Next?<<

Back to the Ardaki, Bethany Anne told him. If Arclan paid the CIO off, there has to be some evidence. What bank did he use? Anyone who owes me a favor?

>>Just the opposite,<< ADAM replied in a tone that conveyed his annoyance. >>You remember that group that flounced out of the Federation after you executed Phraim-‘Eh?<<

She did. Double fucksticks.

TOM groaned. Not those people. Didn’t you respond to that particular tantrum by ignoring it?

I told them it wasn’t a fucking spaceport and they didn’t need to announce their departure, if I recall. Bethany Anne opened the Etheric. This is too sensitive to send anyone else. We have to go visit whatever mudball the assholes rocked up on and get the information ourselves.

Beyond Federation Borders

Bethany Anne exited the Etheric into a city square. It was not the mudball she had expected. The colonists had put effort into recreating a piece of home here.

The streets were laid out in neat blocks, separated into the various quarters for the colony’s government, financial, and commercial needs.

How do you want to do this? Tom asked.

Bethany Anne looked at the stone-fronted buildings and the people bustling around taking care of the everyday lives and pressed her lips together. Sneakily, she decided. I have no time for dicking around with the leadership here. I want to get what we came for in that bank and get back to the Federation. I’m going to tear the Ryleahan government down.

ADAM gave her access to the city’s mainframe, and a map of the buildings came up in her HUD display. The bank was a few blocks away, so Bethany Anne started walking that way.

With her hood up and her face concealed, she went unrecognized.

Reaching the bank, Bethany Anne concealed herself using the Etheric and slipped past the security guards manning the doors.

>>You need the vaults,<< ADAM told her. >>There is an elevator—<<

Fuck the elevator. Bethany Anne stepped into the Etheric and descended to the vault level. What is the name of our possibly crooked chief investigation officer? she asked as she let herself into the vault directory.

>>Matthew Horgan,<< Adam informed her. >>The family’s vault is number 2193.<<

Bethany Anne looked at the number on the door of the vault closest to her. It was labeled 1879.

She checked each side to see which way the numbers went, then headed in the direction of the ascending numbers.

She came to vault 2193 and stepped through the Etheric to get inside.

Her presence did not set off any alarms. The skin of Etheric energy she had surrounded herself with made her invisible to all sensors outside the vault, and inside the vault, there didn’t appear to be anything that would give her away.

>>This bank promises privacy for its customers,<< Adam commented.

Well, yes, Bethany Anne agreed. Who wants to have somebody looking over their shoulder while they are hiding their deepest, darkest secrets?

She approached the wall of drawers, sending tendrils of energy into each of them to assess the contents.

She found cash—which was strange to her since no one in the Federation used any form of hard currency—jewelry, deeds to various properties, one drawer that held a pistol with the serial number filed off, and a number of ledgers and journals belonging to various members of the family.

These she extracted through the Etheric, checking the names until she found the one she was looking for.

Bethany Anne leafed through the pages, her eyes flickering as she speed-read the contents of Matthew Horgan’s financial deeds.

One line caught her eye. It listed an account number with no name attached. However, Bethany Anne recognized the last six digits as belonging to the Ryleah family, and the half-billion credits listed by it sealed the deal.

She closed the ledger with a snap and stashed it in the inner breast pocket of her coat.

Bingo! Let’s get the fuck out of here. The Ardaki are waiting.

Chapter Seventeen

Orbiting Skaine, Aboard the Achronyx II

“Do Skaines even consider what the names they give their children will translate to in Common?” Peter asked, glancing up from the screen at Tabitha.

“Just read the damned brief,” Tabitha replied with a laugh. “You need to know the routes through the tunnels in case we have to split up.”

Peter pushed out his bottom lip. “But, but, ‘Chichi?’”

Tabitha lifted a shoulder. “It’s not the worst I’ve heard.”

Peter’s expression turned from amused to interested. “Oh, yeah?”

Tabitha counted her favorites off on her fingers as she listed them. “Twunty, Felch-mitten, Herpetual Fancy, Bestia—she was pretty for a Skaine—and you know Missy, right?”

Peter cocked a hairy eyebrow. “Durq’s wife?”

“The same.” Tabitha grinned and winked. “Even I don’t want to say her real name aloud. Why’d you think they asked Nickie to name their kids?”

Peter shook his head. “But why?”

“Dunno,” Tabitha replied airily. “Skaine is one of those languages you just have to wonder about.”

“Or at least try not to laugh at when you hear it translated,” Peter commented.

Tabitha snickered. “Someone must have been having a joke when they programmed the translation software.”

Peter narrowed his eyes. “Wait a damn second. You’re the Skaine expert. Didn’t you provide ADAM with most of the translations?”

Tabitha jumped out of the captain’s chair. “Would you look at that? We’re here already.”

Knowing he wasn’t going to get a straight answer from her, Peter rolled his eyes. “Fine, don’t tell me. Where is here, exactly? All I’m seeing is a wasteland.”

Tabitha pointed at a blotchy patch of scrub. “There used to be an entrance to the city here.”

When Peter took another look, he saw the area was deliberately staged. “Could still be there.”

“I know of three more entrances if this one is no good,” Tabitha told him. “Oh, wait, no, two. I bombed the shit out of the third in—let me think—’89? They never rebuilt it, anyway.”

Peter rolled his shoulders and prepared to change form. “They never came back to live on the surface, either. You had a lasting effect on them.”

Tabitha’s lip curled. “Not lasting enough if some fuckface is trapping innocents in shitty work contracts for the fucking cabal,” she growled.

Peter put a giant fur-covered hand on her arm. “Bethany Anne didn’t say the whole of Skaine was involved.”

Tabitha pouted. “Fine. We’ll start with Norkman and see where his trail leads us. He’s not working alone.”

Peter frowned in confusion, drawing a laugh from Tabitha. “Too subtle?” she asked. “How about Jabongo, or Squeeter Teeter, or Boingly-Doingly? No, wait, I’ve got it! Muggins B’Jugguns!”

She grabbed Gracie from the rack and slung the Shrillexian battle blaster over her back. “The guy’s a twit, and he needs to be taken out. That’s all we need to know. Let’s go.”

Achronyx had the ship swoop low over the entrance, and Tabitha and Peter leapt out the open hatch. Landing in the thick dust, they ran the last couple hundred meters to the hidden door in the rock.

“You want to knock?” Peter asked.

Tabitha fired Gracie, turning the rock to molten slag. “Knock-knock, motherfuckers.”

She ran ahead.

“Why is the tiny Latina a thousand times scarier than the giant wolfman?” Peter wondered aloud, following her into the underground complex.

The reply came into his mind. Because she can’t fucking stand Skaine ass-fungi who indulge their baser natures. Hurry up, or you’re going to miss out on the fun part.

Peter ducked his head to avoid the low roof and pounded in the direction of the screams.

Planet Ryleah, Ryleahan Senate

Without Ochan there to enforce their good behavior, the senators had all the cohesion of a house of cards in a strong wind.

In the absence of both Ochan and Elamonn, the job of herding the Senate fell to Gauvan Ryleah, Ochan’s third cousin.

She was failing.

The Ryleahans were afraid of the human Queen and what her presence on Ryleah meant for their continued rule.

Gauvan banged her gavel, calling for order. “We must come together and act to save ourselves. Arguing is wasting our time!”

“If you think the Bitch Queen will allow us to live after what we have done to the Ardaki, you are a fool, Gauvan,” the governor of the northern province taunted.

“If you want to save your sorry skins,” Gauvan stated, “you will listen and obey.”

The house settled, many of the Ryleahans still grumbling to themselves.

Gauvin gave them a moment, noting to herself those who slipped out of the room before continuing. “There is no proof the Ardaki have been unfairly treated. We made sure the Federation believed them to be a problematic species.”

The governor of Central Ryleah threw down his hat. “It’s not going to make any difference. We all know how humans feel about subspecies like the Ardaki; they want them to be treated like equals. We must act now, before the Bitch Queen—”

“You got that ass-backwards, pork chop.”

Everyone in the room turned toward the new voice.

Bethany Anne stood there in the center of the floor, her hair flying around her as the residual Etheric energy settled.

“You have no authority to be here!” Gauvin spluttered.

Bethany Anne stalked to the podium, grabbed the Ryleahan by the bristles, and tossed her into the first row. “I have every right to be here as a representative of the Federation. You, however, have just had your right to rule rescinded.”

The senators lapsed into violence and chaos, clambering over each other in their rush to avoid being the next to play piggy skittles.

Bethany Anne released a wave of suppressant Etheric energy, pinning the Ryleahans to the spot. She held Matthew Horgan’s ledger up for all to see. “This voids any claim the Ryleah family has to this planet. The Ardaki are currently safe aboard my ship. I’m giving you one hour to get the fuck out of the Senate. You have another two hours to inform your people that they have overstayed their welcome on Ardaki land. You have three weeks to completely evacuate.”

“And if we refuse?” Gauvan spat, climbing to her feet.

Bethany Anne gave them a cold smile. “Then I will destroy this planet with you on it and have the Federation Council award the Ardaki a new planet, paid for from your personal accounts.”

“You can’t do this!” Gauvan seethed.

Bethany Anne shook a finger at the Ryleahan. “That’s where you’re wrong. I can do whatever the fuck I want, and no being on this plane of reality has the power to prevent me. I choose to use my power to protect those weaker than me. Don’t fucking forget it. You chose to use the crumbs of power you had to become wealthier on the backs of the good people who came here to help you build. Worse, you fucking stole this planet out from under them. Count yourselves lucky that I don’t execute every fucking one of you for your crimes against the Ardaki.”

She manifested an energy ball the size of a watermelon and sent it to float above the senators’ heads. Then she split it into a hundred smaller sparks and turned the color from white to red to match the light in her eyes. “You have forty-seven minutes remaining. Scurry, scurry, little piggies, before I cook your fucking bacon.”

They fled.

The Senate was empty except for Bethany Anne by the time the hour was up.

She walked the corridors, gathering the sparks of energy she’d released as she made certain no Ryleahan remained in the building.

Satisfied, she went outside.

Why do I get the feeling this isn’t enough for you? TOM asked as she turned to face the building.

Because it’s not, Bethany Anne told him simply. She furrowed her brow at the monument to Ryleahan supremacy. This building is a symbol of Ardaki oppression. One I don’t wish to have them look at every fucking day of their lives. They get a fresh start.

She rose into the air on a buffer of Etheric energy, her hands glowing as she channeled more energy from inside herself.

TOM and ADAM fully expected to see the destruction of the grand building at her hands.

Instead, Bethany Anne released the energy and had it entomb the building. Drawing on the transformative power of the Etheric, she reshaped the Senate according to the history Farzai had shown her.

Bethany Anne poured her heart into giving the Ardaki the seat of government they deserved. Inside and out, the bas-relief script of Ryleahan mottoes on the friezes was switched to scripture from the Ardaki Book of Sorrows.

She changed the exterior at the atomic level, replacing the plain stone with gold-veined marble as she altered the hand-carved masonry to remove all traces of the Ryleahans from the building.

Caryatids and pediment sculptures depicting the Ryleah family and their conquests were replaced with joyous Ardaki breaking their chains, farming the land, and lifting one another up, the scenes depicting them in positions of strength and dignity.

Statuary of the Ryleah family on the manicured grounds vanished, replaced by bronzes celebrating the Honored Elders who had guided the Ardaki through countless trials and tribulations.

The energy Bethany Anne was expending on the intricate and extensive task caused beads of sweat to run down her back. Eventually, she was done removing all traces of the Ryleahan overlords. She came back down to the ground, landing gently in the reshaped gardens, and surveyed her changes with a smile.

“That is more like it.”

Skaine, Underground City

Tabitha ignored the Skaines she passed as she made her unerring way through winding tunnels and enormous caverns on the trail of her target.

The Skaines remembered her. They fled at the sight of the former Ranger stalking through the underground city with the battle blaster cradled in her arms and her eyes blazing red.

All jokes about his name aside, she had been beyond angry to learn the extremes Chichi had gone to find ways around the law for his cabal bosses. Who knew the anti-slavery laws better than a Skaine? She had scourged the knowledge into them herself.

So many innocent people had been ensnared by convoluted legal language that put them in debt to the cabal-owned companies they worked for. She’d examined the Ardaki contracts Bethany Anne had sent over.

On the surface, the pay being offered was good. It was only when the workers arrived that the hidden nasties became evident. The workers found they owed their employer for transport costs, accommodation costs, medical insurance, job-related equipment rental, and a dozen other surcharges that leached their pay, leaving them stranded on the cabal planets unless they could buy their way out.

Fat chance of that.

It wasn’t just the Ardaki on Ryleah. Tabitha’s deep dive into the cabal’s locations via CEREBRO had revealed hundreds of thousands of people on a dozen worlds, all trapped by Ochan’s misanthropic twisting of the processes meant to protect migrant workers.

They had barely enough to live on after deductions. That kept them dependent on their employers, whose only effort to make sure their workers didn’t drop dead from starvation was a chit system that further demoralized the people since they could only shop in company-owned stores.

It drove Tabitha into the kind of rage that could only be assuaged by spilling the blood of the slaver bastard responsible.

Peter caught up with her when she was nearing the business premises of Chichi, Grot, and Farkel.

The Skaine was expecting trouble, as evidenced by the wall of Shrillexian mercenaries blocking the entrance to the lawyers’ office. All eight of them were armed to the teeth, and while clearly unhappy to be facing two of the most enhanced humans in the Federation, their expressions told Tabitha and Peter they relished the coming fight whether they had a chance of surviving or not.

“One chance,” Tabitha ground out. “Move, or die.”

“Fuck you!” the largest spat, his hands dropping to his weapons.

Tabitha braced Gracie on her hip with her left, drew her Jean Dukes Special with her right, and prepared to fire, but Peter had other ideas.

He launched at the speaker and punched him in the face, knocking the Shrillexian senseless. “Anyone else want to disrespect my woman?” Peter growled as the merc’s legs folded.

Tabitha stepped around Peter and shot the concussed Shrillexian between the eyes. “My mercy is spent. Choose better than your friend.”

The remaining seven abandoned their guns and came at them with bare fists, their instincts taking over. Tabitha kicked the closest and broke his knee.

“I’m guessing these guys skipped their meds since, like, forever,” Peter quipped as he caught one of them in a headlock and squeezed.

“We’re gonna talk about the ‘my woman’ shit when we get back to the ship,” Tabitha told Peter out of the side of her mouth. “You deal with these fuckers while I go pay our friend Chichi a visit.”

Her next shot disintegrated the door, causing the windows to shatter and the casements to burst into flames. She reslung Gracie behind her and strode into the reception area, ignoring the fire creeping across the plush carpet.

“Oh, Chichi,” she called in a menacing voice. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…”

Her super-sensitive hearing picked up a scuffle a few rooms away. Tabitha smiled and switched direction.

She burst into the room and found a skinny teenaged Skaine cowering under a desk. He squealed as she dragged him out.

“I’m not Chichi! I’m just an intern!”

Tabitha deposited him in a chair and treated him to an inside view of the barrel of her Jean Dukes Special. “No shit. Where is your boss?”

The Skaine blubbered, snot running from his nose. “At…at…at home!”

Tabitha clicked her tongue. “Fuck. Where does the bastard live?”

The intern gibbered an address. Tabitha kicked the chair over, spilling the Skaine to the floor. “This firm is going out of business. Find another job.”

The intern nodded and gratefully scrambled out of the room.

She mentally accessed the building’s mainframe, copied the files to her HUD, and disabled the fire suppressant system as she went around the rooms, tipping over filing cabinets and rifling through desk drawers.

Peter ducked through the door while she was making a pile of combustible furniture in the center of the office. “How can I help?”

Tabitha waved a hand at the walls. “Airflow would be good. I’m gonna burn this place to ashes, and then we’re going to track down Ta-Ta Twatface and tear him limb from limb.”

Peter laced his fingers and cracked his knuckles. “My pleasure.”

Drywall had no chance against a Pricolici.

They left the burning offices and continued deeper into the city as the sweet sound of sirens filled the cavern behind them.

Chichi’s house was in the nicer part of the city. To Tabitha, it was all the same if you couldn’t feel the sun on your skin.

The cavern lights were set to dusk. Light spilled from all the windows, and the thump-thump of music told Tabitha and Peter the Skaine was possibly unaware they were here.

Tabitha was offended. “Seriously, he’s fucking partying?”

Peter’s nose twitched. “At least there are gifts. Smells like he got us a few more mercs to unwrap.”

Tabitha stared at him. “Really, Pete? Is that all you think about?”

Peter shrugged. “Like you don’t love a good fight.”

Tabitha pouted, but the corner of her mouth curled up despite her effort to look fierce. “You’re supposed to say, ‘All I think about is you, Tabbie.’”

Peter laughed. “Sure. I’ll be a mindless simp, and you can have all the fun dismantling Shrillexians.”

He ran for the house, calling over his shoulder, “NOT!”

Tabitha’s jaw dropped. She set off after him, drawing her Jean Dukes Special as she ran. “Just you wait until this is over and I get my hands on you!”

“I can’t wait for you to get your hands on me,” he shot back. “We should probably deal with Chesticle McKnockerson first. BA will be pissed at us if the asshole escapes.”

They took out the guards at the door and walked into the party. Scantily-clad Skaines, many of them wearing fancy masks, filled the first floor, which was open to a pool at the back.

The music throbbed, pulsing electronic beats Tabitha could feel in her bones as much as she could hear them. She glanced at Peter, wanting to make sure his ultra-sensitive hearing wasn’t overwhelmed by the noise.

I’m good, he told her over their mental connection, sensing her concern. We should get a couple of those masks before someone recognizes you.

Great idea, baby. Tabitha cold-cocked one of the partygoers and took her mask.

Peter did the same, although there was no disguising the aura of deadliness that surrounded him.

The guests were too entangled in their entertainment to pay any attention.

Tabitha’s nose wrinkled as they passed a sectional couch pushed together and filled with writhing Skaines. Please tell me we didn’t just walk into an orgy.

Peter laughed. I promised I’d never lie to you. C’mon. Chichi is here somewhere.

He wasn’t downstairs. Tabitha released a handful of micro-drones and had them scatter in every direction.

The drones hooked into their HUDs, they were able to search the upper floors for a facial recognition match while they bypassed the fuckfest in favor of exploring the gardens.

The path around the pool led to a hedge maze. Tabitha sent up a few more drones to search the gardens.

She was starting to get impatient when one of the drones on the second floor pinged her with a match. He’s in the house.

Peter grinned. I see. Let’s go grab us a scumbag lawyer.

They climbed the stairs side by side and headed for the room the drone had pinged them from.

They found Chichi sprawled spread-eagled and handcuffed to the four-poster bed that dominated the center of the room.

Tabitha unslung Gracie from her back and pointed it at the bed. “Lady, you’re blocking my shot. I suggest you move.”

Chichi’s female companion looked up from where she had her head in his lap and screamed at the sight of Tabitha and Peter before running out the door at the back of the room.

Chichi raised his head, straining against the cuffs holding him. “Who… What…”

His eyes flared as recognition sent chills through his body. “R-r-r… Ranger!”

Peter snorted. “You wish she was still a Ranger, asshole.” He turned to Tabitha and flexed his claws. “Limb from limb, or dice ‘n’ slice?”

“We’re not going to torture him. Much.” Tabitha tilted her head. “Even though the sick sonofabitch deserves every ounce of pain we can inflict on him for what he’s done.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Chichi whimpered. “Ochan Ryleah made me!”

Tabitha smashed Gracie’s butt into his stomach. “Shut the fuck up, you lying sack of shit. Ochan paid you for your deceit. You didn’t turn down the credits, did you?”

Peter bared his teeth at the Skaine, eliciting another whimper. “What d’you wanna do with him?”

Tabitha thumbed the button to charge Gracie and faced the bed. “I’m going to say, ‘WWBAD?’”

“Probably push him into the Etheric and let God sort him out,” Peter commented after thinking for a moment.

Tabitha leaned over the bed and kissed Peter. “You’re a genius!”

Peter had only made the suggestion to scare the crap out of Chichi. “You got the juice to do that?”

Tabitha shrugged and grinned. “Only one way to find out.”

Chichi had no clue what they were talking about. His eyes darted from Tabitha to Peter and back to Tabitha, whose face was screwed up in concentration.

Chichi’s skin began to tingle uncomfortably. The tingle turned to stinging, then he let out a scream as the sting became an all-encompassing burning sensation.

Tabitha held out a hand to focus her effort to open the Etheric around him. She ignored his piteous cries, her lip curling as she pronounced his sentence. “By order of the Queen Bitch, you have been sentenced to death for enslaving Federation citizens. Die, motherfucker, DIE!”

With the last word, she poured everything she had into her action, and the Skaine vanished in a flash of light.

Her knees gave way, her body drained of energy. Peter caught her, scooping her into his arms. “Easy, tiger. I got you.”

Tabitha wrapped her arms around his neck. “My hero. Wanna carry a lady back to her ship?”

“My pleasure,” Peter told her with a throaty laugh. “That took it out of you, huh?”

Tabitha laughed, and a huge yawn escaped. “Shit, I haven’t drained myself this bad since Gabrielle helped me figure out how to beat Ryu’s ass. Mind if I pass out now?”

“Go ahead,” Peter murmured into her hair, but she was already asleep.

He reached out to Achronyx over the comm. “Hey, buddy, fire up the transporter. We need pick-up for two.”

Chapter Eighteen

Planet Soriel, Formerly Ryleah, Senate

The evacuation of the extended Ryleah family was complete. The family had been eager to return to Torporia, their home planet, after realizing Bethany Anne’s proclamation was backed up by a strong Federation presence.

At that moment, the planet was guarded by sixty Federation battlecruisers and the QSD Baba Yaga.

After presenting the Ardaki with their new seat of government, Bethany Anne had spoken to the Honored Elders—now senators—and granted their wish to allow those Ryleahans outside the family who agreed to abide by Ardaki rule to remain and become part of their new society if they wished.

Bethany Anne had been heartened to see how many Ryleahans had been unhappy with the way their government had treated the Ardaki and how many were eager to help reshape the planet in the family’s absence. While they hadn’t been under the same restrictions as the Ardaki, they had been equally as powerless to affect changes when the family held every position of power at every level of government.

The renaming of the planet had been celebrated for almost a week by the Ardaki and their Ryleahan allies alike, and a plan for an official yearly festival to mark the event was the first item on the Senate’s agenda.

Farzai and Xadia stood beside Bethany Anne on the rostrum as the new senators, many of them entering the building for the first time, took their seats at their individual desks on the tiered platform.

“Nervous?” Bethany Anne asked.

Farzai shook her head. “Vindicated on behalf of all Ardaki.”

Bethany Anne’s mouth turned up at the corner. “It was an honorable thing you did as a people. Choosing to open your hearts to the Ryleahans and allow them to stay after everything you have been through is more than I would have done.”

Farzai’s gaze swept the room. “Peace and reconciliation is the right way for us. We have our home returned to us. There are many Ardaki who are still wandering. Soriel will be the beacon that brings them back to us.”

She inclined her head toward Xadia. “The Ryleahans who remained to be part of the rebuilding show strength of character. They honor the promise your father made us. You are the leader they can look to, and together we will create unity for our people.”

Xadia snorted. “You’re giving me too much credit, Honored Mother. I’m shitting a brick, to use the human term.”

“That’s a good thing,” Bethany Anne assured her. “It means you’re taking this seriously.”

“How could I not?” Xadia replied, glancing nervously at the press gallery overlooking the senators’ desks and the rostrum. “This is the biggest deal of my life. Everyone is depending on us to lead them into the future.”

Bethany Anne smiled up at Cheryl Lynn, who wiggled her fingers and gave them a thumbs-up. “Don’t sweat the media.”

“It would be the first time in my life if I didn’t,” Xadia admitted.

Bethany Anne sensed her nerves were due to her need to be the representative the people needed, so she sent the Ryleahan a wave of calming energy.

Farzai put a hand on Xadia’s shoulder. “The people know who you are. You have always done what you could to counteract your father’s evil.”

Xadia nodded. “Now I get to do more than react to his fuckery. Now I get to be proactive on behalf of all our people, whether they are Ryleahan or Ardaki.”

“It’s time,” Bethany Anne told them.

The house was split between the Ardaki and the Ryleahans, every being voted in by the consent of both species. The atmosphere was one of hope, new beginnings, and goodwill to all.

Bethany Anne took the floor as the senators quieted down. She placed her hands on either side of the smooth marble lectern and smiled. “Welcome. This day marks a new chapter in both your histories, one where no side is subservient to the other. Today, past hurts are not forgotten. Erasing history prevents us from remembering the lessons it teaches us. However, we view those hurts with forgiveness and empathy. Ardaki, Ryleahan—there is no longer any division between your peoples.”

The senators murmured their agreement.

“The Federation embraces diversity in all its forms,” Bethany Anne continued. “No one will be denied the right to representation, education, or healthcare. Every citizen of Soriel will receive all the personal freedoms the Federation Charter states are yours by right.”

She turned to her right and motioned for Farzai and Xadia to step forward. Then she turned to her left and did the same to bring the administrative liaison assigned by Lance to guide the nascent government through its teething pains to the front. “The Honored Mother speaks on behalf of all Ardaki. Xadia Ryleah speaks for the Ryleahans. The Federation is here to offer comfort and guidance and to rein in any who overstep the bounds of their office. Ryleahans, never forget that the Ardaki opened their hearts and saw past decades of oppression when they allowed you to stay. Never forget that you are not two disparate peoples but one nation-state, bound by your duty to uphold the Federation charter for the good of all.”

Bethany Anne paused as a message from Roka appeared in her HUD.

She dismissed it for the moment without reading it. “You have a second chance to build a world where all can prosper equally in peace and harmony. Let go of the past. Look to the future. You are stronger together. I leave you with this. The Ryleahans among you have been given the opportunity to make the most of the unity the Ardaki have offered. Should I have to return to remind you of that, there will be no third chance.”

QSD Baba Yaga, Top Deck, Bethany Anne’s Ready Room

Bethany Anne returned to the Baba Yaga after the speeches were done. She took a seat at her desk and opened the message from Roka. It contained a link to a secure drop used by Spy Corps agents to pass along sensitive information.

Her lips quirked as she read through the documentation the company had on the asteroid they had fitted out for Ochan.

ADAM, what are the chances there are two asteroids floating around that match these exact dimensions?

>>Low enough that I’m not going to bother doing the math.<<

Bethany Anne lifted a shoulder. Fair enough. So, easily identifiable? Can CEREBRO find it?

>>Should be easy enough once we know what direction he went.<<

I have a pretty good idea where he went. Bethany Anne sent the specs to James Howard with a request that the commander check out the “rogue” asteroids he had mentioned in their call.

Next, she reached out to Gabrielle. I have a possible location for that monumental prick Ochan.

You want us to take him out?

Bethany Anne heard the steel in Gabrielle’s voice. No. His karma is to meet his end on my blade. I want you and the guys to work with CEREBRO to root out the rest of the cabal.

Gabrielle murmured her agreement. There’s a woman CEO I don’t believe is Ochan’s ally by choice. Her family disappeared around the time she began to associate with him.

Is that Harlia Nardoon? Bethany Anne asked. The munitions woman?

Yes, Gabriel confirmed. We think her family has been imprisoned on Torporia.

Bethany Anne was becoming familiar with the way Ochan did business. It makes sense the cabal would lean on her after we took out Kiaty Ca’Shal. Do whatever you need to do. Find the family. Make sure Nardoon isn’t going to flip the second we are gone.

On it. Gabriel dropped the call

Bethany Anne had her own family on her mind. “Izanami, get me a video link to the Reynolds. I want to talk to my children.”

There was a short wait while Izanami searched the subspace network outside the Federation for the Reynolds’ comm signature.

The wall screen lit up and the indomitable AI appeared, his android face set in a wide smile. “My Queen! What a pleasure!”

Bethany Anne broke into a grin, unable to resist his charm. “How the hell are you, Reynolds?”

“Oh, you know. We don’t sweat the petty things, and we don’t pet the sweaty things.” He winked.

Bethany Anne rolled her eyes in amusement. “Okay, then. Keep up the good work?”

Reynolds laughed heartily. “Actually, you’ll be happy to know we took out the final three cloning facilities in this quadrant. It’s time to move on.”

Bethany Anne let herself into the Armada’s mission logs and found no trace of any remaining Kurtherian facilities in that quadrant. She expanded the galaxy map and saw there was no marker to show the Armada’s next destination. “Do you have a lead on the next target galaxy?”

Reynolds shook his head. “Not yet. Kurtherian strongholds have been getting fewer and farther between. It could be that we have succeeded in teaching Gödel that clones are not a way she can defeat us.”

“There isn’t any way she can defeat us, and God knows she’s tried every trick in the book.” Bethany Anne tapped her nails on the desk while she considered the information. “The psychic attacks have dropped off as well. Could be Gödel is low on resources and morale, could be she’s got something big brewing.”

“The clones make you miss the Ookens, right?” Reynolds supplied.

The comment threw her for a second. “What? Fuck, now you mention it. Give me ten thousand Ookens over a hundred clones any day. At least those fuckers are easily identifiable.”

Bethany Anne made a decision. “I’m going to give you time to make one last sweep of the quadrant, then I want the Armada to return to the Federation.”

Reynolds’ eyes widened in surprise. “That is a big decision, my Queen. What about Gödel? She is still out there somewhere, and as long as she is free, she will continue on her mad quest to convert everybody to the path of ascension.”

Bethany Anne understood the risks of pulling her people back. However, it was time. She would find Gödel before the Kurtherian was able to recoup her losses and come back at the Federation. “It has been a hundred and fifty years. Everyone serving aboard my ships has given everything for so long. It’s time to bring our people home.”

Reynolds nodded. “Your wish is my command, my Queen.”

Bethany Anne smiled. “Besides, I am going to be a grandmother, and I do not want my grandchild to be born out in Buttfuck, Nowhere. How is Jiya? I’m going to talk to Doc in a minute, but I know you won’t sugarcoat it.”

“Doc has her hormones balanced,” Reynolds answered, a look of fatherly love passing over his features. “It was touch and go for a while, but mother and, um, baby are doing just fine. It’s the father-to-be who has us all amused.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. His sentimental tone was unexpected despite his attachment to Jiya and the rest of his crew. “Gabriel’s shitting himself, yeah?”

“And then some,” Reynolds confirmed with a chuckle.

They said their goodbyes, and Reynolds transferred Bethany Anne to the medbay.

Doc, now in an android body that looked much like Reynolds’ but softer and jollier to match his profession, greeted Bethany Anne with enthusiasm.

“Is your patient feeling up to a short visit?” Bethany Anne asked.

“She has been anticipating it,” Doc replied cheerily. “It’s the middle of the night here, but she is awake. I’ll put you through.”

Jiya looked more like she had been dreading this conversation when she came onscreen.

“How are you doing, honey?” Bethany Anne asked. She smiled at the Larian. “Is that glow from good health or a hot flash?”

“How did you know?” Jiya blew out a breath. “Your son is driving me insane, I don’t mind telling you.”

Bethany Anne laughed. “Yeah?”

“There is only so much pampering a female can take!” Jiya admitted with a grin. “I’m complaining, but I love him, and I love that he’s here for me. I was terrified when I found out I was expecting.”

“I promise you Michael was ten times worse when I was pregnant,” Bethany Anne confided, returning her grin.

“Your reaction to Michael’s attention must have schooled him on future encounters with pregnant women. He has been pleasant company when it’s his turn to sit with me.” Jiya smiled, carefully moving her body into a sitting position. Her gently rising stomach filled the bottom of the screen. “Gabriel isn’t so bad. I appreciate the attention, really. And the constant snack offerings. It’s just a little weird having him around all the time.”

“I know you both found it hard to adjust when you tried living together before.” Bethany Anne sat back and put her feet up on the desk. “Have you talked about what you’re going to do when the baby arrives?”

“Babies,” Jiya corrected. “Twins run in the family, apparently.”

“That explains Reynolds being evasive when I spoke to him,” Bethany Anne told her with a wry smile.

“I wanted to be the one to tell you,” Jiya explained. “We talked some. Gabriel offered to move over to the Reynolds, but I’m thinking I’d rather we were on the Baba Yaga. It would be too much to handle if we were deployed to separate places.”

Bethany Anne nodded. “You’ll be glad to hear I just recalled the Armada to the Federation. Your fight is done for now.”

Jiya burst into tears.

“Let it out,” Bethany Anne told her. She waited while Jiya got herself under control. “Thatta girl. You’ve got this, and we’ve got you.”

“I’m sorry. Hormones. That’s the best news I’ve heard since Doc told me I was going to be able to carry the babies to term without having to live in a Pod-doc for nine months.” Jiya mopped her eyes with a wad of tissues she extracted from a box on her bedside table. “I have no damned control over it. One second I’m just fine, the next I could be in one of those dumb romance holos Alexis loves so much. And if I could just stop craving meat for five fucking minutes, it would make my day.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow, recalling having the same craving when she was pregnant with Gabriel and Alexis. “You are growing two super-enhanced beings inside of you. It takes a hell of a lot out of you. Talk to Doc about getting the babies’ nanocytes coded so they can draw from the Etheric instead of draining your energy, and the cravings should lessen.”

Jiya looked at her gratefully. “Yeah? I’ll do that. Dammit, though. I could really go for a steak right now.” She glanced away from the screen as someone entered her room, her eyes lighting up with love.

Gabriel appeared onscreen as he leaned over the bed to kiss Jiya’s forehead. “I woke up with the feeling you were hungry. You still good with brisket? I can get something else if you’re sick of it.”

“Shh! The brisket will hear you. How could you say such a thing?” Jiya’s eyes shone with fresh tears as she opened the food carton he gave her. She inhaled the first mouthful greedily, making little happy noises as she chewed. “Mmmm. You’re the best. This is exactly what I needed.”

Bethany Anne’s heart swelled as she watched them interact. Despite the troubled start the war had given their relationship, they were going to be just fine.

Gabriel noticed the screen was on and smiled when he saw his mother. “Hey, Mom! I didn’t see you there. You heard? Twins!”

Bethany Anne saw the change in him, the new maturity—and the dark circles under his eyes. “Are you taking care of yourself?”

Gabriel shrugged and tipped his head to indicate Jiya in the bed beside him. “Jiya has to spend six hours out of every twenty-four in the Pod-Doc. I kinda have a lot on my plate, Mom.”

Bethany Anne shook a finger at him. “Not so much that you can’t eat and sleep. This is going to be your life once the babies are born.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Geez, you sound just like Alexis.”

Bethany Anne pursed her lips. “So at least one of you is being sensible. Listen to your sister.”

Gabriel pointed at himself. “Grown. Ass. Man.”

Bethany Anne sighed. “Fine. Have it your way. I’ll wait a few months to hear that I was right and you wish you’d slept every available moment before you had two babies keeping you awake around the clock.” She smiled. “I’m proud of you both. Congratulations, and I’ll see you soon.”

Jiya caught Gabriel’s hand and pulled him to her. “Your mom recalled the Armada. We’re going home.”

Before Gabriel could voice his reaction, Doc came into the room to take Jiya’s vitals. “Okay,” he announced, “family time is over for now. It’s time for your Pod-doc therapy, Jiya.”

“Don’t forget to tell Doc what I said about checking the babies’ nanocytes,” Bethany Anne instructed.

“What about their nanocytes?” Doc inquired.

“Access the medical records for mine and Tabitha’s pregnancies,” Bethany Anne told him. “Make sure the babies can draw the energy they need from the Etheric, and that there are no issues for Jiya concerning how enhanced they are going to be.”

Doc nodded. “Yes, my Queen. Now, out. All of you.”

Bethany Anne said goodbye and dropped the connection. She wanted to speak to Michael for the simple reason she missed his presence, but she had nothing urgent that couldn’t wait until the Reynolds got back to the Federation. She made do with leaving him a voice message.

She was eager to start the search for Ochan.

But first, she needed to take her own advice and eat.

She made her way to the communal kitchen at the opposite end of the deck, where she found Tabitha sitting at the breakfast bar, surrounded by enough ingredients to make breakfast tacos for ten people.

Still not feeling tacos after her experience with the live bait, Bethany Anne had the food processing unit make her a large portion of lasagna. She added a side salad and some garlic ciabatta and got herself an extra-large glass of Coke before joining Tabitha at the breakfast bar.

Tabitha looked up as Bethany Anne sat across from her. “How’s it going?” she asked through a mouthful of a half-demolished taco.

Bethany Anne glanced at the feast laid out on the counter. “I could ask you the same.”

Tabitha finished her mouthful and wiped her lips and hands with her napkin. “Oh. I did a thing. Drained myself. Perfect excuse to pig out, right?”

She took another bite, dropping crumbs of tortilla and sausage on her plate. “Mff. I know a Skaine who is going to be feeling pretty hungry right about now—if he survived.”

Bethany Anne cut a bite-sized piece of lasagna and speared it with her fork. “What do you mean, if he survived? That bastard deserved the worst end you could come up with for him.”

Tabitha covered her mouth with her hand to avoid spraying Bethany Anne with food. “He got it. Why do you think I’m eating all this? I figured out how to push that skanky son of a syphilitic shit-muncher into the Etheric. Old-school Justice. Now I’m damned hungry.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow as she chewed. “You didn’t check if he was dead?”

“I was kinda unconscious after I did it,” Tabitha explained. “What’s he gonna do, open the Etheric and find his way out? It took near-as-dammit everything I had in me to make it work.”

Bethany Anne had no argument for that. “You dealt with him. That’s all I care about. I’m heading to the other end of the Federation to find Ochan Ryleah. You up for another side quest?”

Tabitha grinned. “You bet your ass I am.”

Bethany Anne waved her fork at their food. “We finish up here first. You’re not the only one who needs to fill up on something with more sustenance than the Etheric can provide.”

Chapter Nineteen

Secret Location

The humans wouldn’t find him here. Ochan’s bolt-hole was six light-years from the nearest Federation outpost. It had no connections to the CEREBRO network and no trade hub nearby, nothing but the hollowed-out asteroid he’d had fitted out with every high-end, low-tech living solution his virtually unlimited budget could buy.

No one but Ochan and his valet knew where the asteroid was, hidden in the Kuiper belt of an empty star system.

Regardless of dropping off the grid, Ochan knew exactly what was happening on the pre-terraformed planet the Bitch Queen had sentenced his son to die on. He held up his cut-crystal tumbler for the valet to refill, in control despite his crushing losses.

“It’s time to rescue my son,” Ochan told the valet. “Prepare the shuttle. You’re leaving within the hour. Once you have engaged the mercenary company, meet me at the shipyard.”

“Very good, sir,” the valet replied tonelessly. Truth be told, he was glad to escape his employer for a little while. The shifting moods that had emerged in the Ryleahan since they had been cut off from the rest of the Federation were swinging wildly from one end of the spectrum to the other.

He backed out of the room without another word.

Ochan sipped his whisky, his mind turning on the plans he’d pulled from the ashes of his defeat.

The Bitch knew nothing about his final plan.

Once his son was returned to him, he intended to cause as much damage as he could on his way out of the Federation.

Planet G-926-AXZ

Elamonn narrowly avoided Son’zar and tucked himself into the shadows of a parked excavator as the four-legged Yollin overseer swept his flashlight over the inside of the equipment shed.

“Come on, Ryleah,” Son’zar called, his tone somewhere between weariness and exasperation. “There’s nowhere you can go that I can’t find you. When the commander hears about this, you’re gonna get put in the hole for sure.”

Elamonn smiled, gripping the scrap of fabric with his father’s message on it tightly in his right hand. That’s what you think.

Son’zar moved on to the next shed, leaving Elamonn alone in the dark.

He didn’t belong here with these criminals.

Assured he wouldn’t be apprehended, Elamonn tiptoed out of the shed and crept toward the northeast boundary of the compound where the prisoners were housed between shifts.

In the distance, the forcefield that kept the artificial atmosphere in and protected them from meteor strikes flashed intermittently as it vaporized debris pulled in by the planet’s gravity.

He looked up, wondering if one of the twinkling lights belonged to the ship with his rescuers. Ochan wouldn’t come in person. He was too valuable to risk. Elamonn understood that. The knowledge didn’t make him any more amenable to spending time with whatever rough mercenaries his father had employed to carry out the rescue, however.

A comet left a bright trail across the night sky.

Elamonn’s mouth dropped open when the comet suddenly switched trajectory and hurtled toward the forcefield. He scrambled for cover to avoid getting fried by the energy discharge from the forcefield as it hit. Every light in the compound came on and klaxons began blatting when the ships hiding in the comet’s tail were revealed.

The BYPS came to life, releasing a barrage of laser fire as more ships emerged from the asteroid field.

Elamonn punched the air and whooped loudly, forgetting he was supposed to be keeping his head down.

He glanced over his shoulder, worried.

No one had seen or heard him.

He went back on the move, searching for the junction box his father’s message had told him to find.

Inside the junction box, he found a pack containing an emergency EVA suit, which he hurriedly pulled on over his orange overalls.

He got the hood sealed just in time.

The forcefield went out for a few seconds, giving him a chance to cross into the rocky wasteland beyond.

He checked the display in the sleeve of his suit and set off in the direction it told him his ride was waiting.

The regolith on the ground was thick and fine, turning his walk into an uphill trudge through shifting sands. Elamonn, never the fittest Ryleahan, had avoided the labor that would have prepared him for this trek. His breath came in short gasps as he crested the first hill.

He paused and rested his hands on his knees, working on getting his breathing under control and conserving his limited oxygen supply.

He scanned the horizon, looking for any sign of his rescuers.

“Not much of a rescue if I have to do everything by myself,” he grumbled.

Another flash of light above drew his attention.

Bethany Anne stood on top of the highest hill, watching Elamonn’s halting progress toward the mercenary ship she had just downed with an energy ball.

The mercenaries were all dead, of course. She’d killed them the moment they’d left their burning ship, then doused the flames so she could still use it to draw in her target.

No one attacked her people and got away with it.

>>He’s struggling,<< ADAM commented.

Let him fucking struggle, was Bethany Anne’s response. Finding he has no hope before I end his sorry existence is exactly what that shit-suck deserves. Let his life end with him feeling the same lack of control he made others feel.

>>I have access to his suit systems. What do you want me to do?<<

Nothing for the moment. Bethany Anne narrowed her eyes. Start venting his air when he gets in sight of the ship. Slowly. He had his chance to atone for his wrongs, and he took the first option he got to wuss out of his punishment. I’m all out of mercy.

Gabrielle pinged her as she continued to watch the Ryleahan.

She answered, What’s up?

The Nardoon family is safe, Gabrielle informed her.

Why do you sound so unhappy about that? Bethany Anne asked.

Not that, Gabrielle told her. It’s what Ochan had her do. He has a secret fleet, each ship armed with a couple hundred antimatter warheads.

Bethany Anne forced herself to unclench her jaw. I was expecting something like that. Do we know where these ships are?

Not yet, Gabrielle admitted. I sent John and Eric to check out the drop location her logistics people were using. Hopefully, someone there knows where the consignments were being sent on to. I’ll take it from their minds if I have to.

Bethany Anne did not take her eyes off Elamonn. Call them back. Set up a fake drop and follow Ochan’s people to wherever he is staging his attack.

The Ryleahan was almost to the top of the rise from which he would see the downed ship. I have to go. I’ll join you as soon as I’m done here.

I’ll call back as soon as we have something, Gabrielle assured her.

They said their goodbyes, and Bethany Anne started walking down the slope.

Start venting his air, she told ADAM. Suppress the warning system until he’s at five percent.

Elamonn’s heart soared with relief when the ship appeared on the horizon. He picked up his pace, his progress still hampered by the thick dust sucking at his feet.

He was even shorter of breath but he pushed on, knowing he would be safe inside the ship soon enough.

Something about the ship pulled at his subconscious. Why the hell hadn’t his rescuers sent a vehicle to meet him?

As he got closer, he saw the bodies surrounding the ramp and knew the reason.

His suit EI spoke.

“Oxygen reserves at five percent. Return to a pressurized environment.”

Elamonn slipped into panic mode. He ran for the ship, stumbling, knowing it was his only chance to make it out of there alive.

“Oxygen reserves at three percent,” the EI announced unhelpfully.

Elamonn thought the male voice held a note of glee. He pushed the thought away, dismissing it as ridiculous, and ran.

The ship loomed over him, the hatch open and the ramp extended. Elamonn almost tripped on the corpse of one of the crew. He scrambled away from the body, repulsed when he saw the mercenary’s eyes had exploded in a bloody mess that covered his bare face. He stumbled toward the open hatch, knowing his only hope of survival was to get inside and activate the ship’s seal.

“Oxygen reserves at one percent,” the EI intoned. There was no denying the cheerful tone this time.

Elamonn’s vision swam with dark spots as he pitched forward onto the extended ramp.

He dragged himself up the ramp on his hands and knees, his head pounding as carbon dioxide flooded his brain. The darkened portal seemed to stretch into the distance as hypoxia took effect.

Still, the instinct to survive drove him forward.

Somehow, he reached the hatch.

His fingers touched the rim. Out of nowhere, a high-heeled boot appeared and pinned him to the ramp before he could get inside the ship.

“Not so fast, fuckface.”

Elamonn turned his swimming gaze up to peer into the blazing red eyes of the Queen Bitch.

“You fucked up again, Elamonn,” Bethany Anne told him coldly. “Didn’t I tell you what would happen if you tried to get clever?”

“Oxygen reserves depleted,” the EI shrilled. “Return to a pressurized environment immediately. Death is imminent.”

Elamonn moaned. Death wasn’t imminent. Death was here, and she was mad.

Bethany Anne drew her katana. “Your father will be joining you in whatever hell your people subscribe to soon enough,” she promised as she brought the sword down.

Elamonn’s head rolled down the ramp, coming to a stop where it hit the pile of regolith the ship had pushed up on landing.

Bethany Anne cleaned her katana with a blast of Etheric energy and sheathed it. “One faithless sonofabitch down, one to go.”

Orbiting Red Rock, QBR Nacht

Harlia Nardoon held her young daughter close, afraid the humans were going to separate them again.

The blonde woman who had introduced herself as Gabrielle stalked back and forth in front of the airlock, an aura of tightly-controlled anger surrounding her.

She turned to face Harlia. “I’m not going to separate you from your family again. My men were supposed to be here with your mate already.”

Harlia sensed the emotions coming from her were due to her bond with the men she’d mentioned.

“One of them is my husband,” Gabrielle told her in a tight voice.

Harlia frowned. Was the human reading her thoughts?

“Yes,” Gabrielle told her. Her features softened. “Don’t be afraid. I mean you no harm. You are safe with me; I swear it on my life.”

Harlia believed her. She concentrated on her daughter, soothing the child by holding her close while the human woman returned to pacing in front of the airlock.

A few minutes later, the red light above the airlock turned amber, then green, and Gabrielle relaxed visibly.

“Is it your husband?” Harlia asked hopefully.

Gabrielle nodded. “And yours.”

The Ryleahans got to their feet, the little girl still clinging to her mother as though she would vanish if she let go. The airlock cycled open and John and Eric walked into the bay, supporting a male Ryleahan between them.

The male was thin, his face gaunt.

“Zehan!” Harlia cried, scooping up their daughter and running the short distance across the bay to embrace him.

Gabrielle wiped away the tears that sprang to her eyes as the family had their emotional reunion.

Eric put an arm around Gabrielle, and she leaned into him. “Good work,” she murmured.

“What am I?” John teased. “Chopped liver?”

Gabrielle reached out and shoved John playfully. “You know I meant you too, you ass.” She released Eric and turned to face the Nardoon family. “Let’s get you all somewhere a little more comfortable than this holding bay.”

“I want to thank you all,” Harlia told them as they walked to the elevator. “That sick bastard gave me no choice but to comply with his demands or lose my family forever. I want you to tell Queen Bethany Anne that I am loyal to the Federation. I’ll do whatever it takes to reverse the damage I’ve done.”

“Tell her yourself,” Gabrielle replied. “She is on her way to meet us.”

Harlia’s face drained of color. “If she intends to punish me for arming Ochan’s ships, I accept her judgment. Just please, don’t take it out on my family. They have suffered enough.”

“Just what kind of monster do you think Bethany Anne is?” John asked.

Gabrielle put a hand on his arm. “You haven’t seen what the media has been saying about us.” She very deliberately didn’t say, “What the media have been saying about Bethany Anne,” knowing what John and Eric’s reaction would be to their Queen being disparaged.

Harlia didn’t know how deep their loyalty went. “We were taught the Queen would execute anyone who angered her.” She blanched at the growls that came from the two men. “I see now that isn’t true. You are good people.”

“No one is blaming you for protecting your family,” John stated, his voice hard. “All the punishment belongs to Ochan Ryleah and his…” he glanced at the child observing him over her mother’s shoulder, “associates.”

Eric nodded. “Yeah, you didn’t have a choice. No one is going to hold that against you.”

“You are helping counteract the potential harm of your actions,” Gabrielle reminded her. “The codes you gave CEREBRO to disarm the warheads your company supplied to the cabal is a good start.”

She took in Zehan’s malnourished state with a look of concern. “We need to get you into a Pod-doc.”

Bethany Anne arrived while Zehan was finishing his medical treatment. She greeted the Nardoons and repeated the assurances Gabrielle had given them before asking permission to search their minds for clues as to the location of the cabal’s secret fleet.

She called Gabrielle, John, and Eric to the small meeting room off the bridge once she was certain the Nardoon family was going to be okay and that they had no further information that would help them.

“What’s the play here, Boss?” John turned his chair around and leaned his arms on the back as he sat down across from Bethany Anne.

“Fuck if I know,” Bethany Anne admitted with a sigh. “Wherever Ochan has those ships hidden, it’s not somewhere CEREBRO has access to.”

Gabrielle frowned. “How many places are there in the Federation that CEREBRO isn’t monitoring?”

Bethany Anne lifted her hands. “There are enough to make it a needle-in-a-haystack situation. When we built the network, it was designed to encompass the borders and connect the inhabited star systems. There’s a lot of dead space between those places.”

Eric’s brow furrowed as a thought occurred to him. “What if the staging post is outside the Federation? We have enough enemies out there. Could be any one of them sheltering the rat bastard.”

Bethany Anne called for CEREBRO. “List any and all instances of ships registered to Ryleah Corp leaving the Federation.”

“Include those on legitimate business?” the EI group inquired in their harmonious tones.

“Especially those,” Bethany Anne confirmed. She had a feeling.

CEREBRO began rattling off a long list of ship names, along with the dates they had crossed the border. Bethany Anne stopped them partway through the list.

“Compile a text list. How many of those ships did not return?” Bethany Anne tapped her nails on the desk. “Include ships reported lost to piracy, accidents, and malfunctions, and include trajectory and timeframes.”

That was a short pause before CEREBRO replied, “We have isolated four hundred seventy-seven ships over a period of thirty-five years.”

Bethany Anne’s mouth turned up at the corner. “Gold Star for Eric. CEREBRO, expect a large-scale attack from beyond our borders and prepare accordingly.”

“Understood,” the EI group responded.

Bethany Anne opened the link to Tabitha.

You have my side quest?

You bet, Bethany Anne told her. Go pick up Nickie and find Ochan’s fleet. I’m sending you everything I have so far.

John waved for her attention and pointed at himself.

John will meet you at…

“Ranger Base One,” he mouthed.

Bethany Anne passed that along and dropped the link after saying goodbye.

She stopped John before he left. “You’re there to stop those two from jumping in before the rest of us can get there. Do not engage the enemy by yourselves.”

John snickered. “Why do you think I volunteered?”

“What about us?” Gabrielle asked after John had left the room.

“Are any of the cabal besides Ochan still breathing?” Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow.

“We didn’t find the CEO of Minet Industries yet,” Gabrielle told her. “He went to ground right after the last cabal meeting, although I think it was more to avoid Ochan’s assassins rather than out of fear of you or us.”

Bethany Anne lifted a shoulder. “Either way, he needs to be found. No one from the cabal is going to survive this.”

“What about you?” Eric asked.

Bethany Anne’s face was set in hard lines. “It’s time I met Ochan in person and expressed my displeasure in terms he cannot misunderstand.”

Chapter Twenty

Rebus Quadrant

Bethany Anne had returned to the Baba Yaga just long enough to pick up her personal runabout, the QBS ScuttleButt, before heading to the border quadrant where Ochan Ryleah’s not-so-secret asteroid base had been delivered by the Leath company who had fitted the engines and interior technology.

She surveyed the remains of the planet Zufira, her lips forming a tight line as she contemplated the ease with which Ochan could have hidden his base in the massive asteroid field. The volcano finally got this place, I take it?

>>Eighty-four years ago,<< ADAM confirmed.

She was aware of the former planet’s status as some kind of religious site only peripherally, having approved Barnabas’ request to have Nickie take a mission out here back when the fiery Grimes was still working out her issues.

Bethany Anne knew there would be some way to pin down the Ryleahan’s position. ADAM had already confirmed that the ion propulsion system the company on Leath had fitted his secret base with would not have the power to take him far from the spot where he’d taken delivery of the asteroid.

Can we trace the asteroid’s output?

>>We can analyze the composition of the particulate matter left behind by the planet’s destruction and look for anomalies in the content,<< ADAM told her with regret in his voice. >>However, since the drive can use a number of elements as a propellant, even if we knew what we were looking for, detecting those emissions in the particulate matter would take a concerted effort and time I know you don’t want to spend.<<

He wasn’t wrong. Bethany Anne lifted a shoulder. It’s going to take what it takes.

She thumbed the button on her collar to activate her helmet and skipped through the Etheric to stand on the hull of the ship.

Ugh, you weren’t kidding about the mess.

The dust cover at the edge of the asteroid field was as thick as sludge. Only the ScuttleButt’s shielding prevented her from being swallowed by a nebulous cloud.

Split the field into sectors in my HUD.

A grid appeared to overlay her vision, stretching as far as she could see.

Thank you. Bethany Anne rolled her shoulders as she gathered Etheric energy and sent it out in a controlled pulse.

She traced the energy as it raced through the hundred-kilometer-square sector, searching for a mass that matched the dimensions in the plans Roka had acquired from the Leath company.

Anything? TOM inquired as the pulse petered out.

Bethany Anne shook her head. One sector down, how many to go?

>>Ninety-nine,<< ADAM replied.

Bethany Anne nodded. Move the ship to the next sector.

Ochan didn’t much like taking care of himself. He didn’t much like the housebots the asteroid came equipped with, either.

Given that he only had those two choices with his valet on the other side of the border, he’d managed to burn his dinner. He poked the cutlet on his plate, scowling at the charred meat and sloppy grains.

He needed to get some staff here, he decided. Maybe a permanent cook, for a start. The restaurant options out here were nonexistent, and he had no intention of allowing the Bitch to win by default because he couldn’t feed himself.

It didn’t occur to him that he might not make it out of this to eat at his favorite places again. His food went cold while he allowed his mind to run free, imagining the destruction his fleet was preparing to rain on the Bitch and her allies.

She might have that behemoth superdreadnought, but that would mean nothing when his ships swarmed the Federation. He pictured Red Rock and the Meredith Reynolds smashed to slivers. Yoll, High Tortuga, Devon, and yes, Ryleah in flames, and smiled.

His smile faded when he looked down at his plate.

He abandoned his dinner in disgust and took to his bedroom, stopping only to grab a fresh bottle of whisky from the storeroom on his way.

Sector thirty-four was cleared. Bethany Anne took a moment to rest, going back inside the ship to get a Coke and a snack to keep her energy up.

She maintained her connection to the Etheric as she ate her sandwich, her heightened senses enhancing the flavor of the German-style sausage and cheese on rye she’d had the food processing unit make for her.

“This isn’t the worst way to spend a day,” she commented to no one in particular.

Of course, knowing you’re going to end it by spilling Ochan Ryleah’s blood makes all the difference, TOM pointed out.

The corner of Bethany Anne’s mouth turned up. True. She took another bite of her sandwich, savoring the way the delicate blend of herbs and spices in the sausage complemented the smoky flavor of the cheese.

Memories of the first cabal she had dealt with back on Earth intruded as she chewed. Bethany Anne considered her emotional state back then. She’d been reeling from the loss of Michael, heartbroken and unable to take those emotions out on the people who had engendered them in her. No matter that those emotions were entirely valid, she’d had her friends and family to prevent her from reacting in a way that would stain her soul for eternity.

This cabal was no less guilty. In fact, they were a thousand times more evil than the Black Cabal, their machinations causing untold pain to millions.

Next, she recalled her actions to pull the rug out from under the Islamic State and the lack of time she’d had to curtail their efforts to force everyone on Earth to follow their doctrine.

Back then, she’d been limited to removing the heads of the Hydra—quite literally.

I recall you had thoughts of becoming the ultimate assassin back then. TOM’s voice held a note of amusement.

I recall you were still a prissy pants pacifist who was horrified by the thought of violence, Bethany Anne replied, smiling.

You soon cured me of that, TOM admitted.

Bethany Anne wiped her hands and got up to put the remains of her meal in the matter reprocessor. It was either get used to it or go mad and force me to remove you from my body. I’m glad you chose sanity, my friend.

I chose logic, TOM countered. My people were foolish to remove aggression from our genome. You taught me that war is but the delivery vehicle for peace.

Not in the hands of those whose only goal is to hoard power for themselves, Bethany Anne modified. But yes, when a powerful entity is fixated on forcing their way of life on others and they are willing to subvert and control to reach their goals, the only recourse is to scorch the earth they stand upon.

ADAM joined the conversation. >>More often than not, your efforts to find diplomatic solutions have been successful.<<

My enemies will always try to paint me as a monster, Bethany Anne reasoned. If I am the one who is reasonable until provoked, that makes them the monsters, and who wants to think of themselves as a monster?

I believe your reputation has more to do with the fact you are willing to go to whatever extreme is necessary to achieve the peace you desire for all living beings.

Bethany Anne considered TOM’s point of view and nodded. Whatever it takes. I have given everything to build the Federation. To create a place of safety for people to live their lives without restriction, as long as they follow the laws laid down by the council. God knows, we have encountered enough species who had no clue what it was to live free while we have been stripping Gödel of her power base.

All three of them had instances that were indelibly etched in their memories from the campaign of the last century and a half.

Her recollection brought Bethany Anne back to the moment and the current situation. Let’s go.

She reactivated her helmet and returned to sit cross-legged on the hull of the ship.

Sector thirty-five was deep in the middle of the asteroid field. The area was as dust-choked as the rest. However, the central sectors were littered with some of the largest chunks of the dead planet, making them the likeliest place Ochan could be hiding.

ADAM resumed scanning while Bethany Anne got back to searching for Ochan’s base with her Etheric version of echolocation.

They cleared three more sectors before they had a stroke of luck in the form of ADAM detecting a slight increase in xenon on the solar wind coming from deeper within the asteroid field.

Track the shit out of that! Bethany Anne exclaimed, her adrenaline surging as the prospect of action grew. Xenon was high on the list of likely propellants, right?

>>Right.<<

TOM, are you sensing any conscious minds nearby?

Not yet.

Well, keep searching, Bethany Anne instructed. You know what to do when you find him.

She got to her feet with renewed energy coursing through her body.

One way or another, this would be over soon.

Ochan took his time bathing. He stepped onto the bathmat, scrunching the fluffy fibers between his toes to dry them.

He chose sleepwear from his closet and absentmindedly dressed for bed, his thoughts still on his plans to destroy the Nacht and the Federation Council in one fell swoop. Elamonn would be here by the time he woke up, and together they would watch the Federation burn before they stepped in to raise the new order from its ashes.

Many believed Ochan to be a cold-hearted person, which suited him and his public image just fine. Besides, in most cases it was true, just not in the case of his eldest son. He had raised the boy after having his first wife executed for getting ideas above her station.

He barely remembered her name. Felicia? Fabricia?

Something like that. He didn’t care.

Her name was Fenitia.

Ochan pushed the mental voice away. He didn’t want to be reminded of those he had disposed of on his climb to supremacy, and truthfully, he didn’t know why his mind would supply the detail after so many years.

All that mattered was his son.

Bethany Anne peeked through the window she’d created in the Etheric and observed the unsuspecting Ryleahan going about his nighttime routine, one mental finger pulling aside the curtain of his thoughts.

TOM…

That tone never means you are going to play nice, the Kurtherian murmured.

Has he played nice? Shall we see?

Bethany Anne concealed herself from Ochan’s mind and took a seat in the wingback chair in the corner of the room.

She delved deeper into his subconscious, freeing the memories the leader of the cabal had repressed over the years.

Although she had little patience for refining her psychic abilities to the extent Michael, Akio, and her children had, her invasion brought those memories bubbling to the surface of Ochan’s mind.

He, of course, had no idea Bethany Anne was responsible for the melancholic nostalgia that overtook him as he sat in his bed, sipping his whisky.

He glanced at the bottle on his nightstand with the thought that maybe he had been drinking too much recently.

You don’t say.

The mental voice mocked him, and hard on its heels came a vision of Xadia’s mother, his first wife. After she had embarrassed him to the point where he had had her poisoned just to shut her up, he had declined to remarry against all advice, siring the remainder of his offspring on low-ranking females willing to rent their wombs for the life of privilege and pampering he had offered in return.

Social status meant everything to every one of his concubines, and those who believed they could seduce him into a marriage contract soon found themselves back on the street.

He had learned the lesson his father had tried and failed to teach him the hard way. Love no one, and your enemies would have no leverage against you.

So, no one, not even Elamonn, knew the place he held in his heart.

Bethany Anne smiled. I have him.

She vanished from the bedroom and returned a moment later holding a stasis container that looked much like a cooler, which she also concealed with Etheric energy.

TOM groaned. Please tell me you’re not going to do what I think you are thinking of doing?

Don’t ask if you don’t want the answer, Bethany Anne replied, her mental laughter echoing through the mindspace as she removed the contents of the box with her thumb and forefinger.

That is disgusting, TOM told her.

Bethany Anne tossed the frozen head of Elamonn Ryleah onto the silk counterpane. It landed squarely in Ochan’s lap.

Ochan screamed and flicked the head away. It rolled to the end of the bed and came to a stop with Elamonn’s face turned toward him.

He let out a howl of anguish as he recognized his son’s features. “Elamonn! Nooooo!”

Bethany Anne felt sorry for him at that moment. Nothing hurt more than discovering the only person you loved was dead.

However…

The broken male was only experiencing the same sense of loss he had inflicted on countless others. Having the rest of his life to feel that pain only amounted to the next few minutes.

Even monsters loved.

Bethany Anne’s sympathy did not preclude the need for Justice to be served.

She refused to look away as Ochan crawled on his hands and knees to the end of his bed and picked up the head. He cradled it to his body, still emitting a wordless, keening wail.

Even in his grief, Ochan’s mind held no regrets for the actions that had led to the moment he held his son’s decapitated head in his arms.

In fact, he was unable to see the correlation between his choices and the loss of the one person he loved.

Bethany Anne realized St. Payback was not the right entity to deliver this lesson. She revealed herself, her hood still concealing most of her face.

Ochan, who had been in shock and hadn’t questioned why and how his impromptu gift had arrived, looked at her shadowy outline blankly. “Who…”

“Call me The Ghost of You Shouldn’t Have Fucking Done That,” Bethany Anne told him, her voice raspy with anger. “On my world, the ghosts in the story offer redemption. I do not.”

Ochan clutched his son’s head to his chest. “Redemption?” Understanding dawned upon him. “You’re the Bitch.”

Bethany Anne smiled, revealing long fangs. “I’m the Queen Bitch, and you are shit out of luck.”

Ochan went for the panic button that would summon the house bots. However, he found he was unable to move a muscle.

Bethany Anne pushed her hood back, revealing red eyes. Her red lips framed her long white fangs. “You are not the only one feeling nostalgic,” she told him, releasing him after she walked around the bed and crushed the panic button. “I have a distaste of cabals that goes back farther than your bloodline has existed. A cabal hurt me once. Badly. I was not in a position to deal out the Justice that cabal deserved. I am in that position now.”

Ochan’s fearful expression wavered. “You intend to make an example of me?”

Bethany Anne’s fangs caught the light of the bedside lamp as her lip curled in disgust. “No, asshole. I’m going to kill you in your bed and leave you here to rot. You do not get the oxygen of publicity. No entry in the history books to mark your passing. Generations to come won’t study your life. Even I will forget you. Your legacy will be obscurity, and Xadia will inherit everything your family has accumulated.”

Ochan’s left hand went to his chest as Bethany Anne constricted the blood flow to his heart. “You can’t be serious!” he stuttered.

“I’m as serious as the heart attack I’m giving you,” Bethany Anne told him without a trace of empathy in her voice. “Die knowing that even if someone finds your miserable corpse, you will be denied the notoriety that comes with pissing me off. You are nothing. Inconsequential. A petty little pissant not worth an honorable death.”

Ochan choked as pain wracked his body.

Bethany Anne returned to the ScuttleButt, her only regret that she could not share the catharsis of Ochan’s death with the people whose lives he had destroyed.

She had, however, gotten something else.

As the Ryleahan breathed his last, she had taken the location of the cabal’s fleet from his mind.

Chapter Twenty-One

QSD Reynolds, Bridge

Reynolds didn’t believe his senses when the bridge door opened and Jiya walked in.

He contained his first reaction, channeling his concern into a physical reaction instead of the verbal outburst he really wanted to give.

“Take a chill pill, Captain,” Jiya told him, taking in the red-faced android with amusement. “Doc cleared me for light exercise.”

Alexis turned in her seat at Jiya’s station and smiled. “Good to see you up and about.”

Jiya snorted. “You should try it from my perspective. I was going stir-crazy in the medbay. I think Doc only agreed to let me out because I was starting to take my frustration out on him.”

Reynolds spluttered, pointing at one of the empty chairs. “At least sit down!”

Jiya paused to briefly embrace Reynolds on her way to Engineering’s station. Even after all this time, no one wanted to sit in Tactical’s seat. “Aye, sir,” she told him with a chuckle.

She wouldn’t admit the walk here had taken up most of the burst of energy that had inspired her excursion and convinced Doc to let her out of the medbay.

Alexis gave her a knowing look, and Jiya sent her a mental warning to keep that knowledge to herself as she eased herself and her gently protruding stomach into the chair.

Geroux and Karnak left their stations to fuss over her.

“Can I get you anything?” Geroux asked. “A drink? A cushion?”

“These seats aren’t made for expectant mothers,” Karnak agreed. “Are you warm enough? I can grab a blanket.”

Jiya flashed a grin and waved away their attention. “I’m good, thanks. I want to know what’s going on around here. How close are we to the Federation?” she inquired to distract them.

“We are taking a detour,” Reynolds informed her. “The Baba Yaga is meeting us at the border where the fleet belonging to the cabal our Queen has been dealing with is stationed, then waiting for the order to attack.”

Jiya nodded. “I knew it! One or both of these babies is picking up the tension in the crew. I figured we were heading into something.”

Beyond Federation Borders, QSD Baba Yaga

Bethany Anne paced in front of the viewscreen. The cabal’s fleet showed as a swarm of small dots moving chaotically in the far distance.

Izanami was monitoring the fleet’s slow progression toward the Federation. She tracked the erratic formations, giving a running commentary of her opinions about the leadership—or lack thereof—that was hindering the enemy from being the formidable force so many ships together should have been.

“The Torcellans have dropped back again. Guess they don’t have the balls to assert themselves over the Ryleahans, or we might have a real fight on our hands. Shame. It’s been a while since I had a good scrap.”

“We’ve been having a ‘good scrap’ for the last hundred fifty years.” Bethany Anne paused to look at the screen. “Besides, don’t discount the Equalists just yet. They were smart enough to get the hell out of Torcellan space before my dad’s people locked the planet down.”

She leaned over the back of her chair. “How far out is the Armada now?”

Izanami waved a hand. “The Reynolds and the Jenkins Phoenix are nearest. Mahi’ sends her regards and hopes you save a few cabal ships for her and her people.”

Bethany Anne smiled. “Tell her there are plenty to go around if they quit dragging their asses and get here before the fleet reaches the border. Are you in contact with CEREBRO?”

Izanami nodded. “They have diverted all available resources to this sector.”

The viewscreen split at Bethany Anne’s command to show the border bristling with extra satellites.

“They’re almost done reconfiguring the BYPS protocols,” Izanami told her.

Bethany Anne let go of her chair and returned to pacing. “Meaning that we are the only line of defense for the moment.”

Izanami intercepted a message from Nurox, the single inhabited planet in the border system. Izanami debated the best way to break the news to Bethany Anne, who read the hesitation in the AI’s demeanor as easily as she would have read her own when looking in a mirror. “Spit it out. What’s the bad news?”

“Nurox is working with the cabal,” Izanami told her Queen simply.

“More fucking traitors?” Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red. “Have CEREBRO put out this message. ‘The Federation will not be subverted. Anyone on that planet who does not renounce the cabal will receive the same punishment as the people aboard those ships. I have no time or will to deal with them individually. I will offer a safe haven aboard the Baba Yaga to those who do not support their government’s decision to betray us and the oath they took to uphold Federation law. The rest can die with the cabal.’”

She turned from the screen and took her chair. “Fire up the ESD. I’m ready to get this party started.”

Izanami turned back to the conn. “As you wish.”

Planet Nurox

The President tore his cabinet an extra asshole apiece after hearing CEREBRO’s message, then sat back to hear how they would advise he get them out of the situation.

“What are we supposed to do now? Caught between Ochan Ryleah and the Queen Bitch, one way or another, we are facing ruin.”

The head of intergalactic affairs, who was responsible for their dealings with the cabal, spoke into the expectant silence left by the President. “No one could have predicted the humans would choose our system as the place they would make their stand against the cabal.”

“This is all your fault!” the head of Agriculture yelled. “And yours for not turning the Ryleahans away!” He pointed an accusatory finger at the President.

“Be careful who you point the finger at,” the President retorted, flushing with anger. “The decision to support the cabal was made by everyone in this room. The onus is on us all, and now our people are going to suffer as a consequence.”

“Not if we do the right thing and renounce our support,” Agriculture announced. “And besides, a majority vote is not the same as a unanimous agreement. I voted against throwing in with Ochan Ryleah, and I know I wasn’t the only one who was against hiding his actions from the Federation.”

The President knew exactly who had voted against supporting the cabal in their quest for control of the Federation. However, the majority of his advisors had welcomed the promise of the economic boost provided by subsidiaries from the cabal-owned companies setting up locations on the planet.

“The question is, where is Ochan Ryleah now?” Intergalactic Affairs asked bitterly. “He promised to protect us in return for turning a blind eye to his ships crossing the border area. He is not replying on any channel.”

“HA!”

Everyone turned to look at the head of Information and Technology.

She laughed again, her voice holding an edge of hysteria. “If you all were any stupider, you’d need watering twice a week. It’s a good thing you are politicians because you haven’t got three brain cells to share between you.”

“Who are you calling stupid?” Intergalactic Affairs blustered, his face reddening with anger.

Information and Technology shook her head. “All Ochan Ryleah bought was our silence and our complicity. CEREBRO logs everything. Everything. Thirty-nine additional satellites have arrived in our space in the last six hours. The BYPS has turned inward on our planet, and for what? So we could soak up the riches of the companies stripping our planet of its resources? I hope you spent your share because the humans don’t take betrayal lightly.”

“There is only one human ship up there,” Intergalactic Affairs countered.

“One Queen’s superdreadnought, you mean,” Information and Technology shot back. “That ship is larger than our capital city, and Queen Bethany Anne is at the helm. If we want to survive this, if we want our people to survive this, we need to renounce our support of Ochan Ryleah and the cabal.”

The President followed the exchange with a sinking heart. Nobody but him knew that Ochan Ryleah’s promises also included one to destroy the planet regardless of the outcome of the encounter with the humans should the Nuroxians decide to turn against the cabal.

He chose not to come clean about his meeting with the Ryleahan or the stick that Ochan had only revealed after he had persuaded his cabinet to vote in favor of the juicy carrot the cabal had dangled in front of him.

The decision had been made. Their fate was set in stone.

“We will not break faith with the Ryleahans,” he told the assembled heads of government. “We will send support to the fleet, everything we have. Our lives depend on the cabal’s victory.”

Information and Technology threw up her hands in disgust. “Count me out. I have no desire to be on the losing side of this.”

She stormed out of the room before the President had the presence of mind to have her detained.

QSD Baba Yaga, Bridge

Izanami was surprised to get a message routed through CEREBRO. She checked the sender’s credentials before turning to Bethany Anne. “You have a message from one of the President’s advisors. It doesn’t appear to be an official communique.”

“Put it through the speaker, please.” Bethany Anne listened to the Nuroxian’s plea for mercy, her heart cold to the garbled explanation of the President’s refusal to renege on his deal with the cabal. “Can we get her onscreen?”

Izanami nodded. “She left her connection to CEREBRO open.”

Bethany Anne greeted the Nuroxian curtly.

“Thank you for agreeing to speak to me,” Information and Technology began, her eyes swiveling wildly on the ends of their stalks.

Bethany Anne found the constant motion nauseating. She cut the Nuroxian off with a raised hand. “Only to tell you your request is denied. If you are against the actions of your government, feel free to board one of the Pods I have sent to the surface for those loyal to the Federation.”

The politician’s mouth dropped open. “I am the government or at least one member of it.”

“Are you speaking for your President?” Bethany Anne inquired archly, already knowing the answer.

“Well, no.” The eyestalks made another frantic revolution.

“Then I have given my edict,” Bethany Anne told her.

“Don’t you care that we have no say in the President’s decision to support the cabal?” she blurted. “The majority may agree with the President, but there are those of us who were against getting involved with the Ryleahans from the start.”

“I have eyes and ears everywhere.” Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “If you are against the cabal, I strongly suggest you get moving unless you want to be ashes with the rest of the traitors.”

Bethany Anne cut the call without saying goodbye and looked over her shoulder at Izanami. “Where is my ESD?”

“It is primed and holding steady at eighty percent power,” Izanami replied. “What are your orders?”

“Hold it until you confirm there will be no civilian casualties, then take out the government buildings and everyone in them. A government’s only purpose is to serve the needs of its people. Everywhere the cabal has insinuated itself, I am seeing public servants put their personal goals before the needs of their people. That shit is ending on Nurox today.”

“What about the ships?” Izanami inquired.

“Which ships?” Bethany Anne turned back to the screen to see six squadrons of fighter ships break the atmosphere of the planet. “Fuckdammit! Really?”

“Do you want me to blast them?” Izanami asked, her hopeful tone of voice revealing the Shinigami side of her personality.

Bethany Anne held up a hand to stay the AI’s bloodthirsty enthusiasm. “Hold off on the surface strike. Hail the ships. Give them the option to back down or be destroyed.”

Izanami did as she was instructed, then turned back to Bethany Anne with a feral grin. “They are not answering.”

“Nobody can say I didn’t give them the chance to do what was right.” Bethany Anne waved a hand. “Fire at half capacity. Let the cabal see what they’re up against.”

Bethany Anne took no pleasure in the destruction that followed. The crews aboard the ships were just following orders. However, there came a point where following orders was the wrong thing to do, and the captains of those ships had reached that point and chosen to go along.

Izanami let rip with the ESD, its bright beam lancing across the space between the Baba Yaga and the lead squadron of Nuroxian ships.

The energy beam tore them apart, filling the void with molten metal. The second and third squadrons were caught by the outer edge of the ESD discharge, losing their left and right flanks respectively.

The remainder of the squadrons peeled off to avoid the same fate, loosing their weapons at the Baba Yaga as they veered in opposite directions.

“What in the hell?” Bethany Anne let out a few more choice curses. “There are civilians in the line of fire!”

Izanami was already acting to save the Pods carrying Nuroxian civilians to the superdreadnought. Hooked into CEREBRO, she took control of the BYPS satellites and shot the missiles to shards.

However, the debris was still traveling at speed.

Bethany Anne saw the Pods were still in danger. Cursing up a storm, she activated her helmet and stepped into the Etheric.

Nurox Ship The Valor, Bridge

The weapons specialist looked up from his screen. “Captain, I’ve lost the starboard railguns.”

The captain strode to the conn and peered at the weapons specialist’s screen, seeing flashing red lights instead of the across-the-board green they’d had a moment before. “Did we take a hit?” he asked, confusion coloring his voice.

“No, sir,” the weapons officer answered. “I am getting a strange reading from the upper hull, though. It appears some object has landed and adhered itself to our ship.”

Bethany Anne ripped another railgun from its mount and tossed it away.

The Pods in the distance were protected by the barrier of Etheric energy she had thrown up on her way to the Nurox ships while Tabitha and Peter covered their retreat to the Baba Yaga.

She could have come out in the ScuttleButt to take care of this. However, the careless actions of the Nuroxian fleet filled her with the need to take out the ships with her own two hands…and her katanas.

She drew both blades and called lightning to run along their lengths.

A hatch opened a couple dozen feet away, and a Nuroxian wearing a shiny silver EVA suit climbed out ahead of three bots that had bendy arms. They were holding a variety of tools obviously designed for removing space detritus from the hull.

Bethany Anne lifted one katana and directed the lightning at the bots.

The bots exploded, and the Nuroxian bot wrangler screamed at the sight of Bethany Anne and dived back through the hatch just in time to avoid getting roasted by her next strike.

Bethany Anne let him go. Everyone aboard this ship would be toast in a few minutes, anyway.

She turned her right katana to point downward with a practiced twist of her wrist. Where can I do the most damage in the least amount of time? she asked ADAM

>>Walk ten paces forward and fifteen to your right,<< he informed her. >>You’ll see a panel outlined in red. There’s a design flaw in these ships: the coolant system is built into the space between the inner and outer hulls. Sever the pipes beneath the panel and get the hell out of there before you get iced.<<

Bethany Anne didn’t bother to lift the panel manually. A quick blast of Etheric energy removed the metal square, and she parted the pipe with another quick wrist maneuver.

She stepped back as the coolant vented into space, her enhanced hearing giving her a unique perspective on the panic that was ensuing inside the ship.

“Serves you damn right for firing on your own people,” Bethany Anne muttered, moving on to the next ship. An explosion ripped through the hull seconds after she left, the overheating of the engine core providing an appropriate end for the crew inside.

As Bethany Anne made short work of the rest of the squadron, she felt the comfort of Michael’s presence enter their private mindspace.

She reached out, sending her love across the connection. Well, hello there.

I sense you have your hands full. Michael’s voice contained the same love and eagerness to be reunited that Bethany Anne felt.

She smiled as she thrust her blade through another pipe. Only if you count my blades. The government of the border planet chose to back the cabal.

Then I guess it sucks to be them right now, Michael replied with amusement. The Reynolds will be there within the hour.

I want you here now. How are the children? And Jiya?

All well, was the reply.

Bethany Anne felt a shift in the mental energy. What are you doing?

My wife tells me she wants me by her side, I move heaven and earth to make it so.

Bethany Anne could not deny there was a certain satisfaction in knowing Michael would be with her sooner. I’ll save you a few ships if you hurry.

Your loving arms and the destruction of our enemies. Now that is an offer I can’t refuse.

A wave of anticipation crossed the space between them.

Michael, I’m trying to concentrate, damn you. Bethany Anne laughed. Just get here before I have to work my frustration about missing you out on the enemy.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Love made people do crazy things. Whether the love of another person, an ideal, or a home planet, the impetus to give one’s all to achieving the peak of that love consumed them, driving one to disregard the little voice in the back of their head that pleaded for them to exercise some goddamn caution.

Elagar Ryleah was in the grip of such a love.

Not for him the twisting machinations of a female. His love was his devotion to ensuring his ascendance through the ranks of the family.

Modeling his behavior on that of his uncle Ochan, he found his heart skipping a beat every time he removed an obstacle from his path to the big leagues.

Or when an obstacle was removed for him.

Elamonn’s death at the hands of the Bitch Queen and Ochan’s sudden disappearance had been cause for concern amongst the nominal leaders of the cabal, but not for Elagar. He saw only the opportunity for advancement and a greater share of the spoils once the Nacht were defeated and the Federation was laid open for the Ryleahans’ hostile takeover to be completed.

His crew was of the same mind, eager to ride Elagar’s coattails to success.

They cheered as they cut up the ship of one of the minor Ryleah cousins, forcing it to pull back or crash into the ship belonging to Boran, Ochan’s only surviving brother and Elagar’s father.

Boran moved for no Ryleahan save his brother, and he had no compunction when it came to keeping the younger generation in its place.

Elagar knew better than to anger his father. Pushing his dominance over the lesser family members would please the cantankerous old bastard no end. Scratching up his ship would earn him a public punishment and the embarrassment that went along with it.

Having no wish for his father to scupper him for some imagined offense, Elagar instructed his crew to fall back and harass the Torcellans instead.

It was poor sport, to say the least. The Equalists evaded their attempts to bully them to the outer flanks of the fleet, their small, light craft built for quick maneuvering easily avoiding the bulky warships of the Ryleahans.

Elagar soon tired of the game.

He was about to order his crew to return to the head of the fleet when his ship’s sensors were whited out by a massive energy discharge coming from near the planet Nurox.

“Report!” Elagar demanded as the bridge was plunged into temporary darkness that was relieved by the emergency lights blinking on as the emergency systems kicked in.

“We’ve lost sensors!”

“Comms, too!”

“Rerouting life support through secondary systems.”

“Shields are down to sixty percent and falling.”

Elagar cursed under his breath. Showing fear was a weakness that would lose him the respect of his crew, something no Ryleahan captain could afford if he wanted to survive.

He found himself wishing he’d chosen to join the other side of the pincer, betting that they were having an easier time without mysterious energy discharges knocking out their ships’ systems.

“Get us back to optimal operating parameters,” he ordered.

Bethany Anne returned to the Baba Yaga, a little regretful that Michael hadn’t made it back in time to help her work out her frustration on the Nuroxian fleet.

The man still knew how to drive her up the wall, even after all their years together.

A small smile touched her lips as she walked into the armory on the top deck and sensed him getting close.

The Etheric opened and Michael stepped out, his shirt undone to the navel due to missing buttons and his skin glistening with sweat from the exertion of crossing the Etheric at top speed to reach her.

Michael was well aware of the effect his appearance had on Bethany Anne. He flashed an easy smile as he discarded his ruined shirt. “As much as I appreciate the way you’re looking at me right now, your attention will have to wait. There is a second fleet approaching from inside the Federation.”

Bethany Anne’s urge to have his hands running through her hair was replaced by abject annoyance. “Fuck, what?”

Michael made for the case holding his battle armor. “I stopped to scan the minds of the fleet captains,” he explained.

“Is that why I had to deal with the Nuroxians by myself?” Bethany Anne asked as she returned her katanas to their mounts.

Michael held out his arms as he stepped onto the armor case. The EI embedded in his armor began the process of wrapping his body in the nanocyte-infused plating. “Mmhmm.”

Bethany Anne let out a growl. “Give me a minute.”

She reached out to Lance, and her father’s voice joined the mindspace a moment later.

What is it, Pumpkin?

More fuckery, Bethany Anne told him flatly. There is another fleet preparing to attack the Federation from inside the borders.

She glanced in Michael’s direction. “Get in on this, would you? My dad needs to know everything you got from the captains.”

Michael and Lance exchanged greetings, then Michael filled them both in on the details of what he had learned.

The exact location of the second staging post was kept from them. However, the rendezvous point for both fleets is… What did the Ardaki rename their planet again?

Soriel, Bethany Anne supplied as she took her Jean Dukes Specials out of the lockbox where she kept them when she wasn’t using them.

The secondary fleet has orders to destroy the planet before meeting up with the primary fleet, Michael informed them. They intend to attack Red Rock and the Meredith Reynolds.

They’ll have a hell of a time trying to find Red Rock, Lance told them. I moved us to the Mirage Nebula after we cleared out the Ryleahan infestation and reclaimed the House of Arbitration.

Bethany Anne knew the nebula well, having used the inhospitable area to hide certain items during the folding of the Empire. The composition of the nebula and its high concentration of gamma radiation made it impossible for anyone without Etheric technology to survive there. So, Red Rock is out of the equation. What do we think the odds on the cabal moving into Yollin space when they realize Red Rock is not within their reach are?

I have Meredith working with CEREBRO to locate the secondary fleet, Lance told them. But my money is on the cabal attempting to hit the Meredith Reynolds the moment they discover Red Rock is gone.

Bethany Anne suppressed her rising anger. Fine. Let them come. Evacuate the Meredith Reynolds. All nonessential personnel are to be moved down to the surface of Yoll, and all military personnel are to man their battlestations. See how those fuckers like eating my ESD.

I’ll make them choke on it, Lance assured her in a grim tone. Meredith already has my instructions. Everything will be prepared within the hour. Asshats think they can take the Federation by force. I’m going to make them sorry they were born.

He paused for a moment. Take care out there, okay? Antimatter weaponry is nothing to sniff at.

Bethany Anne soaked up the care in her father’s voice. We always do, Dad. We always do. One last thing. There are about to be a few hundred thousand people in need of a replacement home for the planet I’m about to destroy. See that the terraforming committee provides one as a matter of urgency. They can bill me afterward.

Mirage Nebula, Red Rock

Lance took a deep breath to calm himself after Bethany Anne and Michael said goodbye. His blood pressure was not a factor. However, it wouldn’t do to unleash his anger just yet.

He was saving it for the cabal.

Meredith’s cool tones came through the speaker embedded in his desk. “General, Commander Nikolayevich has begun the evacuation of the Meredith Reynolds and has the Guardian Marines preparing for an assault on the station.”

Lance nodded and got up from his desk. “Good. What ships are available right now to take me to Yollin space? There’s no way I’m sitting this one out.”

“If you don’t mind hitching a ride with the Rangers, the Achronyx II is en route, along with the Penitent Granddaughter.”

Lance grabbed his jacket from the stand by the door and shuffled his arms into it. “Fine by me. I’ll take a Pod to meet the Achronyx. Please let Akio know I’m on my way.”

“As you wish,” Meredith intoned.

Lance strode out of his office, switching his connection with Meredith to his neural implant. “And get me Georg’s office. My daughter is about to unleash her temper, and the fallout needs to be contained.”

Beyond Federation Borders, QSD Baba Yaga

Bethany Anne and Michael made their way to the bridge, where they found Izanami dancing between the various stations, humming Ride Of The Valkyries as she coordinated with CEREBRO to cast the BYPS net across the liminal space between Nurox and the border.

The AI turned with a bright smile when Bethany Anne and Michael walked in through the lower-level doors. “Nice work with the Nuroxian fleet. Those assholes deserved to die screaming for putting their people in the line of fire.”

Bethany Anne waved a hand. “Sometimes a more personal response is appropriate. Endangering the innocent is one of those times. How is it going down on the planet?”

Izanami rolled her eyes and sighed. “There weren’t too many who agreed with their President’s decision. I was having difficulty transporting so many via the Pods and transporters, so I had everyone on board with their own ship head down to pick up the groups wishing to be brought to safety.”

“A Dunkirk moment, then.” Michael massaged his temples with his fingers. “This ship is beyond crowded. I can sense the fear and discomfort the Nuroxians are feeling at being confined in close quarters.”

“Well, I did have to fit three times the ship’s maximum capacity aboard,” Izanami countered a little snarkily. “It’s standing room only on most decks, barring the medical facilities, which have patients in the corridors due to overcrowding. It’s less than ideal.”

“I am thankful their population did not number in the millions. Otherwise, there would be no recourse for them.” Bethany Anne’s heart hurt for the people about to lose their home. However, a promise was a promise, and the government had chosen their fate. “They will be fine until we can spread them out among the rest of the Armada. The Reynolds and the Jenkins Phoenix will be here soon, and we can get them quartered for transport to their new planet.”

She settled into the captain’s chair and brought up the holointerface for the main ESD. The sooner this was over, the sooner they could get to the Meredith Reynolds. “The evacuation is complete, right?”

“Yes,” Izanami confirmed. “I’m just overseeing the last groups in and the external docking of the auxiliary fleet since the hangar bays are at full occupancy.”

“And the cabal fleet is within sensor range?” Bethany Anne’s fingers flew over the interface as she spoke.

“They were temporarily powered down after I fired on the Nuroxian fleet,” Izanami informed her. “That deployment at only forty percent power was enough to knock out their power grids, but not enough to permanently disable the cabal ships.”

Bethany Anne slid the power gauge to one hundred percent, and Izanami emitted a panicked squeak. “Bethany Anne! Wait! I need to reconfigure my shielding if you are planning to max out the ESD.”

“Whatever,” Bethany Anne told her. “But I intend to reduce that planet to dust, so do it quickly.”

Michael voiced his concern. “Using the ESD to disrupt the planetary core will cause outages. Is there really any need to risk the ship, especially while we are over capacity in terms of passengers?”

“Of course, I could just open a rift in the planet’s core…” Bethany Anne tapped her nails on her armrest. “But we are looking to remind the cabal that they have no fucking chance of overcoming the Federation. The ESD is a more…visual statement. One that cannot be mistaken for a natural event.”

Michael knew there was no talking Bethany Anne out of making a statement when she had her mind set.

“I’m done adjusting the shielding,” Izanami announced. “I have the secondary systems ready to pick up the strain since firing the main ESD at full power will drain the primary systems.”

Bethany Anne ceased her tapping. “Thank you, Izanami. Please issue a ship-wide notification of the power disruption.”

Izanami’s recorded voice could be heard filtering through from the corridor as the warning went out across the Baba Yaga. “Done,” the AI told Bethany Anne.

The Queen nodded and deployed the ESD.

Nurox, Capitol Building, President’s Office

His orders to prevent people from leaving for the human superdreadnought had gotten the President nothing but a lot of dead soldiers. The humans apparently did not appreciate the use of force and had wasted no time taking out the military units he had sent to apprehend their vessels.

Those who hadn’t died had deserted, along with more than half the civilian population.

The remainder were his staunchest believers, those who could see proof of his wrongdoing and still believe their President had their best interests at heart.

The specter of the superdreadnought hung in the upper atmosphere, blocking the early afternoon sunlight that would normally have been dappling his carpet at this time of day and providing a cheerful atmosphere as he went about the business of running a colony.

There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” the President called, knowing it would only be one of three people since his guards had been instructed to only allow his most loyal advisers to pass.

The door opened and Intergalactic Affairs walked in, his clothing uncharacteristically rumpled and his eyestalks waving woefully.

“The situation has become dire,” Intergalactic Affairs began without preamble. “The cabal is still not responding to our attempts to contact them. It may be time to get you out of here, sir.”

The President shook his head. “I’m not leaving. What are the humans going to do?”

Intergalactic Affairs knew very well what the humans were capable of. “Sir, they are likely to destroy this building and everything in it. Please reconsider. The people need you.”

“The people need me here!” the President countered in a brusque voice. “I will not be seen abandoning my office. This will be over soon, and I don’t want to give those damn leftists any ammunition that will prevent me from getting a second term.”

Suddenly, the reduced sunlight didn’t matter anymore.

Every light in the building flickered, and a brilliant white light from the superdreadnought cut the sky in two.

The President still didn’t make a move to save himself.

His security detail flung the door open and ushered him and Intergalactic Affairs out, rushing them toward the bunker beneath the building.

It was too late.

The Capitol building took the full force of the ESD. The energy beam vaporized the building, the hill it stood on, and everyone and everything in a ten-kilometer radius.

Then the ESD tore through the planet’s crust and superheated the magma at the core.

All over Nurox, fault lines burst apart as the force of the strike caused the molten core to escape any way it could.

Bethany Anne watched as Nurox broke apart.

The bridge’s lights returned as Izanami got control of the power fluctuations, and she fired the ESD again.

Already cracking under the pressure, the planet’s crust separated in violent sprays of lava and steam, the oceans boiling away and obscuring the Baba Yaga’s cameras.

Another few minutes, and the planet was a lifeless hulk.

“We have incoming from the Reynolds,” Izanami announced. “They are coming up on the rear of the cabal fleet.”

Bethany Anne turned away from the death throes of the planet on the screen. “Take us out to meet them.”

QBS Achronyx II, Yollin Space

Lance punched the air as he jumped out of his seat. “Got the bastards!”

Akio walked over and peered at the text stream Lance had been following. “Ah. I see. This changes things.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Not by much. Now we know how the cabal managed to hide a whole goddamn fleet under CEREBRO’s noses.”

Akio inclined his head. “Achronyx, inform Nickie of the locations where the cabal is hiding their ships.”

“She already has six of them under surveillance,” Achronyx replied a few moments later. “She wants to know if she has your approval to ‘blow those fucking crap-headed cock-polishers to shit.’”

Akio chose to translate that to something a little more palatable, a technique he’d had to develop around his Number Two. “No. No blowing anything up just yet. The Penitent Granddaughter is to remain at a distance and track the cabal ships to their destination.”

“You could just say the Meredith Reynolds,” Achronyx grumbled. “You’re no fun.”

“My idea of fun is removing the snark from your personality matrix so I can get a modicum of respect,” Akio responded. “You still want to have fun?”

“Message relayed,” Achronyx answered.

“That’s what I thought.” Akio opened a video link to the Meredith Reynolds and had Meredith put him through to Maxim. “How are you doing, Commander?”

The Were in charge of the Guardian Marines in Peter’s absence flashed perfect white teeth as he grimaced. “I will be doing a lot better once I have a clue about the direction this cabal is planning to attack us from.”

Akio smiled. “Then let me assist with the improvement of your mood, Commander. My Rangers are tracking multiple groups of ships that are converging on the Meredith Reynolds from these coordinates.”

He sent the data to the command center at the heart of the Meredith Reynolds. Maxim’s grimace transformed into a wide grin. “Much appreciated, my friend.”

Lance stuck his head into the picture. “Give them hell, Maxim. We’re on our way.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kezzin Space, Aboard the Penitent Granddaughter

Adelaide and Durq observed Nickie’s preparations with some confusion.

The indomitable Grimes had strapped blades, guns, grenades, and all kinds of other goodies to every part of her armor.

“Are you expecting us to be attacked?” Addie inquired.

Nickie snorted. “What? Fuck, no! I’m the one doing all the attacking. I thought I’d be kicking ass with Aunt Tabitha, but there was nothing happening at the border, so here we are.” She kind of wished Tabitha had come with her, thinking of the laughs they would have had taking out the cabal. She loved her crew, but they tended to get concerned every time she showed signs of wanting some action.

Durq had his fretting face on, proving her point. “Ranger One’s instructions were to follow at a distance.”

Nickie wagged a finger at him, shaking her head. “Durq-y, Durq-y. When are you going to learn? If there’s one thing that Akio knows, it’s that I’m going to do the exact opposite of what I’m told. Why do you think he worded his orders that way? He expects me to do whatever the fuck I want, and he doesn’t want the ball-ache of reprimanding me for disobeying a direct order.”

“Akio’s orders were pretty clear,” Addie pointed out.

Nickie nodded. “Sure they were. The Granddaughter has to follow at a distance. Nothing in that order precludes me from taking a Pod over to those ships and making shish-kabobs out of the crews. Mere can make sure the rest of the fleet doesn’t find out I fucked them up, and there will be six less ships attacking the Meredith Reynolds. My mother is on that station.”

Given that they all knew Nickie’s relationship with Lilian was strained at the best of times, no one on the bridge bought her reasoning for one minute.

Addie turned to Grim with a pleading look. “Can’t you talk some sense into her?”

Grim just laughed.

“Hey!” Nickie exclaimed. “I’m performing a public fucking service here. Asshole removal is a specialist skillset, I’ll have you know.”

Grim bowed deeply. “One I will leave to the expert. Just make sure you’re back in time for dinner, okay? I’m making your favorite.”

Nickie put on a simpering smile. “Mmmm, canned beans on toast. I can’t wait.”

Grim pointed at the door. “Respectfully, get the hell out.”

Nickie’s laughter trailed behind her as she skipped out the door. “Love you too, you grumpy old Yollin.”

Aknon Ryleah was in the middle of his third course when the alert flashed on his wallscreen.

The alert vanished, puzzling him for a moment. He put down his knife and fork and opened the internal comm channel to his XO. “What was that?”

“Looks to be a glitch in the system,” the reply came. “Everything is showing as nominal, sir.”

Aknon’s bristles relaxed. “Double-check and report back if anything changes.”

That was cutting it a bit fucking fine, Mere, Nickie bitched as the hatch cycled shut behind her.

Oh, I’m sorry, the EI replied. Next time I’ll just make a connection out of thin air and hack the ship that way, shall I?

What the fuck is the damage with the grumpy-ass people today? Nickie pondered, only half-joking.

I don’t know, Meredith retorted. Maybe we are concerned our illustrious leader has gotten the itch at exactly the wrong time and is about to alert the cabal to our awareness of their plans?

Wow, so much faith. Nickie pressed herself into an alcove as a group of Ryleahans trooped through the corridor. How about you tell me where the head bacon bit’s quarters are and shut the fuck up criticizing me? I swear, I liked you better when you were stuck on psychoanalyzing me.

I could do that and point out your mistakes at the same time, Meredith offered in an acid tone.

I’m good, thanks. Nickie left the alcove and continued down the corridor. Just the location of the captain will be fine.

Meredith capitulated, still grumbling.

Nickie considered her approach to dealing with the Ryleahans as she traversed the ship, avoiding the crew members she saw along the way. She would have to keep one of them alive to gain access to the other ships.

If she could find one who valued their continued ability to draw breath over their family loyalty.

The Ryleah family was known to be greedy. Not the good kind of greedy, where the desire to achieve a goal translated into progression for all. No, they were fixated on their own advancement, and the people they trod on to get what they wanted be damned.

Luckily for the crew, the captain’s quarters were situated beyond the bridge, away from the main parts of the ship.

That meant they got to live a little longer.

Following Meredith’s directions, Nickie eased into the vent above her head and crawled through the air ducts until she had navigated around to the main corridor leading to the bridge.

A left turn, then another, then the smell of roasted meat wafted up from the captain’s quarters, teasing her nose.

Her stomach growled, reminding her she’d skipped lunch in her excitement to get over here. She hoped Grim hadn’t actually been offended and that there really were going to be tacos for dinner.

Mere, can you do something about my stomach thinking my throat has been cut?

The empty feeling vanished as Meredith pulled on the Etheric and replenished Nickie’s energy.

Nickie paused as the rush of energy hit her. Fuck my life. I know I say this every time, but that’s better than any drug I’ve ever taken.

Meredith sniffed. Well, I’m not going to let you get distracted because you don’t take care of yourself. Eat something before you leave for a mission next time.

Nickie snickered. Yes, Mom. She resumed her progress, coming to the vent in the captain’s quarters shortly after.

She peered through the slats of the grate and saw the captain sitting at a table laden with empty dishes. Shit, Nickie commented, looking at the mess on the table. I don’t think there is any food. This fucker has eaten it all.

The Ryleahan stopped eating and looked around, sensing that something in his environment had changed.

Nickie was careful not to give her position away as she turned her body around so she was feet first to the grate. She drew her Jean Dukes Special and kicked the cover out. It flew out and landed on the table, scattering the dishes with a rattling clatter and startling the captain into falling off his chair.

Nickie slid out of the duct, landing cat-like in front of him. She shot him in the face before he could raise the alarm.

Talk about anticlimactic!

Nickie strode over the captain’s corpse, her next three shots making a Nickie-sized hole in the door to the bridge.

The crew was slow to react to the presence of the Ranger.

“Eat shit and die, motherfuckers!” Nickie announced as she shot the four bridge officers who recovered quickly enough to get to their weapons. “I’m not going to waste my breath talking. You know what you’ve done, assholes.”

The navigation officer’s head vanished in a fine spray of blood and brain matter as her next shot hit home.

Alarms sounded. Nickie hit the weapons officer in the face with the butt of her pistol, then fired and took out the speakers to her left and right. The shrill sound ceased to be overwhelming, reduced to the single speaker in the comms console.

“You. DON’T. Fucking. Attack. My Family. And. Live!” Nickie yelled, punctuating her words with shots. “Scream all you like! No one can help you now.”

Internally, she checked that was true. You cut their external communications, right, Mere?

You ask a lot of dumbass questions for such a smart woman, was Meredith’s only answer.

You have a smart mouth for a bunch of code I can pry out of my head. Nickie ducked as one of the bridge officers threw his chair at her.

She shot him in the face and turned on the communications officer. The ship lurched, and her Jean Dukes Special jumped in her hand. Her shot went wide, and the flechette struck the navigation console.

Not the ship! Meredith chastised, her voice containing a note of panic.

Fuck the ship! Nickie retorted.

You’re ON the ship! Meredith reminded her.

The conn sparked, releasing a stream of blue smoke. The ship juddered as it impacted…something.

Fuck! Nickie grabbed both Ryleahans converging on her and smacked their heads together as the viewscreen flickered to life.

Double-fuck! Nickie fired at the comms station, knocking out the incoming video link.

She vaulted the railing between her and the comms station and started mashing buttons. “A little help, Meredith!”

Too late, the remaining speaker emitted a loud whine, followed by an angry voice.

“What the hell is going on over there? Report!”

The one surviving Ryleahan officer on the bridge, who happened to be the XO, dived for the microphone.

Nickie pressed the barrel of her Jean Dukes Special to her temple. “Touch that microphone without my express approval and you die. Make any move I don’t like and you die. Do what I tell you, and you might just live through this.”

She met the XO’s beady stare with her cool gray gaze. The officer swallowed hard and nodded, seeing death in the Ranger’s eyes.

“Tell them there’s a malfunction and to go on without you,” Nickie instructed. “Don’t deviate from how you would normally talk to whoever that is.”

The XO nodded.

“Good choice,” Nickie told her, waving her permission for the XO to take the microphone.

The Ryleahan had trouble with her shaking hands. She missed the button on the microphone the first time but got it on the second try. “Sorry, Maldin. We have a malfunction in our navigation array.”

“You don’t say,” was the reply. “You nearly took out the Conquest! Hanlin is pissed.”

“Proximity sensors are out too, I’m afraid,” the XO continued. “Looks like we’re out of this one.”

Nickie rolled the hand holding her Jean Dukes Special, mouthing, “Wrap it up, Porkette.”

“Repairs are underway, but we’re dead in the water for the moment.” The Ryleahan’s eyes didn’t leave the barrel pointed at her for a second. “You’ll have to go on without us.”

The voice laughed. “I’ll just bet old Aknon is stuffing his face while his crew is running around like headless Tarkonian guineafowls to fix it.”

“I couldn’t say, sir,” the XO replied.

“Tell that greedy sonofaswine I said hard luck,” the voice commanded before the speaker went dead.

Nickie finished what she started and destroyed the comms station with six well-placed shots.

The XO slowly backed away.

“And just where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Nickie demanded.

The XO flung up her hands in submission. “You said you wouldn’t kill me!”

“I said you could live if you did what I told you.” Nickie clarified. “I’m not done with you yet.”

Ugh, a hostage? Meredith complained.

“You can shut the hell up,” Nickie retorted. Realizing she had spoken aloud, she grimaced at the XO, who was looking at her in confusion. “Not you. The damned voice in my head.”

Which helped nothing.

“Just get to walking,” Nickie ordered. “We’re going to pay a visit to your friend Maldin next. I need your credentials to get aboard his ship.”

Over on the Penitent Granddaughter, the crew tracked Nickie’s progress through the cabal ships as one by one, they stopped dead.

Grim got up from Nickie’s chair as the sixth and final ship ground to a halt. “That ought to calm her down for a while. I’m going to go and get dinner on.”

Adelaide nodded. “I suppose it’s been a little quiet at the base recently. An outlet for her…um…energy can only be a good thing .”

Beyond Federation Borders

The wreckage of Nurox defined the battlefield, forming a boundary everyone wanted to avoid.

At the outskirts, Federation ships sent by Lance to rescue the dispossessed Nuroxians Gated out as each was filled to capacity via the transporters.

Bethany Anne’s adrenaline surged as the superdreadnoughts released their ancillary fleets.

She gripped the armrests of her chair, her nails slipping into the grooves she’d worn into the polished metal over the course of a thousand battles, completely focused on directing her response via her HUD.

The Baba Yaga, the Reynolds, and the Jenkins Phoenix were positioned equidistant from one another, the ancillary ships spread out to counter the almost five hundred ships the cabal had brought to bear.

The cabal had recalibrated their shielding to counter the effects of the ESD energy washing through the battlefield. However, there wasn’t much they could do about direct fire but offer up a prayer and kiss their asses goodbye.

Faced with the realization they were outgunned despite their greater numbers, they had split into smaller groups, impending failure and the fear of death fostering a level of cooperation that had Izanami whooping with the joy of the battle she craved.

The void was thick with exchanged weapons fire, mostly energy discharges and kinetics from the railguns.

The cabal was being prudent with their antimatter missiles. Despite each of the warheads in their loadouts only containing a fraction of a gram of antimatter, the destruction when used was complete and irreversible.

Somewhere in the many tracks of active thought running through her mind, Bethany Anne questioned whether her strength and will had been the catalyst for the development of such extreme weapons capabilities.

Then Jean’s yelling pulled her back to the present.

The irascible engineer was standing on the mezzanine railing, overlooking her team at work applying Harlia Nardoon’s information to the challenge of detonating the cabal’s loadouts. Her plan involved destabilizing the magnetic containment fields that prevented the antimatter from annihilating the ships that were carrying them.

“People! Do not fuck up the order ADAM has given you! The tolerance for error is 0.002 percent! Concentrate, damn you! It’s like herding fucking preschoolers! Get it wrong, and we’ll all be fucking gamma-irradiated space dust, along with the ships you’re fucking messing with! Christ, the fleet is still out there! Bethany Anne, do something about that, will you?”

Bethany Anne was aware that the plan relied on Jean’s team controlling the “explosions.” The equations ADAM and TOM had been working on to ensure the drones Jean’s people had built were set to trigger a breakdown of the safeguards that protected the antimatter warheads each ship was carrying in a sequence that would prevent a cataclysmic wave of gamma rays from flooding the border systems.

“We all set?” Bethany Anne inquired.

Jean grinned and gave Bethany Anne a thumbs-up. “Just clear the damn field. It’s about to get messy out there, and I want my husband back with all his appendages intact, if you know what I mean.”

“We all know what you mean, Jean.” Bethany Anne smiled as she directed the ancillary fleet to retreat and instructed the superdreadnoughts to set their Etheric baffles to maximum to push back any cabal ships that dared to follow. “ESDs down and shields to maximum! We’re going to see some fireworks, courtesy of Jean Dukes’ team,” she announced fleet-wide. “You can thank her in person later.”

“Fireworks?” Jean retorted. “There’s enough antimatter stored on those ships to take out half the Federation!”

Bethany Anne winked at her. “Then the light show should be pretty fucking spectacular, right?”

Jean’s laughter filled the bridge. “You bet your ass it will.”

Boran Ryleah leapt out of his chair when the view of his son’s ship was replaced by a blinding light. “What just happened?” he demanded. “Where did Elagar’s ship go?”

Another Ryleahan ship exploded, and another.

Boran’s tactical officer was screaming instructions as the cabal fleet went up around them like Roman candles.

His tactical officer turned to him with a look of horror. “I’m picking up massive gamma-ray emissions and—” She broke off as the ship went dark. “EMP waves, sir.”

Boran didn’t have time to grieve for his only child.

Without warning, his ship was engulfed by an explosion, killing everyone aboard instantly.

Mirage Nebula, Red Rock

Patricia was pouring afternoon tea for herself and Kevin, a tradition they’d taken up after he had left home to join the military and follow in his father’s footsteps.

Whenever he wasn’t on deployment, the two of them got together on the third Friday of the month and spent a few hours in each other’s company.

Patricia passed Kevin a delicate bone-china cup with a pale blue glaze and reached for the tongs in the sugar bowl. “One lump or two, honey?”

Kevin wrinkled his nose. “Three and a splash of milk, please, Mom.”

Patricia shook her head in amusement. “The point of tea is to appreciate the flavors, which you can’t do if you overload it with sugar and milk. “

Kevin enjoyed the banter they shared over the right way to drink tea. “My idea of a good cup of tea is one that caters to my taste for sugar and caffeine.”

“Heathen!” Patricia exclaimed with a twinkle in her eyes. Nevertheless, she humored him, tonging three cubes out of the sugar bowl and dropping them into his cup.

“I appreciate you staying behind to keep me company,” she admitted, steadfastly ignoring how much milk he added. “I haven’t been feeling the same since that awful alien shot at me.”

Kevin couldn’t lie. He’d been just as affected by his mother’s brush with death. His was to protect, however, and all he knew to do was be there for her while she worked through her trauma.

He wanted to wrap his arms around her waist and soak up some motherly comfort like he had when he was a boy having nightmares about Ookens.

Instead, he reached out and put a hand over Patricia’s. “I’m here, Mom. I’m not going anywhere until Dad gets back.”

Patricia sighed. “I know I’m being silly. We’re perfectly safe here in the nebula.”

Meredith interrupted via the speaker. “That might not be true. I’m picking up… Oh, shit!”

The speaker cut out.

“Meredith, what’s going on?” Patricia called.

No answer came.

“Meredith?” Patricia repeated. She looked at Kevin in alarm when the EI failed to reply. “She must have gone into defense mode. But…who could survive this nebula long enough to attack the Rock?”

Kevin abandoned his teacup to the table. “Call Dad. I’m going to the ops center to find out what the hell is so bad it made Meredith curse.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Yollin Space, QBBS Meredith Reynolds, All Guns Blazing

Bobcat, William, and Marcus were putting the finishing touches on the trap they’d laid for the cabal, based on the designs Jean had sent them.

The Achronyx was docked nearby and was being loaded with the final batch of the drones they’d spent the last seventy-two hours building without sleep.

“Why does Tina have to be all the way over on Devon?” Bobcat groaned.

Marcus looked up from his calculations. “You’ve gotten too used to her being here to do the math for you.”

“But she does it so much faster than me!” Bobcat sighed and returned to scribbling on his datapad.

“And with fewer errors,” Marcus agreed, sliding the corrections back to him.

William was quiet for once, absorbed in applying the completed equations to the drone net.

They were distracted by a scene across the bar from them.

All three turned their heads to shoot a surreptitious glance at the group of tourists being ushered out by the bar staff. While most of the patrons had taken the orders to evacuate to the center of the station seriously, the obvious leader of this group was complaining vociferously about having traveled across the Federation to visit the original and most famous bar in the franchise.

The bar staff was doing their best to be polite in the face of belligerence, which was only earning them derision from the disgruntled tourists.

The door to the back office opened, and the current manager Samantha walked out to see what the disturbance was. She took in the tourists and BMW sitting at the table that was traditionally reserved for Bethany Anne.

“Want us to step in?” Bobcat asked.

Samantha shook her head. “It’s fine. We get a bunch of these assholes—” She suddenly remembered who she was speaking to. “I mean, paying customers…”

“No one ever said those two things were mutually exclusive,” Bobcat reassured her.

“What he said,” Marcus added, giving the group the side-eye.

Samantha blushed. “I guess you guys would know, seeing you ran this place before anyone else.”

“But they’re not being asked to leave!” one of the tourists yelled, pointing at the table where Team BMW was sitting to work. “We came here expecting good service! You can bet I’m going to leave a bad review.”

“Oh, no,” Bobcat snarked. “A bad review from an obviously maladjusted asshat. Whatever will we do to survive in this cutthroat business without his approval?”

The tourist pushed past the bar staff and stomped to the tables near the bar. He pulled out a chair with a loud scrape and planted his rear in the seat. “I want service!” he demanded as his companions followed him.

William got to his feet, his forehead set in a deep frown. “Oh, hell, no.”

Bobcat and Marcus exchanged glances as William strode over to the group, his shoulders squared in furious determination.

“They’ve gone and done it now,” Bobcat murmured.

William stopped in front of the tourist, planted his hands on his hips, and leaned down to place his face an inch from the guy’s face. “We aren’t going anywhere because, A, we own this bar, and, B, we are currently putting together the defense that’s gonna save your sorry asses from getting blown to shit by the enemy ships on their way to destroy the station.”

The tourist blustered, “No one told us about any attack.”

William cocked an eyebrow. “You’re more than welcome to stay and experience it for yourself if you want to find out what a bug feels like when it gets trapped by the zapper.”

There were no takers. Most of the male’s companions had the grace to look ashamed and started to get up from the table.

William waved to catch the attention of a group of four Guardians who were walking past the bar.

The Guardians diverted from wherever they had been headed and walked over to the table, led by Sergeant Geraint, the unit’s leader.

“Bar’s supposed to be closed,” Geraint told William.

William nodded. “Sure is. These people seem to think rules don’t apply to them.”

Geraint fixed the ringleader with a hard stare as he had Meredith confirm the man’s identity in his HUD. “Jack Robert, isn’t it?”

The man looked uncomfortable under the Were’s scrutiny. “Um, yeah?”

Geraint narrowed his eyes. “Did you somehow miss the station-wide alert?”

The man’s eyes shifted to the left, then down when he was met by equally unamused looks from the rest of the Guardian Marines.

“So, you thought you were too special to pay attention to the information given to keep you safe?” Geraint turned to his men. “Get these entitled assholes out of here,” he instructed.

William folded his arms. “Thank you, Sergeant. I think it would be best if you provided an escort to the inner ring.” He fixed the chief whiner with a stern look before smiling at the sergeant. “We don’t want them getting lost along the way, now do we?”

He returned to the table as Samantha put down a tray of drinks she’d gotten for them. “Beers are on me for the rest of the day, guys,” she told them with a grateful smile. “Thanks for setting those idiots straight, William.”

“Thank the Guardians,” William told her.

Samantha’s smile turned into a grin. “They already drink here for free.”

“One of the best decisions we ever made,” Bobcat put in. “It’s the least we can do to thank them for their service.”

“God knows they’re earning it today,” Marcus added.

“So are you,” Samantha replied.

They all lifted their glasses and saluted her.

“The best work is done when the proper lubricant is applied to the machinery,” Marcus toasted.

“For once, I don’t disagree with you,” Bobcat added.

“Thank you, Samantha,” William finished.

“Can I get you something to eat? The special today was supposed to be lasagna, but, well…” She waved a hand at the empty bar.

“Sounds good to me,” Bobcat agreed. “What about you two malcontents?”

“I could go for a helping.” Marcus sipped his beer. “And another beer, if you don’t mind, Samantha.”

William nodded. “Same, thanks.” He looked wistful as Samantha left to get their food. “Italian food makes me miss my sister Tina.”

Bobcat’s eyes got misty. “I never made it to the lasagna stage with her, but I sure wish I had.” He looked up from his computer. “Just for the food, you understand.”

“I never even tried it, and I’m nostalgic for your sister’s cooking,” Marcus admitted.

“You should tell your Tina you’re craving Italian,” Bobcat teased.

Marcus paled. “Yeah, sure. I’ll tell my wife I’m lusting after another woman’s cooking, and you guys can have a good laugh when she shoves the divorce papers down my throat.”

“They would be a damn sight more palatable than her cooking.” Bobcat grimaced.

Marcus scowled. “That’s my wife you’re talking about!”

“Never mind that she resembles that remark,” William chimed in.

“Do you remember the eight months she was pregnant where all we ate at work was cheese pizza because it was the only food smell she could stand?” Bobcat reminded them.

“I remember,” Marcus muttered. “But I’m not stupid enough to hold it against her or to be anything less than complimentary about her cooking skills. The woman is a demon when it comes to math, but thank God for food processing units is all I’ll dare to say.”

“Only a complete dumbass would do anything to antagonize her Grimes side,” William advised.

“I like my balls exactly where they are,” Marcus murmured as Samantha returned with their food.

Samantha smiled as they made space in the mess of papers and digital devices scattered across the table for her to put their plates down. “I’ll leave you to it. I don’t want to interrupt the thought processes of our resident geniuses. Good luck with the fight.”

“Who needs luck when you have the best damn beer in the universe?” Bobcat called after her retreating back before draining his glass. “Just keep them coming, and we’ll do the Meredith Reynolds proud.”

Orbiting the Meredith Reynolds, QBS Achronyx

Lance picked up the first group of cabal ships arriving in the system three hundred thousand kilometers from the station.

He also saw the old Skaine battlecruiser that belonged to Nickie sneaking in without any of the ships she was supposed to be monitoring.

“Don’t expect to see any of those six,” Akio informed him with a dry chuckle. “My Number Two has been a little restless of late.”

Lance also chuckled as he caught the Ranger’s meaning. “I wondered why your orders to her were so specific. Gotta give the kids their heads sometimes, am I right?”

Akio’s eyes danced with mirth. “If I want to keep mine, yes.”

He turned back to the controls when Achronyx informed him that the last batch of drones was loaded and he had received instructions from BMW on the locations they were to be dropped.

“Talk about cutting it close,” Lance commented. “The cabal is less than thirty minutes out.”

Akio waved off his concern. “Achronyx, take us out.” He turned his attention back to Lance. “We have plenty of time. Unless, of course, Team BMW has been shirking on their drinking duties and fudged the math.”

“I don’t see much chance of that,” Lance responded. “If there’s one thing those guys are expert at, it’s making sure they don’t run out of beer.”

They made their way to the drop location and released the drones, plugging the gap and completing the sphere of defense.

“We’re pretty far out,” Lance commented. “I hope to God this works, or we’re going to have a disaster on our hands.”

“Have faith in Team BMW,” Akio soothed. “And if you find that to be a reach, remember that Jean designed the drones.”

“It’s no reach,” Lance assured him. “Those three kept us alive out here back when none of us had a clue what it took to live in space.” He glanced at the viewscreen that showed the Meredith Reynolds. “Earth is home-home, but this is as close to home as any place has been since we left the old mudball.”

Akio nodded. “I feel the same. We will protect it to the end if that’s what it takes.”

Achronyx broke the mood. “If you two are done being dramatic, we’ve just docked at the military-side airlocks. Guardian Commander Nikolayevich requests your presence in the ops center, General, and Nickie is waiting for you, Akio.”

Lance left Akio and Nickie to catch up while he headed for the ops center.

Maxim and Drk-vaen were engrossed in the drone deployment as the cabal ships got ever closer to the station.

Maxim looked over his shoulder as Lance entered. “It’s not much of a welcome, I’m afraid, General.” He offered his hand as he spoke.

Lance accepted the handshake, and they walked to the observation area. “Save the welcome wagon for those Ryleahan bastards,” he told the Were. “What’s their ETA?”

“Six minutes and counting,” Drk-vaen supplied as they joined him. “We’ve got Team BMW coordinating the drone strikes to ensure the antimatter detonations go as planned.”

Lance had read up on the properties of antimatter on the ride here. “So, no risk that the station will be flooded with gamma rays?”

Drk-vaen shook his head. “The EMP won’t affect us either.”

Lance waved a hand. “We haven’t ever worried about EMP on the Meredith Reynolds. BMW took care of that in the construction.”

“Not strictly true,” Maxim countered. “There’s a minimal risk for the R&D labs, which is why they are shielded.”

“Semantics,” Lance responded.

Bobcat looked up from his datapad at the famous window onto space. “You know, it’s a shame those ships have to be destroyed before they get in range of the station.”

Marcus narrowed his eyes. “I know I’m going to regret asking this, but why?”

Bobcat shrugged and grinned. “Seems like the perfect occasion for a full moon, is all.”

William chuckled, catching on. “Not saying we can’t give those assholes a show before they die. We’re in their systems already. Wouldn’t be but a small effort to take over the screens if you got the goods to, um…’display’ feels like the wrong word and the right one all at once.”

Marcus dropped his head into his hands. “Really? We have a defense to coordinate, and all you two can think about is dropping trou and flashing your shiny heinies at the enemy?”

“What are you doing?” Bobcat asked as Marcus got up from the table.

“I’m fetching a better camera,” Marcus told him. “No point doing this half-assed.”

Bobcat and William gaped at each other for a moment.

“Who the fuck is that,” William asked finally, “and what did they do with the real Marcus?”

An alert went off in the analyst pit at the same time Lance’s HUD lit up with a private call from Patricia. Lance answered on a mental link, thinking she was calling to wish him luck.

How is the most beautiful woman in all the galaxies?

Lance, sweetheart, we’re under attack. Patricia’s voice had lost the querulous note it had held since the Vermott incident. Her tone was pure icy anger.

Lance swallowed his heart, which had jumped into his throat. He didn’t need confirmation, but he asked anyway. Has Meredith identified who is attacking?

Yes, Patricia told him. It’s the damned Kurtherians.

Meredith’s cool tones filled the ops center, announcing the lockdown of the station until the battle had passed.

Lance was torn. He wanted to get the hell to the Mirage Nebula, but… Honey, I’m sorry, but no one can leave the Meredith Reynolds until this is over.

I’m calling Bethany Anne next, Patricia told him. Don’t worry, Kevin is here with me.

That made him feel a bit better, but not much. I’ll be on my way the second Meredith gives the all-clear, he promised.

Aloud, he called to Meredith as he ran out of the ops center. “Find some way to get me off this station! Red Rock is under attack.”

Mirage Nebula, Red Rock, Federal House of Arbitration

Red Rock shook as it was bombarded by Etheric-enabled missiles from the dozens of Kurtherian ships that had appeared out of nowhere.

Meredith had returned after activating the defenses around Bethany Anne’s assets that were stored inside the nebula.

Patricia was glad to have the EI since all she had was a skeleton crew of mostly engineers and politicians to rely on.

The representatives were about as much use as a chocolate firescreen without the capability of their planets’ militaries to enter the nebula.

Patricia had lost her fear. She burned with bright anger at the audacity of the wannabe deity having the sheer brass balls to attack here, of all places.

Kevin and the engineers ran from station to station, acting as Meredith’s hands as the EI deployed the hundreds of drone ships stored deep in the asteroid while Patricia reached out to Bethany Anne.

QSD Baba Yaga, Bethany Anne’s Ready Room

“Cocksucking fucking ass-barnacle of a dripping motherfucking tit-knob!”

Bethany Anne’s rage was felt across the ship. Her words were heard clearly by everyone on the bridge.

“Fucking llama-fondling cluster-stain on the face of the universe! I’m going to introduce her head to her ass and make her eat the shit she’s heaping on my fucking family!”

Michael had turned his focus to assisting Izanami with getting them to the nebula faster upon hearing the dilemma Patricia and Kevin were in. However, his anger was no less than Bethany Anne’s.

He gave her space to work through the killing rage that was consuming her, pacing the bridge while Izanami pushed the ship to its limits to reach the Mirage Nebula before Gödel destroyed Red Rock along with everyone inside the House of Arbitration.

How the Kurtherian had accessed the Federation without CEREBRO knowing was simple enough to figure out. The EI group hadn’t picked up her ships’ entry from the Etheric due to the interference from the nebula.

Bethany Anne could have fit the number of fucks she gave about the how into a thimble. She only cared that her baby brother and the woman who had treated her like her own daughter were in danger.

Knowing she was wasting valuable time on venting her temper, Bethany Anne had TOM dial back her emotions and got to work.

She messaged every QBBS in range of the nebula and ordered the base commanders to send support. Many had already received the order from Lance.

She opened an internal comm channel to Paul Jameson and instructed him to have his ground crews load up the QBS ships in the Baba Yaga’s hangars with Etheric-enabled ship-buster missiles, motherpuckers, and every other conceivable weapon of mass destruction they had on hand.

Next, she reached out to locate her father.

He called her back from Akio’s ready room off the bridge of the Achronyx.

Lance’s voice was strained with worry. “Are you en route?” was all he asked.

Bethany Anne hated to see him looking this pale and drawn. The ashtray on the desk was full to overflowing with discarded chewed-up cigar butts. “I’m on my way, Dad. Patricia and Kevin will hold Red Rock with Meredith’s help until we get there, don’t worry.”

“I’m worried about them, yes,” Lance told her. “However, Red Rock is not the only asset we have out there.”

Bethany Anne recalled she had a few ships mothballed inside the nebula. “We might lose the ships, but that’s no big deal. Even Red Rock can be rebuilt or replaced if it comes down to it.”

Lance shook his head. “That’s not all we had out there. This is bad. I should never have left.”

Bethany Anne frowned when he hesitated. “Dad! What else is there that’s got you so scared?”

Lance’s face was ashen. “I had the Annex Gate moved there after Gödel’s last attempt on the Federation.”

“FUCKING WHAT?” The Baba Yaga lurched as a pulse of Etheric energy surged outward from Bethany Anne. “That fucking no-good, low-down belly-crawler is going for Earth! Why in fuck didn’t I know about this?”

Lance lifted his hands, shaking his head. “You must have missed the memo. Bethany Anne, what are we going to do? The Gate is irreplaceable, and it’s our only option for mass transit back to Earth.”

“Don’t think I don’t already know that.” Bethany Anne fought for control of her emotions as TOM’s assistance vanished.

She felt the Kurtherian slip to the back of her mind as he was gripped by fear.

Get a hold of yourself, and then me. I can’t do this without you, TOM.

I can’t face Gödel, TOM exclaimed in a heated voice. She could try to control you through me. I have to cut myself off from you.

Do that, and I swear I’ll rip you out of my body just so I can scream into whatever you have left that passes for a face that Gödel is NOT going to use you to get to me. If you abandon me, she has already won.

TOM didn’t reply, but she felt him return to their shared mindspace. A veil dropped down over her emotions so it was once again like observing them through a window on a rainy day.

“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” Bethany Anne ground out through clenched teeth. “We’re going to get our fucking asses to the nebula, and I’m going to personally make sure Gödel and every one of her supporters dies before ever getting near that Gate.”

Michael walked into the room and took one look at Bethany Anne and Lance onscreen. “What is it? Izanami almost lost the wormhole when you released that energy wave.”

“I lost my shit for a minute, but I’m in control now,” Bethany Anne assured him. “Brace yourself. You’re not going to like this. Gödel has located the Annex Gate and is attacking Red Rock to get to it.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Mirage Nebula, Gödel’s Flagship

Gödel stared at the display case holding Death’s boots.

“Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” the human proverb went.

Gödel simply kept them as a reminder of everything she had to lose.

While she would never admit that it stung her ego when the humans had abandoned their game to return to the Federation, her ire had steadily risen as time went by without any sign of her nemesis returning to play.

She ordered another bombardment of the asteroid base the humans called Red Rock.

If this didn’t get her the attention she craved, she didn’t know what would.

She had been biding her time, searching patiently for the route to Death’s home planet. The Annex Gate had not been in the location she had lifted from the Heretic’s mind so many years ago.

However, she had it within her sights now.

Or rather, she sensed its location.

The Gate was hidden on the outer edge of the chromosphere of the single remaining star in the nebula, secreted and shielded from radiation damage by Etheric energy.

Death was precious about her beloved Earth, or Irth, as the inhabitants called it these days. It might cost her a significant portion of her fleet to obtain possession of the Annex Gate, but that was a small price to pay to inflict the emotional wounds she believed would weaken Death to the point where she capitulated to the Ascension Path.

She didn’t see the war of attrition Death did. She only saw expendable pieces to be moved across the board as her whim saw fit.

Whatever the cost, she intended to finally realize her ultimate goal of destroying humanity’s planet of origin, along with anywhere else in the galaxies a human might call home.

The dead could always be replaced. The Pods in the cloning facilities aboard her ships were currently at full capacity with her failsafe option. Should anything happen to her, it would not be the end for her rise to universal dominance.

Gödel’s gaze drifted back to the display case to the left of her throne.

The Armada’s withdrawal had given her time to tally the score and fortify her plans for the final showdown between Kurtherian and human.

Death had lost many of her superdreadnoughts over the decades, and Gödel had lost bases everywhere the Armada had shown up.

Their personal battles in the landscape of Death’s dreams were over. The knowledge that Death had been stringing her along cut barbs into her psyche. How much had she inadvertently given away while believing she had her enemy trapped in a never-ending nightmare?

Leaked information notwithstanding, there was little the humans and their allies could do now.

Even as Gödel fought to repress the resistance coming from the asteroid base, her forces had marshaled their full strength and were preparing to attack across the Federation.

Gödel turned away from the display case with a wave of pride in her tactical ability as the reports started coming in from all over the Federation.

Yes. It was working out rather nicely.

All she had to do was get through the Gate.

Mirage Nebula, QSD Baba Yaga

Bethany Anne couldn’t sit.

Neither could she remain still when every atom of her body ached to be out there, destroying her nemesis with her own two hands.

However, an emotional reaction was just what Gödel desired, and she would sooner cut her own heart out than give the Kurtherian what she wanted.

This was not some Star Trek-type fiction, where humanity’s capabilities were so much greater than the enemy’s that it made it an easy fight, won after some moral obstacle was overcome.

This was to the death, two sides gunning for the other with equal intensity and hatred.

Kurtherian technology matched hers in every way, and although Gödel was batshit-crazy, her tactical mind was as sharp as Bethany Anne’s.

What Gödel lacked was the ability to trust. She lacked love and the burning desire to protect her assets at all costs to herself.

Some might see that as a weakness on Bethany Anne’s part.

However, the Queen knew better.

Her love was her strength, the beacon that had drawn the brightest and best to her side and the glue that held them all together when facing insurmountable odds.

As the Baba Yaga entered the theater of war, so did the rest of the Armada. Each superdreadnought was crewed by the finest, most loyal, most badass fighters this universe had ever seen.

Every one of them was out for Kurtherian blood.

Bethany Anne had faith her captains could handle their parts in the unfolding battle as the Armada took their positions in defense of Red Rock and the Gate.

Even the mothballed ships had shaken off the cobwebs to participate. Crewless, the AIs at the helms had no compunction about inserting themselves and their ships into the line of fire to form physical shields where Red Rock’s had begun to fail.

The nebula burned around them, the discharge from the Armada’s ESDs and the Kurtherians’ equivalent energy weapons igniting the gaseous clouds to produce flames that ranged through every color of the spectrum.

Bethany Anne had her sights set on the flagship.

The star protecting the Gate hung in her peripheral vision, its location avoided so far by both sides. No one wanted to destroy the prize they were fighting for.

Bethany Anne wouldn’t accept any outcome but victory.

She stalked the bridge, her hands clenching and unclenching as adrenaline coursed through her body. “Find a way to disrupt that shielding!” she commanded as Izanami’s precision firing of Etheric-enabled missiles was repelled by the flagship.

The viewscreen was split between the Bitches, Michael, Alexis, and Gabriel, all on video comms as the Gemini and the QBR ships left the hangar to join the melee occurring between the smaller ships swarming the battlefield.

“How is it looking out there?” Bethany Anne inquired.

“Like we’re picnicking in Hell,” Michael replied. “We’re coming around to the Gate.”

Bethany Anne extracted herself from her internal observation of the Armada’s positioning. “Good. Keep it clear. The last thing I want is them sneaking through while our backs are turned.”

“Shouldn’t be too difficult,” John supplied. “There are a whole lot fewer assholes out this way.”

“Still enough to make this interesting,” Gabriel countered. “The Kurtherians have launched the fuckening.”

“Watch us end it!” Alexis was looking offscreen as she worked with Gemini to evade enemy fire while Gabriel took them out with sustained kinetic bombardment.

“Score one for me!” Tabitha whooped.

“You’re going to need to score a fuck-ton more than one,” Bethany Anne told her. “There’s a couple dozen more ships heading your way.”

Bethany Anne had her own end of the fuckening to deal with. A swarm of smaller battleships had moved to defend Gödel’s flagship, making it harder to get a direct hit on it while increasing the intensity of the weapons fire coming the Baba Yaga’s way.

“I’m taking a lot of damage,” Izanami reported. “There are only so many directions my guns can cover.”

“How bad is it?” Bethany Anne asked, diverting sixteen QBS ships and the Penitent Granddaughter to provide support.

“They’re doing their damndest to take out the nacelles,” Izanami answered. “I’m rerouting power to the shields.”

“Which helps not-at-fucking-all when you are firing the ESD,” Bethany Anne finished for her.

“Exactly,” Izanami stated. “I’ve got Captain Jameson moving nonessential personnel to the mid-decks.”

“Good.” Bethany Anne scrutinized the ship formations beyond the Baba Yaga and opened an Armada-wide channel. “Clear this area,” she commanded, highlighting said area in the shared map. “I’m about to deploy the Baba Yaga’s main and secondary ESDs.”

“Want to throw in an EMP as well?” Izanami inquired.

Bethany Anne lifted a shoulder. “Couldn’t hurt. Worst case scenario, Gödel has protection against it.”

Izanami’s eyes flashed red. “I have a better idea. I think I can simulate a CME.”

Bethany Anne looked at her blankly. “A what?”

“Coronal mass ejection,” the AI clarified. “Something neither side’s technology could withstand.”

Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “You want to unleash something that could destroy us all?”

Izanami shrugged. “Only if we’re not careful about the execution.”

Bethany Anne considered the risk. ADAM, is that possible?

>>No one has ever weaponized a CME before.<<

You are prevaricating. Can it be done?

There was a pause while ADAM and Izanami conversed.

>>Izanami’s thinking is sound,<< he replied.

We could make use of flux ropes from the star… TOM’s voice was brimming with hope.

>>Redirect them?<< ADAM sounded impressed. >>That… It could actually work.<<

Of course, it could also wipe out the Armada in the process, TOM countered.

“Seriously?” Bethany Anne exclaimed. “Then fuck, no!” I can’t risk my people’s lives like that. Not even to rid the universe of Gödel.”

>>Don’t they deserve the chance to make that decision for themselves?<< ADAM pointed out. >>Ask them. Put it to a vote.<<

Bethany Anne knew what her captains would choose.

She reopened the Armada-wide comm channel and explained the prospective plan. “I need your votes. Do we do this and risk everything?”

“Ayes” resounded.

Bethany Anne’s emotions welled up. “What I did to deserve such loyalty, I’ll never understand.”

You stepped up, TOM told her. You refused to back down. You have cried and sweated and bled to bring Justice to everyone who crossed your path. For as long as I have known you, you have given your all and then some, and the people under your command are more than willing to do the same. More, they demand the opportunity to do so.

Bethany Anne nodded her permission to Izanami. “Okay. ADAM and TOM will work with you to ensure this plan doesn’t end in us all dead.”

Izanami grinned, revealing her needle-sharp teeth. “I’ll need to hand off weapons to you.”

“Then hand them over,” Bethany Anne told her.

Izanami’s android body became inert as she left it for the mindspace. She created a room for herself, ADAM, and TOM, and they got to work on the details without delay.

>>Our first question is, how do we limit the propagation of the energy field and prevent our assets from being destroyed along with Gödel’s?<<

The simplest solution is to have our ships “hide” behind the star’s magnetic field and power down while the event is occurring, TOM suggested. The Gate is already positioned in the ideal place.

>>Bethany Anne is going to love that idea,<< ADAM snarked.

The Gate’s Etheric shielding can be extended to cover a much larger area, Izanami supplied. The generators have multiple redundancies, and the whole system was deliberately over-engineered.

>>The other obstacle to this plan succeeding, besides the fact that powering down the superdreadnoughts will leave the Armada as vulnerable as newborn organics, is that we have to control the flux of the vector field once we trigger the event.<<

That’s where my bright idea comes in. Izanami shared data from multiple scientific groups whose focus was magnetic field manipulation, adding the information to the “whiteboard” she formed to show her calculations. TOM’s idea of manipulating the existing flux ropes created by the star was inspired. I believe we can repurpose the gravitic drives in our haulage equipment and use them to manipulate the vector fields, which will give us the control we’re looking for.

How is it I’m getting the blame if this goes wrong? TOM grumbled without malice.

You’re religious, Izanami pointed out, dry amusement coloring her voice. How does faith work?

You take a leap, TOM retorted with a chuckle.

>>We are getting off track,<< ADAM cut in. He threw up another representation of a whiteboard and added the schematics of the crawler-haulers they used for short-range ship-to-ship cargo transfers to it. >>The haulage equipment won’t do what we need in its current state.<<

Then we do the math and reconfigure the gravitic drives to manipulate the vector field.

Divergence Theorem? TOM enthused. Now you’re talking my language.

Red Rock

Patricia threw herself into Lance’s arms when he transported into the ops center’s transfer area. “Oh, Lance!” The tide of her anger broke, and she dissolved into relieved tears. “I was so frightened!”

He held her tightly for a long moment, inhaling the scent of ylang-ylang that his embrace stirred from her hair. “I’m here now. You did great, honey. The Rock is still here, and you’re okay. It’s going to be fine.”

Kevin spotted his father but was wrists-deep in the holocontrols Meredith had provided him for the enormous railguns mounted on the cliffs above the House of Arbitration. “I hope you brought backup, Dad,” he called, his voice terse.

“Your sister is out there with the Armada,” Lance assured him.

A bright light filled the transfer area as teams of weapons specialists transported in from the QBBSs arriving from nearby star systems.

Lance released Patricia. “We need to get to work, sweetheart. Reinforcements are here, which means Bethany Anne is going to hand off coordinating the fight to me any—”

“Incoming communication from the Baba Yaga,” Meredith announced.

“General,” Bethany Anne’s voice reverberated from every speaker. “I’m handing off to you. Get Red Rock over to the Gate site and inform the battlestation commanders they need to be ready to Gate out of the nebula on my command.”

“Got it,” Lance confirmed, heading for the navigation station.

“I’m not done,” Bethany Anne told him. “It’s going to get pretty fucking nasty out here in, oh, say thirty minutes. I’m planning to trigger an extreme solar weather event. Everyone not leaving on a QBBS needs to pack in around the Gate site and power down while I expand the Etheric shielding around us all.”

She dropped the link without saying goodbye.

Patricia read the look on Lance’s face and pointed a manicured fingernail at the navigation controls. “You heard Bethany Anne. I’d bet dollars to donuts we don’t want to be caught out by whatever she’s planning. Chop-chop, General.”

Aboard the Baba Yaga, Bethany Anne took care of coordinating the repositioning of the battlestations to the outer reaches of the nebula. The QBBS commanders were still in range to provide cover for the Armada, yet far enough from the Gate site to provide a target for the Kurtherians to focus on.

As planned, the Kurtherians only saw a retreat and doubled down on their aggression toward the battlestations.

All the while, ADAM worked on increasing the output of the Etheric shielding around the Gate to cover the superdreadnoughts. Izanami worked with Captain Jameson and Jean Dukes to rush the gravitic haulage equipment through the manufacturing facilities on decks nineteen to twenty-one, where their components were tweaked to provide the reconfigured operating parameters he, Izanami, and TOM had come up with in their planning session.

Gödel wanted a showdown? Well, she was going to get one.

Izanami returned to her body after the preparations were complete.

“What’s our status?” Bethany Anne inquired as the AI mounted the central platform beneath the hard light projection drive.

“We’re almost ready to show those damned Kurtherians just who they’re messing with,” she responded as the holoHUD came into being around her.

Bethany Anne made a final check that everyone was in position behind the shields. The QBS ships were safely in their hangars, and she was able to track Michael and the twins in transit to the bridge along with Gabrielle and the Bitches.

“Why is the Penitent Granddaughter still out there?” Bethany Anne demanded over the comm.

Aboard the Penitent Granddaughter

Nickie screamed with rage as the Kurtherian clones choked their exit to the Pod bay.

Adelaide, bleeding and unconscious, was slung over Nickie’s shoulder. She hung on tight to her engineer as she fired her Jean Dukes Special with her free hand.

Grim had both guns in action, but he was losing a lot of blood. Barely hanging on, he refused to back down and let Keen and Durq die.

Bethany Anne’s voice intruded into Nickie’s head.

Why is the Penitent Granddaughter still out there?

Nickie squeezed off six shots in quick succession, barely making a dent in the mass of clones doing their best to get to them. Because my fucking ship is overrun with fucking clones, and I’m doing everything I can to keep my crew alive.

Cease firing, Bethany Anne told her. I’m going to transport you all out of there.

Trusting her aunt with their lives, Nickie called for Grim, Keen, and Durq to lower their weapons.

The clones surged down the corridor toward them from both ends.

“I don’t want to die!” Durq screamed as blue light covered them.

Jean ran for the transporter bays, having been told by Bethany Anne that Nickie’s crew was incoming and only mostly dead.

She arrived in Bay One as the crew materialized on the landing platform. Jean was horrified by the blood pooling around her granddaughter and the people who had become her family.

Nickie smiled at the sight of her Grandma Jean as she sank to her knees, dropping Adelaide on top of her as she passed out on the pad.

Grim, Keen, and Durq were in similarly poor shape.

“We need medics in here!” Jean yelled, rushing frantically to take Adelaide’s weight off Nickie’s body.

>>We’re ready,<< ADAM informed Bethany Anne.

“The Gate is secure?” Bethany Anne spoke aloud for the benefit of everyone crowding the bridge.

“Yes,” ADAM confirmed, feeding his vocals through the bridge speakers. “The modified gravitic engines are in place, Red Rock and the Armada are behind the shields, and the Kurtherian fleet is amassed right where we wanted the bastards.”

It was now or never.

Bethany Anne chose now.

She opened a video link Armada-wide, her face appearing on every viewscreen and her voice coming from every speaker as she gave the order for the battlestations to Gate out.

As the lights of the Gates faded, she addressed the Armada.

“What we are about to do has never been attempted before. As you are all aware, there is a chance we will not avoid the fate we intend the Kurtherians to suffer. However, we go into this knowing the goal we have strived for this last century and more is about to be realized. The Ascension Path ends here and now.”

Her eyes were filled with tears of pride and the righteous light of knowing that whatever the outcome for them, thes next few minutes would secure the freedom of trillions forever. “I have every faith that we will see the other side and be the first to witness a universe where Kurtherian rule is no longer the shadow at the door of the innocent. Should you fear what is coming, hold these words close to your hearts:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close up the wall with our honored dead.

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of a tiger.”

Bethany Anne glanced at Izanami, who nodded to confirm it was time. She finished, “It has been my greatest honor to lead you…no, to serve alongside you, the bravest of the brave, the strongest and most valiant fighters this universe has ever seen. I salute you, one and all.”

Her hand came up to touch her brow, and her eyes blazed red as she wept unashamedly with pride in her people. Izanami cut the video feed as she powered the ship down, and Michael came over to take Bethany Anne in his arms.

“You have done it at last,” he murmured into her hair. “When this is over, Gödel will be no more.”

Bethany Anne leaned into him for a long moment before replying, “I just hope it works.”

Alexis and Gabriel joined the huddle, followed by Tabitha, Peter, John, Gabrielle, Eric, Scott, and Daryl.

Even Izanami got in there, the family together, taking strength from one another as the piece of himself ADAM had copied to the gravitic drives prepared to begin the process of triggering the CME event.

As the clock wound down, Bethany Anne walked with Alexis, Gabriel, and Jiya. Michael rounded out the small group crossing the hangar where the Gemini waited with her Gate drive primed.

Neither of the twins had argued when Bethany Anne had ordered them to leave the nebula.

Bethany Anne had backed down from the hill she was prepared to die on when they agreed to take Jiya to the safety of Devon until the war was over one way or another.

Bethany Anne kissed her children goodbye, her tears flowing freely once again. “I love you both more than you will ever know,” she told them. “If your father and I don’t make it out of this—”

“Don’t,” Alexis sobbed. “We know, Mom. We know.”

Gabriel clung to her before embracing Michael with equal affection. “If the worst happens, we’ll make sure no one ever forgets what you sacrificed to save them from Gödel.”

Emotion lent Michael’s voice a hoarse burr. “Honor us by raising your children to love peace,” he told them. “You too, Alexis, when you find the one. Know that you are well-loved. No man could ask for a better son and daughter than you have been to me.”

Bethany Anne included Jiya in her final words. “Be safe and live long, long lives. That’s all I ask.”

>>Ten minutes,<< ADAM told her.

Bethany Anne pulled them in for one last hug. “It’s time to go.”

No one aboard the superdreadnoughts was able to see the ejecta ADAM triggered on the opposite face of the star.

The modified gravitic drives pulsed, manipulating the magnetic field as planned.

ADAM, what parts of his personality had been copied over to the drives, observed the desired changes with detachment.

He was aware that he would not survive this procedure, which was why he had chosen not to implant his full consciousness into the machines.

However…

On the Baba Yaga, the real ADAM felt everything his counterpart was unable to process.

>>Bethany Anne?<<

What’s wrong?

>>I am going to die. Or at least, the copy of me I put in the gravitic drives is. Is this how you feel every time you go into battle?<<

Bethany Anne wanted to make a flippant remark. She understood that ADAM’s fear came from a very real place. Yes. When I put myself into situations where the outcome is uncertain, I feel fear. You know that.

>>I guess so.<<

What is your real question?

>>How do you get over it?<<

That Bethany Anne knew the answer to. You don’t. You accept it, and you take action to get to the other side of it.

>>I…I think I understand. Watching you conquer your fears all these years, I never truly knew what it felt like until now. It’s been an honor, Bethany Anne.<<

Her mouth curved up at the corner. Aww, you finally finished growing up. Now quit the existential exploration and make with the fucking destruction.

The starboard hull was obliterated when the CME hit out of nowhere.

The flagship was merely grazed by the outer edge of the wave.

It was enough.

Plasma and atmosphere ignited as they were vented into the void, killing the Kurtherians who survived the initial blast.

All over the ship, systems failed as the components making them up were destroyed.

The flagship pitched, losing internal gravity. Gödel almost didn’t live through it.

In the throne room, the wannabe deity was thrown from her seat as the hull fractured. The repair mechanisms kicked in, bulkheads slamming down over the viewing window as the ship sealed itself.

The heavy golden throne toppled Gödel onto the dais, pinning her to the deck as it fell.

Like a cockroach, she was hard to kill. Gödel screamed in agony, throwing out a pulse of Etheric energy to push the heavy metal off herself.

She got to her feet, waving off the loyal servants who rushed to assist her.

“Don’t touch me!” she commanded, her voice a pained snarl. “Make sure the Moen are taking care of the Pods!”

They bowed, afraid, but did as they were ordered, scurrying in the direction of the cloning chambers.

Holding her broken ribs, she limped toward the door behind the dais, pouring her energy into healing. Each step sent fire through her body.

Her mind whirled as panic set in.

The flagship screamed as it was pulled apart.

Her failsafe was her only hope.

She ran through the burning corridors, dodging fires and ducking sporadic spurts of freezing gas from torn coolant ducts dangling out of the twisted and torn ceilings.

The Kurtherians she encountered fled before the light of rage surrounding Gödel engulfed them.

None of them expected mercy from the goddess.

The Moen slaves brought aboard to tend the cloning Pods were a different matter.

Worshipping Gödel as their goddess, they refused to see her cruelty. Hell, they refused even to acknowledge that they were but chattel to the Kurtherians.

Four of the little aliens threw themselves at Gödel’s feet, impeding her progress.

They clung to her legs.

“Save us, O Goddess!” one cried.

“Grant us Ascension!” another begged.

“How dare you lay hands on my person!” Gödel removed them with a fireball. “Ascension is not for the unworthy. Save yourselves.”

Gödel kicked the rest of them out of her way and resumed her run, paying no attention to the pleas for salvation from her people.

She checked and found that the majority of her fleet was in the same dire situation as the flagship.

She had to hurry.

All around her, hull integrity was failing, and the repair systems were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of damage the CME had inflicted.

She passed a cloning chamber, tossing the Kurtherians she encountered to the side without a care as she charged toward the master conn hidden in her quarters.

Every being here was already lost. Her survival and the implementation of her final solution were all that mattered.

For once, Bethany Anne was not pacing the bridge. She stood before the inert viewscreen, her senses extended to their fullest.

Michael was by her side, combining his mental ability with hers inside the mindspace.

Together, they monitored the status of each superdreadnought, sending comfort to the minds of their people.

Bethany Anne slipped her hand into Michael’s as the Baba Yaga shook.

He squeezed.

Izanami was quiet, her entire being focused on holding the ship together while ADAM held the Etheric shields protecting the Armada from the blistering surge of magnetized plasma and electromagnetic radiation bathing the system.

Gödel made it to her quarters.

The shrieking of metal tearing itself apart filled her ears. There wasn’t much time.

Her hands flew over the controls as sparks rained down around her. Her fleet was lost. Only the cloning chambers aboard the ships had the protection of the Etheric shielding she’d implemented in the design after her losses at Devon had forced her to rebuild.

The cloning chambers released the Pods holding a hundred thousand soldiers and ten thousand Kurtherian clones from their docking clamps at her command.

Gödel narrowly avoided being hit by a falling support beam. The heavy steel impacted the conn with a resounding crash, knocking out her remote access to the Pods.

No matter. She had fallbacks for her fallbacks.

Gödel pushed Etheric energy, connecting mentally to the Pods.

Such expenditure was draining, to say the least, but her final measure was necessary not only for her survival but for the survival of her plan.

She and Death had the refusal to quit in common.

Gödel left her quarters at a run, renegotiating the deadly obstacle course to reach the escape Pod she had hidden in an antechamber a short distance from her rooms.

She climbed into the Pod, maintaining her connection to the Pods holding her last line of attack.

Thousands of Etheric-enabled, psychically-controlled Pods left her ships as they were torn apart in fiery explosions, some carrying clones, others carrying her slave soldiers.

They might not all make it to their destination. However, Gödel was determined this would not be her last stand.

“While there is life in me, there is purpose, you bitch. Death is your name, but not to me. I will survive.”

She looked back, the catastrophic destruction of her fleet nearly incomprehensible.

But as a deity, she accepted the reality.

Then the scene was no more.

The Pods mentally controlled by Gödel sped around the star, honing in on the energy signature of the Gate’s shielding.

Death’s Armada was inert, the humans unable to discern her final solution.

Gödel bypassed the shielding by matching the frequencies of her Pods to the shield and activated the Annex Gate.

Bethany Anne looked at Michael as they sensed thousands of small draws on the Etheric simultaneously come into being.

“That can’t be good,” Michael murmured.

On the port side of the Baba Yaga, a much larger Etheric signature surged.

Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red. “NO!”

>>You can’t go out there!<< ADAM exclaimed as Bethany Anne opened the Etheric to do just that.

“Fuck ‘can’t!’” Bethany Anne ground out, the Etheric responding to her emotions. “If I don’t go, that dripping cock-thistle gets a clear path to Earth!”

She wrapped herself in the Etheric as she stepped into space.

Just in time to see swarms of Pods entering the Gate portal.

Author Notes - Michael Anderle

March 16, 2021

Thank you for not only reading this story but these author notes as well!

It’s been a few months since the last Bethany Anne story, and I appreciate you hanging in there with us!

How did you enjoy this rollicking, ass-kicking story? I decided we needed a break from the political machinations, so I released Bethany Anne to do what she has wanted to do for a while.

Give it to those who have earned their just desserts by being complete asshats!

For me, this book was way fun. No more constraining and restraining Bethany Anne. Just let her be who she needed to be.

And let the chips fall where they may.

BOOYAH, BITCHES!

ENDGAME IS…ENDING.

We have one…ONE…more Bethany Anne story to finish Endgame, and it’s going to be HUGE. Not only from stuff happening, but I mean word count. The plan is HUGE.

Like, two books-sized huge.

Why? I’m glad you asked.

The logical place to break the story is right about the middle, which (coincidentally) creates a cliff-hanger of a sort. I considered releasing the first book upon completion and the second a few months later when done.

I didn’t care to read the comments that would come with the pseudo-cliff hanger with that idea.

I considered releasing them a few weeks apart when they were both finished.

I imagined the torches-and-pitchforks crowd looking for me during those short weeks and decided that wasn’t a good plan, either.

Scratching those ideas off the list, I considered releasing both books the same day. Similar to Use Your Illusion I and II from Guns-n-Roses (for those who are old like me who remember that release.)

I dropped that because I hated it when the band did it, and I wasn’t going to do that to you, either.

So, I ended up with releasing just one last large volume with both books as one mega-release. We will work to complete these two books faster this time (fingers crossed), and we tie up the issues with Bethany Anne and Earth!

I hope you look forward to the culmination of Endgame…and my chess naming schemes.

(Seriously, if we do another Bethany Anne series in the future, It will NOT be named Checkmate…mate.)

Should we increase the Kurtherian Universe?

Right now, there is a LARGE marketing push on Kurtherian Gambit with the Amazon Ads folks. I hope to find out how long it takes to make back the money from the spend. Early indications suggest 90-120 days.

The covers we have are solid, but it is time to give TKG a metaphorical new coat of paint. LMBPN Publishing has engaged Gene Mollica Studios (the same group who has done all the Opus X creative) to completely re-do the first twenty-one covers over the next few months.

We are NOT planning to change out the model for Bethany Anne since Andrew Dobell took THOUSANDS of pictures, and personally, I still feel like our BA is the best BA.

I’m not sure I could handle a new look for BA.

I tell you all of this because it has been hinted, suggested, pointed out, exclaimed, and other things I’m way too polite to admit that perhaps we should come back and do some new stories in the Kurtherian Universe.

Honestly, I just don’t know if the fans want anymore? If so, where would we go?

I admit I feel a bit overwhelmed with trying to delve back into all the places we have played inside the TKU (The Kurtherian Universe) and decide what rocks to turn over. I guess I’d have to go and find characters I’d like to learn more about and find some that are both interesting and who I feel fans would want to know more about.

That decision is for another week. Some other week at the moment since I want a small vacation from big decisions.

Starting right…

Ad Aeternitatem,

Michael Anderle

Sword Diplomacy

What is the difference between ignorance and stupidity?

Ignorance can be solved if you live long enough.

Zaena has been sent as an Elven emissary to learn and build a relationship with humanity. She’s only two hundred and fifty years old, so time should be on her side.

Except she gets involved in a brutal gang war in the first month of landing on the shores of the West Coast of the United States.

San Francisco, to be exact.

Zaena quickly learns that her knowledge of humanity is closer to the twentieth than the present day twenty-first century.

So much for her teachers’ study of humanity’s television shows.

She’s got attitude, magic, and a sacred armor pendant. What she doesn’t have is a clue.

She will survive her ignorance or die trying to build a bridge and save her people.

Available now at Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited

Books By Michael Anderle

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