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Brock nodded back the way they had come. “Yeah, you’ll see that when we go to the conference room.” He checked his holo. “We should make our way down there now, actually.”

  He led them back through the ops room into the main corridor. Turning deeper into the base, he walked through the double doors to the hangar where he had stood in awe just twenty minutes before.

  They marched through as a group and Brock paused, letting them take in the largest ship and the whole arrangement of flying machines.

  He turned and looked at their faces, grinning. “Yup,” he said, satisfied. “That was pretty much my reaction.” He beamed at them, opening his holo and snapping a picture of them.

  Paige noticed, laughed, and slapped his arm. “So this is, what? A space base?” she asked, still consumed by awe at the huge hangar and its contents.

  Brock nodded. “Seems like. We’ll find out more at this meeting. Come along,” he told them. “Briefing room is this way.”

  He headed down the metal steps to deck level, then walked around the perimeter past one set of steel double doors, keeping to an outlined walk way painted onto the floor. About a third of the way around the semicircular deck they came to another set of double doors. Brock pushed them open and held one door for the others to enter.

  Crash strode through first. He’d hardly said a word, but Brock could tell from the flavor of his blank expression he was processing what was going on.

  Pieter followed Paige through. “How big is this place?” he asked.

  Brock shrugged, releasing the door, and continuing down the corridor. “No idea yet,” he admitted casually. Something caught his attention, and he glanced back as they walked.

  The door he had just released was self-closing, and as it swung shut, the air pressure seemed to change minutely. Brock made a mental note to investigate it later. It felt like maybe the doors automatically sealed, which would be useful on many levels.

  The group continued down the dimly lit corridor. The floor was a little rubbery, like it was electrically insulated. The walls, which seemed to glow, were made of some highly evolved nano-carbonate as far as Brock could tell; a lightweight building material that was also capable of transferring current. And therefore information, he mused. Inset into the walls were holo panels and then little shiny discs now and again, plus laser lights.

  He was going to have fun figuring out all the stuff on this base. He suspected it was less of a building and more of a cyber entity, living, breathing and thinking at the highest level. Even as a genius, he felt that comprehending even a fraction of how this complex base worked was going to be amazingly tough.

  They passed a bunch of other doors to rooms or labs or ancestors-knew-not-what, and then Brock entered the meeting room where the other members of the team had already assembled.

  “So…what? This guy is going to show up in person then?” Joel was asking Molly.

  Molly shrugged. “Perhaps. Or maybe he’s just going to keep talking through the audio feeds.”

  Joel checked the time on his holo.

  Paige, Pieter, Crash, and Brock filed into the room and took seats around the conference room. The room was comfortable, soundproof and probably a lot of other things. It was Brock who noticed that the chairs they were sitting on didn’t touch the ground.

  “Booja!” he whooped jovially when he realized. “Antigrav chairs!”

  Everyone’s heads disappeared below the table as they looked under the chairs to check out the discovery. All except Molly, who bounced up and down, wondering how they were calibrated for the weight on them.

  Paige sat up and managed to catch Molly’s attention. She was about to launch into a bunch of questions when the audio system clicked on.

  “Greetings of the day be upon you, as you say in your system.” It was the voice.

  Molly tapped her ear to signal that they needed to focus, looking at Paige. She needn’t have bothered. Paige was already peering around for the voice. Or speakers.

  In fact, Crash, Paige and Pieter all looked stunned as they heard the man for the first time.

  “First, may I introduce myself?” The sound came from everywhere at once.

  Paige’s eyes continued to flicker around the room, and she looked a little disoriented.

  A hologram materialized in the center of the table, then moved to the wall and spread itself out to create a three-dimensional screen. The high-tech holo screen flickered and then enlarged again before displaying an eerily real hologram of a young-looking general.

  My name is General Lance Reynolds. Previously of the Etheric Empire, presently I hold a high position in the Etheric Federation.”

  Paige, mesmerized by what she was seeing and still in a state of awe, raised her hand and waved at him.

  Lance chuckled. “Hello there, young Paige Montgomery.”

  Molly looked shocked. “You know her name?” she asked, suddenly wondering what else he knew.

  Lance was still smiling. “Of course. I know all your names.” He looked in the direction first of Crash. “This is Chris Ashworth. Call sign Crash. Pilot and accomplished collector of Spaceport fines.”

  Molly shot Crash a look, suddenly realizing that all the bitching he’d been doing over the Spaceport fine when they first had to skip the planet in a hurry wasn’t actually his first incursion.

  Lance continued. “Then we have Joel Dunham. Former Space Marine for the Central Sark System’s military. Now your Second-in-Command.”

  Joel nodded, as if he were being introduced on a game show.

  Lance moved on to Pieter. “And then we have your newest recruit, Pieter Alexander, a computer genius with a misspent youth, but a boat load of spunk when it comes to code writing…, and commenting on rewrites.” Pieter blushed. Molly watched him carefully. There was clearly something Lance knew that she didn’t. She filed that one away for later too.

  “And then we have Paige Montgomery, former kidnap survivor, former cheerleader, and former personal assistant to the former Senator. Now she keeps this place running, but she’s secretly biding her time before she can build her own empire and change the face of fashion in the Central Systems.”

  Molly’s eyes suddenly locked on Paige, surprised by the General’s last comment. Paige’s chest went a deep red, and her eyes focused hard on the table. She looked like Lance had just shared her deepest secret with the class.

  The General wasn’t done. “And then we have Molly Bates, ejected from the Space Corp for a 4077.” The entire team stared at her, their eyes wide. Molly kept her eyes fixed on the holo of Lance, but she could feel the weight. Her breath became short, and embarrassment swelled in her upper chest. She couldn’t see him, but she could swear Joel was smiling a little.

  “So what’s your point, General? You know everything about us. You’ve probably been reading our diaries. So what?” Molly found her courage as she spoke, even though emotion denied her enough air for her vocal cords. “Why are we here? What is this place? And why did you suddenly give us access to this little set up of yours?”

  She paused for a moment, catching her breath.

  Lance opened his mouth to answer, but Molly didn’t stop there.

  “And is this shit all Bethany Anne’s? Does that mean she’s coming back? Or did you steal it from her?”

  Movement caught her eye. She noticed Brock was becoming quite animated in his agreement with her last questions.

  Lance had picked something up off his desk, and now when he raised it to his mouth Molly saw that it was some kind of smoking material. It wasn’t smoking though, so perhaps it wasn’t lit.

  He sucked on the end of it, waiting an extra moment to make sure that this time she had finished ranting.

  Molly sat back a little in her chair, passing the torch of communication to the man who had materialized in front of them.

  Lance nodded and started speaking slowly and deliberately. “Yes, this is Bethany Anne’s equipment,” he answered. “It’s her base, actually, and it’s one of many across the
Etheric Empire.” He paused again, giving his words extra emphasis now. “However, I didn’t steal it, and she’s not coming back.”

  His eyes developed a distant look for a moment. Molly cocked her head and leaned a little closer to the hologram, now that he wasn’t looking at her for the moment. The general sighed. “Not any time soon anyway,” he mumbled.

  He continued, brightening a little. “As for why you’re here, well, perhaps that will become clear in a few moments. There are some things I need to explain.” He became very serious, assuming the look of a hard-ass general again.

  “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” he started. Then something flickered across his face. “No wait. That’s not right.” he corrected himself, his face straight, but his eyes betraying him.

  Molly sniggered.

  Looks like this guy, prying prick though he may be, at least has a sense of humor, she thought.

  Lance composed himself, and cleared his throat to continue. “The Etheric Empire was formed by one Bethany Anne, a human, turned vampire, with Kurtherian technology. Together with her team they defended Earth, jumped through the annex gate which you will have studied in your geography lessons at school, and then made her way across the Yollin empire. There she defeated the Yollin King, who was hell bent on taking over any civilizations he could for the purpose of extracting their raw materials and absorbing their tech. Having removed the threat, she created an Empire. She used that Empire to crush the seven Kurtherian clans that were using people against each other and rid the universe of their influence.

  Unfortunately, one of the clans escaped, limping their way out of our awareness some time back.”

  He looked annoyed for a moment, “You can say Bethany Anne has a serious OCD complex about getting rid of that specific clan.” His face cleared up, “So, she went to implement a serious fence around a special planet, picked up a few friends and they are presently on a mission to locate this clan and have a talk with them.”

  His eyes narrowed, “And by have a talk, what I mean is she plans on wiping them out of existence. She doesn’t forgive disrespect of her people very easily. I assume this clan, whoever is left, hasn’t changed their ways, and she won’t change hers. So, somewhere,” he waved a hand around inside the hologram but pointing out, “in space, she is trying to find these sonsabitches and step on them like you might a cockroach on Earth.”

  The team was rapt, taking in the story.

  Brock suddenly became agitated, wanting to ask a question. He put his hand up, as if he were still in school. The General looked at his hand.

  Cool tech, eh?

  Yeah, he must have a couple of cameras in here feeding him enough data for a three-dimensional image that replicates in front of him.

  Lance nodded and Brock asked his question.

  “But Bethany Anne… Wasn’t she some kind of…of monster?”

  Lance noticed the anxiety in his voice. That was good, he thought. Best not completely allay his fears. He chuckled to himself while keeping his face perfectly straight.

  He looked at Brock. “She is an enhanced human, as a result of this Kurtherian technology. But the term ‘monster’ depends on who you ask. She struck fear into the hearts of those who would prey on the weak. But she stands for justice.”

  He looked down at the cigar he had been toying with.

  “Albeit a very bloody justice,” he added dryly.

  Molly noticed something, and jumped in. “You talk about her in the present tense.” Molly had to ask but dreaded the answer. “Do you mean… Is she still alive?”

  Molly had read the speculations about whether Bethany Anne was alive, or dead, or in hiding, or on another stealthy mission to rain hell down on some other war-mongering ass-twits in another part of the galaxy. Maybe even through another annex gate.

  She held her breath, waiting for Lance to answer.

  He took a deep breath. “Yes, she’s alive.”

  Molly let out a little chortle of glee as she released the breath she had been holding. Brock folded his arms and pulled them close to his chest.

  Lance continued. “After she created peace in the systems—Yollin empire and others—she went off to fight one last battle. Took them down, then went off to find her love, Michael.”

  Joel glanced at Molly.

  Molly didn’t care if the question was appropriate. She forgot the rest of the team as she demanded, “So where is she now?

  Lance took a deep breath and shifted his position in his chair a little. “It’s classified.”

  Molly’s face dropped. That was just a fuckwank of an official line which tells us nothing.

  She felt a tickling in her circuits.

  Oz. Is that you?

  Huh?

  Are you?

  Laughing? Yeah. My. Ass. Off!

  Why?

  Coz I just tried to imagine what you would be like if you ever actually met this woman.

  Her brain seemed to fill with a cascade of activity she didn’t have access to. It was like someone had turned on a shower inside her skull and warm water was going everywhere.

  Oz must be pissing himself laughing, she thought offline to herself.

  Shut up, wank-turd! she told him.

  Hey, no need to take your frustrations out on me. I’m sure we’ll find out the truth of what is really going on once I get patched into whatever this place runs off. Mwahahahahahaha.

  Evil laugh? Really? In a secret military base. You really want to play that trope? Would you like me to get Neechie in here to sit on your knee and purrrr, so you can pet him whilst you hatch your nefarious plan for world domination?

  Oz’s laughing subsided, and he went quiet.

  Molly suspected he wasn’t sulking, but rather was up to something. She could feel the processing ramp up in the part of her brain she wasn’t using right now.

  Lance had continued talking. “…leaving yours truly to govern the Empire.” He sucked briefly on his cigar before continuing, “Politically, we recently had to reduce the size of our armaments. But we knew what was coming, and we knew we needed to keep our people in order to survive.”

  He paused, looking around the room at the wide-eyed team hanging on his every word. Even though he was a few centuries old, he never grew tired of this kind of attention.

  “Over time we built hidden bases, similar to the one you’re sitting in right now, so that when the time came we wouldn’t be caught with our pants down. And that time is fast approaching. The human race and the Etheric Empire have a chance. But we need good people. Good leaders, who can defend each sector.”

  He paused, popping the end of his unlit cigar between his lips for a moment, just to taste the flavor.

  Molly grimaced at where this was going. She could already feel the weight of the responsibility about to be placed on her shoulders. “So that’s where we come in,” she stated flatly.

  Lance nodded. “That’s where you come in.” He pointed his cigar at her. “And you specifically, Molly.”

  Molly frowned.

  Crash and Paige looked at her, noticing her reaction.

  Lance continued. “We’ve been watching you for a long time, young lady. You’ve had quite the adventurous life. We can get into that later. But—and I want to say this in front of your team—if you have any doubts about whether you’re ready for this—we know who you are. And we know that you are ready. We’ve selected you as a result of watching you almost your entire life. You have the capability to handle what we need you to do. So before you ask, let’s get this out of the way. Yes, you can do this. No, this isn’t a mistake. Yes, it’s going to be hard. And no, you cannot think about it for a few weeks, or call your parent.”

  Molly took a second to process the information, her eyes now looking not at the screen but at a fixed point in space where there was no more information to overwhelm her.

  Oz, gonna need some of my circuits back please.

  Yes, boss.

  She felt the confusion in her brain lift a
little, and her awareness expanded. Something had been niggling at her during the whole conversation. Lance was a strange mix of young and old. Just listening to him, Molly had felt there was something…odd. He looked young, but he had that certain confidence that only older men in power ever displayed. And yet he seemed to have a sense of humor too. And then she put it together. She gasped a little to herself when she realized who he must be.

  Lance put his cigar down and clasped his hands together on the desk. “But we do need you to up your game,” he said, looking more serious now. “That’s why we’ve designed a challenge, or a test, if you will.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Gaitune-67, Secret Basement Base, Conference Room

  Molly sat back in her chair, mulling, before answering.

  “Ok. What’s the test?” she asked, a hint of defiance in her voice and her eyes. She could feel the weight of the stares in the room again. These folks were looking to her as their leader. If there had ever been a time when she felt as if she were stepping into boots that were far too big for her, it was now.

  Stay calm, and just play WWBAD, she told herself.

  No, really? That’s your leadership fallback tool?

  Fuck off, Oz, it’s worked perfectly till now.

  You weren’t having the gauntlet thrown down for you by the uber-boss of the Etheric Empire before though.

  It’s all I got.

  Hmm. Ok.

  Lance eyed her carefully, trying to read her expression as he laid out the challenge. “Well, we need to know that you can operate as a team, and step up your game in whatever way necessary to achieve your objective.”

  “Ok…” Molly nodded slowly. A to B. I got this.

  “In order to test your abilities and justify giving you more resources and more responsibilities, we need to see that you can become more…how shall I put this…” he looked up briefly, searching for the word, “resourceful.”

  Molly shook her head questioningly, and then shrugged. “Ok. So?” she asked.

  Lance continued. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it… Hahahaha,” He snickered, unable to keep his face straight this time. “Fuck, I always wanted to say that.”