02 - Compelling Evidence

Ages - Kurtherian Gambit - The Kurtherian Endgame

The Bitch is back, and she means business.

Two hundred years ago an alien race altered the course of the galaxy’s history. Just not in the way they intended.

Bethany Anne Nacht has denied the Kurtherians at every turn. After two centuries of war the Kurtherians have gone into hiding, and so has the Queen Bitch.

Life around High Tortuga is about to get very interesting.

Bethany Anne and Michael have adjusted to family life. She and her husband have two children to protect and raise, not an easy task when your children are…gifted. Her plan to protect her children from harm is coming to fruition. However, she didn’t count on their father…

Away from home, the game begins again when a scout ship runs into trouble, and a mysterious new enemy threatens the stability of the nascent Federation.

The Endgame is underway.

Chapter Prologue

Bethany Anne and TOM speak of development o the twins, Alexis and Gabriel (See Characters, The Twins). It is rapid (3 months to walking, potty trained), and Bethany Anne is complaining that they weren’t babies long enough, and wondering, when Alexis hit puberty, if Michael will kill all of the boys interested in her. TOM reassures her- The children will be fine, Bethany Anne. They have you and their father and ADAM and me and… well, I could go on all day. The point is that they have all of us to make sure they are healthy, happy, and well adjusted.” TOM and Bethany Anne practice Etheric Immersion, Bethany Anne creating an image of herself there. Bethany Anne senses an Etheric storm, and TOM warns her NOT to go there! Not dangerous as long as you do not get entangled in one. Might be transported somewhere, either familiar or unfamiliar. ADAM finds all of this curious.

Chapter 01

Three years later. Scout ship QBSE Loralei destroyed in contact with alien planet. Sends torpedo back to HighTortuga, through Etheric, with information for Federation. (See Category Vehicles, QBSE Ships}

Lance Reynolds meeting with two groups of Noel-ni, disagreeing on whether to involve the Federation in a problem of fulfilling a contract with the Q’Palmeretta. Might develop into a war if not fulfilled. This was the first real challenge to the nascent Federation where the ex-Empress wasn’t waiting in the wings to scare the miscreant children into behaving. Lance will take it under advisement. Drazen, her second in command, didn’t want the Federation involved. Lance has suspicions about him.

Chapter 02

Lance had called Michael to tell him to help Bethany Anne not to over-react when they could not make it to the birthday party because of a Federation concern. She still blamed it on the Leath. At the Party, Tabitha gave Alexis a pair of glittery combat boots, and Gabriel an upgrade for his App suite – a whole new toolset which will work with all of his devices. Akio gave them their first blades (no edges, so they can learn). Ashur and Bellatrix brought them their two new puppies to meet, Zeus and Athena, who can mind-speak already. Kids and puppies go to play, and disappear. They were found, all four of them, wandering in the Etheric. Question – How are they going to put a lock on the Etheric? Bethany Anne et al are looking for a planet on which their rebels, the outcasts can thrive.

Chapter 03

Michael and William discuss when Michael will go on his hunt, and where Bethany Anne wants the BBQ pit installed. “She said, and I quote, ‘If you put that fucking grill anywhere I can smell the meat cooking, the first thing that’s getting cooked on it are your balls.’ William asks him how he’s going to ill the dinosaur, as it’s fifty feet tall and nasty. Will probably use Etheric energy to take it down. Bethany Anne and Michael are going out on a date, to kick ass. She puts on her armor, and her new boots, made from a High Tortuga beast. She and Michael are dressed for a night out with pirates, and ArchAngel II. Jean will sit with the twins while they go out, Jean promising that they will have a good, SAFE time. Anne, Michael, Tabitha, Gabrielkle and the Bitches were in a transport pod, coming onto the ArchAngel II, to go to Belv'th, their destination for the evening. It has a reputation in certain circles as being a place you can go to hide from the authorities.” They look at the maps ArchAngel II put up, and go explore. (See Locations, Belv'th) Bethany Anne and Michael will have the most fun, exploring the outlying areas.

Chapter 04

Belv'th, Second City, Entertainment District Tabitha, John and Scott go to bar, trolling for info. Coke? Pepsi? “We don’t trade in Federation goods around here. Local producers only.” And they sat and listened to a group of mercenaries who wanted to take the planet back from the humans, who had taken all of the profit out of everything. They’d take them out while they slept. Tabitha sent a couple of drones after them, they saw them, and came at them, to do away with the humans IN the bar!

K’aia, a four-legged Yollin slave in the salt mines on Belv'th, carried her dead friend, Barien, a human, to a place to hide, so that the guards wouldn’t find her and the body. She had killed the overseer who had shocked Barien to death, and was now escaping from the mines. She would take his body to the human town, then escape, to see if any of her own kind had survived. K’aia stumbled upon Bethany Anne and Michael, who would now enjoy a tussle with the score of guards who were following K’aia. The three of them kill all of the guards, and their Leath leader.

Belv'th, First City, Bazaar

Gabrielle, Eric and Darryl find a nightclub, music. Tabitha mind-reads, find someone they might want to talk to.

Chapter 05

Tabitha, John and Scott destroy the bar in a fight started by the Shrillexian, against the humans.

Bethany Anne, Michael and K’aia take Barien’s body to the mercenary outpost, Irey. Gerry allows them in, then goes away to complete his night’s sleep, taking them to a low building nearby. Someone would be with them soon. They leave, go to another place smelling of smoke, find a burned-out town, with signs of whip marks on the corpses, and much fighting. Bethany Anne begins go feel as if the planet will need their attention after all. Tabitha likes the planet. She “feels” the minds of the people on the planes above them, and they feel free, and they’re proud and happy. And they even find a prize-fighting match going on, between a Baka and another nine-foot lizard-looking alien.

Gabrielle, Darryl and Eric find an empty mercenary town, look for info, find offices of Melien, who has just shown up. Planet needs some cleaning up, but will do as the New Devon.

Chapter 06

As the group on their date clean up the town, Alexis and Gabriel awaken, disturbed by the dreams” they are having of their parents in a serious fight, and talk to their nursery EI, Phyrro, asking it if their Mom and Dad are OK. They are told yes, and they then ask if they might see where they are and what they are doing. Phyrro asks Jean if it would be OK, and she said yes. Let them see what they have as a heritage, smirking as she said so. Phyrro set them up in a viewing room, showing them a heavily edited run of what was happening on New Devon. The children seem to know what their parents are fighting for, and doze off as they watched.

There are three mercenary towns to check. Bethany Anne and Michael took care of one, Tabitha John and Scott are fighting at another, and Darryl, Eric and Gabrielle are at another. Tabitha needs help, so they will all go there to finish off what is needed. Tabitha gets the big guns working to take out the three ships attacking them, and the other two teams are on their way to help. Baba Yaga appeared, walking on air, pushing waves of fear ahead of her, to help her.

Chapter 07

Using Etheric energy, Baba Yaga takes down ships, mercenaries, buildings, - anything in her way. She also directs some to Michael, for him to shape and use as he sees fit. He does so, clearing a space so that Bethany Anne can take down more ships that have appeared. Bethany Anne threw energy at the ships, frying them, and ArchAngel finished them off. All crews died on their ships except for one that got away.

Chapter 08

Baba Yaga was talking to a Shrillexian leader she had just slapped into submission, telling him how things were going to work there, NOW. Thy wanted to protest, and Baba Yaga warned them to NOT PISS HER OFF ! She had decided - She would put in some structure—basic laws, for one — but otherwise, she would honor her word and allow things to run mostly as they had before. Besides, the vibe here was just right for the rebels she’d promised to take care of. New Devon was wild, but now she’d cleaned out the worst of the rat's nests it was the right kind of wild. Will turn prize-fighting into a good career, bring in a Guardian Marine group to maintain order, let it take care of itself.

Sabine, Jacqueline, Mark and Ricole were waiting to board their ship, as they were the Guardian Marines slated for New Devon. They were waiting for Demon to join them. Demon is going to New Devon because she wants to fight, not just to hunt and be happy.

Bethany Anne and Michael come home, to find that Jean has allowed the children to witness the evening’s entertainment, and to learn what their parents did on a date, just like their aunt had done to her children years before.

Chapter 09

Bethany Anne tells exactly what she had in mind for New Devon. The ability to hide High Tortuga, and use New Devon as a screening ground for those looking for Devon. “I didn’t need to take over a whole planet to find a place where people could blow off some steam. New Devon is going to be the place people end up if they try to find old Devon. Then, depending on their intent, we can either divert them or transport them here. So now we have the shuttle service in place—thank you for getting those Gate engines for the bus-ship built so quickly, William—we can get our rebels taken care of.” Bethany Anne waved her off impatiently and turned to look at William expectantly. “What about getting some normality around here? Now we have the planet’s infrastructure under control, I want to loosen travel restrictions.” She narrowed her eyes at the reactions around the table. “Once we’re in Phase Three, that is. Nobody is getting on or off High Tortuga without my say-so until I can be sure they have no way of running their mouths about our location to the highest bidder.” “So how do we divert the whole galaxy to the wrong planet?” Jean asked. “I mean, we can’t exactly change the maps.” “Yes, we can,” ADAM replied through the speaker. “I’m ready to implement the virus for Project Reroute that will replace the coordinates of High Tortuga with those of New Devon.” The Queen rolled her eyes. “Let’s just codename it Devon. William shrugged. “I don’t know what you want me to say. Until we figure out how to loosen travel restrictions without High Tortuga’s location becoming common knowledge, Phase Three can’t go ahead.” “There is still the practical issue of removing the information from large numbers of people.” The Guardian Marines were in their first Bar fight, and holding their own. Word spread to other bars, that a group of humans were taking on all comers, refereed by a -Noel-ni- (wolf, claws)

Chapter 10

Bethany Anne is going back to the Meredith Reynolds for a visit with Nathan and Patricia, and their son, Kevin. She promised not to interfere with politics, unless her dad asked her to. Bethany Anne asks Michael what he plans to do with their children while she’s gone, and he mentions a few field trips, but she negates any dinosaur hunts. Eve had been working on some special educational things for them. Sabine offers to bet with whomever doesn’t want to fight. Bethany Anne, on her way, on a re-purposed Leath ship, as good as a Federation ship. Good second best, with good Leath technology. Has been four years since they were on the Reynolds. Want to see what’s changed. Family time first (Lance and Patricia and Kevin), then shopping, then going dancing !

Chapter 11

Michael is taking care of the kids, with the help of the TQB. They are going on a field trip, and go to a room with four devices that looked like Pod-docs. The entire back wall was given over to a screen, and there was a console beneath it. Michael explained. “These are something a little better than the interactive recreation training tool. This is the next-level IRT, the Vid-doc. It’s an immersive experience instead of merely being interactive.” They both climbed into the pods, settled down, and chose Dinosaur Island as their first experienced game. As the children awaken in the game, they find themselves in an environment they can FEEL ! Gabriel went off to explore, but Alexis was feeling a slight chill – different than what she was used to! She went off to be with Gabriel, and the viewers were a little upset. The kids had missed the first set of instructions, and would need consultants. When? After they died the first time.

Bethany Anne and the girls arrive in the queue to dock on Meredith, and Meredith brings them in to the Queen’s private dock, unused since her departure. All had been sealed since her departure four years ago, and old memories were returning. Memories of another lifetime. Bethany Anne had to agree with that. It was another lifetime, just the latest she was living in a long succession of them. Was she still the same woman who had faced her mortality in a doctor’s office on Earth some two hundred years ago and told inevitability to go fuck itself? She thought she was, at the core.

Chapter 12

On the Meredith Reynolds. Lance gets mixed up in High Tortuga, Devon, and New Devon, but it will clear up eventually. Lance has to attend a video conference, and the girls will make their way to his place to visit with Patricia and Kevin.

Alexis and Gabriel push on for a couple of hours, then see the path widen and split. The kids attempt to connect to Phyrro, and are denied access. Alexis considers her dad a complete pain in the ass, and that they will figure it out, themselves.

Chapter 13

Bethany Anne was “flying” Kevin, her own version of a plane ride. They decide that although Kevin is somewhat advanced for his age, he’s nothing like the twins, or even Gabrielle and Eric’s two. Both Michael and Bethany Anne agree that they will need some Etheric training soon, so as not to wander into it as they did a while back. They are handling the training well.

Alexis and Gabriel, when they did not investigate the dinosaur pack, missed a game event that would have stood them in good stead later on. But Michael will send in Eric or John to help them, if they need it. They heard Alexis describe Michael, and laughed. The kids took the road to the mountain. Gabriel sees more animals, and goes to explore. They get in trouble, as the ones they are going into are attacked by raptors, killing the smaller pack, splashing the kids with blood, causing them to run like mad to get away. Michael sends John in to help, and give them pointers. Eve suggests that they'd better hope they don’t get bitten, as it’s her best, most realistic work, ever.

Chapter 14

Jennifer and Charles, awakened by the CEREBRO system, receive a communication. It’s Addix, announcing her arrival. She speaks to Eve, asking to see Michael. As he’s busy with the children’s training, she will speak with him later, in person. The girls go shopping on Meredith, trying on disguises. They had left Bethany Anne’s suite, so Lance missed them. Meredith will keep an eye out for him. Bethany Anne is shopping for shoes, as usual, and will have Jean build her a special place, so that she can keep the purchases secret from Michael. (Jean was flabbergasted as the anti-grav pellets with merchandise head off for the storage cube they’d brought with them. They all decide that her stepping down was right, and that Lance, had grown the Federation. It didn’t need her any more! She’s about ready to go off and find and kill more of the Kurtherians.

Chapter 15

John tries to get out of the game, and cannot do so. Looks like he’s in it with the twins. Michael’s joke. Alexis needs to climb a tree to ascertain directions. She does, and they go off again. They come to a river, and need to form a raft to cross. They cross, and see a large monster attack a pack of beats on the shore they are approaching, so they alter course to avoid them. They decided to build a bridge next time, or go around, or learn to fly.

Chapter 16

The Leath ship, Maiden’s Rage, a pirate/slave ship (independent trading vessel) has late, was going to lose their payments if they did not make up time and get to their next stop appropriately. So, profit being the motive, they decided to Gate, to jump to the next stop, rather than do it the slow way. Einock, the Captain, and Brakely, his second,so decide. Will jump with clean ship, so crew has to get busy. on Jacqueline, Mark and Ricole begin to plan on how they are going to support themselves on a planet with no rules. Gray market. Jacqueline chuckled. “Gray market should be deep enough for now. We just need one of us to lead, one for intelligence and communications, and two for muscle. Three to do the job, and two to run it.” They will rotate through positions, so all will learn. We would be better off automating as much of the heavy lifting as we can. Then we can operate without worrying that one of the workers will make us. We’ll keep ourselves to ourselves, then. ”Never let your prey see you approaching, Demon commented. “ I’m sure that applies here as well." Tabitha had given them a box of her spy devices, her “balls”, to help them acquire information. They needed a premises they could keep bug free, and an order of set-up supplies from High Tortuga. They got those started, and three of them went out into the city to gather information.

The girls carry their purchases until they were unnoticed, when Bethany Anne transported to Patricia and Lance’s house, for dinner. Lance is in a difficult position, as Reia took the problem to others in the Federation, so he can’t have a Black Ops team do anything. Bethany Anne suggested that the four of them help out. Lance accepted.

Chapter 17

Maiden’s Rage The ship receives an alert that a Gate is opening, and they watch as five Noel-ni ships come through, heading for an unknown dark patch further out. The pass by it, unbeknownst to them. The Maiden’s Rage receives another alert that there is an incoming from the unidentified mass, due to arrive in ninety minutes or less. They need their Gate charged before then, to escape. Bethany Anne and her shopping buddies suit up in the armor Jean Dukes had brought for all of them, and go off to quell a bar fight in AGB. The FBB (Four Badassed Bastards) is born – Baba Yaga’s group.

In the vid-game, the three have noticed the terrain changing, the rolling grassland gradually morphing into a rough and rocky landscape that became increasingly difficult to navigate the closer they came to the long shadow of the mountain. The land rose in jagged steps, which they had to climb to keep going toward the mountain. They climb onto the next level, and as Alexis walked off, angry at her Father for the game, she disappeared. John found a tree close by (which had suddenly appeared), and pulled some vines from it to climb down to see where Alexis was, pulling a snake down onto himself, which bit him. Eve was getting back at him for something.

Chapter 18

The All Guns Blazing fight Baba Yaga decides to let it run its course, then remove all of the frustrated Wechselbalg to Devon. So they all just monitor the fight, joining in where necessary to avert real damage.

Addix comes to tell Michael that Baba Yaga may well be in the middle of a space fight. Michael readies the base’s fleet for an “unscheduled emergency”, to assure that Bethany Anne has the power she needs to back up her actions. Kael-ven is ready with a full crew, and Kiel supports the maneuver. Bethany Anne and her FBB were enjoying the fight, but when they saw that there would be no end, Bethany Anne ended it with “Enough!” They had a mission the next day, and needed to get out of the fight. She underlined her words with fireballs, to get them moving.

The twins again fall into a trap, rescued by John. Alexis learns that she needs to pay attention instead of griping about her dad.

Chapter 19

Meredith calls Lance the next day, with a request from a stolen Leath ship to talk to him. Lance grants the request, and learns that they were running from something – an unknown quantity. “Our sensors couldn’t identify it, and none of us have ever seen anything like it before.” His eyes misted over as he relived the terror of the pursuit. “All I can describe is this gigantic mass with a rage-on for anything that passed it. We were tracking a bunch of Noel-ni ships that Gated into the system just after we did when the behemoth caught our sensors and sent a… a…something after us. Hold tight for a moment…I’m sending all our sensor data now. Maybe your tech can make sense of it.” He did, and Meredith will review it when it arrives. “What happened next?” “We held onto our asses and hoped like hell that the Gate engine charged before it hit us.” TOM analyzed the data, and recalled a memory from before he was on Earth. >>When I was just an acolyte, one of the pilots returned from a planet which had been destroyed by an AI. It became corrupted and tore the planet to shreds to gather the resources to keep growing. She managed to scan the AI and escape with her life and her ship intact, and the data she shared was eerily similar to what we have here. If this is an AI and its only goal is to grow and defend itself, you can be sure that it won’t go down easily.<<

Michael goes off to defend Bethany Anne, Addix goes into the vid-game, and John comes out. Michael goes off, with a promise to the children that he WILL bring back their mother!

Chapter 20

Lance works to buy Bethany Anne extra time in the insane AI situation, because they need more information about what it is before they can fight it. The Bitches are assigned to the deployment, as well. Kael-ven thinks Michael may be over-reacting, but learns better. Michael learns that all of his secrets aren’t so secret, as Akio talks to Tabitha, Tabitha talks to Peter, and Peter talks to the Bitches, so they know most of whatever Michael doesn’t want known. It’s how the Bitches know about what is happening. Rather efficient! Jean has provided them all with new armor and weapons (mini-missile launchers, new rifles). They take off.

Addix and the twins come to a cave, empty, cold. They request that Eve come and fix it for them, so she does. When they awaken, they will finish the scenario. And Eve has a new game for them, with caves and dragons.

Chapter 21

Michael and the fleet come to the quarantined area, meet with Bethany Anne. They look at the enhanced data, and see a huge rock. But then they look more closely, and see a group of dead ships disguised as a rock. "I guess that casts doubt on your AI theory, TOM.” They needed a plan of action. John asks,“You mean, kick the doors in and kill everything in sight until there’s nobody left to threaten the Federation?” "That’s the one!"

The twins ask Aunt Addix if she knows what the final challenge is. She says that if she tells them it will start immediately, so she first gives them advice as to how to conquer it, then tells them what it is. “ All I can tell you is to run swiftly, choose your path carefully, and trust yourselves.” Addix pointed at the rocky spires. “The portal to the next scenario is at the center of the maze. All you have to do is reach it and activate it to complete this story. You must do this alone, but I will be waiting on the other side of the portal for you.” “Run, children. I will see you both very soon.” They come to a split in the path. Alexis marks their path with a sharp rock on a stone, ...."so if we get lost or turned around,we can get back on the right path.” And they crossed their own path several times. They had just found their way back to the path after hitting yet another dead end when a sudden screech filled the air. A pterosaur was attacking them. They crawled through a crack, resting while the creature screamed at them. Then Gabriel shook her arm. “Alexis, the portal!” They had found the center of the maze. The rock had been excavated to make a wide, clear space. A dais was in the center, surrounded by rows of carved stone benches. The portal was on the dais, a huge stone circle with symbols carved into every inch that Alexis and Gabriel could see. Then Gabriel became shaky, and collapsed. Alexis held him. What happened? He had been bitten by a spider. Alexis had to defeat the pterosaur by herself, to get Gabriel out of the game. Alexis tried to stand up to the creature, making energy balls like her mother could do, and Eve gave her that capability. But the energy balls weren’t enough. She had to let the energy build up inside, so that it would emerge in a massive wave. The energy radiated outward from her, activating the portal and disintegrating the pterosaur in the process. Addix was waiting to take Gabriel from Alexis when she came through the portal into a cozy two-room cottage. They were in the new game, but it wouldn’t begin until they had rested. There was a list of characters they could assume.

Chapter 22

Bethany Anne opened a communications link, but "the rock wasn’t talking." Kiel turned in his seat to face her. “They’re definitely not the talking type. The spheres have just released all sort of nasty things. I’m getting confirmation of everything from straight-up kinetics to nuclear warheads. They’ll be on us in less than thirty minutes.” They decided to meet the missiles with Black Eagles. They all sped away from the ship, going to meet the enemy. Michael opened his mystery box and found a pair of gauntlets, made from the special hide, that would help him call out lightning from the Etheric. Underneath the sphere's cloaking the surface was made up mostly of shipwrecks packed in together in a way that made Bethany Anne’s head hurt. “It’s like somebody made a Death Star from junked cars,” she remarked. "Are those our missing Noel-ni ships?" Could be. John and Tabitha were going in from that direction, and they were ready to “kick the doors down”. The alien ship grew closer in their viewscreen. The closer they got, the less like a comet the structure looked. It was more spherical in shape. "Have them send some drones in to check it out.” Since they could find no doors, they made their own, sending a complement of pucks at the wall of wrecks. They searched the rooms, and were met by an attacke. Scott panned his camera down to show them the attacker, a mechanoid with eight deadly limbs placed in incongruous spots around its torso. The cameras that protruded from the top of its body waved weakly and gave up. “It makes me a little worried that the archetype for this species’ robot technology is arachnid. People tend to make things in their own image." Then, the sound of many approaching feet. “Now I really wish I had a flamethrower,” he bitched as the lights went out at the other end of the corridor, covered by the arachnobots on every inch of the walls and ceiling. He turned the dial on his rifle to switch to electrified scattershot. “Or an EMP. Now that would have been useful.”

Chapter 23

The dreadnoughts were holding the main space, while the smaller ships and pods were cleaning up the waves of missilles the sphere was sending out. Many of the smaller ships didn’t make it through. Inside the alien ship, Bethany Anne and Michael stood back-to-back at a T-junction in the arachnobot-infested corridor. The inner ship was crawling with masses of the spider-legged bots, forcing them to battle for every step they gained. They spoke with ADAM, who was trying to take control of the ship through its systems. >> I am almost in control of the secondary systems, but there is a large area at the center of the ship that I cannot yet access. I suspect you’ll find what you’re looking for there. Sending directions now.<< Michael sent instructions for the other teams to meet them there. Tabitha blasted a hole through a major door with her new gun, Gracie, and they all proceeded to go into the main area. An alien dropped from the ceiling, knocking Tabitha to the floor. It came at her, baring row after row of razor-sharp teeth. Michael disabled it with a bolt of Etheric lightning. They stood around the twitching alien, its chest blown open and its spindly metal legs waving uselessly. The alien most closely resembled a grub, if grubs had eight eyes, were blue, had four hands, and had merged with technology to get around better. A creature of both flesh and machine. And there were more of them coming. In the space battle, the EI of one of the dreadnoughts, the Valiant, gave its final effort, and, as a last ditch effort, as it had been hit, headed for the enemy line, ramming and destroying as much as it could.

Chapter 24

The grubs snarled from every door along the corridor at the humans as they approached, brandishing their weapons. Bethany Anne killed them with massive bursts of Etheric energy, Michael with his gloves and lightning. They worked their way towards the huge door at the end of the corridor, which Adam was trying to open. He could not do it. Bethany Anne felt as if she might be able to do it with massive amounts of Etheric Energy. . TOM guide her through the process, opening a portal to release the energy, clearing a path to the door with that energy, collecting a charge, compressing it, then, as TOM said, “Blast that bitch!” The door melted open, and they found two aliens, grubs, working under a translucent dome. They were oblivious the fact their door had just been blown open. TOM explained. They are a mental species. They have enormous skill with the Etheric, which is how all of this is working together so well. They are not concerned with this reality, other than how they can manipulate it to serve them. They have no link to the Kurtherians. They just love to take over other races. When the aliens sent a psionic attack at them, Bethany Anne was dropped to her knees by a sudden stabbing sensation in her brain. The others were on the floor around her, clutching their heads as the aliens pressed their attack. The aliens noticed her ability to resist, and she was hammered with a much harder attack. She screamed, barely able to fight back as the aliens ravaged her with wave after increasing wave of pain. TOM stepped between the aliens and Bethany Anne, blocking her pain and attacking them. They began to attack Bethany Anne again.

Michael was busy. He turned to Myst and began to probe the alien dome. It had a perfect seal, preventing him from getting inside no matter how thin he spread himself. When the aliens began their attack, the dome relaxed just a fraction. It was enough for him to start to push himself through the barrier a few molecules at a time. He persevered while they had been fighting, and fell into the dome when TOM attacked. Michael solidified behind them, and as they resumed their attack, he reached into their bodies with his clawed hands, and pulled out steaming, dripping clumps of flesh still attached to their insides. They died. The demolition teams were working, recovering any parts of the ship that looked valuable, and painting a few of the parts. Michael asked what they were doing that for, and she wouldn’t tell him. Later.

Michael calls Eve, etherically, asking how the children were doing. They had passed the first levels, and were now going to be the first virtual reality players in this system to put on their helmets, grab their swords or magic wands, and create new characters for Dragons and Caves.” Michael is happy about their progress, which makes Bethany Anne very suspicious, “Because he’s up to something. Any time that man is that happy, he’s up to something.” Bethany Anne receives a call from ADAM that they had just received a report from a scout ship that had been destroyed, but the torpedo had come home with at least a partial report. Bethany Anne would check on it later.

Chapter Epilogue

Next morning, Base cottage, Dungeons and Caves Training Scenario. Eve, Alexis and Gabriel talking, Addix enters the room, dressed in spiked armor. They are all choosing characters for this scenario, where they must cross a battlefield and come out on the other side, alive. Eve and Addix will offer some protection, but at their direction only. Bethany Anne came in and saw them fighting dragons. She wondered what was going on. They stopped fighting, and got out of the Pod-docs, chattering. As they go off for breakfast, Eve calls that she will send Bethany Anne and Michael a review of the twins’ scores, so they can be as proud of them as she is.