A Bitch of a Paradox Read online

  “Done,” Bethany Anne replied.

  Amanda worked her Magic. Reaching out with her thoughts, she exerted her will on reality and Ported the Arkady over the vast distance to appear right beside the huge ship she was within. The Arkady was much smaller than Bethany Anne’s ship, Amanda noted.

  Amanda then reached out to Matt and Liz.

  ~Bringing you over,~ she sent through their Mental Link before she took hold of them with her Magic, and Ported them.

  They appeared with a snap of displaced air.

  Matt gasped. “I will never get used to that.”

  ~You both okay?~ Amanda asked them privately over the Link.

  ~I’m fine,~ Liz replied.

  ~Never better,~ Matt added, his mental voice sarcastic.

  “Liz, Matt, meet Bethany Anne and Michael.”

  “A pleasure,” Liz said with a smile, greeting them both in turn. Matt did likewise, but with a little more hesitation.

  “Well, seeing as it looks like we’ll be waiting for the Reavers to show up, how about I give you a guided tour?” Bethany Anne suggested. “And by guided tour, I mean you’ll be tagging along while I get back to work.”

  Amanda smiled and nodded. “That sounds great, I’d love to know a little more about where we are and what you’re doing here. It might help me narrow down what the Reavers might be after.”

  “What do they usually hunt for?” Michael inquired.

  “It’s often, although, not always, the most valuable or powerful thing in any given universe. Or, what they might consider to be the most valuable thing.”

  Bethany Anne pressed her lips together in thought. “I see. Well, follow me. I’m sure we can figure it out.”

  Amanda turned to Sam. “Stay here, I’ll be back for you. Okay?”

  Sam chuffed.

  Amanda smiled and turned to follow Bethany Anne with Liz and Matt in tow. The door to the room opened suddenly, revealing a very inhuman figure on the other side.

  “Bethany Anne, Peter is looking for you…” The alien stopped upon seeing Amanda and her friends. “Oh, sorry! I didn’t realize you had…company?”

  Bethany Anne lifted her hands. “What can I say? An old friend sprung a visit.”

  Amanda stopped and stared in shock. Liz yelped, and Matt swore.

  Bethany Anne was clearly confused by their reactions. She glanced back at the alien, and then at Amanda, as realization dawned. “You’ve never seen an alien before?”

  “Nope,” Amanda replied, and quickly relaxed. She might never have seen an alien, but she’d seen other creatures that were just as strange-looking.

  Liz also seemed to be recovering, but Matt still looked shocked.

  Bethany Anne indicated the alien with a hand. “You’ll be used to it soon enough. This is Kael-ven, the captain of my fleet. He’s a Yollin, from the planet Yoll.”

  Amanda smiled and stepped forward to accept the gigantic, four-legged alien’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”

  A GUIDED TOUR

  “So, how’re you finding Devon?” Peter asked Amanda. “I heard this is the first time you’ve met aliens.”

  “It’s great,” Amanda exclaimed. “I’ve met the perpetually offended Bakas, the spider-people—”

  “Ixtalis,” Liz offered.

  “Yeah.” Amanda shuddered. “Those things. Not something you’d want to meet down a dark alley. Unlike the other ones, the um…”

  “Noel-nis,” Liz jumped in again, rolling her eyes.

  “That’s them. Aww, too cute.”

  Peter grinned, finding Amanda’s cheerful reception of everything she was presented with energizing. “Well, if you think that’s cool, did you know I’m a werewolf? Check this out.” He made his eyes glow, knowing that was what every newbie found fascinating.

  “A werewolf? Oh, cool, I love fuzzies,” Amanda replied with a happy smile, putting her hand on Peter’s shoulder and leaning in to peer into his glowing yellow eyes.

  Bethany Anne winced when Tabitha chose that moment to walk into the room. “Fucksticks.”

  Tabitha took one look at Amanda cooing over Peter and snatched an ornamental kukri off the wall.

  Amanda looked up and raised an eyebrow as Tabitha stormed across the room.

  Bethany Anne was about to do something to avert Hurricane Tabitha when she sensed the energy shift in the room.

  Tabitha failed to notice the dagger was no longer in her hand until she walked face-first into an invisible wall a few feet in front of Amanda, who held up the dagger that was now in her hand.

  Tabitha looked shocked for a moment before her territorial nature resurfaced. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my home?”

  Bethany Anne waved a hand at Tabitha’s outburst. “You’re being dramatic.”

  Michael held his hands up in a soothing gesture, but his voice gave no indication anything was acceptable except immediate obedience. “Tabitha, there’s no need for rudeness. Amanda and her crew are guests.”

  Amanda offered Tabitha a friendly smile as she turned the dagger over in her hand. “Nice blade, to be sure, but let’s not play with knives, shall we?”

  Samhain came to stand between them, giving both women a large-eyed look.

  Tabitha sighed at the cat’s obvious attempt to soothe the tension. She glared at Amanda for a long moment. “Fine. You can stay.” She turned her accusing stare on Peter. “Just as soon as you explain why you brought strangers into our home, where our son lives.”

  “Todd is with Lillian and Jean,” Peter protested. “There’s no danger.”

  “We’ve come to help avert a disaster,” Amanda interjected.

  Tabitha rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Princess Zelda, but we’ve already had the catastrophe on today’s agenda.”

  “Amanda is staying,” Bethany Anne told her. “She is no danger to anyone except the interdimensional pirates she came here to catch. I expect you to make her and her crew feel welcome.”

  Tabitha scowled at Amanda. “Hang all over my man again and we will have a problem.”

  Amanda laughed as she held out Tabitha’s kukri. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Sorry. No hard feelings?”

  “’Your man?’” Peter snorted laughter. “If you liked it, you should have put a ring on it.”

  Tabitha probed the barrier with her hand to see if it was still there—it wasn’t—before crossing the three steps to Amanda. She accepted the kukri and turned her glare on Peter. “You’re one comment away from finding somewhere else to sleep tonight.”

  “She’s holding that knife,” Bethany Anne reminded Peter. “I’d quit digging if I were you.”

  Peter held up his hands. “Just kidding.”

  “What kind of place has Amanda brought us to?” Matt whispered to Liz.

  “Huh?” Liz looked up from petting the female kitten.

  “Nice home, by the way,” Amanda commented to Tabitha.

  Bethany Anne stalled Amanda’s attempt to bond with Tabitha. “We saw the damage that had been done in the bazaar. I can’t believe Totto’s is gone. How badly did the residential areas get hit?”

  Tabitha replaced the kukri on its mount. “The ground units and the Defenders did a lot to reduce the death toll in the residential areas. Most of the fighting was limited to the bazaar and the Hexagon. John and I kicked ass. We killed a Kurtherian between us, but not before John got its memories.”

  “Who are the Kurtherians?” Matt blurted, unable to contain his curiosity.

  Bethany Anne thought for a moment before answering. “Normally I’d say they are the assholes who have been keeping me from getting a good night’s sleep for two hundred years, but you’re new. Imagine the remnants of an ancient species that has operated since the dawn of their civilization under the utter certainty that their way is the only way. They will stop at nothing to force their beliefs on every sentient being in this universe. Imagine they had a level of technology that was so advanced that to everyone else, it looked like magic. Imagine they used it without mer
cy. That is who the Kurtherians are, and we are the only thing that stands between them and everything they want.”

  Amanda nodded. “Two hundred years?”

  Bethany Anne see-sawed a hand. “There were those three years after our children were born, but otherwise, yes.”

  “You have children?” Amanda asked.

  “You’re more surprised by that than the two-hundred-year-long war?” Bethany Anne replied.

  Amanda shrugged. “No offense, but I didn’t take you for the maternal type.”

  Bethany Anne shrugged. “None taken. I’m full of surprises.”

  “So, when do I get to meet them?” Amanda asked.

  Bethany Anne shook her head. “They’re indisposed right now. Maybe another time, when the Reavers aren’t a concern.”

  “Fair enough. Do you have a way of searching for the Reavers?” Amanda inquired.

  Bethany Anne nodded. “I’m already searching. However, I need to take care of my people here before I can leave to go looking under rocks.”

  Leaving Amanda’s crew in Tabitha’s hands might not turn out well for Tabitha, so she had CEREBRO designate her visitors a docking space and quarters aboard the QBBS Guardian. She also sent Tim and Sabine a message to inform them she was volunteering them for tour guide duty. “Amanda, you’re welcome to tag along with me, but you should know I’m going to be traveling extensively for the next couple of days. Your crew can go on shore leave aboard the station, as long as they behave themselves. Peter will take Matt and Liz to meet up with the rest of the crew once they’ve docked at the station.”

  Amanda smiled. “Sounds grand, thanks.”

  Bethany Anne waved for Amanda to follow her. “Come on, we’ll take the shortcut.”

  Bethany Anne opened the Etheric around them as they walked and enclosed them in a buffer of energy to protect Amanda from the force generated by moving at ultra-high speed. Amanda caught a glimpse of swirling grey mist before they reached their destination, and the next moment, they were standing at an enormous window looking out on the planet below while the Arkady inched slowly toward the dock Bethany Anne had transported them to.

  Amanda abandoned the spectacular view and wheeled to face Bethany Anne. “You’re a vampire who can teleport? Or maybe you’re not a vampire. Do you have fangs?”

  Bethany Anne chuckled, a raspy, guttural sound.

  “I do,” she told Amanda, then her eyes blazed red and her fangs appeared. She shifted again, her pale skin now as black as her hair was white. “I’m super-enhanced by the technology integrated with my body. I can look like whatever I want. But I’m not a vampire. I don’t need blood to survive.” She tilted her head. “Not anymore.”

  Amanda’s brow quirked. “What do you mean, ‘not anymore?’”

  Bethany Anne smiled. “On my Earth, vampires and Weres are real, thanks to the Kurtherians messing with our development as a species. I got the first full conversion by the Kurtherian responsible for the vampires, but that’s a story for another day.”

  Amanda grinned. “Cool. Okay, so you’re fast and strong, that’s grand. But I’m still wondering how you’re going to defend yourself against a Magus with powers like mine?”

  Bethany Anne pulled hard and fast on the Etheric and manifested an energy ball in each hand, then manipulated the energy to shift into one form after another.

  “I attack first,” Bethany Anne told her as she formed a fireball, then lightning, then a cloud of needles. “And I keep on attacking until they back the fuck down or die.”

  Amanda smiled, nodding approvingly, and went back to looking out at Devon. “Fair enough. Have you had any time to think about what the Reavers might be here to steal?”

  Bethany Anne shook her head. “Nope. There’s a lot of powerful shit in this universe. Most of it is either in my hands or Gödel’s.”

  “Gödel is the leader of your enemies?” Amanda’s brow furrowed in concentration. “And you have comparable technology?”

  “Pretty much,” Bethany Anne confirmed. “We use it differently. Gödel uses it to control, and I use it to defend.”

  “What about to attack?’” Amanda asked.

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Nothing beats the ESD ray. It releases an energy beam that has the intensity of the interior of a star. It’s a planet-killer.”

  Amanda smiled. “All right, I think that’s a definite maybe.”

  “Only a maybe?” Bethany Anne asked.

  Amanda nodded. “With the Reavers, I don’t take anything for granted. But if it’s as powerful as you say, that’s a good place to start.”

  Bethany Anne held up a finger when she received a message. “One moment.”

  “Is something wrong?” Amanda asked.

  “I told you I’d be traveling,” Bethany Anne reminded her. “Not all of Gödel’s soldiers got the message that the battle is over.”

  Amanda stiffened. “Oh? I’ll tag along if you don’t mind.”

  “Sure,” Bethany Anne agreed. “No shortcuts this time, I’m afraid. We have to take a Pod.”

  Amanda held up a hand, and Bethany Anne felt the redhead’s presence press into her mind. ~I have a better idea. Send me a mental image of the location.~

  Bethany Anne did as the witch requested, then asked, “Did you get that?”

  Amanda smirked. “Clear as day. You know, my Magic and your abilities seem to have some parallels.”

  Bethany Anne waved her finger in a circle to hurry Amanda up. “Save people first, geek out later, okay? Let’s go.”

  Amanda Ported them to the place Bethany Anne had shown her. They appeared in a corridor lit by emergency lighting that flickered in and out as the system kept trying to reboot.

  Wires hung from jagged gashes in the walls and ceiling. Bethany Anne pushed them out of the way as she walked. “We’re too late.”

  “Where are we?” Amanda whispered, ducking under a snake of ducting that had fallen out of the ceiling. “It looks as though the place was chewed up in a blender.”

  “A colony outside of the Interdiction. This was someone’s home.” Bethany Anne advanced slowly toward the living quarters, scanning for the hive mind. “They sent a distress signal to the closest station, who relayed it to CEREBRO.”

  “Maybe it’s Reavers,” Amanda murmured, but she didn’t sound convinced to Bethany Anne. “But I doubt it.”

  “Good eye,” Bethany Anne told her. “You’re looking at the aftermath of an Ooken attack.” She formed an energy ball, illuminating the churned flesh and blood coating the kitchen floor. “We’re too late for these people.”

  Amanda nodded.

  “We need to keep searching,” Bethany Anne told her, heading for the door. “There might be survivors in one of the other houses.”

  They combed the tiny colony, finding every one of its measly two thousand inhabitants torn to shreds, just like the family in the first house.

  Bethany Anne’s anger grew with every innocent she found dead, fueling the need to hold the Etheric energy in check inside her. She caught a discordant note in the mindspace. “Fuckdammit, they’re still here!”

  “The Ookens?” Amanda asked.

  Bethany Anne didn’t reply. She sprinted toward the location she’d felt the hive mind for a fleeting instant, coming out of a sharp turn at a building marked with symbols of worship with Amanda at her heels.

  They burst through the door and found a nest of Ookens making their dinner from the bodies of the people who had chosen the chapel to make their last stand.

  Bethany Anne forgot about holding back. She tore into the hive mind and the Ookens dropped as one as she burned their nanocytes clean, rendering them mindless.

  Amanda ducked when a tentacle broke free of the writhing mass and whipped toward her.

  “Watch out,” Bethany Anne cautioned. “Those things have a nasty bite.”

  Amanda stepped back with a look of disgust on her face. “What are they?”

  “Meet the Ookens. They’re Gödel’s idea of supe
r soldiers,” Bethany Anne explained. She flourished a hand and the flaccid mass rose from the floor. “They’re not so super after I do this.” She clenched her fist, and the Ookens died without ceremony.

  Bethany Anne blasted them to ashes with a stream of white-hot energy and walked out of the building with Amanda following her.

  “Those things are horrific,” Amanda commented.

  “Agreed. There are only a few who can survive a face-to-face meeting with an Ooken. My war machine runs smoothly because everyone works to their ability. The ground crews on Devon will take care of rebuilding there, and I will do my part out here.”

  She looked around, her shoulders dropping. “I just wish I could reach all of them. Get ready for the next set of coordinates.”

  Amanda raised her scarlet eyebrows and pouted. “What am I, a glorified taxi service?”

  Bethany Anne flashed red-eyed daggers at Amanda, who she knew was only joking. However, Bethany Anne wasn’t in a joking mood.

  Amanda raised her hands in a calming gesture. “Hey, I’m kidding. I’m happy to help, so keep those locations coming.”

  A HELPING HAND

  Amanda knelt in the dirt, surrounded by five children, a mix of human and Noel-nis—who looked like cute humanoid dogs to her eyes, with light brown fur and dark beady eyes full of curiosity.

  She held up a rock between the fingers of her right hand, being careful to show the children that she wasn’t cheating.

  “Just a rock, right?” she asked.

  The children nodded, their eyes filled with wonder.

  “Now, watch,” she continued, and waved her other hand over the slate-like rock. When she removed her hand, the rock was now a smooth bar of chocolate.

  The children shrieked with delight and bounced around, calling to their parents nearby to come and watch the magician.