A Bitch of a Paradox Read online

Amanda looked past the kids to the devastation that surrounded them. Sitting amongst the ruined building, the survivors of this attack by the alien super soldiers stared at nothing. They’d lost everything. Many of them nursed wounds or lost limbs. Others huddled, weeping with grief.

  They were the lucky ones.

  Further off, Amanda could make out the strange furry tentacles of a dead Ooken that three men were pulling from a building. The clean-up had begun.

  Nearby, Bethany Anne was standing with a small group of people, human and Noel-nis. The locals were understandably devastated. Bethany Anne was taking it in stride, offering words of comfort that, nevertheless, had an edge of anger to them.

  She knew what they had lost and swore she would get justice for them. As Amanda looked over, Bethany Anne glanced her way and catching her eye, smiled.

  ~Thanks for distracting the children,~ Bethany Anne sent through their Link. ~Chocolate is a rare treat out here.~

  Amanda smiled and winked. ~Anytime.~

  Over the next half-hour, Amanda continued her little magic show, handing out treats she conjured from thin air while the adults discussed more serious matters. Amanda listened in, but this wasn’t something she felt she could interfere with. This was not her universe, after all.

  Eventually, the locals let Bethany Anne go, and Amanda finished her final trick before saying goodbye to her young audience.

  “You’re good with them,” Bethany Anne complimented her. “Do you have children of your own?”

  “I do,” Amanda nodded. “She’s grown up now, though.”

  Bethany Anne smiled. “I thought so.”

  “So, where are we off to next?” Amanda inquired.

  “Here,” Bethany Anne told her and the next location appeared in her mind, as clear as day.

  Nodding, Amanda worked her Magic, focusing on the Quantum Point that allowed her to traverse these vast distances. These jumps were huge, easily tens to hundreds of Light Years, but so far they were within her capability to complete without having to take the extra step of dropping out of the universe first.

  With a snap, they appeared on what looked to be a generally verdant planet, but the area in which they stood showed signs of another wide-ranging battle.

  They stood in the middle of a rural town with idyllic houses scattered around. A few hundred meters away, a large building sat in the center of the settlement, sporting broken windows and bullet holes.

  But that wasn’t the most striking feature of their surroundings. All around them were dead Ookens. Countless numbers of them, strewn all over the town. Amidst the corpses, the townspeople stood talking in small groups. Amanda spotted a few casualties, but nothing like what she’d seen on the last two planets.

  The impression she got was that somehow, the Ookens had been on the losing side this time. They’d been slaughtered before they had done too much damage to the town.

  “I take it this isn’t normal?” Amanda asked upon seeing the look of confusion on Bethany Anne’s face.

  “No, it’s not. I know for a fact that this planet did not have the defenses or troops to fend off an Ooken attack, and yet, clearly they did.”

  “Clearly,” Amanda agreed as she followed Bethany Anne through the carnage towards one of the large groups of locals.

  “What happened here?” Bethany Anne called out as she drew closer to the group.

  “My Queen,” the leader greeted her in surprise. “Thank you for coming. We had no idea that you were on your way.”

  “I keep my promises,” Bethany Anne replied softly. “Although, it appears I wasn’t needed this time. What happened here?”

  “The Ookens attacked,” the leader told her. “Men came. Men in black armor. They killed the Ookens. They had powers, and they just killed them.”

  ~Reavers?~ Bethany Anne asked Amanda privately.

  ~The description fits,~ Amanda answered, curious to know more. ~Hold on, I’ll read his memories~ she said, and gently reached into the man’s mind, plucking a few images of the assault from his mind. Sure enough, Amanda recognized the Reavers, led by Morden, as they killed the Ooken invaders. ~Yeah, it’s them.~

  “So, they saved you?” Bethany Anne asked.

  The leader nodded. “I guess, but, they took some survivors with them.”

  Bethany Anne’s expression hardened. “They took people? Who?”

  “They asked for our best researchers. You know, from the facility,” the man said, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the large building. We thought they just walked to talk, but they rounded them up and then they just disappeared. Like that,” he snapped his fingers to illustrate the point.

  Bethany Anne turned her attention to Amanda. ~Why are they taking my people?~

  Amanda lifted her shoulders. ~The Reavers do take people as well as objects and tech, so yeah, it’s within their M.O.~

  ~But, researchers?~ Bethany Anne demanded. ~What would they want with them?~

  ~Honestly, I have no idea. What were they doing at this facility?~

  Bethany Anne frowned. ~Medical research, for the most part.~

  Amanda shrugged. Right now, Bethany Anne’s guess was as good as hers. This did seem a little odd, but she wasn’t about to start second-guessing the Reavers just yet. She needed to know more about what they were up to.

  SUPPLY AND DEMAND

  The next few locations were just as bad as the first. There was nothing but death and destruction left behind by the Ookens. Bethany Anne had little to say as they walked through the devastation of the fifth SOS. The part of her that wasn’t rage-grieving about the lives lost here, addressed a constant stream of messages concerning her acquisitions drive.

  She reminded herself for the millionth time that the expanded Interdiction would prevent any more massacres caused by delayed reaction times when Nickie, Barnabas, Jean, her father, and Akio piled in on the operation channel with issues and other concerns regarding the operation. She sent the technical queries to Tina, sighing when she found out Akio’s issue was the Ookens’ continued push at Federation borders.

  “You don’t stop, do you?” Amanda commented.

  “Never,” Bethany Anne replied. “I won’t rest until the Kurtherians are destroyed. Right now I’m working on the solution to defending against attacks like this. It’s impossible to protect everyone, but damned if I’m not going to give it my best shot.”

  Amanda smiled. “You’re determined, I’ll give you that. How do you plan on doing that?”

  Bethany Anne explained a little about the Federation’s reach and the challenges involved in linking the defense systems on the outer edges. “While the Federation council is doing its part to implement the changes inside their borders, I will be touring the in-between places to connect them to the defense network.”

  “Admirable,” Amanda murmured as they left the settlement. “Back to Devon?”

  Bethany Anne’s reply was forestalled by a new contact. She dropped all her links and entered the mindspace she shared with ADAM and TOM. What’s the emergency?

  The AI’s reply was grave. >> I’ve got news you’re not going to like. There’s been a raid at one of the supply depots.
  Bethany Anne grimaced. Which one?

  ADAM hesitated before giving her the location coordinates. >>It’s one of Jean’s.
  Bethany Anne glanced at Amanda, who was staring at her again. “I’m going to let you in on my conversation with ADAM.”

  Amanda clapped with delight. “Is that the alien or the artificial intelligence?”

  Bethany Anne narrowed her eyes, wondering how much she could trust Amanda with. She had the potential to be a danger, but Bethany Anne had figured that there wasn’t an evil bone in the woman’s body when she saw how gentle she’d been with the children they’d rescued on their third stop.

  It was somewhat disconcerting to have someone equally deadly in the room who wasn’t a part of her inner circle. Amanda was every bit as unpredictable as she was. However, Bethany Anne was an optimist, a
nd she saw she had an opportunity to make a real friend in this witch.

  Decision made, she smiled at Amanda. “ADAM is an AI. ADAM, does the focus of the attack look to be components for the ESD rays? You can include Amanda.”

  Amanda grinned when she heard a pleasant male voice reply inside her mind.

  >>It’s possible. The depot also had a bunch of other components related to weapons construction stored there, waiting to be taken to QT2.
  Bethany Anne eyed Amanda. “How far can you move us using that instant travel thing?”

  Amanda smiled. “To the next universe if I need to.”

  Bethany Anne chuckled. “The place we’re going next might as well be that far.”

  Amanda tipped her head when she received the location from Bethany Anne. “Well, you weren’t kidding. Hang on!”

  She took Bethany Anne’s wrist and teleported them across the galaxies to the star system called QT2.

  The journey took longer than the previous teleports. Bethany Anne noticed the time-lapse and wondered briefly if it had to do with the distance involved. They came out under a dome near a raised door in a thick carpet of dust.

  “These places are just relay stations,” Bethany Anne explained as she led Amanda into the underground complex. “We find a small asteroid and hollow it out to store goods coming from the Federation until my people on this end transfer it to their ships.”

  Amanda eyed the utilitarian layout. “It’s very…organized.”

  “This part is run by CEREBRO.” Bethany Anne frowned when the EI group didn’t respond to her arrival. “Who should be here.”

  “Whatever you say, Professor X,” Amanda commented with a grin.

  “Blame ADAM’s obsession with old Earth movies.” Bethany Anne chuckled as she continued toward the core room, wondering why in the hell the EI group wasn’t replying.

  Amanda raised a hand to bring her to a halt. “Wait. Magic’s been used here.” She looked at Bethany Anne. “Reavers.”

  Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red as she broke into a run. “They’d better not have hurt my EIs.”

  “Be careful,” Amanda cautioned, keeping pace with her.

  “Fuck that,” Bethany Anne retorted, picking up speed.

  They heard voices as they neared the core room.

  Bethany Anne kicked the door open and strode in, blasting the intruders with a wave of gut-wrenching fear without even looking to see what species they were. “You get one chance to convince me not to strip the skin from your thieving fucking bodies and have it made into a flag to warn any other pirate assholes not to fuck with what’s mine.”

  Most of the intruders cringed when the fear hit.

  Bethany Anne counted thirty dead assholes walking, both male and female. Most of them wore matte-black armor and carried the rifles and sidearms she expected from minions. The three who had shrugged off her emotional manipulation wore simple, utilitarian clothing.

  She dropped her hands, drawing on the Etheric as she glared at the obvious leader. “Well?”

  The man glared back at Bethany Anne. “Oh, great. Locals. And Amanda! How pleasant to run into you again so soon.”

  “You know him?” Bethany Anne asked the witch. “I’ve got to say, I imagined your social circle would be somewhat classier.”

  “Morden,” Amanda muttered. “He is not a friend.”

  Morden sneered. “I don’t know about that. We have this delightful back-and-forth. You interfere, I defeat you.”

  “You mean, you slither off like the snake you are as soon as it gets hairy,” Amanda corrected.

  Morden laughed lightly. “Sam doing well, is he?”

  “No thanks to you,” Amanda replied.

  Bethany Anne sensed intense energy building up around Amanda and released the Etheric energy she’d been spooling.

  It flashed as it smashed into individual protective shields made from the same exotic energy that Amanda wielded. The shields flared under the assault, causing the Reaver troopers to drop to their knees.

  Morden and his two lieutenants staggered under the impact, their more powerful Aegises flashing as they fought the energy bearing down on them.

  Bethany Anne met the stare of the leader with a critical shake of her head. “Goth went out a long time ago, didn’t anyone tell you?”

  The man snarled in anger. “I must have missed the memo. We’re going to go through you like laxatives.”

  Bethany Anne wrinkled her nose. “I suppose I appreciate your originality, if not the mental image.” She turned to Amanda and spoke quietly. “Do you need them alive?”

  Energy flared from the Reaver as she spoke.

  The pulse hit Bethany Anne and Amanda like a battering ram.

  Bethany Anne’s armor protected her as she was knocked back. She dropped the suppression blanket and turned on Morden, her eyes flashing red as she returned a surge of Etheric energy.

  Morden was knocked back by the hit. He halted his stagger and yelled at his troopers to get up and fight.

  “Heavy hitters, huh?” she commented to Amanda as the minions recovered their footing.

  Amanda shrugged. “Told you.”

  “They’re gonna fucking die.”

  MAGIC UNLEASHED

  Amanda smiled at Bethany Anne’s comment, and as the super-enhanced woman charged forward, Amanda turned back to the Reavers as they opened fire.

  Essentia-infused rounds slammed into Amanda’s powerful Aegis, bouncing off of it with little effect. With a thought, Amanda Ported across the room, appearing right in front of Morden. She hit him in the face with an Essentia-infused punch that sent him reeling. His Aegis flared from the attack.

  “Naughty boy,” Amanda quipped, and with another simple working, she conjured an Aegis around the room. No need to give them an easy escape route.

  The Reavers firing on her adjusted their aim, and one of the other two Magi unleashed a blast of white-hot lightning. The electrical energy hit Amanda’s Aegis with an ear-splitting bang, but failed to break through.

  “Nice try. What are you doing here? What do you want?” Amanda demanded of Morden’s Magi assistant.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” she replied with a cruel grin. Magic flared from her again, but Amanda reached out with her own Magic, and dissipated her attack.

  “Well, yeah, that’s why I asked,” Amanda replied.

  Having already split her mind into many parts, they all went to work, summoning Magic of their own. Light flashed as lightning and fire burst forth from Amanda in a dozen different directions, smashing into the Magi and Riven Reavers, burning away at their Aegises.

  The armored Reavers ducked for cover as several of them fell under the onslaught, the others hid, popping out to fire random potshots at her before she hit them again.

  Morden didn’t hold back and focused all of his attacks on Amanda, hitting her with hideous amounts of Essentia that worried away at her Aegis. His Magus cohort did likewise.

  If she stood there and took it, they’d burn through her shield before too long, and they knew it. She needed to move. With a thought from one of her Multitasking minds, she Ported across the room, appearing beside a pair of Reavers.

  Released from the focused attacks of the Two Magi, her Aegis healed as she kicked the closest Reaver in the head, sending him sprawling to the floor.

  She Ported again, back to Morden, and hit him from behind with an explosive blast of energy that burned at his Aegis while her many minds targeted others close by.

  Morden turned to her and smiled. With a snap, he Ported too. He reappeared four meters away and his Magic slammed into her again.

  Nearby, Amanda could see Bethany Anne was plowing through the ranks of Reavers arrayed against her and was also holding her own against the third Magus, who’d taken it upon himself to attack her rather than Amanda.

  Jumping from point to point, Amanda hit Reavers left and right, knocking down several of them, but this was just dragging the fight out. She was confident she could t
ake Morden, and his goons as well, but this wasn’t her universe or her space station.

  Morden and his crew clearly thought they knew the limit of her powers and were trying to take advantage of that. Amanda was fighting on several fronts simultaneously, while they were focused purely on her. It put her at a disadvantage.

  With a frown, she glanced over at Bethany Anne and saw her call on her incredible powers. She wasn’t holding back.

  Goddammit, Amanda thought. What am I doing? Why am I wasting time and dragging this out?

  This wasn’t like the previous universe she’d been to, where Magic such as hers didn’t exist, this was somewhere new, and clearly they had their own kind of supernatural powers.

  If she didn’t end this here and now, Morden would cause just as much trouble in this universe as he had in who knew how many others.

  There was no reason for her to hold back. It didn’t benefit her in any way.

  Amanda glanced over at Bethany Anne as she fired at several more Reavers, her shots bouncing off their Aegises.

  “You bobble-headed yogurt flingers should have stayed home,” Bethany Anne taunted. “The only thing I’m willing to part with is lead.”

  Amanda smirked at Bethany Anne’s insults. She was nothing if not inventive.

  ~Hey, Bethany Anne,~ Amanda called out through the Link. Amanda hit Morden again with more energy attacks as she conducted the brief telepathic conversation.

  ~How valuable is this station to you?~

  Amanda caught the raised eyebrow Bethany Anne shot her before she answered.

  ~I’d rather not have to replace it. Shit!~ Bethany Anne suddenly reached up and clutched her head, clearly in pain. Amanda immediately spotted the Magic that had lanced into Bethany Anne’s head.

  “Yeah, not happening,” Bethany Anne ground out between clenched teeth. “Sic ’em, TOM.”

  Amanda realized the energy increase around Bethany Anne’s spine belonged to the other entity who lived in her body and she was seeing them work together to fight off the heavy-handed attempt at reading her mind.

  “Oi,” Amanda yelled as she lashed out with her own Magic and tore at the Reaver’s effect. Bethany Anne screamed with rage and more of the Etheric energy burst out from her, repelling the Reaver’s telepathic attack.