Etheric Researcher: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Etheric Adventures: Anne and Jinx Book 2) Read online

  CONTENTS

  LMBPN Publishing

  Dedication

  Legal

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Author Notes - Stephen Russell

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Series List

  Social Links

  ETHERIC RESEARCHER

  Etheric Adventures: Anne and Jinx Book Two

  By S.R. Russell and Michael Anderle

  A part of

  The Kurtherian Gambit Universe

  Written and Created

  by Michael Anderle

  DEDICATION

  From Stephen

  To Michael Anderle

  For his help, encouragement, and also giving me a small corner of The Kurtherian Gambit universe to play in.

  To Dorene Johnson and Diane Velasquez

  The assistance, support and encouragement these two ladies have provided goes beyond anything I could have expected.

  Big ((hugs)) ladies.

  To my editor, Lynne Stiegler

  Thank you! For your work, and for taking the time to leave comments that can help me learn to be a better writer.

  From Michael

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  Etheric Researcher

  Team Includes

  JIT Beta Readers - From both of us, our deepest gratitude!

  Daniel Weigert

  James Caplan

  John Findlay

  Joshua Ahles

  Keith Verret

  Kelly O’Donnell

  Kimberly Boyer

  Micky Cocker

  Larry Omans

  Paul Westman

  Peter Manis

  Sarah Weir

  Tim Bischoff

  Thomas Ogden

  If we missed anyone, please let us know!

  Editor

  Lynne Stiegler

  Etheric Researcher (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2017 S.R. Russell & Michael Anderle

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US Edition, December 2017

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2017 by Michael T. Anderle.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Jinx twisted as far as she could, but she wasn’t able to evade the kick. Her armor protected her from serious damage, but when a Yollin mercenary kicked a hundred-and-twenty-five-pound dog with three hundred pounds of force, the dog went tail over nose.

  You all right? Anne asked her friend and partner.

  Seeing Jinx flying across the room ignited a part of her she didn’t like to acknowledge—the part that didn’t mind hurting people. She pushed her speed even higher, faked a punch at the head of the man in front of her, and drove her left foot through his knee joint. She ignored the satisfying scream he gave as he collapsed, and moved to intercept the Yollin focused on Jinx.

  Yes, Jinx assured Anne. My armor is working fine. It’s just that guy who got hit in the head with the apple that bit me that time.

  What? Anne sent back, not a hundred-percent focused on their conversation once she was assured Jinx was all right.

  She dodged the kick the Yollin sent in her direction and grabbed the leg that was still in the air, then flung him ten feet into the three humans who accompanied him.

  Jinx had recovered and was circling their opponents looking for an opening. Some human from years ago. Matrix was telling me about him. He was sitting under a tree, and an apple fell and hit him on the head. Supposedly caused him to write some laws or something. What it comes down to is, if a raging bull hits a china shop, shit’s gonna get broken.

  Oh my God, you’re hilarious! Anne couldn’t stop the smile that resulted from Jinx’ banter.

  She was reasonably certain that if Jinx had been talking with Matrix about Newtonian physics, there hadn’t been any conversation concerning bulls in china shops. There had been a time when Jinx had difficulty understanding nicknames and other odd human phrasings like “hot dogs,” but nowadays she seemed to collect metaphors.

  “Bull in a china shop” indeed.

  Anne ignored the Yollin, who was still tangled with two of the humans, to duck and spin, hands spewing fireballs in an arc toward a new threat she sensed.

  “Shit!” Gabrielle hit the floor. “Enough! Stand down, everyone!” She waited for the blast of heated air to subside before she got to her feet. She looked at Anne, who was hiding her hands behind her back. “Was that an invitation to spar?”

  Anne shook her head vehemently. “No. Sorry! I sensed someone approaching. Peter surprise-attacks sometimes, so I didn’t realize it was you.”

  “Good reflexes,” Gabrielle declared, then surveyed the carnage in the training room. She knelt beside a Were with his leg bent the wrong way. “This is going to hurt.”

  He nodded, used his hands to brace against the pull Gabrielle was going to exert, and gritted his teeth. It was a testament to how tough Weres were that he only grunted when Gabrielle yanked on his ankle to straighten his leg so it would heal faster.

  “I’m going to have to learn to cover more area with my fireballs …” Gabrielle heard Anne mutter. “I totally missed her when she hit the floor.”

  Gabrielle straightened from attending to the wounded Were. “Anyone else need treatment?”

  A chorus of “No” and “I’m fine” came back to her from the group who had made up the aggressor force attacking Anne and Jinx.

  “What happened to the young lady who didn’t like to hurt people?” Gabrielle couldn’t help but ask as she walked over to Anne.

  “Bethany Anne and Jinx,” Anne replied cryptically.

  “You want to expand on that?” Gabrielle arched an eyebrow.

  “Bethany Anne declared that we had to train as strenuously as everyone else. Jinx and I decided that if we had to work out, we were going to go all in and hand out more bruises than we took.” Anne stood from checking Jinx. “Jinx took a hard kick that sent her flying across the room, and I always get more aggressive when I feel them getting hurt. Well, Jinx especially, but any of the dogs, really.” Anne looked down at her feet for a moment, then back at Gabrielle. “If
the dogs get hurt… Well, all bets are off,” she finished ferociously.

  —

  “Excuse me, Lady Gabrielle?”

  While Anne had been talking, Gabrielle had been peripherally aware of the Yollin approaching and Jinx positioning herself between Anne and the alien.

  Gabrielle turned to Gre ’Zon. “Yes?”

  Bethany Anne had given her the task of recruiting Gre ’Zon. The Yollin was rumored to have contact with ex-military personnel on Yoll, and Bethany Anne hoped Gabrielle could persuade Gre ’Zon to convince those people to join the Etheric Empire’s military. Gabrielle had been giving the Yollin a look at some of the training facilities when they had come upon Anne and Jinx’s session.

  “The animal… It’s related to the Empress’ companion?” Gre ’Zon asked.

  “No way! I have human parents!” Anne exclaimed.

  Gre ’Zon looked confused when the human girl answered, and he pointed to Jinx. “I meant—”

  Anne cut him off. “You have four legs. Does that make you a lesser being?”

  Gre ’Zon clenched his mandibles and bit back the instinctive response that four legs made him higher on the social scale. The Empress had decreed that all Yollins were equal, regardless of the number of their legs. “I apologize. I might have been guilty of grekchlopz.”

  “Of grekta-what?” Anne was completely confused, and she looked at Gabrielle for clarification.

  Gabrielle quickly put the clues together. “He’s using a word our implants don’t understand, so we’re hearing it in his native language.”

  Gre ’Zon’s translator allowed him to comprehend the conversation between the humans. He tried again using different words, hoping the human devices could translate these. “Guilty of making assumptions?”

  Anne sighed. “Sorry, it just really cranks me up when people define Jinx as an animal as if she’s not a person.”

  “I think it’s the lack of hands that does it,” Jinx chuffed.

  “Wait!” Gre ’Zon held up his hands in supplication. “What did you say?”

  Anne took a deep breath, releasing some of her anger as she exhaled. “What part?”

  “After ‘sorry.’”

  “Oh, just something random,” Anne replied. “Probably why your implant didn’t translate it.”

  Gre ’Zon reached to his left ear and removed a small device. “Normal Yollins don’t have implants. We use a translation device,” he explained, then replaced it. He looked carefully at Anne. “Why does your ani…companion make those noises?”

  “Noises?” Anne asked. “Oh… She said she thought that not having hands is why others consider her less than a person.”

  Gre ’Zon clashed his mandibles in agitation. “She said all that?” he asked, looking at Gabrielle as if the older human would give her a different answer.

  Gabrielle smiled at Anne’s disgusted look. “The Empire’s latest implants translate the canines’ sounds into that person’s default language.”

  Gre ’Zon looked at Jinx. “And you can understand me?”

  Jinx chuffed again, and Anne translated. “Yes. I have an implant that translates every language in the Empire’s database. I still have issues with some English words, so I don’t always understand what people are saying.”

  They watched as Gabrielle led the Yollin VIP away. Jinx asked Anne, “How would I talk with people who don’t have Empire implants?”

  Anne knelt and put an arm over her friend’s shoulders as she tried to come up with an option. “If I remember correctly, Bethany Anne captured the Yollins back in Earth’s space. To communicate, Yollins wore a harness with a speaker that translated and broadcast to the humans. Why don’t we see if we can get something like that made for you?”

  “That sounds like a workable option,” Jinx agreed, “but the designer had better make it pretty!”

  —

  Anne put down some fresh water for Jinx before she headed for her shower. As she let the hot water wash over her and soothe her remaining aches, her mind wandered over the events of the last few months.

  She had gone from living at home with her parents to living with her best friend and companion, Jinx. She’d been failing in school, and now she was acing her classes. She’d been suffering from an undiagnosed cancer, and now she was super-healthy and Kurtherian-modified. She’d be called a vampire if she were still on Earth. Anne tilted her face into the spray and used her fingers to comb her dark red hair behind her ears.

  Anne almost felt like dancing as the water splashed over her. Bethany Anne had hired her as an Etheric researcher, but to date she had not come up with any ideas that justified Bethany Anne’s confidence in her. She wasn’t sure how to solve the problem of transferring energy from Jinx’ armor, but at least she finally had an idea to explore. With a smile, Anne grabbed her bath sponge, soaped it, and started to scrub the residue of her workout from her body.

  —

  Jinx drank the bowl of water almost dry and eyed her dog food, then sighed and laid down while she waited for Anne to get out of the shower. Their sparring match had left her hungry. However, she had learned through uncomfortable experience that eating after drinking a lot while she was hot made her sick. The first time it happened neither she nor Anne had made the connection, but the second time it happened Anne had remembered that this was twice after a workout. As unhappy as she was about it, they tried it once more just to make certain. Sure enough, five minutes after eating Jinx had heaved it all back up.

  Yuck!

  The next time Anne made Jinx wait until she had stopped panting. Her stomach didn’t revolt after eating, so that became their default routine. Jinx could drink as much as she wanted, but she had to wait until she was no longer panting before she ate. Jinx had asked Anne how dogs on Earth would have handled the situation.

  “Remember, dogs on Earth are not as smart as you guys, and are owned by humans. I imagine the human would just keep the food away from their dog until they felt it was safe for them to have it.”

  Jinx ignored the furniture and stretched out on the polished rock floor to leach some of the heat from her body as she waited for Anne. Being kicked across the training room had really pissed her off. She hadn’t been hurt, but she had no longer been able to protect Anne’s back, and that had left her person fighting everyone by herself. She considered contacting ADAM to ask Matrix to come visit to discuss the issue, but she had a feeling that Anne would want them to try to solve this on their own. This was the sort of thing Bethany Anne had hired her for, after all. Jinx heard the water shut off and figured she’d have about ten more minutes on the rock floor before Anne made her appearance. With a sigh of contentment, Jinx closed her eyes.

  —

  Anne dressed in a sleep tee and added a housecoat. Jinx didn’t care if she walked around the apartment naked, but there were things Anne just didn’t feel right about. Parading around in just her nightclothes was one of them.

  She hoped that Jinx would cool down soon. She was hungry, but felt it was inconsiderate to eat when Jinx was overheated. Anne padded into the common area to find Jinx lying on the rock floor. The fact that Jinx’ tongue wasn’t hanging out was a good sign.

  Do you want to eat now or talk first? Anne asked.

  Let’s start the conversation now. It’s not like we’ll be talking with our mouths full if we continue during dinner, Jinx teased in reply.

  True enough, so where do you want to start?

  Well, the armor works fine, but when something big hits me I’m still at the mercy of all that energy. Even if I had crushable impact-activated armor, I’d still have to be able to remain in place for that to work. Jinx practically whined in frustration.

  I see only two ways to solve this. One is to put you in some sort of canine power-assisted battle armor, so you have the …

  Jinx did whine this time, cutting off the rest of Anne’s comment.

  Hey, I didn’t say you’d be happy with the solution. I’m trying to go through our options and t
alk things out with you.

  Jinx stood and walked over to lay her head on Anne’s leg. Sorry. Let’s get something to eat now, and I’ll shut up and listen.

  Anne scratched Jinx behind the ears, smiling at the rumble of pleasure that always brought from her friend. “Grab some of your kibble, but don’t overeat. I put two steaks in the fridge this morning to thaw, so you have steak for supper-supper.”

  Supper-supper?

  Ya, as opposed to snack-supper. Your kibble, in this instance, Anne replied as she got to her feet and headed for the kitchen.

  I wish I could blow a raspberry like you humans do, Jinx said as she followed Anne, draping her tongue purposely out of the side of her mouth.

  Anne smiled when she saw Jinx’ funny expression.

  Okay, back to the conversation. Armor would be heavy enough to absorb the blows without launching you across a room, or we need to find a solution to bleed off the energy some way.

  That’s basically what Matrix said when I was talking to him, Jinx admitted as she munched on some kibble.

  Did he give you any suggestions? Anne asked. She put on a pan to heat and seasoned her steak. Jinx liked her steak rare with just salt, so the cracked pepper and garlic powder only went on one of the steaks.

  None, Jinx grumbled.

  “We can’t make the energy just disappear,” Anne commented aloud as she placed her steak carefully in the hot pan. She liked her meat medium rare, so she put hers in several seconds before she added Jinx’ and took Jinx’ piece out several seconds before her own. “I imagine your conversation with your brother told you the same thing?”

  We didn’t go into specifics. I don’t have his appreciation or understanding of mathematics, Jinx confessed.