WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (5 page)

“I’m sorry,” the Canadian Prime Minister interrupted again, “but am I understanding that was a restrained response?”

Bethany Anne stopped and looked at him, and then took in the rest of them with a frown, “Did you guys all choose Canada to suck it up and ask all of the hard questions?”
 

There were a few chuckles before she turned back to him, “Yes, that was restrained. They had two options, kill me or sue for peace. I suppose complete devastation was a third option, but even I don’t think they are that hard headed… perhaps North Korea would be, but not China. They play a long game. No thanks to a fair amount of Western countries who have abused them. While I might understand their mentality, it doesn’t mean I have to accept it.”

She continued pacing as the leaders worked to try and pigeonhole this lady into one of their known personality types and faced difficulty.

Ball-buster was a running favorite, though.

“So, let’s get on with this technology we have here. This is the QBS ArchAngel, one of two operational spaceships we have right now. The other, the QBS Defender, is the one responsible for the little parking lot which was formerly a portion of China.” she flipped a hand out, “Yes, Prime Minister, we did save quite a few people during the resulting devastation. If I had wanted to harm more of their people, I wouldn’t have chosen a location so far from most of their populations.”

“Isn’t this a little much,” the leader from Mexico entered the conversation, “All of this power?”

Bethany Anne stopped and raised an eyebrow, “And you would have who hold it, exactly? If you even remotely suggest that sycophantic tic on the ass of a baboon named the United Nations, I’ll have to ask you to leave as being too stupid to sit with the adults.”

The Mexican President opened his mouth, then shut it without making a sound.

“Yes, now you come to the realization that none here are going to allow you to be the only one, right? Any country in a group that might be a part of the joint ownership is going to immediately suffer from the advanced capabilities of the U.S., Russia, China, and to some degree, the European democracies. Either way, my mind is made up, so the wiser of you will move on to the next item on your list that you would like to accomplish.”

She continued walking, “Now, we come to the good part, the part that makes all of this make sense, and for some of you it will both open the next Pandora’s box, and get you irritated as hell with a few of your friends. In the end, it doesn’t matter.”

The lights started dimming as Bethany Anne stepped to the side of the room as did her guards. “Gentleman and ladies, the reason TQB Enterprises exists is to try to protect the world, but not from someone from our world, but rather from a set of Alien clans which enhance sentient beings to fight a galactic version of cockfights. Winner takes all.”

The muttering started when the middle four displays behind the table showed a set of stars in the background when suddenly a flash occurred and for just a few frames, a spaceship appeared, then was gone.

“
We Have Contact
.” Bethany Anne told the group before she paused.

 
“And we can’t find them right now,” she finished.

Yollin Deep Space Ship - G’laxix Sphaea

Kael-ven T’chmon reviewed the deep sensor readings and recordings from their last three trips around this sun. He pointed to one area within an asteroid belt, “This, this is one area they are mining and where they are possibly manufacturing.” Moving around the display, he pointed at the third planet from the sun, “Here, here is their world with their pitiful technology base.” Reaching forward with his two arms he spread them apart to zoom in on the planet. The Yollin’s Captain was from their noble line. He had four legs and two arms. “Here is the one moon they have near their planet. It looks like they are using it as a base of some sort. We will have to search closer to see much here.”

The captain slapped his hands together, and the display disappeared, “Pah! This is such a backwater location. It is embarrassing that I was chosen to even scout it for our King.” He scratched his dry skin, a piece flaking off he grabbed and stuck in his mouth, thinking about what he had just reviewed.

He started walking towards the soft couch that captains used. It had no back, rather small at 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. Captains of Yollin ships rest their long torsos on the top and use their four legs to grab underneath to lock themselves in.

Kael-ven T’chmon lowered himself into the Captain’s Rest and looked around the bridge. While it was true that it was an honor to be given this opportunity by the king, to have such an inferior technology base was quite a letdown.

“Perhaps they will have some technology we have not seen, which will make all of this effort worthwhile. If so, then we can go back through the Annex Gate and advise our King to expand the acquisition effort. If not, our expedition must be complete so that we can decide how many solar years before we come back.”

“Captain?” The communications specialist called out. “Should we ping for the Master Race?”

Captain Kael-ven T’chmon grunted. “That is a good question specialist Melorn. While we have not seen any evidence the Kurtherians have been here, should we not abide by the Rules of Acquisition, our King would have our heads.” The Captain opened up the display on his right side to note his command.

“Send the ping,” he spoke the command as he documented the command in his log. He looked up, “Melorn, make sure we have all been updated with the basic language node for this … location.” The Captain completed his command, trying to keep an even keel on what had been, so far, a rather unimpressive scouting trip.

QBS ArchAngel

Bethany Anne looked out across the representatives and smiled, “Now, I am open for questions.”

The immediate merging of ten different voices caused Bethany Anne to put up her hand, “Please, I can’t do this with all of you shouting at once.” One of the men that had arrived with her suddenly turned and walked out of the room.

“Until Eric gets back, I will go from my left to my right. So, I will answer the question from the President of the United States first.”

“How long do you believe they have been in our system?” he asked.

Bethany Anne replied, “Seven weeks.”

Spain, next to the United States, asked the next question, “Do you know if they are friendly or unfriendly?”

Bethany Anne shrugged, “While we do not and cannot confirm they are unfriendly that is our position at the moment. The assumption is, based on information we have, most star-faring races should be considered unfriendly until you have negotiated a treaty with them. Or, your reputation is such that they do not immediately attack you.”

She put up a hand to stop Spain from immediately asking a follow-up question, “Sorry, one question each pass.” At that moment, Eric came back in with a handful of pens and notecards. Bethany Anne turned and retrieved them from him and started walking to the group and passing them out. “We are going to do this the old-fashioned way. Please write down any questions you have here on these cards and we will pick them up. I will answer a couple of more questions while you do this. Remember, we still have to get you guys back to Earth in a reasonable amount of time. We will have further discussions with your duly appointed representative tomorrow.”

She turned back and walked to the table and then nodded to Mexico, “I see that the Netherlands has not requested a question so Mexico it’s your turn.”

 
“TQB has stated on multiple occasions that you are not interested in using your technology to accomplish goals near earth. What is TQB’s goal then?”

“Good question, the short answer is our effort is focused on protecting the Earth from,” she used her thumb to point toward the video shot of the alien spacecraft behind her, “them.”

This caused a furious amount of writing on notecards from everyone there.

She nodded to Japan.

“If your effort is focused on protecting the earth from aliens, how long have you known that aliens have existed?”

“Years,” She replied and then nodded to France.

“Is your technology advancement based on alien information?”

“Yes.” Bethany Anne put up a hand, “I am not going into the background on how this occurred, so you can save a lot of writing on the notecards. Suffice to say, that I am completely convinced there is a group of inimical aliens who wish to overtake the earth and use it for their personal gain. This is something I am devoting my life to stopping. However, I have no desire to police the earth, or make it better for human kind. That is
your
responsibility, not mine. My job, and my teams job, is to make sure you don’t have to worry about invading aliens while you fix the shit on earth at the same time.”

Spain leaned over to the president of the United States, “She is kind of blunt, isn’t she?”

“Actually, she is being rather restrained I think,” he answered back.

Spain leaned back and murmured to himself, “I’m not sure I want to hear what blunt is, then.”

—

Bethany Anne retrieved the notecards with all the questions and went back to the table to sit down. Making herself comfortable, she quickly reviewed most of them. A few of the men in the audience raised an eyebrow when they noticed how quickly she was able to flip through the list.

Coming back to the first notecard she started talking, “Are you an alien?” Bethany Anne looked up to the group and smiled, “You know, this is not the first time I have been asked this question. In order to make all of this easier, I was, in fact, born on our own beautiful blue ball. Otherwise, why the hell would I care if aliens took over the world? Does it make much sense for me to care if I were an alien?”

Looking down she put that card to the side, “Why are you telling us this now?” She tapped the card in her lap for second before answering, “Should this particular alien race be able to overpower what my group has built so far, and you would have to agree we have built what is effectively the most powerful space ships the world has ever seen. You need to understand and be aware of the risk and the danger to the world. My hope was to take this fight somewhere else, and allow the earth to figure out what the hell it wants to do on its own. Unfortunately, somebody came knocking a little too quickly for my plans.”

She said that card aside, and grabbed the next one. “Can we see more of the ship?” She looked around the room as if she was looking through the walls, “Which part? If you are asking to see the engine room, or some of the more sophisticated areas, why would I believe you’re just assuaging your curiosity, instead of trying to spy? By the way, don’t even try leaving behind data acquisition devices I.E. commonly referred to as bugs. Not only are they going to fail, it’s going to piss me off and walking home is going to be a bitch for those that do it. So, if you would like a small and quick review of the ship we can do that. It will include a run through the bridge area so you can see that.” Bethany Anne said that card aside and grabbed the next.

“This is kinda funny!”
 
She grinned as she started to read, “Sorry, this is actually for the President of United States. What about Area 51 now?” Bethany Anne looked over to the President and raised an eyebrow, “Actually, if I had thought about it, I would’ve asked this question myself.”

The President shook his head and smiled as he turned to view everyone who was looking back at him. “Would you believe they don’t tell me anything either? As far as I know, Area 51 is really for top-secret Air Force planes and other secret efforts. I did ask someone about efforts within the government to review alien technology and I was told that I wouldn’t be given access. Now, since I probably am going to be giving them the best evidence of alien technology, I believe I now have the opportunity to learn whatever the hell I want to. I know that isn’t what you wanted to hear, but as the President, I’m not usually told as much as you might think.”

Bethany Anne grunted her displeasure and set the card aside, “Well, that was a major letdown.” There was chuckling around the room, “Next question, how are we supposed to help? That’s actually a very good question.” She looked up to everyone, “First, I am opening up the opportunity for one to two people from each of your countries to talk to our research team. We are also going to engage with your teams in relaying information we believe you might need to know. What you need to know, or more specifically your scientists need to know, will at the end of the day be my decision. Annoying pain in the ass scientists are just going to get booted out of here pretty quickly. So, I suggest if you want to know more information, you make sure whomever you choose to come here is not an arrogant asshole. We can decide whether to have the conversation up here on ArchAngel, or down on the pretty blue ball below us in Australia. Provided the Australian government is okay with it, the more practical solution would probably be within Australia, otherwise I figure the scientists will be doing everything they can to disassemble my ship.”

There was significant chuckling and a little bit of laughter on the reality and the truthfulness of her last comment.

She looked back down at the next card as she allowed the laughter to die down, “What is the status of the illuminati?” Bethany Anne looked up to the group and spoke, “Presently, there are two individuals we are tracking within the United States who have not accepted the opportunity to go to jail. My understanding is that they are close to making that decision. For most of the contacts around the world, they are already being punished via financial means. Mind you, these are legal financial methods. There is one outstanding individual who we are trying to locate. My sources tell me she has disappeared within the nation of China. Should we locate this individual, I am not going to ask permission from China whether or not she and I can have a conversation. Trust me when I say one of us will not leave the conversation.”

She slipped the card to the side, “What happened in Russia?
 
Well,” she said, “there is a splinter group of NVG who, supposedly, are operating in Siberia without the Kremlin’s approval and killed a large group of descendants of political dissidents from a hundred years ago. A large group, about ten thousand, decided they did not want to live in Siberia any longer and because I have connections with a few of them, the question was whether we would accept them.
 
I agreed and provided the necessary transportation from right outside of Russia’s border.
 
The refugees are primarily either sixteen and younger, the parents of those children or older adults.
 
You can extrapolate how come the makeup of the refugees are split up that way, I’m sure.
 
We did not go inside Russia, they had to pretty much get out on their own.
 
Another example of trying to not mess up the apple cart too much when what I would have preferred would have been to descend right on top of their town and pick them up.”