Clan Temple Near Shennongjia Peak, Hubei

Sun Zedong, ex-General in the PLA, sat in a restful pose in the temple of the Sacred Clan, his eyes closed. One might be forgiven for believing he was at peace sitting there in the dim candlelight, shadows playing on the stone walls hewn out of the sacred rock. It was but an illusion.

Zedong was biding his time, as Sun Tzu taught. Take the measure of your enemy and strike from a position of power, not ignorance.

After his somewhat unexpected rescue by the Leopard Empress, Stephanie Lee, Zedong was happy to not have his head on the Governmental chopping block.

Now, Zedong was determined to put it back on the chopping block for the sake of his country and his people.

He could barely hear the soft footfalls of the feet approaching when his name was called, “Zedong, the Empress would like to speak with you.”

Sun Zedong opened his eyes, a bell reverberating outside the mountain temple, calling to those who worshiped in this forsaken place, and nodded his understanding.

—

Zedong kept his thoughts clear, his worries under his conscious thought. There had already been too many little tells which suggested to him that someone in the group, perhaps the Empress, could read minds.

He nodded to the two guards at the door to her suite. They allowed him entrance. Truly, there was little he could do to the woman. She had already displayed her ability to change, the high healing rate of those who followed her and the speed of her attacks.

He was but a baby compared to her.

Then, there was her father, who rarely was more than a few steps away from her.

Stephanie Lee was wearing a white robe, with green embroidery of a leopard going up her right side. The opposite side of the gown was unadorned. She was sitting down, a table in front of her with two pillows for those who would join her. He stepped in front, bowed, and then stepped to the pad on the left when she nodded in recognition.

“General Sun,” she started, “we have waited as long as we might for those in power to relax. We cannot wait longer, as my enemy grows in strength. Who was it, the British Prime Minister who said, ‘Ask me for anything but time?’”

“No, my Empress,” he answered, “It was the French leader, Napoleon.”

“Yes, thank you.” She nodded her acceptance of his correction. “I have a need for your services, General. It is for this and other things which I saved you. Is this understood?”

“Yes, my Empress,” Zedong replied, “I understood that you would use my contacts and capabilities to move the Sacred Clans efforts forward.” He pursed his lips and added, “It is a logical contract requirement for saving my life.”

Stephanie Lee looked at the General.

Yin, can you tell if he is lying? Stephanie Lee asked.

No. He is as calm on the surface of his thoughts as one who is telling the truth or a consummate liar.

Then we will send insurance.

“Ting?” Stephanie Lee spoke loudly, then waited. Zedong was not surprised when the simple-looking peasant female arrived moments later.

“Yes, Empress?”

“You and General Sun will take a helicopter as transportation, and go meet with some of his contacts. See who we can persuade that the future is with the Sacred Clan, not the present selfishly-focused political leaders of our nation.”

“Yes, Empress.” Ting bowed low.

Zedong bowed also and rose fluidly up to follow the shorter woman out of the suite. It was some time before he allowed himself the barest amount of hope.

The Leopard Empress had provided a simple peasant to monitor his movements.

There was no way, he figured, that she would have any idea of the more sophisticated discussions he might have with his contacts.

QBS ArchAngel, The Bitches’ Workout Area

The practice room was relatively large, with a viewing area protected with transparent, unbreakable glass off to one side for eight to sit and watch those fighting on the floor.

But the whole room was empty save for two friends. Two friends who had literally been on their own highway to hell tracking Forsaken and Nosferatu across the United States years back. The road ending in the Florida Everglades.

Where John’s life had been ending, his own knife jammed into his chest by the last Nosferatu the group had been fighting. The four of them had been able to handle one, but two Nosferatu had been one too many for everyone to survive the encounter.

John had taken the hit, as he wanted to if anyone was going to go down. These men had been his brothers, his kin, and he was ok if it was his blood that would be spilled to keep them alive.

Until Bethany Anne.

She had come in like a demon savior, eyes glowing red. His friend, Eric, standing in front of him, yanking the blade out of his chest as Bethany Anne provided her life-giving blood to heal him.

Now, his friend wanted to do something dangerous, something John was trying desperately to talk him out of, “Are you nucking futs, Eric?” John asked him, scratching his chin. “Of all the Gott Verdammt stupid ass ideas to get a woman’s attention, I cannot suggest kicking her ass as the one I would pick buddy.”

Eric shrugged and grinned slightly, “I can’t say I’m looking forward to the meetings with Bethany Anne and Stephen after you, either.” Eric leaned to his side to stretch. “But I have to make sure she knows, deep in her bones, that the Eric I am now isn’t the Eric she helped save back in Costa Rica.”

“And the one with the puppy dog complex?” John asked, stretching as well.

“Yeah, that one too,” Eric answered. “Look, I get it, she’s five centuries old. But think about it, the one thing I won’t need to worry about is forgetting her birthday. She won’t want to be reminded at all.”

John chuckled, “I guess that’s one way to think about it. But that probably means the other three hundred and sixty-four days are open for gifts, now.”

“And I’m fine with that,” he replied as he got up, “Now, other than telling me this is a bad idea, what can you do to help me prepare?”

“Alright brother, but half of this is going to be about getting back up,” John said, and his face went from caring to maniacal. “Brother, you are going to meet my friends,” John said as he put up his left arm in a pose, “Pain,” John turned his head to his right arm striking a pose, his muscles showing, “and destruction.”

to be continued…

FROM MICHAEL >>>  This is it…the LAST Snippet before we release WE HAVE CONTACT within the next 72 hours…I suspect possibly 48!  I hope you have enjoyed the snippets and are ready for a little more Bethany Anne, John, Eric, Yuko, and….

UNEDITED

TQB Base, Australia

Marcus ran through the hallway in the Australian base, “Excuse me! Pardon, need to slide between you two!” He was working his way to the front of the cafeteria, but it was quite congested.  There were a lot of people annoyed as he got closer to the front.  Finally, he heard Bobcat yell out over the crowd, “Hey!”

Everyone stopped their chatting and looked to see Bobcat standing on the table in the front of the meeting room pointing to the group where Marcus was standing, “Would you PLEASE allow my friend, and the only damned gravitic engines expert on this planet, up to the front so he can possibly answer your fucking questions?” he gave everyone a view of his medium-level annoyed face.

Marcus noticed a few of those who had looked irritated with him realize they had been pissed at the man they had probably wanted to try and schmooze.

Marcus shrugged mentally as they gave him enough room to slide out of the crowd and then walk to the table as Bobcat stepped off of it and used his chair to step to the ground.

“Thanks!”  He mumbled.  Marcus was on one side of Bobcat, William the other as the three sat.

“Gott Verdammt scientists, thank God Bethany Anne didn’t have us do this on the ArchAngel.” he replied softly.

What should have been maybe twenty to twenty-eight or so attendees quickly ballooned up to sixty-four.  The countries wanted someone from the military, infrastructure, science and government represented to help make plans.  The team decided that everyone was coming in wearing the same stuff, losing all of their electronics gear, and all would receive a video of the presentation afterwards.

Bobcat had been walking by the table where they dropped off their electronic gear when a female government representative asked a Guardian who was taking their electronics what would stop them from just sharing the video TQB provided them?

Todd had smiled and replied, “Nothing at all.  I’m sure Bethany Anne would love you to do such a thing.  She’s not a huge proponent of keeping everybody in the dark, anyway.”

“But, the masses would riot,” the government representative argued.

“You know this, or did you guess this?” Todd asked while he boxed up the communications equipment and placed an ID tag on it, “Or you just don’t want to deal with it if you can kick the problem down the road?”

“Not everyone has the option of just flying out of here if the world goes down the tube!”  She tossed over her shoulder as she walked away.  Bobcat grinned and spoke low enough that only the werewolves or vampires in the group would hear him.

“She would shit bricks if she knew what we had to go through, to just fly out of here.  Like we won a lottery to be so lucky.  Or shit, does she think we stop working at five o’clock?”  Todd nodded his head that he heard Bobcat, before he introduced himself to the next person in line.

—

“Alright everybody, settle down!” Bobcat stared at everyone as they finally started sitting down and taking their seats. “I would like to get a few things straight before we get started. My name is Bobcat,” he turned to his left, “his name is William,” he then turned to his right, “this gentleman here is Marcus.”  Bobcat turned back to everyone, “Before you get too rambunctious, please understand a few years ago I was a helicopter pilot.” He jerked a thumb at William, “he has been, and always will be, a wrench monkey.” Bobcat heard a few chuckles at his comment. He turned to his right, “And he is, well,” he looked over to Marcus and scratched his chin, “Actually, he is a rocket scientist.” A few more chuckles happened as Marcus shrugged.

Bobcat heard William’s voice in a sing-song, “Which one of these things is not like the other?”

Ignoring his friend, Bobcat continued, “We are not in your chain of command, we don’t give a shit about your government, we are here because our Queen, Bethany Anne, has requested us to help fill you in and answer questions. As you can tell, I am not accustomed to speaking in front of a large audience and frankly if my language offends you,” he pointed to the exit, “Don’t let the nonexistent door hit you on the ass on your way out.”

Bobcat grabbed his drink and took a sip, “So, if you can’t be civil, and I’m looking at you, government representatives in the audience, then please just keep your mouth shut. I am pretty sure your government would not appreciate finding out that your snarky comments caused your whole team to be forcefully ejected from this discussion.” He set his mug back down, “Just a little insight, we are a betting group, and I have odds that France will be the first country removed.”

There were certainly some chuckles from the audience this time, however those representatives from France bit their tongues and didn’t say a word.  Bobcat frowned and looked over to the group representing France, “Dammit, I’ve got a hundred bucks riding on you guys pissing us off, don’t go being a better man than me right now!” This time, Bobcat was able to get even the French representatives to chuckle.

Shaking his head, Bobcat got back on task, “Okay, we have received most of the questions and eliminated the duplicates. For the most part, Marcus will answer a lot of the technical questions, and will be around in order to answer more of the refined scientific questions after our main meeting. This is so three quarters of our audience and myself, won’t have our ears bleed from having to listen to too much math.”

This time, Bobcat was able to get a few cheers from the audience. He picked up his mug and waved it out to the audience, “Plus, there is free beer when this is all over.” Significant cheering happened at that point.

“You bastard!” William whispered, “That’s how you’re going to get the meeting to stay on time!” Bobcat chuckled under his breath.

Bobcat reached down and picked up the first note card, “I am not going to stipulate which country this might or might not be from, since we might have received it from multiple sources. So, here goes the first question. ‘Why do you believe the aliens are not friendly?’”

Marcus stood up, “Bethany Anne explained to your political leaders that our massive advances in technology are due to integration between alien technology and earth’s technology. She did not explain that part of the reason we can integrate so well is that we are, in fact, in communication with an alien.”

It took a couple of minutes for the room to settle down. “Please, don’t make me point out which of those countries represented here already have alien technology in their possession. So, let’s get over the fact that aliens exist and move on.  For anyone that wants to question my assertion that we are in communication with aliens, you can merely look to the fact that our alien technology is working. Either we are that much smarter than everybody else, or we have outside knowledge.  I suppose another option would be that we found the alien equivalent of a Rosetta Stone. However, I will assert that isn’t true and you can believe what you wish.”

Marcus reached down and lifted up his tablet to flip it to another page of his notes, “No, the alien is not going to be made available for your review. No, he is not going to be at your ‘beck and call’, no he isn’t interested in switching sides.” Marcus looked up, “Yes, he has a name. He named himself Thiles of Miletus, Bethany Anne calls him ‘TOM’ for short.  So, that is what we call him.”  he looked around, “I can see from my inquisitive friends in the audience wondering why he chose that name.” There were a few heads nodding in the audience, “It is because TOM felt that Thiles of Miletus’s focus on math represented his clan’s efforts to understand math in their core. He is one of twelve clans of aliens which make up the Kurtherians.”

Marcus continued, “A short, short background on Kurtherians is that they are what some science fiction writers would call a master race. Any of the technology you see us using is something Kurtherians had a minimum of a millennia or more in our pre-history.   This group of aliens, twelve clans, broke up into two groups. A group of seven, and a group of five. The group of seven aliens, over time, took to modifying sentient races on planets until they achieved enough technological and warfare capabilities to fight another race. Often, these fights would be in different solar systems.”

“So, in time the seven decided to take their enhanced races and use them as cannon fodder to attack the five.   One of the five clans decided to try and help a few races out in the universe by helping them evolve so that they might be able to at least have a fighting chance should the time come.”

Behind the three guys a large screen showed the original spaceship screenshot from the video that had been shared with the world leaders the previous day. Bobcat spoke, “We do not know if the spaceship in this somewhat blurry picture is a Kurtherian ship or not.  For the sake of safety, we are going to assume that it can be inimical to the human race. While we have no intentions of blowing it out of the sky, I can guarantee you we have no intentions of it leaving if we can stop it.”

Bobcat lifted up another postcard, “What can our countries do to prepare?” Bobcat looked across the audience, “One, you can consider whether or not you want to provide acknowledgment that aliens exist in the first place. Second, you have to fight the concept that any advanced race that could attain faster than light travel would obviously be friendly.  Assuming you don’t want to do either one or two, or both, you should probably stick your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.”

William stood up and shook his head towards his two friends before looking out at the audience. “You need to focus your scientific efforts into genetics, gravitic capabilities and proactive ideas around defense.  It would help if you decided to get along with your fellow man, so you’re not fighting each other. But rather fighting what’s coming at you from up there.” He pointed to the ceiling. “We recognize that there is a lot of expectation that if you discuss aliens with a large group of people, there will be mass hysteria. Or, that is the general assumption of your governments.  If you don’t get them prepared, then make sure you have plans should you need to explain this to them really quickly.”  William sat back down.

As William sat down, Marcus took his seat as well. Bobcat pulled up the next card, “Assuming this ship is malevolent, and we can contain it, how much time does that buy us?” Bobcat looked out to the group, “Honestly, we don’t know. While we suspect that this particular ship, after discussions with our alien contact, is a scout ship. The safest assumption is five years. Although, it could be as much as 20 years. In the off-chance that they are friendly, then it could be a few hundred years. We are not in a major pass-through zone out here. According to TOM, they probably believe our solar system is a useless dead end. This is one of the reasons we have been left alone for so long. We have evidence that shows we have been visited by both the five and the seven. One of these days, could be next week, could be ten years, they will come back and check on us.”

Apparently, the beer was not as big a draw as the information Bobcat, William and Marcus were providing. Bobcat lost his bet with William when they went over the time limit by three hours.

—

FROM MICHAEL >> FREE BOOKS FOR YOUR WEEKEND!  SPRT (Self Publishing Round Table) is on their last day of pushing authors who have all agreed to put their book out FOR FREE – but it ends today! – CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE TO CHECK THEM ALL OUT! (Yours Truly has Death Becomes Her at the bottom)

UNEDITED

Geneva, Switzerland

The lights were out in her little two-bedroom efficiency apartment.  Anna Elizabeth stepped inside and put her purse down.  It had taken her many many months to locate a company that was willing to ignore the silent, but powerful, word in the higher circles that she should not be hired.

By the time she was at her twenty-second job interview, she had decided to tell the companies up front that powerful people were upset with her.  Nine times it had only taken twenty-four hours or less for the word to come down that, “Sorry, we aren’t interested.”

This time, the tenth time, the lady on the other side of the desk nodded sagely and turned to her computer.  She typed in a few characters, pointed on her screen to read as she swiped her finger down the screen and then grabbed her mouse and clicked a couple of times.

She filled out two more fields and clicked again before returning to face Anna Elizabeth.  By then, Anna had been positive that she was about to be told that ‘all positions had been filled, so sorry’ or something similar.  The lady, however, winked to her.

“I have access to the bulletin board you are talking about and you are correct, your name is one of the entries.  Did you know that over twenty-six companies have not hired you because your name was listed?”

“No,” Anna admitted, “I wasn’t sure how many, but I had figured that my skills would have been useful to most of them so I figured at least ten.”  She sat back in her chair, defeated, “So, I’m basically unhireable here in my own country?”

“Oh, dear,” the older lady gave her a sad face, “perhaps for ninety-nine percent of the medium and larger companies that is true.  Any company that wishes to play with the biggest companies, unless they are even bigger, can’t buck the system without losing millions of dollars in potential sales.  Any professional company selling their services, such as ours, if we hired you ignorantly, will eventually receive a call that explains we need to let you go, or risk our projects which feed our own children.”

The lady smiled sadly to her, “Sweetie, you have been black-balled.”

Anna had nodded her head in understanding, “I understand.  Thank you for telling me the truth.”  The phone rang and Anna started to get her stuff together.

The older lady looked at the name and opened her eyes, “Hold one second, sweetie.  I wasn’t expecting to get this call, and if it happened not so quickly.”  She picked up her phone, “Hello, this is Amanda.”  

Anna watched the lady, confused.  If she was blackballed, why did she ask her to stay?

“Yes ma’am, that is correct.  Yes, I know who you are, and your position.  Yes, I would be very proud to make that happen.”  There was a pause for a few seconds before Amanda’s voice became surprised, “I’m sorry?  Did you say twice, ma’am?”

Anna couldn’t understand why the lady’s face was so joyful, or why she was dabbing at her eye with a tissue she had snatched from a blue box sitting on her desk.

“Yes, I’ll let her know, and thank you.  Yes, you have a nice day, as well.”  Amanda slowly hung up the phone and sat staring at it for a moment.

“Excuse me?” Anna spoke quietly, then again when Amanda didn’t respond, “excuse me?

“Oh!” Amanda blushed as she turned back to face Anna, “My apologies.  I was just rather shocked with who was on the phone call and what I was just told.  But, that is bad manners on my side,” she put her hands together and sat them on her desk.  “That was, interestingly enough, the bosses, bosses…boss,” Amanda looked up in the air, as if she was looked at an org chart only she could see. “Maybe there is one more boss in there, somewhere.”

“But, I thought you were a privately held company?” Anna asked, trying to figure out where this conversation was going, and how it had gotten off track so badly.

“Oh, we are,” Amanda confirmed, “but, we are privately owned by another company, which is, in turn, owned by an International Conglomerate.”

Anna’s stomach clenched up, “You are owned by an International Conglomerate?” she whispered as Amanda beamed back.

“Oh yes!  We are owned, eventually once you get up the chain, by TQB Enterprises.  That,” she pointed to her phone, “was the CEO herself.”

“Oh… I see,” Anna Elizabeth answered and she did.  That was the ultimate person that her previous employer had attacked.  She had tried to warn them as best she could.  So far, her biggest concern was that she would be killed for divulging a secret held in her country for a millennia. Then, after so many failed job interviews, her concern had changed.

A few minutes ago, she had been thinking she would starve to death, now it might be her preferred way to die.

“Oh yes!” Amanda went on, not realizing Anna Elizabeth’s thinking was down a separate path, “She told me to ignore the, well, let us just admit she can be a little blunt with her talking and she told me anytime I find someone on that list to feel free to bump it up to her attention.  Either way, you’re hired!”

“Ok, I’ll just grab my stuff and…wait, did you say I’m hired?” Anna asked, confused even more, “The bosses’ bosses…well, the CEO just told you to hire me?”  Her emotions and her thinking were not coherent at the moment at all.  Why would Bethany Anne want her hired?

“Oh yes!  In fact, if I can negotiate a proper salary and position for your true skills, I will get a bonus worth twice my salary on my next paycheck.  So, please, sit your little butt back down and let me find out everything you can do!”  Amanda told her.

Two hours later, Anna Elizabeth was employed again.

—

Now, Anna was reveling in the freedom for her toes as she pulled each foot out of her pumps.  The shoes had been a little high, but she was trying to use any asset she had.

And dammed if these assets didn’t hurt her feet each time she wore them.

She reached over and clicked on the light in her little place and turned around, “Oh!”  Her hand reached up to cover her mouth as her eyes darted between the two people waiting for her in her apartment.  She didn’t recognize the man, but she absolutely knew the woman.

The black haired lady smiled to her, “Don’t be afraid, Anna Elisabeth Hauser, you are working for me now.”

FROM MICHAEL >> Hustle.  That is the word of the day right now and I’m terribly impressed with everyone that hustles… It could be to get to class and learn, to figure out something they don’t know, or working two jobs to feed their kids.  We all NEED to hustle, and my hats off to everyone that hustles whether the success has happened, or not.

This latest book offer is completely due to hustling (you knew that was coming, right?) I received a Facebook message (easiest way to get me) this Monday – 4 days ago – at 9:50PM.  The author, C.E. Wilson reached out with a message on Facebook.  This is what she sent me: “Forgive me Michael if this is totally random, but i keep seeing your name pop up in some of the author groups that I really follow and trust, and I have to ask, do you promote authors or Sci fi books? Please correct me if I’m wrong. Lol. I’m just curious.”

Now, this happened only a few days after the latest Kindle Paperwhites newsletter went out, so she missed that opportunity.  She was very polite and I promised I would get her into the mix.   Once I went to look at the book (She has 10+) I loved the comments and she really, really is working her craft.

IF YOU ARE INTO ROMANCE – please check out C.E. Wilson’s latest work…she has EARNED your attention by hustling hard and asking politely.  Now, let’s check out the book, shall we?

This is Me.

IN KINDLE UNLIMITED

What really makes a person a person? 
Is it a ticking muscle inside their chest, or is it something more?

With Rogan doing everything in his power to prove that his thoughts and feelings are real and Niven trying to persuade her to abandon her robot and have a normal human relationship, Chloe is trapped between the two things that mean the most to her. Does she embrace her relationship with the blond newcomer, or face that her Asist’s feelings may be more than features of his programming?

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE (and download, buy, or just a fast link to Amazon 😉 )

UNEDITED

QBS ArchAngel

“Next question, how are we supposed to help? That’s actually a very good question.” Bethany Anne looked up to everyone, “First, I am opening up the opportunity for one to two resources 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 then you make sure that whomever you choose to send is not an arrogant asshole. We can decide whether to have the conversation up here on ArchAngel, or down on on the pretty blue ball 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 only one of us will 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. They 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 became 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.”

She grabbed the next card and read it aloud, “Do you understand the rule of law?” Bethany Anne slid off of the table and put her hands behind her back and thought for a moment before speaking.

“Let’s understand the definition of, rule of law.  First, the rule of law is a legal principle that law should govern the nation, as opposed to being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government officials.”  She pointed to the the first row of leaders, “namely, you right here, but I digress. The term primarily refers to the influence and authority of law in society, particularly as a constraint upon behavior, yours and others, and can be traced back to 16th century Britain. The main argument at the time was against the divine right of kings. For those who slept through their early history lessons, or frankly don’t care, those monarchs liked the idea of telling everyone what to do, were capricious and mostly self-serving atrocious bastards.”

She paused a moment and looked down the line, “My feeling is that those,” now she lifted up the card with the question on it, “who are wondering about this question would generally love to find out whether I’m going to follow some sort of international rule of law such that I will hold myself and my group to the whims, wishes and what-not of a bunch of lawyers, legalists and poor losers and the answer is not only no…”  she smiled to those in front of her, “But hell no!  There is no way that I see anything but a self serving, sycophantic, fuckwad of constraints, contracts and questions that would bedevil me with bullshit and generally irritate the hell out of me.”

She smiled to the group, “I am, believe it or not, generally an approachable person who believes in the rights of those born, and even the rights of the unborn.  I do not believe in holding someone hostage nor am I overly concerned with kissing anyone’s ass.”

She took a deep breath and exhaled, “Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?  You would love my technology, which I am not going to divulge.  You can’t hurt me militarily, because if I wanted I could drop a big enough rock on your heads to give your country a fucking migraine.” She pointed to the screen behind her, “You have seen why I asked you up here.  I don’t give a shit whether you help me, or not. My belief is it would be against my pledge to protect the Earth if I left you in the dark.  Now, the reality is I’m giving you a heads up.  If you decide to fuck up the heads up, it just means that you are sticking your head up your own ass.”

Spain leaned slightly to his right, “I see we get blunt, now.”  The American President nodded his agreement.

Bethany Anne continued, “I can be helpful, I can be harmful.  I’m here to be helpful so don’t push me.  While I intend to just ‘go away’ and take this fight somewhere else, I can’t do that right now because I don’t know where to go nor do I have enough knowledge of what is on the other side to feel particularly comfortable doing it without more intelligence.”

Bethany Anne continued, “Next option, try to hurt me financially.  I wouldn’t try that either.  China tried that, a few billion dollars of missing funds later they stopped that shit, too.  Between the twenty-eight of you here, I’m going to be candid.  I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect the Earth from what I know can be coming.  I don’t know if it,” She again pointed her thumb over her shoulder to the spaceship, “is part of the group I’m most concerned about or not.  Once I can find the son-of-a-bitch we will have a chat.”

“Who died and made you the decider of the Earth’s future?” France spit out.

Germany’s President heard one of the four men in Bethany Anne’s protection detail whisper, “Wrong fucking question, Frenchie.”

Bethany Anne’s head slowly turned to France’s Prime Minister, “Considering that you can’t keep your own house in order, and protected, let’s not be getting full of ourselves, shall we?”  She walked over and stood in front of him, “I feel for your countrymen, and those that attack you are damned to hell.  Don’t assume because I harbor sympathy, I’m incapable of making a judicious decision that you are incapable of dealing with something outside your borders.”

Bethany Anne turned back around and walked to the table before looking back to those in front of her.  “People, you are on the QBS ArchAngel.  This is our Leviathan class Battleship.  The QB in QBS and in TQB stand for the same thing.  My group is a Monarchy.  It is complete, there is no House of Commons, House of Lords or anything else.  While I have advisors, my word is law.  You need to understand it. You need to own it!  My people follow me of their own free will. There are two meanings for QB.  The first is Queen Bethany Anne.”  Her eyes turned hard, unyielding.  

“The second, may you never meet her, is Queen Bitch.”

FROM MICHAEL >> Okaaaayyyy…Seems like Bethany Anne doesn’t want to have any misunderstandings with the other government leaders. What we would call here in the South a ‘come to Jesus meeting.’

Sometimes, disagreements aren’t always solved by blowing shit up (although, you have to admit that stuff is fun to read about).  I think Bethany Anne is being herself.  She feels it is right to inform the leaders and we shall see what happens if they be their typical … obtuse … selves 😉

For todays book selection, I’m grabbing (and will grab many choices from our latest newsletter selection) Till Death.  Why?  Because I like the premise, of course!  It’s $0.99.

Till Death (Independent Necromancers’ Bureau Book 0)

In a world where rogue necromancers control the dead and turn them against the living, The Independent Necromancers’ Bureau works to keep law and order.

In Kindle Unlimited.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT TILL DEATH

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 note cards. 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 representatives 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 note cards 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 technological 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 note cards. 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 humankind. That is your responsibility, not mine. My job, and my team’s job, is to make sure you don’t have to worry about invading aliens while you fix 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 note cards 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 pile.

Coming back to the first note card 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 to the world? Does it make much sense for me to care if I was 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 set 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 put 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…

FROM MICHAEL >>> Indie = Cheap, right?  Poor Quality, Crappy Covers?  Yeah, I don’t think so either!  In case you are curious, check out the covers on the latest 40+ Indie books offered for your review!

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UNEDITED

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 possibly manufacturing.”   He spoke to no one in particular, as he reviewed the holographic information on the bridge.

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 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 captains used. It had no back, rather it was 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. Captains of Yollin ships sit 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 it show up as such a poor technology base was … embarrassing.

“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 action 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.

FROM MICHAEL >>>  The NEW Readers Helping …Just about everyone, actually, is here :-).

Do you remember how it works?

1. You click on the link below to go to the page w/ books (15 of 40 added so far)
2. If one tickles your fancy, click to read more about it.
3. That’s it.  If none tickle your fancy, all done!  Trust me, for some authors, you are the first and most important chance they have of getting ANY notice.  Most authors are “author first – marketing person a far..far..outer-space far 2nd place.”
4. If you happen to see something you like, click and look further, that’s it!

WIN…WIN…WIN…WIN!

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE VIEW PAGE… LET’S GET READY TO REAAAAADDDD!

UNEDITED

QBS ArchAngel

Bethany Anne was wearing a pair of tight black pants with boots, mid-level heels and a black belt that reminded the President of a western holster as it hung at an angle.  He then noticed that it looked like it was setup to allow a pistol to clip on it.  She had on a white blouse and a well fitted red bolero coat.

She bowed slightly to the Japanese representative and spoke to the group, “Hello and welcome to the QBS ArchAngel, my name is Bethany Anne.  I will introduce myself personally to each of you after this discussion, as I might answer some of your questions in this talk.  So, we have placed name tags on the seats while you were talking.  Please note, they are in alphabetical order, so the only favorite we played was choosing English.”  She greeting a few by name as she made her way to the table.

They had split the group to the first and second rows.  The leaders were on the first row, their seconds were behind them.  Bethany Anne surprised most there by walking to the front of the table, turning around and then sliding on the table using it as a chair.

Theodore shook his head as he took his place between the leaders from France and India.  He noticed the American President was stuck on the end next to Spain.  She certainly didn’t pick favorites this time.

“So, I’m going to speak to China, Technology, and an ‘oh shit’,” She put up her hand as the muttering started, “If the oh shit was something with a more immediate response we would have held this meeting more quickly.  As it is, my team is trying to get answers and we, at the moment, don’t have many.  So, it was decided that we would share with you what we can, and offer another meeting with your chosen representative regarding this concern.”

She slid off of the table and started walking to the left and then turned to walk back the other way as she spoke. “Let’s start with China.”  She didn’t look towards them, but she did wave her hand to the group, “As you can see, they aren’t here right now.  I’m not particularly happy with them and I have a zero bullshit policy with them at the moment.  Since I believe they are constitutionally incapable of speaking the truth, it would be better for them not to be here.”

“Not better for you?” the leader for Canada spoke up.

Bethany Anne stopped and smiled to the Canadian Prime Minister, “You are aware of the maxim that it is better to fight from the higher ground?”  He nodded and she opened her arms, “You can’t get much higher than this.”

She continued her pacing, “All of you are aware that China is on a technological crime spree.  If they can buy it, they will, if they can steal it, they do, if they can screw you out of it, you hope you get a little pleasure, too.”  She continued, ignoring a couple of the surprised looks coming from the two rows of people with her blunt communication style. “They chose to implement digital attacks against our companies to acquire our technology.” She stopped pacing and looked at the group, “They failed.  They tried to buy our companies on the stock market. They failed. They tried to use covert operatives and raid our companies to steal the information.  A few of those succeeded and they ended up killing some of my people in a couple of other attacks.”

Her face went borderline angry, “The first was a problem.  None of you can say much because I’m aware that we have been attacked in some form or fashion from every country here except the Netherlands.  France has tried to acquire our technology using force,” She put up a hand before the Prime Minister of France could argue, “Don’t even go there, I have the detailed documents disclosing the effort.  If you chose to claim you are not guilty, I’ll have ArchAngel immediately release the documents and anything even remotely relevant to the discussion to the Internet.  I’ll make sure we directly email the top one thousand political hacks that would find your information the juiciest ever.”

The Prime Minister from France leaned back in his chair and shook his head twice.

She continuing her pacing, “My group has entertained a wonderful, and wonderfully short, visit from the Australian government when they came knocking.  Mind you, missile explosions in the middle of your country by mercenaries might cause a bit of a concern.  So, we answered them appropriately. Further, we have had discussions with the government of the United States due to an attack in the middle of their country.  That time, it was a little bit of a bigger bomb.  We have had visits from multiple countries all trying to give us legal reasons this, or rules about that, which, in the end, all have to do with acquisition of our technology.”

She stopped and opened her arms, taking in the ship, “Let me be very clear, the technology is not for sale, it’s not for sharing, and I’m not giving it to anyone.” She put her arms down and started walking again, “I’ll get to the why’s in a little while.  China thought they could use force to acquire the technology.  The last update I received, China is down twelve navy ships, ninety-two planes, close to seven hundred troops and a significantly sized portion of the Kunlun Shan Mountains.  Fortunately, they decided they had enough. This was after I was requested to keep my response civil.”

“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 were having difficulty.

Ball-buster was the running favorite, though.

“So, let’s get on with this technology we have here.  This is the QBS ArchAngel, one of two operational space ships 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 tick 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.

“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 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 of our world, but rather from a set of Alien clans which enhance sentient beings to fight a galactic version of cock fights.  Winner take 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 a moment.

“And we can’t find them right now.”

FROM MICHAEL >>> So, sh#t just got real for the leaders, what are they going to do? Especially if (as some believe) some leaders (looking at you USA) ALREADY know there are aliens visiting earth?  Good question….

I guess you will have to wait until another snippet or two get’s put up here, right?  😉

The next Paperwhite for Forward Deployed Military Email is going to hit in a few days…There are something like FORTY (40) Authors joining in the festivities this time (from 16)… H#LY CRACKERS…  So, I’m going to be pumping the @#%!% out of the landing page when it happens for a while, because…Who can possibly view 40 books at one time?  I mean… go down 10 books, see something you like and off you go to Amazon, right?

That leaves thirty more to view next time.

So, what do we have on tap for a book today?  A completely new effort (and book – JUST CAME OUT).  Dana Fraser is part of the 20booksto50k group and asked that (if they would want to) might share the image. You know my answer to that, don’t you?

I have the joint here (but feel free to check out the individual books if you would like).

Michael

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