For once the Diplomat had nothing in her arsenal that allowed her to understand. Her own emotions were doing to her what countless others had tried and failed to accomplish.

  They confused her.

  Hirano grinned as tears welled in his eyes. “Yuko, of course I do. I just wish you hadn’t left me hanging all this time.”

  He didn’t move.

  She narrowed her eyes. “You mean you were just…”

  “Keeping you hanging so you had a taste of your own medicine?” He chuckled. “Pretty much,” he confessed, still not budging from the other side of the room.

  Yuko couldn’t decide if she wanted to kick his ass or kiss him, but in an instant, she had crossed the living room to him and he had lifted her up in a hug so tight that she thought he’d perhaps found some nanocytes of his own.

  He spun her around, kissing her face and any area of her he could contact with his lips.

  Yuko sat at the kitchen bar watching Hirano make tea. “You know you can bring some things with you!” she told him.

  Hirano shrugged and checked his handheld. “I’m just waiting for my friend Zen to call me back. I’ll leave the apartment and everything to him. He has friends... Cousins, even, who could use it.”

  Yuko twisted around to look at the place. “You’d walk away from all this just for me?”

  Hirano grinned and peered at her from under his eyebrows. “And for adventures in space,” he teased.

  She giggled and leaned her arms on the countertop.

  He looked around too. “I need to pack some clothes to wear, but everything else is just stuff.”

  Yuko nodded. Having spent a hundred and fifty years on Earth, she had come to the same conclusion. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate all the things she had and had built, but when push came to shove there were things that were far more important.

  Like friendship.

  Like loyalty.

  Like love.

  She smiled, content to watch Hirano putter around the kitchen.

  His handset started to ring and he answered it. “Hai. Hai, Zen. It’s happening. She came for me.”

  Yuko sat up straight. He’d been planning this. She glared at him playfully as she put it together. He glanced over and winked at her.

  She made a show of putting her hands on her hips and scowling, and he started laughing before he headed out of the kitchen into the living room so he could pay better attention to the conversation with his friend.

  Yuko listened. She didn’t mean to eavesdrop exactly, but she wanted to know exactly what they said and her vamp hearing afforded her the luxury without too much effort.

  “Yes. I want you to have that too. I’ll leave it in the safe. You can use it to tell the stories to your grandkids,” Hirano told Zen.

  She could hear Zen laughing on the other end of the line. It was a bittersweet laugh. Apparently they’d had numerous conversations on the topic. It also seemed that Zen was thrilled for his friend’s good fortune in finding the love of his life and having a chance to be with her.

  But he would miss him dearly.

  The two men ended with quiet words of respect and wished each other the best of fortune in the years to come.

  “I’ll never forget you, Zen,” Hirano said softly.

  “Nor I you, my friend,” Zen replied before they hung up.

  Yuko’s heart was heavy, and when Hirano stepped back into the kitchen she had tears streaking her face. “I feel awful, pulling you away from your life.”

  He wrapped his arms around her. “I am blessed to have some good friends, but the one thing I’ve learned so far in my very short life is that the only constant is change. I’m excited to move on to the next chapter.”

  Yuko could feel his heart beat as he held her. She could tell he was crying, but despite that he seemed ready.

  “We should pack up and go,” she told him. “The ships will be leaving, and we don’t want to miss our ride.”

  When he released her, though they both had tears they were smiling, their eyes full of hope.

  “Ok, I’ll go pack,” he said, squeezing her shoulders before he hurried off.

  Yuko knew Bethany Anne would not leave her behind, but she didn’t wish to have the Queen Bitch herself show up and tell her she would put her size sevens up her ass if she didn’t get a move on.

  She smiled, knowing she was home.

  Home wasn’t a place, like this apartment or the ships above. It was who you were with, and how you worked it out together. She had stayed with her parents on Earth waiting for Michael to come back, and her Queen and her family had come back for him and for her, Akio, and Eve, Terry Henry, Valerie, and the others.

  And her family had grown larger by one person this day.

  She whispered, knowing full well that somewhere on her body was a bug her sister had planted on her. “I love you too, Eve.”

  Hirano came out of his room with two suitcases. She reached for one of the suitcases and he held them back, then smiled and handed one to her, which gave him the chance to hold her around the waist as they each carried a suitcase into the next stage of their lives.

  Somewhere in the world dawn had arrived. Not just physically, but in her heart as well.

  QBS ArchAngel II, Orbiting Planet Devon, Bethany Anne’s Shuttle Bay

  “You can’t bullshit a bullshitter,” John told Kiel as he, Akio, Eric, Michael, Darryl, and Scott waited for Bethany Anne to hitch a ride down to Devon, the planet she owned.

  They had finally left Earth, some ships heading back toward the fledgling Etheric Federation and some ships coming here, to the planet she had been working to hide for the past few years.

  Kiel shook his head. “No, no bullshit. I’m here to retire, maybe have a female for longer than three months.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Harass Kael-ven.”

  “Ha!” Eric pointed to Kiel. “That’s what brought you here…Kael-ven!”

  Kiel shrugged. “I decided on the G’laxix Sphaea, that much is true.”

  “Kael-ven’s staying?” Darryl asked, “I mean, once we go out again?”

  Kiel nodded. “I think we are both ready to live a sedately dangerous life.”

  “’Sedately dangerous?’” Michael asked, “I’m not sure I understand that phrase.”

  Scott answered. “Devon needs to be straightened out, so a few of us who will be living here will,” he raised his hands to apply air quotes, “‘occasionally,’” he dropped his hands, “help stomp out shit that is going on. It’s a rough planet, and we are mighty, but we are few.”

  Kiel flipped his right hand to one side, then the other. “Plus, I still get to play with armor and high-velocity firearms.”

  The men chuckled. Michael turned a moment before everyone else when Bethany Anne had entered the shuttle bay. “Be back, guys,” he told them and walked toward her.

  “Something different about the boss?” Darryl asked.

  Scott said, “You mean, other than getting some?” POP! Scott looked at John and rubbed his shoulder, “Ouch, you bastard! What the hell?”

  “Super-hearing?” John said, pointing to his ears.

  “I am not that base,” Scott answered, “but I appreciate the warning anyway.”

  He started walking in her direction with a look of confusion on his face, and Bethany Anne slowed down and waited for him to join her. “What’s wrong?” she asked, not sure what Michael’s look meant.

  “You are different,” he explained, moving a bit of her hair over her ear.

  She swatted at his hand. “Stop that!” She grimaced when some of the hair fell back into her face. She tried blowing it back and looked at Michael, who was smiling at her problem. She pushed her hair back again and pointed at it. “Your fault!”

  He smiled. “I got what I wanted,” he told her. Then he stepped a little closer and his eyes locked on hers as he looked into her soul. “What. Is. Different?” he asked, his breath warming her.

  “Michael, I just want to say this wasn’t planned.” She looked up, but he was already starting to put two and two together.

  “I’m pregnant,” she told him.

  His eyes shot open. “YES!” he shouted. He grabbed her under her arms, lifted her off the ground, and twirled her around.

  Bethany Anne was laughing. “Put me down. I’m not a blender here!” she argued, but he ignored her for a moment, her feet flapping as he spun her around and around. The two of them laughed in concert.

  Michael gently slowed down, bringing her in for a kiss as her feet softly touched the deck.

  “So,” Bethany Anne played with his shirt. “Along with our dog…”

  “And cat,” Michael added.

  “Daughter Tabitha,” Bethany Anne said.

  He nodded. “Wards Mark and Jacqueline, and other daughter Eve.”

  “Ah, Eve.” Bethany Anne nodded.

  “Six Bitches,” Michael continued. “Although we need to add one so I can inform them we have changed their names to the Seven Dwarfs.”

  “I’m sure John will be pleased.” Bethany Anne nodded. “And a fleet of people and ships.”

  “And a planet to run.”

  “And another planet to keep hidden and safe…”

  “We will now have our own child,” Michael whispered. There was a tear at the corner of his eye. “I’m going to be a father.”

  “You already are.” Bethany Anne raised up on her toes and kissed him. “We are just adding one more very special child.”

  He pulled her closer. “Thank you, Bethany Anne. When I met you I was training my replacement, ready to walk into the sun.”

  She smirked, a hint of humor in her voice. “I sent you into the sun, remember?”

  He chuckled. “Yes, and please do me the favor of never doing that again—like ever. I can’t come back from that.”

  She hugged him hard. “I won’t ever let you go, Michael Nacht.”

  Because I’m not raising this child alone, you bastard, she added, mentally.

  I heard that, Michael replied.

  Good.

  This knowing what you are thinking is going to make for a very interesting life, Bethany Anne.

  Damned right it will.

  You have to have the last word, don’t you? he asked, humor coloring his mental speech.

  There was a long pause before she replied.

  No.

  He chuckled, leaving the discussion where it was. Together they turned toward the guys and walked over, ready to go down to the planet they would call home for a while.

  Then they would continue the search for the Kurtherians.

  Together.

  FINIS

  Witch Of The Federation

  Have you read Michael Anderle’s latest creation, WITCH OF THE FEDERATION? It’s available now at Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.

  The future has amazing technology. Our alien allies have magic. Together, we are building a training system to teach the best of humanity to go to the stars.

  But the training is monumentally expensive.

  Stephanie Morgana is a genius, she just doesn't know it.

  The Artificial Intelligence which runs the Virtual World is charged with testing Stephanie, a task it has never performed before.

  The Earth and their allies, may never be the same again.

  Will Stephanie pass the test and be moved to the advanced preparatory schools, or will the system miss her? Will the AI be able to judge a human's potential in an area where it has no existing test data to compare?

  Available at Amazon

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  February 11, 2018

  First, like I have done sooooo many books before, let me THANK YOU for not only reading through these stories, but reading these author notes, as well!

  Ok, full disclosure – This was both the hardest book to write, and the easiest. The hardest because I had to go back, and connect various scenes from Life Goes On (TKG21), Gateway to the Universe (Craig Martelle and Justin Sloan) and Return of Victory (Justin Sloan) all into this manuscript while I connected with Ell Leigh Clarke on the parts she wrote.

  I was DREADING that aspect (the connections part.) So, I worked to integrate with Ellie’s on her parts. That was relatively easy because she was so far ahead of me, that by the time I had fifteen thousand words left, she was just about done (or was complete I think.)

  <>

  So, I get her manuscript, merge it into my manuscript and change all the fonts so that it looks the same to me.

  I think I only had one major goof-up that I found before I got the order of all of the scenes corrected. I read through the whole document (leaving those big sections I mention above until the end.)

  Then, I downloaded the books I thought I would need (failing to download Gateway because I didn’t realize I didn’t already own the book.) I went through the books on the flight back from London to Las Vegas and marked up the stories.

  That was Monday.

  By Monday night, I had a plan to work for the quick Boris scene and shot it to Paul C. Middleton for review, and I thought “I’ve got this!”

  By Wednesday afternoon, I had both this book, and Life Goes On to the editing teams, and my mind just started to flounder.

  << Ellie Edit: I’m already confused…>>

  I had been working on one or the other of these two books since Christmas. Now, they were done!

  About that Physics Question…

  On Thursday or Friday, I was looking at my phone, playing with the Facebook app and I saw a conversation I remembered (then) that I had during my flight from Las Vegas to London (I think I was in London Heathrow maybe at this time?). A fan had asked a very scientific question, and there was no way I was going to be able to answer this without a keyboard.

  At least, not easily.

  So, I texted them that I would need to get back to my laptop to answer their question, and slid the phone back into my pocket.

  Where I promptly forgot that I needed to answer the question until I got back home to the US. Actually, I think it was a couple of days PAST that time.

  So, I’m at home, looking at my phone again and open that same Facebook application. This time, I see the question again (mind you, I’m still on the phone) and re-read their question.

  “Huh,” I think. “This is a physics type question. I’d bet Ellie (Ell Leigh Clarke) would be a better person to truly answer this question, and I’d look smart for getting her involved.”

  So, the next day or so, Ellie happens to mention that “she answered the fan.”

  I thought this was FANTABULOUS! It took me a while before my mental processes slowed down enough, that my eyebrows started to narrow together as I questioned, “How?”

  You see, I hadn’t actually gotten around to sending her the question for the fan. I mean, I’m cool if the fan reached out to her without me getting involved, just surprised.

  Upon further discussion, it’s obvious the reason that Ellie was able to answer this question was because “I” didn’t realize that when I saw the question, I was actually in the Admin section of HER Facebook page.

  Fortunately, I wasn’t in Zoom (or Skype) at this time, or she would have seen how red my face had been. That section of the FB page I feel is for her personal messages to fans, and I pride myself on staying the hell out of that area.

  << Ellie Edit:… mostly. But he says that like a guy who prides himself on never checking his gf’s phone… only to be caught red handed two days later. Yup. This happened to me. Years ago now… but this just reminds me of it. (And not that I was even bothered at the time. More just amused). It’s the nobility… that comes before a fuck up. Tee hee hee :P >>

  Not ONLY had I gone into that area, but I didn’t realize WHERE I was when I was talking to the fan… as Ellie. Telling the fan that the BEST person to answer the fan’s question WAS ELLIE. How much more confusing could I have POSSIBLY made it for the fan?

  “Hello fan, I know you asked the question to Ellie. But apparently, Ellie is going to answer you (not explaining it’s actually Michael answering) and tell you to ask Ellie…”

  Which they had already done.

  Ellie tells me a moment later that she had done a kick-ass job of answering the question.

  Here are the messages that truly go with this story:

  BT (fan): Okay, I've had some questions for a while and you seem like just the author to answer them. Specifically, can/does a dimension exist like the etheric? Even if it's just a mathematical representation? How would it be possible for someone to cross dimensions? Wouldn't the energy required to bridge dimensions make any energy transference far to inefficient to be useful for powering weapons? And kind of a related question from recent SciFi, would a particle accelerator really be capable of "ripping space time" and causing dimensional collisions? What would even happen if two dimensions collided? Sorry if it's too many questions or you don't want to answer them but you seem to be the science knowledge behind the series so I thought you'd have some of the answers.

 

  From Me (replying as Ellie): hey BT, I need to be at computer to respond to these. Lemme come back to you soon! :)

  BT: Absolutely I look forward to learning and discussing.

  Now, 1 week later (Thursday to Thursday):

  Thursday at 1:24PM I reply: So, I’ve been in England since you asked these questions- some I think Ell Leigh Clarke and MD Cooper would know more, some I can guess at.

  I mention Ell since she is a physicist.

  Are you curious for a reason or to scratch an inquisition itch?

  Now, thank goodness, Ellie realizes my FU and jumps on to HER messages, and answers BT who must be scratching his head at this point:

  Ellie (6 hours later): Hey this looks like MA has jumped onto this msg thread... so this is Ellie again... When I came on board and started playing with the etheric, MA and I talked about how it ties up with the physics. I decided, and MA kinda went along with my sciency back story, that this could be a vector space known as the Calabi-Yaw manifold, which is a versatile 6 dimensional space which is used in things like string theory and quantum loop gravity to make the maths work.