Veiled Designs: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Uprise Saga Book 3) Read online

  CONTENTS

  LMBPN Publishing

  Dedication

  Legal

  Locations and Cast

  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

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Thanks for reading

  Author Notes - Amy DuBoff

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Amy Duboff Series List

  Amy Social Links

  Michael Series List

  Michael Social Links

  VEILED DESIGNS

  Uprise Saga: Book Three

  By Amy DuBoff and Michael Anderle

  A part of

  The Kurtherian Gambit Universe

  Written and Created

  by Michael Anderle

  DEDICATION

  To Kurt, for always seeing what I missed,

  and for continually pushing me to strive for the best.

  — Amy

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  — Michael

  VEILED DESIGNS

  Team Includes

  BETA / EDITOR BOOK

  Kurt Schulenburg

  Ron Gailey

  Craig Martelle

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

  Kelly O’Donnell

  Larry Omans

  John Ashmore

  Paul Westman

  Peter Manis

  Mike Pendergrass

  Micky Cocker

  Joshua Ahles

  James Caplan

  Kimberly Boyer

  Tim Bischoff

  Erik Cushman

  If we missed anyone, please let us know!

  Editor

  Jen McDonnell

  VEILED DESIGNS (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 © 2018 Amy DuBoff, Michael Anderle & Craig Martelle

  Cover by Andrew Dobell, www.creativeedgestudios.co.uk

  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, January 2018

  Version 1.01, January 2018

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2015-2018 by Michael T. Anderle.

  LOCATIONS

  Force de Guerre headquarters – located in Dren Cluster

  Alaxar Trinary (planets: Nezar, Coraxa, Alucia)

  Gidyon System – adjacent to the Alaxar Trinary

  CAST

  Force de Guerre (FDG)

  Core Team

  Ava Landyn – Lieutenant, team leader

  Edwin Caites – Private, Ava’s team

  Nick Rixon – Private, Ava’s team

  Samantha Matthews – Private, Ava’s team

  Officers

  Tyson Kurtz – Colonel (formerly possessed by an alien presence known as ‘Nox’)

  Marcus Widmore – Major, Ava’s commanding officer

  Marcie Walton – Colonel, Kurtz’s commanding officer

  Support Personnel at Headquarters

  Luke Carter – Geneticist/Scientist, Ava’s significant other

  Tess – Lab tech on Luke’s science team

  Jack – Lab tech on Luke’s science team

  Doctor Dwyer – Lead medical doctor for FDG headquarters

  Crew of the Raven

  Rod – Captain

  Aleya – First Officer

  Sven – Support systems engineer

  Gil – Mechanic

  Alucian Alliance

  (member world of Etheric Federation)

  Alistair Connors – President

  Karen Carter – Press Secretary, former Nezaran spy (sister of Luke Carter)

  Leon – Assistant to President Connors

  Nezaran Coalition

  (independent world)

  Cynthia Heizberg – Chancellor (deceased, formerly possessed by an alien presence known as ‘Reya’)

  NTech

  (Research company based on Nezar with a branch on Coraxa)

  Andrea Mason – Director of NTech’s lab on Coraxa (deceased, vampire)

  Jared Frey – Andrea’s research assistant at the NTech lab (formerly possessed by an alien presence known as ‘Nox’)

  CHAPTER ONE

  Ava saw the punch coming, as if it was in slow motion. She dove aside, easily avoiding the swing. “You’ll have to try harder than that,” she needled her sparring partner.

  Edwin, one of the large Were warriors on her covert ops team, grunted. “I’m going easy on you.”

  Ava smirked. “Sure you are.”

  In the week since Ava had been exposed to the experimental nanocytes developed by NTech, she’d experienced a new level of physical ability unlike anything she’d dreamed was possible. Strength, endurance, speed, reflexes—her years of physical training and conditioning hadn’t come close to granting such mastery. But, thanks to her new nanocytes, now she could even rival someone of Edwin’s substantial stature in combat.

  The odds are evened.

  With a determined glint in her eyes, she got a running start to slide across the floor toward Edwin. Her legs deftly wrapped around his, and she snatched ahold of his right wrist while he toppled to the side.

  She pinned him. “I bet you let me do that, too, huh?”

  Edwin struggled against her with no effect. “I’m not sure I like this new you.”

  Ava released him. I’m not sure I do, either.

  She had come to terms early in her FDG career that mental prowess was the greatest asset she could contribute to a team. She had been able to keep up in training and combat, but being a human tank was never a consideration. Now, her sense of identity was at a crossroads. Her new physical abilities had a catch—a big one.

  Whenever she became too agitated and lost focus, she would transform into a Hochste. The hybrid Were-vampire form shouldn’t even be possible, and yet it was her new reality. While she had remained lucid during her latest transformation, the technology was unstable; she had no control over the timing of the form shift. In addition, the agony she had experienced during past transformations didn’t exactly encourage her to make it a re
gular occurrence.

  Moreover, it was the enemy who wanted her to master the form. The FDG warrior in her screamed that she should run away from the enemy’s designs for her fate, but she couldn’t avoid what was inside her.

  “Hey, I was only joking,” Edwin said when Ava didn’t reply.

  “Yeah, I know.” She took a slow breath. “This is weird for me, too.”

  Edwin stretched out his shoulder. “You’ll get used to it eventually.”

  “Unless I decide not to.”

  He eyed her. “You mean that suppression therapy Luke invented?”

  “You heard about that?” Ava raised an eyebrow.

  “Word gets around. I mean, our team does specialize in information gathering.”

  “Fair point.” She shook her head. “Yeah, he came up with something, but I’m not crazy about trying more experimental shit.”

  “Don’t blame you. Plus, there’s that whole part about you now being able to take me down.” Edwin grinned.

  “Not a bad side effect, not gonna lie.”

  Edwin shrugged. “You haven’t randomly transformed since Nezar, so maybe—”

  “It’s not that I don’t think I could gain control of the shifting,” Ava interrupted. “I’m even willing to deal with the pain of the transformation. But there are some other really big things that we keep overlooking because aspects of this seem good on the surface.”

  “Such as?” Edwin prompted.

  “Well, the obvious thing: that Forsaken vampire bitch Andrea intentionally did this to me. Those aliens in Gidyon want me for something, and I don’t particularly want to find out what they’re planning.”

  “Admittedly, that part isn’t ideal.”

  “You think?” Ava groaned. “But let’s pretend for a minute that we can thwart their plan and I don’t somehow become a weapon for their dastardly ends. Best-case scenario, I have the Were strength and vampiric speed, and I can transform into the Hochste form at will. For you, that transformation is quick, painless, and you are reliably in fucking-shit-up mode. For me… well, my track record is either having a seizure, or entering into a temporary blind rage. Either way, in a battle scenario, that means I’d be a massive liability to the team.”

  “Our transformations aren’t certain, either. Every time, we run the risk of the animal side taking over,” Edwin countered.

  “It’s not the same level of risk, and you know it.”

  “All right, yeah… But, Ava, the bigger question here is what you’re comfortable doing. We Weres can do what we do because we’ve accepted those abilities as a part of ourselves. You need to decide if you want to embrace your changes, or have them go away. This half-committed thing is probably what’s causing most of your issues.”

  “The threat of those aliens in Gidyon isn’t just something in my head.”

  Edwin chuckled. “Well, they certainly would like to be.”

  She sighed. “Okay, that was poor phrasing for a discussion about telepathic beings. But you know what I mean.”

  He nodded. “They want you for something, and we don’t know what that is.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So, when are we going to go find out?”

  Ava laughed. “Aren’t you jumping ahead a little?”

  Edwin evaluated her. “Rumor has it that you traced the telepathic signal in Jared before you removed Nox.”

  Only a handful of people were privy to that information. “How did you…?”

  “You might want to talk to Luke about keeping his mouth shut.” Edwin gave Ava a playful smile.

  And this is why we don’t typically have civilians work with the FDG. Ava nodded. “What if we did trace that signal back?”

  “That’s obvious. You’re going after them.”

  She’d already said too much to outright deny what she knew. “Maybe. The signal trace confirmed that Gidyon is where the beings are camped out, but I haven’t heard anything from the Force leadership yet about next steps.”

  “Maybe they needed to run it higher up the chain.”

  Ava shrugged. “Or maybe they decided that it’s a remote enough system that it’s not worth the trouble to investigate.”

  “Did one of my punches actually connect with your head today?” Edwin asked. “Since when does the FDG know about a threat and not do something about it?”

  “Maybe it’s just wishful thinking.”

  “I thought you wanted this?”

  “I do.” Ava crossed her arms. “It’s complicated.”

  Edwin leaned against the wall and tilted his head.

  “I want to go after the bad guys that did this to me, don’t get me wrong,” she explained. “But I can’t shake this feeling that this was all part of some master plan, and we’d be walking into a trap.”

  “You’ve overpowered both of the beings we’ve encountered, and you can do it again,” Edwin tried to assure her.

  “That was when they were remotely projecting themselves,” Ava countered. “Going to Gidyon, we’d be on their turf. And that is precisely where Kurtz tried to take me while he was subverted.”

  “It’s risky, yes, but we can’t ignore a threat in a system that neighbors an Etheric Federation world.”

  “I know.”

  “And that’s why you’ll have us with you.” Edwin smiled.

  “I really don’t like the idea of you walking into a trap with me.”

  “It’s not a trap if we can avoid it together.”

  Ava nodded. “I can’t argue with th—”

  The training room door opened, and Samantha poked her head inside. “Colonel wants to meet with us.”

  Ava came to attention. “About what?”

  “Widmore didn’t say, but I got the impression it’s for recon.”

  “Sounds like they’ve made the decision for us,” Edwin said to Ava.

  “It does.” She grabbed her water bottle from the rack and took a swig.

  “You know what this is about?” Samantha asked her.

  “I’ll give you one guess.”

  The Were nodded. “Right. I should have known.”

  Ava looked down at her mussed shipsuit from the sparring. “I don’t suppose we have time to clean up?”

  “Meeting is ASAP,” Samantha replied.

  “Classic.”

  Ava smoothed her suit and re-styled her short, red hair as best she could while they walked down the hall to the designated briefing room. It wouldn’t be the first time she showed up to a meeting directly following a workout, and it likely wouldn’t be the last.

  When they arrived, Nick, Major Widmore, and Colonel Kurtz were waiting for them around the table.

  “Sirs,” Ava greeted the two officers.

  “Thank you for the prompt arrival, Lieutenant,” Kurtz replied.

  “Of course, sir.” Ava took the chair closest to the door.

  “I’m sure you’ve already guessed why we’re meeting,” Widmore stated as soon as everyone was settled. “We need to address Gidyon.”

  Kurtz nodded. “We’ve rolled out testing for the Telepathic Receptor—or TR—neural structures Luke and his team identified, but FDG leadership has deemed future telepathic assaults to be too big a risk for us to move past this incident without further investigation. We’re authorizing a recon mission to Gidyon so you can see what we’re up against.”

  Ava’s chest tightened. “Yes, sir.”

  “I’ll accompany you on the Raven,” Widmore continued. “Our long-range scan indicates that there’s at least one, or possibly two, planetary bodies in the system. There’s some strange radiation that’s made it difficult to get an accurate assessment.”

  “So we run an in-system scan and report back?” Ava asked.

  “This might require an on-the-ground investigation,” Kurtz replied. “You mentioned that the alien, Reya, shared a vision of a planet with you. If you do find a world matching that description, biological samples might shed more light on what kind of being we’re dealing with.”

&
nbsp; Ava exchanged glances with her team members. “Sir, none of us are trained botanists.”

  Widmore smiled. “Considering your skillset includes hacking into complex computer systems while under enemy fire, we figured picking flowers would be within your ability level.”

  Ava smiled back. “So long as you don’t require an aesthetically balanced bouquet in a vase, sir, we should be able to manage.”

  “Hey now,” Edwin interjected, “I’ve been known to make some lovely arrangements when the situation demands.”

  Kurtz sighed and shook his head.

  “We’ll keep that in mind, Private,” Ava told him. That’s very good to know. She added the tidbit to her mental file for the practical joke payback she had been planning.

  “We’ll depart in two hours,” Widmore stated. “You’re all dismissed—except Ava.”

  She remained seated while the rest of her team departed. “Sir?” she said when she was alone with the two officers.

  Kurtz folded his hands on the table. “Major Widmore and I discussed your condition while we were planning the upcoming op. After reviewing the mission report from Nezar, it appears you’ve gained some control over your new nanocytes, but not enough to be reliable.”

  “Yes, sir,” Ava acknowledged.

  “We understand that Luke developed a suppressant for you,” Kurtz continued, “though the side effects are unknown. Frankly, we don’t have time to go through proper trials to see if that’s a viable solution.”

  Ava nodded. “I agree.”

  “For that reason, the best option seems for you to be upgraded with an AI,” Kurtz concluded.