Ambushed

Declan stared at his harem of women. Well, OK, they weren’t technically his harem. They’d never had sex, and he was very much a one-woman guy. The fact that his woman was dead didn’t matter. He couldn’t and wouldn’t let go. He now suspected that his inclination to cleave onto Sarah’s memory so hard was because of Mother’s manipulations. He would have liked to think that it was because in his heart he was certain that we would still be able to save his Sarah. All the power at his command and he couldn’t save the one thing he loved. Then again, he could crush worlds with a tap on his HUD, but he couldn’t go toe to toe with an extradimensional entity that looked like three-day old calamari. He really needed to get a better grip on his powers. He also could not place as much trust into Mother as he once had, at least not until he sussed out whether or not she was working for him or had her own agenda. Now, he was facing a wall of women whose faces were determined and arms folded. They did not seem willing to take no for an answer.

“We come. We help,” spoke his apocalyptic Valkyrie, Crowe. She was dressed and ready for war. She still wore her bandoleers without a top, and once more his mind could not help but wander into the thought of certain parts of her anatomy chafing. She had foregone the bikini bottom, although he suspected that she still had it on underneath of her exterior camouflaged military styled pants that complimented her almost knee-high boots. Her handguns were holstered at her side, a shotgun was slung over her back and a scimitar dangled from her hip.

Beside her stood Rah, who wore a skin-tight suit, and clearly could not find a bra in her size anywhere on Terra Sarah. The rabbit had various types of blades all over her body. At her ankles were two long thin dirks. At her waist was a belt of at least four blades that he could see that looked like a bowie knife, a wicked trench knife on which the brass knuckles were spiked, a KA-BAR, and a tanto. She was twirling a kukri in her hands as if she were an expert.

Countess had steel blades over her fingers that were attached to a thin mesh metal glove on each hand. Sarahtaur carried a bow and arrow, Essea was simply herself, carrying neither a weapon nor looking like she needed one, and Second Sarah had several sticks of dynamite tucked into the belt at her waist. She stood at the center of the group, her hands on her hips. Her lower lip was sticking out, a look that Declan recognized as, This is NOT up for discussion mien, and he trembled a little. He knew not to argue with that face. In fact, he noticed that all of them bore that same expression now that he looked.

Sarahtaur was the one that surprised him by speaking first. “I’m not sure why they gave me this archery set,” she said, “I have never used a bow in my life.”

“What are you talking about?” He stared into their ranks and counted them as one member short, “And where is the other Sarah?”

Countess rolled her eyes, “You mean the Vegan?” She said that last word with a trace of disgust. “We took a vote and decided not to invite her.” The other girls all nodded in agreement. “Did you know that she is also a CrossFit trainer as well?”

Declan shook his head in the negative. “Give it time, honey,” Rah said in a stone cold tone, “She’ll tell you about a hundred times an hour if you let her.”

As things went, he understood part of what they were saying; he had considered leaving her on the planet when he’d found out she was a vegan, but he’d been sympathetic enough not to do so. “Um,” he began, “Sarahtaur, Rah, aren’t both of you vegetarians as well?”

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The centaur nodded, “Well, yes, but not by choice. My stomach can’t handle meat, but I don’t have to announce it to everyone when I walk in the door.”

“I’m half rabbit, not half crazy,” Rah chuckled, “Rabbits do eat meat you know. Did you think we just stood around eating carrots all day? Really, Clan, you have to wise up.”

Chagrinned at his ignorance Declan shrugged his shoulder. “So, why are you here?”

Second Sarah stepped forward, in spite of her mundane origins in comparison to the others she seemed to have become the de facto leader of the group. She seemed completely unflappable, nothing he could say was going to change her mind, and he was fortunate enough to recognize that fact before the discussion started. He’d been through enough “discussions” with Sarah Prime that he knew this was a battle that he simply would not win.

“Mother has informed us that you have another world to take care of, and we want to help you,” her voice was even and calm and told Declan that she would brook no dissension. How in the hell did they find out about another pending apocalypse before he did? He was going to have some words with his surrogate cyber-parent. She should not have disseminated information to them before he was apprised of the situation. This was yet another thing Mother had done to wiggle out of his good graces. She was, by the minute, digging herself into a pit from which he doubted she could climb out of by the time she was finished.

“She shouldn’t have done that,” he said sharply, but then he hastily added, “But since she has I’m guessing this isn’t up for debate.”

She walked up to him and flicked him in the chest and gave him a wry smile, “Nope.” His shoulders slumped in defeat. At least they were all outfitted for battle. How had that happened anyway? He had a bad habit of jumping in over his head with little more than a towel, a toothbrush, and a big smile. Another concern that he had was that all of his expertise on the shotgun had been barely helpful in his battle with those strange creatures. Their weapons would probably fare no better than his had, which meant that the girls would be in a lot of danger. He’d allowed Crowe to come with him that first time because she was a warrior and would have ripped his head off if he’d said no.

He stared into each of their eyes and saw their resolution. There would be no dissuading them from their course of action. The best that he could hope for would be to mitigate damages as they went. He hoped that Kristine had gotten the upgrades that he had told her to if nothing else she ought to be able to help keep an eye on the girls.

Declan ran his fingers through his hair. He used both hands because he was extremely agitated. “All right,” he said solemnly, “We’re going to do this, but we are going to do this right.” At his words, the girls all smiled and looked relieved, clearly they had expected a bigger fight. Second Sarah, though, was unfazed by his pronouncement, she had known he would cave in before they had even confronted him.

She gave him a lopsided smile and said, “I knew you could never tell any of us no,” she stated coyly as if she’d been reading his mind. She turned about and faced her squad of Sarah’s, “Ok, ladies. Let’s get ready. Declan is on a deadline and we are burning daylight.” The girls all turned in unison and mock marched their way to Launch Bay One. He watched them go, simultaneously terrified and thankful that they would be there to help.

Kristine floated up behind him, and for a moment he considered having Mother create a mini DeLorean, with a compatible A.I. for her to hang out with, she deserved companionship too. As loathe as he was to even talk to Mother at the moment he would give the idea some serious consideration. “Did you get the upgrades I suggested?”

She bobbed her chassis up and down in the affirmative, “And then some. I also saw that the girls were dead set on going with you so I made some things to help. Our printers work so much better since we incorporated the information from Essea’s world.”

Declan raised an eyebrow, “Things? What kind of things?”

Her engine growled, “Oh, let’s surprise you!” Kristine didn’t wait for his reaction but instead tore off for the Launch Bay as if she were on fire. Declan stared in disbelief. They were all against him.