The Cost of Power is set in an alternative universe from the main Martiniere Legacy series. In this book, I take a closer look at the mind control technology and…the relationship between Gabe and his father Philip ends up being different.

Additionally, Gabe tells Ruby who he really is much, much earlier than in the main Martiniere Legacy series.

Most of all, I’m freeforming this story. I somewhat know where it’s going to go, but how it unfolds depend on what happens with Gabe, Philip, Ruby, and Justine once they get on a roll in this particular setting.

Enjoy! This is part two of Chapter One. There will be three parts to this chapter.

July 2033

GABE

He clambered into the crawler and drove around the corner of the Homestead field, dropping into a little draw with a spring that the Ryder family called Ladyslipper, after the family name for the calypso orchids that popped up there in April and May, along with morel mushrooms. After cupping his hands under the trickle from the plastic pipe that fed into the stock tank and taking a big drink, Gabe splashed his face and hair from the trough. Then he took off his overshirt and t-shirt, dipped the t-shirt into the water and put it back on, shivering at the pleasant coolness. He dangled his sore finger in the water for a few minutes, sitting on the edge of the trough. Ladyslipper Spring was always cool, even on a hot day.

As he hoped, it cooled both his body and his temper. Ron and Ruby didn’t need to be subjected to his outbursts. And did he ever need to cool off before going back to the ranch headquarters.

Trouble was brewing.

Normally, he took this anniversary in stride. But this year—probably because it had been five years since the trial—one of the lurid true crime streaming shows, Criminal Injustice, featured the US vs Martiniere Group trial that had led to Gabe’s exile. It premiered tonight. From the previews that Gabe already glimpsed, while the actor portraying Gabe didn’t look that much like him, the producers were using some clips of his testimony.

That was a huge problem. Especially if someone like Nathan Bonham watched the show, and put the pieces together. Bonham would have no qualms about letting Philip know where Gabe was.

It was one thing for Gabe to make that conscious choice to reveal himself, once he was prepared and protected. Another for it to be forced upon him.

Gabe sighed. Short of disappearing, he didn’t have a solution. He had left a message with his cousin Serg Vygotsky. Serg had gotten him out of trouble before. Maybe he could now—or perhaps he knew something that would make this situation better. After all, why hadn’t Philip sued the pants off of Criminal Injustice? Gabe didn’t think rehashing that trial was good publicity for his uncle or for the Group.

Then again, Philip was a vengeful man. If he thought this show might lead him to Gabe….

Gabe sighed again, then climbed into the crawler and headed back for the ranch.

No choices ahead for him. No good choices at all.

And he worried about Ruby. Her period was late and she had been nauseous in the mornings. If ever there was a crappy time for pregnancy to happen in spite of all their precautions—it was now.

However, pregnancy was the best possibility. He could think of other, worse problems that her symptoms could indicate. She had irregular cycles at times. Had once been diagnosed with endometriosis, had a couple of Pap smears that were problematic. But Ruby hadn’t said anything to him about suspecting a pregnancy, and Gabe wasn’t willing to force the issue—yet. He wanted to get past whatever would happen as a result of Criminal Injustice.

With any luck, nothing would happen, and he could continue to live as Gabe Ramirez, ranch hand on the run from indenture bounty hunters. While Gabe Ramirez’s life was living broke, living tight, there was a lot of happiness in it that Gabe hadn’t known as Gabriel Martiniere, at least after his family died in that damn plane collision when he was twelve.

Ruby was the center of that happiness.

He dreaded the possibility of losing her, either to death or to revulsion after she learned who he really was. She didn’t like secrets, even though she knew that Gabe Ramirez was an assumed identity—but what would happen when she learned that he wasn’t on the run from indenture bounty hunters? That he was Gabriel Martiniere, and wealthy? That he could have financed her dreams of world-changing biobot designs easily, instead of the scratching and struggling they currently endured, hoping to save enough to build an independent lab?

Gabe wasn’t sure he was willing to risk finding out. And yet—his hand might be forced into telling Ruby everything.

First episode

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