by Gail Koger
Dolon bounced off the ceiling and walls. Our spine-shattering ride came to an abrupt halt when the ship slammed into a chaotic mass of tumbled stones.
The harness bit painfully into my chest, and my helmet bounced off a protruding piece of metal. “Ooof!”
My uncle smashed face-first into the command console and fell back against the pilot’s chair.
Papa’s mind brushed over mine in alarm. “Are you injured?”
My jaw hurt, and my chest felt like someone had kicked me. “A few bruises.” I unfastened my harness and looked around. “But the flitter is a total loss.”
“Dolon?”
My uncle wiped at the blood gushing from his nose.
“He survived the crash.”
“His luck is about to run out,” Papa growled.
Dolon’s communications bracelet began to beep. He smiled smugly. “The rest of my crew is here.”
Balock’s balls. “Dolon called in reinforcements, Papa.”
“I’m tracking them. The laser cannons have been recalibrated. Go to our bolt-hole in the city and wait for me.”
“What about Mami?”
“I’ll get her.”
The wind stopped blowing. The sand literally fell from the sky, leaving weird piles stacked everywhere.
My uncle forced the door open and gaped at an enormous pit filled with thousands upon thousands of skeletal remains. Entangled with the bones were stone figurines, small metal chests, and musical devices that resembled flutes. “The treasure!”
“No, the Nabateans’ personal belongings.” It had taken us three months to suction out the sand. All that hard work was about to be destroyed.
“They’re dead and don’t need their gold anymore. I do,” Dolon countered, handcuffing me to the seat.
Thousands of var bugs suddenly burst from the sand. They created a chorus of rattling clicks that would rival the sound of a thousand Earth rattlesnakes. My uncle’s blood was drawing them like a beacon.
Dolon frowned. “What’s that noise?”
“What noise?” How could the idiot not see them?
“That clicking.”
I tilted my head to one side and listened. “I don’t hear anything. Maybe you’re getting sand fever. You should go back to the ship.”
“Do you think me a fool?”
Was that a rhetorical question? “Sand fever can kill you.”
“Your pathetic attempt to trick me won’t work. The treasure is mine,” Dolon growled.
I watched the var bugs swarm toward the flitter. “Yes, my lord.” My uncle was about to get the surprise of his life.
Dolon squeezed out the door and ran to the pit.
The bugs were right behind him, clicking loud enough to raise the dead. The idiot never even noticed.
I watched as he climbed down into the pit. His face a mask of delighted greed, my uncle grabbed a chest and opened it. It held sand and the petrified remains of who knew what.
“Drekk.” He dropped the chest and grabbed another. Nothing but sand.
I pulled out a lockpick, unlocked the cuffs, and crawled out of the hole in the fuselage. The bugs veered around me. Mami’s brew was potent.
My uncle’s bellow echoed off the rocks. “Where’s the drekking treasure?”
Not here. The Nabateans had taken it with them.
The bugs crawled into the pit.
Dolon shouted in horror. “Get away! Get away! Get away!” Drawing his laser pistol, he started firing. He vaporized most of the bugs, along with hundreds of corpses and burial chests.
A cold rage filled me. Our pristine find was rapidly being destroyed by the careless fool. I smiled as more bugs poured into the pit. They should keep Dolon busy for a while. I scrambled down a narrow crevice and entered a cavernous passageway that led into the stone buildings.
The ancient city was built to align with the sun and illuminate the Nabatean’s sacred places. The empty chambers had inscriptions carved into the walls. Were they warnings? Directions to the new world? Or something else? Mami was still trying to interpret them.
The floors were paved with multicolored stones. Two black obelisks guarded an ornate facade painted with a grotesque blue dwarf glaring defiantly at a swarm of var bugs. Even back then, the bugs were a pest.
The earth shook, and pieces of the ceiling pelted me. I quickly checked the tracking scanner on my bracelet. Two ships were battling overhead, exchanging laser fire.
“Pirates, Papa?”
“No. Jeebito and Tabaw are fighting over who gets to claim the city.”
Jeebito and Tabaw were the bane of legitimate relic hunters. The murdering grave robbers had destroyed over eight hundred historical finds. “How did they find Qeeturah?”
“Your uncle gave them the coordinates.”
Horror knotted my stomach. “They’re his crew?”
“Yes.”
“But, everyone knows Jeebito put a death bounty on Tabaw. They hate each other.”
Papa’s anger filled my mind. “The henchman said Dolon was drunk when he first hired Jeebito, and an hour later he engaged Tabaw’s services.”
“Once they discover there is no treasure, they’ll cut Dolon’s throat.”
“They won’t live that long.”
The loud crack of cannon fire filled the air. Multiple energy bolts hit the area, and the ground shuddered beneath me.
“If they don’t stop, there won’t be anything to claim.” To lose Qeeturah and the artifacts would destroy Mami.
“This is the last site they raid,” Papa said and unleashed the laser cannons.
I sprinted over to the remains of a window and peered out. Trailing fire, a ship fell from the sky. It barely missed the graveyard and crashed into the sand. It was Tabaw’s ship. Kablooey! The ship exploded, sending shards of metal flying in every direction.
A rain of laser fire brought down Jeebito’s vessel. It hit the ground hard, and flames belched from the ruptured hull.
Out of nowhere, a bombardment of missiles struck our ship. Kaboom! A huge explosion turned our spacecraft into a blazing inferno.
“Papa!” For what seemed like an eternity, I watched the ship burn. Every nerve in my body twanged with shock and denial. Had Papa gotten out in time? Of course, he had. Papa’s psychic senses would have alerted him to the danger. I reached out mentally, “Papa? Are you okay? Papa?”
Silence was my only answer. I hunted for his familiar mental patterns. A cold snake of dread curled in my stomach. Why couldn’t I find them? “Papa! Please! You’re scaring me. Talk to me, Papa.” I chewed my lower lip. Maybe he was unconscious or had a head injury that kept him from answering.
Summoning all my psychic power, I searched for my father and found nothing. Our link was gone. It was as if he no longer existed. No. It wasn’t possible. Papa couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t. Mind-twisting panic swept over me followed quickly by a blinding rage. If they had harmed one hair on my father’s head, there would be no mercy. I would hunt them down and cut them into little pieces.
I flashed back to my training and remembered Papa’s sage advice, “Control is essential when confronting your enemies. Panic or blind rage will get you killed. Your opponent will see a fragile female, not the warrior you are. Use that illusion to your advantage.”
I clung to that memory. I was fifteen when the Tai-Kok attacked a space station we had docked at. I still remembered the horrific screams, the gutted bodies and the gore. When I saw a Tai-Kok eating a woman alive, I totally lost it. I killed it and every monster I came across with my hunting knife.
My father took one look at my blood-covered form and knew I carried his berserker gene. He immediately began my training, which included throwing me into hostile environments and seeing how I reacted. Some members of my mother’s family thought he was too harsh with me. They didn’t understand Papa was teaching me how to control the rage. How to use it to my advantage and not let it rule me. I hadn’t bu
rned down a city since I was sixteen.
I took a deep breath, then another and another until the rage clouding my mind was gone. Papa wasn’t dead. My synapses were still fried from being stunned. That was why I couldn’t find him.
Drekk! Mami. What was I going tell her when he didn’t show up? Relax. He’s only injured?
A laser beam streaked by my head. I darted behind a broken statue.
Dolon’s menacing voice echoed down the passageway, “I’m going to kill you, Xenia. You knew about the bugs. You knew!” Dolon stopped and frantically rubbed his back against the wall. “You knew! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You said when you wanted my advice, you would ask for it. You never asked.”
“What?” my uncle shrieked.
“For Goddess’s sake, grow a pair.” I had been bitten too. Unpleasant? Yes. My bracelet beeped a warning. A large spacecraft was landing. I switched to my scanner. It was a freighter retrofitted with military-grade armament. A relic hunter or more grave robbers? I looked at the information scrolling on my screen. Wait a minute. That ship belonged to the Federation of Archaeological Studies. I’d bet my last credit Nilus, my mother’s rival and enemy, was at the helm. He thought females weren’t suited to be relic hunters and was determined to ruin her. Personally, I thought Nilus was jealous of her abilities.
Energy bolts flashed dangerously close.
“After I kill you, I’m letting the bugs have a go at your mother.” My uncle’s gait was a funny wiggling jig. He was like some character in an Earth cartoon. Shoot. Stop. Scratch wildly. Shoot. Stop. Scratch wildly.
Why hadn’t Nilus destroyed Dolon’s ship too? Did he need Mami’s expertise? Or did he want to kill her himself? She had embarrassed him at the last Federation meeting. He’d been furious when Mami shredded his thesis on the Wadjets’ religious beliefs.
I needed to get to my mother before Nilus got his hands on her. Once Mami was safe, I would look for Papa.
“You’re dead. Do you hear me?” My uncle picked up a rock and dug at his groin. The entire time he whimpered like a youngling.
If he kept that up, he was going to rub his himself raw down there. I waited until he was grinding himself against the wall and dashed down a narrow passageway that led to our shielded bolt-hole. Papa had stocked it with weapons of every kind, food, surveillance equipment, and a communications console.
“You think you can run from me? I’m a hunter. I will find you.” Dolon’s voice echoed down the passageway.
A hunter? Please. I slid my hand behind a protruding rock and placed it against the hidden sensor pad. A door opened in the wall. I stepped inside, and the door closed silently behind me. “I doubt you could find your own cock.”
Chapter Three
Our bolt-hole consisted of four rooms: the command center, a storeroom, armory, and sleeping quarters. I eyed the additional biosuits hanging on the wall. Papa said the Askole were the finest armorers in the galaxy. For normal-size people. Since I was so small, he had been forced to buy me a child-size biosuit. The one thing I did like about the suit was it shrank down to a thick metal belt when not in use.
With one touch, my biosuit shrank away, revealing the red body suit I wore beneath it. A sigh of relief broke from me. Qeeturah’s average temperature was 129 degrees, pushing my suit’s cooling system to the brink. Some days it felt like I was being baked alive.
Wiping at the sweat running down my forehead, I hurried over to the control console and placed my hand on the sensor pad.
A mechanical voice said, “Bioform identity confirmed. Please enter passcode.”
I punched in my code.
“Welcome, Xenia.” Lights danced across the command console. “Systems activated. Warning. The city is being scanned for life forms.”
“Acknowledged.” Papa had installed the best shielding credits could buy. Nilus could scan all he wanted, but he would never find me. I on the other hand, could scan their ship and identify the occupants. I studied the life-form readings. Sure enough, Nilus was onboard the ship, along with ten armored warriors and crew. Better see what they were doing. Tapping an icon, I brought the surveillance cameras on line.
On the main view screen, my uncle was disrobing. Dolon’s flabby body was covered in oozing sores, and blisters sprouted all over his bright red face. Rage vibrated through every cell of my body. I wanted him dead. Mami would be upset that I enjoyed watching the bastard suffer and horrified that I planned on killing him. But he deserved to die.
I touched the control icon again and brought up the area around the graveyard. Nilus’s heavily armed warriors were checking the downed ships. Any survivors they found, they executed.
Drekk. I wasn’t surprised that Nilus had become a grave robber. Last year, the glory hound told the entire galaxy he had found a star chart that showed where Qeeturah was located and invited the news media to accompany him on his quest to find the Nabateans’ lost world.
If Nilus had done the proper tests, he would have discovered the map was a fake. A fake my father had made. Papa didn’t like the way Nilus treated Mami and decided to teach him some humility. And he did. Nilus’s Folly was the term the news media used. The Federation was not pleased and suspended his membership for a year. How had he gotten his hands on that ship? Had Gemi, his lover and fellow Federation member, arranged it?
My idiot uncle had handed Nilus the perfect opportunity for revenge and a way to reclaim his status as a prominent archeologist. He would claim Mami’s find as his own and take the treasure. The first logical move would be to get rid of any witnesses who could testify we had gotten here first. Dolon’s big mouth was going to get us all killed.
I scanned the warriors’ battle suits. Once again, Nilus hadn’t done his research. The armor wouldn’t protect his warriors from the lethal radiation or the var bugs. I snorted in disbelief when some of them removed their helmets. Dumb move. It only took twenty minutes to get sun poisoning.
As much as I hated to admit it, I needed help. Our ship had been destroyed, leaving us stranded on this planet. I was outmanned and outgunned. I had to find Papa, protect Mami, and evade Nilus’s warriors and Dolon. Plus, protect the Nabatean’s city. An impossible task. Just getting Mami out of Dolon’s ship was going to be difficult, and if they were shooting at us, she would be facedown in the sand.
Drekk. Detja could send help, but they wouldn’t arrive for two weeks. Once I had rescued my mother, I couldn’t leave her alone to search for Papa. She would do something incredibly stupid and get us all captured. The only option was Quinn Jones. He had to be close to this solar system by now, and I could really use his teleporting skills. But I didn’t have his comm link code. I typed in Detja’s and waited.
Detja appeared on the screen, took one look at my face, and said, “What happened?”
I told her everything.
She frowned. “You can’t link with your father?”
“No. I—” My voice broke, “I can’t sense him at all.”
“The Overlord always suspected Nilus was a tomb robber. Unfortunately, he was never able to get any proof. Link me into your scanners.”
I did as she requested. That explained why so many of the Federation’s sites were plundered. Nilus used his position to get his raiders in before legitimate relic hunters could arrive. Jeebito or Tabaw had to have been Nilus’s partner in crime. And my black-hearted uncle hired both of them.
Detja studied her screens. “Quinn, are you receiving the data?”
“I am.”
Detja pushed an icon on her command console. A small window popped up on my view screen, and Quinn appeared. “Your uncle has a lot to answer for,” he rumbled.
“He does,” I agreed, rubbing my aching jaw.
Quinn scowled. “He hit you?”
“No, he wrecked our flitter with me in it.”
Detja’s mouth tightened into a grim line. “Did Dolon survive the crash?”
“Unfortunately, but on
the bright side, he doesn’t have long to live.” I switched to the security feed of the passageway. My uncle was completely naked and scratching feverishly.
A spasm of disgust crossed Detja’s face.
Quinn grimaced. “What caused the bites?”
“Var bugs.” I sent them an image of the spiny critter. “They like our blood, and their bite leaves itchy sores.” I switched the surveillance camera to the freighter. Nilus’s warriors were blasting away at the mass of bugs surrounding them.
“The planet needs a good exterminator,” Quinn remarked.
“We tried exterminating them. It didn’t work.”
Quinn’s gaze slid over me. “You’re not covered in bites. You found some way to beat them.”
“Mami mixed insect repellant from Earth with neem oil and cala lotion. The bugs won’t come anywhere near us now.”
“My long-range scanner shows a high level of subatomic particles bombarding the planet,” Quinn said.
I nodded. “It’s the reason the Nabateans fled their world. Nilus and my uncle failed to do proper planetary scans. My uncle has already received a near lethal dose. Nilus’s warriors will start feeling the effects shortly.”
Detja interjected, “What level of protection does your biosuit provide?”
“Level eight. Quinn’s battle armor should be sufficient.”
“Good,” Detja replied. “What are Nilus’s warriors wearing?”
“Level five.”
“The ones who removed their helmets are already suffering from sun poisoning,” Detja pointed out.
I smiled. Their skin was blistering nicely.
More and more var bugs exploded from the sand. Firing wildly, the warriors retreated toward the ruins. The bugs scurried after them, creating a deafening symphony of rattling clicks.
“Noisy little suckers.” Quinn turned his attention to me. “Your hiding place is secure?”
“It is.” I sent him the coordinates.
“Got ’em. Stay put until I get there.”
“How far out are you?”
