by Gail Koger
Horror knotted my stomach. The Tai-Kok were depraved ghouls who literally lived to eat. They were tall, hairless, skeletal humanoids with mouths full of metal teeth and three bloodred eyes. They had eaten millions of people on Earth until the Overlord stepped in and stopped them.
Dolon cackled madly. “I’d love to see the Berserker’s face when he realizes his daughter has been sold to the Tai-Kok. The ones I’m selling you to like to fuck their prey while they’re eating them alive.” My uncle laughed again. “I might even get a vid of the event to share with Lysis. He can listen to your screams and live with the knowledge that he failed to protect you.”
Evil, twisted bastard. I had to get him mad enough to come inside the cell. “Laugh now, but you have a very short time to live.”
“You think your father can save you?”
“No, but you’ll be very dead before he tracks you down. If you had done a proper scan of the planet, you would have realized you needed a level-eight biosuit to protect you from the subatomic particles bombarding Qeeturah.”
“What! You lied to me! You lied to me!”
“I did. Just think, within days, your itty-bitty penis will be rotting off.”
“I’m going to kill you!”
“You can try.” There was more than one berserker in my family.
The ship bucked violently, throwing me to the floor. I could hear a mechanical voice warning, “Coolant leak in the main engine. The engine will fail in ten minutes. Warning. Coolant leak in the main engine. The engine will fail in ten minutes.”
Balock’s balls. That meant no life support, but suffocating was better than being eaten by the Tai-Kok. “Aw. Did you break your crappy ship?”
“Shut your drekking mouth,” Dolon snapped.
“Warning. Coolant leak in the main engine. The engine will fail in eight minutes.”
“Jandjviles Air Command, this is the merchant ship Retvizan. I’m declaring an emergency. I need immediate clearance to land.” There was a note of panic in my uncle’s voice.
A harsh male voice answered, “Retvizan, we are scanning your vessel now. Stay on your current heading and power down your weapons systems. Any deviation will be considered a hostile act.”
The thugs that ran Jandjviles were a bit fanatical on security. They had to be with all the criminal types they dealt with And the Alliance enforcers’ – the peacekeepers of the galaxy – continual efforts to blow their base to smithereens.
“Powering my weapons systems down,” Dolon responded.
“Retvizan, you are cleared to land on airstrip six. Do not leave your ship until the security detail has cleared it.”
“Warning. Coolant leak in the main engine has reached critical level. Catastrophic engine failure in three minutes.”
“Jandjviles Command, my main engine will fail in three minutes.” Dolon gasped for air like he was in labor.
I had a sinking feeling my uncle wasn’t the best pilot in the galaxy.
Jandjviles’s planetary traffic controller responded, “We have scanned your ship, and emergency vehicles will be standing by.”
My uncle’s spacecraft pitched radically as it entered Jandjviles’s atmosphere. I rolled across the floor and slammed into the wall.
The hull began to vibrate so badly my teeth clattered. Stressed metal shrieked and began to buckle. The interior lights flickered and died. A loud click sounded, and a harsh sulfurous glare filled the cell, glazing everything with a cold, unearthly light.
Drekk. If I got out of this alive, I was kissing Quinn on the mouth and getting some tongue action in too.
“Retvizan, you’re coming in too fast. Bring your nose up,” the traffic controller snapped.
“Trying,” Dolon snarled.
“Any damage to our facility will result in your ship and cargo being confiscated,” the controller advised.
The spacecraft bounced several times and came to a sudden, stunning stop. I crashed headfirst into a wall. Whoa! Jandjviles Command had deployed a capture net to stop Dolon’s ship. I waited for the room to stop spinning.
“Prepare to be boarded by our security forces. Be sure you are unarmed.”
“I am unarmed,” Dolon groaned.
Goddess, I hoped he was bleeding from every orifice and had broken some bones. I blinked. The energy barrier was down. What the heck was I doing just lying here? I scrambled to my feet and darted out into the corridor.
My berserker senses went on alert. The image of eight heavily armed security personnel formed in my mind. They were heading my way. I quickly raised an invisibility illusion.
They trotted by my cell and entered the control room. “Hands where we can see them,” a low, rough voice commanded my uncle.
“I’m unarmed. I’m unarmed,” Dolon cried.
Too bad. I had been hoping the security personnel would kill him.
Another male asked, “Where is the female?”
“In the holding cell,” Dolon answered.
Time for me to leave. I ran out the exit and darted around two more security guards stationed at the bottom of the landing ramp.
The first thing I noticed was the unceasing rumble of arriving and departing ships. A cluster of plasticrete bunkers, repair hangers, and warehouses surrounded the spaceport.
Most of the vessels were marked with a bloody sword, telling the entire galaxy, they were pirates. Slaver ships had screaming skulls painted on their hulls. A bulky Tai-Kok slaughter ship and several bullet-shaped Marauders sat next to a hodge-podge of buildings.
The auction block was surrounded by cages packed with a variety of species. The females were naked, and their expressions of hopeless despair made me madder than hell.
An alarm began to wail.
The security forces had discovered I was missing.
A guard stepped out of Dolon’s ship and raised a tracking scanner.
Drekk. My illusions didn’t work on tracking scanners. I ducked into a warehouse filled with expensive electronic goodies and a nice assortment of weapons. Laser pistols, top-of-the-line Asus laser rifles, thermite grenades, stun grenades, and battle armor. Of course, none of the armor would fit me. I grabbed a weapons belt, a laser pistol, and stuffed nine of the thermites and a couple of stun grenades into my pockets.
“She’s in the western quadrant of warehouse two,” a male voice called.
Time to do what the enforcers had been unable to do: release the prisoners and destroy the slavers’ base. I set the timers on several of the grenades. I left one sitting on each crate of grenades, turned, and gaped in astonishment at dozens of photon torpedoes. They were military grade and could do a tremendous amount of damage. Or not. I rolled several of the thermite grenades under them.
“I’ve got a visual on the runner. Deploying the stun net!” a guard yelled.
A dazzling green ball shot toward me.
In my mind’s eye, I saw where it would hit me and ducked behind a metal beam fifteen seconds before it would have trapped me. The netting wrapped around the beam and shorted out in an eye-dazzling display of green and yellow sparks.
I tossed a grenade at my pursuers and ran out of the warehouse.
Bam! A blinding flash of light was followed by screaming. Whoosh! Flames raced across the greasy floor.
Ooops. Wrong grenade. I took cover behind a plasticrete barrier.
A minute later, all hell broke loose as the warehouse blew with a thunderous cracking BOOM! The ground shuddered and shook as blazing shrapnel flew in every direction and set buildings on fire. Thick black smoke blotted out the three moons shining brightly in the night sky.
I flinched when a flying door crashed down beside me. I might have overdone the explosives just a tad.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The torpedoes exploded. The rocketing shards of flaming metal decapitated two angry Tai-Kok charging toward me.
More of the monsters swarmed out of the ship. I pulled my las
er pistol and vaporized each one of them. Utter satisfaction filled me. They wouldn’t be eating any more children.
The fire quickly spread across the compound. The smell of burning plasticrete was nauseating.
Terrified cries sounded from the prisoners. Drekk. I needed to release them before they burned alive. Ducking and dodging the still falling debris, I ran over to the holding cells.
“Help us. Help us!” a female shrieked, yanking on the door.
“Step away from the door.”
Once she complied, I hurriedly shot the control panel. All the cell doors opened, and I got knocked on my butt as the frantic captives bolted.
Everyone disappeared into the darkness without even a thank you.
KABLOOEY! A titanic explosion erupted, sending pieces of metal whooshing over my head. A thick column of black smoke belched high into the night sky.
Whoa! I took shelter under the Tai-Kok slaughter ship as pieces of plasticrete and metal rained down. Thwap. Bap-bap. Thop. Bang.
The spaceport lights flickered and died. Huh? Must have hit the power generator, and hopefully, their planetary defenses were down too. This would be the perfect time for the enforcers to swoop in and close this place down permanently.
Flames poured from my uncle’s ship. I grinned when I spotted Dolon with a small fire extinguisher trying to put the fire out. Good luck with that.
Now all I had to do was borrow a ship and get back to Qeeturah. I took one look at the badly damaged spacecrafts littering the landing strips and groaned. Without Papa to rein me in, I had been a bit heavy-handed with the explosives. The only vessel that looked flyable was the Tai-Kok slaughter ship, and there was no way I was stepping foot in it.
“Want out,” a child’s voice cried in my head. “No like this place. Want my momma.”
Oh Goddess, a female youngling. “Where are you?”
She tugged on my mind. “Here.”
I could sense her above me. Horror roiled through me. Please don’t let her be on the slaughter ship. Please don’t let her be on that ship. Papa and I had boarded one before, and I still had nightmares. “What’s your name, little one?”
“Clio.”
“I’m coming to get you, Clio. Are you inside the ship?”
“In cage. By door. Monsters took Momma inside.”
I walked around to the loading ramp. Drekk. The main hatch was open, which meant the monsters were nearby. Just outside the hatch was a small cage with what looked like a silky black ball inside. My jaw dropped when I noticed the tentacles. Was Clio a Katanic shapeshifter? If she was, she was worth her weight in gold to the Tai-Kok. They considered Katanics a delicacy. An adult Katanic was extremely powerful. How in the nine hells had the Tai-Kok captured them? I squatted down for a closer look. Holy Goddess. She was. “Hello, Clio. My name is Xenia.”
“Want my momma.” Her glowing yellow eyes were so sad.
“I know you do. I’ll see if I can find her.”
“Hungry.”
Papa said to stay far, far away from hungry Katanic shapeshifters, but I couldn’t go off and leave her. She was just a baby. My gaze settled on the dead Tai-Kok. It seemed fitting. “How about some juicy Tai-Kok?”
“Me like.”
I opened the cage door, and the next thing I knew, Clio’s tentacles were clinging to my neck. “Scared. Momma was crying. Why they hurt her?”
I was killing every one of those drekking monsters. I stroked her trembling body. “Because they’re mean, but I won’t let them hurt you. You’re safe now.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“You find Momma?”
I had a horrible feeling Momma had been eaten. “I will look for her, but first let’s get you some yummy Tai-Kok to munch on.”
“’Kay.” A mouth with serrated teeth appeared in her body. “Me very hungry. They no feed me.”
“I bet you are, but now you can eat all the monsters you want.” I hurried over to the dead Tai-Kok and put Clio on the ground next to them. “Eat up.”
“No like metal teeth.”
Huh? I thought Katanic shapeshifters could digest just about anything. “Just spit them out,” I said.
“’Kay.” Clio’s mouth began to grow wider and wider.
I watched in astonishment as she stuffed one head after another into her gaping maw. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Ugh. The sound was giving me the willies.
Clio spat out the melted metal teeth.
My psychic senses screamed a warning. I somersaulted behind a jagged piece of metal. A volley of energy bolts missed me by a scant inch. I psychically scanned the area. There. Just behind the burning remains of the warehouse, I could sense four males. Three were sneaking up on me from the left, while the fourth one kept me pinned down.
A laser beam struck the dead Tai-Kok. The body disintegrated into a million fireflies. The bastard was shooting at Clio. I instinctively summoned my fire and started hurling fireballs at them.
Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Brilliant green flames danced over the slaver’s weapons. With cries of startled pain, the slavers dropped their rifles and ran for their lives.
With one twirl of my finger, the flames became fireballs again and chased after the thugs. I grinned. My special fireballs wouldn’t stop until they caught the slavers.
“If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Quinn’s harsh voice declared.
I spun around. Whoa! Quinn was even bigger in person. He could give my father a run for his money in the big, scary, badass department. “How did you find me?”
Quinn gestured at the burning spaceport. “Kinda hard to miss this.”
“You immediately thought I was responsible?”
“Yeah. You’re a lot like my sister, Kaylee. Wherever she goes, chaos soon follows. Believe me, I’ve had a lot of experience in cleaning up her messes. Which is why Zarek sent me after you.”
“I’m not your sister.”
Quinn’s hot gaze roved over my body. “No. You’re not.”
My nipples perked up. Should I kiss him now or wait? I gave myself a mental head thunk. Had I lost my mind? The jerk wanted to take me to Tanith. Too bad he was so drekking sexy.
“Zarek is anxiously awaiting your arrival on Tanith,” Quinn stated.
“I hate to disappoint the Overlord, but you’re not taking me anywhere.”
Quinn smiled. “I do enjoy a challenge.”
“So do I.”
Clio scooted up my body and draped a tentacle around my shoulders. “Who he?”
“This is Quinn. Say hello.”
“Hello,” Clio responded politely.
His expression one of stunned disbelief, Quinn exclaimed, “That’s a Katanic shapeshifter.”
“You’re not as dumb as you look.”
“And you’ve got a smart mouth.”
I noticed the tiny tic in Quinn’s jaw and hid a smile. “My uncle thinks that too. Go figure.”
Grim amusement came and went in Quinn’s eyes. “You attract baby critters just like Kaylee. What are the odds?”
“Clio’s not a critter. She’s an intelligent life-form that can assume different shapes,” I remarked.
“I stand corrected. Clio is smart as the blazes, has the appetite of a velociraptor, and is immensely powerful.” Quinn reached out to touch Clio.
She ducked behind my head and peered warily at the warlord. “He friend?”
“Not exactly. More like a frenemy.”
“Want me eat him?
“Hmmm. Let me think.”
His tone one of utter exasperation, Quinn said, “You and your mother are fucking nuts.”
“You know me so well. By your tone, I’d say you have my mother on your ship?”
“I do. She took one look at me, screamed liked a banshee and keeled over. I put her in my holding cell for safe keeping.”
In other w
ords, I’d better behave. “Was there any sign of my father?”
“He wasn’t at the bolt-hole. I retrieved your mother and followed Dolon’s ship. I’m taking both of you to Tanith.”
“The only place I’m going is back to Qeeturah to look for my father.”
Quinn bared his teeth in a smile. It wasn’t a friendly smile. It was a dangerously predatory one. “You don’t have any choice in the matter, darlin’.”
I returned his smile with a taunting one of my own. “Think again, darlin’. You’re outmatched.”
The warlord laughed. “Am I?”
“Hungry,” Clio whined.
Quinn’s hand dropped to his laser pistol.
“Don’t be a wuss. She’s a baby.”
“That baby is capable of eating me whole.”
“True.” I glanced around and spotted an arm. “How about some yummy arm?”
Jumping off my shoulder, Clio scuttled over to the bloody limb and crammed it in her mouth.
Quinn scanned the area telepathically. “I’m not sensing another Katanic shapeshifter.”
“I think the Tai-Kok ate her mother.”
“I’ll contact Detja. She’ll know how to deal with Clio.”
“Do you have anything for her to eat on your ship?”
Quinn suddenly whirled and threw his rather large knife at a Tai-Kok trying to sneak up on us.
The knife impaled hilt-deep in its third eye. Squawking like a demented duck, the Tai-Kok advanced on us.
His expression one of a roused predator, Quinn drew his sword and with one swing severed its neck.
The head rolled to a stop by my feet, and stinky orange blood oozed out.
“I hate these bloody monsters,” Quinn groused as he cleaned his sword on its uniform.
I chuckled. “What do you know. We have something in common.”
Clio squeaked happily and jumped on the bloody skull.
Quinn quickly retrieved his knife before it vanished into Clio’s maw.
A shuttlecraft landed a short distance away. The doors slid open and security troops swarmed out.
