Chapter Seven
Family comes in all shapes and sizes…
The glittering blue light vanished, and we were standing on an icy cold platform. The stench of death hung in the air.
Fear skittered up my spine as I mentally scanned the area.
We were on a Tai-Kok slaughter ship. How was that even possible?
Had Vokai given the monsters the Alliance security codes?
Shit! Bet he had. “Kaelen! The Tai-Kok and Rodan have the Alliance security codes. They need to change them,” I hollered on our private link.
His voice a faint whisper, Kaelen replied, “We know. Use Traveler’s belt.”
Our link snapped before I could reply.
Vokai shook me violently. “Who were you talking to?”
“Qa’a. He’s coming for you.”
He backhanded me. “You are lying. I gave the Tai-Kok our state-of-the-art jammers. Nothing can penetrate them. Nothing.”
I swiped at the blood running down my chin.
“Qa’a can. How do you sleep at night knowing millions will die because of your actions?
” Before he could hit me again, I quickly tapped an icon on my bracelet.
An instant later; my helmet closed over my head and locked.
The suit’s automated healing sensors kicked in.
I sighed in relief as my nose stopped bleeding and the throbbing in my cheek diminished.
And thankfully, I was off the dinner menu for now. Even using a special laser torch, it would take the monsters about three hours to cut my armor off. I should be able to port back to Earth before that happened.
The Minister of War grabbed my laser pistol and shoved me off the platform. “Your armor will not protect you. There is no escape.”
“For you either.” My stomach lurched sickeningly when a Tai-Kok soldier with a metal mohawk stepped out from behind the transporter controls.
Mohawk eyed me and spat a bunch of quacking gibberish.
Pulling a cell phone-sized translator out of his pocket, Vokai studied the screen.
With my strange ability to understand the Tai-Kok language, I knew exactly what he had said. “He wants to know if I am a psychic.”
“You can speak their language,” Vokai demanded in disbelief.
“I can understand it. Speak it? Never tried.”
Raising the translator to his mouth. Vokai said, “The female is a psychic and my gift to you, Commander Zot.”
Mohawk started quacking like Donald Duck on meth. Which translated into: “Excellent. I will inform Commander Sixtus. Psychic brains are a delicacy to the Rodan.”
Damn. Did the Rodan have the Alliance security codes too?
Vokai read the screen and jammed his laser pistol under my chin. “Retract your armor or die.”
A slightly hysterical laugh broke from me .
Talk about an oxymoron. If I retracted it, I would be eaten alive, so I would go with being vaporized.
What I wanted to know was, how in the hell had Vokai become Minister of War?
The man was an idiot. “Did you tell your friends that I work for the Katanic Supreme Leader? He won’t be happy if anything happens to me. ”
“Shut your mouth or you will die painfully.”
“Really? The only one dying painfully is you. Qa’a will come for me. You? He’ll eat.”
“The Katanic will never find me.”
The way his eyes darted about frantically, I knew the Minister of War was close to losing it. “The Tai-Kok love eating people alive. How do you think they will feel about being eaten by a Katanic? Did you know Qa’a can devour an entire ship’s crew all by himself?”
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Vokai shrieked.
I rolled my eyes. What a doofus. Did he even realize everything we said was being translated?
By the look on Commander Zot’s face, he found our conversation quite alarming.
Time to up the ante. “You do realize you are no longer valuable to the Tai-Kok, except as a dinner delicacy. Did you forget you’re a psychic too? ”
The Minister of War threw me into a wall. “I have all the satellites codes, locations of every ship in our fleet and the ability to disable all Alliance weapons systems.”
“Had. You had all the codes. I’m sure Captain Zan has changed every one of them by now.”
Commander Zot leveled his laser pistol at the Minister of War’s chest. The translator’s metallic voice announced, “The female is correct. You no longer serve a purpose except as nourishment for our people. Drop your weapon.”
The color drained from Vokai’s face as four heavily armed Tai-Kok soldiers surrounded him and disarmed him. “No! We had a deal.”
“We do not make deals with non-sentient beings,” Commander Zot stated.
“Karma is a bitch,” I interjected as they dragged Vokai off.
“No! You can’t do this!” He fought wildly to free himself. “You signed my contract. Have you no honor?” The door slid shut, cutting off his shrieks.
Honor? Seriously?
Commander Zot examined the translator and quacked, “A useful device. The Katanic Supreme Leader is on Kelso?”
“Yes, and I belong to him.” Holy shit! I couldn’t believe I was having a conversation with a monster.
The commander’s cat-like eyes examined me. “I have many questions about the Katanic, and you will answer them all.”
“I’m not telling you a damn thing.”
Zot ran a single claw down my chest. “Our medics can keep you alive as I eat you limb by limb. To stop the pain, you will eagerly tell me what I want to know.”
A vile Tai-Kok curse popped into my head, and I spat it at him.
Fury flared to life in Commander Zot’s eyes and he punched me.
My back slammed against the wall. Yeow! That really hurt. The room spun wildly around me. I shook my head to clear it and let out a breath of relief as the suit’s healing sensors kicked in again. The heads-up display showed I had a broken nose, a cracked cheekbone, a concussion and major bruising.
“Take her to the scientist and have him remove her armor. “The female is mine. No one is to taste her, but me.”
The soldiers touched their foreheads with two claws. “As you command.” Without searching me for weapons, the morons dragged me down a long, dark hallway. They obviously didn’t consider me a threat. Big mistake.
Reaching out with every ounce of power I had, I tried to connect with Kaelen. Zip. Nada. Nothing. Once again, I was on my own. The thought of blowing this ship to itty-bitty pieces brought a smile to my face.
“Boobow said the Rodan commander was furious we did not attack the spaceport on Kelso and take the starfighter. We have the codes to shut down their weapons satellites,” the taller soldier quacked.
I flinched when a sound like a screeching cat came from the other soldier.
“The Hrungnir trader told Commander Zot that there are Katanic Executioners searching the area for the stolen child. He did not want to draw their attention.”
The screeching noise sounded again. “Katanic flesh is very pleasing. They have no ships or weapons. We could have easily defeated them.”
Boy, were they in for a surprise. The soldiers hauled me into some kind of medical lab. Crates of dead things were scattered about and the stench was overpowering.
My gaze locked on a creature straight out of a dark fairy tale. He was a hairy goat-like dwarf with long elf ears and sharp metal teeth.
“Commander Zot wants the female’s armor removed,” the taller soldier quacked and shoved me at the goat creature.
They expected me to scream and beg for my life. So, I did. My little distraction gave me time to pull my boot knives and hurl them.
Thunk! Thunk! My knives protruded from their center eyes.
Just call me Deadeye. I never missed. Making grotesque gurgling noises, the soldiers fell right on top of the dwarf.
I smiled and did a little happy dance.
His arms and legs wiggling frantically, the dwarf made a bunch of weird honking quacks.
My eyes widened in disgust. The dwarf had just threatened to eat my pussy and not in a good way.
I grabbed the taller soldier’s laser pistol and fired. Thousands of fireflies danced over them. Ooops. The laser blast had put a rather large hole in the floor.
Three hate-filled eyes stared up at me.
“Sorry, my bad,” I called in perfect Tai-Kok. I waved all friendly-like and shot him. Dang. Another hole. Oh, well, shit happens. A vibration shook the ship. That wasn’t good. Had they skimped on titanium for the hull? Probably. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge.
“No leave me. No leave me,” a child cried in my head.
Shit! Someone was still alive. “I won’t. I promise. Where are you?”
“Me. Here.”
I spun around.
Eight emerald eyes peered out of a cage. “Where my momma?”
“I don’t know, sweetie.” I opened the cage door. A small tarantula with fluffy golden fur crawled up my arm. Eeek! I wasn’t really fond of spiders. The information on Tabors suddenly scrolled across my mind. They were an intelligent race of arachnids with psychic abilities.
The little spider perched on my shoulder. “Who you?”
God, was she adorable. “I’m Lexi. Who you?”
“Me Gita.”
“Nice to meet you, Gita. Where was the last place you saw your mother?”
“Furry ears took her away.”
“Okay, I’m going to look for her with my scanner.”
“Kay.” Gita peered at the screen on my communications bracelet. “Me look too.”
What a smart little girl. I tapped an icon and scanned the ship. Nothing but Tai-Kok and Rodan and to my surprise, the Minister of War was still alive. “She’s not on this ship anymore.”
Gita’s eight eyes stared at me sorrowfully. “She dead?”
Shit. How did I handle this? “They might have put her on another ship, but we need to leave before Commander Zot realizes I killed his soldiers.” And the two big holes in the deck were kinda hard to miss.
A red bar at the top of the wall began to flash.
“We take Nix too?”
“Who is Nix?”
“Him in last cage. Nix very hungry.”
I rushed over to the cage and opened it. What looked like a black ball of tar was huddled in the corner. Oh, my, God! It was the missing baby Katanic! I reached for him. The little brat bit down on my fingers and wouldn’t let go.
“Him bite.”
“No kidding.” I projected the image of Qa’a into his mind. “I belong him. Now spit out my fingers.”
One minute he was in the cage, the next he was on my shoulder, “Hungry.”
“Okay. Okay, but no more biting Auntie Lexi.” Digging a stick of beef jerky out of my side pocket, I held it out to Nix. “Very yummy.”
Nix inhaled it and wrapped his tentacles around my arm. “More!”
I gave him my last two pieces .
“Stinky ones come,” Gita warned.
My psychic radar went on red alert. “Shit!” I quickly took my bombs out of a side pocket, set the timers for sixty seconds and hid them in a cage.
“What those?”
“Those are bomb. I’m going to blow this ship into itty-bitty pieces.”
Gita bounced up and down. “Me help! Me help!”
Typing a code into my communications bracelet, I retracted my armor from around my waist. “Hang on tight. We are going to zoom across the galaxy at warp speed, and I don’t want you falling off.”
“Kay.” She wrapped her legs around Nix.
I hit the button on my traveler’s belt. Golden circles of light engulfed us. My body tingled like crazy.
“Tickles,” Gita giggled.
Squeaking loudly, Nix tightened his grip on my arm.
Four Tai-Kok soldiers burst into the lab with their weapons drawn and fell through the hole in the floor.
“Yippee-ki-yay! Burn in hell!”
The lab vanished.