Chapter Thirteen

Except for Clio’s cute snores, the bridge was almost too quiet. I kept an eye on the scanners and waited for my mother to wake up. How had that become so routine? And were her “naps” becoming longer?

Mami jerked upright in the chair and looked around wildly. “Where’s Lysis? Oh, thank the Goddess, that monster didn’t eat you.” She flung herself at me.

“Ooof! Love you too, but you’re smashing Clio.”

“Geema squish. Squish, Geema,” Clio whined.

Mami picked Clio up and rocked her. “Sorry. Geema’s sorry.” She looked at me and demanded, “Where is your father?”

“Papa’s creating a new suction device.” My internal radar screamed a warning. Drekk! Now what?

A second later, a gigantic vortex formed outside the ship. Slashes of incandescent silver flashed within the swirling maelstrom.

“An electrical anomaly has been detected,” the computerized voice warned.

A bit of an understatement.

Mami clutched Clio to her chest. “What is that?”

“Not sure.” It could be the Executioners or something else. If it was the Executioners, were they here to help us or harm us? Please. Please, let them be here to help. I linked with Quinn. “We’ve got a problem, lovey.”

“Your mother ran out of chocolate?”

“No. This.” I flashed him an image of the vortex.

“Fuck! I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Did Adan ask for the Executioners’ help?”

“He did.”

Poof! An aged, pale-faced male with glowing yellow eyes appeared in front of me. His wispy black hooded cloak added to his sinister air.

Thud. Mami hit the floor.

“Geema!” Clio crouched on top of her and bared her fangs at the intruder. “No hurt Geema. Go away. No like.”

“Quiet, child.” His voice was deep and thunderous.

With a squeak, Clio scurried over to me and latched on to my right leg. “No like.”

Me either. “I am called Xenia, and you are?”

He smiled, exposing funky, fanged teeth. “I am Qa’a.”

“Did you get that Quinn? He said his name is Qa’a.”

“According to Adan, Qa’a is the Katanic’s supreme leader. Be nice to him. Very nice. We will join you shortly,” Quinn advised.

“Nice is my middle name.”

“Xenia! Treat him as you would the Overlord,” Papa snapped.

“Not a problem.” Qa’a was as terrifying as Zarek. I gave the supreme leader a slight bow. “You honor us with your presence.”

Qa’a studied me for a long moment. “You do not fear me?”

“I respect your power, my lord. How may I serve you?”

“Tell me about the var bugs.”

“Yes, my lord.” Thankfully, Quinn had downloaded my original show-and-tell vid. I tapped an icon on the command control, and a holographic image of the spiny black var bug appeared. “These creatures thrive on the solar radiation bombarding the planet Qeeturah.” I launched into my spiel of how they feed off each other, the small orange iplo lizards, and any fool unlucky enough to land on the planet without the proper protection. I brought up a vid of the bugs attacking Nilus’s mercenaries and Dolon. “They are a simple and very effective weapon.” I switched to the vid of Dolon’s wiggling jig.

“Eeyore. Eeyore. Eeyore. Eeyore.”

The supreme leader had a sense of humor. Who knew?

The bridge door slid open, and Papa, Adan, Quinn, and Wulf walked out, carrying suction devices and bug callers.

“Xenia has presented your case. I am agreeable to sharing these creatures with the Tai-Kok. By raiding our females’ breeding sanctuary, they have declared war on the Katanic Empire. There will be no peace. No negotiations. The Tai-Kok will be wiped from existence,” Qa’a said.

I almost broke into a happy dance at the thought of a Tai-Kok-free universe.

“The Overlord is gathering a battle fleet to defend Earth,” Wulf advised.

The supreme leader inclined his head and said, “We have spoken. I have assigned six Executioners to assist you with the var bugs. They await you at the coordinates you provided.”

Adan did a weird head bob. “Thank you, my liege.”

“Come to me, Clio,” Qa’a commanded.

Shivering with fear, Clio wrapped her tentacles around my waist and began to wail.

I put my arms around her. “You’re scaring her. I didn’t rescue her from the Tai-Kok slaughter ship to be turned over to strangers. She needs to feel safe and loved.”

Adan’s voice was a faint whisper in my mind. “Your eyes are glowing.”

Papa and Quinn moved up behind me and hovered protectively.

“Drekk! You father’s eyes are glowing too,” Adan groused. “You do realize you don’t have the power to defeat the supreme leader?”

“I will not allow Clio to be traumatized further.”

Qa’a was suddenly in my head. “You would give your life to protect Clio?”

“Yes.” I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but she was part of my family now. No one hurts my family.

“I will leave my daughter in your care for now. Guard her well.”

Daughter? Holy Goddess, I hadn’t seen that one coming. “I will. I consider her a sister of my heart.”

“I acknowledge your kinship bond,” Qa’a stated and simply vanished.

Adan exclaimed, “Do you know what you have done?”

“I thought it was pretty obvious. We get to keep Clio.” I kissed her forehead.

Clio wiggled in excitement. “Me stay. Me stay.” She transformed into a princess and scampered over to my mother and patted her face. “Geema? Geema?”

Mami groaned.

“You’re missing the bigger picture,” Adan scolded.

I wasn’t in a mood to deal with Adan’s need for drama. “And that is?”

“Qa’a considers you part of his clan.” Adan’s expression bordered on giddy.

“And that’s a bad thing?’

“No. It’s unheard of.”

“The Overlord will be pleased,” Quinn said dryly.

Wulf looked at Papa. “Xenia has many of the Jones females’ traits. Have any of your relatives ever mated with an Earth female?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Strange. The Jones females’ ability to attract unexpected allies is a well-known fact,” Wulf said.

“The only thing that matters is they hate the Tai-Kok as much as we do, and we’ve gained a powerful new ally who can help us stop the Tai-Kok reign of terror,” I interjected.

Papa growled, “If we are going to exterminate the Tai-Kok, we need to collect some var bugs. We don’t want to keep the Executioners waiting.” His biosuit encased him.

Adan morphed into his true form and summoned a vortex.

Battle armor surrounded Wulf. A second later he vanished.

An armored Quinn placed a hand on my father’s shoulder, and poof! They were gone.

Mami sat up. “Where did everyone go?”

“To save the universe.” Me? I was stuck babysitting.