Page 87 of Game on Askole

“Good to know.”

The Overlord’s bracelet chirped repeatedly, and he glanced at the screen.

“Go to your meeting,” Detja said.

Zarek gave her a melt-your-panties kiss and teleported.

Whoa! Guess their romance was alive and well.

Detja ran a hand over the keyboard. “I see you sent out all the invitations.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“How many have responded?”

“I was working on the totals when Adan popped in.” At Detja’s inquiring look, I added, “Around eight hundred guests.”

“And the Tar flowers?”

I cringed. “The flowers I found will arrive tomorrow.”

“The Mystic Wonder Dahlia is an adequate replacement. I want you and your cousins to meet the ship from Earth and greet and entertain Eve until her daughter Yakira and Wulf arrive.”

I gasped, “You found Eve’s daughter? My God, Kira’s been missing for almost twenty years!”

“Wulf located her ten years ago, but her adopted family took her from him,” Detja replied.

“Adopted family?”

“A Bjarke mercenary rescued her from the Tai-Kok slaughter ship and raised her as his own. They named her Yakira.”

Fury welled up in me as I remembered that horrible day in Rocky Point, Mexico. It was the first time I’d come face-to-face with the monstrous Tai-Kok. Our fun beach vacation had turned into a macabre slaughter-fest with butchered tourists littering the sand. The Tai-Kok rampaged through the picturesque restaurants and bars, feasting on their prey. The tourists’ screams still echoed in my head. I had taken a dead police officer’s gun and shot as many of the fiends as I could. “Did you know the Tai-Kok had been raiding Earth for over twenty-five years?”

“I did not.”

“I was ten years old when they attacked Rocky Point. It’s a beach town in Mexico. I saw them take Kira. I tried to stop them, but I wasn’t fast enough or strong enough.”

“You were only a child.” Detja hugged me. “It was not your fault.”

“No, it was the government’s. The fucking morons thought that since the attacks were sporadic, they would keep the existence of the aliens a secret. Didn’t want to frighten the public. They had to know the Tai-Kok would be back, but they did nothing to prepare for that possibility.

“Fifteen years later, the Tai-Kok attacked. The alien blitzkrieg shocked and awed our military with a spectacular display of force. They hoped to destroy our will to fight, but that didn’t happen. One look at the media’s horrific stories about the Tai-Koks butchery and you knew. You fought or you died.”

“Know this, Yakira not only survived, she flourished. The Bjarke took good care of her and even had her missing limbs replaced with bionics. She is a cunning warrior,” Detja declared.

Tears welled in my eyes. “Oh, dear God. The Tai-Kok ate on her?”

Detja patted my arm. “Her Bjarke father had her memories erased.”

I sagged in relief. “Good. I can’t wait to see Kira, I mean, Yakira again.”

“Eve is bringing supplies for the ritual called a bachelorette party.”

I laughed. “Yakira has a lot of Earth traditions to catch up on.”

Chapter Eighteen

The Coletti space station reminded me of Grand Central Station. Crazy busy. Everything from warships to one-man scouts and a multitude of freighters were berthed at the airlocks. Hundreds of robots scurried like ants, loading and unloading cargo. The shiny, well-kept hallways were full of Coletti civilians, Prithvi, some weird-looking alien species I’d never seen before, spacers, and a variety of off-world warriors.

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