Page 13 of Crossing Quinn

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 burned 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.”

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