Page 67 of Crossing Quinn

“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.

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