the stairwell as they climbed down the six flights. “We don’t know for sure the Kalquorians weren’t behind the attack on Earth. We were at war with them, after all.”
Lindsey saved her reply until they reached the ground floor. She entered the office building’s lobby, which had been looted. Graffiti was scrawled on all the walls, charming little notes like ‘God is Dead’, ‘Traitors Die!’ and the darkly humorous ‘My Parents Visited Earth and All I Got Was This Lousy Mushroom Cloud’.
Broken furniture lay in huddled piles, some blackened by fire. Heat blasted like a furnace in the poorly ventilated area, and Lindsey was grateful for her tank top and shorts.
The family made their home on the top floor and roof where looters and refugees were less likely to discover them. With all government and law enforcement a thing of the past, it was every man for himself. Survival now depended on one’s ability to defend herself and her supplies.
Lindsey picked her way over rubble to get at a small storage closet, though her steel-toed boots were good protection from the metal and glass pieces scattered about. She cast careful glances at the entrance doors as she went, now just glass shards clinging to metal frames. They hadn’t blockaded the entrance. Nothing attracted looters like the appearance of defense. Lindsey had saved her booby traps for the top two floors.
She tried for a comforting smile to ease her father’s fears. “If the Kalquorians are as desperate for Earther women to breed with as the underground claimed, it makes no sense they’d have set off all those bombs. Why would you kill off the species needed for your own survival?”
His face went even grayer, if that was possible. “That’s another reason to not rush over to that ship. You don’t know what they’ll do when they see you. They might rape you. Abduct you.”
Lindsey reached the supply closet and opened the door. Pulling out the false floor, she grabbed a percussion blaster. The larger stockpile of weapons was upstairs, within easy reach of where they lived. “I’ll be careful.”
Tara winced, her dislike of violence finally rippling through her calm acceptance of life’s rough treatment. “A blaster?”
“You’d prefer me unarmed?”
Lindsey watched her mother struggle. Her fears for Lindsey’s safety warred openly against her Buddhist beliefs against armed confrontation.
Lindsey leaned down to kiss her mother’s elfin face, unable to watch the moral conflict duking it out in her eyes. “I won’t shoot them on sight, Mom. I’ll give them a chance to be nice.”
“Do what you have to,” Aaron said, but he lowered his eyes when Tara looked at him. His voice low in apology, he said, “Losing one daughter was more than I wanted to bear. I can’t face losing both.”
Tara nodded her understanding, hugging him close with skeletal arms. Unable to witness their pain, Lindsey turned away and crept to the double doors, alert for any sign of others in the area.
“Get back upstairs,” she ordered. “Stay out of sight. The crash might attract some desperate characters to the area, and I don’t want to lose what little we have.”
Nothing outside stirred except the palm tree fronds holding up the blameless blue sky overhead. Lindsey stepped through the doors, angling her body to avoid the dagger shards of glass that reached to spill her blood. She darted to the dubious cover of a burned-out hover shuttle on the street in front of the building, watching carefully for any enemy, be it Earther or Kalquorian.
* * * *
Bacoj was out of the ship and down the ramp the moment the main hatch opened. Japohn’s growl followed him, and the brawny Nobek was on his heels in an instant.
“Bacoj, you wait until I’ve determined we’re clear!”
The young Kalquorian turned to face his clanmate. “You’ve been scanning for hostiles for the last thirty minutes. How much more clear can we be?”
The massive Japohn stood over him, his blue-purple eyes scanning the windswept beach on one side and the tall buildings on the other. Long, loose black curls spiraled to his muscular shoulders, left bare by his red-trimmed black formsuit. Japohn was a behemoth by even Kalquorian standards. He looked big and clumsy with 300 pounds of bulky muscle, but Bacoj knew his Nobek’s agility was not to be underestimated. The man was quick and vicious in a fight. Japohn’s scowl, nearly hidden behind his mustache and goatee, might have given Bacoj pause had the Dramok not been so angry right now.
Bacoj turned to look