least, if you wanted to do a lot of field work, which was what Penny lived for.
It was kind of hard to pick the kids up from school and help them with their homework if you were on a dig in Egypt—or in this case, on an alien planet light years from Earth.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” Commander Sylvan asked, looking from Penny to Kat. “I just wanted to be sure Penelope is almost ready to go. Commander Rive and Y’lla are headed for the long range shuttle and I offered to come fetch her.”
“We just have one more fitting and we’ll be done,” Kat promised. “I was just warning Penny to steer clear of Hell’s Gate Station, no matter what.”
“That’s excellent advice.” Sylvan’s pale blue eyes grew somber. “I’m sorry to say the slave trade there has grown exponentially in the last solar year, not to mention the smugglers and pirates that make that particular port their home base.”
“Like that, uh, V’rex person Kat was telling me about?” Penny asked.
Kat nodded. “He might be anywhere in the Teklan sector, so watch yourself.”
“But how can I watch out for him if I don’t know what he looks like?” Penny protested.
“Oh, you can’t miss him, doll,” Kat said dryly. “He’s got these black and gold tattoos all over his neck and arms and he’s even bigger than a regular Kindred—because he’s a Hybrid, you know. A mix of two separate Kindred races. He’s half Beast Kindred.”
“But it’s his other half that makes him so dangerous,” Sylvan said seriously. “We believe that V’rex is half Kru’ell One.”
“Kru’ell One?” Penny frowned. “I’ve never heard of that kind of Kindred before.”
“That’s because they don’t come from our universe,” Sylvan told her. “They come from a parallel universe where the Kindred were not created by the Goddess we all worship—the Mother of All Life. Instead, the Kru’ell Ones were brought into being by the Cruel Father—a being as powerful as our own Goddess. But the Cruel Father is as malevolent and evil as the Mother of All Life is good and kind.”
“And the beings he created take after him,” Kat added. “They’re the only Kindred we know of who don’t respect and revere women.”
“The only Kindred who could or would take a female by force against her will,” Sylvan added gravely. “Which, as you must know by now, is anathema to our kind.”
“But…if they come from a different universe, how do they even get over here? Into our universe?” Penny asked, frowning.
“They don’t very often,” Sylvan said. “But we believe a small number of them crossed through a dimensional rift about thirty solar years ago. Anyway, it was around that time that several unmated Kindred females were stolen away from their homes. One of them was a rare Beast Kindred female—whom we believe to be V’rex’s mother.”
“So his father basically kidnapped his mother and raped her?” Penny’s eyes widened. “That’s terrible.”
“No, that’s a Kru’ell One for you,” Kat said grimly. “I should say, though, that they aren’t all bad—we actually met one recently who wasn’t. But V’rex has proved he’s trouble.”
“He’s been harassing Kindred ships for the past five years,” Sylvan said, nodding. “It would be remiss of us to let you go on this mission without warning you about any kind of danger you might encounter. And in the Teklan system, he’s a big one.”
“Well, hopefully she’ll be able to steer clear of Hell’s Gate,” Kat remarked. “I mean, they’re going to have plenty of supplies and we’re sending extra fuel.” She sighed. “I just wish it was easier to get to them out there!”
“Unfortunately, the entire Yown solar system is surrounded by temporal anomalies and subspace distortion fields,” Sylvan said. “Which makes it almost impossible to fold space there. We believe our First World ancestors actually chose the Yown system because of these difficulties—they wanted the Eye of Ten’gu to be as inaccessible as possible.”
“What is the Eye anyway?” Penny asked. “I mean, I know it’s an ancient Kindred religious relic but other than that, you’ve told us hardly anything about it. What is its significance? What, if anything, does it do?”
She knew she probably should have asked all this when she’d gotten a call from the Mother Ship offering her the job. But the minute the words “interstellar archeological dig” had come out of Commander Sylvan’s mouth, she’d just about fallen over herself saying “yes!” She would have done anything to be on such a prestigious and exciting expedition—it had only