“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 occurred to her to ask what exactly they were looking for after the fact.
Sylvan shook his head.
“I wish I knew. I only know that my niece, Nadiah, who is the High Priestess of the Goddess on First World, which is the Kindred’s home planet, was given a vision about it. She was told where we could find it and that we must get to it before anyone else did.”
“So someone else is looking for it?” Penny asked. Was she getting herself in a hostile Indiana Jones-type situation here, where several different scientists were vying to be the first to find the same valuable artifact?
“We’re not sure,” Sylvan said honestly. “It could just be that the Fox’ens are about to move to the part of Yown Beta where the Eye is hidden and we don’t want them to discover it before we do.”
“They’re the people who are living on Yown Beta now, but they’re not indigenous to it, right?” Penny asked.
“Exactly. I don’t think anyone could be indigenous to Yown Beta—it’s a frozen waste land that makes my own home world of Tranq Prime look temperate,” Sylvan said dryly. “But the Fox’ens seem to be particularly well suited to cold-weather systems.”
“They have a natural fur coat and they’re uniquely suited to freezing temperatures,” Kat said. “I think they look kind of like those cute Artic foxes you always see on nature documentaries.” She shrugged. “Well, if Artic foxes were six and a half feet tall, anyway.”
“They’ve been living on the large Southern continent of Yown Beta for three centuries,” Sylvan explained. “But recently they’ve had a population explosion and now they’re starting to colonize the smaller, Northern continent, where the Eye of Ten’gu is hidden. Your goal will be to get to Yown Beta without being seen by the Fox’ens, take the Eye, and be gone before they even know you’re there.”
“I see.” Penny nodded thoughtfully. So it was an Indiana Jones kind of situation—which never happened in real life archeology. The reality of a modern dig was much less eventful than the movies. But their dig on Yown Beta would doubtless be more exciting than any Earthbound expedition. She couldn’t wait to get started!
“Whatever you do, once you get the Eye, you must keep it away from direct sunlight,” Sylvan said, frowning. “I have already told this to Commander Rive and his wife, Y’lla, but I must tell you as well. Nadiah said that the vision she received was very clear on that point—the Eye of Ten’gu must not be exposed to any kind of natural light. It must not be allowed to ‘awaken’.”
“Awaken?” Penny stared at him blankly. “I mean, it’s a stone artifact, right? How in the world could it awaken?”