New Release: Bloodhunters v1: Bad Blood – Xine Fury

QSFer Xine Fury has a new queer sci-fi book out (trans MTF): Bloodhunters V1: Bad Blood.

Fourteen thousand lives, gone in an instant. A ruthless terrorist on the loose. The largest bounty ever posted.

IGP Earthstation 1 was the largest police station in the galaxy. Designed to deploy officers anywhere on Earth at a moment’s notice, this orbiting fortress was a symbol of protection to all those it defended. The aftermath of its destruction leaves the galaxy in turmoil. Crime rates soar. With the police too understaffed to pursue the woman responsible, a reward is crowdfunded for her capture. The total climbs at an astronomical rate, promising infinite wealth to whoever brings her in.

Ruthless bounty hunters come out of the woodwork, each determined to be the sole winner of the prize. An ex-cop who wants to avenge the deaths of his friends. A trans woman who needs the money for her transition. A mysterious, shadowy woman from a planet of legend. Of course, everyone knows that the most likely victor will be Bloodstone, the galaxy’s most prolific bounty hunter. But when this inscrutable mercenary winds up on a stolen freighter, with a crew that includes a shapeshifter, a not-quite-cyborg, a telepathic alien, and a pirate, this diverse group is forced to work together as a team.

A thrilling sci-fi adventure, the first of a series!

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Excerpt

Detanna Taush did an automated equipment check. All her weapons and gadgets were accounted for, and one hundred percent charged. Not one to blindly trust her computer, she performed the check again manually. And then, just because she could, she performed another automated check.

She did not allow mistakes to happen. It wouldn’t do for people to start thinking she was capable of failure. Her reputation was too important to tarnish. It allowed her access to the highest-paid jobs, and it intimidated her captives into making mistakes of their own.

It had been a difficult road. She’d been born male – or at least assigned male at birth – but had known from an early age that she was a woman at heart. Her gender issues had led to her parents separating, and at fifteen Detanna found herself homeless. A street gang took her in, but when they found out she was transgender, they weren’t any more accepting than her parents. She was lucky to have escaped with her life.

Later she managed to join a group of galactic pirates, presenting herself as male the entire time. She’d known that there was only one way she’d be able to truly be herself, and it would require more credits than she was going to earn working for the pirates. So, she became a bounty hunter.

Life is funny sometimes. It turned out she had a knack for bounty hunting. Her criminal background gave her a natural instinct for predicting the behavior of fugitives. Her success as a bounty hunter had allowed her to save up a lot of money, which she was planning to use for her transition. In truth, she’d already saved up enough to afford many of the surgeries most typical trans folk get. But Detanna didn’t do “typical,” it was the best or nothing.

There was a specific procedure she was saving up for, the most expensive transition operation available. Doctors on Cytrine Delta had a machine that completely rewrites your chromosomes, then regenerates nearly every cell in your body. It switches your glands to produce estrogen instead of testosterone. Unwanted hair follicles are permanently disabled. Facial features are feminized. Vocal cords are tweaked. The Adam’s apple is eradicated. Down to a cellular level you become XX instead of XY.

It still wasn’t perfect. She wouldn’t be able to bear children, for instance, not that she necessarily wanted to. And she would still be the same height, which was tall even for a man. But it meant she could stop taking hormones, and she would look and sound like her true self from the moment she opened her eyes every morning. The operation was truly a miracle. The price of that miracle? Over six million credits. Not on a bounty hunter’s salary, regardless of your reputation. But now there’s Alterra…

She knew that every hunter in the galaxy was racing to catch this woman. But Detanna didn’t believe in failure. This was a race she intended to win.

Author Bio

Xine Fury is a trans author, retro gamer, and cat lover.