“Rhyasha, we can’t…”
“Why not?” she demanded leaning imperiously over him. “The Clan knows the truth, why not everyone else? Maybe it’ll still this fear of our telepaths bonding with Terrans once and for all. What our son and his mate have done is no mean thing. To win the respect and love of someone who is alien, whose whole background is totally different from their own, is a unique achievement that none but our son and Carrie have attained.”
Konis regarded her thoughtfully. “You could be right,” he said, the tips of his ears flicking slowly. “What better way to deal with it than to bring the whole issue out into the open so it can’t be decided in the darkness of closed rooms. Perhaps if we can win that reporter over, then public pressure can achieve what we can’t, a cancellation of the Challenge.”
“I’ll contact them now. What about Carrie’s father? Have you heard any more from him?”
“Nothing. I intend to speak to him again this evening.”
“We haven’t got long left,” she reminded him, “only four days. I’ll contact this journalist, Vorkoh, and see what I can arrange.”
*
As Kusac hurried Carrie along the corridor toward the exit, they passed a group of Terrans on their way to the refectory. While they stood back to let them pass, the hysteria started to rise in her again, coupled with a fear that they could tell she carried an alien child. Almost brutally, Kusac forced her mind into a state of immobility, and while Kaid pushed a path through for them, Meral fended the Terrans off with the excuse that they were late for an appointment.
Once they were safely aloft, Kusac gradually relaxed his mental grip, trying to tell her that they were safely on their way home, but he couldn’t reach her. Her mind was locked into an ever tightening spiral of rejection and self-hate that he couldn’t even penetrate, let alone break. In desperation he reached out and again took control, aware as he did that he was breaking one of the guild’s most sacred taboos— not to control another person mentally.
Her eyes glazed over, then closed as she slumped back against the seat, barely conscious.
Distressed and knowing he was out of his depth, for the first time in many years he reached for his father, asking him for his help. The response was instant.
You’ve taken the right action. I’ll be waiting for you, I can do nothing from here.
*
Though the flight was short, it was one of intense worry for Kusac. She’d seemed to be doing so well. Granted, she hadn’t been as enthusiastic about their cub as he would have expected a Sholan female to be, but then the circumstances were very different. Sholan females chose to become mothers, Carrie had not, and most importantly, Carrie wasn’t Sholan. Was species isolation the problem? Did she need to talk to another human female? Yet the presence of other humans terrified her. He hadn’t realized that her fear of their relationship, or of their cub, was still so strong or went so deep.
Konis was standing in front of the house when they arrived. As soon as the aircar had landed and the door was opened, he jumped in, moving swiftly to take the seat beside Carrie that Kusac had just vacated.
“Release your hold and let me use your Link,” Konis said, taking Carrie by the hand.
Obediently, Kusac released her, widening the Link to include his father. Carried stirred but remained unconscious.
She’s retreated deep within herself, said Kusac. I’m afraid that if she continues like this, we’ll be unable to reach her at all.
Let me work with her, said his father, gently pushing back the hair that had fallen over one side of her face.
He reached into her mind, entering the dark cavern where the essential Carrie had retreated. Ignoring the faint flashes of light that signaled the workings of her autonomic functions, he searched for the dim glow that was her, the essence of her being. Eventually he found it within the image of a frightened child hiding in the darkest corner. Mentally he took hold of the child, forcing the contact that she was afraid to give.
You hurt me! she sent, her physical body flinching. Leave me alone! I don’t want to be with anyone.
I’m sorry, Carrie, I didn’t intend to hurt you. You’re home now, he sent. You’re among your family. There’s no need to be afraid of us, no need to hide yourself from us like this. Your child is part of us all, part of our Clan.
No, she’s not! She’s alien! She should never have been conceived, came the fearful denial.
But she was, and she’s a gift to you both, someone rare and precious because she’s so different. The tone was gently persuasive.
She’s taken the last scrap of my humanity from me! There’s nothing left, it’s all been taken! I’m nothing any more.
You’re still human, Carrie, a special human who’s carrying the first of a new race. You’re a bridge between our people, the only one who understands us both. Your Link to my son has made it possible for there to be peace between your world and ours, possible for Keiss to gain its independence. Because of you, we now have allies to help us protect our worlds from the Valtegans. We have a lot to thank you for. No one else could have done all this.
The Terrans don’t thank me, they just despise me. They’ll despise me even more when they know about the Sholan cub I’m carrying!
The cub is yours, too, Carrie. She’s half Terran. Once they understand, the Terrans will be pleased for you, too, came the reply. I don’t deny that it’ll take them longer since the child doesn’t look Terran, but they won’t think less of you for bearing the first of her kind.
You’re not alone, Carrie, sent Kusac, his mental tone a caress. Vanna’s pregnant, too.
This shocked the child-Carrie out of her self-pity. The hand that Konis held stirred and her closed eyelids began to move as her mind began to surface. Vanna’s pregnant?
His father echoed the question.
Kusac nodded. It seems the females in our Leska links have no choice over whether or not they conceive. There has to be a breeding imperative within the Link that’s overriding some of our basic functions.
“This bears thinking about,” said his father as he retreated from Carrie’s mind, guiding her back to consciousness.
Her eyes opened, gradually focusing on Konis.
“Yes, you’re home, back on the estate,” he said, continuing to hold her hand encouragingly as he got up from the seat. “Come, my dear, the rest of your family is indoors waiting for you,” he said, helping her to her feet.
Carrie flung her arms around Konis, hugging him tightly.
Kusac gave his father a puzzled look just as he sensed the answer from Carrie herself.
You’re the first people who’ve ever accepted me as I am, she wept. I didn’t realize you even liked me, she continued, burrowing her head against his robes. I thought you were just tolerating me as my father tolerates Kusac.
Konis returned the hug, as stunned as his son that she’d not realized how he and Rhyasha felt about her. He gave her another hug, then released her, wiping her tears away with his thumb while tilting her face so he could look her straight in the eyes.
“Carrie, we see your mind before your outward form. You’re precious to me and Rhyasha because our son loves you, and because you are yourself. In time your people will look at strangers the same way, but they’re a much younger race than us. Now go to Kusac,” he said, “and join us in your home as the wife of the Clan Leader’s heir.”
He gave her cheek a gentle stroke, then turned to make his way out of the craft, cutting himself out of their Link as he did.
Kusac took her hand, stepping in front of her to help her down from the aircar.
See, your fears are groundless, he sent, putting his arm around her as they made their way up the steps into the house where his mother waited anxiously.
Rhyasha took Carrie’s other hand, drawing her into an embrace.
“Carrie, you mustn’t be afraid. We’re here to help you. You won’t be left to cope alone. You’ve both brought nothing but honor to our family by your action
s. The way you’ve both faced so many changes not only in your lives, but in your minds and bodies— I know I couldn’t have coped so well,” she said frankly.
“I haven’t coped well,” said Carrie, her voice unsteady.
“Yes, you have,” said Rhyasha, drawing her toward the central courtyard. “All first-time mothers go through a period of fear and doubt. Believe me, even I experienced it when I carried Kusac. He was an alien presence, something not belonging to my body, not completely of my flesh. It passed, though, as does the initial excitement. Then as you get toward the end of your time, there’s just the impatience to be done with it all and actually be able to hold your own cub. Let’s leave these males for the moment,” she said, her voice fading as the two of them went up the stairway to the floor above, “I know exactly what you need. A little pampering in the form of an herbal bath, followed by a massage. Miosh has a magical touch.”
Kusac watched them go, feeling strangely bereft after the intensity of the last couple of hours. His father took him by the arm, urging him along the colonnaded walk to his study. “She’ll be fine,” he assured Kusac as he closed the door behind them. He indicated a chair for his son, taking the one opposite him.
“You’ll need to keep her away from the Terrans until the cub is born,” he said. “Among us she feels safe and protected; among the Terrans she fears criticism and censure, even if at the moment it’s imagined. After the birth she’ll be fine because she’ll belong to herself again, a separate entity, not sharing her body.”
“Do you doubt her sanity at present?” asked Kusac, fingertips tapping unconsciously on the chair arm as his tail tip flicked.
“Unless she stays here, frankly, yes. How could her father have been so unyielding, so lacking in understanding toward her?”
“The consequences of losing a wife and daughter through taking a chance for a better life,” said Kusac. “I can see his point of view, though I don’t agree with it.”
“You’re too generous,” growled his father. “I had word from the Alien Relations Council while you were at the guild. They aren’t prepared to grant Carrie diplomatic immunity. They argue that because she’s lifebonded to you, she’s now a Sholan citizen rather than a Terran visitor.”
“It’s no more than I expected,” said Kusac with a sigh. “It looks as if she has no option but to fight the Challenge.”
“If you remember, I’m hoping the newly formed Keissian and Sholan Council will prohibit the fight on the grounds that she’s still a Keissian subject and as you’re the first Leska pair of your kind, Carrie’s life and that of your child are more important than the law in this case.”
“I assume you haven’t heard anything yet.”
“Nothing. I plan to contact her father again later today when he’s available. I believe we may be lucky since I’d be surprised if the Keissians would want Carrie to be put at any risk at all. However, you know how things move through diplomatic channels— with the greatest resistance.”
“I won’t build up our hopes, then,” said Kusac.
“I think you’re wise. Now about Vanna. You said she’s pregnant?”
“Yes, by Brynne.”
“That’s impossibly fast. Even detecting a pregnancy chemically takes longer than a week from the date of conception.”
“All I can tell you is that once Brynne told her, I checked and it was obvious.”
“So why didn’t you know with Carrie?”
“She’s not Sholan. I’d be able to tell now that I know what to look for in a human. There were little differences about Vanna, things I can’t name. I just knew,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“How could it have happened so fast?” asked Konis, ears flaring slightly so he picked up every nuance of what his son was saying.
“The call for help that we heard owed its strength to the gestalt that Vanna triggered. She believes that when we’ve triggered it in the past it’s initiated the changes in us. If she’s right, then it must have accelerated them to the point where they were fully compatible almost from the first.”
“I presume Vanna knew nothing about it.”
Kusac’s tail flicked. “No, it was a shock to her. If she’d considered it at all, she would have thought it far too soon.”
“Well, at least Carrie is no longer unique, which should be a comfort to her. I wonder if the Sholan interpreter from Earth and his human Leska will find themselves compatible so quickly. They’re due to arrive within a few days. I issued instructions that they were to be kept from as much stress as possible so as to avoid triggering the gestalt. Dammit! I want to know why, and how, we’re losing the breeding capacity of some of our best minds! If this goes on we could end up with no pure Sholan telepaths at all!”
“I think that’s unlikely, Father,” said Kusac, ears flicking uncomfortably.
Konis grunted, his tail tip rising and falling rhythmically. “We’ll see,” he said. “That’s my worry, not yours. You go and join your mate. Forget about training, take the rest of the day to yourselves, it’ll do you both more good in the long run. Go on,” he ordered, feeling his son’s hesitation, “be a family. Show her how we males feel about the females who choose to bear our cubs. She needs the reassurance. After I’ve contacted Mr. Hamilton again, I’m going to see Governor Nesul personally. His aides can’t put me off so easily when I’m standing there.”
*
“Rhaema!”
She looked up from her comm unit as she heard her section head call for her.
“What’re you working on?”
“Not a lot. A couple of court cases, one of them to be decided by a Challenge at twelfth hour today.”
“Give it to Druthi. Momma wants you downstairs. Move your tail!”
“What’s all the fuss about?” she asked as she dug hurriedly in her desk drawer for her audio-comp pad.
“You’ve landed yourself a juicy little job,” he said as she hurried toward him. “Special interview. The Liege refuses to speak to anyone but you.”
She came to an abrupt stop beside him, the claws on her toes catching hold of the wooden floor to give her greater purchase. “The Liege? Literally a Liege?”
“Yep.”
“So tell me who!” she demanded, ears fully swiveled toward him so as not to miss a word.
“Only Clan Leader Aldatan. Seems you made an impression with your article earlier today. This puts us ahead of Centralnet.”
“Doesn’t it just,” she purred, mouth opening in a huge grin.
“So what’re you standing round me for?” he demanded. “Get going! Momma doesn’t like to be kept waiting!”
“I’m gone!”
*
Immediately after he broke the connection with Kusac’s father, Peter Hamilton contacted his friend Jack Reynolds.
Jack’s tousled face appeared on the screen, yawning hugely.
“This is an uncivilized hour to pull a fellow out of his bed, Peter,” he complained. “What’s so urgent at this time of night?”
“I need your help, Jack. Carrie’s got herself into some sort of bother— a challenge or something— which is complicated by the fact she’s pregnant. There’s a real fear she could miscarry.”
Jack’s face froze.
“Pregnant, you say?” he repeated cautiously.
“Something wrong with your hearing, Jack?” Peter asked caustically. “Yes, I said she’s pregnant. It’s this fight that’s the problem. His father just called me to say he’s been unable to get the authorities on Shola to intervene and stop the challenge. I’ve been trying to bring the matter up in the Council since he first contacted me last week, but the Sholans keep giving me the runaround by saying there are more pressing matters than the outcome of one civil challenge. I need the medical evidence for tomorrow. I presume that doctor of theirs— what’s her name?-has been keeping you informed.”
“Vanna,” said Jack. “She contacted me about a week ago for some human medical information, but she didn’t mention anythin
g about Carrie being pregnant. I’ll have to get in touch with her to get the current notes on their case.”
“Do it. I need something concrete to put before the Council tomorrow.”
“Peter, I can’t possibly have the information ready for you for tomorrow,” protested Jack. “I’ve got to call Shola and get them to send the data before I can even begin to correlate it!”
“Just call her now,” insisted Peter. “Get it to me as soon as you can. We’ve only got three days left.”
*
Rhaema towed her autovid out of the aircar, then released it to bob behind her at head height as she walked up the covered staircase to the entrance. An attendant was waiting for her, and he escorted her to Rhyasha’s study. The Clan Leader sat in a comfortable chair, a mug of c’shar on the table by her elbow.
“Well come, Rhaema Vorkoh,” she said, indicating the reporter should take the other chair.
“Clan Leader Aldatan,” said Rhaema, “it’s very good of you to talk to me like this.”
“C’shar?” Rhyasha asked, pouring a mug for the reporter when she nodded in the affirmative. “There’s nothing so destructive as speculation. I thought it time that the facts were known. Now, how do you want to conduct this interview? Do you want to ask me questions, or shall I tell you the facts as we know them?”
“It would be easier for me to ask questions,” said Rhaema, taking the proffered mug from her.
“Then, whenever you’re ready.”
As Rhaema pressed her wrist unit, the autovid began to hum gently and a small red light set on the top began to pulse.
*
The interview took perhaps half an hour, at the end of which time Rhaema switched off her autovid.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Clan Leader,” she said, finishing off the dregs of her drink. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance of speaking to either Kusac or Carrie, is there?”
“None,” said Rhyasha firmly, getting up to escort Rhaema down to the waiting aircar. “As I explained, today has already been stressful enough for them.”
Rhaema shrugged, her ears flicking her acceptance of defeat. “I had to ask,” she apologized.
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