by Elana Brooks
Sizzling balls blazed into life and flew wildly in every direction. Adrian leapt to shoot and block and shoot again. He felt amazing. Energy came to his hand far more easily than ever before. His missiles swelled huge and brilliant, flew with blazing speed and uncanny accuracy, and burned through shields as if they were paper. Beside him Beverly attacked and blocked. Her power, too, was dramatically increased over what he’d seen her use before. They dove and twisted and soared in perfect coordination, communicating without any need for speech or even conscious telepathy. It was if they’d become one person in two bodies.
Adrian launched an attack against Rabbi Sensei and Keiko, who fought with a similar singleness of purpose. He rained balls on their shields, feigning ignorance of how Steve was circling to approach him from the rear. He threw up a shield behind him just in time to ricochet Steve’s ball straight back at him. Simultaneously, Beverly dove behind Steve and fired. Her shot bounced off the shield he raised to deflect Adrian’s counterattack and obliterated his tether.
Steve gaped at his chest for a moment before striding over to his body and dropping inside. When he emerged he was grinning from ear to ear. “You weren’t kidding, were you?” He looked back and forth from Adrian to Beverly, his expression calculating. “A soul bond is a truly amazing thing. But don’t get cocky—we’ve got one on our side, too. As well as outnumbering you. It might not be as easy as I thought, but I still think we can take you.”
Adrian grinned back at him. “Bring it on.” Beverly’s delighted assent sang in his heart and tingled on his skin.
“With pleasure.” Steve stepped into the starting circle, checked that everyone was ready, and called the start.
A wildly epic battle ensued. Adrian threw everything he had into the game. He soared and dove, fired and blocked, twisted and turned. Power vibrated through his bones and exploded from his hands. Always Beverly was with him, matching him move for move, thought for thought, the two of them flowing together in effortless harmony. Their strength doubled and redoubled as it resonated along their bond.
But their opponents were skilled and wily. The contest raged for ten long minutes without either side scoring. At length Steve zeroed in on Adrian, occupying his attention with ball after flaming ball. Rabbi Sensei and Keiko took on Beverly, driving her to the opposite side of the arena with their seamless attacks. Beverly successfully blocked every shot, but in her inexperience she failed to realize that they were pressing her back inch by inch. Adrian felt her foot descend outside the arena’s boundary an instant too late to stop her.
Word of the match had spread. As they all drifted back to their starting circles, panting, Adrian saw that the arena was ringed with astral spectators. A babble of cheers, encouragement, and speculation filled the astral plane.
Beverly called the start. Again they fought for a long time before finally Adrian clipped Keiko’s tether. The next break went to their opponents, as Adrian, tiring, made a blocking error that let Rabbi Sensei’s shot sneak in.
The crowd, even bigger now, tensed. Two-two. This break would decide the match.
The others all looked as exhausted as Adrian felt, but none of them would yield an inch. Steve’s eyes were wild, his movements jerky. Rabbi Sensei and Keiko drifted closer and closer together. Beverly’s spirit blazed as bright as ever in Adrian’s mind, but her movements and his slowed until he felt like they were swimming through honey.
They needed to end this quickly or they’d lose. He flashed her a memory of their first bout, and their strategy formed in an instant. He dove for their opponent’s feet while Beverly jumped overhead. They both fired, then switched places in a blur. All Adrian’s shots were blocked or missed, but one of Beverly’s slipped through a gap between Keiko’s and Steve’s shields to slice Rabbi Sensei’s tether.
Rabbi Sensei grasped the ends and rejoined them as everyone else flopped in loose, drifting exhaustion. Cheers and applause filled the room. Adrian sucked in great deep breaths. He eyed his body far across the arena. Once he got back inside its well-rested flesh, he wouldn’t feel as if he were about to collapse. But the prospect of traveling the handful of feet to it was more than he could face right now.
Beverly threw her arms around him. “We did it! We won!” She bounced exuberantly, dragging him with her.
Suddenly his weariness was gone. Energy surged through him until he felt like he could do the whole thing over again. He embraced Beverly and planted a hard kiss on her eager, laughing mouth. “We did. Well, you did. I just helped.”
“We did it together.” She glowed at him, her soul so wide open to his he almost forgot the surrounding crowd and did something much too intimate for public view.
Luckily reality intruded before he could act on the impulse. Steve clapped him on the back. “Thank you for a magnificent game, my friend. I’ve never enjoyed losing more. Or winning, for that matter. We should just show the two of you to the Seraphim and watch them run screaming across the galaxy.”
Adrian laughed and thumped him back. “If the five of us go against them together, they’ll have to invite all their alien friends to join them to make it a fair fight.”
“I agree. And can you imagine when the rest of the Eight join us? Earth has nothing to worry about.” Steve chuckled and turned to Beverly, giving her a deep bow with an elaborate flourish of his hand. “My lady, I’ll gladly instruct you in any small skills I may, but I fear you’re already so far beyond my level I’ll have little to teach.”
“Oh, no,” Beverly protested. “I saw you doing a bunch of things I want to learn. All joking aside, I want to be as prepared as I can when I face the Seraphim.”
“So you should. And so should we all.” Steve turned to Rabbi Sensei, waving at the slowly dispersing crowd. “What do you think? Give them a chance to leave, and us a short break to rest, then head out?”
“Yes.” Rabbi Sensei nodded to Beverly. “You’ve shown you’re well prepared to accompany us.” He turned to Adrian. “I’d like you to come, too. I think you’ll find your range has increased dramatically.”
“Yes, sir.” For the first time it really hit Adrian what had happened. The soul bond had increased his powers and Beverly’s to amazing levels. And it wasn’t even at full force yet. Once the two of them had united completely, body and soul, how strong might they become? He blinked at Rabbi Sensei, dazzled by the thought.
Rabbi Sensei smiled indulgently and nodded to Beverly. “Take a break, you two. Get back in your bodies, stretch your legs, get a snack, stop by the bathroom. Find somewhere quiet and rest for a while. Meet us in the meditation garden in forty-five minutes.”
“Yes, Rabbi Sensei,” Beverly said, inclining her head to him. Adrian echoed her with a suppressed smile. Forty-five minutes wasn’t very long, but there’d be a little time left after they took care of the practicalities. He didn’t intend to waste a minute of it.
Chapter 22
Beverly sighed as Adrian broke off their kiss. “One more minute? Please?”
“I don’t want to be late.” His hand slid down her arm and he twined his fingers in hers, giving a gentle tug.
“Damn it.” She let him lead her from the empty office they’d found down the hall from the meditation garden. “Forty-five minutes, really? He couldn’t have made it an hour?”
“He probably didn’t want us to get carried away.” Adrian shot her the teasing grin she loved so much and headed down the hall. She trotted beside him, treasuring the warmth of their clasped hands and the taste of him on her lips and tongue. Rabbi Sensei probably knew what he was doing. Another fifteen minutes alone together and who knew where they’d have ended up.
Tomorrow. God, that seemed like an eternity away. Why had they decided to wait, again? Maybe she’d just surprise him in his apartment tonight and forget all that astral form first business. Sometime during the past night and day her fears of the previous evening had faded to insignificance. Did she really think sex with Adrian could be anything but amazing? Did she really believe
this wonderful warm glow she felt when she was with him wasn’t actually love?
They arrived in the garden to find Steve, Rabbi Sensei, and Keiko waiting by cots. Rabbi Sensei directed them to the next alcove. “Let’s get going. Everyone stick close together. We’ve got a long way to go.”
Beverly lay back on her cot. Transitioning to her astral form came so easily now, she accomplished it in a moment. Adrian was there waiting for her, impossibly gorgeous, eyes bright with that look that was only for her. They joined the others. Rabbi Sensei nodded and led them out through the wall.
No playful swooping and diving this time. The others were all business, and Beverly picked up their mood. They shot upward in a disciplined straight line, not even stopping to admire the view when they reached the edge of space and the sky deepened to black all around.
Their astral forms could move far faster than any spacecraft. She wouldn’t be surprised if they approached the speed of light. Earth shrank to a tiny dot within minutes. The five of them drifted alone through vast space.
Even so, traveling all the way to the edge of the solar system took a while. They settled into a relaxed cluster and spent the time chatting. Steve showed Beverly how to form instruments out of astral energy and use the positions of the sun and whichever planets were visible to calculate their location. You could always get back to Earth by following your tether, but finding your way to any other specific location was a lot harder. She was glad she was with people who knew what they were doing and had already done the necessary math.
Rabbi Sensei kept glancing at Adrian. When Steve’s instruments indicated they were nearly through the asteroid belt, Beverly heard him ask, “How are you doing? Feeling any strain?”
Adrian considered for a moment. “I think I’m good.”
“Excellent. We’re well past your old range. As a general rule of thumb, a soul bond lets both of you draw on your pooled abilities. So eventually both you and Beverly will be able to reach at least the sum of your individual ranges, which should be far more than we need. But if you start feeling like progress is getting harder, let me know. The bond might not be strong enough yet to let you access its full potential.”
“I will.” Beverly tried to catch Adrian’s eyes, but he avoided her.
She worried that maybe he shouldn’t have come after all. Space was so dark, and so vast, and they were so very, very far from anything familiar. If she were alone, she couldn’t imagine how terrified she’d be, one infinitesimal dot of dust drifting in nothingness. Even together, the fear hovered just outside their little cluster of astral faces and bodies. What if Adrian got lost out here, dragged far beyond his natural range by his bond to her? It would be her fault.
She pushed back the fear. The others took turns telling her stories of the Covenant through the ages. She responded with a few humorous anecdotes from her college years.
After one of his periodic checks, Steve nodded. “We should be past the orbit of Uranus now. It’s over on the other side of the sun at the moment. We’re getting close to where the object was sighted.”
Beverly could see no difference whatsoever in the vast starfield surrounding them. She felt cold, even though theoretically her astral form should be unaffected by the profound chill of space. She shivered.
Adrian put his arms around her. “It’s getting to me, too,” he whispered. “I’ve never been even a fraction this far.”
She wasn’t sure whether his admission comforted her or frightened her more. “It will take us just as long to get back, won’t it?”
“Yes.”
“If a tether breaks out here, and for some reason you can’t connect the ends, you’re dead. Right?”
“Yeah.”
She buried her face in his chest. “Hold me, please.”
He obediently wrapped his arms tight and pressed her close. She closed her eyes. It helped. She could imagine they were safe back on Earth, their bodies nearby, everything comfortably normal.
After a while, excited voices roused her. She lifted her head and looked over. Steve and Rabbi Sensei were pointing and peering in a certain direction. Keiko kept squinting that way and shaking her head.
“What’s up?” Adrian asked.
Keiko scowled at him. “They think they’ve identified the object—that dot there. But I don’t know. I’m getting a strange feeling from it.”
“Maybe that means it’s the right one.” Beverly looked at the dot. It was a bit brighter and larger than most of the vast panoply of stars, but that was the only difference she could see.
“Perhaps.” Keiko continued to frown, but when Steve and Rabbi Sensei shifted their course a fraction to aim directly at the dot, she went along without protest. Beverly and Adrian brought up the rear.
In minutes it became obvious the dot was in fact close, relatively speaking. It shifted position against the background stars as they approached. Before long it became a tiny disk.
Keiko grabbed Rabbi Sensei’s arm. “Stop, please. There’s something very wrong.”
He and Steve both looked at her, concerned, and nodded for everyone to slow to a halt. Rabbi Sensei put his arm around her. “What’s the matter?”
Keiko stared at the bright disk, her brow deeply creased. “I don’t know. It’s not precognition. It’s just—a feeling.” She closed her eyes, her face still intent. “A—blankness. Like something should be there, but it’s not.”
Beverly also closed her eyes and sought in that direction with her mind. For an instant she caught what Keiko meant. All around them was nothingness, but right in that spot the nothingness was more intense. Like a slightly deeper shade of black. Her stomach clenched, and the chill of space invaded her flesh.
She opened her eyes to find all the others nodding grimly. “I see what you mean,” Steve said. “Blocking, do you think?”
“I don’t know what else could cause that sort of effect.” Keiko clenched her fists. “Which means there’s something to block.”
“And someone to do the blocking.” Rabbi Sensei reached for her hand and caressed it. “We’d better put up our own blocks as we approach.”
“If they haven’t already sensed us.” Keiko shivered.
“So far out? It’s not likely.” Rabbi Sensei nodded to Beverly. “Do you know how? Adrian, you can show her.”
“Okay,” Adrian said. Beverly shoved down her fear and forced herself to pay attention as he opened his mind to her. Then she gasped as his presence in her head winked out. She could still see his astral form, but otherwise it was as if no one was there. “Just imagine a blank sphere around you, like a bubble. All your thoughts stay inside, without any leaking or broadcasting like usually happens.”
Beverly tried. Her first attempt wasn’t very successful, but with patient feedback from the others she eventually got it.
She still felt very obvious, however. “Can’t we make our astral forms invisible or something?”
Steve shimmered, blurred, and became a diffuse cloud of softly glowing haze. “This is as much as it’s possible to do. There’s always going to be something visible. But you’re right, at least we can conceal our identities.”
The rest of them followed suit. It took a little effort to keep up the transformation, but Beverly found she could manage it.
“Let’s go,” Steve said. Beverly wondered for a moment how he was able to produce audible words with no mouth, but as she sped behind him she dismissed the thought. As far as she understood, astral forms were all more or less products of your imagination anyway, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when normal physical rules didn’t apply.
Ahead of them, the disk grew larger. Beverly kept her gaze fixed on it, willing it to resolve into a lumpy, cratered surface. But it remained smooth and featureless, its edge perfectly circular, even when they got so close they should be able to make out details. Only a fine speckled texture marked its softly glowing surface.
The cloud that was Steve shifted course to lead them around the object. Gradually it war
ped into an oval, growing narrower and narrower as they went. The edge took on a slightly fuzzy quality.
They moved closer. Suddenly Beverly’s perspective shifted, as her brain finally made sense of what she was seeing. She gasped.
She was looking at a giant saucer-shaped spacecraft. They had approached it from underneath and now looked at it nearly edge-on. The top was in shadow, but she could make out a lumpy dome.
The base had that odd haze, and it glowed brighter than could be explained by reflected sunlight this far out. As they continued to draw closer, Beverly finally saw it clearly enough to understand.
A vast crowd of astral Seraphim blanketed the base of the spaceship, their myriad tiny forms blurring into one wiggling, fluttering layer. There must be thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. Maybe millions. It was as if the whole population of New York had flown beneath the city and lifted it into the sky on their shoulders.
“What’s going on?” she whispered, numb with shock.
The others seemed stunned as well. Rabbi Sensei shook it off first. His voice was quiet, weighted with awe. “It’s never been clear from the Memories exactly what sort of drive the Seraphim use to propel their ships. Now we know. Their ship has no engines, burns no fuel. It’s moved telekinetically, by the combined efforts of the entire refugee population.”
Beverly tried to make sense of his words. “You mean all those Seraphim—they get out and push?”
Strained humor lightened Rabbi Sensei’s voice. “Essentially. I would venture to guess that their physical bodies remain held in suspended animation within sleeping tanks like those in the last Memory. Their astral bodies are free to roam and apply telekinetic force wherever it’s needed. In this case, to the ship itself. Each Seraphim can transfer a certain amount of energy from the astral realm to the physical world. Together, their efforts are sufficient to accelerate their vessel.”
“Or decelerate it,” Steve put in, his voice hard. “That’s what they’re doing now. They must have pushed until they got up to cruising speed, coasted for thousands of years, then all piled out and put on the brakes. They’ll keep slowing down until they glide up to Earth at the perfect speed to swing into orbit.”
