by TylerRose.
L’Roc-ai’s head tilted with curiosity. “An interesting statement. I do not suppose you will expound on it.”
“I will not.”
“So I am to stop trying to gain access to her thoughts and find her motivations but I am to eavesdrop on her at night while she sleeps.”
“The latter will give you more information than the former,” Landra Ahr said. “She may never again allow anyone direct access to her mind…or her heart.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means what it means.”
“That is not much of an answer.”
“It is the only answer I can give,” he told her.
She halted herself. “Of course. Your conversations with her would be as confidential as your conversations with me. How is it this one little girl can so turn the world upside down?”
“I thought you knew better than to underestimate a fellow telepath, especially one with a soul as old as the universe and abilities that eclipse your own. It seems you and Jerome need to learn the same lessons. I will speak with you later.”
He left her open-mouthed and went down to his Command Center. Starbird was there, working at a panel.
“Wow! Where did you get these readings?” she asked, looking at the energy readouts from Tyler’s room during the first portal incident.
“I am not at liberty to say.”
Her eyes narrowed at him. “Fine. I’ll take a guess. From the dimensions and layout, this is Tyler’s room. Date is night before last. Readings are all night from about 11pm until 9:30am. I won’t ask why. I know you are fascinated with this sort of phenomenon.”
He turned the screen off and she turned it right back on.
“Oh no you don’t. I see three individual events during sleep, not counting actual dreams. It looks like her dreams are borderline stroke-outs.” Her eyes lifted to Landra Ahr with a serious expression. “She is an extremely powerful telepath. Much more than the girl who ran away. More than you told me to expect. She’s not the same person at all, is she?”
If he could have sighed with delight, he would have. “You are the first to see her as she is. Thank you.”
“Q’Sil…if I’m reading this right, in a moment of lost control she could do some seriously major damage. Like, catastrophic.”
“That is what I am studying. I’m trying to find signatures for specific types of events and warnings that they are coming so I can be ready to intervene if needed.”
Stilled, Starbird released a breath. “There’s something I need to tell you, then,” she said quietly, turning away from the screen.
“Yes?”
“It was she who told me to break away from my father.”
Landra Ahr stopped his fiddling with controls and twisted to her. “Explain.”
“All while I was growing up, I would hear this voice in my head telling me he was a dangerous man. It guided me to finding the information I needed to know exactly what he was doing. It took me to places when I would be out walking, telling me to turn this way or that and see things he didn’t want me to see.”
“How do you know it was Tyler?”
“The sound of her voice. When she speaks in that low tone, it’s exactly the voice in my head all that time. She brought me to you. She told me this is the planet we needed to be on. She was with me through our travel here, pointing me away from planets when I was curious about them. It wasn’t Jerome and the Staff.”
“She told you all this while you had your inherited levels of Staff Power from Adamantine?”
Starbird nodded. “Like it wasn’t even there. Sometimes the compulsions she gave me practically took over, like I was hypnotized. I never understood at the time, but I do now we are here. She’s the one who made sure we were all here where we’re all supposed to be. In time and prepared. That’s what you talk about in her room, isn’t it?”
“We discuss many things, none of which I am at liberty to discuss with you.”
“No, of course not. I was being rhetorical. I know the answers to my questions. I know she is troubled by what is going to happen. I can see for myself that she is constantly preoccupied with figuring it all out. That’s why she stays holed up in her room. To think in peace and not be bothered.”
“You are more perceptive than anyone else in this house and I commend you,” he praised.
“Not looking for commendation, Landra Ahr. Just calling it like I see it. Is today a good day to work on the Torino?”
“So long as you are finished by three o’clock.”
“What is three o’clock?” she asked.
“The time I estimate Jerome will be leaving and will want the car.”
“I’m just doing some sensor adjustments. I won’t have to tear anything apart. It’s all computer work but I have to be in the vehicle for it,” she said.
“Keep me apprised of your progress.”
“I will,” she replied, taking her pouch of fine tools and portable computer pad.
Landra Ahr began to download the conversation they’d just had in order to cross reference his conversations with Tyler. She had said she had viewed everyone’s life. He began a systematic analysis of every memory he had of his own human existence, searching for evidence that she had guided him as well. She had said there had been pretext to bring him here, choices he had made that seemed right and appropriate at the time but were actually subtle manipulations.
Coming to his conclusion forty minutes after she’d moved to her window seat, he went upstairs to have a talk with her. He had decided he would have a talk with her every day that she would allow it, having a great deal to learn about her and willing to put in the effort needed.
She was wrapped in the blanket in the window seat when she told him to come in.
“How are you this morning? Did you sleep better?” he asked, lowering himself to the floor beside the window seat. In this manner, he was more on eye level, where he preferred to be with her.
She nodded over her steaming cup of coffee, apparently her second. “I always sleep better after a gig. I missed it terribly. We played a Droghers party, which is always a good time anyway. They’re a good crowd, a good audience.”
“How long did you sing?”
“I was up twice for two hours each, with a break of two hours between. The band played without me as well.”
“There is something I wanted to ask,” he opened, thinking the obligatory inquiries sufficient. “While you were viewing our individual lives, did you exert overt influence?”
She paused over her cup, sipped. “I did not make anyone do anything. I helped them to see what needed to be seen in order to do what must be done. If you call that influence, then my answer must be yes.”
“Do you feel your influence is justified while Earnol’s is not?”
“Absolutely. Remember, I was setting things right. I still am. My own instinct as to what is right and what is not dictates my actions. I have no personal agenda to enrich myself.”
“How can you be certain that your instincts are correct and his are not?” he asked.
“He doesn’t act on instinct. He acts out of self-preservation for his position. There is a tremendous difference. As an Eminent Doyen, he lives partially outside the flow of time; but he is not aligned with the energies of the Universe. I also live outside the flow of time, but much more than he does. I am aligned with the energies. They are my guiding force. Remember also that my actions are sanctioned. My Cause is Just. If I was somehow able to grab Earnol right now and take him to Sanctuary, he would arrive dead.”
“The people of Sanctuary have personally sanctioned what you are doing here?” Landra Ahr asked for clarification.
“There were many conversations over the years about what could and should be done. It has been agreed that I must be here and I must do as my instincts are screaming. In thinking of what I can do, trying to work out what to do, I know if a course of action would render my cause invalid. I will not do anything to jeopardize myself or my C
ause.”
“If you are not adverse to the idea, I would like to have these conversations at some point every day.”
“You touch base with everyone in the house at least once a day. It’s expected. As my confessor, it is your place.”
“Do you see the Universe and the world with the same clarity with which you speak?”
She drained the cup and took her hair out of the loose braid into which she usually put it for slumber.
“I have always seen with the clarity I do now. Others have sought to cloud my vision. I no longer question what I know. If I am clouded, it is someone else’s doing. I no longer question myself or my decisions and I don’t like when others do.”
He would remember that.
She left the window to change into a t-shirt and pair of stretch pants and returned to the blanket. Shaken out to straighten, she swung it around her shoulders to re-wrap herself before sitting down again.
“Would you like me to install a separate thermostat to create your own atmosphere in here?” he asked.
“No. It’ll just take time for me to adjust. I’ve only been on Earth for about six weeks.”
“You’ve been on many planets?”
“Many and varied. I was a courier for a while,” she said.
“What was your favorite planet?”
“Any on which I was treated with respect as an equal without having to prove that I was no one to fuck with and couldn’t be manipulated or lied to,” she said with perfect candor.
“Interesting. Thank you for sharing.”
“I know you’re curious about my abilities. You always have your sensors going full on. I feel them,” she shrugged. “It’s okay. I have strived to understand them myself but almost no one has been willing or able to help.”
“Jerome will be coming up shortly. I will leave you.”
“Doesn’t bother me if he knows you’re here,” she said, heading for the door.
A knock sounded as she neared it.
“Yes, Gable, what can I do for you?” she asked on opening.
He shifted on his feet, always somewhat nervous in her presence. “Well, um, you don’t eat much, so I figured I’d ask if you’d like to help me set the menu and cook supper tonight. And maybe some other nights,” he said plainly. “Thought maybe you’d prefer your own cooking.”
She smiled, recognizing his sincerity. “That would be very nice. Thank you for asking.”
His relief was palpable. In truth, she scared the daylights outta him and he had no idea why. “We’ll need to go shopping. Three o’clock work for you?”
“That will be fine.”
“Okay, see you then.”
She closed the door as he turned away, and she returned to her blanket. “He is the only one that I don’t sense any ulterior motive or predetermined perception from. He came to me with a sincere desire to include me. Roc wants inside my head. Jerome still thinks I’m the girl who ran away when he wouldn’t help. Tony resents me when he’s around. Only Gable sees me as me. Then again, he is also the only one to have seen me outside of confrontation and self-preservation, as just another customer in the video store.”
“What of Starbird?”
“I wouldn’t know her opinion. We have barely interacted. She is busy with the Torino and other work. We don’t cross paths except at supper. With the group there, it’s hard to have one on one conversation without everyone dippin’ in.”
Landra Ahr floated up and put his feet under him to stand. “I will leave you to yourself before Jerome arrives. I will not be monitoring while you and he are alone. You have not yet stated, but I am guessing that he will serve similar purpose to my own as Sentinel.”
“Next time we talk, remind me to discuss modifications to the warehouse in preparation for the battle and aftermath.”
He left and she waited several moments before heading down to the kitchen with her quart sized pitcher. She washed it out and filled it with ice from the dispenser, following Starbird’s movements out of the garage and into the elevator. A field of white-hotness from the Staff Power she’d been born with. Glass washed and filled with ice as well, placed aside.
“Tyler?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For helping me to see my father for what he is. For guiding me to find Landra Ahr. For getting us here,” Starbird said quietly.
Tyler’s hands paused with the void in her mind, having no words to reply. Forearms rested on the edge of the sink, head lowered. No one had ever expressed simple gratitude for her abilities before. Star’s hand on her shoulder was a jolt of electricity. Not because of the Staff Power the alien possessed, but because physical contact was something Tyler allowed only rarely in this new life.
Star went to her next task and Tyler carried pitcher and glass of ice water upstairs. Turning left down her end of the hall, she put her back to the wall and leaned on it. Jerome was trying to sneak up behind her.
“You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to sneak up on me,” she said when he came into view.
“Damn. How’d you know?”
She continued toward her room. “I know where you are every minute of every day, no matter where you go. The void that is your presence is extremely conspicuous and no one else on the planet has it.”
“Everywhere I go?”
“Yep,” she replied, putting the pitcher on its towel on the new cart near the corner.
“The bathroom?” he asked.
“Yep.” She carried the glass to the window and wrapped herself in the blanket once more.
“My girlfriend’s house?”
She laughed, settling in. “Who are you lying to? You’ve not had a girlfriend since the day Monica died. How long is that now?”
“Not that long,” he glowered at her.
“Others would say long enough,” she countered. “But that is neither here nor there and I don’t think either of us wishes to converse upon the topic.”
“You cold?” he redirected.
“I’m always cold.”
“It’s eighty degrees out there. Seventy five in here.”
“It will take months for me to acclimate. By the time I do, it’ll get cold on me and I’ll freeze my ass off all winter,” she smirked.
“I didn’t think to give each bedroom climate control. Sorry.”
“That’s why we have blankets and socks. Did you bring a doob?”
He grinned and fished into his shirt pocket for the fat joint and lit it. “So what are you going to talk about?” he croaked, holding his breath and holding the roll out.
“Whatever. Just don’t ask me where I go and what I do.” She dragged long and deep, using her jaw muscles to create the pull and then inhaling the smoke as she handed it back.
“Well, that kills half the possibilities,” he joked.
“If that was your only purpose in talking to me,” she replied, and exhaled.
Back and forth the joint went until it was too short for her to want. He snuffed the cherry out between finger and thumb and popped it into his mouth to swallow with his cola.
“Landra kinda hollered at me for not making more of an effort to get to know who you are instead of who you were, and include you in things around the house. I realized he was kinda right. I am sorry for that. I thought you’d come to me when you were ready to talk but you haven’t.”
“Apology accepted, of course. I stopped going to others for help and companionship a long time ago. I don’t mean during the eons of being unfettered energy. I learned the hard way that I could only ever rely on myself.”
“Are you not counting on anyone in the battle against Adamantine?” he asked, hoping she would give more information than she had previously.
“There are certain things that are more reliable than others. Certain constants I can expect.”
“Like what?” he pursued.
“The weather. Nothing will change the fact that we will be
fighting in a snowstorm. Nothing will change the date of the event. Nothing will change how many mechanical soldiers he brings.”
“That isn’t much to count on,” Jerome said doubtfully.
“Depends on how you look at it. Knowing we’re fighting in snow tells us how to prepare for the day. You can train in the snow in December and January. Goggles would be a good accessory to keep snow out of our eyes. Especially you with the one eye. Knowing the date and the place means we will not be surprised by the attack. We’ll be in place waiting for it to come to us. We will be defending, not racing to get there. Knowing how many mechanoids he will bring tells us how many of the enemy there are to fight against and we’ll know how many got away when the count of bodies is made afterward.”
“I didn’t look at it that way,” he admitted.
“You see a very small picture, Jerome, and only from your point of view. I see the entire picture, from every angle, simultaneously. This planet is nothing to Adamantine. Were it not for you having absorbed the Staff Power, he would have come, destroyed what was necessary in order to get it, and taken the staff and gone. When he learns it has been absorbed by someone, that someone becomes a threat whether they know how to use it or not. He will come down hard, intending to destroy you in one minute. It’s what he does and he does it well. It works for him. He shocks and overwhelms his opponent. The few he has had were all entirely unprepared for the onslaught he presents. Except for Imnytep. It was a bigger fight but he still won. He’s not used to a long battle. He can do it but he’s not had to in a very long time.”
Jerome’s mind churned with this information. Endurance, he recognized immediately. If he could draw the fight out and wear Adamantine down, he would eventually make a mistake Jerome could capitalize on. If they were already going to be in place, he could pick his spot and have it ready. At least at the start. Since he’d absorbed the power, his enemy would come to him wherever he was. He decided to start longer workouts with the punching bag and add five miles to his jog every day. He and Chen would scout out the downtown area for a good place to mount his defense.
