Call and Response

by Sara Rustan

  Some moments it hardly seemed to matter. He knew, from comparison between himself and the other people in this place, that his life was limited and empty. Why would it matter if he ended it all? But every time he contemplated that possibility, the idea was countered by a fierce desire to live. Maybe things would change. Maybe, one day, he would be like the other people, with a name, a place, people to love.

  Then one morning, someone called to him. The caller wanted him to come to her, come quickly. Danger was nearby.

  He wiggled out of the broken window to hear the calling better. There was something familiar about her. His chest clenched and tears rolled down his cheeks. He touched the wetness in surprise. She must be someone he had known, someone he had loved.

  He looked back at the basement. It was known and safe—for now. But he didn’t know how long it would last. He had to take a chance.

  He slithered toward the call, keeping in the shadows and, when necessary, darting over the open spaces.

  The woman called again, and he answered this time, I’m coming.

  Janeth smiled in joy and relief. Her brother heard her and was coming. He was only a short distance away from her location in an old warehouse on the fringes of the city center. She and Tom were in the middle of the large, open space on the ground floor of the building. Local policemen with the strongest natural shields were positioned behind the open doors on both sides of the building, ready to slam them shut as soon as Darian was inside.

  Then she felt a furious surge in the troll’s emotions. He was attacking the decoy on the top floor, who was wearing all of Janeth’s telayin jewels. It wouldn’t fool him for long. She needed to get Darian here fast. She grabbed Tom’s hand for additional protection, joining her abilities with his.

  Darian’s progress toward her stopped, and his emotions changed to uncertainty. Hell! Together they felt different to Darian, unfamiliar. She dropped Tom’s hand. “It’s not working. We can’t join.”

  She broadcast love, urgency, and Come to me. Help me!

  For a long minute Darian hesitated, then moved toward her again. The troll’s fury was building to a climax. The overflow from his frustration and anger flooded the space. Janeth tried to keep her call to Darian as focused as possible, but her concentration was fractured by the need to shield at the same time—and the pull toward Tom.

  Finally a shadow flitted in through the opening, and the doors slammed shut. Darian whirled in a panic, but the naturally shielded guard just leaned against the door. Trapped! Danger! Escape! Darian’s emotions shrieked.

  Darian, my brother! Danger, be quiet, be calm, Janeth projected, but it did no good.

  Darian dashed toward Tom, hands out like claws, ready to attack.

  Dark, splintered emotions slammed into Janeth, and blackness narrowed her vision. Tom grabbed her and pulled her against him, frantic to help her. For a few seconds the black receded, then Darian grabbed Janeth and Tom, trying to pull them apart.

  Despair and hopelessness swamped her. Nobody would ever find her…him…who? Endless time engulfed her, blackness and emptiness. Help me… Words and emotions swirled around her head, and finally…stopped.

  ***

  After coming back to consciousness, it was a very busy couple of hours for Tom as he arranged to get an unconscious Janeth and Darian and all of their luggage to the spaceport and onto the AIA ship that was just passing through. All of those reports he had filed—maybe somebody actually had been reading them? He couldn’t be sure why the ship was here, but it was certainly easier than jumping on some freighter, or trying to drag two unconscious people on board a passenger ship.

  Tom made sure Janeth and Darian were comfortable—even though unconscious—in their assigned cabins on the spaceship and then visited Joff Dantry to thank him for allowing the three of them passage. They were in different branches of the AIA hierarchy—Tom wasn’t quite sure of Joff’s job, and couldn’t ask. But he would bet that Joff already knew about Tom’s screwed-up assignment.

  Joff looked up from the desktop computer, and waved him to a seat. “So, tell me about these two civilians you’ve roped me into rescuing.”

  Tom briefly explained what happened with the troll, trying to leave the details as fuzzy as he thought he could get away with.

  Joff pursed his lips and nodded, but Tom wasn’t sure he believed the whole story. He tried to read Joff empathically, but instead of the usual roiling surface emotions, there was smooth blankness. He tried to keep the surprise off his face.

  Joff tilted his head curiously and glanced down at his computer surface. Some emotion flashed across his face, then it smoothed. “What’s your relationship with the woman?”

  The question hit Tom unexpectedly hard. This was the beginning of the end. If he and Janeth went their separate ways, this was where it would start. He could have said she was simply some stranger he happened to meet, but instead he found himself saying, “She’s my wife.”

  Joff raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. “Wife? You’ve only been on Dragnath for two weeks, right?”

  “It was a very fast relationship.” Tom crossed his arms. “We’re married by the customs of her people, but we’ll also be getting an Alliance marriage license.”

  Damn. Referring to her people wasn’t the smartest thing to do. He was starting to have an uneasy feeling about Joff. He didn’t act like some low-level bureaucrat. If Tom had to guess, he’d say Joff was a higher-level analyst or researcher. And why would the AIA send someone like Joff to follow up on his reports, unless… Maybe it was Janeth and Darian who had attracted their attention, not the thing with the troll? He had mentioned them as little as possible, but it wasn’t surprising that the existence of two unknown, high-level empaths would attract AIA’s attention.

  Joff smiled broadly. “Well, what a pleasant surprise. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.” Tom shifted uncomfortably in his seat. There was something a little too enthusiastic about those congratulations.

  “We could use someone of your particular qualifications in my division.” Joff’s eyes flicked to his desktop computer again. “Would you be interested in a transfer?”

  “I don’t even know what division you work for.”

  “Oh, no need to talk about specifics quite yet. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time for discussion while we head to Araman. I’m looking forward to talking to your wife and her brother as soon as they’re conscious.” Joff waved his hand. “Please make yourself at home.”

  It was clearly a dismissal, so Tom got to his feet and left, feeling very unsettled.

  He went back to Janeth’s cabin to sit by her side. Except that it was now his cabin, too, since he had announced he was her husband.

  He watched her sleep, her silvery hair tangled over the pillow, her breathing slow and even. The med tech checked her out and said that she was healthy but sleeping very heavily, and probably wouldn’t wake for a day or two. So Tom had plenty of time to think about their relationship and what he wanted. But he didn’t need the time.

  This wasn’t his first relationship, of course. He’d had girlfriends and had come very close to getting married once. But what he’d felt for them was nothing like what he felt for Janeth. His world was right and normal when he was with her, no matter what happened around them. Wherever she was, that was home for him.

  Of course, it didn’t hurt that sex with her was extraordinary.

  Chapter Seven

  Janeth drifted back to consciousness remembering the intense confusion of the last few seconds before she passed out. Her body ached in odd places, and she couldn’t find a comfortable position. She dreaded waking up all the way, though she wasn’t sure why. She didn’t want to think about it, either. She just knew something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

  Tiring of her cowardice, she opened her eyes with an effort, and the room came into focus around her. She lay on a narrow bed in a room with the efficiency and small size that meant spaceship. She flattened her hand on the wall and
felt the vibration of the sublight drive.

  She must be off Dragnath. What happened to Darian and Tom?

  She swung herself around to a sitting position and reached out with her empathic senses—and felt nothing. “No!” she screamed and stumbled toward the door.

  The door burst open, and someone grabbed her in his arms. “It’s all right, sweetheart. Everything is all right.” Tom’s voice, Tom’s arms around her.

  But—she couldn’t feel him at all.

  Her pounding heart gradually slowed down. She drew a shuddery breath, and pulled back just enough to look up at him. “What’s wrong with me? I don’t feel the empathic tie to you at all. And Darian—is he all right?”

  Tom stroked her hair soothingly. “Darian is fine. He woke up several hours ago—and his empathic abilities were knocked out, too.”

  “Knocked out? By the troll?”

  “It seems that way.”

  “Permanently? Temporarily?” Her voice was high and sharp.

  “We don’t know. I searched the records available aboard ship, and could find nothing related.” He shrugged. “But it would have been an unusual occurrence in any case, and as you know our records on empathic abilities are…incomplete.”

  She listened to Tom’s heart beat beneath her face. His arms around her were comforting, his familiar smell reassuring. Even in this stressful moment, parts of her body hummed at being pressed against him. But there was a big hole in her perceptions where his emotions used to be. It was as though some strange, empathy-blind person had taken her place while she was unconscious. This was some different Janeth, who didn’t know what to do in this strangely different world.

  And how did Tom feel about her? They were off Dragnath. Her brother had been rescued. Tom’s responsibility toward her was done.

  She stepped back. “I’d like to see my brother now.”

  “Sure.” Tom moved to take her hand, but when she pretended not to see, he let his arm drop. He gestured to the open door. “After you.”

  “Whose ship is this? How did we get here?” She headed down the corridor.

  “The police commissioner had us carried out of the warehouse. I was only out for about fifteen minutes. I had someone pick up our baggage and hired an ambulance to shuttle the two of you to the spaceport. It was a good thing Ram Nori vouched for us, because the officials at the spaceport were not happy that I wanted to take off with two unconscious people.”

  Nobody else was around. Add that to her missing empathy, and she had the irrational feeling that they were on a deserted spaceship. “How long have I been unconscious?”

  “Almost twenty-four hours. I was starting to worry.” Tom wrapped her arm with his.

  “And the ship?”

  Tom’s lips twitched. “I would have taken anything I could get, but luckily there was an Alliance Information Agency ship passing through the system.”

  Janeth stopped dead. “This is an AIA ship? What did you tell them about me and Darian?”

  He waved a hand. “Don’t worry. Your secrets are safe.” He gave her a sideways glance. “But you might want to consider—at some point in the future—lowering that curtain of secrecy. It doesn’t only keep the rest of the galaxy away from you, it also keeps you away from the galaxy.”

  Janeth scowled. “But—”

  “Sorry. This isn’t the time to bring it up. We’ll talk about it later.”

  “We will?”

  “Yes.” He opened one of the doors lining the narrow corridor. “Darian. Your sister is here to see you.”

  Her brother was sitting in a chair, wearing clothes that looked two sizes too big. He had lost a lot of weight, and the skin was drawn tight over his bones. His eyes were haunted, his hair shaggy and unkempt.

  “Darian?” She stepped toward him.

  He opened his arms. “Janeth. It really is me.”

  She rushed into his arms and held tight. She heard the door click shut behind her. “Oh, Darian. I’ve missed you so much.”

  His voice was hoarse and shaky. “I understand I’m here because you rescued me.”

  “Yes. They said that none of us could go after you, that it was too dangerous. But I couldn’t leave you to rot alone.”

  He brushed the hair from her face. “You always were impetuous.”

  “It worked, didn’t it?”

  “Yes, it did. Barely.”

  “What do you remember? When I felt you on Dragnath you were very confused. You didn’t remember me and ran away.” She knew it was foolish, but that had hurt.

  “I didn’t even remember me. I was lost in a fog.”

  “How did you get your memory back? You’ve been unconscious, right?”

  “I’m not quite sure.” He shook his head. “Hell, I’m not even sure why I lost it. But I think it was that contact with you right before we blacked out. The emotional context you had for me was almost the same as my own. When I soaked it up, I had the emotional framework for my memories back, instead of isolated, meaningless facts drifting around with no anchor.” He flashed an ironic smile. “It probably helped that right now I can’t pick up anybody else’s emotions.”

  “There was somebody else in that…whirlwind besides Tom and you and me, wasn’t there?”

  “I think so,” he said softly. “That entity Tom told me you call the troll was there—and it wasn’t quite what it appeared.”

  “When I first encountered him, I thought he attacked me.” She turned restlessly around the tiny room. “But if what I picked up is correct, he’s grabbing for help, and doing a very clumsy job. It doesn’t help that he’s also very angry, of course.”

  “That planet has been settled for five hundred years. Do you think he’s been trapped there the whole time?”

  “Longer.” Janeth tried to turn the emotions she had felt into concrete terms, always a difficult thing to do. “I think…more like a thousand years.”

  They looked at each other, imagined horror on their faces.

  Darian said, “Someone will have to go back to find and release him.”

  Janeth nodded. “But not us. We don’t have the right…abilities.”

  Darian sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Speaking of abilities, when were you planning to tell Tom that you’re married?” His voice was deceptively mild. Janeth knew her brother, and he would not approve of her lack of openness.

  She couldn’t meet his eyes. “We’re not married.” Suddenly she was glad that her brother couldn’t read her feelings.

  “By the laws and customs of Lorelly, you’re married.”

  “We weren’t on Lorelly.”

  “You’re planning to go back to Lorelly, aren’t you?”

  She shrugged. “Of course.”

  “Then you’ll be married there.”

  Janeth examined her fingernails. “I said I was going back to Lorelly. I didn’t say that Tom was going with me. Besides, without working empathy it hardly matters.”

  “I see.”

  “No, you don’t see! I didn’t give him a choice. There was nobody else, and I had to rescue you.” She sounded weak and defensive, and she hated it.

  “It will work out, Janeth. Don’t worry about it.”

  Janeth examined him suspiciously. He shouldn’t have given up so easily. It was for moments like this that she needed her empathy. But he was turning away, the subject apparently closed.

  “I’m going to have to go into cryosleep, you know.”

  “I know.” She swallowed tears at the back of her throat. “I wish you didn’t have to. I’ve only just gotten you back.”

  “You have the Shenkiloi contacts to help with transportation?”

  “Of course. I got to Dragnath by myself, didn’t I?”

  “Promise you’ll wake me up if you run into trouble?”

  “I promise.” She picked up his hand and kissed it.

  “I want you to say goodbye when they put me under, but right now I need to rest and eat, so I’m in good enough shape for cryo.”

&n
bsp; The door opened and Tom stood in the doorway. “Sorry to interrupt your reunion, but are you up for talking to the director?”

  Darian said, “Can I pass? I’m really zapped.”

  “No problem. How about you, Janeth?”

  “Do we have a story?”

  “You know, I think it would be best to tell as much of the truth as you’re comfortable with. If you’re not comfortable revealing certain facts, just say so.”

  “But—”

  “Or you can tell them any story you want. I won’t contradict you. But the only lie I’m going to tell is that I know less than I do.”

  Janeth turned to Darian. “You know more about our policies on dealing with others than I do. What do you think I should say?”

  Darian shook his head. “I’m afraid you’re on your own. I feel lucky to know my own name and remember my sister. I’m pretty sure there are protocols. But I can’t remember them.”

  “The problem isn’t that we’re empaths. The Alliance has empaths of its own, though I guess our strength would be unusual?” She looked at Tom for confirmation.

  “Yes. Only about one person in 10,000 has empathic ability. Of those, only one in 10,000 would be as strong as you. Approximately.”

  “But what does he know about what happened? He doesn’t have to know how strong I am, does he?”

  Tom ran his hand through his hair. “The troll figured prominently in the story. Joff doesn’t know what level you’d test at, but he knows you’re unusually strong. I had to tell him about the troll. The police on Dragnath knew; it was the explanation for the emergency assistance request.”

  “I see,” Janeth said. “As close as possible to the truth then.”

  Janeth smiled at Joff Dantry, the AIA officer in charge of the ship, with what she hoped was charm. “My planet of record is Treegallen. My travel documents indicate it clearly.”

  Joff returned the smile. “We know that you’re not from Treegallen, sera. There’s no record of you on that planet except for the false papers you’re carrying. And we’ve encountered your people before.”