“We've got a live one boys! I think I felt her in this direction.” The voice wasn't far from the entrance to the room they were in.
Miranda thought quickly and projected an even stronger sense of panic they would perceive as retreating off in the opposite direction. Even the least sensitive of the soldiers felt it. Like a pack of hounds that had caught scent of the fox, they set off after the phantom.
“Nice one,” Un-Ben whispered in Miranda's ear.
With the exception of that one comment, Miranda and un-Ben stayed silent and motionless until the soldiers had given up their search for the phantom. Miranda heard them retreat all the way back up the stairs.
“They'll be back, in force, as soon as they can gather a team to thoroughly search this place.” Un-Ben verbalized a fact which they both knew.
“Then let's get out of here. Is there a back way out?”
“Yes, I'd be stupid to hide anywhere without a back door.” Un-Ben answered grabbing Miranda by the gun strap and leading her in the dark through to the back of the room. They reached the back wall, where un-Ben laid a hand on Miranda's back to push her down towards a dry sewer tunnel.
As Miranda bent to it, her nose argued the idea with the full support of her stomach. Miranda forcibly ignored the stench and started down the tunnel. From a change in air flow, Miranda knew un-Ben had joined her in the tunnel. She crawled as quickly as she could, and felt un-Ben close behind her.
After a stretch of time just barely shorter than the length of time she could stand the smells, Miranda came to the end of the tunnel. It opened out into another room. The room was lit by moonlight through the ruins of a storm drain. Miranda drank in the welcome light and enjoyed the slightly fresher air which accompanied it.
“Welcome to my toilet, “ un-Ben said waving to a large and smelly tank in the corner. “It is also the means by which we cover our tracks.” Un-Ben continued with a vengeful glint in his eyes.
Un-Ben helped Miranda up onto a platform beneath a manhole cover in the ceiling. Then he hopped up next to the tank and turned a valve all the way open. A built up mix of sewage and rainwater poured out of the tank and flowed down the tunnel from which they just emerged.
“I guess that'll serve them right,” Miranda said.
“Yeah, let me help you with that cover,” un-Ben offered when Miranda made no move towards the only obvious exit.
“I've got it.” Miranda said off handedly appreciating the ingenuity of un-Ben's setup. She glanced at the cover and effortlessly shoved it up and aside with her mind.
“Wow, I wonder if I could do that,” Un-Ben marveled and climbed through the opening. “Miranda, are you coming? Or do you prefer the smell down there?”
Miranda shook herself and climbed up after him. “Nice setup, too bad you had to waste it on me.”
“Don't feel bad, I have lots of hidey holes like it. It was one of my lesser ones. I brought you here because I wasn't sure of you yet.” Un-Ben tried to replace the cover with his mind, that failing he pried it back into place with a chunk of wood.
“And now you are?”
Un-Ben chuckled softly, “Let's just say I see you are more than just a pretty face. Come on, I've got another safe house this way. Though you will have to change your attire to fit in.”
Miranda smiled. She liked this un-Ben better than most of the others. If she had only met him first... “So, it's to be slave barracks is it?”
“Yes. Do me a favor though, call me Kindy or something. I can't take much more of you thinking of me as un-Ben.”
“Sorry- Kindy, I'll do the best I can.”
“That's all I can ask,” The newly dubbed Kindy smiled and retrieved a stack of unisex rags from a ruined mailbox. “Put these on, they'll be a bit big on you, seeing as they were meant for me. Once you're dressed we'll head to someplace where we can get some rest.”
Miranda ducked behind a wall fragment to change. Once out of the dark uniform, she sent it to join her bag in the wall. Then she slipped into the clothes un-Ben had given her. “No,” she berated herself, “not un-Ben, She was to think of him as Kindy.” She stepped back around the wall and twirled once to show him how she looked.
“Now let's be off to bed,” Kindy smiled, aware of the alternate meaning. Miranda flashed him a blank look and he set off towards the city.
Miranda followed him. Yes, she liked this- Kindy more than most, but that could become a problem. Ahead of her she heard Kindy make a pleased sound. Shocked at herself, Miranda realized she had allowed her inner thoughts to reach him. She hadn't allowed herself to leak like that since her apprenticeship under the old woman on the swamp world. Berating herself soundly Miranda threw up her mental walls, careful not to deaden her ability to sense the approach of her enemies.
Secure in her own thoughts, Miranda let her mind wander to her real Ben. She tried to figure out why a man like Kindy wouldn't do. She ended up wandering in thought circles which twisted and tweaked themselves in her mind into little entertaining snippets of ideas. Outwardly she followed Kindy scrupulously, while inwardly she amused herself with her own thoughts, which she kept on a tight leash lest they be overheard.
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Chapter 10
Home is Where the Heartless Are
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Ben awoke with a fuzzy brain. He could feel his forehead was crinkled with remembered pain. He opened his eyes slowly. For a scant moment before his eyes found focus, Ben thought he saw Miranda's face staring down at him. The shock of it kept him silent long enough for his vision to clear and reveal it was only Tina. Blearily Ben tried to place himself in his surroundings and situation. He was drunk? No, that had been this morning. He was in the clinic; Gene had given him a treatment to keep him from getting too telepathic too fast. It had hurt, and he had thrown up on Tina.
“I'm so sorry Tina.” Ben apologized while sitting up. He noticed there wasn't a trace of vomit on Tina. “How long was I out for?”
Tina traced Ben's stare and chuckled, “Don't worry it was only a couple of minutes. I used the lab sterilizer. It takes things like vomit right out. It's one of the tricks that Gene taught me.” She offered Ben a comforting smile, “So how are you feeling?”
Ben held his head dramatically, “Only a little worse than if I'd been hit by a smallish truck.”
“Gene told me to give you this if you were feeling bad. You should be familiar with it. It is the morning after remedy.” Tina presented Ben with the same liquid Bea had earlier in the day.
Ben accepted the glass and drank it slowly enjoying the taste as much as the soothing effect it had on his brain. “You know I never appreciated not having a gossipy computer assistant, until now. How many people did Bea tell about last night?”
“Not many, just Gene and Niri. I heard about it from Caroline, and she heard about it from her dad, Daniel. He was the one that got you back to your quarters in one piece.”
Ben finished the drink in one gulp and handed the cup back to Tina. Her answer confirmed the suspicion that the majority of Sanctuary probably knew about his bender. Hopefully they hadn't picked up why he'd gone on it. Ben swiveled his head looking for Gene, “Where's Gene?”
“He's out on an emergency call. One of the factor trainees is having her primary metamorphosis. He's keeping an eye out for complications,” Tina became rapidly sullen.
“You'll have one soon, I'm sure of it,” Ben commented in his most enthusiastic tone.
“Sure, but what do you really know about it? Gene has only been saying that for the last year and a half.” She said with a twinge of whine edging her voice.
“Yeah, but what does he know? He's only a doctor, and despite anything they might have you believe, they don't know everything. Besides, you are the assistant to the director of medical services, that other girl is only a trainee.”
Tina's face brightened a little, “Gosh mister, you sure do say some nice things sometimes.”
“Yeah, sometimes I can be a nice guy. At least when I'm not managing to get soused.” Ben sighed and shook his head. “So, did your friend say whether or not Daniel seemed mad about last night?”
“No, but from what I've seen, I don't think he gets mad. I think he leaves that for Angela. Of the two of them she's the uptight one, but I imagine I'd be uptight too if I had to deal with half of what my cousin has to.”
Ben frowned at the mention of Angela. He tried to hide his dislike for her but he didn't succeed. Tina was better at reading faces than most Sanctuary residents were at reading minds.
“So you have formed a distinct dislike for my cousin, have you?” Tina probed, “ Could that be the cause of our little bender last night?”
Ben flung his eyes wide at her, and canceled any chance of denying it he might have had. “At least in part,” Ben mumbled, “Tina, I don't understand how you think you are at a disadvantage without telepathy. You do quite well without it.”
“Thanks, but we weren't talking about me anymore. We were discussing your feelings about my cousin.”
“You're good! Can't we leave it at you win and call the conversation on account of rain. I don't exactly feel comfortable discussing my feelings about her here. I'd rather they didn't get back to her.”
“Silly, stupid boy, you are more in danger of letting them get back to her than I am. She can't hear my brain tick, and I won’t pass anything around that you don't want me to.” Tina said pulling a stool up beside Ben's cot and slipping him a convincing smile.
Ben shrugged, “I just don't like her or necessarily trust her. She seems too...”
“Frigid, rigid, and obsessed with proper appearances?” Tina offered. Ben nodded with a confused look on his face. “Hey Ben, I told you she was my cousin, not that I necessarily liked her a bunch. I understand her, but she isn't the person I'd want to be stuck on a deserted planetoid with.”
It was Ben's turn to chuckle, “Amen to that.”
“It seems you are feeling much better now. That makes it class time. I'm supposed to go over the factor kitpacks with you.” Tina hopped up and grabbed a pair of knapsacks from the counter top. Plunking them heavily on the floor between the chair and the cot Tina sat back down.
“This is a factor-pack, that's the slang term most factors use, otherwise it's a factor kit-pack. It's rigged for a loose parallel of your Earth. It'll pass for an ordinary backpack there, as you can obviously see. Now, go ahead, open it and take a look inside.” Tina did as she suggested and opened her pack.
Ben looked over the outside of his own. The main compartment had a buckled down flap over a drawstring closure. There were several zippered compartments with dime-sized, color-coded zipper pulls scattered around on the sides. Satisfied Ben undid the fastenings on the main compartment. Inside he found clothes, shoes, a toiletries kit, a camera, a note pad and a pen.
Then Ben unzipped all of the outer compartments and went through their contents. The nine inch zippered compartment on the right side held a small first aid kit, and had a blue zipper pull. The matching pocket on the other side held maps and a compass, it had a green zipper pull. On the front of the pack there was a twelve inch diagonal zipper marked with a red zipper pull. It turned out to be empty.
“Okay, so I'm packed for a trip.” Ben said closing the pack up again.
Tina smiled broadly, “Just wait. Computer, initiate factor kit-pack authorization procedures, voice authorization assistant medical director Tina Harvey.” She eyed Ben when she came to reciting the voice authorization. “Neat huh. Now, carefully open the buckle. Make sure your thumb makes firm contact with the metal backing behind the buckle.”
Ben followed her directions and opened the main compartment. This time he found it full of Mylar packages in several different sizes, electronic gadgets and various other things, including a long clear plastic tube that retreated somewhere beneath the other stuff.
“How ?Where was this stuff before?”
“In the bag, stored in other dimensions. Those things are only available when the bag is unlocked by an authorized thumbprint. Open the zippered pockets, being careful to press the same thumb firmly on the smooth side of the zipper-pull. The pulls are color coded; blue for medical, green for survival, and red for emergencies.”
Ben opened the compartments one at a time. All of the zippered pockets were larger on the inside than on the outside, and they held things that wouldn't have fit in their other selves. Most of the stuff in the pockets was unrecognizable, with the exception of about half of the instruments in the medical pocket and a few things in each of the other pockets.
Ben finished digging and looked up at Tina. “So, this will be my little bag of tricks ?”
“Yep, it's your home away from home,” Tina answered. “Now let's start by going over the emergency pocket.” Tina stood and emptied her red zippered pocket out onto the cot next to Ben.
There was a handful of small silver pins similar to Bea’s remote, some disposable plastic bindings, a silver cube with what looked like extendible aluminum antennae with alligator clips protruding off each end, and a four meter long length of heavy metallic cording with bi-colored clasps on each end.
Tina picked up the silver cube and extended the antennae on each side. She dropped it from her palm, and just before it hit the floor the cube floated to a height of five feet and stabilized. Once it was floating, Tina lifted the cord and clipped it up between the two ends of the antennae. It hung there with one end dangling slightly from its alligator clip and the other end draping loosely to the floor. Tina picked up the clasp from the floor and grabbed the one dangling from the floating support structure.
“Now pay attention. See how these clasps have two different sides, a red one and a blue one? That is important.” Tina clasped the two red sides together. With the snap of the connector the air within the loop shimmered and then became a reflective semi-liquid surface.
Ben stood and walked around it. It looked like one of the cool special effects they put into sci-fi movies. Right then seeing wasn't quite believing for Ben. Completing his walk around, Ben reached out to touch the surface. His hand jerked back reflexively without even making contact, when his fingertips detected a buzzing energy.
“Watch this,” Tina flung her backpack at the vertical puddle which neatly swallowed it.
“Where did it go?” Ben worried the loop was some kind of disintegration weapon.
“The answer is both to nowhere and to here. I sent it on to the exit from the loop, which doesn't exist until I reverse polarity.”
Tina disengaged the red clasps which immediately dissolved the effect, and attached the two blue clasps. Once the area within the loop resumed the vertical puddle look, Tina's bag came flinging out the other side. Ben did another once around and then examined Tina's backpack.
“It is in exactly the same state as when I threw it through. Effectively it was in stasis until I reversed polarity. Cool gadgets like these were one of the only things I liked about the idea of becoming a factor. Since I didn't have powers to hone I spent a lot of time mastering them all. I've got mnemonic devices to remember how to use most of the important ones, like this one. Attach red to red to send ahead. Attach blue to blue to bring to you. Red to blue do not do.”
Ben sat hard in Tina's chair, his eyes wide. “Tina, do you think we could take a break before my head explodes?”
Tina's smile faded to concern, “Is it bothering you again? Where does it hurt? Maybe I should get Gene to come and check you for complications.” Tina didn't speak, words came exploding out of her mouth in excited succession.
Ben stood up again and grabbed Tina firmly by the shoulders to hold her tongue still long enough to get a word in edgewise, “My head is fine. I just need some time, time to think, time to take a breath, time to figure out what's going on around me and where I fit into it all.”
Tina looked up into Ben's smiling eyes, “Okay how about lunch?”
Ben released her shoulders, �
�My stomach would worship you eternally.”
“Ugh! In that case never mind! I've already seen the kind of sacrificial offerings it likes to make once today. Thank you very much!” Tina said with her nose hiked halfway up to her part and a smile which tried to wrap itself around her face. Ben ruffled her hair in response and they set out the door to hunt down a good lunch restaurant.
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Trapped in the world of the snoring unwoken, Miranda stared wide-eyed into the darkness, realizing the darkness, the hour, the noise of twelve people crammed into the space for two. The room was so small the people practically had to be folded to get them all to fit. Some were wadded seemingly painfully about each other. An elbow shifted and lodged in Miranda's ribs. She blocked the pain and sighed almost content in the irony of evading her pursuers by hiding on one of the worlds they controlled.
Miranda cleared her throat and by proxy her mind of that chain of thought. She wasn't here to hide. She was here to strike out against the dark. A scream rippled through the outer hallway, almost as if to punctuate her thoughts, or refute them.
Miranda turned her thoughts to those sleeping around her. They slept soundly despite the depravity of their dark conquerors. She allowed herself to peek at their dreams. The soul-shining glow she found there warmed Miranda, more than all the suns shining down on all the sandy beaches she could have been on could ever aspire to. These people knew what a home was, and that it didn't matter what the walls looked like.
Distracted, Miranda reached out with her mind to check the vicinity for danger. Though saturated in the ambient pallor of the dark she sensed nothing near enough to worry about. Her search had the effect of waking Kindy. She felt his mind stir but didn't hear any changes in the room's ambient sounds. She thought she had imagined it until a change in the air currents of the room told her someone was moving. Her next warning came from Kindy's hand jiggling her big toe.
Eyes Love & Water Page 16
