"Shouldn't we go and talk to her, find out how she found the woman?" Ben urged.
"Yeah, it doesn't make much sense to me and I used to work for them," Nick added, Ben sensed Nick was trying to help.
"Okay," Angela rose and began walking, still detached, but rising to the challenge of the puzzle.
Ben and Angela arrived just outside of room 52 as the cries of a newborn infant erupted from within. They stepped inside finding a room full of people, some medics, some obviously refugees, and some surrounding an ambiguous blob of flesh on an exam table. Tina stood near the foot, next to Gene, holding a blanket wrapped bundle. Ben could hear her cooing softly at it despite the distance between them. Briefly, Tina flashed him a winning smile, but it clouded over quickly. Ben knew she was remembering the way he had yelled the last time they spoke.
"No, no, no, no, hang in there!" Gene moaned, before his shoulders and chin dropped. He turned, his whole body frowning, and shook his head at Angela. Ben felt Angela's slowly rebuilt confidence slump again.
"Erica," Angela called the woman's attention without showing the despair Ben knew she felt, "Good job, I of course will want a full report."
Erica nodded, her face a mask of enthusiasm moderated at grief over the death of the lump of flesh on the table. Ben realized suddenly that she didn't need his protection. He wasn't a cop anymore and somehow in giving Erica the job, Angela had made the girl more than a victim. For all he had felt conflict in the past over Angela's 'tin army' Ben finally realized she knew what she was doing. What's more he finally understood the admiration that was the real reason everyone here answered to her.
Angela turned to Gene, " So, what exactly happened?"
"I don't know. It looks like the plague, but I can't find any free floating virus. The child has undoubtedly been exposed but she shows healthy. There doesn't seem to be any danger, but I can't make sense of why the girl died," Gene answered.
"Angela," Erica respectfully interrupted, "Lleana, that was her name, wanted us to name her baby Yllera. It was her grandmother's name. She thought to me that it would be fitting because her great-grandmother died from the plague while giving birth. She also asked me to find her mother and take Yllera to her."
"Did Lleana mention what happened to her after, the incident?" Angela asked.
"They used her for breeding purposes. She told me she had two sons somewhere. One was half..." Ben watched Erica swallow spasmodically, "the other was with an Agurian man that worked with the dark man. The dark man was very interested in her second son and this child."
"You mean the Darkone?" Ben asked, wondering if the Darkone’s obsession with Miranda was why he and Miranda had been so tied to finding the girl.
"Yeah, I guess you might call him that," Erica answered.
Angela looked at Ben strangely, almost as if she was trying to figure out the purpose of his question. Then her face set into a scowl, "We still don't know where she is."
If her words hadn't set him back into his worry rut, Ben might have thought it funny to see the confused looks passed around at the seeming discontinuity. "I last saw her disappear with Ellen before I bug bombed the plague factory."
"And that was before mother tried to kill Nick?" Angela prompted.
"Yeah," Ben rattled around in his mind trying to think of ways to find Miranda. He reached out and felt around for her, like he had before going to the plague world. All he found was a terrifying absence of her everywhere. Ben's concern deepened, but not beyond seeing Tina's shocked concern for Nick. A stab of half hearted jealousy focused Ben on Tina.
"Angie!" Daniel interrupted Ben's thought racing to his wife's side. Ben felt Angela lean telepathically into her husband. Outwardly she still maintained the stoic facade of command. "I got here as quick as I heard. We found the girl, and she's dead?" Angela nodded. Aware that he was perhaps the only one in the room that could, Ben felt like a voyeur as he sensed Angela pour the deflating experiences of the afternoon into her husband.
"So we don't know where Miranda is."
"No," Ben answered looking from Daniel to Tina. Then he had an idea, "Can those emergency transporters be activated again after they've been used , or are they a onetime thing?"
"They're reusable," Tina answered when no one else did.
"Can they be remotely activated?"
"Yes, but she would have to be wearing one. She went to that plague world without a mission briefing or an outfitting session," Angela answered.
"She was still wearing the one from when we rescued Nick. She didn't change before the mission, and I definitely remember she was still wearing the bracelet."
Angela turned to Daniel, who was suddenly holding a pop-pad. She nodded at him and he tapped violently at the screen for a few moments then smiled. "Here she comes."
Ben heard a loud pop and spun to face it, just in time to see Miranda's limp form land on the floor. "Oh, my god! Gene!" He moaned rushing to her, but he needn't have called for Gene's help. The doctor reached Miranda before he did.
Gene ran a scanner over Miranda and rocked back on his heels smiling in relief, "She'll be fine. Someone beat the snot out of her then massively whomped her telepathically like she did to you," Gene paused to tap to the next screen worth of readings, "Whoa! The residual indicates that she was hit by someone with an Everett of over fifteen thousand."
"Mother, and she must have been going through a secondary metamorphosis." Angela blurted. Ben sensed from Angela that the rating was neither normal nor permanent.
"What makes it worse is Miranda appears to have been building to one herself. She was wide open when she got hit. She's going to be deaf for a while thanks to it, but she will recover. Ben, would you mind 'porting us to the room she had before."
"Sure," Ben pulled himself together, closed his eyes and when he opened them Miranda was on the Bed and Gene knelt on the floor beside him.
"You are truly getting good at that," Gene complimented before heading to a cupboard to get things to tend Miranda.
"Is she really going to be okay?"
"Yes, she's pretty well bruised, and suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion, but she will be fine. For that matter you have a few bruises of your own."
Ben finally allowed himself to notice the aches from his own beating by Ellen. Then he let his eyes return to Miranda's peaceful face. He drank in her beauty. He could smell her essence and twined with it was a flinty fragrance. He didn't feel so sore, except for the ache to touch her hair. He let his fingers have their way and felt sand caught between the silky, sweaty strands. Part of him knew the strength of his reaction belonged to his new Briauntish hormones, but he also knew that he had wanted to touch her and be close to her before his hormones had begun to rage. With a smile he remembered the first moment he saw her on the stairs of the library, caught between the tingle of fear from her obvious threat and the thrill of her deep and honest beauty. Ben watched Gene clean the scratches and cuts where her skin was exposed.
“I could use your help again Ben, I need to get her clothes off so I can put salve on her bruises.”
Shocked, Ben withdrew his hand from her hair. The thought of seeing her naked deepened his desires and caused a tightening of his pants. Ben distracted himself, teleporting the sand away from her. Ben's shame finally found voice, "I'm not sure that would be appropriate."
Gene noted Ben's discomfort, "I'll pull the blankets over her, you can teleport the clothes over there and then you can leave while I tend her."
Gene gently pulled the blankets up. Ben nodded, and attempting to think of everything except her naked body, he teleported her dark uniform into a neatly folded pile on the chair. Then he stiffly shuffled out the door.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Miranda awoke to a hazy silent telepathic fog and the sensation that something about her was different. Miranda tried to analyze the sensation in a detached almost analytical way. It was almost like she woke up in someone else's body. When the pain sensation
s started to reach her, she wished her body belonged to someone else. Her back told her there was a bed beneath her, not sand. The rest of her skin reported that her clothes were missing, though she was covered by smooth sheets. Reluctantly she opened her eyes to the room around her. Apathetically she was relieved it was a Sanctuary observation room rather than the dark med-center, but she was still to detached from herself to really care about the consequences of the other fate. Gene stepped into her field of view and her lips made a smile at him. A few moments later she felt an echo of her own relief at his presence.
"Oh, you're awake?" Gene stumbled verbally. Miranda could tell from his manner he had something he didn't want to have to tell her. "So how do you feel?"
Miranda's eyebrow arched with suspicion it took her a few more moments to feel, "Not too bad." "Good," Gene straightened her blankets, and stood looking at her.
"What's wrong?"
"Do you remember what happened?"
Miranda scratched at the inside of her skull, drawing together fragments. "Ellen teleported us to Altan, and kicked my butt. I kicked back until... she started to telepathically blow her top. You know my head feels kind of funny. Like I'm here but not here, or not all here."
Gene nodded seriously, "Let me put it this way, for a while anyway we are in the same club. It's not that there's anything really wrong with you. You just won’t be telepathic for a little while."
Miranda shook herself. She was a telepath. Even when the Darkone had taken or tried to take everything else from her, including her name, she had been a telepath. Now she wasn't? Nothing wrong? Her mouth went dry and her stomach churned, "How long is 'a little while'?”
“It’s hard to say. I’m almost certain it won’t be permanent.” >Almost certain’ didn’t comfort her. She figured her anxiety showed when Gene backed away slowly. “I should let everyone know you’re awake. They’ve all been worried.” Gene slunk out the door and let it slide shut behind him.
Miranda got out of bed with the blanket wrapped around her nudity. She started to put on her uniform, but couldn’t bring herself to it. Instead she went to the screen and ordered up a plain tan T-shirt and a pair of jeans. It arrived and she started to dress. She had to go back for underwear, shoes and then socks. Then dressed she sat on the bed, staring at the blank wall. Here, alone, it wouldn’t be so bad to be >deaf’, but she was used to >hearing’ people. She’d always >heard’ them. Even when they shielded themselves, or she wore a suppresser she still heard something. She could even sense Gene and Tina. Miranda felt her detached shock beginning to give way to tears when the door hissed open.
Angela stepped into the room, “How are you feeling?”
Miranda glared at her cousin briefly then wiped the threatened moisture from the corners of her eyes, “Just great.”
Angela nodded, crossed to the chair and carefully moved the uniform to the floor before sitting down. Each motion looked stiff, formal and rehearsed to Miranda. Angela sat stiffly, holding her face in a grim expression, betraying almost no emotion, except for her hands. Angela’s palms rubbed against each other almost frantically. Miranda thought the friction must have brought the skin nearly to the point of combustion when finally Angela let a breath explode past her lips.
“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I spend so much time worrying about the dark that I didn’t even see my own mother becoming a monster. I was more worried about- I don’t know what- that I didn’t see... I’m just so sorry. I’m thinking of stepping down as chief. I’ve missed too many important things recently, you, mother, that plague, even the girl you were looking for. I want you to take over. You have the gut for it. I don’t have the stomach for it anymore. We can make the change slowly. Maybe creating a position like vice-chief or deputy-chief then when everybody’s used to that I’ll just go away.” Angela stumbled quickly through the words. Then her composure dissolved, showing Miranda all of her worry and weariness even without a telepathic insight.
Miranda swung immediately from self pity to an empathic concern for Angela entirely separate from her extrasensory abilities. “You can’t be everywhere and know everything. It shook me up when I figured out that Ellen was behind the plague. I thought I knew her. She could take care of herself. I’m not sure how I even noticed something was wrong. There was no reason you could have suspected.”
“Even so, I just can’t do this anymore. I’ve gotten numb to the pattern. Please say you’ll do it,” Angela pleaded.
“I don’t know...”
Angela interrupted Miranda, “Say you’ll think about it.”
Miranda shuffled her feet and glanced at the ceiling. She wanted time to think about saying she’d think about it. The door hissed open again, this time it was Ben. Miranda fixed her eyes on him with relief at his rescue from the pressing decision. Her look sparked an instant smile on his lips. Miranda started to recoil from him, or actually the memory of Kindy. When that brought her eyes back to Angela, Miranda turned and flashed an equally bright smile at him.
“I should leave you two alone,” Angela mumbled as she stood, “Please think about it.” Miranda nodded at her and Angela quickly dodged around Ben to leave.
Ben’s smile flickered to confusion then back to radiance. “Do I want to know?” He nodded towards Angela.
Miranda looked at her feet and shook her head. She looked up just in time to see a strange expression flicker across Ben’s face.
“Did she tell you that Erica found the girl we were supposed to be looking for?” Ben sputtered and directed his glance towards the bathroom door.
“She did?” Miranda turned her thoughts to the topic. If the girl had been found then their mission was over. Would that mean they weren’t partners anymore? What if she took Angela’s offer? Would Ben still want to be around her even if they weren’t working together.
“Then what was the point of us looking? I mean if anybody could find her.”
Ben appeared to struggle with himself and took a step towards her, “Actually, Angela placed Erica on that world based on our information from the prison sortie.”
Thoughts of the state Miranda had put Angela in merged with the certainty that Ben would want nothing more to do with Miranda. “Yeah, well you and Daniel could have done that. You didn’t really need me. I guess I’m just wondering whether there was any point to my being here. I haven’t really accomplished much other than putting people into muddles.”
“Don’t say that! You were a big help! Without you Ellen would have taken out an entire world, and Daniel and I would have never found the record room before we were noticed, especially without the uniforms.”
“Yeah but, now that it is over you probably don’t want me around anymore. Seeing as I’m nothing but trouble. I mean you had to break into a dark prison camp after me, and you ended up on a plague planet because of me, and after all I almost killed you when we met.” Miranda couldn’t bring herself to look at Ben while she awaited his affirmation of her words.
Her eyes fell to her feet again. There was a long silence. When Miranda looked up Ben stood right in front of her. She looked up into his honest steel blue eyes. She fell into them. They were still the same eyes she’d seen so long ago on the steps of a library. They still spoke of trust, friendship, and peace, but they shouted love. She didn’t need telepathy to read how much he loved her, all she had to do was look into his eyes. She memorized him. His sandy blonde hair, was longer shaggier. His dark blue business suit and the bulge of his hidden gun were gone. He wore a short sleeve shirt and slacks in a shade of dark tan. Her eyes slid all the way down to his feet then danced up to his eyes again.
“Not want you around anymore?” Ben took her chin in one hand and caressed her cheek with the other, “How can you say that! I came after you because I wanted you near me. I worried about you. I changed my species for you!”
Miranda shook her head, to fight off tears. She didn’t trust his words or his eyes. She wanted desperately to hear his heart, then maybe she could believe
him. “But...”
Ben cut off her protest by planting his lips firmly on hers. As she let her lips part accepting the kiss, she felt a sensation inside her mind like when her ears popped from a change in altitude. Behind the sensation flowed Ben’s thoughts, emotions, and the truth that his eyes and mouth had already spoken. It was a perfect moment, even as his saliva sent a pleasant tingling through her, and she felt hers tingle in him. She didn’t want the kiss to stop, and she knew that it could last as long as they liked.
Behind Ben, the door slid open and someone entered. Miranda didn’t care who, or that she couldn’t sense their mind. It didn’t matter as long as she could sense Ben. Whomever it was waited quietly as the kiss continued and began to include an ever more passionate embrace. Eventually Miranda identified the interloper by her giggles. It was Tina’s hearty round of applause that finally ended the kiss. Ben leaned away and smiled openly at Miranda then blushed and glanced at Tina.
“No, no, don’t let me interrupt! It’s about time! Besides you were obviously going for the record,” Tina gloated.
“What exactly do you want squirt!” Ben grinned.
“Oh nothing, Gene just wanted me to run a quick check on Miranda before discharging her,” Tina waved a scanner.
Miranda smiled at Ben and sent him the thought that she would like to talk to Tina for a few minutes, privately. Ben nodded, unwrapped his arms and stepped into the bathroom to cool himself off. “Tina, I want to thank you for keeping an eye out for Ben.”
“Huh?” Tina asked as she began the scan.
“I know you showed him around and made him feel like he was at home. I appreciate that,” Miranda elaborated.
“Oh, that, it was nothing. He helped me out. He got me this job even though mom and everybody...” Tina stopped and punched at the scanner with her finger. Miranda suspected it was to cover her feelings.
“You aren’t a freak, and you aren’t disabled. I have a little insight now,” Miranda waved casually at the scanner, “I think why people treated you like that was because it can be scary and make you feel small and weak not to be able to hear people when you’re used to it. The truth is I was just plain scared the first time I didn’t sense you. I thought there was something wrong with me. Practically everyone behaves badly when they are scared. The sad thing is you have to understand that and make allowances for them. What’s even sadder is that they are missing an opportunity to get to know a very strong and good person.”
Eyes Love & Water Page 38
