by R. A. Rock
I smiled as he parroted the words I had said earlier back at me. Damn, it would be handy if he could teleport. But our resident Kinetic was down for the count, so we were forced to use the old fashioned method of walking.
He picked her up and we followed him into the night.
***
“What happened?” Nessa said, her eyes sleepy as she came to the door in answer to our calls and knocking.
“She’s been shot,” Shiv told her.
“We need Matt’s mother,” Nessa said. “She’s a healer.”
“Where?” Shiv said.
“Next door,” Nessa said, pointing.
Shiv was out the door and running across the yard, immediately.
“Let’s get her on to the table,” Nessa said. “Help me, Yumi.”
Audrey shook her head, pointing to my wrist and helped Nessa get Grace settled on the table and covered with blankets.
Nessa made a fire and before the flames had really got going, Shiv was back with Cynthia. Audrey was lighting candles as per Nessa’s directives and I was filling pails with water.
The older woman got straight to work, setting her bag down on a chair next to the table.
She examined the bullet wound, clucking her tongue.
“You’re building a fire, Ness?” she said. “Make it hot and young woman, get that water on the stove as soon as it’s full.”
“The fire wasn’t quite out,” she told her mother-in-law, using the bellows. The fire roared to life as I set the pail on the cookstove. It would boil soon.
Cynthia examined Grace and pulled packets and small brown bottles out of her bag, muttering to herself about fever and infection.
“Yumi,” Shiv said, pulling me into the living room. “You need to tell Chad.”
“What?” I said, confused.
“What’s happening. You need to tell him. If anything happened to Grace and we hadn’t told him… well, I couldn’t forgive myself.”
“Tell Chad?” Nessa said, overhearing us as she came into the room in search of more blankets. “I’m afraid they’re way too far away right now, Shiv. I can send someone to them but he won’t reach them till tomorrow. And no smartphones anymore to text him, either.”
She gave us a sorrowful smile — no doubt thinking of all they had lost when that solar flare hit — grabbed the blankets, and left.
Shiv didn’t say anything, only waited.
“Shiv, you know we’re not at full power and look what happened with your manifestation ability. What if I screw up and hurt him?”
He stayed silent.
“What if I can’t reach him. He’s far away.”
He lifted one eyebrow.
Okay, well it was unlikely I couldn’t reach him. I had once sent to him across light years.
“Just because you don’t want to contact him, doesn’t mean that you can’t, Yumi. There’s a difference.”
“Fine.”
“Thanks, Yumi. You know you’d want us to do the same if it was you.”
He was right, of course and I nodded.
“I think you should forgive him. He was doing his best in a tough situation.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all before, Shiv.”
He looked disappointed in me and shook his head.
“I would have thought you had learned your lesson on Lood,” he said and I scowled. He would have to bring that up. But this was totally different.
“I’m going to the room where we stayed. Make sure no one disturbs me. I might have to go deep into my mind.”
“Okay,” he said, giving me a quick hug and then hurrying back to Grace’s side. I watched him go and then took a deep breath. This wouldn’t be easy.
I hadn’t been in Chad’s mind since… I stopped the thought.
Suffice to say, I hadn’t been there in a long time.
Well, this was going to be awkward.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAD
It was early and I felt exhausted after a night spent sleeping on the cold ground. The first light of false dawn lit the world dimly as I gazed across the treetops and then peered down into the prison camp. I couldn’t see very well and I stood up to get a better look.
I was at the top of a large spruce tree, doing reconnaissance while the rest of the team waited below. We were going strike before dawn, while hopefully most of the camp would be still asleep.
“Chad?”
A whisper brushed across my mind but it might as well have been a shout it startled me so much. I jerked and my foot slipped. I grabbed ahold of the trunk but slipped down a few feet before I came to rest on the next big branch below the one I had been standing on.
I clamped the big branch between my legs and took a steadying breath. Shit. I had almost fallen the thirty feet that I had only just climbed to get a better vantage point.
What the hell had that been?
“Chad?”
There it was again.
Yumi’s fucking beautiful mental voice.
Our abilities were back.
But her voice was extremely faint. That was something I wasn’t used to. Usually she had to tone her voice down in order not to blast us.
“It’s about Grace. Can I come over?” She sent. Her tone was tentative. Did she think I was going to refuse? I thought back to our fight. Yeah, she had reason to think that I might refuse.
She meant could she come into my mind. The strongest Telepaths can project a mental image into someone else’s mind. And Yumi was the strongest telepath.
I closed my eyes, holding on tight to the branch.
Could I let her in to my mind? I wasn’t sure I could handle it. Not after all this time. And everything that had happened.
“Yes.” I sent back.
Who was I kidding? I needed to know what had happened to my sister. Yumi and I could set aside our differences for that.
“K, pull out my brick. I’m coming that way. I’m not strong enough to do it the usual way.”
What did that mean?
I shook myself. I could ask all my questions when she got here. I closed my eyes and visualized myself in my public mind. And suddenly I was standing in a cozy living room. I snapped my fingers and there was a fire in the fireplace.
Yumi is the strongest telepathic sender and I’m the strongest receiver. I turned to face the fourth wall in my public mind. It was made of bricks. The wall protected me from hearing everyone’s thoughts all the time, a state that would drive me insane in seconds. My teachers had helped me create the shield to protect me. I could pull out the bricks, though, to listen to other people’s thoughts.
I clenched my fists and walked over to a brick that was covered in locks and chains. I cleared away all of that and then tried to pull it out. I had slammed it so hard the last time we had communicated it telepathically that it didn’t want to open.
“Chad? What’s going on?”
I couldn’t answer her back. She was the long range sender and I was the receiver. I needed to get her brick out. I held out my hand and a sledge hammer appeared.
Feeling grim, I slung the tool at her brick, which was about two feet long and a foot and a half wide, it hit with a solid thud.
I hit it again. And again. This time it cracked. I picked up the pace and slammed the hammer over and over until the brick crumbled. I pulled the pieces out with my fingers, scraping them till blood appeared. But finally there was a hole in the wall.
I dropped the sledgehammer and leaned against the back of the couch, breathing hard. I folded my arms across my chest, knowing full well that the body language was closed off. It’s a position people take when they’re protecting themselves.
But Yumi had already done her worst, surely she couldn’t do anymore damage? My crossed arms said differently.
I waited patiently, not knowing what sorts of mind hoops she was having to jump through in order to get here. After maybe five minutes, her head poked through the hole. There was brick dust in her black hair and on her clothe
s when she stood up.
“You have some dust on your head,” I said. She brushed off her head and then looked at her clothes, hitting them with a little more vehemence than was strictly necessary.
As I watched the mental image of her flickered.
I frowned.
“What?” she said, looking up at that moment. “More dust?”
I shook my head not quite sure how to explain what I had seen. That had never happened before.
“Looks like our powers are back.”
“Looks like,” she repeated. “Sort of.”
I thought about the flicker.
Sort of, indeed.
“What’s going on with Grace?” I said.
She blew out her breath and walked over to one of the chairs, throwing herself down as though she was exhausted.
“Yumi?”
“The mission was awful, Chad, but we got her. She’s alive.”
My blood ran cold.
“Why wouldn’t she be alive?” I said, sitting down across from her, putting my elbows on my knees, and clasping my hands so that they wouldn’t shake and show how upset I was.
Yumi told me the whole story from the time when they had left Sipwesk until they returned with Grace.
“And now Cynthia is helping her?”
Yumi nodded.
“Shiv asked me to tell you what was going on.”
Shiv. Of course. Now it made sense. Yumi would never have contacted me mentally unless someone like Shiv practically begged her to.
I felt that hard feeling invading my chest again.
Her image flickered again and she went a little fuzzy.
“Um, Yumi?” I said. “You’re breaking up.”
“What?”
“Look at your hand.”
She held her hand out in front of her and her eyes widened as she watched it flicker and get fuzzy again. Like an ancient television.
“Oh, that is weird,” she said, staring in fascination. “I hope I’m not passing out.”
“Passing out?” I said, suddenly focused on her. “Why would you pass out?”
“I lost some blood,” she waved her hand. “It was only a scratch but I was a little woozy for a while.”
“So what does that really mean, Yumi? Is Cynthia going to have to amputate? You’re the queen of understatement when it comes to your injuries.”
She pursed her lips.
Busted. I knew it.
“Shiv manifested the knife so we could get out of the ropes but I might have failed to mention that he manifested it about an inch into my forearm.” Her eyes closed.
“What?” I said, shocked enough that I stood up.
“It seems our abilities are not up to their usual strength and accuracy.”
Her words were slow and sleepy sounding.
Was she falling asleep?
“No shit,” I said, taking her hands and trying to pull her to her feet but she resisted. “You better go back. Right now. We don’t want your consciousness separated from your body.”
“I’m not sure I can,” she said.
“Not sure you can, what?” I said, feeling worry stab me.
“Go back.”
“What? Yumi, you have to. The mind can’t be separated from the body.”
“I’m just so very comfortable here. I always did like your public mind, Chad. So comfy. And safe.”
I stared at her. She was falling asleep. Or going unconscious. I had no way to tell which it was.
“Get up, Tanaka,” I said, grabbing her hands and pulling firmly. She came up but her legs buckled. I grabbed her around the waist so she wouldn’t collapse and she giggled.
Yumi was giggling? This was not a good sign.
“Call me Tanaka again, Red,” she said, kissing me on the cheek.
Oh boy. Something was really wrong. I needed to get her back through her brick. I helped her walk over to the wall. She leaned against it with her shoulder, as if her legs wouldn’t hold her up without help from the wall.
“Yumi, you have to go back through your brick. If you do that, you’ll be back in your own mind and everything will be okay. Even if you pass out.”
“No.”
“If you don’t, you’re going to be as good as dead. Your body can’t survive without your mind.”
She sighed, twisting so she could lean her head against the wall.
“I’m sorry about what I said about Gracie,” she said, her voice muffled because her face was against the wall.
Shit.
“I know you didn’t mean it.”
I didn’t know any such thing but I needed to get her out of here before her mind was irretrievably separated from her body. I might be pissed at her but I didn’t want her to die.
“Come on, Yumi. I’m going to stuff you back through. You’ll have to pull a bit on your side.”
“K.”
I carefully put her arms in and then pushed her head down so that her upper body was in the hole. I could hear her fingers scrabbling on the bricks a little so I shoved her butt next —ignoring how great her taut little ass felt in my hands — until that disappeared, too. Then I picked up her legs and pushed. She seemed to be stuck as her hips went through. But I gave one last hard push and she was gone.
I stared at the spot where she had disappeared.
I felt suddenly bereft and I didn’t know why.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAD
I stared up at the slats with plywood on top that made up the bed above me and counted the knots in the wood. I was lying on one of the bunkbeds in Matt and Nessa’s guest house, feeling sorry for myself.
It was evening and we had only just returned from not rescuing Zoe. I hadn’t gone to find any of my friends because I didn’t want to see anyone and have to tell them that I had failed.
Matt and Nessa and everyone had been counting on me.
And I had failed.
Breaking Zoe out of the prison camp was a complete fiasco. And I felt like it was my fault. Everything seemed to be my fault these days. I was nothing but a complete fuck-up. But I had to keep pushing through. My team was depending on me. And now Matt and Nessa were depending on me, too, to help get Zoe back.
And me? What was I doing? Nothing but letting everyone down.
I thought about how I would feel right now if they had gone to get Gracie and had come back without her. After they had promised to get her back. I would probably be angry that things hadn’t gone as planned. I would probably blame them for not getting her back.
But there was no curling up into a ball and hiding out or just going and living in a cave or something for me. I had responsibilities. I had people who depended on me. I had to get up from this bunk bed and go to the main house for supper. I didn’t have a choice.
But I didn’t fucking want to.
I turned on to my stomach and groaned into my pillow.
At that moment, someone came into the guest house.
“Chad. You’re back.”
It was Yumi.
Great. Just who I wanted to talk to when I was wallowing in self-pity. I needed to project confidence. Show her I didn’t care what she thought of me. But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
“Yeah, the failure returns.”
“You didn’t get Zoe?” she said, her voice soft. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” I said, sitting up and narrowly missing hitting my head on the top bunk. I stood to face her. “You’re sorry?”
“Yeah.”
“Bullshit. You’re gloating. I can feel it. I’m not only a Telepath, I’m an Empath, too. Remember?”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.
“I’m not gloating, Chad.”
I explained what we had done and what had gone wrong and I saw the expressions flitting across her face.
“You are gloating,” I accused her. “You would have known exactly what to do, wouldn’t you?”
“Maybe,” she said. “But we could have used
you on the other mission, too. It was a disaster.”
“A disaster but you accomplished the mission.”
“Yes, but…”
“But nothing. You were right. We should have waited. We should have all gone on both missions. Then ours wouldn’t have been such a clusterfuck.”
“Chad,” she looked surprised at the derision in my voice — directed at myself, of course. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing’s going on,” I said, dropping down onto one of the single beds with no upper bunk. “I’m an idiot and a screw up. And I’ve maybe blown their chance to get their friend back.”
She sat down beside me.
“You’re being dramatic again, Dvorski,” she said. “There will be plenty of chances to get Zoe back.”
I shook my head.
“I’m always fucking up. And you’re always there to pick up the pieces. God, you must be so tired of it Yumi.”
“What do you mean? You’re talking crazy. You’re the one who’s always got it together.”
“Together?” I stared at her as if she was the insane one. “What happened on the first ship I was to captain?”
“You were nervous. Anyone would have been nervous,” she said. “It was a Class 4 starship.”
“And when I lost it, who told me to get my shit together?”
She was quiet.
“Me.”
“That’s right. And when I was being a pussy and couldn’t stand up to my supervisor to defend a crew member on that same ship, who told me I was being stupid and helped me get over my dislike of conflict?”
“Me.” She twisted her hands in her lap, not meeting my eye.
“And now this. If you would have been there, you would have salvaged my fuck-up. I am a so damn useless.”
“Oh fuck, give me a break, Chad. You’re doing it again.”
“What?” I scowled at her.
“All of those examples you gave. It wasn’t me who Captained the ship. It was you. It wasn’t me who went and spoke to your supervisor. That was you. And even though you’ve somehow made a mess of this mission, I know you. You’ll sort it out. Because you’re that kind of guy.”
I sat up straighter and shook my head.
