Merran took the delicate fingers and brushed his lips across the backs of them as he bowed, maintaining eye contact as he did so. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Taylor.”
Her eyebrows shot up under the fringe of bangs that curled across her forehead. “Pretty manners too. My, my. Maybe we can hook up after the meeting.”
Merran’s smile broke through as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. “I could be convinced.” With a small bow, he let her out first, holding the door open.
“Wait, how will I find you?” Lori stopped and twisted around to look at him. “What meeting are you going to?”
“The same one you are.”
“Really? Well, that’s good. What’s your name by the way?” They walked past the big desk in the front toward a conference room.
“You can call me Merran.” He opened the conference room doors and let her through.
“Merran. That’s unusual. It goes with your accent. Where are you from?”
Ellen, looking very trim in her business suit, not a strand of gray hair out of place, walked up to them and extended a hand to him. “Ambassador Corina, how wonderful to see you! I trust you had no problem finding this room.”
Lori Taylor looked like she had just been kicked in the stomach. From her mental reactions, she felt something like it too, as her mind raced over their recent interaction, looking for a hint of his reactions to it. Merran bowed but managed not to grin. “None at all, Ms. Pearson. Your assistant here provided a wonderful escort.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Ellen Pearson replied as she eyed her assistant. “I do hope she didn’t behave inappropriately in any way.”
Lori flushed a deep red.
Merran bowed. “It was a very enjoyable elevator ride. No offense was offered or taken. I did learn quite a bit about certain old embassy members however.”
Lori choked and coughed. “Excuse me,” she said hastily. “Do you mind if I go to the ladies’ room before we get started?”
Ellen waved a hand, a slight frown between her eyes. “Go. But I need you back here to get set up so make it snappy. Ambassador, if you would?”
Lifting his briefcase, Merran strode to the front of the room, scanning with his mind and psi abilities as he moved. Except for the flirtatious Lori, whom he suspected would not want to have anything to do with him after this, the others in the room were all older, conservatively dressed, and conservatively minded. He had a moment of déjà vu—he’d had a hard time convincing the Azellian Council to allow this exchange, and now he faced another council, another day of hard arguing, and another endless war as the new tried to express itself through the old. Although the humans were on board with the idea of an exchange, he had no illusions that it would be easy. He suppressed his sigh and put his briefcase on the table.
Chapter Two
IN THE REGISTRAR’S OFFICE on campus, Tamara got ready to call it a day. She put the box of entered cards on the shelf behind the desk and pushed her chair back.
“Ready to go?” Kim asked her as she stood up.
Tamara stretched and nodded. Kim smiled at her as Tamara slipped on her coat.
“See you tomorrow?” Tamara asked over her shoulder.
“Tomorrow.” Kim turned back to her work as Tamara pushed open the door and walked into the study lounge.
She didn’t even notice the person sitting on one of the lounge chairs until he got up.
“Hi, are you done with work?” It was the dark-haired young man. Those luminous grey-blue eyes met hers and again Tamara was struck by a resemblance to—someone. She immediately felt a pressure behind her eyes. “I’m Justern.”
“Hi, Justern.” Tamara collected her suddenly scattering thoughts with some effort. “Are you all settled in?”
He nodded. “Better anyway. I finished unpacking everything and found myself at loose ends. Do you know any place where I could get something to eat? The campus seems to be closed down.” His accent was as heavy as Mellis’s, but his deeper voice made it seem a little less musical. Or maybe he was just nervous.
“The cafeteria will be opening for dinner in about …” she checked her watch, “… forty-five minutes or so.” He didn’t seem quite so arrogant as he had earlier; in fact, he seemed almost desperate. “Do you know where it is?”
He shook his head.
“I can show you, but then I have to get home.” Although she was in no mood to babysit a new arrival, there was something vulnerable about him that made her unwilling to chase him away. She motioned for him to get up. “How are you liking Earth so far?”
“Overwhelming.” He sounded lost. She suddenly wanted to reach out to touch him and tell him it was going to be all right, but she resisted the urge. “And empty,” he complained. “When are the other students going to arrive on campus?” He walked beside her down the stairs.
“In two weeks. You’ll learn to appreciate how calm and quiet it is here right now. It’s chaos for the first few days after the rest of the students get back. The other first-year students are going to be arriving tomorrow.”
She could feel him look at her. “Regular classes don’t start for two weeks then?”
Despite his accent, his English was really very good. Plenty of idiom. “Yes, two weeks from now. I noticed that you are all taking English as a second language, but you seem to be pretty fluent already.”
“It was required to come here. The administration assumed that because we aren’t human, we don’t speak English.” Justern’s comment was tinged with an odd sarcastic lilt, quite contrary to the vulnerable little boy image she’d gotten from him a moment ago.
Sudden questions flew across her mind, dashing off into a tangent of uncomfortable thoughts. Just how human are these Azellians? They are supposed to be closely related to humans, despite all their differences. But … how closely? Her grandmother had always claimed that her grandfather was unfaithful with Azellian women. What would an Azellian look like naked? Maybe that ambassador—she clamped down on her thoughts and pushed them away.
Justern looked at her strangely, and horror blanketed her thoughts. Can he read my mind? Her grandfather had always believed they could. She concentrated fiercely on counting, keeping her mind blank. “Are you all right?” he asked, but she was not at all sure whether he could read her mind or was just asking because she had done something weird to make him wonder.
“I’m fine.” What had Grandpa said? Repetitive counting would prevent a mind reader from reading anything they shouldn’t? Before now, she had never believed it as more than a story, but it couldn’t hurt. One two three four five! One two three four five! “The cafeteria is over there,” Tamara told him, pointing to a large Greek-style revivalist building on the north end of campus. “It will be open in about half an hour. I have to get home. See you later tonight … at the embassy.” She added the last quickly, as an afterthought, so he wouldn’t think she was running away, even if she was.
Justern frowned at her, his head tilted slightly. “Okay,” he said slowly. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
One two three four five! One two three four five! One two three four five! Oh God, please make sure he wasn’t able to read my mind. Tamara nodded. “I’m fine. I’m just late. My mother had an appointment and I have to get home.” Across campus, she could see three people walking toward them. The glint of late afternoon sunlight on red hair made her realize the other Azellians were approaching. Too distracted to think up anything else and desperate to get out of there before the Azellians arrived, Tamara fled.
Alarin, Mellis, and Greg came up to Justern. “Was that Tamara speeding out of here as if a pride of sandcats was on her tail?” Greg asked in Azellian as they joined Justern.
Justern shrugged, his confusion apparent. “She was showing me the cafeteria, then just … bolted.”
Mellis scowled at him. “Did you hit on her?”
Justern put his hands up. “No!”
“What triggered the reaction, then?” Alarin asked, fr
owning at Tamara’s escape route.
“We were talking calmly about the beginning of classes and getting oriented when her shields flared so strongly I thought she’d teleported away. They were solid, like stone walls, and they covered everything. Even her surface thoughts. I couldn’t tell her mental signature … nothing. It was like she wasn’t there at all!” Justern sounded rattled. “Except she didn’t go anywhere. She started acting funny and told me she was late for something, then ran off.”
Have you scared her off from coming tonight, Justy? Mellis shifted to mental speech, frowning after Tamara. We could really use a human to show us the ropes. I’d like to get to know her better—
“No, she said she was coming.” Justern shifted back to verbal speech, veiling his thoughts again from his friends.
Is she psi? Alarin sent to Greg on his intimate level. Is it possible in a human?
Merran says human psi exists theoretically, although he’s never seen it personally. Did you read Justy’s memories? If her psi is anything like Azellian psi, she’s got the potential to be very powerful. She was open, like she was when we saw her earlier today, then her shield flared into place. Did you see her aura as her shield slammed closed?
Yeah, I think you’re right. Whatever her abilities might be, she’s powerful all right. No matter that she’s human. She really frightened Justern. Did you see his reaction?
Justy isn’t exactly stable at the moment, Alari. None of us are. We’re space lagged and exhausted. I wouldn’t read too much into his reactions.
Well, fine, that’s true enough. Could you tell anything about what talents she might possess?
No, the shield slammed shut too fast and Justern is not experienced enough to have picked up anything from her aura before the shield covered it.
She’s not Awakened, if she is psi. That shield isn’t consistent enough.
That’s assuming humans react anything like an Azellian to psi. I hope she doesn’t, though.
Why not?
If she Awakens as we do, she’s quite far beyond the normal and optimal age range for it.
Most of us manage to Awaken quite normally on our own, you know. Without Healer help.
Greg shrugged. The pathways are more fluid the younger we are, and the channeling tends to be easier. The older it happens, it’s usually because there are emotional factors involved that can create trauma and block the pathways. The later it happens, the worse it typically is.
Speak for yourself. My Awakening was quite volatile and I was well within the normal age range.
Greg grinned at him. That’s just because you’re a stubborn Raderth.
Alarin grinned back. His family’s reputation for arrogance and stubbornness was quite fitting with their status as the leaders of Azelle, although he himself was usually more easygoing. That’s what Kyla said, too, when she was trying to tell me to relax into it.
Well, maybe Tamara won’t Awaken like an Azellian does.
But just in case she does react the way one of us would … He expanded his mental sending to include Justern and Mellis. We might want to tread carefully around her. From our time with her this morning, we know she’s attracted to us and we all know the connection between sexual energy and psi. At least for us Azellians, anyway.
Justern shuddered and answered verbally. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m not getting anywhere near her or her energy field.” The fear generated from his exposure to her aura still oozed through his mind. Greg soothed him with a light mental touch.
Alarin spoke out loud as well. “Let’s go get something to eat. Then we’ll take tonight one step at a time.”
Merran’s first hint that anything extraordinary had happened occurred later that night. He arrived back at the embassy after a four-hour, particularly grueling session with the Earth Liaison Office—the meeting had not gone at all the way he expected. Conservative-minded they might be, but the conference room full of high-ranking officials had decided to be very interested in the fate of Azellian students on Earth, especially a certain elected official who had encouraged the exchange in the first place. Merran had been grilled by the President of the United States before and didn’t particularly want a repeat of the experience. Although humans had no obvious mental abilities, the president was a forceful person with as much willpower as any of the more powerful Raderths he had ever met. The president also possessed a sharp, keen mind that attacked him about Azellian “abilities” incessantly. Merran brushed a hand through his hair as he sat in his chair, remembering with some chagrin his evasive answers. He had probably just created larger rumors rather than answer the ones that were already out there. He sighed and reached over his office desk to flip a switch, turning on the digital frame that masqueraded as a window. Instead of the mountain afternoon, a dramatic view of the Azellian desert lit up. Resting his head back against the chair, he wondered for the first time if his fighting so hard to get the exchange to happen had been worth it. He tried to find the inner peace and security that would return him to confidence as he let his thoughts drift into the desert scene in front of him.
Instead, he got a quiet knock on the door and Greg’s mind at his shields.
“Come in,” Merran called out, keeping his deep fatigue and discouragement screened.
Greg came in, followed closely by Alarin. He stopped when he saw Merran. “Are you all right?”
Merran lifted his head from the chair. “I’m fine. Why? Do I look sick?”
“No, you just look like a shuttle recently landed on your head,” Alarin observed. “What happened at your Earth Liaison meeting?”
“Nothing much,” Merran replied with an airy, self-deprecating gesture. “No shuttles, although I might have preferred that. No, I just got landed on by a bunch of humans seeking the answers to life, the planet, and the burning Azellian question.”
“Which are?” Greg asked, coming forward to settle in a chair in front of Merran.
“Do we have fearsome mental abilities or not, and how can we be of use to Earth?” Merran heaved a heavy sigh. “As much as I should have been prepared for the questions, I wasn’t. My answers didn’t really satisfy them, so I was grilled for four hours about our reasons for being on Earth and our hopes for the future. By the president himself, no less. He might have been present only by conference call, but that was bad enough.”
“Is there going to be trouble over the whole issue?” Alarin asked, alarm creeping into his tone.
Merran shook his head. “No, no, I was able to convince them that we are much less than we are. But it wasn’t pleasant. I tell you that president seemed to smell when I was being evasive.” He leaned his head back. “And I have a flaming headache.”
Greg got up and came around the desk. “I can help you with that.” He moved to stand behind Merran. Touching his temples, rubbing lightly in concentric circles, then back down Merran’s neck, Greg lightly massaged the tense muscles in his neck and head. Merran leaned into the touch, feeling the warmth spread from Greg’s fingers up his neck and down his spine. The tension drained slowly out of him and he relaxed.
“Thank you, Greg,” he murmured, closing his eyes. Then he opened one eye and looked at Alarin. “So what did you two come here to tell me?”
Alarin and Greg exchanged glances over his head. How many people can hear us in here? The comment came through to Merran’s intimate level.
Merran opened his other eye. “None. I have my offices well screened from anyone seeking to hear thoughts or voices.”
Then read my memories. Greg’s hands stopped moving, but he continued to touch Merran’s neck lightly. Merran used the contact to forge a link with Greg and absorb the information.
A few moments passed as he studied Greg’s memories. “That’s…interesting.”
“Did your probe of her when we first met her reveal any potentials like that?” Alarin asked, leaning against the desk.
“Not actively. She was too shielded on her deeper levels for me to read anything. She
was open enough on the surface, though, like any other human. If it hadn’t been for her shield, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it.”
“Is it possible she’ll Awaken the way one of us would?” Alarin asked intently.
“If she’s human, highly unlikely,” Merran replied. “From what little I know about the theory of human psi, it doesn’t function the way ours does at all.”
Greg tensed, suddenly very alert. “Is there any chance she’s not human? That she’s got Azellian genetics from somewhere?”
Alarin cleared his throat. “Azellian genetics? Are we even fertile with humans?”
“Oh yes, quite,” Merran said to Alarin. “I suppose I’d better warn Justy too, but if either of you has sex with a human woman while you’re on Earth, make very sure you’re taking care not to impregnate her. Humans are odd about us. They find us extremely attractive, but long-term relationships between psi and non-psi don’t really work well, especially with us trying to stay low-profile with our abilities. That doesn’t stop them from trying, though, and there are human women who will try to trap us into relationships through pregnancy.” He shook his head. “As for the progeny resulting from those interactions, fortunately it doesn’t happen very often, but it does occur once in a while. One of my jobs here is to monitor those people with Azellian genetics, to see if they or their descendents show any signs of psi.”
Merran paused briefly before adding, “The Carringtons aren’t on the list of those I’ve been assigned to watch. Would it matter whether she has human psi or Azellian psi?” Merran asked, frowning at Greg.
He waved a hand. “Maybe not. It’s just that if she does Awaken the way we would, she’s very old for it. Azellians who don’t Awaken until they’re in their twenties usually are blocked and the Awakening process can become … difficult.”
Merran shook his head. “Let’s not borrow trouble. Let’s assume she’s human. I’m curious to learn more about human psi anyway.”
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