Chelle saw their faces and saw into their minds. She would have followed. She wanted to make them pay for what they had done, but Kaara needed her more. Her friend was lying under a thick clump of foliage on the ground. Kaara's dress was mostly torn away. There were bruises on her face and throat and body with an especially ugly mark over her ribs. She made a quick probe and sensed that Kaara was bleeding internally.
Chelle, help me. please. It hurts. Kaara pleaded silently her eyes full of tears.
I will. Chelle nodded and her own eyes filled with tears. She knelt beside her. Cradling Kaara's head on her lap, Chelle covered the bruise with her other hand and closed her eyes. A healing aura of warmth enveloped her and the other woman as they linked mind to mind and spirit to spirit. The bleeding stopped, and the tissues began to regenerate. Through the healing link, Kaara drew strength from Chelle's life force. But she took no more than she needed to revive her body and heal her broken spirit.
For Chelle to heal Kaara, she had to heal herself as well. What had happened to Kaara was similar to what had happened to her at the hands of Redmyn Berke's men. Chelle had to conquer her own pain before she could conquer Kaara's. Kaara had not been so lucky as Hankura. She had spent ten years in the Aledan Psi Institute. While she had suffered less than many, she had been subjected to repeated mental assaults not unlike what Chelle and Hankura had suffered during their evaluations. This physical assault brought back that torment.
Chelle cried out as she shared the anguish, reaching deeper within herself for enough strength to draw Kaara away from their shared pain and into the healing balm of their friendship. Gradually the aura faded and the link was broken. Chelle opened her eyes slowly. Now she understood why Hankura and Trevin both warned her never to come to Narcaza Circle alone. She hadn't believed their horror stories until this moment. How could anyone have hurt this gentle-spirited woman? Chelle wondered angrily.
"Psion, you have to leave." Chelle looked up as she recognized Gray's voice. He always treated them with strict formality when in uniform. "You know the rules."
"Yes, but I couldn't leave Kaara here like this."
He looked from Chelle to Kaara. Kaara was crouching nearly naked beside Chelle. "Kaara! What happened? What are you doing here?" His face paled at the sight of her bruises and torn clothing.
Kaara started to cry, and Chelle hugged her protectively. "Some boys caught her alone at the statue of Narcaza. They dragged her behind these bushes, beat her, and tried to rape her. I chased them away." Chelle answered grimly.
"Mother of Life!" the enforcer exclaimed as he hunkered down beside them. "Kaara--love, who did this to you?" With large but gentle fingers, he brushed a tear from her cheek. "It's all right. Let's get you to the medical center."
Chelle sensed that Kaara wanted his comfort and let her turn into his arms. He pulled off the cape of his uniform and wrapped it around her. "Where are you hurt? How bad is it?"
"It's healed--Chelle did it." Kaara murmured against his shoulder.
"Thank you," the big man said, meeting Chelle's eyes. He meant it.
"You're both welcome. You'd better take her to the medical center anyway to make sure she's all right." Chelle said. "I'll come with you. I saw who did it, and I know who they are. I read them."
"I'll get them," Gray swore. Then he stood, lifting Kaara easily into his arms. He carried her down a stone path that would bring them out of the park directly across from the medical center. Chelle followed close behind her friends.
Hankura and his techs met them at the emergency entrance. He knew through his bond with Chelle what had happened, and he knew they would both need attention. Healing Kaara had so drained her strength, that Chelle collapsed breathlessly in his arms from the exertion of walking across the park afterward.
Although Hankura knew ethically he should treat Kaara and let Mikal see to Chelle, he couldn't leave her. She needed his strength and comfort as well as the IV that Sharlel inserted. Because of their bond, she could draw strength from his life force to replenish her own. The transfer weakened him as well, but he needed to help Chelle. Her severely weakened condition unnerved him, and Hankura was afraid for her even though he knew intellectually that she would recover with no long term effects.
Mikal sent them to one recovery cell and Kaara to another. Even though Chelle had healed the worst of Kaara's injuries, Kaara was still very weak as well. More than anything they needed rest and nutritional supplements. And Gray needed reassurance. Once he knew they would recover, Gray went to file charges against the boys--Kess and Sojhan. The two were easy enough to find. Figuring they would go unpunished, they simply went to their homes. They nearly did go unpunished...
They were fined 10,000 credits, directed to pay Kaara's medical expenses, and sentenced to 5 days in jail. Jail for a Normal who committed such a crime was comparable to being confined in a luxury hotel. A Psion would have spent six months in solitary confinement for the same crime.
Two Enforcers had to restrain Gray when the youths left the Council Chamber after their sentencing. They were laughing over what they had done. "Come on, Gray. We know you want to break them into little pieces, but they're not minders. You'd never get away with it." Wendic said.
"And because Kaara is, she deserved what they did to her?" he demanded furiously.
"Of course, not. I didn't mean it that way. That's just the way the system works. You hurt them, you go to Penta Prison." Wendic told him calmly. "We'd like to help you break them into pieces for what they did to Kaara. They had no right to hurt her like that, but it won't do her any good if we're all in prison for avenging her."
Gray sighed and nodded. His friends released their hold on him. "She was right. It'll take more than me to change the system. I don't even know what to do anymore."
"You do your job like the rest of us, and try not to make things any worse than they are." Wendic murmured. "At least we try to be fair. That's more than most of our crews do."
"It's not enough," said Gray, shaking his head as he started walking away. "It's not enough."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"How are they doing?" Nathan came and stood by Sharlel. Through the recovery cell's observation window, she watched Hankura and Chelle sleeping.
"They're just resting, now. They'll be fine." She glanced from Nathan back to the window. "I've never seen him so upset. Hankura knew what was happening to her, but he couldn't do anything. He had to wait until Gray brought them out . . .. The instruments went crazy when he was sharing his life force with her. I've never seen anything like it."
"And you wish you could have what she has?" Nathan wondered aloud.
"You mean; do I want Hankura?" Sharlel looked up at him and smiled. "No, he's bonded to Chelle. I haven't got a chance. I was stupid to ever think I did."
"Not stupid---just unrealistic," Nathan said gently. "Hankura is a sensitive and caring man. He has a way of making people feel good about themselves. We all love him in different ways. But Chelle is his psi-mate---his mate in every sense of the word. I wish---I wish it could be like that for us . . . But we're just regular people, Sharlel."
Sharlel moved closer and touched his arm. "We can still take care of each other and be together."
"Would you---would you . . .." Nathan swallowed. "Consider a co-mate contract?" He looked away, afraid he would see refusal in her eyes.
"Nathan, do you mean it?" Sharlel gripped his hand in both of hers, and he looked down into her smiling face.
"You know I do." He smiled, too.
"Six months with a three-year option?" she asked.
"Terms accepted!" He grinned and swept her into a hug that lifted her off her feet. "It'll do for a start."
Hankura woke with a smile as he realized the dream about his friends was not just a dream. But then he frowned as he looked as Chelle. She offered a contrite smile as she reached up to caress his cheek.
Don't be angry, love. I know you could have helped her, but I couldn't wait. I could feel her pain.
What if she had been hurt worse? She could have taken your life force, Chelle.
Kaara wouldn't. Hank, she was dying--but as soon as Kaara knew she would live, she stopped drawing from my strength. Maybe another person wouldn't have, but I knew I could trust Kaara. I'm sorry it frightened you.
Frightened? I was terrified.
And angry.
If anything happened to you, Chelle. . .. I'm not sure I could live without you---you are so much a part of me.
Yes, and your emotions didn't let you see that I wasn't really in danger.
I can't help what I feel.
Neither can I.
Hankura stroked her pale cheek and sighed. It was an impasse as most of their arguments were. How could he argue against her viewpoint when he understood her so well? How could she contest his arguments when she understood his side as well? Chelle turned her face and kissed the palm of his hand. Suddenly, he didn't want to argue anymore. He wanted to hold her close and make the rest of the world disappear.
But just like all the other times, they could only escape for a little while.
Another day, Hankura mused, glancing up at the domes and towers of Salla Medical Center as he stepped off the beltway in front of the building. He was on his way to his study. Their last six months had passed quickly, if not especially eventfully. His and Chelle's situation was no worse, and no better either.
Chelle was almost finished with her Tech Level-3 training, and it was time for them to start making plans to leave Aledus. Worse, he would have to tell Ludren and Natar that they would be leaving soon. He and Chelle had been on Aledus for two years, and as an unconditioned psion, he had advanced as far in his position as he ever would on his home world. He was sick of the insults, sick of the psi-patches, and sick of the restrictions. He had learned the meaning of freedom on Velran, and he needed it again. He wanted to know the kind of freedom that he and Chelle had shared those first few days at the Tharn Sea. Hankura wanted to wipe the shadow from her eyes and soothe the disillusionment from her mind. She had learned how to fit in on Aledus, just as he had, but the lessons hadn't made them happy. Life on Aledus for psions was every bit the degrading ordeal he had feared it would be.
Stepping on to the Center's mini belt, Hankura got off at the lift tube near the middle of the complex and took the lift to the third floor. Looking neither left nor right, he strode down the crowded corridor. No one greeted him, and he greeted no one. To do so would just invite insults.
Inside his study, Hankura took a mug of hot jern from the wall dispenser and sat down to check the day's schedule on the readout screen. Two patients. Probably neither one of them were actually sick. He switched off the terminal and leaned back in his chair, propping his feet on the foot rest under his desk.
So. He could cope with life on Aledus. He had proved to himself that he could take it. Now, it was time for them to consider the future. They were thinking about joining the explorations with Gray and Kaara, but they weren't quite ready to make the commitment.
Watching the steam rising from his jern, Hankura let out a pensive sigh, and a plan began to form in his mind.
Soon, he would take Chelle back to Tharn to spend some more time away from the pressures in Salla. Maybe then he would see that sparkle in her shining blue eyes again . . . And feel her inner peace returning. That renewed harmony would feel good. Then they could decide.
His attention was jerked back to the present as Sharlel burst into his study.
"Hankura! They've just brought Davonne in. It's the worst yet. The readouts . . .."
"Let's go!" He jumped up and brushed past her. Mentally, he signaled for Mikal and Nathan to meet them in the surgical cell.
After molecular decontamination, the four met in the sterile surgical cell; finding, as they expected that Davonne had been prepped and draped with sheets as on three previous occasions. A life support machine oxygenated his blood and added any blood he needed along with nutrients and medication to keep him alive long enough for Hankura and his techs to put him back together.
Hankura paled when he came to the table to check the readouts. An eerie feeling crept through him, sparking a dim, memory. Mikal looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to signal Nathan to set the neural block.
"No." Hankura groaned under his breath. He took a second reading from a handheld bio scanner. "Bleeping, sadistic barbarians!" he raged. He threw his bio scanner against the wall. "Damn them to hell. He's dead this time. They murdered him--bashed his brains in." He choked on a shuddery breath. "Just a kid . . . Brain scan's flat . . . A mindless body is all that's left. Why did we get him at all?"
"He's dead?" Nathan blinked incredulously, looking from Sharlel to Mikal to Hankura. "Can't we do anything?" His eyes misted, and he glanced at the bruised, discolored face of the dead nineteen-year-old youth who looked more like fifteen.
"Yeah, sure." Sharlel sniffed. "We could clone him another brain--only such a transplant has never been done successfully. The poor kid's better off dead."
"He's going to stay dead, too," Hankura rasped and turned off the machine. "Get him out of here. I'll tell Olia and his father." He let out a profane sigh. "At least the son of a slug came to see his son this time."
"You going to report her brother?" Mikal asked.
"For all the good it'll do." His voice was thick with bitterness. "I'm only a bleeping Psion . . . Like him! He tore off his mask and turned, stalking out of the cell.
"I haven't seen him like this since Kaara was attacked," Sharlel whispered. "You'd think he'd never lost a patient before."
"He hasn't," Mikal murmured. "And the first one had to be Davonne" He shook his head. "Any loss is painful, but it's easy to understand Hankura's reaction in this case. Hankura really liked the kid. Hell, we all did." He paused and looked from Nathan to Sharlel. "You two go ahead. I'll dictate the report and take care of the body." Mikal nodded at the lifeless form on the table, blinking suddenly at a moist haze in his eyes. "Damn!"
DaVonne's father and Olia looked up expectantly when Hankura came into the waiting lounge.
"Is he all right?" Olia demanded. Her brows crinkled together in a worried look. "When can we see him?"
Hankura could only shake his head. There was a lump in his throat that threatened to choke him. He inhaled sharply and cleared his throat at length before he managed to say, "Davonne is dead. The assault resulted in brain death. He was murdered." As his eyes began to fill, he spun on his heel and stalked walked quickly away, trying to shut out their grief. His own was hard enough to bear. Davonne was his friend, and the finality of the psychic expiration left him badly shaken.
The moment he'd stepped into the surgical cell; he'd known Davonne was beyond help. He wasn't naive enough to believe none of his patients would ever die under his care. Davonne was his first loss, and the fact that the kid was senselessly murdered made it so much harder to accept. They could clone him a new body in a matter of months in a nurturing tank--the same kind of tanks used to nurture human fetuses or regenerate damaged organs--the same kind used to clone mindless human bodies for scientific research.
But, there was no cloning the human psyche. Hankura knew better than any of his companions; whatever was truly Davonne had left his body with the death of his brain.
DaVonne's soul was in the hands of whatever gods there might be. At the moment, Hankura had serious doubts that any existed. If they did, they didn't seem overly concerned with the state of humanity as far as he could see.
Mother of Life! How many times had he called upon her in this thirty-two years? And what good had it done? Why the hell should he care about one stupid, mixed up kid? DaVonne's own father wasn't all that concerned over his death. Even Olia wouldn't mourn long for him before she found another lover to fill her needs.
Deep down, Hankura knew what was really bothering him. That mixed up kid could have been him ten years before . . . Or his own son twenty years from now. Aledus had been degrading and destroying psions for centur
ies, and they would probably do it for centuries to come. But outnumbered and brainwashed from childhood, the few dissidents that existed would never make a stand and fight. Hankura and Chelle could fight until the day they died; nothing would change. It was clearer than ever that Aledus was no place for him and Chelle . . ..
Chelle picked up the scanner on the lab counter and started taking readings from the nurturing tank. She keyed in the results on the cell's data computer while she pointedly ignored her unwilling lab mate.
"You know it would be a lot easier to work together if you'd be friendlier," Theron told her, openly assessing her body. "You know I'm not above coupling a with a minder. . . Most are pretty good lovers. You're probably fantastic."
"You'll never know!" She shuddered as she sensed his sexual fantasy. "I'm life mated. I don't take other lovers, and if I did you wouldn't be one of them."
"Arrogant bitch, aren't you?" He grinned derisively and continued to leer at her.
"Just stop it! Either take part in this experiment or get away from me so I can do it myself. I'm sick of taking the blame for your refuse."
"And I'm sick of---"
"Chelle, I want to see you in my study. Now." Neither one had heard Marcus come in until he interrupted the heated exchange.
"All right." She nodded and put down the bio scanner, then followed him out of the lab cell and across the classroom to his private study.
"Sit down, please." He gestured to a chair in front of his desk and pressed a button from where he sat to close the rooms sliding door. "I'm sure you know what's on my mind. But, since I'm not a telepath, humor me.
"You're the most advanced student in Level Three. In fact, you could advance to Level Four if your lab work were better. What's the problem? I don't understand. Tell me the truth."
The Aledan PSION: The Aledan Series Book 1 Page 17