Daughter of Destiny

by HC Playa

  She hesitated in front of the refrigerator, grimacing in preparation for whatever horror lurked inside. Naia opened the refrigerator and her jaw dropped. Milk, juice, eggs, fresh fruit, even vegetables filled the shelves. "Kat?" She called out. "Did you have an epiphany and decide that grocery shopping isn’t one of Dante’s circles of hell?" She took out the milk and heard a muffled sound that might have been laughter, or maybe muttered insults. She closed the fridge and opened the pantry. It too had transformed into an unfamiliar repository of food instead of a handy place to shove excess clutter. She pushed aside cans of fruits and vegetables. "Good lord! Are these alphabetized?" After a bit of rummaging she found a canister of drinking chocolate. Gone were the days when she and Kat made do with high fructose, carob-soy blended crap.

  Several minutes later, Katarina answered, her voice growing louder as she neared the kitchen. "I’m paying the neighbor’s kid from across the hall to do the shopping for me. She’s fourteen and too young to get a real job. She also organized the kitchen. Too bad she doesn't like dusting as much as alphabetizing my can goods." Katarina walked into the kitchen. Water spotted her pale blue pajamas a darker blue wherever it dripped from her damp hair. "You gotta love cheap labor."

  Naia frowned. "I don’t think you should have strange people in the apartment."

  "She needs the money even more than I need the help or the groceries for that matter. Her mom is raising her on a waitress' income and her dad died of Reaper four years ago. When her mom has to work a double, I let the kid crash here and gorge herself silly. She’s harmless and honest."

  "She’s a teenager Kat! Lying is what they do!"

  Katarina gave Naia a knowing look. "You would know, eh?"

  "Do you know how many times I fibbed about where I was going or what I was doing?"

  "I have a fairly good idea. Just as I know Lena lies about not having a boyfriend and never having seen an R-rated movie, but she never lies about how much the groceries cost or whether she used my computer or comm console."

  Naia paused in stirring the milk and stared at Kat. "I thought you didn’t use your telepathy."

  Katarina seemed to find the ends of her hair fascinating as she muttered, "I never gave it up completely."

  "So what on earth was the big deal about the vision or whatever you had this morning?"

  Katarina waved a hand as if dismissing the importance of her omission. "Contacting a person and speaking with them telepathically requires much more interaction than a simple little probe to see if a person’s telling the truth."

  "Tell me about the vision." Naia shook her head at Kat's logic. She added cocoa and sugar to the milk heating on the stove and waited for Kat to explain.

  Katarina leaned against the counter and a little furrow formed between her brows as she spoke. "I think it was a cross between a vision and a telepathic connection. When you speak telepathically there’s no visual stimulation unless it is a very deep connection, or you purposely send a mental image. This morning I pictured a man. I think he's a fellow telepath."

  "Really? How do you know?"

  "When I was working last night I think he was doing some sort of meditation exercise."

  "It's the same man who got through your blocks?" She stared at Kat, who nodded toward the pan. Naia resumed stirring and adjusted the heat lower.

  "He wasn’t in my head per se. It was more like we were on the same frequency and I couldn’t tune him out."

  "So what was he saying?"

  "I haven’t a clue. It wasn’t English or any other language I recognize. It seems to have familiar elements and yet the cadence is like nothing I’ve ever heard before."

  "Great. You finally find another telepath and you can’t even talk to him."

  "Well, I might be able to get around the language barrier."

  “Really?" Naia turned off the heat and poured the cocoa into mugs. Then she handed Katarina hers. "Let’s sit." She motioned to the living room.

  She followed Katarina out of the kitchen. She wanted to demand all the details, but she feared if she pushed too hard Katarina might clam up. She couldn't recall the last time they talked like this. Sure, there were times they chatted and Naia begged for advice or they gossiped about professors in college, or discussed a book they both read, but at some point an invisible wall grew between them. Katarina deflected any questions that required sharing what went on in her head. Naia wanted to whoop with joy at the prospect of recovering the close bond they once shared. Granted, she didn't think Katarina meant to hurt her with her silence, but it stabbed at the scars of Naia's past, threatening to open each and every one.

  In the living room, she and Katarina stretched out on the couch. Naia sipped her cocoa, closed her eyes, and let the rich taste permeate her senses. She propped her feet up on the beat up coffee table. Rings from countless drinks scarred the dark wood, but even damaged the table probably outranked in price every item in the apartment. Climate change triggered decades of forest fires that decimated swaths of forest to the point that all but a few countries enacted stiff regulations for logging. Most people would refinish the piece and either sell it or treat it like a museum piece. The only concessions Katarina appeared to make with regards to its worth were the coasters and candle plates which protected the wood from further scarring. The flame from a blue pillar candle reflected in the dark wood and the pleasant floral scent reminded Naia of forests.

  Silence lingered until Naia gestured with her empty hand. "So, back to the whole telepathy thing; what's the big deal? Why were you so set on not using it?"

  "Telepathy and empathy incite emotion. Emotion fuels the other thing inside me. It's why I keep to myself, Naia. Remember what Mom and Dad's room looked like when you came to the house after the funeral?"

  "You mean the shattered glass, the black scorch marks on the walls and the fire retardant spray stuff coating everything? I'm not likely to ever forget that."

  "I was the one who overloaded; not the circuitry in the house."

  "Oh." The memory of that day floated in Naia's head and she felt stupid for buying such a flimsy lie. She knew what Katarina could do. She quite possibly owed her life to Katarina's strange abilities, but it never occurred to her that Katarina might lose control.

  "Now do you understand?"

  Naia stared at the bottom of her empty mug, feeling like a fool for pushing Katarina. "I think I'm beginning to. I'm sorry I didn't listen this morning when you tried to explain. Contacting that telepath is a stupid idea."

  Katarina set her mug on a coaster. "You're right. It is a stupid idea, but doing the smart thing all of the time hasn't really done much for me."

  "You're going to go through with it? Why?"

  Katarina sighed. "I'm tired of fumbling through this alone. Maybe he'll know something about something that will explain why I can do the things I can do. Maybe he won't. In either case the only way to find out is to contact him."

  "You're sure?"

  Katarina's lips curved in a lopsided half smile. "No. Still, I have questions and no answers. It'd be more foolish to pass up the opportunity to find out if there are others like me."

  "So, what now?"

  "Now? I do something I have never done. I drop some telepathic walls and try to find him."

  "Can I do anything to help?" Katarina leaned over and fiddled with the candle. Naia spotted a telltale tremble in Katarina's hand. "You don't have to do this now. You can wait." The vivid memory of meeting Katarina at middle school orientation swam to the forefront of her mind. The preppy girl begged her not to fetch a grown up, even as she puked into a toilet. Two very different souls, they bonded over their mutual desire to avoid unwanted adult attention. For years after that as Katarina battled to learn control over the empathic abilities which caused the migraines, Naia helped her hide the effects and present the image of a normal teen.

  Naia feared seeing Katarina reduced to that kind of pain again.

  Katarina took a deep breath and leaned back. "No, it's
better to do this before I talk myself out of it. I've never actually dropped any of my walls before. If anything, I've added more and more layers." She glanced at Naia and curved her lips in a tiny smile. "Don't worry, I have way better control than I used to."

  Naia reached out and took Katarina's hand in hers. "Are you a hundred percent sure?"

  "I'm sure. To be safe, I want you to monitor my pulse, and if it changes or I start looking very pale, give me a shake to bring me back."

  Naia squeezed Katarina's hand and offered a smile. "Will do."

  ***

  Katarina settled back into the enveloping comfort of the cushions. Thoughts and emotions whirled in her head. Anxiety and nerves lengthened the familiar process of quieting her mind by several minutes beyond the handful of heartbeats it normally required. She focused on the flame of the candle on the coffee table. She slowed her breathing and let awareness of her physical surroundings drop away. Distant sounds of the city faded first, followed by the closer sounds of her neighbor’s washing machine thumping from an unbalanced load, and finally even the soft steady sound of Naia's breathing faded into the silence of her mind.

  The flame lit the darkness of her mental fortress. A beacon shining with warmth and comfort, she turned from it and created a door in the imaginary walls which protected her mind. Katarina envisioned walking through a maze of connected hallways. She knew better than to just fling open a door to the outside. She spent years building each layer through iron determination, finally learning to keep out the mind crushing pain caused by other people's thoughts and emotions. Katarina left each door open and although the light grew dimmer as she walked, it continued to light her path. As she neared her outer walls, voices and images bombarded her. She shrank back and slammed a door shut and the din muffled, but remained. She took a deep breath and reopened the door a tiny crack. Naia's presence blazed strong and Katarina turned away from Naia's private daydream. Katarina possessed no desire to intrude on her thoughts.

  Katarina mustered courage, flung the door wide and stepped into the onslaught of minds. She pressed forward, but a tide of thoughts swept her this way and that. As she floundered, she tried focusing on individual thoughts.

  Four apartments to the south, a mother worried over her sick child. A floor below and two apartments east, two lovers quarreled. Three floors above a bored husband attempted to tune out his wife’s nagging. A junky in the alley behind the building obsessed over how he was going to score his next hit. Down the street a cab driver cursed at losing a fair and counted the hours until he could crawl into bed with his wife. At the convenience store around the corner a young woman made plans to run off to California with her boyfriend and become an actress.

  One person's thoughts became crystal clear as Katarina focused on it and then faded again into the background as another person swept into focus. Katarina struggled for some sense of direction, but the volume of individuals swamped her as they swept over her like high tide. Her heart sped up as she thrashed and fought to stay above the tide, but to no avail. Desperate, she summoned from her memory the impression of Mr. Meditation's psychic energy. She imagined tuning her mind to his and sent out a wordless call, a plea for him to answer. She waited, clinging to his memory like a buoy tossed in turbulent waters. Failure loomed over her as her call went unanswered and the chaos around her threatened to pull her under.

  Katarina didn't believe in failure.

  She tried again. This time, she pictured the brown eyes that made her want to sigh, the sensual full lips, and the sleek curtain of raven black hair she imagined brushing against her skin. She sent out a question… "Who are you?"

  At last his presence filled her mind. Again she asked, "Who are you?"

  "Mala omea, zi esta orine?" The alien words echoed in her mind. Impatient to get past the language barrier, she opened just enough of her mind to him to allow the exchange of language knowledge. "Merge with me." She sent a mental image of two brains overlapping. She cringed at the crude method of communication, but it worked. Within moments his mind touched hers. She didn't allow him enough access for a full merging. Rather, like two computers exchanging files, they shared only information essential to communication. He gained her understanding of English as well as the smattering of Spanish and French she picked up over the years. Over a dozen different languages poured into her mind. She suspected he meant to share one language, and instead sent everything he knew.

  He might have meant to share all of that, but Katarina got the impression his telepathic filters lacked the fine tuning she placed on hers. She tried to pinpoint a language she recognized. She worked with enough international colleagues to spot most of the major languages, but not a single one of his languages rang a bell. Some of the languages consisted of highly complex grammatical systems, so she pushed those aside for later analysis. His main language held enough grammatical similarities to English without much effort her brain picked it up and a translation of his earlier comment formed in her mind. "My god, you’re real?" Before they could make any further attempts at conversation, the telepathic connection snapped. One second they stood face to face in the imaginary construct of her mind and the next the doors in her mental walls slammed shut as Naia thrust her back into the real world.

  Naia shook her shoulders. "I said are you okay?"

  A part of Katarina wanted to send her mental avatar running to reestablish the connection, but Naia brought her out for a reason. She blinked and focused on Naia's face. "I’m fine." She let her gaze wander as she wondered at the strange sensations the man stirred within her. Through her empathy, she understood via Naia and others the emotions one felt when attracted to a member of the opposite sex, but not once had she felt anything stir within herself. The moment she saw his face in the mirror something inside her shifted. In contrast to the utter silence of her libido since she hit puberty, the attraction burning inside her made the emotions she felt in others seem like tame hearth fires. The thrill of finally finding another telepath filled her with giddy anticipation at perhaps at last answering questions which haunted her.

  She frowned at the candle as she tried to figure out why every cell in her body felt a magnetic pull it demanded she obey. Is it amplified by his emotions, or have I discovered one more way in which I'm a freak?

  "I’m sorry I intruded. Your pulse increased a few minutes ago and hadn't slowed yet. You were zoned out for almost two hours and I got worried"

  Katarina shook her head and focused her gaze. "What?" The candle puddled wax on the plate beneath it, attesting to the passage of time. She looked at Naia. "Two hours?"

  "Yes. What happened?" Naia scooted around on the sofa and folded her legs under her. "Did you find him?"

  Katarina laughed and heaved a deep breath. "Yes, yes I did." A rush of adrenaline surged through her as a sense of accomplishment and relief settled inside her. Until Naia roused her, she did realize how far from her body she sent her psyche. When her empathy progressed to telepathy, her mother warned her that if one reached too far beyond their limits they might not find their way back. An image of herself in a perpetual catatonic state flashed in her mind and she suppressed a shudder. She bit her bottom lip, deciding not to explain that danger to Naia.

  Naia bounced up and down on her butt. "And?"

  Katarina chuckled. "Most of that time I spent getting out of my head and figuring out how to contact him out of all the other millions of people on the earth."

  "You can do that? Contact someone in like, Africa?"

  Before today Katarina would have laughed at such an absurd suggestion, but recalling the minds she encountered, at some point she went far beyond midtown Memphis. She scrubbed her hands over her face. "Yeah, I think so, but it is insanely tiring."

  "Wow. So what did he say when you found him?"

  "He asked whether I was real."

  "I thought you said he doesn't speak English."

  "He doesn’t. We merged just enough to exchange our knowledge of languages."

 
Naia eyed her. "You learned an entire language in less than two hours?"

  Katarina shrugged. "Probably more like minutes. As I said, I refining my filters and searching for him."

  "That's all he said?"

  "I hate to be anti-climactic, but yeah."

  Naia pouted. "Now I wish I'd waited another five minutes." She sighed and plopped back against the couch cushion. "I suppose it was good for starters, right?"

  "Yep." Katarina smiled despite her exhaustion and the unease which accompanied the near obsessive urge to seek out the man. I refuse to succumb to the whims of hormones. With that though held firmly in her mind, Katarina stood, and a yawn claimed her. "Gah! I'm not sure which is sleepier, my body or brain. Maybe you hit the nail on the head, Naia. If I do more of this kind of stuff, maybe I can actually sleep every night like a normal person."

  Naia grinned. "See? My ideas are always good."

  Katarina shook her head as she pulled an afghan of the back of the couch and handed it to Naia. "I suppose you'd rather I not remind you of the infamous soda bread incident, or how about you thinking we could navigate Europe without a GPS?"

  Naia swatted at her with a throw pillow. "Fine. Most of my ideas. Now, shoo. I'm in need of beauty sleep."

  Katarina laughed all the way to the bedroom doorway. She paused and glanced over her shoulder. If not for Naia she wouldn't have anyone, let alone a reason to laugh. "Naia?"

  "Hmm?" Curled up under the afghan, her head resting on a fluffy throw pillow, Naia didn't even open her eyes.

  "Thanks for convincing me to do this."

  "Welcome," Naia mumbled.

  Chapter 2

  "Zane! Watch out!"

  The inertial compensators threw Zane against his seat in response to his co-pilot’s sudden course correction. As his vision cleared, Zane's stomach clenched at the site of a large asteroid receding in the forward view screen.