And she had no doubt that she would.
*
I can’t be having thoughts like this, not now, mused another Dracon, the Chief Navigator of the Defender Andromedea, enroute to Althaea. This attraction does not serve my goals… or my oath…
Stander Kvaan sighed, returning his attention to the Sixtheye displays of the Starlock design files. He needed to become an expert on their new drive system, but he had only a couple hours before their arrival at Fleet Headquarters. Despite his vaunted control and his determination, something had happened to shake his resolve.
What is it about Vekta Rentclifv that draws me so? he wondered, pausing yet again in his perusal of the design. He pushed the display aside and closed his eyes, intending to deal with this, needing to deal with this. The commander of the Andromedea was now very far away, left behind in the Gozgazel System.
Stander had never met Vekta before coming onto the ship. The first glance at the man’s face had taken him aback; there was so much pain yet determination written there. Yet beauty; Stander hadn’t expected to be so attracted to someone’s looks. It amused him as much as bothered him. Despite his own expertise in NavEng, he was also a master of various healing practices: Reiki, Ven Qoi, Red Path, Reflexology, Dawa. Am I drawn to him because I see his pain? Or…?
No one in the Fleet knew of his other affiliation. I have taken a vow to avoid primary relationships, yet if I’m honest with myself, I am clearly attracted to Vekta romantically. But I cannot act on it, of course, even if I do see him again, serve with him again on a Fleet starship. Or join the Guard. Stander was well aware that his Level 8 telepathic powers were sought by the Guard. I want to assist in his healing, but I could love him as well. Still, I will not… such is my vow. Maybe someday? When I am ready.
Stander was aware of Austine Tauscher’s interest in him; could not help but be aware as she was that obvious. I cannot reciprocate her interest, he mused, also being honest with himself in that. We are too different, and not just because I am a Dracon and she is not. Her habits — and her fears — I cannot relate to those. That Austine imbibed frequently in mood-altering substances — alcohol, primarily — he found shocking and repugnant, more than most Dracons. Now that she was commanding in Vekta’s absence, she seemed to have stopped — he hoped. She's afraid of mental merges! He’d heard about her aversion from Rand, and Vekta had explained about the merger at Aldebaran to chase off the Sdaldi.
For a moment he thought what it could be like to merge with a mind like Vekta’s. Abruptly, Stander straightened, hastily applying his strongest control to counter his body’s response. I must be under stress with this new assignment, he told himself severely. I have work to do, and then once on Althaea, I am expected to assist the Rentclifv children with their telepathic powers! That thought both sobered and pleased him. I can at least do this much for Vekta… a little thing, but I will be glad to do this, even just this. Yes.
Taking a deep breath, he firmed up his autoemform control and set the thought of Vekta Rentclifv out of his mind as he returned resolutely to the Starlock design.
8: Polluxanvega
Starguard Maritza Litzer had declared a brief holiday from the Rentclifv twins' intensive telepathy training. Though it had only been a week since they'd begun, the twins eagerly welcomed the opportunity for a break and had decided to go hiking. This could be their only chance to get out before starting to work with the High telepath that their father was sending to train them further via the Defender Andromedea. Unfortunately that person had yet to arrive because the Andromedea had been delayed, diverting back to Sanz and Fleet Research for some needed adjustments to the Starlock.
Maritza Litzer had, in fact, done all she could with Cory and Story Rentclifv. She'd reported as much to her boss, who agreed with her that the Level 8 telepath soon to arrive would be better suited to finish their training. Peter Cenntl expected that Vekta had given special instructions to this person, whom he guessed was either his brother Jaime or Novella Aurand, or possibly Stander Kvaan, since they were the only other Level 8's on the starship.
“Should I see if their cousin is still available to accompany them?” Maritza asked after returning to the Commander General's office.
Peter glanced up from the Sixtheye field which still held his attention. “They're pretty independent. I'm sure they'll be fine. I think the cousin has already returned to Draco, anyway.” He flicked fingers inside the field, changing displays. “Go — I know you've got that Guard meeting about the tensions in Arcturus Community. Starguard Director Denayrga isn't going to be on Althaea very long.”
She sighed, heading for the door again. “You're right about that. And there's so few of us now to work on these special projects.”
It was a painful reminder of the loss of Starguard Pricilla Pliverr so recently. Peter nodded. “Just remember — those 'special projects' you Starguards do represent the front line defense of the entire United Star Communities.”
“Yes, sir,” Maritza murmured, thinking also how the Perseus Guard still sorely missed the active presence of one Vekta Rentclifv.
*
It was only a short hike for the Rentclifv twins from Base Temporaries at Agency Headquarters to a wilderness park outside the city limits where the terrain stretched up into forested hills, broken only by intermittent streams. Possibly only the natives considered the park picturesque, however. Pollux, the planet's primary, was responsible for the odd coloration of Althaea's vegetation. Here plants were either a vivid, poisonous-looking yellow or a pale blue-green. Under the perpetually lavender sky, the effect could be disconcerting.
“This planet is awful,” Cory stated, screwing up her face in disgust. “A purple sky, blue-green trees... if you can call those small stubby things 'trees.' And yellow shrubs. Yuk!”
They'd set out for their hike a half hour earlier. As it was still early in the day, the twins had the trails to themselves, to their delight. Slowly they were growing used to seeing such a stunted forest, despite the colors.
“Oh, I quite agree,” came a menttrans to the twins abruptly. “No sense of aesthetics at all. Simply tasteless. And I'm afraid this ghastly light doesn't agree with my eyes at all.”
The twins whirled around at the mental voice, but the path before and behind them was deserted. They drew together nevertheless, frightened despite the casualness of the contact. “Althaea is a voided planet! We can use telepathy on Agency grounds, but not here!” Cory whispered to her twin, taking qer hand. “People aren't supposed to menttrans here.”
Story nodded, still looking around, though they could see no obvious speaker. “You can use perception here, though.” Qe cast qer own mental senses around, then cepted something. Pointing to a darkened thicket near them, he added in a low whisper, “It's here... look...”
“I see,” Cory murmured, cepting the huddled shape now, what could be a person hunched down low to the ground. She peered closely with eyes and mind until the shape became more sharply defined.
It was a muddie. Or at least looked like the Orbglen creature by that name, a Rikent IV descendant of the Terran capybara. Neither twin had any idea if muddies were also found on Althaea. Perhaps it had escaped from a nearby house, but there were no dwellings near the park. Or possibly an animal sanctuary if there was one; it had been over eight hundred years since live animals were kept in captivity in a “zoo” due to the animal rights fervor of those times.
It went without saying, of course, that muddies were not sentient, much less telepathic. Both twins strongly suspected a hoax and cast their senses around, looking for someone else. Was this even a real muddie? Possibly it was even a Construct. Its appearance veered far from what they had seen on Orbglen. This creature had short, silver-white fur with a golden ruff around the neck. No tail, a long muzzle, and huge eyes the color of indigo with no white. Its most prominent feature was a large, recurved, horn-like structure protruding out of the top of its head.
As they skeptic
ally watched, frowning, the muddie slowly moved out of the thicket, and approached them, halting about two meters away. The creature's big, dark eyes stared unblinkingly, shifting its gaze from twin to twin every few seconds. They had the sudden thought that it waited for a response from them. Story could cept no other creatures in the area except for some birds and a few lizards, and could mentcept no other signs of intelligence. Qe decided to play along for the moment. “You are speaking to us, sir?”
The muddie did not alter its features, but they felt its emtransed mental smile. “Polite. Manners. Yes, very pleasant indeed. I most certainly was speaking to you, young Humans.”
Cory was still stunned, both by the fact of the muddie's presence and her qother's willingness to interact with it or whomever controlled it. She gave qer a funny look, but her twin took no notice.
“Come here often?” Story queried, still not willing to menttrans. Qe tried to speak casually though qe was keeping a sharp watch for other mental presences.
“No, my first time,” the muddie replied with evident delight. “And you?”
Cory recovered and jumped into the conversation, also speaking aloud. If they were to get caught using telepathy on a voided planet, they would be getting into a lot of trouble. “This is our first time, too. Isn't that a coincidence?” She tried to laugh weakly.
“No, not at all,” the muddie answered with a twinkle in one big indigo eye. “Your father knows I'm not an outdoorsy person. It's natural that I should meet you here. However, I'm not pleased with Althaea. I think we shall have to go somewhere else.”
At the mention of their father, the twins went cold inside, alarmed. They edged closer together. What could this creature have to do with their father?
“Oh, I'll answer all your questions about how I got here from Vega in a moment. But first we must relocate. Is the computer with you?”
This was getting more baffling and frightening by the second. It's from Vega! each twin thought. Immediately they thought of the “someone” their father was sending to complete their telepathy training, but they naturally expected that it would be one of his officers or even Starguard Jaime Cenntl. Had the starship even gone to Vega? Had the Andromedea arrived already and this muddie was Jaime's idea of a practical joke? Knowing the laid-back Starguard, it seemed possible. Still, why not come himself?
“Computer?” Story tried to speak calmly, feigning ignorance. By now, both qe and Cory had their mentshields up hard. Besides Jaime, the colorless Stander Kvaan was the only other Level 8 on the ship who could pull something like this, but there was no way the Cold Fish would stoop to something like this. If Jaime Cenntl was responsible, he was going to have to do some heavy explaining for why he would scare his friend Vekta's children in this fashion. Even for Jaime this seemed unusual.
The muddie heaved a great sigh of relief and sat down on its haunches in the middle of the path. “Oh, dear,” it replied morosely, “I'm not going about this very well. All right, back to the beginning. Hello! I don't have any name that you'd care to use — or pronounce — and though I know your names already, I would be most pleased if you'd introduce yourselves.”
Story, scowling, crossed qer arms in front of qer and regarded the creature with irritation. “You've got to be kidding! Starguard Cenntl, if you're behind all this, we are not amused.”
The muddie appeared not to have heard. “It's nice to meet you, too, Story and Cory Rentclifv of Draco. As I said, I don't have a name. Perhaps you could come up with an appropriate name for me. One of my common locations, for the record, is in what your father calls Gamma Universe, somewhere between the stars you call Pollux and Vega.”
Again the mention of their father brought a chill. Equally chilling was the creature's knowledge of those two particular stars. Pollux Community was home to the planetary headquarters of the Perseus Defense Agency. And Vega Community was home to the Vriesian species, one of the three nonHuman sentient species in the USC. Why those two Communities?
“How do you know our father?” Cory demanded.
The muddie fixed those deep blue eyes on them, looking from one to the other. “Oh, we're well acquainted. You have been learning to learn to use your telepathy, haven't you? Been working with that Starguard?”
“So?” Another chill; they'd been watched.
“You two have quite interesting minds, you know. I've been most impressed as I've observed your progress.”
Cory frowned, recalling something the muddie had said. “If you're from Gamma Universe, how did you get to Alpha?”
The creature snorted. “Aren't you a boy?”
She bristled. “I'm a girl!”
“Then you're a boy!”
Story stiffened. “I'm a qild. None of my anatomy is any of your business.”
“Right, right, little qoman. Well, girls and qilds, we have a lot to talk about. Like how one gets to Alpha from Gamma!”
The qild rolled qer eyes. “The Starlock drive, of course.”
Again the broad mental smile. Right before the second time the Andromedea had traveled in Gamma Universe, this particular entity and their partner had hopped on board, so to speak. Once there, they had started to mentread widely to learn about the beings inhabiting the ship. But it was this entity — Curhef — who had mattported themselves and the other to Alpha in the first place. And later tracked down the children who had been so much to the forefront of their father's unguarded thoughts.
“Ah... precisely! But there are mental powers that can do it. A talent your father wants me to develop in you.” Although the entity had learned of Vekta's plan to have someone work with the twins' telepathy development, they also knew the children would not know who that was going to be.
Stunned, the twins entertained the notion for the first time that this could really be a being that their father had encountered which had the telepathic power of dimensional travel. Did their father wanted them to learn this power, too? But wouldn't Bapa have given them more assurances about the identity of this entity?
Story risked a shared thought with qer sister: “Maybe Bapa was in trouble and needs our help — some kind of help only we can give — and he had no chance to send us more information about who was finishing our training.”
It seemed unlikely but not beyond the realm of possibility. Together the twins decided to continue to humor this creature. It did know of their situation and if it could help their father, or help them help Bapa, then they would need to cooperate with it despite their misgivings. “So,” Cory ventured, “you don't have a name?”
The muddie blinked. Having apparently scaled a hurdle in dealing with the wary Rentclifv twins, Curhef pressed on, gleefully returning to the game. “Not a name you could use, as I said before. You name me!”
Story, emboldened, knelt down on one knee to peer more closely at the muddie. “What is that thing on your head?”
The muzzle of the muddie parted in a kind of a grin. “I have no idea! This is not my usual form. But it looks ultra, right?”
Not, Cory thought. “What is your usual form?”
“Sometimes I don't have any. I thought this form might appear non-threatening to you.”
She cocked her head at it. “Can you look like anything you want?”
“I suppose I could.” They paused before they went on, wanting to be tactful. The children could still be skittish. “I'm not Human, you know. Intelligent, telepathic, but hardly Human.”
Curious, Story studied those huge indigo eyes. “You sound fairly Human mentally. And you even use words like 'ultra.' Though that seems really weird coming from you.” Qe resisted a sudden urge to giggle.
“Oh, I've practiced. I've worked with all sorts of sentient beings before, but never Draconic Humans before encountering your father.” While observing the twins for some time before contacting them, Curhef had heard them use the word.
The twins exchanged glances. Then Cory heaved a big sigh. “All right, muddie,” she began, f
orcing a bright smile. “Let's think of a name for you. Do you have a gender?”
The muddie straightened. “Pretty sure not,” it responded. “You can give me one if you want!”
“Fine,” Story spoke up, giving qer sister a wink. It wanted to play games? They could play games. “We'll refer to you in the masculine for convenience. Now... you said you frequently hang out in the area between Pollux and Vega in Gamma Universe. Gamma is such a silly designation for a universe... let's call it, say, Hendor. So, let's call you Polluxanvega of Hendor Universe. Polly for short.”
“Ehhhh?” qer twin menttransed to qer, to which Story responded with a shrug.
The muddie spun around once in excitement. “Oh, how nice! What does it mean? And what language is that?”
Cory gave him a sardonic grin. “That's Corystorian for 'creature from between Pollux and Vega.' You like it, eh?”
“Polluxanvega” now expressed his pleasure and joy — for he was doing really well tricking the children — by jumping into the air and running around the startled twins twice. Then he stopped, though he was still prancing. “Your computer friend! Let's go back to your apartment and I'll show you how he can come with us. Then we must depart to another planet where the sky is BLUE!”
Despite the gravity of the situation, Cory couldn't help but giggle at the “Hendorian's” antics. Then his last statement registered. “Er, what do you mean by—”
*
“—Prater coming with us...” She stared, agape. They were back in their apartment in the Agency's Temporaries complex. Polluxanvega had mattported them all there without warning. Once more they were reminded of the being's High telepathic powers.
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