Touch of Danger (Three Worlds)

by Strickland, Carol A.

  “Oh.” Lina scratched her bad arm and encountered only hard bandage. “It's so deathly quiet. Can we turn on some music, please?”

  “Again a music reference. Why?”

  The sourness of his expression surprised her. “To keep from going crazy, I guess. It helps me to concentrate. And like I said, Lon could use some for relaxation, even while he's asleep.”

  Wiley looked like he'd just eaten a lemon soaked in vinegar. “I'm aware of the music of Earth,” he said. “Londo has the same problem with quiet that you do.” He shook his head as he returned to whatever it was he was doing to the desktop. “Sarastor and most of the planets of the AffSys have very little non-percussive music. The Terran form is a primitive expression of raw emotions: love, lust and violence set to tones and drums.”

  “What idi— Ah, who decided that?”

  His ringed fingers drummed their own pattern on a row of colored lights, though Lina didn't think he noticed. “Combining music and words is shamanistic ritual. Does it have to do with the magical traditions of Earth's Timeless Realms?”

  What peculiar ideas they had Out Here! “Of course not. We make music because we like it. It's an art.”

  He made a noise that didn't sound as if he were convinced at all.

  So she changed subjects and discovered that there was no chance of getting a change of clothing. The Mega-Legion had matter transmitters to zap stuff around electronically, but no larger receivers in this lab, at least not to be used under quarantine conditions.

  Lina snugged the oversized robe around herself as she told Wiley what she'd theorized from the night's research about quarantine and quick cures.

  He said, “You were reading about biocleaning in hyperspace, which is the way we get from star system to star system. Hyperspace is different from normal space. Biocleaning can complete in just minutes there. But apparently you didn't come through hyperspace.”

  “And…?”

  “It will take longer. About three days.”

  “Three—? And how long to get back to Earth—via hyperspace, so I don't have to go through quarantine again?”

  “Approximately one day.”

  “Four days, plus today for finishing up on Londo…” She counted on her fingers and bit her swollen lip.

  That brought both his eyes to bear on her. “You're concerned about something.”

  “First of all, who's going to feed my cats? My cat sitter is scheduled to stop looking after them, oh, tomorrow or the next day. And secondly, I guess I'm out of a job.”

  “Your job?”

  “I only had one week off, not two. My employers will not be pleased when I finally appear god knows when.”

  At that he faced her, leaning back on his desk. “But when you tell them that you saved Valiant's life—”

  “Yeah, like they'll ever reverse a decision just because it was a mistake. Oh well, I hated that job. I was going to leave it anyway.” She looked at him sharply. “But I can't let my cats starve.”

  “Cats.” Both Wilder's eyes swiveled. One rolled up and to the left, classic memory-retrieval position while the other went its own merry way. “Small domesticated mammals kept as pets,” Wiley decided.

  “Yes. Hungry small mammals. Can I get to some more information about biocleaning? When we arrived, I knew I wasn't equalizing everything I should, but we were in a hurry. Maybe I can learn how to bioclean.”

  “I can arrange that. In the meantime we'll arrange for your cats' care. We are the Legion.”

  He said that last part the same way a pharaoh would say, “So let it be written; so let it be done.” The certainty of it cheered Lina.

  “Tell me,” Wiley continued, “how long did the actual port take? Was it all done in one hop or more? Exactly how is the process accomplished?” He gestured at the air and recording screens swung around to either side of Lina.

  She scrunched her shoulders so they wouldn't bump into her, but they seemed rather immaterial for computer screens. Lina explained as much as she recalled.

  “And how did you compensate for the difference in conditions between departure and arrival points?”

  “I uh… There was this and that…” Running out of descriptive words, she tried to mime the feel of things. She found her hands making balancing motions as she wobbled back and forth like a surfer, and thought that explained the technique very well.

  Wiley frowned very hard at it all. “We'll come back to that,” he told her.

  He showed her the tapes of Lon and her on the table, her funneling energy out of him like lightning bolts from her hand, and Lina tried to explain what she had been doing. She wondered at the bolts of energy crashing through the floor, at the power involved. She knew she was a decent healer, but this?

  This had been a case of Divine Inspiration and probably a couple kazillion guardian angels working through her. Thank you, Lord, she silently repeated and knew they all heard her.

  As Wiley went through highlights of the rest of the process she decided to try various healing passes on him so he could have his own experience.

  His face took on a boyish look as he strove to feel something, but then he shook his head. “Nothing. But apparently something about it works.” Wiley touched a spot on the black desk. “Gorgeon,” he said.

  After a moment came an answering female voice. “Here, master.”

  “Don't call me that.”

  A round, friendly middle-aged woman's face with a distinctly orangish hue set against a white cap appeared on the table's surface. The image would have been lying down to anyone seated at the desk, but she was oriented correctly to him standing at the far side. She looked expectantly at Wiley.

  “I want you to hear some new medical theory.” Wiley turned to Lina. “The doctor's in the Legion's Med Wing. The… occurrence yesterday is now classified information, so do not mention anything concerning it to her, but this general research isn't.”

  “Classified?” Lina was puzzled. “But if Dr. Gorgeon's—”

  “Just call her Gorgeon.”

  “If Gorgeon's in the Legion—”

  “I'm a Legion employee, not a Legionnaire,” Gorgeon said pleasantly. That white cap with ear flaps she wore now looked liked medical wear instead of something out of Olde Holland. “My security level is four point two.”

  Wiley nodded. “And Lina's is Special Need to Know for this episode. Medical emergencies almost always end up under Gorgeon and her staff's care, except in the rare…oddball,” Wiley tasted the Terran word, “case like this.”

  Gorgeon had been eying Lina's disfigured face with concern. Her image rose from the table to hover 3-D in midair so she could get a better view of the entire patient. “I think your guest needs to see us immediately,” she said, “or was the rumor I heard about a quarantine in Lab 1-A true? The commander's had everyone scanning the entire complex for bio-contaminants. I even saw young Nud Littel carrying a bio-unit along the visitors' floors way after his bedtime last night.”

  “Commander Magnos is merely being overcautious as always. Better that than the opposite. Let's just say that Lina will see you in two days,” Wiley replied. “This is Lina O'Kelly of Earth.”

  Gorgeon's bodiless head tilted to the side as she calculated. “Valiant's home world. Rumors are certainly flying lately.”

  “Then you'd better report them to Security, shouldn't you? Gorgeon…”

  “Ready and waiting, sire.”

  “Don't call me that either.”

  Was there a touch of passive-aggression in Gorgeon's manner? Though she said it pleasantly enough, Lina thought she sensed frustration underneath.

  She recalled her lessons of the previous night. This Mega-Legion likely meant big celebrity status. Did some of the members exploit that? Did the people they employed run up against a wall of social distinction when trying to deal with them?

  She might be reading too much into this. The frustration level wasn't that great, and Wiley and Jae were very friendly and approachable, definitely not th
e über-celebrity type. As for Gorgeon—Lina's guides liked her very much. Thumbs up and pats on the head for her.

  Wiley still spoke to Gorgeon. “I want you to see this. Now Lina, put your arm here.” He adjusted a floating sensor ball.

  Wiley had Lina demonstrate astral body stretching. Halfway through, Gorgeon heaved a quick, exasperated sigh as if she'd been through something like this before.

  “May I assume we're talking metaphysical anatomy? It would help if someone gave me background on what the kick we're looking at.” Her head jounced from side to side as if she might be flapping her arms about to make a point, but the screen didn't show that much of her.

  Somehow Wiley managed to disguise Londo's image as he ran a playback of yesterday for Gorgeon, so an observer would have thought the person brought back to life in his lab could have been anyone. That is, if rumors hadn't been rampant.

  What kind of weapon could kill Valiant? came clearly from Gorgeon's concerned mind, though she never spoke Lon's name aloud.

  Computer-enhanced color fields filled the air around the body, flickering like sputtering candles as Lina worked. Lina watched the playback with as much wonder as the others.

  Every now and then Gorgeon asked a question and Wiley would ask Lina to elucidate on this technique or that one. That she'd taken courses with textbooks excited him until he learned that the textbooks had originally been channeled from disembodied entities. Oh, he didn't like that concept! “Scientific method,” he grumbled under his breath.

  Gorgeon didn't mumble. She merely pursed her lips and pressed her eyelids almost shut. There was something akin to the blind leading the blind in her thoughts about Lon's healing, but also great relief that the hero was back among the living, along with tremendous curiosity to examine these new techniques in controlled conditions. The frontiers of medicine should be advanced whenever possible so people could be helped.

  Lina tried to be patient within the flood of doubt coming at her from both directions. It took effort not to hear strong thoughts especially when they were so concentrated, as they were with these two focused doctors.

  When she made Wiley perform a basic astral exercise, his screen recorded a faint almost afterimage of his hand expanding and then retracting.

  Gorgeon exclaimed, “Look at that!”

  “But I was merely imagining I was doing it,” Wiley protested.

  Lina recalled a teacher's lesson. “Thoughts are powerful. They come before actions, which allow creation. Or even more basic than that: I think; therefore I am.”

  “I'll have to think about that,” Wiley said with a quirk to his lips.

  Gorgeon gave a pleasant snort. Minutes later she was exclaiming again as Wiley refined his scans so they could almost see the structure of Lina's etheric body, but only when she concentrated on it.

  “This is a network that ties body systems together?” Gorgeon asked. She demanded Wiley take physical readings, too, so she could compare changes on that plane.

  When Wiley took Lina's hand or arm to position it under his recorders, Lina gritted her teeth but tried not to pull away from the touch. Gorgeon must have noticed, for she asked her if she needed new painkillers, as if touching had physically hurt. Politely declining, Lina tried to cover up her phobia better.

  Jae found them while they were experimenting and smiled to see Wilder so fascinated with something totally new. “Good morning.” He kept his voice low so as not to disturb Londo. He'd already checked to see that Lon was very much improved.

  Lina looked up and froze. Had she been so out of things yesterday not to notice?

  Jae was breathtakingly beautiful. Maybe the most beautiful being she'd ever seen!

  Chapter 10

  Jae was shaking his shoulder-length, night-tangled hair into place and didn't notice her amazement, thank goodness. More slender and maybe a half-foot taller than Lon, he walked with a sure dancer's ease. His lean face held the roundness of youth, balancing a slight beard stubble, narrow nose, and a mouth wide enough to turn an ordinary smile into a mischievous grin. His eyes were such a bright blue they seemed to shine on their own. Glints of matching blue peeked through his hair: tiny earrings.

  It wasn't that his looks were so perfect, Lina decided. He was good looking, yes, but there was something else that sent him over the top. A cosmic sense of grace, she decided. It was like he and the universe walked in tune with each other.

  That glamour sloughed off when he made a face and squeegeed his tongue between his teeth. He smacked his lips, then wrinkled his nose as he woke up more. Adjusting his belts over his tunic sweater, he stretched his back and rolled his shoulders. “You're looking a kick of a lot better today, Lina. I'm beginning to think that purple is not your normal skin color.” At last he considered himself awake. No, a final scratch behind his neck finished the job.

  “Morning, Jae,” Wilder nodded absently as he paid attention to Gorgeon's detailed analysis of mitochondrial metabolic rates.

  Lina was not going to stand here like a gawking para-groupie! “Good morning,” she drawled. Mustn't embarrass either of them. “I was hoping you'd be up soon, before I needed to start on Lon. We have to talk.”

  That caught Wiley's attention and he turned one eye to Jae.

  “She saw something in my aura yesterday,” Jae explained. He ran his fingers through his hair to push it out of his eyes, and again Lina saw that the tops of his ears had an elongated elfish tip. His deep honey skin would have marked him a member of the Californian surfer elven clan, if there was one.

  “I apologize for the way I presented it. I didn't want to upset you,” she said, reminding herself fiercely that she was not on Earth anymore. After all, here was Wilder Mem-Bazer, with his skin a beautifully subdued shade of turquoise as he stood in this set that would out-Star Trek Star Trek. It all combined to give a breathtaking sense of unreality and cosmic cosmopolitanism.

  “Sometimes I'm too eager to get things done. I went too long without a break during the Kolaimni.” She paused. “I read that you change sub-molecular structure and reactions. I was wondering how you came up with that obsidian mug. That's pretty amazing.”

  Jae shrugged. “That's what I do.”

  “I heard you talk to the spirit of the mug, or maybe the deva of its structure. Something about crystalline patterns. It listened to you,” she said wonderingly, “and it changed.”

  Wilder's ring-covered fingers paused over his monitors. “That's an odd idea,” he said. “Is she right? People have always wondered how Feithi—” He stopped suddenly and both eyes blinked in unison for once. Then he said, “Lab transmission out, Gorgeon.”

  “Aye aye, master.” Gorgeon's disappointed image disappeared.

  “Is it?” Wiley asked Jae.

  Jae's features evened out, the smile fading. “People have had lots of theories,” he hedged, “but I want to hear some more from you, Lina.”

  “I read a little about you last night. The computer said that you came from Feith. That Feith was a planet, not a person. I think I need to do a reading for you.”

  “Wait a minute,” Wilder insisted. “First of all, please review for me what you discussed yesterday.”

  Lina regarded him. “I don't want to seem rude, but I don't like third parties around when I channel. They interrupt with inappropriate questions. They often make the client uncomfortable.”

  Jae smiled warningly before his features slipped back into neutral. “That's okay. I trust Wiley to hear whatever. And he won't ask too many questions, will he?”

  Wiley made a noncommittal noise.

  Lina tried to persuade Jae. “This might get pretty personal. You can never tell.”

  “Wiley has a blackmail file on everyone and mine's bigger than most. Will it bother you if we record for him?”

  “I always record so my clients can review later. Can we sit somewhere?” Standing up for so long, her knees were beginning to wobble.

  They moved to that little break room. Lina settled herself at the tab
le, linking with the universal white light for spiritual protection. This was a service she'd performed many times before. She planted her bare feet flat on the floor to connect with the grounding energy of the planet.

  After she straightened her chakras she announced, “This will be a general reading with time for a few questions. Don't let me go over oh, twenty minutes or I'll get too tired to work on Lon, okay?”

  “All right.” Jae looked at Wiley, who touched one of his rings and then nodded.

  Lina took a deep breath, released, and began the familiar visualization routine. “Okay. Whew, it's hard working my way through the crowd around you. So many people. Who here is best qualified to speak for the group? All right, thank you. Go ahead.”

  She listened, stretching her senses to feel who might be there. Quick impressions of faces passed through her imagination as the whispers focused down to one voice.

  “He's an elderly gentleman, but he looks very young, as if he were in his forties, maybe even thirties. His name is, ah… Smolenk. Smlenk. No, it's Sim Lenk. Two words, said very fast.”

  “My grandfather.” Jae breathed shallowly. “He always talked fast.”

  “Slow down, please. He says, ‘Hello little Jaeson, you've grown well and strong. Rest assured that you are well-loved, too. Everyone sends you their love. But you've let fear into your heart, hate and fear and it has cost you dearly. Cost you the heritage that you would have received naturally if you had just let it. But that is water under the bridge, so to speak. You could not have been taught that because…because there was no one left to teach you any better.’ What does that mean?”

  Before Jae could ask if she were asking him or his grandfather, she answered her own question. “’Feith is no more. Feith is dead.’” Her forehead creased in puzzlement. “But Feith is a planet. He keeps saying that Feith is dead and gone. How do you kill—” She gasped so hard it hurt. “Oh my god. Oh my god!”

  Lina scrambled off the bench and shook her arms to clear the horrific energy. “Oh my god.” She clapped her hands to her mouth. She looked at Jae, then at Wiley, then back at Jae. “All those people— I didn't know,” she whispered.