“Uh, yes of course, who told you about this?” Angela inquired.
“I know things,” the woman stepped up to where Miranda could finally see her naggingly familiar face.
“This is my mother,” Angela held her palms out towards the woman.
The woman shook her head at Angela with a condescending smile on her lips. Then she smiled at Miranda, “Hi, my name is Ellen.”
“Mine's Miranda, Have we met before?”
The woman's expression became cryptic and Miranda noticed she could no more read her mind than Tina's although she did sense that Ellen wasn't a deaf mute, “Who knows? You may have met a future me, or I may have met a future you, or I may have met a past you, or this may be the first time we have met. So in short your answer is, yes, no, maybe, and probably.”
Miranda offered Ellen her hand while trying to untie the mental knots Ellen had tied with her answer. Miranda looked at Ellen quizzically, then it came to her where she had met Ellen before, or it started to...
“Wait, I've got it! Way back on Relevar, I gave you the embroidered outfit,” Ellen filled in almost too quickly.
Miranda perked up, “I want to thank you for the herbs. They helped a friend a lot.”
“I know,” Ellen quickly replied.
“So she did know you!”
“Sort of. I'm glad you found Ben. He really is kind of cute, for a human.” Ellen smoothly changed the subject.
Miranda blushed and found herself glancing his way. His left eyebrow was raised and his mouth pulled into a tight, grimace. “More he found me, or we found each other.”
“I'm really glad for you,” Ellen smiled and left without saying anything more. An air of puzzlement hung over the room, while everyone seemed to take time to recover from Ellen's surprise arrival and departure.
“Well, reunions out of the way, I'd like to propose we get down to business,” Angela finally interrupted the silence.
“Not while on restriction,” Tina piped up.
“Gene lifted it before we came,” Angela and Daniel replied as one.
“He didn't tell me,” Ben and Tina blurted in the same synchrony. That led to a stab of jealousy in Miranda's middle.
“Go and ask him if you want,” Angela suggested. Tina immediately rose to do so. Angela watched Tina leave then turned back to the assembled crowd, “I know you won’t approve Neely but I would like Miranda to join Ben in the field. That is as long as you wouldn't mind, Miranda.”
Miranda's mother started to sputter in protest, but fell silent as her father wrapped his arms around her, “Neely honey, she's been all right this far. I think we should go and let them talk.” Miranda's mother nodded and let herself be led out.
Tina and Gene met them on the way in. Gene settled himself in Tina's chair with a frown on his face, but said nothing in protest as Angela began again. “I don't want to go into it to deeply right now. I agree with Gene in thinking you two could use a night's good rest at the least before getting into it. Right now can we just agree to meet on the issue of the missing girl in the morning? Let's say around ten.”
Miranda felt Ben and Daniel's assent. Too bad Miranda didn't have a clue, “What missing girl?”
Angela blinked, and Daniel rushed to fill in, “There was a dark rape and mass murder on Ben's world before you two met. Angela killed the demon responsible, then Ben and his team rescued a survivor. We thought it was over but evidently there was another survivor, and she had a child. Ben and I were looking for her the last two times we ran into you out there.”
Miranda digested his words, it occurred to her that the girl was probably the reason for the Darkone's death order. “Okay, tomorrow morning.”
Gene rose, “That's settled, everybody out, Miranda needs time to rest and absorb!” Angela, Daniel and Tina left. Ben lingered at the doorway. Then with a glance back at Miranda, Ben left. “Are you hungry?” Gene asked. Miranda shook her head. “Do you think you can get back to sleep?”
Miranda leaned back against the pillows. Just then she didn't think she could stay awake. Her closing eyelids answered his question, or maybe it was her soft snores.
Miranda dreamt she was floating in nothingness. At first it was the comforting kind, where all troubles and worries have dissolved and lightness is all there is. Then somehow somewhere the dream shifted, and became darker, dark like the nothingness behind those eyes. Miranda wanted to scream, but she couldn't make a noise. She couldn't move. She couldn't struggle, and the darkness was taking form around her; it was coming for her.
Miranda finally managed to struggled loose. She turned towards a pinprick of light, and ran for it. It led her to Kindy's smiling face. A face that changed into Dichen's triumphant grimace. Miranda's hands were sticky, there was blood all over them. She knew it wasn't her own. Her whole being filled with the memory of the guard. Her hands remembered feeling the resistance through the knife when the blade drove through the man’s skull into his brain. She heard the sound of metal sliding against bone. She felt the man's surprise, pain and entry into forever darkness. She smelled blood. It was his blood and she couldn't get it off her hands. Dichen, laughed at her, louder and louder.
Miranda woke screaming. It was dark and silent. She didn't know where she was. There was a soft hiss and light stabbed into her eyes. Feet shuffled into the room. Miranda cowered. There was an audible thud and Miranda felt the bed shake.
“Lights fifteen percent,” A soft male voice grunted, Miranda recognized it. He was Gene. The lights came up and he squinted at Miranda, “Do you want to talk?” He stood canted over on to one foot with the other up in his hands. Comically he hopped into the bedside chair, which Miranda still thought of as Tina's. His robe fluttered behind him.
“I'm sorry I screamed. I was dreaming. Did I wake you?”
“No, I would've been up in another hour anyway. Really it isn't important. I've been where you are remember. I know about dreams. There are still the nights when I wake up screaming too, strangely enough I scream like a girl.” Gene examined his toe then dropped the foot gingerly to the floor. “So was it demons coming to torment you? Or, just a nothingness dream?”
“Nothingness, and memories, I had blood all over my hands and I couldn't get it off.”
“Was it yours?” Gene rubbed the back of his neck.
“No, it belonged to one of the guards. I killed him,” Miranda grabbed her blanket wrapped knees and pulled them to her chest.
“There's nothing to be ashamed of in killing in self defense, not in a place like that.”
“It wasn't self defense. I got mad. It was revenge. He'd killed Kindy,” Miranda buried her face in the blanket covering her knees.
“Kindy, hmm, I would guess he was a Ben alternate. Am I right? And you were close, weren't you?” Miranda jerked upright to stare into Gene's eyes, half wondering if he could read her mind, for all she couldn't read his. “That's what I thought. Are you going to tell Ben?”
Miranda's nose wrinkled, “Why should I tell him?”
“Because I think you love him,” Gene answered matter-of-factly.
From deep inside the frustrated denial of her feelings exploded, “Why does everybody keep saying that! I've spent maybe fifteen minutes with him, total. Besides, I don't even know what love really is.”
“Because you wore ruts into this carpeting until you knew he would be here; then you fell right off to sleep, and your face changes when you talk about him. It doesn't take a telepath to see you two complete one another,” Gene answered.
“Is that what love is?”
“I don't know. Love is a lot of things, and very hard to define. Personally my view of love goes back to the story of Adam and Eve. At the very beginning god made man and wife a matched set. That is at least part of what love is about. I think you and Ben are a matched set,” Gene answered.
“Who told you about god?” Miranda asked.
Gene looked her in the eye seriously, then laughed, “God isn't exactly a secret Miranda, but then I
suppose he wasn't popular teaching where you've been. My field of expertise is in healing bodies. In the morning I'll send you to a friend of mine. He's a preacher at one of the churches on the main level. He'd be better to talk to about god. He's in the soul healing business, though there have been times where god has muscled into my field. Not that I complained. For now, see if you can't get some sleep.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ben leapt out of bed before Bea managed to begin shaking it, in fact the alarm had barely begun to go off. His feet touched the floor and there was silence. Ben shuffled into the shower while brushing his teeth. He was out in record time and dressed in the clothes he laid out the night before. “Bea, what's the time?”
“Six forty-three, and twenty-four seconds. Do you want coffee and pastry in here, or in the main room?”
“Get it for me here, I'll have it on the go. I'm going to run this morning. Can you message me when Miranda wakes for the morning, and Gene decides she's ready for visitors?” Ben went to the delivery cupboard and retrieved his coffee and bear claw almost the second it materialized.
“I will get right on it.”
Ben sipped at his coffee on the way out the door and nibbled at the pastry on his way down the hall. He found the main room empty, with the exception of a pre-adolescent boy. It took Ben a long glance to dredge up the boy's name, “Carl?”
The boy shuddered, before his eyes found focus on Ben's face. “Umm, yes sir, I'm waiting for Trinny, she was going to show me the way to the amp range this morning. Niri said I needed practice and Trinny said she'd help. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you.” To Ben's freshly sensitive telepathy, Carl's telepathic voice was wildly out of control, varying in intensity, emotion and timing from the words coming out of his mouth. The boys emotions fluctuated wildly from and excited high to a shameful low. It reminded Ben of his days spent trying to get the telekinetic targets to go where he wanted.
“It's okay Carl, just try not to stress so much, it doesn't help you gain control, trust me on that,” Ben smiled at Carl, who had managed to gain a little control over his powers, “You know I think maybe I could help. I know my way around the ranges. Bea, message Trinny, tell her she can reach us on the practice range.” Bea's remote beeped in response. Ben took a big bite of his bear claw and a gulp of coffee. Then he gestured Carl towards the elevator.
Ben tapped the main level button on the elevator. On the way up he finished off his breakfast and deposited the cup and wrapper in the waste slot. At their level the door opened and Ben led a calmer Carl through the halls to the shielded practice room.
“Here we are,” Ben said waving his arms in a grand gesture. “Those, over there, are the weights, the higher the shelf the lighter the weight. Those, over there, are called targets. They are fragile, and they increase in weight the higher they go. The shelves in the middle are empty so you have a place to set the weights and practice lifting and dropping. The stand in front of the weights is where you put the targets to practice focusing on them. The goal there is to move them without breaking them.” Ben pointed to each thing in turn ending by telekinetically setting a mid-sized target on the stand.
“Now, Carl, let's see how you do,” Ben grabbed Carl by the shoulder and positioned him ten feet away from the stand. While Ben turned to grab an amplifier, Carl looked at the pot, and it began to visibly vibrate, then it exploded into a puff of fine powder. Ben spun to see the results, blinked and put the amplifier back.
“I'm sorry,” Carl blurted.
Ben put another pot on the stand, “It's okay Carl, that's what they're here for. You just need to tone down the intensity. Is there something bothering you?”
Carl nodded, “My mom doesn't want me to be a factor. She came here as a refugee, and doesn't want me to go out there. She says it's too dangerous. My dad is proud, he's a tech, and never really qualified to be a factor. They haven't stopped arguing about it, and it's been hard to sleep.”
“Put that out of your mind and worry about the target. Move it to a shelf. Don't let anything interrupt the focus of that,” Ben suggested. Carl took a deep breath and looked at the target. It began to wobble. “Stay calm Carl.” Carl took another deep breath and the pot lifted and moved smoothly to a nearby shelf.
“Carl I'm no expert, but I think your problem isn't just that you need practice. I think you need to talk your feelings through with your parents, and maybe Niri. If you can get a word in...” Bea's remote bleeped interrupting Ben, “What's up Bea?”
“Trinny received your message and indicated she would join you soon, and Daniel left a message to ask if you would pick Miranda and Tina up and join him outside of Angela's office for a pre-meeting meeting at nine.”
Ben blinked his eyes closed, “I don't exactly know where her office is Bea.”
“I can get you there,” Bea answered.
“Fine, it's a date,” Ben tried to sound nonchalant, but he was eager to see Miranda to begin with.
“I will inform Daniel. By the way Gene has indicated Miranda is awake,” Bea blipped.
Ben turned pink at the timing of the announcement, and red when Trinny entered to see his pink face. “Hey Ben, Carl, good morning! Sorry I wasn't up, I forgot to set an alarm.”
“It's okay, Ben has helped a lot. He thinks I need to talk to my parents,” Carl said while simultaneously sending Trinny a telepathic stream of what had transpired so far. Carl's telepathic stream whirled along inside Ben's brain too, nearly causing the emergency ejection of Ben's breakfast.
“Carl, tell me, don't think it to me,” Trinny scolded, “Factors have to talk in the field, not just think. Natural telepaths are a minority. Just because we have amplifiers here that make everyone able to think talk doesn't mean that's true everywhere. Outside of Sanctuary they don't have amplifiers, so there aren't many telepaths.” Carl's chin dipped, his lips got tight, and the stream of telepathic information froze.
Ben's relief was almost infinite. “Thanks Carl. What Trinny happens to have left out is that not everyone who is a factor is used to their telepathy. That means thought streams can be disconcerting.”
Carl's mind whirled with shame, and rebellious anger. “I'm sorry.”
“Not a problem Carl,” Trinny reassured, “If you knew all of this, you wouldn't exactly be in training now would you?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Oh boy,” Trinny grunted, “Respect for your elders is one thing Carl, but calling me ma’am is a totally different thing. I thought we'd already discussed the fact that you can always call me Trinny. Perhaps I need to be more clear. I'd prefer you call me Trinny.”
Carl blushed, “I'm sorry.”
“This is going to be a long day. How long can you help?” Trinny turned to Ben.
Ben consulted the wall clock, it was only seven-fifteen. “I have to pick up Tina and Miranda to meet Daniel outside Angela's office by nine. Generously allowing for discussion and travel time that gives me around an hour, unless I 'port, which I don't want to do. I see no need to piss off Gene. The trouble is, I don't know how much help I'd be. Teaching is the one case where I subscribe to a paraphrase of the old adage; Those who can, teach. Those who can't just get out of the way.” Ben smiled, waved and darted out the door before Trinny could think of a good reason for him to stay. He was really relieved that Trinny wasn't Tina. Tina would have talked him into a corner before he could blink.
Outside the amp range, Ben set course for the track. He had gotten lazy and hadn't had a good run in almost two weeks. When he got to the track he remembered why, Niri and her beginners group monopolized it until almost seven thirty most days. He didn't mind running with the kids, but he did mind getting snared by Niri. He adjusted his stride and course for the exit from the training hall, making it seem that was his intention the whole time.
“Ben, hey, Ben, how's it going?” Niri called having noticed him.
Ben wished briefly for a turtleneck shirt he could pull up over his face then turned with
a smile to face Niri, “Good, I've been good.”
“That's great! So are you going to be coming back for training or has Angela made your field status permanent?” Niri asked.
Ben found it annoying that with his telepathy, he had no trouble sensing her physical attraction to him. It was one stage less clingy than a full on crush. “I really don't know. I think she's waiting to see how we handle this missing girl thing.”
“Oh, you and Daniel are still looking for her? I'd heard you brought a girl back last trip.”
“Yeah, just not the one we were sent to find. We brought back Miranda, turns out she's Tina's sister. Miranda and I have an appointment with Angela this morning, before we go out looking for the girl,” Ben answered. He shuffled his weight from foot to foot and fought to keep himself from thinking about Miranda too hard.
“You and Miranda, so that would make you the senior factor in the partnership. That pretty much means you won't be back here for training,” Niri's disappointment was evident in more than her voice.
“I guess so, for what it’s worth. I’ve only been out twice.” Ben focused on the track, shoving his eager thoughts of Miranda to the back of his mind.
“It doesn’t matter. You’ve been a factor longer than she has, that gives you seniority. There isn't much I could teach you anyway. I mean your telepathic control is excellent. I can't even sense minor leakage anymore, and what with all the time you spend on the amp range I probably couldn't teach you anything there. Tina tells me she tutored you on how to use all of the equipment. About all I have left to show you would be teleporting but that depends on your....”
Niri's voice cut out while Ben was in the middle of a blink. When his eyes opened back up he was staring into Miranda's pale blue eyes. She was less than an inch in front of him and her smell, her very present presence silenced him. He didn't have to guess that he'd lost control.
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