by White, Gwynn
She returned her focus to the tree trunk, and extended her hand over a section covered in ants.
"We need to go, Ehli. The maras could come back." Save your energy for if they do. He checked the jungle, but so many fat branches overlapped in cascades leading deeper and deeper into the jungle that he was blind beyond ten meters in any direction.
Ehli remained with her hand over the trunk. The ants made a wide berth to avoid walking directly under her palm. "I need to test this out some more. It's okay. The mara have fled, for now."
"Okay, but we still need to find your son."
She held up a finger. "Oh really? I forgot."
Cullen sighed. He shifted his rifle stock to check the vesparan can, tapping a tiny button that lit a number on the small screen to indicate gas percentage remaining: 83 percent. When he looked back, the ants had formed a line passing under her hand. Then those under her hand stopped.
She slowly lowered and spread her reach. As it passed over ants, the insects stopped. Completely still. Even the ones left behind as she moved her hand downward remained motionless.
Ehli grunted and fell to a knee. The ants scattered, including those she'd frozen in place.
Cullen rushed to her side, taking one of her arms and lifting it over his shoulder as he knelt. "Are you okay?"
She shook her head, her gaze out of focus. "I don't know. It was just... too much."
He rubbed her back. "Take it easy. That brain of yours must need time to adjust, not to mention you're still recovering from the snake bite. If you can walk, I'd like to put some more distance between us and where the maras saw us last."
She nodded. "I can walk. Can you get my bottle out for me? I'm not—"
"Of course." He took the bottle out and handed it to her, then took his and enjoyed a swig of the cool water. If she had trouble with ants....
"Remember, I can hear you." She smiled back at him. "Sorry, I can't help it. If you want to think about me, you'll have to do it without words, I guess," she said, and winked.
He thought that wouldn't be hard—the thinking about her, not the without words part. He couldn't help looking at her cheek and remembering its softness. It felt like they'd made out and were now in the flirting stage afterward, except because it wasn't a kiss, there wasn't the ease of mind that it could happen again.
"You're doing a good job," she said. "Absolutely nothing going on up there." She winked again, and reached around to tap his cheek. "Let's go, Captain Muscles. It's not that much different. We women usually know what men are thinking. And don't worry. I'm thankful you sucked the poison out."
Had he said that? He took one look at the ants on the tree, and moved off, feeling as though the time to keep his thoughts about her hidden was running short, and the distinction between what thoughts she heard and didn't was getting even thinner.
16
Emmit steeled himself and inhaled deeply against the emotions attached to that desire to be with his dad, for all to be well.
The bleak light from the overhead flickered and popped. At his feet, the neuronet pole lowered back into its compartment in the floor. As it sank, Emmit considered whether to grab it and hold it up, or use his weight to snap it in two. A third option came to mind as the pole's head lowered under the closing doors. Emmit took his machete out and shoved the blade under one of the doors, preventing it from shutting.
He needed time to develop a plan, and hopefully keeping that door unlocked would present an option if he decided to try and get back into the net later.
For now, his priority was getting out of the cell and finding Adi.
He focused back on the moments when he'd overheard the doctor's thoughts—He has his eyes.... That the man had thought that inclined Emmit back toward the belief that his father had been speaking to him in the net, but then again, the doctor could have been speaking about a picture that somehow was kept on this planet, for whatever reason. Father Hall of Fame!
Emmit chuckled to himself, shaking his head at the bad joke.
Dad, if you're out there, we're going to have to meet in person before I can trust what was said minutes ago.
I'm going to find Adi and Mom.
He stopped before thinking that his step after that would be to leave the planet. How could he leave before seeing what was waiting for him at Fel Or'an? If it was his father, and he needed Emmit to come, could he let fear and suspicion sever the tie between him and what he'd dreamt for ever since he thought his father was killed?
The hard answer was to go to Fel Or'an knowing that it could be a trap, because the possible benefits outweighed the risk, and because he didn't want to go back to being afraid. One truth, however strange, was that he could hear people's thoughts. He would prove to himself that he could develop that.
And I'm going to do it right now. He concentrated on Adi—how the skinny boy's pointy shoulders angled his shirts, and how his pants always hung loose to his tanned and veined feet. He thought of the scars of missing flesh on the outer edges of his hands, and how thin his pinky fingers were, from a fall down the quarry when he'd used his hands to slow his fall and the erosion had burned away his skin.
Emmit thought of what Adi had told him about his own father, of how it would feel to have been left behind and not hold it against his father. He tried to separate himself from the differences in their past and empathize with Adi's view on life. Even now, he would be at least a little angry with Emmit for putting him in this predicament, but ultimately, Adi would be scared and hopeful that his friend would help him if he couldn't find a way out himself.
Adi, I'm sorry. I'm stuck too, but as soon as I find a way out, I'll come get you. It's what I'm working on now. Emmit laughed. Maybe you can come rescue me....
His father, or whatever that net dream was, had wanted him to be able to convince the bug boy to go to the fisherman. What if he could convince Adi to come to him?
He walked to the door and put his hands on the cool metal. Closing his eyes, he applied his weight through his hands and rested his forehead against the cool surface. Adi. Listen to me. Welcome me. I want to help you. Show me where you are. Open your eyes to become one with me.
Emmit had no idea what he was doing. The voice he'd heard as he entered the moss entrance had said that inside would show him the muscle of his growth. If this ability was like a muscle, did that mean he should clench the muscles in his head? He bit his teeth together and tightened every muscle he could from his jawline to the top of his skull. In his effort, he focused on his love for his non-blood brother, Adi. He truly wanted to help him, and felt no guilt in his attempt to access his friend's mind. This would be for the best.
Not only would this help Adi—he hoped—but Emmit also needed this. The emotional whirlwind he'd gone through in the net dream, and the confusion in its wake, left him like a shell needing to be filled with love, friendship, truth... anything good that he could use as a bolster against the fear that threatened to crack his foundation and leave him a worthless heap.
If he could successfully reach Adi, and rescue them both, he wouldn't need to fear becoming worthless.
Just let me in, Adi. It won't hurt. I promise.
A wave of anger filled Emmit, so sudden and without explanation that it consumed his ability to focus. It invaded and demanded acknowledgment, but lacked a voice or clear definition to be understood.
What do you want?
Had something else found its way into his mind—someone else?
"I want you to tell me what's going on," the voice said, angry.
Adi?
"Tell me what's going on, Emmit. You know more than you've told me."
It's working!
"What's working? What's going on?"
Emmit's eyes remained closed, and his brain hurt with a pain that worsened the harder he focused on the imagined rope that tugged between him and Adi. The blessing that Ocia told you about. I'm trying to use it to set us free.
"Where are you?"
In a cell. I
thought you were right behind me. I heard you cry out, but then a neuronet beam took me into a net dream, and when I woke up I was locked in a cell. Where are you? Can you show me?
"Show you?"
With Emmit's eyes closed, his sight wasn't complete darkness—more a gray fog with indiscernible shapes that moved outside of his control. Open your eyes to mine. Let me see through yours.
The edges of the shapes clarified and lightened against the gray background. Were they trees with a low canopy or pillars inside a building? Then the gray darkened and swallowed the shapes into its fog. No, Adi. Relax.
"I... I'm scared, Adi. What's happening to me?"
It's just me.
"How do I know? I've heard other voices."
Other voices? Had his dad, or whomever, tried speaking to him, too? What did they want?
"I don't know. They said the same thing. To open up and let them in. How do I know you're not them pretending to be you? I'm too far from when I lost you, Emmit. I need to get out of here."
Don't let go of the connection we have, Adi. Pull harder and come. The gray lightened and allowed the pillars to tighten in shape. The background appeared to be a one level room inside a building with pillars to hold up the ceiling. A hallway showed up on Adi's right, leading out of the room. It felt right—close. Like a bridge that could connect the two of them. Take that hall, Adi.
"How do I know it's you?"
I told you on the train that I'd tell you when I could.
"Yeah. But Ocia was there. So was your mother. How do I know it's you and not either of them?"
The gray darkened to blind Emmit from seeing where Adi was walking.
Emmit wondered the same thing about his speaking to his father in the net. It could have been Ocia or someone else. What can I do to convince him? he wondered.
How many people have you told about how your curiosity led to your capture on your father's ship and subsequent imprisonment at Setuk?
"You and your mom."
Okay, so—
"But Ocia could have found that out."
Yeah, I suppose, Emmit thought. The throbbing in his head and the strain to hold onto the connection between them burned like an overused muscle. He'd either need to let go and give himself time to recover, or continue fighting the pain and hope he found a way to overcome Adi's resistance before something popped or severed. What would happen then? Would his gift be gone forever? Or worse, would his brain stop functioning like it had before?
Adi, I'm trying. But if you keep fighting me, I don't know how much longer I can hold on, and I want to... you're my brother. If we don't both get out of here, I'll never forgive myself.
The gray lightened, and the room Adi walked through clarified under the white light on the ceiling. The hallway had flat walls on both sides, but Emmit could make out the cracks in the concrete, and even a different concentration of humidity in the warm air than was in his cell. That's it. Emmit sensed the rope between their minds go taught and shorten. Some of the pressure eased off the pain in his mind, and in this state, he envisioned a deeper stamina. Thank you, Adi. You're doing great. Keep coming.
"I'm trusting you, Emmit. Because I could feel that you weren't lying. You're my brother too, and I won't give up the chance to help you out."
At a crossroads in the hallway, Emmit knew Adi had to turn left, and relayed that thought to his brother. Adi obeyed, and the connection tightened. The pain in his mind faded to a dull ache—the muscle no longer strained, but still needed to recover from the effort.
Adi built up speed into a jog, taking new hallways in harmony with Emmit's guidance, until he—they both knew—was approaching the door that kept Emmit locked inside.
That's it! Emmit pounded on the door, and heard the muffled thumps as though through Adi's ears on the other side.
When Adi reached the door, Emmit showed him how to turn the handle. It unlocked and opened inward.
Emmit backed up and left Adi's mind. As soon as there was room, he rushed through the doorway and wrapped his brother in a desperate hug.
"Emmit!" Adi began weeping. "I thought I'd lost you."
"You didn't." Emmit felt tears loosing over his eyelids. "You did great. Thank you."
He wiped his eyes and stood back, then looked at the floor, at where his machete kept the neuronet pole chamber cracked open. His plan solidified: to leave it be and take their chances on the run. He reached down for the machete.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the door closing behind Adi. "No. Adi!" He lunged out to stop it, but Adi was in his way and didn't move in time. They crashed, and as he hit the floor, the door closed. A latch bolted home inside the thick metal.
They tricked us, Emmit thought.
"You got your bug hunter after all."
17
We women usually know what men are thinking," Ehli told Cullen. "And don't worry. I'm thankful you sucked the poison out".
She enjoyed the blush rising on his skin. It had been a while since she'd flirted, and she wasn't sure if the guilt hiding so close to the surface of her emotions was justified. She didn't have a reason to outright deny Willo, or what Cullen had said about Schaefer being alive. What had happened between him and Willo, though, and why had she felt it necessary to tell her she'd fallen in love with him?
Cullen led her into a clearing between trees, hiding his face. Was that too naked of her to call out his sucking the poison out? Sucking came off as a very sexual word to say out loud. And that it was the last words spoken before the conversation ended made it louder still. "I didn't mean to embarrass you."
He glanced back and shook it off as though she had no need to apologize.
"I mean, if you hadn't acted quickly, I'd probably be dead, and here I am making teenage girl jokes. You did what was necessary, and I thank you for it. No more face-sucking jokes, I promise." Before the words were out, she regretted them, but when he smiled back at her, she felt at ease that he got her sense of humor. Too much time with only her teenage son to make jokes with.
"I suppose I'll hold back on my squirrel cheek jokes then, too?"
She playful shoved him in the small of his back. "If you plan to make another joke, I'd suggest it."
"That would be a shame. Not sure how Torek..." Cullen put his hand back, but they were so close it pressed into her stomach. He pulled it away quickly. "Sorry." He pointed at a tree. "These leaves cause a rash." He carefully lifted a branch with red-spotted leaves that blocked their way with his blade hooked in a crook of tiny branches. He looked around to their left. "Let's go that way. Better not to chance it."
After letting him retake the lead, Ehli asked, "Not sure how Torek what?"
"Oh." Cullen aimed his machete through an opening wide enough to avoid the red-spotted leaves. "Nothin'. I was going to joke about Torek not surviving if I couldn't entertain him, but that reminded me of what Willo said about him."
"Yeah?"
"She said he couldn't be trusted."
"About what?" she asked.
"I don't know exactly. Willo said he knew more about Ocia's plans then he was leading on, and if I told them about Willo, they'd take me back. They apparently don't know she's this strong."
"This strong?" Ehli stopped as a bush shook in front of her, and out sprinted a tiny yellow lizard.
They paused a second to see if anything else would come out, then continued making a path between trees, Cullen following his compass.
"She said she could help us find Emmit," Ehli continued, "but that I wouldn't be ready until I touched the snake, and how he was fine where he was. Then, before the snake bit me, she disappeared, and we're left wandering this stupid jungle." It felt like a mara could pop out and tear claws and teeth through them both any second. "So how strong is she, and do we bother trusting anything she says anyway?"
"I don't know." Cullen arched his neck forward to see around a tree before proceeding. "She admitted to being unpredictable, as though apologizing for it. I can see her telling me we ca
n't trust anyone as a way to make us trust her, but so far, she's proven nothing. I've known Torek far longer. He deserves the benefit of the doubt, and if Ocia is telling the truth about my father's involvement in this colony and need for my memory to get us back in time to stop the invasion, then that plan remains on the agenda."
"And I've known Ocia for six years. He's like a father to me." Ehli took in the strange noises of bird and insect interloping choruses. "He rescued me from prison, and has been up front about the urgency that has created our dangerous position. I want to trust him, too, even if he was not up front about Schaefer being alive."
"He didn't tell you because he said it wasn't his place to. If I were your husband and had been gone for that long, I'd want to reveal that surprise myself, in person."
Ehli felt something when he said if I were your husband. Jealousy would be the best label, especially matched up with his need to look away after he said it. "Would you have fallen in love with someone else while you were away?" she said to his back, following him through two ferns.
"Again, that's Willo talking. If she and Schaefer have become enemies, it would make sense to try and drive a wedge between you and him."
"But by admitting she fell for him? Wouldn't that make me just as mad at her?"
"Maybe," he said. "Maybe not."
"Yeah." Ehli remembered another part of the dream. "She did say she hadn't been told about me until a week or two ago. I think."
"Smart ploy."
"Right."
"Any luck mind-locking with your son?" Cullen tapped his head as though to help illustrate.
"No, but I'm working on it. I had that thing with the ants, and can read your thoughts once in a while."
"So glad for that."
"It's okay. Nothing I haven't liked," she said, and felt the start of a blush. "Mostly: oh, a rock, another tree. Stuff like that. It's nice. Like my own personal tour guide."
"And on this side, we have a tree. Haven't seen that one before. Bugs live in there, too. If you're hungry, protein in abundance."