Fortune's Wheel

by Lisanne Norman

  anything like our telepaths they'll be no use to us," said Rhudi, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

  "How do the Terrans on the Khalossa view this alliance?" asked Faikal, ignoring Rhudi's comments.

  "The Keissians want the treaty. We don't. A treaty with either Terran world will leave our back door open to another attack from the Valtegans. We need to do something that will enrage either the Terrans on Earth, or our own people against the Terrans, if we're to stop this treaty."

  Faikal looked round his little group.

  "How many of us are committed to this course of action?" asked Rhudi, leaning forward on the table.

  "Considering that nearly every Clan on the planet has lost at least one member of their family from the colony worlds, very few of them are interested in anything but retribution against the Valtegans," said Faikal.

  "Don't they consider this alliance with the Terrans a dan-ger? Aliens as potentially powerful as our telepaths mixing freely with our people? Can't they see that we have no rea-son to trust them? The humans on the Khalossa were just as suspicious of us as we were of them," said Rhudi.

  "They don't think about it at all," said Vrall. "Most are content to let the Governor and the Council make

  the deci-sions."

  Rhudi let out a string of oaths. "How many of us are there?"

  "About a dozen," replied Faikal. "We'll take you to meet T'Chezo later tonight. She'll bring you up to

  date on her plans."

  "Having a Terran kill the Terran female and her Leska sounds the best way of enraging the Governor and the Coun-cil to the point where they at least cut off communications with Earth," said Niaza thoughtfully. "The Terrans have won no friends on the Rhyaki with their demands and arrogance. Do we actually need a Terran, though? What if it was merely thought that a Terran was responsible?"

  "How do you propose we do that without a Terran?" asked Rhudi. "It isn't as if we can pass any of us off

  as one of them. They're too physically different. We need a real Terran."

  "If we kill the Leska pair already here, wouldn't the Terrans feel their people were at risk on Shola and refuse to let any more come here?" said Niaza. "We could achieve the same object without involving a Terran."

  Rhudi nodded slowly. "Possible," he said. "Easier than trying to subvert a Terran. If we're working withour own people, less can go wrong."

  "It solves the problem of us only having a month's leave and the fact that the Terrans won't have arrived

  by then."

  They were so intent on their own conversation that they missed the uneasy looks the civilians wereexchanging.

  "You'll have to try this one out on T'Chezo," Vrall said. "She's our leader after all. I think you'll find she

  has defi-nite ideas of her own."

  "Just what are her plans?" asked Rhudi. "You obviously know them."

  Faikal looked uneasily at Vrall.

  "Well?" demanded Rhudi.

  "She wants to take a less offensive stance, at least at first," said Faikal. "Holding demonstrations and

  handing out leaflets, only resorting to violence if we have to."

  "Then why involve us?" demanded Rhudi. "We've got the military experience to plan a strike on them and

  we've told you we're only here for a month."

  "You'll have to talk to T'Chezo," said Vrall uncomfort-ably.

  "Let's take you to your room," said Faikal, getting up. "We can't solve this without her."

  "Fair enough," sighed Rhudi, reaching down to pick up his kit bag. "Where's this room you've got for us?"

  "Just next door," said Faikal, getting up to stand in the aisle between the tables.

  As they got up to leave, Rhudi pulled Niaza back, letting the others go in front of them. "If this T'Chezodoesn't see it our way, we'll do the job ourselves," he said in a low voice.

  Niaza flicked his ears in agreement.

  As Kaid watched them file out, he finished his c'shar and got to his feet. The assistant and the femalelooked up as he walked past them.

  "Finished?" the male asked.

  Kaid ignored him and with a swirl of his long coat, swept out of the door into the street. He saw thementer the Ac-commodation Guild House next door.

  He hung around for half an hour looking in the windows of the stores opposite, keeping an eye on theguild doorway, but the group remained inside. He wanted to see the trooper from the Khalossa again. There was something about him that jogged at his memory. He neededi information, an agent placedwithin the group. It was something he couldn't do himself because of his need to guard Carrie and Kusac.

  He headed back the way he'd come, collecting his rented aircar at the parking lot. This time he headedfor the Warrior Guild, landing in their parking area. Flinging off his long coat, he headed into the Guild House, going straight to the office.

  The secretary looked up at him, taking in his uniform with the Warrior's flash of red at the shoulder.

  "How can I help you?" he asked.

  Taking the chain from his neck, Kaid held it out to him.

  The secretary reached out and took hold of the disk that hung from it. He let it go as if it had burned him.

  "Brother," he said, eyes wide as he tried to move further away from Kaid. "What may I do to help you?"

  Kaid watched the young male's ears twitching with a look of wry humor on his face. He put the chainback over his head. "I need a room with a secure comm in it. I want to contact Dzahai Stronghold."

  "Of course," he stammered. "Down the corridor, first on the left."

  "Thank you."

  * * *

  Sorli sat with Master Esken in his study. They were going over the results of the last three weeks' testswith Kusac.

  "I'd like your opinion on the latest tests first, Kusac," said Master Esken, picking up his comp note pad.

  "You have the results, Master Esken," said Kusac. "I don't know that I can add anything to them."

  "Our results have been interpreted objectively by the testers. We now need your insight into how you felt about both the tests and their outcome. Many of these include skills we don't have. Whether we ever did possess them is the topic that Sorli has been looking into. We'll hear his re-sults as we go through the list."

  "I'll start with divining, then. We tried the metal rods as suggested, and as you see, neither Carrie nor I had any luck with them. What we did find was that if I was in the room when Carrie was trying, the rods swung round to me. When I wasn't in the room, the rods turned completely round and pointed to Carrie. The same happened when I tried it. We seem to create too strong a field for them to work. We ob-tained the same result when we tried to use the pendulums over maps. This doesn't appear to be a talent either of us possess."

  "Sorli? What about the Sholan control group?"

  "No luck with the rods, but one of the group had some success with the pendulum," said Sorli. "If one

  has it, there will probably be others."

  Master Esken nodded. "Anything about it in the Guild Ar-chives?"

  "Nothing at all," said Sorli.

  "Teleporting was next." Kusac looked up at his tutor and the Guild Master and grinned. "We sat there and thought about moving, but nothing happened. If the Terrans could ever do it, they didn't tell anyone how."

  "This was an ability mentioned in passing in the encyclo-pedia," Sorli said hurriedly. "We didn't expect

  anyone to be able to do it."

  "I take it no one in the control group succeeded either," said Master Esken with a gentle smile.

  "No, Master Esken. We did verify that it wasn't possible for either species to do it, though."

  "If it's mentioned, then some Terran must have appeared to do it," said Kusac."Carrie is only one Terran after all, and she's hardly representative of her kind now." His tone had become more than a little sharp.

  "People have been said to disappear suddenly," said Sorli. "Unfortunately there was no record of them

  suddenly reap-pearing elsewhere.
It was worth trying since it would be a useful talent to have."

  "I think that's a test we can keep on our list for the Terrans when they arrive," said Master Esken.

  Kusac's ears pricked forward. "Terrans arriving?"

  "Your father sent us word that the first Terrans with Tal-ents similar to Carrie's will arrive from Earth in

  eight weeks."

  "Father's moved fast."

  "I believe it was your mother's doing," said Master Es-ken. "It will be good for your Leska to have

  people from her own world to speak to."

  "Earth is no longer her home world," said Kusac. "Car-rie's a Keissian, and I don't think she'll want to

  socialize with the Terrans."

  "What's she doing today?" asked Sorli.

  "She's out with Taizia and some of her friends, answering an interminable number of questions about Terrans, Keiss, and how we met. She's getting more than a little embar-rassed by their questions, but Taizia is stopping them from getting too personal," he said, returning to studying his comp pad again.

  Sorli raised an eye ridge to the Guild Master who ac-knowledged it with the smallest of flick of an ear.

  As you said, their link gives them constant detailed in-formation about each other, Master Eskensent on a tight personal level.

  "Distant viewing was next," said Master Esken.

  "That was a lot more successful," said Kusac, looking up at them again. "The test was set up as it was in

  the article, random locations, randomly chosen and in our case, visited by non-telepaths."

  "These tests were particularly valid in Carrie's case as she doesn't know our world, yet she still identified

  the sites in surprisingly accurate detail," said Sorli.

  "Hardly surprising, considering what we did on Keiss," said Kusac. "Both of us scored well on those

  tests."

  "I see the distances between you and the target sites were quite varied, ranging from near to the other side of the con-tinent," said Esken. "It seems that distance was no barrier. Were you able to decide whether you saw through the eyes of the visitors or were actually there yourselves?"

  "We both felt that we were actually there. We saw things from a bird's eye view as well as from ground level. We could see details of the sites that the visitor couldn't because of their restricted angle of view. I'd say conclusively that our minds were actually there."

  "How did our people do?"

  "Very well. Everyone picked up something in the test, even if it wasn't enough to absolutely pinpoint the

  location."

  "Anything in the archives?" Esken asked Sorli.

  "Nothing."

  "With such positive results from you and the controls, this isn't likely to be another crossover talent," said

  Master Esken. "It's one you used on Keiss before your Link was completed, Kusac. Perhaps it's a Sholan Talent we've been unaware of because we've concentrated mainly on telepathy. The controlgroup also had some success with this talent, I see. I'm sure we'll find a use for it. Perhaps locatingmissing persons, checking security measures—who knows."

  "I'm sure the military will find a good use to put it to," Sorli murmured. "A little extra information on the

  Chemer-ians wouldn't go amiss in their eyes."

  "Then we do what we have always done, we use our code of ethics to refuse the military," said Master

  Esken calmly. "It infringes upon a person's right to privacy."

  "You'll find the Terrans less ethical," reminded Kusac. "When they arrive, you'll have to impress on them

  the need to respect each other's privacy."

  "We're already working on an induction program for their arrival at the guild, Kusac. Their course of studies with us is already being mapped out with the aid of our colleagues in AlRel. Your father's involved in it as a matter of fact."

  "I know. He's requested me to compile a study of the Keissians, with particular attention to Carrie's own

  skills."

  "That should be interesting," said Master Esken. "I trust you'll have a copy for us?"

  "Certainly, but I don't know how long it will take. We've both been constantly busy since we recovered

  from that vi-rus."

  "I'm glad Vanna was able to contain the infection. Now is not a good time for the guild to have an

  epidemic running riot," said Sorli.

  "There's never a good time for epidemics," said Master Esken. "Let's move on to the last test. Healing, I believe. Now that's a Talent which we do have, and we used our own testing system. How do you assess the results, Kusac?"

  "Of the eight categories in healing, we can both do six. They are, identifying the site of an injury, identifying the type of injury, reducing the pain, reducing the extent of the injury, accelerating the healing process, and healing minor injuries like bruises and pulled muscles." Kusac looked up from his comp. "Carrie wasn't able to duplicate what she did with my bitten shoulder on Keiss. That unfortunately looks like it might have been unique. Likewise, I can't close open wounds at all or heal major injuries like tissue damage and broken bones."

  "What about controlling your own pain?" asked Master Esken. "It says you were able to do that, but

  Carrie couldn't."

  "Under lab conditions, and when I was hurt during the crash on Keiss, yes, I was able to control my pain, but not later after the Challenge, or after I was shot in the Valtegan base. Again, it seems to be an undependable skill with us. Carrie can't work on herself at all. The tests showed she has the ability to heal a variety of conditions in others, so perhaps her inability to work on herself is psychological."

  Master Esken nodded. "That sounds a reasonable hypoth-esis. What do you think caused the block?

  Sorli thought per-haps she'd desensitized herself due to the horrific link she had with her twin sister."

  Kusac shook his head. "No. I think it was because her sister prevented her. You have my report on thatlink. In it I said that Elise pushed all her pain to Carrie, and that be-cause Carrie expected her to do that,and didn't realize her sister was using her, she not only accepted the pain but ac-tually took it from her.

  There may also have been the fact that she never tried to block either her own pain or her sis-ter's."

  "Perhaps she just wasn't aware she could," suggested Sorli.

  "Only practice will remove the block," said Master Esken. "What about yourself? You tested negatively on healing both as a child and when you worked with the medics four years ago. Why the sudden change?"

  "Perhaps I was approaching it the wrong way. Need is a great incentive," he said. "We all know that each of us is an individual and works slightly differently from the next per-son. Perhaps I never found the right trigger to release my healing ability until I was on Keiss."

  "What about the fact that you'd already touched Carrie's mind and established an early Link with her? Even though the Link was incomplete, could that have been enough to create a crossover of abilities from her to you?"

  "I doubt it, Master Esken," said Kusac. "She had never tried to heal anyone at that time."

  "She would still have had the ability to do it even then."

  "Who knows?" said Sorli. "We can speculate till tomor-row and never know conclusively."

  Esken nodded. "You're right, of course." He sat back in his chair and looked across his desk at Kusacand Sorli. "What about Carrie? In your opinion, has she acquired any skills from you?"

  "Not skills. I taught her how to use her telepathic abili-ties," said Kusac. "Once the initial Leska Link was forged, she knew what I could do with my Talent. That gave her the confidence to try what were to her totally new techniques."

  "We've also been guilty of failing to push the boundaries of our Talent forward," said Sorli. "It's taken the discovery of the Terrans to make us wake up to the fact that we aren't the only telepathic species and that for too long we've sat on our Talent and assumed no one could rival us. Now we know otherwise. We need to explore our ow
n abilities in the light of these findings."

  "It does indeed appear that we've been ignoring a wealth of Talents that we didn't realize existed till now," said Mas-ter Esken slowly. "If nothing else, Carrie's link to you has taught us a great deal about our own abilities. I wonder why none of these skills was ever mentioned in the archives. Could it be in their desire to breed for telepaths, the guild ig-nored these other Talents, considering them lesser than te-lepathy?"

  "Perhaps during the years that followed the Cataclysm only telepathy and healing were considered worth

  training," suggested Sorli.

  Master Esken sighed. "I suspect you're right. What need had they of distant viewing when thoughts wereall that was needed to communicate over large distances? What use was knowing an object's past historywhen they were struggling to avoid starvation? Moving small objects is amusing, but it didn't help rebuildtheir towns and Guild Houses. I wonder how many more Talents we've learned to ignore in the pastthousand years."

  "Well, we've two choices ahead of us. Do we start testing everyone in the guild for these Talents now, or

  do we wait until the Terrans arrive so we can include them?"

  "Start now," said Sorli. "We'll have our hands full when the Terrans arrive."

  Kusac nodded. "I agree. Not only that, but you can start training our people now. When the Terransarrive, the sys-tem will be in operation and it'll be easier slotting them into a fully integrated programrather than adding on extra classes later."

  "Very well, I'll broach the matter fomorrow at the staff meeting. Sorli, can you present a first draft for the

  proposed course at that meeting?"

  "If I can call on the personnel I need, Master Esken. One of those people is Kusac. No one knows more

  about these skills than he does."

  "By all means include him. You're in rather an anomalous position here at the guild anyway, Kusac.

  Neither a student nor a tutor but a mixture of both. Your Leska is the one we need to teach."

  "Tell me about it," Kusac murmured, switching off his comp. "I'm here so you can study me and see what