suppressed a convulsive shudder.
“Kyllikki?” The air around the luren throbbed with low-level Influence. Zuchmul was perhaps her oldest friend in the Metaji, close enough that they’d discussed their common resentment of the strictures placed on them by law, as well as their mutual fear and distrust of each other. “Kyllikki, if he’s dead, you won’t get anything. If he’s injured, he’ll be drugged, and you won’t feel his pain. But most likely he’s fine and as bewildered as the rest of us.”
His power carried his conviction through her defensive wall of silver bricks, setting them humming tunes of responsibility and duty. She felt her own perceptions aligning with his. Her uncontrolled reflex struck his hand from her shoulder and slapped his power from her mind.
Zuchmul gasped. Idom spun to stare up at her, then at Zuchmul, whose mesh-shrouded hands covered his masked face. She pulled his hands down and held them. “Did I hurt you?” Her eyes went to the base of his throat, where the mandatory Inhibitor was missing. “Zuchmul, are you all right?”
He pulled one hand free to finger the empty spot. His naturally chalk-white complexion paled. Even in the Metaji, use of luren Influence on others carried a death penalty, which wasn’t fair because, after all, it was a natural reflex.
“Listen, Zuchmul, living here in the Metaji, there’re things you might not know about the Eight Families. Don’t ever use Influence on me the way you just did. It triggers a defensive reflex as natural as yours. Understand?”
He licked dry lips. “Yes. I know. I’d forgotten I’d lost the—I was with the orl when the alarms—”
She nodded and broke eye contact. Yet even while feeding, he should have had the device secured on his person, not set aside to be lost in an emergency. Still, she really did understand how he felt soiled and unable to feed properly with the thing anywhere near him. Now that emotion might ultimately cost him his life. “You’ll just have to control yourself carefully, so that later we can testify for you.”
And if he can’t, it’s partly my doing. With the Inhibitor attenuating his power, she had tolerated his covert communication simply because she hungered so for more than the mental speech she was allowed. But that was one thing. Influencing her mind was something else.
His hands clutched themselves at his waist, and she could feel his power retreating into himself, leaving the space around her empty, almost as if he were telepathically barriered. Good. He has the discipline. She flashed him a smile and, turning back to the screens, she schooled herself to audio-analogue. //Lee? Are you clear?//
Her mental voice didn’t project beyond her silver brick wall. It should have gone right through it—or around it in another dimension—or however it worked.
She buried her face in her hands and scrubbed at the tension. It’s not possible. The two levels don’t mix like this! They were as incompatible as the Teleod and Metaji methods of using a space drive.
“Kyllikki?” It was Idom. Doesn’t she realize the ship’s going to blow up any minute now? Or is she hurt?
She flinched from his private thoughts. “I’m all right. I can do it.” She had to reach Lee, so she had to dismiss her barrier image and approach him in the pure audio analogue. I can do it. But the key image to the working realm glowed persistently, burned into her mind by the deaths of the linked telepaths. It seemed to have destroyed her selective barrier control, but Lee must not see that.
“Hey, look!” said Zuchmul, thrusting a display of directions under her nose and pointing with one long finger at a control, taking great care not to crowd her. “There! That should give us a channel to address all the other pods.”
She touched the switch. Sound roared through the pod. Idom, startled, dropped his manual and then swore.
Kyllikki thought she heard Captain Brev’s voice interspersed within the general babble. They’ll never get anywhere! Lips compressed, she put away the silver wall. //Lee? Are you clear?//
//Kyllikki? You made it.//
//You with the Captain?//
//No. And Wiprin’s dead.//
//I figured. Any telepaths among the passengers?//
There was a pause, and he answered, //Clerk here says no. Not registered, anyway.//
Hesitantly, she suggested, //You know I could reach the Captain, address his mind directly, and relay for him to everyone else. None of the pods are yet out of my range for that.//
//No! Kyllikki, no! Your oath. The Captain will have us organized shortly. Listen, I can’t get anyone at Barkyr. They’re not searching. And I can’t raise Station Prime for relay, either. You have better range than I do. You try.//
//Yes, sir.// She lifted her attention to her mental horizon. There was a new Com Officer on duty, a different Paitsmun. She listened to the traffic for a few minutes, then attracted the attention of the Paitsmun at Barkyr because the Station was busy organizing for battle. //This is Prosperity life pods, Kyllikki, Com Third.// She outlined their problem. //Do you have an estimate on pickup for us?//
//Pickup? Life pods? Prosperity blew? I don’t have lightspeed scan yet. What is your exact position?//
She gave him the numbers from the pod’s instruments. //Our Captain needs to know about a pickup point and time.//
//Depends how the Station does in the next skirmish. Could be a couple days. Head in-system.// He provided orbital data to facilitate pickup, and she copied it.
//Thank you, Barkyr.// The Paitsmun turned away to talk to ships on the other side of the system, ships deployed in case the six attackers were just a diversion. Kyllikki brought her attention in closer. //Get that, Lee?//
//Get what?//
Not taking time to puzzle out what she’d done wrong that had kept Lee from following the exchange, she told him while repeating it all aloud for Idom and Zuchmul. At least Lee didn’t catch me invading his mind again!
But now she was struggling to sort out the internal mentation of her companions from what they were saying aloud and what Lee was projecting. In the background, she was getting the rhythmic traffic handling on the surface of Barkyr, and the military cadences from Station Prime where Barkyr Defense was located. It made an insuperable babble against the backdrop of the Captain’s voice coming from the speakers, shouting over everyone else. Under, over, and around it all like a roaming ghost image, the key to the working realm pulsed lurid colors in time to the throbbing of her head.
It was as if her brain had been riddled with holes, letting data mix into a senseless jumble. She’d never experienced anything like it, never heard of anyone enduring anything like it.
She was about to tell Lee she was going down for the duration when she felt something very strange. But it was also familiar. Chasing it around the edge of her mind, she found she was staring at the monitor, which now showed the outer area where Otroub had blown apart. The bits of debris didn’t show on the toylike display, but she knew that by now the cloud would be very large. There was a shimmering image on the screen, though—no, it wasn’t there. Or was it?
She pointed. “What’s that?”
“What?” asked Zuchmul, leaning closer, his voice sounding
