being known by another as they popped into his mind, Jake well remembered the outrage he himself had felt when it started to happen.
The color was high in her cheeks, and her blue eyes sparkled. Jake winced. “Sorry,” he said. “I just was anxious to know what had happened and I didn’t even think about it. It won’t happen again.”
That is not a safe promise to make, Jacob, came Zamara’s warning voice. There may be a time when we need to violate it.
She’s proven herself amply, in my opinion. You’re so used to doing this casually, as part of who you are. For humans, it’s much more an invasion of privacy.
Rosemary does have difficulty trusting others, Zamara agreed.
That’s the understatement of the year.
Rosemary searched his gaze and then nodded. She took a deep breath, composed herself, and returned to her task. “This is an old trick of Ethan’s. He integrates the tracking device completely into the navigation system, so that every adjustment and every coordinate goes right back to the source. You don’t just know where this ship is, you know where it’s been. It’s also impossible to remove.”
Jake blanched, and he felt Zamara’s concern as well. “What does that mean?”
“It means we need to get an entirely new nav system.”
He stared at her. “How are we going to do that? We’re on the run in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I have a good idea where we can start looking safely. But first, I want to have a look at the damage. I’ll suit up and check it out. You and Zamara … don’t touch anything.”
She scooted out from under the console and got lithely to her feet. Purposefully, she strode toward the locker and began to suit up for a space walk.
She is deliberately withholding information. She will not tell us where she intends to go.
Let her cool off, Jake replied to Zamara. She’s mad, and I don’t blame her a bit. That was a stupid thing to do. I guess that bump on the head rattled me more than I thought.
If an alien consciousness inside one’s mind could sigh, Zamara did. When this is all taken care of and the vessel is repaired, our destination must be Aiur.
Jake thought about the homeworld of the protoss. Lush, verdant, tropical. Rich with vegetation and animal life, dotted with heart-stoppingly gorgeous relics of the xel’naga in their strange, twining, mysterious beauty. He smiled softly.
Rosemary, now encased in a suit that would enable her to move around in the cold darkness of space, threw him a glance and scowled a little. “See that light?” She pointed to the console. He looked where she indicated and saw a small button, currently dark. He nodded. “Once I get outside and the doors seal shut again, it’s going to turn green. It’ll stay green the whole time I’m out there. If it turns red and an alarm starts sounding, I’m in trouble. At that point I will give you permission to read my mind so that you can get me safely back inside. Got that?”
“Yes,” he said. He understood what she was saying. She was putting her life in his hands.
“Okay then.” She moved to the back of the cabin and touched a button. A door irised open and she stepped through without a backward glance. A few seconds later, the button came to life, glowing green just as R. M. had said. He sighed. His head was still hurting.
We will head for the underground chambers that Temlaa and Savassan discovered. There is great technology there. It will help me to complete my mission and keep my people safe.
Jake asked excitedly, “The chambers? That underground city?” Zamara had given him only the briefest tantalizing glimpse of the vastness that comprised the hidden city of the xel’naga. Most of Temlaa’s memories concerned a few very specific places, one of which was a chamber in which the desiccated protoss bodies had been stored. He wanted to close his eyes and relive that memory, now that Zamara had informed him that was their destination, but he had a duty. Rosemary had entrusted him with her safety.
I will watch over her. You may revisit the chambers if you wish.
Jake nodded, trusting Zamara, and closed his eyes.
There was the memory, first Temlaa’s, then Zamara’s, and now his: as pure and perfect as if it were actually unfolding before him rather than being recollected.
In the center, hovering and slowly moving up and down as it had no doubt done for millennia, was the largest, most perfect crystal Jake had ever seen. It pulsated as it moved languidly, and Jake realized that this was the source of the heartbeat sound he and Savassan had been hearing for some time now. For a long moment he forgot his fear and simply gazed raptly at the object, seduced by its radiant beauty and perfection of form.
In all the memories I hold, Zamara said, all the things I have beheld and touched and known—there is nothing like this crystal, Jacob. Nothing.
He sensed her awe and shared it. He thought he caught a fleeting tinge of hope so intense that he might even have called it “desperate.” Jake began to query Zamara, but at that moment the door irised opened and Hurricane Rosemary stormed in. He blinked, suddenly realizing that about twenty minutes had passed without his even being aware of it.
“This is why you never jump without proper preparation,” she said as she removed her helmet. “We’d have had to replace quite a bit even without Ethan’s little tracking device.”
“All right,” Jake said. “If we have to, we have to. But we need to do it quickly. I’ve been talking with Zamara, and she thinks we need to get to Aiur.”
Shedding the rest of her suit and hanging it back up in the locker, Rosemary turned to him. “Aiur? Why?”
“Remember those caverns beneath the surface I told you about?”
“Yeah … some kind of underground city.” Rosemary’s anger was now directed at the damage the ship had taken rather than at Jake. She actually looked interested in his comments. “We’re going to get to see that place then?”
“Looks like. Zamara thinks there’s some technology there that can help her. Help us.”
Rosemary was regarding him thoughtfully. “You know, Professor, if there actually is ancient, advanced technology sitting quietly forgotten beneath the surface of Aiur … that really could help us.”
“Rosemary—”
“Jake, listen. We’re being hunted by the son of the emperor, for God’s sake. We had to fight our way to get where we are right this minute and we’ll have to keep fighting unless we do something about that. Look—I’ve cast my lot in with you. We’ve got to trust each other. I’m not going to rat you out, but this is a big net that’s been cast for us. We might be able to make a trade with Valerian: our lives for whatever technology we can give him.”
Out of the question.
I’m not telling her that, Zamara. She makes a good point.
This is my people’s heritage we are discussing, Jacob. Our legacy. Protoss knowledge belongs to the protoss, not a
