Mindlink (20 page)

Men with experience and lots of it so she didn’t have to get
invested or participate much—that was her type and she was sticking to it. But
Holy G-Spot Batman, there was something super hot about someone so eager to
learn, he all but exploded with it.

“You are afraid.”

Arg
! She wanted to shoot herself,
bash her head into a brick wall. Something. Anything to get rid of the stupid
link. If she was dead, no one would expect her to save everyone. Why couldn’t
someone else be noble instead of her? There had to be some kind of trade-off,
something she got for her sacrifice instead of the inability to hide anything
from Sam.

“Of course I’m afraid. You’re an alien, Sam. Even kissing was a
risk, but it seemed safe until you turned the tables on me with your
hair-trigger. Besides, my IUD might completely ignore your alien swimmers.”

Oh, God. “Ashley V Pregnant With Alien Baby.” The tabloids
wouldn’t even have to make up that headline.

She rushed on, determined to talk him out of this craziness.
“We probably wouldn’t fit right.” She already knew that wasn’t true. She’d seen
him naked. She’d
felt
him naked and as excuses went,
that one was flimsy. So she went with the only argument she had. The only thing
that made absolute sense to her in this suddenly out-of-control situation. “I’m
human. You’re not.”

“I do not believe that is what you fear,” he murmured.

Chapter Eleven

Dawn decreased the gloom of the Badramun by about
one-quarter, if that, and did nothing to decrease the gloom inside
One’s
own body.

Uncertainty seethed behind his ribcage. He couldn’t take a deep
enough breath to still it. Last night, he’d entered the river with no more
intent than to ensure Ashley remained safe and awake. Explaining how he’d left
it was impossible. Where had all that raging passion come from? Citizens did not
behave in such a way.

The depth of sheer, clawing need—desire—he’d allowed shocked
him. No, not allowed, like he’d had the ability to stop. It had consumed him,
snapping his control, and shoving him closer to that abyss Ashley
represented.

Desire
. He felt that same jolt when
he met Ashley’s gaze. When he thought about her. When she touched him.

The jolt was frightening and thrilling at the same time. In
fact, one had oddly complimented the other. When Ashley had commanded him to
stop, he’d been scraped raw, as if she’d scored him on the inside.
Devastated
. Devastated she’d not shared his
happiness.

But she had not, and he must respect it no matter how much he
yearned to continue this amazing education.

With soft hoots at his back,
One
roused everyone and ensured they woke before turning his attention to Ashley.
She sat staring at the river, arms wrapped around her updrawn knees, as she had
since exiting the water.

Those same arms had been wrapped around him not too long ago.
He shut his eyes and recalled—savored—that twinge unfurling low in his abdomen.
He wanted to repeat it. Now. Later today. Tomorrow...

The rigid set of her shoulders indicated her perception of what
he’d been thinking and that she disliked it intensely.

Underneath her aversion, he sensed misery and her ever-present
fear. After the kiss, she’d tried to explain it away, even lied about it. He
wished to know why she was afraid of him, but she kept the reason hidden or
blocked.

Those trained in the art of mind-mining could have uncovered
the truth, but he wasn’t, nor did he desire to be. Facilitating, leading and
ensuring team excellence had always been his purpose. He had a new purpose, one
he could develop based on his own desires. Desire had never been an option
before and he settled into it with remarkable ease.

Ashley stirred. Stood and stretched. He watched her in the low
dawn light, her beautiful hair shining as she twisted. The Ancestors saw fit to
cross their paths and a grateful lump hardened in his throat. After she went
home, he’d retain her memories, entwined with his.

She had given him color. She had unlocked the mysteries lurking
inside his flesh, which would have remained unexamined otherwise. In exchange,
he would do anything required to secure her on the next ship leaving Alhedis for
Earth and return her to the beach, sunshine and wheeled vehicles.

With a graceful revolution, she caught him staring. “See
something you like?” she asked.

“Yes.” Subtle tendrils of an emotion he couldn’t name wafted
into his mind, leaving the impression she hadn’t expected an honest answer and
neither did she like it.

The others drifted toward the fire, which had burned down to
embers during the night. The doctor poked at it with a stick and revived the
flames. Downcast and not refreshed from the respite, they sat in a tight circle.
No one spoke. The bleak silence stretched, tightening his nerves. Little
irritated him more than having no direction.

“We shall continue to follow the river as far as we can.” He
pointed in the opposite direction of the city, though to his knowledge, nothing
lay that way but the unending Badramun. Regardless, the farther they traveled
from His Majesty, High Priest
UBA
and the Security
team, the better. “If I recall correctly from lessons in my youth, we will
eventually move out of Khota Marong territory to where smaller animals live,
which we may eat to survive. We can drink river water and sleep on the
banks.”

“And then what?” the doctor demanded. “We live off the fat of
the land for the rest of our doubtlessly short lives?”

Natalie broke in. “What about sending us home? I don’t want to
live here forever. I think we need to figure out our options. Find out if
there’s a way to get back on that ship, the one that brought us here. Or another
way to leave this planet besides the way we came.”

One
started to speak, to assure
everyone he had a plan and would honor his promise to return them to Earth, when
a small voice cut him off.

“Kir Dashamun. We must go there.”

Everyone’s head jerked at the same time. Toward Neeko.

“What did you say?” Natalie asked him, then to Sam, she said,
“What did he say? Can you translate?”

One
held up a palm and she fell
silent. “Neeko, what do you know of Kir Dashamun?” he asked gently. Perhaps this
might explain how the boy came to be incarcerated.

Neeko shook his head and shrank, as if he could will his body
to become small enough to disappear into his uniform.

“Has he known how to talk this whole time?” The stick hung from
the doctor’s hand, forgotten. “Why hasn’t he said anything before now?”

“I suspect he chooses not to speak,”
One
said, his gaze never leaving the boy. “I am more interested in
what he knows about Kir Dashamun.”

“What is that?” Ashley asked and breathed out in amazement as
he projected images. “Oh, it’s the Emerald City. I knew it had to be around here
somewhere after this horrible place.”

“Cease with the alien ESP, please,” the doctor said with heavy
sarcasm. “It’s annoying.”

“We kept you alive overnight, so shut up,” she said, eyes
closed and a small smile on her face. “It’s so beautiful. Do they have
vodka?”

Natalie’s eyes widened, and the doctor leaned forward.

“Kir Dashamun is a myth,”
One
announced before they became too hopeful. “Barely a myth. I have not heard the
name spoken aloud in many years. Not since my Educational cycle. Only children
who do not yet understand the nature of consequences dare mention it.”

“Is that what Neeko said? Something about this city?” Natalie
asked, shifting her gaze between
One
and Ashley,
looking for someone to confirm.

“Yes. Kir Dashamun translates to Paradise City,”
One
said. “The streets are made of gold and all people
are elevated to the status of the Telhada. Everyone is assured a place among the
Ancestors in the afterlife. Each claim is more fantastical and implausible than
the last. Few bother to speak of it once the age of majority is reached and no
one retains the belief it is real.”

“Um.” Ashley cleared her throat. “Isn’t that what you said
about the Khota Marong? Also seems like you were certain there was no way past
the sonic fence. Maybe it
is
real.”

A spurt of anger flashed through him, turning to heat along his
neckline. It angered him to be questioned. He’d never consciously allowed the
emotion before. “The myth is based on the premise citizens leave Kir Barsha and
resettle in Kir Dashamun. These citizens would require a reason to leave a
functioning city—where they are clothed, fed, sheltered and provided meaningful
employment—to brave the Badramun, looking for a place which does not exist.”

As the concepts formed and left his mouth, they rang hollow,
tempering his ire. All five of them had ample reason to seek Kir Dashamun. The
odds of others falling into the same predicament were high. The Telhada’s
rhetoric was so ingrained, he had to constantly reorganize his beliefs and form
new opinions about concepts he’d long accepted as fact.

Ashley held his gaze, head cocked, processing his doubt and
insecurity. Surely she must feel ill, for nothing else could explain her
silence.

Sunlight filled him. Happiness. When she chose not to reveal
his doubts to the others, it caused him to be happy. How intriguing to learn
happiness could be obtained via many different inputs.

In typical fashion, the doctor intruded. “Well, I don’t see you
coming up with an alternate plan. Why not search for it? We don’t have anything
better to do, and we can always follow the river aimlessly as you suggested
later,” the doctor said. “How do we find it?”

They all looked at one another and then back to
One
.

“I don’t supposed you can get Neeko to tell us if he has a map
lying around somewhere, can you?” Natalie asked.

One
searched Neeko’s youthful
features, but the boy’s head tilted so far down, only his nose and hair were
visible. Neeko took the protocol of not meeting other’s eyes to the extreme, as
if the child was afraid of what he might see instead of being merely
respectful.

“You could always do the mind-link to find out what he knows,”
the doctor suggested. “Isn’t that what the thing is for?”

“No,” Natalie threw an arm across the boy’s lap to fend off
everyone.

Interrogation. He wasn’t trained to use the link to interrogate
someone, nor would he subject the boy to it if he were. Plus, he’d have to
unlink with Ashley and they may as well invite the Khota Marong into their camp.
One
shook his head to assure Natalie. “I will
speak with him. Please prepare to leave while we talk.”

He waited until the humans stood and moved closer to Neeko,
crossing his legs at the ankle and leaning on the arm not attached to his
injured shoulder. In their native language, he commented about the weather, the
campfire, the river—anything to lighten the mood and the expectations. After
several minutes with no response, he switched to talking about how the reality
of humans compared to what the Telhada taught.

The hair on top of the boy’s head quivered as he nodded in
agreement. A small nod, but progress none the less. So
One
expanded on it, spoke more about his discoveries of human
interaction and emotion without going into the detail of last night’s
experiment. But he couldn’t keep the kiss out of his thoughts, nor did he want
to.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ashley’s head bang against
her crossed arms. Then, as if attempting to dislodge her implant, she repeated
it. Several times. He smiled, mystified as to why her consternation struck him
as amusing, but unable to stop the reaction.

Images swooshed by.

—
Ashley
throwing
him
in
the
river
.
Watching
him
sink
below
the
surface
.
Sticking
her
tongue
out
—

She pushed no malice with the images, just extreme frustration.
He turned back to Neeko, who half peered at him through the wispy hair hanging
over his eyes.

“I am still linked with Ashley.” An understatement. “You may
look at me.”

Neeko lifted his head a fraction of a centimeter, likely in
response to the authority in the command rather than the assurance.

“I made a commitment to return these humans to their home. I
cannot honor it if we starve in the Badramun. You chose your first words to us
carefully, I have no doubt. I sense you want to help but are unsure how to do
so. If you are aware of a place we may find refuge, please tell me what you know
of it,”
One
implored with a gentle squeeze of the
boy’s shoulder.

The others glanced at him curiously but didn’t interfere as
they scattered the remains of the campfire and then trooped off to wash in the
river.

“I do not know where it is,” the child said, his voice rough
and thin. “But it is real.”

“Kir Dashamun?”
One
asked and Neeko
nodded. “How do you know?”

“I was born there.”

“Born? You are confused.” Citizens were not “born” like
creatures of the dirt. Like humans.

The boy shook his head. “I was. Citizens took me when I was
small. I remember my mother when they put the machine on my forehead.”

Someone had been interrogating the boy? Neeko seemed an
unlikely candidate for such treatment. The procedure was much more invasive than
harvesting and could scar an underdeveloped brain.

“You remember your mother, but you don’t remember the location
of Kir Dashamun?”

The boy bit the end of his finger and talked around it. “The
workers were very unhappy.”

Ah. Now the logic of his incarceration was obvious. “That is
why you were in the detention center but not yet recycled. Someone sought this
information from you. Do you remember anything at all about Kir Dashamun?”

“The machine made me remember many things but not the location.
You must try to find it. A pilot lives there. One who may fly the humans to
their home in the stars.”

A pilot? Logic crashed to the ground and
One
couldn’t revive his earlier optimism over the boy providing any
information of value. “A computer flies the spacebarge, not a citizen. Are you
sure you remember correctly?”

Neeko nodded.
One
questioned him
further but got little additional information.

Security had likely detained this boy due to his fantastical
delusions. Neeko’s questionable testimony might be completely false. Yet
One’s
experience with the darker side of the Telhada
hazed the supposition. They had no other choice but to search for Kir Dashamun
and hope the boy was a victim of some nebulous agenda and not of poor
intelligence.

“What did he say?” the doctor asked as
One
rejoined the humans by the banks of the river.

“Enough to convince me we should seek the mythical city. We
have little choice and no direction. If nothing else, it may be a place of
refuge.”