Mindlink (18 page)

He caught up to the slow-moving group. “Do you have a
direction?” he asked Ashley, who led.

“Sure, to the river. It’s this way.”

A grid-like map from Ashley’s thoughts accompanied the
affirmation. “How did you come by a map of the forest?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged and placed one foot precariously
on a fallen tree before swinging the other over it. Her injuries were not healed
enough for the difficult terrain. As she teetered, his hands came up to catch
her. Pain hacked through his shoulder and chest with the movement.

“I saw the river from the train,” she said. “It runs along the
forest to the right. We went to the left when we heard Natalie scream and then
came back in this direction. So. River’s that way.” She pointed and forged
ahead. “I never get lost at home.”

—
Rectangular
buildings
,
shiny
,
winking
in
the
sunlight
.
Streets
made
of
a
hard
,
pebbly
material
.
Wheeled
vehicles
.
Massive
dark
shapes
reaching
for
the
sky
,
muted
behind
thin
clouds
.
Lights
of
all
colors
spinning
and
blinking
.
Masses
of
faces
walking
,
laughing
—

Something broke open in his chest and spread with fingers of
warmth. “Are these images of your home?”

If he kept her talking, more images might come. He almost
stumbled when they did, along with a driving pain on top of his existing
headache. A clear image of a piece of furniture, crystallized, sharpening in
focus and lingering longer than the others. It was the almost red color.

“Yeah. That’s L.A. Cars, people, shopping. Coffee. Oh, and
mountains.” She sighed. “I want to go home like you cannot believe.”

He could believe it. Perhaps Earth represented an answer to his
marked lack of a new home. “The colors. They make me feel
something...unusual.”

“Happy?” she guessed. “Like sunshine on the inside... Um, do
you have a sun here? It’s yellow.”

—
Bright
round
circle
in
the
sky
.
Hurts
to
look
.
Yellow
circle
on
paper
with
lines
radiating
from
it
.
Two
dots
and
a
curved
line
—

“Alhedis orbits a yellow star comprised of hydrogen, as Earth
does.” The classification from one of his courses during the Education cycle
spit from his memory and then he recalled the doctor’s suppositions. He
dismissed the coincidence. Evolution of a species required certain elements,
like heat and light. It didn’t mean citizens were human.

“But have you seen your sun?” She waved at the canopy of trees
blotting out the sky above. “In the city, it’s gray and cloudy all the time, or
so your thoughts make it seem.”

“The sun is cloaked. Only the Telhada are permitted to view
it.” Yet he’d glimpsed an approximation of it in Ashley’s images. The sun was
glorious. Brilliant. Truly a sight for the exalted. Alhedis counted
Sohlar
among the most revered of Ancestors for his
guidance of the heavens.

“Figures. Your Telhada seem like the type to assume they can
own the sun.” She snickered. “There’s a lot about L.A. that sucks but the
weather is not one of them. I can go to the beach anytime I feel like it. Or go
skiing.”

“What is the beach?”

—
Water
extending
as
far
as
the
horizon
,
dark
and
violent
.
Curls
of
water
crashing
on
the
bumpy
ground
,
turning
white
as
it
hits
again
and
again
.
Birds
circling
the
water
,
diving
occasionally
,
crying
—

“What is the purpose of the beach?” he asked.

“Oh, um, to smell the salt air and feel sand between your toes.
Some people swim, but I can’t remember the last time I went in the water.” Her
nose wrinkled. “Actually, I can’t remember the last time I went to the beach. I
don’t have that kind of freedom anymore.”

The forest air grew heavier with moisture and beaded along his
forehead. He drew a sleeve across his brow. “Earth people seek freedom above all
else and it is the purpose of your wars. How is it, then, you do not have
freedom?”

She shot him a sideways glance. “How do you know so much about
Earth? Is that another occupational hazard?”

“We are instructed in the ways of Earth during the Educational
cycle, as the anti-lesson. What not to do,” he clarified as her question flew
into his mind. “Additionally, I do see reports from the processing teams and
review the information they’ve harvested.”

He had to take another, steadying step before correcting the
erroneous statement. “I formerly reviewed the reports.” He cleared his throat
but the ache remained. “Why did you evade my question?”

“It’s not that big of a deal, okay?” She ducked under a
low-hanging branch and kicked the sodden leaves underneath in a deliberate
motion. Several stuck to her boot. “It’s hard to explain why I can’t go to the
beach.”

“Do not explain. Show me.”

With a frown, she stared straight ahead and shoved hair out of
her face. “I don’t like the link. Aren’t you the one who said it wasn’t for
games?”

Yes, he had. However, the more color, the more unusual objects
and more of her feelings he experienced, the more he wanted. Not just anyone’s.
Hers. The concept of linking with anyone else seemed distasteful, as it always
had. The Telhada propagated the distaste but he no longer believed the reason
was the same one they claimed.

It squeezed his heart painfully to learn she didn’t like
it.

Natalie’s voice called out from behind them and he turned at
the same time Ashley did. Breathless, she caught up to them and said, “You guys
are going too fast. You don’t hear that?”

Hooting. He’d been too caught up in Ashley for it to
register.

“They’re back there, all of them. Trailing us.” Her eyes
flashed. “Stalking us. The farther away you get, the closer they get. So slow
down. Besides, Neeko can hardly walk and Dr. Glasson... Well, let’s just say I’m
starting to like him about as well as I like my ex.”

“Natalie figured out the Khota Marong don’t like something
about the link,” Ashley told him. “There’s like a high-pitched ringing or tone
or something only they can hear. I think you were still groggy when we were
talking about it earlier.”

The link. Yet another use of which he’d been wholly ignorant.
Then he recalled
UBA’s
confusion at the perimeter
when
One
had safely passed through the containment
frequency. Perhaps the Telhada did not understand the link’s full functionality
either. Or more likely, they failed to disseminate the full breadth of
information to citizens. Not even to
UBA
.

“Please accept my apologies. I did not realize we had traveled
so far ahead. Neeko—” he switched languages to speak to the boy, “—I will carry
you on my back the rest of the way.”

The child chose not to argue and climbed onto
One’s
back. The extra weight on his wounded shoulder
sent a bolt of pain through him but he set his teeth together and hefted the boy
higher.

With the additional effort required to walk,
One
did not pick up the conversation with Ashley,
opting to conserve his energy. Uncharacteristically quiet, she tromped along
beside him, grimacing.

As he opened his mouth to ask after her welfare, she said,
“Stop trying to make me feel sorry for you!”

“Are you speaking to me?”

She glanced at him, pain etching her features. “Yeah, I’m
talking to you. Stop with the images already. My own stuff is hard enough to
deal with.”

“Contrary to your assumptions, I was attempting to keep my mind
blank since you were so adamant about disliking the link.” Neeko’s head pressed
into his back. Pain lasered through his shoulder and he missed a step. He paused
as the pain took his breath away.

“Just now! You sent me an impression of being in pain.”

“I do not intend to.” The link was changing. Strengthening.
Communicating unconscious thoughts and emotion in addition to active
projections.

Yes
.
More
...

He’d never sought something other than the next expectation,
the next assignment, but he willingly plunged into the experience of linking
with this human called Ashley. Willingly invited it to heighten, to
intensify.

What was happening to him?

Chapter Ten

The river.

Ashley heard it before she saw it. The quiet lap of water
against a muddy bank was unmistakable, even on an alien planet. As soon as the
sound registered, her energy flagged and the adrenaline rush began to fizzle. It
had been dark for an hour as best she could tell and the forest had been hard
enough to trudge through in daylight. Her throbbing knee couldn’t take her
weight another second.

She wanted to sleep for about a week straight, then spend a day
slathered with cucumber exfoliant and rosemary body butter, a Long Island Ice
Tea in each hand. By then the bruising would have faded and she could be seen in
public. A couple of adoring fans would have her back to rights in no time.

Sam, who’d been carrying Neeko for longer than should have been
possible, motioned her back at the edge of the trees. Ever the cautious one.
Always assuming they were about to slam headlong into danger and volunteering to
be first in line for it. She’d been nursing a grudging respect for Sam, and a
teeny-tiny sliver of admiration.

Nothing else, no sirree.

The hoots following them grew silent. The murderous creatures
slunk along behind them, waiting to see what the invaders to their domain were
going to do next. There’d be no sleep for her tonight. Not unless she wanted the
Khota Marong to have a superfeast on her and the others as soon as the link
broke.

Tears slid down her cheeks—honest to God tears, not the fake
variety designed to get her something. She dashed them away before Sam noticed.
Well, that was a wasted effort, what with the stupid link.

Aliens. They should all be rounded up and shipped to Earth, to
be tortured in kind. Forced to do something awful, like lay on a cold metal
table with probes stuck in them while scientists cut off limbs. Maybe stuck in a
jail they’d never leave alive and treated like cockroaches.

Even that wasn’t bad enough. Maybe they should be tied down in
the middle of a political debate, or a soccer game, complete with the annoying
horns the fans blew that sounded like angry bees.

Sam waved them on and she emerged from the trees, where she
fell on the banks of the river without checking to see what she might be falling
into. The shore could be lined with Khota Marong droppings and she just didn’t
care.

She lay on the ground, hand over her eyes to block out the
harsh full moon, willing everyone else to leave her alone. Her hair smelled like
three-day-old fish and had so many tangles, it was probably beyond saving. It
was insured, but she’d have to be home to collect. Not that it mattered. Her
hair and Ashley V were one and the same. Without it, there was no point to
anything.

The pain humming through the link lessened as soon as Sam set
Neeko on the ground. She heard shuffling as the others settled around her. This
would be camp for the night. The ground ate into her muscles and bruises, more
uncomfortably than imaginable—and she had a great imagination.

“You cannot go to sleep,” Sam said from right next to her.

She ignored him and rolled to face the opposite direction.

“We need to eat. Perhaps you could assist me in determining a
way to remove a creature from the water.”

“Can’t one of the others do it? I’m tired,” she said,
waspishly.

He didn’t respond for so long, she turned back over and sat up.
He knelt on the ground, close to where she’d lain. Blood had seeped into the
torso of his jacket and a clump of it crusted his neck.

Alien blood. It had to be. He was nothing like any human she’d
ever met. Yet, what was so “alien” about him? His birthplace? Being a product of
his culture? It made so much sense—why he looked human, bled human.

Because he was.

She met his hazel-rimmed eyes and the unspoken communication
between them flared. She fascinated him. He constantly thought about her. She
didn’t have to tell him anything. He just knew.

And it scared the living daylights out of her. He was the only
person in the whole universe who could see the really real her, right inside to
where all the secrets lived and the stuff no one else knew about. Stuff she hid
from the rest of the world behind Ashley V.

“I would like for you to be the one to join me,” he said, his
voice low, but steady.

How refreshingly straightforward. A man wanted to be in her
company and had no problem saying so instead of trying to manipulate her or use
reverse psychology. Yep. Definitely an alien.

She couldn’t deny such an honest plea, so she didn’t. Muscles
protesting, she climbed to her feet and followed him to the edge of the
water.

“It looks nothing like your beach,” he commented.

“You’re worried about something,” she accused him. “What? I
can’t tell.”

How did he do that? The strong sense of concern and confusion
had nothing concrete attached to it. Was she sending him stuff like that too?
Not likely. Her images were probably all crystal clear, with the shameful bits
front and center.

He sighed. The attack and his subsequent injuries wore on him.
She didn’t think she’d ever heard him sigh before.

“I retrieved something from the clearing which I cannot explain
and is of note.” The foreign off-white squares he drew from his pocket looked
like surfboard wax. “I cannot eliminate the sense of foreboding these
brought.”

“What are they?” She took one. No, not waxy. The consistency
was more like a bran muffin smushed into a concentrated lump.

“Food pellets. They are dispensed at the common dining
buildings in Kir Barsha.”

“This is what you eat? On purpose?” She couldn’t imagine
actually putting one in her mouth, even though five seconds ago she’d have sworn
shoe leather held appetizing appeal. “What does it taste like?”

“A food pellet.”

It wasn’t a joke, and she didn’t feel like laughing. He’d never
eaten sushi or escargot or caviar or anything good. And as she stared across the
river to the opposite shore, with the exact same unending tree line as this
side, extending as far as the eye could see, a pang in her breastbone reminded
her she’d probably never eat them again.

“How did they get into the clearing?” she asked. One pellet had
a big gouge ripped from the middle and as she turned it lengthwise, realized
from Sam’s images it had been made by teeth. Khota Marong teeth. “Was someone
trying to attract them?”

“I am not certain. It seems like a logical conclusion. I hope
the ‘someone’ is not one of us.”

The possibility twined around her heart and stayed there as she
and Sam scoured the bushes for a makeshift fishing pole. With no fishing line or
hooks, they opted to stick a piece of food pellet on the end of a branch and
hope for the best. She knew exactly who among the group she had no problem
casting in the role of villain—Dr. Glasses.

Too obvious. No one as negative and snooty, not to mention as
smart, as the doctor would actually be the culprit. He’d be kissing up, trying
to make nice so he’d be the last person they’d suspect. He’d fixed up Sam too,
which had earned him a lot of forgiveness. Why would he have done that right
after summoning the devilish cats in the first place?

She shook the theory from her head. Someone else must have left
them there. Maybe for a totally different purpose than to attract the Khota
Marong. They hadn’t bothered to eat it all and left big hunks of it behind in
favor of following the group of people. No wonder Sam puzzled over it.

Either luck or a higher power saw fit to grant them a fish. It
hadn’t been difficult to land, just came up with the stick in its mouth and died
without fanfare once on the shore. Dr. Glasses managed to find some sort of rock
that sparked when struck with another rock and amazed them all by fanning a
campfire to life under a tepee of half-wet logs. She still wasn’t president of
the doctor’s fan club, but he’d come through when it counted.

“I might be dry soon,” Natalie swooned and then sniffed with
gusto. “Who would have thought raw fish could smell so good?”

Ashley raised her hand. “Me.”

Their second round of fishing hadn’t gone as well and the river
creatures snatched the bait without bothering to sacrifice themselves to the
hungry refugees. So the doc split this one measly thing with large fins and eyes
five ways, along with the leftover bran lumps. Natalie volunteered to give up
her portion to Neeko and in the process, gained a buddy for life. He didn’t move
from her side, where he fell asleep about four seconds after swallowing the last
of his dinner.

The others conked out fast too, after Ashley and Sam assured
everyone they planned to be Khota Marong repellent until morning. The night wore
on, unending and cold. The glow from the fire hypnotized Ashley to the point
where she would have traded a fifteen-minute nap for her three-carat diamond
earrings. They were in her suitcase, wherever that was.

She no longer had one single thing she’d brought from Earth.
Except herself.

Weariness radiated from deep in her bones and she began to have
sandman hallucinations. Sandmen who danced on the beach and leaped up to grab
the sun.

“We could take turns linking with someone else,” Sam suggested
softly after Ashley’s head lolled for the third time. “Or ask them to link while
we sleep.”

She jerked upright and widened her eyes to keep the lids from
drifting closed. “What, like I go to sleep and then you wake up one of the
others? No.” She shook her head, both to emphasize the point and to knock the
fuzz from her brain. “I’m not going to make them do something else scary. Plus,
it’s too risky. The frequency might be unique to us, or only works because one
of us is from here. Do you really want Neeko to help us figure that out?” She
glanced over at the comatose boy, whose stoic expression hadn’t relaxed even
while unconscious. “Let them sleep. I’ll pretend I’m on a marathon shoot and
I’ve inhaled a double espresso.”

She’d done little in her life for the benefit of others and had
accidentally discovered the warmth of righteousness. She wasn’t giving up the
chance for some redemption of her own. And okay, hanging out with Sam was kind
of growing on her. He took care of her and kept her safe. She got a lot of
attention at home, sure, but it was all about Ashley V. Somehow that seemed
superficial compared to how Sam did it.

“You are an odd combination of opposites,” he said with a
furrowed brow. “I cannot reorient myself fast enough as you veer between them. I
was frustrated with you for a long time because you do not behave as I
expect.”

“But not anymore?”

“You still frustrate me but differently.”

Could he possibly mean that the way it sounded?

His eyes widened. “What—”

The word choked off deep in his throat and he gaped like their
dinner before it died of asphyxiation. She’d never seen him at such a loss. It
was alarming.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“The image you sent. Something odd happened to me. I...do not
know how to...” He trailed off and shut his eyes, then twisted at the waist. Was
he doing alien yoga?

Baffled, she touched his arm, hoping to snap him out of his
funk, but he jerked away and opened his eyes. “Explain why you imagined us doing
such an activity.”

What had she been thinking of? She searched her memory for what
could have gotten him so frazzled. Oh.
That
. She
hadn’t meant to think of it, it just happened. “You mean kissing? That’s what
you want me to explain?”

Equal parts revulsion and fascination warred across his face.
“Kissing? I have heard of it, but have never seen it done. Do humans kiss each
other often?”

“Sure. Everyone does it. Parents kiss their children. Friends
kiss each other. Lovers. It’s a gesture of affection. You don’t do that
here?”

“Absolutely not! We do not touch each other, nor do we desire
to. Why is this activity performed? What is its function?”

“Geez, you don’t have to get so excited about it.” She glanced
at the others, but they hadn’t stirred, despite Sam’s volume, and called on her
inner actress to come up with the right motivations for why people kissed each
other. “It’s, I don’t know, impulsive sometimes. Fun. Other times you do it to
show you love someone or to say hello. Goodbye. Glad you’re here with me.
Whatever. And it’s an absolutely necessary thing to do before, during, and after
sex.”

Oops. Definitely not the best topic. She clamped down on her
vivid imagination. If kissing had thrown him for a loop, what would happen if
she visualized them tearing up the sheets?

“I feel a pain inside. And heat. Yes.” He nodded, as if pleased
to have figured this out. “It is the oddest paradox. I wish for it to go away
and I wish, at the same time, for it to continue. What is happening to me?”

“Well, um.” She paused, wondering how delicate she needed to
be. If his people didn’t kiss, they probably didn’t do much of anything else
either. How did they make babies for crying out loud? “It sounds like the image
turned you on. That’s an expression to say you feel desire for another
person—like one minute you’re normal and then someone flips a light switch on
inside you. Uh, like turning on your internal switch. Does that explain it?”

Wow, she needed to shut up fast. Talking this through with Sam
flipped her own switches and honestly, they hadn’t been all the way off in the
first place. Not after seeing him be all heroic and fearless with the Khota
Marong.

Not going there. Not going there
at
all
.

His eyes narrowed. “Desire for the other person to do
what?”

Images tore through her mind unchecked—she and Sam, mouths and
tongues mating, their bodies slick and sliding against each other, fingers
questing, legs twining... Dang it.

She leaped to her feet. “Let’s go swimming. Water’s cold.
Perfect thing to keep us awake. Come on.” She fled toward the banks.
Please
,
God
on
high
,
let
me
have
kept
that
scene
from
a
porno
in
my
own
head
.