She looked very fragile and small in the big empty room. She was young, not more than twelve, perhaps thirteen years old, slender, pale skinned, with big green eyes that made her look very vulnerable if you didn’t look too close, and short cropped red hair. Hardly the image of a dangerous warrior. But the guards who stood outside the door had been warned to take no chances with her. They wondered at their instructions, but followed them carefully. The child prisoner was given no opportunity for escape. But even had the door gaped open she might have made no move toward it. From the moment she had entered the room she had done nothing but lie on the cold metal floor and weep. Her sobs were broken occasionally by a single word, uttered with heart-wrenching grief. "Sister."
From the first moment that the tiny spark of intelligence that was Lauren could recall there had been the two of them. Her unformed mind had reached out instinctively and found another mind, a mind just like hers, yet different. A mind that, upon being touched, responded with a flow of joy. Lauren returned that joy in full measure. Together the two of them quested outward. There they found a third mind. But this was a cold mind, indifferent to their touch. It neither recognized their presence nor responded to it. It was thinking strange things that they couldn’t understand.They withdrew from that alien chill into the wordless warmth of their togetherness. They did not count time in the world where they were. They floated in a warm dark nothingness. They saw nothing, smelled nothing, felt nothing, and heard only a soft humming that didn’t even register as a sound, since they had never heard anything else. Than all at once there was light and noise, bombardment from all sides. They were removed from the dark warm place and brought out into the air by mechanical things with no mind spark to hear their wordless protests.
Their minds rebelled against the air, but their bodies knew better and each took a breath. In unison they squalled, suddenly able to express themselves in a new way. Their minds clung to each other for reassurance. Together they found equilibrium and ceased crying. Impersonal hands picked one of them up. Aware now of physical separation as well as their mental individuality, the nameless infant who would be Lauren watched through eyes just learning how to focus as a large white shape picked up another infant. The link between them told her that this squirming thing was her as yet unnamed sister who would someday be called Saren.Saren... Saren gone, Saren surely dead. A dull ache where the familiar mental presence should be. Lauren shook with another sob. What was the point of continuing? Even if, by some miracle, she escaped, even if she accomplished their goal, what then? How could she live with her soul cut in half?
Her small frame shook with sobs. One of the guards peered in the tiny dura-glass window with an expression of pity on his face. But he had his orders. No matter how much he pitied this tiny sobbing girl, he would still obey them. He checked for the thousandth time a winking indicator light on a bulky machine that sat next to him outside the cell. This, more than the walls or the door, was what held the child prisoner. Satisfied that it was working he turned again to look in the cell.Lauren lay still. Her sobs had given way at last to exhaustion and she slept.
Childhood had been a happy time for the two of them. They learned quickly about the world they had been born into. The cold mind full of strange thoughts was Professor. His emotions were dull, but his mind dazzled with words. At first they were puzzled by this. A mind so full of things that meant nothing, but gradually they figured out about words and sounds. Long before their untrained vocal cords and clumsy tongues could string words together they understood speech. Professor, who had another name but didn’t think of it much, was always measuring things. Mostly he measured them. He didn’t think of them with names for a long time, they were Specimen 12A and Specimen 12B, but by the time they understood that they knew enough to know that those weren’t really names.Eventually they chose their own names. Winnowing through Professor’s mind they came up with names they liked, Lauren and Saren. About that time they started to master talking in sound words as well as mind words. They had already discovered that Professor was deaf to mind words. They were eager to be able to communicate with him. But all that happened when they spoke was that he wrote down more measurements. They tried to tell him things, but he didn’t really listen. He just put down “Speaking in full sentences at eight months, an unprecedented development. Obviously the mental enhancement techniques are a success.” Which they didn’t really understand or care about.
They gave up on Professor after that and just worked on learning. And growing. Their physical development was not nearly as fast as their mental development, but as children will they grew quickly. They discovered there were some things Saren liked better and some things Lauren liked better.Saren figured out the house computer as soon as she was tall enough to reach the keys when standing on a chair. Lauren on the other hand discovered a gym behind one of the many doors in the place where they lived. Sometimes she wondered why it was there, since Professor never went there, but mostly she just enjoyed the many games that the gym machines could play with her. She would occasionally join Saren on her computer as Saren sometimes came and played in the gym, but they each knew what they liked best.
Lauren woke and, unthinking, reached for her sister, only to find that aching blankness. She put her head back down and sobbed some more. Saren was her other half, strong where she was weak, weak where she was strong. What could she do now that her other half was dead? That thought triggered the memory of her loss over again. Her sister’s cry or surprise, her last thoughts suddenly cut off, as if the bond between them were a rope that could be cut by some knife wielder. Suddenly she was filled with fury. A knife wielder, yes. Her sister was gone and someone had taken her away, had killed her. Maybe there was one thing she could do without Saren. She could avenge her!Things didn’t change in the place where they lived. They didn’t think of it as home, exactly. Professor thought of it as The Lab and since Saren had discovered the computer she knew that it wasn’t like a real home where ordinary people lived. Still it was the only place they knew and they were happy there. They continued to learn from the computer. Some of the things they learned seemed to have no practical use, though that didn’t seem to bother Saren, but Lauren was delighted when one day she discovered the computer had an extensive library on a subject called martial arts. She talked Lauren into programming most of the information into the gym robots. Then she happily spent hours learning kicks, blocks, punches, and forms from all the different styles. When she discovered a particularly ancient discipline called Tai Chi that was more like a dance than a fight she even managed to get Saren to participate.
If she had known more, if I’d insisted, maybe... Lauren shook her head. Maybes weren’t going to do her any good, and it was already too late for Saren. With a determined expression on her twelve-year-old face she set about examining her prison. The room had obviously not been intended to hold prisoners. The bars covering the ventilation grill near the floor showed every sign of being hastily welded in place. No doubt the locks on the door had also been added, though Lauren couldn’t see them from the inside. Her search turned up little else. Whatever the room had held before, now it held nothing at all but her. Not even a pallet for her to lay on, just a smooth metal floor.A smooth metal floor that vibrated faintly. Lauren blinked. She put her ear to the floor and listened. Yes, a regular vibration. A familiar vibration. There was no doubt about it, she was on a spaceship!
The first time the twins had seen a spaceship had been when they were eight. Lauren had felt Saren reach out and touch her mind. The touch was full of excitement, wonder. [Look at this!] Lauren looked out through her sister’s eyes and saw what was on the screen in front of her. It showed the barren plain that was the world outside the Lab. The sun was high in the sky, but the thin air meant that the stars were plainly visible. Neither of them had actually been outside, that would have required a space suit and there was only one, Professor’s, which was hopelessly big. But the state of the atmosphere outside was the last thing on their minds at the moment. A brilliant waterfall of fire was pouring down onto a flat area that bore the black marks of many such flames. Perched on top of the incandescent tail was the slender silver shape of an interstellar ship. They both had seen pictures of them before, but this one was right there! The roar of it’s landing was dulled by the almost nonexistent atmosphere, but they could feel the deep vibration through the floor.Lauren asked curiously, [I wonder why it’s here?]
[Well,] replied Saren, [There are only three of us on this whole planet, and I don’t think the ship is because of you or me, so it’s for Professor.][Hmm... Would it be worth it to try and pry the reason out of him?]
[You can try if you want, but his mind is such a mess I don’t really think it’s worth it.][What about the people in the ship? I can tell it’s not just a drone.]
Saren considered that for a second. [No. It doesn’t really feel right to rummage around in people’s heads for no good reason. You know how much we hate Professor poking at us, and he can’t even get at our thoughts. I bet other mind blind people would really hate it.][You’re always too ethical! We poke around in Professor’s head often enough.]
[Yes but he doesn’t really think about anything private, just all that science and confused glory dreams all the time. For everything I’ve read I imagine that most people do have private thoughts. Besides, it’s only just revenge considering the way he tries to poke into our private thoughts. You know if he wasn’t mind blind he’d be in our heads all the time.][You have a point. All right, we’ll wait and see if we can con it out of them verbally.]
Lauren let got of her link to Saren’s eyes and left the gym, headed for Saren’s room where she was sitting in front of the computer screen. A few minutes later Professor came into the room. There were two men with him, both dressed in some kind of uniform. They looked coldly at the two girls. The girls looked back, turning on their considerable eight-year-old charm."These are the wonder kids?" The man who asked that was the older of the two, with close-cropped black hair streaked with silver.
The Professor nodded. "They are.""They don’t look like much," said the younger of the strangers. His hair was just as short, but it was blond and untouched by gray. "Are you sure they can do what you say?"
"Oh yes!" Professor seemed almost pathetically eager to please his guests. "They can. I’ll have them give you a demonstration."Lauren was irritated. [We’re not machines. Why are they talking about us like we don’t exist?]
[To Professor nobody exists but him, I think these are like that too, in a different way.][Why should we do what they want then?]
[I have a feeling that if we do things are going to change.][Precognition?]
[Possibly. It’s hard to tell this time.] No sign of this inner conversation showed on either of their faces. While they’d been speaking, the adults had come to a decision."Saren, Lauren, let’s go to the gym and show these nice men what you’ve been learning."
"All right." Saren gave a wide innocent grin. She wanted to see the strangers’ reaction."Good Lord! You gave them fangs?" A ripple of shock spread out from both minds, but it was the younger man who had spoken.
"I wanted them to have every possible defense. They have claws as well." Turning to Saren he said, "Show the gentleman."Lauren could feel Saren contemplating disobedience and deciding it wouldn’t accomplish anything. She held up one of her small hands that looked perfectly normal if you didn’t notice that the fingertips were slightly wider than a normal human being’s. She extended her claws, which were about a quarter-inch long, and then retracted them. The young strange shook his head. "Amazing."
"They have every possible improvement," said Professor, warming to his subject. "Not only the fangs and claws, but eyes adapted to see in the dark, an enhanced sense of smell, great physical strength for their muscle mass, improved intelligence, and of course the psi abilities."A wary expression crossed the older man’s face. "You’re sure the psi enhancement worked then?"
"Well, according to all the theories it shouldn’t manifest until they hit puberty, so it’s too soon to be sure, but judging by the complete success of the rest of the procedure, I don’t doubt that the psi skill will also succeed."[Interesting,] Lauren sent. [I guessed he wasn’t aware of our ability, mind blind as he is, but you’d think he’d have noticed the way we both know anything he’s told one of us.]
[Well, he already has a theory. He’s so sure he’s right that he won’t bother to actually notice what’s going on around him.][Could be. I don’t think these two will be as oblivious though. We’d better be careful.]
[Right.]They trooped through the halls until they reached the gym. Professor motioned the visitors to seat themselves on one of the benches that lined the room. When they were seated he turned to the twins. "Saren, you go first. Just show off what you can do."
Saren nodded. She walked over to a rack of practice blasters. They fired a beam of harmless light that the gym’s sensors could detect. Then she keyed in her usual practice program. The room went dim and a series of amorphous holographic shapes popped up in various places. For just an instant all was still, then the computer sounded a chime that meant the program had begun and the shapes started moving in on Saren. She calmly blasted the one nearest, hitting it dead center. They were moving fast, but she moved faster and even as the first was fading away she was spinning around to hit another. Again it fell with a single shot. Saren snapped off a rapid series of shots at a group rushing up from one side, then spun again and downed yet another approaching from behind. A few more shots and they were all gone.
The whole exercise had taken perhaps thirty seconds. The computer displayed a score floating in the air. Saren hadn’t missed once. Other numbers indicated the difficulty level of the exercise and the average score. The younger man gasped. "Level 16! That’s impossible!""You just saw it," said the older one, but he too was obviously taken aback
Professor just smiled. "Your turn Lauren."Saren racked the practice laser and took a seat as Lauren activated one of the combat robots. It was a skeleton of metal padded on the arms, legs and feet so that it wouldn’t unduly damage a fragile human fighting with it. It stood perhaps five and a half feet tall topped by a featureless metal head. When Lauren switched it on, it walked out onto one of the mats and, taking up a position just to one side of the center, waited. Lauren took a position facing it and bowed. The robot bowed back, then took a balanced fighter’s stance. Lauren had already fallen into her stance, but she didn’t stay in it. Rather she flowed through it and attacked the robot. The robot was very fast, it blocked Lauren easily, but as soon as it did she was already launching another attack. The odd pair moved back and forth across the mat, trading blows. Though Lauren’s hits couldn’t possibly hurt the machine, it was obvious that had it been another human it would be feeling a certain amount of pain.
Finally with a particularly clever move she knocked it over. It got back to its feet, but made no move to continue the fight. The older man nodded, he was learning what to expect from these two. But the younger man was bristling. “Fighting a machine is no substitute for fighting a real human being!”Lauren grinned at him showing her slightly lengthened canines. "Are you challenging me?"
The young man blinked at her for a moment, then glanced at his companion, as if for permission. The older man nodded. The young one grinned back at her fiercely. "Yes!" And instant later he was on his feet, stripping off his shirt to reveal a thin undershirt. He removed his shoes and socks as well, and walked over to the mat.Taking his place opposite Lauren, he bowed. She returned the bow and, as before, flowed through her beginning stance into an attack. He had seen her do the same only minutes before, and was ready with a block and counter attack. She darted aside. While the young man obviously had the advantage in height, weight, and reach, Lauren was definitely faster. Not that he was particularly slow, he was lean and fit and fast enough for an ordinary man. But Lauren was inhumanly fast, darting and dashing around him like a dog worrying a bear. It wasn’t long before the young man, somewhat bruised and breathing hard, was lying flay on his back with Lauren grinning over him.
She offered him her hand, and he took it, startled at the ease with which the much smaller girl hauled him up. "I admit defeat. You’re amazing!" She just grinned.Oh yes, I was always so confident. There was nothing I couldn’t fight and win. But the guards are on the other side of the wall here, how do I get at them?
Lauren suddenly laughed, a bitter harsh sound to come from her young throat. She felt foolish for not thinking of it first thing. All she had to do was reach for one of the guards’ minds and have him open the door for her. With a bit of returning confidence she reached out for the warm thoughts of the guard only to find a blank cold nothingness. Had they left her unguarded? But no, looking through the dura-glass window she could just see one of them. Perhaps they were shielded?She reached farther, looking for other minds, but she sensed nothing at all. Surely they couldn’t have shielded everyone on the ship? She tested the blank nothingness. It had a chill silvery-slick metallic feel to it that was vaguely familiar. Where had she felt that before?
The two visitors had indeed signaled change. They left in their little ship, but a few days later they returned with a much bigger ship and when that blasted off Lauren and Saren were in it, along with the professor, the two men, and an assortment of other people, all in the same uniforms. The trip itself was boring, enlivened only by the many opportunities to startle the ship people. Saren and Lauren were discreet, but they couldn’t resist the temptation to give out wide toothy grins to almost everyone they met.Fortunately the voyage wasn’t a lengthy one and before long they were disembarking in a crowded spaceport. The children stared around them. They’d never seen so many people before. They’d never felt so many minds before either. It was all they could do to keep the surface thoughts and emotions of the milling throng from driving them insane.
A group of the military types from the ship escorted Professor and the twins out of the crowded port itself and into the bustle of the port town. Adjusting rapidly to the crowds, and strengthening their mental shields, Saren and Lauren peered at what little they could see between their escort with delight. Here were all the things they’d seen pictures of on the computer, but now the still images were moving, making noise, giving off interesting smells. The port town was full of people buying and selling the merchandise of dozens of worlds. People shouted out offers, shoved their wares in the faces of passers-by, touted the worth of their own particular product, and generally made noise. There were bright colored art objects, carpets, jewelry, and cloth, while food booths that sold things that smelled wonderfully exotic, spice merchants, and perfume vendors added to the mixture.Lauren was almost overwhelmed. [How can all these people stand to be in this all day?]
Saren inhaled happily. [It’s wonderful, but there’s so much all at once! Still, remember these people can’t smell as well as we do.][How do you know that?]
[Professor said he’d enhanced our sense of smell. You need to pay more attention to things like that.]Lauren grinned. [Why should I when I have you to do it for me?]
They were not out in the street for long. After only a few minutes among the redolent crowd they turned down a small side street and into an archway. The iron gate shut behind them, leaving them in a courtyard full of greenery. They stayed in the house attached to that courtyard for the next four years.Most of that time was not spent inside the house itself. Without the gym and the big computer Lauren and Saren had to find other things to entertain them. Out in the crowded streets of port town they found them. The goods of half a hundred worlds flowed through the markets of the port town, but that was only half the entertainment. The other half was the people. They too came from half a hundred worlds, and almost a dozen different species. Humans were the most numerous, though the small gargoyle-like Chivrin were almost as common. And occasionally they would catch a glimpse of an avian Verliss, or a hulking furry Klurrr.
It was not only the sight of these aliens that excited the twins. They found the strange patterns of their minds much more interesting. Not that they could make any sense out of them, beyond the most basic emotional states, but the unusual textures of their thoughts were fascinating.Lauren thought she had found a new kind of alien the first time she probed a mech-psi. [Saren! Take a look at this!]
[What is it? It’d better be good, I’m busy.][I’m not sure actually. Look for yourself.]
Saren reached out to the strange mind. [You’re right, this is weird beyond weird. It thinks like a human, but feels like... I don’t know, kind of metallic. Can you see what’s behind it?]They were both out in the main market square, looking at different booths. Saren was perusing a set of old-fashioned art brushes, while Lauren was on the opposite side of the square considering the latest in monofillament swords.
[It’s close, I’ll... wait a sec, this thing isn’t mind blind!][What?!] Saren reached out to the new mind. It reached back with a tentacle of thought that looked/felt like a line of liquid metal. ::you-singular/plural-possible are who/what? How can you-singular/plural think/send/communicate like/not-like me-singular?::
[Weird. It speaks the human language, sort of, but it doesn’t have any control. It sends too many concepts at once. Like the way mind blind humans think to themselves.]Lauren had no patience for her sister’s analysis. [Say something to it then!]
Saren sent a mental nod, then turned to the other mind. [Hello. I’m Saren, who are you?]::I am/have always been Jerda/image of human woman. How can you-singular(?) send/think like speech? What (mechanical) filters/implants do you-singular(?) have?::
[We don’t have implants, we just do it.]::Amazing!::
Then abruptly the cool metallic tendril withdrew. When they looked for it again, it seemed to have vanished completely.Of course! Mech-psi. That’s what this feels like. But why can’t I feel anything else? Lauren sat back down in the center of the bare room and thought. If what she felt was mech-psi, could it be possible that it was blocking her off from the rest of the minds on the ship? She got up and walked over to the door. Standing on her toes she could just see out the tiny window. Outside two guards lounged around. Two guards and a machine adorned with winking green lights. The source of the mind shield that blocked her? Possibly.
Then another thought hit her with all the force and suddenness of a bolt of lightening. If this machine kept her from reaching the guards, could it also be keeping her from reaching Saren? Was it possible that she was still alive? She shook her head. Better not to hope too much. It would be too easy to be disappointed. Better to simply concentrate on her revenge now and worry about possibilities later.Lauren thought the odd metallic mind was interesting, but other things soon distracted her. Saren, on the other hand, could think of nothing else. She spent hours at a public access terminal trying to find some lead, and even more hours scouring the port town with her mind in search of another such metallic mind.
She found out what it was right off. "Mech-psi," an experiment in enhancing the almost non-existent psionic abilities of humans with implanted devices. It had been partially successful, but since mech-psis could only use their talent to reach the minds of other mech-psis it was abandoned. Lauren only found out that much because Saren insisted on sharing it with her, along with the rest of her search.[It’s so exciting!]
[I don’t really think so. Sure, those metal minds are interesting, but I don’t see what’s getting you so worked up.][Lauren, haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like not to be different from everyone else, to belong? If there is a community of these Mech-psis out there, we could join them, we could belong for once!]
[We already belong. We belong to Professor.][It isn’t the same!] Her mind was full of frustration.
[I know that. But Saren, here’s another thought for you. Have you ever thought of what it would be like to not belong, to be separate?][What?]
[What would it be like if there was only you, or only me, and not always us?][It would be awful!] Saren’s mind was suddenly angry.
[Maybe not.][How can you even think that?] She shut Lauren out, retreating in anger, but as always a faint connection, an awareness remained between them. No matter how hard she tried, Lauren could always feel her sister. Always.
So she was dimly aware of her sister leaving the house, going out into the market. She knew when another contact with the mech-psi filled Saren with delight. And she knew when the delight turned to fear, witch deepened into terror. She reached out for Saren, felt Saren reaching back. They touched for a moment.[Lauren!] Fear obscured her clear train of thought, but she managed to get her message through. [They’re not like I thought, they don’t welcome us at all. They have something to do with Professor though, so be c...] Suddenly the contact cut off.
[Saren!] Lauren reached for her sister, but she was gone. Not even the faintest awareness of her remained. Lauren’s mind kept reaching, but there was nothing, nothing! A babble of blind minds echoed around her, swamping her in thought and emotion as she reached harder, farther, but still nothing. She collapsed onto her bed, crying, reaching, until her strength was gone.Professor found her there. The two men and one woman with him looked down emotionlessly on the child crumpled in tears on her bed.
"This is the other one?" The woman spoke If Lauren had bothered to look at her she would have recognized Jerda, the mech-psi woman they’d spoken to."Yes. But I don’t understand, you were to wait until they came into their powers in a few years. Why...?"
Jerda cut him off. "It seems that they’ve come into their powers early. We found the other girl poking around our defenses, looking for us. And I don’t mean physically.""Early? Unprecedented! I’ll have to do more studies..."
"Your studies will have to wait. We need them now, not in however many years it takes you to satisfy your curiosity.""But my experiment! I must know how..."
Again she broke in. "You did it, I’m sure you can repeat it. That’s all that matters."Professor opened his mouth, then shut it again, realizing that Jerda was not interested in the glories of science.
Jerda nodded, then motioned to the nondescript men who accompanied her. They moved forward and picked up Lauren between them. One of them touched a small object to her arm, and she dropped from an exhausted sleep into a deeper darkness.And now I’m here, she thought to herself as she examined the bare room around her. She’d decided the walls were much too solid, as were the floors, and the ceiling out of reach. The door was solid as well, and well guarded, but the hasty welding job on the vent suggested possibilities. She stood on her tiptoes to peer out the window, and nearly fell over backward as she looked directly into the eyes of an equally startled guard who had just peered in.
How on earth could she manage to get out of here if she was being watched every second? Saren could have thought of something clever, but... Best not to dwell on that. How long had she been here? There was no way of knowing, but surely the guards would get bored of watching her do nothing after a while. If she waited, she might have a chance. So she settled down in the middle of the room, crossed her feet in the traditional lotus position, and meditated.Her concentration was broken an unknown length of time later by a commotion outside. She got up and peered out the window just in time to see the last of the guards vanish around the corner. Quickly she dashed to the other side of the room. She crouched down and grabbed the bars of the grating over the vent.
She braced her feet carefully against the wall on either side, then heaved with all her might. The bars were not solid steel, just hollow tubes doubtless intended for a totally different purpose. One by one they bent, then broke.She glanced at the door in case the guards had returned, but there was no sign of them, and she could still hear distant shouts from somewhere else on the ship. Leaving the broken bars in the middle of the room with the thought that there was no way they were going to miss the open vent, she crawled into the tiny dark space.
It was impossible to be sure of the passage of time in the cool humming darkness, but it wasn’t long before Lauren heard the hum increase. She was drawing near the engine room. It would probably be a good idea to get out of the duct before she actually reached it. Running into the fans that were sending a breeze past her was probably not a good idea. At the next fork she followed the air out to where a flimsy aluminum grating divided the view of a small empty storage room into squares. She popped the grating out with ease and crawled into the room.It was not very big, and crammed with shelved that were in turn crammed with all kinds of junk. Spare parts, cleaning supplies, and unidentifiable things lined the shelves in a confused jumble. A nearly perfect hiding place.
It took her a few nervous minutes to rearrange the junk so she could tuck herself on the bottom shelf behind an assortment of odds and ends, but then she was safely hidden and could think. It was unlikely that anyone would find her here, especially not with whatever emergency had called the guards away, but what then? She was on a ship in deep space, where could she go? Of course it had to land eventually, but how long would it be? And what about Saren? Being alone had looked good back when she had argued with Saren about it, but now that she’d experienced it, she didn’t like it. If there was any possibility that her sister was alive, she had to act on it. If not, she felt she needed to avenge her.Her musings were interrupted by a commotion outside. Thudding feet drew near the room and then passed. Her keen ears cold pick up the motion of people all over the ship, but without knowing the exact layout of the vessel, she couldn’t tell much from the noise. Just that the formerly quiet ship was suddenly quite active. Then a soft stealthy footstep sounded just outside the door. She hadn’t even noticed anyone approaching, but the click of the latch releasing proved beyond a doubt that somebody was out there. She held her breath as the almost silent footfalls entered the room. A normal human wouldn’t have even heard them, but to her they were all to clear. She held her breath. Had they found her?
But the steps were crossing the room, headed for the corner across from where she hid. There were quiet noises as whoever it was shifted the junk around, then silence. The faint engine noise covered the other’s breathing. Realizing it would cover her own, Lauren let out the breath she had been holding, gradually so as not to make a sound. She instinctively reached out with her mind for the other’s identity, but found nothing. Whatever was blocking her was still in place. But the other made no noise, no movements of any kind, and gradually Lauren relaxed.She relaxed a little too much, for the next thing she knew she was starting awake. She listened for what had woken her, but heard nothing. Then she blinked in surprise. She heard nothing at all, not one bit of vibration, not one hum, nothing. The ship had stopped!
She had to forcer herself to move slowly as she crept out of her hiding place. There was not even a breath from the other, and no reaction to the inevitable bumps and scrapes as she shifted the junk out of her way. Obviously the other was gone. And high time she followed him! Listening carefully for anyone in the hall outside, she padded silently to the door. There was no sound. She opened the door, wincing at the click of the latch. The hall was deserted. She moved briskly but quietly down it, keeping her ears peeled for anyone approaching. She had no idea where the hall led, but it didn’t lead far enough for her. All the doors she cautiously tried were locked, and forcing the locks would make too much noise, so she went to where the corridor ended in a large pair of metal doors. They opened easily, with a soft whoosh.She stepped inside to find a cavernous room, with ghostly shapes looming in the darkness. She stepped inside and the door whooshed closed after her. On closer examination most of the pale shapes proved to be shuttles. With a grin she examined the nearest. Here was a way off! Eventually somebody would have to leave. If she could hide in a shuttle they would either take that one and she could escape with them, or she could follow them in another shuttle. That is if she could figure out how to drive one. Better to hope somebody would take the one she was in.
With that in mind, she opened the door to the nearest, figuring they would take the most convenient one. She slipped inside quietly and made her way to the cargo area in the back. There were several crates of something or other stowed there. With care she selected one and pried it open. It proved to be completely empty. She spared a thought for why these people were hauling around empty crates, then shrugged and climbed inside. Then she lifted the lid and placed it back over her head, hoping nobody would notice it was loose.Then she settled down to wait. A surprisingly short period of time later, she heard movement and voices in the shuttle bay. There were two masculine voices whose conversation was too muffled by the shuttle walls to make out. They were indeed headed for her shuttle, and a moment later the door slid open with a sharp bang.
"...If she’s escaped it’s all going to be blamed on us you know.""Tell me about it." The other gave a dramatic sigh. "Never mind that they were the ones that gave her the chance to get away. And what about that other one? I never even got back to my post, so for all we know she’s on the loose too."
"Yeah. And of course instead of sending us back to make sure that they don’t have both running loose, what do they think of but to have us fly over to the station to make sure they haven’t somehow gotten over there. As if they could have!""Oh well, we’ll get our pay docked a bit and then we’ll be done with this contract. And I say the sooner the better."
Lauren heard creaks as the seated themselves, and then a series of beeps, followed by a low hum from behind her. The shuttle jerked a bit and then glided forward. A loud but muffled booming and a whoosh of air escaping into vacuum indicated that the bay doors were open. Suddenly all outside sounds ceased. There was no longer any air to conduct sound between them and the rest of the ship.It seemed like forever, but was probably not all that long before a faint clank signaled that they’d docked with the station. With the hull of the shuttle now connected to the station’s hull, Lauren could hear plenty of noise. The station was obviously a big one, and busy too. Then Lauren was aware of something else. There was mind noise along with the audible noise. She reached out tentatively, uncertain, not sure she wanted to find what she would find.
The mental murmur of the crowded station came clear, along with the bored minds of the two men and... And a very familiar mind not two feet from her![Saren!]
[Oh Lauren! You’re alive!] In an instant they shared all their fears and loneliness, and their joy at finding each other.[You bet! But what happened? Why couldn’t I find you?]
[It was the mech-psi. They have a machine that damps out psionic abilities. They made it to work on their own kind, but it works on us too.][But why? Why do they care?] Her mind plainly broadcast her puzzlement.
[Because they made us. Not personally, but they’re the reason Professor could afford to do his experiments. He happily added psychic abilities to us when they asked him to so long as they funded his plans. You know, for all the looking in his mind we did, I never realized why he made us until now.][I never cared till now.]
[Well, since you care...] Saren’s mind showed her amusement and her joy at having her sister back. [He thought he was making the ultimate human being. Never mind that we really aren’t human. But the mech-psis convinced him that the ultimate human would be naturally telepathic. So he agreed they could have his fist successful experiments as soon as they showed the ability, and they’d fund everything.][Oh. And when you contacted them they knew...]
[That we were already psychic, yes.][But what do we do now?] Lauren thought about her previous plans for revenge.
[About them? Nothing. If we ever deal with them we need to do it on our own terms, not here. Besides, they’ve every so nicely transported us to a space station. There are dozens of ships leaving here every day! Surely we can find room on one of them for us.]Lauren thought it over, then with a feeling of release, she let go of her plans.
[All right! Look out galaxy, here we come!]Lauren’s mental laugh echoed happily in both their heads.