“Yeah.” Zekk pulled his arm and leg off of her body. “I-I thought it was a dream.”
Jaina cocked her brow. “You’re saying it wasn’t?”
Zekk’s eyes widened. “No, it was fun!” he said. “Great, even. I just… it just didn’t feel real…”
Zekk let the sentence trail off, sharing his thoughts and emotions with Jaina directly via the meld-or perhaps it was the Taat mind - instead of trying to explain. He had loved her since they were teenagers, and he had imagined waking at her side countless times. But last night had not felt like them. They had been carried along on a wave of Killik emotion. He had sought her out in the rapture of the dance, even when he knew she did not share his feelings, and found himself leading her down into the dormitory with all the Joiners
“Zekk, we didn’t do anything,” Jaina said. She could have answered him more quickly and clearly just by thinking, but right now she needed the sense of separation that came with speaking - even if it was an illusion. “It was just a little cuddling between friends. You have a problem with that?”
“No!” Zekk said. “I just feel like I took advantage.”
Jaina clasped his forearm. “You didn’t.” She was genuinely touched by his concern-and truly relieved that it had been handsome, muscular, familiar Zekk who had taken her hand instead of Raynar. “We lost control there for a minute, but we got it back. I’m just glad Alema went home with Mom and Dad.”
Zekk remained quiet.
Jaina propped herself up on an elbow. “Hey!” She punched him in the shoulder. “I know what you’re thinking!”
“Sorry.”
Zekk blushed and turned away, and Jaina felt him closing down emotionally.
“Zekk, you can’t do that,” she said. They had to keep the meld open between them, to constantly draw on each other’s strength and resolve to remain their own little entity within the greater Taat mind. “And will you stop apologizing?” Jaina rolled her eyes, then reached for her jumpsuit. “I think I’m getting dressed now.”
She sat up and, sensing someone behind her, pivoted to find Raynar on the busy walkway at the head of their sunken bed. Dressed in scarlet and gold and surrounded by his usual retinue of assorted Killiks, he was squatting on his haunches, staring down into the hexagonal sleeping cell with no discernible expression on his melted face. A sense of overwhelming awe arose inside Jaina-Taat’s reaction to UnuThul’s presence-and she felt her mouth broadening into an adoring grin.
She managed to wipe it away by reminding herself that this used to be Raynar Thul.
“Raynar-good morning.” Jaina pushed her feet into the jumpsuit and continued to dress without embarrassment. There was not much sense in being modest when several thousand nestmates had access to your innermost thoughts. “Come down to see how the drones live?”
Raynar lowered his stiff brow. “Why do you call us Raynar when you know Raynar Thul is gone?”
“Raynar’s still in there somewhere,” Jaina said. “I can feel him.”
Raynar glared down at her, then said, “Perhaps you are right. Perhaps a little Raynar Thul remains in us still.” A glimmer of sadness appeared in his cold blue eyes. “And he will be sorry to see you go.”
Jaina felt Zekk’s alarm at the same time as her own.
“Go?”
“Your task here is done,” Raynar explained.
“Really?” Jaina thrust her arm through a sleeve. “I hadn’t heard the Chiss were gone.”
As she said this, the image of a clawcraft reconnaissance patrol appeared in her mind-the scene being relayed to one of the tactical monitors in the Taat control room. The ships were silhouetted against Ruu’s amber disk, flying just above the plane of Qoribu’s golden ring system.
“It looks like they’re still here to me,” Zekk said, no doubt seeing the same thing in his mind’s eye as Jaina did in hers. “So why would the Colony want us to leave now?”
“We wish you to return to the Galactic Alliance,” Raynar said, dodging the question.
“What about our mission?” Jaina rose and closed her jumpsuit. “You brought us here to keep the peace.”
Raynar stood. “Your starfighters are being fueled. We thank you for coming.”
“You seem eager to be rid of us,” Zekk said, zipping his own suit. “What’s going on?”
“It’s the Chiss.” Jaina could not tell whether her inference came from her own mind, Zekk’s, or Taat’s, but she knew it was correct. “They’re going to attack.”