For some other woman.
A knock. Not Biryani. Kass recognized this one too. Lieutenant Stagg.
They had come for her.
Chapter 8
A smile tugged at Kass's lips as she followed Anton Stagg down the corridor, Joss. Quint bringing up the rear. Though marines were noted for being stoic, neither had been able to restrain a flash of surprise and sheer male appreciation when they'd caught sight of her in the turquoise gown.
Pok! She'd almost stumbled. It had been years since she'd worn heels. And, frankly, her feet had grown, or spread out, or something, because the toes pinched, and the treacherous shoes she'd once loved so much had nearly toppled her down the spiral staircase to the cold marble floor below.
With grim determination, Kass hurried to keep up as Anton Stagg entered the main portion of the palace and strode down a long corridor, turned left down another long corridor, and finally paused, opening a door and ushering Kass in.
She had told herself she was going to cooperate. She repeated Tal Rigel's admonitions like a litany. If you are asked to demonstrate your gifts, you will demonstrate. You will cooperate. You will make everyone happy.
Yes, she could do this! Just bend a little, Kiolani, and it's all over. You're free.
But she hadn't expected Liona Dann, the batani psych doc. Kass didn't even glance at the array of Regulons seated around a large conference table. She saw only her nemesis, the captain's mistress. Pok, dimi, and fyd!
Commander Dann was Kass's opposite in every way. A tall, athletic young woman, somewhere between Tal's age and her own. Short silver blonde hair, sharp blue eyes, the strong, arrogant features of someone who has never known adversity. Well . . . perhaps Kass could remember what that was like. Back in the days when Psyclid and Blue Moon were the only worlds she knew.
Though Kass could never like Orion's psych doc, she had to admit the woman was not only strikingly attractive but had the intelligence and the presence that made people listen to her.
Not good. Liona Dann, rebel or not, was an enemy. Of that Kass was certain.
"Sit, Kiolani," Dann ordered, indicating a chair that had been left vacant at the foot of the oval conference table. The Regulon doctor's eyes flared with more than her usual animosity. Evidently she cared even less for Kass in Psyclid garb than she did for Kass as an Academy cadet.
Kass sat, this time remembering to survey the entire table. Regulons all. What kind of rebel Hierarchy was it if there were no Psyclids among them? Six men and three women, obviously civilians. Two who looked military, though not a familiar face among them. And two men wearing lab coats. Doctors. Enemies. But no Tal.
Abandoned again.
"You can stop looking," said Commander Dann. "We have asked Captain Rigel not to attend this meeting."
Kass returned a look of infinite indifference. But if Liona Dann had an ounce of empathy, her brain would be fried.
"As you may know," Liona Dann pronounced in a tone obviously designed to establish who was in charge of Kass's examination, "Captain Rigel's mission to Regula Prime was not authorized by the Hierarchy. He insisted the risk was worth it, that you had gifts which would aid our cause."
Kass could clearly hear the "but we don't believe it" behind the doctor's words.
"So now that you are here, at great risk to those who saved you, we wish to see proof of these gifts." Dann spat out the word as if it were poison in her mouth.
Kass allowed her gaze to wander over Liona Dann as if she were some low creature just crawled out of primordial slime. "I should think downing two Tau-15s was quite enough proof. What more do you need?"
"Don't be absurd, Kiolani. That was a midair collision."
"Ask Captain Ri-"
"My dear girl," Commander Dann said with an exaggerated sigh, "that is precisely the problem. The captain sees things in you none of the rest of us can see. The Tau-15s were a lucky accident. If they hadn't collided, we'd have lost S'sorrokan, and it would have been your fault."
Kass swung her head toward Anton Stagg, who was standing at parade rest along the side wall. "Lieutenant, you were there. Tell them."
The Imperial Marine turned almost as red as his uniform. "Kiolani, I'm sorry. I was so busy firing the hundred, I only saw the end. One big explosion."
Pok! Of course no one believed it. Everything had happened to the rear. She and Tal had seen the action only on the viewscreen. And the whole point to today's interrogation was that, in spite of all the rumors about Psyclid powers, no one here was capable of believing she could splash two Tau-15s with nothing more than her mind.
Slowly, carefully, Kass studied the faces at the table. They ranged from openly skeptical to shuttered to downright hostile. The white lab coats had an eager look, as if they could scarcely wait to get their hands on her.
"Commander Dann." Kass stared down the length of the conference table into the inimical gaze of Orion's psych doc. "I had every intention of cooperating with this investigation, but I do not appreciate your tone. I have been a prisoner of war for four years. In solitary confinement. It isn't easy for me to find the words to communicate properly, I'm too out of practice. So I am simply going to recite what actually happened."
Kass tossed her head, knowing it would send her long hank of hair dancing across breasts, at long last revealed in all their fullness. Ha! They all looked, even the women. Perhaps danger enhanced her empathic abilities, or they were getting stronger because she was forced to use them to survive.
"My skills at deflecting lasers were somewhat impaired by lack of practice," Kass continued in the level tone of an officer reporting to a superior, "so I had to wait until they fired missiles. I deflected one, then turned the other back on its source. The Tau exploded, a wing sheered off. I steadied it, used it as a missile to take down the second fighter. Whatever you may choose to believe, that is how it happened."
Guffaws. General disbelief. Commander Dann shot to her feet. "You want us to believe you are a witch?" she cried. She glared at Stagg. "Take her to the lab."
No one moved, including Lieutenant Stagg.
"Not witchcraft, Doctor. Telekinesis," Kass told her, unable to keep the scorn out of her voice.
"Impossible!" one of the men roared.
"Lieutenant," Liona Dann snapped. "I said take her to the lab."
"Yes, ma'am." But he didn't move.
Kass, not wanting to get Stagg in trouble for mixed loyalties, stood and walked toward the door to a room that was visible through a panel of glass almost as wide as the wall of the conference room. She walked down steps to a faustone floor half a level lower. Ah. Sparsely furnished, it was not a laboratory with tubes and beakers, sinks and blinking machines. In fact . . . it was so devoid of furnishings, Kass suspected it had been specially prepared for her examination. A metal table, some built-in storage cabinets. On the table a small rock, a feather, a stuffed child's toy. Kass kept her face turned to the lab's far wall to hide a smile. They wanted to see if she could move those little nothings?
"Stand next to the table." Dann's voice was coming to her through speakers now, the door between the rooms closed tight. "Now prove your claim, Kiolani. Move the feather."
Kass crossed her arms, leaned back against the table as if she hadn't a care in the world. They had all left their seats to stand at the window, watching her. She could even see Stagg's head rising above the heads at the rear. "I can blow the feather away with one puff," Kass said. "Why should I bother to use my talents on it."
The look on Dann's face told Kass she could be heard through the thick pane of glass, even before the psych doc snapped, "Batani witch, do as you're told."
Kass stared at the psych doc's agitated face. Merveille! Dann's skin was turning blotchy. "If you'd only ask nicely," Kass purred.
"Doctor Dann." The voice of the oldest committee member was loud enough to echo through the psych doctor's speaker system. "Allow me." Plucking the voice amplifier from around Dann's neck, he fitted it to himself. "Young lady," he pronounced, directing his words to Kass, "if you can do what you say you can, then please show us. I, for one, am intensely curious about your abilities. Indulge an old man and let us see what you can do."
Common sense at last. With some effort Kass tamped down her belligerence. Cooperate with the examining committee, dazzle them with some simple Psyclid trick, enough to shut them up. Tal had been right, of course. She was just being stubborn. He'd saved her from the-goddess-alone-knew-what, and for his sake, as much as for her own, she had to prove him right.
Kass didn't even look at the feather, the stuffed toy, or the rock. Still leaning against the table, facing the watchers in the window, she raised the three objects above her head, rotating them in a circle while she watched the reactions in the conference room above. Shock. Disbelief. Awe. Fury. The last from Liona Dann.