Kass continued in what she hoped was the voice of her father when he handed down decrees, "On our way through the ship, you will not create so much as one spark, not a single face. No battles, no fireworks-"
The door reverberated with an authoritative knock. Startled, Kass frowned at her brother. "Were you expecting someone?"
K'kadi flashed an impish grin. A face formed in front of the door. Anton Stagg? Her little brother was expecting a marine-
No, no, no. K'kadi shook his head. That didn't make sense. What in the name of the goddess . . . ?
More pounding. Kass shot to her feet, dragged the astonished lieutenant inside, and tabbed the door closed.
"Dama, the captain wants-"
"Sorry, Lieutenant, but we have a mystery to solve before I go anywhere." She turned back to her brother. "K'kadi, were you expecting the lieutenant?" Again, a strong denial. A thundercloud began to take shape over their heads.
"Then how did you know it was Lieutenant Stagg?"
K'kadi hunched his shoulders, thrust his hands out to his sides in a classic gesture that Kass read as, How could I not know?
Kass steadied herself with a hand to the back of the desk chair. "K'kadi, are you telling me you can see, um, feel who is behind a closed door?
K'kadi flashed a broad smile, this time nodding vigorously. Kass noted Anton Stagg was looking as awed as she was.
"How far can you feel, K'kadi?" Kass asked. "Just outside a door, around a corner, down the corridor, all the way to the bridge?" She was babbling. Kass knew very well K'kadi had no way to respond to so many different questions at once. "I'm sorry, let's try that again. Can you tell if Zee-Zee is in our room next door? Pok, that wouldn't work either. A no could mean she wasn't in the room or that K'kadi was unable to tell if she was in the room or not.
A picture began to form in front of them. Astarte's bridge, Dorn Jorkan in the captain's chair, Mical Turco at Nav, Zee-Zee at Comm, shadow figures at the other stations.
"Great Omni," Stagg breathed.
"K'kadi," Kass said, keeping her voice low and steady even though her heart was pounding almost as hard as it had at her fateful meeting with Tal Rigel in Orion's ready room so long ago. "Can you feel the presence of strangers as well as people you know?" Her brother waggled his fingers. "It's impossible to picture strangers," Kass interpreted, "but you feel their presence?"
K'kadi beamed, confirming her analysis.
"Pok!" Stagg muttered. "The kid's a walking scanner. Beg pardon, dama."
Dear goddess, all this time working with her brother, and she'd had no idea. Kass took a deep breath, forcing her attention back to Anton Stagg. "You were looking for me, Lieutenant?"
He snapped to attention. "Yes, dama. The captain wants to speak with you."
And very privately, or he wouldn't have sent Stagg to fetch her. So good-bye for now to taking K'kadi off-ship. But her disappointment was nicely countered by being able to tell Tal that Jordana Tegge wasn't going to be his only pleasant surprise on X-33.
Engineering Deck. Kass hadn't been on this level since the cadets had toured Orion that long-ago summer. During their meandering trip down lifts and along corridors narrower than C Deck, Kass tried to catch up on the activities of her two favorite marines. But though the lieutenant seemed happy to see her, she got the impression the men's shipboard routine wasn't worth mentioning and their time on Tat not fit for her ears. Stagg's conversation was about as forthcoming as a stone wall.
Kass Kiolani, the captain's chosen woman. Her ears were sacrosanct.
Instead of knocking, Stagg spoke quietly into his comm unit. The door slid open. "I will return to escort you back," he said, and strode off down the corridor as if he couldn't get away fast enough.
Dear goddess, the upright lieutenant probably thought he was acting as a pimp! Kass allowed herself a long mortified moment before she assumed her professional façade and walked through the door. Small booted feet spread wide, Kass crossed her arms and glared at the room's occupant. "You sent for me, Captain?"
They were in some kind of lounge area, one that didn't look as if it had much use. Perhaps because Astarte was understaffed, its highly trained crew spread out to anchor other ships in the small rebel fleet. Too bad Anton Stagg hadn't looked inside the room. If he had, he'd know this meeting wasn't what he'd thought. Or what Kass had begun to hope.
"Please sit." Tal waved a hand toward two comfortable chairs with a small round table set between them. When they were both seated, Tal poured matching thimblefuls of ullali from a bottle sitting on the table. He lifted his glass in toast. "To the rebellion."
Kass touched her glass to his, echoing, "To the rebellion." They drank.
"Now-" Tal began briskly.
"One moment! Beg pardon, Captain," Kass interrupted, "but I have news you should know immediately." She described the incident in K'kadi's quarters.
When she finished, Tal blew out a breath. Silence stretched between them. "Why," he asked at last, "if you people have so many hidden talents, did you ever let the Empire swallow you up?"
Kass clutched her fists in front of her mouth while she tried to find the right words. Not easy to explain the inertia of a thousand years of pacifism to a warrior like Tal Rigel. Finally, she lowered her hands to her lap and said, "Even if we could have broken the rule of live and let live that has governed our lives for so long, assets must be coordinated, a strategy formed to dictate when and where. My people have no concept of this. We are who we are-individuals, single beings with gifts. In fact, the Council of Elders has always discouraged coordinating our talents because the consequences could be disastrous. That was one of the reasons the Council was so opposed to my going to the Academy. I would be the first Psyclid warrior in over a thousand years. They feared the consequences."
"What you're saying," Tal responded slowly, "is that with you and K'kadi I've acquired as much power as with the Scorpio and her entire crew."
"But you always knew that, didn't you?" Kass tossed back, amber eyes hard. "Why else rescue a Psyclid?"
"Mallik! That's unfair," Tal roared. "Did I believe you had special gifts? Yes. But I saved you because I cared about you."
Oh, pok! How she wanted to believe him. And even if she didn't, she owed him. "I beg your pardon," Kass murmured. "I am very much aware of what I owe you. But . . ."
Tal raised one golden-brown eyebrow. He looked resigned, a beleaguered male, not a captain, recognizing that Kass Kiolani would always have a but. After a slight shake of his head, he ordered, "Continue."
Kass jumped right in, pursuing her advantage. "Surely now you understand why we have to go to Hell Nine and add the Sorcerer Prime to the rebellion."
Tal uncorked the bottle of ullali and poured another round of the fine amber liquid. He handed one to Kass. "Explain the term ‘Sorcerer Prime.'"
This time Kass took a small sip before setting the glass down and choosing her words with care. "On Psyclid we have two persons-one male, one female-who are honored with titles that acknowledge their superior psychic gifts."
"Then why couldn't they have organized-"
"I told you. We are not warriors. Psyclids harm no one. That is a directive from so far in the past its origins are only legend."
"You broke it."
Kass took refuge in another sip of the potent liqueur. "I did," she agreed softly. "I recognized that we had become vulnerable, that we had a greedy neighbor who was happily swallowing star systems whole. That was how I convinced the Elders, though my parents were even more difficult. I told them someone needed to learn how to defend us. That if I went to the Academy, I could return to Psyclid and teach others. That we could learn how to keep our small world to ourselves."
Kass shut her eyes for moment, news vids of the Psyclid invasion running through her mind. "But by the time I got permission, it was too late. A few years earlier, and perhaps things would have gone differently."
"Could it still be done?" Tal asked, sitting forward in his chair. "Could this sorcerer of yours organize Psyclid talents into a significant resistance? An army of Kass Kiolanis and K'kadi Amunds?"
"Not quite. Let me explain." Kass gathered her thoughts as she looked around the cozy room with its well-worn furniture, a small galley in the corner, a couple of vid screens. Built-in drawers along one wall probably housed tri-D chess, decks of cards, and other games to while away the long hours demanded by travel through space.
"Everyone on Psyclid has some kind of talent," Kass said. "Most are single talent and not particularly powerful. Some, but not many, are multi-talented, but with strengths of varying power. Only a very few are both multi-talented and very powerful. And always our talents are benign. We do not hurt people. The most adept female becomes the ParaPrime, a female second only to the queen in political power as well as talent. At the moment that is not quite the case, as the current ParaPrime is Jalaine, Psyclid's queen."