Falcorans' Faith (24 page)

He sensed fire retardants being used in an attempt to smother the fire, and smiled faintly.  This was no natural fire.  It needed neither fuel nor air to burn, and nothing the Xanti could do would snuff it out.  He pulled back after a few minutes, gauging the fire’s strength and size.  It was enough, he thought.  He was just beginning to search for the fuel cells when suddenly the ship exploded in a blinding flare of bright, white light.

“Sorry about that,” Rand said sheepishly.

“What happened?” Olaf asked as he blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the effect the bright flash had on his eyes.

“I was following the electrical system and hit the fuel cell compartment before I realized it,” he said. 

“No matter, I was about to do the same thing anyway,” Olaf said.

“Aren’t you guys even a little bit excited?” Aisling asked.  “We did it.  We destroyed a Xanti ship without firing a single weapon, or giving ourselves away.”

“Of course we’re excited,” Rudy said. 

“You are
not
excited,” Aisling said.  “I can feel you, remember?  You guys are relieved, pleased even, but not excited.”

“We are as excited as we can be while knowing that we have taken our Arima into battle with us,” Olaf said.

Aisling hadn’t expected that.  She spun around, her temper flaring faster than the Xanti ship had.  “We’ve been through this,” she said.  “Several times.  In fact, I see no reason to rehash things you already know.  Instead, I will tell you something you haven’t yet heard from me.”

“What is that?” Olaf asked.

“The Nine made it abundantly clear that one of the biggest mistakes your ancestors made was hiding their women away and treating them as little more than pampered pets,” Aisling said.  She felt their tempers rising at that but was too angry to care.  “If you Clan Jasani males really want to survive the coming conflicts, you
must
accept that we women have to be part of it.  If we aren’t, you will lose.  We will
all
lose.  So get over it already.”

She stepped around Olaf and stormed out of the room, leaving her men watching after her. 

“She’s right,” Rand said.  “We have to stop treating her as though she’s made of Carlasian spider-spun crystal.”

“How can we do that when she is the most precious person in our lives?” Rudy asked.  “We protect her for her own good.  She needs to understand that.”

“How would you feel if she suddenly began treating you as though you were something you aren’t?” Rand asked. 

Rudy shook his head, frowning in confusion.

“What if she began talking to you with small words,” Rand said.  “Explaining the most basic things to you as though you had no knowledge in your head above what might be expected from a two year old?”

“I wouldn’t much care for that,” Rudy said, beginning to understand.

“No, you wouldn’t,” Rand said.  “None of us would.  But let’s take it a step further.  What if you kept telling her, over and over, that you did not need to be spoken to in that way, that your knowledge and intelligence were greater than she gave you credit for.  And her response was to tell you that it was for your own good, and continued doing it anyway.”

“This is different,” Olaf said.

“No, it’s not,” Rudy said.  “What makes this worse is that until she told us of the pregnancy, we did treat her as the warrior we know her to be.”

“But she
is
pregnant,” Olaf argued.  “That’s what makes it different.”

“How so?” Rand asked.  “As she keeps trying to tell us, being pregnant does not change the person she is.”

“It is not that simple,” Olaf said.

“Yes, brother, it is,” Rand said.  “Or it should be.”

“Why should it be?” Olaf demanded.

“Because we are supposed to be putting
her
needs before our own,” Rand said.  “We aren’t.  We are putting our needs, and our fears, first.”

Olaf’s shoulders slumped as he realized that Rand was right.  They owed their Arima an apology.  For starters.

Rand’s vox beeped again and he tapped it.  After a moment he spun around to face the viewing window that they’d all forgotten during their conversation. 

***

As soon as the
Vyand
completed its jump, Summer Katre reached for the Xanti ship that the targeting plot on the bridge viewport indicated was there, but the ship was too far away for her to do much more than sense the computers and electronics.  She turned to Maxim and shook her head.  “I’m sorry, I can’t feel it clearly enough to do anything,” she said just as a Xanti missile exploded against the shields of a nearby cruiser.

“We need to hurry,” Maxim said.  Summer nodded, then reached for the magic, allowing herself to become a conduit.  It took a few seconds longer than she was used to, but once she touched it she knew that the distance had not weakened it, just as Lariah had promised.

After a moment Maxim smiled.  “Yes, we can feel it.  Now, how best to take it out?”

“Rip the hull open,” Summer suggested.  “It’s the fastest.  Start at one end, work your way to the other.”

Maxim took a slow breath to calm himself and focus.  They had practiced hard and long to do this, but this was not practice.  This was for real.

He reached for the ship, found it, then sent his senses along the hull while Loni and Ran did the same, each of them exploring different areas.  Never could they have managed such a remarkable task without being linked.  They hadn’t even considered such a thing possible until they’d stumbled on it accidently while practicing.

Maxim found what he was looking for.  A long seam bisecting the ship’s hull vertically from bow to stern.  Loni found one end of it a moment later, and after a few more moments, Ran found the center.  The molecular welds holding the two halves of the ship together along the seam were many times stronger than the metal itself, so it took some effort to alter the molecules themselves to, in effect, reverse the welds.  It would have been easier to peel the metal back on either side of the welds, but that would not look like an accident caused by poor workmanship. 

A few minutes later there were several large gaps in the seam.  Then they turned their attention to enlarging them.  Before long the entire hull was compromised from one end to the other.  Far too much damage for atmosphere containment and structural integrity fields to contain.  They withdrew from the Xanti ship and waited.  It didn’t take very long. 

By the time the Blind Sight flickered off, half the Xanti ship was torn to shreds.  As they watched, the remainder of the ship followed, leaving a wide area of debris hanging in space.

They’d done it.  They’d completely destroyed two Xanti ships without firing a single weapon, or, more importantly, letting them know they were being attacked.  It was beginning to look like their plans for the Xanti were going to work even better than they’d hoped.

Chapter
Twenty

“How in the heck did they do that?” Faith asked as she watched the last of the second Xanti ship disintegrate.

“The Gryphons and the Katres are soul-linked with their Arimas,” Tristan said.  “It allows them to have power that the Jasani have not experienced since the destruction of our home world.”

Faith nodded.  She’d read enough to know about the destruction of Ugaztun, though she hadn’t gotten much further than that.

“Will all of you Jasani be able to do things like that?” Faith asked.  Then her eyes widened.  “Can you guys do that?”

“No, we can’t,” Tristan said.  “Our greatest strengths are in Air, and Water, but only Clan Jasani who are soul-linked with their Arima are able to wield the huge amounts of magic required to do what you’ve just witnessed.  It’s in the book that we gave you last evening.”

“Will the war against the Xanti be fought without weapons?” she asked.

Something in her voice caused them all to turn their attention to her.

“If we can manage it, yes,” Tristan said.  “Princess Lariah, Arima Saige Lobo, and Arima Summer Katre, make up what we call the Three.  They are all from Earth and, as you know, Earth suffered greatly from the ravages of the Bolkin wars.  They have strongly suggested that magic be used to stop our enemies rather than weapons which leave behind chemicals and devastation far beyond their initial impact.  Radiation is, of course, the biggest concern.”

Faith leapt to her feet, her face suddenly pale.  “Excuse me for a few minutes, please.”

Without waiting for a response she ran out of the room.  She turned toward the elevators and continued running, slamming her hand against the call button so hard she jammed her wrist painfully, but she barely noticed.  She desperately needed someplace private.  The only such place she was aware of on the
Eyrie
was her own room, so that’s where she was going.

 “What was that about?” Tristan asked as they stood staring at the door Faith had just fled through.

“No idea,” Gray said.  “Something upset her though, obviously.  I sense her distress.  It’s nearly as extreme as it was sudden.  It cannot be good for her.”

“Jon?” Tristan asked. 

“It was something you said,” Jon replied.  “I don’t know if it was talk of the Bolkin wars or radiation that set her off.  I believe it was one of the two.”

Tristan nodded in agreement.  That had been his conclusion as well.  “Maybe it’s time to ask her straight out what it is she is afraid of.”

“No,” Jon said.  “I don’t believe that is a good idea.  She must tell us in her own way, in her own time, because she wants to.  Because she trusts us.  We cannot force it.”

“We have to do something, Jon,” Gray said. 

“If we won’t trust her with our story, we have no right to ask her to trust us with hers,” Jon said.

“I know that you are correct,” Tristan said.  “But how do we know that she even wants to hear our sordid little tale?  She has not asked for it.”

“She will never ask,” Jon said.  “For one thing, she doesn’t consider it her business.  For another, she knows, or believes, that if we tell her our story, we will expect her to tell hers.  We must make it clear to her that we do not expect that.  ”

“But that
is
why we would tell her,” Gray pointed out.  “It would be a lie to say otherwise.”

“We want it, yes,” Jon agreed.  “But we can’t expect it.”

“I have no objection to telling her,” Tristan said.  “Not any more.  I would prefer that she read more of the information we gave her, though.”

Jon started to smile, then the expression froze on his face.  A second later he was on his feet and racing for the door, Tristan one step ahead of him, Gray a step behind.  They used every particle of Air magic they possessed in a desperate effort to reach Faith as quickly as they could.

***

Faith stepped into the elevator, pushed the button for her floor, then leaned back against the wall.  Bubbles rose up on her hind legs and placed her forepaws on Faith’s cheek, her big red eyes conveying her worry as she patted Faith lightly with her tiny paws.   

Faith took a long deep breath, then reached up to pet Bubbles soothingly.  “I’m sorry, Bubbles,” she said.  “I didn’t mean to worry you.  I just got a little stressed.  I’ll be okay in a few minutes.”

Bubbles made her little popping sounds, then lowered herself back to Faith’s shoulder before rubbing along the side of her neck.  Faith felt her heart begin to slow as the impending panic attack began to recede.  The elevator stopped and the doors opened.  Faith took one step away from the wall, assuming she’d reached her own floor.  Then she looked up to see three men standing just outside the door, staring in at her.  Though she’d begun to relax a little, she still had one foot firmly in the land of panic, and her overwrought mind took a fear fueled leap, plunging her into a horror that usually stayed within the realm of her nightmares.

When she looked at the three crewmen standing outside the elevator in their black and red uniforms, she saw the faces of three very different men.  Her body froze as adrenalin dumped into her bloodstream for the second time in just a few minutes.  There was one small thread of reason remaining, and it fought against what her panicked mind was telling her, knowing it was impossible.  She bit back the scream that rose in her throat, forced her feet to remain planted where they were, refusing to let the panic take her where it wanted to go.  The one thing she didn’t think of was Bubbles.

Bubbles felt Faith’s fear, saw the newcomers as the cause, and reacted instinctively to protect her bonder.  One moment she was a cute, fuzzy little creature sitting on Faith’s shoulder.  The next moment she leapt to the floor and shifted into nine feet of massive, bear shaped muscle, fangs and claws as she roared a warning at the intruders that caused the elevator to shake.

Faith blinked, shocked out of her own panic by the realization of what she’d done.  She had to fix this, now, before someone got hurt.

“Bubbles,” she said in the firmest tone she possessed, the one she’d used on her baby sister when she was doing something naughty.  “Everything’s fine.  Return to my shoulder, Bubbles.  Right now, please.”