LOGAN (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 5) (22 page)

Tarla straightened her shoulders, met the older woman's penetrating gaze then related the facts as if she were delivering a report to a superior officer. She could tell her straightforward delivery was appreciated but the content of her report was beyond belief for the Heart leaders.

"Impossible," the woman who claimed to be the real Parisia murmured. "That is too much, even for Nadia."

"I have no reason to lie to you," Tarla protested. "And how else would I have learned the names Parisia and Nadia, or known about the gateway, the drug in the water, or that your planet is called Heart?"

"We are not accusing you of lying about having captured one of our women," Parisia said, "but the circumstances are simply too unlikely. Our entire society has been structured to prevent the sort of male aggression you have described. It is impossible to believe that one of our women would not only permit, but
welcome
an invasion of her body."

"All I can tell you is she said she was conducting an experiment and it was not for breeding purposes."

As the pair whispered to one another again, Tarla had the distinct impression they might not want Parisia/Nadia back. She remembered how that woman had tried to play on their sisterhood and thought that angle was worth a try here. "Excuse me?" She waited until she had their full attention. "Surely you wouldn't consider leaving one of your own among all those primitive men."

"What is it you wish in exchange for her freedom?" Iris asked.

"It's very simple," Tarla replied. "Send us all home."

"That may sound simple to you," Parisia said with a sigh. "But it is a request we could not fill no matter how desperate we were to make a trade."

Tarla had anticipated that response. "We know you have something called a near-term memory depleter. You could use that on us so that we'd have no recollection of Heart at all."

Parisia shook her head. "I'm afraid you misunderstood. We can't send you back because we don't know how."

"How can that be? You're able to heal critically ill people and build invisible force fields, yet you can't figure out how to make the gateway work in reverse?"

"It's never been considered a priority."

"Well it damn well should be," Robin interjected, unable to remain silent a moment longer. "How would you like to be stranded a zillion miles away from your home, turned into zombies and treated like lab rats?"

Tarla held up a hand to stop her from continuing. It was important that these women thought of them as equals, and she was fairly sure the way to accomplish that was through intellectual rather than emotional channels. "If you truly do not have the ability to send us home, at least release us from the farm and give us access to your technology. We have men and women with a wide variety of talents and skills. Given the chance, we may be able to solve the problem for ourselves. Besides that, we need a more stimulating life than what you had planned for us. We don't know what your society is like but it has to be closer to what we're used to than the farm."

"Anything else?" Parisia asked.

Tarla ran down her checklist. "There may be some minor details as we go along but there's only one more major request. No more drugs or using any other methods you have to control or alter our behavior. We want our freedom in every way. Our hostage said you are human, so you must know how important individual freedom is. We're asking no more of you than we believe you would ask of us if the situation were reversed."

Parisia slowly nodded. "This is a very grave matter. One that I must discuss with others before taking any action. I cannot make you any promises but I assure you that I empathize with your position and will try to come up with an acceptable compromise for everyone concerned. It may be some time before I am able to meet with you again, so I will have you moved to a more comfortable room to wait. Your cooperation and patience will be appreciated."

Parisia and Iris weren't gone more than ten minutes when Iris returned. "Come along," she said, holding the door open.

Tarla stepped forward but the invisible barrier stopped her progress.

"Oh my, forgive me," Iris said, then took something out of her pocket. It looked like the small box that had been taken from their hostage. "If you will all stand back and off to the side, I'll have this out of your way in a moment."

They did as she directed, then watched her point the box at the center of the barrier. A white beam shot out from the box and with two sweeps of her arm, she drew a large "X" across the wall then put the device back in her pocket. "You can pass through now."

Since she couldn't see any change with her eyes, Tarla tested the space in front of her with her hand to confirm that the barrier really had disappeared then motioned for the others to follow. Iris led them down one corridor then another, with barely a glance behind her.

Tarla was a little surprised that they had gained so much trust so quickly. It was almost as if... "Advisor Iris? May I ask you a question?"

"Certainly."

Tarla ordered herself to block the multitude of questions lined up in her mind and focus on just one with her intuitive ability amped to its highest level. "Are you telepathic?"

Iris raised her eyebrows. "No. Why do you ask?"

"You don't seem at all afraid of us now. I thought perhaps you'd read my mind to know that you're safe and we wouldn't attempt an escape."

Iris angled her head at Tarla. "I'm not telepathic, nor are any of our citizens that I know of. But my intuition is usually quite good and it says, despite your willingness to commit violence, you are all intelligent, logical women. Harming me or attempting an escape would not serve any purpose at this time. Therefore, I'm perfectly safe with you at the moment. Here we are." She opened a door and waved them inside. "Full illumination please." Immediately the room was flooded with light.

"Very nice," Robin said, scanning the large room. "We finally found civilization."

Tarla smiled as she took in the red, white, and blue color scheme. The furnishings were all combinations of geometric-shaped cushions and pieces of what appeared to be stone but were practically weightless. Apparently they could all be mixed and matched to serve different functions. Iris pointed out the bathroom then slid back a panel on one wall to reveal a kitchenette.

"Lighting and temperature are voice activated. If you are hungry or thirsty, the cooler and cabinets are stocked with a variety of items. If you wish to heat something, place the entire tray or container inside the laser oven." She opened a door to demonstrate. "The unit will automatically read the instructions and cook it accordingly."

Iris closed up the kitchenette and moved across the room to a low table surrounded by cushions. "This room is normally used as a waiting area for family or friends of a patient. It is equipped with an entertainment center for your distraction." She touched the edge of the table and a directory listing of options appeared on its surface. "It is touch sensitive and self-explanatory. For instance, if you would like to hear some music..."

She passed her finger over that word and the room was suddenly filled with the sounds of a symphony orchestra. The tabletop now offered a means of changing the volume, tone and musical selection. Iris gave a quick demonstration of how to use those features then touched the edge of the tabletop again to turn the system off.

"It is capable of running as many as a dozen programs simultaneously, though I've never figured out why anyone would want to do that."

"I have another question, if you don't mind," Tarla said. Iris nodded her willingness to listen. "We were told that when a person from Earth lands here, he is interviewed and that is how you know so much about our planet."

"That is correct."

Tarla took a breath and forced herself to speak as though she wasn't personally concerned about the answer to her question. "Were we each interviewed then?"

Iris met her gaze steadily. "No. There were too many of you and not enough trained interrogators. Besides, a good number of your group required medical attention. That was the first priority."

"But as I understand it, even if you had interviewed us, we would have no recollection of it because of your memory depleter."

"Also correct," Iris replied evenly. "But, as I said, we did not conduct the standard interviews... and I have no reason to prevaricate about that."

Tarla stared into the older woman's eyes and decided she had told the truth. Relief flooded through her. If she needed to reveal her secret, she wanted it to be on her own terms. Thinking of her Innerworld ring, she asked, "What happened to all of our belongings?"

Iris angled her head. "Your weapons were destroyed, if that's what you are curious about."

Tarla couldn't think of any way to find out what she really wanted to know without asking directly. "I...
we
were wondering about more personal items, like family photos and jewelry."

Iris walked to the door and opened it. "I am sorry to say, everything was discarded since it was assumed you would not have need for such items again. As Parisia advised, it may be a while before we can get back to you regarding your demands, so please be patient and make yourselves comfortable." A second later, she was gone.

Lee went to the door and tried to turn the knob. "It's locked."

"So much for trusting us not to make an escape," Robin said with a laugh. "But at least they're no longer trying to bore us to death. Anybody else curious about what they call entertainment?"

Tarla shut out the other women's voices and turned her focus toward what was bothering her about the room. It only took a quick scan of the colorful space. There were no windows or timepieces. Not knowing whether one hour or one day had passed since they'd entered the tack room, added to her already tense state.

She was a little envious of Robin. She was free to enjoy the moment since she had complete faith that Tarla would take care of any strategic problem that arose and Lee and Alicia would take care of any physical threat. Determined to take advantage of the calm, regardless of how long it lasted, she joined the group at the entertainment center.

"What do you think
Fictionvision
is?" Robin asked.

"Let's find out," Alicia said and touched that word on the directory. That list of options was replaced by only two words:
Comedy
and
Drama
.

Lee chose comedy and a list of alphabetical titles and running times began slowly scrolling along the tabletop. "Your turn, Tarla. You pick one."

Tarla squinted at the flow of printed words. Finally she just closed her eyes and lowered her finger to the table.

They all leaned forward to see her selection.

"
Mother Knows Best
?" Robin read with a laugh. "This should be ripe."

Before anyone else could comment, the title appeared in script on the blank wall in front of where they were seated.

"Lights out, please," Lee requested to the ceiling, then grinned when her order was obeyed.

Without the lights, Tarla could see that the images were three-dimensional and completely surrounded them. It looked as though they were sitting in the living room of the show.

Despite the bits of information Nadia had given them about her society, the program still came as a bit of a surprise. The comedy aspect seemed to be at the expense of the bumbling houseman who meant well but managed to screw everything up so badly that only the wise, long-suffering heroine could straighten it all out when she came home from work.

"Do you think this is really how they live here?" Robin asked.

Tarla drummed her fingers on the table and accidentally shut off the program. "Lights," she directed. "I think we'd have to consider it based in fact, but fictionalized and exaggerated to be entertaining."

"That show was more pathetic than entertaining," Lee said with a grimace.

"To us, maybe," Tarla said. "But their culture obviously differs from ours. I don't know if Iris did it on purpose or not, but she's handed us a way to get some insight about their society. A little while ago, we were dealing blind. With this, we might be able to learn enough about our opponents to get everything we need to know." She was satisfied to see the nods of agreement from the others. "As of this moment, ladies, school is in session. Let's begin with the news of the day."

Nadia had said Heart was peaceful and the news seemed to back that up. It contained primarily positive rather than negative news. There were no reports from war zones or famine-stricken countries, no homicides or hijackings, no arrests of drug lords or deaths of innocent bystanders because of a shoot-out in a park.

What was in abundance was statistics—how many tons of corn had been produced at how much profit for such-and-such corporation, percentage comparisons of utility usages on this date over the past twenty years to reflect an improvement of efficiency level, numbers of patients admitted to sanatoriums and for what diseases. Minute details of progress made on a health research study of some microscopic bacteria was the lead story of the day.

In the field of science, there was evidence that FTL/faster-than-light travel had been developed in a certain distant galaxy by beings known as Faxons.

In sports, the Pajanese team was leading the Blue League in the free-style dance competition and Litay was the forerunner of the Red League. It looked like the finals were shaping up to be the most exciting in ten decades of tournament dancing.