Only Human (16 page)

There was a noticeable sobering of spirits
when the overhead screens scrolled along the results of the battle. The
opponent had been wiped out with unknown casualties aboard the enemy carrier
and sixty-three fighter planes down. Targon had lost twelve fighters and
sustained some surface damage.

"What did they want?" Tychon wondered
aloud. "Hardly any damage to the base. One rebel carrier. Less than a
hundred fighters against all of Targon's weaponry? Doesn't add up."

"Probably Tharron flexing his flabby
muscles."

He shook his head. It ached. "Maybe.
Let's see if we can get a break before debrief. You must be exhausted after
that jump." He saw Colonel Carras wave to him from the concourse.
"Watch me get flak from him, too," he mumbled.

“Tell him you’re really sorry about the
kite and that it won’t happen again,” Nova called after him, then turned her
attention to the planes still coming into Targon. She joined the pilots that
loitered by the chutes, cheered the new arrivals and waited with dread to find
out which of their comrades would not return. She finally saw Cassandra, looking
a little peaked but wearing a sassy grin on her face. She held up four fingers,
her personal score.

A group of pilots rounded a fuelling truck and
before Nova was able to duck out of sight Fynn Bridger spotted her. His initial
look of surprise was quickly clouded by a glower. He handed his helmet to one
of his squadron mates and let them move along without him.

He glanced up at the overhead screen.
"Heroes again, aren't we?"

Nova smiled nervously, suddenly feeling
guilty for having left him on Myra without a farewell.

"Hello yourself, Fynn. Glad you made
Targon," she said awkwardly. "Sorry I, uh, had to break our date back
on Myra. Didn't think I'd be taken out of there so fast. How are you making
out?"

"Not as well as you."

"Huh?" The venom in his voice
startled her. He had always been easily irked and she had learned to step
carefully around his fouler moods. This kind of welcome, however, came
unexpected. "Oh, Vanguard. Was quite a surprise, wasn't it?"

"I was talking about the pretty
picture you paint with your C.O."

"What?"

"The Delphi. Everyone can tell how you
made it aboard the Eagle."

Her eyes narrowed in anger. "I was
advanced there on my own merits. It had nothing to do with my father!"

"Or who you slept with. Or
what
you slept with."

“You can’t be serious! What’s gotten into
you?”

"Being dumped for one of
them
,
for starters. I thought you and I were going to go places. But you left for
brighter skies."

"Fynn," she sighed. "There
was never anything there for us. We never even got along all that well. You
always knew that I'd leave."

He gripped her wrist. "You really
think he's better than the rest of us, don't you? Vanguard. A Major. A perfect
track record! Probably make Lieutenant Colonel soon. Well, don't ever forget
that he's blue!"

"What?" Nova whispered.

"Why would you want to mess with a
Delphian?"

"It is the only model that man comes
in. What does the color of his hair have to do with anything? Since when are
you such a bigot?"

"I'm not talking about his hair! You
listen to me, Nova! This type of thing will never be accepted on Delphi or
Terra."

"What do I care about Terra!" She
pulled her hand out of his grasp.

"Don't you know what those people can
do to your head? Have you been brainwashed already? Tell me, Nova, does your
father know?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Hit a nerve there, didn't I?"

"Let me hit one," a low voice
rolled out in a growl.

Fynn turned and blanched when he saw the
Delphian behind him. He stepped away from Nova. "Just congratulating the
Captain, sir."

Nova's eyes snapped to the Terran. He was
afraid! Fynn had his faults, but cowardice was not one of them. He had never
shied an insubordination charge and certainly never backed out of a fight. His
hand had instinctively strayed to his holster. Where did this fear come from?

"Ty..." she began.

Tychon grasped the younger man's lapel in a
firm grip. Nova heard a part of Fynn's flight suit give in to the strain.

"I am Delphi, as you've observed quite
cleverly," Tychon snarled. "Delphians get very annoyed when you upset
their friends. It isn't nice."

Fynn managed a small, unclear sound.

"Perhaps you are tired of your bars,
Lieutenant?"

"You can't do that!"

"You have no idea what I can do."

The Lieutenant struggled, causing further
damage to his suit. "If you think you can try your mind tricks on me you'd
better think of your own future!"

Tychon barked a short laugh and released
Bridger so suddenly that the younger man nearly stumbled over his own feet.

 Nova felt Tychon’s rage smoldering,
threatening to explode, as they headed for the officers’ quarters. He walked in
long strides, not looking to see if she kept up. He entered their assigned suite
where he tossed his jacket across the drab room onto a lounge.

"Damn insubordination! What kind of god-cursed
army do they run here? You are his superior, damn it. Can you not handle a
common soldier?"

"You heard what he said?"

"Enough. It doesn't matter. It
shouldn't matter to you if you intend to keep working and living with me. If
you can't handle a jealous boyfriend I'd like to see how you'd deal with our
Delphi supremacists. Or your own!” He tugged impatiently on his braid to loosen
it and had turned toward one of the small bedrooms when he noticed that she
still stood by the door, watching him warily. "What's the matter?"

"Why was he scared of you? What was he
talking about mind tricks? What does that mean?” She touched the small implants
at her temples. “What does this khamal-thing do?”

“I told you what it does.”

“Tychon, what was he talking about?” Her
voice rose even as she sought to control it. “What haven’t you told me?”

“He’s worried about nothing! He’s as
ignorant about Delphians as anyone else.”

“So am I. Tell me!”

“It’s just ancient history. At one point,
we used our minds in battle.  Long ago when there were still battles to be
fought among the clans. If you can reach an enemy’s mind, you can cause him
pain. You can kill him, even. Or back then, anyway. We do not use that ability
any more. It’s an uncivilized form of khamal. Obsolete.”

“It can kill?”

He crossed the room in a few long strides.
She shrank back when he grasped her arms. “Nova, don’t ever be afraid of me! I
could never hurt you. I would have to get unimaginably wound up to even
want
to get into anyone’s head like that. I can't think of any Delphian that could.
I could no more harm you with this than I could fly.”

She looked up. “You
can
fly!”

“I need you to believe me.”

“Since when does it matter what I think of
you?” She tried to pull away but he did not release her arms. “You don’t care
what anyone thinks unless they’re Delphian.”

“That’s not true,” he said. His hand
travelled up to her head and she felt his thumb brush gently over her temple.
"I saw you today, in there. You matter."

"You told me you can't read my
thoughts," she said, not quite trusting her voice.

"Do I have to?"

She searched his face, drawn into the blue
depths of his eyes that today did not hide his emotion. To her, the short
distance between them suddenly widened into a strange perspective as she
battled her own feelings as much as old opinions and trusted beliefs. She held
his gaze, unmoving, waiting.

"Gods," he breathed unevenly and
bent to kiss her. When she did not object, he parted his lips to kiss her
again. She responded fiercely, hungrily, and each second that passed seemed to
whip her own need for him to greater heights. When his lips trailed to her
throat they could both feel her quiver under his touch.

He picked her up and carried her into one
of the suite’s bedrooms. Their families and heritages were forgotten when he
bent over her to unfasten her flight suit. She, too, tugged at his clothes, discarding
the insignia, forgetting what it meant. None of this mattered now, when he
kissed her again, wanting to kiss her forever.

Nova was surprised to feel a peculiar sense
of disbelief that this aloof, contained person would come to her with so much passion.
The lips that had seemed so cold lit a fire under her skin, trailing the gentle
hands that wanted to know every contour of her body. She felt herself respond
to his touch until at last she pulled him closer, clawing at the smooth skin,
ready for him, wanting him.

He lifted his tousled head to look into her
face. His fingers brushed over the interface node at her temple before he moved
over her to enter her with a moan of pleasure. She received him eagerly, with a
sudden mental clarity and physical awareness that she had never felt before.
But there was more than just awareness of herself and of him. She felt the
thousands of people on the base around them, perhaps even the heartbeat of
Targon itself. Astonished, she let her mind float freely, feeling the wonder
that Tychon was showing her.

It was a high unlike any she had ever
encountered. There was a limitless vastness within her while at the same time
she felt herself as minute and insignificant as any star seen from a distance.
Her attention wandered as she puzzled over her strange state. She had heard of
the power locked within the Delphian mind but how was he reaching her now with
it?

Tychon's thoughts finally pulled her back,
calling for her until she felt only him. She saw with his eyes, feel with his
body. As he could with hers. Her high was physical now, there were only the two
of them on Delphi, sharing a telepathy more intimate than any encounter she had
ever had.

 He moved her slowly, enjoying her
reaction, holding them both back until her nails raked the skin of his back and
he let himself go, feeling her tension rise to match his own until it surpassed
even the dangerous euphoria of an untethered spacewalk. The free fall back to
Targon came much too soon.

She let him pull her along when he rolled
onto his back, exhausted. “Another khamal?” she asked, feeling his powerful
heartbeat under her cheek. Although his startling mental images were rapidly
fading from Nova, she perceived his fondness for her as well as a sated, serene
state of mind that closely matched her own. “Was that what it was? I could feel
you. I mean, I could feel you in my head."

"It's a sort of mating ritual for us,
I suppose. It brought your sense of perception up to what I felt."

"I was feeling the whole base!
Everyone! Don't tell me you're like that all the time. You'd never be alone for
a moment's peace."

"No, I was showing off. It is a khamal,
a mind link like the one earlier today, but more physical. I didn't know if
you'd like it." He smiled at the memory of her reaction. "I'm glad
you did. Joining minds with your mate is the most pleasurable of the mind
links."

Nova nodded, recalling the sensation.

"The khamal in all of its states is a
part of what makes us Delphian. We could not live without it. It is what makes
our minds different from yours." He paused. “But it is not dangerous.”

She raised her head. “I believe you.” She
reached out to run her hands through his hair, aware that she had ached to do
just that for days.

"I have wanted you," he said.

"So Anders said," she said dryly.
She turned her head to look down along the long-limbed body sprawled beside
her.

"What?"

She grinned. "Confirming a
rumor."

He rolled his eyes. "Come, let’s see
if we can find something edible in this place.”

They pulled some clothes from their kits
and dressed carelessly, soon heading for the door of their suite. Nova reached
high up under his loose shirt to tug playfully on the strands of hair along his
spine. Tychon twisted out of her reach to escape into the hall and nearly
collided with someone out there. He stopped so suddenly that she nearly walked
up his heels in the doorway.

She peered around him. The tall man’s hand
was still in the air as if he had been about to knock on the suite’s door. The
expression on his angular face held no greeting and did not become any warmer
when he saw Nova.

Tychon recovered from his surprise. “Jelani.”

Their visitor was older than Tychon by far;
his eyes almost black under thick blue brows, his hair the color of slate,
drawn back in a severe braid that reached to his waist. He wore the blue
pantaloons and long vest favored by most of Delphi's elders.

Nova stepped around Tychon. "You know
each other?"

Tychon glanced at her. "Nova, this is Shan
Jelani, my wife's brother." To Jelani he said: "Come inside, Elder
Brother."