Chapter 58

Alja stepped out on the patio of Kaleb's home still rubbing the towel through her wet hair. The night air was crisp but after the heat of their love making and the steaming shower afterwards she welcomed the cooling breeze. She had put on only a pair of underpants and one of Kaleb's shirts. She'd seen a character in a human movie do it once and was happy and jaunty enough to try it out. She came to a halt at the edge of the railingless platform looking down into the gorge that no longer looked so frightening.

Kaleb watched Alja through the open door, his heart flowing over with so much warmth he might have believed himself an empath. Only some part of his mind registered, he was probably just drunk on hormones right now. He told that part to shut up and called out to Alja instead. "Hey what am I supposed to wear if you're stealing my clothes?"

"Oh, I like you just fine as you are. Although for all I care, you could lose those as well," she answered, turning around and pointing at the flowing martial arts pants that were currently the only thing he wore. And then she smiled his favorite mischievous smile. She looked so perfect against the starry night-sky it took his breath away.

And suddenly he knew he wouldn't be allowed to keep her. Something this good just didn't happen. The realization sent a shock through him and made his blood roar in his ears. He took a deep breath and headed out towards her. He just had to hold her and the panic would go away. But as he stepped outside the humming in his ears grew even louder.

Stealth craft!

The thought shot through his mind the same moment Alja's head turned up and the same moment the bodies started to drop down in front of him. Bodies clad in black combat uniforms – only they were oddly small.

Alja hadn't sensed their minds closing in. But she'd felt a slight emotional pressure she couldn't quite place, just before she heard the quiet hum of machines above her. And the next thing she saw were the children. Arrow children, all heavily armed and opening fire the moment their feet hit the floor. But their bullets never hit their targets, because at the same second they were all thrown out of balance by a cutting whip of Tk. "Kaleb no!" she screamed, instinctively throwing her shields over the children just as the second telekinetic attack hit. It would have been lethal.

Leo fought as hard as he could. He didn't want to pull the trigger. His finger would do it eventually. The programming in his mind screamed aim to kill over and over. He struggled. There must be something he could use, something in the forbidden part of his mind. He remembered a picture he had once seen in the window of a human art shop. It was forbidden because art was emotional. The painting was. It had shown a woman who held her heart out at the viewer. She had held her heart in her hand. Not inside the body! The heart is outside the body! Leo remembered the picture, as hard as he could. It wouldn't fool the programming. It wouldn't be enough. It had to. His finger pulled harder. The bullet flew.

Kaleb heard the single shot, just as he realized what Alja had done with her shields.

Alja didn't move.

She didn't even see the weapon, her training failing entirely as she looked into the strained, anxious face of the boy who had already gotten back up to a kneeling position after Kaleb's first Tk-attack. Sweat was running down his temples, fear reflecting in his big eyes. – A child. – He'd sent a child. – She felt the impact of the bullet before she heard the sound. And everything seemed to go slow motion. Her body was lifted off the floor and backwards into the air. She was floating endlessly, weightlessly. And then she was sinking again. But not towards the floor, because where she would land, there was no floor – not for two hundred feet at least.

Kaleb watched Alja being thrown off the edge and reached out with telekinetic arms – they slid softly off the waterfall of her shields, her body slipping through his mental fingers. T was true, he could never hurt her with Tk, but he couldn't hold her in either. Without a second thought he teleported into midair into the gorge right below her.

Alja's world had shattered into unconnected sensations: Pain under her left collarbone. Ribs splintered. Then more pain spearing through her chest. A burning sensation behind her shoulder blade. Darkness above her, a field of stars just like the Net. Gravity, sound, light, everything had stopped or maybe her mind had just overloaded. Then strong arms closed around her from behind.

Alja shields!

It was a telepathic slap hard enough to make her react. Kaleb! She retracted her shields just as she finally felt the pull of gravity again. A split second too late. The air was knocked out of her and a nasty crunching noise filled the suddenly silent night air. But it weren't her bones that had been crushed against the jagged rocks at the bottom of the abyss.

1975

The tall man stood in the deserted experimental chamber. He had to do this, had to speak one last time to the woman who could no longer hear him. No one would interrupt him. No one from the lab was left, because one more brilliant mind had succumbed to the horror that tortured his race. But all of this would end now. They had found a way out. And he would make sure they took it.

"I am sorry," he started, his voice devoid of any warmth. "At least I would be if I still could. But then I would never be able to do what has to be done. Instead I would wish that things were different, that we had a chance. It would kill us both and throw the world into chaos. We need the altered Mercury-Program, we need Silence. There is no other way of saving us now. And I know you would never understand that. You still think your research and your beautiful ideas will somehow lead to our salvation. But that chance is gone, just like ours. It would only be your death. If I had met you earlier, maybe my life would have turned out different; maybe all of this would be different. And I want you to have a second chance for it to be. Someday we will be ready to hear all the solutions you have to offer. I know you would want that. You would still want to help us, even after all I have done. Until then, you will be safe here. I paid them well." And the price he'd paid for her safety was just another thing she would have hated him for. Zaid took a step forward, placing his hand on the cold glass of the cryonic coffin, ignoring the painful spikes of the dissonance one last time. "I can't feel now. But I'll remember. I will remember for the rest of my life that I have loved you more than anything in this world. And that is why I have to let you go. Goodbye Alice."