Mindshard (ON HOLD)

Chapter 9: Oracle

     Yet Oda, born on Menerin, in the heart of Teserin-held space, was a child of technology.  Omnidrives, subspace bridges, energy weapons, forcefields and artificial intelligence; those she knew.  She didn't understand what the tingle meant, or how it and the strange, alien energy Finn's body now emitted were happening.  There was no mistaking, however, the look on the human's face.  Dominance collar notwithstanding, he meant to attack.

     She didn't know what made her reach out, even as the tendrils thickened and reached down to make the decking beneath their feet hum with their power, especially when the tingling fiercely grew with each centimetre closer her hand came to his arm.  Only that she did, her hand nearly numb as energy tendrils snaked over her skin before she laid it on Finn's forearm.

  "Finn."  She whispered, her voice shaking, the sound of it in her ears enough to make her look at Kaleb with fear.

     The sound of his name, and the quivering hand on his arm somehow managed to penetrate the rage, despite it howling in his ears.  Blinking in surprise, he felt it ebb as quickly as it had filled him.  Turning, eyes wide, he looked at Oda and was stunned to find naked fear on her face.  Before he could say anything in reply, Kaleb looked over his shoulder, a frown the only thing visible within the shadows beneath the heavy cowl covering his head.

  "Talking amongst yourselves?"  He rasped, his voice lazy.  Yet there was no mistaking his intent as he slowly turned the control for the collars over in his hand.

  "Only to discuss how we may better serve the Praetors, my lord."  Finn hastily assured the cloaked Halinor, looking away from Oda to look into the shadows beneath Kaleb's cowl just long enough to catch the Sidhe's eyes before bowing low in apparent subservience.

     Unimpressed by the human's seeming humility, Kaleb loudly sucked at his teeth as he continued to turn the control over in his hand.  Then he sent the human and Teserin woman both to their knees with a thumb on the control's primary activation pad.  He watched for a moment as they writhed in agony on the deck before clearing his throat.

  "We'll decide how you'll best serve the cause, slave."  He hissed before thumbing the pad for a second time, deactivating the collars and leaving the two limp on the deck, both bleeding from the nose and ears.

  "Now get up and don't try my patience again.  Or you won't be getting up, you'll be climbing out of a clone tank."

     Finn's head was still ringing by the time he and a staggering Oda were shown into a darkened chamber somewhere in the cruiser's belly.  But it was lit enough to let him take a quick look around as he eased Oda to the floor, the door closing behind them.

     Somehow he wasn't surprised to find it full of silent figures, bent over knees pulled close to their bodies, barely visible in the low illumination diffusing from a number of ceiling blisters.  Yet it was impossible to miss the telltale bulge of dominance collars on the back of each of their necks in silhouette.  Whatever these Praetors truly were, they seemed to believe they had the right to dominant others, to the point of keeping slaves to attend to their wishes and desires.  If these were the type of beings trying to split the Pax apart in the name of 'reform', then give him the so-called corrupt government and system they were trying to bring down any day.

     Finding a spot along the near wall with enough room for both of them, Finn carefully helped Oda to stand, step to it then slide down onto the floor to assume a slumped over position much like the others already ensconced there.  Oddly enough, though the collar had rode him as long as it had his Teserin companion, the lanky human was already nearing full recovery, the ringing gone and his strength returned.  Oda, on the other hand, was still very much in the thrall of the collar's painful echo, trembling as her body remembered its most recent agony in every bloody detail.

     A final look around the silent and darkened chamber, with its mute collection of huddled shapes and Finn sank to the floor beside his trembling companion.

  "Damnit."  He tightly rasped, then looked over at Oda.  "I'm sorry, Oda.  I, . . I don't know what came over me.  It was like, . . like one moment I was thinking of dying under the collar again.  And in the next, so angry I could've strangled that smirking Halinor idiot with my bare hands.  I, . . ."  He stammered into silence when he realized his companion wasn't responding.  In fact, she wasn't trembling any more either.  A quick touch confirmed it: she had fallen unconscious.  Worse yet, the bleeding from her ears had increased, growing from a trickle to a steady rivulet.

     It didn't take a medical degree to realize the collar had done irreparable damage to the slender Teserin.  Oda was dying.  Anger tightened Finn's jaw with a convulsive surge.  Damage that had come because a Praetor didn't like her talking to him.  That pointed eared bastard!  He was going to pay for that, and every pain they put on those they meant to rule, he and all the Praetors.  Every bloody pain!

     Again his vision filled with red, the room disappearing behind a seething curtain of crimson motion even as his ears were deafened by the roar of pounding blood in his cerebral arteries and veins.  And thus he missed the glow that abruptly sheathed his hand yet again.  But he did feel Oda suddenly start to life under his hand.

  "Finn?"  The Teserin asked in a shaky voice, barely above a whisper.

  "Oda!"  The anger vanished in a wash of astonishment.  "You okay?"

  "I, . . I think so."  A slender hand came up to rub at her face and neck.  "But my whole body is tingling.  What did you do?"

  "Me?"  Confusion replaced the astonishment.  "I didn't do anything.  At least, I don't think I did."

     Oda fell silent, her fingers pausing when they fell across the line of still wet blood that had trickled down her neck from her ear.  She could still feel the surge of energy that had filled her with light and sensation unlike anything she had ever felt before.  And, like the echo of an afterimage on the inside of her closed eyelids after gazing into a bright light too long, she could see in her mind's eye the human's hand on her shoulder, glowing with the same light she had seen in the passageway.

     The blood told her how close she had come to waking in a clone tank, if she woke at all.  And the afterimage told her Finn had prevented it from happening.  How exactly the human had managed it, she couldn't guess.  Yet, strangely enough, it didn't matter.  He had saved her life, pulled her back from the edge of the everlasting darkness of the Great End.  She now owed her life to him.  Straightening from her crouched position, she rested her back against the wall.  Then, after a slight hesitation, she leaned against Finn's warm body, finding comfort in his warmth and touch.

     Finn glanced over at Oda as the Teserin laid her head on his shoulder, snuggled up as close as she could without sitting in his lap, her hand curled possessively around his arm.  A moment later her steady and even breathing reported she had fallen asleep there, exhausted by her recent exchange with her collar.

     That left the human alone with his thoughts which, for the moment, were swirling with confusion and considerations of their future.  What the hell was going on here?  Just what did the Praetors do to him, with their genetic engineering and cloning?  Were they even aware of it?  And how was it going to affect their search for the fabled Crown of Oberon?  Troubled, Finn stared into space, his mind churning.  How, indeed!