Unfinished History

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Part Six

Despite the general and extreme curiosity engendered by the unexpected arrival of a traveller from Alledora, Iyshe was able to spend a quiet night to recover from his experience. He was aided in this goal by Delar, who had him brought to the medical centre as soon as it could be managed, informed the waiting crowd that their guest required rest, and locked the doors to make sure he got it.

In morning's light, Arkyna pushed her way through the early risers loitering by the medical centre. In the aftermath of the storm, they probably all had tasks to be about, but the entire colony was abuzz with speculation over the visitor and the mysterious event which had preceded his arrival, the nature of which had yet to be determined.

Upon reaching the medical centre's entrance, Arkyna found them still locked. Delar was waiting on the other side and let her in, locking the doors once more behind her.

'I thought you might come early,' he said. 'Did you sleep?'

'I got a couple of hours.'

'And how do you feel?'

'Great.'

'Excellent. Well, if you don't mind I'd still like to do a proper scan.'

'Of course.'

'This way, then.'

Arkyna followed the doctor to an empty, brightly-lit white room. Delar touched a control inside the door and a low hum gradually became audible. He guided Arkyna to the centre of the room and went into an alcove, where the scanner's controls were.

'Ready?'

'Ready,' Arkyna said, and felt invisible forces lifting her from the floor. She lay back and floated in mid-air as the scanner did its work, sending waves of assorted tingles, itches, chills and warm flushes through her. Eventually it lowered her to the floor, and she regained her footing as the hum faded away. Delar emerged from the alcove and took her to the waiting room.

'I can't say what it is exactly,' he said, ushering her to a seat. 'I need to check some of the results against the medical database. If you don't mind waiting here, I shouldn't be too long.'

He disappeared into his office. Arkyna got herself a drink of water and stared at the wall for a while, then set the cup down and stared at that instead. Time went by.

The cup floated slowly into the air as Arkyna fed Psi into it, basking in the feel of her mind controlling its movement. She spun it, dropped it, caught it just above the floor, sent it spinning giddily around the room. One cup became easy, so she scooped up another in her mental grasp and danced the two through the air, humming a tune to herself. The cups brushed the ceiling, then did a triumphant run down the centre of the room as the tune reached its climax.

Almost to the wall, they halted dead in mid-air as another mind caught them. Arkyna's eyes fixed on them for a terrified instant, then moved to the white-haired man standing in the doorway. He wore a medical gown over bare feet, and his hair was wild and unkempt, but it was his eyes which caught her gaze - eyes the exact same blue which her own had turned for a while the previous night. The exact same blue, she realised, that her eyes must be this very moment, for it was the same kind of blue which seemed to her to be Psi's natural colour when expressed as light.

Gently, she felt the stranger remove her influence from the cups. The touch of another mind on what she had wrought was strange and slightly disturbing. He floated them across the room with a steadiness and surety that spoke of long practice, then set them back where they belonged, next to the other cups.

'Good morning,' he said.

'Good morning.'

There was silence for a long moment.

Arkyna cleared her throat. 'I heard that your ship crashed,' she said, for it was clear who this man - this Psidar - must be. 'Are you recovered?'

The Psidar regarded her curiously.

'Yes,' he said. 'I am quite recovered. Delar is a talented doctor, even if he was not entirely aware of what he was dealing with. He cured my most obvious afflictions and thus allowed me to repair the rest of the damage myself. The engines on my ship were quite unusual and the energies they emit have effects nobody here would be familiar with. That data, unfortunately, was lost in the crash.'

'You... we can heal ourselves?'

The old man smiled. 'Some things. It depends on what the afflication is. Psi is of more use in healing others.' He regarded her for another long moment, them appeared to shift to a completely different line of thought. 'I am Iyshe De Rin.'

'Arkyna Dekarantos.'

'The daughter of Zaya Dekarantos?'

'Yes. How -'

'And who is your father?'

'Ashlar Tiu Vor. Why -?'

'I see. Yes, easy enough for those two to pass Psi into their offspring although neither have it themselves. A good thing I came.'

'Is... is that why you came? To see if any children were born here who could become Psidar?'

'That is the reason the Psidar Council sent me.'

'So there are Psidar? A hidden group like the legends say?'

Iyshe chuckled. 'A group, yes. Not so hidden as it used to be, but still, officially, we are a myth.'

'Then officially you must have another reason to be here.'

'I see you are not a stupid young lady. That is good; stupidity is of no help in training a Psidar. My other, public, reason for being here is to construct and activate a wormhole generator in space not far from this planet.'

'A wormhole generator?'

'A rather large and complicated device which, when paired with another such device, is capable of making a tunnel between them. The key thing, of course, is that if you traverse the tunnel thus made, you will find the distance considerably shorter than the distance you would usually travel between those two points.'

'So if you set up a generator here, and one near Alledora...'

'It's difficult to tell beforehand, but we think we can get the journey time down to three weeks.'

'Three weeks?'

'Possibly two, but more likely somewhere in between. A considerable improvement on the engines fitted to your colony ship, I imagine.'

'Yes.' Arkyna's head was reeling with the consequences of the sudden reduction in journey time to Alledora. She had grown up three years away from the home planet. If it suddenly took a mere three weeks... 'So if I -'

'Yes,' Iyshe said, cutting Arkyna off. 'You could indeed go to Alledora and train with the Psidar. If you want to, of course. Hush now. The doctor returns.'

Arkyna opened her mouth to speak again, but Iyshe held up a warning hand and started walking toward the cups and drinking water. He was pouring a cup when Delar returned and made a very convincing show of having just come in for a cup of water as the jug left next to his bed was empty. Delar quizzed him for a few minutes about his condition, then apparently satisfied as to his patient's health, sent the old man to get dressed for his meeting with Koro and the others who served as heads of the community.

Once Iyshe had gone, Delar turned his attention to Arkyna.

'Well, I have to admit, I've never seen a case like yours before,' he said. 'Your body temperature's as weird as it was last night, only more pronounced than before. Are you sure you feel well?'

'I feel fine.'

'Quite remarkable. I think the root cause is some rather unusual brain activity. The rear portion of your brain is firing in patterns I've never encountered and the database doesn't have any record of them either. It's most unusual.'

'So you've said. Is there any reason you can see to fear for my health?'

'Only if things change, since you feel fine at the moment and you don't seem to be suffering any mental degeneration...'

'Then I thank you, Delar. I'll return if I feel unwell.'

Delar blinked a few times, then nodded. Arkyna inclined her head and left the room. She knew she'd been rude in departing, but Delar was someone who was in a position to get far too close to the truth and she wasn't ready for that yet.

She found Iyshe emerging from his room, dressed in fairly generic clothing that had to be borrowed, as it clearly didn't quite fit. He caught her eye with that penetrating blue gaze and smiled.

'The doctor's getting too close, isn't he? Strange body temperature, unusual mental patterns, that sort of thing. Show up even on those handheld scanners.' The way Iyshe spoke made it clear that Arkyna's symptoms were normal for a developing Psidar.

'Yes. I don't want him to know what it is.'

'You may eventually have no choice, but for now I think you are wise. Many people who came on this expedition wished to see the back of the Psidar. A surprising number have relatives with at least some of that talent. Quite unfortunate for them actually, that they would come here to avoid Psidar and actually be setting up just the kind of environment which would produce several.'

'There are others?'

'I've only met you so far, but I can feel something in the settlement here. Your fingerprints are all over the place, we'll have to teach you to be more subtle, but there's someone else just starting to exercise his power, who probably isn't even aware of it yet. Quite a different style to yours, as well.'

'You can feel that?'

'Yes. It's a matter of training mostly.'

'Do you know who it is?'

'No, but I have met another young man who'll be doing the same kind of thing shortly.'

'Who?'

'One of the men who rescued me from my ship. Firnor Tu El.'

'Firnor?'

'You know him?'

'I asked him out a few days ago, before the storm. He said no.'

Iyshe smiled. 'Well,' he said. 'Isn't that interesting.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Well, there's a certain attraction between Psychics...'

'A what?'

'An attraction. We believe a Psychic senses, even unconsciously, the similar ability in another person and it acts as another factor in choosing a partner. Much like women are inclined to choose men who might produce strong children and be able to defend them. Psi draws us to partners who are more likely to produce Psychic children. I wouldn't be surprised if that had a part to play in your parents' courtship.'

'But they're not -'

'Psi manifests itself at many levels, Arkyna. We will talk more, I assure you of that, but I must meet with your mayor and explain why I am here. The help of your colony will be required to complete the wormhole generator and much work on my part. I will find you tonight, and we will talk more.'

'Will you teach me?'

'Are you not doing quite well by yourself?'

'Well...'

'You think I can teach you more.' He smiled. 'You are right! No doubt you can accomplish many things if you put your mind to it, but I likely know a few tricks you would never have thought of by yourself and there is no doubt that a teacher allows you to progress more quickly, even if it also shows you just how far you have to go. Believe me, you will find it further than you thought.'

He strode away down the corridor. Arkyna watched until he turned the corner which would take him to the entrance, then looked up at the ceiling. A Psidar arrived from Alledora was exactly what she needed at exactly the time she needed it. There had to be more than coincidence involved. Something else to ask him that night.

In the meantime, there was work to be done. Zaya would be back from the Tireless by now, and she'd sent a message asking Arkyna to help her with the hydroponics equipment she was bringing down from the ship. They hoped to use it to grow some food to supplement what they would be able to gather once the stores ran out, although the units had never been designed for use outside the ship's environment and would likely prove difficult.

Arkyna grinned to herself. She had something of her father's knack at making difficult machines do what she wanted. The day should prove interesting and the night even more so. Despite the storm and the potential for most of the colonists to start hating her the moment they found out about her Psychic talent, Arkyna's personal world was definitely looking up.

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