Melinda Snodgrass - Double solitaire

Blaise suddenly lifted hooded lids and gave Durg the full force of those strange dark eyes. “My dear pet,” he said using the Vayawand diminishing word for a Morakh. “You haven’t given me proper obeisance yet.”

It startled Durg. His entire focus had been directed toward making Blaise Raiyis of House Vayawand. Having succeeded, it hadn’t occurred to him the boy would take it seriously. A lack of imagination was a terrible impediment to a Svengali, Durg thought as he felt, like the briefest lick of a whip, the touch of Blaise’s coercive mind control.

Durg hurried to his knees and noted that the pleasure in his victory had gone sour.

“What did he do to you?”

Tachyon turned her head to the wall. Jay repeated the question – louder. Moonchild was suddenly between them, sliding like a cloud between sky and sun. Using just her fingertips, she removed Jay’s hand from Tachyon’s arm. “That is not the way, Mr. Ackroyd. Step back please. You threaten by the mere fact of your presence.”

Stung, Jay retreated. Watched as Moonchild shook back her long hair, seated herself on the bunk, and drew Tachyon into her arms. Jay waited for the usual reaction. It didn’t come. Instead Tach sighed and relaxed against the slim Korean woman. Jay figured it out – while intellectually Tachyon knew this was “Mark,” the smell was of jasmine and sandalwood, the fingertips were soft, the body a place of rest and peace, not an instrument for pain. Jay suddenly regretted Tachyon’s decision not to bring Cody.

“Doctor, you must speak with me,” Moonchild said. “I was present at your collapse, and our captain took no physical action against you. Am I to infer from this that his assault was mental in nature?”

Tach pushed her hair back. The black and white and blond strands intermingled, and Jay thought he’d never seen a more beautiful pair of contrasting broads. One silver, one ebony. They could have been the queens on a living chess set. The romanticism of the thought embarrassed him, and he jammed his hands into the pockets of his brown slacks.

Tach shuddered. “He held up a mirror,” she said so softly that Moonchild had to bend down to hear her.

“I do not understand. What does that mean?”

“There’s a fairy tale among my people about a man so evil and honorless that his ancestors gathered and resolved to curse him so that each mirror he gazed into would show him his soul. Eventually it drove him mad, and his servants found his bloody body in the midst of shattered mirrors. Zabb took me on a time journey – the past and future all woven into one, and I nearly strangled in the threads of my selfishness. And then I realized I am the man of that story.”

Jay felt the anger rising again. “Zabb knows he can’t touch you physically. He can’t even hurt you emotionally or mentally except that you’re letting him. We haven’t got time for you to indulge in an orgy of self-pity and self-doubt. You’ve hauled Meadows and me across half a galaxy. You owe us. You’ve got to look out for us the same way we’re looking out for you. And that means teaching us all these stupid languages, and not making us crazy worrying about the state of your head. We’ve got enough problems trying to preserve your attractive little ass and recover your original skinny little ass,” Jay concluded.

“Zabb was there when my father was injured. He thrust the memory into my mind,” Tach flared back at Jay. “I smelled the coppery sweet scent of his blood, the stench of flesh burned away by high-energy weapons, screams, the crack of lasers cutting the air, explosions, falling masonry.” As she spoke, she assumed the thousand-mile stare that gave Jay the creeps. “Shaklan is rappelling down a tower, leading a counterassault of Ilkazam warriors against the Vayawand troops huddled behind parapets. A Morakh warrior whirls, fires from the hip. The laser peels back the side of my father’s skull, revealing brain – boiled and charred from the heat of the laser. The long fall to the roof. The screams,” Tach concluded in a remote voice.

“You’ve got a shit load to worry about, I know that,” Jay said. “But we’ve got to pick our worries in order of descending magnitude, and you flippin’ out about something that happened years and years ago isn’t going to help.”

“We are strangers and wanderers,” Moonchild said. “We do not understand your culture. Therefore, diplomacy must be your arena, and for that you need your wits. You must find your center. Our task is one of steel and strength. We can handle your enemies, Doctor. We cannot handle you.”

Jay had a feeling it was Moonchild’s calm good sense, and the comfort of her arms, that relaxed the shivering Takisian. Tough love clearly wasn’t a winning technique for dealing with Tachyon right now.

“Don’t leave me,” Tach whispered to the ace.

Moonchild nodded and lowered Tach gently back onto her pillow. Arms entwined, Tach’s head rested on Moonchild’s shoulder, and the ace’s hair formed a dark blanket for them both. Feeling very much the outsider, Jay retreated to the table and let the females bond. Eventually Tachyon drifted into another of her nightmare-wracked sleeps, and Moonchild slipped away from the girl.

A few minutes later Moonchild vanished and Mark returned. He gazed down at Tachyon and shook his head. “I heard about cases like this back from the last days of the Summer of Love. Too much dope, too much tear gas, too many riots – overload. I have a feeling that for the Doc it’s just all too much. Forty-four years of too much.” He sighed. “I wish she could cry. I think the release would really help.”

Jay shuffled cards. “I don’t know, it’s kind of a relief. Tachy was always blubbering about something.”

“You don’t think this is worth a few tears?” Mark gestured at the sleeping girl. The thrust of the pregnancy weighing down that delicate girlchild body. Tach let out a whimper, and Jay felt like a real schmuck.

Meadows crossed to the table and sat down. Cupped his chin in his long bony hands and seriously regarded Jay. “This is only going to get harder,” Meadows said softly.

“You think I don’t know that,” grunted Jay.

Again the head shake. “This isn’t about palace intrigues or alien warriors. The Tachyon mind wants to concentrate on the problems at hand. The Kelly body knows it’s got one big problem to face. The Doc’s gonna be at war with himself… er, herself.”

Jay looked at him in annoyance. “Meadows, just when I think I’ve reached my nadir, you find something else to really kick the shit out of my mood.”

“I thought you might enjoy witnessing our arrival, Princess Tisianne,” said Zabb without turning around.

“Cram it up your ass, Zabb,” replied Tachyon.

It almost toppled Jay, so slangy, uncouth, so human. He’d never imagined such words in Tachyon’s mouth. It was almost as startling out of this little girl. It obviously flustered the shit out of the Takisian. Zabb swung around, and it was evident he hadn’t intended to. Tachyon smirked, Zabb frowned. It was such a tiny victory in the mind war they were waging, yet Jay could see Tach savoring the moment.

It was the first time Jay had seen the bridge, and he looked about curiously. Nesfa and five of her people were manning the consoles, readouts, and panels. Jay gave the woman a sickly smile, and a little finger wave.

“This isn’t an Aevrй bridge,” Tach said.

“No, the ship was built… exactly for the… apexs… no, hands of Captain Zabb and our leased body partners,” Nesfa said.

“Leased?” Jay yelped. “You mean you don’t normally look…”

“No, no. On our home world our body partners are four-legged… um, grass eaters. Only, very…” Nesfa pinched her fingers together several times. “Clumsy hands.”