The Primal Connection (33 page)

“What about the connection to Decker?”

“That seems to be unaffected.”

“Will Traci be in the loop when she wakes up?”

“In all likelihood, yes.”

Terry sighed. “
Looks like you better get another data burst ready, sounds like we’re gonna need it.
”

“I have already prepared it.”

“Good. What about Mir?”

At the mention of his name, a voice spoke up, sounding weak and far away.

“I will be ready as soon as she gets close enough to fully conscious.”

Alarmed by the tremor in his voice, Terry and Decker expressed their concern, Terry, the most forceful, asking, “
Mir, are you all right?”

The voice brightened some but still gave the signs of exhaustion.

“I am well enough for the moment. I have stopped trying to draw energy from Mr. Decker to facilitate my leaving. I have enough to sustain myself for some time. If necessary, I can again draw enough to maintain myself from Mr. Decker, but given his fields, the further I can distance myself from him, the easier I can extricate myself when the time comes. The window is small though. From what I can tell of her condition, she is just below the level of awareness I need to occupy her.”

Decker, still splitting his time between keeping an eye on the pair in front of him and listening for a sign of more of Abshrd’s zombie horde, asked, “What happens if you just
occupy
her now?”

Charlie spoke up in order to save Mir’s energy.
“Entering a sleeping or unconscious person is dangerous because if we align our fields with theirs in that state, when they awake, we may not be able to make the transition with them. In that case, we can deteriorate. In other words, die.”

Terry and Decker found that to be alarming. Neither Terry’s experience with Charlie nor any of the Chrliti he had come into contact with, nor the data burst Decker got had any mention of this.

Charlie explained simply.
“It was not something to brag about.”

The two men simply shook their heads and returned to watching the pair at the console, both wondering if there was more they had to worry about.

* * * *

For several minutes, the two technicians worked on reviving Traci as quickly as possible, each fearing what awaited any mistake they made.

Terry, Decker and Charlie, meanwhile, watched them anxiously while Charlie kept a wary eye on Mir’s condition.

Too weak now to even expend the energy to monitor how Traci was doing, he had to rely on Charlie’s descriptions, which while accurate, were nothing near enough.

In his mind, Terry wondered privately how Traci would react to the news that she was host to an alien entity in her head and had been for some time. He was further worried by what her reaction would be to the knowledge that he had known about it for so long and used it to his advantage. He only hoped that Charlie’s data burst cleared up the whole thing. If not, he either had a lot of explaining or a long fight ahead.

Suddenly, a low moan escaped Traci, and Terry moved up behind the two men at the board with malice clearly etched on his face. Both men cringed slightly at his approach.

“What the hell is going on?”

Despite their fear, the larger of the two spoke up, professional pride out-weighing his fear. “We did nothing! She’s just coming out of it is all. Now, she’s back in the realm of normal sleep. I estimate...what the hell was that?”

As he was talking, a spark suddenly leaped from Decker to land on Traci’s chest and then vanished.

Terry felt a sudden rush of relief, but he knew it was still not over. Mir was inside now, though, and if these two hadn’t lied, there would be little damage for him to repair.

Traci was shifting now, beginning to stir even. Terry had moved closer while Decker watched his back. He was leaning over her when her eyes snapped open.

First, there was fear as she remembered whatever had happened as she waited for the drugs that had knocked her out to take full effect. Then the time she had spent in whatever daze she had been in. Now, she was coming back and finding herself in the presence of the man she had been thinking about when she had been taken. Her reaction was not quite what Terry had expected.

“What the hell did you do to me?”

Stunned did not begin to describe Terry’s reaction. “Whoa, honey! I just got you out. Hold on. Charlie?”

Charlie at once began the data burst. Instantly, Traci’s mind filled with images and thoughts much like Decker’s had earlier. These had the addition of the last few minutes and the events they knew of that were only for them from earlier. Charlie left out nothing, opting to tell the truth in its entirety rather than to pick and choose. It took even less time for her to assimilate it than Decker had needed.

Her eyes went wide as she looked at Terry.

For a minute, he wondered if he had made a mistake. If she couldn’t handle it, could Charlie remove the data and replace it with a more plausible story?

The question proved unnecessary, as the next second, she threw her arms around Terry and shivered as she hugged him tightly, eyes wide and lips parted in fear. She had understood. And whatever else happened, she knew Terry was crazy about her. And what Mir was. She even knew what had happened to Pop and why. The realization was frightening, but Charlie had used his hundred plus years of studying humanity to teach her what they were, what they wanted and what they did. The good and the bad. After that, it had been up to her. And she had made her choice. And Terry was happy with it as well, as he hugged back.

Decker and the two techs watched as the pair embraced and then kissed passionately.

Mir had said nothing the whole time whether by design or weakness. Now, recharged by his full re-integration with Traci, he was amazed to find that he was more intimately connected with her than he had been before. A fact he demonstrated by tapping into her auditory senses and using them to search the surrounding area.

That was why he heard it first.

He started to try to contact Charlie but stopped as he realized it was the perfect chance to test his new relationship with Traci.

“Excuse me,”
he began,
“I do not wish to frighten you, but since we are now able to talk, I feel I should introduce myself. My name is Mir.”

At first, Traci froze at the voice without substance in her head. She looked at Terry who simply nodded. Then, she began haltingly, “H-h-hello, M-M-Mir?”

Even without being able to see him, Terry knew Mir was beaming in his own way.

Decker and Charlie were both happy as well, although in Decker’s case, he had trouble figuring out why.

All of which stopped a second later as Mir heard the noise again and referred it to Charlie. The sound had been unfamiliar to him, but Charlie recognized it at once. As did Terry when he amplified it for him to hear.

It was the sound a helicopter starting its engines.

“Decker, can you hear that?”

Without the advantage of Charlie’s auditory augmentation, Decker strained to pick up any errant sounds for several seconds until finally his eyes lit up. Like Terry, he also recognized the sound.

“Copter! Sounds close!”

Terry spun on the two men, eyes narrowed menacingly. “Where is the helipad?”

It was clear both men though of lying, but they thought better of it as Decker slid up behind Terry as if backing him up. Finally, the larger one said, “In the courtyard behind the main building! It’s a small copter. Only holds four.”

Using Charlie as a relay, Terry talked to Decker, Traci and Mir.

“
If he gets up in the air, we end up doing this all over again, and next time, if he gets all the data he has in play, it’ll be against a helluva lot worse than these damn zombies he has now!
”

Decker, Mir and Charlie agreed.

Even though all Traci knew about what was going on was from Charlie’s data burst, she had learned enough to know that it was a very bad thing. Still, she had no idea what she could add to the mix, so she decided to stand mute for the moment and see how things played out. And besides, this would be the first time she had ever seen this man that she was so crazy about in action.

He did not disappoint. Terry had already formulated a plan. The trouble was that Charlie had a problem with it.

“Terry you are pushing your limits on enhancement. You cannot remain in this state for this long without paying a price. And you are fast reaching the point where that price will be exorbitant.”

Terry said nothing, even in the mind speak he used with Charlie. He knew he was pushing the limits of what he could take even with Charlie’s help and his own constitution, which he knew was impressive thanks in no small part to Charlie’s care and manipulations. He would end up paying for this, but the price was worth it if he could stop this madness. Abshrd was a killer even before they found him here, and the reality was he had plans to get better at it, using Traci, Dr. Broche and even him. And Terry was not about to allow that.

Finally, he said simply, “This guy has to be stopped here and now, whatever it takes.”

It was no surprise to him that Decker agreed. What was a shock was that Mir and Traci did as well.

Charlie said no more about stopping, but instead, Terry could feel him trying to repair whatever he could to keep him ready for a boost as needed. It was his way of saying,
“Okay, I did my bit to stop you, now I’m gonna do my best to help.”

Terry, again, turned to the two men sitting on the floor. A quick decision and he pointed at the smaller of the two, saying, “Gimme that lab coat, now!”

The man didn’t even bother to ask why or argue. He simply stood and snatched the coat off without a word.

Terry snatched it away from him and handed it to Traci, who accepted it in equal silence.

Decker wondered if it was more for his benefit than hers. Traci had a luscious body, and it was easy to see Terry cared about her. It was likely he couldn’t think as well as normal with her running around nearly naked. And there could be a shade or two of jealousy in there as well.

In either case, the coat was on in a second, and then, it was on to things that are more important.

“Decker, you keep these two here. I’m gonna let Charlie lead me to this thing and see if I can get a handle on his ass.”

Now, Decker had a problem. “Look, if we lock these two down, she can come with us, and that way, I can help you. I know how tough you are, but even so, the odds are that—”

But Charlie cut him off.
“You cannot go anywhere near Abshrd! Mir made the leap to you, and given the strength of your bio-fields, you could be a prize if one of those in that conglomerate chose to do the same. I can protect Terry, but I cannot offer the same to you. Given what he may have learned from whatever these two have told him, I may not even be able to do that as well as before, but I feel I can handle him as long as Terry’s fields remain at optimum level.”

Charlie had more to say, but Terry ended the whole thing. “You stay with her! Charlie, how much could he learn from Traci?”

“Unknown, but given what appears to be the amount of data in this terminal, he definitely gave her a thorough examination. He had to learn all he could as quickly as possible once you were here. He has probably scanned you as well and has a large file of your data as well.”

Traci was not at all happy about the fact that this Abshrd had had her kidnapped and examined without her permission. It was time for her to learn something about what this was. “If it’s that much, won’t that slow him down some?”

Charlie considered that for a moment before replying,
“Given that there are nearly ten terabytes of data at this station, it is a safe bet.”

Decker, still watching the pair on the floor, whistled softly. “No computer could handle that in any thing you could call quick. Maybe we could make that time a little longer, somehow.”

The smaller of the two men laughed derisively. “No chance of that. We’re on a dedicated system. It went to a buffer as soon as we put it in. That is the way it was designed, so there was no interference possible. You can try to if you want, but I can tell you, it won’t work.”

None of them could figure why the man offered any help, but there was no time to ponder. The copter’s noise had leveled off to what sounded like a steady rhythm and was probably ready to leave at a moment’s notice. If they were right, the amount of data gave them some time but not much.

Terry headed for the door. “Game ain’t changed. Watch them and make sure that anything left out there stays out there. I’m heading for that copter!”

No one could think of a protest as Terry walked out the door, but as soon as he left, Decker turned to Traci. “I don’t know what he thinks he is, but he’s gonna get himself killed trying to play hero! We need to—”

But Mir cut him off.
“Listen to me. I do not know how long I will be able to talk to either of you. I can feel the connection slipping away as Abshrd gets further away! Terry is right, however. If Abshrd gets within range of you, Mr. Decker, he could conceivably occupy you or have one of his conglomerates do it for him. In either case, even with your injuries, you could become the biggest threat to Terry out there.”

Traci chimed in. “He’s right. From what the...from what Charlie told me, you are pretty much next to Terry in how strong your...fields are. I’m not really sure what that means, but I know, given the way Terry looked, he isn’t gonna be up to taking on whatever he has to out there
and
you.”

Decker wasn’t pleased. His shoulder hurt and his pride was wounded. He wasn’t used to being protected. And then there was the matter of Dr. Broche. That bastard was still controlling her, and they still had no idea if they could even save her if they did get her out.

Suddenly, it occurred to him that the two men they had been left to guard could be the answer. With the proper persuasion of course.

“You!” He said suddenly, pointing at the larger of the two men. “What’s your name?”