Part 9 (1/2)
Alisa closed the door and stepped back into the room. ”You're right. We are guarded.”
She drummed her fingers on the back of the sofa. A minute ago, she had been content to stay in this room until Alejandro finished his research, but now, she felt like a caged animal, itching to escape and have the freedom to roam the forest. Or the icy temple, in this case.
”My mother is going to come get me for breakfast shortly after dawn,” Yumi said. ”I suppose that doesn't help you with your snooping, but I could ask her about Naidoo and try to ferret out how trustworthy she is.”
”Do you think she would answer honestly?” Alisa hadn't heard Ji-yoon speak more than a couple of words and had the impression that the woman wasn't tickled that Yumi had come here and brought strangers.
”I don't know. It's been nearly twenty years since we spent time together, but I would probably have an easier time telling if she was lying than I would if we were dealing with a total stranger.”
”a.s.suming she doesn't diddle with your mind.”
”I have a drug along that temporarily changes the chemical composition of the human brain and makes your thoughts harder for a Sta.r.s.eer to read. It was used by the military during the Order Wars. I believe the cyborgs even tried it, though they metabolized it quickly, making the window of potency short for them.”
”You're going to drug yourself for your breakfast with your mother?”
Yumi smiled. ”It crossed my mind, but perhaps not, since we have a guard. I didn't know about the breakfast beforehand, so the substance-qui-gorn-is in my cabin on the s.h.i.+p.”
Alisa clasped her chin in her hand as she gazed at Yumi, ideas percolating through her mind. ”Yumi, Naidoo referred to your mother as an archivist. What does she do exactly?”
”Archives things.” Yumi shrugged. ”You might actually have a lot to talk to her about, though, since she's also a pilot. I believe she was one of the Sta.r.s.eers friendly to the Alliance who partic.i.p.ated in the war, flying around and providing intelligence for your side.” Yumi sighed wistfully. ”I would so like to know her better. I wish she had an interest in knowing me.”
”She invited you to breakfast,” Alisa said, though she was rubbing her chin and thinking furiously, more intrigued by Yumi's mother's position as an archivist than the fact that she might have been an Alliance sympathizer. ”Maybe she's more interested than you know.”
”Actually, I suggested coffee or a meal,” Yumi said.
”Well, she said yes.”
”Reluctantly. She sounded like she had work to do.”
”Small victories, Yumi. Small victories.” Alisa lowered her hand and propped it on the back of the sofa. ”What would your mother think if you invited your good friend, Captain Marchenko, to breakfast?”
”Good friends, Captain? I had no idea you felt that way about me.”
”I did offer you a job.”
”I heard you offered Leonidas a job too.”
”I did. As well as Mica. But sadly, Beck is the only one who's officially agreed to employment. I can only a.s.sume that I'm a tyrannical shrew that n.o.body wants to work for.”
”I just don't want to take your money. You seem to need it.”
Alisa acknowledged that truth with a wriggle of her fingers. ”Whatever our relations.h.i.+p, I would consider it a favor if you would invite me along to breakfast with your mother.”
”I can certainly try. Like I said, you two have something in common as pilots, so she may be interested in talking to you.”
”Excellent. I would also consider it a favor if you would slip something into your mother's meal to make her more amenable to telling the truth.”
”Uh, you want me to drug my mother?”
”Yes, will that be a problem?”
Chapter 8.
”This isn't going to work,” Yumi whispered.
”Just follow my lead,” Alisa whispered back, her hand on the doork.n.o.b. Since Yumi's stockpile of herbs, powders, and dried mushrooms was back on the s.h.i.+p, they needed to get the guard to let them visit. So long as the man was reasonable and didn't go rifling through their minds, Alisa hoped it would be possible.
”When we're close to him, empty your mind and keep from focusing on your deceit,” Yumi said. ”Even a warrior will have rudimentary telepathy and be able to read your surface thoughts.”
”Telepathy, is that what they call their weird skills?”
”As children, most of them learn telepathy, telekinesis, and something they call long-seeing.”
”Is that the thing where they see into stars?”
”Yes,” Yumi said. ”Some of the specialists have other talents, such as precognition, matter manipulation, and pyrotechnics, but those are the basics. The ones trained as fighters usually aren't as mentally adroit as the scholars, but most of them will be able to glimpse your surface thoughts. More skilled telepaths can dig in and find memories you've long forgotten.”
”Charming.”
”They are powerful enemies.”
”Good thing I don't want to start a war with any of them,” Alisa said.
”You just want to drug them.”
”Drugs are happy-makers. Who could object?”
Yumi's expression was dubious.
”Let's do this,” Alisa murmured and opened the door.
The same guard stood outside, still staring at the opposite wall. Maybe he was practicing his mental skills. He turned his head to gaze indifferently over at them.
”When are those refreshments coming?” Alisa asked. ”I'm dying to know what you people eat and drink up here.”
”Nourishment will be provided when it's deemed necessary.”
”We actually can't wait here indefinitely. My pa.s.senger has a flock of chickens on my freighter. She needs to go back to feed them. And I forgot to eat dinner since I was busy being chased and shot at by a mafia s.h.i.+p, so I'd like to raid my chocolate stash too.”
”I've been instructed to keep you in your rooms.” The guard had blue eyes that were similar in color to the icy walls, something Alisa noticed as they locked onto hers.
Her skin crawled as she sensed-or maybe just imagined him-probing into her thoughts.
Emptying her mind and trying not to think about something, as Yumi had suggested, was difficult. She decided to try to think about something else instead. What might repulse the man and make him want to stay out of her thoughts? Images of death? Of the atrocities she had seen in the war? No, he'd probably just wonder why she was thinking about these things. Instead, she smiled slightly as she found something more recent to contemplate.
In her mind, she went back to her conversation with Leonidas, the conversation about ma.s.sages. She also remembered the times she had seen him with his s.h.i.+rt off, his thick, muscular torso on display, once in sickbay when Alejandro had been patching him up and once in his cabin, when she had woken him from his sleep. His hair had been tousled then, a pillow crease on his face, and the dim lighting of the corridor creating interesting shadows between his muscles. Before she got to the point of imagining herself giving him a ma.s.sage, the guard's lip curled up.