Part 34 (1/2)

FORTY-FOUR.

SEPTEMBER 2379.

PARIS, FRANCE.

Kerr stared through the too-bright electric power as it crawled over Jason's telekinetic s.h.i.+eld. Nathan's rapidly swelling face stared back at him from behind Gideon's own telekinetic s.h.i.+eld. Around them, humans, telepaths, and empaths fell over, bodies jerking through electrocution. Kerr could sense both Sercas trying to restructure the Warhound merge through those deaths.

”Kerr,” Jason said weakly as Quinton helped him sit up. A thick red stain was spread across his chest, tiny bone shards sticking to his torn skinsuit.

For a second, Kerr ignored him, reaching through a different psi link for Threnody. He shoved aside the pain, whispering apologies into her mind even as he pulled a visual for teleportation through her eyes.

'Port here, Jays, Kerr said as he pulled Jason into the psi link and shared the visual, then added a second one of the storage room below. Don't worry about me, I'll be all right.

You lying son of a b.i.t.c.h, do you really expect me to leave you behind?

You don't have a choice. You've only got enough strength left for two teleports, three if two of those are short, and one of those 'ports has to get you and Quinton to London.

Kerr- Jason. Kerr drowned out his partner's thoughts with desperate words, seconds ticking away as the spark of Threnody's power faded. I knew when Kristen broke your s.h.i.+elds Quinton would come first from here on out. He has to if you're going to live.

Kerr could feel Lucas and the merge at the far reaches of his mind, the mental grid lighting up with the thoughts of those who had survived the battle so far.

A hand grabbed at Kerr's leg, fingers twisting around his uniform. He knelt down, prying Jason's hand free and gripping it hard in his own.

You don't have much time. Kerr looked over at Jason, at the blood on his face and the panic in his partner's eyes, and smiled gently. You'll have to learn to follow someone else after this, Jays. Don't hate them because they're not me. Now go.

I could stay, Jason said. I'm the one Nathan wants.

That's not how this works. You know that.

Slowly, Jason nodded, eyes filled with pain and regret, his mind br.i.m.m.i.n.g with countless thoughts and emotion that washed over Kerr. Jason never looked away as he teleported out, taking Quinton with him, his hand disappearing from Kerr's clenched fingers. His telekinetic s.h.i.+eld stayed standing.

Kerr turned and pressed his hand flat against the invisible power of Jason's telekinesis, the hard, layered s.h.i.+eld all he had left now. The psi link that connected him with Jason was a faint spark at the bottom of his mind.

Nathan's diminished merge was already regrouping and stabilizing. Those dark blue eyes didn't look away from Kerr's face as clarity returned to them.

This ends here, Nathan said, his words riding a wave of desperate power.

Of course it does, Lucas said, slamming into and through Kerr's mind with enough force to black out the world. But you'll never see the Ark, Nathan. You'll never see Mars Colony.

Kerr's strength flowed through the Stryker merge, filling the cracks and smoothing out the jagged edges that had been torn into it. Lucas let him mend what Samantha couldn't, giving up more and more s.p.a.ce as other minds extracted themselves from the merge. First one, then two, then a dozen psi signatures disappeared-not dead, but teleported out, carrying Strykers who weren't kinetic-oriented with them. Kerr kept his hand pressed hard against Jason's s.h.i.+eld, the support grounding him as Warhound telepaths dug hooks into the merge and his own mental s.h.i.+elds.

The Stryker merge kept growing smaller, seemingly beaten into submission by Nathan's. Warhounds started to outnumber Strykers on the mental grid. Kerr felt the strain of the merge start to build up in his own mind as Lucas transferred more and more control over to him. The weight was something he could handle better than Lucas at this point, having been inactive during the majority of the battle. Out of every 'path-oriented psion in the Stryker ranks, Kerr was the only one left who could take Lucas's place.

I thought I could pull you out, Lucas said.

I know, Kerr said. But the future always changes.

It's not supposed to.

Maybe. But you did. And I don't blame you for that.

It was Kerr's job now to keep Nathan's merge anch.o.r.ed in this moment and to Kerr's mind. If those connections broke, they would lose this fight and all the rest waiting to start in the coming years.

Kerr held up as best he could, but against a Cla.s.s I triad psion with years of practice under his belt, it was only a matter of time before Kerr started to buckle. He struggled to sh.o.r.e up all the Strykers' s.h.i.+elds until those, too, started to disappear.

I can't hold it any longer, Lucas said, thoughts a fractured, broken mess. Kerr could barely sense Samantha or Kristen in the maelstrom that was Lucas's mind.

Kerr did what he was trained to do, what he had promised to do. He stood his ground.

Let me have the rest of the merge. Jason's telekinetic s.h.i.+eld was still solid beneath his touch. Gideon kept hitting it with merged telekinesis, but couldn't break through. Don't worry about me, Lucas.

Lucas exited Kerr's mind, leaving behind a gaping hole in Kerr's thoughts that was filled with a myriad of minds from Nathan's merge. Kerr held on to the Stryker merge for a few moments longer, holding up the facade, until everyone else let go and all he could feel were two last people lingering in his mind.

Jason and Threnody.

For a second-Kerr lived a lifetime.

Jason's s.h.i.+eld disappeared. Kerr cut the psi link between them. Merged Warhound telekinesis, once held at bay, now slammed into Kerr. He was thrown back by the force, the punch a harder hit than anything he'd ever before experienced. He crashed to the floor, felt his bones shatter from the inside out, felt the deep ache of organs tearing apart. All he tasted now was blood.

Merged telepathy curled deeper into his mind, stripping his s.h.i.+elds down to their last layer, down to where his Cla.s.s IX empathy mingled with his Cla.s.s II telepathy. It wasn't enough to save him. Not this time.

Kerr blinked, struggling to breathe. Emptiness clawed at the edge of his mind and brightness interfered with his vision. He could see sunlight glinting off the s.p.a.ce shuttles through the plasgla.s.s observation windows of the command room, everything s.h.i.+ning with false halos.

He felt Nathan digging through his mind and Kerr couldn't stop him, didn't even try as the Warhound merge got lost in the maze of his psyche. He let all those minds find anchor points in his own thoughts, tying them down. Blood and clear fluid slid out of his nose and ears, pouring out of his mouth, choking him. He sensed Threnody's determination through the tenuous psi link that still ran between them. Kerr closed his eyes, feeling some distant sort of satisfaction as Nathan found, too late, what was hiding in his mind.

No, Nathan said, his telepathy a ragged, bright line of thought knotted deep in Kerr's mind. You Strykers would never do this. It goes against everything you are.

That's why you never saw it coming, Kerr said, thinking of Lucas.

With the last of his strength and every mental trick Lucas had taught him, Kerr held tight to the faded imprint of the merge, trapping Nathan and the merged telepaths and telekinetics there with him on the ground. The Warhounds struggled to get free of the deep holes in Kerr's mind, and maybe some did, but Kerr didn't know how many of them survived. All he knew was the shock that colored everyone's thoughts, their shared horrified, frantic disbelief. In that last hectic instant, Kerr heard them, heard them all as they died screaming.

FORTY-FIVE.

SEPTEMBER 2379.

PARIS, FRANCE.