Part 29 (2/2)

'We'd all like some rea.s.surance on that score,' Isthia said. 'On the way out here, Ian, Rakella and I worked out a plan. Ian's willing to be subject and Rakella and I will implant a response to the dream sequence which ought to give our visitors - not invaders, I think - an answer to their query Damia regarded her young uncle with admiration and some consternation. He was by no means as strong a Talent as she was, nor had he spent much time developing his innate Talent. But she held back her protest. She had no wish to tempt a repet.i.tion of the Sodan affair. She did give Isthia a long and worried look.

'Shouldn't we inform Earth Prime?' she asked.

'I'd rather we had something more concrete than a nebulous pattern of dreams,' Isthia replied. 'Jeff's still trying to calm everyone down,' and then she laughed, 'and help Cera deal with the Procyons who feel she is far too young to be responsible for that system 'Cera's the most responsible of us all,' Damia said indignantly.

'Exactly,' Isthia said, smiling at her granddaughter. 'But you can quite appreciate why we must be circ.u.mspect with this latest-' She jiggled her hand, searching for the appropriate word.

'Flap?' Afra suggested blandly 'Flap'll do. There're only the six of us, having the dreams. Now if more had been involved - even just Jeran-' 'Good al' prosaic Jeran,' Ian said disparagingly and Damia suppressed a giggle.

'Isn't he just,' Isthia said at her mildest. 'At any rate, until I feel we have sufficient evidence to require an alert of any degree, I think we keep this among ourselves.' She sent a querying look around the table. 'Very well then.

We'll proceed with Plan A. And when is lunch going to be ready?' Of them all that evening, Ian seemed the most relaxed as he submitted to the hypnotic session, woke, joked that he didn't remember a thing, and ate a huge supper, consumed most of a bottle of Isthia's treasured pre-Beetle vintages before taking himself off to his bed. During the afternoon, Afra and Damia had brought two conformable chairs into Ian's room where Isthia and Rakella could be comfortable during their vigil.

Damia had been generous to her own wine gla.s.s at dinner but she found it difficult to relax once she and Afra had gone to bed. She couldn't find a comfortable position though she tried several as surrept.i.tiously as possible, not wanting to rouse Afra.

'I can't sleep either,' Afra said, though even his quiet tone startled her in the dark room. He turned her on to her back and gathered her into his long body. 'Shall I sing you a lullaby?' 'I'm not a baby any more, to be lulled asleep by a song, she protested but she did not resist his comfort and settled her head on his chest.

To her surprise, not only did he begin to sing softly but also he rocked her gently against him. And, before she could protest his nonsense, her eyes got too heavy to remain open and her mind darkened responsively.

This time she seemed to be awake even as she started the visitors' dream sequence. And Ian's drawings became part of it - part of it, expanded by it and interpreted in it.

The long uphill road was a dark one, many stars above it, pa.s.sing by in an endless stream. A small globe appeared and the visitors abruptly stopped their upward progress.

Then, very carefully, several visitors picked the globe up and put it to one side for it apparently impeded their forward progress. Then the file of visitors became twenty separate figures: long, thin, with spindly anterior segments which propelled them and upper extremities which were held forward in entreaty. The dream seemed endless to the sleeping Damia and she felt exhausted by its length, fervently wis.h.i.+ng for action. There had been some before.

The visitors had reached the top of the hill and met the six.

The six also extended long, thin limbs but, though they advanced a few steps towards the visitors, no real progress seemed to be made in establis.h.i.+ng a contact.

Contact! Damia woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in the bed.

What is it, Damia? Afra asked her, and the question was repeated by Isthia.

We aren't making contact. They wish to make contact.

Then she covered her face with her hands and dropped her head to her bent knees, shuddering violently. She felt Afra's arms enfolding her and she leaned into his protective clasp.

'It's all right, Damia,' Isthia said, gliding into the room.

'What did Ian dream? Did your plan work?' Afra asked her.

'I don't know yet, she said, sitting down on the side of the bed and stroking her granddaughter's hair. 'It's all right, pet.

'I'm not a child any more, Grandmother,' Damia murmured and gave one last shudder before she looked up.

'It's contact they want, though. Afra?' He shook his head. 'I only dreamt the usual sequence.

When Ian finally woke the next morning, he had done no more than that. 'I tried, Mother,' he said ruefully. 'I knew I had something to tell them all night long but I couldn't get a word in edgewise.' Damia felt close to panic and that must have shown in her face for both Isthia and Afra moved to touch her rea.s.suringly.

'I don't want this,' she told them, 'I don't want any part of it.' Then, before she could see the pity in their faces, she slammed out of the house and down the narrow track to the lake.

She had been sitting for a long time in her favorite fis.h.i.+ng site before Afra joined her. She could hear him coming, 'heard' his anxiety, too.

'I'm a coward, Afra,' she murmured when he reached her spot. He hunkered down beside her and his 'concern' was a s.h.i.+eld between her and the reality she wanted to escape.

'No, but you're understandably cautious. I think we ought to inform Jeff, especially when you had such a definite response.

'It was Ian who was supposed to get one. I'd rather it was he, anyway. I didn't handle the last one very well.' 'Isthia doesn't want you to handle this one at all,' Afra said, a little ripple of amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice.

Surprised, she looked up at him. 'And?' 'Despite what you may think of your initial attempts at establis.h.i.+ng contact with an alien life form, you handled the actual link extremely well.' 'You have the nerve to tell me that?' Shock poured through her and she stared at Afra as if she had learned nothing of the man in the past two months.

'Telling the truth doesn't require nerve, love,' he said with a little laugh. 'The problem lay in Sodan and his long-term plans, not in your management.

'I don't believe what I'm hearing.

'You should,' Afra said blandly. 'You had bridged a communication gap and had established frames of reference. You've always had that gift. Look at how well you get on with barque cats, c.o.o.nies and the pony. Not to mention how good you were at teaching. Or have you forgotten Teval Rieseman?' ”'Friends don't throw rocks”!' 'These may be friends. And you have to learn their language to translate their message.

Damia took in a long breath, held it, seeking that younger so-self-confident self. Sodan had damaged more of her essential being than she'd realized.

'He has certainly robbed you of self-esteem and confidence,' Afra said. 'I'd hate to think he'd won on that vital count.' She stared at him, her beloved with whom she had shared so much, and here he, Afra the cautious Capellan, was suggesting that she -'You're the only one of us who could make the contact they wish-' 'But-' 'I'm serious, Damia,' and Afra nodded his head urgently, 'you're the only one capable of doing it.' 'Only if you're with me 'That plea came out of her mouth before she could stop it.

'I'd insist on inclusion.' I'll be coming, too, Isthia said.

Are we allowed to think again? Damia asked sarcastically I applaud it.

Was that what your clapping meant? Afra asked as he locked eyes with Damia.

They were both answered by Isthia's laugh.

I had to be certain you'd obey my injunction, so I added a deterrent. Please come back to the house, Damia, Afra. Her request bore no hint of command.

Sighing at the inevitable, Damia got to her feet and, with Afra's long fingers twined in hers, made her way back to the house.

'Are we telling Earth Prime now?' Damia asked as they joined Isthia in the kitchen. Neither Rakella nor Ian were present.

'No, not yet.

'Is that wise, Isthia?' Afra asked.

Isthia leaned forward across the table, still littered with Ian's sketches. 'Look, you two, I have survived two invasions of a highly inimical force, bent on total destruction. I do believe I can tell the difference when - ah - visitors do come in peace.' 'Remembering that the reason for most stellar travel is to provide colonists and mineral wealth for the explorers?' Damia asked cynically.

'I don't have much precognitive Talent,' Isthia surprised them by saying, 'but what I have is straining to make that contact. Ian's dream last night did have one positive result,' and she flicked one of the drawings on the table towards them, 'if you'll notice the stars?' Damia drew the sheet towards her, frowning, for the seemingly random scatter of stars gradually became familiar to her.

'These are the constellations above Deneb !' 'Exactly. And this globe has protuberances suspiciously like the DEW sensors beyond the heliopause.' 'Oh,' and Damia's single syllable came out on a long sigh of denial 'That's not so far to take a personal capsule. Is it?' Isthia asked softly.

'No,' Afra replied equably. 'Damia went much further than the heliopause to reach the Sodan ent.i.ty.

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