Part 31 (1/2)

'Oh, do cool it, Jeff,' Isthia said commandingly, her blue eyes flas.h.i.+ng with a reciprocal outrage. 'I most certainly do want you and the Rowan to enter into discussion with the Mrdinis. That's what they're here for. Both Afra and Damia support my evaluation that these are allies, not aggressors. We exhibited reciprocal good faith by inviting them within our defences.' 'That's why I'm raging, Dad.

Letting aliens into Deneb's skies is totally irrational!' Jeran exclaimed, gesturing wildly. 'We haven't yet got over the psychic scars of the Beetle Penetration and then my grandmother-' 'One unarmed vessel? One small unarmed vessel is no threat. It is usually regarded as an emissary,' Isthia replied, her patience fraying. 'Oh, do be sensible, Jeff.' 'Sensible is using the channels and procedures that are set up to deal with occurrences of this sort, Mother,' Jeff began, his temper only just contained.

'Wait a moment, Jeff,' the Rowan said thoughtfully, 'Isthia may have acted impetuously but I can sense the Mrdinis. They are very open. I'm not getting a shred of hostility from their minds and there's certainly nothing ”heavy” on this alien s.h.i.+p.' Her glance slid across Damia and back to Jeff. 'I'd know,' she added gently, putting her hand on Jeff's arm so that the contact would emphasize the impressions she had l.u.s.t gained from her mental probe.

Jeff regarded his wife for a long moment and then the anger seemed to drain out of him. He gestured to Jeran to relax and smiled rea.s.suringly at the pallid Rakella whom Ian was supporting.

'Who made first contact?' he asked, looking from his mother to Afra and then Damia, where his gaze lingered.

'We all had contact,' Isthia said, 'though Damia's was the clearest.

Jeff nodded, accepting the statement without challenge.

'I put a restraint on them 'pathing,' Isthia went on, in a slightly apologetic tone, 'but I forgot to inhibit receipt.

Damia would, of course, be both more receptive and more vulnerable in post-convalescence.' Isthia shrugged. 'After two weeks of nightly dream sequences, I had to accept the fact that the pattern could not be random, had to be an imposition. I couldn't establish a source for it.

I was more than surprised when first Rakella, Besseva, then Ian, and finally Damia and Afra informed me that they were also receiving similar sendings.' Jeff turned to Jeran expectantly: his eldest son shook his head.

'I can't imagine why Jeran didn't receive, too,' Isthia remarked drolly. 'But he didn't. We six got together, to compare notes, and tried to figure out a response to what was patently a friendly overture. Damia volunteered.' When the Rowan looked apprehensive, Isthia raised her hand in a placating gesture, I would scarcely undo the patient work of several months, Angharad. Knowing the martial mind, I decided that we'd check as far as we were able to. The Fleet takes so long to mobilize, doesn't it! So we made visual contact, established communications and extended an invitation to the emissaries. Now you, Fleet and the League can handle future negotiations.' She let out a sigh as she propelled herself out of the chair. 'Now, it's been a busy few hours and I look forward to some unstructured sleep. Come, Damia, Afra! We'll all rest better back at the cabin. I don't want you exposed to the emotional levels that will shortly be rampant around here.' Then she turned to Ian and Rakella.

'You two come as well. You look as s.h.a.gged as I feel. See you later, dears,' she said, blithely flinging her fingers at Jeff and the Rowan.

'Come on!' and she imperiously gestured for obedience to her orders.

'Dad, Mother,' Damia said with a tentative farewell smile.

As soon as Isthia had admitted to fatigue, Damia had felt it creeping along her nerves. Not disastrously, merely informing her that rest was a good idea. Swift on that thought, she felt Afra's agreement and they both 'pathed back to the cabin's main room. Isthia, Ian and Rakella arrived more prudently on the lawn and joined them inside.

'Plainly you've recovered when you can 'port that neatly,' Isthia said with an approving nod. 'Now, what shall we have for lunch?' Jeff and the Rowan asked permission to join them late that evening.

'Damia, Afra, we've got to whip up a meal,' Isthia said with a show of energy. 'Neither of them have eaten all day.

I wonder if we have anything left after that mountain Ian and Rakella put away at noon.' Damia scurried about the kitchen, checking what was available, remembering that her father was only out of temper when he was hungry. He may have absolved them of an impulsive act in contacting the Mrdinis, but she was certain that some reckoning was due.

Jeff doesn't hold grudges, love, afra murmured, winking at her.

'Shall I uncork some of that excellent mountain white of yours, Isthia?' Isthia grinned. 'Clever Afra.' Five minutes later, the two Primes arrived on the lawn and, daringly, Damia 'felt' for their mood.

Both her mother and father were tired but their public thoughts were tinged with a satisfaction that bordered triumph.

'Well?' Isthia said, handing each a gla.s.s of the chilled white wine as they reached the porch. She gestured for them to be seated while Damia offered the small hot pastries she had managed to prepare.

Jeff took a sip of the wine, smiled and nodded appreciatively at his mother.

'One of these days, Isthia Raven, you're going to land out on a limb I can't get you off of,' he said and then he relented.

Isthia looked smug. 'I told you they were not hostile.

Did you have pleasant dreams?' she added slyly.

Jeff laughed and even the Rowan began to smile.

'A novel but effective means of communication. You should be astonished to learn, Mother, that we also got Commander Curran in on one conference... with Rowan doing the hypnotic link.

The Rowan chuckled. 'I don't know who was more surprised, him, me or them. But the conference sank all his irs, ands and buts.' 'So you can now support our contention of their peaceful intentions?' Isthia asked.

'Indisputably,' Jeff said, leaning back in his chair.

'Commander Curran will so inform High Command and put forth an urgent request for priority conferences.' Then Jeff looked keenly at Damia. She returned his gaze calmly, keeping a firm grip on her emotions and hectic thoughts.

'They asked for you, Damia.' 'It's too soon...' the Rowan began.

'No, it isn't,' Isthia said, smiling to soften her contradiction.

'There's nothing wrong with Damia's mind, I a.s.sure you. She is completely recovered. So is Afra.' Damia glared at her grandmother for the sly smile on her face.

'I'm relieved to hear that the Rowan began again and then broke off, staring at her daughter.

Damia felt her mother's mental 'nudge', verifying Isthia's medical clearance, felt her mother's inability to get past her s.h.i.+elds, 'heard' her mother's annoyance alter to irritation.

'Possibly you will also be relieved,' Afra said as he moved to stand behind Damia, his hands lightly clasping her shoulders. She could feel the intensity of his emotions and knew that he had opened his mind, and his heart, to the two Primes. ' to know that Damia and I enjoy a meeting of minds.' Her mother turned white and her hands grasped the arms of her chair as she stared back at them. Damia received a shaft of denial coloured by a sense of betrayal before the Rowan exerted a clamp on her emotions. Her father did not have quite so violent a reaction but surprise was uppermost in his mind, and consternation, before he closed off.

'The bonding is remarkably complete,' Afra went on in his quiet voice. Only Damia knew that he was trembling, for she could feel it through his hands on her shoulder.

Once she would have been defiant and hurt that her parents had shut their minds to her. 'Though I have known my own heart on this score since Damia returned from Deneb, I could do nothing until she recognized in me a genuine suitor.' 'I do not feel alone any more, Mother,' Damia said with gentle intensity. 'Please understand that.

You should understand that!' 'But with Afra?' cried the Rowan.

To everyone's amazement, Jeff started to chuckle, rubbing the side of his face in a restless gesture and shaking his head. Then his chuckle became more relaxed and his shoulders shook with genuine mirth.

'How often, Rowan dear, have we told Afra that he should form an alliance?

How often have we tried to find the right person for him?

Not to mention trying to pair Damia off to any young, and Jeff emphasized the adjective, 'Talent we could find.

Come, now, Rowan love,' and he leaned across the distance that separated them, 'it's a surprise, even a bit of a shock, but who better than Afra? If you consider it objectively?' Jeff rose then, and took the few steps to the couple.

He kissed his daughter in the most benevolent fas.h.i.+on though he also subjected her to the most intense probe.

Then he embraced them both warmly, his blue eyes sparkling with a mixture of amus.e.m.e.nt, surprise and Damia noted with intense grat.i.tude acceptance.

'Mother?' she asked, timidly extending a hand in the Rowan's direction.

'I just don't understand it, the Rowan said, not looking at anyone. 'I've known Afra for twenty-eight years and I never expected.

..' She halted. A rueful look crossed her face and, with a huge sigh, she regarded them. 'Afra, you have always been part of our family, a cherished friend. But it's going to take me a little while to get used to thinking of you as a son-in-law.' 'Well, don't make a big thing of it, Angharad,' said Isthia, who had maintained a tactful silence long enough.

'You certainly know that Afra doesn't jump into things 'Oh, but he does, and has,' the Rowan replied, jerking her chin up and reminding Afra of exactly how he had come to Callisto Tower. Then, with a characteristic twitch to her shoulders, she began to relax. 'It'll still take some getting used to. And,' she frowned with some petulance, 'I'll have all the bother of training a new a.s.sistant. I'm not sure I'll forgive you for that, Damia.' 'I thought Gollee Gren was working out well for you, Afra said.