Part 17 (1/2)

Azulema clung to a handhold as the s.h.i.+p's twisting tumbled the Minion to the mattress.

”I told you to hang on,” Pietor said. ”The power bolts will detonate on the interface behind us. All that energy will scramble the portal for days, long after they have any hope of tracking our course.”

He climbed out of the c.o.c.kpit and produced a gun. ”Your Temperance, we can't have you running about. Into the airlock, if you please.”

”Who are you handing me over to? The Order will offer an enormous reward. Whatever cabal set this up, your role will be discovered. Whoever you have conspired with, they will betray you.” The look in Pietor's eyes made him step into the tiny chamber.

”I'm afraid there's no conspiracy,” Azulema said. ”Just the two of us. It's safer that way, don't you think?”

For the first time the Minion looked worried. ”Why are you 144 eXtasy's Collective Mind doing this?”

”Because,” Pietor said, ”the universe will be a better place if the Order of Renunciation is fighting itself.”

Azulema started to close the hatch. ”And if you aren't in it.”

Desperately he tried to delay them. ”Wait. Please? How did you do it? My technicians swear it's impossible to transport more than one person at a time.”

”That's what you're worried about?” Azulema smiled. ”We made the beast with two backs. All those fluids, all that conductivity, we became as one. That's what making love is all about. Not that the Order of Renunciation's technicians will make that connection.” She closed and sealed the lock.

The Minion was still pleading when they ejected him, and the vacuum of s.p.a.ce sucked away his last words and thoughts.

Pietor secured the outer hatch. ”People who believe making soup justifies killing chickens never see their own feathers.”

”Do we?”

”You think we'll be punished somehow?”

”It is possible we'll be caught,” Azulema said. ”If not, we have to live with our crime. There will be other consequences.

Violence between the order's cabals will cause a lot of problems, and the Order of Renunciation isn't the only organization that doesn't see censors.h.i.+p as the first step on an evil road. Our solution wasn't a good one, just the best we could come up with.”

”He'd have murdered us out of hand, so we murdered him instead.”

”Exactly.” Azulema headed for the shower before he could see her tears. ”His Temperance was a man who needed killing, and now we are a little like him.”

145.

Violet Visions Private Dancer By Lynn Crain hat the hel was I doing on this of -planet hel hole? I W wondered as I did the last exotic number of the night.

This was certainly not what I had gone to school on Earth for at all. Rubbing my head lightly, I managed to go back out on stage and bow, smiling the biggest smile I could manage. Once the curtain closed, it was all I could do not to scream. I had been a.s.sured by the owner of the dance company who employed me that this would be a temporary duty a.s.signment as I wanted to get to the planet below. I was promised a place in the show there. I thought all one needed to get there, was to be good at what one did.

Running down the hall toward my dressing room, I stopped briefly at the carbon-tubule reinforced plexigla.s.s window. Only four feet separated us from the cold vacuum of s.p.a.ce. Far below, a blue-green planet not unlike Earth beckoned to me. This was not the first time Araelus Prime had called to me. It was the very 146 eXtasy's Collective Mind reason I was here. It had called to me once as I had finished my studies on Earth and many times since. There were no actual words, just an overwhelming feeling that I belonged here, I was wanted and needed. Everyone thought I was crazy but I knew that I had to come.

Much to my parents' chagrin and the voices of despair from my fellow cla.s.smates, I had boarded the first available s.h.i.+p to Araelus Prime once I had graduated. I had only gotten as far as the mining moon, Ja.n.u.s 345. Here, I was told, I had to apply for permission to get to the planet's surface. That was almost three years ago. Three years of being an erotic dancer with a second-cla.s.s dance troupe where no one, it seemed, ever got to go to the planet.

”Come on, Aeryn, don't think about it.” I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I turned to my friend, Diana. We had met the first day in the s.p.a.ce port. It was then that we realized both of us had come from opposite ends of the galaxy, drawn by the planet below.

”How can I not, Di?” I sighed. It seemed that I did that a lot these days.

”We've talked about this a thousand times. We shouldn't dwell on things we can't have right now.”

I just gazed at her. ”Yeah, we have. I just don't know if I want to wait any longer.”

A grimace crossed her face. ”You can't really mean that. Has something changed?”

I chuckled. ”Yeah, the way I feel.”

”The planet stopped calling you?” she questioned softly into my ear and took a nip. While I'm not a lesbian, if anything I was more of a bis.e.xual, touch of any kind has its moments when there's no one else to hold you. I leaned into her and sighed again as her arms reached around me to give me a hug.

147.

Violet Visions We had vowed when we met, never to let any one know that we had been called by something from the planet because we didn't know what it meant. It had taken us a long time to talk to each other about it in the first place and I doubt we would have if it hadn't been for the headaches. Searing blinding headaches, which made it hard to function sometimes, had cropped up more and more frequently in recent weeks.

”So close,” I whispered and gazed out the window, feeling the almost irresistible tug of the planet.

”So close to what, Aeryn?” Darren, the dance master, questioned as he came up the hall.

I saw the look in Di's eyes and shook my head.

”Just...nothing.”

”It takes time, girls, for all the paperwork to be signed. You'll get there eventually. Trust me.”

I looked at him. How could I trust someone who made money off me everyday? How could he just lie like that knowing we'd never get there by normal means?

For some reason, desperation gripped my heart. I needed to get there sooner than eventually.

The next morning, I barely seemed to be able to stumble from my bed and Diana had much the same problem. Matter of fact, she looked much, much worse than I knew I looked.

”This is crazy.” I gazed at her sadly. ”We need to let someone know that the planet is calling us. We need to let them know what it's doing to us.”

Di looked at me with forlorn eyes. ”They will just think we're crazy.”

”We don't know that. We don't know that at all.” I sighed 148 eXtasy's Collective Mind heavily. This feeling was just not going away no matter what we tried. If I didn't do something soon, especially if I didn't do something for Diana, my reason for even being there would be gone. I just knew it. ”Something is wrong, Di, I can feel it in my bones. If we don't get down on that planet soon, it isn't going to matter any more.”

”I know what you mean,” she whispered. ”I really feel like c.r.a.p.” Leaning back against the covers, she turned a nice shade of green.

”I need to let Darren know that we aren't going to be working today.”

”Is that really such a good idea?” she questioned quietly.

”I don't care if it's a good idea or not. If we get sick on the customers, he'll fire us anyway and then we'll never have a chance to get down to the planet.”

She swallowed hard and I could see that she thought about what might or might not happen. ”Should we go to the doctor then? I mean he'd believe that, right?”

I thought about it for a moment and realized that would probably be our best course. Then we'd have an excuse, plus we'd be able to stop by the immigration office and see just where in the whole scheme of things our applications might be hiding.