The Rowan
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Серия: Tower and the Hive #1
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Rowan». Краткое содержание книги:
The kinetically gifted, trained in mind/machine gestalt, are the most valued citizens of the Nine Star League. Using mental powers alone, these few Prime Talents transport ships, cargo and people between Earth's Moon, Mars' Demos and Jupiter's Callisto.
An orphaned young girl, simply called The Rowan, is discovered to have superior telepathic potential and is trained to become Prime Talent on Callisto. After years of self-sacrificing dedication to her position, The Rowan intercepts an urgent mental call from Jeff Raven, a young Prime Talent on distant Deneb. She convinces the other Primes to merge their powers with hers to help fight off an attack by invading aliens. Her growing relationship with Jeff gives her the courage to break her status-imposed isolation, and choose the more rewarding world of love and family.
Moria insisted on riding just behind the Rowan who caught every ring she reached for. The mechanism did not recharge fast enough for Moria to acquire one. She changed places on the next ride but she was not as agile as the Rowan. By now Lusena was aware of the tension and watched both girls closely. The Rowan was not using her kinetic ability to catch rings, of that Lusena was positive: the girl was simply more deft, with excellent timing so that it didn't matter if her cataron was up or down or midway, the Rowan collected a ring with each circuit.
Nothing would do then but for Moria to insist they go onward to one of the other rides.
"Rowan's got enough rings to do two free circuits," Emer pointed to the rings Rowan played with, her index fingers touching and her hands tipping the roll of rings up and down.
"Oh, I'll go on if you want to," and with that the Rowan tipped the rings into the collection maw. "Where will we go next?" Why her willingness should infuriate Moria, Lusena couldn't understand. The rest of the excursion was somehow colored by Moria's seething fury which communicated itself to Emer and Talba. The Rowan seemed oblivious.
"That girl wants for manners," the Rowan told Purza that evening.
"She made Emer and Talba miserable and Lusena's worried. Should I find out what's bothering Moria? No? Well, I know it's not done but I really don't want to spend the rest of my holiday appeasing that old bouzma. I have to do that all the time with Siglen. If I just…
"No? I can't? Even to lighten up our holiday? Can I not just lean on her a bit when she gets particularly antsy? Just a little!
"It'd make things a lot easier all 'round.
"OK! I promise. Just a little!" Most of that night went by sleeplessly for Lusena as she reviewed the conversation. The Rowan had clearly displayed an understanding of Talent ethics. Leaning wasn't a violation exactly, not even a genuine intrusion of mental privacy, Lusena conceded: a little leaning often did a lot of good and she had applied leans on the Rowan in her early years. It was the most minor of infractions of the basic Law but she would monitor the Rowan.
Talents, particularly Primes, had to be so careful of their interactions.
The Rowan did lean on Moria the next morning at the first note of petulance. It was adroitly done, Lusena thought, and it certainly did improve the atmosphere at the breakfast table. The morning was spent pleasantly in swimming on their private beach. The Rowan was careful to keep her "tan" slightly less bronze than Moria's and to comment wistfully that she would never attain the lovely shade Moria had acquired.
That evening Lusena took them all to a concert in the open air amphitheater, a re-creation of an ancient structure with brilliant acoustics. The program was varied, suiting many tastes in a vacationing public. At the conclusion, an announcement indicated that the last group would be playing dance music at the Regency.
Naturally Moria begged to be allowed to go. "Who needs a partner? There's sure to be some unaccompanied boys wanting to dance. I just know it. There were hundreds in the audience. Oh, please, Lusena. The others can sit and listen. Emer adores this group anyway. She wouldn't mind. And if Rowan's never been to a dance, this would be an intro. Please, please." Moria might come from a sophisticated household but Lusena did not believe her parents would condone her attendance at a hotel dance no matter how the girl pleaded.
So she flatly refused and took the girls home. Moria coming up with more and more reasons why they should attend. Lusena was so worn out by her whining that she almost leaned on the girl herself and wondered why the Rowan didn't.
Lusena was startled then, two hours later, when the Rowan knocked at her door. "She's gone!" "Who's gone?" Lusena exclaimed inanely.
"Why? Were you peeking?" "I didn't need to, not with her climbing down the trellis and making a lot of noise," the Rowan said. Then, looking Lusena straight in the eye, went on. "She was also broadcasting as loud as if she'd Talent. She doesn't like me, you know." "Moria's at a very difficult stage in adolescence," Lusena felt obliged to explain.
"Well, she's NOT an adult. She's far too silly and she could get in a lot of trouble at the Regency. The boys she wants to attract were popping junk at the concert. They won't know one end from another by now." The Rowan paused, concentrating, scowling. "They don't. She'll be in big trouble if she meets them. She's wearing gauzes."
"How much of a head start does she have?" Lusena zipped herself into the nearest clothes to hand.
"You should catch her on the main road. Unless she gets a ride but I don't see any vehicle going her way along that road."
A very sullen Moria was retrieved. When she quite accurately blamed the Rowan as her informant, Lusena did her best to center Moria's thoughts on her willful disobedience, detailing the consequences of such irrational behavior. Moria smarted under the lecture, though when Lusena mentioned that the boys at the concert had been popping, the girl did pause thoughtfully.
"I'm not a parent, Moria," Lusena said sternly, "but I am in charge and you are grounded!" When Moria raised her head challenging that authority, Lusena leaned and Moria's eyes widened with surprise.
"You're a Talent!" "It runs in the family," Lusena remarked drily.
"Or doesn't your father ever mention his?" Moria stared at Lusena as if she'd sprouted wings or horns. "The more fool he," Lusena muttered and gestured firmly for Moria to get into her room. "You'll be staying there tomorrow!" Because she intended to enforce that punishment, the original plans for the next day had to be altered.
Lusena said that Moria would be keeping to her room and neither Emer nor Talba questioned it, completely ignorant of the early-morning episode. The Rowan announced that she wanted to swim as the waves looked energetic enough to surf on.
Lusena joined them later, having checked that Moria was still deeply asleep. She kept in touch with the girl's mind when she did wake, listening to the grousing and complaining as Moria ate the meal left for her and idled about the room. Lusena caught a glimpse of her on the balcony, observing the others down on the beach and then the girl withdrew, her thoughts most uncomplimentary and her resentment aimed at the Rowan. Lusena wondered if she would have to send Moria home prematurely.
The holiday had been arranged for the Rowan's benefit not Moria's.
The Rowan had caught the knack of riding the rolling combers back to the beach. The sea was rough but not overly so and there was no undertow on this beach so when the girls clamored for Lusena to join them, she did so, keeping a light touch on Moria's mind They were all riding the crest of one large wave when Lusena heard the Rowan give a terrible shout. There was a look of agony on her face so intense that Lusena probed to find out what had injured the girl. But the pain was psychic. Frantically propelling herself through the comber, the Rowan staggered on to the beach and started running for the house, mentally broadcasting a shout that nearly deafened Lusena.
DON'T! YOU CAN'T! YOU MUSTN'T! YOU'RE KILLING HER!
Shrieks now came from another source - Moria!
ROWAN! YOU CAN'T, YOU MUSTN'T DESCEND TO HER LEVEL! Lusena tried to free herself from the wave, was tumbled about roughly and came up, gasping for breath. She wasn't kinetic but somehow she was on the path with no recollection of having reached it and running as fast as she could toward the house. She saw the Rowan on the balcony outside her room and then a final shriek from… Lusena could not immediately identify the source but the pain came from an anguished soul.
Panting with exertion, she finally reached the Rowan's room.