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.
"If it's all new equipment, Siglen, you'll be learning to operate it, too, won't you?" replied the Rowan logically.
She noticed the twitch of annoyance on the Prime's face but she could find no break in the woman's mental shield.
The twitch expanded slightly into a weak smile.
"I do wish you ate properly, my dear. I gave a good deal of thought to this evening's meal. You are so thin and whatever will they think of me," a jeweled thumb pressed dramatically against Siglen's large bosom, "and the way I have cared for you." "The medics say I have an active metabolism, Siglen, and I'm unlikely ever to put on much extra weight." "But you will need it, my dear, to sustain you." Siglen's flabby face now registered extreme concern.
"To sustain me? I believe the hydroponics units at the Callisto Station are state of the art and can supply every known edible fruit and vegetable."
"I'm sure you'll be all right once you get to Callisto," and there was an ominous suggestion of imminent disaster in Siglen's round tones.
"Of course I'll be all right on Callisto." "Yes, but you have to get there!" Then, to the Rowan's utter amazement, Siglen burst into tears, covering her face with her napkin. She reached out a hand to grab the Rowan's and there was no doubt of the woman's concern and anxiety. The girl looked to Bralla for an explanation. Terror pulsed through Siglen's fingers to the Rowan who worked her fingers free, wanting no part, however vicarious, of that particular emotion.
Bralla looked equally upset, her mouth quivering.
"What are you talking about, Siglen?" Mopping her eyes, Siglen gave the Rowan a single woeful glance before propping both heavy arms on the table and once again giving way to noisy sobs.
"It's space, my dear," Bralla said, her expression rife with dread.
"What do you mean?" "You know what travel in space does to Primes, Rowan," Bralla told her earnestly as if that explained everything.
"David suffered agonies when he left here for Betelgeuse. He was so unwise to believe that a male Prime would be unaffected. Capella took three months to recover from her disorientation." "I've 'ported myself from Favor Bay to Bardy's Claimsite without any disorientation…" "But you were planet bound, with home gravity…" Bralla argued.
"And I've flown in shuttles all over Altair." "Shuttles are not at all the same thing as being 'ported," Siglen said disputatiously. "Oh, I have dreaded this from the moment I heard the rumor about Callisto Station. I begged Reidinger to consider T-2s, any sort of combination but you, Rowan. I couldn't let you, a mere baby, go through that terror so soon after your hideous ordeal. Now you don't even have Lusena to support you m your hour of need." The Rowan hadn't thought of that abortive attempt to send her three-year-old self to Earth for her training. But she did indeed remember the dark passage into the shuttle: into an enclosed space. The erratic motion of the Miraki through the Straits reinforced that ancient terror far too vividly.
"Nonsense. I'll be perfectly all right. I was a child and no-one had explained anything to me. They just said I had to…" and she opened her eyes wide so as not to see the huge frightening maw they had been urging her into. "I do wish, Siglen, that you didn't make a mountain out of a molehill. I'll be perfectly all right." "That's what David said when I warned him about spatial disorientation. Capella believed me and went heavily sedated but it still took her three months to reorient herself. I wish I could spare you this when you have so recently lost your confidante. There isn't one of the T-4s in Gerolaman's course who'd be any use to you. Bralla agrees with me." Bralla nodded vigorously and the Rowan kept a tight grip on a growing vexation.
"If I don't find a T-4 from this group, I'm sure there'll be plenty more willing to accept a promotion to a new Tower. Now, do please stop overdramatizing a simple 'portation. I know that you'll make the shift with your usual skill, Siglen, so I've no worries at all." She stayed only as long as minimum politeness dictated and then went in search of Gerolaman.
"Well, it's true enough about David and Capella and she went completely sedated and cocooned in a special shock capsule," Gerolaman said. "I know Siglen was so sick she lost 5 kilos. And no Prime I've ever heard of has ever been able to 'port himself or herself through space. Reidinger went to the Moon once and never stirred off planet afterwards." "I'm the youngest Prime, and healthy, athletic…"
"Everything the others weren't," Gerolaman finished with a malicious gleam in his eyes. "I'll lay bets on you, m'girl. Now, what d'you think of that T-4, Forrie Toy?" "I don't like him at all. He eyes me the way Siglen does a particularly creamy eclair and he won't meet my eyes. He slams shields up against even the most courteous request. I'd never be able to work with such a closed mind." "Procyon's sending over a T-4 female."
"I work better with a male pairing."
"Well, Siglen would have preferred to but Bralla was the only one to suit her, ever."
"Gerolaman, do I have to remind you that I am NOT remotely like Siglen." "No, you don't, Rowan, but we still have to form the nucleus of a working team before you reach Callisto!" "I'll try the woman." Channi could not have been more of an opposite had a mad genetic scientist deliberately designed them. She was a half-meter taller than the Rowan, big-boned, a woman who moved with deliberation (probably because she was afraid of injuring someone smaller than her large self), and while she was tested as a T-4 rating in both telepathy and teleportation, the Rowan could not achieve any rapport.
"She slows me up as if I was trying to work through a wall," the Rowan said and began to worry that she'd never assemble a cohesive Tower staff.
Where Gerolaman kept reassuring her that there was no question that she would soon find appropriate matches of skills and Talents, Bralla would appear with suggestions from Siglen which invariably proved totally useless. The time for the Rowan's scheduled departure drew closer and she became more anxious to start out on the right note.
ROWAN! Reidinger's unmistakable tones roared through her skull.
Stop that fidgeting. You've got enough to run a Tower right now with the seven you've picked and the ten who're waiting for you at Callisto.
You're going to have to relax. I don't want you in a muck sweat when you board the transport.
And how are you betting on my survival? she demanded acidly. On what? The genuine surprise in his tone reassured her more than the diatribe he launched when he understood what the bet was.
Mauli and Mick came to help her pack the things she would be transferring to Callisto. Their companionship helped ease the inevitable heartache as she came across gifts that Lusena had given her over the years. From his special caricase, Rascal alternated between acid comments on his incarceration and plaintive requests to be allowed out but he had proved too much of a nuisance, hiding in crates or attacking Mauli. When everything had been neatly stowed in the container, the Rowan with Mauli and Mick, 'ported it into its assigned place in the transport waiting on the cradle for the morning's lift.
"Are you sure you don't want to sleep in the guest house?" Mauli asked, looking about the rooms empty except for Rascal's case.
"I'll be fine. I'll just move a few things in from the stores," the Rowan reassured them and saw them firmly out of her quarters.
She put Rascal's cage safely in the food preparation area which was the only room that she and Lusena had not redecorated from Siglen's original offering. Then, working at top speed, the Rowan papered, painted, and restored the rooms just as they had been on the day she had moved into the Tower. For just this night, it wouldn't hurt her to sleep on that ghastly pink and orange bed. She was tired enough so she wouldn't even notice. But Rascal did and it took him a long time to stop his disgusted commentary.