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.
"Beetles tend to be tenacious," the Rowan added, though "tenacity" was certainly more of a trait than an emotion.
Jeff shrugged. "They can come back, angry, hurt, or merely tenacious, any time they care to have more of the same. And when they get anywhere near the perimeter of League Space, alarms will ring all over our sphere of influence." "I'd've chalked it up to prenatal nerves," the Rowan went on, still trying to analyze the faint emotions she had perceived, "except that Isthia heard it, too." "Isthia's maternal sensitivity is exceedingly acute," Jeff agreed but his tone also assured the Rowan that he was not going to make the mistake of dismissing the incident.
Rowan? It was Isthia's tone, stronger than her usual mental voice, have I caught you at a bad time?
Jeran and I are having a swim, the Rowan replied, not slow to catch the anxious undertones to that deceptive query. What's wrong?
Whatever IT is is getting stronger and more aminous. Her worry was deep. Rakella and Besseva concur, and eve'y woman with any modicum of Talent on this planet is beginning to display anxiety symptoms.
You'd think the planet was populated by viragoes the way tempers are flaring for no reason at all. Rakella and Besseva are merged with me to make this contact!
And here I thought you'd yielded and taken some training!
The Rowan deliberately spoke in a light vein.
Now I wish I had. I shan't be so perverse if we get out of this!
Even as she spoke to Isthia, the Rowan had risen from the pool and thrown towels around her son's wriggling body and her own.
I take it no masculine minds have been touched by this phenomenon? the Rowan asked, deftly inserting Jeran into his padded pants.
She also assembled some travel requirements for them both.
That's it precisely. Isthia's reply was grim. The male minds don't hear a twitch. Not that they won't listen to those of us who do!
Callisto is occluded right now so I'll call a day of rest. I think I'll bring Mauli with me. She's a keen echo finder even Mick isn't present. Jeff's on Procyon. Be with you soon.
The Rowan did not find Afra or Ackerman as cooperative about what they termed a "rash and impulsive venture". "Mauli will do anything you ask," Ackerman said testily, "but I'm damned if Afra and I will take the responsibility for you two, and Jeran, baring off to Deneb without at least checking with Jeff." "I can't disturb Jeff in that meeting on Procyon right now. And if I have to, Brian, I can also launch myself and Mauli without a gestalt," the Rowan replied, gesturing for Mauli to settle herself in the double capsule. She handed Jeran over and faced her critics. "Now, will you stop being overprotective and run up the generators? You both know that Isthia wouldn't put me, or Jeran, in jeopardy but if she wants me on Deneb, she's earned the right to my assistance at any time. Hasn't she?" "At least clear it with Jeff," Ackerman replied in a request that was nearly a plea.
Jeff, Isthia wants me on Deneb. The situation is hotting up.
Really? Should I come? She could sense that he was only half-listening to her. He was at a meeting but not bored.
I'm taking Jeran and Mauli.
He's old enough for a long 'port.
Afra and Ackerman had to accede to her orders then, but she knew both were uneasy. But then, they always were when she wanted to 'port anywhere: even when she was now undisturbed by the process.
Call this an inspection tour by the Denebian Prime-to-be, Afra, and don't worry, dear friend, the Rowan said, lightly touching Afra's forearm so she could impose assurance on him.
He gave a shrug and a wry smile, then helped her into the double carrier beside Mauli. Brian's scowl did not abate as the canopy locked shut. Then he turned on his heel and returned to the Tower, Afra following him.
Though this would not be Jeran's first 'port, for Jeff had taken him out beyond Jupiter on several occasions to accustom his son to the sensations, it would be his longest.
He spent the transfer gurgling and enthusiastically waving his arms. He registered Isthia's welcoming mind-touch with an extra chirrup. He liked his grandmother and his mind associated her with soothing sounds and contacts.
Did you catch that, Mauli? the Rowan asked, sometimes unable to restrain her pride in Jeran's obvious Talent.
Mauli's smile broadened into a laugh.
Isthia brought them with no more than a light bump into the cradle at the fine new Tower, bathed in spotlights at this time of Deneb's night, its big, new generators humming idly. The Rowan had a nostalgic moment for what she had contrapted out of sheer necessity but then Isthia, Rakella, and a third woman whom the Rowan identified by mind-touch as Besseva emerged from the facility. Besseva reminded the Rowan so forcefully of Lusena, physically and mentally, that she experienced a brief jolt at the contact.
I am then doubly honored, Besseva said, inclining her head slightly toward the Callisto Prime.
"And no problems with this fellow in a long 'port, I gather," said Isthia, taking her grandson from his mother and settling him on her hip as she had her own children. "I am truly grateful to you, Rowan, and to you as well, Mauli, for humoring me."
"Humoring you? Spare me that, Isthia!" The Rowan let her exasperation color her mind as well as her voice. "Since you've obviously left the generators on, let's see what we can plumb out there. I brought Mauli for that echo effect she has." "Night is the best time to sense the presence," Isthia said.
"And we have!" Besseva stated firmly, and Rakella gave a single emphatic nod of her head.
All three Denebians emanated a tenseness, a barely controlled fear that bordered on terror. The Rowan was seized with an urgent need to either deny or confirm it.
The Tower had been enlarged as well as modernized and, judging by the blank west wall, clearly the architect intended to expand in that direction when the time came for Deneb to have a full Prime Station.
"That's right, Jeran, look about you! This may one day be your domain," the Rowan said, grinning archly at Isthia, trying to neutralize their fears so she could be objective. They felt so strongly that it was, for once, difficult for the Rowan to maintain her integrity.
"Poor baby! What a fate!" Isthia stroked his cheek and then placed him in one of the spare couches, lightly strapping him safely in. "He shouldn't be bothered there." She gestured for the others to take the conformable seating grouped at the main console. Then she courteously gestured for the Rowan to initiate the gestalt.
As the Rowan felt the ready response of the bank of generators, she grinned again at the change from that poor wheeze of an affair.
Isthia had been practicing, for her mind smoothly blended with hers: then Rakella, Besseva, and a little timidly, Mauli merged.
Where? the Rowan asked.
Isthia pointed to her right, slightly west of true north, at one of the more brilliant constellations in the Denebian skies. The Rowan didn't know its astronomical designation for she was more familiar with the patterns in Altairian or Callistan skies.
Though I don't think that star system is where it originates, Isthia added. But it is coming from that general area of space.
The Rowan let her augmented mind range beyond Deneb's night horizon, beyond its moons, far, far out, past Deneb's heliopause, into the blackness of space. This merge was vastly different to the one she had led to Deneb's help nearly two years ago. This time she was the focus. Suddenly Yegrani's Sight came back to her, and the Rowan wondered if perhaps she had erred in believing that the Sight had been fulfilled with Deneb's trouble and Jeff's arrival.