Theirs Not To Reason Why: An Officer's Duty Part 6

Ia refrained from rolling her eyes. "She's something of a friend, and something of a watchdog. I think the Department of Innovations asked her to keep a closer eye on my mental and emotional stability, considering how I've been constantly deployed in a combat hot spot for the last two years. You're listed on my personnel file as my family pastor, so naturally she'd call you."

"Department of Innovations?" Leona asked, leading her down a side corridor. "What's that?"

"It's part of the Branch Special Forces in the Terran military. They oversee merit-based promotions, and fast-track those with leadership potential," Ia explained. "Or slow the advance of those who have, ah, reached their maximum capacity for competence."

Leona smiled. "Then let us hope they do not have reason to slow you down. We're in the east conference room," she told Ia, opening the door. "Your examiners will be myself, Priest Ortuu, and Priestess Kaskalla. Be gentle on Kaskalla, as this will be her first time partic.i.p.ating in these sessions."

Ia nodded at the familiar figure of Ortuu. Like Leona, he had the white tabard of the Witan Order arrayed over his blue robes. Like his compatriot, his was decorated around the edges with fire and lightning, symbols of the Zen.o.bian Sect. Unlike her, he was resting in a chair with his feet propped up on a second seat, sipping from what smelled like a cup of caf'.

Beside him, perched somewhat nervously on her own chair at the round, white-topped table, was the young woman Kaskalla. Like Ortuu, her complexion was dark, her eyes brown, and her hair black and fuzzy. Her tabard contained the sword-in-galaxy of the Unigalactans...but the edges of hers were marked with fanciful rauela feathers, each long, curving shaft st.i.tched in a different rainbow hue.

"She's...not a member of the Zen.o.bian Sect," Ia observed, glancing at the older priestess. She didn't like this second surprise sprung on her. If she had probed the future in more than just a light skimming, if her instincts about the timestreams hadn't remained calm, she would have called an end to this session before even arriving.

"I thought it best that you have at least one 'neutral' observer on record. Don't worry; Kaskalla's one of us in heart, if not in vows," Leona added.

Ia shook her head. "I'll have to scan her, first. Introducing any new element, however seemingly benign, can shift the paradigms too far."

"Scan me?" Kaskalla asked, brows lifting. "I've already undergone my ethics probes for the year, meioa. In fact, it was just last month."

"It's not that kind of scan," Ia corrected her. She glanced at Leona.

"I haven't told her much about you," Leona confessed. "I figured it'd be best that way. But I'll vouch for her. I was one of the ones who scanned her, last month."

"I'll still have to scan her," Ia demurred. Crossing to the younger woman, Ia addressed her concerned look. "My abilities are a bit...touchy, meioa. Oversensitive, I suppose you could say. I need to make sure you and I can interact without triggering them the wrong way. It does not, however, involve reading your thoughts. It's sort of more like scanning your aura than anything else. Do I have your permission to do so?"

Kaskalla looked at the other two. "Is this safe?"

Ortuu shrugged. "Ia is a duly ordained priestess of the Zen.o.bian Sect. She's pa.s.sed all the required psychic ethics and appropriate conduct cla.s.ses, the exact same as you."

"Do you need me to lower my shields?" the young priestess asked Ia.

Ia shook her head. "That shouldn't be necessary. But I do need you to refrain from reacting psychically to anything you may sense."

That earned her a skeptical look, but Kaskalla shrugged and acquiesced anyway. "Alright, you have my permission."

Nodding, Ia touched her fingers to the other woman's forehead. This wasn't quite like touching the minds of the youths Rabbit had gathered around her. Kaskalla was Ia's age, maybe a little younger, but she was a fellow psi. That changed all the variables.

Back when the kinetic inergy, or KI, machine had first been crafted and proven to be capable of reliably measuring psychic emanations-weeding out the con artists and the merely delusional from the actually gifted members of society-scientists had discovered that different people had different "frequencies" of psychic abilities. Some of these frequencies could augment fellow psis, while others could negate, counter, or otherwise interfere with the abilities of two or more gifted people.

Touch almost always concentrated that effect, though personal effort via mental "shields" could quell some of it, and the stronger the gift, the more likely it was to overpower or override a fellow psychic's abilities. But by a quirk of quantum probabilities-namely, the b.u.t.terfly effect-even a weak ability could mess with a very strong one. Highly subjective as most psychic abilities still were, despite the advances of modern detection and training methods, they did operate under the same general rules of physics as other energy phenomena.

So Ia eased her mind open very slowly, very carefully. Leona's mind, she knew. Ortuu's mind, she knew. Kaskalla's mind was rife with curiosity and touches of wary caution. It wasn't telepathy, per se, but it was a pathic-level awareness of the other female. Opening her precognition a tiny trickle, Ia probed carefully into her timestream possibilities, skimming lightly to minimize the chance the other woman would sense what she was doing.

What she was looking for...she didn't find. Kaskalla wouldn't betray Ia or her fellow colonists to the Church. Not on any potential level of possibility, not in the timeplain paths Ia was trying to guide everyone into. There was a chance Kaskalla's gifts could augment her own a little, since she was apparently a very strong telepath, but she was a polite one, remaining safely within her mental walls.

Relieved, Ia backed out of her probings. Removing her fingers, she nodded. "I think we'll be compatible enough."

"Good. Then we can get started?" Kaskalla asked, glancing at the others.

Ortuu put down his caf' cup with a heavy sigh, visibly reluctant to give up the hybrid version of coffee. The Terrans and the V'Dan had developed it between themselves shortly after the two disparate branches had been reunited, smoothing out the bitter flavors and increasing the caffeine content pleasantly. Leona took a seat at the table, a cup of water resting in front of her. Ia sat as well, picking a seat between her and Kaskalla.

The younger priestess eyed her. "Um...I thought we were going to move to one of the testing rooms. You know, where the KI machines are?"

Leona, Ortuu, and Ia all shook their heads. Ortuu, dropping his feet from the spare seat, answered her question. "We can't have an active KI machine in the same room while we do this."

"Ethical Scan regulations clearly state that the psi in question needs to be monitored with a KI machine to ascertain whether or not they're straining away from the probe," Kaskalla argued, tapping the table.

"Yes, but the cost of those precious KI machines argue against using them in Ia's presence," Ortuu countered just as tartly. "Her gifts and those machines are incompatible during an ethics probe. Unless you yourself want to pay the twenty-three thousand credits per machine to replace them, we do this without any active ones-speaking of which, I'd better go and double-check the ones in the testing rooms are still turned off," he added, pushing to his feet. He snagged his mug as he rose. "I know I checked them earlier, but paranoia is only prudent. I'll be right back."

Kaskalla gave him a confused look as he left. She shifted her gaze to Ia. "I don't get it. How can you damage a KI machine, unless it's done physically?"

"You didn't tell her anything about my gifts?" Ia asked Leona. The older woman shook her head. Sighing, Ia gave the younger woman a brief explanation. "As I said, my gifts are overly sensitive. Particularly when someone is mucking around in my brain. Three of my gifts are telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and electrokinesis, all of which can affect the KI machines. Particularly the electrokinesis, if it's triggered inadvertently by you stumbling around inside my head.

"Unfortunately, while the actors in s.p.a.ce Patrol pull down huge piles of creds for each vidshow they make, I'm in the real s.p.a.ce Force, and my pay is a laughable pittance by comparison," Ia said, holding Kaskalla's gaze. "I had to save for two years just to be able to afford to come home. I literally cannot afford to replace the Order's testing machines on my salary."

"She killed four of them before we figured out what she was doing, back when her gifts fully blossomed," Leona added dryly. "Thankfully, one of her other gifts was precognition."

"Precognition?" Kaskalla asked. "Why be thankful for that?"

"Because I gave the Order the exact numbers to win just enough money in the Alliance Lottery to cover the replacement and shipping costs for four new machines," Ia told her.

The younger priestess opened her mouth, hesitated, then closed it. She shook her head. "That...skims the grey lines of ethics rather neatly. You didn't benefit directly from doing that, and it is covered under the 'reparations' addendum. Which technically leaves you clean, ethically. Though I wonder how you could pluck the exact numbers out of the air so readily," Kaskalla murmured, frowning. "Or was that a lucky touch of your gift?"

Ia lifted her left arm, checking the chrono display on the lid of her arm unit. "Tonight's local lottery drawings will take place in...forty-three minutes. Considering this session will take over two hours to complete, it doesn't violate any ethics to give you the winning numbers for tonight's games, since you won't be free to go buy a ticket. The Sanctuarian Daily Lotto's numbers are 4, 37, 18, 9, and Blue. The Lucky Draw's cards will be Queen of Diamonds, Three of Clubs, Seven of Clubs, and Ace of Spades.

"I'd give you the Alliance Lottery's Power Pick winning numbers," Ia added, smiling slightly, "but those won't be drawn until tomorrow, and that would be a violation of ethical use of precognition in predicting gambling outcomes, because you would have time to go buy a handpicked ticket, which in turn could be construed as a bribe to you...not to mention it would be a violation of the future, since you're not scheduled to win any of the drawings this week. Sorry."

"You didn't even strain to pick those numbers," Kaskalla protested. "How can I know they're real?"

"Write them down, and check them after the fact-welcome back, Ortuu," Ia added as the priest reentered the conference room. "Everything shut off?"

"Everything's shut off, and I have a fresh cup of caf'," he agreed, setting the refilled mug back on the table. "Let's get started, then. Everyone scoot a little more evenly around the table. I'll be the anchor, the one not in direct contact with her mind. Kaskalla, you are only to observe in this session. Make sure you do not say or think the word time while you are observing, while you're at it. Leona will be leading the probe and the questions. Ia, when you are ready, bring us in."

"Right." Closing her eyes, Ia calmed her thoughts. Running through the grounding and centering exercises was by now an old habit, but she consciously took herself through each visualization step, until she felt stable, calm, and controlled. Opening her eyes, she reached for Kaskalla's hand, gently bringing the Witan priestess into mental contact with her.

(h.e.l.lo,) Kaskalla greeted her. (By the code of the ethics probe, what is yours will remain yours until the end of this session, where my fellow scanners and I will debate the legalities of your psychic-related actions. You have the right to defend each point of contention during this scan. You have the right to a second scan. If any illegalities are uncovered and sustained upon a second scan, you have the right to legal counsel and legal representation in a court of law. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?) (Trust me, I've been doing this since I was a little girl. Just don't prejudge until you have all the facts,) Ia warned her. (Don't leap to any conclusions, and limit your questions. Let Leona take the lead. She knows which questions to ask. Brace yourself; I'm bringing her in.) She could sort of sense the older woman already, who lurked beyond Ortuu's thoughts, who lurked at the edges of Kaskalla's mind. When she held out her hand, accepting Leona's grasp, the circle of thoughts jolted. Now Leona was a strong presence on her right and a weaker echo from the left. Kaskalla was strong from the left and an echo from the right. Ortuu was a double echo, anchoring the far side of the ring. Not in direct, physical contact with her, he would remain the clearheaded member of the trio, much more of a dispa.s.sionate observer than either woman, who would be in direct contact with Ia's thoughts, emotions, and memories.

(You know the standard rights and waivers, Ia, so let us begin. Your last probe took place on February 13th, 2492 Terran Standard. Examiners were myself, Priestess Miranda Fyodore and Priest Ortuu Wickenne of the Zen.o.bian Sect of the Witan Order of Sanctuary,) Leona stated. (We will therefore start with the day of February 13th of 2492 T.S. Today is July 27th, 2492. Have you consistently used your psychic abilities every single day between the thirteenth of February and today?) (I have,) Ia stated, putting conviction and honesty behind the mental words. It was exceptionally difficult to lie mind-to-mind. It could be done, if the person lying possessed both very strong telepathic abilities and were a talented method actor, but with three trained and strongly gifted examiners watching her every thought, Ia didn't bother.

(G.o.d, every single day? We'll be here all night!) Kaskalla protested.

Leona frowned at her. (Keep your kibbitzing to a minimum, Priestess. It will not take all night. Ia, have you, to the best of your knowledge and honesty, used your abilities in the vast majority of instances with ethical care and consideration for obeying the laws of the Alliance?) (In the vast majority of instances, I have,) Ia stated. She could feel Kaskalla start to form a protest and squeezed the younger woman's fingers in silent warning to stay quiet. (I am prepared to show you any example you wish of legally acceptable use of my psychic abilities.) Leona nodded. (We will exercise that option at our discretion. Regarding instances which do not fall firmly into the category of ethical care and consideration for obeying the laws of the Alliance...are you prepared to submit those instances for our examination and consideration?) (With the understanding that I have the legal right to call upon the statutes covering Johns and Miskha versus the United Nations, regarding the rights of precognitives to act or not act in accordance with the betterment and benefit of future lives and their overall safety as foreseen in advance...I am prepared to submit all potentially questionable instances of my psychic behavior to this ethics inquiry,) Ia replied.

(You're going to use Johns and Mishka as your main defense?) Kaskalla asked skeptically from her left. The echo from the right was flavored with Ortuu's amus.e.m.e.nt and Leona's impatience.

(If you keep interrupting to ask questions and make comments, this will take all night,) Leona admonished the younger woman.

(Skipping over the vast majority of the instances in which she used her abilities with a broad, generalized statement of...of dismissal is a violation of procedure!) Kaskalla argued.

(In Ia's case, since she does use her abilities near-constantly, examining each and every single instance on an individual basis would take as long as the entire span of time between her last probe and now,) Ortuu retorted. (Possibly longer.) (Oh, for G.o.d's sake,) Ia muttered as Kaskalla marshalled her thoughts for another attack of procedures versus expediency. (We don't have Time for this.) The word dumped them onto the timeplains. A jerk hauled them up out of their individual timestreams. Kaskalla gasped, clutching at Ia's hand. Metaphorically, she was dripping wet and shivering, more strongly affected by that brief dip into her own existence than any non-psychic. Ortuu and Leona, veterans of the inadvertent effect, merely waited for Ia to stabilize them.

"Look, you silly little rules lawyer," Ia stated, impatience sharpening her tone. "This is why I can call upon Johns and Mishka with impunity. This is Time." Thunder rolled at the word, washing across the endless sea of gra.s.s and streams. She zoomed them upward, making Kaskalla gasp and Leona sway. Ortuu blinked a little, but said nothing as Ia reshaped the timeplains into a sepia-toned chart on a wall, standing them in an amber-hued version of the same conference room their bodies still occupied. "Everything I do is so G.o.ds-be-d.a.m.ned interconnected with the future that it would take your mind literally a year to understand just how much I have to use my gifts every single day.

"Every single day, I spend hours sifting through the future possibilities and probabilities so that I can find the right path to ensure that the maximum number of sentient beings have the maximum possible chance at a good quality of life overall." Releasing their hands in the vision, though not in reality, Ia tapped the chart of interbranching lines on the wall, thumping it to highlight each section in different colors as she spoke. "Do try to keep up?

"I have one shot at stopping the destruction of our galaxy three hundred years into the future. The Fire Girl Prophecies have already shown this coming invasion in the symbology of the great Wall. The physical source of that Wall is a Dysun's Sphere filled with intergalactic locusts coming to devour the entire resources of the Milky Way. Since so many of the key events needed to aim for that one shot will happen long after I'm dead and gone, I must seek out the key focal points and write precognitive directives for people to follow. The right people must be born at the right point in time, the right decisions made...and the wrong decisions and the wrong people must be carefully calculated and guarded against.

"b.u.mp into the right person here," she stated, thumping the tangle of lines so that some of them turned blue and streaked toward a star-shaped point on the far right of the map, "and two people will meet, fall in love, have the right kids who will go on to have more of the right kids, who will eventually befriend this person here," Ia added, thumping another section which turned yellow, intersected with the blue lines, and formed green streaks toward the star as well, "who will provide the right focal moment for this line of people to have the right life-experiences to be in the perfect place and time to help this person, who will stop the coming invasion.

"But in order to get this yellow line to exist, I have to throw off this person here from their current path in life, or this entire branch vanishes, the blue doesn't turn green, but instead goes purple, and poof, no Savior, no stopping the locusts, no Milky Way and no octillions of sentient lives still able to live free and enjoy their lives four hundred years from now," Ia told her. "If throwing off that one life here at the start of the yellow path means killing that person, I'd say a ratio of one to octillions is worth the stain on my soul.

"But losing that life when it isn't necessary is also a sin against the future. So I have to be d.a.m.ned sure that it's the absolute best option...because if I can find another option which keeps that person alive and gives them a good quality of life without destroying the future for everyone else, then I have to find it.

"That is the only ethics I have to defend. Not deciding whether or not Mary and John should get married so that the blue line can be correctly formed with the right kids at the right time. That chain of events is relatively harmless and benign, compared to the fact that, elsewhere, I literally have to decide who lives and who dies."

Ia eased back on the ill.u.s.tration, returning them to the timeplains.

"Your job is not to sit on your sanctimonious little b.u.t.t debating the scale and scope of a problem beyond your meager comprehension. Your job is to make sure that I comprehend it, and am doing my best to sufficiently agonize ethically over the worst of my decisions before following through on any choices I must make," Ia finished tartly.

"Even the laws of physics can seemingly be bent, though never broken," Leona said as Ia finished, unruffled by the rapid changes in venues. "So, too, can the laws of ethics. This woman is one of the most ethical, honorable beings in the known universe. She has proven it consistently time and again in these ethics sessions."

"What if she told you that you had to die? And by her hand?" Kaskalla argued. "What if she said she had to kill you?"

"Having already examined her and her ethics several times over the years, I would know she had already spent untold hours agonizing over the decision, searching for any other possible way to avoid such a fate," Leona replied calmly.

"And you'd just...accept it?" Kaskalla asked, clearly bewildered by that thought.

"Would you run into a burning building with children trapped inside? Would you do it knowing you would probably die in the attempt to save them?" Ortuu asked mildly. "But still knowing they needed to be saved?"

"Well..."

"It's the same thing," the priest dismissed, flicking his hand. "The only difference is that Ia asks it of everyone, not just of herself. You should know these things, being an ordained priestess of the Witan Order. The vast majority of known sentientkind, all the races of the Alliance, believe in certain principles of kindness, compa.s.sion, and cooperation. These are the trademarks of sentient civilizations, however disparate we may be in physiology. A Dlmvla is as likely to rush into a burning building to save its progeny as any Gatsugi or Human."

"Yes, but we don't go around ordering other people into burning buildings!" Kaskalla protested. "Normal, sane people don't do that!"

"The military does," Ia told her. "That's the burden of every officer, as well as the duty of every soldier. And we are normal and sane, all jokes set aside."

"Firefighters, Peacekeepers, and other emergency, safety, and support services also order their fellow sentients into danger," Ortuu reminded the young priestess.

"Those who have the experience to direct the fight against the fires will give those orders to those who have the will to save property and lives. Now, if you don't mind, we've wasted enough...seconds...on this subject," Leona stated, carefully skirting the T-word. "Ia, please take us to the first potential psychic ethical conundrum you have faced since our last probe in February."

"Of course." She slid them through the timeplains, back into the past, and transformed it into the same presentation display of different colored lines. "The first one took place during a boarding inspection of a Gatsugi merchant vessel, the Plump-Brown, at the end of February. I knew in advance that they were smuggling hallucinogenic drugs, which carry the strong possibility of harming people. But I also knew the effects of this particular shipment on the settlement of Ceti Omega IV would positively affect the future in the following ways..."

Two hours later, they were done. Ia knew the presentation board visualization dehumanized the impact of what she was discussing. Unfortunately, it was necessary; the sheer scope of time and lives involved required a vastly simplified version. She herself was used to skimming the timestreams more directly and kinesthetically feeling her way through the effects that would happen downstream, but she couldn't do that in this session. Not without traumatizing the others.

At least the pulses from Kaskalla's mind, laced with irritation, confusion, and the urge to comment on anything she didn't understand, had slowly quelled as the session continued. Pulling them fully out of the timeplains at the end, Ia flexed her muscles subtly. The others also shifted in their chairs, stiff from having sat for too long. (So. That, I believe, was the last of the moral ambiguities on my plate. At least to date. Any questions?) (Yes, actually,) Kaskalla stated, her thoughts crisp but guarded.

Ia's instincts p.r.i.c.kled. Worse, the clarity she could usually sense the future with had thickened, turning misty and obscure. Not overall, but for the next day or so. Warily, she asked, (What do you need to know?) (Can we go back to the, ah, timeplains, you called them?) she asked.

Ia didn't trust her motives. Grey patches on the timeplains were often dangerous points of transition. Sometimes it was just a matter of too many choices. Sometimes it was a matter of too much interference from others. In this case, the interference came not only from a fellow psychic, but from the fact that Kaskalla was young enough to want to enjoy her position of power, and young enough to not quite have learned the life-lesson that having power was not the same as wielding power. Not where true wisdom was concerned.

Part.i.tioning off a corner of her mind from the others, Ia examined the streams which exited the fog. The quick peek showed that whatever happened here wouldn't badly mangle the necessary paths of the future, but if she didn't pick the right choice, the wrong side-stream would increase her workload to lay and strengthen the correct courses for the future.

(Or are you going to refuse a direct request to view your psychic abilities and activities during your current ethics review?) Kaskalla added smugly. She tightened her grip on Ia's hand as she projected her thoughts, proving physically that she wasn't about to let go.

Ia did not trust her. It was fairly obvious the younger woman wasn't about to retract the request. She glanced at Ortuu and Leona, who were frowning slightly, but who weren't contradicting Kaskalla's request. Unfortunately, there was nothing Ia could do to probe the young woman directly, since an unasked, unauthorized telepathic scan, particularly of one of her own ethics session examiners, would violate psychic ethics beyond redemption.

There was only one path she had available to safely navigate this grey patch of uncertainty, and that was to do some legal asteroid-covering.

(If you insist. But I'll remind you that, whatever you wish to see, you are to keep to yourself under the seal of the confessional,) Ia added, holding her gaze.

(I wish,) Kaskalla stated, staring back, (to go back onto the timeplains and ask one more question.) (So be it.) Since Kaskalla was determined to make this a part of her ethics probe, Ia had no choice but to haul all four of them back onto the timeplains. Amber sunlight replaced artificial white, with the walls of the conference room dissolving into waves of wheat and wending streams.

"So. What did you want to see?" Ia asked her, facing the other woman.

Kaskalla lifted her chin. "I wanted to know why you don't like anyone to say the word Time while you're here."

Ia winced as the word rolled through their current plane of existence. "Please, don't."

"Why not? It's just a word. Time!" she a.s.serted.

Ia flinched again, struggling to control her gifts. The timeplains trembled under their feet, streambeds rippling as alternate possibilities tried to shift into existence.

"Kaskalla, you're a fool!" Ortuu berated her, tugging on the younger woman's hand. "Haven't you figured it out, yet? For someone like Ia, word and thought and will are combined. You say that word in this place, and it will trigger her abilities involuntarily."

"That is the point, Ortuu," Kaskalla retorted. "If she is not in control of herself, she is a danger to others." Turning, she projected the word right in Ia's ear, deep into Ia's mind. "Time Time Time Time TIME!"

Ortuu and Leona broke their link the moment Kaskalla shouted, ripping their minds and their hands away from Ia and the other girl with a jolt. Kaskalla clung, despite the way Ia tried to shove her away. The other woman was too strong a telepath to be dislodged, her intent too piercing. With that word echoing and bouncing around them in multiple thundering rumbles, the timeplains heaved, lurching up around them like tsunami waves. This had only happened twice before in the early exploration of her newly awakened abilities...but despite being much more practiced in her gifts, Ia could only roll herself up in a ball and endure.

Time swallowed her whole, drowning Kaskalla's shrieks as she clung to Ia's mental back. Eons, seconds, months, minutes, centuries, years. Turn right or turn left, the fish in the river no longer had a choice in how to get around the rock in its path; the rock split, the fish split, the waters split and shattered. Existence shattered...

Children grew, aged, died. Trees shot up, split, decayed. A thousand leafer beasts nibbled new paths through the forests and valleys. Rocks rea.s.sembled themselves in reverse from weathered shards and sand. Silver spheres shat golden dust on everything in sight. Fire blossomed in obscene bouquets, volcanoes exploding, starships shattering, flames boiling up explosively from the base of a cathedral where giant projection screens were showing a man whipping a half-naked girl who screamed, not in pain, but a word, a phrase, a name distorted by the warping of Time.

"Iiiiiiaaaaa! Iiiiaaaaa'nnn sud'dhaaaaa'aaaaaaaaaa!"

It was the only thing that could have anch.o.r.ed both of them. Ia could weather anything Time threw at her, but Kaskalla had nothing to help her cope with the onslaught of infinite possibilities, save for her limited experience with this one, definitive, local moment. She grabbed at it, still clinging to Ia, dragging both of them into the scene.

The whip rose, snapped onto flesh, fell, swung, disjointed images of too many times, too many tries, too many variables. The girl bled, the girl burned; the girl lived triumphant, and simultaneously died. The Church fell, the Church thrived, a thousand golden birds took flight...

At least from here, Ia could find her way-their way-back. It felt like she was pulling that ground bus all over again, the one she had hauled on in Basic Training, but she pulled on it. Like moving a thousand, no, ten thousand minds back into a semblance of sanity.

Pain cracked across her face, mostly in her chin and nose. Groaning, Ia rolled her head to the side, sinuses throbbing from the blow. It was only the edges of the table-indeed, all furniture on Sanctuary-which were padded with the resilient, rubbery, forgiving version of plexi. The main surface of the conference table was hard and white, suitable for writing. Not for smacking into headfirst.

The inside of her skull hurt. Worse, her inner reserves were low. Dreading what that meant, Ia probed cautiously into the timestreams, holding most of her awareness at a safe distance. It took a few moments to make sense of what she saw. When she did, Ia lurched upright. Almost making it to her feet, she dropped back onto the padded seat with a thump and another groan.

"Slag!" Grimacing, she gingerly touched her face, then reached over and slapped the dazed-looking girl at her side. "Wake up."

Kaskalla squeaked, the blow more of a sting than a bruise. Ia slapped her again, just hard enough to redden her cheek. When the younger priestess focused on her for a glare, Ia pressed her finger to the girl's forehead. Not to touch the other woman psychically, but to imprint her message physically, with focus-grounding pain.