Rise of Refuge

Chapter 8 - Old Times

Yllera sat comfortably in one of the overstuffed chairs in Erica office. Erica sat across her desk from Yllera. “So, Tina has taken you very seriously. Did you think she wouldn’t? I know your instincts are good. I taught you to channel them productively, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember hiking to and from a library uphill both ways to bring home a book that weighed thirty pounds and was identical, except for three words, to a book you already had,” Yllera grumbled.

“Those were three very important words. They pointed us directly to where that earth diverged from its neighbors,” Erica replied, “Besides I was not the one who wanted to play tertiary factor in a RED shirt.”

“Pardon me but not everyone is a Trekkie,” Yllera chuckled.

Erica’s desk flashed an icon showing an incoming call, “Hold on while I take this,” Erica tapped the flashing icon, and it blew up into Niri Everett’s smiling face.

“Erica, I need you to come to my office. I have a couple of new prospects I would appreciate you to mentor.”

“I’m meeting with Yllera right now,” Erica smiled.

“This would only take a couple of minutes,” Niri argued.

Erica protested again but Yllera held up her hand, “No, that’s okay Erica. Go, I can come back another time.”

Erica smiled at her, “You can let yourself out?”

Yllera nodded, and Erica disappeared. Yllera stood and walked to the office door. It opened for her and she stepped through. On the other side, she nearly ran into a pretty young woman with a glorious halo of blonde hair. The girl’s eyes were a shade of green that reminded Yllera of the ocean.

“Oh, sorry, I was looking for Erica!” The girl stated with surprise.

“She had to step out, Niri wants her to mentor some people,” Yllera smiled.

The young woman smiled back with a contagious sort of grin, “Do you think I should wait for her or leave a message and have her call me if she has time?”

Yllera considered the question. Niri had insisted it would only take a couple of minutes, but Niri was incapable of a conversation lasting only a couple of minutes. It seemed unnatural to her makeup. She had the terrible affliction of a severe case of verbal diarrhea. “Niri Everett said it would only be a few minutes, and Erica just left.”

The young woman let out an explosive sigh, “I suppose I won’t hear from her today.”

Yllera laughed, “We could wait here on the off chance. I mean, miracles happen in the universe. I could keep you company.”

The girl smiled again; she was beautiful when she smiled, “That would be nice. My name is Hillary.”

“Yllera Vlett,” Yllera held out her hand.

The girl blanched, “Really? The Yllera?”

Yllera smiled condescendingly, “Yeah, I am the first restored agurian. I established relations with the agurian people. I can actually shape-shift, and I am a prime factor.”

“Kavir kidnapped you, and you birthed nine children?”

It surprised Yllera that that incident had been the first thing the girl went to, “Ten actually, I have a daughter named Ariel a one-hundred percent agurian.”

“But you were the mother of the first nine Kaviri children?”

Yllera went pale. She had heard that she was the mother of a new intergalactic species, but wasn’t sure why this pretty young stranger would focus on that claim to infamy. “I suppose. It wasn’t by choice. I didn’t consent to what Kavir did, and it nearly killed me.”

“He was heartily ashamed of his dishonorable behavior and insisted all of his children held honor as a paramount virtue,” The girl stated.

Yllera was getting an uncomfortable feeling, “And how would you know that?”

“My birth name wasn’t Hillary. I was born Illeria Kavry, heir to The House of Kavry. They named me after my ancestor, you.”

Yllera backed into Erica’s office door, panic clawing at her chest. An elephant had taken a seat and was making breathing difficult. This girl was one of Kavir’s children! After what he had done to her, Yllera couldn’t separate Hillary's actions from his actions, not even by the generations between them. In Yllera’s mind, Hillary was Kavir returning to claim her. She didn’t have a mind to make a proper exit, she just teleported into Max’s arms. She stood there trembling and sobbing for quite some time before she even knew that she was in his work office.

“I’m sorry,” She pulled away and blotted her eyes.

“You just met Hillary, didn’t you?”

Yllera just nodded.

“Love, she isn’t Kavir. She is a decent, honorable girl who is just as lost as the rest of us would be if our father sent us away from our home for dishonoring our families.”

Yllera couldn’t help it, she threw herself back into his arms. At least this time, a few of her tears were for the poor girl.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Hillary walked up to Erica’s door, and it opened faster than she could knock and she stepped inside, assuming it was Erica there to greet her. She almost ran right into a woman with dirty blonde hair that had feathers woven through it. Her eyes fastened on Hillary. Hillary gasped, “Oh, sorry, I was looking for Erica!”

“She had to step out, Niri wants her to mentor some people,” The other woman smiled.

Hillary smiled back, “Do you think I should wait for her or leave a message and have her call me if she has time?”

The stranger seemed to consider the question. “Niri Everett said it would only be a few minutes, and Erica just left.”

Hillary let out an explosive sigh, Niri could spend forty-five minutes discussing the greeting behavior of primitive cultures, and Hillary would consider that a short hello. “I suppose I won’t hear from her today.”

The other woman laughed, “We could wait here on the off chance. I mean, miracles happen in the universe. I could keep you company.” So, this stranger was familiar with Niri.

Hillary smiled, “That would be nice. My name is Hillary.”

“Yllera Vlett,” Yllera held out her hand.

Hillary blanched, “Really? The Yllera?” Decades of tales about the original mother of her people flowed through Hillary’s mind in a moment.

Yllera smiled condescendingly, “Yeah, I am the first restored agurian. I established relations with the agurian people. I can actually shape-shift, and I am a prime factor.”

Hillary waved that away, “Kavir kidnapped you, and you birthed nine children?”

Yllera shrugged “Ten actually, I have a daughter named Ariel a one-hundred percent agurian.”

“But you were the mother of the first nine Kaviri children?”

Yllera went pale. “I suppose. It wasn’t by choice. I didn’t consent to what Kavir did, and it nearly killed me.”

Hillary tripped over her thoughts and instructions she had drilled into her about what to do if this actually happened to her, “He was heartily ashamed of his dishonorable behavior and insisted all of his children held honor as a paramount virtue.”

Yllera seemed suddenly hesitant. “And how would you know that?”

“My birth name wasn’t Hillary. I was born Illeria Kavry, heir to The House of Kavry. They named me after my ancestor, you.”

Yllera went pale as a ghost and backed into the door. It was clear she was having trouble breathing. She panted for a moment and then teleported away without a single word. Hillary stood blinking at the empty place and wondered what she had done wrong. She thought she had been properly respectful. Had she done something dishonorable? Hillary stood there for several minutes, properly confused.

Hillary decided to leave and turned from the empty door only to run into Erica. “Hillary? Can I help you?”

“Yes, I was coming to discuss the research you have been having me do,” Hillary replied.

“You look upset, did you discover something off?”

Hillary blinked. She honestly couldn’t even remember what she had been researching. Her thoughts were on Yllera, “I met Yllera, she was coming out of your office when I arrived.”

“I had guessed. I was actually hoping to catch her. I convinced Niri to just email me with the information she needed me to have. It was difficult, but I got out of there in less than five minutes. What happened? Where is she?”

“We were talking. I thought it was a pleasant conversation. Then I must have said something to upset her because she just went pale and disappeared saying nothing more.” Hillary stated.

Erica nodded, “Let me guess, you apologized for the behavior of Kavir and assured her he was very sorry for what he did.”

Hillary nodded solemnly, “I also mentioned that they named me after her. That is when she freaked out.”

Erica sighed, “Hillary, it has been centuries for your people to have forgotten the circumstances of their origins, but for her it has been less than a year. Kavir conceived your people without her consent. He removed her ability to consent. In most circumstances, people consider that rape. You smiled at her face and told her that at least a part of her rapist still existed.”

Hillary slapped her own forehead. She thought she would have considered those facts, but she had been too much of a hero worshipper to even think how her words would affect Yllera. “I am so sorry. Would you apologize to her for me? That could have gone so much better.”

“Frankly, it could have gone so much worse,” Erica stated, “She is a fully trained prime factor. The fact is that though in principal factors are a nonviolent group, you yourself know we train you to defend yourself, with deadly force if absolutely necessary. Things could have gone much, much, worse.”

Hillary nodded, accepting Erica’s wisdom. She thought of the research she had been doing. Erica had her combing through reports of new life forms for potential parasites and symbionts that could fill in the other R groups necessary to create the Riiad collective. She thought of one that had drawn her attention, a fungal intelligence native to a soaked planet that reminded her of her homeworld.

Suddenly a view through eyes which were not her own eclipsed her vision. She looked down through shrubbery at a small mammal-like creature covered in a film of what appeared to be some kind of fungus. Hands, not her own, reached towards the creature and it pulled away. A harsh chuckle escaped the lips she piggybacked on, “Settle creature, we come in peace, to bring you into the whole.”

The lips were Kadin’s; the thoughts were of the collective and the hands that snatched up the trembling creature belonged to her brother. Hillary avoided reacting to it in any way and just quietly observed. The fungal intelligence speared Kadin’s mind with intrusive attempts at control. Kadin batted it down into submission. The many other hosts supporting the fungal intelligence glowed in Kadin’s mind. The whole swamp glowed with inclusion. Kadin cackled, the thrill of extending his influence and control. Hillary flinched away from the raw alien emotion behind it.

“Illeria, I can feel you! You and I will become one once again. And the whole multiverse will be ours! Come to me, my sister and we will descend upon our father triumphant!” Kadin spoke to her aloud for her to hear through his ears.

Hillary pulled away and nearly passed out from the wrenching sensation of returning her consciousness to Sanctuary and Erica. Hillary was on the floor and she felt too dizzy to sit up straight.

“Was it Kadin again?” Erica asked with concern.

Hillary nodded and held her head against the room spinning around her. She levered herself into a seated position. Erica hovered near her, seeing that Hillary didn’t fall back down.

“What did you see?”

Hillary took a deep breath and replayed the scene in her mind. “Kadin has absorbed a fungal intelligence. I believe it is an R3 organism, I think.”

Erica nodded seriously, “I am going to call Tina to come check you out, and then I will report to the chief.”

Hillary nodded. She figured she would just sit and get her head on straight before trying anything more.
- - - - - - - - - - - -


Annette sat in Tina’s exam room waiting patiently. This was an off book visit. Annette assumed it was about their little side project. Annette’s thoughts were not on the results or consequences, all she could think about was Teo’s surprise. He had left Refuge and established himself as a highly paid catalyst with licenses from more than a dozen parallel universes. It was no small feat. Annette had offered him a position as a factor because the reputation he had established more than proved he was qualified. Strangely, Teo had refused.

“Okay Annette, are we sure we want to give this a go?” Tina asked carrying a sealed containment box containing samples of the R4 plant collective that had been the first element Kadin encountered. Tina wore an armored and sealed environmental suit. Annette felt underdressed.

“Do you have any better ideas on how we could find out what we need to know?” Annette asked.

Tina sighed and unsealed the containment box. Annette eyed it warily. She could see through the clear sides a short coil of a vine so green it seemed surreal. Tina reached in for it and it lashed out at her with short thorns protruding from its surface. The thorns bounced off of the armored gloves. Tina grabbed the vine firmly and extended it towards Annette. “Hold out your hand.”

Annette followed Tina’s instructions. The vine whipped around her wrist with unnatural speed as Tina brought it within range of Annette’s raised hand. Annette analyzed the sensations that followed with a near clinical separation. Dozens of thorns dug into the flesh of her wrist and she could feel them growing within her tissues. Annette’s awareness turned within, tuning out Tina and the surrounding room. Numbness spread with the infection. She felt detached from her own body as the fibers growing from the thorns met her nerves and organs. Her sensory field shrank, and she felt certain she was going to black out. Then a spark within began burning through the fibers from the thorns, restoring sensation and awareness of her body.

Sometime later, she blinked open her eyes to the harsh lighting of the exam room. She was curled up on the floor with no memory of falling. Tina stood over her still dressed in the protective gear Annette could see stress sweat on Tina’s forehead behind the isolation gear. Annette attempted to push herself up from the floor. Her arms were weak, and she was damp with sweat herself.

“No, don’t get up. Give yourself some time. You have been fighting the infection for fourteen hours,” Tina insisted. She was gathering dead withered scraps of the vine from where it had twined around Annette’s wrist and grown up her arm. The smell of wilting vegetation filled the room.

Annette ignored Tina, and she sat up. A wave of nausea and dizziness washed over her, and she feared she might fall back down. Tina caught her telekinetically while collecting the dead and dying fragments of the vine using the gloves of her suit. “I told you to just lay there.”

“I am about to piss you off then,” Annette steadied her head with her hand for a moment and then climbed from the floor into one of the exam room’s waiting chairs.

Tina sighed heavily, and she sealed the containment box around the last of the vine fragments. “You are one stubborn brat!”

“Thanks doc, did you find anything out from that?”

Tina stripped out of the isolation suit and reached for a tablet on the counter. She tapped at it for several moments, “The room’s scanners picked up the moment your immune system turned the tide. It turns out the best defense for infection is a combination of immunological responses that are common to most species, just not combined in the way your body used them. It shouldn’t take much to activate those responses in pretty much any species. I can probably produce a directly injectable vaccine within a few hours. The problem of spreading it to the universe… I need more time to think on that.”

“Is it just a vaccine you found? Or a cure?” Annette took some deep breaths. Her head was clearing but not as quickly as she would like.

“Both, but it would just be easier to prevent than treat,” Tina said tapping at the tablet.

“Okay, so what about me?” Annette attempted to rise to her feet but her knees buckled and she landed back in the chair with at thud.

Tina looked her over, “I think I should keep you in isolation and observation through the weekend. I am sure you beat the infection, but I am worried about whether there might be complications.”

“What about work?”

“We both agreed you would clear your schedule for at least five days for these experiments. Don’t make me put you on medical restriction,” Tina scolded.

Annette tried to stand again to make her point, but couldn’t quite get her legs beneath her. Tina teleported from the room and returned moments later with a hovering transport chair. Without argument, Annette let Tina help her into the chair.

“No argument? Good, I have just the place to put you. A nice quiet isolation room without access to any of your files or emails. You need rest, at least a couple of days,” Tina got behind the chair and pushed her out into the hallway and through the corridors.

“What if Carl needs to contact me? For something important?”

“You can’t act as chief from a coffin. If you don’t respect your body, it will give up on you. Carl can handle things for a few more days…

Annette sighed and went with the flow. She really could use a break. “What about Teo?”

“You wanted to keep this need to know. Does he need to?”

Annette growled wordlessly to herself. “No, I don’t want him to worry.”

“Here we are,” Tina pushed the chair and Annette into a waiting isolation room. She handed Annette the remote for the media screen. “If you need anything, press the call button. I will respond immediately.”

Annette nodded. Tina helped her onto the bed. Annette settled in to some enforced rest.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Lora finished uploading her day’s work to her office. Working from home was something that simplified her life a great deal. It helped that her job allowed her to work at whatever time she felt the most productive, as long as she kept up with the project deadlines. She had changed her home workstation so it could process her work at the superhuman speed she could impute it. That meant she could finish work that could take her colleagues twenty hours or more in less than thirty minutes of actual time.

That meant Lora had plenty of free time for her other pursuits. The most prominent of which was her work as Sotto. Tony had been her guide to the ins and outs of superheroing on this earth. At first, Lora had felt like the sidekick, but the relationship rapidly shifted. For all that Tony had more practical experience as Splatt, Voce’s sidekick, she lacked the personal confidence that would make her an independent hero. Tony was soon leaning more from Lora than the other way around. It was rare, after five years in the role of Sotto, that Lora needed any information from Tony before acting.

Lora flung herself to the couch and flipped on the news. The first ten minutes covered a robbery that Lora and Tony had stopped before anyone could get hurt. Illora contemplated heading to the bedroom for a quick nap before John got home. That was when someone began pounding at the apartment door. Lora rushed to the door and opened it. Tony nearly pounded Lora in the face with a balled up fist.

“Did you see it?”

“See what?” Lora asked, confused.

“The signal! The Heisenberg Box team sent the signal!”

“Heisenberg Box? They have that here? Do they have a Joint Terran-Galactic Defense Unit here too?”

“Well yeah!”

“And you haven’t mentioned it to me until now? Why haven’t they approached me? Recruited me?” Lora asked.

“Oh, well, they had an agreement with our Lora to let her work independently as long as she jumped in to help them if they needed it. I guess they assumed since you were working with me you were in on the agreement too,” Tony stated, breathless.

John chose that moment to arrive bearing two dozen roses, a two-pound box of chocolate, and a bottle of champagne. He stopped short on seeing how Tony had backed Lora into the apartment. “Let me guess, your surprise trumps mine!” He glared at Tony.

“Apparently there is a Heisenberg Box and Joint Terran-Galactic Defense Unit in this universe I didn’t know about, and they have signaled for help. What is the signal by the way?” Lora turned on Tony.

“The cartoon! The Box Jumpers! The plot involves an alien invasion and the jumpers only prevent it with the help of an alien superhero making a cameo appearance from another show. That is how they said they would signal Lora for help,” Tony responded.

“Okay, why didn’t they just call?”

“They respected Lora’s privacy and didn’t ask for her phone number,” Tony shrugged.

Lora had found many examples of how much she didn’t know about this universe, this was just another of them. “Okay, so we received the signal, what do we do about it?”

“Suit up.”

John sighed and dropped the roses in the wastebasket next to the front door, “We’ll celebrate our anniversary when you get back.”

Lora grimaced, the television had been playing tributes to Voce’s sacrifice all week. How could she have forgotten today was the fifth year to the day that she arrived in this universe? “Of course honey, but apparently I have got to go!”

Lora teleported into her costume and met up with Tony in the small hidden closet behind their main closet that held all the equipment reserved for their vigilante activities. That walk-in was only accessible through teleportation. “Okay, lay the coordinates on me, Tony.”

“You didn’t remember today was your anniversary…”

Lora’s lips twitched behind her mask.

“Yeah, you forgot. We’ll pick something up on the way home,” Tony focused her thoughts and placed the coordinates they were teleporting to in a neat package in Lora’s mind.

Illora teleported to the location Tony gave her. She sensed they arrived in a bunker several hundred feet underground. Within moments a ring of armed men surrounded them. “Halt!”

“Dudes, you signaled!” Tony argued.

A man dressed in the uniform of a general pushed through the armed men. “Splatt, Sotto, don’t mind my men, we are on edge, we lost three jump teams and our intergalactic partners on a diplomatic mission to an outlying galaxy.

“Diplomatic? How many guns did you send?” Lora asked sarcastically.

“Clearly not enough…” The general stated.

“Do you have coordinates? Or are you sending us in the box?” Tony asked.

The general grimaced, “We must send you by box, but they will know you are coming that way.”

Lora frowned, but her mask showed nothing, “Let’s go.”

The general led Lora, and Tony through the hallways of the bunker to a room filled with technology. She had never seen the Heisenberg Box on her earth, but her father had explained it was a mess of wires and circuitry wrapped around what was basically a Faraday cage the size of a large walk-in closet. She had expected to see through the walls of the box, but between the circuitry and the cage, the effect was solid walls.

“We're going in that?” Tony blurted, “How does it go anywhere?”

“It does, and it doesn’t. We based it on a lot of fuzzy physics I have no hope of understanding, but it will get you there.”

“Fuzzy physics?” Tony asked.

“Let it go Splatt,” Lora said opening the door and stepping into the box.

“When the light goes green you are there,” the general stated.

Tony followed Lora into the box. There was a bench along the back wall. Lora sat and gestured for Tony to do so as well. The general stuck his head in, “The galactics tell me the first step is a doozy.” Then he closed the door behind him. He was only gone seconds when the light went green.

“That's it? But we haven’t moved,” Tony argued.

“We haven’t until we step outside. That is why the first step is a doozy. It even threw my dad for a loop, and he couldn’t teleport. He said even some humans have trouble with disorientation,” Lora answered just before standing and pushing open the hatch.

Lora didn’t know what she expected to see outside. What she found was a wide paved terrace. She stepped across the threshold and nearly fell to her knees. She had expected to feel spatially disoriented, but the wave of telepathic pressure that crashed over her was beyond imagination. She hadn't been aware of how many stray thoughts she passively shielded out of familiarity. Entering a whole new world of thoughts this way didn’t prepare her for the localized onslaught. Tony was quick to rush to her aid, but she couldn't even comprehend what was wrong. Her telepathy was nowhere near sensitive enough.

As Tony physically stabilized her, Lora absorbed the information pressed upon her. This world was in dire straights. Three-quarters of the population fell to some type of parasites. That included ninety percent of the jump team. Only two humans remained free thinking. Miles separated them and many of the remaining free-thinking native resistance fighters surrounded each of them.

Lora was just finding her feet again when she sensed one of the two groups of resistance fighters being overwhelmed by the parasitic hosts. The sensation of them one by one falling into unconscious passivity by infecting parasites nearly floored her. It took even the human. “We have to get to the remaining resistance before the parasites possess the last of the jump team. He is the only one who still knows what happened,” Lora stated.

“What? We’ve been here like ten seconds and you already know what is going on?” Tony blurted.

“Yes, and we better get moving hosts are approaching us rapidly, we really don’t want to get infected.” Behind them, the box disappeared. Lora rightly assumed that the general had recalled it and was expecting Lora and Tony to make their own way home. That was good to know.

Lora set their course and led them around patrolling groups of hosts thanks to her telepathic assist. Her telepathic sensitivity continued, and that bothered Lora. She knew about the idea of a secondary metamorphosis. They happened periodically in psychokinetically gifted races. The strength of abilities could build to potentially debilitating levels before settling in at a new and higher level. What bothered Lora is that she had not experienced a secondary metamorphosis yet and her symptoms fit the pattern.

Her timing for it was just great. She decided not to bother Tony with the problem. Instead, she led Tony to the resistance. They arrived and members of the resistance grabbed them and spun them around. The camp guards bent their heads forward and pulled back their masks to check the backs of their necks. “They’re clean!”

Lora smiled at the head of the small group guarding this approach to the resistance camp. “Of course… but hosts are on approach to the southern checkpoint. Send reinforcements, with long range, weapons. I need to talk to the remaining member of the jump team. We are his reinforcements.”

“They wound him getting the chancellor out of the city. We are grateful to him, but he needs medical help,” the resistance leader stated. He gestured for his men to return to their positions, “I’ll take you to him.”

Tony and Lora followed the man. He led them across country through the decidedly alien plant life. Finally, they came to a small, heavily camouflaged camp nestled in among the tall tree-like plants. He took them into a lean-to. Lora recognized the remaining jump team member by his camouflaged uniform, tailored completely differently than the loose flowing robes of the natives. Amazingly enough he recognized them first, “Sotto, Splatt, oh man, things must be bad! I’m sorry they had to call you in to rescue us! I did the best that I could…” he coughed. His uniform labeled him as lieutenant Johns.

“What is your first name soldier?” Lora asked looking him over and trying to assess the extent of his injuries.

“John, my parents were comedians, or thought they were,” he chuckled revealing a bullet wound in his abdomen. It smelledinfected but his bowels not of perforated bowels. It seemed the bullet had missed all of his major organs. It must have been friendly fire or formerly friendly fire.

“Well John, we are going to get you home so you can make a report of just what sent things so far sideways,” Lora stated.

“I sure hope you can teleport because they won’t send the box back after us!” John coughed.

“Splatt, I want you to take John back to the general, I am going to poke around here a bit,” Lora stated.

“Uh, don’t you need someone to watch your back?” Tony asked with concern. The last time she had let a Lora convince her to get someone to medical help, Voce had been surprised with The Seed of Destruction that had ended her life.

“Tony, I’ve got this. I can sense trouble coming half a world away right now. He might not last until I get done poking around,” Lora thought directly to Tony. She showed Tony a fraction of the telepathic sensitivity she was experiencing.

Tony recoiled, “Maybe we should get you to a medic?” She responded telepathically.

“Tony, we are on a mission. I will worry about my metamorphosis when we get home,” Lora thought to Tony with a forced sense of finality.

“I don’t feel good about this! If you don’t get back within twenty-four hours, I am coming to find you!” Tony said aloud.

“That’s fair,” Lora replied.

Tony kneeled next to Lieutenant John Johns, “Here we go Johnny Boy.” She laid her fingertips on John’s shoulder and they both disappeared.

Lora turned to the natives, “The infected hosts are closing on our location, we need to move.”

Almost faster than she could suggest it, the resistance packed up and was ready to move. Lora counted the seconds, realizing their hope of escape was slim. Lora pulled a man aside, “We aren’t all going to get out of here,” she telepathically implanted an escape route in his mind, “Take who you can.” The man hurried to gather who he could and lead them out.

Lora settled in to wait for the assault. She did not wait long, the infected hosts were on them faster than even she could expect and she could sense them coming. They overtook the resistance in moments and began placing small creatures with nine appendages on the backs of their necks. The creatures dug into the backs of their necks, and upper shoulders. Lora stood still, not resisting as they placed a creature on the back of her neck. She guessed that when it attempted to attach, she would repel it like she had the last time someone had attempted to place a parasite on her.

Lora felt the tendrils of its appendages dig into her flesh and an electric point of connection between her mind and the very alien mind of the parasite. In the moment of connection they both realized the sentience of the other and neither felt it would be right for the other to dominate. That was not the view of the other parasites or hosts. The parasites took full control of their hosts, not even registering their sentience. That disgusted Lora and the creature now joined to her, Alinet.

With a parasite clearly attached, they allowed Lora free movement. Lora walked right out of the dying conflict without a single challenge. Alinet placated any parasites they came across, and Illora headed for the terrace she had arrived on. It was empty Lora sat on a bench and began having a heart to heart with Alinet.

“Lora, there are stories among the young that every so often some of my kind pupate into adults that acknowledge their hosts as partners. Elders quickly stopp them before they can spread the idea too far. I am in quite as much danger as you are, if they discover us,” Alinet stated in a non-verbal direct thought to though way.

“Well, knowing that, perhaps there are more of you than you know…We could use my abilities to track them down. You could work to help hosts that aren’t so lucky as I am,” Lora replied.

“You are not lucky, it is because of you that I considered the possibility. You differ from other hosts, surely you can sense…” Alinet’s internal voice faltered.

It alarmed Illora because it was as clear to her as it was to Alinet that she was the problem. Her immune system was actively undermining Alinet’s biological stability. With a great internal effort, Lora silenced her immune response, all of it. She couldn’t save Alinet without opening herself up to every invading life-form, even a simple cold.

“I can’t allow you to sacrifice yourself!” Alinet protested.

Lora pushed off the protest. Alinet didn’t have enough control of Lora’s body to stop her. Lora knew one way or another that they had little time to argue. She teleported back to the Heisenberg box room. Tony paced back and forth waiting for her. The moment Lora arrived, Tony embraced her. She pulled away just as quickly. “You’re infected?”

Lora focused her telepathy carefully, “Tony, in my case the relationship is more symbiotic. Alinet doesn’t want to dominate, she wants a partnership.”

Tony seemed to taste the telepathic flavor of Lora’s thoughts, “Okay, say I believe you. What do we do? You can’t walk around like that, people will see it.”

“I can’t walk around with her either. My immune system is trying to kill her. I have to find her another voluntary host and unite her with those of her kind who see us as she does,” Lora stated simply.

Alinet tried to force her thoughts across to Tony that Lora was taking too large a risk to keep her alive, but Lora blocked access to her telepathy.

Tony eyed Lora with concern, “Where are you thinking of going?”

“Alinet heard some things before pupation, we’ll follow the clues,” Lora stated.

Alinet wished she could argue aloud, because Lora was not sharing the whole truth.

“What do I tell John?”

“I will try to be back moments after I leave. You knew it was possible to teleport through time and space, didn’t you?” Lora replied.

“Voce mentioned that once or twice. She never showed me how to do it though.”

“Well, I strictly speaking said I would try. I have never done it before so…” Lora responded, “But I know it can be done…”

“I don’t like this…”

“I didn’t imagine you would,” Lora replied, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Lora teleported away, reaching out with her mind for other minds like Alinet.
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