Twelve

Chapter

Here was his woman, his soulmate, a warrior through and through. Rom felt the fierce surge of power within her, fueling her, spurring her to act. He shared it, reveled in it—the warrior’s drive. Clasping her hand, he pulled her toward the door, stopping when he remembered that they needed to bring Mindy with them. It would be tricky to keep all of them safe, but he would make it happen.

“Mindy,” he called out. “Come on, girl.”

The door to the bathroom slid open. Mindy skulked out, her tail tight between her legs and her nose close to the floor. She was letting out a near-continuous whine, obviously terrified.

“Oh no,” Hayley muttered.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” Rom let go of Hayley’s hand and dropped down close to the ground, squatting near the dog and inching closer. “We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”

Mindy’s whining increased. She would only look at them from the corner of her eye.

“Mindy,” Hayley said.

“ Is it true? ” The words were spoken in a sweet, soulful feminine voice, trembling with emotion. Did Mindy’s collar allow her to talk, the same way as the space kittens Rom knew back in the Sol system? If so, why hadn’t she spoken until now? He didn’t have a chance to ask before she spoke again, angling her body toward Hayley. “ I know I wasn’t supposed to listen, but you were so upset, I couldn’t help myself. Are you really not my Hayley? ”

Hayley pinched her lips shut, tears welling in her eyes once more. She wrapped her arms around her middle, fresh pain resurfacing and battering at Rom through their bond. He did his best to keep his voice level.

“Hey, now,” Rom said. “Come here.”

Mindy licked her lips nervously, but approached till she was close enough for Rom to bury his fingers in her soft fur. She butted her head against his shoulder and let out a breath, followed by another plaintive whine.

“ I am still your Hayley. ” Hayley’s voice sounded different somehow. Softer and more… intimate. “ If you still want me to be. ”

Rom’s hearts broke for her. For both of them. He didn’t want Hayley to have to deal with any more hurt. Being rejected by Mindy would devastate her. He held his breath, waiting to see what the dog would do. Mindy sniffed the ground, then slowly approached Hayley, flopping on her side when she reached Hayley’s feet and then rolling over to show her belly. Hayley dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Mindy’s neck, hugging her as if she would never let her go. Rom scooted over to join them, resting one hand on Hayley’s back and another on Mindy’s side.

“You’re the luckiest pup in the universe,” Rom soothed. “You get to have two Hayleys be your best friend.”

Mindy let out a little yip, then rolled back so that she could sit on her haunches. She sniffed at Hayley, nuzzling her hair and licking her cheek. The relief Hayley felt was dizzying. Rom shared it as well.

Mindy paused and started whining again. “ You feel the same, but what happened to the first Hayley? Is she okay? ”

“I don’t know,” Rom said. “But, we’re going to find out. We won’t stop trying till we save her.”

Mindy’s tail started to wag, thumping on the floor where she sat. She angled her head up and licked Rom’s chin. Rom ruffled her fur, stroking her neck and back in what he hoped would be a soothing manner.

“ Thank you ,” Mindy said.

“Of course.”

“Wait…” Uncertainty pushed its way to the forefront of Hayley’s emotions. “Can you hear her?”

“Sure, I can,” Rom said.

Hayley’s eyebrows rose, then furrowed as she looked at him with intense concentration.

“ Can you hear me? ” she said. Her voice had shifted to that softer, more intimate level.

Wait… She hadn’t moved her lips or opened her mouth. How had Rom heard her at all? He blinked a few times, trying to sort things out. Mindy’s mouth fell open in a doggie smile.

“ He can hear us now, ” Mindy said. “ You’re better this way. The same. ”

“I don’t get it,” Rom said. “Am I not supposed to hear her?”

“Rom…” Hayley reached out and clasped his wrist with her delicate hand. She pinched her lips shut, but he still heard her go on. “ Don’t say the words out loud. Just think them. Imagine that you’re talking to us and push the words toward us. ”

“Holy…” He shook himself, then did as she instructed, focusing on projecting his thoughts toward them. “ The telepathy experiment… It worked? ”

Hayley let out a laugh and nodded. “ It did. But only between Mindy and me. I don’t know how, but I could already talk to her when we first met. ”

“ The bad man has been trying to find someone I could talk to for a long time. ” Mindy barked as she thought the words to them. “ When Hayley came, I could talk to her, even when she wasn’t close. Then she went to sleep for a while and when she woke up she was so far away. Until new Hayley came. Then she was close again. ”

“ Can you feel her? ” Rom thought. “ The first Hayley you met? ”

Mindy’s ears perked up and she glanced to the side as if she was seeing something through the wall. “ I can still feel her. She’s so far away… ”

Rom couldn’t stop himself from letting out a huge breath, along with laughter. He hugged Mindy closer, pulling Hayley into the embrace as well.

“ If you can feel her, that means she’s still out there, ” Rom thought. “ It means we can find her. ”

“ The universe is a big place, ” Hayley thought.

“ It doesn’t matter. ” Rom shook his head. “ Mindy has a bond with both of you. It’s the same as the bond I share with the other Cygnian warriors in my prism. I can feel them, wherever they are in the universe, and they can feel me. It’s how I know they’re coming for us and how I know we’re going to be able to find the other Hayley. But first, we have to get ourselves out of here. ”

“ Norem has no idea we can communicate this way, ” Hayley thought to them.

“ We can use that to our advantage, ” Rom thought. “ We just have to be careful not to slip up. I think it’s time we call Katie. ”

Hayley nodded, then stood. Rom followed, as did Mindy.

“Katie, we’re ready to get moving,” Hayley said, her voice strong. They waited several moments, but Katie didn’t reply. “Katie? Are you still there?”

Anxiety rose within her. Rom reached out and clasped Hayley’s hand.

“Maybe she’s not in a place where she can respond,” Rom said.

Hayley tightened her grip on his hand. “Her technokinesis lets her communicate through the computers without speaking. It’s similar to my telepathy, but with machines.”

“Has she ever not responded before?” Rom asked.

Hayley nodded as a fresh wave of panic flowed out from her. “When Norem has her in the tank.”

Rom’s stomach sank. His mind flashed to thoughts of the tanks at Norem’s base on Ceres and the poor souls they had rescued from within. Tobek and Merek had adapted to their new cybernetic limbs and the Cygnian DNA that had been grafted into their bodies, but Alek was still struggling with pain and seizures. He hadn’t learned how to control his cybernetics and the interface had been damaged before he emerged from his tank.

The thought of Hayley or anyone else in tanks like that had Rom’s spine plates rising again. He struck his wristbands together and hummed several commands. They would continue to accept his audio instructions at a low power mode until he turned them off. He could activate shielding, atmospheric controls, even weaponry at a moment’s notice. However, it wasn’t himself he needed to protect. His final note caused them to expand so that he could slide them off of his forearms.

“I need you to wear these,” Rom said.

Hayley shook her head. “If Norem sees me wearing them, he’ll know you figured out how to use them again and that you have your memories back.”

“I think that ship has left the starport,” Rom said. “Please, I need you to be safe.”

“None of us will be safe until we’ve stopped Norem once and for all.”

Rom nodded. “I get that. But we have to get out of this mess before we can stop him.”

Her scowl deepened, before she finally lifted her arms, pushing the sleeves of her jumpsuit out of the way. He quickly slid the bands over her slender wrists. They shrank down to fit her snuggly.

“These are the notes for shielding and atmosphere.” He hummed each note in turn.

“Can they shield others, or just me?”

His hearts warmed at her concern. Her desire to protect others was just as fierce as his.

“Shielding others is hard to master,” he said. “I hate to admit, I never trained in it. But we’ll ask Dorn to fix that as soon as we’re back on Earth. He’s an expert at it.”

Hayley nodded, her lip quivering as another wave of dread flowed out from her.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I just… I was thinking about Sophie and the rest of her family,” Hayley said. “Wondering what they’ll think of me.”

“They’ll love and accept you, just as I have.” He shrugged. “Actually, maybe not just as I have, but you get my point.”

She let out a brief burst of laughter, as he’d hoped she would. “I guess we’ll sort that out later, too. Right now, we have to get to Katie.”

Rom nodded his agreement. “Do you know the way to the lab?”

“Yeah.” Her dread returned.

Part of him wanted to protect her from this. From returning to that horrible place and confronting what she’d been through. He knew she had the soul of a Cygnian warrior. To offer to let her stay behind would be an insult. He knew better than even to suggest it. Mindy, on the other hand… Her tail had dropped when they started talking about the lab, and she was whining softly again.

“ I want you to be close, but you don’t have to go into the lab with us ,” Rom thought. “ We’ll find a place nearby for you to hide .”

“ I want to help ,” Mindy thought.

“ I know, sweetheart, ” Rom thought back. “ But if helping hurts you, we don’t want that. ”

She bumped his hand with her nose and licked his fingers, then lowered her head.

“ He’s right ,” Hayley thought. “ We don’t know what we’re going to face in the lab. There’s a room right next door where we clean up after leaving the tank. Can you wait for us there? It would really help me. ”

Mindy perked up, her ears angling forward and her tail wagging a bit. “ It would help? ”

Hayley nodded. “ I need you to be safe. ”

“ I need you to be safe, too ,” Mindy thought. “ Both of you. ”

“ Don’t you worry about us. ” Rom reach out and scratched behind her ears. “ We’re going to be just fine. ” He looked up at Hayley and said out loud, “You ready for this?”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “I am.”