Despite her happiness at being in his arms post-coitus, Ajha was still feeling tired and weak from malnourishment. Calan sensed this as they lay together and he kissed her while using his healing ability to replenish her and renew her energy.
After a brief respite, they made love again then got up and showered together. It was midafternoon by then, and they were both hungry. Calan took that opportunity to show Ajha how to operate the food processor by voice.
They may have only just met face to face, but they had been connected for a long time. Calan couldn’t remember exactly when it first happened, but he was just starting his physician’s training. He had meant to give her more time to know him face to face, but he hadn’t the willpower to resist her desire for him compounded with his own for her.
Neither of them had any regrets. Their “courtship” had been psionic. They were psion mates and mating sexually completed their life mate bond. Her teasing him about fucking her was motivated by her desire. He only resisted because he thought they should take things slow. All the years they yearned to be together had been slow enough for Ajha once he’d shown her what it meant to be connected the way they were.
Like his mother Chelle, Ajha grew up a street kid with no formal education. She learned instead how to survive, and she had because she was highly intelligent. He had brought a variety of educational programs to educate the street people to read and write as well as the fundamentals of building a successful community.
He had all the essentials of basic education as well as a wide range of university-level studies. Most would probably start with the basics,
While they ate, Calan shared his plans with Ajha to rebuild the rest of Farringay. It would all start with the Refuge at the industrial complex. Together, Calan and Ajha decided they would go deeper into Farringay the next day to spread the word about their community. They would also look for information about Mikki.
“Rax has located thirty rooms where we can put people who join us while we’re waiting for the next shipment of modules,” Calan told her.
“Rax?” she asked.
“He’s a cyborg we found in one of the outbuildings. We think he was created illegally and not recorded. That’s the only explanation we could figure for him to still be here. I’ll introduce him to you when we finish eating.”
“I’ve heard of cyborgs, but I’ve never seen one,” Ajha said.
“Most of them have left Earth. There are a few in the starport compound and a larger contingent in old Chicago,” Calan said. “That was their most successful restoration project. They built a shuttle port there; it can land space shuttles but no full-sized starships like Farringay.”
“I hope you brought weapons if we’re going into the ruins. The overlords aren’t going to like you luring victims away from them.”
“I plan to give them an attitude adjustment with mind force. I can be very persuasive…. And yes, I will teach you, sweetheart,” he said. “I will share memories with you of learning how to control my psionic ability.”
“Are you sure about this? Berke and the other overlords have some dangerous thugs working for them. Some of them would kill you for looking at them wrong.”
“I trained to expert level inchackrin,a Wholaskan form of martial arts and I interned with Uncle Delmran at the Federation Embassy on Oltarin. He was a military strategist and a covert operative. I trained with him before I decided to become a physician.”
“Did you learn how to be bulletproof?” Ajha asked.
“No, but I learned how to sense when someone intends to do me harm,” he assured her.
“I don’t want something to happen to you now that we’re finally together.”
“I’ll do my best to stay alive so we can have a life together.
Chapter Six
Calan and Ajha left the hover tram cloaked in a deserted area of Farringay. They hoped it would be safe while they took a hover scooter deeper into the city. He wanted to find Mikki for Ajha, but even he would have trouble locating her because he had never met her or touched her mind. He only knew what she meant to Ajha.
While he wasn’t exactly scared, Calan could feel his adrenaline surging. Coming to Farringay was probably the riskiest thing he had ever done. Growing up on Oltarin, Mari-Sanna was the biggest city he’d ever visited. Calling it a city was using the term loosely, as it had a population under a hundred thousand.
Farringay probably had that many in the starport compound. Outside the compound was basically chaos.
As they cruised a few feet over the ruins of a street, Calan sensed they had been noticed. They thought he and Ajha had gone astray from the Starport City. At least a few petty thieves were considering their odds of stealing Calan’s scooter. The proceeds could buy them food and some mind-numbing pleasure for a few days.
Those contemplating killing him and taking Ajha to use were more concerning. Clean up and dressed in clean clothes, she was downright beautiful, at least to him. She would bring more credits than the scooter to the right buyer, but that wasn’t going to happen.
He would have come alone, but Ajha wanted to go, and she knew the city. Calan had only his parents’ memories, and much had changed in forty years. The ruins were even more ruined than before.
They stopped at one place where some of Ajha’s friends lived. They barely recognized her all cleaned up.
“Ajha where have you been?” asked an older woman with two filthy looking small children.
“With Calan,” Ajha told her. “Vera, this is Calan, he is building a community at the edge of the city, like Starport City but for people like us where we can have a safe place to live and food.”
