Ajha understood why he didn’t want to accept her help. Just because she was physically weaker than most men, didn’t mean she was psionically weaker. She just couldn’t control her ability as well as he could. That’s only because she was a late dawner.
“Ah, she-ell, you caught me. I just want to shield you from any risk of harm. I didn’t want to admit that maybe I couldn’t do this myself.”
“Oh, I know you can when you haven’t spent the night before healing yourself from a projectile wound then healing Mikki’s emotional trauma. She-ell you are only one man.”
“Some of these people can’t wait for me to recover. They’re in danger now. They could be killed before we can get them out.”
“Then let’s contact the next batch tonight and tell them to be ready. Letting them know we are there will only take a little energy. Then you can concentrate on screening their departure from the security.”
“We missed second meal let’s go home and have something to eat. Then we can contact our next rescues.”
“She-ell…Why do you call me that?”
“It means beloved in Aledan. My father often called my mother she-ell…”
Ajha smiled and kissed him. Calan gave the command for the door to open, and Ajha climbed off his lap then out of the tram. They walked through the receiving area where the rescues were still being checked in unnoticed.
She programmed a simple meal of protein patties and vegetables and fruit. They ate in companionable silence. When they finished, they went into their lounge area and seated themselves cross-legged on their meditation floor pad facing each other with their knees touching. They held hands and closed their eyes.
They joined their minds together, and Calan walked Ajha through reviewing the psionic techniques to reach out to the Normals they were going to rescue. He taught her how to synchronize their minds to augment his psionic ability with hers. Once she demonstrated that she learned the skill, he reached out to the brothel workers on the south side of Starport City.
Calan was concerned that if they delayed too long in freeing the brothel workers, the overlords could get together and figure out what was happening before he and Ajha could free them.
So instead of going to each of the other three overlord territories a few days apart. He decided to contact all of the victims at once. They would start picking them up in the morning and keep going until they picked them all up and brought them to the Refuge. They could do it in a day, but it would be a long one.
Reaching out to mind after mind, the psion mates learned that most of these people had heard of the Refuge. Many were excited to feel Calan’s and Ajha’s telepathy and to see the mental pictures of the refuge now called Revival.
Many thought minders were legendary creatures, and still, others thought they were beings to fear. The psion mates did their best to soothe those frightened people. Some of them wanted to know if they could practice their trade at the refuge. They didn’t know how they would get by otherwise because that’s all they knew.
Calan felt that was up to the individual if they wanted to sell their sexual favors. But it was up to the community whether those activities could take place within. His objection was overlords having gangers capture people to become sex slaves in the brothels.
Other worlds had brothels where the sex workers were well compensated for their services in a profession they chose. In those cases, the individualschoseto provide the service for pay, and they were free to leave or buy out their contracts.
Those individuals who wished to continue their trade could work it out with the community. Revival would eventually expand beyond the walls of the refuge.
It wasn’t a profession for a psion. Their sexual activities were closely tied to their emotional connection with their partner. Without that emotional connection, their enjoyment is limited.
Most important to Calan was that people were free.
The next day’s mission went even more smoothly than the four friends had hoped. They started first thing in the morning with Calan and Ajha refreshed from a good night’s sleep. Calan alerted their rescues prior to their arrival so they could begin leaving their building as soon as the transports arrived.
Contacting the rescues before they got there was far more efficient than the previous day’s undertaking. Their rescues were ready to board the transport as soon as Calan and Ajha held the keepers at bay telepathically. They freed four hundred twenty-seven more people and brought them to the refuge.
The last of the people they brought in on the second run were being checked in when they returned to the refuge from the last run. Some of the new arrivals were cross-matched with relatives by the AI who were already housed in flats. Those that had room took their relatives in. Several tearful reunions took place at the temporary barracks. Children found a parent, siblings found a brother or a sister, friends found friends feared dead.
Calan and Ajha retreated from the chaos and high emotions. They were tired but not exhausted as they walked to their flat. The mission couldn’t have gone more smoothly, but Calan knew he had just started a war.
He had stolen from the overlords, and he didn’t know how long it would take them to figure out he was behind it. They would probably send heavily armed gangers to take back their merchandise. He would have to be ready for them when they came.
Calan and Ajha had a light meal at their flat then meditated for over an hour, renewing their psionic energy and savoring the bond of their minds and their love. Had anyone been there to witness, they would have seen an aura of white light surrounding them as they drew on the energy emitted by all the living things in their proximity.
They emerged from their trance more rejuvenated from the session than from a night’s sleep. Calan had been so busy with the refuge business and his medical clinic, he had been neglecting his psionic self. He could no longer afford to do that with what he was probably going to face. It was just a matter of how soon.
Chapter Seventeen
The AI alerted Calan and Rax the moment exterior cams spotted the hovercraft land at the front entrance to the refuge. They noticed it right away because it was the first occasion that any personal hovercraft had landed in their front yard. Very few outside Starport City even owned a hovercraft. Inside the city, they were unnecessary.
Calan recognized the psychic signature immediately as Redmyn Berke. He was surprised that Berke had only brought two bodyguards to protect him. The only ‘weapon’ at the refuge was Rax who could easily put Berke’s bodyguards out of commission without additional armament. Calan’s only weapon was his mind.
