“I know, Lanimer. That was a terrible thing to happen. I saw too many of my friends killed, but there was nothing either of us could havedone,” he told me. “Your father wanted me to be your guardian because Aledus, where your grandparents live, is no place for psions like us.”
“But why can’t we all stay here?”
“Because it is a constant reminder of all the bad things that happened here,” Hankura said evenly. “Do you really want to go back to the place where your family died?”
I didn’t know what to say. I still dreamed about that day, only to wake up and remember my father and mothers were really dead. Feeling Hankura’s profound sorrow about my parents and all his friends who died made me realize he really wanted me to have a good life because he loved my parents like family. I was all he had left of them. Finally, I shook my head.
“Nalina said she and Orin are coming, too. For sure?”
Hankura nodded, and I believed him.
“Nalina, Orin, and you will come with Casir’s company because my spaceship only has room for two people.” He paused. “You know Orin is a Tregan, even though he saved you and Nalina?”
“The guy shot him because he didn’t know Orin is good.”
“Yes, and he almost died.If he stays here, other people the bad Tregans hurt might try to kill him again,” he said. “Most importantly, we want you to come with us. Your father was my dear friend, and I want to be your friend, too.”
“Okay, I can be your friend.” It really didn’t matter if I stayed on Zevus Mar with my parents dead. They would still be dead no matter where I went, and I didn’t want Orin to get shot again.
Nalina cried every day because she was so scared he was going to die. But Hankura and his wife Chelle and Casir fixed him; I thought going to that planet Oltarin was as good as any place.
When we landed at the starport on Oltarin, it didn’t look much different from Zevus Mar’s deserts. But that was just the landing place. Hankura took us high in the mountain forest, where we stayed in temporary housing until Casir’s construction crew built them a huge log home.
They planned to start a farm that Orin would manage, and we had our flat in the big house. Nalina cared for their baby Jamerin and me while Hankura and Chelle worked as physicians.
Lush green forests surrounded the farm where we played as children and trails where we rode horses when Jamerin and Lara got oldenough. I was four years older than Jamerin and six years older than Lara. I looked out for them.
I really missed them when they went to Velran for Jamerin because his dawning went awry. We had a good childhood, and I was happy growing up on Oltarin. We all completed our primary studies early and studied medicine. They went as far as Tech Five just because Jamerin was a psychokinetic healer who, unlike his mother, could heal without a telepathic connection. After Lara reached Tech Five, she switched over to veterinary medicine. Their brother, Calan, and I went on to become full-fledged physicians.
Jamerin never practiced as a Med Tech or went on to become a physician. He had learned the physiology he needed to perfect his psychokinetic healing technique. When he and Parei found a place they liked, they would stay a while, but it seemed like the stars always called them back.
As an adult, I thought about building a home of my own, but I’d started having the nightmare of the day my parents died again. Time and distance had dulled the pain in my waking hours but not in the dream. The pain and fear came back in full force until I woke up in a cold sweat, trembling.
Then I would remember the idyllic months I lived at that abandoned agri-complex with Nalina and Orin. This time, I got out of bed and went out to the porch attached to our flat. The moons and the stars were breathtaking, with little light on the ground to block their light.
Looking out into the night, I realized Zevus Mar was calling me back. I owned the agricomplex that belonged to my family, where my parents were buried. That’s when I knew I was going back.
Chapter Two
Evalee
(Evalee Mascho)
I knew I was in trouble when his hologram appeared before my desk. I hadn’t had time for a love life in a year and a half since I took this job. We were a physician short with two clinics to run. I usually picked up a couple extra shifts a week. I took emergency house calls when no one else was available.
This guy was gorgeous, and his articulate manner was riveting as he listed his credentials. As he talked about his reasons for coming to Zevus Mar, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. For some reason, I was spellbound by him, mesmerized.
“I was born on Aledus, but I am a psion, and so was my mother. After I was born, my father moved us to Zevus Mar to an agri-complex, a short flit from Elran. My parents died in the Tregan invasion, and the man chosen to be my guardian took me to Oltarin on the far side ofFederation space. Our farm was held in trust for me until I was old enough to decide what to do with it.
“Now I have decided; I’m coming to settle there and either set up a medical practice or join an established one on Zevus Mar.”
Our candidate’s credentials were impeccable. My fellow Med-Techs and acting Chief Physician have already approved. None of them had ever worked with a psion before, and no one was as sexy as this guy.
He seemed to be looking right into my eyes as he spoke passionately about his experience. A shiver of sexual awareness rippled through my body, and he was a psion. My face heated as I realized I could not hide my attraction to him.
I sighed to myself as his presentation finished. I’d barely had time to take matters into my own hands with one of my toys or get cozy enough with someone to copulate. We have plenty of good-looking, sexy guys here to enjoy. But I want someone who made me feel like Lanimer did, as he seemed to look straight into my soul.
There was something more penetrating in his gaze than I had seen in any other man.
