Free The Gentle Seduction by Marc Stiegler

savage Battle of Kaylanx Moons climaxed. That had been just before the Hydrans drove the Squishy fleet terror-stricken back into their own territory.
    "This is Colonel Veddin Zhukpokrovsk, from the planet of Kaylanx, requesting permission to dock," Veddin thought for the controller.
    The sternness of the controller's first thought dissolved. "Veddin Zhukpokrovsk! We've been worried about you!"
    Veddin must have transmitted his bafflement, because the controller went on. "The Seekers told us to expect you several days ago. When you didn't show up on schedule, Tarn and Tara Westfall became concerned—and when Tarn gets concerned, everybody gets concerned!"
    Veddin was still baffled. He had come here to Touch Autumn Westfall, but . . .
    "Tarn is her father, you ninny. Tarn and Tara are the commissioners of Hydra."
    "They're what!?"
    "Didn't anybody tell you that you have a psi-resonant pair bond to the commissioners' daughter?" The controller chuckled. "Probably not. The Seekers wouldn't consider it a proper thing to mention."
    Veddin was still dazed; the controller's thought pattern changed, and changed subjects as well. "Dear Colonel, why'd you bring a fleet with you? You certainly don't need it, and I suspect there's a rule against it somewhere."
    Veddin was still trying to understand why the speaker's "voice" had changed. There were two chuckles this time, one in each "voice." "We're a Couple, silly," they said in unison.
    Veddin shook his head; of course there were two of them, forming a single psi-resonance.
    "Are you going to answer our question, or are you going to try to blast us out of space?" the controllers jested.
    He tried to remember their question, and answered just as they were about to repeat it. "I brought my fleet in case I was ambushed."
    Loud giggles threaded through his mind. Veddin felt aggravated anger. "Thank the Lords I did, too. I would've been killed if it hadn't been for my robots."
    "What?!" The laughter stopped; Veddin thought he could sense a trace of horror mixed with their shock.
    He waited till the shock wore off, then told them about the ambush that occurred shortly after he left Kaylanx. Disbelief colored the controllers' thoughts so much that Veddin finally linked them with the DareDrop , so they could see and feel the giant hole gouged in her side by an enemy missile. If the warhead hadn't been a dud . . . well, Veddin never would have known about it.
    When he finished, the controllers were grim. "We'll have to tell the commissioners. I've never heard of an attack on humans from a species that knew about us."
    The Couple vanished from his mind. The unexplained joy he had felt earlier returned, even stronger now than before.
    Another Couple Touched his mind. "Veddin?"
    "That's me," Veddin acknowledged, still contemplating the joy.
    The new Couple saw his contemplation and shared his joy. "You're getting closer to your touched-one. Autumn feels the same thing." An image of a young woman appeared in his mind, sent by Tarn and Tara Westfall—for the Westfalls were the Couple who now contacted him. Another mind touched his, and he could see through Autumn's eyes a pair of delicate woman's hands, and he could look out the cockpit of a hoverplane at the oceans below. He knew that Autumn could see the DareDrop 's control room in much the same manner, through the link her parents provided.
    "I am coming," was the message Autumn and Veddin exchanged before the contact dissolved.
    "It will be better, of course, when you touch one another," the Westfalls explained to him. "For now, however, you'd better concentrate on docking. Or can your ship enter the atmosphere?"
    "I can land anywhere," Veddin replied.
    "Excellent. I'll put you in touch with spaceport control."
    "Isn't there some kind of Customs inspection?"
    "Ah, yes. Customs. Are you carrying anything dangerous—firearms, drugs, or potentially diseased foods, animals, or plants?"
    "Nothing except a few gigaton-equivalents in