Free Galactic Vigilante (Vigilante Series 3) by T. Jackson King Page B

Mata Hari.
    “Quite,” his love said as the short tail from her Direndl crossbreed ancestry wrapped around her naked waist. “But just now, the pain Matt felt from the onset of the new incarnation of the slow virus did more than just hit me mentally. It conveyed a sense of where the slow virus will next be in Matt’s body and biochemistry. In particular which chromosome and gene segment it will next infect. I am sending you, Mata Hari, a mind image of the retrovirus anti-viral treatment that will zap this new incarnation of the slow virus. Along with the epigenetic protein triggers that will allow the anti-virus to latch on to the new incarnation of the slow virus. It will kill it. For good.”
    Matt shuddered at the thought. An end to his slow virus ailments? An end to painful periodic surprises as his body came down with Super Flu, then muscular dystrophy, and this case of swollen joints? He had assumed it was just the long-term price he must pay for saving Eliana’s planet of 900 million from destruction by the Halicene Conglomerate’s mining Stripper. It had been with him ever since Legion the Mican had infected him with it during his battle on Zeus Station to return control of the station to Eliana’s brother Ioannis. “That . . . that would be wonderful.”
    She smiled at his weak reaction, knowing the body drain each new slow virus incarnation inflicted on him. “More than wonderful. It is the final defeat of Legion. The bastard!”
    Matt’s inner mind wondered if the Micans, who resembled a tiger-griffin of ancient Earth, even possessed the concept of illegitimate births. He licked his dry lips as Mata Hari caused a servebot to bring him a globe of water. Giving thanks he was hearing this news in slow human time versus sped up ocean-time , he gave a smile to a concerned Eliana and a frowning Mata Hari. “Yes, ladies, that is good news! Thank you. And I am sure the Biolab, under Mata Hari’s guidance, can formulate the anti-viral retrovirus treatment. I look forward to it.” He paused, thinking about Eliana’s revelation of the trans-spatial reach of hers and Suzanne’s psychic powers. “Eliana, I noticed your ship Altuna and Suzanne’s ship Lorelei arrived here within milliseconds of each other, exactly ten light seconds apart. Was that due to your mindlink between each other?”
    “Yes,” said a smiling Eliana as she brought up a mental image of Suzanne, inviting the woman to join their mindlink and make it a four-way confab. “Suzanne, image-think to Matt your ideas for how to use our psychic precognition in future battles with the Anarchate.”
    Suzanne the Swede appeared in his mind’s-eye, sitting nude in her own Interlock Pit like Matt and Eliana, her pale Nordic skin showing brown freckles all over. Matt thought the freckles looked nice on her. Suzanne’s pink lips curved into a relaxed smile.
    “Thanks, Matt!”
    Realizing every level of his mind lay open to potential visitation by the two ladies and Mata Hari, he mentally gulped, gave a half-grin and shook his head in real-time as, in the back of his mind, Mata Hari showed him the locations for where the Dark Energy stardrive module and the Stasis Beam projector now resided inside the starship. “Uh, hi there Suzanne,” he said lamely. “Still getting used to this mindlink with other people. Mata Hari and I are used to instantly being in each other’s mind via the tachlink embedded behind my left ear. It supplements the lightspeed mindlink we have over the fiber optic cable. But feeling other minds in my mind, like clouds or true images of you, well, I’ve only experienced that a few times before. And having BattleMind and Mata Hari sharing my mind is different from this tachyonic mindlink with you two. Or not, in truth.” He gave each of them a big smile and a sense of his acceptance of them as complex, deep-thinking people who were every much a part of his anti-cloneslavery crusade as he was. “Uh, Suzanne, you had some psychic