Free Alien Honor (A Fenris Novel) by Vaughn Heppner

not exactly right. It happened when the tele-ring came on
.
    The tele-ring circled the Teleship without touching it. It was like Saturn’s rings. The tele-ring was the key mechanism—with a Special’s help—that created a discontinuity window.
    Did the alien say anything to you?
Jasper asked.
    I think he was surprised to contact me. Well, he didn’t contact me exactly. I felt his mind and I’m sure he felt mine
. Venice stared at each of them in turn.
I’m sure the mind was hostile
.
    What’s your reasoning?
Jasper asked.
    Venice bit her lower lip.
Several days ago, I fell asleep in here, in the training chamber. My inhibitor was off is what I’m trying to say. I had a clairvoyant dream. In the dream, something watched me from behind a glass partition. It was an indistinct alien, making notes on a slate, absorbed with heightened interest as it observed me. The digits making the notes were harder than flesh, but I couldn’t see the creature. Then my dream became horrifying. I lay on a table.
Things
cut me open, removed organs, and inserted something vile into me. Just as I awoke, I heard crackling sounds. Then it felt as if hot needles poked into my neck at the apex of my spine
.
    “Cyborgs,” Cyrus whispered.
    “Cyborgs aren’t telepathic,” Jasper whispered. He looked at Venice. “What do you think they were?”
    “I don’t know,” she said.
What should we do?
    Clarify that,
Jasper said.
    We should tell the shift crew
.
    Jasper glanced at Cyrus. It caused Venice to frown.
    What are you two hiding?
she asked.
    Jasper gave her an oily smile. Cyrus didn’t know how that would assure anyone.
We have a bet about cyborgs. Cyrus is certain they’re at New Eden. He wants to go home because of it.
    I don’t want to go to New Eden if cyborgs are waiting for us,
Venice said.
    I don’t either
, Jasper said.
Let me try to find this mind.
    Will you try to do that during a shift?
Venice asked.
    I think I know what’s happening,
Jasper said.
The tele-ring must expand your reach even farther than it does for creating a discontinuity window. Since you’re the most powerful Special, you felt this mind first. Maybe by next shift I can sense it, too
.
    Cyrus waited for Venice to call Jasper a liar. The man would never call anyone more powerful than him unless he was trying to hide something. Didn’t she understand that? The two kept communicating. It showed Cyrus she must be truly worried about her dream and worried about the brushing mind contact with an unknown alien.
    In the end, Jasper convinced Venice to wait and let him contact the alien for confirmation.
    Cyrus hesitated to say anything, wondering how accurate Venice’s clairvoyant dreams usually were. In the end, he went along with the plan. It ended up being the worst decision of his life.

2
    Jasper seethed inwardly. Venice had felt the aliens before him. It was inconceivable that should occur. He was the greatest telepath. She could shift farther, but that was due to her clairvoyance, an otherwise dubious psi-talent.
    He went through the procedures as he floated in the shift tank, a cylinder filled with a watery gel solution. He wore a slick-suit, a breathing mask, and goggles. He’d already shut his eyes and linked with Socrates, the main AI in the system.
    Going through rote actions, Jasper soon succumbed to the AI-Special union. Around him in the cylinder, the shift crew worked at their stations in the tele-chamber. They monitored him, AI Socrates, and the ship.
    Outside the rock-skinned vessel, a chrome ring suddenly appeared. Jasper’s senses had already expanded. It was as if he stood on the dust of the surface of the ship. The light from the ring caused the nearest stars to fade away and others farther away to lose their luster. The ring was awesome, and it had been there all along, although with a black-matted color. The chrome appearance meant a shift opening—a null portal—could occur.
    The ring pulsated with light, with an intense chrome