Free Alien Honor (A Fenris Novel) by Vaughn Heppner Page B

second of time, the alien showed Jasper how to bypass the inhibitor. It was easy, and Jasper did it right away.
    You will forget most of this,
the alien said,
but you must remember to do your part.
    Oh, I will,
Jasper said, with a different lilt in his mind, at once more subdued than before and with greater vehemence.
    Excellent. We await your coming to the Fenris System.
    The alien mind departed. Seconds later, the tele-ring snapped off and Jasper’s far-ranging abilities cycled down, returning to their regular levels.
    He’d done it. His alien friend had shown him how to defeat the inhibitor. The clairvoyant back on Earth had been correct. Did that mean Venice’s precognitive dream might also come true? Jasper shrugged. The critical point was that he was a whole telepath again and no one knew about it. This would be
excellent
indeed.

3
    Dr. Wexx stood at her post in the tele-chamber. She was the technician in charge of the Special in the shift tube. The last shift had occurred yesterday with Jasper. Today, Venice would bring them 8.3 light years closer to New Eden.
    The tele-chamber was the third largest room in
Discovery
. Only the docking and cargo bays were bigger. In the exact center of the circular chamber lay a Plexiglas cylinder. Special First Class Venice drifted in the blue solution. She wore an induction helmet, linking her to AI Socrates and to the tele-ring outside the ship. Venice wore a mask over her mouth and nose so she could breathe. A hose connected the mask to oxygen tanks outside the cylinder. Goggles protected her closed eyes, while a red slick-suit covered her shapely form.
    Dr. Wexx monitored the medical panel, aided by two nurses. Wexx wore a lab coat to hide her full figure and she kept her long, silver dyed hair in a bun. Around the chamber at their posts, the AI team—three level-eight techs—kept a close watch on Socrates. The shift crew of four sat at their screens: serious-faced, psi-rated warrant officers.
    A shift was always a tense time. Too many things could go wrong. Wexx had little technical training in that area, but she’d witnessed the procedure enough these past five months to know how it should go. Her task was to ensure full physical and particularly mental health of the Special in the cylinder.
    The first month out from Sol had been hard on everyone, including the Specials. The second month had been much easier and the third through fifth months routine.
    Dr. Wexx watched her screen. A red symbol beat in rhythm with Venice’s heart. Beside it, numbers flashed to show the Special’s blood pressure.
    Before the historic voyage, Wexx had been a teacher at the institute on Crete. She didn’t think of herself as a Normal, but as a near Special. She belonged to Psi Force as a consultant. She’d taken advanced training at the institute and she knew the theory behind a mind shield. There were several methods, and she employed the one technique Normals could perform: concentration on a specific thought. She did it because the green light appeared, showing the inhibitor now allowed Venice to use her powers.
    As Wexx watched the screen, the pulse rate changed dramatically. Then pain struck her head and Wexx screamed. She clamped her hands over her head as if she could keep her skull, her mind, from exploding. That dislodged her heavy duty sunglasses, the ones protecting her light-sensitive eyes. A new hurt pulsed against her sensitive eyes. Because she’d dislodged her sunglasses, the chamber’s lights seem to bloom like miniature exploding suns.
    Others in the chamber screamed, the volume and intensity rising. Something heavy thudded onto the floor, possibly a body.
    It seemed then as if a jagged line cracked along Wexx’s skull. If she took her hands away it felt as if she would die hideously, leaking brain fluid. In an act of will almost as impossible as stepping off a hundred-story building, Wexx removed a hand from her head and shoved the sunglasses back into place. With a