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Chapter 13: The Longest Carriage Ride Pt. 1

Gina snuggled under Quill's arm some more, earning gagging noises from Amryn and a smug smile from Ro. She decided she didn't care. Every place that they touched felt like perfection; warm, soft, perfection. She never wanted to stop touching him.

"Soo," Amryn said, breaking the silence. "Now you guys are courting. That's good, I mean I think. I guess." He shook his head. "What am I saying? It's a terrible idea! How do we know that one of us isn't going to die on this trip and never come back? Will the other person be able to move on with their life? Will you be super protective of each other and stop us from completing our mission? The whole fate of the world is on us! We can't afford to make a mistake!"

"Courting Gina is not a mistake," Quill told him firmly. "I'm not going to try and stop her from doing what needs to be done. And she won't do that to me. We're still teammates and friends, Amryn. All we've done is changed the relationship a little. So stop. You're rambling isn't going to help anyone."

I think he's still mad about the shaving cream. Although he's good at hiding it.

"Yeah. No one wants to hear it." Ro told him, in her usual biting way.

That could have gone better.

"Guys, guys. Amryn is raising valid points. We're a team now, and being a team means respecting other teammate's opinions. I understand where you're coming from Amryn. But I can assure you that I will not let my courtship with Quill damage saving the people of Earth. 'Not for our lives, but for the greater purpose of all lives', right?"

He smiled. "Yeah."

"Well, now that that's settled. Can anyone tell me what exactly happened with Cree? How on earth did he get in our heads and see our memories? What got enhanced? I thought he was a blasted tinker, so why in the name of holy squash did he get memory-seeing abilities?"

"Holy squash?" Ro grimaced. "You need a new exclamatory phrase."

"Hush."

Amryn explained, after telling her that he had spoken with Vienn about it. "Cree's incredible memory was enhanced, but it went a bit off course when they reached his neural circuitry. The new enhancement formula was modified for human brains not Lia'unnian ones. It was a completely unexpected area to be affected so Vienn didn't plan for it. You have to keep in mind he's never used this technology before, as he had reached midlife far before they even had the concept. As his brain was being enhanced to give him photographic memory- almost relivable in the moment it happened-he touched you two and the nanogenes transferred through Gina and enhanced that in you also. Gina was like a conduit for the memories of all three of you, and you swapped memories. Quill saw Gina's, Gina saw Quill's, and Vienn saw both."

"Wow," Gina looked down at her hands. "I really have that much power? That's sort of frightening."

"Vienn was startled to realize that too. He said he's going to look into other nanopowers you might be able to conduct in new ways. If you're interested in that."

As neat as that sounds, it was very scary the entire time I was doing it. I didn't even have control. Unless maybe it was me that stopped at those memories and not Cree. Did I really do that?

"I need some time to think. It was not a pleasant experience the last time, and I don't want to cause anyone else discomfort. Who knows if it will even work when the person isn't newly injected?"

That's good, Gina thought. At least I have that as a backup excuse if I need to say no to Vienn.

"Vienn thinks that because you can transmit the nanogenes to other people that you can do the same thing the enhancer does if you transmit them for long enough. Then you could do what you did for Cree to anyone."