Aberrant

Chapter 49

Gripping the harness of his jumpseat, Kaplan listened to the low, resonant hum of the Hopper's docking thrusters. The dull grey belly of the transport shuttle was packed with bodies in battle gear, the surviving members of Helios Seven among them.

Rounded up by Fero, they'd been waiting fully kitted by the shuttle Atlas had organised, an offer of support Kaplan had accepted without hesitation. He'd personally vetted their heads, and the team's extended time off base and experience with psionics made them less likely to have been compromised than the Silver Dawn's crew.

Temple's last encrypted communication from the base ship had reported more non-psi casualties, including the security officers who'd escorted Jinx. They'd been found with enough hallucinogens in their systems to fry their brains like eggs. Whoever the traitor was, he or she was covering tracks, moving swiftly.

And wouldn't be the only one.

Kaplan held himself in check as the Hopper jolted, docking clamps grabbing, securing the shuttle inside the larger vessel it had entered.

The Black Mercury, a class three Lightbreaker cruiser.

The kind of vessel he needed to acquire ASAP.

Tras' lead was growing by the second.

Kaplan closed his eyes on a silent curse. The wep trader's abduction of Jinx had to be linked to the Dawn's traitor, linked to the Xykeree. They were targeting psionic personnel.

And somehow Jinx was Rha Si.

Kaplan rested his head back against his seat, trying to ignore the slow grind of docking. His thoughts spun with Channing's findings. Jinx being Rha Si explained why the Xykeree had drugged her. It explained the hallucinations she'd suffered. A psionic unaware of her abilities might mistake overheard thoughts for symptoms of mental illness.

But it didn't explain how Jinx was alive.

She had no neurotech, nothing to help her manage her psionics. Her brain should have failed in childhood.

Instead, she'd lived her life in highly populated slum worlds, immersed in a chaotic sea of minds. And her only issue had been what she called 'glitches'.

It seemed impossible.

As did her origins. But he'd be getting to the bottom of those.

The second the Hopper's systems 'green lighted' the hatch, Kaplan released his harness. He was out of the shuttle in under ten seconds, Sun and Atlas behind him.

Admiral Zio Tarak stood waiting at the docking bay's ink black doors, his dark hair slicked back, secured at his nape. Arrogance cloaked him as immaculately as his military uniform.

Kaplan headed for him, not breaking stride.

Sun hurriedly fell into step, Atlas beside her. Reid, are you absolutely sure about this? That Channing has her facts straight?

Kaplan met Zio Tarak's void-dark stare. Her theories fit. And until we ID our traitor, Tarak's one of the few people we can trust. Temple will brief Shau in person as soon as she's available. In the meantime, we keep everything off official channels, do as little as possible to provoke or spook our mole.

Sun shot Tarak a taut glance. This is going to be ugly, Reid.

Not as ugly as if we lose Jinx.

Zio Tarak didn't give them a chance to salute or formally greet him. Explain. Now. He turned on heel and strode from the bay, the order to follow implied.

Kaplan lengthened his stride to fall in beside the man. Sir, details will be given the second we're in a secure—

A stab of pain: a telepathic strike against his mental shields. A constant sense of pressure followed.

Zio Tarak, the son of two Originals, wasn't short on telepathic strength. He could overwhelm and subvert another Rha Si's psionics, brute force a connection, if their shielding was inadequate.

Kaplan endured the assault, used to worse with Shau and her impromptu shield tests, but the thirty seconds it took to reach a small conference room were unpleasant.

Tarak didn't bother to take a seat at the cabin's table. Nor did he let up his assault as Kaplan shut the door behind Sun and Atlas. Senuri Kaplan, you requested a high-speed military vessel be readied under secrecy. I humour you only because you implied this had something to do with my son.

Kaplan took a moment to gather a series of memories then allowed the admiral to breach his mental shields a second. Slamming them back up, he coolly watched the man stumble and grab a chair.

When Zio Tarak finally snapped straight again, his eyes were no longer slices of the void, but alive with myriad emotions. "I have a daughter? The aberrant?"

"A DNA comparison was done against the Rha Si database." Kaplan forced his tone to stay neutral. The admiral had thought nothing of violating the minds of non-psi in his search for his son. In a twist of fate, it looked like he'd ended up assaulting a daughter he'd known nothing of. "Blood taken from Jinsin Koel indicates she's a full sibling to Cal. We suspect he located her while he was in this sector looking for his biological mother."

Colour surged back into Tarak's face. "Are you telling me someone stole genetic material from the trial that produced Callan and used it to create another child?"

Kaplan let the admiral's anger wash over him, more interested in the emotional undercurrents he sensed. Bitterness. Grief. "That possibility is being discreetly looked into now, L'senuri. But any stolen embryo would have had to have been implanted into a human surrogate, not a gestation tank. Ms Koel's med scans show no sign of tech involvement in her early development. She appears to have been born naturally." He let that jolting revelation settle a beat before lighting the fuse on a potentially much more explosive one. "Could Cal's biological mother, Alensa Corellen, have been pregnant when she returned to the non-psi world? And I don't mean via medical implantation, sir."

Tarak stared. "Rha Si children aren't naturally viable."

"But you did have a physical relationship with Ms Corellen," Kaplan guessed and felt the slap of Sun's and Atlas' incredulity.

Tarak stepped back, his psionics a fury. Ever changing emotions scorched the air. Kaplan suddenly understood the man's contempt for non-psi. Tarak had cared deeply for one, and she'd chosen to leave him—to have every memory of him wiped.

Ruthlessly reining himself in, Tarak snapped his gaze back to Kaplan. "If your facts are correct, we're potentially looking at not only a naturally conceived Rha Si, but one who's survived childhood without regulatory tech."

"Our holy grail," Atlas murmured.

"She's also a third-gen." Sun shot Kaplan a tense glance. "We need to find out if she's handling high psi loads, and if so, how she's avoiding burnout."

"To do that, we have to get her back." Kaplan turned back to Tarak. "A human criminal is piloting the ship your daughter is on, but the traitor who put her on it is tied to the Xykeree who took Cal. They know what she is. They drugged her and implanted tech to suppress her abilities. Now they're trying to reacquire her. In fact, I'd say they're desperate to, given how they've just exposed their asset on the Dawn."

Tarak's stare reclaimed the void. "How cold is our trail?"

"We're an hour behind them." Kaplan's blood quickened as he felt the admiral's resolve solidify. "We have their last known trajectory, but no idea of their destination."

"Give me all the data you have." Tarak strode for the door, activating his wrist com. "Captain Delaforge, ready your vessel for warp."