| Date: June 20, 2006 THE SEQUEL TO JETTISON The sharp pain in her chest was making her gasp for air.
Her small feet pounded in the sandy path bed, flinging sand up behind her as she ran deeper into the temple gardens. The swish of her feet was contrasted with the heavy thuds of the warrior's boots as they shortened the distance between her and the hands that wanted to claim her.
The wall! If only she could reach it. Or the dense green bushes. She could blend into those, her thin green limbs merging into the branch work of the plants themselves. Especially now, in the dusk.
She gulped in air, then fingers pressing the torn muscles in her side, tried harder. It was as fast as she could move in the soft sand. And she knew they were playing with her.
Her smock flapped against her as she twisted and turned under the barren branches of the mull tress, dodging the walkway light bushes with their pale glows. The path zig-zaged in a twisted track, teasing her with the glimpses of the wall beyond which offered sanctuary, however temporary.
Her small body would not survive what they intended just as the other youngsters had not survived. The images of Juanah's broken and violated corpse fired her to keep moving, although running was not one of her people's favorite pastimes.
The warriors behind her moved closer, she could hear their ribald remarks and laughter. Her eager eyes burned, her lungs strained, and her legs ached.
A little further. Just around this turn. She was almost to the wall!
The warrior stepped from behind the nearest tree, casually tripping her with her sword, laughing as she fell forward, face down in the sand, a few feet from the wall, a few feet from sanctuary.
She screamed in horror as hands grabbed her, held her down and tore her smock open. Her mind refused to know more. She screamed once more and went silent.
# # #
T'Zara fell from her sleeping pallet, feet tangled in her sleeping robes. She struggled in frenzy to kick herself free, scrambling on hands and knees to the walls, clinging to the heavy velvet drapes as she pulled herself upright, gasping for air.
She was shaking, the images battering her brain breaking through the mind shields that she kept raised out of habit, not usually needed. The artificial mind shield, its green light blinking drew her attention. It was definitely on, and set to mid-range.
The images were preventing her from raising her own strong mind screens and she hurried to twist the switch to full power on the artificial device, to give her some relief. Sounds of heavy boots filtered through the drapery and the thin space station walls. Ka-rihl was coming!
And then she considered how she knew.
As the door to the sleeping room burst open, T'Zara made it to a chair and slid down, half collapsed, into the seat.
Ka-rihl stood, sword raised, angry and alert and confused. T'Zara sensed her emotions. She wore a brief leather thong and straps, dressed for exercises, not combat. T'Zara signaled with a wave of her hand that the danger was not here.
In the time that it took for Ka-rihl to close the door, she had sheathed her sword. She transformed from a fierce warrior-protector to solicitous sister-mother as she knelt by her priestess.
T'Zara reached out to touch her, to take her offered strength, to stop the images still flittering against the barrier of her mind.
Ka-rihl saw the artificial mind shield turned on high, the unit humming, its setting unusual. She raised an elegant dark eyebrow in question and surprise.
"It is as bad as we feared?" she asked, softly, aware of the fragile state of T'Zara's nerves.
"Worse. And they took me off guard"
Ka-rihl swore.
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