Chapter 11

"What do you mean they're gone?" Agent Cross asked.

"They left this morning. That doctor friend of theirs appears to be living at their house with her son now," Agent Harrison informed him.

"Well, where did they go?" Cross asked.

"They were followed to the airport. They arrived in Nashville, Tennessee at six twenty-two pm, local time. I had a man waiting for them and he followed them to a Comfort Inn. They then drove to the Saturn car factory in Spring Hill," Agent Barlow said.

"A car factory?" Cross repeated in confusion.

"Yes," Barlow confirmed.

"Do they have family working there?"

"No. I couldn't even find any relatives in the state, though information on the Woodrow woman is more than scarce; it's practically non-existent. But nothing came up for Jessica Taylor either," Harrison said.

"How long did they stay?" Cross asked.

"They haven't left yet," Barlow said.

"What? It's almost midnight there."

"Unless they managed to get past my man, the two women and the boy are still inside," Barlow said.

"All right. Get a few more people on this, but make sure you trust them. I want that place under twenty-four hour watch," Cross told them.

"I figured you'd say that. I've already called in a couple of old favors. Video surveillance is being set up as we speak, and if anything interesting comes up, copies will be sent to all of our private e-mail accounts, encrypted of course. There's a timer on the password entry, so make sure you're ready as soon as you open the message, otherwise it will delete itself," Barlow said and smiled smugly in response to Cross's obvious approval of his actions.

"Nice work," Cross commended him. "Well, we all know what we have to do. We'll meet again in a few days, unless something comes up. Good day, gentlemen," Cross said in a fair imitation of the Director.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"I thought she said she'd join us in just a few minutes? It's been four hours," Jason complained.

He was lying on his stomach on a cot set next to the far wall from the room's entrance. Jess was sitting on the queen-sized mattress that had been placed on the floor on the opposite side of the room from Jason's cot. She'd found two folded top sheets on two pillows placed at the foot of the bed, along with two folded pillowcases.

With a little help from Jason, she'd made the bed and set out their belongings, and then she'd helped Jason fix up his own cot with a set of twin sheets and a flat pillow. After that, they'd tried to wait patiently by playing cards with the deck Jess had brought on the plane to keep Jason occupied during the flight. But he'd gotten bored with the games over the last half hour and Jess couldn't blame him. It had been a long day.

"I think everyone just wants to meet the 'Commander.' She'll probably be here in a little while," Jess explained, but Jason could tell his mother was more than a little... irritated.

"The word you're looking for is 'pissed off,'" Jess supplied, and smirked a little as her son blushed.

"Are you always going to be able to do that? I mean you're completely human. How come you can hear my thoughts if I'm not sending?" Jason asked, barely able to keep the whine out of his voice.

"You are sending, all the time." Jess watched her son's face, as he stared at her blankly. "Okay, let me see if I can explain this, since I barely understand it myself, but I think it works something like this."

Jess took a deep breath and went into lecture mode.

"Take two humans, and neither of them can hear the thoughts they're both sending all the time. Their receivers can't pick up the noise on their own, even though their transmitters work fine. Then you've got two dokäré and they can choose whether to send or receive at any time because they've got working receivers and transmitters. Then you've got a human and a dokäré, and if they're not bonded, then it's completely up to the dokäré when the human receives, but the human is always sending, so it's also up to the dokäré to decide when they want to pick up the signals. Now, take a human and a half human/dokäré, who hasn't quite figured out how to send and receive when he wants to, so his human half is always sending, and his dokäré half makes most of the thoughts receivable by a human, especially a human who's bonded to a dokäré and who's been practicing the way her son should be. Now, do you get it?" Jess asked.

Jason nodded in resignation.

Man, this sucks.

"I heard that," Jess said.

Jason groaned and rolled over on the cot. Jess looked around the room and finally made her decision, as she stood up.

"Why don't you get ready for bed? I'm going to go see what's taking her so long."

"Why can't I come with?" Jason argued, as he got up from the cot.

"Jason," Jess gave her warning tone and Jason prudently decided not to ignore it.

"All right. I'll be all tucked in by the time you come back. Unless you take a really long time, too, and I have to get up to go find you."

"All right. I'll try to be back within half an hour, okay?"

Jason looked at his watch and nodded.

"At two-thirty-seven, I'm coming after you," Jason said solemnly.

Jess smiled.

"Go brush your teeth."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"I know it's going to take a lot of work, but all of the ships, not just the new ones, have to be brought up to spec," Kaylee said.

"We might as well just rebuild them. It'd probably take less time," one of the older dokäré males grumbled.

"If you think so, then we'll do it. I've seen what we're up against and these old fighters aren't going to stand a chance against the stealth ships the Zaru have been building. But the modifications aren't as severe as you're implying. We've already been over the adjustments that need to be made. With three shifts working at all times..." Kaylee insisted.

"We can't sustain that kind of pace..." a young woman spoke.

"Yes, you can," Kaylee said, and everyone was surprised at the hard edge that had entered her voice. "Your parents and grandparents and great great great grandparents have been slaving in worse working conditions than this place for their entire lives. I don't want to hear how any of you can't do this," Kaylee nearly spit at them.

"Our apologies, Kayleeya," Jonaran soothed. "We have become accustomed to this world and this culture, and I'm afraid those that have never seen our homeworlds can't understand the truth of your words. Perhaps, you should show us all," Jonaran suggested.

Kaylee tried to calm down and finally nodded her head. She closed her eyes and gently allowed the memories of the tragedies she'd seen, both before and after the uprising, to come to the surface. She sent the thoughts out to everyone, so that even the few humans that had been brought into the dokäré family would be able to see and feel them.

Unfortunately, in order to send the thoughts and emotions, Kaylee also had to see and feel them herself. She tried to control the stream of memories, but it soon became a flood. She couldn't even hold back the images of her father, as he'd been beaten, tortured, and then finally executed in front of her and her mother after weeks of abuse, not to mention the nearly two hundred years of daily servitude he'd had to endure before his death.

And the whole thing had been for sport, nothing more. He hadn't been caught as a member of the underground; otherwise, Kaylee and her mother would have been executed, too. He'd just been old and his Zaru master had decided it was time to get a new slave, but first he wanted to have some fun with the old one. There had been many bets as to how long her father would last through the torture games the Zaru enjoyed. Unlucky for her father, he'd been rather strong and had lasted for nearly a whole month.

The images flew by as they were replaced with ones even more gruesome and horrible than those before, and finally, Kaylee heard the yells for her to stop. She pulled the thoughts and feelings back to herself and tucked them safely away behind her natural shields.

"Oh, Melora," Jonaran cried, and he was echoed by dozens of others.

Kaylee found her eyes locked with his and they shared their sorrow for several moments, honoring the man that had been so important to both of them throughout their lives.

Kaylee gathered herself and spoke into the quiet sounds of grief.

"Do you understand now? Can you feel what it is we're fighting for? Our families need us. Our friends, strangers, even the other sister species who have been slaves for millennia longer than our Great Clans need us. We must not fail them," Kaylee stated with the intensity of thought behind the words.

She saw nods from everyone as they accepted and pledged themselves completely to a goal they'd only half-understood before. But now they knew. Whether it was a gift or a curse, even Kaylee couldn't say. They might be inspired today, but tomorrow, they could be paralyzed with fear.

Kaylee shook her head and watched as the people, who would hopefully be by her side when it came time to face the Zaru, dispersed themselves to get at least half a night's sleep while they still could. They all knew that tomorrow would be the start of the longest month of their lives.

Kaylee.

Kaylee felt herself melt into the arms that wrapped around her from behind.

Jess.

That was... intense/sad/horrible/cold/evil, Jess tried to organize her thoughts for the woman she was holding, but her emotions were still jumbled. I'm sorry.

It's okay. Just hold me.

That I can do/I would love to.

Kaylee rested her head back against Jess's shoulder and relaxed her closed eyelids. She drifted in the feeling of her connection to Jess and felt Jess doing the same.

They both jumped when Jason spoke to them.

"Are you guys going to stand there all night, or are you coming back to the room?"

They both turned around and neither of them could help smiling at Jason standing there in his light blue pajamas and sneakers to protect his feet from the cold cement floor of the underground living facilities.

"We were just about to walk back," Kaylee told him.

"Yeah, right," Jason commented dryly.

"Come on. I think we all could use some sleep. Jet lag is going to be a b... we're not going to feel that great in the morning," Jess blithely continued.

Jason smirked at his mother's near slip and turned around to lead the way as his mothers followed him.

"What's wrong with the word 'bitch'?" Kaylee asked innocently, since she'd heard the thought behind the sentence as clearly as she'd heard the spoken words.

Jason burst out laughing and quickly jogged ahead, just in case his mother decided to retaliate.