taken control of the probe. She suddenly knew exactly where to scan and how to extract the information.
“Wait.” Zerna panted harshly. “How are you doing that?”
Nikki wasn’t sure what she was doing much less how it was being done. Suddenly memories poured into her mind, a blurry stream of events and impressions. She tried to slow the images so she could see what was going on, but the effort only made her head pound harder. Surrendering with a low groan, she accepted the deluge. It wasn’t like she had a choice.
“This isn’t possible.” Zerna looked at Jaron and yelled, “You! You are doing this. She can’t... This is assault. Sarronti law prevents—” She cried out loudly, head rocking back then forward. “This is illegal. Immoral!”
“Oh, you mean like kidnapping, and genetically altering people without their permission?” Jaron responded coldly.
Zerna’s entire body shook violently. She screamed once, then her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed into a graceless heap.
Nikki withdrew from her mind, disoriented and confused. Afraid that she’d killed her, Nikki looked for the rise and fall of her abdomen.
“What the hells did you just do?” one of the males demanded, but Nikki didn’t know if it was Indrex or Kantor. “She is Ayrontu. If she is dead, you will pay dearly for this!”
“She’s alive,” Jaron muttered. “Barely.”
Nikki snapped her gaze to him. How bad is she really? I didn’t... Why the hell should she care if she had harmed her? Zerna certainly didn’t offer her the same consideration.
She’s fine. You just overwhelmed her.
Did you trigger some sort of transfer? Nikki asked, anxious to understand what happened. You never did anything like that before.
Jaron looked confused. What are you talking about? I did nothing.
She tensed, trepidation dropping into the pit of her stomach. You didn’t take control of the link?
He grasped her upper arm, hurrying her away from the cells.
“Zerna?” the same male called. “Are you all right?”
Jaron didn’t speak until they were back in the control room. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
She hadn’t been concerned until he freaked out. Now trepidation tightened her belly. “I was following the plan, hurting her badly enough to make her worry about damage and what I could actually do. Then I felt...it’s hard to explain. It was like someone just grabbed the steering wheel. All I could do was follow where they lead.”
“Where did this phantom driver take you?” Malik asked, clearly concerned about the development.
“Into the memory center of her brain.” Nikki wasn’t sure how else to describe it. “As soon as we arrived all of this information flowed into my mind. Scene after scene, like a high-speed montage from some over-ambitious movie.”
Malik looked at Jaron. Nikki followed the direction of his gaze and sighed. Jaron was back in his natural shape. She knew he hadn’t left her side, but it was comforting to finally be able to see him again.
“See if Velmar will respond to a com,” Malik directed. “He is the only one I can think of who could have done what she described.”
Salvo shook his head. “There are several in the city with such skills, but none of the urbanites have the right motivation.”
There was a silent pause as Jaron tried to contact Velmar. Each second that ticked by made Nikki more anxious. Someone had been in her mind, controlling her power with far more skill than she possessed. The person, or entity, seemed helpful today, but what about next time?
“He’s still being stubborn,” Jaron concluded. “But I agree that he’s the most likely person to have done this.”
“But what exactly did he do?” They all seemed ready to move on and Nikki still had a million questions. “How do we access the information? There has to be a reason for the transfer. And do I need to be worried about others barging into my mind like that? I don’t understand what Velmar was trying to accomplish by—”
Relax, silly human, Velmar’s telepathic voice sounded in Nikki’s mind. It was obvious the bluff wasn’t working, so I gave you what you need. With Jaron’s help you can access the images and devise a new strategy.
Her first instinct was to insist that he never enter her mind without permission again, but he knew damn well that it was wrong. He was the one who had told her that the Sarronti consider it immoral. Ironically, she had been the one urging him to do exactly what he did so criticism at this point felt hypocritical.