《Syzygy》


 Procyon Moon

    Andra was thinking about her ship¡¯s navigation system in excruciating detail.


    Really, there was no better way to drown a telepath than to focus hard on a detailed task that didn¡¯t allow for any additional thoughts to sneak to the surface.


    Cygnus Volans was a legend. His telepathy could reach across the galaxy if he really tried. He could rip apart a Destroyer with his mind, and had enough precognition to make shooting him a serious challenge.


    He was also the leader of the Blood Star Mercenaries, renowned for their psionic abilities and their truly, shockingly, high price tag.


    Senator Ursa had brought him along as heavy-handed insurance to make sure the peace treaties between the Edge worlds and the Inner worlds went smoothly.


    Probably for the best. An assassination attempt wouldn¡¯t be a bad option, and Senator Ursa was one of the most influential senator of the era. If he died here, the Edge Revolution stood a real chance of overthrowing the Inner World Consortium.


    But that wasn¡¯t Andra¡¯s concern. She was a pilot, and mechanic, and a decent hand on a fight, but political assassination was a little above her pay grade.


    For now, she was thinking about her navigation system. Specifically, the programming console, which had been buggy for the last few solar weeks.


    Low laughter caught her attention, and she looked up to meet the odd grey-green-gold eyes of the very man who was the cause of her mental preoccupation.


    He was watching her, and there was suddenly a polite tap on her mind, like a request for admittance.


    (If you expect me to believe you haven¡¯t been reading my mind this whole time, she thought casually, and imagined a door opening up a crack. If he really wanted in, her low-grade telepathy wasn¡¯t going to keep him out. It was nice that he was being polite. (You¡¯re somewhat deluded.)


    He snorted in amusement and his lips curled up at the edges. People, including Ursa, looked at him, and were largely ignored.


    (Of course I was,) he replied in a lighter mental ¡®voice¡¯ than she had expected from a man his size. (But you¡¯re the first person here to pick a preoccupation that is actually interesting.)


    (Interesting, but not effective?) she fired back, dismayed. She had hoped the detailed thought project would be enough. (Damn.)


    Probably she should be more upset, but honestly, she hadn¡¯t really expected it to work all that well. It was decent for chasing low-level telepaths out. Cygnus Volans was nobody¡¯s idea of low-level


    Although apparently picking a unique topic was distracting enough to derail him. That was¡­ interesting.


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    (You aren¡¯t very afraid of me,) he noted curiously as he prodded at her thoughts. Andra imagined a flyswatter coming down on his fingers in vivid detail, and he had to fight back laughter again. (That was rude.)


    (So is digging through my mind without permission.)


    (You allowed me in.)


    (Only because you might blow the door off the hinges if I didn¡¯t.)


    She accompanied that with more vivid imagery, this time of a cheap screen door falling off the hinges on its own and then spontaneously lighting on fire.


    Ursa glared over his shoulder when the feared leader of the Blood Star Mercenaries started laughing behind him. The negotiations were at a particularly sensitive, and solemn, moment.


    ¡°Apologies,¡± Cygnus excused himself as he got himself under control. ¡°An errant thought. Nothing more.¡±


    (Rude,) Andra said cheerfully, confident he could still hear her. (Aren¡¯t you supposed to be protecting him?)


    (If someone doesn¡¯t get to killing him soon, I¡¯m going to have to do it myself,) he replied with a decidedly put-upon huff of annoyance. (Although it might be difficult to get paid if I kill him in front of all these witnesses.)


    (You don¡¯t care about the peace?) That was an odd thought. The revolution had been underway for nearly fifteen years. She had thought everyone had a stake in it. (Why not?)


    (I¡¯m a mercenary and I live on a space station,) he said, with the mental equivalent of a shrug. She eyed him from across the room, and he tilted his head just slightly in her direction. (It¡¯s good to have work.)


    (Innocent people are dying.)


    (So? Unless they try to kill my Contract, they aren¡¯t my problem and if they do, they aren¡¯t innocent.)


    Andra hid a growl. He might be able to get away with disturbing the meeting, but she was just a pilot, and definitely couldn¡¯t.


    Alarm suddenly blared across their open connection and Andra jerked back as Cygnus tensed suddenly and his mental ¡®touch¡¯ went sideways into a yawning pit. He had an iron grip on her mind, and she couldn¡¯t figure out what happened until the images started to come, almost too fast to parse.


    Across the room, Cygnus started to seize.


    ¡°What-!¡± Ursa said, and shot to his feet, but Andra was already moving, urgency making her bold.


    ¡°Precog!¡± She hollered, and elbowed her way through dignitaries and officials to Cygnus just in time to catch him as he keeled out of his chair. ¡°He¡¯s having an episode!¡±


    The whirl of images threatened to pull her in, and Andra anchored herself, cursing somewhere in the back of her mind.


    If this was what high-level precognition was like, she wanted none of it, thank you very much.


    After a few heartbeats, she managed to get a look at some of what he was Seeing, and it left her cold.


    Ships. Thousands upon thousands of ships that Andra had never seen before, that moved like angry bees and flooded towards them, so many they blotted out the sun. Behind them came bigger ships. Carriers and destroyers, each enough to dominate a planet alone.


    They were coming. A force greater than anything their part of space could hold off.


    Through the haze, Cygnus realized she was there, in his mind. He somehow used their connection to haul himself out of the vision and back into waking life, taking her with him.


    (Thanks,) his mind voice felt fragile and shaken. That was fair. She felt that way too. (I didn¡¯t mean to drag you in.)


    Before Andra could reply, he sat up, face tight and drawn.


    ¡°Your peace treaty no longer matters,¡± he said into the stunned silence. ¡°Nothing else matters except rallying our forces as fast as we possibly can.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Ursa asked. He, at least, was taking Cygnus seriously. That was good, because Andra still couldn¡¯t find words for what they had seen. ¡°What did you see?¡±


    ¡°Invasion,¡± Cygnus rasped, and his hand closed around Andra¡¯s wrist where her hand rested on his shoulder. His finger were cold and clammy with sweat, and shook almost imperceptibly. ¡°An invasion is coming, and they want to kill us all.¡±

 Altair Chariot

    ¡°If you get space-dust in the manifold, I will shoot you out the airlock!¡± Andra bellowed from her place under the belly of the badly-crushed mining ship. Wires sparked all around her, kept at a safe distance with the barest thought while she tried repair the damage to the engines. ¡°Get me the damn cross-crank!¡±


    Telling silence answered her yell, and she drove the last screw in with rather more force than was strictly necessary before she began extricating herself .


    ¡°I trust you aren¡¯t talking to me,¡± Cygnus said mildly. He leaned casually against her tool chest and watched as she dragged herself the rest of the way out from under her ship and got to her feet. ¡°But I assure you, if there is dust in the manifold, it was not my doing. Unfortunately I do not know what a cross-crankis.¡±


    ¡°There is dust in the manifold, and no, you probably didn¡¯t do it,¡± she admitted, and wiped her greasy hands on a rag. It didn¡¯t help much. ¡°Pyx did, and he probably snuck out to flirt with that cute pilot that came with your lot.¡±


    ¡°Indus Crux,¡± Cygnus supplied after a moment of thought, amused and annoyed in one. Andra was genuinely surprised he knew the pilot¡¯s name. ¡°He flirts with just about anything that has a pulse.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll warn Pyx if it gets serious,¡± Andra muttered. She eyed the telepath curiously and dug for the tool she needed. When she found it, she waved it at Cygnus. ¡°This is a cross-crank. It turns things that are supposed to turn and don¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Noted,¡± he said, and took a seat on her abandoned stool as she jammed herself back under the ship. ¡°Dust?¡±


    ¡°Dust,¡± she grumbled, and got back to work cleaning out the multichambered manifold. ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to be guarding the senator?¡±


    She wasn¡¯t being particularly reverent, or particularly polite, but he didn¡¯t seem to mind. Maybe it was a refreshing change. It had to be exhausting to have people afraid of him all the time.


    ¡°It is,¡± he commented out loud, and laughed when she loudly thought profanity at him. Telepathy wasn¡¯t one of her talents, and was his strongest, but they both knew it was rude to eavesdrop on someones¡¯ thoughts without permission. ¡°And to be fair, it¡¯s difficult not to hear you. You have a loud ¡®voice¡¯.


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    ¡°I barely have any telepathy,¡± Andra pointed out as she struggled with the crank, cursed some more, and set it aside. Pinpoint focus, and a precise telekinetic twist, got the difficult panel open. ¡°Telekinesis, yes, but not much of that either.¡±


    ¡°Interesting,¡± Cygnus murmured. Now that she knew he was there, Andra could feel him in her mind, just quietly watching her work, and her thoughts on the matter. Currently her thoughts were unflattering to pretty much everyone, and twisted sideways with annoyance even as she attempted to wipe the grit out of her eyes. ¡°You¡¯ve been tested?¡±


    ¡°Yup. During flight training,¡± Andra confirmed, and scooted back out to wipe her face off properly. ¡°Two second precog that¡¯s usually ¡®feelings¡¯ and enough telekinesis to make sure I never drop a bolt where I can¡¯t get it.¡±


    ¡°We are interestingly compatible,¡± Cygnus commented as she got most of the oil off her face and promised herself a thorough shower later to get the rest out of her hair. She turned to get a clean rag and discovered him already offering one. ¡°Your mind is¡­ easy.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I should be okay with that,¡± Andra replied, and wiped her hands. It wasn¡¯t that uncommon to find compatible minds among psionics, although usually they had paired abilities. ¡°Easy?¡±


    ¡°I hear every mind within a planet of me if I don¡¯t shield them out, and connect with almost none of them¡± he pointed out, and moved when she nudged him out of her way. ¡°We connected so well you got pulled in when my vision hit.¡±


    The vision. Andra still wasn¡¯t sure what to think about out, and was, in fact, trying very hard not to think about it. She was a pilot and a mechanic, and not important enough to give an opinion on pretty much anything.


    Hopefully no one besides Cygnus himself knew that they were linked at the time. She didn¡¯t want that kind of attention, thank you very much.


    ¡°Why not?¡± he was still following her thoughts, and Andra decided she didn¡¯t really mind. He seemed like he probably needed a friend, and she was probably one of the only ones who wasn¡¯t afraid of him. ¡°Ah, I was also wondering about that. Why aren¡¯t you afraid of me?¡±


    ¡°Either you¡¯re gonna pop my brain or you¡¯re not, and there¡¯s nothing I can do if you¡¯re gonna¡± she told him, and considered for a minute. ¡°Loose the fancy cloak and roll up your sleeves. I need another pair of hands if Pyx is gonna go chase tail instead of help fix things.¡±


    ¡°I know nothing about ship engines,¡± he said, clearly taken completely by surprise, although he did take off his cloak, and rolled up his sleeves out of the way. ¡°How dirty am I likely to get?¡±


    ¡°Very,¡± she told him, and made him laugh as she slid back under the nose of her ship. ¡°If you want to change, there are some coveralls in the chest.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think anything of yours will fit me.¡±


    ¡°They aren¡¯t mine and they¡¯re sized for someone freakishly tall.¡±


    ¡°I am not freakishly tall.¡±


    ¡°Uh huh. Freakishly tall. If you¡¯re gonna stay, you¡¯re gonna help. Get me the number-five socket wrench and the socket that goes with it.¡±

 Vega Dignity

    (I need the cross-crank again.) Andra held out a hand expectantly and was pleased to felt the familiar handle land in her palm without hesitation. (Thanks.


    (This is surprisingly calming,) Cygnus replied as he worked busily on a panel nearby. He was between meetings, and had taken to coming down to help her with her ship whenever he had some free time. Andra still hadn¡¯t figured out why, and he still hadn¡¯t deigned to answer when she asked. (Is that why you¡¯re always down here?)


    They were far enough away from each other that they would have had to yell. Fortunately, Cygnus was more than powerful enough to hold a mental conversation link between them, even when they were both focused on separate, intricate, tasks.


    (I¡¯m always down here because I would really rather not be noticed by anyone important,) Andra told him dryly, and heard him snort from the other side of the ship. (Besides you, anyway. Why do you think I haven¡¯t told anyone I saw your vision?)


    (I assumed it spooked you,) Cygnus said, not exactly hesitant, but aware of her discomfort about the matter. They hadn¡¯t discussed the vision at all. (High-level precognition is rare, and mine can be¡­ overwhelming, even when the subject isn¡¯t as distressing as this was. Also, I need the crank back unless you want me to risk ripping this panel off entirely.)


    His telekinesis was as powerful as his other gifts, but that much power often had control limitations.


    He could probably crack a moon in half, if he was willing to burn himself out to do it. But lift a teacup, or screw in a bolt? Completely beyond his abilities.


    Not for the first time, Andra was glad that her own telekinesis was so minor. She might not be able to do the big stuff, but the little stuff was usually more useful.


    She wrenched three more bolts into place and floated the crank back to him with a thought. He caught it easily and began unscrewing the panel with quick pulls. (I¡¯ll need you here in a moment. This is more complicated than I can learn and do at the same time.)


    (One minute.)


    Andra finished with her bolts and slid out from under the ship. Her coveralls were spattered with oil and space dust, and she wiped off her hands before she joined Cygnus at the panel. A large orb of woven wires, insulation, papers, and buts of plastic dominated most of the interior ¡°Crap. That looks like a chimma nest.¡±


    It was jarring to go from mental speech to verbal, but the connection still buzzed between them, carrying images and concepts that made the words come easier.


    ¡°Chimmas?¡± He kept his hands well away from the woven next of wires and insulation even as Andra eyed it, mind flavored heavily with irritation at the previous owner of the ship. ¡°What are chimmas?¡±


    ¡°Little, annoying,¡± Andra summed up, grumbling even as she dug in her tool chest for the tough syn-leather gloves she kept handy. ¡°Can bite through just about anything. They¡¯d be cute, if they didn¡¯t destroy wiring so fast.¡±


    She grabbed a bucket and set it under the nest. Slime poured out as she began scraping the nest out of the wiring cavity. Tiny glowing rodents scattered in every direction and she caught as many as she could before they could escape.


    Cygnus was appalled, and a little disgusted as slime and wiring drizzled off her gloves and into the bucket. ¡°This thing is a death trap. How is this the ship your Edge Leader chose to get here?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m one of the best pilots we have,¡± Andra said, and cursed when one of the chimmas decided to go on the attack. She batted it into the bucket with more force than was strictly necessary, and it chittered at her furiously with the rest of its¡¯ kind. ¡°And my ship might be beat up, but it¡¯s mine, free and clear.¡±


    ¡°You paid for this flying death trap?¡±


    Cygnus was growing significantly more horrified by the moment. Andra flicked a chimma at him and had the distinct pleasure of watching him scramble to catch it, before he managed to scrape it off him and into the bucket with the others.


    ¡°Yes, I paid for it,¡± Andra told him, and sighed when she got the last of the nest out of the wiring. ¡°I saved for months to buy this ship. Don¡¯t knock it. Close that up, yeah?¡±


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    ¡°You know I¡¯m the most powerful Psion on Vega Base, right?¡± Cygnus said darkly, but he tapped the bucket lid down when she pointed at it. ¡°I could explode your head with a thought.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re gonna, you¡¯re gonna,¡± Andra told him and eyed the panel considering, before reaching in with her limited telekinesis. One by one, she diverted the almost-microscopic converters from the damaged wiring until the panel lit up a healthy green. When she turned around, he was staring at her, with an odd color to his mental ¡®presence¡¯ in her head. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°What you just did,¡± he said, and leaned in close to the panel to examine the converters. ¡°You said you were tested, yes?¡±


    ¡°Precog and ¡®path,¡± Andra confirmed, and decided that she could work and figure him out at the same time. With most of the chimmas contained, it was safe to close up. ¡°Why? Cyg, you¡¯re being weird.¡±


    ¡°Were you tested on telekinesis too?¡±


    He was watching her closely, and Andra finally turned to give him her full attention. ¡°No, I¡¯ve never been able to lift more than a few pounds.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not all about weight,¡± Cygnus said slowly, and waved a hand. Her whole ship lifted off the ground weightlessly. ¡°Who tested you?¡±


    ¡°Lyr Kort, on Asteroid Base forty-two,¡± Andra said dubiously. ¡°He tested all the Edge kids who showed any sign of Psi abilities. He got me into pilot training.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a hack,¡± Cygnus muttered, and sighed when he felt her confusion. Among his other abilities was low-grade Empathy, for all that he rarely used it. ¡°Andra, micro-manipulation takes more power than macro-manipulation. It¡¯s much harder to move very small things than it is to move big ones.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal,¡± she defended herself uncomfortably, and pulled off her gloves. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s useful, but-¡°


    ¡°You don¡¯t understand,¡± Cygnus said. Excitement tugged at the edges of his mind. ¡°Compatible minds always have paired abilities, or they run the risk of burning each other out when they go into syzygy. I have macro telekinesis in spades, but my micro telekinesis is nonexistent. I explode things, usually. But you- if you¡¯re doing electro-mechanical adjustments with your micro, your abilities are off the charts.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding,¡± Andra said, and leaned against her tool chest to consider what he was saying more seriously. On one hand, he was the leader of the psionic mercenary group, and probably knew what he was talking about. On the other¡­ ¡°What about my ¡®path abilities? Still crap.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re probably a receiver, not a projector,¡± Cygnus said thoughtfully, although he still had interesting bursts of excitement going off in his mind. Andra thought he was probably blowing things out of proportion a little. ¡°Easy enough to test, when Ursa goes back to the capital. Now that I know you¡¯re out here, I can reach for you, and if you can hear me, that will prove it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of being a ¡®receiving telepath¡¯,¡± Andra told him dubiously, although her education as an Asteroid-Base orphan and grease monkey left plenty of education to be desired. There was only so much she could learn on her own in her spare time. ¡°I can tell you for sure that my precog isn¡¯t as strong as yours.¡±


    ¡°Different doesn¡¯t mean weaker,¡± Cygnus muttered, and scanned through his memory, fitting puzzle pieces together at light speed. ¡°I bet yours is more reliable than mine, even if you don¡¯t see as far ahead. You saw what mine looks like, and didn¡¯t lose yourself in it. Point of fact, you pulled me out.¡±


    ¡°Is that odd?¡± She wouldn¡¯t know. Almost no one in the Edge Revolution had serious precog. They tended to go insane.


    That might explain some of Cygnus being so weird.


    ¡°I heard that,¡± he told her, but he was too pleased with himself and her to care. ¡°I¡¯ve never been in syzygy with anyone during a precognitive incident.¡±


    ¡°It sounds so fancy when you say it like that.¡±


    ¡°Just because I¡¯m using the correct language-¡°


    Whatever else he was going to say froze on his tongue as that same, terrible, yawning pit opened in his mind.


    Andra only had a moment to anchor herself in her own self before Cygnus was falling away into the vision, gasping for breath and already starting to seize. Blackness devoured the hanger port and the ship until there was nothing but stars and open space around them.


    A ship, oddly smooth and laden with weapons loomed over a glowing blue planet.


    A single rocket, tiny, compared to the ship, left a comet trail as it fired down, and vanished through the clouds far below, and billowed a perfect, terrifying circle though the soft white.


    There was no sound, but Andra wished there was. The silence was almost worse as a shockwave rippled outward from the planet and hit them like a drum inside their chests. The force of it almost shook her loose, but Andra held onto her anchor and Cygnus determinedly, unwilling to lose either of them in the vision.


    For a long moment after the shockwave faded, everything was absolutely still.


    And then deep, fire-lined cracks appeared blazing red-orange against all that blue.


    Spouts of molten stone shot into space in every direction, creating vast pillars as they hit the cold of space, but the eruption on the surface continued, viciously exploding continent after continent away into the black, still glowing with the heat of a fiery planet core.


    Limed by the death of a planet, something on the massive ship noticed them, and suddenly Andra was drowning in raw, directed hatred.


    (Hold on,) Cygnus whispered in their mind, and gathered himself. Andra showed him the anchor she held them by, and felt him understand.


    With a hard push against the vision, they were out, breathing hard on the greasy floor of the hanger.


    ¡°They¡¯re coming for us,¡± Cygnus rasped, and struggled to his feet, before helping Andra to hers. ¡°We have to tell command.¡±


    ¡°So much for staying under the radar,¡± Andra said, and steeled herself before she nodded firmly. ¡°Okay. Let¡¯s go.¡±

 Cappella Besieged

    The attack, when it came, was worse than Andra ever expected, even having Seen what was coming for them.


    The emergency beacons barely had time to go off before they were moving, in a huge cruiser escorted by six heavily-armed destroyers. An army, although they wereonly a small part of the greater force that was rallying from every corner of the galaxy in answer to a universal treat to humanity.


    They weren¡¯t fast enough.


    ¡°How¡­¡± she whispered, staring out the window at the wreckage of Asteroid Base Forty-Two. Her home. ¡°Who- were they able to evacuate before the attack? The long range scanners should have given some warning, right?¡±


    Rubble spread through the asteroid field, the only sign that a base was there before. The few relatively intact prices showed signs of explosion and blaster-fire.


    There was no sign of the bustling base that had been her home for as long as she remembered. Asteroid Base Forty-Two was the biggest of the mining bases in this sector and housed nearly six million souls.


    There should have been thousands of ships buzzing in and out of the base that was anchored onto a huge asteroid. It was a city, thriving with life and trade from all walks of life. There were even a few large apartments fit for local dignitaries.


    Mostly it was miners and families. A few explorers. Mechanics. Traveling trade ships with loads of food and goods. Anyone looking to build a new life for themselves out on the edge of the galaxy where the pickings were good if you didn¡¯t mind working hard for it.


    Now it was gone. Blown into twisted chunks of ruined metal and plastic.


    The biggest of the wreckage would fit in the cargo bay of her tiny passenger ship.


    ¡°We¡¯re scanning for lifeboats,¡± one of the techs called. ¡°There should be some¡­¡±


    ¡°There are no survivors.¡±


    Cygnus stepped into the bridge and made his way to Andra with quick, sure steps. Techs scrambled out of his way and even the captain looked uncomfortable in the presence of the powerful psionic.


    No one much liked someone who could read their minds without the slightest difficulty.


    ¡°How do you know?¡± Andra asked, eyes searching the ruined base for the slightest hope. There were bodies among the wreckage, and she tried hard not to look too closely at them, for fear of seeing someone she knew. ¡°We¡¯re still scanning-¡°


    ¡°I can hear every mind in this ship, you know that,,¡± Cygnus said quietly as he came to her side. His shoulders slumped ever so slightly as he looked out on the devastation. ¡°I can hear our escort-ships too. Close to ten thousand humans, all in a handful of ships. And not a single one out there.¡±


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    Andra wanted to scream, or hit something, or do anything that could possibly make a difference. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears and tears burned at the corners of her eyes.


    The room closed in around her, and suddenly the blackness of space seemed terribly close.


    (Stop. You need to breathe, and get yourself under control.)


    She focused on Cygnus when his voice echoed in her mind, absolutely rock-steady, and flavored with concern that wasn¡¯t entirely for her.


    That was when she realized that everything not bolted or strapped down on the bridge, was floating into the air like the gravity was turned off. Even the captain¡¯s ever-present coffee mug drifted lazily through the air, borne aloft by her wildly spiking telekinesis.


    (Don¡¯t panic,) Cygnus said, calm, and just a little amused at the very back of his mind, even though his focus was on the multiple problems at hand. He carefully wove their minds together, a simple task after several weeks of working together on her ship. Their minds really were uniquely compatible and syzygy wasn¡¯t difficult anymore. (I told you that you were more powerful than you thought. Now, breathe, and put everything back where it goes.)


    (How?) she asked, panicking a little because this was not what they needed right now and everyone she knew- everyone who made home home- was dead.


    The two nearest tablets burst into their component parts and floated in midair, a perfect diagram of tiny pieces ready to be put back together.


    Cygnus barely blinked at the loss of control, but then, he still occasionally blew things up when his power spiked. It had happened more than once during their work on her ship.


    (Focus on the tablets,) he decided, and pointed their shared mind at the nearest problem. (You know how to fix them and the routine will calm you.)


    Strangely, it was his absolute steadiness that proved too much for her.


    (My home is gone!) she screamed at him, as fear and anger overtook the last shreds of her control.  Shouts and curses filled the room as the floating mess of random things quivered menacingly. A pen whistled past Cygnus¡¯ face so close it brushed his hair, and he barely blinked. (Everyone I knew, everyone I loved! The old shop where I had my first kiss, the woman who always gave me real apples for fixing her busted old hov-scooter. They¡¯re all dead!)


    (I know,) he said, and raised his hands as he came closer, carefully easing her control of the room away from her. She pushed against him spitefully and he blinked, orange confusion lighting up his mind when he discovered he couldn¡¯t wrest control from her if she didn¡¯t want him to. (Andra, you need to let me help you before you hurt someone. You don¡¯t want that on your heart.)


    (I want to hurt someone!) she snarled back at him, only vaguely aware of the whole bridge crew, watching their standoff with terrified fascination. After all, it wasn¡¯t often that Cygnus Volans even came to the bridge, let alone had a psionic face-off with a nobody Edge mechanic. (I want to hurt whoever killed my home!)


    (I know,) he said again, and inched closer. Andra shot warning-fury across his mind, but it was halfhearted as her initial rage began to fade into crushing grief. (I don¡¯t blame you. If someone destroyed Blood-Star Base, I would do everything in my power to destroy them.)


    (My home is gone,) she said, as the anger drained out of her, and with it, her urge to fight. Tears streaked down her face, hot and painful. (Cyg, they never stood a chance. Asteroid Base didn¡¯t have weapons. Not really.)


    The crew breathed a collective sigh of relief as pens and tablets clattered to the floor. Cygnus wrapped his arms around her and let her cry into his shirt.


    The enemy struck the first blow. Now it was up to them to rally, or the next would fall even heavier.

 Canopus Emergant

    After the attack on Asteroid Base, things began moving much faster. If there was one thing Humanity liked, it was a fight, and never before had the entire galaxy had someone to fight besides themselves.


    Andra did her best to stay out of the way, and nursed the broken heart that came from losing her home and everything she had ever known in a single devastating blow.  Fortunately, Cygnus was a hard man to ignore, and while her performance on the bridge didn¡¯t go without comment, it went without half of the attention it really deserved.


    Maybe that was why she was planetside, helping the last few families onto the evacuation ships, when the invaders showed up.


    ¡°Go!¡± she yelled, and shoved the last few people on the ship. The hatch closed far too slowly, and she threw a glance over her shoulder. ¡°GO!¡±


    She could see Dus in the cockpit, waving at her to get aboard, but there was no way his already-overloaded ship could hold one more.


    Besides, she hadn¡¯t spent all that time fixing her own beloved junker just to leave it behind now.


    (What are you doing?)


    Cyg¡¯s voice echoed in her head. He was aboard the command ship, high above, stretching his telepathy to its¡¯ limits in the service of the human leaders. Unlike communications, telepathy couldn¡¯t be blocked as long as the two ¡®Paths could reach each other.


    (The last ship is off the ground) Andra reported back without slowing her run for her ship. Any hesitation now could be the death of her. So far the invaders, who still hadn¡¯t named themselves or indeed showed so much as a face to anyone still alive. (Is the fleet ready to pull back?)


    There were more ships, huge, unstoppable destroyers, on their way in. While Humanity had won a few small battles, those destroyers were impossible to fight head to head. They had nothing that could take on even a single one, and they tended to travel in packs.


    (We¡¯re ready, but why are you still on the planet?)


    He sounded worried. To be fair, Andra was worried too.


    (Can¡¯t expect me to leave my special lady, can you?) she tried to joke, and felt when he realized what she was doing, specifically; running across the far-too-large empty spaceport towards her ship. (Not after we sepnt so long fixing her.)


    (Andra, you have four minutes before those destroyers reach us, and we cannot wait for you.)


    With his words came images of massive, spine-covered ships cruising through space, bristling with weapons that were already far more than their pathetic, cobbled-together fleet could handle.


    It was only the slight advantage of precognition and telepathy that were keeping them ever-so-slightly ahead.


    (Andra?)


    Orange alarm flashed across their link, vivid, neon green around the edges with what could only be fear.


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    (What?) Andra asked nervously. It had to be bad, to make Cygnus Volans cram his fear into a box and shove it to the back of his mind where it could be safely ignored. (Cyg?)


    (You have less than four minutes,) he replied shortly, with more of that sickly green creeping across his thoughts despite his best efforts. (Get off the planet. They¡¯re here.)


    The sky lit up orange like the sun was rising somewhere far above the empty compound.


    Except, the sun was setting, far to the west. Long shadows doubled as the light from above grew so bright that it cast shadows so dark they blotted out the ground on which they fell.


    Wind buffeted her out of nowhere, howling so loud that she had to cover her ears, and so strong that it blew her off her feet. She struggled back up, knees and palms bleeding as she resumed her scramble for the scant shelter of her ship.


    When she stole a glance upwards, the sky was bowing in, like a massive finger was pressing down on the thick clouds.


    And then the bubble burst, and clouds sprayed in every direction, pushed aside by the belly of a ship that was too big to even imagine.


    It would have looked like water, if not for the flickers of lightning, darting through the clouds where they crashed apart.


    (I¡¯m not gonna make it to the ship,)  Andra told Cygnus as she ducked flying debris. (I¡¯m not even off the ground.)


    Alarm shot between them, and Andra could feel as Cygnus looked thought her eyes and saw the ship that was slowly sinking into the atmosphere, low enough to deploy the planet-cracking missiles that had already claimed half a dozen worlds.


    There was no way she could clear the blast. The top speed of her little ship wasn¡¯t fast enough.


    (Goodbye, Cyg,) she whispered across their bond.


    A ball of blue-orange light dropped out of the belly of the beast and hurtled towards the ground, miles away but so bright she could see it even against the glare of the atmosphere above.


    Purple-white determination blazed across her mind, and suddenly it was like Cygnus was standing right beside her.


    (Andra, reach for me,) he told her, completely immovable in his determination. (Now.)


    (What?) she said as that world-ending little ball of light fell farther and farther towards the ground until it dipped behind the distant mountains and vanished. (Why?)


    (Do it!)


    The ground shuddered violently under her feet, and Andra threw questions to the wind.


    What did she have to lose?


    She reached for him. For the other end of their syzygy, and the link that was becoming as familiar as her own heartbeat. When she found him, standing on in the grand meeting room, surrounded by shouting generals.


    Generals he was ignoring, all his focus completely on her.


    (Focus on me,) he instructed fiercely. (Focus on me, and where I am. Focus hard, and hold on.)


    The horizon lit with a third sun, and the shaking under her boots turned into a rumble that grew nearer with every panicked heartbeat.


    Andra focused on Cygnus, and held on with every ounce of willpower, forged over a lifetime of fighting for any scraps that were left behind after everyone else took their cut.


    And then the air around her snapped tight, like razor-wire wrapped around her throat and tangled in the very fabric of reality.


    And then she closed her eyes, every core of her being boiled down into hold on.


    When she opened her eyes, it was to Cyg¡¯s face, and the meeting room full of generals.


    It was quiet now, and she could almost taste the awe in th air, even as he breathed out a shaky, trembling breath, and swept her into his arms.


    ¡°How?¡± she whispered as she clung to him, the heat of a world-killing  missile burning on her face. ¡°Cyg how did I get here? Teleportation- it¡¯s impossible. No one has ever-¡°


    ¡°Everything is theoretically impossible until it is done,¡± he whispered into her hair. ¡°I couldn¡¯t lose you like this. Not to them. Not like Asteroid Base.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re impossible,¡± Andra didn¡¯t know if she was laughing or crying even as the planet below them exploded, taking with it one more bastion of humanity.


    But while they were alive, there was hope.


    The fight wasn¡¯t over.


    Not yet.


    +++


    (¡°Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.¡± ¨C Robert A. Heinlein)

 Nihal Collision

    ¡°Pull our forces off this world.¡±


    Cygnus stared up at the sky,  where yet another huge invader juggernaut was splashing through the sky.  Wind screamed around them, and static lightning crawled across bottoms  of the clouds.


    All around him, ships roared to life, scattering  for the faint safety of the sky. He wished them luck and watched them  go, reverse-comets, shooting up into the sky, through the clouds and  friction-lightning and into the black beyond.


    ¡°Sir, we need to get you out of here!¡±


    Cygnus  didn¡¯t know his name, but the aide who shoved at him to get him on the  ship seemed kind. A touch against his mind confirmed that thought, and  Cyg shook his head, but managed a smile.


    ¡°Get out of here,¡± he  commanded, and turned his full attention on the great ship, which very  soon would be low enough to destroy the planet, and everyone still on  it. ¡°That¡¯s an order.¡±


    ¡°What about you?¡± The aide was scared. He  should be. Cygnus was scared too, but he was also angry, and more than  that, he had a way to share that anger with the invaders.


    ¡°I am  going to buy us time,¡± he replied, and walked forward towards the ship.  Wind caught his cloak and billowed it back from his shoulders. ¡°When you  get to the command ship, find Andra. Ursa knows who she is. Tell her  I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    She would be furious with him, but the lives of so  many fleeing refugees were worth his. He hoped she would forgive him  eventually.


    Not that it would really matter if she did. He was very probably going to die before ever seeing her again.


    It was time to show these aliens who they were really up against.


    He raised his hands to the sky, all his focus condensed to one single purpose.


    Once,  long ago, he shattered a moon, just to prove that he could. While he  drew breath, that ship would not move one inch farther.


    The  juggernaut fought him when he grabbed it, engines blazing as it  struggled to break free of him and resume its terrible decent into  range. No matter what it tried, he held on, his mind a wall that it  would have to break before they could continue.


    The concrete  around Cygnus shuddered, and splintered as he braced himself against the  world itself, and refused to let go, even when a trickle of blood ran  down from his nose, and his mind trembled under the strain.


    Ships screamed past him, escaping the planet in swarms, and he took strength from them.


    Humanity might be on the run, but they weren¡¯t beaten. Not yet.


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    And  then the juggernaut fired its massive engines, and Cygnus strained to  hold it back as all that energy blasted against his telekinetic hold.


    For a long minute, he struggled, straining against enough power to jump a ship the size of a city across the galaxy.


    But no one, not even him, could keep that kind of force back for long.


    Like a wire snapping across skin, Cygnus felt his grasp on the ship break, stretched far beyond his ability to hold it.


    The  ship roared overhead as it resumed its attack on the planet. The  shockwave as it hit the lower atmosphere very nearly blasted him to the  ground.


    Cygnus fell to his knees, straining against his own limits as he tried to catch the ship again.


    A small hand, strong hand slipped into his, rough with calluses and mechanic scars.


    When he looked up, it was into Andra¡¯s eyes.


    (Together,) she said into his mind, and pulled him to his feet. (Let¡¯s show these guys what we can do.)


    (We can¡¯t hold against those engines,)  Cygnus said grimly, although he let her pull him into syzygy. Her mind  was like cool water where he had strained himself too far, battling  against the ship above.  (They¡¯re too strong)


    Hard satisfaction rippled across her mind and into his.


    (We¡¯re not going to hold them back,) Andra said viciously, and wrapped his sheer power around her iron control with an ease most would envy. (We¡¯re going to wreck them. They can¡¯t drop their bombs if we tear them apart.)


    (How?)


    (Remember how easy it was to break my ship?)


    Memories  flashed from her mind to his, of crushed screws and paneling torn off,  twisted beyond recognition. The accidents wrought with the smallest bit  of misplaced power.


    Ships like the destroyer above them could take  any amount of damage from the weapons aboard a starship. They could  hold off a dozen human warships and never take a scratch.


    But they were never meant to take on a pair of furious telekinetics who had only one goal.


    To cause as much destruction as they possibly could.


    (Yes.)


    Andra  threw their shared mind upward, her mechanic mind picking apart the  ship. It was the failing of any structure as big as the destroyer. There  were always places where a fingertip of power could get in. If they  could get in, they could rip something off.


    The ship, which  came to kill a planet, came apart in pieces , slowly at first, and then  faster as they tore away plating, wires, and everything contained  within.


    And then there was resistance. Not enough to stop them, or  even slow them. With the resistance came the brush of another mind,  completely inhuman, and outraged at their defiance.


    If he had  been alone, Cygnus might have tried to reach out. Tried to speak with  that alien mind. Tried to learn about it, and about why these invaders  wanted them all dead.


    But he wasn¡¯t alone, and Andra seized the mind in a ruthless grip even as it projected wordless alarm along with the outrage.


    (This is for Asteroid Base 42,) she snarled vengefully to the presence, which struggled in their grasp, and tried to sink psionic fangs into their minds. (And every other world you took from us!)


    With one final twist of pinpointed intent, the ship burst apart. The mind, trapped by theirs, shrieked, and died.


    For a long time, they stood there, wrapped together so tightly neither of them were sure which mind ended where.


    Cygnus  offered up a wordless apology for not telling her what he was doing,  and felt the champagne glitters of forgiveness skate from her mind into  his, tinged with faint purple annoyance. If she wasn¡¯t allowed to go down fighting, neither was he.


    He shimmered unrepentant green amusement back at her, and felt her laugh.


    Finally, reluctantly, they began detangling themselves as a ship, one of their own, skated down through the clouds.


    (Now they know we can fight back,) Andra said quietly, almost a whisper across Cyg¡¯s mind. He wrapped his arm around her as exhaustion swamped them both. (Maybe we have a chance after all.)

 Spica Interlude

    <div>


    The attacks came fast and hard, after Andra and Cygnus managed to turn one back on itself, and destroyed the ship that came to kill a world.


    Whoever they were, the invaders spread the word about their new defense quickly. Almost overnight, the attacks changed from a single driving force, to hard-hitting guerrilla attacks, too sporadic to predict, and devastating.


    Of course, now that they had a way to fight back, Cygnus rallied his mercenaries, and began teaching them how to tear apart the world-killers before they managed to connect.


    It wasn¡¯t all that difficult a process. The basic premise boiled down to: if it looks important, rip it off.


    He was exhausted, but there was too much to do, and never enough time to do it in. As one of the leaders, now the leader of the most effective weapons they had, his time was at an absolute premium.


    He rarely even had time to see Andra, although their connection was always there, the hum of her thoughts in the back of his mind. He probably could have shielded her out, but after two near-death misses, it was more reassuring than it was irritating.


    Besides, he could hear everyone on the ship. At least her thoughts were more ordered than some.


    After a long night, and longer day before that, he managed to make it back to his own quarters for some badly-needed sleep. The generals thought that precognition was the answer, and while Cygnus didn¡¯t exactly disagree, he also knew the limitations of precognition better than most.


    It was useful, but the farther out a vision took place, the less reliable it was.


    Sooner or later, one of the precogs would be wrong, and all hell would break loose.


    But that was a problem for tomorrow.


    He shed his clothes on the way through his room and left them where they fell, too tired to care about the mess. His head was pounding from being in constant contact with his officers all day, and relaying messages as fast as they came in.


    The bathroom was small, steel, and simple. The shower was barely big enough for him to fit into it at all, but the relief of warm water on his aching head was more than worth the discomfort.


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    By the time he got out, the headache was almost manageable, and he was almost too exhausted to stand.


    So it was a surprise when he stepped out of the bathroom, towel around his hips, and heard a squeak of embarrassment from his bed.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t hear you come in,¡± he told Andra as she covered her eyes, cheeks flaming red. Her thought, always whispering at the back of his own, circled into a series of very flattering, and somewhat explicit fantasies regarding his shoulders, and what might be under his towel. He tactfully ignored them, and pulled on a pair of loose sleep pants. ¡°You can open your eyes. I¡¯m decent.¡±


    ¡°Sorry,¡± she said, cautiously opening one eye, and then the other as he pulled on a shirt next, old and tattered, but too soft to throw away. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to intrude.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine,¡± he assured her, and fell back on the bed with an arm over his eyes. ¡°If I was listening, I would have known you were out here. Besides, I told you to come in whenever you liked.¡±


    ¡°You did,¡± she agreed, and nudged him up until his head was in her lap. ¡°Also, you look like death.¡±


    ¡°I feel like death,¡± he agreed, and tried to force the tension out of his neck. He only succeeded somewhat, but every little bit helped. ¡°Are you alright? What brings you here at this hour?¡±


    ¡°You missed lunch and dinner,¡± she explained, and there was a soft rustle somewhere near his bedside table. Whatever it was smelled intriguing, and Cyg¡¯s stomach twisted, very offended at how long it had been since he ate anything. ¡°And then you missed breakfast. Open your mouth.¡±


    Bemused, he did as she commanded, and was rewarded with a bite of meat, flavored with an odd, but tasty combination of flavors. Next was a bit of mushroom, and then some sort of squash, and Cygnus decided that he didn¡¯t care too much about the odd spices, and wondered distantly where Andra got the food. It wasn¡¯t the usual offering of the ship cafeteria.


    (We engineers have our own little kitchen,) Andra heard his thought and answered as she fed him slowly enough that his stomach had a chance to adjust to a proper meal. With her words came partial memories, glimpses of the ramshackle kitchen, cobbled together by a pack of mechanics who didn¡¯t want to leave their work long enough to raid the cafeteria. (We all contribute ingredients, and someone who can cook puts it together. This time is was me.)


    (You¡¯re a good cook,) Cygnus decided tiredly, and heard her set the empty container aside. (Thank you. I¡¯m probably going to miss breakfast tomorrow too.)


    (I¡¯ll bring you something,) she assured him, and shifted down the bed until she could snuggle into his side. They hadn¡¯t shared a bed before, and Cygnus was certainly too tired for anything more than sleep, but he tucked an arm under her until she was arranged half on top of him, and warm. A thought dragged the blanket over them both. (Am I staying here tonight?)


    (I hope you will,) he told her sleepily. Fed and clean, he only had about two more minutes of consciousness before his body just gave out entirely. (This is comfortable.)


    (Yes it is,) she agreed, and touched her nose under his jaw with a yawn and a sleepy sigh. (Pass out. I¡¯ll wake you when I get up.)


    (No you won¡¯t.)


    (No, I won¡¯t.)

 Polaris Eclipsed

    Cygnus stared out the wide window as a destroyer, yet another of the enemy¡¯s seemingly endless supply of warships, descended on the planet below.


    The evacuation was complete. The last few people planetside were hurrying onto ships, protected by the planet¡¯s bulk. They would be gone long before the bombs fell.


    A victory, such as they were.


    Cygnus hated that he was now counting a lost planet, millions of lost homes, as a victory.


    It was better than those millions being counted in bodies, but that was cold comfort in the night, when he weighed their chances, and they came up wanting.


    Andra was down there. They had fought about that. She insisted she go, that she help wherever she could. He insisted that she stay, safe and protected.


    She was too valuable to risk. The stability that she brought to his vast powers was not something they dared risk.


    Of course, she was also perfectly willing to fight him when anyone else would have bowed to his wishes.


    And so they fought, a shouting match in the halls that sent everyone scrambling for cover as coffee mugs exploded and tables lifted off the ground, light as air.


    In the end, she won, because he couldn¡¯t stop her.


    He could still feel her, red ribbons of anger threading through her thoughts and down their bond. Selfishly, he closed his shields on her for the first time. He didn¡¯t feel like hearing her thoughts about him just now, and certainly didn¡¯t feel like sharing his own.


    ¡°How fares the evacuation?¡±


    Senator Ursa, who was, technically, still Cyg¡¯s employer, and was one of the rare few leaders who cared more about his people than his own image.


    Cygnus didn¡¯t like him especially. His mind was slippery, like all politicians. But at least he cared, which was more than most of the leadership at the moment.


    ¡°The last few ships are leaving now,¡± Cygnus reported, feeling those minds like comets as they lifted off and blasted for the sky. The destroyer was nearly low enough to reach the planet, but that didn¡¯t matter now. Not really. ¡°Have they noticed us?¡±


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    ¡°If they have, they don¡¯t seem to care,¡± Ursa said, and watched as the planet¡¯s atmosphere splashed away from the huge ship, the friction lightning visible even at their height. ¡°I still can¡¯t figure why. They could destroy us with a few good shots.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps they want us to suffer,¡± Cygnus murmured, eyes on the alien destroyer, and the planet below. Any minute, there would be a burst of light, and the planet would explode like nearly a dozen before it. They could have made a stand, could have fought with telekinesis, but the leaders, in their wisdom, decided to let this one fall. He still didn¡¯t know why. ¡°Or they want us afraid. Fear is a powerful-¡°


    (CYGNUS!)


    Cygnus clutched his head as Andra¡¯s scream cut through his shields like a red-hot poker between the eyes.


    Images pummeled him, glimpses through her eyes of ships, slick-black and nimble landing, unloading dozens of beings that surrounded her.


    (Grab on!) he said, all anger forgotten in the wash of her fear as he connected with her seamlessly. Syzygy was only a breath away, and took barely more than a thought. (Focus on me!)


    They managed it once, teleporting her off a dying world in the moments before it detonated. They could do it again.


    Through her eyes he saw the aliens for the first time, crystalline, with veins of blue coursing through them, almost human except for the jerky, halting, too-fast way they moved.


    The people around her died in a rain of white blaster-fire, screaming, dissolving into piles of dust that blew away with the howling winds.


    Cygnus pulled with all this strength, every ounce of power he had focused on pulling her to him, to safety.


    A new presence cut between them, sharp as a knife and every bit as determined as they were.


    Cygnus screamed as the new five ripped them apart, thread by thread as they fought to hold the link.


    And then, like fingertips slipping from his grasp, she was gone.


    ¡°No!¡± he yelled and struggled to reach for her again, but it was as if a sheet of glass, invisible but unbreakable, was between them. A moment later, his last sense of her vanished completely, no matter how he searched. ¡°Andra!¡±


    Despair and grief swamped him, and he fell to his knees, still searching, reaching for any slightest hint that she might still be alive.


    Below him, the planet exploded, and the alien destroyer, somehow radiating smug malice, lit up and kept into hyperspace, a successful predator that knew it was beyond challenge.


    A fist slammed into his face and shook Cygnus back into awareness even as it sent him sprawling. When he looked up, it was to the face of Indus Crux, his second in command.


    ¡°Breathe,¡± Dus said, and knelt next to him, uncharacteristicly serious. When Cygnus tried to ignore him, tried to reach for Andra again, Dus shook him back into focus. ¡°Cyg, you need to breathe, and focus on me. Dammit, you¡¯re ripping the ship apart!¡±


    (She¡¯s gone) Cygnus told him, too far gone for words as black grief threatened to pull him under. (I felt her vanish. I felt-)


    (I¡¯m sorry,) Dus told him, and pulled him into a tight hug, one of the few who would ever be allowed close, and one of the two... now the only... person Cygnus trusted. (We¡¯ll pay them back.)


    (But she¡¯ll still be gone,) Cygnus told him, and let himself break down for the woman who used to share his mind. (And I let her die.)

 Sirius Empowered

    ¡°Who is that?¡± Orin asked curiously. Dus looked down at the eight-year-old when the little boy broke the silence. Cygnus didn¡¯t even glance over, his face stony and unreadable. Well, unreadable to anyone but Dus. He could see the grief, Bone-deep and crushing, in Cyg¡¯s eyes, and wished his friend would talk to someone, anyone, about his loss. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen him before.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s Cygnus Volans,¡± Dus murmured, and lifted Orin up so he could see, even as Cygnus approached the wide viewscreen. Outside, the enemy fleet was rallying, for once on the attack against ships, and not planets. ¡°He¡¯s the leader of the Blood Stars. I¡¯ve told you about them, yeah?¡±


    ¡°The psionic base,¡± Orin remembered some, but it had been a while and he wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°Do you know him?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s my best friend,¡± Dus said quietly, and smiled a little, sadly. It used to be true. They grew up together on Blood Star Base. ¡°Or he was. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s anyone¡¯s friend anymore.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°The woman he loved was on Polaris Four. His heart is broken.¡±


    The death of every new planet sent shockwaves through the survivors. Polaris Four hadn¡¯t been much of a loss... if not for Andra, Cyg¡¯s syzygy, and almost-lover.


    Cygnus hadn¡¯t told him all of what happened, but Dus knew he had experienced everything to the last moment as if he was there himself.


    And now Cygnus Volans had nothing to lose.


    Indus watched as his friend gazed out at the ships that were homing in on them. At the weapons. At the shields no one could get through.


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    And Cygnus smiled, just a little.


    It was the kind of smile that ripped a person open and left them bleeding on the floor.


    Most people couldn¡¯t feel the shockwaves as Cygnus raised his hand and unleashed his power, without even the limits he usually put on himself to save his own mind. Dus was a telekinetic himself, and for a moment, he couldn¡¯t breathe under the weight of all that barely-controlled power.


    Psionica could do impossible things when they were angry enough, and Cygnus had enough fury to power his abilities for a hundred years.


    At first it was hard to see what was happening. The enemy ships weren¡¯t that close, after all. They didn¡¯t need to be, with their swarms of small, maneuverable fighters and their powerful weapons.


    But then, Cyg didn¡¯t need to be close either.


    Slowly, fighting every moment, one of the immense ships shuddered violently and began to turn, great engines blazing futilely as it tried to resist.


    But Cygnus had cracked a moon in half, a long time ago, and that was before he had the power of grief and rage behind him, driving him forward.


    The ship trembled, and shook as it tried to go into hyperspace to escape the wrath of a single human.


    The great engines howled silent in the vaccume of space.


    The ship didn¡¯t move.


    Cygnus smiled.


    His hand snapped into a clenched fist, and the ship before them shattered apart, a million ragged puzzle pieces bursting into a perfect orb of debris.


    The next ship tried to escape too.


    The one after that actually made it. Shot distance.


    But not far enough.


    The fighters, those that hadn¡¯t returned to their ships in an effort to get away, were easy targets, and Cygnus sent them spiraling into each other, and the wreckage which followed the slightest twitch of his fingertips.


    Finally, their patch of space was empty except for their few Human ships, and Cygnus finally turned away from the viewscreen.


    The grief in his eyes was terrible, and Dus didn¡¯t try to catch his attention as he went past, no doubt off to report the victory to the generals.


    For their sake, he only hoped none of the generals brought up Andra.


    Really, for all their sakes.


    Cygnus Volans would not be taking prisoners.

 Mizar Orbit

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    Indus reported, mental voice flavored with coffee-colored concern, and bright golden flakes of hope. (Is it-)


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    Cygnus told him, and hurtled into the landing bay where soldiers converged on the fighter. It was in sorry shape, beaten and blasted, but whole. He saw a few of the soldiers raise guns, and crushed the muzzles shut with barely a thought even as steam erupted outward, and the tiny pilot¡¯s hatch scraped open.


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    he told her, and pressed his face into her dirty hair as she clung to him. His eyes burned with tears, and he let them fall, relieved beyond measure that she was alive, and every inch the miracle he never dared to pray for.

 Dabih Risen

    Andra¡¯s mind was a wreck. Her control, which had been Cygnus¡¯s anchor for months, was shattered.


    Every noise made her jump, and when she did, the ship trembled. Everything that wasn¡¯t bolted down floated through the air, the mark of a telekinetic pushed far past the bounds of their own ability.


    Humans could do incredible things when it came to survival.


    (Breathe with me,) Cygnus said, his own mind woven into Andra¡¯s the only thing that was holding the ship together through her nightmares. It was a struggle. As his syzygy, she was just as powerful as he was, and panic tore control apart faster than anything else. (Andra. You¡¯re safe.)


    ¡°Cygnus?¡± His name echoed across their thought-bond even as she said it out loud. He rose from his chair and came to sit beside her on her hospital bed. She reached for him, her hand shaking but warm when he tangled their fingers together. ¡°Where (am) I?¡±


    It was never good when a telepath couldn¡¯t separate thought-speech and verbal, but at least she was communicating. It was the first time she was awake enough to truly form a coherent sentence since her miraculous reappearance. He feared her lost to the terror that threatened to swamp her every moment.


    ¡°The medical bay of one of our cruisers,¡± he told her, opting for verbal speech in the hopes of grounding her out. ¡°You¡¯re safe.¡±


    Relief echoed across their bond, turbulent blue that was soothing and overwhelming at once. Towering waves of orange fear rolled between them until he leaned forward, careful to telegraph his every move, and gathered her into his arms. She was always small, but after weeks of captivity, she was so thin she felt fragile.


    Her touch on his mind was soothing and so tentative it broke his heart.


    She didn¡¯t know if he still wanted her in his thoughts.


    (You are always welcome in my mind,) he whispered to her, and filled their shared mind-space with starlight glimmers of the hope he thought was lost with her disappearance. Slowly the waves of vivid orange terror faded into cool twilight calm. (Andra, what happened? I felt you die.)


    (They hate us,) she said, eyes closed against the memories that threatened to swamp her. He carefully bolstered up her trembling control. (The aliens. They¡¯re from far away. Their world, it¡¯s a rogue planet, drifting through space. They heard us, heard our telepathy first, and came to investigate. They thought we were like them. A lost colony that found the perfect home to thrive.)


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    With her words came flashes of memory, so vivid he could barely hold himself to reality.


    Her capture. Crystalline beings, their bodies as changeable as their minds, who moved too fast for their own limbs brutally murdering the people around her, only to drag her away, impossibly strong.


    The feeling of their bond snapping as a mind far more powerful than hers alone crashed into her shields and bundled her into impassible silence.


    The ship, every inch of it plated in a metal she didn¡¯t know, that blocked her every attempt to reach for him.


    And the Queen.


    (Tell me,) Cygnus prompted her softly as he laid back on her bed with her tucked so close he could feel her heartbeat against his side. (You¡¯re the first to ever see them.)


    (They¡¯re like ants,) Andra told him, her eyes closed, and her head on his chest. (Every ship has a queen, but the queens, they¡¯re the only ones with psionic abilities. The rest are just workers, soldiers, scientists. Grown for their purpose. They¡¯re individual, sort of, but connected with their whole hive. They hate us because so many of us have abilities, but they don¡¯t realize we¡¯re not a hive-mind.)


    (Why did they take you?)


    (They thought- they thought I was a Queen, because we, you and I, we tore their ships apart, but it was me who killed that first queen.)


    (You spoke to her,) Cygnus whispered in realization. He remembered Andra, raw from the loss of Asteroid Base Forty-Two and too angry for reason. He remembered the feel of that powerful mind blinking out in one sharp, angry twist. (She told the rest?)


    (The last thing she did was tell them everything. They thought I was a queen,) Andra repeated, quickly coming to the end of her strength. (When they found out I wasn¡¯t, that we don¡¯t have queens like theirs, they tried to get information out of me. They- they¡¯re so strong, but they didn¡¯t know what to look for in a mind that¡¯s not part of the hive. You remember how we met?)


    He did. The meeting that seemed so long ago. Her mind that shone interesting where everyone else was tediously dull. Her thought project, the buggy, broken little ship that was lost in one of the first attacks. Her humor and easy acceptance of his presence in her mind. Her strength, the unexpected anchor against the precognition that always left him torn apart.


    (They don¡¯t know how to get around those stupid little exercises. They don¡¯t have anything like it,) Andra explained tiredly. (So I flooded them with sand-thought. Meaningless nothing, until they left me alone. But they gave me something too, because they didn¡¯t know I could get into their minds while they were in mine. As soon as they left, I got out of my cell and hid.)


    More images came. Flashes of glowing crystal bodies in dark hallways. Of stealing the odd mushrooms that grew from the walls. Of building a crude little scanner from scavenged parts to determine what was toxic and what was safe.


    Of her tiny little camp, tucked back under a monstrous crystal growth. A little hollow, so hidden that no one ever looked there. Her refuge, as the queen searched and searched for her in the deep parts of the ship.


    Of shattering her own control so that her own mind flickered in and out, untraceable in a ship she couldn¡¯t escape.


    And finally, finally feeling the weapons unloading, feeling the tremble of a psionic attack, and seeing her chance.


    Finding a ship. Blasting out, guided only by intuition and desperation.


    (Tell the generals,) she whispered to him as her mind faded out into sleep. (I know how to beat them.)

 Ankaa Igniting

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand,¡± Cygnus told Senator Ursa frankly. ¡°Andra is every bit as powerful as I am. Nearly all of my concentration is taken simply keeping her balanced.¡±


    ¡°How did we not know of this powerful psion?¡± Ursa questioned. He was not particularly unreasonable, but he was somewhat fixated on details he didn¡¯t actually need to have. He had hired Cygnus originally, but with the invasion being what it was, Cygnus ended the contract. He couldn¡¯t be distracted playing bodyguard to a politician when his talents were badly needed somewhere else. ¡°She came in with the Edge people, didn¡¯t she?¡±


    The ship trembled. Normally, such a quake meant that they were under attack. This time, it meant something very different.


    Ursa cursed and grabbed for the wall.


    Cygnus closed his eyes, and focused on the turbulent orange ocean, where he cradled his syzygy¡¯s broken mind.


    Andra was asleep, but as she often was since her return, she was having a nightmare.


    (You¡¯re asleep,) he told her, sending cool green vines through her dream, of crystal bodies screaming into her thoughts, until silver blossoms bloomed through the waves of panicked orange. (You¡¯re safe. You¡¯re in my quarters.)


    (Cyg?)


    (Yes. Are you awake now?)


    She was. He felt her open her eyes, the brush of eyelashes on his cheek even though there were a dozen decks and fourteen thousand human minds between them. He pressed a glimmer of red between them, shining with gold at the heart, and felt her smile.


    All at once, she was gone completely, only the faintest thread of their connection, hard-won and fought for, lingering to let him know that she was alive and safe.


    ¡°What was that?¡±


    Ursa hadn¡¯t been on the ship since Andra¡¯s return. He didn¡¯t know that these tremors were progress. That in the first days, everything not nailed down lifted off the floor. Mind-storms blasted through the rooms, and the ship, one of the mightiest still flying, was nearly ripped apart.


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    In desperation, Cygnus and Andra wove their minds together during one of her clear moments, when she could think and her clever mechanical knowledge offered a solution.


    She needed a ground and he was, for once, the stable one between them. He was able to share the strain as they painstakingly shored up her shattered control.


    Broken things could be mended, like an old ship that never should have been able to fly but for the love and grit of one dedicated mechanic from an Edge Asteroid Base. Andra was determined in everything she did.


    And before she was anything else, she was a survivor.


    (Cygnus, Andra¡¯s with me.)


    It was Indus, Cyg¡¯s right hand and second in command. Since they discovered Andra¡¯s tendency to vanish completely, Indus took to keeping an eye on her whenever she was outside Cyg¡¯s quarters. This was a reassurance to all of them, as Andra found the presence of such an open mind calming.


    Indus rarely thought something he didn¡¯t immediately say, and was spectacularly terrible at hiding his thoughts. He was also completely loyal to Cygnus, and no one else.


    So he made sure to be around when Andra wanted to get out of the rooms, and he checked in with Cygnus if she was having one of her ¡®blank¡¯ spells.


    (Where are you?)


    (Down in the hanger. At that poor old project ship.)


    Of course. Andra¡¯s hobby would always be tinkering, and the focus helped to restore her control.


    (I will join you when I¡¯m done here.)


    ¡°So, she says she found some way to disrupt the attacks?¡±


    Ursa was, sensibly, focused on the war. He watched Cygnus with measured caution, but never tried to hide his thoughts behind inane exercises.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Cygnus said, and poured himself a glass of water. When he offered one to Ursa, the Senator shook his head. ¡°They are beings of crystal, and they can be disrupted by sonic weapons.¡±


    ¡°Those aren¡¯t much good against the kind of ships they use. We tried it in the early days.¡±


    (Cyg, we¡¯re coming to you. Andra wants to talk to Ursa.)


    That was¡­ not ideal, but it was her right, and she was the one with first-hand knowledge. Memories could be corrupted.


    (Alright.)


    A minute later, the door slid open, and Andra stepped in. She was clad in one of his shirts, and her own engineering pants.


    Her smile was otherworldly, but her eyes were resolute.


    ¡°We¡¯re the answer,¡± she said, joining the conversation as if she had always been a part of it. Most likely, she was, at least partly. They still weren¡¯t entirely sure what thoughts were hers and which she was picking up from the people around her. Laced together as they were, it was Cyg¡¯s thoughts she most often shared. ¡°Psionics.Telepaths particularly.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡± Ursa asked, not entirely sure how to respond to her sudden entrance. ¡°We have been employing our psions as effectively as possible, but there aren¡¯t enough to go around.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve been fighting ships, and losing because they can build more faster than we can destroy them,¡± Andra said, and smiled a terrible, poisonous smile that shimmered in Cyg¡¯s mind, noxious red-purple. ¡°So now, we¡¯re going to target Queens, instead.¡±

 Leporis Crush

    The ship drove through the rings of a moon, leaving chunks of ice and light scattered behind it. Black oil-sheened plates caught the light and cast eerie rainbows through the ice, but the engines behind it limned the immense ship with ghostly green.


    Andra drifted past Cygnus, and placed her hand on the viewscreen.


    She seemed terribly small, but impossibly strong.


    Her mind, her raging mind, the match to Cyg¡¯s own in power and skill, was as clear as cut crystal.


    For the first time since her escape, Andra had perfect control over her own abilities.


    The bridge was silent as Ursa, backed by the rest of their generals, looked on.


    She didn¡¯t look when Cygnus joined her, but when he reached for her hand, she tangled their fingers together. Her mind slid against his, sparking like ball lightning.


    After weeks of working to get her back, to shore up the control she destroyed to protect herself, they could merge at less than a thought. Cygnus didn¡¯t know if it was precognition, or simply a finely-tuned sense of each-other.


    He didn¡¯t care.


    When their minds laced together, her steely control was the shining framework for his overwhelming spread of power.


    When the ship came for them, green light bearing down closer and closer, weapons already arming, they were ready.


    The cut-crystal of Andra¡¯s mind shivered, resonance building through the shining, ice-sharp facets and into the bell of their merged thoughts. The l reverberation of a fingertip over a crystal wineglass echoed over and over between them, building and building from a whine, to a whistle, to a scream.


    (Now,) Andra said, flooded with red-black rage and metal-white purpose.


    Together they threw their minds open, reaching for the counterpoint they knew would be at the heart of the predator bearing down on them.


    With Andra¡¯s purpose and Cygnus providing all the power they needed and more, they found the alien mind, buried in a shell of drones.


    Before the queen could stop him, Cygnus blasted through the drones who tried to protect her and found the mind within. Andra felt the moment he was in, and followed him in, the scream of their resonance a comet-trail in her glass-facets.


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    Alone, neither of them could have done it. Trying to build that sort of resonance would have torn a single telepath apart.


    But together, the bond of their syzygy blazing between them, they tore into the queen¡¯s mine, the strange crystalline being that held every mind of her ship, her hive in check.


    When their resonance crashed into the queen, still building until Cygnus thought it would cut them apart, she went silent, her alien hunger suddenly turned to a desperate battle to survive.


    Cygnus tore down her shields as fast as she could build them as Andra fed more and more of the resonance, shrieking ice-shards and shattering glass, down the connection.


    The queen had time for a single shriek before the resonance hit her crystalline body. Sound, which began as a tremble of one mind on another turned to a shattering cry. Even aboard their own ship, Cygnus could feel the way the reverberation echoed through her body until she couldn¡¯t fight them anymore.


    Andra, the thrill of satisfaction shining deep orange through her cut-crystal mind, struck one final blow.


    The battle, which until the last moment was one of three minds, suddenly wrote itself across the stars.


    Once the queen was dead, the ship, which was filled with her workers and drones, could not recover. The resonance shot out along the bond she used to control them and tore apart every mind on the way, a shockwave of destruction.


    The weakness of crystal. It could take a blow, but sound, that impossible sonic scream of two telepaths sharing a load that would wreck one alone, was their vulnerability.


    Better yet, a single mind aboard a ship was a target that Cyg¡¯s mercenaries could fight. He had enough syzygy pairs and trios around to spread them across the whole battlefront. The trick that the aliens, powerful and numerous and heavily armed as they were, could not fight.


    The power of humanity, fighting together when the odds were bad, determined not to give in.


    Cygnus dragged himself back into his own body, still halfway wrapped in Andra¡¯s mind  as much as she was in his. When he opened his eyes, not sure when he had closed them in the first place, it was to a riot of green.


    The alien ship, which only moments before had seemed so unstoppable, was coming apart at the seams as the workers, devastated by the loss of their queen, died where they stood.


    The ship was half-organic itself, according to Andra. The pilots were grown from the egg into the stations they would man until they died and were replaced. without them to hold the ship together, without the engineers who maintained the engines and coaxed their strange technology into producing the power for interstellar travel, the ship was crippled.


    After that, it was a simple matter for the human ships, waiting just out of sight, to open fire.


    Cygnus turned, his intentions written in gold-edged red. Andra filled their shared mind with champagne ribbons that burst into red stars when he bent to kiss her over the bones of their defeated enemy.


    The bridge crew, already cheering at their victory, exploded into cheers that rang hope  and victory across the edges of Cyg¡¯s mind.


    ¡°Together,¡± Andra whispered up to him when they parted, and he looked down into her eyes.


    ¡°Together,¡± Cygnus whispered back, and kissed her again just to feel the smile on her lips.


    Hand in hand they turned back to the viewscreen, and the armada of alien ships that came to the dying scream of one of their own.

 Porrima Chain

    The floor vanished beneath his feet, and Cygnus didn¡¯t even feel it when he collapsed to his knees, clutching his head as the vison tore through him.


    Always unpredictable, and worse, uncontrollable, his precognition was either fully active, or completely dormant.


    Times like these, when it woke completely, he had to fight or lose himself in the visions. More than one precog had lost their mind to a powerful vision, and his were overwhelming on a good day.


    Ships.


    Thousand upon thousand of sleek ships, bigger than the ones they had been fighting, surrounded by their favored destroyers and backed by hollowed-out asteroids that were covered in half-natural plating that looked both built and organic at the same time.


    Al this time, the great war that humanity was fighting, and barely surviving, and it was against the slightest vanguard. Against scout ships, sent in to clear the way for the true power of their invasion.


    Cygnus fought to hold himself against the vision as the black vastness of space opened around him, and his mind slipped free of his control, one snapping threat at a time.


    It was too much. It was too much, and he couldn¡¯t hold on as the vision tore at him, icy cold with melting steel burning at his nose.


    Just as the last threads of his control snapped, a silver chain snapped through his mind, glimmering with olden will, and deep, glowing red that left him warm and shaken at the same time.


    (Reach for me,) Andra told him, all her power channeled into holding him steady against the void that threatened to destroy his sanity. Her control, hard-won, shattered, and forged again, shone with determination. (Cyg, I¡¯m not gonna let you go. I have you.)


    (They¡¯re coming,) Cygnus told her, a green whisper against her silver chain as she slowly reeled him safely back into his own body, even as the vision raged around him. (They¡¯re coming and the queens we¡¯ve been fighting, they¡¯re nothing compared to the ones who are coming for us.)


    (I know,) Andra said grimly, and pulled on their connected minds once more until Cygnus felt the cool, processed air of the ship against his skin, and opened his eyes. It took a moment for him to figure out what he was looking at, and then he realized it was the table, as viewed form the floor. His head was in Andra¡¯s lap, and her fingers carded through his hair, soothing and gentle. (I saw.)


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    ¡°Get me to Ursa,¡± he said, and winced at the pain in his throat. He had seen recordings of himself during a vision, and Dus told him once, as they shared a drink long ago, that he screamed until his voice went out. That, it seemed, had not changed. ¡°I have to tell the generals what¡¯s coming.¡±


    Andra hesitated, still pale and a little fragile from her long captivity, but he trusted her, needed her there. His own mind felt cored-out and bruised, and every thought sent a spike of agony through his head.


    The visions were destructive. In his younger days, his telekinesis tended to wake at the same time, and only his long years of training kept him from destroying the ship, now.


    That, or, as he noticed a broken glass, shattered on the floor as if it had been flung against the wall and fallen, Andra contained the worst of his damage.


    ¡°I got to you before you did worse than throw a glass,¡± she said, following his thoughts as she often did, and got his arm over her shoulders. ¡°I can¡¯t lift you like this. Can you get your legs under you?¡±


    ¡°Maybe?¡± he hedged, but when she put her strength into getting him upright, he managed to rise unsteadily. (My throat is going to give out.)


    ¡°I¡¯ll speak for you,¡± Andra promised. ¡°Or use telepathy.¡±


    (Ursa is spooked by telepathy.)


    ¡°That¡¯s dumb. I¡¯ll speak for you. I saw it too.¡±


    A fact that he was ridiculously grateful for, since he was still staggering under the aftereffects of the vision alone. (You saved me. I was- I couldn¡¯t hold it.)


    ¡°You scared me,¡± Andra said, and paused when they reached the door so he could catch his breath. ¡°I felt you going, felt the vision take you. Remember how we met?¡±


    He did, and squeezed her shoulders, blessing his strange precognition for waking the moment his syzygy was there, close enough to anchor him that first time, and many times after. (Yes.)


    She was glad too. He could see the red-cored pink that was her love for him, wrapped through a tightly-woven mesh of metallic memories. The thread sprang from her memory of his teasing comment about her choice of mental occupation, and wove through the layers of days spent fixing her sad little ship and learning how to share the space between their minds.


    He tugged lightly on the red-lined thread where it rooted in his first words to her, in the intricacy of her thoughts and her easy good humor about his power.


    ¡°Flirt with me later,¡± Andra told him, and smiled at the touch on their bond. Her silver chain was still woven through his mind and he leaned into it ever so slightly, relieved to have the strength of their bond to hold himself together. She felt it, and sent something like warmth that suffused through the chain like glimmers of sunlight on water. ¡°Ready?¡±


    (As long as we¡¯re together,) Cygnus told her, and bent when she leaned up to kiss his cheek, right at the corner of his mouth, and he leaned his forehead against hers. (We can face anything.)

 Menkent Ripple

    ¡°Ursa.¡±


    Senator Stal Ursa was not accustomed to his name being spoken, quietly and without formality. The surprise of it immediately took his attention form the reports he was studying, and when he looked up, he froze.


    Everyone knew of the Edge girl from Asteroid Base 42. How could they not, when she had fallen into orbit with Cygnus Volans as if she was made to be there. How could Ursa fail to take note of the woman whose disappearance, presumed death, turned his most powerful psion into a near-mindless weapon. And who, upon her return, somehow got more powerful. Somehow, during her imprisonment, she discovered a way to destroy the ships that were tearing apart their own attempts at defense. The tie was turning. Slowly, but surely. Because of her.


    So yes, Ursa knew about Andromeda Oct. He knew where she came from, and that she was an orphan, with no family, and nothing interesting in her future until she came mind-to-mind with Cygnus.


    He also knew that she was still fragile. That her talents, apparently as varied and powerful as Cygnus¡¯ own, were unstable at the best of times.


    She could probably hear every thought that passed his mind.


    He hated working with psionics.


    ¡°Come in,¡± he said, and nodded a dismissal to his aid as Andra walked in with Cygnus¡¯ arm over her shoulders. He was ashy and looked ill, and Ursa wondered what kind of trouble they possibly could have found in the few short hours since he saw them at the last briefing. ¡°What can I do for you?¡±


    Andra shared a long look with Cygnus, no doubt sharing thoughts, before she nodded once.


    ¡°Cyg had a vision,¡± she said without preamble, and didn¡¯t blink when Ursa muttered a curse. Precognition. It was so unreliable that he tried not to rely on it, but when it came, it could make a difference. ¡°About the war. The ships we¡¯re facing are scout ships. The real force hasn¡¯t even made it here yet, but they¡¯re coming.¡±


    That warranted a stronger curse, and Ursa dropped into his chair as fear threatened to steal his reason.


    ¡°We¡¯ve been fighting the vanguard?¡± he rasped through a throat that suddenly felt dry as desert sand. His head swam at the very thought. How could they possibly face a force greater than the one that already threatened to ruin them? What hope was there, if the great, sleek destroyers that were ripping apart whole planets were nothing but the frontrunners? ¡°This whole time?¡±


    (Not even that.) Ursa jumped, but there was no doubt of the ¡®voice¡¯ in his mind. Cygnus shrugged faintly, a little shamefaced behind his mop of dark curls. (Sorry. My voice is too shot for vocal speech. Can we show you what we saw? You should¡­ you should know what we¡¯re up against.)


    There was very little that Ursa wanted less, but he nodded anyway. He had never been one to shy away from the unpleasant duties of his station, and that now included trying to save his race from obliteration. If this vision would help, he could do nothing more than try to use it to the fullest.


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    Of course, he also remembered the last two visions he saw Cygnus have, realized why the psion was speaking telepathically, and profoundly hoped that he would not scream himself raw.


    ¡°You won¡¯t,¡± Andra said softly, and tried to offer a smile. It came out as more of a grimace, but Ursa appreciated the effort. ¡°We¡¯ll buffer you from the¡­ the worst of it. You¡¯ll ¡®see¡¯ the vision, but you won¡¯t experience it like Cyg does.¡±


    That did help, although Ursa still didn¡¯t like the idea any.


    Oh well.


    ¡°Once more into the breech,¡± he said with a half-shrug. ¡°We need information. Will you be able to share this vision with the rest of our command?¡±


    (If they¡¯re willing. I won¡¯t force it on anyone,) Cygnus assured him. He reached out, and Ursa noted with alarm that Cygnus¡¯ fingers trembled slightly, barely noticeable, but distinctly there. (Take a deep breath in, and release it slowly.)


    Before Ursa could do more than breathe, blackness, the dark of open space, engulphed him like falling backwards into shadowy water filled with stars.


    (You¡¯re safe.)


    That was Andra. Ursa scrambled for his sense of self amid the whirling stars, disoriented and struggling, until bright, brassy-green glimmers appeared out of the darkness and wrapped around him. A moment later, they were followed by more, this time haloed in orange-yellow that somehow felt like amusement.


    (Take a minute to get yourself together,) Cygnus, the orange-yellow glimmers, told him calmly. (We¡¯re not going to let you ¡®drown¡¯. You¡¯re in my mind. Specifically, on the leading edge of the vision-memory.)


    (We didn¡¯t realize how disorienting this would be for you,) Andra agreed, her green glimmers fading to apologetic blue. (It¡¯s easy to forget that what we do isn¡¯t normal for most people.)


    (How do you function like this?!) Ursa said incredulously, and didn¡¯t realize he had responded telepathically until the words came out as vivid orange alarm, shot through with pink ribbons of curiosity. (No, don¡¯t explain it. I don¡¯t want to know.)


    He took a breath, now vaguely aware of his own body responding, somewhere far away, and braced himself. (I¡¯m ready. Show me.)


    (Remember, this is a memory of a vision,) Andra told him when the stars rippled, like the reflection of a night sky on glassy water, disturbed by a single jumping fish. (Nothing here can hurt you.)


    Ursa wanted to ask what she meant, and then his eyes fell on the ships.


    Thousands of them. Immense, towering vessels. The kind that were specially designed for deep space travel, but much, much bigger. Immense beyond understanding, until he realized that they were asteroids, and moons, and farther back, so far that it was almost lost in the black of space, a ship carved of what could only be a planet.


    It wasn¡¯t until his mind shuddered, and he looked closer, that he realized what he thought were little one-man fighters, hovering in swarms around the bigger ships, were actually the same titanic destroyers that were shredding apert his fleet without the slightest effort.


    And there were millions of them.


    Before he could do anything more than take a single, panicked breath, the stars rippled again and were gone all at once.


    He made it to his waste basket just in time to lose everything in his stomach. Icy terror stole the strength from his legs and left him heaving into the little plastic container until he could barely breath and black spots danced around the edges of his vision.


    Small hands steadied him and helped him sit back, supported by the wall. Andra offered him a tiny smile even as Cygnus poured a glass of water and knelt to press it into his hand.


    (Now you see,) Cygnus told him as he drank, panicked again, and discovered more of the brassy-green glimmers in his mind, soothing away the terror. Andra gave him a tiny, comforting nod, and Ursa couldn¡¯t find it in himself to be anything except grateful for her intervention. (I don¡¯t know how much time we have, but some is more than none. We need to call all our forces together. Because they¡¯re coming, and when they get here, we have to be ready.)

 Atrea Rest

    Blood Star Base was a fully functional city. Mobile, powered by great engines that carried it through pace to wherever it needed to be, the psionic base was home to many of the greatest psions to ever live. The Blood Stars were notoriously insular. They had to be. Everyone on their base was psionic. Many had the most common aspect, telepathy. There were very few secrets in a place where thoughts were shared as freely as air.


    For Cygnus, it was a relief. Blood Star Base had been his home since almost before his earliest memories. Back then, some wandering Blood Star found a starving child on the streets, felt the strength of his mind, and carried him up into the stars.


    Psionics belonged with their own kind, after all. They all needed training, and the less common abilities were difficult to train without the right sort of setup.


    Even the more common, telepathy and telekenisis among them, needed a light touch. A small child throwing a tantrum was one thing. It was a very different matter when that child could throw a table across the room with their mind.


    Cygnus, of course, had been in a different class, but that came of having, in some measure, every psionic ability currently on record, including the teleportation that was long thought to be a legend. Now, as he walked off their little transport, he took a breath and smiled. Blood Star Base always smelled faintly of incense from the meditation chambers. Classes of new students flitted here and there, guided by their teachers, and older psionics drifted past in twos and threes. For anyone else, the room would seem oddly quiet, but to Cygnus, it was filled with voices. On Blood Star Base, telepathy was as common as spoken speech.


    It was good to be home.


    Beside him, Andra seemed to be trying to see everything at once. Her mind glittered with curiosity and mirrored his own quiet joy to be home. Deeper under the joy was the crippling grief for her own home, and the knowledge that he would never see it anywhere but her memories. Cygnus sank into the sadness and shot it through with silver glimmers to catch her attention.


    (Welcome to Blood Star Base,) he murmured into her mind. They had talked about the base before, and she had seen it in his memories, but it was good to see it in person. (We have meetings later, but for now, we can go right up to our rooms.)


    (Our?) the word shimmered warm orange-gold between them. (Is that how it is?)


    (If you want,) he replied, and took her hand. She laughed softly. (There are plenty of empty rooms if you want your own space.)


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    (You¡¯re not getting rid of me that easily. Better be ready for my projects all over the place.)


    (I don¡¯t mind.)


    As they passed through the main hall, Cygnus paused here and there to trade light mind-touches here and there, a psionic¡¯s greeting between friends. He didn¡¯t have many close friends, or indeed more than three, counting Andra, but Blood Star fostered easy companionship between everybody, and there was a general sense of fondness when one of their own returned home. They were curious about Andra, but the simple explanation that she was his syzygy, brought an excitement he didn¡¯t expect.


    Apparently, they had been worried about him for some time, and more so when his mysterious new Edge girl vanished completely and he went on a roaring rampage of revenge against the invading aliens.


    He couldn¡¯t exactly blame them for being worried. If he had been in his right mind at the time, he probably would have been worried too.


    It wasn¡¯t until they made it up to his rooms, now theirs that they encountered one of the very few psi-null people of the base.


    Cassiopeia had been the head cook for all of Blood Star Base for as long as Cygnus could remember, and she had barely changed in all that time. Sure, there was a little more grey at her temples now, and a few more wrinkles, but she stood straight and proud as always. She had been one of the first to take him under his wing when he first arrived at the base as a child, and was as close to a mother as he could remember having.


    She also, as it happened, already adored Andra. Ever the determined force of nature, Peia had heard about his rampage, and Andra¡¯s escape, and immediately shipped herself straight to the Human Flagship, marched her way into the kitchen, and got to work.


    ¡°Hello sweetling,¡± she said to Andra, and opened her arms for a hug. ¡°Welcome to Blood Star.¡±


    ¡°Hi Peia,¡± Andra said. She rarely touched people anymore, but it took a stout soul to refuse one of Peia¡¯s hugs. Cygnus smiled to see two of his three nearest and dearest so fond of each other. ¡°We just got in. How did you get here so fast?¡±


    ¡°Oh I hear all the gossip,¡± Peia said cheerfully, stood on her toes to kiss Cygnus¡¯s cheek, he bent so she could reach, and ushered them for the table. ¡°One of the benefits of being psi-null. Everyone worries that I¡¯ll be left out.¡±


    ¡°You love it,¡± Cygnus murmured to her, and she waved a hand at him. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to make all this.¡±


    ¡°Bite your tongue. As if I¡¯m letting my boy come home to anything but a good, home-cooked meal.¡±


    Peia showed her love by feeding people. Cygnus was long used to it, and secretly enjoyed the habit.


    ¡°We¡¯re not staying long,¡± Andra said quietly when they were seated and eating. ¡°There¡¯s been a development. It may take all of Blood Star to face it.¡±


    ¡°The precogs have ben in a tizzy for the last week,¡± Peia said more seriously. ¡°But no one can get anything clear. Everything¡¯s in motion.¡±


    ¡°I got something clear,¡± Cygnus told her grimly. ¡°The fleet is already mobilizing, but without us, they don¡¯t stand a chance.¡±


    ¡°That serious?¡±


    ¡°That serious.¡±


    Peia was quiet for a while and nodded once, definitively.


    ¡°Alright,¡± she said, and pushed herself to her feet. ¡°You two eat and wash. I¡¯ll see about getting everyone to the main hall in two hours, and we¡¯ll see what we can do about the serious that brought you all the way home from the front lines.¡±

 Arcturus Rally

    Andra looked out over the grand meeting hall. It was huge, packed full of psionics, from the students, some of whom were so young that they were carried in the arms of their caretakers. High test empaths, all of them, there was no better care for psionic children than under the watchful, loving gaze of the Blood Star teachers.


    The older students were in small packs of three to five, and they clustered together, minds buzzing as they wondered what could be so important that their leader needed to address the whole base at once.


    The adults, of course, had been on the front lines this whole time. Blood Star had suffered heavy losses in the early days, when they didn¡¯t know how to destroy the great ships, and could only serve as a warning system, and communications for the fleet.


    None of them knew what was coming.


    Cygnus stepped up to the podium. He didn¡¯t need the microphone to make himself heard, but psionics knew better than anyone that sometimes things needed to be said aloud. This was one of those times.


    ¡°What we¡¯ve been facing up to now has been scout ships and front runners,¡± he delivered the worst of the bad news first, unflinching at the murmurs, mental and vocal both, that filled the room. ¡°There are more, bigger ships coming. A whole fleet that makes ours look like little one-man fighters. They build ships in hollowed-out planets and asteroids, and they¡¯re coming here.¡±


    ¡°How can we face them?¡±


    It was Indus Crux, Cyg¡¯s best friend. Andra knew him well by now, and shared a little nod with him in greeting. He was one of the few people who stayed near enough to keep Cygnus functioning during her capture. Without him, she wasn¡¯t sure Cygnus would have remembered to sleep, let alone eat enough to keep his psionics strong.


    His question was a good one. Andra stepped forward and laced her fingers with Cyg¡¯s. He offered her a slight, reassuring smile.


    ¡°Most of you don¡¯t know me,¡± she started, a little uncertain, even with Cygnus, a veteran of public speaking, in her mind, helping her along. ¡°My name is Andra. I¡¯m from Asteroid Base 42, and I¡¯m Cygnus¡¯s syzygy. The aliens, we still don¡¯t know their name because they don¡¯t speak the way we do, took me captive for several months. During that time, I learned their weakness.¡±


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    She carefully dropped her still-unstable shields to the base, and let them see what no one but Cygnus ever had. The great, sweeping, crystalline aliens. How she was captured, taken alive because the aliens were seeking the enemy queen who destroyed their own. How their entire existence circled around their queens.


    ¡°They hate us, because of what we are,¡± she told them as they watched how she survived. How she learned the weakness of their own kind when the queen, the queen who desperately wanted to know what the humans were, discovered a faulty worker and shattered it apart. ¡°Psionics, in their race, are always queens. They don¡¯t understand us, and that frightens them, but they also believe that if we¡¯re here, this much be a rich place of resources. Resources they need to expand further.¡±


    ¡°But we can fight them,¡± Cygnus took over, his mind a light touch and a solid anchor when she eased into the memories of the first time they turned the resonance on a queen, and shattered her apart. ¡°They don¡¯t have syzygy, and that¡¯s what makes us strong. They can¡¯t use psionic resonance because the queens are always alone. They don¡¯t¡¯ even really work with other queens. We can use that against them.¡±


    ¡°Does it work for those of us without a syzygy?¡± Indus asked carefully. ¡°What can the rest of us do?¡±


    ¡°First, we¡¯re going to be testing everyone, including those who already have a syzygy,¡± Cygnus told him, with a nod to the groups of two and three who were too close, mentally and physically, to be anything but syzygy themselves. ¡°We don¡¯t know if empathy can be used in the same way as telekinesis and telepathy, but we¡¯re going to be running tests as soon as we get another report of an attack. Until we know for sure, everyone, including Andra and I, will be going through the testing to find possible syzygy matches.¡±


    Fortunately, that part was reasonably easy, particularly in Blood Star, where everyone knew precisely what their abilities were, and how powerful they were. Separated by powers and complimentary strength, it wasn¡¯t that hard to spot a possible match, after that, it was just a matter of the two psionics linking up, and seeing if the match worked.


    ¡°And last,¡± Andra said, although she felt Cyg¡¯s surprise. ¡°Some of you may have heard that Cygnus and I¡­ we managed to teleport me off a planet, to a ship in orbit. Now that we know it¡¯s possible, we have to figure out how to do it reliably.¡±


    There were more murmurs, and small wonder. Teleportation was a legend, thought to be lost with the great psionics of a bygone era.


    But the time of legends was back, and they had a war to win.


    ¡°Nothing is impossible if we work together,¡± she added when the murmurs quieted. ¡°Nothing is beyond us. Nothing cannot be done, if we are willing to fight for it.¡±


    ¡°Now we take the fight to them,¡± Cygnus said on her heels. ¡°Blood Stars. Your assignments will come through before the end of the day. Report to testing and ready yourselves for the fight of our lives.¡±

 Acrux Resonance

    Andra had never expected to be a teacher. Well, not really. Sure, she had taught people things before, how to fix a ship. How to plot a nav-path. She even taught two of the girls who lived under her dirty little flat on Asteroid Base 42 how to throw a punch when she found out they were having trouble with some of the local flavor form the shipyards.


    But teaching a whole class of the galaxy¡¯s most powerful psionics how to fight an alien race? Well, she supposed that wasn¡¯t exactly anybody¡¯s first guess.


    ¡°Reach for each other,¡± she told her class of almost thirty psionics, all telepaths with strong telekinesis for the moment, and all of them powerful enough to reach between solar systems when they needed to. They were in groups of two and three, all syzygy-linked, and used to working together. It made things easier. Andra might know how to fight the alien queens, but she didn¡¯t know much about basic telepathy except what Cygnus taught her on the fly. ¡°You¡¯re all comfortable with your bonds, so you shouldn¡¯t have too much trouble finding your bond and getting a good, firm grasp on it from both ends.¡±


    She was glad that she and Cygnus spent hours on the ship to Blood Star base working out how to explain what they did, and how to do it. She wasn¡¯t used to the language needed, and he, by virtue of being the Blood Star¡¯s leader, was needed elsewhere.


    Which left Andra in the odd, uncomfortable position of teaching everyone how to do the trick she had discovered to defend her own mind. To think that she had started this whole adventure as a nobody Edge mechanic with a dirty, broken old ship and a laughing telepath making jokes about space dust in the manifold.


    Things had changed, just a little, since then.


    ¡°You¡¯re used to thinking of your bond as a single road between you,¡± she continued, pacing through the crowd. There was a podium, but she couldn¡¯t bring herself to use it. It felt too much like playing at being someone she wasn¡¯t. ¡°But it¡¯s not. You aren¡¯t the same person, so your bond is actually made of more than one thread. Yours, and those of your partner.¡±


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    She could feel her own bond with Cygnus now, the sharp-edged silver of his mind, woven with the deep bronze of her own. He was working with another group, trying to find more syzygy bonds. They had some, but they would need more, a lot more, for the coming fight. The call had already gone out through the galaxy, and everyone with even a pinch of psi-sensitivity was gathering to try and help.


    Andra didn¡¯t want to distract him, and so she set her mind on her current task.


    ¡°Feel for the way your minds work together,¡± she continued as she caught the eye of Indus Crux, who circled the room, a box of crystals in hand. He set one out between each group. When he passed her, Andra claimed one of the clear lumps of crystal, one that came to a fine, terminated point and shone in the sterile light of the base. ¡°The aliens work by themselves. They¡¯re all lone minds, and that makes them vulnerable. We can use that against them.¡±


    With a care for her own control, which wasn¡¯t perfect, Andra opened her mind to them, and showed them how to take a mental ¡®tone¡¯ and echo it between their minds until it became a resonance that could shatter apart the very matrix that made up their inhuman enemy.


    ¡°You have to work together,¡± she said as she felt across the room and gave a nudge here and there as the groups felt their way through the exercise for the first time. ¡°An echo needs a hard surface to bounce off, so once you¡¯ve started, you need to be able to control it so that it builds to the right frequency.


    Cygnus was at a stopping point, and just in time. She sent a little spark of thought down their bond, and he responded easily when she followed it with the same tone they used to defeat the last queen they fought. This time was different, of course. Now she had thirty students watching as they tossed the tone back and forth between them, flavored with his power and her steady determination.


    When the frequency was just right, she took it from telepathy and shot it through their shared telekinesis.


    The crystal in her hand shattered apart and pooled off her fingers as glittering sand.


    ¡°This is how we beat them,¡± Andra said as she dusted crystal dust off her hands, and Cygnus left her with a ¡®kiss¡¯ on the cheek before turning back to his own work. The students tittered a little amongst themselves, but it was an understanding sort of laugh. No few of them were together in one romantic configuration or another. Her relationship with Cygnus was no secret, especially on a base full of telepaths and empaths. ¡°Now that you¡¯ve seen how it works, let¡¯s see you put theory into practice. Time to break some crystal.¡±