CHILDREN OF SARJALIM

by Angela

Friday, Day Five:

 

Issei was the first to arrive that afternoon.  He stood at the door, bags of junk food in his hands, smiling cheerfully as Jinpachi invited him in.

 

It reminded Jinpachi of how things used to be, when they’d spend as much time at each other’s houses as at their own.  It’d been a long time since Issei had come over for a purely social reason.  Jinpachi had to admit that he kind of missed hanging out.

 

“Ready to try that telepathy?” he asked, leading Issei up the stairs to his room.

 

Issei grimaced.  “No,” he admitted.  “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

 

Closing the door to his bedroom, Jinpachi glanced at the clock.  “We have almost forty minutes before the others show up,” he said.  “Wanna practice?”

 

Issei sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, looking uneasy.  “Practice?”  His voice shook.  “On you?”

 

“Sure,” he sprawled out on the carpet, resting his head on his duffel bag.  “Why not?  That way you’ll have some clue how to go about it when the others get here.”  He peered up at Issei, silently begging his friend just to do this without getting weird.  It used to be that they shared everything.  Gyokuran and Enju put a stop to that pretty quickly.

 

The other boy smiled weakly, pushing his hand through his hair.  “I guess it won’t hurt to try,” he amended, lying back on the pillows.  “But you have to close your eyes.”

 

Jinpachi did as he was bid.

 

At first nothing happened.  Jinpachi shifted on the floor.  He scratched his head, peeking through his eyelashes at his friend.  He could just see his face over the edge of the bed.  He seemed to be concentrating hard.  Maybe Jinpachi should focus, too.

 

He closed his eyes again, trying to open his mind.  He thought of all the things he’d wanted to share with Issei over the past year--the things he’d had to keep to himself because of their new awkwardness.  He imagined opening his head and letting all of those thoughts spill out to his friend.

 

Warmth.

 

Jinpachi almost jumped with the first yellow warmth that flooded into him.  He recognized this.  It was Enju.  She filled all of the crevices of him, making him warm all over.

 

Gyokuran?  Gyo, can you hear me?

 

Jinpachi nodded, realizing too late that Issei couldn’t see him.  “Uh, yeah,” he mumbled instead.

 

He’d forgotten how familiar it was, how often he and Enju had played at this.  Memories tumbled over him and through him. 

 

He remembered kicking her under the table, reacting to a mental joke at Hiiragi’s expense.  He could almost hear her laughter, even as she squirmed aside to miss his kick.

 

He remembered being sick and too tired to talk, how Enju sat by his side, holding his hand and reading his thoughts out loud so the others would know what he wanted. 

 

He remembered her hands in his hair, her skin against--

 

Jinpachi!  What are you thinking about?!

 

Issei.  The doors into Jinpachi’s mind fell shut.  “Well,” he said nervously, half-afraid to open his eyes.  “Looks like you remember how to do it, huh?”

 

“Yeah,” Issei mumbled.

 

Jinpachi opened his eyes and looked at his friend.  He was sitting up on the bed.  Issei’s face was bright red and he looked down at his hands in his lap.  Jinpachi looked away quickly, realizing that his own face was flushed and his breathing was shallow.

 

“Um, sorry . . . about that . . . .”

Issei laughed it off, his voice shaking.  “Don’t worry about it,” he said lightly.  “That kind of thing can happen, I guess.”

 

“Issei.”  Jinpachi knew his voice sounded too serious, but he couldn’t help it.  He clambered to his knees and leaned on the bed, looking his friend hard in the face.  “Don’t you think it’s time we talk about this?”  His face somehow burned hotter, and he clenched his hands in the comforter to keep them from trembling. 

 

He was tired of letting Enju and Gyokuran get between them.  Maybe it was time to face the past, once and for all.

 

Issei didn’t say anything, but his expression looked panicked.

 

“You know as well as I do that we can’t continue this way.”

 

There was a sudden rapping at the door an instant before it was flung open.  Jinpachi dived away from the bed, his heart thudding in his chest.  Issei sat up straighter, pushing his hair away from his eyes.  Both breathed unnaturally hard.

 

Sakura stood in the doorway, her eyes narrowing at them.  “I guess I’m early,” she said stiffly.

 

*****

 

"Ayame!"

The lovely doctor wiped dust from a chair with her finger.  "Yes, Captain?"

Nadeshiko peered over the control panel, trying to ignore the wispy hair slipping from its topknot as she leaned.  "While I try to switch on the main power, take a flashlight and look for the others.  They seem to have a small generator working now, but I'm having some trouble connecting with the main supply."  She wrinkled her nose as she wiped a sheet of dust from the panel.  "This place looks completely abandoned.  They must have secluded themselves to one or two rooms."

 

"Not exactly what we expected, is it?"  Hinagiku had to duck through the low doorway, his broad shoulders filling the space easily.  His long red hair was tied back in a low ponytail and the dots that marked him as a Sarjalian seemed more pronounced in the dim light.  "The way weeds and vines have covered this place, I'm surprised that anything still works.  Would you like me to accompany you?" he asked Ayame with a smile.

Nadeshiko didn't like the look of that smile.  "Stay with me," she suggested quickly.  "You can work on the computers at the other end.  The sooner we get this place up and running, the sooner we can all get to work."

Ayame grinned, her eyes flashing.  "Looks like housekeeping will be our first priority," she commented, fixing a ventilation mask over her mouth and nose.  "I realize that they probably thought they were all alone in the universe, but this is terrible!"  With a chuckle, she flipped the switch on her flashlight and headed out the far door.

Hinagiku walked up behind Nadeshiko, wrapping his arms around her affectionately.  "This place looks ancient, Nadeshiko," he observed.  "Are you sure you were in contact with Enju?"

She leaned into his arms for a moment before pulling away to get back to work.  "Positive.  She didn't seem to be able to answer strongly, so I suspect I was contacting her through dreams, but I'm sure it was her.  I've known Enju since we were kids--there's no way I was mistaken."  Nadeshiko tried to override the key words in the computer, using a code programmed into the main system on the home planet.  The code had been written into all of the projects computers, including the two other stations they’d visited first.  "It should work here, too," she murmured to herself, disappointed when the screen flashed a denied access icon.

Hinagiku was typing on the opposite console, hard at work searching for access to the main power.  Nadeshiko didn't understand how the weak generator could have supported seven people for this long--she had her doubts that it could handle the three of them.  "Apparently someone has overridden the original network," Hinagiku growled at her, upset with the unfamiliar pattern of connections.  "It had to take years, but it looks like someone went through and reprogrammed every system."

Ayame burst through the door, breathless as she tore the mask from her face.  "They're all dead!" she cried, flinging the flashlight onto a chair.  "There were six in the hibernation chambers, perfectly preserved, and a skeleton in the observation room."  She pushed her hair from her forehead, clenching the short locks in her fist in frustration.  "You said they were alive!"  She looked at Nadeshiko accusingly.  "You said you reached Enju!"

Nadeshiko didn't like hearing that tone from her subordinate, no matter how long they'd worked together.  "I did!" she insisted, standing up suddenly.  "At least four times, I reached her!”  The last two bases they’d visited had been abandoned.  In one case the crew had committed suicide in their capsules, in the other they’d apparently left to assimilate themselves into the planet’s population.  This case was different.  It had to be.  She’d connected with Enju.  “How long have they been dead?"

Ayame looked disgusted.  "Hmm . . . let's see," she began sarcastically.  "One of them is a dry skeleton, so I'd imagine it's been somewhere between a week and twenty years!"

The captain was about to reply when Hinagiku lifted his hand, silently asking for a momentary truce.  "Fighting amongst ourselves will get us nowhere," he reminded them gently.  "We must find out how to get the life-support systems up, or we'll die within a few days.  We have no more options.  Why don't you try to reach her again, right now?"  He looked at Nadeshiko kindly, and she wondered if he doubted her, too.

 

"But Ayame saw--"

He shook his head.  "Ayame saw seven bodies.  Did you recognize anyone?"

She nodded.  "An old friend of mine," she said quietly.  "We trained together.  I don't know the others, though."

The Sarjalian smiled.  "See?  Enju may not even be among them."  He nodded encouragingly at Nadeshiko, his eyes holding hers lovingly.  "Go ahead and try."

The blonde smiled weakly at her lover, then flicked her eyes briefly to where Ayame stood, arms crossed in irritation.  She closed her eyes, remembering Enju's smile, her voice, her presence.  As children they'd played together and gone to school together--Nadeshiko would never mistake the unique patterns of the telepath's brainwaves.  Enju was out there, somewhere.

It took just a moment, just a heartbeat before she received her friend's bright flash of answering awareness.  "The planet," she whispered in wonder, opening her eyes and walking to an observation window.  "Enju is down there, on the Earth."

*****

Issei closed his eyes, concentrating on his faint memories of the girl Enju grew up with.  In his mind, his telepathy was weak, vague.  He'd never used it for anything deliberately.  He peeked at the others through his lashes.  Daisuke looked excited.  His eyes gleamed and he'd been smiling all evening. 

 

Jinpachi's face was more serious, his brow tense with effort, as though he were trying to help Issei concentrate.  The telepath smiled.  How easy it would be to invade the other boy's mind, to feel what he felt when his guard was so completely dropped.  They’d come close to something that afternoon, and Issei half-wished that they could be alone again to sort it out.

A sharp pain chastised him.  Issei turned his eyes toward Shion.  Rin glared at him through narrowed eyes, obviously noticing the stray of his thoughts.  For an instant he wondered why Rin wasn't doing this telepathy work, since he was clearly talented in reading minds.  Closing his eyes again, Issei reached outward, blindly searching for the girl he'd known so well in his other lifetime.

His consciousness flitted past the minds of the others in the room.  Alice was full of dread.  She was afraid of Nadeshiko and what she might bring to earth.  Sakura's mind was open to him--almost too open.  Issei skirted around her consciousness, afraid of what he'd find if he looked for more than an instant.  For a startling moment, he thought he felt Shukkaido.  The boy had refused, again, to join them at this meeting, but apparently he was out there, somewhere, still open to Enju's communion.  Issei hoped he'd be listening in tonight.  He hoped he'd get in touch with Nadeshiko and convince Haruhiko to join them.

Suddenly he felt a caress--the intimate touch of another telepath's mind melding with his own.  It was familiar.  Comfortable.  In this lifetime, Issei had never met another like him, another who could reach inside of him and touch him like that, but now, as Enju, he remembered how it felt to communicate without words, to know another's mind in the same depth he knew his own.

Nadeshiko.  He knew it was her--she was sending memories of a childhood swimming lesson, of the boys that they'd gigged over as they paddled in their water wings.

Enju.  You are awake.  He could feel Nadeshiko's smile.  I knew you must still be alive, but why are you on Earth, and who are the seven that lie here, dead?

Her questions had no answer--not one he knew how to give.  He attempted to explain, showing her images of his new life, his birth and childhood.

I don't understand.  Who is this boy?

The connection was starting to hurt.  Issei tried again, remembering the sickness at the moon base, the deaths of Enju's friends.  We have been reborn.  We are not the same, but we carry the memory and consciousness of our past.  I am Issei.  I am also Enju.

Nadeshiko's confusion blurred his mind in a rush of muted colors.  There was urgency behind her message, trouble and possible danger.

You must come to the moon.  We have desperate need of all seven of you.  We will not live much longer without your help.  She sent images of the cold research station, dim and nearly powerless, slowly growing colder.  Even the precious oxygen-producing plants would die, leaving them with nothing.  The system has been rewired.  Nothing works.  Enju please, find the others and come help us.