Enemy Within by Marcella Burnard

Author:Marcella Burnard
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-09-23T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

ARI glanced around the table. Shock, horror, one or two studiously blank expressions peered back. She was suddenly glad she’d looked up. She wanted to see these people realizing just how intrusive and painful their curiosity could be. They’d taken her from her family and from her life so they could ask questions they had no right to ask. Let them regret getting the answers. Let them realize they’d sent Cullin Seaghdh to do exactly what the Chekydran had done to her, despite the veneer of civility.

“The Chekydran kept trying to strip me bare, like a kid peeling the bark from a stick,” Ari said. “Of course I resisted. At first. We all did.”

“All? You were not the only prisoner?”

“No,” she said.

“You said, ‘you resisted at first,’ ” Eilod prodded.

“They wear you down,” she answered. “All it takes is time. Sleep deprivation, physical pain, drugs. Until all you want is to make it stop. Even after I stopped actively resisting, they could not get what they wanted. To this day, I don’t know what they had hoped to achieve. That they meant to modify me is plain, but their nanopaks never seemed to take.”

“Nanopaks?” Eilod echoed, her tone mystified.

“The Chekydran favor nanotechnology that alters protein processing at the genetic level. A nanopak is a delivery mechanism based on viral infection models,” a sharp-faced woman on Turrel’s right said. “If the subj . . . If Captain Idylle has been exposed, we can be certain her body has been altered in some fashion to suit their purposes.”

Every head in the room swiveled in Ari’s direction as if looking for a sign that she’d turn into a slavering, mindless puppet for the sadistic aliens that had held her. Icy adrenaline dumped into her chest. She sat very still waiting for Seaghdh, Eilod, Turrel, or V’kyrri to pick up the sharp-faced woman’s assurance that Ari had indeed been modified.

Seaghdh shifted, his face impassive. He’d looked at V’kyrri. “Is there any evidence to suggest Captain Idylle is a latent telepath? Or that the Chekydran were attempting to break her mind open to make her telepathic?”

V’kyrri shot a glance at Ari.

She met the engineer’s gaze and raised an eyebrow at him.

He smiled. “All kinds of evidence of something, sir, from what I’m hearing. To find out, I need but a moment and your permission, Captain,” he said to her.

“You want me to let you read me?” Ari asked.

“I would like to attempt to make contact,” V’kyrri hedged. “It’s not an invasion or a reading of your thoughts. Think of it as connection testing an uplink.”

She smiled at the mental image of satellites and ground stations. Since there was absolutely no chance she was a telepath, V’k’s connection test couldn’t hurt. “What should I do?”

V’kyrri rose and took the seat next to hers. “Turn and face me. I will try this without touch, first, but if I cannot get through, may I put my hand on your arm?”

“I promise not to bite,” she said.

“Aw, go on, Ari,” Turrel urged.

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