Jaydium Read Free Page A

even then, of the neurodyscrasia already setting its fatal enzymatic markers in the deepest recesses of his brainstem? Had he known how little time they had left together? Had he guessed what her life would become, between Hank’s broken promises and dustbug miners like Dowdell? Was he trying to warn her, to prepare her, to give her what she’d need to survive?
    The little ship had flinched under her childish touch like a wild creature shying away from human control. “No, don’t fight her, don’t think of Brushwacker as an enemy you’ve got to conquer,” her father said. “Think of her as an extension of yourself, just as your arms and legs are. Know exactly where and how you want to go, and then put her right...there...”
    A swerve of the scrubjet jerked Kithri’s attention back to the present. Eril had been flying in graceful, even swoops along the canyon floor. The walls narrowed and he’d oversteered in bringing them back to a straight line. Quickly he compensated and evened out. Then they began to climb, snaking through the twisted passes, always clinging to the ground. The ink-blotchy vegetation grew sparser, ragged-looking, and finally gave way to yellowish lichen.
    They reached the crest and looked down from the last hill. The vast Cerrano Plain lay before them, flat from scrubjet nose to horizon. Alkali-tolerant scrub grew in patches, blending in the distance into a swath of silver-gray. The pale soil underneath was so fine, it was almost powdery. Wherever the first human explorers had driven their heavy land-moving equipment, they’d torn away the thin protective crust. Over the years, wind eroded the trails into wildly sculpted gullies like scars on the Plain’s fragile skin. Plumes of dust rose from the old trails, blown aloft by the constant winds.
    Kithri reached for the headsets that would join her mind to Eril’s and to the computerized shipbrain. As she leaned forward, her arm brushed against the inner surface of Eril’s thigh. She wondered what it would be like to touch him deliberately, to run her fingers over the warm, sleek flesh beneath the layers of clothing. Her heartbeat soared.
    What was happening to her? She’d never reacted to a man like that before, certainly not the tavern dustbugs or Hank with his hyper-inflated ego. Yet ever since Eril had come racing after her, this awareness of him had been growing.
    Get yourself under control, Kithri! The jaydium’s the important thing, not a few jerk-you-around hormones.
    Kithri pulled on her headset and slid the padded neuroprobes into place. The gel contacts felt familiar and cool on her skin. She blinked, her brain refusing at first, as it always did, to integrate the vibrating double images, the overlay of her own organic vision on top of the computerized analysis. The equipment that made duo flight possible by linking two human minds to shipbrain was a highly sophisticated adaptation of the apparatus used to link an ordinary computer to its human operator. Several additional safety devices had been added, notably the unspoken emergency abort command that would disengage the entire system. Kithri could have chosen her own phrase, but she’d kept the one her father had programmed. Terminal Escape Velocity. She’d never had to use it, but sometimes it sifted like a ghostly echo through her dreams.
    The visual images blended together as shipbrain fed data into Kithri’s mind and her temporal lobes sent back fine-tuning signals. The effect was very like the addition of another sensory dimension. A moment later, Eril completed the duo configuration.
    Whenever Kithri linked with Hank, she always felt a flash of searing pain before he settled into synch. She’d studied enough physiology to know it was due to the differences in their synaptic patterns, but that didn’t make it any easier. Old Dowdell’s mind had been repulsive rather than painful, and she could no longer