Page 18 of Abalim

Abalim blinked to get his bearings. Being jerked around in Dreamwalks and visions made his head swim. He glanced at the small spider-shaped bot on his shoulder. He gave the little guy a slight smile. “Yes, I’m fine. Being yanked from one psyche plane to another makes my head spin. How long was I out?”

JR15’s bulbous silver-and-green body quivered. “Two hours, nineteen seconds, and one thousand twenty-three picoseconds.”

Abalim grunted and glanced around. He was still in the prison cell where he and his brothers searched for the psyche trails of the human women who’d been there. His three brothers were standing with their arms crossed, wearing identical narrowed eyes and pinched frowns. Aimed at him.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” He growled.

“What took you so long? Our visions weren’t nearly as long.” Arakiba flicked an expressive wave at the other two next to him. “We don’t have all day to wait for you, you know.”

Abalim stifled a smile as he sensed Arakiba’s fear made him short-tempered.

Asmodel lowered his arms. “The three of us have latched onto the psyche trails of the other women that were here. We figured we’d better separate and find those women before the trail gets cold.”

Azazel stepped to Abalim and placed a hand on his forearm. “Were you successful in linking with one of the women as we were?”

“I did,” he answered. “And a bit more. Here, let me share what I’ve found out.” Abalim squeezed his brother's hand before stepping back.

He closed his eyes and connected on the psyche plane they’d always used. With ease, he opened the line between him and their eldest brother, Adapa, currently light years away on the rogue planet Akurn. While the distance made it difficult to have direct communication, Abalim wouldn’t have any trouble sharing what happened to him. Sliding into their collective minds, he showed them the communication he’d had with the alien Rerqel and the alien’s offer to help support the oncoming Krystalii invasion. He only gave them a brief snippet of what he and Lisa shared. They didn’t need to know how she affected him. How she tapped into his loneliness and uncovered his secret desire to bond with her, as Adapa had with Inanna.

“Well, damn.” Arakiba scratched the side of his head. “The only thing I got was a link to one of the women and the strong sense of which direction I’d better go.”

“I, too, had an overwhelming urge of where I’m needed. And there’s little time to waste.” Azazel gave them a slight bow. “I also believe I will not have any difficulty in transporting to the woman I need to find.”

Abalim frowned and crossed his arms. “I don’t like the idea of you transporting somewhere where you’ve never been before. It could be dangerous.”

Azazel’s grin was uncharacteristically boyish. “You don’t have to worry about me. Remember Inanna classified me as anal-retentive? Adhering to detail has always been my passion.”

Well, that dumb statement made Abalim roll his eyes. Can’t argue with stupid.

“I’m not stupid and you know it,” Azazel retorted with a wide grin.

“Keep the path open, brother, to let us know your teleportation worked.” Asmodel referred to their shared psychic channel. “And don’t forget to keep your JR open as well.”

“Yeah.” Arakiba snorted. “We don’t have time to search the galaxy for your scrambled bits.”

“And with that in mind…” Azazel spread his arms and went out of focus before disappearing.

“Freaking show-off,” Arakiba mumbled.

Abalim suspected his brother envied Azazel’s strong teleportation skills. While they all could do quick jumps and short distances, none of them could compare to Azazel’s talent.

“I believe I have a way to get to the woman named Lisa.” Abalim shared her name with them. “I’m supposed to find a pub here called the Grub & Grog and find a smuggler named Captain Saphira. Apparently she and her crew have been trying to go to the planet Qorath for quite some time now.” He eyed his two remaining brothers. “What about you two? Do you know how you’re going to get where you need to go?”

Asmodel and Arakiba glanced at each other.

“Okay with you if I takeElemi?” Arakiba thumbed behind him in the general direction of the spaceship the Chancellor of the Federation consortium let them borrow. “I have a feeling she knows where the planet is that I have to go to.”

Asmodel nodded with a slight shrug. “I’ll go with Abalim and see if I can hire a smuggler of my own.”

“Okay, bros.” Arakiba gave them a sloppy salute with his two fingers. “I’m outta here.” His body wobbled and went out of focus before he, too, disappeared.

Teleporting the short distance to the spaceship housing the AI Elemi wouldn’t be a problem for him. Abalim’s only concern was how the AI that ran the ship would work with his smart-ass brother. She’d either bond with him and say he was the love of her life, or she’d make his life a living hell. Not that it mattered. Damn man would enjoy it either way.

“Come on,” he said to his remaining brother. “Since we don’t know where we’re going, we might as well see if we can find somebody to give us directions.”

His brother gave a slight, insincere shudder. “I can’t wait to see the freak show we’ll find there. Think they’ll charge extra for their two-headed comedy act?”

Abalim headed out with Asmodel into the eerily silent grimy underbelly of the small village. Turned out the Grub & Grog was easier to find than he’d hoped for.

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