Page 8 of Return of the Nine

The way he said it gave her a shiver of unease. “What kind of meeting?”

He opened the door and shoved her through. “Think of it as a reunion.”

The room was circular, and a long conference table snaked around it. The only break in the circle was the small path that she took.

Lyneer whispered. “Stand on the central podium and answer what is asked.”

Ziggy was nervous, there was no correlation for this procedure with any of the minds she had touched. She was in a situation that none of her knowledge donors had experienced.Shadows covered the people at the table, but she could make out nine silhouettes.

“Signy Alora, you have been brought here to answer a few questions that only you can answer.”

An image hovered in front of her. She saw a human woman watching the Tokkel near her with suspicion and licking her lips lightly as one touched her skin.

A deep voice that resonated in her mind spoke from the shadows. “Do you recognise this image, Ms. Alora?”

She shook her head. “I do not.”

“Can you guess where this image was captured?”

“It looks like a Tokkel experimental bay.” She tried to look away, but everywhere she looked, the image remained in front of her eyes.

“How do you come to be familiar with the Tokkel experimental facilities?”

She paused. “I saw news reels after the battles.”

“Do you recognise the woman in the image?” The deep voice continued.

“No, should I?” She swallowed.

“Usually, folk can recognise themselves in an image, Ms. Alora.”

She paled.

“What about this image?”

Ziggy watched the image of herself speak to the people in the room and shepherd them out into the hall and to the pods.

“I have never seen that image before.” It was the truth. She had been in it, not watching it.

A chuckle ran through the room around her.

The voice said, “We are aware that you have not seen those images, do you recognise yourself in that image?”

She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “I do.”

“What about these events?”

Clips started and ran of her sprinting down the hall with her ankle clearly showing the black mark where they had started to tag her. They showed her entering the room where the captives of the Nine were held and emerging with them minutes later.

“Please explain the following image.”

She blushed to the roots of her hair as the image of her holding her handsome alien and kissing him was played over and over until she held up her hands. “Enough. I was trying to knock him out and the only way I know to do it is to drain his current memory. So, I kissed him, stunned him, and wedged him into the pod.”

The image of her closing the pod with tears in her eyes was unmistakable.

“I didn’t want to keep any of them from getting home. They had a place in the fight and I didn’t. They needed to be back with their troops.”

She waited.

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