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Return to Valjiir Continum
Trickster came screaming back into the bay, the crash harness preventing her from destroying Leather’s hangar. Gage had ordered it deployed when Kamikaze showed no signs of using his braking thrusters. There was cacophony in the screening room. No one would believe Le Roi could possibly land a needle that badly unless he was seriously injured, unconscious - or dead. Ruth Valley was screaming Sulu’s name, no thoughts of Clave protocol or of venus’ fire or of Noel DelMonde piercing the panicked fear. She raced for the bay, barely noticing that Jeremy Paget, running as fast as she was, was as pale as his mahogany skin could get.
The bay pressurized, and Trickster’s overheated thrusters burst into flames. The automatic extinguishers came on and Ruth felt Paget tearing her aside to get to the cockpit, heedless of the acrid smoke and chemical fumes. He hit the emergency hatch release, the upper half of his body disappearing into the tapestry. Seconds later, he carried an unmoving figure from the needle to the far end of the bay, away from the extinguishers and the crowd that was just entering. Ruth followed, her heart pounding in anguished terror.
Please, Zahara, let him be alive! she prayed fiercely. Her mind trembled under the venus, her body burning. It was the one Haven chemical she couldn’t clear from her system. It was usually why she liked it. But now....
“Ruth, do something!” Jeremy’s voice was suddenly pleading.
She shook the red from her vision, and realized that Sulu wasn’t breathing. Paget was administering the proper medical interventions, but Sulu wasn’t responding. Ruth screamed at the venus in her system, determined to heal Sulu even through the fire. She took a deep breath and reached for his temples.
The agony that hit her mind nearly crushed her. Images formed, swirled around her, then scattered before she could identify them. She fought to keep from absorbing it, concentrating on the healing. Get him breathing! she told herself sternly. His devils aren’t for you to heal.
She found the problem: venus-induced respiratory failure. When there was no release, the drug sometimes took vengeance on its ungrateful host. She began to heal the paralysis....
....and hungry need swept through her, dominating her, eradicating any thought of the gentle keheil. A part of her realized this was her drug-laced empathy reacting to the venus in Sulu’s system, but there wasn’t anything she was able to do about it. Nor did she want to. Venus insistence consumed her.
Sulu took a shuddering breath, then roared back to life with all of the drug’s hedonism. Minds and bodies merged so fast, Ruth was sure their clothing had simply vanished.
Soul-shattering greed, desperate fear, torment, agony, red need hunger blood, more, pain fire grief, more, wine silver need, more, fire, more, need red more fire blood more wine pain more silver grief more hunger need pain fear need blood need more need more need MORE NEED MORE!!!
She heard screaming, and realized that it was coming from her. She was caught between Sulu and Del, the three of them writhing in a maelstrom of brutal sexual pleasure. She couldn’t remember when Del had joined them, but it seemed inconsequential. Need was all, more was all, and her powerful mind pulled Del’s empathy into the storm. A third empathic awareness called to her, momentarily startling her. Then she realized that it was emanating from Sulu’s raw and hungry being. She greedily added it to her own and Del’s, the carnal passion exploding within them as they began feeding off each other, echoing and renewing the searing power of the venus. She didn’t know how long it went on, and it didn’t matter. If she failed in a healing due to her own ravenous hunger, she’d end up a sauvrn, but she didn’t care. While it lasted, the intensity was all.
The agony tore through Jeremy’s being as he backed away from Ruth and Sulu’s hedonistic union. She got him breathing, that’s all that matters, he told himself. It was hard to ignore the passion screaming from them: knowing they were both on venus pulled at his integrity. No one would blame him, least of all them, were he to join their carnality - no one except you, his ethics reminded him. There was something wrong with Sulu and to take advantage of him, knowing it.... That he couldn’t bring himself to do.
He was turning away when a roar of anguish reached his ears, followed by a blurry streak of something pushing past him. Ruth’s voice rose in a piercing shriek and there were suddenly three bodies writhing on the hangar deck. NC, of course. On venus, the telepathic need between he and Ruth would be magnified, and inescapable.
Fresh pain grew in Jeremy’s mind, the desperate wanting that governed his life. Still, he moved away, turned away, and growled to the crowd that was assembling, “Anybody want to stop them has got to get through me.”
“Excuse me, Cobra,” a dark voice said, “but you’re keeping me from my property. A fair wager, fairly lost. You don’t want to be party to reneging on a Haven bet, do you?”
Jeremy looked directly into Gage’s black eyes. “He lost. He’ll pay, he’s no welsher. But it’s your drugs in him. Don’t you think he needs the time to come down from....”
“I’ll be more than happy to provide the means of his coming down,” Gage interrupted smoothly. “But that’s my merchandise Spike and Cajun are so thoroughly enjoying, and he’s not on the house.”
Jeremy’s face hardened. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I won his life, Cobra. It’s mine to use as I see fit. And right now, I don’t see fit to give it away."
“Give it...?”
“Come now,” Gage snorted. “You’re hardly some innocent.”
“Are you tellin’ me you’re gonna make him a....”
Gage scowled. “It's not new to him?” He started to stride past Jeremy, but the TerAfrican’s hand shot out, grasping his arm.
“What are you saying?” Jeremy hissed.
Gage’s eyebrows rose. “You don't know? Kam been a pro since he was fifteen - until Starfleet interrupted his so very promising career.”
Voices shrieked in his ears, he felt a bellowing rush of air from his own lungs followed by a rush of fluid from his body that was searing in its violent intensity. His heart felt for one moment as though it would burst, his brain a blazing inferno....
....then every muscle in his body spasmed all at once as venus’ fire broke, draining from him along with all his energy. He felt Ruth’s body collapsing, DelMonde’s likewise, felt, too, his exhaustion echoing to them and back from them.
I’ve never soared like that in all my life, he thought wearily, aware that it was his first coherent thought in what seemed like hours.
No one has, came a heavy, New Orleans-accented drawl in his mind.
Empathic union, came the haggard explanation. Roy, I’m sorry.
If he’d had the energy, Sulu would have bolted upright. As it was, his shock reverberated in the minds that were still touching his. Quickly, his awareness was flooded with the entirety of the scenario, complete with the startling fact that he was an empath himself.
But there was no sign of it in Fleet’s tests, he protested.
Fleet don’ know ever't'ing, Del muttered.
Again, Sulu’s mind was filled with images, Starfleet’s attempts to teach Noel DelMonde, the dismal failures, the sapphire he still needed, the imperfect training Ruth had been able to give him.
So how did this happen? Sulu wanted to know.
Venus, Ruth answered. When I tried to heal you from the respiratory failure...
You healed me? He felt Ruth wince from the fear in his mind, felt Del’s enveloping comfort. Comfort? Me?
I not ignore th' pai - not this time. DelMonde's mind-voice was laced with it. Fleeting images traveled between them, images too fractured to comprehend - except for the emotions: raw need and pain and hunger and mind-numbing terror.
That’s what you’ve been hiding from me all these years, Ruth murmured. And you don’t even know what they are.
Other images came then, of Rio de Janeiro and Cal’s penthouse, the Upstairs rooms and Cal’s private apartments. Sulu shuddered and shied away from the memories as Ruth and DelMonde absorbed them. No, don’t see, don’t know! he cried.
Don’ know what? You were Cal’s lover? Del asked. I already guess that, mon amor. He call you ‘pet,’ non?
You didn’t know he was the Hunter, Roy, Ruth soothed, and whatever you did with him... it was all consenting. It doesn’t matter.
Raw-eth... Del began warily, it not 'xactly all consentin'...
Oh god... Sulu sobbed.
Let it come, Del urged. Get it out, let us help cleanse it.
Sulu took a deep breath and Ruth and Del's minds were suddenly blasted with a power as strong if not stronger than either one of them.
GET OUT!!!
The strong grip of a hand on his arm broke Sulu’s awareness of the mental contact, leaving only the understanding that the entire conversation had taken less than a second. He opened eyes that were still burning from the venus-fire, focusing them on the face of Lane Gage. The Haven was smiling.
“Nice performance, Kam. I hope your fellow aphrodites have the credits to pay for it.”
For a moment, everything inside him went numb. Then he took a deep breath, letting his eyes close again. “That’s never been my problem, has it?” Kam managed hoarsely.
“Indeeed,” Gage’s cool voice replied. Then he extended his hand. “Get up, Kam.”
With a groan, Kam slowly extricated himself from Ruth and DelMonde’s entangled limbs. “You got something for the crash?” he asked Gage.
“Of course,” Gage returned, sounding a little offended. “I don’t damage my merchandise.”
Kam let his gaze meet the Haven’s. “Now how would I know that?” he said. “It wasn’t exactly my last employer’s policy, was it?”
“Sulu, why didn’t you tell me?” an anguished voice said from behind him. The numbness came again, but this time Kam froze. Sulu’s body slowly turned, his mind refusing to accept the question.
“What?” he managed, then shuddered, the crash hitting him hard. He felt Jeremy’s hands reaching to steady him as his legs suddenly refused to support him.
“I’ll take him from here...” Gage began.
“Fuck you!” Jeremy shot at him.
Sulu was having trouble concentrating. He tried to grin up at Jeremy. “It’s okay, Jer,” he mumbled. “I lost.”
“You don’t know to what,” Jeremy responded fiercely. “This son-of-a-bitch is plannin’ on puttin’ you on the market.”
Sulu shrugged, his mind urgently waving the last words away. “I bet. I lost. The stakes were...”
“I know the damn stakes, this bastard’s been crowin’ about it since you went out!” Jeremy’s tone was pure anguish.
“I wasn't crowing,,,” Gage interrupted.
“Let it go, it’s done...”
“He says it ain’t new to you, Kam!” Jeremy cried.
Something inside Sulu stiffened in warning. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Come on, Kam,” Gage rejoined, his voice gentle. “Isn’t it time we dropped this charade? I’ve gone along with you all these years, but things - “ The Haven grinned. “ - are different now.”
Numbness, and Kam’s eyes were hard jet. “You’re a bastard, Lane.”
A brief flash of confusion crossed Gage's features, then the Haven's manner shifted to match the hardness. “You want to keep your friends ignorant, that’s your business. But you, dear Kam, are mine.”
There was a flicker of surprise in the black eyes as Kam rose again to his feet. “How did I...?” he began, then shook his head. There were a lot of moments that he didn’t remember, the result of too many years of amber. It didn’t bother him anymore.
“I’m comin’ with him,” Cobra said.
“Why?” Kam asked, his tone and eyes abruptly soft and sad. “You won’t be able to afford the things you like, and Lane’s not into watching the way Cal was, so...”
“Let him come,” Gage interrupted “If he wants to work for a living, I’ve got no objections to finding him something to do.”
“What the hell is going on!” Ruth’s strident voice broke in.
And Kam cried out as her telepathy sought the knowledge from his mind.
What’s going on? Sulu...?
Who?
The non-recognition in Sulu’s mind stunned her, and she cried out for help. Del!!!
What wrong, babe... sweet Mary mother o' God! Ruth felt DelMonde’s shock.
What is this? cried the mind that was and wasn’t Sulu’s. How is this possible? Who is...
Sulu? Ruth tried again, desperately.
Babe, this not Sulu!
How can it not be?
Who is... not-Sulu asked again.
Del took over. What your name?
Kam.
You know us?
I don’t know what...
Telepathy. Do you know us?
Sulu's mind voice changed, losing the confused, almost innocent quality. Get the fuck out of my head! he snarled.
Su... Ruth began, then corrected herself. Kam, do you know who we are?
Cajun and Spike. Get out of my head.
Where’s Sulu?!
HELP ME!!!!
Ruth pulled away from the link and that last, unidentifiable cry, in confused terror. Del's thoughts were determined as they assessed what had happened.
Part of it th' Divine Wind, Del told the Antari.
What? Ruth asked incredulously. She became aware that Sulu had again collapsed into Jeremy’s arms, and Gage was ordering him to bring the Racer to his private cabin. Without thinking, she and Del scrambled after him, Ruth knowing only that something was horribly, desperately wrong inside Sulu’s mind.
Doors opened, terrors and horrors swirling through, past, too fast to contain. No consciousness, no awareness, yet the pains and torments touched and were known. Heartrate increased, adrenaline thundered through racing systems... lethargy and thick, heavy insentience... hunger and lustful greed... fierce anger, roaring conflict... cowering fear... seduction, sensual or numbly determined...
Perceive, analyze, discriminate. Separate and sort, this to go here, that to go there. This memory with this emotion, that thought with that being. Now carefully close the doors, detach, divide, and...
“Wake up, Sulu.”
Jeremy’s voice.
“Come on, babe, wake up.”
Slowly, Sulu cracked open his eyes. Still on board Leather, but in a room he hadn’t seen before. Dark greens and leathers and suede dominated the decor. He was in a bed with forest green silk sheets, still in the clothes he’d worn on his madman’s run. The venus crash felt like hell, but other than that...
Roy?
He started at the tentative voice in his mind, the surprise driving his body to a sitting position. He looked past Jeremy’s concerned face to meet Ruth’s worried purple eyes.
Don’t do that unless it’s absolutely necessary, okay? he thought at her.
“Are you all right?” she asked aloud.
“No. Why aren’t you crashing as bad as I am?” he replied.
“Who says I’m not?” came the ironic response.
Sulu chuckled, then immediately regretted it. Groaning, he laid back down. “Where am I, anyway?” he murmured.
“Gage’s room,” Jeremy replied. His hand gently brushed aside the hair from Sulu’s forehead. “He’s gonna hold you to your wager.”
Sulu sighed. “Of course he is.” There was silence for a moment. “It doesn’t matter, Jer.”
“How can it not matter?” Ruth asked plaintively. Sulu met her gaze with knowing despair.
“What have I got to go back to?”
“What the hell is all this about?!” Jeremy exploded, moving off the bed. “You’ve been jacketed straight and hard this whole leave! What the fuck is wrong with you!”
“He in love,” Del’s deep voice answered. “An' he not never have her an' he not stop an' he not take no more.”
Jeremy stared, first at DelMonde, then at Sulu. “Jilla,” he finally said. Sulu closed his eyes, pain radiating from every fiber of his being. “Baby, why didn’t you tell me, let me try to help...”
“There’s no help for it,” Sulu managed. “I’m lost.”
“It’s worth giving your life to Gage?” Jeremy pleaded.
Sulu tried to grin. “Well, that’s a moot point now, isn’t it?”
“Maybe not,” Ruth ventured.
Sulu’s grin turned sour. “I don’t welsh, Ruth.”
“I know that. But Haven wagers are void if either of the parties aren’t mentally sound.”
“Babe,” Del put in, “lovesick not mentally unbalanced.”
That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it!
But he not. How he claim that to Gage?
“Sulu,” Ruth said, returning her full attention to him, “when I - healed you - I found... “ She stopped abruptly at the cry in her mind.
Don’t!
Sulu?
It’s his only defense. You can’t take it from him.
Who is this?
Please, keheil, don’t do this.
What is...?
Ani Ramy, please!
She stared at Sulu, but there was no hint of awareness in his eyes.
“You were already soaring when you made the bet, Kam,” Jeremy was saying.
It was only because she was already staring intently at him that Ruth saw the change. It was subtle enough that, even then, it could have been no more than a change of emotion. Sulu’s eyes hardened, getting blacker, if such a thing were possible. The pain of his love for Jilla vanished in a heartbeat, along with the misery of the venus crash. His jaw seemed more set, his lips thinner, his whole body more alert, more arrogant - yet he hadn’t moved a muscle. And when he spoke, his voice was deeper, thicker, yet more silky, more persuasive.
“Soaring was part of the bet, Cobra. Take Trickster out, full ‘sphere and fuel, coast and pinpoint back while soaring. I lost it, so I lost. End of story.”
“Kam,” she whispered. Del’s eyes turned to her.
Look at him, Del. Feel him.
That th' Divine Wind,/i Del replied decisively.
Their mental communication was interrupted as Gage stepped back into the room. He’d left just after allowing Jeremy to put Sulu on the bed. Now he walked to the bed, holding a dull, oddly speckled capsule. It was the only Haven drug Ruth had ever seen that didn’t look attractive.
Jeremy grabbed his wrist as he held his hand out to Sulu. “What’s that?”
Gage stared at Jeremy's hand, then at his face. When Jeremy didn’t let go, he shrugged, ignoring the suspicious security officer.
“For the crash, Kam,” he said to Sulu.
“About time,” Sulu/Kam replied, but he didn’t take the capsule. Both Ruth and Del felt the emotional shift as he bent his head, he bent his head, using his tongue to sensually lick it out of Gage’s palm. The Haven’s eyes closed as a visible shudder went through him.
“You still do it to me,” he rasped.
Kam smiled, a warm, knowledgeable expression of erotic promise. “As long as you still do it to me,” he whispered in return.
Ruth and Del exchanged glances.
Sulu an' Gage? Del asked.
Not that he ever told me, Ruth replied. But I’ve got a very uncomfortable feeling...
Like he not know it hisself?
“Babe, what is this?” Jeremy’s earnest voice begged.
Ruth shifted her gaze back to Sulu. Kam’s head was still bent over Gage’s hand, still kissing it. He didn't so much as glance at his lifelong friend.
Jeremy’s tone was agony. “Sulu...!?”
And again, Ruth saw the shift, this time a softening, a return of pain and shame and fear, and something hit her in the stomach as Sulu collapsed onto the bed, suddenly writhing. “Gage...!” he gasped out.
A frown crossed the Haven’s face. “It was angel, it should’ve taken care of the crash, that’s all,” he said.
“Give...!” Del managed, doubling over beside Ruth. Linked, babe, we all need it!
Ruth held herself upright, forcing the words out through clenched teeth. “Gage, I need a hit, and so does Del. We’re empathic, we were venus-linked to Sulu...”
“Scab!” Gage spat, and produced two more of the ugly capsules. Ruth took one, then had to force the other into Del’s mouth. The pain built for a few more seconds, then began to recede, taking the strung-out hangover of a venus crash with it. Ruth took a deep breath, noticing Del was straightening, breathing easier.
On the bed, Sulu was again unconscious. Both Gage and Jeremy were staring uneasily at him.
“Spike, what’s going on?” Jeremy asked quietly.
“I think that’s an answer we all want to hear,” Gage said.
Ruth bit her lip, looked at Del, who hesitated, then nodded. “Well,” she began, “the only thing I know for sure is that Roy’s an empath...”