Padr was sound asleep on his back when they found them; Radhya snuggled to his side. Will cupped her back, his arm around her. The sharp intake of breath from 72 awakened Will. He rolled over with a loud groan.

“Well, sleeping beauties, care to tell us what happened?” Rory drawled. “We have been frantic looking for you. See Geo has been pried from his den and Noel insisted on sending 72.”

Will sat up stiffly, feeling every bruise and pulled muscle. He slapped Padr on the back of the hand. Padr opened one swollen eye, but it drooped shut again. Radhya slept on.

“We were sure you were dead when we saw the hover wreckage on the beach,” said Geo.

“We should be,” answered Will. “Padr was amazing!”

Max, Rory, Geo and 72 looked dubiously at the battered hero.

Will babbled, “No really, I never saw anyone control a machine like that. We would have been safely back at the beach if that one giant wave hadn’t come into the harbor. It smashed the hover. Padr found the ledge and got Radhya and me up onto it. Then he led us over the cliff and here. I’m amazed we survived.”

He looked at Padr with great respect.

“It’s all a big load of horse droppings,” Padr murmured throwing a hand over his eyes.

“I doubt that. Radhya’s an excellent judge of character. None of the rest of us could see anything in you, but she did,” said Geo with a grunt. “We are a little bruised. However, I don’t think any serious damage is done,” Will continued.

Padr, moving gingerly, rolled into a sitting position.

“Why doesn’t Radhya wake up?” asked Max.

“She’s probably exhausted. It wasn’t easy getting back here. She was thrown outside of the rocks that line the cliff. Padr and I were thrown to the inside, so she had it a little harder than us. Give her a minute,” said Will.

“Have you got any food? I’m perishing,” groaned Padr.

Max rummaged through the emergency pack he wore and came up with three energy bars. He gave Will and Padr each one. He knelt by Radhya and looked at her closely. Lifting her gently in his arms, he revealed a large purple swelling on the other side of her head.

“Will?” he questioned.

Dropping his food, Will examined her immediately.

“Does anyone have a portable scanner? I lost mine in the accident.”

Rory dashed out the door to the waiting heliplane, returning swiftly and handing the device to Will. The doctor ran it over Radhya.

“Sprained wrist, again, torn ligaments right knee, multiple contusions, cracked rib, a large blood clot in the brain and a fracture of the skull.”

Will became very still and white. Driving his fist into the floor, he jumped to his feet.

“I should have checked her when we got here, but I just let her go to sleep. She obviously had a rougher time than we did. I didn’t realize it. I thought she couldn’t keep up because she’s a woman. This is all my fault.”

“She’s still alive isn’t she?” asked Geo soberly.

“Yes, but she is unconscious, I don’t know if her life signs are going up or down. She could spiral into deeper unconsciousness and die, or end up brain damaged and wake up a vegetable. A brain bleed is no joke.”

Geo exchanged glances with Rory. Both looked over at 72. Geo raised a gnarled little finger.

Then the pilot nodded, and he said, “Bring her.”

Will and Padr scrambled into their battered but dry clothes. They wrapped Radhya more tightly in the sheets. Carrying her as if she were about to break, Max followed Geo to the heliplane. Rory took off, taking everyone on a swift and wild ride. Shortly, they entered a deep inlet of the ocean, framed by steep cliffs on either side. The land was heavily forested with only a narrow margin of white sand beach. Numerous caves pocked the rock. Rory feathered the heliplane down on a slightly wider patch of sand and rubble. Geo snapped a dismemorizor capsule under 72’s nose. The rest exited the vehicle.

The old man brushed the hair back from her forehead, placed a kiss there and murmured, “Take her to the Chandrans. They will know what to do.”

Max, carrying Radhya, followed the sand around the back curve of the inlet. Will and Padr trailed after him. Geo and Rory said they would not be welcome, so they stayed with the heliplane. Max’s arms were going numb when a large, not quite human shape beckoned from behind a tree. He headed doggedly in that direction.

Once among the big trees, Max was relieved of Radhya’s weight by a huge black alien. The men followed him blindly, struggling through the thick underbrush that fought to impede their progress. Fortunately, the distance was short. The alien disappeared into a dark hole with Radhya. Padr lunged after her. Will grabbed his arm.

“I think they’re going to help her,” he whispered.

“Who are they?” demanded Padr.

“Ocean Chandrans, friends of Radhya,” answered Max.

Max plunged into the dark cavity followed by Will and Padr. Feeling his way through the snaking corridor, he came to a warm, dimly lit cavern. Small red glowing spots, two meters from the floor, gave a feeble light. The rocky floor was lapped softly by waves. A row of large alien bodies lined the outside walls, shifting and moving restlessly in the warm, wet air. The alien carrying Radhya walked towards them. Three Chandrans stepped forward and enfolded the men in their arms.

“Seliflacn of the recreator, our friend, how may we serve you?” came the thought quietly into their brains.

Will spoke up, “Our machine overturned in the storm last night and broke. We got out, but Radhya is hurt. I can’t fix her. Her old, uh, friend Geo, brought us here to you. I don’t exactly know why.”

“Is it her mind that suffers?” came the question.

“In a manner of speaking, she has a blood clot in her brain.”

“Do you wish the lameeno, the bonding at this time?”

“Whatever will help her,” replied Will and Max together.

“You must all go to the mother then.”

The alien carrying Radhya went to the water and entered it. When it reached waist deep on him, a whale shape, perhaps ten meters long came to meet him. It extended arms and took Radhya’s limp body. Padr lunged from the enfolding arms of his alien and dashed into the water. The big one there grasped and enfolded him. Max and Will followed more slowly.

“We understand your concern for your mate. Follow,” the quiet voice encouraged.

Max and Will joined Padr and Radhya in the arms of the mother. The men felt their minds flying across the space to the whale mind. Their consciousness somehow guided into the deep, peaceful presence. It was female, ageless and unknowable, encompassing wisdom on a level different from humans, ancient and alien. She welcomed them and showed them somehow, Radhya’s unconscious mind. They followed their guide.

It was an endless black ocean, no light, no stars, cold and forlorn. A wind moaned over the surface.

“Help me find her,” came the thought.

The men felt themselves unite in purpose, Max, faithful, with a pure golden light, Padr, strong and determined, a glowing emerald green, and Will, confident, sure and stable, a pillar of violet purity, unshakable in his hope; together they dove into the dark sea.

Beneath the dark, roiling events tossed them about. Images of Barone, Geo, themselves, her brother and sister, Singha, so many images leaping and gibbering at them. Max was flipping Radhya, Padr hit her, Will was being sick, and Kung was leaping on Barone. Princess Felina was pushing her to contract with Barone, a black impenetrable sickness of evil and pain hurting her, images upon images pushing and shoving for their attention. A blackness padded around the edges, slipping sideways from view if they turned to stare, yet pacing their every move. Progress faltered. Then Padr took the lead forging ahead and down through the turmoil, pushing the images back, settling them into their places.

It lessened as they came to a shadowed place of feelings. Dark secrets lurked here, guilt and shame and fear. The terror of failure was overwhelming. Then there was a hunger to be loved, to be understood; yet it clouded with the terror of being unlovable. Padr’s face laced through it all. He faltered unable to look at it. It called so clearly to his own insecurities and failures that he drew back. Faithful Max forged ahead, calming the attacking fear with warm golden light, pouring love in to fill the need, putting guilt and shame to flight.

They plunged down a third time. Here was a physical plane; a face turned away with the ills of the body. Will stepped forward here. He healed the cracked rib, sprained wrist, the torn ligament. He dissolved the blood clot and plastered the fracture closed. Will looked inward and entered himself with the power of the bond; healing his own ills, and then he entered Padr and cured his body. The bruises and sore muscles dissolved into wellness.

Down they plunged again into a white world. Everything was glowing sparkling white, brilliant and facetted and beautiful. They heard the guide’s voice again.

“This is the center of her soul. Call her to you. Call with your love.”

The three men tried calling with their voices. Nothing happened except the light sparkled brightly.

“Call with your love,” came the thought again.

Max remembered the feelings he had for Radhya, her smile, her kindnesses, her humor, and her care for everyone. A faint blue flicker sparkled in one corner. Will followed his example pouring his entire mind into remembering her lightness and her laughter, her cutting intelligence. The electric radiance grew brighter. Slowly it began to fade again.

“You will lose her if you cannot call her back. The body will die without the mind,” came their instructor.

Padr lowered his impregnable walls. A torrent of emotion flowed from his green light. The same fear of failure, the same fear of being unlovable as she carried. Padr sent his feelings for her through, admiring, sexual, fear of not being adequate to her need, desire for love, her love.

An electric blue beam fountained up around them. Love enveloped and soothed them. Care and fondness mixed with confusion about what was happening, loving them all deeply. The colors twined together and joined to make a multihued rainbow. Up they went, through the body, the dark world, sleeping now, through the images, reflecting the faces of the three men like mirrors, into the distance, bursting through the surface of the dark sea. The sea was brilliant with colors of the sunrise, the light striking from a rising orb. The rainbow rose to the guiding mind. There it split apart. The blue returned to Radhya. The golden beam retreated to Max and the violet to Will. The green lingered a moment, then returned to Padr, floating in the blood warm water.

* * *

The midday sun shone straight down into their eyes. The four woke within seconds of each other. Radhya smiled the largest smile of her life. She stretched and yawned.

“I feel wonderful,” she glowed. “But how come I’m on a beach, naked with you three well clothed?”

“I’m sorry,” replied Max turning away, “you had a sheet, but we lost it somewhere.”

“You’re so beautiful to look at. I’d give you my tunic, but then I couldn’t look anymore,” smiled Padr. “I’m not sure where the heliplane is anyway,” he continued looking around.

“How did we get here? I thought we were at the spa?” Radhya asked.

“Do you remember the accident?” asked Will over his shoulder.

“Certainly, but obviously danger agrees with me. I feel great,” she said pirouetting on her toes, arms raised high above her head.

“You look great,” replied Padr feasting his eyes.

Radhya smiled at him, her brow furrowed.

“Last night we just collapsed,” explained Will, “and you bashed into the rocks more than we did. Padr dragged me out, but then I had to go back in to get you.”

“Yes, I remember Padr hauling both of us out.”

“But I never checked you when we got to the spa, and you had a brain bleed.” The guilt was loud in his voice.

Radhya looked at his back, and her brows furrowed more.

“Am I dead?” she asked. “Is this all in my head? Is that why Padr’s looking at me like that?”

“No, no. Geo, Max, and Rory came to rescue us this morning. Max actually was the one to discover that you were hurt. Geo brought us to the Chandrans. The fathers asked if we wanted the lameeno. It was the only way we could save you. The fathers took us to a mother, and she helped us to call you, we also healed each other somehow, and that’s it. Here we are.”

Radhya fell to the sand. Shock and fear communicated itself in every line of her face and body.

“Do you mean to tell me they did the bonding, with all of us?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know what you mean by the bonding, but it would be a good description of what happened,” Max answered.

“But don’t you see; now we’re bound, forever. I never heard about anything able to reverse it. You, all of you are bound to me and to each other. We all belong to each other,” she exclaimed in distress.

“Don’t worry about it. No one forced us. We each chose to participate in this bonding,” Padr said. “What was done, was done of our free will. It was wonderful. I’d do it again in a minute.”

Radhya huddled on the sand arms tightly crossed in front of her. She looked at him in disbelief, murmuring, “But you don’t even like me.”

Padr drew off his tunic and handed it to her. She slipped quickly into it.

“I do like you. I always did. I just didn’t feel safe enough to tell you. I… I had a hard time to trust that you could ever love me, after what I’ve been and am,” he told her honestly gazing into her eyes.

“It was the only way to save your life,” put in Max softly turning around again.

Radhya drew the men to her and hugged them all at once.

“Do you realize we have been more intimate than any other humans in history? We can learn to do it again, at will or need.”

The men looked at her in silence until a whistling disturbed their contemplation. Rory came sauntering down the beach.

“Well, anyone interested in going home?” he asked.

He removed his jacket and handed it to Padr. He slipped it on but could not do it up. They followed Rory pensively down the sand. The heliplane was not far, and soon they were winging home.

As the vehicle landed, Radhya turned to Geo and asked, “How could you? You knew what would happen. I didn’t want anyone coerced,” Geo said, “I would do anything to save your life, including sacrificing the lives of your three friends. When you were eighteen, who held you from the fire while his legs burnt. When you were sixteen who almost died of poison meant for you and when you were fourteen who took the dagger meant for your heart. I love you as my daughter, and I would do anything to save your life. I think you would know that by now.”

Radhya’s face softened. She unbuckled and hugged the old man.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I owe you so much, and I should never complain about what you do to help me.”

She leapt from the heliplane and dashed to her room in the house.

“Your legs burnt?” inquired Will looking at Geo’s obvious legs.

“She fixed them for me. It was her first practical application of her formulas,” he replied gruffly. “Likewise a new liver, and new kidneys, and a new heart.”

The trio stared at him in amazement.

“A lot of people want Radhya dead. So please guard her well.” Geo left them.