Chapter Three
Before—The Resistance Fighter
When Leslie met her, Mia was a psych major in her junior year, attending New York University. Mia had drawn the interest of the Resistance because, following a chance meeting in Central Park with a Krinar, Mia had found herself pretty much forced into a relationship with him. The Krinar was Korum, a powerful member of the Krinar Council and a principal enemy of the Resistance.
Leslie knew nothing about Mia until several days after she had been approached by John, Leslie’s colleague in the leadership group of the N.Y.C. Division of the Resistance.
When Leslie met her several days later, she learned that Mia had been recruited to spy on Korum. She just happened to be with John that day, when he received a coded e-mail and went to the apartment Mia shared with her roommate Jessie.
Jessie’s worried call to her cousin, a low-level member of the Resistance, was what had alerted John to Mia in the first place.
When the two of them arrived at the apartment they learned that Mia had contacted John because she had accessed what she thought of as the “virtual reality map” in Korum’s office. Entering the virtual presence the map provided, she had explored a red-brick town house on the map that Korum had marked for some reason. She found out, to her horror, that it was a meeting place for the Resistance, which had now undoubtedly been compromised. John had been profoundly grateful for what Mia had done. Mia had accomplished far more than John had ever imagined she could.
Despite Mia’s nick of time warning, or maybe because of it, Leslie was more than a little worried about whether Mia could be trusted, given her relationship with Korum.
I don’t think she’s a double agent, thought Leslie. She is the very image of genuine relief that she had gotten the information to the Resistance in time. There’s no reason to question Mia’s honesty. The problem is her relationship with Korum. We all know Korum is the worst K of them all. This girl is sleeping with him! She is far too involved with him to be trusted. The bastard could twist her mind like a pretzel in any direction he wanted it to go. And no one had ever said the monster wasn’t smart.
When she shared her concerns with John. He was dismissive of her argument, and more than a little offended by Leslie’s suspicions of Mia. Mia looked taken aback as well.
John pointed out that Mia had no choice in the matter of being with Korum. That was true enough, if not exactly the point she was trying to make. What’s more, John said Mia had “risked her life,” that day. And brought vital intelligence to the Resistance. Leslie shrugged. John was probably right. She let herself go along with the other Resistance leader.
John had gone on to tell Mia that they were working with allies they had among the Ks. The KETHS, “Ks for the Ethical Treatment of Humans,” or KIETHS which was both easier to pronounce and less likely to arouse the suspicions of the other Ks.
Leslie thought that particular info was definitely “need to know.” She was not happy with John talking about it. When John agreed not to say anything else, Leslie reciprocated by keeping the suspicions she still had about Mia to herself.
As time went on, Mia turned out to be a very good spy. Not only had she saved the leadership from walking into what could have been a deadly trap. Some days later, John had given her a crucial and risky assignment. He gave her a data stripper, in the form of a silver ring, that had been provided by the KIETHS, the K allies of the Resistance. She needed to steal critically important weapons designs from a computer, implanted in the palm of Koram’s hand. Though Mia didn’t want to talk about how she did it, she had apparently managed to do this, while she and Korum were having sex.
The day after Mia had gotten back to John with the data stripper, which now contained Korum’s designs, John asked Leslie to take something to Mia. She found Mia sitting on a bench near the Bow Bridge in Central Park. John had sent her to give Mia a weapon that she could defend herself with if Korum suspected her involvement in the forthcoming attack on the K Centers.
Mia had taken the weapon, but told Leslie she could never use it on Korum.
Leslie told her how foolish that would be. Korum would kill her without a second thought, if he suspected what she had done. Leslie’s heart wasn’t in it though.
The full depth of Mia’s feelings toward Korum hit her almost like a physical force crushing her chest. What Leslie sensed in Mia reminded her of a time, three years ago, when her whole family had felt very differently about the Ks. A time when her brother was alive. When she had wanted nothing more than to welcome and befriend the aliens, as her brother was doing.
Leslie looked at Mia, feeling helpless. This girl is very much in love with Korum, yet she had worked with the Resistance anyway. How much that must have cost her. She remembered what John told her. When Mia had given him the data stripper, she had set the condition that Korum be given safe passage off the planet. She felt an overwhelming sympathy for Mia, sympathy she couldn’t possibly express. Her sympathy would only keep Mia from turning Korum into particles if that became necessary. After that, Leslie gave up her last reservations about Mia, embracing her fully as part of the Resistance. And, for some reason, that made her very sad.
She walked away, leaving Mia with the weapon. On impulse she called her friend Rose, to ask if she could come over and talk with her. The girl was a psychology major, finishing her senior year at Columbia. Leslie very much felt in need of a free session. Some twenty minutes later she arrived at Rose’s apartment. The tall beautiful Latina with her runner’s body, wavy black hair and large brown eyes, opened the door for her. She glanced at Leslie’s expression. “I’m guessing you’re nervous about tomorrow? I am too. Please come in. We could both use the company.”
Leslie nodded, giving the other girl a small smile. “I’m worried sick. I so wish I could be creeping up on a K Center instead of sitting here. That’s not what I wanted to talk about though.” She sat looking introspective for a few seconds. “John doesn’t want me to talk about this. That’s okay though. His reason for keeping the secret won’t be important after tomorrow. John met a girl who recently got taken as Korum’s charl. He got her to spy on Korum for us.”
Rose gaped at her. “Holy shit! Is she okay? Did that fucking monster find out?”
“Yes, and no. He might after tomorrow though. I just met with her in the park. John asked me to give her one of the short-range dissolvers. So she could defend herself if the monster find’s out what she did.”
Rose nodded.
“She won’t use it Rose. At least that’s what she said.
“I could feel the emotions rolling off of her, Rose. She’s doing this for humanity, but it’s tearing her apart... She loves him. She loves that fucking K with every fiber of her being. Even getting him out of her life she asked that he not come to any harm, that he have safe passage off the planet.
“I talked about her feelings a little but I could see it wasn’t what she needed to hear. The best I could do for her was just repeat the basic instructions. ‘Point the rounded end at the K. Don’t think! Press the indentation on the side.’
“After I left Mia, my old feelings all came crowding back in. I never had a K fucking me. But I still felt like Mia does, only about the Krinar in general. I was so proud of my brother, Joe, reaching out to the Ks, even with the Panic going on around us. That’s what I wanted to do with my own life. Right up until the night the police called my dad. They told him that Joe’s neck had been broken. His body had been left with them, by a K. The K refused to tell them what happened.” Her words dissolved into gasping sobs. It was her smash-and-crash response. She needed her memories of what the Ks had done to Joe, to hate them, to fight them, but then she always remembered that Joe was gone forever. And he would have been heartbroken at the use she was making of his memory. She hated it.
Rose held her until she was done. Then the two of them ordered Chinese food. They walked to the takeout place and picked up the food. After that, acting on impulse, they picked up a box of wine, and carried everything back to the apartment. They ate and drank. They pretended to be excited about the school year being over. And they tried to forget that the War Of The Worlds was happening tomorrow.
The following morning Leslie waited back in her own apartment, for news of the attack on the Centers. More than ever she would have loved to be taking part in it, but like the other leaders, she would have aroused suspicion had she been anywhere near a K Center. She looked at her phone. The media should have picked up the story by now! It was the biggest damn thing to happen since the invasion!
Only, they hadn’t. Finally her phone chimed with a text message. To most people it was only a string of letters and numbers. To almost all of the many thousands of randomly selected people who received the message it was just that, a mysterious but momentary annoyance. To her it was a message of disaster. It meant one thing,
“HIDE!”
The catastrophic failure of their attack on the K Centers left no doubt in Leslie’s or anyone else’s mind that Mia was as much the enemy of all mankind as her lover. The weapons, made from the advanced designs that Mia had “stolen” from Korum, had simply failed to work in battle. The KIETHS, their allies among the aliens, had been captured and had certainly been severely punished, quite possibly even killed. By and large the human soldiers and Resistance fighters had not been killed. They had been humiliated. Knocked out in a flash of red light, which had, at the same time, embedded molecule-sized tracking devices in their bodies. After that the human governments were told to come get their people and keep them out of any more trouble.
Five hundred thousand fighters and soldiers taken out of the Resistance. It had been a devastating setback. Mia, their little spy, was entirely to blame for it.
Leslie had not been caught since the failed attack. Both she and the other known members of the N.Y.C. Division were on the run. She hadn’t seen any of the other leaders, since the failed attack. They were avoiding each other for their mutual safety.
She had been days without a shower. Her clothing was ragged and dirty. She carried a bundle of old blankets with her everywhere. She was pretending to be mentally ill. She had left her phone back in her apartment. She was pretty sure the Ks could track it, and she wasn’t about to keep a location-marking electronic device on her person. Sleeping rough on park benches or at an occasional homeless shelter. Leslie spent her bitter nights dreaming of what she would do to that treacherous little bitch if she ever got the chance.
Then she discovered that all of the KIETHS had not been caught either. A week ago, a K had tracked Leslie down and told her that he was also a KIETH. He needed her help in a mission to kill Korum. He wasn’t very personable for a K, actually sort of socially awkward, but he seemed nice enough. After looking at Leslie’s ragged condition, he didn’t say anything. He just gave her some money. Leslie took it. But told him that she would have gladly paid him to be a part of this.
The K told her that Korum was taking Mia to visit her family in Ormond Beach, Florida. He said that he needed her to keep Mia out of the way while he was killing Korum. The K had learned that Mia and Korum would be staying at a beachfront rental house, where they would be alone together for much of the time. His plan was to wait until Korum was alone on the beach. Leslie would then confront Mia, holding her at gunpoint, while he killed Korum.
The K had been clear that she was not allowed to hurt Mia. She promised that she wouldn’t, but she had every intention of telling the traitor exactly how she felt about her.
When they arrived in Ormond Beach, Leslie was stunned when she saw the place that Mia and Korum were staying in. “Beachfront rental house,” more like a damn mansion! It must have been unbelievably expensive to stay in a place like that for a week. Not the sort of treatment your typical unwilling sex toy usually gets. They were a fucking team! They had played the Resistance from the beginning, Leslie thought angrily, as she got into position. Fucking little traitor!
Leslie surprised Mia as she walked from the house to join Korum on the beach. Mia had gone through the gate from the pool area into an area that was mostly concealed by vegetation. From there a boardwalk passed through the dunes onto the beach. Leslie stepped in front of her and pointed her gun at Mia’s chest, saying, “Hands up, bitch!”
By now, considering Mia the blackest traitor in the history of mankind and despising her weakness for being with Korum, Leslie contemptuously asked Mia if she were “walking around asking Ks to bite her, every hour, like my brother did before they killed him.” She continued talking about how weak and stupid Mia was for falling for one of those monsters. After the first frozen moments, Mia started trying to talk her way out of the situation, Leslie wasn’t listening. It was her turn to talk.
Finally, when she realized that Mia had said, “Korum will kill you if you pull the trigger,” Leslie began taunting the little traitor, telling her that her lover was, even now, being turned into particles by another K. One who was allied with the Resistance. She had greatly enjoyed the horrified look on Mia’s face.
Then Mia snapped. Enraged, with her adrenaline spiking at the thought of Korum in danger, the much smaller girl had created a momentary distraction, and attacked. There was a vicious fight, lasting less than a minute. It ended with Leslie momentarily on her back. Mia twisted Leslie’s gun away from her, breaking Leslie’s index finger in the process, and clubbed her into unconsciousness with it.
Sometime later, Leslie gradually regained awareness. She was being gently touched. A soothing touch, which comforted, even though she hurt all over. She had a blinding headache and her finger screamed at the slightest movement. Her upper arm was throbbing and sore, like she'd been bitten there. She opened her eyes, and froze. She was being examined by a K! A Krinar in a light-gray uniform. One of their fucking Guardians! She began to shake uncontrollably.
The K had a kind expression on his face and spoke to her in American English. “Hello Leslie. My name is Sornan. I know that you’re in a lot of pain right now. We’ll take care of that as soon as we can. I just want you to know that we mean you no harm. No one is going to hurt you.” She damn well didn’t believe the monster! Despite that, his soothing voice acted as a lifeline for her. It helped her bring her trembling under control.
However, being taken by the Krinar Guardians was about the most terrifying fate she could imagine. And, piling insult on top of that devastating injury, he picked her up and carried her back to the pool area of the rental house. Where she could see that Korum was very much alive.
After several minutes, while Korum and the Guardians talked in what she assumed was Krinar, the little traitor came out of the house and walked up to Korum with a big smile, saying something in the same language. Leslie glared at her. “Xeno bitch.”
Korum gave her an icy stare. "Keep your mouth shut," he told her in English. “You should thank whatever pathetic deity you pray to that Mia didn't get hurt today and that gun was not loaded. If anything had happened to her, you and all of your Resistance buddies would know the true meaning of suffering. Do you understand me!”
Holding her in his arms, Sornan felt the girl start to tremble again, but she refused to look away. She continued glaring defiantly at Korum.
Still holding Leslie, he walked toward the beach with the other Guardians. Everyone else started getting into their ship. Looking at the leader, he said, “She’s hurt. I’m going to take her to Arizona, get her healed and settled in her room. I want to spend some time with her and get her over some of her anxiety."
The leader replied, also in English, "I will see you tomorrow then.” Shortly after that, the Guardian’s ship departed, leaving Leslie and Sornan alone.
Sornan seemed to snatch a small oval object out of thin air and said, “Make a two-person ship." There was a soft buzzing sound, like a swarm of bees on the far side of the neighbor’s yard. An ivory-colored sphere, about five feet in diameter, came into being in front of them.
Leslie’s eyes bulged at the sight. “Wha-what are you doing?” she stuttered.
Sornan grinned. “I’m making our ride Leslie. I’m taking you to the Arizona K Center. We’ll get your injuries treated, supply you with what you need, and get you a room.”
The trip from Florida to Arizona took only a few minutes. Leslie felt none of what had to be outlandish acceleration. Somehow K technology blocked it. After they stepped out of the spherical ship, the small oval object appeared in Sornan’s hand once more. He unmade the little ship as quickly as he had made it.
Leslie looked on with a bitter expression. “You made that ship and then you trashed the fucking thing. Any human would do anything to own something like that little ship, and you bastards wonder why we hate you so much.”
Leslie paused, she was more than a little shocked at what she had just said. She realized that in the twenty minutes or so that she had been with Sornan she had come to believe that he really wasn't going to hurt her. When she first woke up, she had been too frightened to say anything to him.
Sornan did not seem offended. “I’m truly sorry, Leslie. We would share this with you if we could, but for now the Elders have not allowed us to do that.”
She said, frowning, “If you say so. We don’t have to like it.”
The Human Compound, the Detention Center for leaders of the Resistance and their allies in the human governments and militaries, was the product of rapid fabrication like everything else the Krinar created. It was made from the same all-but-indestructible atomic matrix as the Krinar’s own dwellings, transport pods, and everything else. It lacked the dissolving walls that were transparent on the inside that other K buildings had. It also lacked force field technology to make tables and planks float. It did, however, make use of Krinar technology in less alien-looking ways, for the comfort of the prisoners. For example, it re-made soiled clothing and bedding, so that it was always clean.
The Compound was made to resemble a large wooden building that might have been a rustic human retreat center. The ground floor featured the “dining/meeting hall,” which had seating for some sixty people. The Compound made food for the residents just like any Krinar home. However, the food was delivered by what the humans were encouraged to think of as a very high-tech vending machine. The rest of the ground floor consisted of offices for medical and rehabilitation staff, as well as a small detachment of Guardians. There was also a gym, a couple of multipurpose game rooms, and a library. The second and third floors were made up of individual bedrooms with male and female shower rooms on each floor.
Sornan brought Leslie to a first-floor office. Jaymira, a human biology apprentice at the Compound, was an inhumanly beautiful woman. She resembled Sornan, with lighter coloring, long lustrous black hair, and large light hazel eyes. She slowly moved the jansha healing device over Leslie’s mostly nude body. She shook her head and grinned. “You say one little human woman did all this to you?” Leslie shrugged, joining in the banter despite herself. “I think I made her mad.”
Jaymira laughed. “Well, it's probably a good idea not to do that, when you see her again.”
After she was healed and given a clean bill of health, the tiny jansha device had given her a more thorough medical exam than any she had ever received. She got dressed.
Coming out of Jaymira’s office, she gave Sornan a dark look, adding jansha devices to throw-away ships and that thingy he made them with, as items on her rapidly growing list of things that Ks had, and humans didn't.
Ignoring the dark look, Sornan smiled. “How are you?”
She shrugged. “My bumps and bruises are all gone; so is my right to have a private life where you assholes can’t find me whenever you want to.” There was no doubt in her mind that the K woman had tagged her with the nanos at the same time she was healing her.
He smiled at her. “Leslie, if you attack us we will come after you. But, apart from that, we won’t bother you. You can speak, write, hold rallies, even sit in the dining/meeting hall and tell us how you feel about us; doing it as rudely as you like. We respect both your intelligence and your opinions. It’s as I told you before though, we aren’t allowed to give you some of the things you want.” She glared at him, then shrugged.
“Let me show you to your room. I can also use my fabricator to make you some clothing, just like I did with the ship this morning.”
“Just like that?” She looked at the thing in his hand, the ‘fabricator.” “I know this is some kind of hard-ass detention center, but don’t you need to ask me about sizes before you start making clothes for me?”
Sornan smiled. “Trust me. If you are disappointed with the fit of anything I make for you, I’ll personally take you shopping for a replacement at Saks on Fifth Avenue. Deal?”
She gave him a disbelieving look. “Deal!”
There was no shopping trip to Saks.
After Sornan left, Leslie put on her flip-flops and carried her new robe, towel, and her toiletries down the hall to the women’s shower room. Twenty minutes later, the dirt and anxiety of the day was washed away. She returned to her room and pulled on the most perfectly form-fitting and completely comfortable jeans she had ever owned. One of the new bras fit perfectly and provided exactly the little bit of support her small breasts needed. She put on a loose peasant blouse, just to prove to herself that something wasn’t a perfect fit!
The dining/meeting hall could hold about sixty people at any given time. As Sornan had explained to her, there were two covered windows in the wall at the front of the hall. The window on the right was where the food was delivered. The one on the left was where trays and utensils were returned. Above the right-hand window were some thirty pictures of the night’s offerings.
“Welcome Leslie,” a friendly sounding feminine voice, speaking seemingly right in front of her, said. “Please touch the pictures that interest you for more information about that selection. Then double tap your final selection.”
Leslie picked a sandwich wrap. She touched that picture. A delectable odor wafted around her. Taste exploded on her tongue. She double tapped without another thought. The voice said, “Thank you Leslie. I will call you when your order is ready.”
The sandwich was as good as expected.
The next morning she returned to the dining/meeting hall, looking forward to another delicious meal. She made her selection and sat down with it.
She heard a familiar voice. “Hello Leslie! Do you mind if I join you?” She looked up to see Jaymira, the human biology apprentice who treated her the day before. The K grinned at her. “Can I join you?” Leslie felt momentarily happy, remembering their friendly banter from yesterday. She clamped down hard on that, she’s a fucking K. “Sure, sit down,” she replied in a neutral voice.
“Thanks,” Jaymira said brightly. “I love those jeans by the way! Sornan made your wardrobe, right?” She smiled. “He’s really nice.” Leslie glared at the K, a shocked part of her mind realizing that she was extremely jealous. Jaymira reached across the table to touch her hand, giving her a gentle smile. “I have a mate, Leslie. You have no cause for concern with me.” Leslie finished her breakfast on autopilot, her feeling of relief battling with confusion. Where the fuck had that come from?
That day and the next passed without incident. She discovered the gym and enjoyed the first workout she’d had since the attack on the K Centers. While she had been on the run, she had felt there was too much risk in doing something so typical and expected of her. Besides, it would have blown her homeless madwoman persona. After she finished her weight training, she spotted a few pairs of boxing gloves and some other protective gear. It had been a while for mixed martial arts. She missed her MMA. She pictured herself sparring with Sornan. That picture was nice in ways that really made her uncomfortable. She was his damn prisoner! What the hell was she thinking! She decided she would try to get one of the other prisoners to spar with her. She didn’t put much effort into looking for one, however.
She also found the library. There were none of the electronics most libraries offered these days, but a nice selection of regular books.
The next day, Jaymira had explained, was a rest day. Ks scheduled their workweek as three days of work and one of rest. She kept thinking that Sornan would visit her today. The rational part of her mind kept telling her not to be silly. He had been kind to her, even made her a wardrobe… but still… “Just stop it,” she muttered. She didn’t even want him to like her like that! She remembered what John had learned about Ks making girls their charl and keeping them in high-tech cages to be used for sex! She clenched her fists tightly and stared at them. You stupid idiot. You know what he is!
“Hello, Leslie," a masculine voice called out, "this is a free day for me. I thought you and I could spend some time together, if that's all right with you?”
All of the thoughts that had just passed through her mind… she wanted to tell him no… she wanted to at least ask him about charl, and if what she heard about them was true… What she said instead was, “What did you have in mind?”
“Would you like to do some hiking? This Center used to be part of a national forest. It was quite a popular destination for hikers prior to K-Day.” That sounded like a wonderful idea to Leslie. Without a hint of trepidation, she said, “I'd love to do that Sornan!”
Sornan waited while she changed into shorts, a tee shirt, heavy socks, and sturdy shoes. He then made a day pack for each of them. Thinking about the mountains she passed over coming here, Leslie stuffed a sweatshirt into hers. They stopped by the dining/meeting hall for packed lunches and a couple of water bottles each.
Their route took them down a gradually descending path, ending at a deep, spring-fed pool, confined by rocky outcrops. Sornan told her that local humans described this as a “tank.”
She chuckled, and gave him a smug look. “I am a local human Sornan. I grew up in Albuquerque. I agree with my fellow humans. It's a very nice tank!”
Sornan gave her a warm smile. “I’m glad we're doing this today Leslie. I wish I could hear you laugh more often.”
She stared at him for a long moment, feeling uncertain, finally saying, “That’s sweet of you Sornan. Thank you.”
After resting a bit, they did a steep climb, on a trail that switch-backed up the side of the mountain, gaining some four thousand feet of elevation above the tank.
After the climb, they ate their lunches. Then they sat together looking out over the rugged forest sloping down for miles. Seemingly midway down, given their foreshortened perspective, she saw a string of shimmering points. The shield posts, she guessed. The shield itself must be free of the usual distortions, when looking out from inside the Center. Then on down, she spotted a thin straight line, probably a road. Then the vista continued to the ochre line of the Arizona desert many, many miles away. Resting their tired bodies… well her tired body, she doubted Sornan was tired at all... She felt chilled now that she was no longer exerting herself.
She had put on the sweatshirt, but it was still chilly. The heat radiating from Sornan sitting so close was comforting. She had never let go of the thought that they were enemies, but he had never treated her as one. Not even when she first woke up to find him examining her injuries with gentle hands. She wanted to be with him, and that was less shocking than it should have been. She wondered if this were the Stockholm syndrome her friend Rose had warned the other fighters about. It didn’t feel like the desperate, self-deluded clinging Rose had described though. What she felt instead was a sense of something like caring between them. She felt as she thought she would, spending time with a boyfriend.
There was a small chiming sound. Sornan looked down at his wrist computer. He carried on a short conversation in Krinar. Then he looked at Leslie. “Korum made a request of Larkon, our Lead Guardian here. Which he just passed on to us. What you are here for, is to resolve the issues that caused you to be a danger to the Krinar, if talking to you doesn't work, what is usually done is that the mind expert preforms a targeted memory loss. Erasing a tiny part of your memory, the part that makes you a danger to the Krinar. Sometimes…” The color drained from Leslie’s face and she began to tremble. “Sornan, please don’t let them do that to me.” She started to cry. “Please, Sornan, they can’t do that to me. Please, oh God, please! I’ll do anything!”
He pulled her against his chest. “It’s going to be alright, Leslie. You're going to be okay.” After a couple of minutes, she regained her composure and pushed away from him.
“Leslie, I didn’t finish telling you what Larkon told me. When she asked, Korum told Mia what might happen to you. She was very upset about the possibility of a memory erasure. She wanted a chance to counsel you, to help you get past those issues.”
Leslie seemed to be in a state of shock. Sornan smiled. “Why don’t we start walking back to the Compound? We’ve had a long day.”
That night Leslie lay awake for a long time thinking of Mia. She had fed the Resistance faulty weapons designs. The KIETHS had produced weapons based on those designs. The KIETHS had mostly been caught. Perhaps five hundred thousand soldiers and Resistance fighters, from all over the world, had simultaneously attacked the ten K Centers. It had taken many months of careful and dangerous work by the Resistance coordinating with the KIETHS, human governments, and militaries around the world. Everything in their plan hinged on the weapon designs that Mia had “stolen” from Korum. The weapons had not worked, and the Resistance fighters had been unable to take down the shields surrounding any of the K Centers. They had been helpless to defend themselves, had been rendered unconscious, arrested, and shined—neutralized. The Resistance was finished, and it was the thing that had given her life its only meaning since her brother's death.
She was grateful that Mia wanted to help her to avoid having her memory erased, but succeed or fail she could never forgive what Mia had done.
Five days later, Jaymira asked Leslie to stop by her office after lunch. When Leslie arrived, the human biology apprentice asked her to sit down. “Leslie, I have some news that Sornan wanted me to pass on to you. Mia has been hurt. She suffered memory loss herself.”
“Oh my God!” For a brief moment, Leslie forgot how much she hated Mia.
“I know. I feel so bad for her,” Jaymira agreed. “But anyway, Sornan wanted to let you know, you will not undergo any kind of mind procedure until Mia is in a position to help you. He says Korum was very insistent on that.” She touched Leslie’s hand and smiled. “I think Sornan is too.”
Eight days, two Krinar work and rest periods passed. The population of the Compound was rapidly shrinking, and new prisoners were not coming in.
Apparently, humans were behaving themselves—at least as far as the Ks were concerned.
Jaymira and Sornan kept her abreast of the latest news about Mia. No one had found any way to reverse her memory loss, but she was rapidly reconnecting with Korum, her friends and her partner at the mind lab, with Lenkarda, and with K technology. She just had no direct memory of her last two months.
Some three days later, Jaymira had seen Leslie practicing mixed marshal arts in the gym, practicing by herself, using the heavy bag. She had asked Leslie about what she was doing, and why she was doing it by herself. Leslie muttered something about not finding a sparring partner, in answer to the second question. Jaymira nodded, then she walked away. Leslie noticed she had what looked like a gleeful expression on her face as she left the gym.
That night Sornan dropped by at the end of his work day, and found Leslie. “Hello Leslie. Jaymira told me that you do something called ‘mixed martial arts,’ and that you don’t have anyone to do it with. I’ve been thinking about taking up a physical sport to unwind with, at the end of my work day. What you do could be just the thing. Could you teach me? It would be so much more fun if you and I could do it together!”
She looked at him. “Okay.”
“What exactly is mixed martial arts?” Sornan asked.
“What the name implies,” Leslie replied. “You’re allowed to use any and all unarmed human fighting styles. Well, almost all of them. You can use any that are used in competition. You don’t have to master all of those styles, though I’ve known people who try to do just that. It’s more a matter of picking up strikes, blocks, kicks, takedowns, submission holds and so forth, that work for you.”
Sornan’s eyes shown with interest. “It’s like human arena fighting!”
“I’m not sure what that is,” Leslie said.
“Never mind. Arena fights can be deadly, which I hope mixed martial arts isn’t.”
Sornan started showing up at the end of his work day after that. Their first night, they worked out how they would practice. Sornan was immeasurably stronger and faster than Leslie. He would fight her using carefully controlled moves, then practice full speed against virtual reality loop Leslies that he created. Actual Leslie would watch closely and critique his moves.
For her part, Leslie could, for the first time ever, practice full speed against a living opponent. One who did everything just enough better to force her to improve.
For his part Sornan made some padding for himself. “Look,” Sornan told her, “I’ll recover from anything you do, but a stepping back kick to the sternum still hurts.”
Leslie thought about the expression she had seen on Jaymira’s face, after she learned about mixed martial arts. This wasn’t the first time they had that sort of encounter. She had started thinking to herself. “The Matchmaker Strikes Again,” whenever one of those little encounters happened.
She could still be mad at Sornan and Jaymira from time to time. Maybe not at them personally, but on general principles, for being Ks. At other times she hoped Jaymira the matchmaker was having as much effect on Sornan, as she was on her.
Her life had settled into a routine. To her surprise, she realized that she was happier than she had been for a very long time. She had almost forgotten about the threat of rehabilitation and counseling with Mia.
And then she heard the news. Her long-awaited counseling with Mia would be awaited longer. Korum, Mia, and her whole family were going to Krina!