Incident at Saris

Chapter Seven

What the!" said Rik with a hiss "Ren! Sera!" momentarily blinded, Rik fell to the deck as an oddly familiar feeling went right through his entire being, he hissed and collapsed fully onto the deck holding his ears, the lights went out, flickered, went on again, went off again and then flicked back on, on emergency settings, then went back off, a klaxon went off, the ship shook and Rik blacked out.
"Restoring stabilisers and power, and assuming autopilot" came Sera's calm voice.
Kimi heard this foggily as she was the first to recover and yelled: " what the blazes just happened!!!!"
The lights started to come back on slowly, but before the ship was fully illuminated, she became aware of a low, soft humming that made her want to cry, it made her feel and think of sadness and loss, and she realised that when the lights came back on that the noise was coming from Ren, he was sitting at his panel, humming, and he was crying while humming, that low, soft, sad dirge.
'His power is his voice' Rik had said she remembered and now she could see that and what he had meant, Kayla lay unconscious on the deck, and Rik hissing was on his knees, holding his ears, obviously struggling to get up, River just sat there looking simply stunned.
"Sera?" Kimmie asked, " what the hell just happened?"
"Checking to see," said Sera's voice "see to Kayla".
"What is wrong with everyone?" Kimi asked, then going to the girl's side.
"Yes," River said, coming out of what had stunned her "what was that?"
"Give the Jedaini some moments; they need it as they all felt it" Sera advised, then, and appeared taking both River and Kimi by surprise as an ethereal looking woman of unknown race suddenly appeared, she looked human but not fully, and her skin glowed with lights underneath it.
"Wh...what!" said Kimi then she realised "you're a hologram or something aren't you? But you are unlike any Hologram I have ever seen! You're well more real!"
"That is because I'm not totally a hologram," the woman said.
River said in sudden insight "you're the Ship!"
The woman nodded "I'm Sera," and then went to check both Rik and Ren and then Kayla "yes" she replied.
"But what just happened?" asked Kimmie.
River said, "I don't know what that was!"
"Psionic Backlash," said Sera " something happened down on the planet an explosion or something on one of the mining platforms I think and they all....".
"They all died." Said Rik then getting to his feet unsteadily "I swear I have never felt anything like that! I have lost patients, but geez!" he went to Kayla's side "is she ok?"
"Probably the first time she has ever felt anything like that," said Sera "it was too much".
"Is she going to be ok?" Rik asked concerned.
"Yes," said Sera " she's just fainted, see she is waking up".
Rik nodded " she's a Healer, so she felt it too, poor kid.....I will get Ren to teach her to shield better; he's better at teaching that, than I would be, speaking of Ren...".
"See to your Counterpart," said Sera " he probably needs you more right now than Kayla does".
Rik nodded and went to Ren who was still humming that sad little dirge "Ssh Ren" he said softly, feeling them sync and he took Ren's hands "you'll have us all crying otherwise!"
"Rik?" Ren said looking up.
"Yeah, I'm here," said Rik " Ssh".
"They all DIED Rik!" said Ren "the mining platform, something blew it up! All those lives lost! Just like that! It was like....".
" Massive Psionic backlash, a whole pile of voices called out at once" Rik finished "we have lost patients before but not like that! Kayla fainted! It hurt me! And well I can't imagine what the experience must have been like for you! No wonder you were singing! A sad song" he hugged Ren " Ssh!" as he felt Ren shaking a little.
"What is it with those two?" Kimmi asked.
River looked at them and sudden insight hit her "their linked, aren't they? Much closer than even twins are!"
"It is a little more than that" Sera said, " and no, they aren't lovers".
Kimmie said, "they already confirmed that they said that they were brothers..."
"Twins!" River corrected.
"They don't look much alike apart from shared colouring, but twins don't always do," said Kimmi "but they're like two separate races it seems".
"They actually do," said River "you can see it, it's just that one is more rounded and well more Saurian and the other has more Avian qualities, but you can see it in their faces."
"Rik and Ren are you alright?" Sera asked going over to the counterparts.
"Ren's distressed," said Rik "but he'll be ok, how is Kayla?"
"She's awake and seems to have suffered no harm, she's complaining of a headache though and might need some sleep, she is not concussed or anything" Sera said.
Rik nodded "if she wants to sleep let her, she is GT, and even when concussed it is the best thing to let them sleep, unlike humans, they tend to go into this healing trance or something, like Ren and I sometimes do".
Sera said, " I forgot that you are a Doctor Rik".
"Ren too, we both are," he said, " we were a Healer, but if GT are hurt in any way it is best to let them sleep, I have treated many a Gorta-Trellian in my time, so yes let her sleep".
He then went over to Kayla to examine her himself and made her giggle a little, "that tickles!" she said as Rik looked into her eyes and felt around her head.
Rik nodded and said "you don't seem concussed," he said, "but you're got a lump forming here Kayla, you ok?"
Kayla said "yes Master Rik, what was that though?" and she also noticed for the first time that Rik's eyes weren't reptilian despite his appearance and that they were a nice blue.
"Psionic backlash" he replied " not exactly the most pleasant thing to experience on your first day out as our Apprentice! Especially unprepared for it as we all were, but you are a Healer like we are, so, you will experience such things, and you will learn in time to get used to it and prepare yourself better for it " he paused "I will get Ren to teach you that, teach you some tricks in shielding, because he is far better at it than I, It is a good thing to have, once he and you are both feeling better. You fainted because it took you completely by surprise, it affected Ren and I too, but neither of us fainted, we're a little more used to it and the shielding helps" he paused "Ren's better at it than I'm though, so I will get him to teach you that, but you don't seem concussed, so have a little nap if you want and I will get Ren to meditate a bit, but I probably need to at some point as well.... That friggin hurt! No wonder Ren was singing!"
"Is Master Ren ok?" she asked concerned.
"Yes," he said, " he will be".
She nodded " his song it was so sad and yet so beautiful!"
"Ren's power Is his voice," said Rik " and has nothing whatsoever to do with being Jadaini, Ren, he chants and hums a fair bit and sings, get used to it, it is part of who he is, and part of who we both were. And due to that, it can even affect ME sometimes! But you know what? I wouldn't have him any other way! Kayla go have a lie-down, we will go to the station and see what we can do it's probably a medical emergency and we are Doctors".
"The station is still there, isn't it?" Kimmie asked.
"Yes, it is, it wasn't the station that blew up it was one of the mining platforms," said Ren " Mining platform One I think," he turned to River than " River are you ok?"
"I FELT that!" River said as Ren examined her.
"We all did," said Ren "your Way sensitive River and fairly strong in it" he paused steadying himself a little "I'll teach you how to shield as well," he said, "you may not be a full Adept but you are a Sensitive" he looked out of the window " we are going down to the station, there is probably a current medical emergency and two medically trained Adept Knights will probably be appreciated!" he got back into the pilots seat "transfer control to me Sera" he pulled on the interface and pushed some buttons, Ren loved to pilot a ship and he was good at it, and he was probably right in saying that he was more used to flying in airspace traffic than Rik was driving a ship other than a Starfighter, seeing Ren had more experience flying their shuttle or flying a medical ship, Rik was better at flying a starfighter.
"Ren," said Rik " I can take over if you want to meditate or something".
Ren said "Rik I'm fine, I'll meditate later and it wouldn't hurt you either! We'll do it together".
"You'll give yourself more marks" Rik teased.
"Can't be helped," Ren said.
"Your right though, about the meditation, I probably need to as well," said Rik he wasn't above meditating " my head is still hurting".
Ren said, "I will take us down, you rest a little".
Rik said, " well, ok, sure you can manage though?"
Ren nodded " I'm fine Rik ".
Rik said, " but you were singing that usually means your distressed".
Ren said, "I was, but we have a medical emergency on our hands it seems".
"Ok, how do you know?"
"I can feel it," said Ren " we will not be unappreciated" and angled the ship downwards "hold on" he advised.