First Channel

"Almost everything is in here," Kadi replied in the dark.

"Everything that matters," said Rimon, holding her close. His breathing became irregular as they waited. The palms of his hands were damp on Kadi's arms, and he found himself trembling. I've forgotten what it's like to be in the dark and scared.

Presently, when it grew quiet, she said, "I think they've gone."

"No, we'd have heard or felt the hoofbeats."

"What's that?" asked Kadi, alarmed at a muffled roar outside.

Rimon pushed the door open a crack, and then slammed it shut again as smoke and a blast of scorching heat poured .through.

Kadi cried, "They're burning our house!" Smoke poured through their small ventilation slits. "Rimon, will the door burn through?"

"No—it's mostly mortared rock, remember?"

Kadi began to cough. Rimon pulled off his shirt and put it over their faces. "Get down on the floor," he said. "The smoke will rise."

But he, too, was seized by a fit of coughing and choking as they fell to the floor, clinging to one another, eyes smarting, each breath a fresh torture to their throats and lungs.

Kadi clung to Rimon, but he could do nothing but hold her. Is this why I brought her here, learned not to kill her, just to have her die of suffocation? He felt her go limp, unconscious. So much for the grand scheme to make friends with the Wild Gens. So much for all my grandiose schemes to change the world—when I can't even protect the woman I love.

Chapter Seven

FORT FREEDOM

Rimon became aware of pain, every breath hurting his nasal passages, his throat, and his chest. A nauseating smell permeated the air. He opened his eyes to blackness, tried again to zlin, and couldn't.

He sat up, shoving away something that clung to his face—the cloth of his shirt. There was a trickle of fresh air. Kadi! She lay heavily over his legs.

Memory returned with a jolt. "Kadi!" he said, his voice hoarse. She was limp, unresponsive. He threw the doors of their hiding place open, not caring if the Wild Gens were waiting outside. Nothing was there but sunshine, and the sour smell of burned wood.

Kadi moaned, drew a deep choking breath, and began to cough helplessly. Kneeling amidst the ruins of their house, he supported her until her coughing stopped, and she opened her streaming eyes to look around.

The dirt floor was still warm from the fire and scattered with the charred remains of walls and roof. A fine powdering of ash rose to choke them. The heavy foundation timbers were still smoldering as Rimon lifted Kadi across them and set her on her feet again. They walked to the little brook that supplied their water, drank, and washed. Then, in silence, they surveyed the ruin of their home.

The shadow of the stone chimney pointed across the newly sprouted field at the wide trail the Gen riders had churned through the wheat. To one side of the yard lay a mound of brown fur—Wolf.

Still saying nothing, Kadi walked over and knelt beside the pitiful body. Wolf had been her constant companion for the last three years, since she had raised him from an abandoned puppy. Rimon stood helplessly, watching Kadi's tears fall brightly onto the dusty fur.

Blinking back his own tears, he turned his eyes away from Kadi, lifted them to escape the sight of the burnt-out cabin, and saw Billy's grave. Billy trusted me. Del trusted me. And Kadi—And what did they all get for it?

Just then Kadi rose and put her arms around him, clinging to him for support. "What are we going to do, Rimon? You could have zli

"I'm sorry," he choked out, helpless to comfort her.

But it wasn't comfort she sought. "You've got to learn how to do it, Rimon!" she said angrily. "We can't be blind and deaf for three days out of every month." She shook him, demanding hysterically, "You've got to learn to zlin right after transfer. You've got to!"

In dizzying force, Kadi's frustration penetrated him, overpowering despite her depleted field. "I'm trying! I'm trying!"

And—suddenly—he could.

"Kadi!" he gasped in pain at the heat of her emotion. Weakly, he tried to thrust her away, to shield himself. "Kadi, I can zlin. Oh, stop it, Kadi—you're hurting me!"

Surprised, she gasped, "I'm sorry!" And then, all at once her nager ached with shame. "It wasn't your fault—"

"Never mind—Kadidid, you did it. It worked. I can zlin."

For a moment, he shut his eyes, zli

"No, Rimon, no," said Kadi, catching her breath. "They warned us, Rimon, not just you. Us. I could have insisted on moving. But I didn't. It's just as much my fault as it is yours."

Dizzily, Rimon realized he had again slipped into thinking of Kadi as a Gen, and therefore helpless, dependent. "I'm sorry___"

She glanced around at the field, the ruins. "Sorry isn't going to help. We'll build somewhere else. Come on, let's see what we can salvage."

Following her toward the house, Rimon saw her cough raggedly, stopping to gasp for breath. Then she doubled over, coughing. He caught her and eased her to the ground, groping his way into duoconsciousness. He zli

As she continued to gasp for breath, Rimon zli

His concentration was barely interrupted by the dim shock of discovering that he was actually zli

Perhaps, if he could fool her cells into thinking he was in need, he could induce the dulled cells to produce selyn again—to rejuvenate.

Suddenly, as she gasped again under his hands, he wished with all his heart for need, even attrition. With a shock, he found himself hyperconscious, unable to see or feel, though he felt no real need. The memory of hunting mode, that's all it was. But under his touch, her cells began to surge with life, healing themselves, clearing the swelling and congestion miraculously.

Before long, she was laughing with him as they bent to the chore of cleaning away the ruins.

They were burying Wolf up on the hillside, next to Billy, when Del rode up that afternoon. The Gen Raiders, he reported, had struck the out-Territory Simes working in the fields around their small community. Although there was not usually much amity between the two communities of Simes, the common enemy, Wild Gens, had drawn Simes from both sides of the creek to ward off the attack.

"I got in on the tail end of it," said Del. "The Raiders shot down three farmers and headed back across the border when other Simes started to the rescue: It was only when someone said they'd come from this direction that I realized you two might be in trouble."

"We were," said Rimon. "Fortunately, we had that hiding place."

Del looked down at the ashen ruin. "Well, you can't stay here anymore. This is the way the Gens always come through."

"That's why those Simes laughed at us for settling here," said Kadi.

"There's plenty of land over by my place," said Del. "I'll help you pack."

"The land around yours is no good for farming," said Rimon.

"Then why farm? Come in with me and raise horses." It was tempting, but Rimon shook his head stubbornly. "Food prices in town are outrageous and—Del, we, of all people, have got to be self-sufficient. We've also got to be able to support other people who join us. You know how important it is for Gens to eat well…"