The first person I killed was my old man. I ain’t sorry about it either, he was a damn bastard and deserved it. But I will say it’s true what they say, a little bit of you dies each time you take a life. Makes me wonder how much of me is left alive now. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like much.

  -Log C-15, Te’chik

  Maggie’s eyes snapped open with a gasp, and she yanked sensors off her frantically. She barely registered Kevin in the corner of the room, hyperventilating, barely saw Reshka’i’s body slumped in it’s nest-like chair, eyes open and silver blood dripping out of her mouth. She just knew she had to get out of here. Which meant she needed to get her family and Robin, preferably before anyone found out what had happened here.

  A small, cold part of her mind considered killing Kevin. It would be so easy to snap his neck, or make a dagger to slice open his throat. A wave of sickness and revulsion washed the thoughts away though, and she ran to the door. No, she didn’t want to kill anyone!

  “Sometimes you have to. But you’re right, he’s just a kid.” Te’chik said. And Maggie had the feeling the other woman was running beside her in the hall, back up the stairs and to her room.

  “He might tell someone before we can escape.” Maggie gasped, stumbling on one of the stairs before righting herself and continuing on. It wasn’t far, even in the big house.

  “It’s a risk we’ll have to take.”

  “Right.” Maggie pushed open the door to her room, grabbing her tablet, earning a surprised look from Robin.

  “Maggie? That was fast. Wait, are you alright?”

  “We have to go. Can you tell me where my family is?”

  Robin frowned, but saved his questions for later. Behind him the desk computer flashed a rainbow of colors, before a map appeared on the screen. “They’re in your mother’s room, on the first floor.”

  “Okay.” Maggie looked at the map, before turning and running out of the room, Robin’s chibi avatar floating along beside her.

  They didn’t talk, and Maggie barely remembered the hallways that flashed by, the few people she saw only looking at her oddly but not questioning why she was running through the building. She didn’t question her luck, only praying it would hold out. She knew Ux’thu wouldn’t let her leave, but what would he do if he found Reshka’i dead? She was sure the Silvarian woman was dead, she had killed her. Somehow she had killed her with her mind. A small bubble of hysterical laughter tried to escape, and she swallowed it down with a force that made it feel like she was swallowing a rock.

  As she burst into her mother’s room, three sets of eyes looked up: her mother, father and aunt. No Ux’thu, that was good. But her aunt was immediately at her side, alarm in her eyes. “Maggie? Sweetheart what’s happened?”

  “I killed Reshka’i.” The words spilled out before she could stop them, and her aunt’s eyes widened. “I killed Reshka’i, we have to go.”

  “How? Why?” Electra shook her head, taking Maggie’s hands in hers.

  “She was in my mind and it hurt, and I stabbed her in my mind with Te’chik’s dagger. I stabbed her and she’s dead and we have to go!”

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  “Who is Te’chik?” Theodrakis said.

  “Te’chik is a memory, or a ghost, or a Key Holder. She gave me the dagger and I killed Reshka’i we really should go now.”

  “Where is the dagger and Reshka’i now?” Theodrakis brushed a lock of hair out of Maggie’s face, frowning at the welts the sensors had left on her skin. Why weren’t they moving? They needed to get to a ship and go before they arrested her and threw her in space prison!

  “Is space prison any different than normal prison?” Te’chik asked doubtfully.

  “How am I supposed to know if space prison is different than normal prison? It’s still prison and I don’t want to go to prison!”

  “You’re not going to prison Maggie.” Nora rolled her wheelchair up to the little group, reaching up to take one of Maggie’s hands. “My dear, you’re shaking like a leaf!”

  “Because I killed Reshka’i and we have to go! Where’s your ship? We can use that.” Maggie looked around as if she would be able to see the ship from the room. But she couldn’t see anything even resembling a space ship.

  “Maggie, I need you to calm down. Where is Reshka’i?” Theodrakis looked Maggie in the eyes, his own calm and serious.

  The map she had glimpsed of the house rose up in her mind, and she mentally mapped out the route to the room she had left Reshka’i and Kevin in. She had never been able to do that before, not like this at least. She had never been that great at directions! “Down the hall, turn left, follow that hall to the end, turn right, third door down.”

  Theodrakis nodded. “The rest of you stay here, I’ll be right back.”

  “Maggie, come sit down dear.” Nora rolled her wheelchair over to a couch, patting the cushion gently. Electra followed, guiding Maggie. Why were they so calm? Why weren’t they all running? Didn’t they understand what had happened? She had told them what had happened!

  “We need to go!” Maggie insisted, but she sat down, her aunt sitting down next to her. She clutched the tablet to her chest, holding onto it for dear life.

  “Let Theo see what happened first, then we’ll see if we need to go right now. Do you know what happened Robin?” Nora kept her voice calm and even, a soft smile on her lips even though there was worry in her eyes.

  “She just came into her room saying that we needed to go.” Robin shook his head, his own face creased with worry. “She hadn’t even told me about killing anyone.”

  Nora nodded, and reached over to take one of Maggie’s hands, gently prying it from the tablet. “Tell me exactly what happened Maggie, slowly.”

  Maggie’s eyes darted to Nora, ice cold fingers curling around her hand. She took a deep breath, trying to force herself to let it out slowly with little success. “Reshka’i came to my room to pick me up for training with Kevin. We went to a room with no windows, and she hooked me and her up to a machine. Then we were in the snow by the ship, and I couldn’t lie to her, and I couldn’t let her tell people where the ship was. Where the weapon was. And then Te’chik was there, and she had a dagger. And I killed her with the dagger. Then I knew I had to run, so I woke up and Kevin was in the corner, and I ran to get Robin. Then to get you.”

  “What did the machine look like?” Nora asked, her voice still calm. Had she missed the fact that Maggie had killed someone? She didn’t seem at all concerned about it!

  “It was in a case, a big silver case, and had a lot of dials and switches, and all these cords that ended in bees. I mean, in beads. They were beads, not bees. They felt like bees. And she put the bees on me and her, and then we were in the snow.” Maggie looked down at one of the welts on her hand, staring at it. “She gave me something too, something to help with the pain.” Maggie added as an afterthought.

  Nora nodded, glancing at Electra. “It sounds like one of the machines she uses to induce a mindscape visit. But I don’t recall her ever attaching it to herself as well.”

  “With good reason apparently.” Theodrakis said from the doorway. His expression was grim, his back stiff. “She is dead, I’ve already sent a message to Ux’thu. It wasn’t your fault though Maggie, you can’t kill people with your mind, it simply isn’t possible. The most you can do is control computer systems.”

  “But I killed her! I stabbed her and when I woke up she was dead!” Maggie said, her voice rising.

  “You didn’t kill her.” Theodrakis dropped to one knee in front of her, staring up into her eyes. “But we are going to have a S’il Vala look at you to make sure you’re alright. You’ll like this S’il Vala, I promise, he’s just arrived on-world and is on his way here with a- with a friend.”

  “But I killed her, I remember killing her.” Maggie sobbed, tears running down her face. Why didn’t they believe her? Theodrakis had even said that the woman was dead! Nora wrapped Maggie in a hug, rocking her gently, awkwardly, from her wheelchair.

  “Hush dear, it’s alright. Just take slow breaths and everything is going to be alright.”