Dominion Read Online Free Page A

intense babble of voices she’d encountered the first time had been immensely painful to hear, like suddenly finding oneself plugged without warning into the speakers at a particularly loud rock concert. Now those voices were silent, but Syl was aware of a great presence in the ship beyond, as though untold numbers of beings were holding their breath in the vessel’s depths.
    â€œThey’re listening,” she whispered.
    â€œCan they understand us?” asked Paul.
    Syl detected a flutter, a slight change in the nature of the silence, an involuntary mass response to Paul’s question.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhat do you feel from them, Syl? Hostility? Anger?”
    Carefully, Syl probed. She had never attempted anything like this before, or certainly not on this kind of scale. Yes, she had manipulated the consciousness of individuals, even their actions. In turn, others in the Nairene Sisterhood had tried to enter her mind, mostly unsuccessfully. This was different, yet even as she roamed, a part of her stood to one side, marveling at her own powers. They were growing so fast, yet she was beginning to understand that they had always been there, and were as much a part of her as the color of her eyes and the texture of her skin. Only now was she really exploring her own capacities, her own limits.
    If there were any limits.
    She pushed those thoughts away, and concentrated instead on what she was sensing. It was like being blind, and exploring only by touch, yet the touch brought to her shapes, and the shapes were sounds and feelings.
    â€œCuriosity,” she said.
    â€œAbout?”
    Syl turned to him, but barely saw him. He was a shadow Paul.
    â€œYou,” she said to him.
    â€œMe?”
    â€œThey’ve seen you before.”
    â€œThat’s not possible.”
    â€œYet it’s true.” She looked away from him. “There is also fear.”
    â€œOf what?”
    With a small squeal of alarm, Syl yanked her hand away from the hull, as though it had suddenly become hot to the touch. She smiled weakly at Meia, who had been watching quietly from the other side of their craft.
    â€œI think they just did to me what they did to Meia earlier,” she said.
    â€œThey’ll only tolerate a certain amount of interest,” said Meia.
    â€œYes.”
    With a twitch of her head, Meia indicated to Paul and Syl that they should follow her to the rear of the Nomad , where they could not be overheard by the others—or monitored by whatever else might be listening through the hull. Meia found a pen and paper, and began to write.
    You’re becoming stronger, Syl.
    Syl shrugged, but did not disagree.
    What you just did back there—did you learn it on the Marque?
    Syl found a pen of her own, and wrote beneath Meia’s question.
    No. I don’t think so. It’s new. I have a sense that it’s linked to the wormhole, but I can’t say why.
    You probably shouldn’t have used that power here.
    Why?
    Because now they know what you can do.
    Syl’s pen remained poised above the paper for a second or two before she wrote:
    Nobody knows what I can do.
    With that, she put down the pen and walked away.

CHAPTER 5
    S yl retreated to the rearmost seat in the main cabin, far away from the cockpit. She ignored Thula’s raised eyebrow—it was unusual for Paul to exclude him from any discussions, and he was clearly interested to know what might have been discussed—and Rizzo’s indifferent gaze. Steven and Alis were running a diagnostic check on the Nomad ’s systems in an effort to find out if the alien incursion had left any nasty bugs in the ship’s computer, so they were otherwise distracted.
    The unknown ship hung before them. Syl was tempted to try to explore it again. It was as if a greater consciousness was willing her on, and she understood that something on the other vessel was as curious about her as she and the others were about it. But