"Killa, you do know what you're doing, don't you?"
"No, but Donalla thinks that thrall will help her get past the barriers I can't seem to lower."
He sighed deeply and threw his hands out in capitulation."If you could come back with some black…" He set his lips firmly, hearing the desperation in his own voice.
He propelled himself out of his chair, and while Killashandra contacted the Hangar and arranged for his sled to be readied and stocked, he demonstrated to Donalla the various ways in which thrall could be broken.
"I didn't realize thrall was that dangerous," Donalla said, her eyes wide with the newly acquired information."And you let Killashandra stay thralled to green…"
"That was a most unusual situation.Killa needed the overdose of crystal to counteract deprivation.I would never have permitted her to thrall to black-it's far harder to break out of.And that's why I don't like just the pair of you going."
"Well, if you want another singer along to see where we've cut black…" Killa teased.
"There isn't another singer in or you can believe I'd send someone."
"Who's that dork at Trag's desk then?"
"Certainly not yet a singer," Lars said sarcastically, "but she does have business management experience and she's capable of organizing pencil files and auditing accounts."
Killa smiled, relieved by his disparagement of the very pretty girl's abilities.
"Now, if you can't break thrall by any of the methods I've demonstrated, you club her behind the ear and haul her bodily out of the Ranges.You are checked out on sleds, aren't you?"
"You know we all are, Lars," Donalla said, giving him an almost condescending smile."I've even driven some of the worksleds when there was excessive storm damage to patch up."Lars nodded acceptance of her competence."But I'm not charmed by the idea of bludgeoning Killashandra Ree into submission.I'll bring along something soothing."
"You have to be careful, though."Lars held up a warning hand."A singer in thrall can become violent.Strap her down in the sled if it comes to that."
"Now that you've given her the worst-case scenario, how else can you scare her out of this attempt?"Killa asked in some disgust.She turned to Donalla."Anyone would think he didn't want this to succeed.I've never slugged him yet.Though I might start…" And she lifted her fist in mock anger.
He raised both arms and pretended to cringe from her blow."Just in case," he added, his manner lighter and a sparkle in his blue eyes, "have you any idea where you're going?"
She grinned at him."You need black.So, since you have already bared the location of your latest black site to Donalla, I thought you wouldn't mind entrusting it to me, your partner."
His smile deepened."Here."He thrust a slip of paper at her."When you're on course, eat it!"
"You are all heart, Lars Dahl," Killa said, and marched Donalla out of the office and to the lift.
In the descending car, Killa was amused by the way Donalla eyed her.
"Sorry?"
"Not a bit," Donalla said, scowling sternly; then her expression altered to anxiety."It's just I hadn't realized the possible complications.
Killa laughed."You don't, unless you've had to work with 'em.Lars shouldn't have scared you like that."
"He doesn't want to lose you again, Killa," Donalla said, her fine eyes intent."He idolizes you."
"He has an odd way of showing it at times," Killa replied, trying for a casual acceptance to conceal her reaction to Donalla's appraisal.
"Sometimes that's because it's too important to admit, even to himself."
The intensity of those quiet words rang in Killa's mind.Lars had so often told her he loved her, but usually in a sort of offhand manner, as if he didn't really mean it, or was astonished by blurting out the declaration.Always his hands and eyes had conveyed more than he actually said aloud.Even when she was denying him, she couldn't genuinely deny her love for him, just her dependence on the affection of any other human being.
The lift door opened and, taking a deep breath, she led the way out to the Hangar and the double sled waiting and ready.
As there was no other sled in sight, Killa set the course directly toward the coordinates Lars had given her and, making a little display of it, dutifully chewed and swallowed the note.Donalla gave her a nervous smile.Killa found the fidgeting of the usually self-confident medic amusing.Well, her self-confidence was only to be expected-in an infirmary.But now she was in the singer's bailiwick, and the Ranges were awesome.No question of that.
When Donalla relaxed enough to watch the spectacular scenery streaming by, Killa made something hot to drink and broke out some munchables.They hadn't had any noon meal, and she wanted something in her belly if she was to let herself get thralled.
There was one problem, Killa mused, now that she focused her mind on the actual process.She never remembered a thing from any period in which she had been thralled.It was all a blank from the moment she lifted the crystal free to the moment thrall lifted.Of course, Donalla had carefully explained that one didn't remember the span of a hypnotic incident either.Well, Killa thought with a shrug, finishing the last of her ration bar, it was worth a try!Lars needed the boost a success would give him.
Between sessions with Donalla, Killa had done some surreptitious poking in general files, from Recruitment to Deliveries, all readily accessible information.There certainly had been a drop in the numbers of applicants to the Guild.There had only been six in the last bunch to be processed, and a mere ninety signing up for Guild membership over the last decade.She checked back over four decades, when the totals had been up to the two hundred mark.More singers were rated "inactive" than active on the Roster.No deaths listed in the past twenty years.Killa's thoughts were grim.The cost of caring for singers was higher than the budgets for Research and Development, yet profits were dwindling.Lars had been all too correct in saying the Guild was in serious trouble.She really should have brought in… she frowned, for the name escaped her.She had found someone, hadn't she?With the perfect pitch required.Could that sort of ability be on the wane in the modern world?It was a trick of the ear and the mind.
Gradually as the state of affairs of the Guild became obvious, her initial repugnance over invading singers' damaged minds to find the location of their sites began to subside.At Donalla's suggestion, she sat in on a hypnotic session with a man whose symbiont was visibly failing him.He was gnarled and wrinkled with age, joints thick with calcium deposits, veins engorged on fleshless limbs and digits.He seemed content, though, wrapped in a warm, soft blanket and smelling of a recent bath.There hadn't been much intelligence in the dull, deeply receding eyes, despite the fact that they were following the movement of the random fractals ever-shifting on the large screen in the corner of his room.He was an improvement over some of the living corpses Killa had seen on her way to his small single room.
"I chose Rimbol, because at least he's tracking what's on the screen," Donalla said."I've had some luck in restimulating one or two of the least damaged singers.I've just turned off the music in here, but we've found he does respond to aural as well as visual stimuli.I think whatever we do to try to reach their brains is better than just letting these poor hulks have nothing to see and hear.Rimbol's more receptive to hypnotism than some of the others."
She held up the prism and turned Rimbol's head slightly so that the crystal was on a level with his eyes.She twisted the chain so that the prism caught the light, and immediately Rimbol's eyes were captured.
"Watch the prism, Rimbol, watch the lovely colors, shifting and changing.Your eyes are getting heavy, you can't hold them open because your lids are so very heavy and you're falling asleep, gently falling asleep… " Donalla pitched her pleasant contralto into a slow rhythmic pattern, and Rimbol's eyes did flicker and close, and a sigh escaped his lips.