Chapter 24

Sarah shook as she continued to take in just how battered Ben was. Still he was trying to be strong, trying to deal with the problems they faced.

"What are we going to do? You're in no state to do anything and he's taken your nuggets away," Sarah moaned.

"He hasn't taken all of the nuggets. You've still got yours and Hannah has the one I gave her too. You're going to have to be strong for me now my love."

"What is it? What do you want me to do?" asked Sarah.

Having felt completely helpless all day long, the prospect of being useful had Sarah eager to hear what Ben was planning.

"You're going to have to use your nugget to control Hannah. I'm too weak to do it. You're going to have to control her and get her to bring us my pouch. If we're going to get out of here I need the nuggets."

Sarah was eager to do something to help, but the thought of controlling her friend's mind made her shudder. Ben could see the difficulty she was having with his suggestion.

"There's no other way, my love. You have to do this. Hannah won't be harmed in any way. Think about it, she's stood by and done nothing while her twin has beaten me all day. You asked her to help and she ignored you. Don't you think controlling her mind for a few minutes is a small thing compared to that?"

It wasn't Ben's words, but rather the state of his face that convinced her that she would do what he was asking.

"I'll do it," she sighed.

"You'll have to wait until everyone's asleep because Adam will be watching."

Sarah nervously fingered the little pouch hanging at her waist and then busied herself preparing something for Ben to eat. She managed to spoon some broth into his mouth but it wasn't easy. Once Ben was cleaned up again, she covered him over with hides and crawled in beside him.

Ben could sense her preparing herself for what she had to do and tried to encourage her.

"It's not that difficult, honestly. The trick is to be gentle in how you do it, subtle. Hannah won't come to any harm, I promise."

"I just hate the idea of taking control of another person," said Sarah. "It just seems so wrong."

"It's either that or Adam kills me and perhaps even you. Which would you prefer?"

"It's okay, I'm going to do it so you can stop trying to persuade me. I know I have to do it, for us, for the children."

The water twins lay together watching the fire burning down for several hours before Ben thought it was late enough to try to do what had to be done.

"Okay, I think we've waited long enough. Why don't you try it?" he said.

Sarah didn't reply, but Ben could feel her hands moving under the hides and he knew she was feeling for her pouch.

For Sarah, the experience of linking with others had always been a pleasant one in the past. Now she reached out for her friend Hannah, but the feeling was entirely different. She could sense that Hannah was asleep and not yet deeply enough for her to be dreaming.

"Hannah, Hannah. You know that what Adam is doing is wrong. It hurts you to see Ben being beaten. You want to do something to take away Ben's pain and show your friend Sarah that you still care."

Sarah paused and then broke the link.

"How do I know if it's working?" she whispered to Ben.

"You can't tell until the person does what it is you're trying to get them to do," he replied.

"Okay, I'll try again."

Sarah forged the link to Hannah once more and began repeating her suggestions.

"Hannah, Adam has gone too far. He's beaten Ben all day and almost killed him. Sarah has never been so frightened. You have to do something to make up for what Adam has done. You have to comfort Sarah and try to make Ben feel better too. You feel that it's important to take Ben's pouch to him — that would make them both feel better. You want to take the pouch to him — that will show that you care about them both and that you don't agree with what Adam is doing."

The same suggestions were repeated over and over and eventually Sarah sensed that Hannah was becoming restless. That gave her some hope and she kept at it for over two hours, stressing how important it was for Hannah to bring the pouch to Ben, emphasising how much better Hannah would feel about herself if she did so.

Hannah's tossing and turning increased until at last she awoke and sat up. For some reason she felt it was really important to take Ben's pouch to him. Adam's actions had left her feeling ashamed and guilty and she couldn't get the picture of Sarah's tear stained face out of her mind. Somehow she felt that taking Ben his pouch would in some small way take some of her guilt away.

Looking round the cave in the dim light coming from what remained of the fire, she saw the little pouch just sitting beside Adam's belt. She rose quickly and snatched it up, giving the sleeping Adam a glance as she tip-toed from the cave.

"She's coming," Sarah whispered.

"Well done, my love, well done," Ben replied.

They waited what seemed a long time for Hannah to find her way to their cave, but eventually they could hear the sounds of her approaching and then saw her appear in the firelight.

"Sarah? Ben? Are you awake?" Hannah whispered.

"We both are, what is it?" Sarah answered.

Hannah came further into the cave and then crossed to kneel beside Sarah. She took one look at Ben's battered face and her eyes dropped with the shame of what her twin had done.

"I'm so sorry I didn't try to stop him when you asked. I should have done, but all I could think of was Lillian. I'm so sorry, please forgive me. I'll try to stop him tomorrow, but I'm not sure anybody can now. Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

Sarah sat up and hugged the other girl to show that she understood. They shared some tears together before Hannah pulled away.

"I brought this. I know it's only a small thing, but I thought it might make you feel better," she said as she handed the pouch over to Ben.

"Thanks," was all he said by way of reply.

"I should get back before Adam notices I'm gone," said Hannah.

"Wait, aren't you forgetting something?" Sarah asked.

"What?"

"You still have the nugget that Ben gave you. You should give that back too," said Sarah.

"No. Leave it with her," said Ben.

Both girls looked at Ben — Hannah only for a second — and he nodded to re-inforce the decision he had made. Sarah gave Hannah one final hug and then the girl stood and walked quickly from the cave.

"Why leave her with one of the nuggets?" Sarah asked.

"It will all make sense in a few hours. Right now we've got a lot to do before daylight," said Ben.

Already he was feeling better and stronger now that he had the pouch full of metal nuggets back in his hand. His pain receded and when he closed his eyes and concentrated, the plastic tie around his wrists split and he was free.

"What are we going to do now?" Sarah asked.

"Close your eyes and don't open them until I tell you."

Ben kept his own eyes closed and watched his twin through his mental view of the cave. When he saw that she had her eyes closed, he quickly picked her up and zoomed her out of the cave and almost instantly across the miles to Aetherkraal.

Already the drones had finished the foundations for the big house he had programmed them to build and some of the timbers for the walls were also in place. Once he gently settled Sarah onto the timber floor he told her to open her eyes.

Sarah quickly realised that this time she was physically somewhere else and not simply linked to Ben's mental view of the world. It was dark so she couldn't see very much, but there was sufficient light from the planet's moon for her to see that she was sitting in the beginnings of a house.

"Where am I?" she asked.

There were a few moments of concern when there was no reply to her question, but then she saw something floating down from the sky towards her. Sarah gasped when she saw that the 'something' was actually Kirsty and Simon still wrapped up in their furs. They landed gently beside her and she guessed that Ben was already back getting the smaller twins. Her guess was proved correct moments later when she saw them being lowered to lie beside their older brother and sister.

"Ben? Ben? Where are we?" she asked again now, confident that he would reply this time.

"You're at Aetherkraal. If we have to leave the group and start afresh somewhere, I couldn't think of a better place."

Sarah heard the words inside her head and knew that Ben was still physically back in their cave. A sudden worry had her heart racing, as she realised he might not be able to transport himself in the same way he had carried her and the children.

"Are we really at Aetherkraal? How are you going to get here?"she sent her thoughts.

"I thought I would just walk," said Ben, appearing right in front of her.

"Ben! How did you do that?" she asked, jumping to her feet to hug him.

"I just concentrated on being here and took a step forward. That's all there was to it."

"Is this really Aether ... aaaiiieeee!"

Sarah's question was cut short when she noticed movement around them in the dark and screamed.

"Sshhh. You'll wake the children," whispered Ben.

"But there's something out there," Sarah whimpered.

"Don't worry. It's only the drones, they don't need to sleep and they don't need daylight to work in. They seem to be doing a fine job considering I only started them last night. And yes, this really is Aetherkraal."

"That's why you left Hannah with the nugget, because we were all leaving the group?"

"Yeah, I thought it might be helpful to keep some kind of link that you could use on your own — who knows when women need to talk to other women!"

"That was very sensitive of you and very considerate, thank you."

Sarah emphasised her thanks by giving her twin a gentle kiss — his battered face probably wasn't able to take anything firmer.

"When did you come up with the idea of the drones — I can't believe none of us thought of that earlier?"

"When we were walking back to the cave the other day."

"Oh, I remember, you did have that silly look on your face that usually means you're up to something," Sarah giggled.

"I suggested to David that he might use them too so it's only the group that's missing out. For some reason I didn't want to share my idea with Adam once I knew what he was planning."

"Am I imagining things or is it much warmer here?" Sarah asked.

"You're right, it's much warmer. In fact, it might be a good idea to take the furs off of the children or they'll bake. Remember that this continent is straddling the equator so the average temperatures are much higher. I doubt very much that we'll ever see snow here."