Shield's Lady

composed of and how to deal with the threat it represented.” Gryph swallowed the last of his tea and set the mug down on the rock beside him. “They eventually found the answer.”
    “What was that answer?’
    He still couldn’t tell how she was taking any of this. It irritated him. It also made him wary. But he had gone too far now. He might as well finish. He got to his feet and strolled to the water’s edge and stood looking out across the canyon floor.
    “I told you I was as human as you are. But I am also different, Sariana.”
    “Tell me,” she invited softly.
    “The weapons that produce lightstorms are made of prisma crystal. The ships that contain the weapons are made of the same substance. My people named it prisma crystal because of its unique qualities. There is nothing else like it as far as we know. No one knows how, when or where it was created. But when we first arrived in this sector there were crystal ships full of weapons on nearly every planet. Some of the ships were huge. They were in orbit around the planets they protected. They reacted instantly to an alien ship attempting to land. It was those orbiting crystal ships that got most of the colonial star-ships.”
    “It was one of those orbiting ships that got The Serendipity .”
    Gryph nodded. “And it was a side effect of a lightstorm that crippled The Rendezvous. Your people didn’t get the full brunt of the explosion. The Serendipity did.”
    “But what about the Shields, Gryph? How did they happen to be here when The Serendipity arrived?”
    Gryph reached down and scooped up a handful of pebbles. He sent two or three skipping across the placid river. This next part was going to be the hardest.
    “My people were no slouches technologically. It didn’t take them long to discover that the weapons that created the lightstorms could be controlled by certain men whose minds could be tuned chemically to the resonating frequencies of prisma crystal. The minds of those men could be made to function as shields against the energy the weapons produced. They could turn that energy back on itself and neutralize the prisma ships and their weapons. But not just any mind could be tuned. Only certain men had the potential. But to make a man into a Shield, the scientists first had to change him in certain ways. Permanent ways.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    Gryph swung around to confront her. He knew he probably looked dangerous and aggressive and ready for battle in that moment. He couldn’t help it. He was feeling exactly that way. This was the crunch. She had to accept what he told her next. If she didn’t—He refused to let himself dwell on that. He wished he could read her mind right now. Truly read it.
    “They injected men who showed a strong potential for tuning into prisma with a chemical that slightly altered their genes. The result is a man who has problems taking certain drugs because they disrupt his system. The result is a man who can’t father a son unless he is fortunate enough to find a woman whose mind can resonate with his on at least a minimal level. He can’t father daughters at all. The result is a man who can tune into prisma crystal and reverse its natural vibrations so that it jams and is rendered harmless.”
    “And you’re one of those men.”
    “I’m one of them.” He drew a deep, steadying breath. “The scientists and medics on board my ancestors’ starship thought at first that the men they had altered genetically would be sterile. Obviously we aren’t or there wouldn’t be any of us left. But there aren’t many women with whom we can mate.”
    “And you think I’m one of those women.”
    “You are. You’re naturally empathic. You may be more than that. You may be slightly telepathic. I’m not sure and it doesn’t matter. The important part is that your mind can link with mine on a fundamental level. Using the prisma I was able to tune you into my own mental vibrations. You proved the tuning had worked the morning you opened my weapon kit. Only another mind resonating on the same frequency as my own could have done it.”
    “I’m no telepath, Gryph. I’ve never had a telepathic experience in my life.”
    He smiled faintly. “Until you met me. Our linking is beyond the normal parameters, Sariana.”
    She flushed. “If you’re talking about what happens between us when we make love—”
    “It isn’t just that. The link between us becomes strong in times of stress, too. How do you think