A Bug's Life Read Online Free PDF Page B

their
telepaths. For all I knew, her hair floated because she was near a
telekinetic, or Dr. Wufren used her hair for practice. It was one
of those questions I’d never felt comfortable asking.
    “They’re telepathic,” she said softly. Tresia,
Dr. Wufren, and I nodded. “But not individually and not when
they’re awake. It only happens when they’re young and in these
chambers. The Birthing Sacs…amplify their talents.”
    “So does proximity to each other.”
    Roy shook his head. “How could that be and no
one knew about it?”
    “And why can’t we hear them –” Kyle stopped
speaking abruptly. “Oh.”
    “They’re talking to you?” Tresia asked
him.
    He nodded. “Kind of. Not like Ciarissa does.
It’s more like…I’m feeling what they want me to.”
    “Yes, that’s what it was like for me,” Tresia
said.
    “Me, too.”
    “I as well, but, Roy to answer your question,
why share a power that your young possess?” Dr. Wufren asked.
“Someone realized it, and the moment they did…”
    “They were slaughtered,” I finished. “I assume
the young Pillars who were in Birthing Sacs at the time were the
ones who sounded the alarm to leave Pilla in the first
place.”
    Ciarissa nodded. “There were some…Espens who
warned Pilla of the danger, but by the time that warning came, they
were already making preparations to leave their planet.”
    There was an Espen underground set up across
the galaxy – I’d learned that during our last mission. That they’d
warned Pilla made sense. That Pilla had already known should have
raised some questions, though.
    “If Espens knew the Pillar were aware of the
danger, how is it that this telepathic talent was not known by the
entire galaxy?” Doven asked.
    Ciarissa shook her head. “Espen’s leaders were
firmly on the path of neutrality. The assumption, encouraged by
Pillar leadership, by the way, was that they’d been warned by
someone else.”
    “They had been.” I pointed to the Birthing
Sac. “By their children. And I’m sure they lied because they knew
why the Diamante Families wanted to destroy them.”
    “But how did the Diamante families figure it
out?” Kyle asked. “If an Espen couldn’t tell the babies were
telepathic, how did a Diamante manage it?”
    “Probably the same way we did,” Tresia said.
“The Diamante Families visited all the worlds first, before they
destroyed them. Perhaps one or more of them felt emotionally
manipulated, made the same logical leaps that DeeDee, Fren, and I
did, and then reported back.”
    “By the time they were being warned, they
would have had their children remain…hidden,” Ciarissa
added.
    “But why would they have shown their power to
anyone even remotely connected to the Diamante Families?” Doven
asked.
    I shrugged. “They were children. Children are
curious. Or maybe they were afraid. Or excited. It doesn’t matter
why – it matters that there is a reason, a real reason, why the
Diamante Families are trying to destroy this race.”
    “Why, though?” Roy asked. “Based on the little
we know, they aren’t as powerful as an average Espen, and the
moment they leave their Birthing Sacs they have no more telepathic
power. Why hunt them down and leave Espen alone?”
    “Espen acquiesced,” Ciarissa said sadly. “In
order to preserve our world we took oaths and agreed to the
tele-restraints and more when we were off-planet.”
    “And the Pillar did not wish to capitulate to
evil,” Dr. Wufren said. “Any more than the Seraphin
did.”
    “And the result was the same.” I took a deep
breath and let it out slowly. “Roy, none of us have acted normally
since we spotted the wreckage. You, in particular.”
    “What do you mean? Because I wanted to get out
of here and keep our crew alive?”
    “Frankly, yes. And I think you resisted and
Willy was species-ist and you both angered me and Tresia enough
that we went against your orders because, as I said before, we were
all being tested. The