Your Touch

[Jack Ryder]

"Should do it." Jack said as he put his arm around her. "After what felt like my third lifetime... I came to the realization that this whole Iljuna thing... as a psionic its what connect us... we can control it. Master it. I wonder... if that is why the Borg tried so hard to assimilate psionic races to create their hive mind. There are forces that we can access that few can. Or maybe all can with the right push but whatever... you and I have a connection to it. I reached into a Brethren's mind, neural lobotomized him. Pushed a big chunk of brain out of place." he looked at his hand. "I didn't even have to touch him to do it. It was like... I thought of ending him and that was it." he sighed heavily. "Bloody killer headache for me too but I'll live. I felt like I can live through any pain now. I... also think I am starting to understand the nature of reality. Of time. Space. I never let myself go that far but... I think I understand how Dominus and Ophelia open their rifts."

[Kinsey Calhoun]

“You know I love it when you talk science.” Kinsey said as she traced as finger across his exposed chest and then under the shirt. It felt like a life time since the last time she’d touched him like this. They were getting ready for the Inara and Eli’s party. He always looked good in a button up shirt. That moment was almost the last moment she would have ever touched him like this again.

[Jack Ryder]

Jack smiled at her touch. "I love when you touch me like that. And before you worry... I think I gave our kids to the Prices. It's been so long in my mind that it's taking me a minute to get my wits back. I wasn't sure if Xenex was going to be the 'whipping boy' world again and Terra Alpha IS tactically useful in the long run, be foolish to trash it." he reached out with his hand and picked up his jacket from the floor. "Spent a minute in the early 1900s, Edwardian England fashion. Carly once told me she was jumped and mugged in that time and place when she was testing the Huntington's time drive. It felt good to see her again... but I needed a version of her that was still knowledge able in the kind of temporal physics I needed. It's how I was able to lock onto you so fast once I sensed you. In some ways... Ophelia did me a favor. All it took was chucking my old hangups. So.. I guess we work for them now eh?"

[Kinsey Calhoun]

“For now.” Kinsey said with a frown. “I wasn’t counting on you giving our children to the Prices. They were suppose to go to Keira and Zeke on Xenex. It’s the only reason I made the deal with them. But they are offering up the Brethren. I can’t refuse that.”

[Jack Ryder]

"I would have sent them there, but Xenex has enough to deal with and Isabella seemed to brighten up at the prospect." Jack shrugged his shoulders. "If dad did trust her with Gale and besides they actually sort of behave for her, because they know she can kick their asses and see through their bullshit." he thought or a moment. "So... they took us both... basically broke us down and are pointing us at the Brethren. And as a scientist I know when I'm being studied. Feels like you were as well. I am also getting the impression that Miss Ophelia is trying very much to stake her own claim. "

[Kinsey Calhoun]

“Of course she is.” Kinsey said and smirked. “She’s probably studying us right now.”

[Jack Ryder]

"Wouldn't shock me. I would do it in her place." Jack said as he looked around. "I still don't trust Dominus or Ophelia... especially after what he did to Solara, but if they're letting us live as semi-free. What was it that I saw in your mind... Ophelia and Dominus calling you a 'goddess?' Seems apt."

[Kinsey Calhoun]

“I like the way you say it.” She purred as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Dominus surprisingly has no interest in me. He’s curious but no desire to act on it.”

[Jack Ryder]

"He couldn't handle the real you." Jack said with a smile and leaned in closer to her. "I feel like... we're closer to Jackson and K'n'zy and yet... not. But I am starting to feel like the only ones we can count on are each other."

[Kinsey Calhoun]

“Is that so bad?” Kinsey inquired and kissed him roughly. “They only get in the way. You and me against the universe.”