But first, Teresa flashback time: Gets to plant another tree

Seventeen years ago, deep underground:

Teresa was jogging around the perimeter of the dome, together with Laura. They were half way around and so about three kilometres out from the operations building and their living quarters. But these buildings were clearly visible in the distance, since the dome floor was so flat and level, and mostly empty. Right now, she was also listening to Laura.

"That's another mother dead because of us! How many does that make it so far? About fifty or so?" said Laura, anguish and stress clearly audible in her voice.

"Yeah, I know. But, we have been making progress! I mean, esp abilities are making such a huge difference to our society. Even though the oldest esp users are only ten or so, we have been able to achieve incredible feats - just look at the construction of the maglev tunnel. For that matter, just take a look right here - without esp abilities we couldn't have made this dome livable with a breathable atmosphere in such a short time."

"But, is it worthwhile?"

This argument again. Everybody has discussed this to death and we can never get any definitive conclusions.

I dunno.

"Well, consider that fact that we can support so many more people. What with the influx of immigrants and the baby boom, there are a lot more than fifty new children running around who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to be born at all. Surely they outweigh the deaths?" said Teresa.

Do they? Do they really? But, if we stop, we have to give up all of that. Surely, it is too important, we have to keep going!

"I don't know. In the middle of the night I lie awake and all of this gnaws at my soul. I sometimes wish that that damn thing would just stop working, would tell us we've had our quota and there's no more implantations left."

"Don't forget, we all have these doubts. We just need to keep discussing it at our meetings. I suppose. I'm sure your husband agrees with this."

"Ah, I guess so. But, actually, things aren't going all that well with Lenny and me."

I, and the others, could see that coming from the other side of the planet.

"I think that he just sees me as a means to an end. The feelings between us have practically collapsed."

Because he does just see you, and us, as a means to an end, you idiot. Sigh.

"Really, sometimes I think he just sees me as someone for the stuff in bed. In fact I'm almost sure he has cheated on me occasionally."

Only sometimes? Geez, It's actually pretty obvious to the rest of us. I mean, all of those 'meetings' he has in Verdant...

Really, this girl is so idealistic, it's painful.

"Ah, maybe you are both going through a stage? After all, relationships are always evolving, and you've been together about thirteen years or so now." said Teresa.

"Maybe. I've run enough, let's just cut across and return directly to our houses, OK?"

A week later, Teresa discovered just how depressed and out of joint Laura was with the total situation.

She was sitting at her computer terminal in her office, staring morosely at a spreadsheet of all of the parameters that they had used to produce esp implantations. Terrence had discovered a few patterns. For a start, the only number labels allowed in the top most bracket were the first ten prime numbers.

I bet you anything that the prime number naming scheme has no intrinsic meaning. It's just there to fuck with our minds.

At least we have some idea on what the first few number labels represent.

Indeed, it appeared that all esp abilities to do with reaction less drives, like gravitational levitation and ship pilots, were under the number 1 label.

And all magnetic and electrical related abilities were under number 3.

Number 5 appeared to cover long distance forces and shields of all kinds, although they were not really sure.

Number 7 seemed to cover all energy producing esp powers, apart from magnetic and electrical ones.

And number 2 was a miscellaneous grab bag of all the weird and wonderful effects. Most of them without any practical use, even if they did defy conventional scientific knowledge.

Sadly, that was the extent of their knowledge of the underlying patterns.

What do we do next? Select a known option, say ship pilot? Or try a minor variation on a known option? Or try for another wild card esp ability under 2? Or just roll the dice and pick some random combination?

The more random it is, the greater the chance of getting something useless. Or dangerous. Or even, just killing another fetus or even the mother.

But, it's the only way to explore the space of unknown possibilities. Who knows, maybe we'll get faster than light travel, or time travel, or mental telepathy or something.

I wonder what the full extent of the possibilities are. We don't even have any idea on how big the space of possible parameters is. We'll never be able to examine them all. Not to mention that fact that no two esp abilities are precisely the same, even with the same options.

She pushed herself away from her terminal and leant back to look at the ceiling.

It all seemed so simple and uncomplicated, back then.

At this point, there was an unexpected commotion. Sudden crackling bangs, followed by yelling, from somewhere outside her office. She jumped out of her chair, slammed the door open and rushed out into the corridor.

It's coming from the implantation room? What the hell... There's no mothers present at the moment, right?

At this point she was almost bowled over by Arnold, who came barreling down the corridor from his own office.

"What's going on?" he said.

There were more bangs. So he didn't bother waiting for an answer, but ran for the door to the implantation room, closely followed by Teresa. Bouncing off each other, then managed to get through the doorway.

There were glowing pink fire balls, zapping through the air and hitting the artifact. Which ignored them with supreme indifference. They were making the bangs. There was also Terrence, trying to fight off some person in overalls and a hood. Terrence got a fist into his face, and started hopping around, yelling and holding his nose and trying to stop it from bleeding.

Who the hell is that person firing the pink fireballs - wait, how can that be, the oldest espers are about twelve, oh shit...

"No Arnold, that's..." she started to shout.

Unfortunately it was too late, Arnold had taken out his handgun -

Why the fuck does he carry that around all the time?

And he shot the person. Who fell over and sprawled out on the floor.

"That's Laura!" she finished.

Too late, too late.

Both Teresa and Arnold could now see that right behind Laura had been a small girl, about eight years old. With the collapse of Laura, she had stop firing and was standing there, blank look on her face, staring at Laura on the ground.

"Oh fuck." said Arnold.

Teresa ran up to Laura, fell onto her knees and held Laura's hands. Laura was still alive; she managed to turn her head towards Teresa.

"Figures, of course the bloody thing will be immune to attacks by the esp powers it grants."

"Laura, why?" said Teresa, "Why?"

"It's making us all evil. Lenny must have loved me once, but all he can think of now is using it to consolidate his power. Everyone else here is being corrupted, step by step. One dead mother at a time, we're playing with something we don't understand and that Trickster who made it must be laughing all the way."

Laura's voice was bitter. It was also rapidly fading.

"It would have been better to have never discovered this..."

Then she died.

Later that night, they held a meeting. The mood was dark and somber. Lenny stared at his computer screen the whole time and did not look up at anybody.

"Nonetheless, do we all agree that we should still be going on with this?" he asked.

With a distinct lack of spirit, they mumbled their agreements.

"Did you get that girl, ah, Francesca, back to Verdant?"

"Yeah, I took her to the park she started from. And brought her a large chocolate ice cream. I suppose she seemed all right." said Teresa.

"What if she tells her parents?" said Arnold.

Big shrug from Lenny.

"Who knows? I suppose we should now keep track of her, just in case."

A very awkward silence, where nobody met anybody else’s eyes, until Teresa finally broke it.

"But still, even if it's for the greater good, we are still doing some evil..."

The others shifted in their seats, but they did not appear to want to make any comments. Finally-

"Well, yes, ah, but, without a doubt, we need to all morally own what we have done. And, well, we need to keep that in mind and try our hardest not to make things any worse than they are." said Lenny.

Nobody disputed this.

"We'll have to get the body to the main hospital with a suitable cover story-" said Prakash.

"She's got a bullet hole in her - it's just as well we have the chief pathologist in our pocket." said Arnold.

"When we get the ashes back I'll plant another tree." said Teresa.

After that, they called it a night.

----------------------------------------

Teylon: Starting the day poorly.

Teylon woke up grumpy and tired, after a horrible night of dreaming of burning skin and dreaming of commitments.

I'm not even sure which one is the worse. Can I cancel today?

He decided that the others would out vote him, so he got up and eventually presented himself to the living area.

So, everyone else is energetic and looking forward to their first full day of holidaying.

Why, even Devina looks happy, but mainly because Juniper is holding her hands and, by the looks of it, convincing her to join the others in a morning swimming session.

He forced himself to get into a better mood.

Francesca had taken it upon herself to arrange the day’s activities.

"Everyone! The two choices proposed so far are to either go swimming again, or to go to the fun fair and entertainment centre. What does everyone want?"

During the confusion of arranging and eating breakfast, the people present gradually sorted themselves into two groups. Adalace and Sarsaparilla decided they wanted to go to the fun fair, and did not seem to have any objections to Tamara and Francesca accompanying them. Teylon was undecided, while everyone else wanted to go swimming. There was much excitement as the swimmers rushed back to their rooms to change into their bathers and to get their towels.

Unlike the equivalent scene on Earth, no one bothered with sun block. Because, by design, the dome was only transparent to visible light and infrared. It was opaque to ultraviolet. Similarly there were no beach umbrellas involved. Mars was further away from the sun than Earth, so direct sunlight was just not very hot. Indeed, the sunlight was always dimmer than Earth, but even Teylon by now did not notice it. Everybody's vision adapted to the light level available. As far as they were concerned, it was a bright sunny day with a sunburn factor of zero.

"Uh-oh" said Sarawatch.

Teylon looked up, and saw Juniper re-entered the living area, and then suddenly stop. A look of fear and distaste appeared on her face. She wrapped her arms around her body as if to protect herself.

"No, no, I don't want to do that. That's horrible." she said.

Devina hurried to her side and hugged her.

"It's all right. It's all right."

But it didn't make any difference.

Oh shit, another incident.

Teylon got his act together and rushed over-

Teylon’s Soul Reading of: Juniper as a child

Juniper and her parents went to the local swimming pool. Her father held her as he jumped into the water, then her parents gently tossed her from one to the other, with Juniper laughing all the way.

Teylon’s Soul Reading of: Devina as a child

Devina, as a young girl before her father went crazy, was taken by her school group to local swimming spot on the river. There was much splashing about and she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Teylon:

A twin pack of soul readings?

At least I'm not getting another reading of her horrible abuse.

So I guess I'm to distract her?

He put his arms around both Devina and Juniper. Devina shrank only a little bit from his embrace.

"Ah, Devina, remember when you went to the river with the school group..." he said.

"Oh, yeah... right. Juniper, remember when you went swimming at-" said Devina.

"The pool" said Teylon, deftly cutting in at the right moment.

"That's right, at the pool with, ah, your parents?"

At this, Juniper promptly lost her fearful look. A moment later she put on a smile.

"That's right. Mum and dad played with me in the water, then we had a picnic and they let me have a whole ice cream to myself."

She smiled at Juniper and hugged her back. Teylon, on his part, decided it was best to withdraw. As he was doing so, Devina looked at him and smiled briefly, before turning her attention back to Juniper. Everyone else relaxed and went back to what they had been doing.

This is getting worse and worse.

Finally everyone was ready to go.

"Hey Teylon, what have you decided?" said Francesca.

"How about I go with you, swimming was never my forte anyway."

He looked at Juniper and Devina.

"That all right with you?"

"Sure! I have Devina with me." said Juniper.

----------------------------------------

 Adalace: It sucks when your dark past comes back and bites you.

Adalace and Sarsaparilla, hand in hand, wandered through the fun fair, trying to decide what they wanted to ride on. Tamara and Francesca were behind them and, trailing just a little, was Teylon taking up the rear.

I'm a little surprised that Teylon didn't go with Juniper. But, I suppose the three of them don't always have to be together, after all Sarsaparilla isn't with Kaydence.

And, what's this!

This was a roller coaster ride. There was a big sign out front saying that it beats every single roller coaster ride on Earth.

Well, naturally, Earth's gravity is three times higher than ours. Obviously we can produce much more elaborate roller coaster rides.

But it was the first time she had seen it, and it really did look impressive.

She managed to convince Sarsaparilla to join her, and Francesca managed to talk Tamara in to giving it a go.

Twenty minutes later, they were decanted from their safety harness, and slightly unsteadily, walked back to where Teylon was patiently waiting.

"Oh wow, that was just a little bit scary." said Sarsaparilla, as she hung off Adalace's arm to keep her balance.

"Rubbish! That was exciting!" said Francesca.

"Maybe I agree more with Sarsaparilla on this one." said Tamara.

Adalace opened her mouth to say something, but instead stopped dead in her tracks. A strangled gasp was all she managed to produce.

Puzzled by this, the others stopped and wondered what was going on.

Adalace was looking at a couple strolling along, woman in front, followed by a man holding a baby. Your typical young family, nothing of any note. At least, not normally.

Who is that bloke? Why does he look familiar..."

She stepped aside as the woman, who was busily talking into her phone and paying no attention to Adalace, walked past.

Adalace stared at the man. On realising that she was looking at him, he looked back, and then came to a halt, still holding the baby.

Oh shit. Oh shit, It’s him.

He jumped slightly and his face paled.

Oh shit, he recognises who I am.

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Adalace just kept on staring. He looked past her and saw the woman still walking away, still on her phone.

He gave one last look, a look of incipient horror, to Adalace, then stepped around her and briskly walked to catch up with the woman. Together they disappeared around the corner.

Oh shit, it really is him.

My rapist.

She sagged and knelt down on the ground.

"Adalace! What's wrong!" said Sarsaparilla, as she wasted no time in also getting down, and putting her arms around her.

The other three gathered around, looking concerned and puzzled.

Ten minutes later, they were sitting around a park bench.

"So, let me get this right, that bloke, happily married with a lovely wife and ever so cute baby, was the one that raped you back when you were a young teenager?"

"Yeah, that's right. I've already told Teylon and the teenagers all about him. I just never expected to ever meet him again."

"Hmm" said Francesca, folding her arms and looking displeased.

"Ah, but we don't want any violence, OK?" said Sarsaparilla, looking more than just a little bit worried.

An annoyed expression from Francesca.

"Of course. I'm not that crazy. I mean, there are his ever so lovely wife and adorable little baby to consider, also. But, nevertheless, Adalace is taking it badly."

Of course, I'm taking it badly. He's the dickhead that raped me! I've spent years fantasizing about smashing his head into the ground, or burning him where it would really hurt...

"Adalace! Please come back!" said Sarsaparilla, as she gently shook Adalace.

She came back to her currently reality, which was mostly being hugged by a very worried looking Sarsaparilla.

"Oh, OK, I'll promise I won't go over the deep end. But, but, Sarsa, is Esmeralda giving you any little hints about any judgements he might be due for?"

As if on cue, Sarsaparilla had a momentary blank look.

"Argh." she said. She continued.

"Well, my dear, it appears that there aren't going to be any judgements today. Unfortunately. But she has given me some interesting titbits of information."

She took a breath, and, while holding Adalace's hands, said:

"Yes, he really is your rapist. And, it appears that he only ever raped one girl. And, he has no intention of ever raping anyone again. In fact, he has come to bitterly regret raping you. Although, it took a few years for him to come to that conclusion. Oh, and also it is a genuine loving relationship between him and his wife. To whom, incidentally, he has never said anything about you."

"Well, I suppose that is good to know. At least no other girl suffered or will suffer like I did. I suppose."

Adalace clenched her fists and banged on the bench.

"But he still managed to hurt me so bad, back then! And I get to suffer and he gets a lovey dovey wife and a lovely cute little baby! It's so unfair! I want him to suffer too!"

A silence for a while, until Teylon spoke up.

"How about we think about this, and talk it over with the others tonight? You need a little bit of time to work out what you feel about this. And, in the meanwhile, Tamara, did you take notice of the three of them?"

"I certainly did. I now can track all three of them. Right now they are still together and about three hundred metres diagonally in front of us."

Not feeling quite as happy as they started, they continued to wander around, except that Tamara gave them a running account of the location of the man, thus allowing them to totally avoid him.

They all reconvened at their accommodations for lunch. After that there was a great diaspora; everyone wanted to do something different. Adalace was the first to get her preference in.

"I want to go off with Sarsaparilla by ourselves this afternoon; I hope that no one objects?"

I don't care if anyone does object, we're still going off by ourselves!

"That's fine by me - what about Maggie and Erasyl and Leroy and Kaydence have their own outing?" said Sarsaparilla.

Hee hee, she's making sure that Leroy isn't alone with Kaydence.

Leroy, looking as if he knew perfectly well what was going on, happily agreed, as did the others.

Juniper looked hopeful and suggested that she would really like to just stay on the beach. The Girls in Pink could not see any objection to that and they all agreed.

Sarawatch briefly glanced at Teylon before saying she did not object to the beach option either.

That's strange, is Teylon acting a bit, ah, reluctant to join in?

Eventually Teylon said that he needed to do some serious walking to catch up with his exercise quota, he would see them again at tea.

Let's just worry about me for the time being, I just need some alone time with Sasar.

It was now after tea, and Juniper was safely asleep. Everyone else gathered back into the living area, where Francesca was happy to explain what had happened earlier.

"Soooooo - what do you want to do?" asked Sarawatch.

Adalace, sitting right next to Sarsaparilla, was busily examining the fingernails of her left hand.

"Well, I don't want to do anything violent. Especially since it appears that the Esmeralda option is right out, which I suppose is good news for his wife and baby. But-"

Here she clenched her hand and banged the table again, making the salt and peppershakers rattle.

"I still want him to suffer something! Why should he get off scot free when I'm still suffering?"

"Well, why not tell is wife everything?" said Maggie.

"But then, while the wife will be upset at him, she will also associate some of that ill feeling to the messenger. I know it's unfair for Adalace to get the blame for telling her, but that is just simple psychology." said Sarawatch.

I don't want to listen to a voice of reason. But, shit, why should I get the blame for being the victim?

"Oh, I know." said Francesca, big smile on her face.

"Make him tell his wife about his sins. Make him squirm in fear about what his wife might do. After all, it is his perfect right, isn't it?"

Adalace and Sarsaparilla looked at each other, also with big smiles.

"Why, that sounds just the thing!" said Adalace.

Then they both switched off their smiles.

"But how do we get him to do that?" said Sarsaparilla. Who then had a momentarily blank expression.

Everyone else waited expectantly.

"Ah, right. I've just had a little extra information about our sleazy little rapist." she said.

She looked at Adalace, and made sure to hold her hands.

"Brace yourself, dear. You see, he meticulously planned the whole thing. He made a spreadsheet list of girls, and ranked them according to how attractive he found them, and how vulnerable they were, and he even scouted the site before hand to make sure it was suitable. And, of course, he has never told anyone anything about that."

Sleazy little rapist. Sleazy little shit. I should just go and...

"Ah, Adalace, you're crushing my hands. Again."

"Oh, right, sorry."

Sarsaparilla flexed her hands and took hold of Adalace's again.

"I think what that suggests is that you get him when he's not with his wife or baby, with a little help from Tamara. You then tell him to confess to his wife. Add in those little details, just to demonstrate that you have some, shall we say, special inside knowledge. And then you can tell him that you will know if he confesses, and if he doesn't, well, certain unpleasant things will occur."

Adalace nodded her head.

"That sounds like it could be a satisfactory course of action. Ah, but I couldn't possibly do that without backup."

"Oh, that's fine. We can all be there watching. I'm sure it will be intimidating to be stared at by a dozen people."

Most of those present seemed to be happy with this. However, Devina raised an objection.

"I really don't think that Juniper should be in on this."

In the subsequent discussion, Kaydence said that she was not sure about seeing it, either.

"I mean, do you always have such serious discussions every night?"

"No, of course not. The last couple have just been exceptional." said Sarsaparilla.

In the end, Devina volunteered to take Juniper and Kaydence to the local zoo.

"We'll just say that everyone else has already seen enough of zoo animals not to want to go again." she said.

In light of all this, suitable plans were made, and then they all retired to their separate bedrooms for the night.

Midmorning on the following day.

All he had been doing was going on an innocent errand to buy some tickets for this afternoon's boat ride.

The ocean in the Blue Ocean Dome wasn't just one contiguous body of water, it was divided up into several big sections and many smaller bays and lakes, all interconnected by channels and, in some cases, rivers that were kept running by pumps. As a result here was plenty of scope for a relaxing and fun scenic boat cruise, suitable for all of the family.

It looks like it wasn't going to be all that relaxing and fun for one particular father of one particular little family, this afternoon.

Because he was suddenly confronted by his victim. And she did not look all that cheerful.

"Awrk" he went, and looked around for an escape.

But he appeared to be surrounded by a ring of people. And none of them looked very pleased.

Adalace allowed herself a small smile of anticipation.

Now I can make him sweat for a little. Make him feel trapped. Pity I can't take it further, oh, never mind.

"Hello, rapist."

"Ah..."

"I'll have you realise that, back then, you really hurt me, you know? I mean, my parents had to take me to see a physiatrist a few times, I was so traumatised by what you did. The whole family translocated to a different dome because I was too scared to go back to that school, since I might meet you again. And when your family somehow managed to buy off the police, or whatever they did, what do you think that did to my feeling of security? Hmm? Even now I tremble in fear and rage if some dickhead walks past me in the street and makes one of those stupid meaningless passes at some random girl he had never met before and probably would never have the guts to say a proper hello to even if he did meet her at some social event."

"Well, ah, the fact is, ah, in fact I do regret, err, hurting you, back then, ah, that is, I really do, and, well, I never did that to anyone else and have no intention of doing so again, and, but, back then I was a stupid teenager, I freely admit, and, well, I'm married now with a wife and baby and another on the way, and, and, I, I sincerely apologise for all of that, but, well, perhaps we can get past that and move on..."

He didn't look two hopeful at this point. Mainly because he was watching Adalace's face, and he didn't need to be all that much of an empathic person to know that his bumbling apology wasn't going across all that well.

Especially when she started grinding her teeth in pure rage.

"What! Let bygones be bygones, you say?" she said, raising her voice with every word.

"Let you go back to your loving little wife and baby, with another on the way?"

"Your baby is a girl. Are you one day, when she is a young teenager, going to tell her that you raped a teenage girl just like her?"

"Ah, no?" he managed to say.

"No?"

She was going to continue, but at this point Sarsaparilla gave Adalace's hand a squeeze.

"Oh, right. Well, anyway, in actual fact, I am going to leave you to the loving embrace of your family."

He looked relieved. Unfortunately, for him, the feeling didn't last very long.

"But, in return, you're going to tell your loving wife all about it. How you raped me, how it was that your family was able to escape the legal consequences. You're going to tell her all about my suffering, and how I made you tell her. All of it, you're going to tell her all of it. Understand?"

"Err, what? I can't do that..."

"Oh yes you can. You're also going to tell her all about how you went and made an actual fucking spreadsheet of the possible victims, ranking them in terms of desirability and vulnerability and various other factors your perverted little mind thought up, and how I happened to be the one that scored the highest."

He went an extra shade paler.

"H-h-how did you know that? I never told anyone..."

"No, you didn't, did you? I just happen to have very special means of finding out such things. Very special."

She laughed a sinister evil laugh.

Hee hee - oh, actually I had better stop that, I'm sounding like an evil villain.

"Well, anyway, you will tell her, including the little fact about the spreadsheet. And I will know. And you will do this tonight. And, don't forget, I will know. And if you don't, well, perhaps you would like to meet my friends?"

She pointed to her left, where Francesca and Tamara were standing. Taking it as her cue, Francesca created a few little pink fireballs, which drifted slowly upwards before dissipating.

"These two are, hmm, sometimes not all that friendly. Particularly towards men. I wouldn't want to cross them."

Tamara glared at him with hate-filled eyes, while Francesca merely smiled.

I think Francesca's smile with the killing intent wins here.

Adalace pointed to her right.

"And these are my other friends. That old man looks congenial enough, well, I suppose the three or so men that he judged probably didn't think so. After all they did drop dead straight after. And this girl with the very angry look and the nails flying around her head, personally I wouldn't want to be the target of her wrath, either."

Adalace then indicated the girl standing right next to her.

"And this is my very special friend. Which means she has a very special reason to be really really angry at you, ah..."

Yes! Her eyes are glowing red. It sure is great having our very own Angel of Death. And scary.

"See her eyes? You really really don't want to know what might happen if she gets too angry."

He did see her eyes. He went even paler, he trembled, he tried to look away but was not able to.

"Yes! Yes! I'll tell my wife tonight. Yes! So please tell your fiend to stop looking at me like that!"

Adalace laughed again, then tugged at Sarsaparilla's hand.

The red glow in her eyes faded and the man was realised from their thrall.

But he was now under another curse. Looking around in panic, he avoided the others and ran off.

"I did it! I did it! I scared the shit out of that creepy slimly bastard rapist!" Adalace shouted.

Then her hilarity faded and she looked tired and haggard.

"Sarsa, can we just go back to my room and have, like, a rest?"

So the whole group moved back, with Adalace and Sarsaparilla in the lead and the others following at a respectable distance.

That night at their evening meal, everyone was so subdued and flat that even Juniper noticed. And came to a completely wrong conclusion.

"Ah, you are all so quiet... Did I just have another episode?"

She looked nervous and out of sorts as she asked this.

"No, no, certainly not!" said Devina, putting her hand on her arm. "Wait on; you are remembering your episodes now?"

"Oh, only bits and pieces. Only for the last few days. I kept quiet about it since everyone kept on getting so concerned about me, I didn't want to worry you anymore."

Everyone looked upset at this.

"Juniper, that's all right. We're here to listen to you and to look after you, so it's quite all right to tell us if you are having any problems.“ said Teylon.

Adalace frowned at this. Yeah, it is. For sure. But, I'm beginning to think that Teylon has a few problems himself which he is not talking about.

"Thank you." said Juniper

She leant against Devina, who extended her arm around her shoulders.

And lately Devina is getting pretty good at comforting Juniper.

"And what sort of things are you remembering?" said Devina.

"Horrible things. I was definitely raped, but it is all very vague. The memories are all in pieces - I'm glad I can't remember them clearly. When I have my episodes, ah, do I remember them more clearly?"

Devina opened her mouth to say something, but could not quite make any comment. So Teylon stepped in with a reassuring comment.

"Sometimes you do remember more, but then it all goes again, so it's all right."

Always ready to divert someone's attention from things he doesn't want them to think about. A consummate conman, indeed!

Big sigh from Juniper.

"I'm not sure I'm going all that well, am I? I so envy all of you lot, you're so grown up and mature and confident in yourself and know what you are doing and you never have to worry about nightmarish memories of being raped."

Adalace dropped her glass of fruit juice. In the weak Martian gravity, it was easily possible for a person to catch a slowly falling object that they had just fumbled. But this glass fell straight down, bounced on the floor and sprayed fruit juice all over Sarsaparilla's feet. Who ignored it, and concentrated on catching Adalace and making sure she did not fall out of her seat.

Nightmarish. Yeah, dreadful nightmarish memories.

"Adalace? What's wrong?" said Juniper.

A few minutes of reluctant explanation later.

"I'm sorry..." said Juniper, huddling in Devina's embrace and looking very sorry.

"It can't be helped." said Adalace. "We all have our own little problems."

And at precisely this point in time, Sarsaparilla had her own little 'episodes'. Everyone noticed.

"Well?" said Adalace.

"Well. I suppose that it is all to the good. The little shit went and confessed to his wife about his deplorable past. The full works, even including detail about his spreadsheet. And his wife didn't shirk the unpleasant news either, she cross examined him for the full gory details. Apparently, this night he's going to be sleeping on the couch in the living area of their rented accommodation."

Adalace nodded her head, but did not look all that happy.

"But Esmeralda says that they probably will remain together and be able to patch up things - after all she has a baby and another on the way and so is strongly motivated to do so."

"Oh, right. So he still gets to keep his wonderful little family."

"If it's any help, Esmeralda says that the dynamics of their relationship have now been irrevocably changed, up to now the man had been a bit of a patriarch. But that will no longer apply!"

"I guess that is, I dunno, an improvement. Or something."

"But, I still don't feel any better. All those years fantasising about revenge, and when it happens it doesn't do me any good. I still have all of those nightmarish memories, I'm going to keep on suffering, and now I can't even pretend that I will become better again when I finally get my revenge. And I certainly will never forgive him!"

In total misery, she looked down, and found herself looking at Sarsaparilla's socks. Pink they were, currently soaked in orange juice.

Pink's totally the wrong colour for her. Totally. I mean, she's not trying to be one of the Girls in Pink... Although I suppose with her newfound powers she just about qualifies...

There was the scraping of a chair being moved, then someone stepped in front of her and held her hands. She looked up, to see Teylon.

"Adalace, you really are beating yourself up a bit too much here. You are now in a much better position than you were before. You now have Sarsaparilla to comfort you, remember? Moreover, you have friends who all know your story and will do their best, within their ability, to help you. I guess you will always have the pain of being assaulted, no amount of revenge will ever change that, but, but, you should have some hope for your future. I'm sure things will get better for you."

His voice was kind and his expression sympathetic.

Yeah, I guess so. Especially the part about having Sarsaparilla.

"And, as for the forgiveness - well, this is just my personal opinion, but really, I don't think you even have the right to forgive him. How can you? He caused you extreme pain and turmoil, and he did it deliberately. You're going to be carrying the pain and emotional scars until your deathbed. So of course you can't forgive him. All you can do is to move on, to try to live your own life as you would like, and not be continually influenced by him. I suppose his wife could forgive him is she wants to, but, after all, she is not the one to directly receive the pain."

While Adalace was thinking this over, Teylon went back to his chair. He sat down heavily and she was surprised to see, momentarily, how haggard he looked. But, he recovered quickly and smiled at her.

Yeah, it can't be helped, we all have our own little problems.

An hour later, Adalace and Sarsaparilla were sitting on Adalace's bed, arms around each other.

"I think I had better keep you company tonight, again." said Sarsaparilla.

"That would be nice, although..."

"Yeah, yeah, it's still not time for anything interesting to happen!"

They both giggled.

"But, won't the others start to notice and think that something is happening?" said Adalace.

She sounded worried.

"Look, we shouldn't be concerned about what others think of us, we should be concentrating on just looking after ourselves!"

"I guess so..."

"Oh, yeah, but still, it could be embarrassing..."

"Well, we should tell them that nothing is happening." said Adalace, "Ah, but that is embarrassing in its own right."

"I mean, they don't have any right to know what stage our relationship is... but on the other hand they are our friends, well, friends and acquaintances, so I guess we do have some obligation to keep them informed, aww everything is so difficult!"

"You don't say." said Adalace, completely deadpan.

"Sorry." said Sarsaparilla, looking contrite.

Adalace gently nudged Sarsaparilla. "I'm only trying to kid you."

"Oh, right."

"Actually, why don't we tell Maggie, and ask her to tell Teylon, and then he can use his social skills to inform the others, when we are not around, in such a way as to not cause too much of a fuss?"

"That seems like a good idea."