Rachel grinned happily as she glanced around at John, Alyssa and Jade who sat with her on the sofas in the Officers' Lounge, feeling relaxed and at ease in their company. They were chatting with Jade about her initial experimentation with shape-shifting, and Rachel listened with fascination as the Nymph talked about researching different creatures, so she could try her hand at copying their exotic forms. Alyssa suddenly turned to look at the door to the lounge, a sparkling smile lighting up her beautiful face.
A few seconds later, Rachel could hear Calara and Dana's voices coming from the corridor, as they chattered excitedly about the successful upgrade of the Tactical Station. Her own face lit up with a broad grin, and her heart skipped a beat when the double doors opened, and the gorgeous redhead skipped into the room.
"Your designs are perfect!" Dana exclaimed to the Latina, as they glided over to join them. "You have nothing to worry about," she added encouragingly.
"I'll feel much happier after a field test though," Calara said with a frown, then leaned over the back of the sofa to give John a kiss. The brunette then sat down next to Alyssa, and the two of them smiled at each other lovingly.
Dana copied Calara, leaning over to give John an enthusiastic kiss, before standing and flashing a flirtatious smile Rachel's way. The redhead prowled over to join her, putting into practice all the advice Rachel had previously given, and she could feel herself flush with excitement at the look she shared with the auburn haired girl.
Dana sat next to her on the sofa, their legs brushing together tantalisingly as she sat and said teasingly, "Did you miss me?"
Rachel grinned as she nodded, and it was true; she did feel much better now that all of them were gathered together in a group. Being honest with herself though, she knew it was Dana she had missed most of all, and she sighed happily as she gazed at the bubbly girl's gloriously beautiful face. She looked up at the others self-consciously, and saw that they were smiling at the two of them affectionately.
She marvelled at their open acceptance of the budding relationship growing between her and Dana, and felt a surge of gratitude to these wonderful people once more, for welcoming her so warmly into their remarkable company. She had never dreamed she would ever find a person who would encourage her so enthusiastically to just be herself, and now here she was, living with five of them who seemed to love her all the more for it.
Dana nudged her gently with an elbow, disturbing her thoughts, and asked, "How's it going with the Psi-detector? Are you ready to conduct that test you mentioned?"
Rachel nodded eagerly and replied, "Definitely! As long as you guys don't mind helping out?"
They all nodded their willingness to assist, and spread out around the huge lounge, while taking pity on John, letting him relax on the sofa. Rachel proceeded to carefully study the ethereal white lines of light joining each girl with Alyssa, which she could clearly see through the holographic display on the Psi-detector. There was a recording function built into the futuristic looking ray-gun, and she pressed the corresponding buttons, which began recording everything she was seeing in the holo-display. When she had finished taking a recording from each of them, Dana hooked up the device to the large viewscreen near the sofas, so that they could view the results.
They noticed that equally intense lines of light seemed to be coming from Calara, Dana and Jade, although Jade's aura burned far brighter than those from the Terran girls. The luminescent line connecting Rachel and Alyssa was much dimmer, and seemed weaker somehow, fragile and tenuous. By contrast, the wide ethereal cable that connected John and Alyssa together was broad, strong and very bright indeed, although it still paled in comparison to the blindingly white aura coming from the blonde girl.
"You look like the girl from my dreams," John observed, stifling a yawn as he studied the radiant figure on the screen.
Alyssa grinned at him and teased him playfully, "I'm the girl of your dreams? How sweet!"
He chuckled as he said, "I'm too weary to banter with you, but yeah... you are."
She smiled happily at that, then walked over to sit on the sofa beside him, planting a tender kiss on his cheek.
Rachel meandered over to join them too, looking up at the screen in frustration. "I can't tell if the lines are just some kind of psychic tether, or if they represent some sort of energy flow," she muttered, as she stared intently at the ethereal lines on the screen.
"I think they're flows of energy," Dana guessed as she sat down next to the brunette. She carefully pried the Psi-detector out of Rachel's hands, who was staring transfixed at the images above her. "I'll need to make a few tweaks to be certain, and to enable us to see the direction the energy is travelling in."
After the redhead had made her modifications, they spread out again to check with the Psi-detector once more, so that Rachel could observe what was happening. She zoomed in closely to the pulsating streams of light, hitting record as she did so, and stared in fascination at the ebbing and flowing psychic energy.
"It seems to be going in both directions," she said cautiously, as she stared intently at the display. "Like a gentle stream that's flowing upstream and downstream at the same time."
Alyssa pondered this for a moment and then suggested, "Perhaps those represent our thoughts, travelling telepathically over the bond?"
Rachel glanced at her and nodded, as she replied, "It's a good theory. Whatever the real reason, there's definitely some kind of shared energy transfer occurring."
They gathered around to watch the recording once more, and agreed with Rachel's hypothesis. As the images changed from focusing on Dana, to Jade, to Alyssa, the brighter aura around the Nymph was immediately apparent, with the effect even more pronounced when Rachel had moved on to the blonde girl.
Dana pointed at the white aura surrounding her friend and said, "Those brighter auras must represent the psychic strength of the individual. It can't be a coincidence that Alyssa is the only one with really major powers, and hers is the brightest by miles."
Alyssa pondered this for a moment, and then suddenly blurted out, "The Bolon could see my aura!"
Dana looked at her with a bemused expression, and said, "Sorry, I don't follow."
"That alien that looked like a green gelatinous blob, at the Merchant District," the blonde explained with a smile. "They are Psychic, or can use telepathy at the very least. I had a telepathic chat with the one on Geniya station and he was lovely and friendly, just like the one I met at Port Heracles. Anyway, the first one called me 'Young one', and this second one called me 'Bright one', so I wonder if they can naturally see the aura of someone with psychic powers?..."
Rachel looked thoughtful and said, "So he called you that because your psychic aura is so bright?"
Alyssa nodded, "That's what I'm thinking. I've obviously grown a lot more powerful since my first encounter with a Bolon, months ago."
Dana then looked at John in confusion, and asked him, "But what about you? Alyssa said that the Ashanath were convinced you're psychic as well, but you've got no aura at all! Even me, Rachel, and Calara have a faint glow. You're as dark as the sofa!"
