“Ambros and Damon,” VelShaan said.
“Indeed. Damon is only a year younger than Ronan, but he recognized that he was being left behind. He knew that Achilles was the only son gifted with telepathic abilities.”
“He resented Ronan,” Cynara said.
“Ronan was considered quite a prodigy, and his parents wanted him exposed to shaauri culture at an early age. But Damon didn’t understand. When the reports came in of Kori’s and Jonas’s probable deaths—”
“Misplaced guilt?” VelShaan surmised.
“I’m no specialist, but I believe that Damon, in his childish mind, thought he could have stopped the tragedy if he’d gone in Achilles’ place.”
“A five-year-old boy?” Cynara shook her head. “Can he still believe it after so many years?”
“Ronan’s experiences are proof of the mind’s complexity and contradictions,” VelShaan said. “Damon may have decided that Ronan’s apparent treason is evidence, however unlikely, that he bore some responsibility for the loss of their parents.”
“He has no right,” Cynara snapped.
“It’s hardly just,” Miklos said, “but if we refrain from judging Ronan, how can we do less for Damon?”
“Ronan didn’t know what he was intended to do until the moment came to do it,” Cynara said.
‘That is my theory,” VelShaan said. “He was given a mental ‘false front,’ so to speak, to make his original story appear authentic to any casual telepathic reading. He was quite literally ‘programmed’ to remember just as much as was required for a given purpose, triggered by specific circumstances or events.”
Cynara averted her face so that the others couldn’t see her profound relief. Ronan hadn’t been a deliberate traitor from the beginning. Depending on these “triggers” VelShaan postulated, he could have remembered his objective any time after his rescue—when she’d first entered his mind, later on Bifrost, when they made love.
At least some of his amnesia must be real. Risking his life to save her and Kord couldn’t be beneficial to his mission, even to win their trust. His “programming” was flawed.
He deceived me, but he swore not to enter my mind uninvited. If he’d broken that promise on the Pegasus, he wouldn’t have needed to use Charis and steal the drive schematics. Is that the act of a cold-blooded killer?
“Whatever Damon believes,” she said, “Ronan can’t be condemned in the absence of all the facts. He didn’t kill the Archon. I shared Ronan’s thoughts and memories more than once while we traveled on the Pegasus. I can’t be sure how much was real, but some of it had to be.”
Miklos stared at her. “You neglected to mention this before, Captain.”
“I take full responsibility for my mistakes, Lord Miklos. But I can assure you that if I had sensed in Ronan the intention to harm the Archon or anyone else, I would have informed you immediately. Until we discovered the infiltration of engineering, I had no reason to suspect him of anything but an understandable disorientation.”
“Damon was sure that something had happened on Dharma to bring you closer to Ronan, and at the same time arouse your suspicions.”
“I’ll gladly tell you—or Mes Carter VelShaan—all I experienced, if it will help Ronan and the Concordat.”
“And if it harms Ronan?” Miklos asked.
Cynara didn’t answer, and Miklos sighed. “If you consent to open your mind to Mes Carter VelShaan, I’ll leave this interrogation to her.”
The Kinswoman nodded. “There is much we might learn if Ronan and Cynara shared any kind of link, even if Ronan carried spurious information. Telepathic communication is extremely complex. That’s why it has been so useful in interpreting the language of the shaauri, and negotiating diplomatic and cultural hazards inherent in interspecies communication.”
“And it becomes even more effective in the presence of profound emotion,” Miklos added. He turned to Cynara. “You do love him, don’t you?”
Cynara choked. “Lord Miklos, I assure you that my personal feelings—”
“We generally prefer to give the benefit of the doubt to those we love, and defend them in the face of the most daunting odds,” he said. “Ronan is my nephew. You can rest assured that I will speak to Damon about his prejudices, but he has ultimate authority in any matter pertaining to the Project. If I could find a good reason to spare Ronan…”