The hike into the Kazon colony town was a mostly silent undertaking. Anara was looking everywhere around them, taking in everything she could. She was keeping her attention in the moment, alert to possible dangers, like they all were, but, inside, Kes knew, felt, the smile inside her wife’s heart, and the fluttering. At once, Anara was nervous with anticipation, hope, and dread about a reunion with a son whom she’d thought lost to her, and more, those feelings were competing with an irrepressible delight at her newly returned sight. Her wife’s feelings were so infectious, it was hard for Kes to make herself not get completely caught up in them. She had to stay alert and watchful, they all did. Anara felt that as much as any of them, Kes knew that too. Even still, Kes couldn’t quite keep the small, quiet smile from her lips. She couldn’t quite stop herself from feeling optimistic, despite all the many and varied potential dangers they might soon be walking into.

Kes wanted to talk with her wife, about anything, really, just to hear her voice. But she knew they couldn’t talk, not even mentally, not unless it was necessary and relevant to what they were doing, because it might be too much of a distraction.

As they neared the city, she and Anara started to mentally coordinate though, slipping easily into harmony. They reached out with Kes’s mental abilities and started to sense for strong or hostile emotion from the city before them, and for anyone nearer by who might be lying in wait. They both still thought they had a better than fair chance of getting in and out of the city without any trouble, but that meant there was still too strong a chance that there would be trouble, so they were taking exactly no chances that they didn’t have to.

From the city, there was nothing alarming, and from their path ahead or immediate vicinity, they picked up no one present so far. In harmony, they found the range and strength of Kes’s abilities were greater… the trouble was though that they couldn’t really extend their thoughts out so far with such intensity without… Without also picking up on everything Artem was thinking and feeling at the moment. Blocking those things out would cost them too much range and sensitivity.