by L A Warren
The linking problem. The High Tender almost had it down.
She spun to stare at the symbols floating at the back of her little box of WOR-skill diagrams.
Gregor had his arms and legs crossed. High Tender Marcus’ eyes flicked to the Bar skills. He had to of noticed the change she made in the first skill of the Bar.
Carek hovered in a modified lotus position with hands held loosely on top of his knees. He caught Elise’s eye and gave a slow nod of his head. His green eyes were full of sorrow and lined in pain. He tried to smile, but failed.
Gregor’s face was lit energy. His grin split from ear to ear and a sublime expression of satisfaction suffused his face.
The High Tender reminded her of her professors back on Earth. He studied, not her, but the work.
Elise caught his eye and beckoned him with her hand. “I’m sorry, High Tender Marcus. I didn’t mean to cut off your demonstration. This just came to me and I needed to see it differently.”
Carek floated forward with the High Tender. Gregor remained behind with the Conclave Master.
The symbols of the linking project floated between them.
“I had thought you would need more instruction to make sense of this.” Brown eyes regarded her with a newfound respect. “It seems the Emperor’s training has had unanticipated effects.”
“I have struggled to learn, High Tender Marcus. The Gambit’s WOR have worked hard to help me see the WOR-skill.”
“It’s a bit unconventional.” He held up a hand to forestall her words and pointed to a line. “Why did you change this?”
Elise looked at the line he referred to. She hadn’t changed it. It took her a moment, but then she realized that change had rippled through the WOR-skill modification she had made to the first skill of the Bar.
She hadn’t thought such a minor alteration would have translated all the way through the skills. A quick scan of the hanging mass of Bar, Rod and Wheel skills revealed the rippling changes occurring. She quickly removed the alteration she’d made and watched the diagrams revert back to their original depictions.
She held the change in the linking solution to prevent it from slipping back to the original.
“It seemed wrong. I wanted to see how it would look this way. It’s far from correct.” Elise watched the High Tender’s face closely.
His focus was on the linking problem and he seemed to be oblivious to the WOR-skill changes and their reversion back to their original status. “Hm.” He glanced over his shoulder and beckoned Carek to come closer with a jerk of his chin. “Mr. Tusel, look at what she’s done.”
“Yes, my lord.” Carek’s eyes fixed on the first diagram. He lifted widened eyes toward Elise. “My lady, I don’t know where you were going with this, but I think if we carried it over to here…” Carek stretched out his hands and manipulated the WOR-skill diagrams.
He had a reasonably good grasp of the force diagrams and seemed intimately familiar with the program. Elise watched as he traced her change through the entire series of holographs.
The High Tender grunted.
Carek leaned back, appraising his work.
Elise sat in silence. She glanced over Carek’s shoulder to see Gregor. He seemed to be brooding and she remembered his odd mood. What was up with him? The High Tender asked Carek a question. The two put their heads together.
Elise swam over to her master. His brows lifted as she approached.
“Gregor?” she asked in a hesitant voice. “Is this what you wanted? Am I doing…is this the right thing? Is there something else you needed me to see?”
Gregor’s eyes danced and she couldn’t tell if it was with anger, amusement or something else. Her sudden inability to read this man caused shivers to run up and down her spine.
“You are an amazing woman, Elise. Continually, you find new ways to astound me. When did you learn how to do this?” He waved his hand to gesture at the soup and the floating box of WOR-skill diagrams.
The sudden image of four little holes in the wall flashed through her mind and her stomach heaved in dread. He had used her name again. “It just came to me. I haven’t been hiding anything. This is not like before. I swear.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“You swear, now, do you?”
“Gregor, what have I done to upset you?”
He shook his head and refused to answer. Gregor stared at the two men gesturing wildly at the wall of symbols floating in a purple sea. A short while later, he said simply, “You seem to have the High Tender and Mr. Tusel deep in discussion over your change. Perhaps you should listen to what they have to say?”
“Of course, as you command…master.” Elise balled her hands into fists and began to turn around.
“Opés.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her close. “This is not a game. It’s not a sport and it’s not a race. This is the future of the human race. Do you understand? We cannot afford to play games.”
“I’m not—” she squeaked. “I thought this is what you wanted.”
His grip tightened and he pulled her to him. “You will refer to me appropriately from now on, or I will send you to the High Tender. I am your master, but you’ll call me by my given name. Is this clear?”
“Yes,” she said. He increased his grip. She winced. “Yes, Gregor. You’re hurting me.”
“I know.” Gregor released her arm and she floated free, at a loss to make sense of his actions or mood. “Inform the High Tender I’ll meet him in Council. He’ll give you instructions for the remainder of your day.”
“Yes, Gregor.” Elise rubbed her arm. She remembered Whimper’s words, kept her eyes downcast and focused on Gregor’s chest. She couldn’t bear to watch the tattoo dance.
He motioned to the Conclave Master and swam out of sight. Elise returned to the High Tender. “High Tender Marcus?”
“Hmm,” he said, distracted.
“Gregor has left. He said to inform you he’d meet up with you in council. I’m supposed to get my schedule for the rest of the day.”
High Tender Marcus pulled his eyes away from the diagrams and focused on her. “Yes, well, there is that.” He placed a finger to his chin and tapped. “Mr. Tusel.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“This is not exactly what I had planned, but Lady s’Lissa has interesting ideas. I’d like you to run through the program and perhaps…” He gestured to the linking diagrams. “See if she has any other insight with this.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“The emperor and I will be in Council all day. I need you to keep the Lady s’Lissa through lunch and continue afterward. It would take too much time to return her to the Fifth Deck for her meal.”
“Yes, my lord. It would be an honor. I will see to it.”
“Good. I’ll inform your Conclave Master. She needs to be back in her quarters by fifth dinner.”
“Yes, my lord. I’ll escort her personally.”
Elise glared at him and rolled her eyes. “Mr. Tusel, that won’t be necessary. I know my way back.”
Carek frowned.
The High Tender scratched his head. “No doubt you do, s’Lissa, nevertheless, I would rather have you escorted.”
Elise bowed her head in acquiescence. Gregor lets me run loose on the ship. “Yes, High Tender Marcus.”
He puffed out his cheeks and blew out his liquid breath, “Good. This has been quite productive. I’m impressed by the progress you’re making, s’Lissa. Keep it up.” He gave her a genuine smile and nodded with satisfaction.
She smiled back like an obedient puppy.
The High Tender swam over to the Conclave Master. The two men waved goodbye and disappeared into the purple soup leaving Elise and Carek alone.
“El,” Carek began, once they were alone.
“Mr. Tusel,” she interrupted. “I’ve been instructed to work and that is what I plan to do.”
“El?” His eyes widened in alarm. “Please. Don’t do this.”
“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?
You told me to go back to my master.” She shook her head, “Don’t El me. That’s over and behind us, Mr. Tusel.”
“No one is watching. No one can hear us. The soup gives that amount of privacy.”
His words peaked her interest. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“They can’t listen in, or watch?”
He shook his head. “Not unless we’re hooked into the pods, which we’re not.”
“Good.” She swam back to the WOR-skill diagrams.
“You made a pretty intuitive leap with that diagram. I think I can almost see where it leads.”
“Fine. Sit over there and work on it.” She meant every pointed word. “But leave me alone.”
Carek said he loved her and in his next breath had told her how he was going to destroy her mind and take away her free will by allowing the Binding with the Emperor to proceed. She couldn’t forgive him for that.
He cocked an eyebrow. “El, you have to work on this with me. That needs to get done.”
She flipped her head. The gesture worked better with her hair free, but she’d forgotten about the hood. “I did.” She pointed to the line change in the diagram. “You trace out your little theories. I want to look at this.”
“Why do you want to look at the WOR-skill representations?”
“Because they’re wrong. I want to fix them.”
He barked a laugh. “Those have been in use for thousands of years. I doubt there’s anything wrong with them.”
“Men are fools.”
“You need to work on the linking program. We’ll get in trouble if they find out you’re wasting your time on that.”
She regarded him and crossed her arms. “I thought you said they couldn’t see what we did.”
“They can’t.”
“Then how are they going to know what I do or don’t do? Are you going to tell?”
“El, I have some responsibility here.”
“Right, and you have several broken oaths. What would Gregor think if I told him about those?”
She hated threatening Carek, but she couldn’t pass up this opportunity to fix the WOR-skill. Her future depended on it.
His eyes grew cold. “That knife cuts both ways.”
“That knife has already cut and damaged more than you can possibly know.”
He flinched at her words.
“Please, Carek,” she begged. “These are wrong and I know I can sort it out. The change I made over here…” She pointed to the Bar skill. “It reflected in your diagrams. I didn’t do that. It happened by itself. Trust me. The solution to your problem lies not in working on the linking diagram, but in solving the WOR-skill.”
He looked with interest. “Are you certain?”
“I feel it in here.” She thumped her chest.
He chewed on his lower lip.
“I can’t forgive you for what you will do to me, but I understand why you feel it’s the right thing to do.” She wanted to ease his pain, but needed him invested in her plan. “The worlds you showed me and the way you described them touched me deeply. You care for your people in a way that Gregor cannot envision. I’ll save your people, or at least I’ll try, but I’m not done fighting for my freedom. Please don’t take that away from me. It’s the only thing keeping me sane.”
She pointed again to the WOR-skills. “The answer is over here. I need to study the WOR-skill, and I don’t dare tell Gregor what I’m doing. The moment he realizes what I’m up to, or how much of the WOR-skill I actually know, I’m lost. He’ll Bind me without realizing that’s exactly what he can’t do. I need your help. We both can achieve our goals.”
“I can’t help you defeat the Emperor, El.”
“I’m not asking for that. I accept my fate. I’m looking for a way to save all of us. All of you seem to think I can. I have no idea why that is. I’m just a simple girl from Earth, thrust into an impossible situation, working with madmen. One foot in front of the other, one step at a time, I will continue to move forward, until I’m dead.”
“That’s not how this works. You can have a full life as his WOR. You don’t have to fight him.”
She shrugged. He was wrong. “If he, and you, and all the Tenders think I’m the solution, I’ll try to do whatever you think I can do, but I won’t stand by and do nothing to save myself while all of you consign me to slavery. The High Council is meeting today. I have today to work on this. I want to use my time well. Leave me alone and let me try.”
“Don’t hate me for wishing to save my people.” Carek vented a resigned sigh. “El, swear to me that what you’re doing will help with the linking project.”
“I swear. The answer is over here. Or at least, the solution to my understanding the answer is somewhere over here.”
He laughed. It was sudden and surprising and seemed to come from nowhere. The force of his laughter shocked Elise. His eyes twinkled. “Is it possible for a man to be triply damned?”
“I don’t know.”
“We call a truce, then.” He pleaded. “Despite everything, one thing has not changed.”
“What is that?”
Carek spoke very softly. “I still love you.”
She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to have heard him. Elise stiffened and held back a sob. This world was hell.
But there’s a way out, Alex whispered.
I know, but will we have time?
You and me together, Elise, we can do anything.
Chapter Thirty
Gambit, Day 275
It turned out Elise had more than a day to work on the problem. Each time she made a change in the WOR-skill, the linking diagrams reflected the subtle alterations. In some way, she had formed a tie between her WOR-skill constructs and the High Tender’s linking project.
The slow, but steady progress made to that project buoyed everyone’s hopes. As a result, the High Tender made sure she spent most days in the am-net tank, working on his project.
Carek always joined her, but spent most of the day floating in the soup watching her work. Elise managed to complete most changes to the Bar and Rod skills over a matter of days. She also discovered several skills the Tenders had missed. On the days High Tender Marcus came to help, progress ground to a standstill. He made her nervous and flustered her thoughts.
After Carek made one or two oblique references about the High Tender’s presence affecting her work, he dropped by less and less, and stayed for shorter periods of time.
Elise showed her roommates the changes she’d made to the WOR-skill. The nights she wasn’t in competition on the jump-jet circuit, the four of them stayed up late practicing the new forms.
Alice taught the other Fifth Rank WOR the evolving WOR-skill, with one unique exception. The threat of further Tender Training made some of the girls hesitant, but once they understood what the Binding Rite promised, they were eager to learn, and to hide what Alice taught.
The secret code, however, remained confined to just the Elise, Alice, Aomi and Chandra.
After a long day in the am-net tank, Elise prepared for the jump-jet competition while the four of them sat around their suite comparing notes until it was time for her to slip out.
Aomi twisted in her seat, they had been talking about the Blood Rite. “Remember how the blood was absorbed into our masters’ hands?” They all nodded. “Well, that’s how our DNA got into their bodies. According to what Elise said about the WOR-genes on the Y-chromosome, I think I have it figured out. Our DNA turned on the Y-chromosome genes. We’re Fifth Rank WOR which means our lords have the full complement of the five WOR-supplemental genes. Just like the Activator changed the chemical, structural, and dimensional connections in our brains, the Blood Rite is doing the same to the men. The only difference between them and us is the Activator was a non-specific activation for us, whereas the Blood Rite is specific for them. It links us to our specific vlor’lord. As their genes turn on, they become attuned to us, and us to them. It’s a bidirectional exchange.”
&nb
sp; “So, they do read our minds?” Chandra grimaced. “According to Elise, the Emperor said Lord vlor’Delatris read Paula’s mind and that’s how they knew we had the code.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple. They’re not able to read our thoughts, and I think we can hide some of it from them.”
Aomi lifted a finger in agreement. “Right, not our thoughts, but our emotions. The High Tenders and the vlor’lords see us working the WOR-skill because they have WOR-genes. The High Tenders are the strongest, as are our lords. The vlor’lords have the full five supplemental genes on their Y-chromosomes which means they can sense more than the High Tenders, but only with their particular s’vlor. They can’t see what other s’vlor do, but the Tenders can.”
Chandra looked confused. She squinted. “So, they do or don’t read our minds? I’m confused.”
“No,” Aomi explained. “They sense our emotions, maybe even our presence. Ever notice how you know when your master is walking down the hall before the door opens? I know its Talen long before I see him. I can…feel him.”
Alice shook her head. “If that’s the case, then why hasn’t Gregor figured out Elise is lying through her teeth. How come Talen hasn’t figured out that you’re spending all night learning about Vendel genetic technology? Why hasn’t Edgard figured out that I’m training all the WOR in Elise’s new WOR-skill? Why don’t they know the four of us still keep a secret code? Doesn’t make sense.”
Aomi blinked. “I believe it has to do with intent. Paula felt guilty about the code. Her guilt, that emotion, triggered on Lord vlor’Delatris. Did you ever watch the two of them? Before Tender Training, Paula was in love with him. They didn’t exactly sneak around, but I’m pretty sure his hands made a full circuit of her body. Paula feels differently now. She hates Lord vlor’Delatris with a passion. Did you know he asked High Tender vlor’Vardhal to give her an additional day of Tender Training for betraying his trust. And not just a couple hours.”
They all shook with the memories of the mass Tender Training sessions.