fortuneswheel

by Lisanne Norman

  The place Kaid was looking for was located in this area. He headed off to his left, looking for the food bar beside an Accommodation Guild House.

  It was in one of the more rundown areas of Nazule, not a place where one would expect folk on planet leave to want to spend their time. The food bar’s exterior was dingy; sunfaded paintwork on the facade with the awning permanently rusted in an upright folded position. Several letters from the boldly displayed sign above the window had fallen off and never been replaced.

  Kaid pushed the door open and entered, making his way up to the seats at the counter. Sliding onto one, he wrinkled his nose as he caught a whiff of stale cooking.

  At the far end, the one assistant stood talking to a faded female of indeterminate age. He looked toward Kaid, then returned to his conversation. Kaid sighed, pulling out a packet of stim-twigs. Taking one out, he stuck it in his mouth and put the pack away in his Forces jacket.

  After a few minutes, he hit the counter with his fist, glowering down at the assistant.

  “Hey! What’s a male gotta do to get some service around here?” he demanded.

  The assistant looked round and scowled at him before returning to say a few words to the female. With an air of indolent arrogance, he walked up the counter to Kaid.

  “You want something?”

  “Yeah. C’shar, and make it strong,” said Kaid, reaching into his coat pocket for a handful of coins which he flung down on the counter.

  The assistant gathered up the coins, then turned to the kettle and poured Kaid his drink. The mug was banged down in front of him, the contents slopping over onto the countertop.

  Kaid picked it up and turning round, surveyed the rest of the bar. There were only a handful of customers. The bulk of them sat at the back of the bar grouped round a table. One of them still wore the uniform of the Khalossa and had a kit bag lying by his feet on the floor. The male opposite him wore the uniform of the Rhyaki.

  Pushing the twig to one side of his mouth, he took a swig of his drink and half-turned back to the bar. He jerked his head at the assistant.

  “What y’want now?”

  “Plate of stew,” said Kaid, putting more coins on the counter. Reaching up, he scratched his right ear enthusiastically. The pickup in place, he could now hear their conversation.

  The stew was placed before him. “You on planet leave?” asked the assistant, handing him eating utensils.

  Kaid disdained the knife, pulling his own from his belt. “Yeah. Just off the Khalossa. What’s it to you?”

  “Nothing, just curious. We got quite a few Forces people in today.”

  “So I see,” said Kaid, taking the twig out of his mouth and pocketing it before starting on the stew. It tasted rubbery and undercooked, but he’d eaten worse.

  “What’s going on up there?” the assistant asked, jerking his head toward the ceiling. “Seems like there’s trouble from what I hear.”

  “Who you heard that from?” asked Kaid, looking up at him.

  “I keep my ears open,” he said evasively.

  “And I keep my mouth shut,” Kaid said, scooping up a forkful of the gravy-soaked bread.

  With a muttered oath, the assistant moved back down to where the female still perched on the bar stool.

  “So how’re you planning to stop this treaty with the Terrans?” asked the male from the Khalossa.

  “T’Chezo will tell you her plans when we meet up with her later, Rhudi,” said one of the civilians.

  “The original idea of taking out the Sholan telepath and his mate is still as good as any,” said the other spacer.

  “I think so, Niaza. Chyad’s plan was to recruit an antiSholan Terran. Where can we find one on Shola?” Rhudi asked.

  “There’s only the one,” said Vrall. “Liegen Aldatan’s Leska.”

  “More Terrans are due on Shola in eight weeks,” said Niaza.

  “Why, Niaza? Why do they want to bring Terrans to Shola?” asked another of the civilians.

  “They’re Terran telepaths, Faikal, but I wouldn’t expect a grounder like you to know that. If they’re anything like our telepaths they’ll be no use to us,” said Rhudi, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

  “How do the Terrans on the Khalossa view this alliance?” asked Faikal, ignoring Rhudi’s comments.

  “The Keissians want the treaty. We don’t. A treaty with either Terran world will leave our back door open to another attack from the Valtegans. We need to do something that will enrage either the Terrans on Earth, or our own people against the Terrans, if we’re to stop this treaty.”

  Faikal looked round his little group.

  “How many of us are committed to this course of action?” asked Rhudi, leaning forward on the table.

  “Considering that nearly every Clan on the planet has lost at least one member of their family from the colony worlds, very few of them are interested in anything but retribution against the Valtegans,” said Faikal.

  “Don’t they consider this alliance with the Terrans a danger? Aliens as potentially powerful as our telepaths mixing freely with our people? Can’t they see that we have no reason to trust them? The humans on the Khalossa were just as suspicious of us as we were of them,” said Rhudi.

  “They don’t think about it at all,” said Vrall. “Most are content to let the Governor and the Council make the decisions.”

  Rhudi let out a string of oaths. “How many of us are there?”

  “About a dozen,” replied Faikal. “We’ll take you to meet T’Chezo later tonight. She’ll bring you up to date on her plans.”

  “Having a Terran kill the Terran female and her Leska sounds the best way of enraging the Governor and the Council to the point where they at least cut off communications with Earth,” said Niaza thoughtfully. “The Terrans have won no friends on the Rhyaki with their demands and arrogance. Do we actually need a Terran, though? What if it was merely thought that a Terran was responsible?”

  “How do you propose we do that without a Terran?” asked Rhudi. “It isn’t as if we can pass any of us off as one of them. They’re too physically different. We need a real Terran.”

  “If we kill the Leska pair already here, wouldn’t the Terrans feel their people were at risk on Shola and refuse to let any more come here?” said Niaza. “We could achieve the same object without involving a Terran.”

  Rhudi nodded slowly. “Possible,” he said. “Easier than trying to subvert a Terran. If we’re working with our own people, less can go wrong.”

  “It solves the problem of us only having a month’s leave and the fact that the Terrans won’t have arrived by then.”

  They were so intent on their own conversation that they missed the uneasy looks the civilians were exchanging.

  “You’ll have to try this one out on T’Chezo,” Vrall said. “She’s our leader after all. I think you’ll find she has definite ideas of her own.”

  “Just what are her plans?” asked Rhudi. “You obviously know them.”

  Faikal looked uneasily at Vrall.

  “Well?” demanded Rhudi.

  “She wants to take a less offensive stance, at least at first,” said Faikal. “Holding demonstrations and handing out leaflets, only resorting to violence if we have to.”

  “Then why involve us?” demanded Rhudi. “We’ve got the military experience to plan a strike on them and we’ve told you we’re only here for a month.”

  “You’ll have to talk to T’Chezo,” said Vrall uncomfortably.

  “Let’s take you to your room,” said Faikal, getting up. “We can’t solve this without her.”

  “Fair enough,” sighed Rhudi, reaching down to pick up his kit bag. “Where’s this room you’ve got for us?”

  “Just next door,” said Faikal, getting up to stand in the aisle between the tables.

  As they got up to leave, Rhudi pulled Niaza back, letting the others go in front of them. “If this T’Chezo doesn’t see it our way, we’ll do the job ourselves,” he said in a low vo
ice.

  Niaza flicked his ears in agreement.

  As Kaid watched them file out, he finished his c’shar and got to his feet. The assistant and the female looked up as he walked past them.

  “Finished?” the male asked.

  Kaid ignored him and with a swirl of his long coat, swept out of the door into the street. He saw them enter the Accommodation Guild House next door.

  He hung around for half an hour looking in the windows of the stores opposite, keeping an eye on the guild doorway, but the group remained inside. He wanted to see the trooper from the Khalossa again. There was something about him that jogged at his memory. He needed information, an agent placed within the group. It was something he couldn’t do himself because of his need to guard Carrie and Kusac.

  He headed back the way he’d come, collecting his rented aircar at the parking lot. This time he headed for the Warrior Guild, landing in their parking area. Flinging off his long coat, he headed into the Guild House, going straight to the office.

  The secretary looked up at him, taking in his uniform with the Warrior’s flash of red at the shoulder.

  “How can I help you?” he asked.

  Taking the chain from his neck, Kaid held it out to him.

  The secretary reached out and took hold of the disk that hung from it. He let it go as if it had burned him.

  “Brother,” he said, eyes wide as he tried to move further away from Kaid. “What may I do to help you?”

  Kaid watched the young male’s ears twitching with a look of wry humor on his face. He put the chain back over his head. “I need a room with a secure comm in it. I want to contact Dzahai Stronghold.”

  “Of course,” he stammered. “Down the corridor, first on the left.”

  “Thank you.”

  *

  Sorli sat with Master Esken in his study. They were going over the results of the last three weeks’ tests with Kusac.

  “I’d like your opinion on the latest tests first, Kusac,” said Master Esken, picking up his comp note pad.

  “You have the results, Master Esken,” said Kusac. “I don’t know that I can add anything to them.”

  “Our results have been interpreted objectively by the testers. We now need your insight into how you felt about both the tests and their outcome. Many of these include skills we don’t have. Whether we ever did possess them is the topic that Sorli has been looking into. We’ll hear his results as we go through the list.”

  “I’ll start with divining, then. We tried the metal rods as suggested, and as you see, neither Carrie nor I had any luck with them. What we did find was that if I was in the room when Carrie was trying, the rods swung round to me. When I wasn’t in the room, the rods turned completely round and pointed to Carrie. The same happened when I tried it. We seem to create too strong a field for them to work. We obtained the same result when we tried to use the pendulums over maps. This doesn’t appear to be a talent either of us possess.”

  “Sorli? What about the Sholan control group?”

  “No luck with the rods, but one of the group had some success with the pendulum,” said Sorli. “If one has it, there will probably be others.”

  Master Esken nodded. “Anything about it in the Guild Archives?”

  “Nothing at all,” said Sorli.

  “Teleporting was next.” Kusac looked up at his tutor and the Guild Master and grinned. “We sat there and thought about moving, but nothing happened. If the Terrans could ever do it, they didn’t tell anyone how.”

  “This was an ability mentioned in passing in the encyclopedia,” Sorli said hurriedly. “We didn’t expect anyone to be able to do it.”

  “I take it no one in the control group succeeded either,” said Master Esken with a gentle smile.

  “No, Master Esken. We did verify that it wasn’t possible for either species to do it, though.”

  “If it’s mentioned, then some Terran must have appeared to do it,” said Kusac.“Carrie is only one Terran after all, and she’s hardly representative of her kind now.” His tone had become more than a little sharp.

  “People have been said to disappear suddenly,” said Sorli. “Unfortunately there was no record of them suddenly reappearing elsewhere. It was worth trying since it would be a useful talent to have.”

  “I think that’s a test we can keep on our list for the Terrans when they arrive,” said Master Esken.

  Kusac’s ears pricked forward. “Terrans arriving?”

  “Your father sent us word that the first Terrans with Talents similar to Carrie’s will arrive from Earth in eight weeks.”

  “Father’s moved fast.”

  “I believe it was your mother’s doing,” said Master Esken. “It will be good for your Leska to have people from her own world to speak to.”

  “Earth is no longer her home world,” said Kusac. “Carrie’s a Keissian, and I don’t think she’ll want to socialize with the Terrans.”

  “What’s she doing today?” asked Sorli.

  “She’s out with Taizia and some of her friends, answering an interminable number of questions about Terrans, Keiss, and how we met. She’s getting more than a little embarrassed by their questions, but Taizia is stopping them from getting too personal,” he said, returning to studying his comp pad again.

  Sorli raised an eye ridge to the Guild Master who acknowledged it with the smallest of flick of an ear.

  As you said, their link gives them constant detailed information about each other, Master Esken sent on a tight personal level.

  “Distant viewing was next,” said Master Esken.

  “That was a lot more successful,” said Kusac, looking up at them again. “The test was set up as it was in the article, random locations, randomly chosen and in our case, visited by nontelepaths.”

  “These tests were particularly valid in Carrie’s case as she doesn’t know our world, yet she still identified the sites in surprisingly accurate detail,” said Sorli.

  “Hardly surprising, considering what we did on Keiss,” said Kusac. “Both of us scored well on those tests.”

  “I see the distances between you and the target sites were quite varied, ranging from near to the other side of the continent,” said Esken. “It seems that distance was no barrier. Were you able to decide whether you saw through the eyes of the visitors or were actually there yourselves?”

  “We both felt that we were actually there. We saw things from a bird’s eye view as well as from ground level. We could see details of the sites that the visitor couldn’t because of their restricted angle of view. I’d say conclusively that our minds were actually there.”

  “How did our people do?”

  “Very well. Everyone picked up something in the test, even if it wasn’t enough to absolutely pinpoint the location.”

  “Anything in the archives?” Esken asked Sorli.

  “Nothing.”

  “With such positive results from you and the controls, this isn’t likely to be another crossover talent,” said Master Esken. “It’s one you used on Keiss before your Link was completed, Kusac. Perhaps it’s a Sholan Talent we’ve been unaware of because we’ve concentrated mainly on telepathy. The control group also had some success with this talent, I see. I’m sure we’ll find a use for it. Perhaps locating missing persons, checking security measures— who knows.”

  “I’m sure the military will find a good use to put it to,” Sorli murmured. “A little extra information on the Chemerians wouldn’t go amiss in their eyes.”

  “Then we do what we have always done, we use our code of ethics to refuse the military,” said Master Esken calmly. “It infringes upon a person’s right to privacy.”

  “You’ll find the Terrans less ethical,” reminded Kusac. “When they arrive, you’ll have to impress on them the need to respect each other’s privacy.”

  “We’re already working on an induction program for their arrival at the guild, Kusac. Their course of studies with us is already being mapped out with the aid of ou
r colleagues in AlRel. Your father’s involved in it as a matter of fact.”

  “I know. He’s requested me to compile a study of the Keissians, with particular attention to Carrie’s own skills.”

  “That should be interesting,” said Master Esken. “I trust you’ll have a copy for us?”

  “Certainly, but I don’t know how long it will take. We’ve both been constantly busy since we recovered from that virus.”

  “I’m glad Vanna was able to contain the infection. Now is not a good time for the guild to have an epidemic running riot,” said Sorli.

  “There’s never a good time for epidemics,” said Master Esken. “Let’s move on to the last test. Healing, I believe. Now that’s a Talent which we do have, and we used our own testing system. How do you assess the results, Kusac?”

  “Of the eight categories in healing, we can both do six. They are, identifying the site of an injury, identifying the type of injury, reducing the pain, reducing the extent of the injury, accelerating the healing process, and healing minor injuries like bruises and pulled muscles.” Kusac looked up from his comp. “Carrie wasn’t able to duplicate what she did with my bitten shoulder on Keiss. That unfortunately looks like it might have been unique. Likewise, I can’t close open wounds at all or heal major injuries like tissue damage and broken bones.”

  “What about controlling your own pain?” asked Master Esken. “It says you were able to do that, but Carrie couldn’t.”

  “Under lab conditions, and when I was hurt during the crash on Keiss, yes, I was able to control my pain, but not later after the Challenge, or after I was shot in the Valtegan base. Again, it seems to be an undependable skill with us. Carrie can’t work on herself at all. The tests showed she has the ability to heal a variety of conditions in others, so perhaps her inability to work on herself is psychological.”

  Master Esken nodded. “That sounds a reasonable hypothesis. What do you think caused the block? Sorli thought perhaps she’d desensitized herself due to the horrific link she had with her twin sister.”