by Viola Grace
He looked at them and scowled. “I can’t read them.”
“Oh. Um... the one in your hand is happiness.” She went through the rest of them, and he relabelled them in Alliance Common.
“So, I am guessing that a language lesson should be added to your roster. That is not a difficult thing. We have been doing lovely things with ocular downloads.” Dr. Effin smiled.
“Who are you going to sample those on?”
Dr. Effin blinked. “No one yet. First, I am going to determine the different chemical and psychic signatures of the samples, and then, I will look for the most even-tempered person with the least deadly talent that I can find.”
Bits laughed and leaned back against the pillows. “Sound thinking.”
“Now that you are up, I will get you some food. I think we will start you on soft solids for a while. Your stomach has shrunk dramatically.”
Bits was incredibly thirsty. “Can I have water?”
“After we get some broth into you. If you have the water, it will take up most of your available space without adding nutrients.” He smiled brightly. “Back in a moment.”
She sat and waited with her mind in neutral. When he returned, a woman was with him, and she had the prettiest hair that Bits had ever seen.
“Abitika, this is Fixer.” Dr. Effin put a tray across her lap. “It sounds odd, but she is going to use her equipment to watch you eat.”
Fixer set up a small device and aimed it at Bits’ torso. “Just eat like I wasn’t here.”
Bits smiled. “Don’t worry. It won’t take long.”
She picked up the soup container with two hands and sipped at it until her stomach registered that it was full. She set the soup down on the tray, and Fixer read the display and nodded.
“Effin, she needs five minutes and she can eat again.”
He nodded and took the soup aside, rigging a small heating unit. “Will do. So, Abitika, are you up to learn how to read and write Alliance Common?”
Fixer grabbed a data pad from a nearby counter, and she tapped rapidly at the screen. “There you go, Abitika. Just tap the screen and the flash will start.”
“Please, call me Bits.” She smiled slightly and looked at the data pad. She tapped the screen and the light blazed forward, burning into her mind.
* * * *
Effin moved quickly as Abitika thrashed around in a seizure. “Scan her.”
He lowered the bed, and waited while Mala scrambled for the unit.
Mala pulled out the scanner and ran it over Abitika’s head. “Oh dear. Keep her stable.”
Mala ran out of the med unit, leaving Effin with his patient. The thrashing grew weaker, and she was lying with her eyes open and twitching a few minutes later.
The scans he was running were wild. Her body was rewiring itself. Her brain was altering, and he had no idea where it was going to stop.
Mala screeched back in and waved an object in the air. “Got it.” She slipped the band around Abitika’s head and the readouts evened into a steady, normal reading.
Effin moved to run supplements into his patient to flush the adrenalin and acids that her body had produced during the seizure. “What is that?”
“It’s a psychic restrictor. I was working on it for a few of the penal stations. This is the prototype.”
He frowned and looked down at the pale woman with deep blue eyes and grey hair. “She isn’t a psychic.”
“Her seizure begs to differ. She simply hasn’t expanded her mind before. She has duality. It doesn’t happen often, but we have both seen it.” Mala frowned and stroked the patient’s forehead. “She is going to be in for a rough learning curve. If no one has trained her, she is going to hurt a little when she gets to learning.”
“Can she keep the headband?”
“Of course. I will work on something a little more subtle for when she needs it. That band is a little thick.”
Effin snorted. “You are always about aesthetics.”
“Hey, if folks need help via mechanical intervention, there is no reason it has to be ugly.” Mala snorted.
He finished giving Abitika a hydration supplement, and her lids began to blink. Slowly, she focused and sat up again. He exhaled in relief. “Don’t scare me like that, Bits.”
He helped her to sit up again, locking the bed in place. She looked at him, turned her head to Mala and smiled weakly. “How would you like to be scared? I think I can manage a sample of that as well right now.”
Effin grinned and got her a tube and a swab. “Here you go.”
She swabbed her cheek and handed him the result in the tube. “Be careful with that. It is terror. That one I am familiar with.”
He handled it carefully and set it with the others after he labelled it. “I look forward to examining those.”
Mala moved around and got the soup. “Drink. You need to build your food tolerance. The girls want to make you cookies.”
“The girls?”
“Mabi and Isala, my eldest daughters. I have a son and my youngest daughter is still an infant.”
“Oh. I thought you were a member of the Sector Guard.”
Effin snorted. “Oh, she is. We just don’t let her travel much. She has her workshop, and those who need her come here. Now, drink your soup and get better. Doctor’s orders.”
To his relief, she drank.
Chapter Three
It took five days before Effin allowed her to enter Mala’s workshop. Isala and Mabi were her constant companions, and the two little girls helped her navigate the base.
Mala grinned as they came in. “Bits, I am glad you made it. I have a suit for you.”
She must have seen the distaste on Bits’ face because she laughed. “It isn’t designed to contain you, just make you casual-contact friendly. Your primary talent is still your contact emotional manipulation. This suit lets you use your hands but keeps the rest of you protected against anyone who wants to take a biological sample. It will also keep you from getting shot.”
The girls scowled at her, and Mabi said, “You have to be safe when you work. It is Mom and Dad’s first rule. Sandwiches first. Then safety. Safety is very important.”
Fixer’s eating habits had been explained to her, so Bits laughed at the idea of sandwiches first.
The girls grabbed her hands and hauled her bodily to the dummy wearing the armoured suit.
Isala smiled shyly. “We picked the colours.”
The pale purple and soft grey looked very pretty. “It looks lovely.”
The girls’ shoulders slumped in relief.
Mala cocked her head and grinned, “What the girls aren’t telling you is that they made your suit. I helped with the hard manipulation, but they worked out the structure by making a smaller version for their brother. If he could move around in it just fine, it is good enough for an adult.”
“Well, since it has been so thoroughly tested, I am glad to be in such careful hands.”
She was wearing a thin suit that covered her from neck to toes. “Do I need to... uh... change?”
Mala shook her head and stroked the front panel of the suit. It opened up. “Simply back in and the suit will do the rest.”
The two girls were watching with huge, excited eyes. Bits hated to disappoint anyone, so she lined herself up and backed into the armour.
There was a click as her heels touched the back of the suit and it closed around her legs. When she lined her arms up, the suit began to lock her arms in place, and the moment she stood straight, the breastplate of the suit closed up.
When it was closed, the suit hummed slightly, and she could feel the power flowing through it.
Mala was watching critically. “How does it feel?”
Bits took a few steps, crouched, turned and grinned. “It feels good.”
“Excellent. Now, we are going for a run.”
The girls squealed, clapped and sprinted to the huge, open door of the hangar that was Fixer’s workshop.
Mala grinned
. “Don’t worry. I only have enough stamina to get us twice around the base.”
Bits followed the children, and a moment later, Mala zoomed up to her on a hovering platform.
Bits grinned. “Cheater.”
“Every chance I get. You have to catch me or collapse to stop the exercise.”
Mala zipped away, and Bits was left with one option. She had to catch the damned thing.
The girls ran easily beside their mother. Mala wasn’t trying to make it impossible, but she was trying to give Bits a good sense of what her armour could and could not do.
The first few metres were awkward as she got used to the balance, but as she ran, the suit learned her and she learned the suit.
She went from staggering to sprinting in under a minute. When the girls screeched and giggled, she knew she was getting closer. She pounded after the hovering platform, moving faster and faster until she was moving at a speed that she had only ever achieved in a vehicle. The girls were now riding with their mother and cheering her on.
The landscape and the buildings that made up the Guard Base blurred past her. She kept running until she passed the small craft and passed it by a dozen metres. When she was sure she had time, she stopped and whirled, catching Fixer, her daughters and getting the platform in the shins.
There was a lot of gasping, laughing and giggles as they all dropped to the ground. The suit skidded backward from the impact and brought them to a safe stop.
Mabi was grinning. “Safety first!”
Mala nodded. “The girls put in resistance projectors. The harder you are hit, the softer you stop.”
“You knew that I would stop in front of you?”
“Of course. There was nothing else on this platform to grab. You had to block us.”
“So, telling me would have been...”
“You have to learn what you can and cannot do with the suit. This was fun.”
Bits let them go, and she jogged beside the floating vehicle until they were back at the workshop.
Isala grinned. “To get out, you wiggle your toes. Left, right, right, left.”
It worked just as she said. The suit opened and she stepped out.
Mala showed her a small tube on the inside of the suit. “The suit collects your sweat and holds it in this vial. You can program it anyway you want and have a ready supply of blank material on hand.”
Bits stared. “Seriously?”
“Yup. Sweat is the only secretion that you have that doesn’t require source programming. You can alter it after you emit it. Interesting. I know Effin is fascinated. The idea is that with a sufficient quantity, you can subdue an entire population. Mind you, you are still recovering, so you don’t have any spare fluids. Don’t overwork yourself.”
Bits looked down at her emaciated figure. “I wish there was a quick fix for this.”
“There is, but she is on Teklan. Your body is fine and your muscles are there, you just need to rebuild your fat stores.”
“I have never appreciated my body fat more. From what Effin told me, the matron was trying to kill me. He’s handed the information over to the Citadel, and they are pressing charges on my behalf.”
“It was lucky that the recruiter got there when she did. A week later and you would have been dead.” Mala winced when the girls gasped. “Damn. I forgot they were there.”
Bits chuckled and turned to her little companions. “It could have gone badly for me, but I was another one of the people that your mother and Dr. Effin helped.”
The girls relaxed again.
Mala nodded toward the suit. “It is going to need to expand as you continue to fill out. Since you are moving over to the Citadel, you will have to come here for regular refits.”
The girls cheered and ran to hug Bits.
Mala shook her head. “I have never seen them react like that.”
Bits sighed. “The hugs make me happy, and my touch makes them happy. It becomes a self-perpetuating circle.”
Mala blinked. “You are using your touch on them?”
“Not directly. It is an aura that I have. It is pretty passive. I am guessing that it is a defense mechanism. Dr. Effin doesn’t think it is actually there, but it is one of those things that has always been around. I hit puberty and everybody wanted to be next to me. Children, adults, married, single. Nothing perverse, just physical contact. That is why the suit was punishment beyond just restraint. I lost all my companionship in that contraption.”
“Well, you are in recovery, and the Citadel will be here to pick you up soon. I have your bag of suits here, and they will transport the armour. You probably won’t need it there, but if you want to experiment with it, you are welcome to.”
Bits touched the nearly invisible wire that cruised along her hairline. “Will they help with this?”
“They will assist you, but the blocker is keyed to you. It can hold your psychic excursions in, but it will only work for so long. After a while, your mind will find a way around it. I am amazed that it took so long for your psychic senses to wake.”
“Dr. Effin guesses that it has something to do with the EVA suit. When my body was blocked, my mind went looking for friends.”
“It was a good guess. When you were finally taught all the permutations of Alliance Common, you took a census of all the minds on Morganti. It is no wonder you were overwhelmed.”
Bits shrugged. She had no idea what happened when the light flashed, but when her brain was working again, she knew things she hadn’t known before. Languages, customs, traditions and memories had swamped her. It had taken two days to fight her way out of other people’s memories. If it was part of her empathy talent, it sucked. She liked the headset. It made everything quiet, and you couldn’t see it if you didn’t know it was there.
The nanny entered the workshop with the baby girl, the little boy and a serious announcement. “Mala, it is time for lunch.”
The little girls flung their arms in the air and cheered, taking possession of their little brother and heading into the base to take over their table in the commissary. The nanny offered Mala the infant, and Fixer began breastfeeding as she walked through the halls. Bits and the nanny brought up the rear. Family meal times were serious. If Isabi was in town, he was there for every meal, but he had left the night before on his way to a political mission.
Their regular table was ready. The girls had created place mats and had shaped cutlery out of a nearby chair. Nanny and Mala went to fill the small cart full of dishes; Bits trailed behind and got her own food, heading to the table to sit with the girls and their brother.
The little boy crawled into her lap, and she offered him a vegetable that he grabbed with a chubby fist. His teeth were coming in, and he made short work of it. She handed him another veg stick, and he ate and snorted as he consumed it.
Mala grinned as she pushed the cart up and loaded the table. “It’s wonderful to see him eating veggies.”
“You got to see it? He moved so quick, I almost mistook him for Nanny.”
Radin chuckled brightly and got another veg stick in his pudgy hand.
She was his favourite perch for mealtimes since she had started joining them. Bits’ believe that it was because of her body’s current resemblance to a chair.
Bits ate with the family and grinned as the girls changed their food into dessert and their mother changed it back while still holding their sister to her breast.
“So, will you miss us when you go?” Mala grinned and managed her food with one hand.
The sharp wail from her lap made Bits wince. She peeled off her glove and looked at Mala, “May I?”
Mala nodded.
Bits touched her small companion’s forehead, and his crying stopped, turned into sniffles, and soon, he was giggling again.
The table relaxed, and they finished their meal with laughter and smiles.
Nanny took the kids away, and Mala looked to Bits. “Whew. That was a close one.”
“Yes. Sorry about the touch, i
t was all I could think of.”
“No, it wasn’t a problem. I just hadn’t realized how attached Radin was to you already.”
Bits snickered. “I am his favourite chair.”
“More than that. The kids feel safe with you. It is a blessing to have you around.”
“I like them as well. I am kind of depressed that I am moving to the Citadel, but I guess it is time to get some actual training for this silly talent.”
Mala laughed. “It is generally a good idea. Isabi used to follow me around with a bandolier of ration bars. I would always use more energy than I had access to.”
“Sounds unpleasant.”
“It was, but I learned via practice. You will have to practice to gain any skills worth leaving the Citadel for.”
“You really think I can be useful elsewhere?”
Mala smiled. “I know you can. It is definitely something in your future. You will walk other worlds.”
Bits chuckled. “Glad you are so confident. Perhaps that is an emotion that I can copy.”
Mala patted her on the shoulder, and they headed to the workshop to put a few finishing touches on the armour.
Chapter Four
Her escort to Citadel Morganti was polite and careful to keep distance between them.
Kalo was friendly enough, but he was taking her to the head administrator of the Citadel. She was about to be interviewed.
They headed to the highest level of the main tower, and Kalo escorted her to the administrator’s office. He knocked, and when a voice told them to enter, he opened the door and waved for her to go inside.
“You aren’t coming in with me?”
“No, Administrator Turnari wishes to see you alone. It will be fine, Abitika.”
She nodded and moved past him, keeping a safe distance between them. The door closed behind her.
“Abitika Kenharm of Jrinka blended colony.” The man was sitting in the shadows.
“That is me, but call me Bits.”
He moved into a beam of sunlight, and she took in his horns, his beautiful but cruelly cut features and the breadth of his shoulders. She had never seen a Dhemon at close range before, but that was definitely his species.