by Viola Grace
A half-breed swan chases a dream of flight and finds love in the arms of a dark swan shifter of her very own.
Rhoe wants to fly but being born a half-breed dark swan; feathers are not something she can ever achieve. She asks her father for permission to join the flight academy of the planetary defense corps and to her surprise, he agrees.
Her father gives her more than his agreement, he tells her about her mother and warns her that she may run into the legendary pilot herself.
Rhoe runs into more than her mother, she meets a captain who sends her heart fluttering, and it is that first flutter that will carry her into the sky.
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Rhoe’s Request
Copyright © 2013 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-77111-646-6
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Devine Destinies
An imprint of eXtasy Books
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Rhoe’s Request
A Sci-Fi Fairy Tale
By
Viola Grace
Rhoe blinked and twisted her fingers together. There was no more time. She had to ask now or it would be too late.
The Coalition Flight Academy was holding trials in the city of Nathrin, and Rhoe felt an urge to try.
She straightened her shoulders and walked through the settlement, toward the lake.
The dark swan shifters were enjoying the lazy summer day. Crops were planted, and the weeding rotation was out in the fields. They had plenty of time to put on feathers and sail around in the warmth of the sun.
Rhoe looked around and spotted her father.
He must have seen her urgency, because he turned and cruised over to her with effortless movements. Rhand looked down at her. What is it, daughter?
She sighed. She wished more than anything that she had inherited her father’s ability to shift, but when you were only half a shifter, you took what you could get. She had the skill to communicate with her people when they were transformed and the markings of the dark swans were on her body. Aside from her penchant for water greens, it seemed that was all she had inherited from her father.
Father, I wish to go to the flight academy trials at Nathrin.
He looked down at her clasped hands and cocked his head. Why, Rhoe?
Because I want to fly. I need to fly, and since I have no wings, this will be the best chance that I have to learn. It is something deep inside me that I cannot stop. The sky calls, Father.
He fluffed his feathers and stretched his neck. You are too young, Rhoe.
I am twenty years old, Father. Another two years and I will be too old.
He gave her a sombre look and shifted into his other form. “I don’t want to lose you, Rhoe.”
“You are not going to lose me, but since I can’t spread my wings like others do, I want to do what I can to become a little more of the woman I feel inside me.”
He sighed and turned her with an arm around her shoulders as they walked back to the settlement. His features were lost in thought, and she didn’t want to interrupt him. If he was thinking, he wasn’t saying no.
She gathered the supplies for tea once they were back home and quickly assembled a tray, following him out into the garden.
He had shrugged into the loose robe that their people favoured, and she kept her mouth shut while he sipped his tea.
“You will need clothing.”
Rhoe nearly fainted with delight. She threw her arms around her father and hugged him as he stroked her hair. “Thank you, Father.”
“Don’t thank me yet, flight training is not for everyone. If you wish to, return home and no one will dare to mock you.” He smoothed her hair away from her eyes as he had thousands of times since she was old enough to have bangs.
“I will not return until I have success. I will be a pilot, Father. Trust me.” She smiled, and she could feel her cheeks aching, she was so happy.
“Fine. Go to Lagala and have her kit you out with suitable gear. If I am reading my calendar right, you have a week to pack and head to the city. There is no time to waste.”
She nodded, hugged him again, got to her feet and ran to the only seamstress in the settlement.
Lagala blinked at her when she burst through the door.
“He said I could go!”
The seamstress grinned and pulled a bundle out from under her counter. “I cannot believe that Rhand said yes. Don’t get me wrong, the flight academy can use any volunteers they can get, but I never thought that it would be the headman’s daughter.”
Rhoe wrinkled her nose and started to try on the clothing that she would need outside the settlement. She had had one fitting already, but this was for the final setup.
“I didn’t beg or anything. I just told him that I felt I needed to grow.”
“Ouch. Nice. He felt the guilt of you not feeling complete. Very well done, Rhoe. Breathe in, shoulders straight. There.”
The fitting went on for an hour, including a round of underwear that was as uncomfortable to wear as it looked.
“Why do I have to wear this?”
“Because it will be part of the uniform, so you need to get used to it. Not all of the females there will have feathers covering their human-ish genitals. Be ready for comments on your markings. The average species don’t have them either. So, unless you run into a white swan female, you are going to be on your own.”
Lagala had a point. There were no dark swan females currently in the planetary defense corps. It was the men who usually did a year or five in the corps. Flight school would be the first step. Rhoe was planning for much, much more.
After four changes of clothes, Lagala slid a heavily embroidered robe over Rhoe’s shoulders.
Rhoe blinked away tears. “What is this?”
“Your father commissioned it two years ago. He said when you came asking for clothing, it would be time to give you this piece of home.”
It was ivory and black with swans picked out in all stages of swimming and flight. Gold and silver highlighted the images.
“It’s beautiful; has my father seen it?”
“No. He paid for it and left. I am guessing he has been waiting for this moment.”
She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror. This was a piece of home that she would always treasure.
“I think I will wear this home if you don’t mind.”
Clothing was always optional amongst the dark swans but wearing a robe like this would show people that she was having a rare solemn moment.
“I don’t mind. I will have the final alterations done tomorrow. Go home, Rhoe. Things are going to change faster than you know.”
Lagala was right. The next week was a whirlwind of preparation while her father registered her wi
th the flight school and arranged quarters for her in the city.
Rhoe met with friends, elders and a few of the men who had returned from flight school and planetary defense after their terms.
She got advice from everyone and three offers of marriage so she wouldn’t have to do anything so silly as going and putting her pretty self at risk. Sigh.
There hadn’t been any major incursions on their planet since the defenders had been installed around the globe, so she didn’t think she was in any sort of danger.
Finally, the evening before she was scheduled to leave, her father sat her down. “Rhoe, in case something happens, you need to know a few things.”
She blinked, “If it is about sex, I learned that in school.”
His cheeks darkened. “Not about sex precisely. You know that I contracted for your birth.”
“Of course, Father.” It was one of the facts of her life. Her father had sought out a breeder with certain characteristics, and when she had replied, she had her own questions for him. They had agreed on a price, and Rhoe had been conceived to be delivered nine months later.
“Well, your mother was not just a bored noble, she is a flight instructor for the planetary defense. This is her file.” He handed it to her.
Her hands trembled as she took the data pad. The face she saw made her blink. “I have her face.”
He sighed. “Yes, her face and my colouring. Keep reading.”
Rhoe looked at the file of Yedana Whisk. She was a decorated officer, she had seen her share of battle and had two daughters on file. Wait…what?
“Ah, I see you read that part.”
“Who is the second child?”
Rhand shook his head. “I don’t know. The birthdate is one year to the date after yours, and she is still here on Athuuna, so the father would be from one of the settlements.”
Rhoe flipped through the pages looking for the information she sought, and all she found was a record of a second contract with the name of the father blurred out. That was all. Two daughters, both born on Athuuna. Rhoe had a sister out there somewhere.
She blinked. “Why are you giving me this now?”
“I believe your birth mother is still an instructor. I did not want you to be surprised or caught unawares. You are my daughter; I love you. She is your mother, and you will want to know her. I just wanted you to know who you were looking for instead of seeking her around every corner.” He sighed heavily.
Rhoe reached out and put her hand on his. “You know me well, Father.”
He grinned. “I should. Now, you are being picked up at dawn, so get to bed.”
She kissed his cheek and headed to bed with the data pad clutched in her hand. She finally had the face that blended with her father’s features to create her. Proxy breeders were common enough for the sake of carrying on genetic lines. If something happened to Rhoe, Rhand was still young enough to try again with another child if he needed to.
It was a grim thought, but she was going to learn how to fly using mechanisms. The reality was about to smack her face first.
The skimmer trip to the city of Nathrin was far quicker than she had estimated. She was wearing underwear and the tunic and trouser combination that Lagala had created. It had her settlement crest on the shoulders and was in her standard black and silver.
Her skimmer pilot was silent. He wasn’t a man who enjoyed casual conversation. She didn’t even know his name. He was wearing a rank insignia, but it wasn’t Athuunan. She hadn’t ever seen someone like him before, but he had less than no interest in her.
Instead of the port, he took her directly to the defense centre and parked in front of the yard. He broke his silence with a statement. “Colonel Whisk would like to see you.”
Rhoe swallowed heavily, and she picked up her bag. “Lead the way, please.”
He nodded and stared at her for a moment, his snow-white hair braided tightly down his back in a long tail. “This way.”
He took her through the halls, past checkpoints and into a hall lined with offices. Rhoe’s hands were sweating.
He opened the door with Colonel Whisk on it and gestured for her to enter. Swallowing hard, Rhoe stepped into the room and walked to stand a respectful distance from the desk. The door behind her closed, and she waited.
The woman at the desk raised her head and did a quick double take. “Oh! I didn’t know you were here already.”
The smile was familiar, the nose bore a scar that hadn’t been in the original image in the file and her hair was a deep brown.
“Colonel.” Rhoe inclined her head respectfully. She wasn’t in a cadet uniform yet, so that was as respectful as she was allowed to get.
The colonel got to her feet and came around her desk. To Rhoe’s surprise, her mother was shorter than she was by four inches.
“You have some of your father’s height.”
“And your skin and features.” Rhoe smiled tightly.
“You are lovely.” Colonel Whisk smiled and extended her hand.
Rhoe placed her hand in her mother’s and felt the peculiar callouses against her skin. A bright spark of genetic recognition ran between them.
“Colonel Whisk, may I ask you which species you are?” Her mind was opening and her knees buckled.
“Ah, I am officially a Tekkani, but in reality, I am an Edinar.” She smiled, “And so are you.”
Rhoe blinked rapidly. She was one of the psychic races that was being hunted to extinction by the Coalition? It did explain quite a bit.
“Why are you telling me this?”
The colonel tugged her to one side of the office and tugged her down to the couch. “As long as you remained at the settlement, there was no need for you to know. Now that you are in the defense headquarters, you are going to be surrounded by folk who do not have the mental coordination of shifters. You will need to remain impassive and ignore what you sense.”
“What if I sense someone dangerous?”
“You smile and walk on by. Call security and say you saw the person acting suspicious. By that comment, I am guessing that you already have awareness of the minds of others?”
“I do, but I thought it was linked to my father’s shifting ability and the mental communication that is so common in the shifted form.”
Colonel Whisk sighed in relief. “Oh thank the stars. I was afraid that you would activate here. That would have been awkward during training.”
Rhoe stared at her.
“Do you have any questions for me?”
“Why did you sign up as a breeder?”
“Your father is not the only one who wants to keep their genetics in play. The Edinar are sneaking into regular populations and trying to keep our bloodlines going. Being a registered breeder was the best way to do it, and you were so sweet, I did it again with a different swan clan the following year.”
“My sister is also a swan shifter?”
“Well, I doubt she can shift. You know about her?”
“My father gave me an emergency briefing last night.”
The colonel smiled again. “He was always good at last minute briefings.”
Rhoe didn’t know how to react to that, so she asked, “What do I need to know to survive flight school and move on to the defense corps?”
Her mother blinked at her, “Well, well, well. Hmm. A girl after my own heart. Simply listen to your instincts at every crossroads. They will steer you in the direction you need. It may not be the way you want to go, but it will be where you need to go. Also, keep out of the minds of fellow students. They will notice, and you will have some explaining to do.”
“Ah. That makes sense. Is my relationship to you a problem?”
Colonel Whisk grinned, “No. I might enjoy kicking your ass even more than I do the regular cadets. Now, Captain Hiiron is waiting for you outside my office. He will take you to your quarters and give you a quick tour of the place. You can ask him questions, and he might even an
swer you.”
Ranks ran through her mind, “A captain is waiting for me?”
“He has high hopes for you, given your lineage. He will be your flight instructor, so keep your chin up and weigh your words wisely.”
Rhoe blinked. “I thought you said our connection was not a problem.”
“It isn’t. Your father was one of the best pilots that I have ever seen. He did his five years in planetary defense and that is when I decided that I would answer his request for a breeding partner. He was getting out, but I was staying in.”
“You were pregnant with me on active duty?”
Whisk raised one dark brown brow. “Of course. I couldn’t squeeze into a cockpit, but I was still one of the best instructors that Athuuna has ever seen.”
Rhoe blinked, “Oh.”
“Did you think they just gave me the position of colonel because I aged into the rank? No one remains in planetary defense without having talent or a good reason. I had both.” She reached out and stroked Rhoe’s hair from her face.
“Was it enough to just birth us and let us go?”
“It was enough to keep me here. I had two daughters that I could not go to per my contracts, so I waited for you to come to me.”
Rhoe laughed. “You knew I would come?”
“Oh, dearest. You are a creature without wings and a soul born to fly. How could you not come to the one place where flight was possible on this entire world?”
“And so you made sure to stay. Thank you, Colonel Whisk.”
“In private, you may call me mother or Madam Yedana. I would like to hear it, just once.”
“Then, mother it shall be until I am in uniform. Hello, Mother.” Tears pricked Rhoe’s eyes and her mother hugged her for the first time.
They both leaned back after a moment and wiped tears, first the left eye and then the right, sniffling sharply.
They laughed as they realized they were looking at genetic mirrors.
“I will try to arrange a meeting with you once a week when you have settled in, if that is all right with you.”