Kendra closed her eyes and focused her psi-energy, adjusting the psi-strands until they aligned with the figurine. Pictures began flashing in her mind.
“I see a man dressed in a grey tunic and matching grey pants. He’s working with a large piece of wood. His hands are huge and gnarled. He has a finger missing on his right hand. It’s his little finger. He’s cutting the wood into pieces and then laying them down on the ground in front of him in a neat row. He’s finished with cutting the wood now, but he keeps staring at one of the pieces on the ground, in particular. It has some natural streaks of color in it that look a lot like the shape of a body. Now I see him carving that piece of wood so it looks like a person who’s either dancing or jumping. There were a couple of quick flashes that I couldn’t quite make out. Okay. Now it’s totally in the shape of the figurine and he’s painting it with very bright colors and putting a big smile on its face. He has some sort of shop or store. He’s placing it in the window, toward the bottom of the display area and on the left hand side. Right next to it is a carving of an attar. Now I see a woman with a little girl. They’re looking in the display window. The woman is very beautiful, with long reddish hair that’s been twisted into a complicated hair style on top of her head. The little girl has long blond hair. The man is taking both the carving of the attar and the figurine out of the window and is giving them to the woman. Now I see the figurine sitting on a window sill in a little girl’s bedroom. I see the attar on a shelf.”
At the sound of a sniffle, Kendra ended the read. She opened her eyes to see Phylarina Zola wiping tears from her eyes and Phylior Antos with his arm draped across his wife’s shoulders to comfort her.
She blotted one last tear from her eye and then looked around the room at her family and guests. “The wood carver’s name was Dosh and he was well known in our community. The woman was my mother and, of course, the little girl was me. I had been admiring that figurine for a long time. My mother got it for me in honor of my day of birth. Every time I look at it, I think of her. The attar was a gift for my brother. Thank you very much for helping me relive that special time.”
Chapter Five
KENDRA, DEV, VALON AND DAYOR, accompanied by small group of hand-picked security people, left for the Paralu held region of Caliva the next morning. Once there, they would be meeting with representatives of all of the royal houses of Mali for a psychometry reading of the crystele star.
The transport they boarded for the trip to the Paralu’s secure facility was fast, efficient and quiet. It was called a hopper because it was limited to travel within planet airspace only. The location of the building had been kept confidential from all but the royal family members and a limited number of Couros security personnel. It was on a tropical island, near the Paralu continent, and was considered to be one of the most secure locations the Paralus had to offer.
Dayor had handpicked the members of the small security group that was to travel with them. Even though he’d been assured by the Paralus that they’d thoroughly screened both their security forces and their facility, he’d sent a team of his own men there in the middle of the night. They’d run scans in and around the facility and had found everything to be in order.
They were expecting to land on the island within the next half hour. The land transport to the facility would only take about ten minutes. For the sake of both time and security, introductions to the royal family’s representatives and the usual diplomatic exchanges were to be kept to an absolute minimum. The psi-examination of the artifact would be done immediately and should take less than an hour. The entire group would then return to Caliva.
Sitting in the seat across from Dev, Kendra could see he was starting to get jittery. Dev never got jittery.
“Dev, is there a problem?”
When he didn’t respond, she reached over and gave him a little shake.
“Dev, what’s going on?
Again, no response.
“Dayor! Valon! Something’s going on with Dev! I think he may be going into shock! I’ve never seen him like this before!”
As Kendra watched, Dev’s eyes rolled back into his head and his mouth went slack. Suddenly, there was a large explosion outside of the transport, next to the wing. The sound was deafening. Another explosion, closer this time. Then a third one, just before everything went black.
Kendra wasn’t sure why she was there, but she knew she was in water. Someone’s arm was folded under her right arm and across her chest to her left shoulder.
“I’ve got you. We’re almost to shore.”
She knew it was Valon’s voice, but she could barely hear it. She couldn’t figure out why there was such a terrible ringing sound in her ears. The next thing she knew, she was out of the water and she was being dragged somewhere by her arms. Then it all came back to her…the transport, the explosions, feeling wind all around her, and then landing in the water.
She could hear someone swearing – they were Calivan expressions. She could also feel something pushing on her chest. She coughed, took a deep breath and then coughed some more.
She opened her eyes to see Valon leaning over her. She could feel his hand on her cheek. He was wet, and dirty and had a cut on his forehead, but he was alive. They both were.
“Valon. We’re alive.” The urge to kiss him was immediate and one she couldn’t resist. She reached up, wrapped her arms around him and pulled him toward her. Valon looked deeply into her eyes and gently touched his lips to hers. She closed her eyes and pulled him even closer. She heard a soft growl in his throat just before he deepened the kiss.
Wait! What am I doing? We’re lying on the beach. People could be hurt…or worse.
Kendra quickly broke from the kiss and took a moment to catch her breath.
“What about the others?”
Valon wiped the back of his hand across his forehead and then looked around.
“I see some people over there. Stay here for a minute. I’ll be right back.”
Still dizzy and a little disoriented, Kendra slowly sat up. She could see that Valon was limping a little as he moved toward two figures. One was pulling the other out of the water. There were two other figures washing ashore; they weren’t moving at all. Out in the water, there were huge, blackened and twisted piles of metal.
Oh, no. Dev. Please don’t let him be gone.
She watched as Valon leaned down to pull the first and then the second of the unmoving figures out of the water. He checked them for signs of life, but from his body language, she didn’t think there were any. He then quickly walked the rest of the way to the two others who had made it out of the water and then turned and looked back at Kendra.
She slowly worked her way up to a standing position on the rocky beach. She quickly checked herself over. Other than some cuts and a whole lot of scrapes, she seemed to be okay. Still shaky, she carefully made her way toward Valon and the two men.
As she got closer to them, she was able to recognize the man who was still lying flat in the sand. From the angle of his leg, she thought it was probably broken, but he was moving. Her relief was almost overwhelming. It was Dev.
Alive. Thank the stars!
Then, she saw Valon and the other man embrace in a quick man-hug. She was close enough to them now to see that it was Dayor. By his gestures, she could tell he was furious. She watched him jab at his wrist unit as he coded in what she assumed was either a message or an alarm.
As she got closer, she could hear Dayor telling Valon that he was sure security forces were already coming. The moment their sensors would have picked up on the explosions, they’d have been on their way. They’d be arriving in droves, from both the Couros and the Paralus family locations, any second.
Able to move more quickly now, Kendra hurried to the group. She gave Dayor a hurried reassuring squeeze of his shoulder and then knelt in the sand next to Dev. He quickly grabbed onto her hand and then sat up part way, bracing himself on one arm.
“I saw…just before we were hit…
pre-cog event…Kendra, I saw who it was.”
“Okay Dev, just take it easy and tell me.”
“It was one of the Paralus. The son. The youngest one. I don’t remember his name right now.”
Dayor and Valon both knelt down in the sand next to Kendra.
“Are you sure? Valon demanded.
“Yes. I recognized him from the holos in the Mali info pack I studied. I saw his house’s insignia. It was on his wrist com unit. He was with others, who I didn’t recognize. They had a device that looked kind of like an old Earth shoulder rocket launcher. I could see them aiming at us and then, I don’t know what happened. I guess I just blacked out.
“Where were they?”
“Not sure. Close by, I think. All I could see was a lot of vegetation.”
They looked up at the sound of hoppers approaching. As Dayor had predicted, they were coming from every direction and there were a lot of them. Some were mini hoppers, designed to be able to put down just about anywhere. They were already circling to land on the beach. The rest of them would have to land at the closest hopper pad.
Most of them bore the colors of the Paralus, but two of them were Couros owned. They had been in the area as part of the small security group that had come in the night before. They were transported by the minis back to the Couros palace.
While they were in route, Kendra noticed that Valon was unusually quiet. Every time she looked over at him, he was staring at her. She cursed herself for that kiss. But, oh, it had felt so very right.
Other than a few cuts and bruises, Kendra, Valon and Dayor had miraculously been spared. In addition to his severely broken leg, Dev had two broken ribs, a bruised kidney and numerous contusions. Even with the best medical care either on Mali or Earth, it was determined that it could be a few days before he would be up and around and up to a week before he’d be completely healed. Sadly, two members of the security team had lost their lives.
***
The Couros family, led by Phylior Antos, had been in numerous holo conferences with the Phylior of the Paralu family and his representatives. They seemed to be genuinely flummoxed by the accusation that one of their own had been responsible for the attack on Valon, his escorts and two Alliance agents from Earth, who were under Couros protection. They had, of course, begun an immediate investigation, in which the Couros were demanding they be directly involved. To make matters worse, the accused member of the Paralu family had disappeared without a trace.
The Couros, in the meantime, were continuing their investigation of the bomb that had been planted in the palace.
***
While Dev recuperated, Kendra spent the next several days working closely with Valon. Occasionally, Dayor joined them. They were tasked with performing the final reviews of the security tapes from around Caliva in an attempt to locate the still missing Arton Venteg and his wife.
Kendra continued to notice the change in Valon that had started the day of the rocket attack on the hopper. At times, it seemed to her to be getting even worse.
He had become completely overprotective of her. He’d even arranged to have around-the-clock security people assigned to act as her body guards. Unless she was with him or in her quarters, they were constantly by her side. Having them around was driving her completely nuts.
One day, when she and Valon were working alone, Kendra decided to say something to him about it.
“Valon, we need to talk.”
“Okay. Is there a problem?”
“Yes, but it’s one that can be resolved very easily. Dev is almost fully recovered. He and I are a team and are responsible for watching each other’s backs, so I’d like my body guards to be reassigned. They’re wonderful and I appreciate your concern for my wellbeing, but I won’t be needing them in the future.”
Valon gave no response. He just continued to review the security reports.
“Valon, did you hear me?”
Valon turned his head toward Kendra, looked her directly in the eye and very calmly said, “Yes. I heard you. The answer to your request is, no.” And then he went back to the reports.
Kendra was stunned. “What do you mean, no?”
Valon turned his head toward her again. “I thought I was very clear. No, I am not going to reassign your body guards. They protect you when I’m not around to do so myself, so they’re going to stay.”
“Valon, I’m an Agent with the Intergalactic Alliance. I’m a black belt; I’ve been trained in hand-to-hand combat; I’m top rated in almost all available hand weapons; I’ve been to dozens of planets in the multiverse without a problem, and most importantly, I’m smart. I don’t need the body guards for protection and, quite honestly, I don’t need you for protection. I can take care of myself.”
Kendra couldn’t believe it. He appeared to be furious with her. He was so stressed out that he had actually developed a tic in his right eye. “Whether you think you need my protection or not, Kendra, you have it, and you don’t have a choice about it.”
“I’m very surprised, Valon, that your stick has returned. I think it’s even higher up your butt than it was the first time I met you. I’d forgotten how unappealing it was. I’m scheduled to meet with Dev for Alliance business, so if you’ll excuse me…”
“Kendra, wait! You don’t understand. That day in the hopper…I almost…we almost lost you. You weren’t breathing! No matter what I did. You. Were. Not. Breathing. I don’t ever want to feel like that again!”
Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. She saw him look at her mouth and knew he was going to kiss her. Kendra thought it was going to be rough and demanding, but she was wrong. It was soft and gentle and made her want more.
The sudden buzzing of the com link on her wrist unit ended the kiss. “Crap. I’m late. Dev and I have a holo meeting scheduled with the Alliance’s Director. I have to go.”
Valon reluctantly released Kendra, but before he let her go entirely he said, “You matter to me, Kendra. A lot. I don’t know if you feel the same way. It’s something I’d like to talk with you about. Soon.”
“Yes. Soon.”
What Valon didn’t realize was how terrified Kendra was of her feelings for him. She’d never really had a family. Her parents and sister had been killed in an accident when she’d been twelve years old. She’d been raised in foster care and had never really bonded with any of the families she stayed with. She had been alone for ten years, until she and Dev met during their Alliance training and he and his parents and siblings made her an unofficial part of their family.
***
The next day’s meeting with representatives of the Couros family and Dayor produced some interesting results. As they reviewed the data they’d collected, to date, they realized they’d missed a huge clue. The focus of the attempted attack in the palace and the actual attack on the hopper wasn’t necessarily at Kendra and Dev, or anyone from the royal family. The common denominator was actually the ancient artifact, which Kendra never got to psi-read.
The Couros demanded that the artifact be released to them immediately so it could be read while under the lead protection of the Dayor and the Couros Security Division. With that arrangement, the other royal houses would only be assisting in the security process.
The artifact was to be delivered to their palace the next day. Representatives of all three families were to be present for the psi-read.
***
Kendra knew she was being ridiculous and unprofessional, but she was nervous. Her ability had never failed her, but, somehow this was different…more important. Dev also seemed keyed up.
Dev and Kendra witnessed the arrival of the artifact, which had happened with a great deal of pomp and circumstance. Because of its extremely low temperature, it was still resting in the clear crystele vessel in which it had been transported. The transparent properties of the container meant that the approximately ten-inch long and five-inch across star shaped relic was visible to everyone present. The star was beautifully for
med and emitted the slightly pulsing almost ethereal light that many objects made of the rare peridot colored crystele were known for.
Kendra removed the newly developed neuro-mesh gloves from their protective wrap. They’d been designed to shield the psi-reader from the extreme temperatures of an object, without blocking the psi-connection. She placed them on her hands and immediately felt the tingling sensation in her fingers that was part of their normal effect.
Dev was seated on her left. He placed his hand on her shoulder. Kendra picked up the artifact, closed her eyes and focused. Images immediately began flashing in her mind in rapid succession.
With Dev there to amplify her psychometry abilities, the pictures were rich with color and clear as a bell. She began reporting what she was seeing so everyone could hear. Two holo recorders had been set up to document the read.
Ancient Caliva had been the birthplace of the effigy. Kendra watched as the artist, an old man, with graying hair and a hooked nose carved at the small chunk of crystele for days. Using only primitive tools and the muscles in his callused hands, he created the beautiful star and then traded it to a smaller more refined looking man for a plot of land.
Kendra watched the images of the smaller man giving it to his wife as a birthing present. She’d just born him a son. The son grew up and gave it to his own bride on their wedding day. The effigy transferred from family to family and generation to generation. Kendra’s voice rose and fell with each movement of the piece through time.
Baby, it's Cold in Space: Eight Science Fiction Romances Page 11