by Viola Grace
“Her talent is for molecular manipulation. She has to replace what she uses or she burns up her own body mass.”
N’kad was surprised that he was getting the details of someone’s talent.
Brodin witnessed the contract with the tap of his finger, and he smiled. “Welcome to the Sector Guard Base Teklan. You can have as much acclimation time as you need. Visit the Citadel when you wish, and the course list is on a flagged file on the terminal in your room. Food and drink is in the commissary with a small dispenser in your quarters, specifically equipped uniforms are available on appointment with Fixer.”
N’kad put his hands on his thighs. “Is that it?”
“Yes. There is a com system built into your suit. If there is anything urgent, we will contact you.”
Being free to wander on an alien world was a new experience. Emror had been his home for his entire life. He had never anticipated leaving, but then, he had never imagined that his people wouldn’t pay a modest ransom for him. He had been their hero. In their eyes, he should have saved himself.
He stood, inclined his head and left the office, heading for the door to the fresh air of Teklan and the path to the Citadel.
* * * *
Simry worked her way through her meal and settled in one of the comfortable chairs with a tea tray next to her.
A few friends came by to see how she was doing, and even Leodar settled into a chair nearby to apologize.
“I am sorry. What I said was...It was uncalled for.”
“What you want, I can’t give. I am not the one for you; our minds are on such different frequencies, it is sometimes painful to be near you. You know that. At least let me think about a life with someone I could partner up with, in any sense of the word, without giving me attitude.”
Leodar sighed and put his head in his hands. “I know. I am sorry.”
“I am not a damsel in distress, and you don’t need to rescue me. I am a bitchy cripple who just wants to do her work and occasionally have cake.”
“You are not a cripple, you know it is mental.”
Simry grinned that he didn’t refute the bitchy portion of her comment. “I know, but ten years of motion doesn’t just disappear when Reset does her thing. She can’t reset my muscle memory, so this is what happens when I get irritated and stressed. I didn’t have my cheering and massage squad today when I woke up, so I will have to sleep it off.”
“Don’t you have a class tomorrow?”
“I do. I can teach astral manipulation as well with my cane as without it.”
A deep voice sounded nearby. “You teach?”
She looked up, way up, and there was a face she thought had to be an egotist’s memory.
Simry smiled up at him. “You made it.”
N’kad inclined his head. “I did. Thank you.”
He reached for her hand and bowed until he brushed his lips across her skin.
Leodar got to his feet. “You have met?”
Simry felt the tingling on her skin from the light contact as she retrieved her hand. “Yes. Dozens of worlds ago. It is good to see you up and around. You are taller than I thought.”
He smiled. “And you are actually real.”
Leodar cleared his throat. “Pardon me. Who are you?”
N’kad turned to him and extended his hand. “I am N’kad, new Guardsman attached to Teklan Base.”
Simry made the rest of the introductions. “He is Leodar and I am Simry.” She winked.
Simry looked at the pleased expression on his face. She knew he was relieved to have found a place to belong and a duty to follow. “Congratulations.”
“As I am new here, I would be honoured if you would give me a tour.”
“I would be delighted.” She took her cane and levered herself upright.
Instead of commenting on her disability, he simply offered her his arm.
Leodar looked as if he would comment, but she glared at him and he backed away.
She curled her hand around N’kad’s bicep, and she gestured to the room around her. “This is the dining and common area. There are common areas on each floor, as well, for group vids and that sort of thing.”
“You seem to have a fair selection of food items here.” He walked slowly, and she kept her balance with his help.
“There are a wide variety of species here. Some can’t digest certain foods, others eat seasonal foods only. They have to make sure that all of us thrive and survive.” She smiled.
She showed him their medical center. The gym. The gardens that were just beginning to take shape and the lecture halls where the optional education was always offered to any who wished it. They walked slowly, but her limp was barely noticeable.
When they were in the gardens and sitting on one of the benches near the new fountain that was being constructed by the stone-manipulation class, he finally asked her. “Why do you use a cane?”
She sighed. “Sorry. Habit. When I use my talent too extensively and don’t take the proper precautions, my body remembers that it spent over a decade with a malformed leg. The damage isn’t there but the memory is, so I pick the cane up on those days.”
“So, when you overtire yourself?”
“Yes, or when I ghost while angry.”
“You did that today?”
“I did. I was irritated by a friend’s comment, so I threw myself into my work, which left my body and mind tenuously connected. That is what causes my body to go into old patterns.”
He took her hand. “Did it happen while you were with me?”
“No. I had friends giving me massages to get all the nerves and muscles to line up. They took good care of me while I was coming back to myself.” She smiled.
“I will be honest. I didn’t think you were real.”
She chuckled. “To be frank, I doubted that you were as handsome as I see now. Folk have funny views of themselves and the physical seldom matches the astral.”
“Thank you, I think.”
“You are welcome.” She winked at him.
“So, what do you do here?”
“I run security scans on unmanned vehicles, on satellites, anywhere that has no atmosphere but can be taken over by those who are unscrupulous or predatory. I have walked through more silent hallways than anyone I know.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
“It is all I have. I am not physically capable of being out in the field without special equipment and I haven’t saved enough money for it yet.”
He frowned. “You have to pay?”
“For my own equipment? Yes. If it isn’t a life-support matter, Citadel Specialists and Masters have to pick up the tab for all incidentals. Even rations are deducted from our pay.” She smiled.
“Oh, I thought that the Sector Guard and the Citadel were the same.”
Simry laughed. “The Citadel is a school and employment center with occasional forays into being a refuge. The Sector Guard goes in for rescues and natural disasters. More law enforcement and emergency services.”
“I heard you mentioning teaching when I arrived.”
She blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. “Ah, yes. I do teach from time to time. Tomorrow, I am teaching a class on why a psychic would use astral projection and how to protect yourself from exterior interference when you are away from your body.”
“Are there spaces available?” He quirked his brow and gave her a charming smile.
She had to admit, she was charmed. She had been in dozens of bodies, but his was the only one she had wanted to explore.
“Um, you would have to check the registration. I just show up, and if there are folks to speak to, I talk.”
He inclined his head. “I shall look into it. I have a few weeks off and would enjoy learning what I could about the Citadel and its people.”
There was much more in his tone than a simple interest in education.
“Well, it is time for me to head to medical, so
I am afraid that this conversation will have to come to an end.” Simry got to her feet and balanced with her cane.
“Are you ill?”
“No, but I need a massage to get to sleep tonight. My mind is remembering an old pain, and it will remain with me until I can purge it. I am used to it. Even with Reset’s help, this is as good it will get.”
He offered her his arm again. “You need a massage to rest?”
“Yes. That or a sedative. I just prefer the rubdown that reminds my body that my leg is no longer broken.”
N’kad nodded and escorted her to medical. “Well, thank you for your time. The information you have given me has been most helpful.”
Simry smiled. “I am glad you are up and around. Enjoy your new life as a Guardsman.”
He bowed and pressed a kiss to her hand again. “You know, I think I will.”
Simry watched him disappear down the hall before she hopped into the med center. “M’rin, I did it again.”
Chapter Five
Simry tried to remain calm and centered as she faced the full class. Fifteen faces stared at her and one was increasingly familiar.
“Astral movement is a fairly common talent. It can be anything from seeing visions of another room to sending your consciousness across the stars. It can be done in dreams or while wide awake. Not all psychic talents can engage in this manoeuvre, but for those who can, recognisance is a matter of sending your mind to a place where your body can’t go.”
Simry flicked the screen behind her and images of men and women on life support scrolled across in a slow procession. “When you leave your body for a living, you need to know where you have put it. Most astral walkers who have issues in finding their bodies end up unravelling across space, a blip on a sensor until they fade away. Keeping control over your body and its location becomes a matter of survival.”
Several of the students in the lecture hall looked ill.
“Today, we will discuss your tether, protecting your body and holding your mind in a tight column. Who here is familiar with the relay system?”
Three of her students raised their hands.
“Well, for those of you who are unaware of the relays, they are talents and simply open-minded individuals who act as a secure transit point for information. That will include some of you. By going through the relays, you have a last point of contact and a first point of contact. You can literally find your way home by remembering the first and last place you went. The relays will do the rest.”
One student called out, “Can’t the relays tell us which way to go?”
Simry shook her head. “No. We are routed through a portion of their brain that they don’t use for active cognition. That is what makes them relays, they can compartmentalize their minds to let information simply glide through using their thoughts as locks similar to those on waterways.”
She went on and explained how relays functioned and how they were of no help to anyone in an emergency. It was a lie, but it served its purpose.
The next phase was to show how the psychic could more easily project themselves if their bodies were comfortable.
A copy of her chair was on the speaker’s dais, and she settled into it. “Finding the means and method for making yourself comfortable is the key to being effective. For some, they curl into a ball, others cross their legs and meditate, others kneel and a few can even do this standing up. The astral projector attaches monitor leads, which alarm if he or she suffers any physical stress. This pulls the wanderer back to the body with a disorienting snap, but it gets you back where you are supposed to be.”
She clipped the lead to her finger and another around her neck. With a deep breath, she relaxed, left her body and ghosted into the computer, projecting herself on the screen.
“Now that I am in the computer, I can manipulate it to my purposes. This is my particular skill and one I had no idea I possessed until I left my home and entered the Citadel.”
While she was in the machine, she continued to talk as a small gun rose from the machine and panned the room.
“Control of mechanical objects is not an unknown skill, but actually keeping your consciousness inside it is a little different. I am inside the machine and moving it by its own means and methods. I can’t change its shape, and I, also, cannot phase my body into it. My body is vulnerable and unprotected. Any of you could go up and do anything from stabbing me to shaving my head and I am helpless. This is the exchange of the astral projection. You get massive travel abilities and your body could be murdered while you are gone, that is why the monitors are vital. Do not leave your body without them.”
She resumed her body and removed the leads.
The rest of the course was about insulating their minds and crafting a tether to keep them tied to their bodies.
When the chime rang, she sighed in relief and thanked everyone for coming.
N’kad came up to her and waited in line as the students pelted her with questions. When he stopped in front of her, he inclined his head. “Thank you. It answered many questions.”
She smiled and blushed. “I am glad. I am off for lunch. Would you join me?”
He sighed. “I regret that I have booked another class. Please excuse me. Thank you again for the informative morning.”
He nodded again and headed down the aisle to the door.
Simry sighed softly as she watched him go. Wide shoulders, a narrow waist and an intriguing backside made the view extremely entertaining. The tawny colouring of the suit enhanced the nearly nude factor of the suit, and her admiration would have been unremarkable if he hadn’t turned slowly in the doorway and winked.
Simry felt her knees buckle as she fought the urge to flee her body. She simply grinned and shrugged, waving him on his way.
She fanned herself with the edge of her instructor’s robes, tidied up the room and headed to the commissary for lunch.
She joined friends and sat around discussing the pros and cons of teaching new recruits how to leave their bodies. As if to prove her point, one of her students dropped to the ground across the dining hall.
Simry took a deep breath, left her body and went to hunt down the loose soul on the astral plain. It looked to be that kind of an afternoon.
* * * *
N’kad worked at the simulator; his hands looked ridiculously large on the computer-generated limb under his palms. Taking a massage course had become mandatory when he had expressed his desire to be partnered with Simry on all future assignments.
He hadn’t told her yet, but if he couldn’t manage to learn enough about her to keep her healthy while they travelled, General Brodin and Reset would not let them be together. It would be financially beneficial to her, and he would have her close.
Even though it was an assignment, he had felt a connection between them when she teased and taunted him back into caring about the world around him and his part in it.
She had given him a reason to live, whether she knew it or not. He was going to be worthy of her effort and keep her whole during their assignments.
The healer who was guiding the class came by and checked the readouts. “Excellent, N’kad. Just the right amount of pressure.”
He nodded but didn’t lose his focus. He kept his hands moving over the simulation until the class was over. When the class was over, he thanked his instructor, flexed his hands and returned to the Guard base.
Fixer was fitting a shuttle with a suspension couch for Simry, as well as working on a suit that would work to keep circulation moving while she was immobile. N’kad had ten more days to learn everything about his soon-to-be partner before he was going to have to tell her what was going on. Maybe he should aim for eight days. It might take her a while to calm down.
* * * *
Simry finished an afternoon of work and headed to medical. Three more of her students had jumped out of their bodies just to see what they could do. Two had broken wrists and one had a concussion.
Simry settled in a chair and quickly caught her loose students, stuffing them back into their bodies. The medical students took it from there, healing the broken bones and the contusion with their own means.
Simry sighed and got to her feet. The healing instructor grinned.
“I do love your classes. We always get to practice right afterward.”
“Not as much as the flying course.”
“No, not as much as that, but a lovely variety of coma and injuries. It really makes us work.”
Simry stretched. “I am so happy I can be of use. No matter how many times I tell them not to do something, they seem drawn to it.”
Healer M’rin looked them over. “They don’t seem incredibly stupid. Just adventurous, I suppose.”
As Simry glared at her students, they looked sheepish and glanced at each other.
“It was a group effort. They wanted to try it together. Gee. I hope I got them back in the right bodies.” She raised her voice for the last sentence.
M’rin caught on. “I hope so. The last time it happened, we had them mixed by the psychic-healing class. It took you a while to help sort them after that.”
Simry gave a theatrical shudder. “Or the two that were spliced together.”
The three in the beds were staring at their limbs and trying to figure out if they were who they thought they were.
Simry chuckled and headed off for dinner.
M’rin stopped her. “Drinks later?”
“Sure. I will meet you in the dining hall.”
“I will be there as soon as this bunch is sorted. Yivick is a fire healer, so this is not going to be fun.”
Simry left quickly before the screaming started. Flame healing was definitely not something she enjoyed experiencing or listening to.
Dinner with friends and drinks with M’rin seemed to be her kind of evening.
“So, why is the new Guardsman taking massage courses?” M’rin looked at her over the top of an ornate cocktail glass.
Simry spluttered. “What?”