by Viola Grace
Port Hole smiled and reached out her hand. “I don’t think we were introduced.”
Max smiled and took Port Hole’s hand. “My code name is Mini Max.”
“Port Hole. I guess we can do actual names a little later.”
“Probably once we have gone on a mission. Are you happy to be on Team Eight?”
Port Hole sighed. “I am happy to be invited to a team. My family doesn’t think much of my gift, that it is too small an area to be useful.”
“You did a good job at Forecast.”
Port Hole blushed. “I was worried I would be expunged from the team.”
“I don’t think so. Jianik picked us all for very specific purposes. She had her reasons, and I think that we all work well on paper.”
“Paper?”
Max blinked. “Right. On tablets. Sorry. I come from a farming community. We still use paper now and then.”
Port Hole nodded. Wrapped and Cone of Silence were standing quietly, watching the repairs to their teammate.
Max looked around at the group that had just adopted her, and she smiled and shook her head. In all her life, she had never imagined that she would be part of such a group. Every single one of them was profoundly wrong in one particular way, and that made the bunch of them all precisely right. In a tough situation, they could stand back to back and defend each other. It was a particularly fulfilling moment.
Port Hole murmured, “So, when do you think we will go on our first mission?”
Max looked around and found the serious face of Investigator Jianik writing frantically and taking a census of the team before smiling and nodding precisely.
“I am thinking that we start going out the moment that we get our official suits. The second that we are official, registered, and our credentials are ready, we are going to be summoned and out, doing what we are here to do.”
Port Hole smiled and crossed her arms. “Good. I really want to see what you can do actively.”
Max stifled her grin. Normally, her activity was delivering babies. That wasn’t precisely a group event, but she supposed that she could sell tickets or something. It would definitely put a different spin on it.
Chapter Nine
Six months later.
Max bolted through the portal between worlds, and she stumbled out into the shed in her junkyard. Time. She was running out of time.
She burst out of the shed, locked it, and ran for the house. Time. Time.
She used her gel shower and put on her custom dress, pulling on the nanite-based shoes, and she clattered down her steps, running out to get in her truck.
She revved the engine, warned the peacekeepers that she was coming through, and fired the truck to run cross-country to save as much time as possible.
Her com kept chirping with messages asking where she was and counting down to her doom. She drove as fast as she could without overshooting the farm.
The ceremony hadn’t started yet. She pulled up and set her truck down on its treads, leaving the hover cushion behind.
She sprinted toward the house, past the guests sitting and waiting. Her mother greeted her inside the door and exhaled. “We thought you were going to miss it.”
Max looked up at her and smiled. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
“I had hoped you would be more Maid of Honour and less flower girl, Max.” Niina was standing behind their mom and smiling, ready to marry her sweetheart.
Max nodded and took a deep breath, following the recommendations of the therapists and the other gifted that she had been meeting with. She got taller and taller until her dress was elegant and not a froth of fabric.
Niina blinked. “You can do that now?”
“I don’t just get paid by them, they are helping me with this.” She didn’t add that the boost was temporary. It would last long enough.
She took the flowers from her sister and kissed her cheek. “I wouldn’t have missed today for the world.”
Niina smiled. “I only want one girl, so I won’t put too much of a demand on your time.”
“Demand all you like. I am feeling whole for the first time in a long time, and I am going to try and do it all. If it becomes difficult, I will tell you. Have as many as you like.”
Their mom cried and sniffled. “My girls. My oldest and youngest.”
They huddled together and cried and laughed for a moment before insistent knocking on the door got their attention. They all wiped away tears and stood straight. Giggling again.
Max held her flowers in front of the dress that matched them, and she came out of the main house, walking the fabric-covered path to the official who would bind the contract between Niina and Recko, Max’s assistant mechanic.
She walked slowly with her mother escorting Niina. When they got to the podium, she stepped aside and reached into her dress for the rings she had sewn there. She knew she would forget to look on the day, so she had sewn the rings into her dress collar.
She exhaled in relief. The rings were there.
Recko looked at her, stared at her dress, and blinked. She grinned. He had joked that she should wear her boiler suit.
She stood, tall and elegant, knowing that for once she was appropriately dressed for the event.
The seamstresses in the crowd were staring at her and probably trying to figure out the yardage for coverage and the delicate flutters of silky panels that made her look like she was constantly standing in a gentle breeze.
The music changed, and the bride made her entrance, walking with her mother, her head high, and a bright grin on her face. Niina was no shy bride. She had decided on Recko when Max introduced them, and they had been inseparable ever since.
Max stood and did her duty, handing over the rings when it was time.
The official looked a little bemused, but she turned to Max, “The bride and groom have asked that you say a few words.”
Max blinked, opened and closed her mouth, and then, she nodded.
She stepped closer to the couple. “Niina was the first baby that I brought into the world when I was seven years old. I loved watching her grow, and she didn’t let my size or occupation phase her. She was my cheerleader and my friend. I am beyond delighted that I have been able to find a dress that shows how much I honour her decision to wed today.”
The crowd laughed.
“Recko came to me as a potential felon. He tried to steal some parts from my shop, and I caught him, held him until he had stopped screaming like a wounded calf, and then, we began the process of him learning how to repair the vehicles and having a steady income. He became an honourable young man, and when he was ready, I introduced him to Niina, or I stopped keeping them apart. The rest is shown to you here today.”
She smiled. “I am sorry that you will probably have a daughter as your first, and unless business keeps taking me away, it might be your doom.”
Recko was holding Niina’s hands. “I can deal with it. I will take whatever nature and exposure to a Demyani bring me.”
“Then, I wish you joy, prosperity, and your goals in life fulfilled.”
Recko and Niina looked at each other and smiled. They said in unison, “First one down.”
The party began immediately.
Max had to make another toast, and then, she sat down, watching the open-air party swell and flow around the central yard.
When two of her nephews brought her com from the truck, she knew something was wrong.
Niina and Recko were dancing, so Max walked to the quiet of the barn, and she opened the most expensive equipment she had, next to the portal.
“Mini Max. What is the issue?”
Forecast murmured, “Max, we really need an assist here. We have taken fire and can’t progress. Can you come?”
She nodded and turned toward the party. “I can. Send me the coordinates, I am on my way.”
She got the details and nodded. “Hold the fort for forty-five minutes.
”
Max closed the call and went to talk to Niina, who had moved on to speaking with her friends and family. “I have to get going, little one.”
Niina blinked. “Now?”
“Yes. I was given leave for this, but a situation developed after I left. I have to get back.”
Niina linked arms with her and walked casually to the truck. “Do you have your suit with you?”
“Of course.”
“Can you put it on? I have never seen it, and I want to see you going off to proper work, sis.”
Max shrugged, noted that they were gaining a crowd, but she pressed the small nodule that had been implanted between her breasts. The suit flared out and around her skin, sliding along under the dress.
Max pulled the dress off and over her head, folding it over her arm.
Niina’s eyes were huge. “That suits you more than anything I have ever seen you wear.”
“I have an excellent designer. You should meet her one day. She’s blue.”
Niina blinked, and then, she gave Max a huge hug. “Thank you for making it.”
“I will always try. Now, I have to get going. I have to make it to the other end of the cluster in the next twenty minutes, and ten of that is just driving. Have a good honeymoon. Recko is ticklish. Use that to keep him in line.”
Max left, feeling light at heart until the party was behind her and the situation that her team was in sank in. Negotiations had obviously broken down after she left.
Mini Max was grinning as she was striding toward her portal. It was a pity that they hadn’t counted on her coming back. The guerillas were in for a bit of a surprise.
* * * *
Made scowled and flexed her remaining hand. “What’s the time?”
Forecast smiled and said, “Listen.”
There was silence where there had been gunfire. Next, an occasional scream and then nothing.
Forecast got to her feet and walked for the door. She grabbed Made’s severed arm and held it in place while the supressed nanites grafted it in place. The local area had enough magnetic interference to mess with both Made and Wrapped.
Port Hole had been taken hostage, and Cone had been talking to her to keep her calm.
Cone smiled. “Max has her. We are good.”
* * * *
Max carefully snapped the cuffs around Port Hole’s wrists. She wrinkled her nose at the small hands. “I am guessing we just found the practical use for small strength.”
Port Hole laughed. “You knew there had to be something.”
“Yeah, I always thought it was winning at arm wrestling with my nephews. So, did we meet mission parameters?”
Port Hole pointed to the cell next door. “As soon as we get them out of here, the answer is yes.”
Max went over and broke through every door and restraint that she could reach, and Port Hole lifted her up for the ones she couldn’t.
The rescued hostages were a little surprised, but Max crawled onto Port Hole’s back, and she said, “Shall we? I threw them pretty far, but they will be back in an hour or two. No time to dawdle.”
Port Hole laughed. “If they can walk.”
“Oh. Right. Forgot about that.” They headed out, and the other members of the team met them. They surrounded the hostages, carried those who needed it, and soon were on their way back to the transports that would get them off-world once again.
Max stayed on Port Hole’s back, and they were back at base and getting the hostages medical treatment before she started growing again.
She hopped down and went to get something to eat while the others were tended to.
Forecast came up to her and sat down. “How was the party?”
Max grinned. “I got the bouquet. Made speeches, people cried. Nieces and nephews ran riot. It wasn’t what I would recommend for a mid-mission break, but it turned out all right.”
Forecast nodded. “I hate to ask; how did the dress go over?”
“Extremely well, but my sister did pronounce that this suit is the thing that looks the most appropriate on me. She says it’s me.”
Forecast blushed. “That is what I was going for. How is the size adaptation?”
“It works very well. How is Bright Flight?”
Forecast chuckled. “You can call him Taxo when we are just together. My name is Lore.”
Max smiled and extended her hand. “Kiika Maxuna Zenacka. Most folks do call me Max.” Max paused. “But you probably knew that.”
Lore laughed. “I did, but thank you for just talking to me normally. Once folks know what I am, things can go very weird, very quickly.”
Max grabbed her cup with both tiny hands and crossed her legs. “You don’t say.”
They looked at each other and laughed, relieving what had been a very tense day.
It was the first of many more to come.
Author’s Note
Five down. One to go. These ladies have been a challenge, but I have enjoyed them.
Next up will be Port Hole. She has tremendous potential, but her family has complications with her joining a team.
Thanks for reading,
Viola Grace
About the Author
Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.
An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around, and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.
In real life, she now is engaged in beekeeping, and her adventures can be found on the YouTube channel, Mystery Bees Apiary. Just look for the cartoon kittens.