Waking Dream [Tales of the Citadel 23]

by Viola Grace

  “No taking risks that we wouldn’t let you take here, Wiyra.” He held her at arms’ length and smiled.

  She jerked her jaw upward. “I don’t take risks, I get results.”

  They hugged again, and when her throat wouldn’t let her speak, she walked over to join Burin. She nodded to him, and he put his arm around her shoulders, steering her to the port where he had parked his shuttle.

  It was time for her to leave home, and she grimly admitted that she was in good hands, even if those hands were exceptionally distracting.

  On board the shuttle, she stowed her gear and settled in the navigator seat. The hiss and clang as the tiny ship fell away from the platform burned its way into her memory.

  The view of the platform as they floated away was copied by her mind in every detail. Her last look at home was stamped into her memory while Burin shifted the shuttle around and headed back to Citadel Reevish.

  Chapter Five

  “So, do you go on recruitments often?” Wiyra wanted to fill in the silence so she couldn’t hear her heart pound with every minute further from her family.

  “Not that often, no. I usually locate the talent and another recruiter is sent in to lure them into a contract. For some reason, the Citadel doesn’t believe in my people skills.” He grinned, trying to cajole her out of her mood.

  She snorted. “I can’t see why. The first time you met my grandfather, you tried to buy me outright.”

  He chuckled. “Ah, if only I had known that you came with a dowry, everything would have gone much more smoothly.”

  Wiyra stared at him in shock. “What?”

  “Oh, didn’t Vecho mention it? He gave me your dowry, and I have transferred it into your private accounts. If you are not using it to catch a husband, it may be useful to do something else with.” He shrugged. “Oh, he told me not to mention it to you until we were far enough away that you couldn’t go back and kick his ass.”

  She used the monitors and snorted at their location. They were precisely far enough to keep her from an eye-line which meant that she wasn’t going to be able to get back into the platform without a few hits and misses.

  “He said that?” She knew Vecho had. It was the sort of thing he would mention to Burin.

  “He did. He told me about your parents and the explosion, your siblings and the difficulties you have had with finding a mate who can deal with your talent.”

  She blushed. It was common knowledge on the platform that no other family or clan wanted her on board as a wife or mother. Folk who lived in space were notoriously superstitious, and her ability to leave her body was close enough to repeated death to frighten them. It was unnatural life that she was using to walk around and that was not something that most miners wanted to deal with. Even her grandfather was going to have a much easier time finding staff for the platform now that she was gone.

  “There have been issues with finding another clan to take me on, so we simply waited for the right man to come along.” She quirked her lips as Burin’s chest puffed out slightly.

  She smirked as she said, “Unfortunately, you came along first.”

  He gave her a look through narrowed eyes. “Very funny.”

  “Thank you. I live to amuse. It is what I do when I am not jumping out of my own body or reading.” Wiyra shrugged.

  “You like to read?”

  “It is my only vice. Well, the only one that doesn’t involve pastries.” She chuckled.

  “There is a data pad on your right. You can access the Citadel library from there with just the flick of your finger.” He gestured and steered their shuttle toward open space.

  She smiled and lifted the data pad, bringing up records of the Hayish miners and their movements in the asteroid fields of the Alliance. She loved reading about her people, even if the Kwintos broke with tradition and courted wives from ground settlements.

  All the platforms knew that the Kwintos had mixed blood, but since they appeared to be standard Hayish, no one dared to ostracize them. Their wealth also played a significant role in their acceptance.

  Wiyra worked through all the current reported locations of the Hayish and smiled when the Kwinto platform was mentioned.

  She didn’t need to look up Citadel Reevish. She had committed it to memory the moment that Burin had left the first time. There was a reason that she had found him without trouble, she had known the exact coordinates of Reevish every time she went into the pod. It was a private obsession with safety that she had not shared with her cousin, her brothers or her grandfather, but she knew that if something happened, Burin would come to her aid. She was right.

  “So, what kind of thing do you normally track?” She tried to be casual, but it was difficult at such close quarters.

  “Stolen vessels, missing personnel, that sort of thing. Hey, would you be willing to take hunter training?”

  Wiyra blinked. “What?”

  “Hunter training. Personnel pursuit specialization. I think it would be a natural adjunct for your existing talents.” He smiled brightly.

  She paused for a moment and thought about it. Citadel Reevish was the home of paranormal tracker and hunter training. She had always thought of herself as a tracker or an investigator, never a more active hunter. “Well, I suppose since I have the dowry, I should spend some of it on personal improvement. I will bring up the class schedules and see what is available.”

  Wiyra pulled the schedule and blinked. “You are teaching hunter courses?”

  He shrugged and settled a jump halo on his head. “It keeps me busy between assignments. I actually had to cancel a few classes to retrieve you, so that will be on your account.”

  She snorted. “It will be counteracted by the signing bonus.”

  He winked. “You don’t know that. I am a very popular instructor.” The jump engine started to whir and his hand reached for the button.

  Wiyra looked at the coordinates that they were jumping to and the destination site image on the screen.

  A second later, he slapped the jump trigger, and the shuttle was in two places at the same time for an instant before it arrived at the other side of the jump.

  Wiyra floated in space, her body on the other side of the jump, and her astral body hanging in a big expanse of nothing. “Not again!”

  She concentrated on the coordinates she had seen before the jump, and she pulled her astral form through space. The shuttle was ahead of her, and with a jerk, she connected back to her flesh.

  She was lying on the bunk, and there were medical monitors on her.

  Burin was staring at her in horror. “What just happened?”

  She chuckled. “I haven’t jumped before. Now, I know why. I am going to have to pay through the nose for tech to keep me attached to my body during a jump. Do we have to do that again?”

  He shook his head. “No, we are almost there. Why didn’t you split from me when we jumped the first time?”

  “Oh, I was weak and concentrating on holding onto your energy. There wasn’t anywhere for me to go, but I slip out of my own body all the time.” She wrinkled her nose and shrugged.

  “Wow. You were dead.”

  She blinked. “Of course I was. You didn’t guess that by my touching original story when I was in your thoughts? I don’t register as alive when I am running around. Well, not unless I am in my pod. It is designed to keep me breathing and stuff, or at least well hydrated and fed which is close enough. Coming back to a cold body is disturbing.”

  She tried to sit up, but he pushed her back down with a hand to her sternum.

  “Stay where you are while I check your vitals.”

  She pursed her lips and waited while he finished checking her out.

  When he was finished, he looked down at her and shook his head. “You were dead.”

  “No, I was in a waking dream. There is a difference.” She sat up.

  He looked as if he wanted to pin her back to the bed, but he didn’t fight her return to the navigator’s seat. She hu
mmed to herself and reactivated the course computer to take them to Reevish.

  “Thanks for pausing the course. It would have been awkward to chase you.”

  He sat next to her with a thud. “I can imagine. I have no idea how I would have explained showing up on Reevish with a corpse.”

  She laughed, “Detailed scans would have seen a slight electrical impulse in my system. That is my homing signal, but I have to be close enough to locate my body then line up to re-enter and wake myself.”

  Burin was still stunned, but he contacted Reevish ground control and got landing clearance near the base.

  Wiyra was glad. She was hungry, she was tired and she needed a shower. It had been twenty-four, very full hours. She needed a nap.

  Chapter Six

  “You know, I really thought that I would have a nap, a meal and a shower first. This is unexpected.” Wiyra sat on a medical bed and watched the healer run scanners over her.

  “Master Tracker Burin wants to know what your baselines are so that he can be a more effective partner when you are in the field. That means running tests. I apologise for the delay in comforts.” The man smiled brightly at her, and she felt a light press on her mind.

  She smacked his shoulder. “Don’t do that. I don’t like that feeling.”

  He blinked. “You felt that?”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” Her brain still felt sore from all the activity and probably dehydration. She hadn’t had anything to drink since the pod.

  “Most races can’t detect the touch of my kind. We are the wraiths of the psychic world.”

  “Buchucan.”

  He went from surprised to shocked. “You know what that is?”

  “Of course. Ten grandmothers ago, we had a Buchucan. Her name was Udiana.” She smiled brightly. “I have thirty-four identifiable species in my heritage, and half of them had some kind of psychic talent.”

  “May I run your genetic line?”

  “Of course. Anything that will get me a meal faster.”

  He held up a syringe and a small blade. “I need to take blood and tissue.”

  “Go nuts.” She extended her arm and rolled up her sleeve.

  “Damn. Prishkin veins.” He smiled as he wiped her skin and settled the syringe’s needle against the curly-cues that marched up her inner arm. “You never see Prishkin veins in a mixed blood.”

  She smiled wistfully. “My mother was Prishkin. I am the only one of my siblings to have the veins.”

  “It would explain the total cessation of circulation that Burin reported. Your blood moves with mild subsurface muscle contractions. A mild pulse would be undetectable.”

  He looked as if she had just given him the best gift ever.

  After half an hour of poking and prodding, he asked her shyly if she could demonstrate her talent.

  She settled back on the exam bed and slipped out of her body, walking up to the healer and sticking her hand into his skull. “Here I am. Can you hear me?”

  He nodded. “Yes, I can hear you. It sounds like you are talking, but you aren’t making a sound. How are you doing that?”

  Burin entered with a tray of food. “She has a grip on your audio processor. You might want to do the scans of her unoccupied body, because the moment she is up, she is going to eat.”

  The healer scrambled to do just that, and astral Wiyra stood next to Burin, looking at the food. Fresh food was rare on the platform. They had a greenhouse, but it could not provide enough to feed them all every day. Fresh food was a true treat, and it was inches from her.

  She sidled into Burin. I really want that food. Is he done yet?

  I don’t think so. Give him a minute. He is trying to find that signature that you mentioned.

  He can find it tomorrow. I am hungry now.

  Why don’t you tell him?

  I am not going to jump into his body to talk to him. It is so rude.

  So, why are you inside me?

  You are my partner, we share. That includes bodies, and right now, I have to stay out of mine.

  He laughed out loud.

  The healer sent him an alarmed glance. “Where did she go?”

  “She is inside me, Healer. She hates being cold, and she wants to confirm that she is extremely hungry. Whatever you are going to do, do it faster.”

  He quickly used every scanner he could find to track her sleeping rate. Finally, he sighed in relief. “She isn’t dead. I found the signal that she mentioned. It is really dim but unmistakable. She is still alive.”

  Wiyra stepped out and slid back into her body. She shivered uncontrollably. “Food please.”

  Burn sat next to her and put an arm around her for support while he set the tray between them. Her hands shook violently but stabilized after a few bites.

  The healer was scanning like a fiend as she warmed her body with the last of the calories left to her and the new ones she was consuming.

  He asked her, “Are you always this shaken when you return?”

  “No. At home, I had a pod that I would enter, and it had life support that I was plugged in to. It kept me warm so that I wasn’t returning to a cold body. A cold body takes a lot of effort to get warm again.” She enunciated carefully, her jaw was still clenching.

  A bowl of soup was the next thing on her agenda, and she lifted the bowl with both hands, lifting it carefully to her mouth as she swallowed the hot stuff as fast as she could. The heat spread from her belly outward, and she sighed as the muscular rigor relaxed.

  Burin muttered, “Stop scanning and get her a blanket, idiot.”

  The healer blinked and immediately put down his scanner, walked to the cupboard and brought out a thermal blanket.

  The moment it was around her shoulders, Wiyra breathed a little easier. She worked her way through the foods that Burin had brought, silently bemoaning her inability to savour them. It was a matter of food for survival, and she was from a long line of survivors.

  When the tray was empty and her body was warm, she yawned. “There. One thing taken care of, now for a nap. Where can I crash?”

  He offered her his arm, and she took it.

  “I put your duffel in your room. You can sleep as long as you like. Your com will buzz me when you are up and around.” He supported her up a wide, spiralling staircase of dark stone.

  “That seems invasive. Hey, I recognise this corridor. This is your room.” She pointed at a dark slab of stone.

  “It is, and this is your room. We are partners, so we are housed as close to each other as possible.” He smiled and showed her how to activate the lock with her hand.

  Wiyra staggered into the room, noting the soothing tones of the décor and the window that opened to let in the outside air. Her duffel was next to the bed, and she wanted nothing more than to join it.

  “Good night, Wiyra.” Burin inclined his head and left the room.

  She smiled. The light of Reevish was still bright, but he had guessed rightly that her body needed more than an average night’s sleep.

  Wiyra stripped off her baggy platform suit and shoved it into the laundry unit. The machine groaned at the effort it was using to separate the minerals from the fabric.

  Naked, she stepped into the shower and turned it on. The cold water that rapidly warmed briefly roused her body, and she scrubbed at her skin until she was glowing pink from head to toe. Her hair was still up in the knot that she wore every day, and she pulled the combs and set them aside before she returned to the shower and scrubbed her scalp. Water had always been a luxury on the platform, so she had used every landfall to enjoy the feel of the slippery stuff against her skin.

  Her hair cascaded over her shoulders, and she enjoyed the scent of the shampoo in the dispenser.

  She yawned again, and her body’s persistence to sleep had her shutting off the valve and drying herself with a blast of light and air.

  Naked, she returned to the bedroom and crawled between the sheets, curling into a ball and letting natural healing sleep take her
over.

  Chapter Seven

  Waking took all of her effort. The bed was warm, the sheets smooth and the pillow supportive. There was no reason to leave her spot. She grimaced. Nature called, and it was not going to be denied.

  She slipped out of bed and stomped to the lav to do what she had to. When she was done, she rubbed her eyes and staggered to the mirror, glaring at the wild bed head that was her destiny.

  Wiyra stood in front of the mirror and used the brush provided, but it barely made a dent. She wandered into the outer room to find her personal effects, and a connecting door opened between her room and Burin’s.

  He froze, and she grinned as he came in and found her naked and crouching in front of her duffel bag. “Good morning, Burin.”

  He turned and faced the wall. “Good morning, Wiyra. Um, I thought you would be dressed by now.”

  “No. My hair is giving me trouble.”

  He turned his head and blinked. “It’s curly.”

  “Oh yeah. It takes superhuman effort to get it into that bun.” She grabbed her brushes, the fastening liquid and a clean set of combs and got to her feet.

  He shielded his eyes with his hand. “I can come back later.”

  “Why? One thing you have to know is that I have no bodily embarrassment aside from this damned hair. When you grow up on a platform, privacy is not something that can always be readily available.”

  “I get that. I am just surprised.” He kept one hand over his eyes as she walked past him.

  “If it will make you feel better, find me something to wear. I think the laundry unit choked on my suit.” She chuckled and stood in front of the mirror, her peculiar veining visible through her pale skin. It was a strangely graceful design and the musculature just under the surface of her skin supplemented the heartbeats that moved the blood through her system.

  It took her close to an hour to wrestle her hair into a tight bun at the back of her skull with the combs holding it fast. Burin handed her a two-tone grey bodysuit, and to her surprise, it fit.