by Viola Grace
“How is it that the suit fits?”
“I got it from the quartermaster. It was ordered after your bio-scans. You have been asleep for eighteen hours.”
She blinked in surprise at her reflection. “I think that’s a record, but then, yesterday, I did pop in and out more than I ever have before without a break.”
He nodded. “Would you like to join me for brunch?”
Wiyra grinned. “Of course. When do I have to register with the facility coordinator?”
“After breakfast. I will ping her when we are on our way.”
After smoothing her hands over her hips one more time, she turned to him with a bright smile. “Lead the way.”
It was such a relief to not have to split herself immediately upon waking. She was a little land sick but that was to be expected. The feel of natural gravity tugging at her limbs was not what she was used to, but she had been on vacation before, and it wasn’t a new feeling. It would dissipate in a few days.
The smells of the dining hall were amazing. She wanted to ram everything into her face, and then, she wanted to savour it all.
Instead of following her instinct, she took a tray and selected foods that were both fresh and familiar. The tea and caf both ended up in cups on her tray, and she looked around for an empty seat. Burin was already waiting for her, so she joined him, much to the distress of the young lady who was trying to drape herself over his shoulder.
Wiyra started in on her breakfast as if she didn’t see the young woman. That produced the reaction she was waiting for.
“Who are you?” The girl had dark red skin and golden hair. Her vaguely feline features seemed to point to her being Wyoran.
“Me? I am Burin’s partner. Who might you be?” She smiled and kept eating.
Burin went from being a muscular, threatening presence to a quiet, embarrassed, flustered male.
“I am Gneera. I am one of Master Tracker Burin’s students.” She stood up straight, flipped her gold hair behind her shoulders and stuck out her chest.
“I am Wiyra, the Waking Dream, the Walking Death, the Seeking Soul, and now, I am astral projector linked to poor Burin. I mean, he got my dowry and everything when he asked my grandfather for my hand. And the rest of me.” She shrugged and met the woman’s gold eyes without any malice.
She felt pressure on her mind, and she calmly kept eye contact while she loaded a piece of fruit on her spoon. With a sharp flick, the melon piece caught her in her right eye, and she jumped back with a yelp, her hand slamming against her face.
Wiyra continued to eat her meal with a wink to Burin. He waited until Gneera left, and then, let out a relieved breath. “I don’t know how you did that, but thank you. She has been trying to get me to be her link for the last four months.”
“She was trying to press in on my thoughts. She was lucky I settled for a piece of fruit to the eye.”
He was concerned. “She was really pushing on you?”
“Yup. It stopped the moment she was distracted.”
“I saw you loading the spoon, but I wasn’t sure what you were going to do with it. I applaud your restraint.”
She chuckled. “On the platform, I would get in trouble for food fighting. We don’t waste fresh food, ever. Here, it seemed the lesser of two evils.”
“It definitely was. What she was doing could get her expelled from the Citadel.”
“So, what did you do to be the favourite teacher?”
He opened his hands in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know. She simply fixated on me and has stalked me every moment of every day since.”
“So that is why you wanted me to get hunter training? So I could defend your honour?” She fought giggles and instead rolled a nice spoonful of pudding around in her mouth before she swallowed.
“No, so that you could have all tools to defend yourself. By the way, you have an appointment with the armourer this afternoon. We will meet with him after the coordinator.”
The variety of people coming and going was amazing. Even on her groundside trips, it was seldom that she saw this many species in one place. She people watched and enjoyed her meal while Burin worked his way through his selections.
“Do your students often fall for you?”
He would have blushed, but he ducked his head instead. “It happens now and then. I do not take advantage though. Frankly, it makes me uncomfortable.”
“Gee, being ardently pursued by someone who makes their persistence known. I have no idea what that is like.” She snorted and ate a fruit cup. As each piece of fruit came apart in her mouth, she closed her eyes to enjoy the bright flavours and the fresh taste.
“Yes, but you are responsive while I was not. It is a different thing.”
She paused with a piece of toast halfway to her mouth. “I was responsive?”
He tapped his nose. “Some of your ancestors were of the pheromone-sensing variety. You send off receptive chemicals every time I flirt with you.”
She blinked and her cheeks went scarlet. “Ah, well that is news to me.”
“I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.” He finished the food on his plate and pushed it aside as he sipped at his tea.
“Thanks for that.” She chuckled and finished all the small portions she had piled on her tray before turning to the tea and caf.
When she sat back and smiled, he grinned. “I wasn’t sure you could finish all that.”
“I don’t waste fresh food. It is far too rare for me. Living on rations and occasional salads gives you an appreciation for fresh fruit.” She wiped her fingers and lips on a napkin and got up to dispose of the tray.
He was behind her in an instant. “So, now, we will head up to meet Coordinator Shesali.”
“All right. Do I need to know anything?”
“No, but you may need to re-sign your contracts into a more legally binding format.”
She laughed, and they hiked up the twisting steps until they reached the upper level.
“Good morning, Trinial.” Burin nodded politely at the two-headed receptionist at the desk.
Both heads spoke. “Good morning, Master Tracker Burin. She is waiting for you.”
He shifted closer to Wiyra and whispered, “It’s now or never.”
She sighed at his hesitation and led the way into the coordinator’s office, hauling him by one hand. She had never backed down from a confrontation and backing down from an orientation was not within her power.
Chapter Eight
The woman sitting at the desk had bronze and silver skin that was hard to look away from. She smiled, “Good morning, Burin. You must be Wiyra Kwinto. I am delighted that you are here.”
Her expression was hypnotic, and Wiyra could feel her own pulse increasing in an effort to fight off the effect. “Good morning, Coordinator.”
“Call me Shesali. Well done, by the way. There are few newcomers who can resist my particular skill.” The woman shifted her long black hair over one shoulder and gestured for Wiyra to take a seat.
Wiyra looked to Burin, but he was staring forward, fixed and blank. She nudged him into a chair and gripped his hand, reaching into him with a piece of her astral form. He jerked upright in a moment.
Shesali smiled again. “Well done, Wiyra. I normally put on a hood when meeting with staff members, but I was told you have some Mah-Duh-Sai blood, and I was counting on you to have some resistance.”
“You are correct.”
“I am also impressed that you are able to share your resistance. What are you doing to him?”
Wiyra blinked at Burin’s curious features. “I am using my astral form to spur his instincts into thinking I am invading. Your kind can be put off if there is enough of a prey response triggered. The adrenaline and enhanced reaction times counteract the thrall.”
Shesali clapped. “Wonderful. You’re definitely a coup for this base. Now, what do you want your skills to be used for?”
Wiyra kept her hand woven with Burin’s. “To date, I have b
een using my astral form to check mineral content and work on personnel retrievals. They are usually upset by my first contact, but they calm down when I am able to run communications from the surface to the collapse.”
“Excellent. Can you take control if you are within a body?”
“No.” She scowled at the thought.
“But you can communicate?” Shesali’s brows drew together.
Wiyra left her body and walked over to the coordinator. She stuck her hand in the woman’s head and said, “Can you hear me now?”
“Wow. As clearly as if you were talking in my ear, but I can see that your lips aren’t moving.” Shesali stared into her eyes, and Wiyra could see her glowing reflection in the wide silvery orbs.
Wiyra withdrew her hand and returned to her body. Burin squeezed her hand, and she enjoyed the body heat.
“That is most impressive. How vulnerable is your body when you are out of it?” Shesali took out a data pad and made notes.
“I am completely vulnerable and appear dead to anyone who doesn’t know what to look for. Oh, and going through travel jumps pulls me apart.” She bit her lip.
Shesali’s eyes widened, and Burin joined the conversation. “At the moment of active jump, Wiyra gets separated from her body. The astral form remains on one side of the jump and her body is on the other. We were fortunate that she had looked into the location we were jumping to and she had a location to start looking for herself.”
Burin squeezed her hand. “You can imagine that I was a little distraught when I was suddenly sitting next to a dead body. I put her on a bunk and started running scans. A few moments later, she was awake and breathing again.”
Wiyra shrugged. “I was very tired and didn’t have a good grip on my body, so I am not sure that it would happen again if I was in a similar situation, though I would be interested in finding a means to keep me from slipping out again.”
“So, you are asking me for a restraint system?”
“An interference field that I can trigger or turn off, based in my suit perhaps?” She crossed her legs and smiled.
“I will have our techs look into it. Are you interested in some hand-to-hand combat training?”
Wiyra twisted her lips. “I would like some blades. I am fairly good with them.”
Burin nodded. “She is. She really is. Faster than hell too. I would like to see her get an assessment from Tero.”
“I can schedule one for this afternoon. Are you going to take her to Hydel?”
“Yes, that is our stop after this one.”
“I will send him a note about her vulnerability based on what Healer Twen found yesterday. He is concerned about the hypothermia.”
Wiyra nodded. “At home, I had a pod with a heating unit as well as life support. If there is no chance of something of that nature being replicated, I will need a suit that can perform some of the functions.”
She nodded and made another note. “He will discuss it with you when you arrive. Well, thank you Specialist Wiyra. It has been delightful to speak to someone eye to eye. Hiding in the shadows gets old when you have hair this fabulous.” Shesali winked and flicked her hair over her shoulders again.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Coordinator Shesali. I look forward to speaking with you again.”
“Oh, you will. I am about to set up a battery of tests to find all of your strengths and weaknesses. You will know yourself inside and out before we finish, and I will know what you are and are not willing to do.”
There wasn’t much she wasn’t willing to do, so she nodded and smiled. “By the way, are students here allowed to try manipulating others with psychic talents outside of class?”
Burin covered his face.
“No, they are not. If you are referring to that incident in the dining hall, she has been dealt with. Nice shot by the way. I haven’t seen fruit weaponized in a while.” Shesali grinned. “Okay, I have kept you long enough. Go to get yourself fixed up with armoured suits. They make you feel a little less vulnerable on assignment and that can never be a bad thing.”
Burin got to his feet, and Wiyra kept her hand locked with his, her aura bleeding into his body. She shoved him out the door and released his fingers. “There. That wasn’t too bad.”
He shook his head. “That is the first time I have seen her face. She normally wears that hood that was hanging behind her. Thanks for that. It was nice to see that her expressions match her features.”
“Not a problem. Now, what is next?”
He grinned and led the way.
Hydel’s quarters were set aside from the main Citadel. He smiled warmly. “So, I hear you have already been to see the boss lady.”
“We have. She looked good this morning, needs a bit more sleep though.” Burin’s tone was smug.
“You saw her? Wow. Your new partner must be something special.” Hydel grinned down at Wiyra.
“I am special or at least that is what my mom used to say. It ticked my sister off to no end.”
Hydel took her measurements and nodded as it coincided with information on his data pad. “I started working on something this morning, but then, Shesali mentioned you needed some kind of energy restrictor for travel. So, can I see what you do and will you put on monitor pads while you do it?”
His green features looked so hopeful, she nodded. His skin was leathery with dark brown hair that was tied into a long tail, banded at six-inch intervals. She thought she knew his species but couldn’t name it.
He gently set the monitor pads on her and activated them. She took a seat in a chair and left her body. She walked around the workshop while Hydel read his scans and finally settled back in her body.
“Can you do it again?”
She exited and entered her body again, and he nodded with a smile. “Got it. Now, get back in your body, and when I say go, try to leave it.”
She settled in her body and said, “Back in.”
The monitor pads made a high-frequency noise, and he said, “Go.”
She lifted out of her body. Well, most of her did. Her arms and legs lifted off but her head and neck were firmly in place. She snapped fully back in. “Ow, damn it.”
He winced. “Sorry, I didn’t know if your whole body would be affected or not. I am guessing not. So, I need to wire a network through your suit with broadcasting nodes. I should have a prototype in two days. I will let the coordinator know so that she doesn’t try to dispatch you.”
She peeled the pads off her neck and head. “Thank you. That will be most helpful.”
Burin helped her to her feet. “Are you all right?”
“I think so. I really want to hit something right now.”
“Excellent. Tero is waiting for us, and then, we can go for a light dinner.”
“What is Tero?”
“Oh, he is our hand-to-hand combat specialist. Don’t be afraid to hit him, he can’t be hurt.”
On that bright note, she took his hand and let him lead her to the place where she was about to pick a fight with a total stranger.
Chapter Nine
Tero was shy, quiet and had a slow smile that immediately captured a soft place in Wiyra’s heart.
As he ran her through her paces, checking her reflexes and allowed her to hit him, provided that he could hit her back, she held onto the fond memory of the first impression when she wanted to find a knife and gut him like an invader on the platform.
She grunted as she jumped back to avoid his strike and suffered a short flare of satisfaction when her leg sweep knocked him on his ass.
Burin was watching it all from the safety of a chair, sitting and sipping water.
Tero blocked her next hit and grinned. “You are very good.”
Wiyra chuckled. “You are better.” She struck again.
“I am a mutated Oefric from Dender colony. I have been fighting since I could walk.” He took her hit without flinching and used her momentum to pull her off balance. “It isn’t that I don’t register the pain, it is just
that it fades immediately. My body heals instantly, which is a handy skill when everyone around you can shift into an animal shape.”
She dodged a hit to her abdomen and swung away. “You can’t shift?”
“Nope. Shifting requires a change in physiology, the healing that my body undergoes locks me into this shape.” He turned her and pinned her arms against her sides. “Enough. We are good.”
Burin set his water aside and brought her a bottle. “Well done, Wiyra. My first day, Tero dropped me in two minutes.”
She drank the water and wiped the sweat off her face. “How long has it been?”
Tero peered at the chronometer on the wall. “Forty-five minutes? It was quite a dance. Thank you. I rarely get to do more than warm up.”
She snickered and groaned as she sat on the floor of the workout space. “Well, thank you for taking it easy on me.”
“Oh, I didn’t. You took all hits I could swing. Your body seems designed to spread the impact away from the strike point.” He squatted down next to her. “I would be happy to continue your training when you are at the base.”
She grinned. “That would be fun.”
Burin cleared his throat. “I am sure that you two are sharing a moment, but Tero, I am willing to try taking you down if you keep making moves on my partner.”
Tero sighed regretfully, “So, it’s like that?”
Wiyra chuckled, “No, it isn’t like that. Not yet. But it will be.”
Burin’s posture toward Tero relaxed.
“Well, partner, help me get my ass off the floor so I can waddle back to my room for a shower. I need to catalogue my growing bruises for posterity.” She held out her hand imperiously, and Burin helped pull her to her feet.
Tero grinned, “I can have some knives brought in for next time but not until you are in full body armour.”
She snorted. “Healer or not, if you think to best me with short blades, think again.”
Burin nodded. “I have seen her in action. You had best be wearing body armour as well, Tero.”
Tero nodded. “I stand warned.”
Burin walked slowly so that her bruised limbs could keep up. “You did very well.”