CHAPTER 11
The sun had barely cleared the edge of the planet the next morning before I was up, energized by the decision I’d reached the night before. I had a goal now, one that felt absolutely right this time, as if the Director of Alien Affairs job had been made specifically with me in mind. Don’t know why I hadn’t seen it before. Too busy being upset with the unasked-for changes in my life, maybe.
Oh, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I’d have to work my way into the job. But Dr. Daniels was getting on up there in age, and sooner or later he’d want to retire. With my background in political relations and organizational skills, I’d be uniquely qualified to step into his very large shoes.
There were only two stumbling blocks to this plan that I could foresee.
First and foremost, I’d have to complete this mission. Successfully.
My chin went all stubborn as I thought about it. I could do it. I was created to be a problem solver. Now that I was invested in getting this done, the bad guys didn’t stand a chance.
Imbued with new energy for my task, I jumped out of bed, wrapped my cloak around me, and headed for the shower. My cheery call of “Good morning!” to Bim, who had just returned from his breakfast break, startled the stoic man, and I could feel him watching me in surprise as I tripped down the path to the privy.
Peri zipped inside with me, and I was under the shower, scrubbing away and trying not to step on her as she flapped vigorously near the drain, before I let myself think about the second problem.
Reynard.
Every time I pictured myself in Dr. Daniels’s office, doing his job, Reynard was by my side.
He would love Centaurius. Love the universities and museums. Love all the modern gadgets, and technology, and information available. I could even see him working for Alien Affairs. His ability to distinguish truth from lie would make him an invaluable asset, and he had so much more than that to offer.
But I also knew, right down to my toes, that he would never abandon his duty to King Politaus. His loyalty to the man was unwavering, preceding Reynard’s own wants or needs.
I couldn’t—wouldn’t—ask him to change. His honor and loyalty were as much a part of him as his eye color or height. And it was part of why I was rapidly falling in love with him.
My problem, I thought, as I stepped from under the water and toweled off. One I wouldn’t inflict on Reynard. I’d simply have to live with the knowledge that he could only be mine for as long as I was on Madrea, and enjoy him while I had the chance.
As much as I wanted to rush through everything I had to do, I forced myself to slow down enough to insure I got my clothes on properly, and then combed out my wild mass of hair while Peri preened and fluffed her damp feathers. When we were both presentable, I headed for the Terpsichore with Bim close on my heels.
The kitchen was bustling with early-morning activity, and all the usual people were either eating or working. Leddy smiled as I came in and gestured at the eggs currently simmering in a large skillet.
“Hungry?”
“Starved.” I returned her smile. “But can I get a tray for me and Marcus, along with a pot of coffee, to take back to his house? We have some business to take care of today.”
“Of course. I’ll fix it for you.” Efficiently, she began heaping food on plates, positioning them on a large tray.
Treya came in from the front of the inn just as the cook finished adding a basket of homemade biscuits to the other bounty. “Will you be dancing tonight?” The blonde asked.
“No, not tonight. Marcus and I are to have dinner with the king. Apparently he knew my father. But I promise, I’ll be here tomorrow tonight.”
“Hmph. See that you are,” she commented before sweeping back out.
I sighed, and Leddy took a second to pat my arm. “Ignore her. She’s just jealous. Until you came, she was the top draw around here. Taking second place is good for her character.”
She picked the tray up and handed it to Bim. “Carry this for Echo, then come back for another cup of coffee. You don’t have to stand guard when Marcus is with her.”
His brows lowered and I got the impression he wanted to argue with her, but he didn’t. Holding the heavy tray like it weighed no more than a single flower petal, he opened the door for me, then kept his pace even with mine as we returned to the house. Quiet though he was, his eyes were sharp, constantly checking our surroundings for danger, and that massive axe was always within easy reach on his back.
If I were up to no good, I sure wouldn’t want to take Bim on. The man was solid as a rock and built like a mountain. And he was, apparently, devoted to Marcus from tip to toe.
He escorted me into the house and deposited the tray on the table, then stood shifting in indecision. I could hear Marcus stirring in the bedroom, so I touched Bim’s arm.
“Go get your coffee. Marcus is awake, and we aren’t going anywhere. We’ll still be here when you get back.”
He shot a look at Marcus’s door, hesitated briefly, and then nodded. Silently, he made his way out the back door and was gone.
By the time I got the tray unloaded and our places set, Marcus put in an appearance, sniffing as he took his seat. “Coffee,” he croaked, cradling the hot cup I poured for him.
After the first long sip, he sighed with pleasure. “I don’t know how I managed to survive in the Federation for so long with only cafftea to wake me up.”
“I know. I’ll miss it when I have to go back.”
Putting down the cup, he picked up a fork and dug in. “I think there’s something you’ll miss more than coffee. Or should I say, someone.”
I smiled as I raised my own cup. “Yes, but I’ll live. Now, eat. We’ve got things to do today.”
He nodded around a bite of eggs. “Which first, Dr. Daniels or Kiera Smith?”
“Lillith, is Dr. Daniels ready for me yet?”
“He will be by the time you finish eating,” the ship responded. “He wants you to come to him, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course. So, I guess it’s Dr. Daniels first.”
“I really don’t think there’s much danger now that you’ve figured out how to get back in your body, but I’d like to stay just to be on the safe side. I’d hate for whoever threw that knife yesterday to come across you when you weren’t able to protect yourself,” Marcus said.
“Thank you. The same thing occurred to me, so I hoped you’d stay. I’m still not comfortable with this leaving-my-body-defenseless thing.”
We finished the rest of the meal in silence and then stacked the dishes back on the tray.
“Where do you want to do this?” Marcus asked.
I thought for a second. “Since I don’t know how long it will take, maybe I should stretch out on my bed?”
“Good idea.” Bringing a chair with him, he waited while I went to my room and got on the bed, and then he blocked the doorway as he sat down. Even as Peri darted into the room, humming with curiosity, I noted that Marcus could cover the window, too, from his position. He wasn’t taking any chances, and that made me more comfortable with what I had to do.
Eyes closed, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then I began to construct a mental image of Dr. Daniels. When it was complete, I gave a slight push and literally felt the sensation of rapidly flipping pages followed by a click, and abruptly I was in his office.
Two men lurched to their feet when I appeared, and I recognized the second one as Dr. Shilly, head of the Alien Affairs psi department. He was holding a metal rod in his hand, aimed right at me.
“What’s that?” I asked, suspicious in spite of myself.
“Now, now,” Dr. Daniels patted the air to calm me. “It’s nothing to get upset about. Dr. Shilly merely wanted to find out if you leave any kind of signature in this state.”
“Oh.” I looked at the elderly man in his rumpled suit. His thin hair was standing on end as if he’d been running his hands through it all night. Of course, he always looked like that. “Do I?”
He fiddled with a control on the rod, and then smiled. “No, you don’t. Not even an electrical pulse. As far as the machine is concerned, you aren’t here at all. This is absolutely amazing.”
“I’m thrilled you like it,” I told him sourly. “But the question remains, what exactly am I?”
Dr. Shilly put the rod away while Dr. Daniels moved to sit behind his desk. “There’s no name for what you do, Echo, so for now we’ll just stick with ghosting. It works as well as anything.”
“According to all the data we’ve gathered, and the probability programs we’ve run, I think we know how it is you’re doing this.” Dr. Shilly sat down on the sofa. “It seems you’re somehow able to lock onto an individual’s DNA and then travel to them instantaneously. It’s like you’re tracking them. And what’s more, you seem to be able to do this without expending excess energy.”
“Or, more likely,” Dr. Daniels interjected, “the Imadei is replacing the energy you use.”
“Yes. But to continue,” Dr. Shilly said. “Once you’ve met someone in person, you somehow store their DNA code and are able to access it at will.”
My thoughts spun. “You mean, I gather DNA just walking down the street? Good grief. I’ve lived on Centaurius for thirty cycles. Is it even possible that I’ve stored the code for everyone I’ve passed?”
“No, not at all,” Dr. Shilly said. “That would be counterproductive to the ability’s efficiency. According to all our probability programs, an individual would have to be fairly close to you before you picked up and stored their DNA code. And there’s no way to be sure how long you store the code without more testing. I imagine those you spend the most time with are the ones whose codes will last longest.”
I wanted to fidget, but I was afraid I’d accidentally walk through a chair, and that thought tended to freak the schite out of me. Instead I forced myself to stand still and merely flexed my fingers.
“So how did I ‘track’ Gaia? I’d never met her before.”
“In a sense, we think you have,” Dr. Daniels told me. “When your crèche mate, Pelga, died from Chekhov disease, her DNA remained in the storage bank, since there was nothing fundamentally wrong with her. Simon Gertz had access to the bank. When he left, we believe he took DNA samples with him, including Pelga’s. We checked last night and the sample used to create her is gone.”
I started to rub my forehead and then stopped. If walking through a chair was freaky, what would it be like to stick my hand through my head? An involuntary shudder ran over me. Was I ever going to get used to this? It took an effort but I refocused on what they were telling me.
“You mean Gaia is actually Pelga? But they don’t look alike. Well, not much. Gaia has red hair. Pelga’s hair was an almost-white blonde and I haven’t seen her since I was five cycles.”
“No, she’s not Pelga,” Dr. Daniels assured me. “But she was created from Pelga’s DNA. And even though Gertz made changes to that DNA, enough of the original remains to allow you to track her. The fact that you have such a traumatic history with Pelga makes your attachment to her deeper than to most other people, especially since you spent your first five cycles with her. It actually makes sense that she would be the first one you involuntarily tracked when your psi ability began to manifest after you bonded with the Imadei.”
My brow furrowed in puzzlement. “I don’t understand. What traumatic history?”
Dr. Shilly glanced at Dr. Daniels, got a nod, and picked up the story. “When Pelga became ill, she was hospitalized on the far side of Centaurius in an institution that specializes in Chekhov disease. There’s absolutely no way you could have visited her that night unless you used your psi ability. You were so young, it was probably the first time you’d managed it.”
He sighed heavily. “It must have been a terrifying sight to see your friend in that condition. If we’d known about it we could have given you appropriate therapy, but we had no idea in those days what Gertz had done to the GEPs he created. So, with no other rational explanation for what you’d seen, your young mind attributed Pelga’s removal to her inability to correctly do her lessons, when in fact, her failure was due to her illness. And the first use of your ability provided you with an experience that must have looked like torture. The two events got all mixed up in your mind. That’s part of why you’ve always been obsessed with being perfect, and it’s also why you subconsciously blocked your ability for so long.”
I stared at him, shock mixed with an eerie kind of recognition. He was right. Deep down inside I knew it.
While the child that I had been still insisted my friend had been tortured, as an adult I now recognized that what I’d seen was medical equipment. Pelga hadn’t been punished for failing.
An enormous sense of relief swept over me, a weight lifted from my shoulders that I hadn’t known was there. I didn’t have to be perfect.
Oh, I knew it wouldn’t be that easy to get over a lifelong fixation, but I suddenly realized I didn’t have to be another Kiera Smith to be a good agent. I could be a good agent my own way, and the Federation wouldn’t come to an end if I made one wrong step.
Except, in this case, Madrea and the surrounding space might cease to exist if I failed to control the Daughter Stone. So, even if I made mistakes along the way, I’d simply have to insure I succeeded in getting the fragging stone to trust me. Somehow.
Dr. Daniels was nodding his agreement with Dr. Shilly. “Now that her ability is back to normal, it will be interesting to discover its parameters.”
I perked up. “Parameters?”
“Yes. It does have limits, obviously, since you can’t track someone through images. Also, your hand goes through anything solid, but you have no trouble standing here even though we’re twenty-five stories up. Why don’t you sink through the floor?”
As soon as he mentioned it, I began to slowly slip downward. Eeek! Hastily, I stepped forward and up, giving a huge sigh of relief when I stayed put.
Both men had stopped talking and were watching me with a great deal of curiosity.
“Interesting,” Dr. Shilly commented. “Apparently if she needs something to be solid, her ability treats it as such. That would imply that she can manipulate her surroundings if she thinks she can, at least to an extent.”
Dr. Daniels nodded. “I imagine it will take some practice, though. And I have a feeling we’re only seeing the tip of the sword where Echo’s ability is concerned. She tested much too strong for this to be all there is of her ability.”
“There’s more?” I swallowed hard. “I just accepted I had an ability yesterday. I’m not sure I can handle any more surprises.”
“In my experience,” Dr. Shilly told me, “it’s a very instinctual process. Rather like yanking your hand back from a flame once you feel the heat. The full range of your ability will be there when it’s needed, and you won’t even realize you’ve used it until afterward.”
“Great. That makes me feel so much better. Kind of like a blaster with the trigger half depressed. Now, unless you gentlemen have more good news for me, I need to be on my way.” I glanced at Dr. Daniels. “Can you make sure Lillith gets a copy of everything you’ve found out? It will save a lot of time if I don’t have to explain it all to her myself.”
“Of course.” He stood and pushed a few buttons on his desk console. “All taken care of. I understand you’ve asked to meet with Kiera. Excellent idea. She’s probably the only person in the Federation who has any chance of understanding what you’re going through.” An expression more serious than any I’d seen before crossed his face. “Be careful, Agent Adams. Remember, while Gaia may seem like a helpless child, Gertz created her. We have no idea what she’s capable of doing, and as Dr. Shilly mentioned, use of psi ability can be a reflex action. If she’s scared, she could lash out, even against those trying to help her. And we have no information at all on Banca, except she’s obviously not Gaia’s biological sister, no matter what the girls believe. She’s a total mystery.”
Wonderful. Something else I hadn’t thought about. I’d sure be thinking about it now, though. Me, Miss I-don’t-like-kids suddenly had not one but three to deal with. One was a superhuman with unknown capabilities, another was a little girl with spooky eyes, and the last was an alien with the potential to destroy universes. And at least two of them were scared and dangerous. If that didn’t make your knees shake, nothing would.
Trying to maintain my confidence, I gave him a curt nod and then closed my eyes, pictured Kiera, and pushed.
When I opened my eyes again, it was to the sound of squabbling dragon birds and the rush of a waterfall somewhere nearby. I was standing in what appeared to be a giant birdcage attached to the back of a stone building. On the floor, two kittens the size of medium canines snarled and tumbled and mock-stalked each other, barely sparing me a glance when I appeared.
Before I could stop myself, I inhaled deeply and caught the scent of growing things mixed with traces of a recent rain. Maybe there was something to this “wishing it to be so” thing, because I wouldn’t have thought I’d be able to smell anything in this form.
There was so much to look at that it took me a second to focus on Kiera and the man beside her.
Holy Zin. While I might prefer Reynard’s rugged visage and piercing blue eyes, there was no denying that Smith’s mate was the most gorgeous male I’d ever seen. And there was no doubt whatsoever that this was Thor. He was huge, with inky black hair and ebony eyes that reflected a deep-seated wisdom and kindness.
I tried not to ogle all those rippling muscles under warm bronze skin, instead forcing my gaze on Kiera. She was standing in front of a waist-high pedestal that held the biggest black crystal I’d ever seen. Even in my current bodiless condition I could sense the power flowing off that stone. To say it scared me silly would be an understatement of epic proportions. All I could do was gape at it.
“Echo, I don’t believe you’ve met Thor, my mate,” Smith lifted a hand to the man beside her. “Thor, this is Echo Adams. I thought maybe Thor could help, since his people have lived with the crystals for thousands of cycles.”
I tore my gaze away from the Limantti long enough to acknowledge Thor with a nod, then nervously looked back at the giant crystal.
“You get used to it, eventually,” Kiera said, reminding me yet again that she was an empath. “And luckily, she wants only the best for all life forms.”
“Unlike her daughter?”
Smith frowned. “What do you mean?”
I told her about my experience with the Sumantti the day before. “That’s why I wanted to speak with you. I need to know everything you can tell me about the Daughter Stone, about the alien life form that inhabits the crystal. The Sumantti may want the best for everyone in theory, but she’s so young I don’t think she’s developed any self-control yet. And she’s trapped, unable to get away from her captors. I’m afraid that in her panic, she could very well take out the people who are trying to help her. Namely, me.”
“I see what you mean.” She glanced at Thor, and I got the impression a conversation was going on just below the level of my hearing. Finally, Thor spoke in careful Galactic Standard, his voice deep and rumbling.
“We do not understand how these captors are holding her, or why the Limantti can find no trace of her daughter.”
“I can’t be positive, but it felt to me as if she were in a stasis box. Is that even possible? If she’s powerful enough to destroy a star system, I don’t know why she couldn’t escape from a stasis field.”
Smith put her hands on the Limantti, her eyes unfocused. She stayed that way for a second or two, and then nodded. “The Mother Stone says it would explain why she can’t locate the Sumantti. Her daughter has no experience with stasis fields. While no one could hold her this way, the Sumantti is still very immature. But the Daughter Stone will, eventually, determine how the field works, and then her captors won’t be able to contain her.” She lowered her hands.
“Zin help us if that happens before I can calm her down.” I sighed. “And I can’t even start trying until I understand exactly how this life form operates. For instance,” I gestured at the crystal. “Why did the brains of the bunch end up in black quartz, as opposed to another color?”
Smith glanced down at the huge stone. “The easiest way to put it is that black tastes better than other colors to the psynaviats that make up the hive mind. The color each colony prefers depends on the workers’ psi function, but all are tied to and created by the brains of the life form.” She tilted her head toward the Mother Stone. “Think of her as the queen bee. It makes things simpler.”
“Psynaviats?”
“Yes, it’s what we’ve named them, for lack of a better term. It means psychic energy.”
“Okay. Psynaviats it is. But is the Limantti really female?”
She hesitated. “Only in the sense that it replicates, or gives birth. Female is our word, not hers. You have to remember, this isn’t a single entity we’re dealing with. Both the Sumantti, or Daughter Stone, and the Limantti contain millions of living beings, all too small to see, even with a molecular microscope. You have to go to the subatomic level to get a glimpse of them. They make viruses look gigantic. Just as an example, they move between the molecules of the quartz, not through them.”
Midway through her explanation, Thor touched her arm lightly, and then vanished through a curtained door into the building, the kittens scrambling at his heels. A scarlet-feathered dragon bird darted after them, pausing long enough to loudly scold a blue-green dragon bird and swat him with one wing before ducking under the curtain.
Smith chuckled at their antics. “Sorry about that. It’s almost time for Rayda to mate again, and she’s giving Gem a hard time. Now, where were we?”
“The organism that lives in the quartz,” I reminded her. “If there are that many of them, won’t they eventually consume the crystal?”
“That’s what we thought at first. Turns out, they don’t consume the quartz at all. Quartz is a conduit for electricity, even minor quantities like what it absorbs from sunlight. The entities feed on that energy. And while we aren’t sure how they manage it, they can even produce more quartz. That’s how the quartz for the Daughter Stone was created.”
“I thought it was mitosis.”
Smith nodded. “For the psynaviats, it was, but they had to make the quartz for their new halves to inhabit first.”
My mind spun with questions. “So the form that operates as the brain can’t survive outside the crystal?”
“Oh, it can, and has in the past. It just prefers staying in its quartz.” She frowned again. “At least, I think it does. The truth is, we wouldn’t know if came out and went for daily walks, since we can’t see it. And it does send colonies out every time it lands on a quartz-rich world.”
“Okay, I think I’m getting the basic idea of how this works. Maybe that will help if the Daughter Stone gets loose and throws a fit, although I’m not sure how.”
“Don’t forget the Imadei,” Smith told me. “It should help you control her. And now that we know which planet the Sumantti is on, the Mother Stone will be watching, too. If there’s anything we can do, I promise, we’ll do it. You aren’t alone in this, Echo, even if it feels that way sometimes.”
“Thanks, I’ll take all the help I can get. I just have one more question. Are there any more of them floating around in space, waiting to fall into the wrong hands?”
Smith looked shocked and I figured she’d never thought of that possibility before. Her eyes went unfocused again as she consulted the Limantti. Whatever the conversation, it seemed to take longer this time, and she appeared troubled when she finally answered me.
“The Mother Stone says she encountered three others in her travels through space. Two continued on and she lost track of them when they left this galaxy. She believes the third crashed on a deserted planet, because it vanished from her sight and she hasn’t seen it since then.”
Not a comforting thought, but I could only deal with one catastrophe at a time. Casting a last look at the massive crystal, I said good-bye and then pictured slipping into my body.
When I opened my eyes, both Marcus and Peri were leaning close, looking at me, Peri from the headboard, Marcus from beside the bed.
“We were beginning to worry,” Marcus said, straightening while Peri cooed at me. “You’ve been gone for over two hours.”
“Zin, three planets, scattered all over the galaxy, in two hours.” I grinned at him. “I’m starting to see the advantages of this ability. But there’s one more thing I need to try.”
It had occurred to me that maybe I could get a lock on someone’s DNA when I was in ghost form. And I had a perfect subject to practice on now.
Closing my eyes, I let Thor’s image form in my mind, and then pushed. Abruptly, I was back on Orpheus Two, standing outside a large adobe building. Thor was in front of me, along with three other male Buri, and all of them were staring at me in surprise.
A whoop of glee escaped before I could stop it, causing all the Buri except Thor to jump. He merely smiled at me, his thick black hair lifting in a gentle breeze.
“My mate wishes to know if you forgot something.”
“Yes.” I grinned at him. “I forgot to tell you good-bye.”
His head dipped in a regal nod, as if ghost women popped up in front of him every day. “Good-bye, Echo Adams. Fare thee well.”
Aw, now wasn’t that just the sweetest thing ever? I could see why Kiera Smith liked him so much. Before I could respond, Kiera spoke from behind me.
“He’s taken, Adams. Go get your own man.”
A laugh burst out of me. “I already did. See you later.”
This time when I returned to Madrea, Marcus had his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at me. “What just happened?”
I sat up and swung my feet to the floor. “Did Lillith tell you what Dr. Daniels and Dr. Shilly discovered about my ability?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I just found out I don’t have to meet people in my normal form to get a lock on their DNA. I can do the same thing in my ghost form. That should help.”
“How are you feeling? You must have expended quite a bit of energy.”
I did a quick inventory. “Maybe, but I feel fine. Probably a little hungrier than I normally would be a few hours after eating breakfast, but that’s it.”
“In that case, we might as well go to the Terpsichore and grab a snack. We still have a while before we’ll need to get ready for tonight, and I’m expecting a wagonload of wine from up north today at the warehouse.”
“Sure. Leddy wanted me to organize things so the women wouldn’t have to go all the way through the kitchen to get drinks for the customers. I can keep busy with that.”
Peri gave an inquisitive cheep, and I waved her toward the window. “Go ahead and visit the flowers. You must be starved by now.”
She trilled happily and fluttered out of sight, but I could still feel her nearby. It made me think of Rayda, and the fact that she’d mate soon.
Which presented a problem I hadn’t thought about before now. Sooner or later, Peri would be mature enough to mate. What we were going to do then? As far as I knew, other dragon birds were nonexistent on Centaurius.
Well, schite. It looked like I was going to end up owning yet another dragon bird in the future. Didn’t that just figure?
With a sigh, I followed Marcus from the house.