Call the Moon

by Viola Grace

  Naka can use her mind to destroy a world, or she can save it. When nothing seems right, she calls the moon.

  Naka was adrift with no means to focus, but accidentally starting a tremor in her hometown lets everyone know what she is and sentences her to confinement. The Citadel sends a representative to take her away, but the information that he is given will make sure that she finds no friends off Resicor.

  Her life is no longer her own, but her talent begs to be used, and on the planet of Piq, she finds something very wrong. The empty world should not be empty. Its mind has been stolen and lodged in the moon. In his efforts to escape, the living mind of the planet has almost ripped his old body apart. With skills she didn’t know she had, Naka steps in to carry one mind back to its home. She hopes she will survive the process.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Call the Moon

  Copyright © 2012 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-77111-255-0

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Devine Destinies

  An imprint of eXtasy Books

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  www.devinedestinies.com

  Call the Moon

  Tales of the Citadel 8

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  The interior of the dome was the same as it had been every day for the last three weeks. Naka Gwyn ran through the tasks that had been assigned to her and finished early in the morning. The rest of the day was hers to do with as she pleased and what she usually pleased was to climb onto the roof to stare at the moons.

  Naka had given up on protesting that she wasn’t a physical talent. No one within the dome cared and no one outside wanted to listen.

  The council had given her mundane chores that consisted of cleaning and tidying up the council chambers. She didn’t mind. It kept her body busy and having her body idle was what had caused the problem in the first place.

  With her new restrictor suit in place, she didn’t bother to try and use her talent, in these close quarters it would do her more harm than good anyway.

  The rocks and the energy dome overhead were a deterrent to her even trying to plunge her mind into the ground beneath her. The first time she had ever used the niggling power, she caused an earthquake that rattled her village. It was only a small earthquake but enough to send the guard swarming over the area looking for the cause. With four helpful neighbours pointing fingers directly at her, Naka had no chance to evade suspicion and a simple brain scan confirmed that she was a talent.

  Her talent didn’t have a personal physical manifestation, but it was a catastrophic reaction and that itself was enough to end her up in the dome.

  “Good afternoon, Wahli.” She waved at the greeter for the council. “Another new arrival?”

  “Something like that. Are you enjoying your time here?” Wahli was always polite when she spoke to Naka.

  Naka sighed. “I am. Don’t worry. I am not going to break the dome. I am going for a run, care to join me?”

  The other woman smiled, “Perhaps later. Have a good run.”

  Wahli walked toward the only entry and exit to the dome. If there were a newbie coming in, they would all know about it by the end of the day.

  Naka stretched, the weird feel of her suit still taking some getting used to. The facemask that framed her features was the most peculiar part of it. Something told her that the wraparound had a purpose, but she had no idea what it was.

  Running in bare feet took some getting used to, but as she started out with a slow jog, she had to admit that her feet felt better than they had in years of running on the coastlines.

  She waved at the other talents who were out tending gardens but kept her head straight.

  Her first two days in the dome had been full of fear and frustration. Hahvi, the fire elemental, had suggested that she seek out a form of leeching her physical energy other than using her talent. Running was something that had always come easily to her, so she picked that as her workout.

  The first day, she had made it through the occupied area of the dome before she limped back to her quarters. The second day, she was only able to make it a quarter of the way through the dome.

  Eventually, Naka had been able to see parts of the dome that few of the inhabitants ever bothered to look for—abandoned parks, dry fountains, trees that struggled to thrive in the arid environment. Naka saw them all.

  The wonder of the domed city was that it had been designed to be completely contained and support itself in the worst of conditions on Resicor. It was a monument to the past and the urge to survive that her people had enjoyed in their history. Its current use as a prison for psychic talents with physical effects was a sad statement to the modern generation.

  Her route this morning took her past the old city centre, around the empty fountain, back through a residential neighbourhood and, from there, to her quarters.

  Naka spent her afternoon working on her small, personal garden. The only foods she could identify easily were herbs, so that is what she planted.

  She was on her way inside when her suit spoke to her.

  “Naka Gwyn, please report to the entrance. You are being recalled.”

  “What?” She blinked at the herb garden around her.

  “Report to the entrance immediately. You are being moved to another holding area.”

  Naka looked around to see if one of the others was using a voice talent to throw her off. There was no one near her plot.

  She washed her hands quickly. No sense having dirt under her nails when she went wherever it was that she was going.

  Wahli was in the lane when she walked past. A sobbing young woman was leaning against her. “Naka, where are you off to?”

  “I just got a notice from my suit that I am needed at the entrance. Something about being reassigned.”

  Wahli stopped in her tracks and stared, “Are you sure?”

  “I haven’t been here long enough for the walls to talk to me. It has to be my suit and that means the guard. Either I will be gone or I am facing a move, not that I have heard about any other facility on Resicor to house physical talents.”

  Wahli frowned. “There isn’t. Can you wait?”

  A voice emanated from Naka’s suit. “Naka Gwyn, report to the entrance immediately!”

  Naka winced. “He sounds pissed. A hug for good luck?”

  Wahli put her charge aside and gave Naka a quick hug. Her huge eyes got even wider as their skin connected arm to arm. “That explains it then. Good luck and long life. You deserve it.”

  Naka grinned and waved goodbye as she passed the first and last talent to greet her in the dome. The archway was ominously silent. She entered the narrow hall, reaching the electronic curtain swiftly. Her touch on the screen let her hand pass through, and closing her eyes, she rushed the rest of her body through the t
ingling barrier.

  When she was in the normal air again, she opened her eyes to see a world-weary stranger waiting for her. Behind her, the barrier whined into full strength, so she stepped quickly into the antechamber where she had protested her lack of physical talent for the last time.

  “Naka Gwyn?”

  She stared at the man, his horns reflected the minimal light in the space. His skin was deep red, hair black and woven into minute braids tipped with silver bands. She didn’t look at the half dozen guardsmen that had guns trained on her, this stranger took up all her senses.

  “Are you Naka Gwyn?” The man was impatient. His sensuous lips were flattened in displeasure.

  “I am.” Her instinct was to curtsy for some reason, but she held back and lifted her head.

  “Come with me. We have a ship to catch.” He held out his hand, and the dark robes he wore slid back to expose a heavy metal cuff on his wrist. It had an ornate pattern on it that she would have loved to explore, but his impatience was palpable.

  With a feeling of finality, she placed her small, pale hand in his larger burgundy grip, and he closed his digits around hers, turning and simply walking away from the dome.

  She felt ridiculous as he hauled her along the barren flats toward a shuttle. Her mind screamed a thousand insults at his back during their journey. She hated being treated like a child.

  When they entered the shuttle, she noted that it was geared for his body, his height, the breadth of his shoulders, everything was meant for someone of his physical presence. She felt like a child in the seat next to the pilot’s controls, but she let him buckle her in place for the journey.

  Her life had ended the moment that they put the suit on her, so wherever she was going now was bound to be an improvement on jogging through a dead city to keep her mind out of the planet’s crust.

  It had been such a little earthquake, after all.

  Chapter Two

  Viiko sighed. The puny, pale creature next to him did not look strong enough to rip a planet apart, but that is what the Resicor file was stating. According to her own world, Naka Gwyn was a deadly creature that had to be removed or destroyed.

  The Citadel had stepped in and offered to take the unstable woman off their hands. It had taken quite a few communications, but finally, they had gotten in touch with Viiko. When her circumstances were explained, he agreed to acquire her for the Citadel, but his agreement did not pass that. He would take her to Teklan, get her suit reprogrammed and then deliver her to her assigned world.

  Piq was undeveloped, up for colonization, but very unstable. If Naka could use her talents in any way to stabilize the planet, she would earn back her rescue fee.

  The moment he had touched her, the Citadel had started running a tab for her. She would have to earn back everything they would spend on her during her training and outfitting. All food rations, shelter, equipment would all be placed on an account that she would have to earn her way out of.

  It was the same for every member of the Citadel, being part of the largest psychic guild in the Alliance had a cost but most were willing to pay it.

  Viiko sighed silently and set course for Teklan. Whatever that suit was that she was wearing, it was on record as needing some detailed work that Reset was ready and willing to provide.

  His organic assessment work on Piq had been interrupted to do this run to retrieve the woman, and he was in no mood to coddle a female who had killed her own people. The Resicor had been very specific. She was a killer.

  * * * *

  The man was silent. She didn’t even know what he was. His handling of the shuttle was no-nonsense, and she waited until her body felt oddly detached from her mind before she asked, “Where are we going?”

  “Sector Guard Base, Teklan. Your suit needs some work.” The disapproval in his tone was unmistakable.

  She blushed as she ran her hands over her slick, silvery suit. It had taken this form on its own. She had no say in the matter. Her torso was completely covered, but her legs were dressed in small swirls and jags of fabric.

  “I didn’t have a choice. They bonded it to my skin.”

  He paused slightly, his face softening briefly before he nodded his head with a jerk.

  Naka whispered, “What are they going to do to me?”

  “I don’t know. I was given this assignment at the last minute. I do not normally pick up felons.” The low disgust in his tone made her flinch.

  “Felon?” She was shocked. “I rattled some dishes. It was just a small earthquake, I swear. No one was hurt.” She bit her lip and stared out at the moons as they increased their speed toward the unknown blackness of space.

  “Your file says otherwise, mistress. There are scanners who could tell if you are speaking the truth, but I am not one of them.” He frowned. It seemed his natural facial state was to have that gorgeous mouth down at the corners.

  “Can I read my file? I will need something to do while you are busy glaring at me.” She had heard from others in the dome that the guard falsified their actions to build public opinion against them. Naka had not had confirmation until now, but this did seem to be the likely source for his hostility.

  “I don’t see the harm.”

  He punched a few codes into a terminal, and the ship popped a screen in front of her with a series of documents with her name as the header.

  She started with the arrest report. It was horrible. According to the data in front of her, she had wiped out a village and caused a tsunami that wrecked three coastlines. “I didn’t do that. There was no damage.”

  “The official reports differ.”

  There was no sympathy on his side, so she continued to read. Her medical files were there, including her lack of sexual activity. It was bizarre to see something so intimate displayed on a document available for anyone to read.

  Her parents’ death was outlined, as well as the extensive investigation that followed the two-vehicle accident that shattered her life. After she had been arrested, they returned to the scene to look for signs of seismic activity, but they didn’t find any. That did not stop them from speculating that she had a hand in her parents’ accident years earlier.

  Cruel, malicious and vicious speculation covered the documents. Naka put her hand on the screen. “Please, turn it off. It is horrible.”

  His brow furrowed, and he did as she asked. “Don’t tell me that you are innocent.”

  She was shuddering with nausea. No wonder there had been no press conference to announce her arrest. Her fate had been decided the moment she lost control.

  “I will not say innocent, but I will say that I did not use my talents in the manner described in the files. I lost emotional control near my home, and the ground shook. That was all. No one was injured, no one died and there was no wrecked coastline.”

  “Your parents?”

  “They died when I was ten. I was at my grandmother’s house, playing with my cousin at the precise moment of their deaths. We were pretending to be actors and recording our little play. I had no idea that they were gone, my life ended that day.”

  “They left you money.”

  “I had a trust, was raised by first my grandmother and then my father’s sister. I went to school, got a degree in botany and returned to my home on the coastline where I could run every day and pretend that my parents were running behind me once again.” She wiped the tears from her eyes like she did every time she thought of them.

  He paused, “I see. If my actions were brusque, I apologise, but the truth of your words will be determined at a later date.”

  She sniffled. “So, you are going to hold off on the snide comments for now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you. This day is trying enough.” She tried to smile, but it was a weak attempt. Her suit hugged her gently as it had a few times since it had bonded to her skin. If she didn’t know better, the mark of her arrest was trying to comfort her.

  He snorted, and she saw a slight smile on his lips. �
��Your day has only begun. Do you know what a jump is?”

  Naka shook her head.

  “We are heading for that jump ship, and they will transport us in space from one point to the next. Many folks find it unpleasant, but the effects of the jump soon pass.”

  His words were making her nervous. “How long does the jump take?”

  “Seconds, but it is enough to disorient you. Wait and see. Each person reacts differently.”

  He gave her an encouraging smile, but she wasn’t falling for it. No one would have built up the effects if it weren’t a serious concern.

  Naka swallowed back panic as their shuttle coasted toward the large jump ship. The dark hulk was nearly invisible against the nothingness of space. When the ship folded them inside, she gripped the arms of her chair and prayed for a quick resolution to whatever was about to happen.

  This was not her day.

  Chapter Three

  The wet compress on her face was followed by a low croon. She squinted at the man who had taken her from her world and folded her stomach into a small package.

  “Please tell me we don’t have to do that again.” Naka fought a whimper.

  “We are approaching Teklan now. We went through three jumps while you were out. I thought it best to leave you unconscious.”

  “Excellent call.” She gave him a weak smile.

  He was standing next to her with the compress, but she was still strapped in. Sweat coated her neck, but anywhere the suit touched her was clean and dry. It was the biggest bonus to the restrictor suit. No bodily functions had to be taken care of. The suit did all the cleaning for her. It sealed off her reproductive centre, but that was the entire purpose. They didn’t want physical talents breeding, so sealing their access points managed the population quite handily.