by Viola Grace
Cila Wen has lived her life unable to speak for fear destroying those around her. The Sector Guard has offered her a position and assistance in controlling her talent, but Cila is not sure if that is even possible. Ripper, her soon-to-be partner, is convinced otherwise and does everything in his power to help her out of her shell and into his bed.
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Ripped and Roar
Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-55487-950-2
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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Ripped and Roar
Sector Guard 21
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Cila Wen checked the incoming messages, bringing up data streams with light touches of her fingers. A flashing blue light answered her query. In silence, she opened the digital document and read the document as it scrolled across her screen.
Life on a relay station was rather boring and with no one to talk to Cila looked forward, with a strange intensity, to any kind of letters.
Dear Ms. Wen,
My name is Relay and I am the base manager for Sector Guard Base Morganti. Your particular condition has come to our attention and we have a proposal for you.
I am sure that you are aware of why I have contacted you in print instead of via a standard communication.
I have discussed your situation with other members and base commanders in the Sector Guard and we have come to a conclusion. We can offer you a way to live a relatively normal and productive life.
If you are interested in this possibility, please contact me via the following com signal. I am looking forward to your call.
The string of numbers tempted her.
Cila tented her fingers and stared at the document for five minutes. She exhaled through her nose and keyed in the contact strand.
A woman's face appeared immediately. She had kind eyes and a face-framing headpiece. "Hello, Cila." She raised her hand in greeting.
Bemused, Cila raised her hand before typing, Hello, Relay.
"Are you interested in trying to get your talent under control?"
Of course. I don't understand how it would work though. You are aware of how my talent takes shape?
"I am. Our suit techs are confident that they can provide you with a filter that will allow you to operate normally. You will be able to socialize and speak freely once the final system has been tweaked."
Cila wiped the tiny tears from her eyes. Are you sure this will work?
"I am sure that if you try and we try and no one gives up, then we have a far greater chance of succeeding."
Cila drummed her fingers on her station as she thought about it. How long until there is someone to take over my station?
Relay grinned. "We can have you in a personal transport within the month. Is this a yes?"
Yes, with the understanding that if I do not get my talent under control, I will need to be sent to an unmanned facility.
"Of course. Wait patiently for thirty days and your replacement and escort will be there to relieve and transport you respectively."
Thank you for your offer. I look forward to seeing what your technicians can come up with. I have yet to see anything that can control it.
"I am confident that Fixer can work something out. She is a miracle worker when it comes to dealing with the peculiarities of talents."
Will you warn your emissaries of my speech impediment?
"Of course. They will be fully briefed before they arrive. How is Stancha?"
Cila smiled. I was wondering if your name was only a title. Relay Stancha is doing well. She is in her twentieth month here and all signs point to her enjoying her post. She loves to gossip.
"I remember those days. It is amazing to have the feeling of entire star systems' worth of information and correspondence running through your mind."
Fond memories?
"Until they were replaced by the thrill of being in the data stream and part of the Sector Guard at the same time. I look forward to seeing you in person and discussing this further."
Thank you for your time. Cila inclined her head and accepted the wave that the other woman gave her.
Their signal discontinued and Cila sat back to absorb the possibility of living a more productive life.
Her parents had not known what to do with a child who refused to speak. They had coaxed, threatened and finally taken her to every therapist her world had to offer before they came to the realization that she simply would not speak. She was six when she had enough of a grasp of the written word to begin communication with her long-suffering parents.
She explained that her voice hurt, but it didn't hurt her, it hurt others. Her parents were so taken aback that they tried to force her to speak in a controlled environment. Three techs were injured and thousands of credits in equipment were destroyed when she said her first word. Hello.
They stopped asking her to speak at that point and tried to find ways to keep her contained.
Her current assignment was the peak of containment technology. She was ostensibly the caretaker of a relay station, but in reality, it was a prison. A relay station was an unmarked and unvisited station. There was no temptation to speak because there was no one to talk to aside from the relay who was wired into a tank and whose mind was a conduit for thousands of trace-free transmissions. Stancha wasn't up for conversation.
If Cila tried to leave the small station, a containment field would snap into place, confining her and destroying her access to breathable air. Relay was going to have to engage in a lot of begging and whining to get the most dangerous member of the Xsar species free and clear. Somehow, she didn't doubt that the woman she had just spoken to was capable of wading through the paperwork involved.
* * * *
Three weeks later…
"So, you are going to be replacing the personnel on the station?" Arkhov Ziddler spoke to his travel companion. Even for a Citadel spook, she was a little timid. She jumped every time he opened his mouth.
Her words were barely a breath of sound. "I am. I look forward to the silence with only one mind in my vicinity."
Open minded is what her file said. Arkhov had read it over before agreeing to pilot her to the small relay station. It was a statement of her psychic condition. Vera Whicki was a woman with an open mind and nothing was going to change it. A relay station was the best place for her. She would have one busy relay as her companion and all of the data streams in the sector to rifle through.
"I am guessing that it will be a delightful change for you after the hectic move taking place at the Citadel."
She shuddered and stared out the view screen, a tiny, pale creature with no spirit.
Rip
per sighed and signalled the station that they were coming in for docking. If it wasn't for his species' hard-headed defences against psychic probing, he was sure she would have jumped out an airlock by now. He had the psychic signature of a large brick and this was one of the few times that it was an asset.
"The shift of the more active sects to Morganti was a little disruptive, but I am unsuited to any kind of group habitation. This assignment is a welcome relief and the training for maintenance of the relay was easy to absorb. I feel that this is my ideal situation."
He blinked in surprise. It was more of a speech than she had engaged in for the whole trip.
"Then congratulations are in order. We are there, or here, rather."
The woman perked up and looked at the tiny station that she would soon be calling home. "It looks so quiet."
He chuckled and thought of the woman he would be taking on as partner. "You have no idea."
Chapter Two
Cila checked the seals twice before authorizing the opening of the small ship's hatch. The two folks who exited were not what she had expected.
The woman who was to replace her was so frail that it was a good thing she was on a space station. A strong breeze might blow her away.
The man, however, looked as if it would take a weapon of mass destruction to simply change his mind. Wearing a skin-tight body suit, each muscle was delineated in brilliant detail, a mass of tissue that trumpeted function was well as form.
Cila bit her lip as he approached, raising one hand in greeting.
He replied with hand signals. Hello, Cila. You may call me Ripper or Arkhov. This is Vera.
Cila smiled and cleared her mind except for her greeting. Hello, Vera. Stancha looks forward to your company.
The open-minded woman from the Citadel blinked and smiled. "Thank you for the greeting. Please. Lead the way."
Cila nodded and signed to Ripper, I am going to give her orientation. You are welcome to make yourself at home. Thank you for coming to get me and thank you for learning to sign.
He inclined his head. It is used on my world as well, I had seen it before and Relay simply made sure that I got the most intensive course I could.
Cila smiled and waved for Vera to follow her into the depths of the station.
Vera let out a small laugh. "For the first time, my voice was the only one I heard."
Become used to it. Mind you, I have not heard my own voice in over a decade.
"I am vague on this, is it a religious matter?"
Cila had to cover her mouth to hide her grin. No, it is a personal matter of the same type as yours, an out-of-control talent.
"I see. Pardon my query then. May I ask how you have such a clear thought projection?"
Training, my dear. Years of training. With no ability to project my thoughts, I had to be clear when I spoke to a psychic. I learned quickly to censor my impulses, not an easy task for a teenager.
"I suppose not. Thank you for your clarity."
You are most welcome. This is Stancha. She is scheduled for a feeding tank swap, so if you are up for it, I can supervise you for the first one.
Two hours of checking lines, cutting off tanks, lining the new ones up, doing a test of contents and verifying it against baselines and logging the nutrient change for the station systems culminated with a green light from the relay.
Cila smiled. Stancha is pleased, air bubbles give her gas.
"That is fascinating. How do you know?"
Stancha speaks to you through the data stream. You need only log into your system and she will share her thoughts with you when she gets bored.
"Thank you for your thorough briefing, Cila. I appreciate the effort you engaged in on my behalf." Vera's huge dark eyes were sincere.
Cila bowed and inclined her head for Vera to come with her back to the control deck. It was time to see what Arkhov was up to.
As a member of the Sector Guard, he was certainly trustworthy, but a man alone in an unmanned base with unlimited data access was bound to get into trouble or, at least, the porn streams.
When Cila entered her office, he was seated at the desk and going through her reports. She noted the clawed tips of his fingers and the spurs that jutted from the insides of his wrists as he skimmed through a variety of information that included her dietary preferences.
She tapped on the edge of the desk and he jumped, surprised at her silent entrance.
"Oh, Cila. Sorry to have made myself at home."
She shrugged, jerking her thumb for him to leave the chair. Bemused, he slid from the seat and let her steer Vera into place.
Leaning over the woman's shoulder, Cila typed in the codes for transfer of control of the station. She pressed her palm to the reader, leaned forward for the eye scan and then pressed Vera's hand into place.
"I, Vera Whicki, take control of the relay station from Cila Wen, assuming all maintenance duties inherent in the facility." The lights flashed and the system dipped and rebooted.
Vera looked a little alarmed, "What was that?"
Cila grinned and signed to Arkhov to translate.
"Cila says that it was Stancha acknowledging the turnover."
It was a relief to be able simply to use the hand signals instead of concentrating on projecting her thoughts. It's time for us to be on our way, wherever we are going.
"You are correct. Will you be alright here, Vera?"
The woman pushed her Citadel robes up her sleeves and turned to face her screens, dismissing them with a smile. "I believe that I will be more than all right. I feel absolutely at home here."
Grinning, Cila walked to her quarters and noted that her bags were missing. What?
"I took your satchels to the ship and stowed them. We are ready to leave anytime." Arkhov gestured for her to precede him.
The hooks on his inner wrists were obvious, but she ignored them and led the way back to his ship. If he wasn't going to mention them, she wasn't going to mention them. She had no idea of his species, but it was closely related to the Azon with something spiky thrown in.
She stopped at the exterior hatch. It wasn't yet keyed to her bio print, so she had to wait for Ripper.
He pressed his hand to the pad, the claws on the tips of his fingers clicking lightly against the plate. "I will get you registered for entry to the ship. Just take a seat at the control panel and I will be with you as soon as I seal the hatch."
Cila walked into the huge, open space and raised an eyebrow at the small bulkheads that delineated the areas that could hold cargo, the tiny dining area as well as wide bunks that folded up against the wall. She gave a mental snort as she took in enough living and running-around space to fill the tiny relay station. This was more space than she had ever had to herself or even to share with one person than had ever been at her disposal.
"Do you like it?"
She turned to face Arkhov and he was inches from her. Waves of heat were coming from him and she held her breath when his scent started to spike her attention. She backed up half a step and signed. Wow, lots of space.
"The Sector Guard gets to do shakedowns of quite a few new designs for spacecraft. It's one of the perks."
You get to fly around in untested ships?
"More or less. They are tested by our technicians and inventors and then we are given the go ahead to fly them on assignment. You will be meeting with Fixer. She and Beast have crafted this particular ship with his wingspan in mind."
Will I meet them?
"Fixer, most certainly. She will be on the team trying to help you gain control over this mysterious talent of yours."
She smiled, twisting her lips to one side. There is no mystery. I emanate concussive sonic force. I can do it with my body, but my voice is my most powerful outlet.
He laughed. "As are the voices of most of the women of the Sector Guard, mind you, most of them could not shatter bone with a simple whisper."
His gesture for her to take her seat was graceful but insistent.
&
nbsp; She took his hint and sat at the navigator station.
The ship controls were duplicated on either side of the console for ease of duty-shift rotation. She was reaching for one of the displays when an alarm sounded from the station.
With her eyes wide, she jumped to her feet and headed for the door.
Ripper stopped her and asked, "What is it?"
Proximity alarm. The station is under attack. I have to get to the other docking area. She was frustrated by having to sign everything instead of simply talking on the way as others could.
"Let me help you. What do you need?"
Tell Vera to start the Cila Five protocol and grab your EVA suit. You will need it.
He nodded and started to speak through a tab on his suit, warning Vera and setting the protocol into action.
Cila had to admit that he was fairly swift in his preparations. They were out of the shuttle and running through the station within a minute.
As she led the way, she could see Ripper fastening his headgear into place and tugging on the gloves that would turn his uniform into an EVA suit. He was going to be safe when she pulled the manoeuvre and that was what mattered.
Running to the only other available dock, she ripped her own suit down from the wall and stepped into it, sealing everything except her face panel. She left the visor up.
A thud was striking the exterior of the station and the sound gave her enough time to reach for the tethers that she clipped to her suit.
Ripper came around and spoke, his voice hollow in his helmet, "What are you doing?"
She raised her hands and clumsily formed the words. I am defending the station.
Vera's voice came through the speakers. "She is preparing to greet our visitors. Since we shifted caretakers, there is a void in our security that has not quite closed. Normally, a shielding would have popped into place, but it is not yet ready to go online. Apparently, the raiders have been watching how stations operate during changeovers."
