by Viola Grace
“I tried to recover, but I am not sure that she caught on.”
“She caught on.” He was grim about it. “A minder will bump into her in a hallway and she will forget that little blip, as well as your physical abilities.”
She rounded on him in her doorway, “What?”
He pushed her into her room and closed the door. “Not all those who sought help off Resicor were legitimate. We have found three sleeper agents waiting for a signal. Wekiat is one of them. She is not to expand her clearances, and yet, she still turns up in highly secure areas. We believe that she is being ridden. The minder will remove a good portion of your conversation, but she will still know you.”
Amly staggered back. “She isn’t…what does ridden mean?”
“She is on a frequency that can be accessed by a telepath over a long range, and he or she can move Wekiat around.”
Amly sat heavily on her bed. “Wekiat’s sister is in the government. She is a security scanner. It could be her. Does she know?”
He shook his head. “No. We have sent minders into her vicinity, and she does not register anything untoward. She is just a good-hearted gardener and you need to treat her as such, but watch what you say. Someone is listening through her eyes and ears.”
Amly felt tears well in her eyes. She fought them back, but they came anyway. “I thought that worrying about betrayal was a thing of the past.”
“No. It has just changed direction. I wish I could give you better news, but it is wiser to make sure you are aware and ready for what will come to pass.”
She let herself cry for a moment before rallying, sucking in air and wiping her cheeks. “Right. You said I had to go and see Effin?”
“Yes, he was a little perplexed by your readings, so he is going to ask if you will be willing to be fitted with longer-term monitor pods. You will be able to download their results, but they will be subcutaneous.”
“Under my skin.”
“If you allow it. The information you are providing has healers buzzing all over the Sector. They don’t know who you are, but they are watching the means by which your body shifts.”
“What can they gain from it?”
“They can learn how to regenerate tissue, how to remove scarring without injuring the patient and much, much more.”
Amly laughed helplessly. “All that and I didn’t feel a thing.”
“Being able to see the change and transformation in action, so to speak, has made quite a difference. You are copying other bipeds. There are a few other shifters, but they take on one specific aspect. You pull them all in. I am just surprised that you don’t copy talents as well.”
Amly looked at Keezik and blinked slowly. “Who says that I don’t?”
Chapter Six
She had dismissed Keezik after her disclosure and closed the door behind him. Amly paced, wondering if she should have told him everything.
Her first transformation had been a trauma for her. She had been on a school trip to the capitol and she had wandered down the wrong hall. Someone had called out to her and she had taken his hand. His talent for empathy was her first copy. She sent him her confusion, and the man had smiled and led her back to her group saying, “I expect she will be getting a job here one day.”
It had been in that golden time when the physical talents were still allowed to live low-profile but useful lives in the provinces. The locking up had begun a few years later.
Her teacher had looked down at her and smiled, “Are you a psychic, Amly?”
She had shaken her head and sniffled. “I thought he would understand me if I was more like him.”
Her teacher, Mrs. Wekford, had gone quiet, and later that day, when they were getting ready to go home, the teacher took her aside.
“Amly, you have to know this now and remember. No one can know that you can copy talents. It is very important. Not even your family. It will be dangerous for you and them. You can still do it, but don’t tell anyone. Okay?”
With tears in her eyes, Amly had nodded. Her teacher had hugged her.
“You are not in trouble, and I don’t want you to be. Just be yourself and keep alert. Your instincts can keep you safe if you let them.” Mrs. Wekford smiled and ruffled her hair.
Amly had always remembered that moment, and she had lived by it, until today.
Today everything had changed.
She yawned and took a quick solar shower before she crawled into bed. If sleep were willing, she would embrace it.
A knock at her door got her up, and as she crossed her room, the Masuo crawled upward to cover her in a bodysuit.
Keezik was standing in her doorway. “It is time for your appointment at the base.”
She nodded and followed him out the door and down the hall. She took a few steps and noted a strange sensation. She took Keezik’s arm and she jumped backward.
The creature turned to face her and hissed. “It is too bad. I was just going to give you a little shove. You wouldn’t have felt much. This will be a little more brutal.”
In her mind, she created a telepathic scream and sent it wide as the scaled beast lunged for her with claws out.
She dodged back and tried to focus. The yellow-scaled being was moving faster than she was. That had to stop.
Amly slid sideways, ducked under the claws and brought her fist up and under the blunt jawline with as much force as she could muster.
The head snapped back and the body dropped to the ground in a boneless heap.
Amly could feel the thuds of feet on the ground, and she turned to the first arrivals, holding her hands out.
They looked at her in confusion.
“I killed him.” She looked at her hands, and they were the same yellow scales as her victim. With a sigh, she shifted back to herself.
A familiar face appeared and pushed through the crowd.
“Keezik. I have killed someone.”
He looked at her and then at the body behind her. “Are you Amly?”
She blinked and turned toward the creature on the ground.
It looked at her. “I am Amly; it tried to kill me.”
She blinked and stood still. It stood next to her.
Keezik remained steady and near her. “Which one is which?”
They both said, “I am Amly.”
He pointed at the fake her. “Tell me something only Amly would know.”
Amly had to watch as her gaze got all watery and the mouth that wasn’t hers said, “I love you.”
Amly snorted. “Like I would tell you that in public. Coffee, Keezik.”
He raised his hand and fired a small weapon at the fake, firing at it until it was on the ground and twitching violently.
“That answers that.”
She nodded and slid down the wall, bracing her head on her arms and breathing slowly. “That was scary.”
“It still is. We have to restrain it if it isn’t dead. The ability to read a mind and morph is dangerous.”
She gave him a dark look. “I am well aware of that. It is a good thing that it tried not to make contact with me. Once I touched it, I knew it wasn’t you.”
“What did it say?” He put his hand on her knee. The knowledge that it was the right him was a relief.
“That it was time for my appointment at the base.”
“Nothing more?”
“That was it.”
He nodded. “That will narrow it down. There were only a few folk around when I said that last night.”
A Citadel student came running, and with help, he put some bands on the creature on the ground.
“What are those?” She blinked curiously, distracted for the moment.
“Null bands. They dampen the talent for a short amount of time, until the body learns to compensate. We have been using them with more powerful talents who can take them on and off as they wish.”
“Will he be able to take them off?”
Tur
nari appeared with his hair tousled around his horns. “No. These are locked with a pass code. Now that he has been nulled, we will use regular restraints and get him into a holding cell.”
She looked up at him and winced. “I am sorry I screamed so loud.”
He grinned. “I am glad you did. You proved that, in an emergency, the shielding here can let through a panicked psychic scream.”
A chuckle ran through the crowd that had filled the hallway and stairwell.
“It was all that I could think to do. He is really fast and I am pretty sure he is venomous.”
She shuddered again as they hauled away her assassin.
Keezik narrowed his eyes. “When he was me, he only said the one sentence. What did he say afterward?”
“He wanted to push me down the stairs and break my neck. He said my death would be quick, but now, it was going to be painful and messy.”
Her body rocked with the shock of the close call.
Keezik helped her upright and walked her down the stairs.
He settled her on a couch in the common space and brought her a cup of something that smelled amazing. It was a creamy brown and smelled of toast, nuts and warmth.
“Drink it.”
She sipped at it, and while the flavour was not all that the scent had promised, she continued until she had consumed half of it. “That is pretty good.”
“That is coffee, with honey and cream.”
Amly smiled weakly. “All right. I concede it is a worthy goal.”
Her nerves were soothed and the shock was wearing off with the warmth of the coffee inside her.
Turnari came and sat next to them. Keezik explained that the duplicator had been within earshot of the table where she was having dinner with Wekiat. Wekiat herself was beyond suspicion, as she had been under the care of a minder in medical. She had been given a headache and treated in full view of the night shift. She was, in fact, still there.
Turnari lifted a tablet and began scrolling through the security vids from the night before in all the common areas.
Amly sighed. “Focus on my door half an hour ago, and when you find him, trace him back through the halls until you find the form he was using previously.”
He got a strange gleam in his eyes and handed her the tablet. “It is open with my pass code.”
She moved her hands over it, and in three minutes, she had the picture of the body he was wearing before he became Keezik, and the other form he had used to spy on them in the common room.
“How do you know that that was him?” Turnari was looking at the image from the night before.
“He moves the same. No matter what he shifts into, he moves the same. There is no adaptation to the species that he represents. It is one of the things that tipped me off about the fake Keezik. He didn’t move correctly and was missing mannerisms.”
Turnari nodded.
She handed him the tablet back and grazed her hand along his thumb. He was the actual administrator.
“You doubted me?”
She blushed. “Not on purpose, but now, I doubt everyone until I touch them if I don’t see them walk.”
He inclined his head. “And you are right to do so. Do you know why they tried to kill you?”
She finished her coffee and gave him a sober look. “It might be because I know the truth about Resicor and what is going on there.”
Chapter Seven
Instead of demanding information, Turnari sent her over to the Guard Base with Keezik as escort.
They bypassed Fixer’s workshop and headed straight for Relay’s office. Once the introductions had been made, Relay offered her a seat. Keezik was asked to wait with Effin in medical.
“I have someone who wants to speak with you. She will tell you if what you know is correct.” Relay inclined her head and the room darkened.
A three-dimensional display of a lovely woman floating in a tank of some strange fluid hovered next to the desk.
A voice emanated from a speaker somewhere in the room. “Amly Hyde, I am very glad to meet you.”
“Who am I speaking with?”
“My name is Urikara Lenz and I witnessed the first culling of talents from the surface of Resicor. You know why we are populating the world, do you not?”
“She is calling for help. They are holding her in and she wants out.”
Urikara nodded her head, her hair flowing around her. “You have it right, but you cannot know it. Do you understand me?”
“I know. I have hidden it for a dozen years. I can hide it as long as it takes.”
“Good girl. It won’t be long now. She has called her defenders and they will answer. She will be free.”
Amly nodded. “She will be free.”
“You have done well and you will soon be sent to bring some sons and daughters into the fight. Remember who you are. You can so easily lose yourself in another that you need to focus on yourself at all times.”
“I will remember, Elder Lenz.”
The woman blinked and then winked. “I look forward to your career, Amly Hyde. Seek what duty calls you to and you will find what you need to be whole and stay whole.”
The display went dark.
Relay exhaled sharply. “That was intense. Can you explain what she was talking about?”
“In the abstract. It has been hypothesized in the Alliance and the Imperium as well as other areas of space that a world that is thwarted in its quest for an Avatar will reach out and call for help. It will call for assistance in any way it can. When you find a previously inactive world that suddenly is swarming with talents, you normally find that their planet is in the throes of waking. It wants help to bring its mind from dormant to awake and it changes its children to complete that task.”
Relay sat back and blinked. “You are not kidding.”
“I am not kidding. This is the theory offered by researchers and philosophers across the known universe. I cannot prove my theory about Resicor, but I do agree that it holds with the logic.”
Relay leaned forward. “My world has just begun to do the same. Talents are beginning to pop up, and they are being removed from the population before anyone at home can realize what is going on.”
“You are a Terran.”
“Correct.”
With a conspiratorial grin, Amly moved forward as if to impart a secret from the depths of her soul.
Relay mimicked her move.
“They have coffee at Citadel Morganti.”
Relay leaned back and burst out laughing. It broke the tension and stopped the questioning. Amly had an appointment with the doctor to work through, and then, it was on to etiquette class.
Chapter Eight
Effin was relieved when she agreed to the monitor implants. Fixer was called and Keezik acted as assistant, handing the two specialists their equipment when requested.
The procedure was painless, and after two hours, it was over. Her Masuo had sealed and exposed the areas in turn until it was over. Once the procedure had been completed, Fixer showed her how to do a download and link it to the com systems of most ships.
It was funny to be instructed by Fixer with how to use her tech while she gnawed on high-calorie foods.
To Amly’s amusement, Fixer had called her grandmother and postponed the meeting. If Equilar wanted to instruct Amly today, she would have to come to the base.
After she had made sure that the implants didn’t impede her shifting, she thought she was done. Fixer and Keezik shook their heads.
Out in the workshop, Fixer kept eating while an array of Guardsmen came in and introduced themselves one by one. She was expected to shift into each one of their forms and mimic their mannerisms.
It was going well until she met Beast. The moment her overworked system touched the Drai, she copied his body and had to run for the open door of the hangar.
To everyone’s shock, she shifted from the winged bipedal form into a huge beast over six
ty feet long.
Amly stood still and waited for her heart to calm, but her instincts were calling her to flight.
Don’t try it. It takes a set of skills that you don’t have.
She snorted and took a few running steps before opening her wings and scooping the air. Flight came to her easily; all Beast’s instincts for the air were working with her.
A small, bright human came and flew beside her, keeping up with her while she rolled and climbed through the air.
She heard a warning cried through a com system and exhaustion shut her down.
She fell through the sky with her wings collapsing around her and her body reverting to its small, pale form.
The woman caught her and carried her back to the hangar.
Effin put an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose while Fixer monitored her vital signs.
Amly looked at the crowd of concerned faces, including Fury and Beast. She hadn’t stolen his body, she had copied it, and she hoped they knew the difference.
“Keep breathing, Amly. Did you have breakfast?” Fixer scowled at the readings.
Amly shook her head.
Effin slapped a hand over his features and Relay rubbed her head.
A series of injections were dumped into her system, and when she felt well enough to sit up, Fixer contributed part of her recovery meal.
Her blood sugar returned to normal and her heart beat a steadier pace.
Beast bowed his head and clasped her hand. “I have never seen a shifter do that before. You have incredible power.”
She inclined her head. “Thank you. So do you. That tail kept throwing me to one side.”
He chuckled. “You get used to it.”
She was introduced to the woman who had scooped her out of the air. “Call me Carella.”
“Hello, Carella. Thank you for catching me.”
“That responsibility belongs to Fixer. She screamed for me to come running, so to speak. Apparently, your vitals were all over the place.”
“That is what it felt like. First, there was a surge of recognition, then the power wanted to run and I had no ability to stop it. Finally, someone told me I could not have the skills to fly and that was the wrong thing to say. The instinct roared at that and took off with me.”
