by Viola Grace
"Well, that is what the doctor isn"t sure of. Back on Earth, it would be nine months, give or take, but as the father is of another species…who knows."
"So, you are from Earth?"
Star Breaker blinked and smiled. "Sorry, I am a little off my etiquette. Carella of Terra, at your service."
"Tricia Williams, pleased to meet you." She extended her hand and there was a slight crackle as her field touched Carella"s and the energies fought for the moment of contact.
Mala smiled and kept eating.
"Why is she so…hungry?" Tricia whispered it to her other companion.
"She is a molecular manipulator, but she uses her body"s energy to power the motion. It drains her and she replaces the energy with food. A mass-for-mass exchange."
Mala nodded while daintily stuffing her mouth full.
Tricia smiled, "It is just so nice to be talking to people while eating. I hate being locked in a room on my own all the time."
"Yeah, I read something about that in our briefing. What happened?"
She leaned back and took her tea with her. "Well, it all started when the Sector Guard had just started up and I was working as a mediator. The Citadel was negotiating for personnel from Avari and failing miserably. The negotiator was getting aggressive and I told him to calm down. He did. Everyone in the room did. The guards outside took naps."
"You sedated them."
Tricia scratched her head. "I think so. Something like that. The Citadel reps immediately had me transferred to their facility and the next thing I knew, I was being trained to expand my mental acuity and the pheromone that my body puts out was tweaked to expand out to fill the area I am in, no matter how big it is."
"So, why aren"t you working with the Citadel?"
"Well, they couldn"t get it under control once they unleashed it and I have no clue as to what I am doing. Ideally, I should be able to do something else with it, but no one knows what that is. When the Sector Guard offered to take me, I was a little creeped out, but now that you have made me safe for walking around in public, I am feeling better about it."
Mala winked and then grinned with a mouthful of food as someone entered the commissary behind Tricia"s back.
Carella winced. "Oh lord."
Trish turned in her chair and swallowed laughter. It was hard, but she managed. Two tiny little girls were walking between two very large men who had been decorated with glitter.
"It"s your turn, Mala." The male Selna leaned down and kissed his wife, leaving glitter across her lips and cheek.
"Tricia, this is my husband, Isabi, that is Kale and the two little terrors are Mabi and Isala." The girls looked excited when they were named and one of them immediately reached out to climb into Tricia"s lap.
"No, no, Isala. You can"t play with her yet." Mala slithered out from under her husband"s embrace to stop her daughter from touching Tricia.
"Um, is something wrong?" Tricia was worried that she had done something to insult either Mala or her children.
Isala"s face crumpled and she and her twin began wailing.
Mala picked up her daughter and Mabi crawled onto Tricia"s lap for comforting without anyone commenting.
"Isala looks like her father, but has my talent. The little darling you are holding turns invisible, but is safe for you to hold. Until we get your talent or your suit locked and stabilized, this little one here," she hefted Isala, "can open your suit wide or turn off your field because she doesn"t like the way it feels."
Mabi was sniffling and cuddling against Tricia as if she had known her all her young life. Isala was still sobbing because she hadn"t been allowed to go where she wanted to. "Oh. Gotcha."
Carella snorted. "That little fiend in Mala"s arms has disassembled shuttles because she didn"t want her daddy going on trips."
Kale had circled the table and was now sitting next to his wife. "Nice to meet you, Tricia. Guardian arrived early and Effin is waiting for you in medical. Did Mala drag you in here?"
She settled the little girl tightly against her and untangled some of the dark rainbow strands of the little girl. "No, I wanted to come. I have not been able to hang out with people for a while and I missed the bustle of a commissary. Now I am thinking that it may have been a bad idea."
Chuckling, Isabi took a seat and smiled at her. She had to stop the quiver at his attention. He was a very handsome man. "Mala will show you to medical and she will try and find the nanny, wherever he is hiding."
"Come along, Tricia. You aren"t up to this kind of social discourse yet." Mala was smiling and at ease.
She got to her feet with Mabi in her arms and Mala led her through the halls to medical. "Isabi is…"
"Yeah, he is. Don"t worry, he knows what he looks like and likes to tease newbies. When you get to know him, he is an incredible pain in the ass."
The little girl in Tricia"s arms looked up and with a beatific expression said, "Ass."
Mala stopped and turned pink. "Did I just hear Mabi"s first word?"
"Perhaps. It could have been…" But the child was not going to let it go.
"Ass. Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass." Mabi looked proud of herself.
The antiseptic scent of medical let Tricia find her way, Mala wasn"t speaking again.
A Wyoran was waiting for her, "Effin, I presume?"
"Yes, you would be Tricia. The new addition to the Sector Guard. Why isn"t Mala talking? Unless she is working, she is never silent."
"Ass. Ass, ass, ass, ass." The small singsong voice rang through medical and the assistants and the doctors started laughing.
"Mabi decided to speak her first word after listening to her mother."
The doctor had tears coming from his eyes as he howled with laughter.
Mala gestured with her one hand and Mabi left Tricia to go to her mother.
"Bye, Mabi, Isala and Mala, it will be fine. Just increase her vocabulary as quickly as you can."
Fixer left her alone with the doctor and Tricia simply had to wait until he stopped laughing. She waited a fairly long time.
Chapter Three
"Relay mentioned your little difficulty." He was mopping tears from his eyes as he straightened.
"It isn"t that little. Outside this suit, I sedate everyone around me."
"I can see where that would be awkward. Come on, hop up here and we will see what we can find on the scanners."
She took her place on the exam bed and held still as he ran the scanners up and down her body with cool efficiency.
"Well, the containment suit is working well, so we don"t have any worries there. You are in excellent health, but you seem to have a gland just under the thymus that is working overtime. Do you have any alien races in your bloodline?"
"Not that I know of. So, there is nothing wrong with me?"
"No. You are in perfect health. Good thing, too, as you will not be under my care. The doctor at Udell base is good but not as good as I am." His eyes were sparkling with amusement.
"So, this gland could be issuing the pheromone?"
"Yes, it most definitely is, but the brainwave that you have going right here…" He pointed to a mark on the scan display on the wall. "That is what controls them. Basically, you are turning them into puppets, but you haven"t learned to control the product that your body is producing, so they are simply slumping into stupors. That is useful in the short term, but it could be a disaster if you don"t know how to pilot your own craft."
"I can control them?"
"Probably. You have the potential. You just haven"t learned it yet. That is why you are here instead of charging straight to Udell. I will make my recommendations to Relay and she will pass them along to Fixer." He helped her sit up and waited with a head cocked attentively.
"What about my…uh, personal cycle?"
"Your body has suspended it for the time being. When you have mastered your personal chemistry, it will return."
He was matter-of-fact and she sighed in relief. "Where do I go now?"
"Well, your base commander is talking with ours, so come with me and I will take you to Relay."
There was something about the way he spoke of their base commander that made her ask, "You and Relay?"
"She"s my mate. Yes. Most of the Sector Guard are paired off, some of the males only agreed to join with the caveat that they get a female partner who had the potential to be a mate. For me and Relay, well, I rescued her and then refused to leave once she was here. Their doctor was changing his duties, so I took over."
He had ushered her out of medical and they were now heading down the hall to a more casual part of the base. "Guardian is a Nhavil, so be prepared."
That race didn"t ring a bell in her mind by name, but the moment they entered Relay"s office, the breath whooshed out of her. "You."
He was looking at her with the same surprise in his face. "You. Mediator Williams."
"Yes. Martuas, isn"t it?" Her mouth kept moving as her eyes took in his height, the breadth of his shoulders, the silver skin, ridges of bone on his forehead, dark curtain of hair and pointed ears. She had negotiated his term with the Alliance and she had no idea that she was working on a Sector Guard contract. She hadn"t needed to know. It had been two years since she had seen him, but his presence struck her as solidly now as it had then.
"Guardian now." His voice rumbled low and she felt her belly do a slow flip.
"Guardian of Udell base."
"Base commander, yes."
"Ah." Oh crap, she was going to have to work with the man who had traipsed through her more X-rated dreams. She was in hell.
"Your suit is very…" He paused. "Bright, I suppose is the word."
"Fixer said she could alter it if I was truly unhappy."
His own suit was a dark version of hers—burgundy and deep bronze marked his suit. Far more dignified than her blazing red.
"We will see what she comes up with for a battle suit for you."
The woman with the headset was watching them with a smirk
around her mouth. Tricia finally realized she hadn"t introduced herself. "Oh crap. Um, hello, Relay, I am Tricia Williams."
"Hello, Tricia. Your new designation is Guardsman Pax. Call me Ally. Nice to see yet another Terran join the Guard." She winked.
"How many are there?"
"More than six and climbing all the time. Several of our members also have Terran ancestors left over from historical abductions and slave trades." Relay smiled and then her eyes went a little unfocussed for a moment.
"Ignore that. She is getting a data pack in via her implants." Effin smiled. "It happens a lot."
Guardian was so close, she could feel the heat coming off his body. She swallowed and looked way up into his colour-changing eyes. "You mentioned a battle suit?"
"You are not designed for hand-to-hand combat on a large scale, though you will get training. We have a few Guardsmen who operate battle suits and they have found them to be excellent at defending the gooey centre, as Tech would say."
"Who"s Tech?"
"A member of the Udell team. We have been trying to get a full complement of Guardsmen in, but there is a certain amount of awkwardness with finding the right match for the right base. I think you will fit in just fine."
She cleared her throat. "When do I start combat training?"
"Why not right now?"
Tricia blinked. "Um, okay. Sure."
Guardian nodded to Relay and escorted her from the office with a hand to the centre of her back.
* * * *
Alessandra looked up at her husband. "Are we even here?"
He leaned in and gave her a kiss that scorched her toes. "I believe that we are, or I couldn"t have done that. But, they did react powerfully to each other, didn"t they?"
"I think I am going to look up their first meeting. There were enough sparks in here to light my desk on fire." She closed her eyes and ran through the records of Martuas of Nhavil and Mediator Tricia Williams.
They had really only met the one time. No shared meals, only the four-hour session where Tricia had worked on mediating negotiations between Martuas and the Alliance. It was the moment that he had become a member of the Sector Guard and she was destined to be his partner. Fate was a frisky gal.
* * * *
"Keep your fists up and left, right, left, right, excellent." Martuas was in front of her and she was punching him, well his hands.
She had a surprising amount of coordination. Her brain still couldn"t believe that the silver knight of her dreams was standing in front of her and letting her hit him.
"So, how did you end up with the guard, Guardian?"
He ducked and she spun around, then waited for her next opportunity.
"I am impervious to drugs, oxygen deprivation, airborne pathogens and psi control. Perfect for working with those who are above the physical norms for their species."
She punched again and he raised his palms for her to smack into. Her hair swung into her face and she blew at the brown and white strands as she lunged and struck again.
"Let me guess, also impervious to physical damage and fatigue." She struck rapid-fire and breathed harder.
"You are very bright. It is nice to see you again." His tone went from light and mocking to deep and resonant.
She was so distracted by his tone that she missed his palms and fell forward. He caught her and held her upright. "It"s nice to see you, too, Martuas."
Their gazes caught and held. He slowly lowered his head to hers and they were an inch away from a kiss when a cleared throat interrupted.
Snarling, Guardian turned and moved between her and the intruder. Isabi just grinned. "Mala has the mock-up of the suits ready."
Shaking her head slightly, Tricia nodded, "Great. I see you got the glitter off."
"Yeah, came right off my hide, Kale is still in the shower with Carella. Don"t know how much that has to do with the glitter though." He shrugged and his smile stayed in place. "Am I interrupting?"
"Um, combat practice." Tricia was dealing with Guardian"s arm around her waist and his gentle herding to the door.
"Yeah, that looked like it was dangerous." Isabi was cruising for a smack. How could she have thought he was handsome? He was a shapeless shadow compared to Martuas.
"Shut up, Isabi, or those girls will be the last kids you have." Guardian"s low growl was threatening and as Tricia watched, the air waved around him in a sort of a static charge.
"Sorry, Martuas. Just having a little fun with the new team." Isabi gave a graceful bow and led them to Mala.
The workshop was incredible. Body suits on mannequins lined the walls, large robots stood near the great doors and what seemed to be a playroom was off to one side. "The girls stay in here?"
"Only when the nanny isn"t on duty. Chewalik is supposed to be an around-the-clock nanny, but the girls" talents make it a little hard on him, so we take them when we can."
Mala was in the corner welding on something that was a cross between the bots and the body suits. It was snug, feminine and looked very attractive.
There were holes in the suit as well as what seemed to be gas tanks fastened on at random.
"Mala, what is that?"
Mala straightened and lifted her welding screen. "That"s your business suit, Pax."
Guardian was looking amazed and Isabi had an impressed look on his face.
Pax had to ask, "How do I get into it?"
Mala went through the steps of backing into the suit and pulling the grips on the sides to lock it up and around her thighs, the insertion of her arms and the closure of the ribcage followed by the lockdown of the helmet.
The heads-up display lit to show her the stats of the suit as well as the interior of the room. Mala was looking up at her and then down at a data pad. "Take a few steps, Pax."
Unlike the body suit, she definitely knew she was wearing the battle gear, her thighs flexed and strained, but she took a few steps forward.
"Raise your arms."
Sweat was beading on h
er brow, but she managed to lift her arms.
"Turn left. Turn right. Bend down. Great."
Mala was smiling at her. "Now I will connect the battery pack so you can feel the suit with power."
Pax was shocked. "There isn"t power to the suit? How can I read the display then?"
"It powers off body heat for the internal displays and the small camera. The rest of the motors need more power than that." Mala slipped behind her and there was a small click.
