by Chogan Swan
But she was here somewhere …
Alice.
Una turned toward Barton, and opened her mouth, but stopped as ShwydH's personality asserted.
Just wait. You don't know anything about this. You could miss a chance to learn something.
Una closed her mouth and turned part of her attention back to the girls.
The taller girl with the cowboy hat who’d followed the Rodriguez sisters passed the pile by—grinning at the commotion—and continued walking toward Una. She stopped a couple of paces away and held out her hand. “Hi. I thought at first you were the ambassador, but you must be one of her sisters. My name is Marian.”
Una took her hand and the girl shook it firmly.
“Hello, Marian. And, you’re right. My name is Una. It's a pleasure to meet you.”
The pile of girls and dog was disassembling now, moving to gather around Una and Marian. Bandit trotted up to face her, still wriggling with happy, and offered his paw. Una took it, shaking it as though they hadn't already gotten to know each other.
The daughters of Amber and Jonah gathered closer, looking at her and whispering to each other in combinations of Spanish, Tohono O'odham, and English. “Not Aylie, but like Aylie. Una? Yes. She said, Una. Aylie-sister.”
As one, they all curtsied to her then one of the girls stepped forward. “Welcome, Una. My name is Ambrosia Rodriguez.”
Una smiled and opened her mouth to respond, but stopped at the look of shock on Ambrosia's face. The little girl came closer and reached up. Una, concerned, bent to offer …
But one doesn't know what she wants.
Ambrosia touched Una's mouth. “La sonrisa es de ShwydH,” she breathed. “Secreto.”
“Si,” the other thirteen agreed in a whisper.
Una, as shocked as they all seemed to be, heard it as a promise. She looked Ambrosia in the eyes and held out her hand to her signifying a pledge. “Tambien,” Una whispered back—one collective to another.
She looked at the girls behind Ambrosia, they all nodded, faces serious and quiet, but Marian watched them all, eyes narrowed in thought. Ambrosia turned to grasp Marian's hand in her other hand, bridging the gap between Marian and Una. “Emenem, es secreto.”
“Si,” Marian said finally, nodding with a jerk of her head. “No se que es, pero todo es secreto.”
CHAPTER 12 – PROBABLE CAUSE
In her new—very tiny—quarters, Una showed her teeth to the bathroom mirror as she pulled on her harem pants, trying to find the expression that had betrayed the inner presence of ShwydH.
Of course ShwydH had never had a mirror in front of his face when he and HumanaH had been around Amber's daughters, so it was impossible to know what to look for. Una had concluded that it must have been an expression reserved for children. She might need to be careful around Ayleana … and cameras.
The conclusion hadn't yet stopped her from trying every time she passed the mirror in her quarters though.
Maybe that isn't the only answer one looks for.
Una considered that. There were plenty of questions.
What did the daughters of Amber think—finding someone they had known as toddlers inhabiting a different body? What was it Marian had gathered from it? The young cowgirl had struck Una as shrewd, tough for her age. What crucible had formed that one?
That didn't even include all the follow-on questions.
But Una had a meeting scheduled this morning with Daniels.
Day one and hit the ground running.
But first, she needed to process new memories.
She lit the scented candle that Tiana had given her as a welcome gift. The essence seemed to keep other distracting scents in the background during meditation.
The room wasn't big enough to assume the six-pointed star position she’d adopted from Riniana Tiana's childhood meditation lessons, but she could adapt it by bending her knees and elbows as she flattened herself face down on the floor and placed her forehead on the backs of her hands instead of on a folded cloth. She let the dreams return to her attention.
In last night's dreaming, Tiana was a diplomatic envoy to distant civilizations. She had authority to make treaties and commanded a squadron of seven ships: a heavy-destroyer, two corvettes, two heavy-fighters and two fast-fighters. The current mission was to the Fleer, a star nation suspicious and unwilling to unite with the federation.
ShwydH's memories, recalled from history lessons as a child, that the Fleer had later been crushed by the niiaH. The Empire had deemed them unsuitable for slaves but adequate as a food product.
Una frowned recalling the dreams. They had not reached the point yet where the Fleer would break off talks, but Una dreaded living through the emotional storm she knew was coming when Tiana's mission failed. It was impossible to maintain complete emotional distance when she experienced each memory download as part of a life she had lived.
Gradually, she quieted the storm of what ifs and if onlys and focused on now, letting inner silence spread as she focused on the sound of her breathing.
Would it come today?
She knew that question itself might make her lose the quiet, so she let go of it too.
HumanaH had insisted that ShwydH learn to join her in meditation, though she'd had to beat down his resistance and arguments. She’d finally managed to drag him to the inner quiet where she said it was possible to encounter Acta Vila, the ordering principle.
ShwydH had never encountered anything like that in the quiet, nor had Una. Even HumanaH admitted she had not found it since long before she had landed on this planet. But though ShwydH had never encountered a consciousness of eternal awareness and power, he’d found something there that had become meaningful to him—the quiet itself. Though it was hardly like the encounters HumanaH had tried to describe.
Una had continued the practice. At least now, she had memories of Tiana's childhood meditations to encourage her.
Memories of hope … now mine.
After a long drink of the quiet, Una rose and blew out the candle.
She continued dressing as she ate, working through a portion of a bowl of fruit and vegetables produced in the small nii section of the greenhouse then chasing that with water and one of the new supplements that seemed to explode in her mouth as she subsumed its nutrients.
Acta vila!
The reaction to the supplement reminded her to add looking into Alice if she could manage to find time.
Una tied her shemagh, but left the bottom fold under her chin for now; concealing the face made humans nervous. Ready now, she decided to bring only one of the 1911s with her, sliding it into its holster just above her tail as she walked out the door.
The first rays of the morning sun lanced across the sky as Una walked across the compound. She’d decided to leave her feet bare, and the pebbles amid the gritty sand seemed to kiss her feet as she walked toward the main building. It felt good to let the bouncing stride that her springheels added to her gait push her across the compound. Using a natural gate around humans was still a novelty.
Few people were out of bed: the sound of pans and spatulas clattering together in the kitchen drifted from open windows as breakfast preparations went forward. A yoga class was arrayed on the parking lot, presenting sun salutations to the eastern horizon.
Una grinned when she saw Marian with them. Though a long, blonde braid had stuck out from below the broad-brimmed hat Marian had worn yesterday, the hair evidently went with the hat. The golden halo on Marian's bare head was extremely close to the scalp.
Una breathed in, sorting the smells around her. The Alice smell mixed with the kitchen odors. Una turned that way. She needed to know what Alice looked like. Barton hadn't had a picture of her—even a digital one.
The kitchen entrance from the dining area was the traditional double door with head-high portal windows. Una took a quick peek, but Alice could have been any one of five girls of about the right age among the other workers intent on food prep.
Need
to get closer.
Una shrugged and stepped through the doors.
“Hi, everyone. My name is Una and I’ll be working security here for a while. Don't mind me. I just need to do a walkthrough to get familiar with the layout of the buildings. There's an emergency exit to the kitchen over this way, right? I just need to peek out the window to know where it comes out.”
Una slipped through the room and over to the emergency exit as most of the kitchen workers offered polite greetings and welcomes. Una smiled at each with nods before glancing out through the window. Figuring out which girl was Alice was easy. Her hair was no longer bleached, but the girl's anxiety level spiked well into the panic zone when she saw Una. On her way back to the dining room, Una stopped next to Alice. “Are you okay, ma'am?” she said, touching her arm and dipping her filaments in to sample blood and DNA. “You look a little flushed. I suppose you haven't met any other nii yet. I'm sure it takes getting used to. I look forward to the pleasure of making your acquaintance.” Una smiled again and left the room with a casual wave to everyone.
“Well she seems, really nice, so far,” said one of the cooks after the door closed.
Una sped up as she headed for the security office to meet Daniels. She'd have to move fast to make sure Alice didn't bolt before Daniels could get her under surveillance. One good thing about being in the middle of nowhere—it made it easier to keep track of people.
At the security offices, Una rapped on the door then entered. Daniels, at his laptop, looked up from his seat at the conference table.
“Does your database of all the people on this site have photos?” said Una.
“Hello, and yes,” said Daniels, putting his coffee cup on the glass tabletop.
“We need round-the-clock surveillance on a woman in her 30s. She's working the kitchen breakfast shift right now. 173 centimeters tall. Weight around 58 kilograms. Brown hair and brown eyes.
Daniels tapped the laptop screen with one hand while typing with the other. Una circled the table to look over his shoulder.
“That's her … Andrea Wilson.” she said, pointing at one of the pictures on screen. “Are we set up for electronic surveillance inside the common areas? I'd like to make sure I didn't spook her and that she's still in the kitchen.”
“Is this an exercise or an actual situation?” said Daniels.
Una snorted. “Yes,” she said.
“Because without probable cause we have no right to invade her privacy.”
“I'm aware of the ethical ramifications and the relevant Federation constitution, Mister Daniels,” Una said.
“Would you mind sharing the reason for probable cause with me?” Daniels said, opening a screen with the security camera output.
“Because she doesn't have genital herpes. Also, she was scared spitless when she saw me.”
Daniels frowned. “Neither of those is a crime.”
Una nodded absently, studying the image of her quarry who was now frantically scrubbing a frying pan. “No, Mister Daniels, but they most certainly do constitute probable cause.”
CHAPTER 13 – LIGHT SPARRING
Una sat in silence while Daniels opened yet another operations folder and began to detail more aspects of his day-to-day decisions and progress toward goals. When she was absolutely positive he intended to follow this line of attack on their meeting, she held up her hand to stop him. “Mister Daniels, you seem to be under the impression that I am taking over your command and that you are training me as a replacement. I assure you this is not the case.”
She leaned back and studied his expressionless face—the face of a non-com about to be reamed out by an officer. She drummed her fingers on the table. “Do you have a fitness training room or a dojo on premises?”
“Yes, ma'am,” he said, voice flat. He'd been prickly since she'd walked in the door this morning, not reacting well to her hijacking his agenda with an emergency.
Una stood. Now that Alice, nee Andrea Wilson, had been assigned a discreet security detail, it was probably safe to do some team building. “Take the lead, XO,” she said with a tight smile.
Daniels led off down the hall and through a set of revolving doors into a positive-pressure, air-supported dome with a basketball/tennis court. Off to the side in a corner, a tatami for MMA was situated to take advantage of the breeze from fans blowing across a moving belt of damp evaporative mesh, keeping the dome cool and inflated.
Una took off her harness and weapons as they walked to the lockers along the wall then stowed her gear, pocketing the key and wiping her feet on the towel when she reached the mat.
The mat was firm, but springy, and she spent some time bouncing through acrobatic tumbling runs across the surface. It felt good to move. Daniels stretched, watching her.
“Let's do some light sparring and grappling,” Una said.
“Sure. Let me get my gloves. We have some MMA gloves in your size too, I think.” He dug through a crate of equipment next to the lockers and tossed her a pair of fingerless padded gloves.
Una slid them on. The gloves would cut down on his surface bruising if she tapped him at high speed. “Did you ever spar with one of my branch-sisters?” she said.
“Not much really, Ayleana was pretty young when I was assigned to her, and Tiana and HumanaH handled her training. That was a big part of my off hours at the time, so I used it for down time,” Daniels said, taking off his shirt, shoes and socks.
Una nodded. It matched ShwydH's memories of the year Ayleana had considered him a friend. Una moved to the middle of the mat, tapped gloves with Daniels and stepped back to see what he would do.
Daniels moved forward with light, tentative jabs.
“You don't need to hold back,” Una said. “I'm not that easy to hurt and I heal fast.”
“Oh. I thought you wanted light sparring.”
“I was talking about for me. I promise I won't hurt you.”
Daniels shrugged and moved in, dancing forward with a stronger combination of jabs and kicks.
Una didn't retreat, but avoided his strikes by weaving and bobbing or blocking until he closed with her in a hard double-leg takedown. Instead of blocking that, Una absorbed the attack, jumping up and into him to wrap her legs around his waist before he could attempt to control them.
She wrapped her arms over the top of his as his body slammed them both to the mat. Una dug her head into his neckline to block any forehead strikes, though she doubted he would do something like that when they were supposed to be doing light sparring.
She held him tight, but not too hard as he tried to break free of the leg lock. “What's your assessment of your strategy and tactics on this so far?” she said, letting her lips brush his neck.
“Not what I had in mind,” Daniels grunted, trying to free his arms so he could counter her legs.
“Your attack strategy was based on assuming I was like a human, even though you knew better. Also, since we didn't specify any strikes or attacks as off-limits, you are still assuming that the leg lock is your major problem, because most humans don't bite unless they are desperate.” She slapped her open mouth around his neck and sucked, though she didn't bite down.
Daniels bucked away in shock, but Una held tight and kept her mouth in place. “Ooh! That's going to leave a mark,” she said when she let go, voice teasing.
“You did say you wouldn't hurt me,” Daniels retorted.
“I could take a liter of blood from you, and you wouldn't feel any pain at all. But it would pretty much take you out of the fight.” Again, she put her lips on his neck and blew a raspberry then pulled away.
She put her mouth to his ear and spoke softly. “Daniels, I'm pretty sure you already know how to train humans to fight other humans when acting alone or together and that you are more than competent at tactics and leadership skills in a hierarchy. My job as your commanding officer is not to take away your command, but to make sure we are using the right strategies for the tactics no matter what comes. I've studied humans and th
eir methods of waging war for centuries and the wars of my people even longer. I know what humans can and can't do. That's why I'm responsible for making sure we do the right things while you make sure we do them right.” She snaked a hand up and placed it on his forehead, then leaned back to look him in the eye.
“Not ready to tap out of this round yet?” she said.
“Are you going to make more embarrassing sounds on my neck if I say, no?”
Una grinned. “Absolutely.”
“Then yes.”
“Good choice,” she said, unlocking her legs from his torso and rolling on top of him. She offered him a hand, helping him up when he took it.
