Harness (2 page)

Sobi laughed and pushed the pod to one side. “Go and get a meal. You get cranky when you are hungry.”

Alfreda chuckled and got to her feet. “I get cranky when I wake up. Take care of her. She’s my favourite flying coffin.”

Alfreda shifted back to her human form and flipped her hood back. She waved at her friend and headed for the galley on the Nyal warship
Nettle
.

She was nearing the galley and her stomach was growling when the captain stepped out and blocked her path. A lifetime of habit made her stop. “Yes, Captain?”

“We need a debriefing. We have to know what the general feeling is down there.” He looked at her with distrust that he shared with all shapeshifters. Lucky for her, she was the only one on the
Nettle
.

“Hostile. They are getting ready to move in on the royal family. I really do need to eat. Excuse me. I will be with you in ten minutes.”

She shifted to go around him, but he put his hands on his hips and blocked her path with his elbow. Alfreda knew that he had a thing for her transformed state, but she had no inclination to look like his ideal Nyal woman.

“The Guardian project has expressed an interest in you.” He blurted it out when she stared at him.

Blinking, she stepped back, “Really? Why?”

He gave her a look that declared her an idiot. “I am imagining that they would consider it convenient to be able to communicate undetected on hostile worlds.”

“All right. Well, I will report to the debriefing room the moment I have had something to eat. Those idiots were going to try and poison me.”

He crossed his arms. “And you still want to eat before the debriefing?”

“Can I get some edible food sent in?” She raised her eyebrows hopefully.

He let out a gust of air. “Yes, Relay Alfreda Older. I will order a meal sent in for you.”

She smiled brightly, turned on her heel and headed for the debriefing room. If snacks were forthcoming, she could deal with just about anything.

The debriefing was a very serious affair, and when she started to munch on the chips that completed her meal, she got nasty stares from the entire intelligence committee. Shrugging, she continued as they debated the information that Wlecor had provided.

She wasn’t needed anymore, but no one had dismissed her, so she sat and crunched as she found out what had run through her.

Alfreda blinked at some of the intelligence that was exposed about the secret doings of the royal family. Generations of corruption had come to a head. There was a reason that the library was empty. The youngest prince had outlawed education. He didn’t enjoy school and tests, so he had made education illegal in the capitol and none of the others in positions of power had bothered to comment.

The revolt was against the lack of education, and the population was enacting similar uprisings in every major city, taking the nobles down and attempting to set a democratic ruler in its place.

Alfreda wished them luck. Their rulers sounded like jerks.

“Relay Older, how long do you think that the royal family has?” One of the intelligence officers asked her.

She brushed crumbs off her tunic and sat straight. “I think they are simmering. They just need one stupid comment from the palace and they will surge into action. As long as the royals keep their mouths shut, the riot won’t boil over.”

The intelligence officers looked at each other and checked the readouts. Their faces did not look happy.

Alfreda was bored. She wasn’t an intelligence officer; she was a tool. As a conduit for information, she couldn’t do any good here.

A chirp of the com perked her up. The officer spoke quietly and then nodded. “Relay Older, you are summoned to medical for your after-assignment checks.”

It was a relief to get up and scurry down the hall.

When she got inside medical, she blurted out, “Doc, you are a life saver.” She smiled and started to shuck her outer clothing as Doctor Menura turned toward her.

She paused and blinked. “Who are you?”

The physician paused. “I am Dr. Menura.”

“No you aren’t. You look like him, but you move all wrong. Who are you?”

She removed one of her leather knives and shifted restlessly. Her training hadn’t been high on her hand-to-hand combat skills. She had done more with her talent than her body ever needed to do.

A slow set of applause came from a privacy screen. The real doctor came around and inclined his head toward his guest. “I apologise, but I had to be sure that you could see him, whatever he looked like.”

The fake doctor shifted and removed his medical tunic.

Alfreda bit the inside of her lip. He was very well put together if that was his actual form.

Dr. Menura smiled, “You two have a lot in common.”

“Like what?”

“You are both Sukra, for one thing. The likelihood of two of you being on our ship is an amazing coup.” The doctor was almost clapping his hands together.

The male was wearing a deep blue tunic with matching uniform trousers. A glowing stripe ran down his arms and thighs. He shivered lightly, and his features rearranged themselves into something far more palatable than the pea-green doctor.

If she didn’t know better, she would say she was looking at an elf sculpted of pearl and jade. His green hair hung down his back, and his skin was glowing.

“Pure Sukra?” She eyed him suspiciously.

He shook his head and the green curtain swung. “Well spotted. Is that your true form?”

She touched her belly and felt the harness tighten. “As close as I get. I have forgotten what I was originally.”

Dr. Menura blinked with all six lids. “Pardon. Captain Ardu-har, this is Relay Older.”

“Relay?” He looked surprised.

“Mobile relay.” She twisted her lips. “I don’t know what your clearance is.”

“Let me escort you to the captain, and we can discuss my clearance.” He offered her his arm.

She wrapped her hand around his bicep and admired the flex of the muscle under her hand. As with her body, there were more muscles than there should be for someone his size. It was those muscles that let Sukra shift shape. Their skin contained pigment glands, their hair could grow at will, and their eyes could change across the spectrum.

She felt her bones flex a little and winced when she realised she was getting taller to match the captain.

The captain’s quarters were down the hall, and it was a fairly silent walk. Alfreda was tired, but the contact with someone as close to her own species as she had ever met was energising. Protocol was all that was keeping her mouth shut.

Captain Rikingham looked up as they entered his office, and he sighed. “We need her.”

Captain Ardu-har spoke steadily, “We need her more. The skill that you are using is not one she should have maintained out of childhood. It has already begun to wear on her ability to control her shape. She will be useless to you in the next two years and unable to maintain any self-control at all in another three. The Nyal Imperium got all the direct use out of her that they can.”

Alfreda released his arm and stepped aside. “What?”

“You are losing your ability to control yourself, even with the physical reinforcement of the harness. I have studied your files and this degradation will only increase in time. You need rest, recovery and, most of all, training. The Guardian project can provide that to you.”

Alfreda ran her hands through her hair and noted that it was currently nine different colours. He might just have a point. “What do I have to do?”

He reached into a small pouch on his hip. “Put this on. It will hold your shape until we can get you into a situation where rapid shifting will not burn out your body.”

She frowned at the small headband and shrugged, slipping it onto her head. It warmed rapidly and then settled in to her normal body temperature.

She knew that Ardu-har had won the battle of the captains before it had even begun. “When do we leave?”

He smiled. “As soon as you bring your bags to launch bay three. I am ready whenever you are.”

“Captain Rikingham? I have your approval?” She felt relief to be leaving, and some of it was coming from the band around her head.

He nodded grimly. “You completed your last assignment, and there was nothing remaining for you to be attached to. You are free to go. You are dismissed from your service on the
Nettle
.”

She nodded and breathed easier.

“Captain Ardu-har, I will be with you in twenty minutes. I don’t have a lot to pack, but I am on the other side of the ship. Please excuse me.”

He nodded her dismissal.

Breathing more easily than she had in months, she headed down the corridors and sprinted to her quarters.

She packed her small collection of objects, reverently put in her book-repair kit and the four changes of clothing that she had. With her two bags over her shoulders, she sealed her quarters and headed for the launch bay.

Her life as a mobile relay might be coming to an end, but she had the feeling that Captain Ardu-har had a far better plan for her future. She was willing to take every bit of information and training that he had to offer.

After a quick hug to Sobi, Alfreda was on the scout ship and strapped into the navigator station.

“Do you know how to fly?” Captain Ardu-har was flicking switches and checking levels.

“No. I don’t have the concentration for it. I use a drop pod with a beacon.” She wrinkled her nose. “It isn’t the most comfortable.”

“I imagine not. I thought the imperium didn’t use those anymore.”

She chuckled. “They dusted one off for me.”

“Damned dangerous.” He muttered and filed for launch clearance. The Banua area was still a war zone, so they needed to use caution.

“I thought so. It was always a bit of a weird moment when I was spit out of the back of a ship and fell. I had to hope that their targeting was on.” She held her hands together as he cleared the
Nettle
and floated free for a moment before directing the scout ship to deep space.

“We are heading to Arxuxsa. There is a Guardian training base there and an island has been set aside for your education.”

“What did you mean when you said that I should have grown out of my talent earlier?” That one phrase had been echoing back and forth in her mind.

He chuckled. “The ability to be a mobile relay, so to speak, is one that Sukra children need to contact their parents if they shift into something unrecognizable. A stranger is instantly put in contact with the parent and the child is retrieved immediately.”

Alfreda opened her eyes in surprise. “Really? That is all it is? Here, I thought I was special.”

“You are. You are one of three half-breeds that I have met in my lifetime. The Sukra disappeared from everything but history five hundred years ago. I am shocked that one managed to arrive on your world. What was he like?”

She looked at the captain. “If you read my file, you would know that I never met him, and based on the report that my mother made, I never would want to.”

“I don’t understand. Sukra don’t leave their children.” He frowned at her and set the autopilot.

“I wasn’t a child yet. I doubt he knew that I even existed.”

“I didn’t read any part of the original file that predated your entry into Nyal space. Would you explain?”

She rubbed the back of her neck. “Are you sure? It isn’t a pleasant story.”

“Please. I am sorry if it is uncomfortable for you, but it is essential that I know your origin and how you were trained initially.”

Alfreda nodded and sat back, closing her eyes. “I was abandoned on the doorstep of a church when I was a day old. I was sent to an orphanage and adopted out three times. Each set of parents said that I had changed from my original appearance into something that matched theirs the moment they touched me. I was raised in public facilities where no one really kept an eye on me, so no one noticed the changes. When I was a teenager, I began a search for my parents. When I turned eighteen, I entered a DNA project, and it was matched to a rape kit eighteen years and two months earlier. My father had raped my mother, and I was the result. She had been a minor, so there were no names accessible, but I was able to find the file.”

She heard his gasp, but she kept going. “A man with human features and pearlescent skin had followed her home from a movie. He grabbed her, bit her, and when she woke in her car, she knew that something of a sexual nature had happened. She drove straight to the hospital and reported the assault. She was already pregnant and decided to allow it to continue. Based on her follow up with the police while pregnant, she was going to keep me. I am only guessing, but there must have been something wrong with me. I was dropped off without even a note.”

“How did you end up out here?”

“When I turned eighteen, I was out on my own, and I got a job, a car and a place of my own. That meant I had a driver’s licence, and it had a photo of me. I reset my features every few hours to that photo.”

“The call for volunteers came out, and I headed into the office. I just had to shake the hands of one of the Ontex, and he whisked me to the back offices, running tests to find out which race I was. The Sukra result stunned them, and I was given a secure place to stay and a stipend to pick up items from earth that I wanted to take with me to the stars.”

“So, you have never had any training.”

“Nope. All I do, I learned to do on my own.” She opened her eyes and sat up. She had glossed over her time on the streets, but it had been implied if he knew where to look.

“Then, you have done very well. Ah, there is our ride.”

A huge merchant cruiser was waiting for them. A door opened at their approach, and the scout ship eased into it. The moment they were locked down, the jump commenced.

The jolt of the jump caused Alfreda to gasp in shock. She hated jumps.

The moment they were on the other side, the captain eased them out of the cargo cruiser and out of the range of the jump.

In half an hour, the ship was gone and the scout was heading toward a distant point.