Hyde and Seek (2 page)

The path through the stars took hours in silence until he said, “Prepare for a jump.”

She only had time to ask him what he was talking about when the world jerked and twisted for a moment before settling with an entirely different set of stars around her. “What the hell was that?”

He looked at her with surprise, and then, he smacked himself in the forehead. “Right. A star jump is orchestrated to link two portions of space for an instant, creating a collapsing doorway that puts a ship in two places at the same time for a few heartbeats.”

“Well, that explains why I can taste whatever you fed me for dinner.” She patted her chest.

“I apologize. I misread the ration labels. Your people have a finicky digestion when you first leave your world. The types of food you can digest will expand as you spend more time away from your own planet. There will be a little trial and error, but you will get through it. I am guessing your body is infinitely adaptable.”

“I don’t know about infinitely, but I am managing to keep the meal down.” Amly smiled.

“Good, because we are going through three more jumps before we get to Morganti.”

She nodded and sat back, watching the stars go by.

After the second jump, Shadow rose from the pilot’s seat.

She looked at him with wide eyes. “Don’t you have to steer or something?”

He grinned. “No. Most ships can manage their own trajectories in between the jumps.”

She sat still on the command deck and searched the control panel to figure out what switch to flip if it became necessary.

Shadow brought her a flat screen and held it between his hands. “There is a contract here from the Citadel Morganti and a language lesson. When you sign the first, you can then opt for the second.”

Amly went through the contract, which was written in Resicor standard. It stated that she would be on contract to the Citadel for three years. She would enter with a considerable amount of funds that had been donated to pay for her room and board as well as any training she cared to engage in. The Sector Guard could request her for duty, but she would have the right of refusal.

Amly got the feeling that that particular clause was significant, but she signed the agreement. The other choice was to take the stipend and find her own place to live with nothing familiar around her. Using her talent freely was all she ever wanted to do.

Once she finalized the agreement, an icon appeared asking her to approve the language lesson. Amly pressed on the icon and a blaze of light struck her eyes. She dropped the tablet and shouted in shock.

She started cursing as she fought to rub at her eyes and blinked frantically to clear the light spots. It was only after the nineteenth curse that she realized she wasn’t speaking in Resicor standard.

“What the hell?”

Shadow laughed. “You are a quick study. You are speaking perfect High Nyal, with a bit of a bent toward cursing.” He bent and picked up the tablet.

Spots still blazed in her gaze. “What was that?”

“The light burst is a teaching tool. It carries the information to your brain via the optic nerve. Not all people can learn that way, but it is very effective for those who are able to.”

“It would have been nice to have a warning.”

“You would have closed your eyes and the burst would not have been effective.”

Her vision cleared and she scowled at his amused features. “You don’t have to look so smug.”

“It isn’t smugness. I had to learn the hard way, and you already speak with a better inflection than I do. You were given the full package and as much knowledge as they were able to accumulate. Look into your own mind and see what you can find.”

She didn’t quite understand what he was saying, but she closed her eyes and thought of Shadow’s sharp features. She mixed and matched two dozen species and she knew the names of them all.

“How is that possible?”

“It is a bulk download. As you unpack the information you need, it will become part of your memories.”

“That is handy.”

“The parcel was assembled by one of the last free Moreski. Equilar. She is a master of espionage and has a flare for treating information as a commodity that can be collected and cashed in. If you can get her as an instructor, you will be lucky. She has a knack for knowing how to approach situations.”

Amly blinked. “I am to be a spy?”

“It would be a likely extension to your skill set. You can go anywhere unnoticed and blend in with those around you. It is an enviable talent.”

She snorted. “Yes, I can feel your envy. I would rather be able to go through the world like you do, invisible if you don’t know what you are looking for.”

“Invisibility is not all it is cracked up to be. Technically, I am called Walking Shadow, by the way. You will hear it when you are on Morganti. I am stationed at the Citadel there.”

“Is that why I am heading there?” She closed her eyes and tried to find one species that looked like Walking Shadow. Nothing.

“You are heading there because they have the best analytical equipment for a talent like yours.”

“And I need to be analyzed?”

“If they can see what your body does, you can understand it and feel when you can do more and when you are at the edge. You can actually know your own limits instead of pushing to the edge and snapping back.”

She could tell he spoke from personal experience, and so, she spent the rest of the trip rummaging through her own mind and filing the information in an arrangement where she could retrieve it again. It was an entertaining way to spend her time as they jolted through another jump and headed for Morganti.

Amly matched the world with the image in her mind and smiled at the recognition that hit her immediately. There was no doubt. That was Morganti.

Walking Shadow steered the ship down toward a base, and he chatted on the com to confirm landing clearance.

Amly called up a roster of folk at the Citadel and at the Guard Base and met with limited success. She could see the faces and the code names, but personal information was beyond her access level.

Without access to someone with clearance, she wasn’t going to be able to open the files, but she could bide her time. It wasn’t only the mystery trainer that thought that information was power. Amly had saved lives using her penchant for spying, and she wasn’t going to stop now.

Walking Shadow brought her to the medical office. “Dr. Effin, this is the new Citadel recruit. Amly Hyde, this is Dr. Effin Nywyn.”

The doctor smiled at her and she stepped forward. “Hello, Ms. Hyde.”

“Amly, please. You are…Wyoran?”

He nodded and reached out to shake her hand. She let her body take in the information of how to change into him, and she released his fingers a moment later.

“Well, Amly, I would like to take a baseline reading of your system. Is that all right?”

“Certainly. Where do you want me to be?”

He got her to stand in the scanner, and he ran scan after scan to learn how her body worked. When the scans ceased, he asked, “May I put these monitor pods on you?”

She looked at the tiny stickers with minute designs on them. “If you have to.”

“It will help us to learn what your body does during your shifts. Once we know what it does, we can suggest a training regimen to bring your talent to its peak under your control.”

“Acceptable. You can proceed.”

She opened her shirt and waited for him to ready the pods. When he turned, she was ready. He tried not to touch her, but his fingers were forced into contact with her skin.

“And I need to get to your thighs. Would you consider putting on a medical gown for the attachment?”

He seemed a little hesitant.

Amly nodded. “Sure.”

She changed out of her work clothing and into a gown that wrapped around her. She returned to the exam area, and Dr. Effin had her covered in tiny monitors in under five minutes. He confirmed that they were all signalling and asked her to shift.

“Right here?”

“Please.” He was staring at his monitor panel.

“Do you have a preferred form?”

“Whatever is comfortable for you.”

She smiled and shifted until she had taken on Effin’s shape. “How is this?”

He was staring at the readouts, and she merely waited while wearing his features. It wasn’t a complete shift. She hadn’t copied either his penis or his memories, but it made Walking Shadow snicker.

When the doctor looked up, he jolted with surprise. “Your detail is amazing.”

“The copying is done on instinct. This is not a complete shift.”

He checked his monitors. “Oh.”

She laughed and he flinched at the sound of his own voice.

“Amly, that is very disturbing. Can you shift into someone else?”

She took on her cousin’s appearance again. The feeling of shrinking made her shiver. Amly tightened the wrap again.

“That is amazing. There is molecular manipulation going on in your body and you do it so quickly. Do your clothes change with you?”

She snorted. “Of course not.”

He nodded. “We can do something about that. Are you tired or are you willing to go to Fixer for outfitting?”

“Outfitting?”

“We have some armour-gauge Masuo, and I believe that it will be able to do what you want it to.”

Walking Shadow piped up, “I can take her.”

Amly watched Effin smile as he turned away to set his tablet down. “Well, she is expecting you, so don’t keep her waiting. Amly, you won’t need to put your clothing on, it is just a few doors down and Fixer has never sent anyone away without having them fully clothed.”

Amly smiled sweetly. “I am glad that makes one of you.”

He blinked and snorted.

Amly shifted back into her own form again and inclined her head toward Walking Shadow. “Shall we? I am catching a bit of a breeze.”

Walking Shadow offered her his arm and she took it, wiggling her fingers at the doctor as she passed.

The floor was cool on her feet as she padded along with her companion. She twitched her lips. “So, does he strip women often and send them out into the world?”

“You are the first that I have heard of.”

“Lucky me.”

He grinned at her and winked as they walked through a doorway with the heavy door sliding aside in invitation.

A woman with dark rainbow hair was crouched, facing two girls who had their heads down but were obviously her daughters.

Amly heard her say, “Now, you can’t put your brother in a box without an opening. Yes, he can get out of it, but he also could pass out before he could focus himself.”

The girls nodded and sniffled. The one with the matte-black skin said, “We didn’t think he wouldn’t be able to get out. We were just playing.”

The woman hugged her children. “I know. We are just lucky that Nanny got him to me in time. In the future, remember that he is just a baby. He doesn’t have your skills yet, darlings.”

The nanny in question was a hulk of a man holding a small child with a short shock of the same bright hair.

The girls were snivelling and sobbing against their mother.

Amly held Walking Shadow back when he would have stepped forward.

“Now, tell your brother you are sorry and make sure he knows you won’t do it again.” Fixer whispered it but her voice carried.

The two little girls ran over to their nanny, and their brother held his arms out to them. Apparently, all was forgiven.

The nanny nodded his head. “I will take them and get them some fruit while they recover from their adventure.”

Fixer smiled. “Thank you, and thanks for moving so quickly.”

He inclined his head. “It is what I do. Should I bring him to Effin?”

“No. I ran the scans here. He is fine, just a little snotty.”

“That I can take care of.” He inclined his head and led a parade of two girls with their young brother walking between them.

As soon as they left the workshop, Fixer sighed and leaned against her bench. “My parents had it easy. I didn’t start doing weird stuff until I was a teenager.”

“I am guessing that it was being surrounded by active power that triggered their own.”

Fixer winked at her. “That or my constant use of my talent during pregnancy. They came out active. I blame their father.”

Walking Shadow snickered. “That is what you always say, Fixer, and yet the moment he is visible, you run into his arms.”

Fixer looked smug. “He runs to mine. I just have to magnetize him.”

Walking Shadow laughed and stepped toward her. “Good to see you in good spirits, cousin.”

Fixer walked up to him and gave him a hug. “Keezik. You are looking well. Is this Amly?”

Amly stepped forward. “It is. You don’t look like you are related.”

Fixer smiled. “He is my cousin on my mother’s side. Our mothers are sisters. I get my colouring from my father.”

“I see. I get my colouring from the people I touch or copy by sight.”

Fixer extended her hand. “Do what you can.”

Amly touched the woman’s hand and felt her hair ripple down her back in the dark rainbow wave. “What do you think?”

Fixer smiled and gave her a solid once over. “I think you need Udell Masuo for this. My body lacks presence in a medical gown.”

“What is Masuo? I have heard it mentioned a few times.”

Walking Shadow piped up, “It is a living organism that lives in symbiosis with the being it is wrapped around. It lives off your skin and ambient energy but gives you a completely alterable clothing option in exchange. It can become any clothing you can imagine, and with your talent, the adaptability for size is necessary.”

Fixer laughed and went to a drawer that glowed with soft light when she opened it. “It seems he has been paying attention in class.”

Amly watched the folded fabric that Fixer brought out. “Class?”

“I lecture on Masuo and other natural biological symbiotes that do well with talents. They are exceptionally useful for those who have a physically manifested talent, like you do.” Fixer offered the fabric to her. “Put it on and it will do the rest. Don’t worry, it can be retracted into a band on your leg or arm when you want to shower, but it will eat soil from your skin.”