Lost and Sound (3 page)

“But your hands are still stiff.”

“That they are. Thick skin is harder to move, and I just spent four hours with my hands wrapped around shuttle controls. Yes, my hands are stiff.”

She finished her meal and filled a glass from the pitcher of water on the table.

“You eat quickly.”

“Side effect from having to eat on break. I get it in and get back to work.” Yllin smiled at him.

He had barely touched his meal but that was fine. They were done for the day, and from what he had told her, she was his only student.

“What do you do on your regular assignments?”

He grinned. “I track the lost. Whether it is a stone, a person or a pet, I can locate it on a map.”

“You are a finder.”

“More or less. I can only find that which has actually been lost, not simply someone or something that has run away. If they do not consider themselves lost, they will not come up on my senses.”

“That is very specific.”

He chuckled and finished his meal. “Isn’t it? It limits my applications, but I get a sufficient amount of assignments to keep me flying.”

“You travel on your own?”

“Yes, I have not yet been matched with a partner. It could be my personality, but it might just be that no one has come along with a sympathetic talent.”

She poured him a glass of water and he took it with a smile.

“Thank you.”

She sighed and checked her tablet for her afternoon schedule. She hadn’t thought that she would get used to wearing it on her back, but she didn’t even feel it anymore.

After two hours of hand-to-hand and knife combat, four hours of flight training and lunch, she still had an afternoon of talent practice. They preferred to push her to her limits when she was already tired. It made for a better test.

“What do you have on your schedule this afternoon?” Nearing jerked his chin toward her tablet.

“More stress and shielding tests. Just a regular afternoon.”

He chuckled. “You must look forward to your free days.”

She rubbed her neck. “I don’t get free days. I opted out of them in exchange for additional instruction.”

“How long do you think you can maintain that?”

Yllin shrugged. “As long as it takes. I have passed my etiquette course, done well in my body-language studies and have learned to detect ninety-six types of explosives. As long as I can retain what I have learned, I should be fine.”

Nearing stared at her. “You are not kidding.”

“Nope. I am taking every course, engaging in every opportunity to make myself into a better agent for the Citadel. When I go on my first mission, I want to be ready. There are those who are depending on my success, and the sooner I can earn funds, the better off they will be.”

“You have family depending on you?”

She wrinkled her nose and explained the matter to him.

“So, you are working this hard for others?”

“Not for others, but to give them the same opportunity that I had. They go through aptitude testing, and when it is determined that they are suitable for a trade, they are sponsored into an apprenticeship. The program has sponsored divers, welders, plumbers, construction workers and demolition experts.” She smiled brightly. She was proud of the program and the women who made it work.

“Why?”

She rolled the glass of water between her palms. “I was raised with privilege, but it wasn’t my choice. I was handed options and offered whatever course I chose to pursue. None of the options that were shoved in front of me were suitable for me. It sounds arrogant, but they were all the wrong fit. I didn’t want to do anything in the level of high society. I needed to be working with normal people on a day-to-day basis. When I took a job as a waitress, my family pretended that I was just going to the beach every day. It was a strange situation, but we all made the best of it.”

He chuckled. “You make me seem like a lazy idiot.”

“You do what is right for you, I will do what is right for me, and what is right for me is to get into the field and earning as fast as possible while being safe.”

Nearing gave her a considering look. “Then, I will help you work on that goal.”

The gauntlet was down and the words were spoken. She extended her hand and he gripped her forearm in a greeting for equals.

A moment later, her tablet chimed and she was off to flick her talent on and off for a few hours until she was exhausted, but at least she had a companion in her battle to get into the field. Specialist Nearing was a little flighty, but it seemed that she had struck a nerve with her cause.

She ran the course in record time, leaping, dodging, opening her senses and slamming them shut to avoid the sonic grenades going off in random bursts. The sounds echoed against her eardrums, but they tore at her senses. She moved faster and faster until there was nothing left but her target cradled against her chest and a straight run to the finish line. She saw the ground give way as a grenade went off to her left. She jumped, flipped and rolled over the finish line on the other side of the ten-foot crevice.

Yllin got to her feet and the chirp from her target made her grin. A guest had offered their Yaluthu for a game of hide and seek. The grenades had been pitched so that they wouldn’t injure little Poppy’s hearing.

“How are you doing, Poppy?”

The little grey face chirped and narrowed its eyes happily while it wiggled in Yllin’s arms.

Yllin put her down, and she hopped over to her person and butted her head against the leg of Specialist Minerva until she was picked up.

A wingless Enjel was apparently a rare sight. Having never met an Enjel before, Yllin had to imagine that Minerva was an exception to her species.

“Well, Master Kibor, how did I do?” She pried the monitors off her temples and out from under her suit against her collarbone.

He sighed and checked his readings. “You are a disappointing student, Yllin.”

Her heart sank. “What do you mean?”

He smiled slowly. “Usually, I get to teach for at least three months and I get to chastise my students along the way. You were far too eager to learn. Congratulations, Specialist Yllin Gerocard.”

Her shoulders slumped with relief.

“Now, you need to continue your combat training, but your instructors have given you a survivalist grade, so you are free to go on missions whenever you gain an assignment.”

Specialist Minerva smiled and hoisted Poppy to her shoulder. “That is high praise. It took me six months to get through his training.”

Kibor grinned. “You were a hard case in another way. You had no motivation to succeed, so we had to work on that. Poppy did a wonderful job there.”

Poppy lifted her fluffy head and chirped proudly.

Minerva laughed. “Well, I am glad I stopped by today. Citadel Ohkhan is my home, but I haven’t been back in a while, so I thought a visit to Kibor was in order. I had no idea that Poppy was going to volunteer to be a living target.”

Poppy settled on her chubby toes and wiggled her stubby wings. She was obviously sticking by her decision.

“How sentient is she?” Yllin looked at the creature she had so recently been holding.

Minerva grinned. “Pretty smart. She has the emotional drives of a child about eight years old. She is concerned for my emotional and physical welfare, but when I am safe, she does what she likes. Today was just fun for her.”

“I am glad; it was rather hair raising for me.” Yllin grinned.

Master Kibor straightened. “Well, I have sent a list of items for the quartermaster to your pad. Specialist Yllin, it is time to gather your kit and be prepared for your first assignment.”

Hopeful, she looked away from the Yaluthu. “You think I will go out soon?”

“You never know; so be ready when it happens.”

She shook Minerva’s hand, bowed to Poppy and gripped Kibor’s arm. “Same time tomorrow?”

“Of course. You are going to need to train with the equipment list I gave you. Now, get going. Minerva is taking me for tea.”

Dismissed in no uncertain terms, Yllin got her pad, put it in her back holster and headed for the quartermaster. It was time to get some new toys.

Hauling her duffel to her room had been an effort, and she mentally smacked herself for not using the lift.

Inside her quarters, her com was flashing, and when she listened to the message, she groaned.
You have been transferred to Specialist’s quarters and are now in room two thirteen of the Specialist tower. Please transfer all your belongings to your new quarters and congratulations, Specialist Yllin Gerocard.

She packed up her bags, looped them over her shoulders, picked up the duffel in both arms and headed for the lift.

Her new quarters were six times the size of her novice quarters. She had a rack for her weaponry, a larger wardrobe to hold her thigh-high boots as well as the bodysuit that she had been given. It was going to be a relief to leave the white suits behind.

She rubbed the suit that she had been given with the promise of additional suits in the following few days. The red and black was striking and the boots had been designed to match.

Before she tried her clothing on, she put her daggers, blaster and the supply packs on the rack supplied for the purpose.

With all of her new toys in their proper places, she peeled off her white suit and climbed into the new red and black suit. She was grinning when the boots were tugged into place and she stood with her hands on her hips staring into the mirror.

Her auburn hair rippled down nearly to her waist, her eyes were huge with the medium-sized pupil and no visible iris that was typical of the Missambra. The suit had a central strip that formed a shaping icon from breast to her groin. One of the other novices had called her a doll, and when she looked up images of dolls on Terra, the comparison was not too far off. Even the dark line around her lashes gave her a look that made her resemble a child’s toy.

She sighed and turned, liking the look of the suit from behind. She rigged up her tablet carrier and put on the rigging of straps that would hold her weapons.

The logic behind her training and the weapons she was carrying made sense. If she could keep her distance, she should use the gun. If she had to get up close, knives gave her some reach. If the knives didn’t work, her own body was the final weapon. If her body failed, her mind could deliver a fatal strike. That was her last resort. Killing someone with a close-range sonic blast was not something she wanted to do. Her simulator runs had been frightening enough. If she did that to a living being, she didn’t know if she would be able to look at herself in a mirror again.

When everything was strapped to her, she practiced drawing, squatting and twisting in the harnesses. They all allowed for free movement, but she was going to have to try them out on a course. If she flipped or rolled, the knives could come loose or the blaster could fire.

Smiling with delight, she put her weapons back on the rack and removed the weapons’ harnesses. It was nearing dinnertime, and she was proud to be wearing the clothing that indicated she was no danger to those around her. Specialists mastered practical control over their talents and used them in one aspect. Masters had enough knowledge of how the talents worked to teach pupils how to gain the control that would make them as normal as they could be, and in some cases, they would teach them to be exceptional.

Yllin was just happy that she was no longer considered dangerous enough to watch. That was what the white uniforms were for, they warned others that a novice was coming and to expect anything.

With a bounce in her step, the exhaustion of the day was forgotten as she took the strides down the Specialist hallway that meant she was one moment closer to gaining her goal of paying off the Citadel and getting her butt into gainful work.

* * * *

Specialist Nearing raised his dark eyebrows at her as she walked in for flight training.

“You have been promoted.” He grinned and bowed.

“I have. Master Kibor decided that I was as good as I was going to get. I have manoeuvering training this afternoon, but I am able to do what I can if I am called upon.”

He grinned. “Then, we had better get you ready for anything. I got that riot runner simulator for you.”

Yllin rubbed her hands together. “Then, we had better get started.”

Two hours after they started, he was on the runner behind her and his arms were around her waist. In the time that she had been on Ohkhan, she had only touched the combat instructors while she was grappling with them. To have an attractive man plastered across her back was distracting to say the least.

“Now, take it through the storm.” He whispered it against her temple.

She could smell his scent, feel his heat around her, and she focused on the task at hand. Yllin had to fly them through the storm and come out the other side or she would fail the simulation.

Distracted or not, she was going to choose the flight.

She leaned into the wind and used the runner to zigzag through the oncoming storm. Nearing moved with her and they shifted left and right. When lightning struck near them, she spun around and followed the strikes, moments behind and cruising through the discharged pathways.

The moment that the clouds dispersed, she was in a mountain range and more flying was required. The three-dimensional projections gave her a surface to bounce her talent off, and it was very easy to avoid stationary rocks, even at high speeds.

“Return to the starting point.”

She smiled and banked left; he gripped her waist, and she thought she heard him curse. In four minutes, she was back where they had started, and she settled the runner on the large, paved circle projected.

Yllin leaned back against him. “You can let go now.”

He sighed and slowly moved his arms, his hands caressing her as he pulled away. “Too bad. Ah well, let’s see what the simulator says.”

She waited until he dismounted and the simulated world faded away before she slid off the riot runner and left the hover cycle simulator with a fond pat.