Naked

Kidnapped by accident, she finds that her captor took her by design and he has no intent to ransom her back.

Living an uneventful life was Cierra’s goal, but fate kept pulling her in another direction. In the Volunteer Program, she d
iscovers a talent for precognitive identification. She can see when something is wrong.

On Xerat, she works as a contract proofer, finding errors and gaffs in the written words. Being kidnapped and hauled to a spacecraft was not in her plans.

Ahket saw the pale alien with his talent and knew that she had to come with him. He didn’t know why, but she was designed to be with him, and as events unfold, he is more confused than ever.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Naked

Copyright © 2014 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-4874-0159-7

Cover art by Carmen Waters

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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Naked

Terran Times Second Wave

By

Viola Grace

Cierra collected her winnings and tucked them into her purse. She took the deposit to a bank machine and put the money into her savings account. She nearly had enough for her first new car.

Going to the casino alone was not something she enjoyed, but it was a necessary evil if she wanted to obtain the funds to get herself a new vehicle. Her job covered her living expenses and her loan payments, but there was no room for anything else. She wanted to have one thing that was new, bright and untouched.

Once her money was safely stashed, she returned to her car and gingerly closed the rusting door. It shook her bones on the way home. Each mile was nerve wracking, but by her own ability to predict outcomes, she knew it would get her home tonight.

If she could get two more days out of the car, she would have enough to replace it. Some days looking forward was the best part of her day and the worst.

She pulled into the driveway of her small house and smiled at the neat and tight construction she had so carefully made over into her ideal home. Everything was where she wanted it to be and that was the way she liked it.

Cierra checked and double checked to make sure that her doors were locked then flipped through her mail while reaching for the ripest apple in the bowl on her counter.

An ad for the Volunteer Project was stuck to her water bill. She peeled it off and stared at it. It glowed the way an important bit of information sometimes flared when it was part of an approaching event that affected her personally.

She sighed and finished her apple before she sat down and paid all her bills. She enjoyed her weird, little, buttoned-down life.

An email from the Volunteer Project made it past her spam filter when she checked her email. She looked at the invitation to apply to see if she had what it took to make her life in the stars.

The email glowed, and she wrinkled her nose. She had no urge to make her life in the stars, but she was getting the hint.

With a deep sigh, she closed her computer and headed to bed. Two notices in one day didn’t constitute an emergency. She could ignore it, and it would escalate if she really needed to pay attention. Twice could simply be coincidence.

Her car collapsed less than two full days later. It coughed, it spluttered and it died. The nearest building was the Volunteer Centre, and just as she was rolling her eyes at the irony, it started to rain.

Cierra ran into the building and shook out her hair. There was no one in the Centre except three amused attendants standing behind the counter.

Sighing, she gave in to the inevitable and said, “I would like to fill out an application, please.”

She filled in the data form with precision, and when she was done, she handed it over.

An attendant smiled, thanked her and retreated to the back.

A moment later, she was invited inside and she followed the attendant into the deep and secretive parts of the building.

She settled in a conference room and waited. There was nothing inside the space to give her a clue as to what was going to happen next, but she calmed her nerves and waited.

As she kept looking casually around, she noted that there were small nodules tucked into the creases of the ceiling where it met the walls and the corners of all the walls. Electronics. Someone was watching her to see what she was doing.

A seam in the wall behind her became apparent, so she got up and walked around the table, sitting so she could see both doors.

As she settled, the seam in the wall opened. “Cierra McAffee, good evening.”

Blinking, she took in the man in a neatly tailored suit, his silver skin and wide black eyes that took up a quarter of his face. Bureaucrat was the first word that came into her mind and alien was the second.

He smiled and sat across from her. “I am Recruiter Norz, and I must say, you have a talent for observation.”

Cierra inclined her head. “I pay attention to what is around me.”

He grinned, showing bright shark-like teeth. “You do more than that. The moment you noticed the door and the monitors, you shifted to see who could come in through the hidden door. It was impressive.”

“Um, thank you?”

“Why did you come here today?”

She made a face. “My car broke down and it started to rain. I would not have normally come down here, but there was construction on the three alternative routes. I can take a hint when it is hammered home.”

“Do you often get such hints?”

Cierra considered his question. “Often enough. When it has to do with my future, the hints are very strong. They have to be or I ignore them. The suggestions for other folk are much easier to see. They are a different colour.”

“Colour?”

“As I mentioned in my application, I see important information or details and their use is determined by the colour my mind surrounds them with.”

“It says here that you work at a bank?”

“I do. I am a teller. I process customer transactions.”

“Would you like to volunteer to travel to the stars?”

She looked him in the eyes and folded her hands in front of her. “Let me be frank. My entire life up until this point has been to make myself comfortable and to prepare for an uncertain future. I do not want to go, but if my destiny is in the stars, it is not going to stop pushing me because I am unsure. I am here to volunteer only because I have no choice. When I am pushed into a path, the pushing doesn’t stop until I give in. This is me giving in.”

He cocked his head. “That is possibly the least enthusiastic agreement to volunteering I have heard, but if you are willing, I can find a place for you where you can rebuild your life and comfort. The skills you have will need to be tested for an exact match to a world who has opened to your species, but it should not be too difficult.”

Cierra sighed. “I work until five each day. When would I have to come in?”

“If you have time tonight, we could get you something to eat and you could work on the testing.”

She hadn’t even realized she was hungry, but as soon as he mentioned it, she smiled warily. “What is your particular talent, Norz?”

He shrugged. “Me? I have no talent. My species does not have the mental makeup to maintain an export of psychic energy.”

He phrased it carefully enough that she sensed it was the most polite way he could think of to describe something he thought should not be explained.

Cierra nodded. “Well, I don’t have anything planned tonight that can’t wait until I get a tow truck.”

Norz blinked rapidly. “Your vehicle is truly disabled?”

“Yes, it truly is.”

“I will send one of the attendants out to see what he can do.”

“Don’t bother. I know what the problem is. I just don’t want to spend any money to fix it. So, I will have a few weeks of taking the bus to work and then I will get my new car.”

“You have no husband or male of your own?”

She chuckled. “No. They are more trouble than they are worth, and I can always tell when then don’t fit.”

He nodded. “Well, come with me, and we will put you somewhere comfortable. You will eat and the tests will begin.”

It was bizarre to follow him through the sliding door that he had entered by. A series of hallways worked to a set of steps leading under the Centre. She followed him step by step, and he finally stopped inside a room with several pads lined up on a table.

“What is this?”

“These are the Volunteer contracts. I want you to look through them and find any anomalies. When you find one that is suspect, record the name on this pad here and continue on.”

She nodded. “Fair enough. You mentioned food?”

He chuckled. “Is pizza acceptable?”

“It sounds wonderful. Pepperoni only please.”

“Excellent. There is a local shop that has gotten used to going through security protocols. I will have it brought down when it arrives. I will leave you to it.” He smiled and left her alone with five flat tablets in the quiet room.

Cierra put in her headphones and picked up the first data pad, scrolling through the document, looking for anomalies. The first four documents were completely clear, but the fifth jumped out at her. She didn’t look into it but recorded the name and moved on to the next file.

Each pad contained twenty contracts, and she had located fifteen anomalies out of the one hundred that she looked at. Twelve had had the contract contents altered subtly by the signer, and the person’s name who was on the contract had not signed three.

The smell of pizza preceded the arrival by a moment, just as she finished verifying her findings.

The man who brought the pizza in also had a tray of tea for her.

“Um, I don’t drink tea.”

He grinned and set the box and the tray down on the table next to her. “I would recommend that you learn how to rather quickly. Most cultures have some kind of steeped beverage in their daily consumption. Your adaptation will be easier if you have already gotten used to it.”

Without waiting for her agreement, he poured for her and set the small cup of tea down in front of her.

It appeared that she wasn’t going to be left with her pizza until she drank it.

She sipped and fought the face she wanted to make at the bitter taste. Steeling herself, she drank again and again until the small cup was empty. She set it down and sighed. He refilled the cup and slid the pizza box toward her with napkins.

“This is one thing that we have developed a taste for. Of course, we put every spicy pepper we can find on it.” He grinned, collected the pads she had been working on and he swept out of the room.

She flipped open the box and inhaled the scent of pepperoni. With her first bite, she groaned in delight. It really was excellent pizza.

Nine months later, Cierra walked through the marketplace of Xerat and smiled as the scent of cured meat brought the memory of that pizza back again.

It could have something to do with the Xerat being the same sort of species as the Tival who brought her the pizza was. Lean, elegant and possessed of a wicked sense of humor, the Xerat rose head and shoulders above the Tival in a personality sense.

The trade centre of Jraka City was where Cierra spent her days as a contract proofer. This was a free day, and the paperwork was left behind as she sought out her friend Tyan for lunch and an afternoon’s entertainment.

The market area was quaint and akin to shopping at a renaissance faire as far as the Xerat were concerned, but it was an excellent place for Tyan to go trolling for men.

After eight months on Xerat, she knew where to find her friend. Meat pies were popular snacks and a guilty pleasure for most of the males in the city. This time at the market was their moment to grab a treat, and Tyan would be waiting for them so she could grab hers.

The shop was bustling, but Tyan was easy to spot. Suitors surrounded her, and her tightly wrapped tunic outlined her assets in a fascinating manner. Cierra was only guessing at the fascination, but the men did seem transfixed.