Sands of Sorrow (4 page)

Salika looked at the image on the monitor of outside her room. Veera waved cheerfully.

Salika opened the door and nodded. “Good evening.”

“Good evening. May I come in?”

“Of course. Saluk and Saber have taken over the bed, so we are going to have to head to the couch.”

“That is fine with me. I have been over the reports, and I have some interesting news for you.”

“Can I get you something?”

“No, I am fine. Fixit is off with the grandbabies, and my mate is supervising, so I have a rare moment off. I just want to relax.”

Salika walked to the couch and settled in. The drapes were drawn closed, and she felt comfortable.

Veera was moving slowly. “May I turn a light on?”

“Oh. I am sorry. Of course.”

Salika went to the wall and touched the panel, bringing lights up slowly. Veera sighed with relief.

“Thank you. I had no idea you could see in the dark.”

Salika smiled. “It comes in handy.”

“I can only imagine.”

“I believe you can do more than imagine. You are a minder yourself.”

Veera shrugged. “Yes, but I try not to pry. I am more of an open receiver. I see everything at the same time if I don’t pull my mind in. That is how I met my mate, actually. He came to help me cork my talent or, at least, get it under control.”

“At least you knew what it was.” Salika smiled.

“Not really, but I learned. Fixit helped, so did Stanik. He became my link, and his mind hooked to mine to keep me stable. Now, we have simply made the link permanent.”

“But you are a psychic talent, so that isn’t necessary for me. I have a collection of support assistants. I don’t really need anyone else.”

“That might not be your decision, but we will see how your training goes. If you can break through your personal restrictions, you might need someone to stabilize you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You aren’t telekinetic, and you are not an elemental. You are an electrical talent. The power that lifts the sand is static. You are putting a charge between the sand and that is why you can lift so much of it at a time, also why you can move smaller pieces more easily.”

“Ah. Well, I don’t know much about electricity. We were taught about it in school, but it isn’t really in use back home.”

“How are you with magnetics?”

“I know about magnets.”

“Well, you are creating a force between the particles that you can manipulate. Your containment is excellent, by the way, so you already have that working in your favour.”

“So, I am making the sand repel other sand particles and that is why it moves.”

“Correct. It is also why the damp items will not be easy for you to manipulate.”

Salika nodded. “It does explain a few things.”

“Well, in order to help you get to the place that you need to be in order to take on your talent completely, you will be meeting with Hroma until she has helped settle you. While you are meeting with her, we will ask you to drop Saluk and Saber off at the administration offices. They are an excellent resource for you, but you need to confront your pain on your own. They can console you later.”

“So, tomorrow, I go straight to Hroma?”

“Each and every day until she pronounces you fit for further training. Sometimes around here, you get exactly what you asked for, and it is a pain in the butt.”

Salika chuckled. “I have been raised in public care as a pariah, and I have survived without the help of another of my own kind. I need to learn how to reach out and deal with the population around me. I lack social skills.”

“You are doing fine with me.”

“I am employing the same skills now that I do when I am picking someone’s pocket.”

“It is a good thing I don’t have pockets.”

They laughed together and talked for another hour before Veera left.

Salika headed to the bed, opening her suit and bouncing onto the mattress. “Well, you two are going to spend some time with Veera and Fixit tomorrow.”

She felt the disgruntled emotions from Saluk, but Saber was content to hang out with his grandparent.

Salika looked to Saber and scowled. “What would you like to be? Male or female?”

Saber sent a confirmation of his current appearance. He wanted to be Saber, all hot pink and crimson.

“Saber it is.”

Salika yawned and settled in with her companions, and she looked forward to the morning. Fear would happen once she was walking into Hroma’s office.

It took three weeks before Hroma pronounced her ready to learn. Salika had cried, wailed and expressed her fury at the two men who had attacked her when she was too young to defend herself. She came to grips with the fear that they had instilled and the mechanisms she had created to try and get around as if everything was normal. It wasn’t normal and that one touch from Imron had nearly broken her walls of calm.

Salika looked at Hroma and smiled. “So, how are things?”

“You tell me. You are wearing your experiences where you can draw on them now instead of burying them. That much I can feel as soon as I delve below your thinking mind. You are ready for your fresh start.”

Salika chuckled. “I am already in it. So, I can take a class?”

“You can do whatever you like. You are free to assume a normal schedule or what passes for normal around here. I would still like you to come and speak with me from time to time. No invasion, just a little therapy.”

Salika nodded. “I will make sure to do so.”

She took a deep breath and hugged Hroma. It was a little awkward, but it was a first step. Voluntary contact was a huge thing for her. Her affection had previously only come from Saluk and with the recent addition of Saber.

Hroma was the first adult being that she had ever willingly hugged.

She let out a ragged sigh and relaxed. When Hroma’s arms relaxed, she backed away. It was her first successful hug. She left Hroma’s office with a dazed expression and a feeling of triumph.

When she made her way to the administration office, she heard high-pitched chirps and grinned when she saw Saluk walking in slow circles, herding a group of tiny Yaluthu toward a box.

Saber appeared to be chirping directions as Saluk slowly moved the fluffy wave across the floor.

Veera was sitting on her desk, her legs dangling as she grinned with Fixit supervising the whole thing from her shoulder.

Salika moved to Veera and perched next to her on the desk. “So, I have been cleared for normal activities.”

“Yup. I have the report. You did amazingly well.”

“Thank you. So, what should I do next?”

Veera chuckled. “I think you should meet with your trainer and work on improving your broadcasting skills.”

“What?”

“You need to practice using your power. That means getting you out of the Citadel and into an area where you can’t injure any living being.”

“Who can take me?”

“I have arranged an instructor for you. Imron has experience in dealing with electricity.”

Salika blinked. “Imron? The combat instructor?”

“The same. When he is on assignment, he works with weather. He can take a hit with electricity, and it will not injure him. He is the best bet to help you with your increase of power issue.”

Salika felt a little unsure of the selection of her instructor. “What if we don’t get along?”

“We will try and find someone else, but it will take time. For today, go out with him and see if he can increase your output.”

“So, lifting more than just sand?”

Veera chortled. “That will be a start.”

“So, where do I go, and can I take Saluk and Saber with me?”

“I think you should leave them here while you do this. It will be odd the first time, and we don’t want you breaking your concentration if Saluk tries to eat Imron.”

Salika laughed.

“He is downstairs waiting. I had him gear up when Hroma called me.”

“Where is Stanik?”

“He is meeting with the Sector Guard base across the chasm and with the Avatars.”

She had learned a little about it in her three weeks of therapy, but it took getting used to.

“Very well, I will go and tell Saluk and Saber that they are still on babysitting duty.”

“They are doing a very good job.”

Salika got to her feet and headed over to Saluk, explaining her plans in a low whisper. Finishing with, “Veera will bring you if anything happens.”

Saluk wasn’t happy, but Saber was content to play with his family for the rest of the day.

Before she could change her mind, Salika took the lift down to the main floor and headed to the area in front of the buildings where the ships and transports landed.

She looked around for Imron and saw him leaning against a long-range skimmer.

Her long strides brought her up to him in short order.

“Well, it seems that I am to run you through your paces.”

His white teeth gleamed in the sunlight.

“It seems so. I am not quite sure what I can do.”

“I have a fairly good idea. I will see if I am correct.”

She shrugged. “Shall we get on our way?”

He grinned and waved at her to enter the transport.

After a few minutes, they were on their way, and Salika knotted her hands in her lap. For better or worse, she was going to see what she could actually do.

She followed his directions, worked up a charge and let the ball of energy streak across the ground. Melted stone followed as the jagged energy bounced and travelled for two hundred feet.

“Now, call it back.” Imron watched from next to her. It was a very brave position for him to be in.

“What?”

“You heard me, call it back. It is your energy, made from your body. Call it back.”

Salika looked at the bright ball and wished she had made it smaller. She pulled on the power, and it came barrelling back to her. She hunkered forward like she had seen children do as she grew up. When the ball hit her hands, she rocked back and held the sparking and churning ball of power.

“Got it.”

Imron watched her and he nodded. “Well done. Now, either you can dissipate it or you can send it up or down. Take your pick.”

After six hours of work, she was simply ready to end the exercise.

She grabbed a thread of power and sent it skyward into a bright-blue expanse. The ball in her hands unravelled rapidly as the crackling power surged upward.

“Interesting choice.”

Salika sighed and flexed her hands. The power climbed up, hit the cloud layer and dissipated into a light ballet that burned itself into her memory.

“Well, for a first day, I would have to declare this exceptionally successful.”

She looked at her instructor and smiled slightly. “Well, you are better at this than at combat.”

He snorted. “Get in the transport.”

She walked across the rocky foothill and toward the vehicle. Imron bounded past her and ran up the path ahead of her. She was too tired to race him.

The vehicle was primed the moment she arrived, and as she pulled the door closed and settled under the covered canopy, a thunderclap rang through the air.

“I didn’t see a storm coming.”

“Your energy sparked it. A little bit of heat and energy added to the cloud layer and you have a storm.”

His sprint to the vehicle now had another meaning as water lashed at the windscreen and they took off.

“You may have to have a chat with the Avatar. Zenina-Balen tries very hard to keep the world under control, and this will cause an imbalance.”

“Oh.” She scowled, and the world started to spin a little.

“Are you all right?”

“I am just a little dizzy. That was a lot of power to put out.” She sat back as he flew them through the storm toward the Citadel.

He kept glancing at her as she slumped back in the chair.

The medical team that met them at the landing site told her what she needed to know. She was about as weak as she thought.

Imron helped her out of the vehicle and assisted her onto the gurney that floated into the building and the medical centre.

“You are monitored?” Imron was keeping pace with her.

“Yes. They haven’t seen one of my kind out and around before, certainly not a talent. They are learning about me.”

“Good to know. At least you can’t get lost on Balen.”

She smiled and tensed as they lifted her from the gurney to the full-body scanner. The scanner moved over her. Her body tingled with a craving, and she reached out to grab the band of equipment lighting up her body.

The machine squeaked in shock, and the lights went dark.

Imron chuckled. “I think we found the problem.”

Salika scooted out from under the dead machine. She felt much better.

Trel stared at her. “You ate the power.”

Imron held out his hand to her and helped her off the table. “She did. She isn’t a generator. She is a capacitor. She holds the power until she needs it.”

Trel looked at the information that had been sent from the scanner to her data pad. “You were running at a negative charge. How do you feel now?”

Salika flexed her hands. “Better. Like I have energy again.”

A deep growling came from the doorway and Saluk bounded in, pressing his head against her thigh, and she sighed and stroked his scales, feeling the crackle of power against her fingertips.

Imron let go of her and blinked. “Did anyone scan the dog?”

Trel and the other medics looked to each other and shrugged.

Imron sighed and got a handheld scanner, bringing it to Saluk and grinning as he found what he was looking for.

“Well, Salika, that explains why you have always had access to power in a primitive colony. Saluk’s scales generate a charge, probably to keep sand from getting to his skin. It is probably why that was the first display of your talent. Your instincts acknowledged what you were seeing in Saluk.”

The medical technicians were staring at the equipment in consternation.

Imron chuckled and looked toward it, snapping his fingers quickly. A spark jumped from his hand to the machine, and it powered on.