TheDutyofPain (3 page)

Bukel raised his eyebrows and Larsilk did the same, the only difference in their faces was their eye colour. “How is it that we are beyond formality?”

She crossed her arms and sipped at her water. “Gentlemen, when a lady lets you see her without makeup, the formality has gone out the window.”

Chapter Four

Udell was an enclosed base. Their shuttle snugged up against an umbilicus while the seal settled against it.

“All right, we are home.” Quuro unbuckled his harness and stood. Terlio left the navigation station while Bukel and Larsilk escorted her to the exit.

She was coming to grips with the fact that all of the men around her were the same except for their eye colours and voices. Their bodies were identical, but their mannerisms showed different aspects of personality.

They took her through the halls of Udell, past several people of different races, all wearing a military-style bodysuit.

“Are all the suits that formfitting?” Alda was concerned. She was used to the looser clothing of Olsted.

“I am sure that something looser can be arranged. The bodysuits are designed for ease of movement and fitting into bulky battle armour.” Quuro was at her side.

“So, this is a battle facility?” Alda frowned. “I am not sure what I can do in this situation.”

They stopped and escorted her into a room marked Medical.

A brightly coloured male was kissing a female with long brown hair and a tight-fitting red and gold bodysuit. The woman stood and smiled. “Please excuse us. We just passed my third-month anniversary. This is Helsin, he’s a very good doctor.”

Alda chuckled. “He seems good with his hands.”

The male closed his eyes briefly before he regrouped. “You must be the new Citadel recruit for the Lowel station.”

Alda shrugged. “If you say so. I am only here because the alternative is not good for my health.”

Helsin looked at the men behind her and nodded. “Quad. Good to see you. Do you want your post-assignment physicals now or later?”

“One physical, but do the entrance scans for Alda first.”

Alda grinned. “I suppose I am first.”

The woman shook her head. “Where are my manners? I am Dev.”

Alda extended her hand. “Alda-Xeri. Please call me Alda.”

Helsin smiled. “Dev, she might like some privacy.”

Alda snorted. “I am in a room with five strange men and one woman. She stays.”

Dev laughed and took a seat next to Helsin’s desk.

Alda followed the doctor to a peculiar machine. He directed her to place her hands and feet on the marked areas, and with a few clicks on his data pad, a scan began working on her, covering her from head to toe with waves of energy.

It didn’t hurt, it tingled. Being watched by six people while she stood spread eagled in a machine was only mitigated by the fact that she was wearing the court gown.

When it chirped completion, Helsin took her hand and helped her out of the scanner. “May I take samples?”

“Certainly. I know what they will show, so it isn’t like I have anything to hide.” Alda took a seat on the exam bed and folded her hands in her lap.

“What happened to your wrists?” Helsin took a skin sample and put it in a dish.

“Five months in manacles. Skin isn’t meant for that much metal contact.” She held still while he removed a blood sample and put it in another machine for analysis.

Helsin blinked in surprise. “Why were you in manacles?”

Alda barked out a laugh. “To keep me from getting away. What did you think?”

Dev chuckled. “She has you there, Helsin. Why do you think she was wearing the metal? A fashion statement?”

He shrugged and checked on the readouts. “You certainly have an unusual DNA cocktail in your system. I have never seen this many races blended in someone who didn’t have slavery in their family history.”

Alda cocked her head, “How do you know I don’t?”

Dev answered for him. “He got your family to send your medical records here in a sealed dispatch a month ago. The Duke of Olsted has been trying to get the Citadel’s attention for two months.”

Helsin sighed. “Thank you for blurting everything out, Dev.”

“You are welcome, sweetie.”

Helsin finished with the scans and made some notes before addressing her companions. “Quad, I am ready for you now.”

Helsin walked up to Dev and held a hand over her eyes as all four men stripped to the skin.

Alda watched, fascinated. They were truly identical, each one had scars in the same place and all other attributes matched perfectly, not that she was staring or anything.

As she stared, the men stood chest to back, slowly backing into Terlio. When they were all incorporated, he shivered and put his uniform back on.

“So, Quad, as in four. I see. You are one person.”

Quad closed the seal of his uniform with a smile. “I started as one but was forcibly shattered by the Raiders.”

Alda’s widened her eyes. “What?”

Helsin looked to Quad and the Guardsman nodded. “Quad was originally one man with one talent for metal manipulation. They used another talent to overload him, and he shattered into four bodies. They each think and experience differently but all memories are shared when they recombine.”

Quad nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. “Every conversation you had with part of me is now part of the whole.”

She nodded as if she understood, but her mind was trying to remember everything that she had said to him before and after the shuttle. Relief filled her when she acknowledged that nothing untoward had been said.

Dev got to her feet. “What is her next stop?”

Quad scowled. “I will take her to Guardian when I am finished here.”

Dev arched a brow. “Why not let me? She does kick me off the bottom of the lists.”

Quad blurred in place. “I will take her.”

Helsin looked at him with concern. “Are you all right, Quad?”

Quad breathed deeply and settled back into his one self with brilliant blue eyes. “Fine. Do the scans, Helsin.”

Alda waited while her companion was run through the same scanner she had just been standing in. He stepped from that machine to the next with the ease of long practice.

Helsin processed his scans in a few minutes and nodded. “Nothing unusual, Quad. All seems stable.”

Quad nodded. “I haven’t noticed anything different, so it seems that everything is fine.”

Alda took the hand he extended to her and hopped to her feet.

Quad asked, “Are we done here, Helsin?”

Helsin nodded. “I have forwarded the scans to Guardian. He is waiting to give Alda-Xeri the introduction to Udell base.”

Dev waved. “I will see you later, Alda. The commissary is open any time day or night. There is usually someone to eat with if you can’t sleep.”

Alda smiled and waved back with her free hand.

Quad tugged at her hand, and she followed him out of medical. She couldn’t resist. “So, four men in one body, huh?”

He gave her a wary look through his radiant blue eyes. “Yes.”

She shook her head and sighed, “You must go through a ton of laundry.”

He blinked and a shy smile crossed his face. “You can say that again.”

Chapter Five

Guardian had silvery skin and bone plates marching up his skull but otherwise was a very tolerable-looking male. “Good afternoon, Alda-Xeri. Welcome to Sector Guard Base Udell. I am Guardian.”

Alda sat in front of Guardian’s desk, and Quad stood next to her. “Pleased to meet you, Guardian. I am not sure how useful I will be in service to the Citadel.”

Guardian motioned to Quad, and the Guardsman closed and locked the door. “Alda-Xeri, I am asking you to take on an assignment that will put your life in peril and place you in the heart of the Raider stronghold.”

She frowned. “What? I have no training for espionage.”

Guardian leaned forward. “You don’t need training for this. Word of your talent has rippled through the Alliance, and through moles in the Alliance, the Raiders have taken an interest in you. They want your skill under their control.”

“Oh. I see.” Alda didn’t.

Guardian gestured to Quad.

Quad sat on the edge of Guardian’s desk and spoke to her. “When I was taken by the Raiders, they enhanced my one skill by torturing another talent into spurring my body into mutation and regeneration. The sedatives that they used to keep me out stalled the effects of the mutation until I was able to escape. Once in the shuttle, I needed more than two hands, and so the others were born.”

He waved his hand in the air. “That doesn’t matter though, the Raiders need to be able to keep their experiments pain free without chemical interference. They want you to help torture and continue their experiments.”

Alda was confused. “Why do you think I would want to do this?”

Quad quirked a smile. “We don’t think you would want to, but we know they want you for this reason. They can and will seek you out and try to kidnap you. Once they bring you in, we can track you to their research facility and rescue not only you, but the other experimental talents.”

She frowned. “How are they going to kidnap me from an armed Guard base?”

“They won’t, but they might be able to snag you from the surrounding area.” Guardian looked at her with speculation in his eyes. “Now, how much do you like to run?”

“Who will be chasing me?” Alda asked, completely serious.

Quad snorted. “I will if I have to. Do you have an objection to running?”

“As an occupation for someone with a lot of free time or who wants to increase their cardiovascular health its fine, but I am in relatively good shape considering my recent confinement. How can I run out doors when we are in an un-breathable environment?” She crossed her arms in defiance.

Guardian nodded. “We have equipment for that. You will be assigned a standard uniform and the robes of a Citadel Novitiate. Once you return from this kidnapping, you will be given full access to the base and all of its equipment.”

She got the idea that he knew what the timeline was. “When am I going to be kidnapped?”

Guardian smiled, “Sometime in the next five days. Don’t worry, if you agree to this, you won’t remember a thing.”

“So you will take my memories as well?”

Quad shook his head. “No, we will simply lock them away. You will know that you are here to take part in the Lowel base but nothing else. Your only assignment will be to wait for the Citadel outpost to be built. Your time will be spent physically recovering from your confinement. Do you agree?”

Alda thought about it and finally nodded. “Fine. I will do it. When does the mental blocking begin?”

Quad reached out and took her hand. “It has already begun.”

Wearing the experimental breather in the forests of Udell was a little nerve wracking, but by Alda’s third day running down the paths and leaping over brooks, she finally relaxed enough to put on the speed.

It felt good to use her body again. Her arms had missed stretching, her legs had missed running. Each day, she walked to the airlock, keyed out and entered the wilderness that surrounded the base. Her earpieces blasted Olsted music while the filter over her mouth and nose provided her with breathable air.

She grabbed a branch and swung up and over a log before continuing her run.

Being on Udell was boring. Her life on Olsted before the duke’s court had been active, and it was a relief to be able to run free of the base. Until the Citadel outpost on Lowel was built, she didn’t have any duties, so getting back in shape was just what she needed to occupy her time.

Alda saw a wavering in the light in front of her, so she paused.

“She saw you Donth.”

The voice behind her caused her to change direction and run for the thick clump of woods. Her instincts told her that there was something in front of her, so she took the option left to her, she went up.

She heard shouts beneath her. Tree running wasn’t popular on Olsted, but then, Alda had never bothered joining in with the popular crowd. She swung, flipped and twisted through the branches, jumping, spinning and kicking off the sturdy trunks on her way back to the base.

Alda kicked herself for not taking a transponder with her when she left the base. She was making excellent time when a harsh rumbling ran through the tree she was aiming at. The tree shattered the moment that she touched it, and her scream ripped through her ears. She fell twenty feet and landed hard on her side.

“Well, it seems she is susceptible to illusions. Carry her, Donth, we need to go before they spot the hold we burrowed in their systems.”

The voice was familiar, but the pain in her body was too distracting. She used her own talent to gather the pain and subdue it, but by the time her body was under control, she was strapped tightly to a medical bed in a shuttle. A mask was pressed over her face and the last thing she saw was the face of the Guardsman Quad with burning orange eyes instead of blue ones.

The bed she was strapped to lurched, twisted and lurched again. Alda was queasy from the shifting of the ship and being unable to brace herself. She couldn’t see where she was and the battered ceiling above her was not a good indicator of things to come. It was splotched with blood.

She heard footsteps next to her and cautiously looked up at the male staring down at her. He was eerily familiar.

“Alda-Xeri. Congratulations, you have just been recruited as an anaesthesiologist for the Raiders. I am sure you will do well, though you are very gullible.” He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. “Pretty though.”

She stared at him, “Quad?”

He chuckled. “Is that what they are calling him? How peculiar. To think that you can be wrenched in two and your personality split.”

She frowned. “Why are you telling me this?”

He shrugged. “You aren’t going anywhere. We are landing within the hour. Once we are down, you are not going to be given the opportunity to race through the trees.”

Alda asked, “Are there any trees?”

His orange eyes crinkled in cruel amusement. “There is nothing. No windows, no water, no trees, just you and a lab.”

She had to know. “Who are you?”

“Keelor. The split of Markenow. You may know him from Udell base.” He stroked her hair back from her face with strange concern.