Captain Wikiar laughed. “Nothing like a fussy woman.”
She explored the room, the kitchen, the common area, and when she saw the bed, she almost cried in relief.
“Wikiar. Help.”
He was at her side in an instant. “What is wrong?”
“Get me out of this dress.”
He blinked. “That is all?”
“Have you seen those laces? We are talking contents under pressure here. My ancestors were not practical in the clothing department. It looks nice but it is hellish to undo on your own.”
He began to work on her laces and she clutched the front of the gown as it went slack.
“Why did you call me Wikiar?”
“I don’t know. I feel weird calling you Aloss. Even weirder calling you Midnight.”
“Aloss is my name.”
She sighed in relief as the outer garment came loose and dropped away from her. She let it go. The corset was still in place, and though it was damp from sweat, it still covered her, as did the chemise that was underneath it.
“Wow, you were really locked in there.” He began to work on her primary laces.
“Yeah, they kind of didn’t like the breasts getting away and running amok.”
“I am all in favour of them running amok.”
This time, when she clutched the corset to her, it was because the air rushing in caused a visible reaction in her skin that she didn’t want him to see.
To her surprise, he released her hair and it tumbled around her shoulders. With her hair concealing her, she unclasped the corset and let it fall. The damp chemise was left, covering her to mid-thigh.
Sobi gritted her teeth and asked him, “Do we have to consummate this thing tonight?”
He laughed, “I would rather we get to know each other so you don’t fall asleep while I am with you.”
Aloss walked over to the bed, peeled back the sheets and covers, and beckoned for her to take the spot.
She eased past him and slipped between the sheets.
He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss on her lips.
“Good night, Sobi. Tomorrow, you get your full tour of the city.” He smiled and left her.
She waited for his presence in the bed, but in the five minutes she was able to stay awake, he didn’t join her.
* * * *
Aloss headed to his office and woke his computer. He summoned Sobi’s medical files and sat back in shock. Seven heats. He had missed her being receptive seven times because as with most of the other Shadow Bringers he had been needed to keep the cloak over the city that his people had named Midnight, and the surrounding green projects. The Shadow Bringers on Ikar were still developing their skills and every man counted in those early days. Splitting their manpower to shield the Protheans had made the situation at Midnight more difficult.
There was the potential that he could have had a child by now and his mate was asleep in his bed, too exhausted to do anything to even try to start one. He smiled ruefully. He finally had her in his home and she was dead to the world. It was just his luck that the woman he had never dreamed to hope for, snored. He thanked his lucky stars that sleep was not something that the Shadow Bringers required.
* * * *
Sobi’s muscles were tight when she woke. She had been so tired that she woke in the same position she went to sleep in.
She held back a groan as she sat up. Aloss was nowhere to be found and he had not joined her in bed. The brightness in the room made her feel like it was morning.
She threw back the covers and stood up, crossed the room and entered the living area. Still no sign of him, so she started to look through the open doorways. There was a wide balcony that looked out over a huge garden. The garden itself caught her attention. It was thriving under the shadowed dome. “Oh, my.”
“Our efforts have been successful. We have designed plants that will take all the light we can give them, and we are hoping that they will bear fruit soon.” Aloss came out of the kitchen wiping his hands on a towel; his clothing was no longer the formal uniform he had been wearing the night before but a loose, soft tunic and tight trousers instead.
“You have found a way to grow plants on the surface?” She couldn’t help but stare at him; he was somehow more alive in Midnight City than he was at her home.
“We have. What do you know about our efforts to green the surface of Ikar?”
“Nothing.”
“Then, come and see what clothing has been designed for you by our bots, based on your activities in Shadow City.”
Sobi cocked her head. “There are clothes for me? I thought I would have to wait until my stuff got here.”
“No, now that you are here, you are an Anvin bride. You will have clothing that suits your social station so that all Shadow Bringers will know who you are on sight.”
She followed him off the balcony and into a room off the bedroom. It was a dressing room, and a large closet was a third filled with clothing that was unmistakably Aloss’s and a third filled with feminine versions of the same dark outfits. A row of boots made her raise her brows. “The clothing might be a close fit, but how did they make the shoes?”
“They measured the shoes from last night and brought these out of stores. They have been making clothing for the Prothean brides from the moment we had the materials to do so. They used average body shapes and kept busy.”
He made it seem like the bots were excited to have women around but that had to be an exaggeration.
She wandered over to the hanging clothing and pulled out a jumpsuit that was cinched in at the waist but otherwise looked comfortable. Sobi draped it over her arm and grabbed a pair of boots that would match. “Which way to the lav?”
A quick tour of the facilities and a sonic blast later, she dressed and emerged feeling rather hungry but otherwise energized. There was something about a new outfit that always made her feel taller. The suit had two icons on the shoulders. One was the Anvin mark and the other appeared to be a rank marking.
Aloss was in the kitchen, humming to himself and pulling something out of a heating unit. “We only have rations for now, but I believe that this is suitable for your palate.”
He put a breakfast-type meal on the counter and got her some utensils.
She ate, drank water and asked, “What is on the agenda for today?”
“A tour of the city, an explanation of our world building and a description of what the Shadow Bringers actually are and how we train.”
She sipped at her water and looked at him over the rim of the glass. “Sounds like a full day.”
“You will be worn out by the end of it.”
There was a sparkle in his eyes as if he had plans for the end of the day.
She cleared her throat. “May I use this moment to apologise for my snoring? I tend to do it when I have been up for a while.”
“Well, there is a visit to medical scheduled for tomorrow. We can have the tech take a look and see if there is a medical issue.”
He was completely serious and she felt bad for making so much noise in her sleep.
Aloss grinned. “I am making a joke. Shadow Bringers don’t sleep, so you could take up the drums in the bedroom and it wouldn’t disturb me.”
She blushed. “Really? You don’t sleep?”
“No, it relates to the changes in our bodies created by our sciences. Our brains no longer tolerate sleep.”
“So, why do you have a bed?”
He raised his eyebrows and smiled. There was a predatory masculinity to that smile. “It is mainly for your comfort. From what I have read on mating, it is nearly a necessity for support.”
She blushed again.
“You have a rather odd colouration on your lower jaw.”
“That is the sunburn. My goggles only cover me to my cheekbones.” She smiled.
“Will you show me what you do?”
“I could manage it tomorrow. Do you have a crossbow?” she raised her brow in challenge.
“I am sure we could acquire one. Why?”
“I never feel dressed walking on the sands without one.”
“Then, we will see what we can do. Do you have one in your possessions?”
“Nope. There isn’t a lot to spare, so it is with the weapons supplies in Shadow City.”
“If we don’t have exactly what you are after, we can locate something, I am sure.”
With her meal cleaned up, they left together and began their day.
The city was well laid out and mostly empty. The few Shadow Bringers that they saw smiled in greeting and came over for introductions. It was a relaxed atmosphere, but everyone knew their job and did it with an effortless grace that made Sobi feel like a gambolling sand runner.
“Our next stop is the broadcast centre. It will show you how we do what we do.”
“How you hold the shadows?”
“Precisely.”
She was walking arm in arm with him, and it felt completely normal. His casual shirt did a good job of hiding his physique, but she could feel the muscle quite clearly, tucked to his side as she was.
Sobi went from the street and into a room that resembled the observatory from the ship. There was a large dome and six Shadow Bringers sitting with their eyes open and solid black streaming upward in a cloud.
“What the hell is that?” She whispered it as quietly as she could, but a nearby Anvin grinned at her.
Aloss pointed. “The first man is using his mind to determine the edges of the city. He is the control. Our bodies create a chemical, which is excreted through our eyes. It does not hurt, but it forms a gaseous layer around our target area. The larger the area, the more Shadow Bringers are required. The city can be sheltered with three, but we use six to keep from overtaxing our protection.”
“Smart. Wow. Your eyes?”
“The shadow can also be exhaled but that is harder on our systems. Once it is deployed, it can easily be topped up by even the youngest member of our gathering.”
She stood and absorbed the process by which life on Ikar was allowed to live. The Shadow Bringers didn’t resent their lot in life; in fact, they accepted it as purely natural.
She looked at her companion. “So, you do this?”
“When necessary. Some of us are able to both assess the space and express the shadow no matter how large the surface area. The ideal situation is that we have enough Shadow Bringers to make cities all over the planet habitable.”
“So, you are confident that your species will breed true?”
“No. But we are confident that if we do not try, there will be no result.”
Sobi blinked. “That is true, so why are the Shadow Bringers here if there are no other Anvin to defend?”
“Because Ikar will eventually be an Anvin colony. We were sent here to prepare the way.”
He led her out of the broadcast centre.
“When will the others get here?”
“Fifty years after we tell them that we have a suitable environment for the Life Bringers to thrive.”
Sobi had heard mention of the Life Bringers before but never really got a good mental image. “What is so special about those women?”
“They can bear. The Anvin have been struggling with massive fertility issues for generations. Females are brought into the world less and less, and many of those are sterile themselves.”
“Ouch.” She had no basis for comparison there. The Protheans filled their own world and had to send citizens to other worlds in search of new land.
It had been one of those great ships that had carried Sobi and her family to Ikar. Another Prothean ship had met with the Anvin, and when the first mating proved fertile, the Anvin had offered to share worlds with the colonists.
The crash on landing had been unexpected. Sobi had been unaware of being trapped in the ship for years while the Shadow Bringers and colonists slowly excavated the deep embedding of the hull into the soil. Hundreds of feet below the surface, Sobi had slept until the day that Aloss came and hauled her out of the ship, carrying her out ahead of the explosion that killed those in the tubes beyond hers. She hoped that they never woke up.
“Would you like to see the gardens?”
His words jostled her out of her reverie.
“Oh. Please. I had no idea it was even possible to grow things on the surface.”
“We have been working since long before we even heard of your incoming ship. It was a bit of a distraction for a few years, but we were able to return to our project a year ago.”
They walked back toward their home but turned and walked behind the building into the gardens that she had spied just that morning.
She extended her hand and looked at the bright light that was touching it. A quick look up showed that the barrier between sun and the city was thinner above the garden.
“Where did you get the soil?”
“It is mainly dug from the northwest mountains. There are caches of soil underground.”
A hedge of berry bushes bordered the edge of the garden. Vegetables she couldn’t identify were in early stages of growth and a few even had flowers blooming, begging for pollination.
“How are they watered?” She stepped closer, careful not to crush any of the delicate new growth.
“Under-soil systems. They are carefully monitored every few hours.”
“It looks like you will soon have a viable gardening system.”
“This is our test case. It takes precision to work on a filter for the local zone above the garden.”
“I am guessing that is the responsibility of the sixth man or, perhaps, the controller?”
He grinned and kept walking down the narrow pathways with her. “Both.”
“At least it varies the duties. I imagine that crafting shadows would be tiring after a while.”
“It is actually all-consuming. When you are on duty for fifty hours, all you can do is summon the shadow. After your shift, you eat, drink and meditate for a few hours before you go on to another task. We rotate our Shadow Bringers.”
Sobi smiled. It felt slightly more comfortable to be in a society that rotated duties.
The light dimmed.
“And that is time for dinner. Would you like to eat in the commissary or in our quarters?”
“Quarters, please. I am still absorbing details of your society. I don’t think I can handle eating in a public hall today.”
Aloss smiled. “I was hoping you would say that. Our food is not up to the level of Shadow City, but the bots have been slaving all day.”