Catalyst (2 page)

She knocked and when a voice told her to enter, she did. “Hello again, Ambassador Ranith.” She bowed formally.

He smiled, his feline eyes showing his amusement. “So, you survived. Excellent. Can you freshen up and then take Alsa for her walk? She has been very fidgety since you left.”

“Of course, Ambassador.” She bowed again and headed for her quarters.

A quick shower and a fixing of her hair into its customary braids later, and she was in a new enforcer-style uniform and walking in the garden with the small heir to the first Terran Champion. It was quite the honour.

“Where did you go, Mae?”

“Some bad men took me away, but I came back as fast as I could.”

“Because I needed a walk?”

Mae smiled down at the miniature Azon female. She was adorable and the ideal result of a Terran crossbreeding with an Alliance species. “Something like that.”

“Did you have to fight the men?”

“I did.”

“My mommy is a fighter.”

“I know that, Alsa. She is an excellent fighter.”

“That’s why my daddy loves her. That and she makes pretty babies.”

Mae had a hard time keeping her face straight. Tiergar vi Ranith would make pretty babies with a rock. His species held the most fascination for most Terran females. There was nothing like a man who could purr.

Mae knew the man she was destined to end up with, but she didn’t know how. The flashes that she used were a warning sign for her talent. Eventually—or so the experts told her—her skill would develop to the point where she could not only see events before they happened, but she could become the catalyst that started them on their way.

One day, she would find herself in her lovers arms and not have to distract him to make her getaway, but finding that moment was going to be difficult when Nothven and his cadre of Enforcers were on their way off Dinray back to their stronghold, and she was heading in the opposite direction.

“Daddy says we are leaving tomorrow. Are you coming with us?” Alsa squeezed Mae’s hand.

“No. I have to go to my next assignment, and you will go home to your mommy and brothers.”

“I will miss you. You are fun.”

“I will miss you too, short stuff.” Mae reached out and ruffled her hair.

“Will you carry me one last time?” The wistful quality in her tone was impossible to ignore.

“Of course. Up you get.” Mae knelt and let Alsa climb on her back. The small arms around her neck were warm. She hitched Alsa’s knees over her elbows and walked their path around the garden.

Alsa rested her chin on Mae’s shoulder. “You always smell good, Mae.”

“Thank you, Alsa. I am not as keen with scent as the Azon are, but I would say that you smell good too.”

Alsa giggled. “You don’t have to say that, but thank you.”

They continued on their path, but when Mae turned back to the embassy, there was an obstruction, and though it was not unwelcome, it was unexpected.

“This is why you wanted to leave so quickly?” Nothven raised his brows and smiled.

“It was time for her walk.”

“Ah, yes. I can see she is getting quite the workout.”

Mae grinned. “She had her workout and now I am getting mine. Alsa, this is Enforcer Commander Harring. He helped me get away from the bad men today.”

Alsa’s small hand reached over Mae’s shoulder with an imperious gesture.

Bemused, Nothven took it and pressed a small kiss to her fingers. “Pleased to meet you, little lady.”

“Thank you for your service to my agent, Commander Harring. She was sorely missed.” Alsa’s young voice took on a clipped, mature tone as she spoke.

Mae was amazed. It seemed that the classes in deportment had not been lost on Alsa after all. Mae asked, “Are you done with your ride, Alsa?”

“Yes, thank you. It was a lot of fun.”

Mae let her slip to the ground and resumed her grip on the little girl’s hand.

Nothven scowled, “You are her nanny?”

“No, I am her bodyguard. Her nanny was unavailable, so I filled in where I could.”

They walked together back to the embassy.

“They return to Azon tomorrow, and I will be off to my next assignment.”

He frowned. “You won’t return to the stronghold with us?”

She shook her head. “I am an agent for the Enforcers when there is no other option. That is a position few and far between. Usually, I am simply an agent of the Alliance, I go where they tell me.”

Alsa piped up. “She is a good bodyguard and an excellent nanny. I learned a whole bunch of words that father said I would never have learned with anyone other than a Terran as my nanny.”

Mae blushed. “I did apologise to him for that.”

Alsa just grinned.

Inside, Nothven took her hand. “Well, then, here we part ways, though I know it will not be for long.”

Mae smiled. “I hope not. Good journey to you.”

He looked as if he wanted to say or do something more, but the small child next to her seemed to dampen his ardour most effectively.

With a soft sadness starting in her heart, she turned her back and walked Alsa up the stairs. It was time for dinner then a bath and then bed.

Maeryn knew a good example when she saw one. Tomorrow, she would take off in one direction, the ambassador and his daughter would go off in another and Nothven would take a third. The odds of any two of them getting back together were astronomical, but Mae kept an image in her mind all night, every night.

Nothven was her destiny but not the one she had met on Dinray. Somewhere in his future, he gained scars that he currently did not have.
That
Nothven was hers, and she was going to have to wait for him.

Chapter Three

Two years later
.

Mae stood at the entrance to the cavern and watched the wave of insects as they climbed toward the archaeological team.

“Agent Lassiter, do something!” The professor in charge of the Creyar dig twisted his clawed and scaled hands together nervously.

At the moment when it was appropriate and not before, Maeryn lifted a quartz bead from the braids on her head and dropped it down the mountain. With the bead dispatched, she turned and walked into the cavern.

Professor Thop looked back at the incoming horde and then back to her. “What are you doing? They are still coming.”

In Mae’s mind, she saw the path the bead was taking, and as it tumbled small rocks loose, those rocks slipped and slid against each other until a landslide took the bugs to the bottom of the rise. The loose rocks combined with crushed bugs and the quartz bead the combination caused a fire.

Whistling gently, she returned to the temple within the mountain to help the students, Minski and Wellor, as they dealt with archiving the finds of an ancient Oefric colony.

“How is it going, guys?”

Minski looked up, and her owlish eyes blinked several times. “It would be easier if the Oefric would help us with identification. Why do they not have an interest in their past?”

Wellor cleared his throat, his feathers ruffled gently as he cocked his head. “Their interest in their past is contained to their home world. These colony worlds that are now being repopulated are part of a failed experiment from eons ago. I do not believe that they enjoy failure.”

The Tuulor were the natural creatures of Creyar. They allowed the Oefric to occupy the plains, as their ancestors were forest folk. The Tuulor welcomed the newcomers. Any new trade was always appreciated.

Mae smiled when Thop came running back in.

“They burst into flame. All of them.” He ran up to her and gave her a hug that lifted her off her feet.

“Yes, I know. The yinka birds in this area will be skinny this year, but there are other mountains and other bugs.” Mae wrinkled her nose as the professor’s feathers tickled.

“You are very good. First, you helped me find the door and now this. You will definitely be credited in the journals.” He put her down and patted her head.

“Please no. You know that I do not wish to have my name appear in the journals.” She ran her hand through the braids that held her hair back.

“I still don’t understand that.”

Mae winked, “I had a misspent youth. It is not appropriate for me to seek any kind of recognition for my work.”

Professor Thop shook his head. “It isn’t natural.”

She chuckled. “So, do you want me on recording or retrieving?”

Thop jerked his head in an affirmative. “Retrieving, you have such peculiar luck in finding things.”

Grinning, Mae took a light and walked into the depths of the under mountain structure. It wasn’t a temple per se, it was more of an experimental habitat than something used for special occasions.

As she looked over the areas they had already discovered, she closed her eyes to think about what she could possibly find in this room. Over the last two years, she had gotten a grip on her talent, and she was now able to not only wait for a situation, but she could bring it to pass with direct influence instead of the old roundabout way.

The Oefric had not been consulted when the Tuulor decided they wanted an Enforcer agent on the dig. Since the Oefric had put in a request for any and all available Terrans to be offered to them, Mae had made it clear to Thop that she did not want folks to know she was there. Her name was on the manifest but not her species.

Being hauled into the new city for endless introductions to possible suitors scared the crap out of her. She knew that Nothven was the lover in her dreams, but she also knew that he had not been on Creyar when she landed.

Whistling softly, she continued to explore the interior of the building within the stone. Being a security agent on an archaeology site was not a bad gig. It came with plenty of opportunities to hone her skills.

* * * *

Officer Skell turned to his superior. “Sir, we have sighted a flash fire at the base of the Nokki Mountain.”

Commander Harring looked at the readout. “Who is up there?”

“A Tuulor archaeology team.”

“Is the fire getting close to them?” Harring stared at the image and frowned as his instincts began to jump up and down within him.

“No. It seems to be burning out. Shall we send a patrol to speak to them?”

Harring stared at the image on the screen and shook his head. “No. If it is burning out, it is not necessary. Keep an eye on the area in case of spreading fire and keep me posted.”

“Yes, sir.” Officer Skell continued his viewing of Creyar via the satellites, and Harring walked to his office.

He fiddled with a few documents before he sighed and brought up the team manifest for those working in the old city. There was one professor and two students of Tuulor persuasion and one bodyguard provided by the Alliance.

Harring acknowledged that he was a glutton for punishment as he brought up the name of the agent provided by the Enforcers. The kick to his gut was followed by a surge of blood to his cock as his erection pressed fiercely at the mere thought of her name. Agent Maeryn Lassiter was on Creyar, and she would be his.

* * * *

Mae shivered. Somewhere nearby someone was thinking about her and their emotions were powerful. She suffered a light-headed wave of sensation and stumbled to one side, her hand slipped over a wall panel, and the next thing she knew, she was on her ass in total darkness. Damn it.

Closing her eyes to bring on a flash of insight didn’t help. Everything was dark, so she couldn’t see her own actions.

“I guess I have to do this the old fashioned way.” She touched the walls looking for a way out. “Why did I have to drop my light?”

Mae sighed and set up a methodical examination of the walls and floor. Across from the spot where she tumbled in, she pressed another patch, and when that door opened, a dim light came on.

She hummed quietly to keep herself calm and explored the room she was in. She could make out a terminal and a chair, so she immediately took advantage of the seat.

A display came up when she caressed the monitor, and she groaned in surrender. Ancient Oefric was not a language that Alliance Common training could translate. She idly flipped through pages and looked at images of what she could identify as ancient Creyar landmarks.

Once she was convinced that she couldn’t get anything out of the machine beyond pictures, she left the terminal and reached for the door panel. It was at rib height on the left so it was understandable that she had not found it the first time she looked.

With a little effort, she pressed it and found herself inside the antechamber once again. Now, she just needed to find the release that would allow her back into the main hall. How hard could it be?

Chapter Four

Commander Harring parked his private skimmer and surveyed the charred mess of the insect apocalypse.

Harring’s lips quirked in a smile as he spotted a small, shining bead. He had no idea why he was drawn to the small object, but he suspected that Agent Lassiter had something to do with it.

As he lifted the shining bead in his palm, the impression of Agent Lassiter was definitely with him. Without another thought, he began the climb to the cavern that allowed access to the ancient Oefric station.

It was a weather station, but no one wanted to tell the Tuulor that. The Oefric home world was curious as to what another species could figure out on its own.

The moment that he made it to the cavern opening, his body shivered in recognition. Maeryn Lassiter was here. He could feel her in the air.

The professor and his two students were crouched over some artefacts.

Harring cleared his throat as he approached them. “Lady. Gentlemen. Good afternoon. I am Commander Harring of the Oefric colony in Litsik city.”

The professor stood up and blinked rapidly. His feathered scalp was fluffing in alarm. “Commander? Welcome to our site. To what do we owe the honour?”

Harring smiled politely. “The little fire at the base of the mountain caught our attention. I decided to come out here and have a word with your security specialist. Where is she?”

The professor frowned and looked around. “She said she was going on retrieval, but I believe that was a few hours ago. It isn’t like her to not report back on a regular basis.”