The Guardians looked at him in shock. Ice scowled. “Just like that?”
“Bloom has seen that she is alive and well, including being fed and given the best rooms on the planet. Haloth is completely at her disposal, so we will await her completion of a rest cycle before we begin to press her to help us find a way out of our current predicament. There is nothing for you to do here, and the brotherhood needs to prepare for the coming difficulties. Your presence will just get in the way.”
Ice opened and closed his mouth, but Pathway grabbed one arm and Bloom the other. They marched their commander back the way they came, and the brotherhood followed them.
It would take all of the brotherhood to send a shuttle back, but it was not the largest item that they had swept through space.
Renn sighed and tried to think back to the first time he had been drawn into a body. The brotherhood of Haloth had scoured hundreds of worlds to find a woman or man who could act as a focus to draw all the fractured minds of Haloth into focus. His species was crystalline in physicality and he had been away from his home so long, he didn’t remember its name. Haloth may be where he first began to think, but it was all rather fuzzy. Each time his mind was set free, he went into a holding state. His mind blended with all the shattered pieces of worlds that made their home on Haloth.
No one had posited a theory about why the pieces of dying worlds and stars were attracted to Haloth, but when the meteors fell to the surface, they invariably had thoughts and signals of their own. Haloth was alive with energy and none of it was natural to the world.
That the brotherhood dedicated themselves to the study and encouragement of the shattered minds on Haloth was always a mystery to Renn. They claimed that he had ordered them to come to him, but it was not something that he could remember doing.
It still amazed him that they were here every time he woke. Different and, yet, always the same. Loyal priests from dozens of species, all with the same mental resonance that allowed them to open portals from world to world. One of them on their own couldn’t manage it, but in groups of three or more, there was nothing they couldn’t move.
Renn felt the surge of energy that indicated the departure of the Guardians.
His link with Cera was tenuous. He needed to strengthen it before she was tempted to leave Haloth. If she left, his physical form would surrender and return to the bits and pieces of the world around him once again. Haloth would be defenceless and that was something that Renn could not abide.
When the brotherhood filed in, Orvi handed him an update as to the current situation. Sixteen mining vehicles were staging just out of orbit. It was a matter of less than forty-eight hours before they started to move, and Renn had no idea how to tell his summoner that she may have been brought to him too late.
* * * *
Cera was enjoying a lovely dream-free rest surrounded by gauzy clouds and no stimuli.
“Hello, Cera. Funny meeting you here.”
She looked around her private sanctuary and groaned. “Renn, how nice to see you here.”
“Liar. I apologize for disturbing your rest, but you left some very specific requests and some of the equipment is coming in. Where shall I put it?”
She chuckled. “Do I have an office?”
“Not yet, but one can be arranged. When would you like to be woken from your sleep?”
“After I have slept for eight hours.”
He hovered in front of her, his hair fanning out behind him in a blood-red wave. “Then, it is time for you to wake up.”
The clouds receded as something outside shook her gently.
She squinted up at the face leaning over her. “I need a glass of water.”
He sat on the edge of the bed, pulled her into a sitting position and handed her a glass with condensation beading on the exterior.
She gulped it down and pulled the bedding up to her chest.
He took the empty glass and set it back on the bedside table.
“Thank you.”
“There are clothes in the wardrobe. After you are dressed, we will speak.”
He got to his feet and opened the wardrobe for her, giving her an excellent view of the tapered torso and narrow waist leading into tight buttocks shown off to advantage in the leather.
A blush heated her cheeks as she thought the same word,
perfect
. She closed her eyes until he was out of the bedroom and then flipped the covers back to make her way to the wardrobe. Scanty was the word she used for the selections, but a blue skirt was decently layered and pleated to provide coverage. The bra that matched gave the appearance of two large cups and no support. Fortunately, she didn’t need a lot of restriction.
There were jewels attached to the bra, and once they were all on, she had jewelled bands on her ankles, wrists, arms, belly and neck. There was even a band for her hair.
She looked at herself in the mirror and noted the lack of footwear. Not even slippers. The weather of Haloth must be very temperate if she was going to be pattering around barefoot.
A quick check of the other room proved that she was alone, but as she concentrated, she found Renn in the corridor outside her room.
Cera walked up to him and smiled when he looked away from the data pad he had been studying. “Can you brief me on the situation?”
He nodded, put his arm around her bare waist and he started walking toward an open balcony at the end of the hall. “In descending orbit above Haloth are a series of mining vessels. They want to take all the minerals that Haloth has acquired and use them for their own purposes with complete disregard to the fact that each of those rocks is a fragment of a sentient being. Worlds so ancient, there are no surviving records. We have pieces of them here.”
“So, you need to defend this world. How do you normally do it?”
Renn grimaced. “Normally, I am woken at least a year before the mining consortiums get this far, but the brotherhood had difficulty in finding a woman to act as summoner.”
“Is that what I am, the summoner?”
“Indeed. Your mind gives me an anchor to the physical world that I cannot manage on my own. In this form, I only live as long as you do.”
Cera was shocked. “Well, I…can I do anything as summoner aside from take you with me?”
They reached the balcony and looked up at the evening sky. “You can probably contact some of the minds who are not participating in my cohesion if you choose to.”
“Nice. Now, what is your opinion of technology?”
“I would like as little of it here as possible.”
Cera grinned. “Then, I believe I have a plan. Would you be willing to permanently house a Guardian here? Not one of mine, a new one.”
Renn crossed his arms. “As long as they do not have any romantic inclinations toward you, I could accept them.”
“Excellent. Now, where is that com unit? I am expecting a call.” She grinned and rubbed her hands together.
“First, look out over your new home. You might appreciate its beauty.”
She looked out over Haloth. Really looked. And her heart was given in an instant to the lights, mist, craters and wilderness that crept right up to the stone edifice she was inside, and then, it waited respectfully at their gates. Colours boomed in the night, glowing upward toward the stars. Soft pinks, brilliant violets, emeralds and blues she couldn’t name.
Dreams of light had haunted her for the last two years, since she had been removed from Janial prison. Her time there had been due to her employer. She didn’t want to serve the sentence for tax evasion, so she had her personal assistant serve it.
Cera had done the six-month span, and when she came out, to her surprise, the post at the Weshkinin Guardian base was waiting for her. How she had gotten so lucky, she had no idea, but she embraced her luck and threw herself into her work. It had been a very good life, but now, she was starting over.
Chapter Four
The com unit was set up in the centre of the dining room. The brotherhood was standing around and watching closely as she fired up the machine to call Ambassador Cannaught.
Cera asked Renn, “What is the maximum number of personnel that you would accept here, outside of the brotherhood?”
“Three hundred.”
She beamed, “Good, I only need one, two at the most, but if we offer Haloth as a tech-free training ground for the Guardians, those mining vessels will have no choice.”
Brother Orvi frowned. “Would we have to provide them with accommodations?”
Cera started the call. It would take long minutes to get through. “No, the Guardians would have to provide their own living quarters as well as food. This would simply give Haloth training-world standing and it would keep anyone else from attempting to dig in. You can set your own specs and even have the Guardians set their living situation on the far side of the planet.”
She bit her lip and smiled, “By the way, what call sign would you like, Collective or Assembly? I am going with Summoner, personally.”
Renn smiled. “Fitting. I will go with Assembly.”
She grinned. “Good, now, we just need to get Rhassoul in on this and we will have our third. That creates a Guardian world and that means that anyone requesting mining rights has to go through the local government first.”
She could see the astonished respect in Renn’s eyes.
“You are drowning them in technicalities. What is a Rhassoul?”
“A Guardian who cannot manage tech worlds. His work name is Pulse, and he is currently in an induced coma. I promised him that if I ever heard of a world where he could do his thing on a daily basis, I would have him shipped there.”
Renn cocked his head. “How could you have had that power?”
“I am a bureaucrat, Renn. I know what paperwork to fill out. It is the skill that got me into the Volunteer program back on Terra, and it had me transferred out of the Alliance to the Nyal Imperium when my skills were requested here.” The com unit lit up and Ambassador Cannaught’s features filled the screen.
The ambassador was the coordinator for the Guardian registry, and if this was going to work, she was going to have to listen and agree to Cera’s plan.
“Dispatcher Morrissy. To what do I owe the pleasure of your features?”
“You received the list from Bloom?”
“I did. But I don’t know why you think I should care?”
Cera talked fast. She explained the unique nature of Haloth and the minds that it held. It was a natural repository of lost histories, planets and cultures. A unique world in all the imperium.
“You don’t have the necessary Guardians to make this happen.”
“There are two who would guard this world with their lives and close to a hundred more with a unique talent for transportation.”
“Name the Guardians.”
“They are new to the program and have not been registered. Summoner and Assembly.”
Ambassador Cannaught tented her fingers and her crimson and ebony skin flexed in a terrifying smile. “What are their skills?”
“Summoner can bring the minds of Haloth together into one single coalesced being. Assembly is a being made of a core of intelligence bolstered by the minds of Haloth. Both these Guardians are Haloth specific and would be of no use on any other world.”
“I see. Let us think it over for a moment.” The ambassador closed her eyes, and her lids flicked rapidly as she engaged in silent conversation with her parasite.
Her eyes opened again, and they glowed with a fierce electric blue. “Done. Who will your third be?”
“Rhassoul. If you will have him freed, I will have him brought here immediately.”
The ambassador jerked in surprise. “Really? That low tech, huh? All right. I will authorize his release, and you will have three hours to collect him.”
Orvi bowed. “More time than we need.”
Cera inclined her head. “Thank you for your help, Ambassador. When will you—”
“I will file the stop orders immediately and get the protection status filed as well as some psychics who are willing to rough it. Haloth will have tentative protection within the next six hours and, hopefully, will be a protected world within the week.”
Cera exhaled. “Excellent. As long as we have authorization to destroy the equipment of trespassers, I am good. I do have a plan B, by the way.”
The ambassador inclined her head. “I would expect nothing less. Now, go and get some rest, you look exhausted.”
Cera made a face at her friend and disconnected the call. She leaned back and exhaled, “Whew.”
Renn shook his head. “You are a quick talker.”
“I have to be. But, why are there so many voices in my head?”
Renn was going to speak, but Orvi asked her. “Where do you need us to be, lady?”
Cera shook her head. “It is…can I just give you the image?”
Orvi came forward, and she reached up to touch his hidden face under the hood. She gave him the image of the tank, the orbital station and the unconscious Rhassoul.
“I have it, lady. What shall we tell him?”
She took her hand back and smiled, “Tell him that Cera said to get off his ass. She has work for him and a place for him to do it. You might have to wait until they decant him though.”
Orvi nodded and gestured for four of the brotherhood to come with him. They stood in a circle, shoulder to shoulder and disappeared.
Cera sat back down at the dining room table and rested her head in her hands. Machinations were always rough on her mind, but with the whispers in her thoughts, it was very difficult.
“Why aren’t you looking at me?” Renn sat next to her, and he put his hand on her arm.
“Because you are beautiful, gorgeous. I can’t stop looking once I start, and I feel guilty that I inflicted that shape on you to suit my own preferences.”
“Why? This is the shape I chose to be with you so that it would please you to see me.” His hand stroked her arm slowly, enticing her to look toward him.
“It does please me. Too much.” She rubbed her forehead again. “Why won’t the voices stop?”