Read Seeing (Return of the Nine) Online

Authors: Viola Grace

Tags: #Romance, #science fiction opera

Seeing (Return of the Nine) (2 page)

He scowled. “Surely, if you find one, you find the other.”

“I really doubt that they will still be on a ship.” She scowled. “If I can find their path, I can find them.”

Daphne cleared her throat. “You might need someone a little more aggressive for the retrieval mission.”

“If I can find the path, I will call Ianka. They are her parents, too.”

“Right. Ula has been working on a probe. This might just be the missing piece of the puzzle.”

Vida smiled. “Is that where she went? I have been missing the sight of her in the sky.”

Apolan frowned, “You were shot.”

She shrugged with her good shoulder. “I got in the way of a bolt gun. It won. I can’t really see inanimate objects in someone’s hand unless they always use them.”

“What use have you put your talent to?” Apolan smiled politely.

Daphne grinned, “She rescues miners, finds lost children and tracks down the elderly who have wandered off.”

“Day or night?”

Daphne snickered and waved for Vida to explain.

“I do my best seeing when my eyes are bound during daylight. At night, it is fine, but during the day, the multiple images cause me to lose focus.”

“Bound?”

“Yeah, I keep a swath of fabric to tie my eyes shut. It helps me see nothing but the traces left behind by people.”

“What about the buildings?”

“Well, I have noticed that living beings tend to walk around buildings and through doorways. If you are following a trail, you step where they stepped.”

He nodded. “How does this talent of yours work in a confined environment?”

She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “It doesn’t. I will have to send my senses out and find the path that my parents were taken down. Once we have a trajectory, I will see if I can get help in approaching their destination.”

“You wish the Nine to help you in jetting yourself across the stars in search of a Tokkel ship with folk who may be dead by now?” He spoke slowly and clearly as if working it through his thoughts.

Vida got to her feet. “I would know if they were dead. I can feel my sister, half a world away from me. My family is bound into my mind and senses.”

She crossed to the open part of the room and began to pace. Daphne quietly got to her feet, drew the curtain and turned off the light.

Apolan’s gasp was harsh.

“Daphne has told me that my being upset is striking. Normally, I am completely neutral, but when I get like this…” She held up her hands and stared at the swirling glow of light and dark energy.

Daphne turned the lights on again, and Vida concentrated on balancing her mind. It was a delicate operation. The hole in her life left by her parents was something she felt every day. The burning ache of her twin half a world away was something else.

Ianka had a talent for the physical while Vida worked on the psychic level. They had argued all of their life, and their parents had let them do it, knowing better than to get between their stubborn brood. Their house was perpetually dark. None of them needed light to navigate in their home, but Ianka had craved daylight, fresh air and the stimulation of others…until the Tokkel attacks.

Their parents were at the lab on the day it was raided. No one knew what was happening, and Vida could only stare skyward. Ianka had shaken her into alertness, and they had begun to seek out those who had been pinned under rubble, while avoiding the Tokkel troops on the ground.

Vida created a mental template for the Tokkel and used it to hide those around her while Ianka rounded up survivors and brought them back to their dark home. Vida kept watch for six days until her body and mind were at the shattering point, and then, the Nine fought the Tokkel off in the skies above.

Vida had spent every spare moment on the ruins of the lab where the best and brightest of Gaia had been taken without a whisper of warning. Other ships had taken Gaians from surrounding areas, but the scientists had been first to disappear, and they had been the only ones that had never been traced. No bodies, no wreckage, no sign that they had ever existed, except for the families left behind.

She could feel the power crackling along her skin, but it was still within normal ranges. She didn’t need to discharge a bolt quite yet.

Daphne nodded, “What happened yesterday, Vida?”

“I was attending to my morning errands when Detective Morser found me and told me that the murderer we had been tracking before the attacks had surfaced again. This time, he didn’t play games. He took me to where she had been before she was taken and I was able to follow the path. The officers pulled up with all fanfare, and he came to the window before I could alter my vision to normal. The bolt knocked me to the ground and the officers were able to rescue the proposed victim before she had been more than kidnapped.”

She carefully touched her wound with her fingers. “Those grafts worked really well.”

Apolan got to his feet, looked at his wife and nodded before returning his gaze to Vida. “The shuttle will be here at noon tomorrow. Be ready to travel.”

“Thank you, Ambassador.” She smiled and bobbed a quick curtsy. With steady steps, she walked to the window, opened it and exhaled. The light was dimming and the pent-up energy of her frustration came out in a mist of power that floated out and over the gardens below.

Daphne came up beside her and rubbed her good shoulder. “I am glad that you are fine, Vida.”

Vida turned and leaned her forehead against Daphne’s shoulder while she bawled. She was the farthest from fine that she had ever been.

 

Chapter Three

 

 

Vida was sitting quietly in the boots and modest dress that Daphne had given her. The shuttle pilot wasn’t the chatty sort. He simply engaged the engines and lifted off.

She wanted to bite her nails, but instead, she folded her hands in her lap and concentrated on breathing. In, out.

The pressure of the acceleration shoved her back in her seat. Breathing took up her entire world until they released from the atmosphere. The mother ship glowed in the sky.

Vida watched as the shuttle she was in approached a minute port in the metal hull. It was amazing to think that she was heading toward the largest collection of aliens that the Gaians could ever have imagined, and they had a greater right to the planet than the current colonists.

They had landed eons earlier and evolved their own distinct adaptations to the world until they had travelled out into the universe to split up and become distinct societies from one parent species.

Knowing and learning all she could about the Nine was her hobby. Vida had known deep inside that they would be the key to her quest. Now, she was about to test that theory.

The shuttle glided into position and lined up with a series of lights inside the ship. It cruised inside, and she stared out the thick plexi window at the hundreds of fighter ships parked in bay after bay of the inner workings of the giant vessel.

The moment that the vehicle settled, she could see a walkway extending along the side a moment before she heard the thunk of contact. Her harness released itself, and she took that as a hint to get to her feet.

Her legs wobbled and her body didn’t feel quite right. Vida used the seat backs for support as she walked toward the door she had used to enter. It hissed and popped open before she reached it, and a familiar face poked around the corner.

“Vida!”

Vida grinned and ran to her, bumping in to the cushions and careening into Ziggy’s arms.

Her friend had changed, Ziggy had added more power to her already considerable energy, but her innate signature was unmistakable.

In the time after the Tokkel attacks, Ziggy had become a friend. Ianka had enjoyed the scent of flowers as a break from the blood and smell of fear, and anything that kept her sister happy had made her happy.

Eventually, Vida’s obsession with looking for their parents had driven Ianka to seek silence on the far side of Gaia. She had requested, and been granted, one of the sled-like transports, and every six months, she returned with samples of faraway lands.

“Ouch, Vida. That is quite the download.”

She quickly broke their hug. “Sorry, Ziggy. This trip has gotten me all wound up.”

Ziggy smiled and linked arms with her. “It is fine. So, it has been a while since you saw her?”

They walked down the walkway and into the ship.

Vida was glad that she was using her eyes and not her other senses. There were people everywhere, and they all looked fascinatingly strange.

She prodded Ziggy, “I know that there are supposed to be nine races, but this looks like considerably more.”

“Ah, just like with the Gaians, there are variations in size and function. Each race has its own hierarchy. Light, dark, air, water, forest, rock, beasts and, of course, then there are the two that you will be dealing with.” Ziggy wrinkled her nose. “They are harder to describe.”

“How so?”

“Well, we have the Fury and the Balance. The Fury look like ancient Earth demons and the Balance…well they look like pieces of starscapes come to life. You don’t run into them that often. They don’t mix well with the other races. Well, they do, but the other races get uncomfortable.”

“Why will I be dealing with them?”

Ziggy rubbed the back of her neck. “For what Apolan described and knowing what I do about your talents, a power boost seemed a safe bet. The Balance are nothing but power.”

“And the Fury?”

“They are some of the best pilots and most aggressive fighters. Their auras make them hard to look at, so most folk just look right past them as if sensing evil and not wanting to tempt it.”

“Are they evil?”

“I have spoken with their magistrate on this matter. He seems polite and well spoken.”

They paced up to a pod on a rail platform. Ziggy tucked her inside and sat next to her.

“Where are we going?”

“To the medical bay. According to the news reports, you ended up with a bolt through the shoulder, though the news didn’t name you…as always.” Ziggy sighed heavily.

“When do I meet your husband?”

“Once you have been healed. Rothaway is always eager to meet new Gaians, especially ones that I consider to be friends. Once you have been up here for a while, you will appreciate Gaians just as much as I do.” Ziggy smiled.

“I only want to remain here long enough to find the trail and follow it.”

“We will see what the doctor thinks. She’s a lot of fun once you get to know her but a little hard to get used to. She is one of the people of the Rock, but one of the taller ones. We would call her a giant.”

Once they arrived in medical, Vida had to admit that Ziggy wasn’t kidding; the doctor was indeed extremely tall.

“Stand in the scanner, miss. We don’t want any infection to set in, so I need to get a check of your general health.”

Vida winced and stepped into the scanner, knowing what was going to be found.

“Madam Potential, please leave the room. I need to have a talk with your friend.”

Vida sighed. “Anything you want to tell me, you are welcome to do in front of Ziggy.”

The doctor read the scans and focussed them on several points. “Your bones are not strong. You have broken over a dozen individual bones in your lifetime and several of them have been broken more than once. I am amazed that the trip up here didn’t crush you. It is like you are made of pressed paper instead of calcium.”

Ziggy scowled. “So you are telling me she is not fit for space travel.”

“Good lord, I wouldn’t allow her back to the surface without weeks of treatment to build up the levels across her body. How could this happen? Don’t your people have regulations about supplements?”

Vida stepped out of the scanner. “They do, but my body does not absorb and reuse the calcium like it should. I was the feeble twin.”

Dr. Meevin cocked her head. “Identical twin?”

“No, fraternal. She is stronger, faster and generally in better shape than I am.”

“Too bad, I could have cultured a treatment from her system if she was amenable. Ah well, I will treat the torn tissue and you can be on your way. I will design a calcium treatment, and you will be here tomorrow morning to start it.”

Vida blinked. “I will?”

Ziggy nodded. “You will. How did you break so many bones?”

“Well, I run around blindfolded a lot. Sometimes, I miscalculate my trajectory.” She shrugged. It was a side effect of looking for missing children in the woods. She banged into things quite often if she was moving at speed.

The doctor pointed to a medical bed, and Vida hopped up onto it without comment. Dr. Meevin loomed over her and shot several hyposprays into the tissue around the wound.

“Whoever gave you first aid knew what they were doing.”

Vida smiled. “Daphne, the ambassador’s wife.”

Dr. Meevin grinned. “She is taking to our ways. Good. It saved your arm. There are traces of an infection here that could have easily turned septic, but the traces of the strong antibiotics in your system have them on the run.”

“She was very thorough.”

The doctor grunted and squeezed lightly at Vida’s arms and legs. “Any problem moving?”

“No. A slight ache in my right wrist, but it has been broken three times.”

The focus shifted to her wrist, and the doctor hummed to herself before disappearing into the outer office. She came back brandishing another hypogun, and before Vida could brace herself, she was jabbed in the arm and that limb felt like it was being dipped in fire.

Vida writhed on the table, and Ziggy wisely kept back. This was knowledge she didn’t need.

When the first wave of agony faded, Vida was covered in sweat. She sat up with a dazed expression. “You could have warned me.”

Dr. Meevin winced. “Sorry, you may experience some slight discomfort. It is an enzyme that the Balance have been working on to restore harmony in the body. I didn’t know what it would do to a Gaian.”

“That was the worst of it, right? It was just my arm, right?”

The doctor winced. “I think so. You may want to contact Researcher Lerinian. He designed it.”

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