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  Flying is her dream, a limitless sky is her destiny and a seer is her partner. The future is going to blow.

  Ikari has enjoyed life on the family farm until a neighbour turns her in for being a talent, from that point on, things spiral rapidly beyond her control.

  She is put in a restrictor suit, shipped off world and sent to Teklan base to try to remove the suit without killing her.

  Ikari has an assignment as the courier on Dorali, and her new partner is waiting.

  Khivon has known his flier was coming to him for over a year, but when she shows up and her eyes spark memories of far-off nebulas, he feels his instincts taking over when his logic should have been holding fast.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Limitless Sky

  Copyright © 2012 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-77111-233-8

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Devine Destinies

  An imprint of eXtasy Books

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  A Limitless Sky

  Tales of the Citadel 7

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Ikari Quono breathed in deep as she flew over her herds and moved the beasts into their pen. The stun wand in her hand was ready but usually, a large flying predator was enough to convince her fluffy animals to get into their proper places for inoculations. The vet would be at the farm in a few hours and flying was, by far, the best way to get the creatures into place.

  She landed next to the gate and locked it. With the animals ready, she went inside the farmhouse to have dinner.

  “Well, Mom, they are all ready for the vet. When is she getting here?” Ikari went to the sink and washed her hands.

  “She will be here at dawn. Why did you have to bring them in that way, Iki?” Her mother scowled. “You know I don’t approve of it.”

  Ikari took a seat at the table and started to serve herself the salad, whipped tubers and roast.

  “You should wait for your father.”

  “He is dragging his ass in the back pasture. He doesn’t wait for me, I don’t wait for him.”

  Irane smiled ruefully. “True enough.”

  “Flying gets the job done quickly. They respond better to my flight than my skimmer.” She flicked her braid out of the way and dug into her meal. She worked for a living, and she needed a solid meal.

  “It is dangerous, sweet.”

  “I know, Mum, but with only me and father working the beasts this season, it is the best way to get them where we need them to be.”

  “That isn’t what I mean. The guards have stepped up their sweeps, and folks are being offered rewards for turning in physical talents. I am afraid that one of our neighbours might decide to gain a little extra income.”

  Ikari sighed. “I have been careful, Mother. I fly below the tree line and only when necessary. I do not believe that I have been seen.”

  Her mother still did not look happy.

  “I will be careful. For now, the animals are ready and Dad can have a good night’s sleep for a change without running all over the countryside to find the darned things.”

  The object of discussion stomped in and immediately walked to the sink to wash his hands.

  “Hey, Dad. Did you get them all?”

  “That crimson-faced one and her baby took off for the north pasture. I couldn’t catch them no matter what I did.” He slumped and gave her a hopeful look.

  Clouds were looming. “It’s getting dark. It will be dangerous for me to locate her.”

  “Take the spotlight and do your thing.”

  His vague hand gesture of flittering made her laugh.

  “Let me finish dinner first.”

  Her mother looked worried, her father looked impressed with himself and all that Ikari could do was finish her dinner and then go and round up the strays.

  The knock at the door was expected. Ikari got to her feet and finished chewing her mouthful of breakfast.

  “Hey, doc, you are early. You normally come after I finish eating, not during.” She swung the door open and found herself face to face with members of the guard of Resicor.

  Her mother gasped, and her father was behind her in an instant. “Why are you here?”

  The guard captain held out his hand, and an image appeared.

  Ikari winced as the image of her hovering low over the recalcitrant animals and herding them home with a handheld floodlight leading the way. Her face in the image was lit with a spooky gleam.

  The next guard held up wide manacles, and the captain said, “Ikari Quono, you are under arrest for the use of a physical talent. You will be confined and remanded to the dome.”

  She fought the urge to run with everything in her. Her parents would be injured if she tried to leave and that was not going to happen.

  Steeling herself, she extended her hands and allowed the guard to put the manacles on her. “I am sorry, Mom. I never meant for this to happen. It is my fault and don’t forget that.”

  Her father gripped her mother’s hand tightly, and the guard led Ikari away.

  The ride to the confinement centre was tense, and Ikari remembered all the stories that she had heard of physical talents being hauled off and never seen again. Sure, they were ostensibly allowed visitation with their families at least once a year, but what if they didn’t survive until the visit?

  She sat and bit her lower lip until it bled. Her life on the farm was getting further away with each passing minute, and her heart was starting to ache already.

  “Can I make some calls?”

  The guard across from her blinked. “Who would you call?”

  “My aunt and uncle. My parents need help with the farm. The calving is happening, and they need assistance.”

  “You are about to be locked in the dome and you are concerned about the farm?” the man raised his brow.

  “Is there a better time to be worried about my family than when I know I will not be able to help them?”

  He leaned and whispered to one of the guards in the front of the vehicle. A notepad was passed back, and he handed it to her. “Write a letter. I will make sure it gets to your aunt and uncle. Just put their address at the top of the page.”

  “They won’t be punished for being related to me?”

  He shook his head. “If your neighbour had not brought the recording to us, we never would have found you. The only crime you are guilty of is using your talent where it could be seen. You know that Resicor citizens are forbidden from using a physical talent, so why did you?”

  “It was the only way to get the beasts into the pens for the vet. They were a little too frisky this year and my father is not getting any younger. I flew to do the job of the three hands that we did not have this year.”

  The guard was puzzled. “Wher
e did they go?”

  “Once they knew I had this talent, they would not work with us. The small mercy is that they were not the ones to turn me in. It doesn’t matter that I was exposing myself, I had to do this, or we would have lost animals and possibly the farm.”

  Ikari faced the window and watched her beloved green grasses turn into the harsh sands of the ancient plains. The confinement centre was looming, and in the very distant edge of vision was the dome, the sealed city of the ancients of Resicor. It was to be her prison and her own home all under one dome.

  Chapter Two

  Her interview was short, when she lied and explained that her talent had started when she was running after some of their beasts in the field and she had tripped and never hit the ground, he made notes as to the dates and times.

  “Were your parents aware of this?”

  “I never told them about it. If they knew, they simply saw me flying and figured it out.” Ikari remained calm. Sticking to the truth was always for the best.

  She suspected that the man speaking to her was a truth seer, but since he had not introduced himself as such she was stuck wondering if her guess was correct.

  “Well, I have everything I need. It is now time for your power assessment. Please come this way.”

  She followed him through the halls, and when they arrived in a large room with an incredibly high ceiling, he sealed the door and removed her manacles.

  “Please, place these sensors on the points given in that diagram. I will turn my back.”

  He did just that, and she attached the small stickers to her body at all the points marked on the picture as she had been instructed.

  When her clothing was back in place, she cleared her throat. “Ready.”

  “Excellent. The monitors also help us judge how to counteract your talent for your entry into the dome. Keep that in mind and fly as high as you can.”

  Ikari caught the subtle hint and lifted herself twelve feet off the floor. When her power was subdued, she dropped a few feet, and then, she lifted herself again but not as high as the first time.

  He continued to depress her power, and she flew lower and lower until she would not rise from the floor.

  He nodded. “Excellent. Thank you. You will now be fitted with a restrictor suit set to these levels. Please come this way.”

  Ikari followed him numbly. She had more than enough power to get away, but it wouldn’t do her any good. To run from the guard meant that the whole of her world would be against her. It was a no-win situation.

  Confining herself now would mean she could still see her family every few months. It was rumoured that loved ones never visited many of those in the dome, but Ikari knew her parents. If they could afford the travel, they would come.

  “The women inside will fit you with your suit. This is the last time I will see you so I wish you a long and happy life.”

  He grinned and shook her hand, giving her a short bow. “It has been an honour.”

  He left her without giving her his name, and she walked through the door and into the care of a group of women, who removed her farm clothes and the monitors, scanned her excessively and draped her in fabric that writhed, burned and twisted on her skin.

  Ikari heard her own voice screaming, and the women around her went pale. When it was over, she knelt on the raised area and looked down at her skin.

  Silvery fabric wrapped around her in a tight suit that left nothing to the imagination. When she touched her face, it had also crept up to circle her eyes in a form of mask. “What is this?”

  One of the dressers frowned and went to the console. “I don’t know. It seems to be an aberration in the organic design. We have gone with a new supplier, and this simply seems to be a new side effect. I am sorry for any discomfort it may have caused you.”

  Ikari ran her hands over the suit, and it gave off a pulsing warmth. “It feels strange.”

  The seamstress nodded. “It will clean you and process all bodily wastes. It cannot be removed but that simply takes away the issue of the physical talents reproducing.”

  It was not unexpected, but it still hurt to think that her family was going to end with her.

  “There is a vehicle waiting for you. It will take you to the dome. Your escort is outside.” The women nodded in dismissal, leaving Ikari with nothing else to do but leave.

  The people who were waiting for her were not standard Resicor guards. They did not speak but led her out of the confinement centre and to a waiting vehicle.

  The man and woman looked at each other and nodded as the woman took control of the transport.

  Psychics. Wonderful. It was no wonder that she had been sent off with them, but their peculiar bodysuits did not resemble the standard uniform of those in government service.

  When Ikari took the time to look around, she also noted that they were not driving toward the huge domed city where all physical talents were kept for the protection of the population.

  A shuttlecraft on the middle of the salt flat was sitting and waiting for them. There was a normally dressed guard standing next to the space vehicle, and when her escort got out of their transport and gestured for her to accompany them, she followed out of sheer curiosity.

  As soon as they left the transport, the guard walked past them and drove away in their conveyance. Wherever Ikari was being taken, she was getting there in that shuttle.

  They helped her settle, and the moment that the man lifted the shuttle from the surface of Resicor, the woman turned with a grin. “Sorry for the silent treatment, but the confinement centre is full of curious ears and minds. We didn’t want to give away more than we had to and keeping up with our shields took all of our effort. I am Counsel. This is Contract. He will be our pilot today.”

  Ikari blinked. “Are you taking me to the dome?”

  “No. We are taking you to a place where you can fly as you will, and you can remain in contact with your family. Contract and I are members of the Sector Guard. We have been asked by the Citadel to work on freeing a few of the more socially adjusted physical talents of Resicor. Your government has been very compliant so far.”

  Ikari looked at the rapidly disappearing ground beneath her. “What about my parents?”

  Counsel patted her hand. “They will receive a stipend once you start earning your training fees back. That won’t take long as your primary work will be as a flying courier for medical supplies on Dorali.”

  “I have a job on an alien world?” While the good Resicor citizen was appalled, the other part of Ikari’s mind was delighted.

  Counsel chuckled. “There is a small Citadel outpost on the only piece of available land on Dorali. That is where you will live once we take you to Teklan for a check up.”

  “Teklan?”

  “Teklan is a Sector Guard base complete with a healer who can make sure that our altered Masuo did not cause any damage while it was mimicking the effect of the restrictor suit.”

  Ikari looked down at the suit that was clinging to her like a second skin. “This isn’t a restrictor suit?”

  Counsel winked, “It is and it isn’t. One of your people has already had a suit removed, and the Sector Guard analyzed the hell out of it. They came up with two options, one for those who are already in the restrictor suits and one for the new talents incarcerated on Resicor. We proved to the Resicor that the suits would restrict talents, and they were only too happy to take them to apply them on talents.”

  “So, I can use my talents in this suit?”

  Counsel nodded. “As soon as we get to Teklan so that Reset can return your Masuo to normal.”

  “How long will that take?”

  “We will be at Teklan in seven hours. We have beverages and snacks, or I can set you up with an educational screen.” Counsel smiled brightly.

  “Will it give me information on the Citadel?”

  “Yes, and Dorali. You can prepare yourself for your new life.”

  It was an offer that Ikari could not refuse. She
sat and flicked through the screens. Speed-reading had always been a talent of hers. It was especially handy when she was flying.

  The Citadel was not widely known on Resicor, but Ikari knew of it through off-world vids. She read and absorbed as much as she could about the current state of the differing outposts.

  Some outposts were designed to assist research teams, some for physical talents specifically, others for an equal blend of psychic and physical talents. All the outposts were designed for education purposes and some even trained children to control their talents.

  With a fairly good idea of what she was getting into, Ikari looked up Dorali. “Oh, wow.”

  Image after image of floating cities in the sky filled the small screen.

  Counsel moved to sit beside her. “Have you ever been in space before, Ikari? If not, you should take a look out the view screen.”

  Ikari looked out, saw blackness with points of light swirling through it and turned back to the images on her screen. “It is lovely, but if I can’t fly in it, why should I care?”

  Counsel grinned. “So, you are definitely a girl who likes a planet beneath her. Excellent.”

  A wet sensation at her elbow made Ikari jerk. An animal was nosing her and trying to work its way under her arm.

  “Maxi, stop that. I am sorry, Ikari, Maxi is incorrigible.”

  Ikari looked down at the happy face with its wide eyes. She gingerly stroked the soft fur and the beast wiggled with delight.

  “She’s lovely. Is it a she?”

  Counsel made a small movement with her head, and the animal came and nestled on her lap. “She is indeed a she. Maximus Extremus, the most well-traveled Wyoran nylander that was ever whelped.”

  There was obviously a bond between the woman and the creature. Even Ikari could see it.