Eyes in the Sky Read online

  A woman with vision finds a man who can help her reach heights she never imagined.

  Riasa has been working with the resistance to warn talents of the scanning bots flying overhead on schedules. The warning of eyes in the sky saved lives and families.

  Rescued before she could be caught, Riasa begins life at Citadel Teklan, but she knows something is very wrong. Confronting her suspicions, she calls in help and destroys the only home she has been offered before getting assigned to a flyer with wings of stone.

  Natu was disgruntled to be picking up a farmer’s daughter on Resicor, but once he met Riasa and saw her talent in action, he had to admit that he had been in the right place at the right time.

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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.

  Eyes in the Sky

  Copyright © 2014 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-77111-955-9

  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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  Eyes in the Sky

  Tales of the Citadel Book 31

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  “This is the hidden report once again, and I am notifying you that Rekitar province, Leomor prefecture and Ysku city all have eyes in the sky. Be aware that they are looking.” She signed off quickly.

  Riasa dismantled her equipment, put on her protective lenses and left the small hole with the broadcast equipment in its hidden burrow. With a few forks of hay, she covered it up completely.

  Humming, she headed out of the barn and continued her chores. She worked the façade on each and every day. The drones flew overhead, seeking her signal. She glanced at them for the appropriate amount of time and returned to her work.

  After two more hours outside, she returned to the farmhouse and smiled at her mother. “So, I guess tonight’s the night. I wish I could warn them that it was the last broadcast, but that isn’t going to be possible.”

  “Ri, the drones have already narrowed your broadcasts down to our prefecture. You need to go before they capture you.” Her mother shook her head. “We will miss you, but it will be a relief that you are safe and thriving.”

  Riasa nodded and washed her hands before helping her mother with dinner. Lobelia Zorgard was a stubborn woman, and if Riasa didn’t go outside of her free will, she would be staked out like a sacrificial lamb if it would get her off Resicor.

  Peeling the tubers was therapeutic. Her mind went blank while she was scraping away.

  “When are they coming?”

  “During the eclipse. Be ready and be prepared to be stunned or zapped in case the drones are watching.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  An hour later, her father came in and the meal was served. They ate together as a family and watched the two celestial objects get closer and closer.

  Riasa removed her lenses and looked at the sky. “It is time for me to go and check on the goats.”

  She hugged each of her parents in turn and headed outside in the dark with a light and her lenses down. She heard a soft beat above her, and in seconds, she was swept into the sky and over the fields at a low altitude. She dropped her light and held tight as he swept her toward a stone edifice that had a ship clinging to the bottom side of an outcropping. He tucked his wings and they skidded inside.

  She got to her feet and looked down at him, all bright lines and wide wings. Wings. He really had wings.

  She blinked and reset her vision. “Hello.”

  “Please excuse me. I need to get us out of here.” He struggled to his feet and headed into the open doorway that led out of the cargo bay they were standing in.

  She followed him into the ship and took the available seat across from him when he slid into what was obviously his chair. The narrow rod in the centre in lieu of a back gave it away as belonging to someone with structural issues.

  Riasa strapped in and heard the outer door lock. A moment later, they floated free of the outcropping and then they shot skyward.

  She clutched the arms of her seat and hung on as their orientation went from horizontal to vertical. Air was pressed out of her lungs and a last view of her family farm disappeared as the ship rotated on its way out and up.

  When the pressure on her body eased, she gasped and her vision focussed on the images in the display. Her eyes sought the signals within signals and located a satellite and five other ships lifting off under the cover of the interference and darkness brought to them courtesy of the eclipse.

  The man next to her was made entirely of grey. Charcoal hair, pale crystal eyes and wings and body that appeared to be made of smoke and stone. Even the suit that wrapped his body was grey.

  The other signals scattered in different directions and her companion aimed on an independent path. The pilot did something and cruised them past one of the large Raider ships that frequented the area. The Raiders didn’t acknowledge their presence, and they continued on past them, heading out of the star system.

  When her companion unbuckled his harness, she felt it safe to do the same.

  “You are very quiet. I thought that the moment I grabbed you, you would begin an endless barrage of questions.”

  “I knew you were coming. My family was given a message that I would be taken off Resicor before the government pinpointed my signal.” She rose and followed him with only a quick glance back toward the control panel. It seemed to be flying itself just fine.

  “All who were taken to safety tonight were involved in the fight for the freedom of talents on your world.” He moved slowly through the hall and stopped near a series of cabinets. With a quick motion, he pulled it open and took out the object inside.

  She blinked when he handed it to her. The folded fabric was a soft grey that matched his skin. “Is there a reason for coordination?”

  He chuckled. “No. It is merely a standard colouration for recruits to the Citadel. It is that or white, as I found you on a farm, I erred on the side of grey.”

  “Far safer, I have never been good around white. May I have your name?”

  “It will not suit you, but it is Corrothgar Natu.” He grinned and his features became almost handsome. The broad brow and flattened nose were in keeping with the wide mouth, but the smile transformed him from intimidating to fascinating.

  “Corrothgar is a long name.”

  “It is my family name. Natu is my call name.” He inclined his head, and as his hair slid forward, she saw the outline of horns along his hairline. They were short but definitely horns.

  “Natu then. Thank you for the pickup. They were getting close to finding me.” She held the suit to her chest.

  He bowed again in the narrow space. “It was my honour. Now, I will show you the ship because we will be here for a few days. You will need to get around wi
thout me. We can sleep in shifts as there is only one bed.”

  She nodded. “Right.”

  A ship this small had minimal resources and that included bedding.

  He showed her where to call a meal and which food to choose. The water and tea were dispensed the same way. A quick press of buttons and the drinks appeared.

  When she had a full reckoning of the design and structure of the ship, he handed her a tablet and a headset and settled her in the galley on a bench, studying Alliance Common.

  “Stay here until you are sleepy and then take the bunk. I will report our successful departure to Teklan Base.”

  “Teklan?”

  “Yes, it is a Sector Guard base that specialises in investigations. They have a Citadel outpost as well and that is where you will be an adjunct agent. It will entitle you to an education in any field you wish, but first, you must learn Alliance Common. Having a foundation in the language will make a flash transfer easier for you.”

  “Flash transfer?”

  “A visual download.”

  “Can we try that?” She smiled. Anything visual was up her alley.

  “Certainly.” He took her tablet from her and keyed in a series of strange glyphs. “Hold it in front of you and press the glowing icon.”

  She did as he said and opened her eyes wide. She opened herself to data on all frequencies, and when it struck, she gasped.

  Worlds opened up in her mind, images of species she could not imagine. Language flowed and she took it all in. When everything went dark, she shook her head and opened her eyes. “Well, that was educational.”

  Natu was staring at her in surprise. “How did you know my language?”

  She blinked. “Urtannin, correct? It was in the files. It was all there in visual data bursts and all things visual are my forte.”

  “You are correct, but how did you get that from the Common language file?”

  “I went deeper. The file led me to others, and from there, I continued until my eyes closed. That is my safety mechanism, when I can’t take any more, I close my eyes.”

  He was standing next to her and shock rang through his expression. “No one speaks Urtannin off world.”

  “You are speaking it now.”

  He sighed and she chuckled.

  Natu looked at the tablet. “What I meant was how did the data flash have Urtannin in it?”

  “Oh, it didn’t. I picked up Common, looked for your species, found them and traced them back to the archive where the language samples are held. If something is stored as visible data, I can read it.”

  “Even from this distance?”

  “The tablet gave me a direct line into the archive, it just didn’t know it.” She smiled and switched languages. “If you prefer Alliance Common, I can do that, too.”

  He sighed. “It is preferable when we are in public. Urtannin is considered a sacred language.”

  She winced. “Apologies. I was just playing with a new toy.”

  He chuckled. “Well, I will leave you to pursue your subjects of interest. I will return to the command deck. Good evening.”

  He gave her a short bow and left her alone in the galley with the bodysuit tucked over her arm.

  She sighed and turned on the tablet, going through available tutorials until she found one on flying. She would be exhausted in a few hours, but until then, she was going to see what the Alliance had to offer.

  Chapter Two

  Natu was walking her through the controls of the ship and there was amused disbelief in his voice. “Use the pulse to locate the beacons and calibrate the navigation systems off that. Never take it for granted that the beacons are in the same place. You can fly into a sun that way.”

  She set the pulse and checked the readout. Where the beacons should be was indeed slightly different from where they currently were. “Done.”

  “Good. Trigger the reset and accelerate.”

  Riasa smiled and used both of her hands to send the precise instructions to the ship. The readout displayed the increase in speed. She sat back proudly.

  Natu applauded. “Well done. You will be a better pilot than I am by the time we land.”

  “It is possible, but I think you will have more of a feel for atmospheric flight. I have no idea what it feels like to fly and feel the wind around me.”

  She could swear that he was blushing, but his skin didn’t seem amenable to showing it.

  “Your description is a very romantic ideal for something my people do every day.”

  “I have dreamed of flying since I first saw birds take off when I was a child. As the strictures against talents got tighter, craving that sort of freedom became my only escape. Everywhere I looked, there were signs of the creeping corruption. Flight seemed the perfect way out.” She kept an eye on their trajectory. They were getting close to the jump site.

  “Sometimes, it is just the way to get from here to there.” Natu smiled.

  “Speaking of, we are at the jump point.”

  “Well then, time for you to watch so that you can do it next time.” He ran his hands along the controls and lined them up with the beacons.

  He sent another pulse through the beacons to line them up, and he pressed and held the command button that sent them from one point in space to another. This was the third such transfer since she had come on board, and it was the final one. With this jump, they were now in the same system as Teklan.

  Natu announced their arrival to the base and received confirmation that there was a reception committee for Riasa.

  “What is a reception committee?”

  “A full medical workup. Teklan is a fairly empty world, but they do not wish to bring in any disease that could mutate into something really nasty over time. Mist and Reset will run the scans and do your workup. It gives you a baseline for health at any of the Alliance facilities. The records are activated if you enter a med base under Alliance control. They will know what your readouts should be and will treat you accordingly.”

  Riasa nodded. “Right. I recall reading something about that.”

  He snorted lightly. “I bet you do.”

  She wanted to smack him, but she sat back in her chair instead. The formfitting bodysuit came out a darker shade than she had first guessed. On the second day, Natu had provided her robes in the hated white, but she was getting used to them. Stains came out fairly easily from the pale fabric.

  “What have you learned aside from the basics of flight?”

  “The tenants of crowd control and the origins of the Sector Guard. The Citadel’s tale is a valiant one in and of itself.”

  “Is it? I thought it was just a simple reference to the building that they train in.” Natu looked surprised.

  “I doubt that that is what you thought. They were talents arrested and imprisoned by their own people until there was an alien attack. They gathered their strength, broke free and pushed back at the invaders until their world was reclaimed. From that point, they returned to the Citadel and shut themselves in again. When their folk again asked for help, they made them pay and so began the Citadel tradition of charging for their services.”

  Riasa had to admit. “It made for compelling reading.”

  “I think my education has been sorely neglected. What did they do next?”

  “They began a school for off worlders. All with a psychic talent could come to gain insight into the training that they had been honing for decades within the walls, for a fee of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “A contract to the Citadel was created and the first branch was crafted as a girls’ school on Thoola. A boys’ school was also created and the spread of the Citadel began, world by world, inviting more and more talents until they spanned the spectrum of physical and psychic possibility. When the Sector Guard recruits, it apparently does it from a Citadel if possible. The more advanced the training, the better.”

  Riasa looked through the view screen and smiled. There were trails leading to a world that seemed n
early golden to her eyes.

  She watched as they closed on Teklan. She could see the spots of habitation, a crystal palace in a dry valley, a wide house built of wood and the base itself with a smaller assembly of buildings off to one side.

  The rest of the world was wild and barren. Riasa smiled. It was going to be like being on vacation.

  “How long have you been with the Sector Guard?”

  “Seven months. I spent years on my world as a peacekeeper, but it seemed that there was greater need for my particular skills elsewhere. I applied to the elders and they let me go.”

  “Let you go?”

  “We do not leave, we do not travel and we do not mix with other species. My need was great, so they allowed me to leave and made the contacts that I needed.”

  “What was…why did you need to leave?”

  He smiled and began the landing protocol. “That is a story for another long trip. I am sure that you and I will meet again.”

  She was shocked. Not for one instant had she considered that Natu was not hers permanently as a partner. They got along so well it would be strange to think of assignments without him, if she was given assignments at all.

  In one moment, she went from amused to somber. It wasn’t like her to wallow in optimism. She should have been more practical from the moment that she met him. Now, she was about to lose a friend.

  The landing area was a wide tarmac, and Natu set them down with the ease of practice. She sat up and unclasped her harness, stopping at their shared quarters to get her clothing. With the folded clothing in her arms, she waited by the rear hatch.

  Natu stood behind her, and they waited together for the medical team to fix the tunnel to the ship.

  When the door opened, she stepped out and into the care of the medical team. They gently took the Resicor clothing from her and ran scans over her body.

  “Hello, Riasa. I am Reset, and I am the medical officer here at Teklan Base. Currently, we are doing a bio-scan on you to determine if you have anything that could damage an inhabitant of this world. The ship isn’t equipped to do that yet. It has to go to Morganti for an overhaul.”