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  Sharing a mind for medical science is not an ideal job, but she never dreamed that she would meet a man she couldn’t remember.

  Ohra joined the monitor program for a chance to continue her education once her assignment was complete.

  Linked to an Edinar, she does her best to keep him calm during the long months of his convalescence from a plague designed to kill his people.

  Forin has been asleep for centuries, and now, he wants to wake, but the woman in his mind is keeping his thoughts on other things.

  When they both wake, their memories of their time together have faded to nothing.

  Now, they must find each other in a world that considered their joining a medical procedure.

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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.

  Guarding Forever

  Copyright © 2014 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-77111-798-2

  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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  Guarding Forever

  A Sci-Fi Fairy Tale

  By

  Viola Grace

  Guarding Forever

  Ohra entered the secure facility with caution. She paused at all security checkpoints and reported in for her first day at work.

  “Ohra Ianic?” A man with a clipboard checked her into the high-security section.

  “Yes.”

  “I have heard good things about you. Your scores were some of the highest we have seen.”

  She swallowed and nodded. “I do try.”

  “You have succeeded beyond all expectations.” He had the same shaved head that she did and wore a brilliant blue uniform.

  Ohra followed him past another checkpoint and stood for the body scan.

  The officer that was guiding her spoke. “You do understand that once you pass this door, you will not be let out for six months to a year?”

  She swallowed and answered. “I do understand that.”

  He beamed. “Good. Come with me and we will get you plugged in.”

  She followed him through the final set of doors and into the deepest secret that her people held.

  Two hundred Edinar had been saved from genocide and were being cured of a vicious plague. The healing process was slow, and the Edinar minds were unused to inaction. They need stimulation, and there was only one way to provide it. Volunteers had to go in and link to the Edinar directly on the astral plane while the doctors worked. One Edinar at a time was thawed and hooked in to a volunteer. Today was Ohra’s lucky day. She was about to enter the mind of a powerful psychic and live by their rules until it was finished healing.

  The prospect of being in someone else’s mental landscape was a little daunting, but Ohra had been training for this since she left secondary school. Losing her hair had been the least of her difficulties during training. Like many of her kind, she reacted to the IV fluids by losing body hair, but she had managed a one-month stint in a simulator without any other difficulty. It had been her final exam, and she had passed with flying colours. She was officially a monitor.

  A woman with short hair spiking out all over took over for the officer. “Welcome to the mind gate, Ohra. We have ten stations going right now, but station three is about to go vacant. I am Commander Losian. I was the one who picked you for this project.”

  “Thank you, Commander.”

  “Come along and you can see how it is done.”

  Losian walked with her and took her to an observation station. They watched the spoke of med units, head to head with their monitor. Station three was surrounded by medics, and the monitor was carefully released from the technological tethers before they turned their attention to the Edinar.

  “We sent a signal to the monitor, ordering him to uncouple from the Edinar and warn him of the upcoming waking. They should both be prepared for it now, though it may be a little odd adjusting to the waking world once again.”

  Ohra nodded and watched as the Edinar was woken and answered a few questions. He was taken away on a gurney.

  “Now, they go to physical therapy for a few weeks and we reset the station. That is where you will spend your time.”

  Ohra swallowed. “I understand. How long until the station is back up?”

  “One hour.”

  “Do you know who I am to be paired with?” She hoped for a nice schoolteacher or something. Someone that she could converse with in the long time they would spend together.

  “Yes, the commanding general of the Edinar defenses. If he had been in charge when the attacks came, there would have been many more survivors. You need to keep him distracted while we work. He might be strong enough to pull himself out of the coma. You have to stop him if he tries.”

  Ohra blinked rapidly. “I have to distract him? How?”

  “It is the astral plane. Do what you have to do.”

  Ohra blushed at the implication and ran her hand over her shaved scalp. “I don’t think that I am the most attractive thing that any man has ever seen.”

  “That doesn’t matter. Remember, he can read your mind if he tries, so speak the truth. This is why we chose you out of school and not one of our military monitors. You don’t have any secrets to lose.”

  The commander left her there to watch the nine silent stations where the only actions were blood samples taken from the sleeping Edinar as the plague was halted inside them. Everyone on the floor was wearing heavy medical gear, except the monitors. Ohra would get the same anti-plague shots that the Edinar did. It would hopefully stop her from being infected and dying before her charge was awake.

  She paced as she waited. The unspoken reason for her being chosen was her lack of family to mind her absence. She knew it and they knew it, but everyone was too polite to say it.

  For now, she just had to wait.

  Ohra settled into the support of the medical gel and watched the heavily suited figures plug her in. The link attachments clicked onto her temples, and she nodded when she felt the internal buzz that indicated she was getting a signal.

  She felt sleepy and gave a thumbs-up sign to the medics before she slipped into her coma. This is what she had trained for.

  The world stopped spinning and Ohra opened her eyes. The world around her was a stone monument and a star scape above. She was in the ruins of a mountaintop city.

  She slowly got to her feet and ran her hand across her scalp. To her shock, her hair was back.

  Ohra took a step and fabric brushed against her legs. She looked down and a pale blue gown wrapped her from just under her arms and trailed out behind her. It was the prettiest thing she had ever worn, in any plane.

  She looked around her and sighed. “Why couldn’t he just be standing out in the open where I could find him?”

  Ohra saw movement and followed
it. Two huge white peacocks were trailing along and leading the way to the edge of the ruin where it looked out over the stars.

  Sitting on a cracked column was a man wearing nothing but a short skirt of leather and sandals.

  “Hello. Pardon me for not cleaning up. I was not expecting company.”

  She circled around and picked her way across the rocks. “That is all right. I wasn’t initially dressed for a visit.”

  Despite the dimness, he was all tan and muscles with the leather skirt for modesty. It was probably for her modesty because he was gloriously handsome.

  “You have been sleeping up there for a while. Your uniform didn’t do you justice, so I improvised.” He smiled and hopped down on the rubble from the rock facing her. “I am Forin Thanloss of the Edinar defense force.”

  She tried to curtsy, but she wobbled. “Ohra Ianic, monitor for you during your plague treatment.”

  “How many of us are there?”

  She blinked. “Across the galaxy, I don’t know. But, here, there are two hundred of you being treated for plague and rehabilitated.”

  General Thanloss smiled. “Is that what they are calling it?”

  “As far as I know. Twelve Edinar have taken government postings and are being very active in Horalthian politics.”

  She felt a delicate touch on her mind before he nodded.

  “It appears that it is so.”

  Ohra looked around. “So, what would you like to do for the next few months?”

  He waved at the surrounding plane. “You tell me.”

  She tried to alter his landscape, but it was difficult. She gave up and took a seat on one of the ruins. “What is this place?”

  “The ruins of Caleyon. Even in my time, they were rubble. My brother and I used to stand on the edge of the cliff and look out at the stars. He said it was like guarding forever. It would be safe in our hands. I wished that he was right.”

  Ohra nodded and swallowed the lump in her throat. “It is a beautiful sentiment. That is the motto of this project by the way. Guarding Forever.”

  He stiffened. “Those other Edinar, do they have families?”

  “One or two. Young families so far. It will take us a while to get all of the Edinar up and running. The healing for the plague takes a long time. They will tell me when you are negative.”

  “And then I will go into government service?”

  “If you want to. I am pretty sure that you will have options.” She rose to her feet and walked to the edge of the cliff, looking out over the endless expanse of starlight.

  “What about you? Will you have options when this is over?”

  She snorted and crossed her arms. “If I survive plague exposure, I might be able to get a mind-scrub and re-up to be a monitor again. Maybe.”

  “So, you are in this for the long haul and don’t really have a plan.”

  Ohra made a face at the man who had settled near her on another rock. “You don’t really have to rub it in.”

  He grinned. “I know my situation and it is not pleasant. I was just surprised to hear you mention that you are getting plague exposure.”

  “Well, they can’t treat you without exposing me for some reason. That or they think I am disposable, which I probably am.”

  He stood up next to her, and she didn’t hear him move. Of course. It was his mind; he could go where he wanted.

  “What is with the white peacocks?”

  “I had to get you over here somehow. It isn’t really conducive to signage around here.” He smirked.

  “Thank you for the welcome, General Thanloss. It is much appreciated.”

  “That is very formal for a woman I have seen naked. Call me Forin.”

  “Naked? I thought you said I was wearing a uniform.”

  “I lied to protect your sensibilities. So, tell me about what happens when I get out of here?”

  “Well, you will get physical therapy to counteract the coma you are currently in. I will be getting it as well, so don’t worry.”

  “And then what? I am guessing they don’t just want us to die out again, so there will be matchmaking.”

  She shrugged and noticed that she could feel the heat coming off his body, even on the astral plane. It was very distracting.

  “Probably, but since I am not in the know, I have no idea. They ran out of regular monitors and had to begin hitting schools that specialised in psychic interface. I was a recent graduate.”

  “Congratulations. Now, I would like to take you for dinner. Would you care to join me?”

  She shrugged and took his arm. A second later, they were standing in a charming restaurant with elegant tables and heavily embossed menus.

  Forin smiled as he helped her with her chair. “I have consumed everything on the menu here, so ask and I can create a fair facsimile.”

  She grinned and settled in to eat her first virtual meal with a companion.

  The words were printed in Edinar, and Ohra raised her eyebrows when she realised that he had inserted it into her mind.

  After she had ordered and the meal appeared in front of her, she began to eat.

  “How is it?”

  He looked at her intently and she smiled.

  “It is pretty good. I enjoy the hint of spice on the tail end of the savory flavour.”

  Forin sighed and his shoulders relaxed. “Thank you. I have been in here alone for a while.”

  She paused. “You were awake during your cold sleep?”

  He shrugged. “Off and on.”

  She sliced up and finished the food on her plate.

  “How did you manage the long wait?”

  “I kept myself busy.” He finished his own meal and the plate disappeared. Hers vanished a moment later.

  “I see. Well, I am glad to see that you have maintained your sanity.”

  “I did?” He quirked his lips and drank some wine.

  She mimicked him. “You have appeared to.”

  He tapped his finger on the table. “Why are you here?”

  “I told you. To keep you from trying to wake yourself. The pain would be tremendous.”

  Forin narrowed his eyes at her. “You are hiding something.”

  She squirmed in her chair. “I am also here to make time go faster. That was what my training was for. One month of your treatment has already passed. It will feel like two days here and will in fact be six months of reality.”

  He leaned back in his chair with a thud. “A month? Wow, you are very good. I would have thought it was only an hour.”

  She played with her braid. “That is the idea.”

  Ohra sipped some of her wine, and when her head spun, she set the glass down deliberately.

  He smiled with his lips quirked to one side. “You don’t care for the wine?”

  “I haven’t ever had it in the real world, so I am very easily affected by it.”

  He got to his feet and offered her his hand. “Come with me for a walk before dessert.”

  She stood up and was glad she did. The chair that had been under her disappeared and they were standing on the edge of the cliff once again.

  Wind ruffled her skirts, and they stood together while the stars danced.

  “I never thought I would outlive my species.”

  His words were a whisper on the wind.

  “It was not expected. No one could have imagined the Coalition lashing out like that. You are not the only members of your species left. There are pockets of Edinar on several worlds; you just have to know where to look.”

  “Have you met any of them?”

  She shook her head. “No. But, those of your kind who have recovered have reached out and found them. Apparently, the response is that they are fine where they are.”

  Forin laughed. “That does sound like my people.”

  “You aren’t drawn together?”

  “No. When you can touch others with your minds, the physical presence is no longer as important.” He shrugged. “It does explain our dwindlin
g population.”

  She winced.

  He sighed. “I know. It did explain our dwindled population.”

  “Do you look forward to a new life back in the physical world?” She was still holding his hand and the warmth was amazing.

  “I am curious to see how things have changed. I wonder at my place in your world. Are you at war?”

  “Not that I know of. There aren’t that many of us, and the worlds around us are unoccupied. It was what made it so easy for us to take in the Edinar and life support systems. We have tons of space and nothing in it.”

  He laughed. “It sounds rather interesting to have a world no one cares about.”

  Ohra turned to him and poked him in the chest. “I care about my world very much. It may not be a target for the Coalition, but it is a good and safe place where people care about others.”

  She stalked away from the edge of the cliff, leaving him standing and staring out toward the stars.

  Ohra wanted to quit.

  She kept her back to the lookout point and headed away from her charge. He appeared in front of her and knelt down.

  “I am sorry that I insulted your home. It was not my intention.”

  She blinked back tears. “It’s fine. I shouldn’t be so sensitive, but I am nothing but emotions in here. My normal sarcasm didn’t translate that well.”

  He rose to his feet. “Your body might be in distress.”

  She swiped at her eyes. “It could be. They will only pull me if I endanger you. If not, I will remain here until you are well, or you will suddenly be talking to another monitor.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  Ohra laughed at the sincerity of his tone. “That is my line.”

  “Nevertheless, what can I do?”

  “Let’s give conversation a rest and play a game. Do the Edinar play chess?”

  Forin waved his hand, and they were sitting in a study lined with rich wood panelling and a cheerful fire was blazing in the hearth. The chessboard appeared between them on a table, and he gestured for her to begin.