Bringing Heat

  Her life on Earth had died decades earlier; helping to bring heat to a frozen world seems like a good use of her time.

  The love of her life died when they were teens, and Idalia had no plans for any kind of future. When a woman named Minerva arrived near the lighthouse where she spent her days escorting tourists and made Idalia an offer, it was a no-brainer. Nothing or something. She chose something to bring her life out of the lock she had been in.

  The process to change her body to enable her to survive Los was detailed and altered every bit of tissue and bone she had.

  Taunting a planet’s avatar into reappearing using sex isn’t something one can train for, but Idalia has a good instinct for it, and he soon rises to claim her, body and soul.

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  Bringing Heat

  Copyright © 2021 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-3359-8

  Cover art by Angela Waters

  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 eXtasy Books Inc

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  Bringing Heat

  Terran Reset Book 6

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Idalia finished bringing her group of huffing tourists to the main floor of the lighthouse, and she smiled. “So, as you can see, you had to be fit to head up and down those steps every day, and it makes sense that the most common deaths for lighthouse keepers were falls.”

  One of the teachers wheezed, “What was next?”

  “Fire and then death trying to rescue wrecked sailors.” Idalia paused. “It is a simple way to go, but it left so many loved ones behind.”

  A woman with eyes that gently swirled said, “Were you left behind?”

  Idalia paused, and all eyes moved in her direction. “I was. We were in love, we were teens, and he died trying to rescue someone who didn’t know how to swim. They both died.”

  The woman nodded. “Idalia, may I speak with you?”

  “I am not done my tour.”

  The group was wheezing, and she looked at them. “And that concludes my tour of the lighthouse.”

  The woman nodded. “Please, come with me. I will buy you a coffee somewhere out of the wind.”

  Idalia shrugged and headed out with the strange woman in the designer suit. “Who are you, and what is going on in your eyes?”

  “Ah, you noticed that? Well done. I am Minerva-Gaia, and I do the recruiting for the Reset Project. You applied to be a Terran Volunteer decades ago, but you were rejected at the time.”

  Idalia walked with her and nodded. “I was. They said I was emotionally unstable, and in hindsight, I was. Grief is a harsh mistress.”

  “Yes, but your genes were tested, and we recently got a request for a young woman of your genotype.”

  Idalia pulled her grey braid over her shoulder. “I am hardly young.”

  “Ah, that is where the reset part comes in. Let’s get that coffee.”

  They got their beverages and settled in the corner, talking.

  “Using off-world DNA, we can reset your body to the time where you were the strongest, physically mature, and most intelligent. We can give you the benefit of every gene that sleeps. You will be taller, stronger, healthier than you have ever been.”

  Idalia laughed. “Can I be warmer? I don’t think I have felt warm in nearly thirty years.”

  “It is funny you should say that...”

  Idalia listened as the tasks and duties were outlined, and she laughed. “I have to walk over a volcanic crevice and stand there every few days?”

  “Yes. The rest of your time is your own.”

  “How will my body take the heat?”

  “That is the point of the reset. You will become impervious to heat. You will take it into your skin and use it to keep you warm. The issue arises with the urgency of the matter. Los is in desperate need of someone to bring the fire to the surface. Will you do it?”

  “What happens after I bring the fire?”

  “You live with the resources of a world at your disposal. You can do whatever you like. Perhaps you can even travel to other stars.”

  “When would this happen?”

  “Well, we rather need you to leave immediately. There is a flight window, and we want you travelling as soon as possible.”

  “Why the rush?” She hunched around her cup and looked into the dark brew.

  “Los is dying. Freezing. The fire must be pulled to the surface and held there if the planet is to survive. To hold the fire on the surface, they need you.”

  “I don’t think that I am actually needed.”

  “The physiology required to survive the fire on Los can be found in one place on Earth, and that place is sitting across from me with a rapidly cooling coffee.”

  “How does that happen?”

  Minerva smiled and shrugged. “No one knows. Random combination, an alien ancestor, or just your mother craving something specific during pregnancy, but you are what the Los need, and if you agree to the contract, we will deliver it.”

  Minerva held out a tablet and nodded to her to read it. Idalia pulled out her reading glasses and began to read. Her cup was refilled twice before she finished the contract on a comprehensive read.

  Idalia sat back. “If you can do what you say and this is accurate, I would really go back to appearing young?”

  Minerva grinned. “I am glad you didn’t say being young because that is something else. But, yes. Your body would be reformed into the best shape you can possibly be. Muscle tone, skin tone, and mental acuity. You will be reset to the best you can be.”

  “And then the alien additions kick in.”

  “Correct. It will be a long trip, so there is plenty of time for you to be reshaped.”

  Idalia tapped her finger. “According to this, there is a warship waiting for me. They will transport me.”

  “Correct.”

  “Are they threatening Earth?”

  Minerva shrugged carelessly. “A little. They are making threats, but we have bigger defenses at our disposal. They wouldn’t even make a dent. They will refer to you as the sacrificial maiden, but there is no sacrifice, and you are not a maiden. That is just ridiculous. Most of those guys wouldn’t know a hymen if it snapped them in the face. It is just a tense band of tissue, not a freshness seal.”

  Idalia snorted. “I had been terrified, but we went slow and then nothing happened but joy. I remember that much about it.”

  Minerva smiled slowly. “You had a good man for as long as you had him.”

  Idalia rubbed her arms. “I was warm then. I remember that. He was my sun and my warmth, and we were going to spend every day together, and then, he was gone.”

  “And he will always be gone, but have you mourned him enough?”

  Idalia looked up
and at her worn and grey reflection in the window. “I have.”

  “Then, make a decision. If you say yes, I will fly you to the shuttle immediately.”

  “Yes.” Idalia took a deep breath, signed the contract, and pressed her thumb to it before lifting it for the ocular scan. “Done.”

  Minerva smiled. “Finish your coffee. It is going to be a long flight.”

  Idalia finished her coffee, got the ball of warmth inside her, and then, she and the stranger walked into the street outside. Minerva hugged her, and they were flying.

  Idalia yelped and hung on as they cruised toward the open ocean and the ship that was hovering above the waves. “Now?”

  “I wasn’t kidding when I said they were in a hurry. There is a travel window that they need to hit, or it will delay you by six months, and that might cost them thousands of lives. They need speed.”

  They flew into the ship, clothes were removed, scans were done, and injections were administered in a whirlwind. When a swirling orange substance was injected, she felt warm, and then she slept. Things were going too fast.

  Idalia woke, and her world had a funny curve. She reached out and found the edges of her tube. There was a screen, and it lit up as she touched it.

  She heard a voice in her head. What would you like to learn today, Idalia?

  She looked at the options, and astronavigation was what she wanted to know about. The words were in an alien language, and then, she asked about the tank, and when one of the shadowed figures got close to her, she asked about Los-species specifications.

  The Los are an altered species, grey skin, crimson eyes. The skin is thick to slow heat loss and gain. Anatomy is similar to humans and at the edge of the compatibility range.

  Compatibility range. The range of compatible species who can safely have sex with humans of Earth. Minor changes to your physiology make the differences safe for humans. Her eyes flicked to that statement.

  Minor changes. Your vagina is more elastic, has been elongated for compatibility, and your uterus is now suited for a Los offspring. Over your body your skin is now beginning the changes to a Los, though you are only eighty percent of an average female height for their species.

  Idalia lifted her hands and looked at the grey cast under her skin that was becoming obvious.

  She looked at her tablet and asked more questions about her current appearance, had her eyes changed, and how much longer until she was out of the tank.

  Your appearance is still in flux, your eyes have turned black for your assigned purpose, and your body will complete transformation in seven more days. You have been in the tank for seventy-five days.

  Idalia looked at the figures who passed by her on a daily basis. They checked her tank, topped off her levels, and then left her alone with her computer. What fun.

  She asked another question and got the answer. Yes, you have been programmed with Los main dialect and seventeen other surrounding languages. No one is speaking to you because they do not believe that you will be done in time and do not want to get attached to you if you fail.

  If you fail. If your development has not completed by the time you assume your duties, you will die.

  Idalia exhaled a stream of bubbles. Well, it had said as much in the contract, but it was nice to have it confirmed by a disembodied voice. She had to finish growing her skin and whatever else she needed, or she would die. No pressure.

  It was a good thing she was a pragmatist. She would do what needed to be done. She hadn’t come this far to give up. She wanted to feel the heat.

  Chapter Two

  Los was quiet. Her tank had been pulled out of the shuttle and put on a small flying transport. They had travelled up the side of a mountain and pushed her into a cavern where the med staff pulled her out and sealed her up after she stopped puking fluid.

  No one spoke to her. Not one of them. She was carried to a bathing pool, and the enzyme bath was sluiced off, her hair was combed, and she was dressed in weirdly stiff clothing.

  From there, she was bodily carried to a huge crevice in the stone with a pathway over it.

  She was set down on her feet, and she swayed but stayed upright.

  She had read the brief. She needed to walk into the fire and stand on that bridge.

  She moved slowly, and the men and women around her gasped as she passed a line carved in the stone, and she kept walking. The heat coming from the crack in the world called to her.

  Idalia tottered onto the bridge and stood there, a live pool of magma deep underneath her. She inhaled the vapours, felt the fire wrap around her, and she smiled.

  Gasps came from the team that had brought her in. She didn’t care. She had been so cold for so long that this was glorious. She stretched and held her hands out to feel the jets of heat coming up. It felt amazing.

  Her skin began to glow as she stood there, and Idalia sighed happily. It was more warmth, more heat, and she needed it.

  When the crew that had brought her beckoned her out, she walked toward them and stopped at a safe distance. She asked softly, “Is it working?”

  Their eyes went wide. One female said, “You understand us?”

  “Sure. I was given your language and that of a bunch of others in this sector. So, did it work?”

  They checked the scanners and monitors, and they nodded with slight smiles. “It has started to work. You will need to stand there when you feel the compulsion, or twice a week. Whatever comes first.”

  “Okay. What am I wearing?”

  “Priestess garb of the fire maidens of Los. It doesn’t burn in the hottest heat. Los made it himself.”

  “Los is a he?”

  They looked at each other. “He is our avatar, the speaking soul of this world, like Minerva-Gaia is yours. He has been sleeping off his grief at his last maiden’s loss and our world is dying because of it. You need to wake him.”

  She looked at the crevice and blinked. “He’s in there?”

  “Yes, but we have not seen him in six hundred years, and the world has begun to freeze without his constant attention.”

  “Okay. Can I get something to eat?”

  “Yes, maiden.”

  Idalia winced. “I am not a maiden. I had a lover. He died, and now I am alone.”

  The speaker said, “Perhaps your broken heart calls to his.”

  “My heart is no longer broken, but it is scarred.”

  “I stand by my assessment. Perhaps your heart calls to his.”

  Idalia looked at them and stared at the speaker. “I am just here for the heat.”

  One of the men smiled. “Perhaps that is a draw for him as well.”

  The women shushed him, but Idalia had been around men all her life, and she knew he probably wasn’t wrong.

  “That could be it. Anyway, I still need to eat, drink, and engage in the normal activities of life. I am stuck here until he rises, after all. How long does it normally take?”

  The speaker said, “It has never happened before. He has always been accessible to his people.”

  Her skin’s glow was fading, and she wanted to turn around and walk back into the heat, but she needed to learn how she would live.

  They showed her where food would be delivered, where her bathing room was, and the series of different hot pools was very tempting. The lavatory, the library that wouldn’t open until she was cool enough to handle the contents, the overlooks that showed her the valleys beyond, and the clue that when the ice receded, he was close. Small lakes had formed in the hour since she arrived.

  “Huh, so it won’t be long, and I will have fulfilled the contract.” She muttered to herself.

  She got a look from the speaker. “If Los rises, you will be his consort. Your contract will alter accordingly.”

  “That wasn’t what I signed up for.”

  “You are no longer on Earth. If you are needed here, you will remain here.”

  Idalia looked at her and blinked. “Se
riously? I thought I just had to wake him up.”

  “You need to wake him up and keep him here so that the trees can bear fruit again and his people can stop dying.”

  “What kind of fruit?”

  “Bearing fruit. We have had no children in six years because there is no fruit.”

  Idalia felt the regret of not being able to access information immediately. “Can I read up on this?”

  “Yes, if your body cools enough for the library, it will open.”

  “Good. I can see you aren’t comfortable with the explanations.”

  “It creates an enzyme release that allows ovulation and conception. It is too cold for the trees, so there is no fruit.”

  “Oh, right. So, luring him to the surface will get the trees blooming.”

  “Correct.”

  “How long is it supposed to take?”

  The speaker looked at the others nearby. “In the past, it has been the neediest of the maidens that has pulled him from the magma.”

  “Needy?” She paused, and the other woman’s expression filled in the details. “Oh, oh that kind of needy. Right, but I think I would want to pace myself so that no one dies in a flood.”

  The speaker giggled. “We are prepared for that. How ever you bring him up, please, do it quickly.”

  Idalia nodded. “I will see what I can do.”

  It was a pledge, a promise, and her new job description.

  Mornings were spent getting up, stretching and walking over to the crevice and standing on the bridge. Every man she had ever met had been an early riser, so she figured it was the best possible time to get a strange man’s attention when your clothing didn’t include underwear.

  She stood on the bridge until there was a roar of heat from below. Her feet were parted, and she held her hands out at either side, palms up. Attempting to make herself look soft and inviting was an effort in itself.