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  Dr. Menura smiled, “You two have a lot in common.”

  “Like what?”

  “You are both Sukra, for one thing. The likelihood of two of you being on our ship is an amazing coup.” The doctor was almost clapping his hands together.

  The male was wearing a deep blue tunic with matching uniform trousers. A glowing stripe ran down his arms and thighs. He shivered lightly, and his features rearranged themselves into something far more palatable than the pea-green doctor.

  If she didn’t know better, she would say she was looking at an elf sculpted of pearl and jade. His green hair hung down his back, and his skin was glowing.

  “Pure Sukra?” She eyed him suspiciously.

  He shook his head and the green curtain swung. “Well spotted. Is that your true form?”

  She touched her belly and felt the harness tighten. “As close as I get. I have forgotten what I was originally.”

  Dr. Menura blinked with all six lids. “Pardon. Captain Ardu-har, this is Relay Older.”

  “Relay?” He looked surprised.

  “Mobile relay.” She twisted her lips. “I don’t know what your clearance is.”

  “Let me escort you to the captain, and we can discuss my clearance.” He offered her his arm.

  She wrapped her hand around his bicep and admired the flex of the muscle under her hand. As with her body, there were more muscles than there should be for someone his size. It was those muscles that let Sukra shift shape. Their skin contained pigment glands, their hair could grow at will, and their eyes could change across the spectrum.

  She felt her bones flex a little and winced when she realised she was getting taller to match the captain.

  The captain’s quarters were down the hall, and it was a fairly silent walk. Alfreda was tired, but the contact with someone as close to her own species as she had ever met was energising. Protocol was all that was keeping her mouth shut.

  Captain Rikingham looked up as they entered his office, and he sighed. “We need her.”

  Captain Ardu-har spoke steadily, “We need her more. The skill that you are using is not one she should have maintained out of childhood. It has already begun to wear on her ability to control her shape. She will be useless to you in the next two years and unable to maintain any self-control at all in another three. The Nyal Imperium got all the direct use out of her that they can.”

  Alfreda released his arm and stepped aside. “What?”

  “You are losing your ability to control yourself, even with the physical reinforcement of the harness. I have studied your files and this degradation will only increase in time. You need rest, recovery and, most of all, training. The Guardian project can provide that to you.”

  Alfreda ran her hands through her hair and noted that it was currently nine different colours. He might just have a point. “What do I have to do?”

  He reached into a small pouch on his hip. “Put this on. It will hold your shape until we can get you into a situation where rapid shifting will not burn out your body.”

  She frowned at the small headband and shrugged, slipping it onto her head. It warmed rapidly and then settled in to her normal body temperature.

  She knew that Ardu-har had won the battle of the captains before it had even begun. “When do we leave?”

  He smiled. “As soon as you bring your bags to launch bay three. I am ready whenever you are.”

  “Captain Rikingham? I have your approval?” She felt relief to be leaving, and some of it was coming from the band around her head.

  He nodded grimly. “You completed your last assignment, and there was nothing remaining for you to be attached to. You are free to go. You are dismissed from your service on the Nettle.”

  She nodded and breathed easier.

  “Captain Ardu-har, I will be with you in twenty minutes. I don’t have a lot to pack, but I am on the other side of the ship. Please excuse me.”

  He nodded her dismissal.

  Breathing more easily than she had in months, she headed down the corridors and sprinted to her quarters.

  She packed her small collection of objects, reverently put in her book-repair kit and the four changes of clothing that she had. With her two bags over her shoulders, she sealed her quarters and headed for the launch bay.

  Her life as a mobile relay might be coming to an end, but she had the feeling that Captain Ardu-har had a far better plan for her future. She was willing to take every bit of information and training that he had to offer.

  Chapter Three

  After a quick hug to Sobi, Alfreda was on the scout ship and strapped into the navigator station.

  “Do you know how to fly?” Captain Ardu-har was flicking switches and checking levels.

  “No. I don’t have the concentration for it. I use a drop pod with a beacon.” She wrinkled her nose. “It isn’t the most comfortable.”

  “I imagine not. I thought the imperium didn’t use those anymore.”

  She chuckled. “They dusted one off for me.”

  “Damned dangerous.” He muttered and filed for launch clearance. The Banua area was still a war zone, so they needed to use caution.

  “I thought so. It was always a bit of a weird moment when I was spit out of the back of a ship and fell. I had to hope that their targeting was on.” She held her hands together as he cleared the Nettle and floated free for a moment before directing the scout ship to deep space.

  “We are heading to Arxuxsa. There is a Guardian training base there and an island has been set aside for your education.”

  “What did you mean when you said that I should have grown out of my talent earlier?” That one phrase had been echoing back and forth in her mind.

  He chuckled. “The ability to be a mobile relay, so to speak, is one that Sukra children need to contact their parents if they shift into something unrecognizable. A stranger is instantly put in contact with the parent and the child is retrieved immediately.”

  Alfreda opened her eyes in surprise. “Really? That is all it is? Here, I thought I was special.”

  “You are. You are one of three half-breeds that I have met in my lifetime. The Sukra disappeared from everything but history five hundred years ago. I am shocked that one managed to arrive on your world. What was he like?”

  She looked at the captain. “If you read my file, you would know that I never met him, and based on the report that my mother made, I never would want to.”

  “I don’t understand. Sukra don’t leave their children.” He frowned at her and set the autopilot.

  “I wasn’t a child yet. I doubt he knew that I even existed.”

  “I didn’t read any part of the original file that predated your entry into Nyal space. Would you explain?”

  She rubbed the back of her neck. “Are you sure? It isn’t a pleasant story.”

  “Please. I am sorry if it is uncomfortable for you, but it is essential that I know your origin and how you were trained initially.”

  Alfreda nodded and sat back, closing her eyes. “I was abandoned on the doorstep of a church when I was a day old. I was sent to an orphanage and adopted out three times. Each set of parents said that I had changed from my original appearance into something that matched theirs the moment they touched me. I was raised in public facilities where no one really kept an eye on me, so no one noticed the changes. When I was a teenager, I began a search for my parents. When I turned eighteen, I entered a DNA project, and it was matched to a rape kit eighteen years and two months earlier. My father had raped my mother, and I was the result. She had been a minor, so there were no names accessible, but I was able to find the file.”

  She heard his gasp, but she kept going. “A man with human features and pearlescent skin had followed her home from a movie. He grabbed her, bit her, and when she woke in her car, she knew that something of a sexual nature had happened. She drove straight to the hospital and reported the assault. She was already pregnant and decided to allow it to continue. Based on her follow up with the
police while pregnant, she was going to keep me. I am only guessing, but there must have been something wrong with me. I was dropped off without even a note.”

  “How did you end up out here?”

  “When I turned eighteen, I was out on my own, and I got a job, a car and a place of my own. That meant I had a driver’s licence, and it had a photo of me. I reset my features every few hours to that photo.”

  “The call for volunteers came out, and I headed into the office. I just had to shake the hands of one of the Ontex, and he whisked me to the back offices, running tests to find out which race I was. The Sukra result stunned them, and I was given a secure place to stay and a stipend to pick up items from earth that I wanted to take with me to the stars.”

  “So, you have never had any training.”

  “Nope. All I do, I learned to do on my own.” She opened her eyes and sat up. She had glossed over her time on the streets, but it had been implied if he knew where to look.

  “Then, you have done very well. Ah, there is our ride.”

  A huge merchant cruiser was waiting for them. A door opened at their approach, and the scout ship eased into it. The moment they were locked down, the jump commenced.

  The jolt of the jump caused Alfreda to gasp in shock. She hated jumps.

  The moment they were on the other side, the captain eased them out of the cargo cruiser and out of the range of the jump.

  In half an hour, the ship was gone and the scout was heading toward a distant point.

  “How many jumps are there?”

  “Three. You look a little green.”

  “I am. I find them unsettling.”

  “That will change when you learn to close your mind. It is the openness that causes the problem.”

  “Oh, good. As long as there is an explanation, I am good. It is the not knowing that drives me nuts.”

  She kept her hands together as they entered the last cruiser, and she gripped the arms of her seat and breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth for the last jump. He wasn’t chatty, which was good. Her head was reeling by the time he patted her arm and announced. “That was it.”

  She kept herself calm as her senses righted themselves.

  “Where are we going again?” It was a strange question after seventeen hours of flight. She really needed some sleep, but it didn’t seem to be in the cards.

  “There it is. The jewel that is Arxuxsa. It was a bio-forming effort, and it is stable so far.”

  “So far?”

  “It was a training effort for a Guardian. They were not fully trained, and there is no way to assure anyone of the stability of the world. We simply don’t know.”

  He shrugged and increased their speed.

  She looked down and watched the blue, purple and green jewel with anticipation. “What was on it before?”

  “Ruins of a dead civilization. We kept them in storage and reset them in the precise place they had been once the world was stimulated into growing again.”

  Alfreda looked down at the world, and she felt a lightening of her spirit. Even if she had to leave it again, for now, she had a home where she was welcome. She could feel the welcome as the scout ship landed. Something was happy to see her.

  Chapter Four

  Her quarters were sparse, made of white stone built directly out of the surrounding rock. It seemed that she was sleeping in another student’s arts and crafts project.

  “Do you have enough energy for a tour?” The captain popped his head into the open doorway.

  She had been eyeing the bed with longing, but she straightened. “Of course. Show me around.”

  She didn’t realise that she had made it an order until he snapped to attention. Alfreda winced. “Apologies, Captain.”

  “It is fine. I know you are tired. And here, you can call me El-sur.”

  “Call me, Fred. It is far preferable to Alfreda.”

  “Who named you?” He started a slow walk through more corridors with stone arches and open rooms. There was one with a masculine feel to it, so she was guessing it was his space.

  “The nun that found me. She tucked a book of English poetry in my cradle with me and named me after Saint Alfred. He was a warrior and a scholar.”

  “Fitting. What about your second name?”

  “Older. Well, I can only guess that it was what happened when one of the elderly nuns touched me. I probably shifted to a more wizened shape.” It was the most logical reason she could ever come up with. She didn’t mention that the book she had been given was tucked in with her few possessions. She had kept it with her for two and a half decades.

  “We are alone on this island, so there is only a food dispenser. It will do a bio-scan of you and select options accordingly. It is this way.” He continued down the hall, and the narrow passage opened up into a wide room with the food dispenser, a tea set and water dispenser. There was a heater and what seemed to be a chiller.

  “Where does the power come from?”

  “Solar units and a thermal generator.” He showed her the dishes, cups and cutlery.

  The green and purple of the foliage was visible through the windows. “Are there gardens?”

  “Not in the way you are thinking. The greenery here grows aggressively. We have underground burn units to keep them from encroaching on the building, but it is quite the battle.”

  Fred yawned. “Thank you for the basic tour, but I must get some rest, El-sur. I have been up for more than two days no matter which planet you are on.”

  “How long were you on duty before you returned to the Nettle?”

  “Thirty-six hours by Banua standards. It took me a while to get to and from the pod.”

  He winced. “Of course. Please, get some rest. I will report your arrival and get the doc down here for a medical scan.”

  “Please, let me have a few hours before I get poked and prodded. I am not particularly fond of most doctors.”

  He chuckled. “I imagine that you are not.”

  She shuddered and turned away from him, heading back the way they had come.

  Any alien physician was better than the human ones that she had met on earth. They had gone from polite medical inquiry to invasive poking and prodding in secure wards in a matter of minutes.

  Shifting to look like one of her tormentors usually worked to get her out of the room, and shifting rapidly to someone else once she made it to a public area meant she was home free. She had skipped to another city by then and started over, looking like an adult though she was only a child. If she hadn’t known the year she was born, she never would have known how old she was.

  “Ah, well. That is the past. This is the now, and tomorrow is the future. I had better get some sleep.” Her muttering was an old habit, but it had kept her from dwelling on the incidences that afflicted young women alone who could only work for cash.

  She blanked her thoughts and removed her clothing, folding it neatly and tucking it on a shelf nearby. Fred brushed out her hair, grimacing at the criss-crossing of the harness across her torso, and she finally pulled back the bedding and crawled between the sheets. She settled the headpiece again, and as she dropped out of consciousness, she felt her body relax. Whatever shape it was in, it was currently her own. She almost wished she could see it.

  * * * *

  El-sur stood in the doorway and watched Fred’s appearance shift to a form that was as pure Sukra as he had ever seen. Her skin glowed with pearlescent white; her hair was a burgundy wave that reached her hips. He knew that her eyes would be dark gold if they opened right then.

  He had never heard of a Sukra parent behaving as hers had. He was going to call his father to see if he had ever heard of such a thing. From the histories they had found regarding the Sukra, they were devoted parents and gentle lovers. No mention of violence had ever been recorded.

  Fred looked exhausted. There was no movement in her body, and her mind was black and blank. El-sur sighed quietly. She had so much potential, and the fact that
she was not corrupted after the horrific images in her memories was amazing. She was a survivor, and he was going to help her be everything that she had never dreamed of. She would be a Sukra warrior, or he would just keep trying. Her Terran half would just have to step aside.

  He had a plan of education to enact. She was going to need her rest.

  * * * *

  Her mouth was dry and her skin was tight. She needed water.

  Fred got to her feet and put on a covering of blue fur. It beat running around naked.

  She crept down the halls and headed for the kitchen. She guzzled glass after glass of water, finally slaking what had felt like an endless thirst.

  The darkness outside made the woods seem sinister, but as she watched, little fairy lights gleamed and flickered around. A little bit of exploration and she found the door that would lead her to the exterior.

  Running around in the woods was not new to her. When she was trapped between forms, there was nothing safer. It made her think that the Sasquatch of legend were just shifters with messed-up instincts. In her experience, stranger things could happen.

  The air was rich with loam and the strange scent she associated with ozone. She looked down and could see the glowing wires through the ground. She carefully stepped over them.

  She could feel something calling to her, summoning her as if it knew her.

  Fred jumped over the wires and into the lush expanse of the trees. The fairy lights called her and drew her in; she had no choice but to follow.

  The woods were thick, but the fur on her feet kept her from feeling the snags and brambles that she walked over. The lights encouraged her any time she lagged behind, and they grew thicker and tightened into a column as she slipped through the forest.

  The trees ended suddenly, and she stumbled into a wide clearing with a short hill in the centre. The light hovered at the top of the hill, and a cautious Fred climbed carefully up to the crest.

  The light became a more solid form, and a voice echoed in her mind. Welcome, daughter. You have travelled far and are now home.