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  “There is a greeter waiting for you, Novice. You will be shown to your quarters and then brought to your orientation meeting. From there, you will receive your class list and begin your instruction at the Citadel.”

  “Thank you, Medic…”

  “Loria.”

  “Thank you, Medic Loria. You have been most helpful.” Yllin followed the directions to the greeter and waited while the rest of the Missambra were scanned and suited up.

  The gathering fidgeted until they were trooped into the tower and shown to their respective quarters. Yllin did what she always did and she used her talent for making maps in her mind to pinpoint her quarters.

  Her bags were next to the bed, and she left the room quickly, meeting the others in the atrium that connected the halls.

  She focused on keeping herself calm while her mind was scrambling with excitement. She took a scan of the nearby area, and the other novices were just as nervous as she was. Heartbeats were pounding and blood was surging. She could hear it all.

  The bodysuit had built-in boots that made no noise when they walked. As their group gathered and was herded to the orientation, Yllin got the impression of nervous ghosts walking through the novice centre of the Citadel Ohkhan.

  They sat through an introduction to the Citadel that reinforced what they already knew. All that they needed to live and learn would be provided by the Citadel on credit, and when they went on assignments or took up teaching or work around the base, they would earn that money back.

  The only exceptions were those who had been courted by the Citadel or who had funds donated by the Alliance or Imperium. Private families could not make things easier for their children.

  Yllin had the satisfaction of seeing Trobie pale.

  Each novice was given a data pad, and when they looked into the scan point, it opened with their personal schedule.

  Even if she lost her data pad, what it contained could only be unlocked with her ocular scan. It was a bit of a relief.

  When the orientation of what was expected of them was over, they were assigned to their primary instructors.

  The psychics were clumped in groups of four, which left the physical talents with one instructor each.

  Master Kibor was her instructor, and he had the physical appearance of a kindly old man. She learned that he was only a decade older than she was, but his species aged more rapidly.

  He was out to get every moment he could out of life, and if that meant spending his golden years as an instructor, he would make sure that she was in the best condition of her life and her talent would be honed to a keen edge.

  They met and shared their goals for her education over tea. She poured and he smiled at her with a wistful look.

  “If I were only a decade younger.”

  She smiled gently. “You would still be fading just as I come into my full glory. That would not be fair to either of us.”

  “I suppose, but it will warm my nights to dream of it. Now, I have lined up fight instructors for you. You and I will work on expanding the range of your talent. Wercor mentioned that you were equipped with knives?”

  “I usually carry one, but I can’t think of where it would go on this suit.” She smiled.

  “We will include knife and other weapons training in your schedule. If you would like to work on your talent today, we can grab one of the labs and you can tell me what you see. I want you to be able to tell the difference between textures and densities.”

  Yllin smiled. “I can already do that. I worked as a waitress so I can tell the difference between different types of wines using my talent. The viscosity is different. It also works for drinks that have been tampered with. No one was ever drugged at a bar on my watch.”

  He blinked. “That will speed things along. I get the feeling that you will be wearing the clothing of a Specialist by the end of the week. How did you gain this mastery?”

  “I practiced. For the last two years, with the exception of a stay in hospital, I worked at a restaurant and used my skills every day. I got used to feeling out a room the moment that I entered and identifying everything occupying it. It has become a reflex. Shutting it off is usually the problem.”

  His eyes lit up. “Then that is what we will practice. Personal shielding is just as important as a strong and nimble body.”

  She grinned. “You are my instructor. I will do as you say.”

  He winked. “Pour some more tea and let’s talk about what you need in a battle suit. Despite your grace and appeal in the robes, I believe that your skills will be more useful if you are active and not a passive member of the Citadel. That is where we are aiming your training.”

  He lifted his arm and his robes fell away from his wrist, showing a small recording device.

  She bit her lip. “Can I learn to fly a shuttle?”

  He grinned. “I will add it to the list.”

  Yllin smiled and sipped at her tea. She had an instructor who would help her attain her goals, and her main focus was to get earning as quickly as she could.

  There were folk depending on her, and the money in her trade fund was going to run out in less than six months. She had until then to get earning.

  Chapter Three

  The simulator kicked her ass, and as it followed on the heels of her physical training, it was a very effective way to get the feeling of returning home from a rough assignment.

  “You are still dropping the nose on takeoff, Novice. Get the nose up and pull hard. You can aim it straight upward and not crash it, but for someone with spatial awareness, you really suck at takeoffs.” Specialist Nearing was sitting with his feet up on the navigator’s side of the cockpit.

  She reset the system and tried again. This time, she took a flash image of the area around her and then ruthlessly folded her senses in. The takeoff was textbook and Nearing applauded slowly.

  “Finally. I have never seen someone as thick as you were when it comes to figuring out that they need to shut down their talent to fly.” He chuckled and watched her run through the simulation.

  “You knew that that was my problem?”

  “Of course. Sensory talents always overthink things. You were going nose down because we put a crevice in the middle of the view screen. Your senses were going crazy trying to find it so your hands followed.”

  He leaned forward, and they went through a simulated jump.

  Yllin kept her senses in tight, and she cruised through without a problem. It was so simple. An entire week of fussing behind the simulator after two weeks of theory and she had cracked it.

  “Now land.”

  Yllin checked her coordinates, the ground under her and took the ship down, using her talent to locate the tarmac as she eased them in for a perfect landing.

  She wanted to squeal and clap her hands, but instead, she shut the simulator down and looked at Specialist Nearing. He was the same species as Master Wercor. The scarlet skin looked good with his copper hair and creepy black eyes.

  “What is next, Specialist?”

  He grinned. “Lunch. This apple was not enough for me. What kind of ship would you like to learn next? Azon, Imperium standard? We can try you out in all of them, but with the controls and the standard instrumentation you have mastered, I think you should be able to fly anything.”

  “A riot runner?”

  He blinked. “I guess that is a different type of flying. Sure. I will get the simulator set up for riot runner.”

  She fought clapping her hands. Her palms were still raw from the knife training. The wooden hilts tended to blister her hands when she was working with them for hours at a time.

  Specialist Nearing got to his feet, and he helped her to hers. “Let’s eat first. You have been working hard, and if you don’t take care of yourself, no one else will. Many of the species believe we don’t need to eat. You have to get used to insisting on it when you need it.”

  “I have gotten used to turning hunger off. I
t isn’t good for a server to have a growling stomach.”

  “Useful skill but stupid.” He led her out of the vast room filled with the simulators and steered her down the hall to the food court.

  “Stupid?”

  “If you are on active assignment, you will need to carry your rations and water with you with enough for three days. Even if you just need one or two meals per day, it is far better to have them with you than it is to risk contamination by microbes that you are unused to.”

  She blinked. “Oh. Well, all right then.”

  He chuckled. “You will get the hang of it. I am certain of it. It isn’t complicated when you understand what you are dealing with. Like the rest of your recruitment group, this is your first time away from your world. It takes getting used to.”

  “How did you get used to it?” She grabbed a tray and started loading it up.

  “Practice. You will forget now and then or not want to ruin the line of your suit with the bulk of packs, but the slight loss of dignity is well worth the security of knowing you have what you need with you.”

  Yllin nodded and followed him to a table, settling in across from him with a sigh of relief. She flexed her hands repeatedly before she picked up the wide-based spoon and started to eat.

  “Your hands are bothering you?”

  She shrugged. “Knife practice.”

  He winced. “Are they still using those nasty wooden hilts?”

  “Yes.”

  “You know that they are roughened just to build grip and calluses, right?”

  She kept eating. “I figured that out after the first week. I got a cream from medical and it lets the skin thicken without getting rough.”

  “But your hands are still stiff.”

  “That they are. Thick skin is harder to move, and I just spent four hours with my hands wrapped around shuttle controls. Yes, my hands are stiff.”

  She finished her meal and filled a glass from the pitcher of water on the table.

  “You eat quickly.”

  “Side effect from having to eat on break. I get it in and get back to work.” Yllin smiled at him.

  He had barely touched his meal but that was fine. They were done for the day, and from what he had told her, she was his only student.

  “What do you do on your regular assignments?”

  He grinned. “I track the lost. Whether it is a stone, a person or a pet, I can locate it on a map.”

  “You are a finder.”

  “More or less. I can only find that which has actually been lost, not simply someone or something that has run away. If they do not consider themselves lost, they will not come up on my senses.”

  “That is very specific.”

  He chuckled and finished his meal. “Isn’t it? It limits my applications, but I get a sufficient amount of assignments to keep me flying.”

  “You travel on your own?”

  “Yes, I have not yet been matched with a partner. It could be my personality, but it might just be that no one has come along with a sympathetic talent.”

  She poured him a glass of water and he took it with a smile.

  “Thank you.”

  She sighed and checked her tablet for her afternoon schedule. She hadn’t thought that she would get used to wearing it on her back, but she didn’t even feel it anymore.

  After two hours of hand-to-hand and knife combat, four hours of flight training and lunch, she still had an afternoon of talent practice. They preferred to push her to her limits when she was already tired. It made for a better test.

  “What do you have on your schedule this afternoon?” Nearing jerked his chin toward her tablet.

  “More stress and shielding tests. Just a regular afternoon.”

  He chuckled. “You must look forward to your free days.”

  She rubbed her neck. “I don’t get free days. I opted out of them in exchange for additional instruction.”

  “How long do you think you can maintain that?”

  Yllin shrugged. “As long as it takes. I have passed my etiquette course, done well in my body-language studies and have learned to detect ninety-six types of explosives. As long as I can retain what I have learned, I should be fine.”

  Nearing stared at her. “You are not kidding.”

  “Nope. I am taking every course, engaging in every opportunity to make myself into a better agent for the Citadel. When I go on my first mission, I want to be ready. There are those who are depending on my success, and the sooner I can earn funds, the better off they will be.”

  “You have family depending on you?”

  She wrinkled her nose and explained the matter to him.

  “So, you are working this hard for others?”

  “Not for others, but to give them the same opportunity that I had. They go through aptitude testing, and when it is determined that they are suitable for a trade, they are sponsored into an apprenticeship. The program has sponsored divers, welders, plumbers, construction workers and demolition experts.” She smiled brightly. She was proud of the program and the women who made it work.

  “Why?”

  She rolled the glass of water between her palms. “I was raised with privilege, but it wasn’t my choice. I was handed options and offered whatever course I chose to pursue. None of the options that were shoved in front of me were suitable for me. It sounds arrogant, but they were all the wrong fit. I didn’t want to do anything in the level of high society. I needed to be working with normal people on a day-to-day basis. When I took a job as a waitress, my family pretended that I was just going to the beach every day. It was a strange situation, but we all made the best of it.”

  He chuckled. “You make me seem like a lazy idiot.”

  “You do what is right for you, I will do what is right for me, and what is right for me is to get into the field and earning as fast as possible while being safe.”

  Nearing gave her a considering look. “Then, I will help you work on that goal.”

  The gauntlet was down and the words were spoken. She extended her hand and he gripped her forearm in a greeting for equals.

  A moment later, her tablet chimed and she was off to flick her talent on and off for a few hours until she was exhausted, but at least she had a companion in her battle to get into the field. Specialist Nearing was a little flighty, but it seemed that she had struck a nerve with her cause.

  She ran the course in record time, leaping, dodging, opening her senses and slamming them shut to avoid the sonic grenades going off in random bursts. The sounds echoed against her eardrums, but they tore at her senses. She moved faster and faster until there was nothing left but her target cradled against her chest and a straight run to the finish line. She saw the ground give way as a grenade went off to her left. She jumped, flipped and rolled over the finish line on the other side of the ten-foot crevice.

  Yllin got to her feet and the chirp from her target made her grin. A guest had offered their Yaluthu for a game of hide and seek. The grenades had been pitched so that they wouldn’t injure little Poppy’s hearing.

  “How are you doing, Poppy?”

  The little grey face chirped and narrowed its eyes happily while it wiggled in Yllin’s arms.

  Yllin put her down, and she hopped over to her person and butted her head against the leg of Specialist Minerva until she was picked up.

  A wingless Enjel was apparently a rare sight. Having never met an Enjel before, Yllin had to imagine that Minerva was an exception to her species.

  “Well, Master Kibor, how did I do?” She pried the monitors off her temples and out from under her suit against her collarbone.

  He sighed and checked his readings. “You are a disappointing student, Yllin.”

  Her heart sank. “What do you mean?”

  He smiled slowly. “Usually, I get to teach for at least three months and I get to chastise my students along the way. You were far too eager to learn. Congratulations, Specialist
Yllin Gerocard.”

  Her shoulders slumped with relief.

  “Now, you need to continue your combat training, but your instructors have given you a survivalist grade, so you are free to go on missions whenever you gain an assignment.”

  Specialist Minerva smiled and hoisted Poppy to her shoulder. “That is high praise. It took me six months to get through his training.”

  Kibor grinned. “You were a hard case in another way. You had no motivation to succeed, so we had to work on that. Poppy did a wonderful job there.”

  Poppy lifted her fluffy head and chirped proudly.

  Minerva laughed. “Well, I am glad I stopped by today. Citadel Ohkhan is my home, but I haven’t been back in a while, so I thought a visit to Kibor was in order. I had no idea that Poppy was going to volunteer to be a living target.”

  Poppy settled on her chubby toes and wiggled her stubby wings. She was obviously sticking by her decision.

  “How sentient is she?” Yllin looked at the creature she had so recently been holding.

  Minerva grinned. “Pretty smart. She has the emotional drives of a child about eight years old. She is concerned for my emotional and physical welfare, but when I am safe, she does what she likes. Today was just fun for her.”

  “I am glad; it was rather hair raising for me.” Yllin grinned.

  Master Kibor straightened. “Well, I have sent a list of items for the quartermaster to your pad. Specialist Yllin, it is time to gather your kit and be prepared for your first assignment.”

  Hopeful, she looked away from the Yaluthu. “You think I will go out soon?”

  “You never know; so be ready when it happens.”

  She shook Minerva’s hand, bowed to Poppy and gripped Kibor’s arm. “Same time tomorrow?”

  “Of course. You are going to need to train with the equipment list I gave you. Now, get going. Minerva is taking me for tea.”

  Dismissed in no uncertain terms, Yllin got her pad, put it in her back holster and headed for the quartermaster. It was time to get some new toys.