Harness Read online

  It took them a few hours, and they had stopped for a snack and water by the time they reached the temple. There was no doubt that that was the original purpose, the carvings were extraordinary and showed dozens of races all standing together.

  “Sukra. They are all images of the Sukra.” Fred was amused. To anyone else, it would seem a sort of U.N.-style assembly, but once you knew the Sukra, you knew what to look for.

  “Very good. I have never been here before.” He nodded toward the doors. “I believe that it would be best if you went in first.”

  Fred wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but she was eager to see what all the fuss was about. “Before I go in…everything is where it was? It is all as it was before the place was moved and replaced?”

  “To the last inch. Even Arxuxsa has said it was in the right place.”

  “Right.” She had forgotten that.

  She touched the doors and pulled her hands back. It almost felt like Sukra skin. Almost. The Sukra had definitely lived here before. The energy patterns were the same.

  She pushed at the doors, and they opened lightly at her touch. They swung open and showed her the beloved history of a dead species. Each wall was carved with elaborate friezes and they were more detailed than the one next to them.

  The outer room was a display piece, an antechamber designed to impress.

  “I think what I want is in the back.” Fred smiled at El-sur, and she could see his amazement as they passed through the entry hall.

  “I will follow where you lead. I have been posted here for five years and have never been contacted by the world itself. This is your show.”

  There was no jealousy, only curiosity in his tone. He was trying to take it all in and not gawk like a child. It was cute.

  “It isn’t going anywhere, El-sur. You will be able to come back with recorders and scanners. I promise.”

  He looked relieved at that.

  She knew what she was looking for before she found it. A huge capstone was set in the floor. “That’s it. We need to move that.”

  “This is your show. I believe you will be able to move it on your own.”

  She laughed and set her pack down. “I am glad you have that faith in me.”

  “Arxuxsa has faith in you; I merely know what you are capable of.” He smiled.

  He was true to his word. He stood back and waited for her to do what she was going to.

  With an assessing glance, she looked over her handhold options. Lifting and pulling was going to be her best bet. She slipped her fingers into ridges on the edge of the capstone, and she lifted and pulled, pushing back as hard as she could. She stepped back and hauled again; the grind of stone on stone rang in the room.

  When she had opened the hole, she set the stone aside, and Fred crawled toward it.

  A bright light was kindling in the depths, and it climbed fast. With a rush, it burst upward, and Fred leaned back just in time. The light cascaded upward and struck faceted stones designed for that purpose, bringing light to everything in the entire structure.

  “Wow. That is impressive.”

  A being of light stood next to her. “Thank you, daughter.”

  “Oh. You can talk out loud?” Fred stared at the being, trying to determine gender. It was more difficult than it should be.

  “In my heart, yes, I can. Other parts of my world, I can only reach with my mind, but here, I can speak and be myself.”

  “Why am I here?

  “Because you are you. You are a daughter of Sukra and Terra. The Terrans are almost as sensually receptive as the Sukra. It is a good blend.”

  “I was conceived in an act of violence.”

  The being of light shook her head and placed a hand on Fred’s cheek. “No, you were not. It began as normal lovemaking, and it turned when your father lost control of his features and reverted to looking Sukra. Your mother didn’t know what had happened to her lover, and she had to explain the bites and bruising. You know yourself now how violent a Sukra mating can be, no matter how willing the female. By the time she recorded the assault, it was too late, and when your father explained matters to her, she wished to recant, but her description of her attacker did not match any locals, and so, it was safe enough to leave it in place.”

  “So, my parents knew each other before?”

  “They had been courting for six months before they decided to try intimacy. He was young, she was young and you were the result. They couldn’t raise you on earth, so I gave Yeren-las instructions of what to do with you, and while he disagreed, he followed my directives. You are the result.”

  “Yeren-las? Are you telling me that my father’s name is Yeren-las?”

  “Of course. Your father’s name is Yeren-las; your mother’s name is Deborah Brown. They are on a world three systems over. They have been there for ten years, waiting for the moment when you found your way home.”

  Fred sat heavily on the floor. “What?”

  “You even have a few young siblings. I needed you raised on earth, I needed you to join the Volunteers, and I needed you sent to Nyal space. I admit to manipulation, but you are here, and as one of mine, I am within my right to claim you. I wish you as my consul.”

  “My parents are together a few systems from here, and I have siblings.” Everything she had known about her entry into the world was wrong. She sat on the floor and buried her head in her hands. “I have a family, and I wasn’t allowed to be with them.”

  “I needed you to learn as much about other worlds and species as you could. There was only one way that the Nyal Imperium would let you go from world to world, and to do that, you had to be untrained and unaware. The moment your degradation of self became apparent, I sent a message to the Guardian program, and they brought you in.”

  “When I was raw, I was the better candidate?”

  “Something like that. Your open mind will enable me to lock you to me. I am the combined souls of your ancestors, and I am very glad to meet you.”

  The being broke into a spill of moving fragments and wrapped around her, lifting her up and out into the open air.

  Her reflex was to fight, but El-sur was following closely as it carried her through the temple and into a chamber that was surprisingly sparse in comparison with the rest of the building.

  Her skin tingled pleasantly as she was set carefully down next to a long table with three chairs. The light moved off, and it swirled against a blank wall until it opened.

  The being she had been speaking to reformed. “I am given to understand that you enjoy working through archives. Welcome to the library of your ancestors.”

  If she had been wearing a form with pointed ears, they would have perked up and directed forward. “Library?”

  “Library. We understand you have an interest in books. The volumes need to be translated and rebound.” The collective of souls smiled its bright smile.

  El-sur approached the wall with reverence. “Amazing. My father said that there was so much more that we would never know. So much more that was lost. It has been here the whole time.”

  “You may thank your project for taking care with our structures. Nine caches of knowledge lie around the globe, and they are Alfreda’s for the taking. Her father was born to be our greatest archivist, and he was sent across the stars to find a world and a woman.”

  The energy being turned toward her and slid a hand right into her mind. She would have fallen to the ground, but her body locked instead.

  The images flashed backward, and she saw a young woman with blonde hair and dark eyes looking at her over a pile of books. The books slipped and hands reached out to catch them, and in a nearby glass case, Fred saw a young brunette male with bright gold eyes.

  They dated, laughed, held hands, but nothing went any further until the day before her eighteenth birthday. It was a back seat; there was laughter and blushes, and midway through the coupling, he changed.

  She began screaming, but he had already bitten down on her shoulder and his ow
n release couldn’t be stopped. She shoved him aside and ran for her own car, straight to the police station.

  Two days later he sat with her and explained what he was, why he was there.

  She pressed her hands to her belly, and Fred wanted to cry.

  They held hands, their heads together and him in his Sukra form. They talked for hours, days, months until finally the baby was there.

  It was a home birth, and he took the baby from its mother, placing it next to the church and ringing the bell. He watched over it.

  Fred watched in shock as he shifted forms and ran into her twelve times across her lifetime. He was her paediatrician, her nursery school teacher, the groundskeeper at her primary school, the man at the ice cream shop who always gave her extra and many more.

  Her mother was always in the shadows but watching just the same.

  When Fred ran from care, she didn’t see them for a few months until she ended up in custody and her father was assigned as her caseworker for a while. Irregular visits to him ended when he disappeared and she was sixteen.

  The being pulled its hand back. “You have never been alone, but you had to become your own person. It was a harsh way to do it, but with the Sukra parenting, you would never have come here.”

  “Where did they go?”

  “They left four years before you did. The Alliance was starting to focus on Terra, and if they were to come away, it needed to be then.”

  Fred narrowed her eyes. “What are you, precisely?”

  “Elders. We are the ancients of Arxuxsa. As we age, we enter a phase of life where our minds expand beyond our physical forms. When we pass out of our physical bodies, we join the Elders. Our goal has been to find a way to keep our species alive, even if that meant losing our home world.”

  “And manipulating me into an agonizing evolution?” She looked away from the scrolls and smiled tightly.

  The Elder hung its head. “We regret your pain, but we cannot fault you for the resentment. We could only set matters in motion and hope that you would find your way here. That you did is a credit to your survival instincts.”

  “Wonderful. Where does that leave me?”

  El-sur touched her arm. “You are now the Sukra Consul. The Elders will turn to you in matters of current events, and you will deal with them as you see fit. Your life will be dedicated to the histories and the future.”

  She blinked. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

  The Elder collective and El-sur shook their heads in unison. “You are the only female Sukra in generations. This is your responsibility, and the Nyal bloodline laws are quite strict. You belong to this world now. Nothing and no one can take you from it.”

  “So, despite my misgivings, I have a home. That seems to be the way my life is working out.” She rubbed the back of her neck.

  Fred ran her hands over the racks of scrolls and the faded and cracked bindings of books. This was her weakness, her only uncontrollable impulse. “Whose idea was the book?”

  The Elders cocked their head. “What book?”

  “The one I was given at the church? It started a passion for reading and knowledge that I still have.”

  She removed a scroll and carried it to the table. With great care, she opened it slowly, and she was unsurprised when the language came to her with little effort. She could feel her mind tapping into El-sur’s.

  “Of course, this is the one I grab.” She snorted and tapped the description of the role of Consul.

  El-sur smiled as he read it over her shoulder. “The Consul joins with the Elders, and their joined wisdom rules over the Sukra, bringing prosperity and light.”

  She leaned against him, seeking contact. “What does it say of the Consul consort?”

  He grinned and kissed her, “Absolutely nothing. The Consul was allowed to pick and choose her mate, and if he could not keep her interest, she was free to choose another.”

  She laughed and turned so that she had her arms draped around his waist. “That sounds like you have quite the job ahead of you.”

  He stroked his hands down her back and pressed a kiss to her neck, “I believe I am up for it.”

  She turned her head and kissed him, and when she looked around again, the Elders were gone.

  Chapter Nine

  El-sur had just lifted her onto the table next to the scroll when they heard some voices from the outer rooms. He groaned and pressed his forehead to her chest. “I despise their timing.”

  She stroked her hands over his face and kissed him softly. “We have time. If I declare you consort, by the laws of the imperium, even the Guardian project cannot move you from my presence. Is that all right with you?”

  He smiled and turned his head to kiss her palm. “At this moment, it is my fondest wish. If Arxuxsa remains a Guardian training site, I will have no reason to leave.”

  She laughed and kissed him quickly, rubbing her cheek against his. “I suppose we had better meet the others. I can feel three of them in the outer room.”

  “Very good. How does it feel?”

  She rocked her hips against the ridge in his uniform. “Pretty good.”

  He sighed and stepped away from her, tugging her to her feet.

  Fred laughed silently to herself as he positioned her to walk in front of him. Shapeshifting aroused flesh was always awkward, so he was going to have to suffer.

  Draycon was easy to identify. He swaggered forward and reached for her hand. El-sur’s snarl reverberated in the chamber and the other two people with Draycon froze.

  Fred smiled. “I am pleased to meet you, Draycon. Pardon El-sur. He is just a little…distracted at the moment.”

  The other two people came forward, one female, one male.

  The female was a soft grey with large purple eyes. “Hello, I am Ildura. This is Monksoreh. We are both horticultural talents who have been learning our skills here on Arxuxsa.”

  Draycon was staring. “Pardon me, but I have never seen a female of my species before.”

  Fred twisted her lips, “I believe that is because there aren’t any.”

  El-sur put his hands on her shoulders. “The Elders are awake; I will be filing the report with the Guardian project and the imperium. Sukra will soon start streaming toward their ancient world, and we need to be ready to greet them.”

  Draycon jerked. “I didn’t feel anything.”

  Fred wrinkled her nose. “That is because I haven’t bonded myself to the Elders yet. We have some issues to work out.”

  Draycon asked, “What issues?”

  She smiled. “That is between me and the thousands of minds of our ancestors. They know what they did.”

  El-sur chuckled, “And I believe they are hiding until Fred welcomes them back.”

  “You have me curious.”

  Fred smiled and inclined her head. “And you will have to remain so. I think it is about time for a snack. Anyone care to join me on the balcony? It overlooks the valley into the delta.”

  Ildura smiled and blinked her huge eyes. “That sounds lovely. Are you from this sector?”

  Polite chitchat took them through a few of the elaborately carved halls, and when they emerged on the enormous stone pad, she heard a few admiring comments.

  When they sat on the stone and broke out the ration packs, Ildura looked around at the carvings. “This is amazing, that they recorded all of these species and lived in harmony with them.”

  Fred chuckled. “That is what it looks like, isn’t it?”

  El-sur snickered, and Draycon looked around with his eyes growing wide. “These are forms.”

  Fred wanted to say bingo, but she settled for, “Correct. Each image is that of another race or species that the Sukra learned to shift into. For all I know, this entire building is a teaching tool for transformation.”

  Ildura and Monksoreh looked around, and a slightly nervous expression came over them.

  Ildura asked, “So, Fred, can you shift like Draycon and El-sur?”

  In answer, Fr
ed put on her Terran shape. “Not quite like them. I can’t change my gender beyond going neutral. I can almost look like a male, but I can’t manage the reproductive organs, so I don’t pass during scans.”

  She shifted back to the Sukra form that now felt so natural. Her body was telling her that this was what it had wanted the entire time. Now that it knew this shape, it could assume it at any time without thought. Her struggles throughout her life had been to find this shape. Her true shape. If she hadn’t fought all those years to find herself, she would never have known what it meant to be Sukra at long last.

  “Damn.” She rubbed at her forehead and got to her feet.

  El-sur looked at her with concern. “What is it?”

  “I think the Elders did the right thing. I have to have a chat with them.” She smiled, “You can stay here with the others. I don’t know how long this will take.”

  He gave her a long look, and she smiled and patted his arm. “I will be fine, El-sur. You can come along if you like, but I will be fine.”

  He excused himself from the others and followed her.

  Draycon shouted, “What are we supposed to do?”

  “Take pictures, Draycon. You might take a vid of your ancestors.” El-sur put his arm around Fred’s waist, and they returned to the room full of hidden treasures in the walls.

  Fred carefully read the scroll and then rolled it up and put it away. She resealed the wall and looked at El-sur. “A kiss for luck? This might get messy.”

  He kissed her, stroking her hair and pulling her head back as his mouth mated with hers. When her blood was throbbing in her veins, he released her. “Feeling lucky?”

  She traced her swollen lips. “Very. Now, stand aside. I have to make a call.”

  She looked around the room and found the icon in the floor, a subtle carving in the stone that was meant for the Consul alone. She kicked her boots off and stood with her bare skin pressing against the footprints of thousands of Consuls.

  Fred threw her arms wide and opened her mind. “Ancestors of the Sukra, I welcome you. Wisdom of the ages, I welcome you. I share my mind, my thoughts and my life. Join with me, and I will pull the Sukra into the future. My children will forge a path that will bring our race back from extinction, and I welcome you to join me in calling to all our people and bringing them home.”