Cracked Control Read online

  “And Rumble.”

  “And Rumble.”

  They stood together for a moment while the sound of the lab’s equipment hummed around them. Rumble began his happy vibration, and Rokar smiled, she smiled, and they returned to the group of specialists in the common area.

  “The dust has settled, Adelheid. You can approach the storage unit now.”

  Addy grimaced and winked at Deahlia. “I think I will need backup.”

  Her niece got to her feet and followed her to the entrance. Rokar hung back and nodded his encouragement.

  This time, the exit into the outdoors went smoothly.

  Deahlia walked toward the huge box, and she brushed the dust off the pad. “It will open for you or me. Anyone with our bloodline.”

  Addy stepped forward and pressed her hand to the pad. “This is so much fun. It feels like Christmas.”

  The door hissed, releasing the pressurised atmosphere within.

  Deahlia grinned. “Funny you should say that.”

  Addy walked into the storage unit and the grin on her face couldn’t be contained. “It’s Christmas.”

  She looked around her, and everywhere she looked there was shiny paper, bows, sparkly garlands and twisted ribbons. The boxes lined the walls. “What is this?”

  Deahlia smiled at her. “When I was growing up, we were all told stories about Aunt Adelheid and her trip to the stars. Mom said that you were safe and asleep, but that we couldn’t forget you, so every year when we waited for gifts from Santa, we made presents for you because Santa couldn’t find you.”

  Tears started to track down Addy’s cheeks. “How many?”

  “Well, sometimes we got a little carried away, and after I came out to the stars, I got a gift everywhere I went, and so, there are currently four hundred and ninety-seven gifts. Each has a letter, some boxes are just filled with a year of letters, but it is the response to the Alliance when they told my mom what had happened to you, and they asked her if there was anything they could do for the family.” Deahlia came up next to her and hugged her. “You have been our Christmas tradition.”

  Addy started to sob, and Rumble hummed and growled low. It nearly worked. The ground only shifted a little in a slow and steady vibration that mimicked the waves of emotion through her brain.

  It was Deahlia’s clutching her in panic that pulled her back to control.

  “Right. Well, I am at a quandary. I don’t know if I should come out here to open something or I should bring them all inside.”

  Her suit chirped, and the small speaker at the neckline spoke. “I will have it brought to the cargo area.”

  Addy chuckled. “Thanks, Rocky.”

  Deahlia whispered, “Is it just me, or is the computer voice and the Avatar’s voice remarkably similar.”

  “Yeah, they are similar. Rocky was programmed as a companion.”

  Rumble was still concerned, so Addy gave him an assignment. “Go and find me something to open.”

  He hopped off her shoulder, and he frolicked among the parcels.

  Deahlia asked, “You really don’t mind him? He was a nightmare on the trip.”

  “I really don’t. Even Rokar is getting used to him.” She smiled.

  “How does that work? Are you mates?”

  “The Drai can identify potential mates from a distance, and he knew I was his while I was imprisoned at the lab. When he could get a team to me, it was the same day that the experiments bore fruit.” She was suddenly concerned. “They didn’t have to do anything to you, did they?”

  “No. I always had a penchant for plants. When the recruitment centre near my house told me that there was a placement for me, I grabbed it. I met our Avatar, had what an Avatar was explained to me, and once at the Lunar Base, I learned all about your actual situation. I have seen the scans, I can’t believe you survived.”

  A large box with a huge bow on it was tapping Addy on the leg.

  “We come from a long line of women who have survival skills. You should see your mom skin a deer.” She winked and took the box. “Thank you, Rumble.”

  Deahlia looked at the box, and she hunched down, leaning against the pile behind her.

  On the box was a series of handprints. They were all different sizes and obviously male and female.

  “Keep the paper. This was the last one that Gran and Da were there for. They wanted the entire family to send it that year, so they paid for everyone to fly in and everyone marked it.”

  Addy picked at the paper and eventually just slid the ribbon that was holding the whole thing together. She brushed the tear from her eye and carefully folded the paper.

  The box was filled with items from around the Earth. “They have all travelled.”

  Deahlia smiled. “Not as far as you, but they did what they could. Once you volunteered, we had a sudden burst of motivation. Mom was the only one who stayed in her home because she wanted to be a touch point for the rest of us. It worked.”

  “It really did. I think I need a bigger room.”

  “When the Citadel capsule is set off in our ship, you will have all the space you need, Aunty Administrator.”

  Addy smiled and flicked the top of a bobble head. “I won’t pretend that the idea doesn’t terrify me, but I can and will do my best for the folks on Iratho. So many of them are descended from the original Volunteers, women and men I might have met. Even the older survivors are going to be welcome here.”

  “Wow. Will Rokar-Iratho agree to that?”

  “He will. He’s my mate, and he wants me happy. I am only too eager to take controlled advantage of that if it makes Iratho a place for learning, evolution, and protection.”

  “The computer is listening.”

  Rocky spoke, and there was a smile in the computer-generated voice. “I am listening, and I can agree on behalf of Rokar. Everything that has been done has been done to make a home that Adelheid would approve of. She is more than welcome to design her base, her home.”

  Addy chuckled and kept digging through the box of love from her family and her world.

  Epilogue

  Addy activated the trigger, and her base and the landing craft slowly dissolved into swirling, grey dust.

  Rokar-Iratho kept her at a safe distance, not even flapping his wings. “Here it goes.”

  “If this doesn’t work, I am going to have to stay at your place tonight, and while I love it, I have gotten used to floating in a hostile environment.”

  “I have never seen anyone thrive, as you do, in a hostile environment.”

  She chuckled and petted Rumble in the harness on the front of her suit.

  “Thank you for the compliment, but there are folk on the surface, and under it, that had been through a lot more.”

  “Yes, but they don’t have to contain the planet-destroying talent that you are handling with ease.”

  “Good company makes it easy.” She smiled and turned her head for a kiss.

  “Here it goes. The nanites are working.” He was enthralled, so she looked back toward the empty expanse of the base.

  She watched the skeleton of the Citadel Iratho rise on her island. “I am going to miss the flatness.”

  “This one has a larger gym. I approved a design large enough to support seven thousand specialists and support staff. It will be much easier for you to move around in, the common areas are large enough for concerts, and the gardens are ready for any experiments that folk want to engage in before testing the plants on the surface.”

  Rokar ran his hand over Rumble. “How is he doing?”

  “Well, his two fluffles are fine and enjoying the flight. His pinfeathers are coming in, and he is a little grouchy.”

  “Good. As soon as he is finished his transformation, we can begin to live as a couple and Iratho can merge a segment of himself into you.”

  “That sounds like so much fun.” She smirked.

  “It will add to your stability, and you will
be able to travel if you wish. Not for long, you are still my mate, but a few years among the stars might help you reclaim some of what was lost.”

  “I have found what I needed to. I am not greedy.”

  He touched her cheek and turned her face to his. The kiss was slow and sweet, and hundreds of yards away, a city was being built by nanites. It was a memory she wanted to share, and with Rumble with her, it was going to be as clear as it was now.

  She smiled against Rokar’s lips.

  “What are you smiling about?”

  She grinned. “The fluffles don’t like Deahlia either. The pink one bit her, and the purple one tripped her. I have no idea why, but the Yaluthu want her at a distance.”

  He kissed her again. “She doesn’t need them. She’s strong, healthy, has a good sense of self, and her talent doesn’t injure her. They go where they are needed.”

  “I am glad he came to me.”

  “I am, too. It has opened Iratho’s mind to the possibilities of a population. We might not have to send the fluffles away when they are ready for a bond mate.”

  She smiled. “We will see. They might have a destiny in the stars.”

  “If they do, they do, if they don’t, they will have a place here.”

  They watched the Citadel come to life, and when the construction was complete, Rokar brought them down for a landing.

  Deahlia and the other horticulturalists arrived, and while Addy got the lay of her office and quarters on the fifteenth floor of the Citadel tower, Rumble and his babies were cuddled up in a chair next to her desk; their nest was made of ribbon from the first thirty presents that Addy had opened.

  Rokar flew over, learning the new landscape.

  “Well, everything is coming together. I have a call coming through for you.”

  Addy cocked her head and activated the monitor. The woman on the screen was in her fifties but looked fit, serene, and had a glow about her.

  “Hello.” Addy smiled.

  “Adelheid Hathaway. It has been a very long time. I am Kyra Dannick. We met at the orientation.”

  Addy smiled. “We did. How are you doing?”

  “Well, I was kidnapped, sold to an arena, and found my mate while I was there. He is now the Azon ambassador to the Alliance and occasionally the Nyal Imperium.”

  “So, you are happy?”

  Kyra nodded. “I am. I wanted to know how you feel? I just heard that you are alive and conscious.”

  Addy snickered. “I guess I am going to get a lot of these calls from folks?”

  “Could be. How many people did you meet? We are all incredibly nosey. The Citadel has been using your story to recruit.”

  “What?”

  “Sure. They used to kill deadly talents. Now, you are living proof that control can be achieved in the right circumstances. Iratho is being held up as a gleaming light of training and experimentation for control.”

  “So, do you have any talents that you want to send my way?”

  Kyra blushed. “My daughter, Bylea. She has a great voice, but it is hypnotic. Literally, hypnotic. She needs to gain control, but she can’t do it here. The tone in her voice causes the Azon males around her to go into rut.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yes. It isn’t desirable. Can she come to you?”

  Addy nodded, “She will have to sign a contract for the education system, but yes, she can come in. We will work with her.”

  Kyra smiled. “Thanks. I will speak with her and get back to you as soon as I can.”

  The call disconnected, and Addy sat back.

  She wasn’t surprised by the next call, or the next, or the ones that followed for the next six days.

  Iratho was the place for the talented children of Terrans to get a grip on what their blended genes had given them.

  When the first wave of new student bookings has been taken, she got to her feet and walked to the balcony.

  Rumble was on her shoulder, his wings nearly ready to fly. In the distance, Rokar was flying in dragon form, moving some of the heavy equipment for the gardeners.

  “Do you want to go and fly circles around him?” She asked Rumble.

  He lifted his wings and looked back to his fluffles.

  “Ah, right. All things in good time. Well, it looks like we are about to get our own group of new hatchlings. They might be bigger than yours, but they will need watching over. Are we up to it?”

  Rumble lifted his head and shrieked to the winds. His wings were out, he was majestic, but the scream of defiance turned to a happy rumble the moment that she stroked his chest.

  She looked out over the world that was finally coming alive. She was getting to be part of it. “Yeah, we are up to it.”

  Author’s Note

  This concludes Tales of the Citadel. Seriously. Done.

  When it returns, the series will be Citadel Iratho. Changing venues gets a little tiring all the time, so I needed to make a launching site with no history. Ta-da!

  Thanks for reading,

  Viola Grace

  About the Author

  Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.

  An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.