Liquid Compassion (2 page)

“I know that. I just couldn’t tell anyone what was going on under the suit without breaking the terms of contrition. When you send the records back to them with an estimate of my lifespan, make sure they know that I was willing to carry out the full sentence.”

Ambith nodded. “I will add it to the report.”

“Good.”

Inside the shuttle, she was strapped onto a gurney with monitors all over her. If she couldn’t make it, they would crack the suit.

She settled in and prepared for takeoff.

Bits went in and out of consciousness. She had felt her bones breaking on takeoff, and now, Recruiter Ambith was rushing her into Morganti Base.

They cut the suit off her and eased her from her former prison, onto a med bed. Lights flashed in her face, and she tried to respond, but she was so very tired.

A med tech held her hand, and Bits tried to make her understand how tired she was, but the woman passed out.

“Gloves!” The doctor’s voice barked it out, and moments later, everyone had resumed their positions around her. The unconscious woman was propped up in the corner.

“Abitika, just breathe, and we will take care of you. You don’t need to tell us anything. Your body is telling its own story. Do you understand?”

She nodded slightly, and he gave her a hypospray to the arm. The world grew warm, fuzzy and comfortable.

Several hours later, she sat up. Her broken bones had been repaired, and she no longer felt weighed down. She lifted her hand in front of her face and scowled. She was way too skinny.

The doctor came in and smiled. “Hello, you can call me Dr. Effin. You are exceptionally lucky that the timing was right. At home, you would have been dead.”

She made a face. “I know. I think that was matron’s plan. Thank you.”

He inclined his head. “You are still extremely underweight. We will have to keep you under observation for a few days here at the Guard Base.”

She nodded. “I understand. Where will I go when I have stabilised?”

“To the Citadel. We are just trying to determine which one is most suitable for you. What happened to Minla was not unexpected, but it did show how effective contact with you is. You felt tired, so she passed out. It was an efficient lesson.”

“I apologise. I just wanted to explain that I wasn’t ill, I was sleepy.” She blushed and patted her hair with shaking hands. To her surprise, someone had washed and braided it.

“Ah, you fell victim to Fixer’s eldest daughters. They love braiding hair, and they haven’t seen your shade of silver before. They played with your head for hours while their mother worked on the rest of you. You had fifty percent bone loss, thirty percent depleted muscle mass, gross nutritional issues and skin sores from the suit.”

“So, now I look much better, right?” She chuckled.

“Yes. For the record, how does your talent work?”

“As far as I have been able to research, I program my cells the same way that technologists program machines. I imbue them with the chemical signature of an emotion and they carry that emotion like a bomb. When someone comes in contact with the biological sample, they get the download of the emotion.”

“Interesting. Well, I am forwarding this conversation to the Citadel with a few suggestions, but at this point, I am guessing that Morganti will be your new home.”

She nodded. “Okay. When can I get out of bed?”

“We would like to run some tests on your talent today. Will you create some programmed samples?”

Bits smiled. “Sure. Get me some swabs and some test tubes that I can label.”

He grinned from his vaguely feline face and walked over to a counter with a storage cupboard. He opened it and withdrew the implements she had asked for. He included a series of labels and a pen.

She struggled to a full sitting position, and he flipped a few switches to bring the back of the bed up so she could be more comfortable.

Bits picked up the first swab, thought of happiness and then swirled it around her cheek. She put it in the first vial and labelled it,
Happy.

She followed with sadness, laughter, compassion, rage and curiosity.

When she was done, she put her hands down and folded them in her lap. “There. That is a good sampling.”

He looked at them and scowled. “I can’t read them.”

“Oh. Um... the one in your hand is happiness.” She went through the rest of them, and he relabelled them in Alliance Common.

“So, I am guessing that a language lesson should be added to your roster. That is not a difficult thing. We have been doing lovely things with ocular downloads.” Dr. Effin smiled.

“Who are you going to sample those on?”

Dr. Effin blinked. “No one yet. First, I am going to determine the different chemical and psychic signatures of the samples, and then, I will look for the most even-tempered person with the least deadly talent that I can find.”

Bits laughed and leaned back against the pillows. “Sound thinking.”

“Now that you are up, I will get you some food. I think we will start you on soft solids for a while. Your stomach has shrunk dramatically.”

Bits was incredibly thirsty. “Can I have water?”

“After we get some broth into you. If you have the water, it will take up most of your available space without adding nutrients.” He smiled brightly. “Back in a moment.”

She sat and waited with her mind in neutral. When he returned, a woman was with him, and she had the prettiest hair that Bits had ever seen.

“Abitika, this is Fixer.” Dr. Effin put a tray across her lap. “It sounds odd, but she is going to use her equipment to watch you eat.”

Fixer set up a small device and aimed it at Bits’ torso. “Just eat like I wasn’t here.”

Bits smiled. “Don’t worry. It won’t take long.”

She picked up the soup container with two hands and sipped at it until her stomach registered that it was full. She set the soup down on the tray, and Fixer read the display and nodded.

“Effin, she needs five minutes and she can eat again.”

He nodded and took the soup aside, rigging a small heating unit. “Will do. So, Abitika, are you up to learn how to read and write Alliance Common?”

Fixer grabbed a data pad from a nearby counter, and she tapped rapidly at the screen. “There you go, Abitika. Just tap the screen and the flash will start.”

“Please, call me Bits.” She smiled slightly and looked at the data pad. She tapped the screen and the light blazed forward, burning into her mind.

* * * *

Effin moved quickly as Abitika thrashed around in a seizure. “Scan her.”

He lowered the bed, and waited while Mala scrambled for the unit.

Mala pulled out the scanner and ran it over Abitika’s head. “Oh dear. Keep her stable.”

Mala ran out of the med unit, leaving Effin with his patient. The thrashing grew weaker, and she was lying with her eyes open and twitching a few minutes later.

The scans he was running were wild. Her body was rewiring itself. Her brain was altering, and he had no idea where it was going to stop.

Mala screeched back in and waved an object in the air. “Got it.” She slipped the band around Abitika’s head and the readouts evened into a steady, normal reading.

Effin moved to run supplements into his patient to flush the adrenalin and acids that her body had produced during the seizure. “What is that?”

“It’s a psychic restrictor. I was working on it for a few of the penal stations. This is the prototype.”

He frowned and looked down at the pale woman with deep blue eyes and grey hair. “She isn’t a psychic.”

“Her seizure begs to differ. She simply hasn’t expanded her mind before. She has duality. It doesn’t happen often, but we have both seen it.” Mala frowned and stroked the patient’s forehead. “She is going to be in for a rough learning curve. If no one has trained her, she is going to hurt a little when she gets to learning.”

“Can she keep the headband?”

“Of course. I will work on something a little more subtle for when she needs it. That band is a little thick.”

Effin snorted. “You are always about aesthetics.”

“Hey, if folks need help via mechanical intervention, there is no reason it has to be ugly.” Mala snorted.

He finished giving Abitika a hydration supplement, and her lids began to blink. Slowly, she focused and sat up again. He exhaled in relief. “Don’t scare me like that, Bits.”

He helped her to sit up again, locking the bed in place. She looked at him, turned her head to Mala and smiled weakly. “How would you like to be scared? I think I can manage a sample of that as well right now.”

Effin grinned and got her a tube and a swab. “Here you go.”

She swabbed her cheek and handed him the result in the tube. “Be careful with that. It is terror. That one I am familiar with.”

He handled it carefully and set it with the others after he labelled it. “I look forward to examining those.”

Mala moved around and got the soup. “Drink. You need to build your food tolerance. The girls want to make you cookies.”

“The girls?”

“Mabi and Isala, my eldest daughters. I have a son and my youngest daughter is still an infant.”

“Oh. I thought you were a member of the Sector Guard.”

Effin snorted. “Oh, she is. We just don’t let her travel much. She has her workshop, and those who need her come here. Now, drink your soup and get better. Doctor’s orders.”

To his relief, she drank.

It took five days before Effin allowed her to enter Mala’s workshop. Isala and Mabi were her constant companions, and the two little girls helped her navigate the base.

Mala grinned as they came in. “Bits, I am glad you made it. I have a suit for you.”

She must have seen the distaste on Bits’ face because she laughed. “It isn’t designed to contain you, just make you casual-contact friendly. Your primary talent is still your contact emotional manipulation. This suit lets you use your hands but keeps the rest of you protected against anyone who wants to take a biological sample. It will also keep you from getting shot.”

The girls scowled at her, and Mabi said, “You have to be safe when you work. It is Mom and Dad’s first rule. Sandwiches first. Then safety. Safety is very important.”

Fixer’s eating habits had been explained to her, so Bits laughed at the idea of sandwiches first.

The girls grabbed her hands and hauled her bodily to the dummy wearing the armoured suit.

Isala smiled shyly. “We picked the colours.”

The pale purple and soft grey looked very pretty. “It looks lovely.”

The girls’ shoulders slumped in relief.

Mala cocked her head and grinned, “What the girls aren’t telling you is that they made your suit. I helped with the hard manipulation, but they worked out the structure by making a smaller version for their brother. If he could move around in it just fine, it is good enough for an adult.”

“Well, since it has been so thoroughly tested, I am glad to be in such careful hands.”

She was wearing a thin suit that covered her from neck to toes. “Do I need to... uh... change?”

Mala shook her head and stroked the front panel of the suit. It opened up. “Simply back in and the suit will do the rest.”

The two girls were watching with huge, excited eyes. Bits hated to disappoint anyone, so she lined herself up and backed into the armour.

There was a click as her heels touched the back of the suit and it closed around her legs. When she lined her arms up, the suit began to lock her arms in place, and the moment she stood straight, the breastplate of the suit closed up.

When it was closed, the suit hummed slightly, and she could feel the power flowing through it.

Mala was watching critically. “How does it feel?”

Bits took a few steps, crouched, turned and grinned. “It feels good.”

“Excellent. Now, we are going for a run.”

The girls squealed, clapped and sprinted to the huge, open door of the hangar that was Fixer’s workshop.

Mala grinned. “Don’t worry. I only have enough stamina to get us twice around the base.”

Bits followed the children, and a moment later, Mala zoomed up to her on a hovering platform.

Bits grinned. “Cheater.”

“Every chance I get. You have to catch me or collapse to stop the exercise.”

Mala zipped away, and Bits was left with one option. She had to catch the damned thing.

The girls ran easily beside their mother. Mala wasn’t trying to make it impossible, but she was trying to give Bits a good sense of what her armour could and could not do.

The first few metres were awkward as she got used to the balance, but as she ran, the suit learned her and she learned the suit.

She went from staggering to sprinting in under a minute. When the girls screeched and giggled, she knew she was getting closer. She pounded after the hovering platform, moving faster and faster until she was moving at a speed that she had only ever achieved in a vehicle. The girls were now riding with their mother and cheering her on.

The landscape and the buildings that made up the Guard Base blurred past her. She kept running until she passed the small craft and passed it by a dozen metres. When she was sure she had time, she stopped and whirled, catching Fixer, her daughters and getting the platform in the shins.

There was a lot of gasping, laughing and giggles as they all dropped to the ground. The suit skidded backward from the impact and brought them to a safe stop.

Mabi was grinning. “Safety first!”

Mala nodded. “The girls put in resistance projectors. The harder you are hit, the softer you stop.”

“You knew that I would stop in front of you?”

“Of course. There was nothing else on this platform to grab. You had to block us.”

“So, telling me would have been...”

“You have to learn what you can and cannot do with the suit. This was fun.”

Bits let them go, and she jogged beside the floating vehicle until they were back at the workshop.

Isala grinned. “To get out, you wiggle your toes. Left, right, right, left.”

It worked just as she said. The suit opened and she stepped out.