Water and Power (3 page)

“So I have been told. Is there somewhere I can get out of this bodysuit? Or something else for me to wear?”

Tranoth nodded. “Of course. I will show you to the lav and get you a new suit.”

There was a slight shift in the feel of the ship. He got to his feet and offered her his hand.

She put her hand in his and let him guide her to the lav. The hated suit was off the moment she got the door closed. She peeled out of it and left it in a heap on the floor. The lav had a solar setting instead of the hated sonic, so she turned it on and basked in the quick flash of heat that her captors had denied her. She wanted a sun, she wanted warmth and, more than that, she wanted to make her jewellery again.

Mora reluctantly left the lav with her hair hiding a lot of her upper body. She took two steps before Tranoth blinked and extended a suit with stiff arms. “Here. It is a Masuo suit.”

She pulled it on and moved to fasten it, but it fastened itself. “What is going on?”

“Masuo is the best protection we can offer you. It is a plant with delusions of grandeur,” Tranoth explained.

“What is it doing?”

The suit was creeping along her skin and fitting tightly to it while offering her breasts support and shifting to a yellow and deep aqua. The neckline was high, and she finally felt warm and relaxed when the suit finished squirming.

“Well, that was a successful extraction.” Tranoth smiled.

“I am glad. All that whispering was beginning to freak me out.”

“So, what was your blather about counts and earls?”

“Oh, I made up my own mental soap opera with me as the star. I would prattle on for hours.”

She smiled and stretched her arms over her head. “That feels good. It is like wearing a warm column of air.”

“When you sleep or shower, it will reduce itself down to a band on your calf or arm.”

“Do you wear one?”

“No, they don’t get along with my personal biology. I have to make do with boring fabric; well, it is custom made to help focus my power, but I have to ask you again, did you really cut through your cuffs with spit?”

She smiled at him. “Of course.”

“So, you could get out of your bonds at any time?”

“Yes, but with nowhere to go, what would it have gotten me? The electric shocks used were quiet painful, and they expected them to be effective.”

“Expected them?”

“Well, as I had nowhere to run, there was no sense in breaking free. Since they were expecting me to react, I had to pretend that I couldn’t get around the cuffs. A few shocks over the years convinced them that I couldn’t get away, so they removed the guards and made my escape tonight easier.”

“So, you were just waiting for us?”

“I was waiting for a way to get off Resicor. Since you have provided me with that means, I owe you a few years of service, or the Citadel, whomever brought you here.” Mora smiled. “I am guessing that you are not from Resicor.”

He shook his head. “No, I am not. I have been infiltrating the tech corps for a few years to see how many talents were being used for public works. You are only the beginning.”

“So, how are your people going to square this with the Resicor government?”

“We are not. There is a rescue effort in effect across the globe. Tonight, we tore dozens of talents free of their imprisonment. They will be scattered across Citadels around the Alliance and the Imperium.” He smiled brightly. “Would you like to meet our pilot?”

“Sure. Lead the way.”

Tranoth walked with her through the ship, showing her the quarters she could sleep in, the small galley and the tea dispenser.

“Lovely tour, where is the pilot?” Mora smiled.

“Sorry. I just want to make sure you can find what you need at any time of the day or night.” He waved for her to precede him, and a moment later, they were on the command deck.

Mora stumbled to a halt. “Leehan?”

Her childhood friend turned and smiled. “Hello, Morakil, I am glad that we got you out.”

Mora blinked. “I thought you were dead.”

Leehan flipped some toggles and pressed a button as she got to her feet. “Yeah, that was the general idea. I have been sneaking the Citadel personnel onto Resicor for seven years.”

Leehan opened her arms, and Mora ran forward for a hug. Tears flowed between both of them. Tranoth was left out, but Mora could see him taking a seat at the second console.

“Come on, Mora. I will explain where I have been. Tranoth can steer if he has to. The ship takes care of most of the flight.”

“Don’t you have to worry about them coming after us?” Mora asked as she was nudged back toward the galley.

“No. The Raiders that have been farming the talents aren’t ready to make their move yet.”

Mora stopped. “Farming?”

“I will explain on another occasion.”

Leehan set up a pot of tea and two cups, then flicked through the menu and selected items that were highlighted in purple. “We can eat the food with the purple outline but some of the others are a little sketchy.”

“Good to know; now, how the hell did you get here?”

Leehan poured the tea and sat down while the dispenser whirred. She sat back and sipped at the tea, her red braid over her shoulder. Leehan looked right at home in her black bodysuit and her bright green eyes sparkled.

She smiled at Mora. Mora smiled back out of rusty reflex. It had been so long since someone smiled at her, she had nearly forgotten how to react.

“Well, let me take you back to our final year of school when we went on that camping trip. You and I were in tents next to each other, and in the morning, the rain hit. My tent collapsed under the weight and yours was still standing. You pulled me into your tent, and we ate the food your mom had packed while the rest of the campers were soaked to the skin. When the rain stopped, we came out and your tent was damp, but the water hadn’t come in. That was when I knew that you had a talent.”

Mora twitched her lips. “You didn’t buy my excuse about waterproofing?”

“The ground around us was liquid, but you and I were able to break down your tent and get back to the transports without slipping and sliding in mud. Whatever you did, you didn’t like getting dirty.”

Mora sipped at her tea. “I never did. It wasn’t the wet. That I could deal with. I hate getting dirt on me.”

Leehan laughed. “Anyway, that was when I first realized that you were a talent and that your skills were way more obvious than mine. I can drive anything, but that is a skill that doesn’t make much of an impact on an observer.”

“You can’t drive a horse.” Mora chuckled.

Leehan scowled. “You are right. I can’t. I can’t drive anything that thinks for itself. I still think of that every time I am on a world with high humidity. My butt aches.”

Mora chuckled. “I told you not to try it.”

“I thought I could manage. You didn’t have to laugh so much.”

The dispenser chimed and Mora went to get their meal. “Yes, I did.”

Leehan chuckled.

“Anyway, so after I realized what you were, I talked to my parents. They were talents as well and had been trying to find a way to get my brother and myself off Resicor. Our departure was set up to take place during a landslide. There was no way to arrange for you to join us that wouldn’t put your family in danger.”

Mora blinked. “You were going to try and take me with you?”

“We wanted to try, but since we had never been away with you outside of school, it would have drawn attention to your family if we took you with us. So, we drove up a hillside on a night with a meteor shower and my brother caused a landslide that destroyed our vehicle with tissue and blood samples inside.”

“And the meteor shower hid the landing craft.”

Leehan smiled and refilled her teacup. “And the meteor shower hid the landing craft. We were taken to the Citadel on Urgus. We gained mastery over our skills and started to work for a living. That is when I was able to hand over information on you and several other talents in danger of being locked up or used by the telepaths.”

“Your family is aware of that?”

“Yeah, my dad was an empath and my mother is a healer. She is the one who generated the tissue samples that we used in the fake crash. Dad retired, but he didn’t want his kids to be locked up. He taught us how to hide ourselves from the scans and how to spot other talents before they emerged. You already had a grip on your skills before we met.”

Mora set their dinner down on the table. “It started when I was eight. We had a drought and the animals needed to be watered. That was what got me in trouble this time. I called the water and our little farm flourished when all of our neighbours were struggling. My parents didn’t know why our water table was higher and I didn’t tell them.”

“And when you were called to the screening centre?”

“They told me not to come back if I was a talent. They didn’t need that kind of trouble.” It took a weight off her to say what had fuelled her anger for so long. The expression on her parents’ face as she walked to catch the transport into the city had been worth a thousand words. They didn’t want her back no matter what the result was. Her life had been over from the moment that their neighbour had pointed the finger directly at their farm.

The feeling of waking without the weight of the bands on her wrists was surreal. She felt light and capable of anything.

She hadn’t been given any information on the woman who took her place at the initial interview. It was obvious that Leehan knew who the woman was, but she wasn’t telling.

After dinner, Leehan had encouraged her to sleep as long as she wanted. Mora had taken the opportunity to let her body run out a clock that had been ticking for four years.

When she had been asleep for eight hours and one minute, her body jolted her awake, and with deliberated focus, she rolled over and went back to sleep. It was a habit she was going to have to break.

Mora sat up and blinked as the elegant band around her left knee stretched in greeting. There was a tiny lav built into her quarters, and she wedged herself in and took care of the necessary parts of drinking a litre of tea before she went to bed.

The toilet ledge retracted and she stood under the shower; solar waves cleaned her, and she smiled and turned her face into the pulses of heat.

She turned front and back so that the warmth could touch her all over. When she was clean and her skin tingled, she thought about how to get dressed. The band over her knee surged up, down and wrapped around her until she was dressed again. The whole thing took three seconds.

She opened the door and unravelled her hair until the waves reached her tailbone. She had never worn her hair so long in her life, but haircuts had not been part of her maintenance.

Mora left her quarters and headed for the command deck. Leehan and Tranoth were seated and a large, glowing orb was in front of them.

“What is that?”

Tranoth smiled. “That is Station 13. Beyond it is Balen. They have a Citadel and a new Sector Guard base. That is the place you will call home unless you are reassigned.”

“I will live at Citadel Balen?”

Leehan nodded. “You will. They train all sorts of talents. You will have a chance to learn from others who have mastered their own skills and to teach the ones that you have taken charge of.”

Tranoth grinned. “Like that trick you did with your spit.”

Put that way, it didn’t sound that great. “I learned that trick while I was living in the woods for a year. There is nothing like survival to teach you what you can and cannot do.”

Tranoth chuckled. “That is what you can offer to others. Many will never have to push the boundaries of their control. That you have had to survive with your talent alone has elevated you from being an average talent to an example of self-reliance. That makes you rare, and folks will want to ask you how you managed.”

Leehan chuckled. “Fold out that seat over there and put on the harness. We are approaching Balen, and when the gravity kicks in, you are going to feel it.”

Mora followed instructions and watched as the station whizzed past, letting the full expanse of the planet below show her its wonder.

When the ship began to shudder, she was glad that Leehan had warned her. It was not an easy entry, but when they landed, the gentle rain covered the front screens.

Mora was nearly crying. “Can we go outside?”

Tranoth smiled. “We can. Leehan has to pick up another agent to rescue another citizen. My cover was blown when I had to break the programming on the cuffs. They will examine them and try to find out what I did.”

Mora chuckled. “They can try. I didn’t leave much of them to examine.”

He smiled. “Regardless, it is not a chance that the Citadel will take. Once an operative is outed, they leave. No questions about it.”

“Anyone who stayed would be in danger.”

He nodded. “There are a few Resicor agents who are trying to free more of your people, but their decisions are not impacted by the orders of the Citadel.”

“Like the woman who took my place for the interview.”

“Precisely. She has refused time and again to leave. We can’t force her from the surface until she decides it is time or the moment when her own life is in danger. I am hoping that it does not come to that.” Tranoth shrugged. “Let’s go out and greet the rain.”

He didn’t need to tell her twice. She hugged Leehan and promised to have tea the next time she was on Balen, but then, she was at Thanoth’s heels as he paced to the rear hatch.

The moment the door was opened, the scent of rain flowed in and Mora ran out.

She sprinted across the tarmac and twisted with her arms out, letting the rain pivot around her on its way to the ground. It hugged her, coated her suit and didn’t touch her. Her control stopped the rain millimetres from her skin and hair. She could feel the water in the air around her and twist it to her will, but she did hate getting dirty, and wet was nearly as bad.

* * * *

Tranoth watched her as she danced with the rain. Corkscrews, waves, ribbons and the outline of a person to dance came and went as Morakil twisted and turned her body. She wasn’t forcing the water; it was taking the shape that she wanted because she wanted it. Elementals were always special, but Morakil had made peace with her element. It was a respected tool in her hands, and she returned it to its proper place when she had completed her use of it.