Liquid Compassion (3 page)

Mala showed her a small tube on the inside of the suit. “The suit collects your sweat and holds it in this vial. You can program it anyway you want and have a ready supply of blank material on hand.”

Bits stared. “Seriously?”

“Yup. Sweat is the only secretion that you have that doesn’t require source programming. You can alter it after you emit it. Interesting. I know Effin is fascinated. The idea is that with a sufficient quantity, you can subdue an entire population. Mind you, you are still recovering, so you don’t have any spare fluids. Don’t overwork yourself.”

Bits looked down at her emaciated figure. “I wish there was a quick fix for this.”

“There is, but she is on Teklan. Your body is fine and your muscles are there, you just need to rebuild your fat stores.”

“I have never appreciated my body fat more. From what Effin told me, the matron was trying to kill me. He’s handed the information over to the Citadel, and they are pressing charges on my behalf.”

“It was lucky that the recruiter got there when she did. A week later and you would have been dead.” Mala winced when the girls gasped. “Damn. I forgot they were there.”

Bits chuckled and turned to her little companions. “It could have gone badly for me, but I was another one of the people that your mother and Dr. Effin helped.”

The girls relaxed again.

Mala nodded toward the suit. “It is going to need to expand as you continue to fill out. Since you are moving over to the Citadel, you will have to come here for regular refits.”

The girls cheered and ran to hug Bits.

Mala shook her head. “I have never seen them react like that.”

Bits sighed. “The hugs make me happy, and my touch makes them happy. It becomes a self-perpetuating circle.”

Mala blinked. “You are using your touch on them?”

“Not directly. It is an aura that I have. It is pretty passive. I am guessing that it is a defense mechanism. Dr. Effin doesn’t think it is actually there, but it is one of those things that has always been around. I hit puberty and everybody wanted to be next to me. Children, adults, married, single. Nothing perverse, just physical contact. That is why the suit was punishment beyond just restraint. I lost all my companionship in that contraption.”

“Well, you are in recovery, and the Citadel will be here to pick you up soon. I have your bag of suits here, and they will transport the armour. You probably won’t need it there, but if you want to experiment with it, you are welcome to.”

Bits touched the nearly invisible wire that cruised along her hairline. “Will they help with this?”

“They will assist you, but the blocker is keyed to you. It can hold your psychic excursions in, but it will only work for so long. After a while, your mind will find a way around it. I am amazed that it took so long for your psychic senses to wake.”

“Dr. Effin guesses that it has something to do with the EVA suit. When my body was blocked, my mind went looking for friends.”

“It was a good guess. When you were finally taught all the permutations of Alliance Common, you took a census of all the minds on Morganti. It is no wonder you were overwhelmed.”

Bits shrugged. She had no idea what happened when the light flashed, but when her brain was working again, she knew things she hadn’t known before. Languages, customs, traditions and memories had swamped her. It had taken two days to fight her way out of other people’s memories. If it was part of her empathy talent, it sucked. She liked the headset. It made everything quiet, and you couldn’t see it if you didn’t know it was there.

The nanny entered the workshop with the baby girl, the little boy and a serious announcement. “Mala, it is time for lunch.”

The little girls flung their arms in the air and cheered, taking possession of their little brother and heading into the base to take over their table in the commissary. The nanny offered Mala the infant, and Fixer began breastfeeding as she walked through the halls. Bits and the nanny brought up the rear. Family meal times were serious. If Isabi was in town, he was there for every meal, but he had left the night before on his way to a political mission.

Their regular table was ready. The girls had created place mats and had shaped cutlery out of a nearby chair. Nanny and Mala went to fill the small cart full of dishes; Bits trailed behind and got her own food, heading to the table to sit with the girls and their brother.

The little boy crawled into her lap, and she offered him a vegetable that he grabbed with a chubby fist. His teeth were coming in, and he made short work of it. She handed him another veg stick, and he ate and snorted as he consumed it.

Mala grinned as she pushed the cart up and loaded the table. “It’s wonderful to see him eating veggies.”

“You got to see it? He moved so quick, I almost mistook him for Nanny.”

Radin chuckled brightly and got another veg stick in his pudgy hand.

She was his favourite perch for mealtimes since she had started joining them. Bits’ believe that it was because of her body’s current resemblance to a chair.

Bits ate with the family and grinned as the girls changed their food into dessert and their mother changed it back while still holding their sister to her breast.

“So, will you miss us when you go?” Mala grinned and managed her food with one hand.

The sharp wail from her lap made Bits wince. She peeled off her glove and looked at Mala, “May I?”

Mala nodded.

Bits touched her small companion’s forehead, and his crying stopped, turned into sniffles, and soon, he was giggling again.

The table relaxed, and they finished their meal with laughter and smiles.

Nanny took the kids away, and Mala looked to Bits. “Whew. That was a close one.”

“Yes. Sorry about the touch, it was all I could think of.”

“No, it wasn’t a problem. I just hadn’t realized how attached Radin was to you already.”

Bits snickered. “I am his favourite chair.”

“More than that. The kids feel safe with you. It is a blessing to have you around.”

“I like them as well. I am kind of depressed that I am moving to the Citadel, but I guess it is time to get some actual training for this silly talent.”

Mala laughed. “It is generally a good idea. Isabi used to follow me around with a bandolier of ration bars. I would always use more energy than I had access to.”

“Sounds unpleasant.”

“It was, but I learned via practice. You will have to practice to gain any skills worth leaving the Citadel for.”

“You really think I can be useful elsewhere?”

Mala smiled. “I know you can. It is definitely something in your future. You will walk other worlds.”

Bits chuckled. “Glad you are so confident. Perhaps that is an emotion that I can copy.”

Mala patted her on the shoulder, and they headed to the workshop to put a few finishing touches on the armour.

Her escort to Citadel Morganti was polite and careful to keep distance between them.

Kalo was friendly enough, but he was taking her to the head administrator of the Citadel. She was about to be interviewed.

They headed to the highest level of the main tower, and Kalo escorted her to the administrator’s office. He knocked, and when a voice told them to enter, he opened the door and waved for her to go inside.

“You aren’t coming in with me?”

“No, Administrator Turnari wishes to see you alone. It will be fine, Abitika.”

She nodded and moved past him, keeping a safe distance between them. The door closed behind her.

“Abitika Kenharm of Jrinka blended colony.” The man was sitting in the shadows.

“That is me, but call me Bits.”

He moved into a beam of sunlight, and she took in his horns, his beautiful but cruelly cut features and the breadth of his shoulders. She had never seen a Dhemon at close range before, but that was definitely his species.

“My name is Turnari abin Depkor. I am the administrator here at the Citadel Morganti, but I am also a telepath, and given the strength of your talent, I will be your instructor.”

She blinked. “What?”

“You need a quiet and protected space to practice, and there is no space more insulated against mental invasion than this very room.”

“So, they can’t get in and I can’t get out.”

“Yes.”

He was sitting at his desk, and his hands were folded neatly in front of him. It struck her that he was trying not to be imposing.

“When do we start?”

He gestured to the chair in front of him. “Take a seat and remove the headpiece that is restraining you.”

“Now?”

“Now. I need to do an assessment of your power and the arrangement of your mind. I can’t do that if you are encapsulated in your skull.”

She settled in the chair and reached up to work the thin wire out from under her hair. When she had it in her hands, she settled it in her lap.

“You are holding your mind in.” Turnari smiled.

“Is that what that feels like?”

“Let it go.”

Bits closed her eyes and let the crumbly shield she had built shrink down, and she let her mind out.

Turnari’s mind was a bright beacon, and she surged toward it. He let her touch his thoughts, and she noted that pity was a large part of his reaction to her, but a thread of attraction was in there as well. That surprised her. She was used to being a scarecrow already.

His voice came through her haze, and she heard. “Just let your mind out to wash over mine. Keep yourself relaxed, keep your mind open.”

She breathed in and out slowly, feeling the light, cool brushing against her thoughts as he began his examination. She didn’t know how long they were linked together, but when his mind retracted from hers, she tried to mimic him by pulling back as slowly as she could. Soon, she was sitting across from him and smiling shyly. “How was that?”

He smiled at her in response. “Excellent. The two parts of your talent are supposed to work in harmony, but for some reason, your mental skills activated later.”

“My sister is a suppressor talent. It might have had something to do with it.”

“When were you last exposed to her?”

“Two and a half years ago when I was put in the suit.”

He nodded and made some notes before looking at her. “What did you sense when you were in contact with me?”

“I sensed that you are calm, curious, vaguely attracted to me and that you felt pity for me.” She rubbed her palms on her thighs.

He leaned back. “Anything else?”

“No, sir. I left you to your privacy.” She inclined her head.

“Good. That was a lot to pick up from surface contact on a first try.”

He made a few more notes. He seemed to ignore that she had caught on to his attraction, but perhaps, it wasn’t a big thing to him. It was a huge thing to her.

She had just become a legal adult before the fiasco, and having anyone attracted to her, even while she was sickly, was a very big deal. His attraction had been to her skin, her hair and the blue of her eyes.

Turnari nodded and made some more notes. “You will need to check in with the healers daily and make a concerted effort to regain the lost weight. If you don’t have biological resources to call upon, control of your talent will suffer. You can put your restrictor back now.”

She replaced the metal band around her hairline. “I have regained three pounds since I have been out of the suit. I believe that as I am able to resume a normal eating routine, I will recover quickly.”

He checked the flat pad in front of him. “Well, as it is meal time, I believe that I can give you the tour of the dining area.”

She wasn’t hungry, but forcing herself to eat was a habit she was getting used to. At the base, she had set a timer and eaten like clockwork. Apparently, here, she was going to have to continue that habit.

He gathered his data pad and came around the desk to offer her his arm. She got to her feet and slid her hand in the crook of his arm. The muscle flexed under her hand, but he was otherwise unmoved.

On the way down in the lift, he gave her the tour lecture that Kalo had been too afraid to give her on the way in.

“You aren’t afraid of me touching you?”

Turnari chuckled. “Of course not. You don’t have any reason to try to manipulate me, and frankly, you are too weak to do much at all.”

Bits gave him a sidelong glance. “You read all that?”

“No. My eyes work just fine. Your hands tremble, you move like you are made of glass and you look like you are about to fall asleep. Physically, you are no threat at all. Psychically, you are a rock tumbling down a hill. You have plenty of power but no control.”

She touched the band at the back of her neck. “The restrictor is going to hold it in, right?”

“If Fixer says it will do, it will hold. However, I know she told you that it is a temporary measure.”

Bits wrinkled her nose as they left the lift, and he gave her a brief introduction to the Citadel.

As he described the amenities, she looked around to see everyone in similar clothing to the base. The amount of exposed skin was minimal, usually confined to head and hands for most species. Some of the members of the Citadel wore robes over their bodysuits, which provided more protection. Bits relaxed. The chance of her accidentally affecting someone was minimized.

“So, who first called you Bits?”

She grinned. “My sister. She started calling me that when I went to school for the first time. Abitika is a little bit of a mouthful, even for Jrinka.”

“Does it have a meaning?” He was casually steering her toward the dining area.

“It translates into something like
fight the mind and bring compassion.
I don’t know. My parents studied dead languages, and I guess this sounded good.”

He nodded and smiled, his horns gleaming in the light coming in through the wall of windows. “It is rather prophetic.”

“My mom was good at that type of thing. She constantly told me to stay out of my sister’s love life, but I didn’t, and so, I ended up in the suit.”

“And then here.”

“Well, I already had a talent, so it is likely that the Citadel would have recruited me anyway. I just would have started my time here without ill health.” She chuckled.