Gaze (4 page)

He got smoothly to his feet and came to her side. “May I escort you?”

Blue
’s avatar came out and gave her a once over before offering a tiny thumbs up.

“Keep an eye on things, baby. I will be back soon.”

The fairy saluted sharply and waved her off.

“Apparently, I have been dismissed.” Gwyn grinned and took the hand that Nikowaik extended to her.

“Well, then. It is time to join the party.”

“As you say. Lead the way.”

She felt a strange laughter welling up in her. She didn’t know what to do with it, but she liked it.

The wedding event was being held in a huge field to the north of the landing pads. They took a skimmer through the mountain passes and into the valley filled with tents and pavilions.

“It looks like quite the party.”

He grinned. “Hargu Nashti is a global treasure. She is one of the finest minds that our world has produced. She is a tactical specialist, a musician and a politician. It is an excellent blend with our most decorated general. Folks were relieved when they got together. All that tension was driving the population insane.”

Gaze frowned. “Tension?”

“Sure, they are both powerful broadcasting empaths. Their minds control those around them, so it is a relief to feel them happy.”

Gaze checked her thoughts. She did feel a strange surge of happiness, but she wasn’t sure it was her own. “A world of empaths?”

“Most of the population either broadcasts or receives from great distance. It is difficult, but it keeps this world at peace, most of the time.” He grimaced.

She chuckled as she set up to catch him. “And which are you?”

“Are you receiving anything from me?”

“No.”

“Then, I must be a receiver.” He winked, his dark eyes sparkling.

Nikowaik walked her to the main pavilion and escorted her up to the bride who was sitting and having her hair and nails groomed at the same time.

“Governor. This is Transport Specialist Gaze. She brought your protection-father here.”

The bride looked up with a smile. “Thank you. That will be all.”

Nikowaik disappeared with a few steps behind some drapes, and Gaze was left alone with the bride and her attendants. She folded her hands in front of her and waited.

Hargu looked at her and smiled. “You have peculiarly striking features. Your hair is made of fire and gold. Fascinating.”

Gaze curtsied. “Thank you for noticing. My features were given by my genes, the designs around my eyes by a physician.”

“I did wonder about them. They don’t seem to match the rest of your features. Don’t get me wrong, they are striking, but they seem more of an afterthought.” Hargu grinned.

“It did take some getting used to.” She took the chair that an attendant brought her and sat with the bride. “Thank you for the invitation to be here on your day.”

Hargu waved her hand lazily in the air, drying the polish. “Everyone is invited, and it would be silly for you to be alone on that ship.”

The woman was elegant and older than she had seemed on first glance. Gaze cocked her head. “I am usually alone with my ship. It is nothing new, but I do enjoy getting out now and then.”

“Well, my protection-father asked me to brief you on what would happen today. I think it was to sooth my nerves more than help you out.” Hargu winked.

“From the little I know of him, it seems to fit in with his personality.” She smiled.

“Well, after my grooming is complete, you are invited to join me for a light lunch, and then, if you would assist me in my final dressing, it would be appreciated.”

“Shouldn’t that honour belong to family or friends?”

Hargu winked, “They are all fighting for the honour, so I will give it to the companion of my protection-father. You will take the competition out of it and that will be your wedding gift to me.”

Gaze blinked. “I am so sorry, I hadn’t even thought about it. It has been so long since I have been invited anywhere.”

The woman waved her hand. “Do not worry. I understand that you were only recently summoned to pilot General Korwait here. The wedding was a sudden decision. There was no reason to wait any longer, so Niyu will begin insemination after the wedding and we will start our family.”

“Why not you?”

Hargu grinned. “We will take turns. Only one of us can be pregnant at any given time. We are keeping the entire planet calm and that takes a bit of concentration that a pregnancy would disrupt. Both of us off our tracks would create chaos here. We engaged in detailed negotiations before setting our plan.”

“I don’t understand.”

Hargu nodded to her hairstylist as the woman finished and got to her feet. She calmly walked over to a table, and suddenly, three servers were in place setting down platters and eating utensils.

“My nails are still curing, Transport Specialist. Will you assist me?”

“Of course.” Gaze was at her side in a moment. “Call me Gaze or Gwyn if you prefer.”

“Gaze then. A serving of that one, please.” Hargu pointed with one of her elegant nails and smiled.

Gaze put a helping of the pickled salad on Hargu’s plate and followed her directions for a few minutes with suggestions for her own selections. Once her host was eating, Gaze joined in.

Hargu gave her the rundown of how to behave and where to stand during the ceremony. It was a crash course in etiquette, and Gaze was a rapt pupil.

“So, when General Korwait found you and your parents...”

“The ban against psychics was in full force when the imperium put its foot down and sent us help. The purge was in full force, and it took almost a decade to extract them to a planet of their own.” Hargu blew on her nails though they were already dry.

Gaze was fascinated. “What happened next?”

“With the oppression of the purge off world or underground, the wave of psychics began to fight for power. It was a shock when empaths began to rise to the top of the governing bodies. Apparently, ours was the least threatening of the psychic talents out in the worlds. Our government began to be run by empaths and healers, and it took off in a strange and popular surge once the fear was eradicated by a coalition of empaths working night and day to unify the emotional stability of the people.”

“Do you still have that coalition?”

“There are three on duty and one in power, constantly monitoring the moods of the population. We know when they are hungry, we know when there is strife and we act accordingly.”

Gaze thought about all of the privacy movements back on earth. “What do you do with those who don’t want to be spied on?”

“There is a southern continent. Lovely weather and several deflectors living along the coastline. They create a bubble of privacy for those who truly want it. Most move back to the normal cities within a few years. They miss the social life and the harmony. For us, lack of privacy brought us peace and removed the fear and panic of the previous regime.”

Gaze caught on to something. “You are reducing your effect, aren’t you?”

Hargu grinned. “It was something that General Korwait taught in his lectures for the new class of governors. Keep them calm and help them to help themselves. No one thrives in an atmosphere of fear. In another decade, the politicians will be elected and a good mix of psychics and standards. I hope that my children will grow up in a different world from the one I remember.”

Gaze exhaled in a gust. “I can honestly say that I hope it for you too. I understand a little of having a painful childhood, but my life was never in danger because of my difference. Well, not directly.”

“Would you tell me about it? With the ceremony closer, I am eager for a distraction.” Hargu looked nervous for the first time.

Gaze twisted her lips. “What would you like to know?”

“Why can’t I get any feedback from you? I mean, I can feel you, but it as if the energy I project simply skims along your edges.”

Gaze snorted. “That is an easy one. I work on a different frequency than you do. It is common in alien species.”

“What was your childhood like?”

Gaze looked at Hargu and saw the tight grip on the arms of her chair, the white bracket forming around her eyes and mouth, and she decided to blow protocol.

“My childhood was dark. I had eyes, but they did not work. I lived and moved around with no visual cues at all.”

“Let me see if this is correct. You were born blind?”

Gaze nodded. “No link between my brain and my eyes. I wore a blackout visor so that my randomly wandering eyes wouldn’t upset folks. It seemed they were constantly looking for input though they couldn’t tell my brain about it.”

“Accident?”

“Birth defect. It just never developed.”

Hargu blinked a few times, her huge aqua eyes filling with tears. “I am so sorry.”

Gaze leaned forward. “Don’t be. It’s all right. I am fine. I survived my childhood and what I learned made me a candidate to leave my world. That brought me to an experiment in the imperium, and now, I have eyes that see more than I could have ever imagined.”

She smiled and Hargu’s mood lightened. Gaze could see the energy pouring off the woman, and it shifted from a miserable grey to a bright blue-green.

“What happened to your body? I can see the clothing that you are wearing and you don’t seem to have a taboo about touching others, so I imagine that you are covering something.”

“The suit regulates my body temperature. I suffered burns over seventy percent of my body. I should not have survived, but I did.”

Hargu was staring at her as if she could see the flames. “What happened?”

“An aunt was staying with my family, and she was smoking in the family room. She fell asleep and her cigarette lit a fire.”

“Cigarette?”

“A shredded leaf full of stimulants and toxic chemicals, wrapped in paper. It is lit and the smoke is inhaled. Unfortunately, after a while, the stimulant effects wear off and it acts as a sedative. She fell asleep, and I was told later that she got up and ran for the door when she saw the fire.”

Hargu gasped and leaned back. “What happened? How did you get out?”

“My parents tried to get to me, but the fire raced up the stairs to my room. I heard them calling, and I made for the only exit we had. I had to go through the fire.” She closed her eyes and remembered the heat on her skin, the searing pain and the screams of panic from her parents outside the house.

“A firefighter caught me and ran with me outside where I was extinguished and wrapped up. I spent weeks in and out of a drug-induced coma, and when I came out, I had to wear a compression suit and monitor my temperature every half hour. I got used to it, but when I was offered the chance to leave my home and possibly heal my skin, I jumped at the opportunity.”

“Did it work?”

“The scars are gone, my skin is sensitive, but it is there. The suit simply takes care of monitoring my body for me.”

“Can you move around without the suit?”

“Of course. I even can run around with normal clothing on my ship. Now, if that nervous woman is any indication, it is time to get you dressed. Have I distracted you?”

Hargu blinked. “You have done that.”

“Stand up then, you giddy bride. Your general is waiting.” Gaze took the box of fabric from the attendant and shooed Hargu onto the platform in the centre of the pavilion.

She opened the box and lifted out the gown. “Now, which part of this is the front?”

Hargu let out a nervous giggle and her mood was back to joyous excitement.

* * * *

Korwait sat with his soon-to-be family member. “So, Niyu, are you ready to be a family?”

General Niyu Haynin smiled shyly, her scarred face glowing with happiness. “I am more than ready. Hargu has run out of reasons to delay.”

Korwait laughed. “You agreed to have the first child then?”

Niyu smiled. “I did, and the next day, our engagement was official. I have to say that I am excited at the idea of being a mother, now that I have gotten used to it.”

Korwait leaned back and grinned. “She has always been stubborn. I have been waiting for her to be settled before I found my own match, so I will tell you, I am relieved.”

Niyu served him a glass of water, and she sat back with her own. “Do you have someone in mind?”

“Six months ago, I ended up on Yaccaro, retrieving a politician who had offended enough of the population to require extraction. There was a seer there who painted me a portrait of my mate-to-be, and I have to admit, I was rather surprised?”

“Something with claws?”

“No. A new species to our space. A female of incredible beauty and incredible damage.” He sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I have no idea how long it will take to court her.”

“You are running out of time, old wolf.”

He chuckled and shifted his features to his Kozue form, his wolf head, his Nikowaik form and a dozen others before resuming the face she was familiar with. “I am only as old as I choose to be, Niyu. You are joining the family. I thought you should know.”

Niyu gulped some of her water. “I thought you were just aging gracefully. You look the same as when I met you a decade ago.”

“It is a matter of record, but few bother to look it up. I am Nishan and thought that the older appearance would be more...accepted by the locals. It worked.”

Niyu laughed. “It did. Now, what do you know about your future bride?”

“She is currently getting your bride dressed. That reminds me. Into your uniform. You are getting married in an hour.”

Niyu grinned and got to her feet, taking her dress uniform off the rack next to her. “Thanks for the reminder. Go and change yourself.”

Chuckling to himself, Korwait put on the formal robes of the official, and he checked the fit. He shifted himself until the fit was perfect. Gaze may have been born stunning but he had to keep his body in check.

He helped Niyu Haynin settle her uniform tunic and the wedding drape. She was biting her lip, and he patted her shoulder. “You look beautiful, Niyu. You are a welcome addition to the family.”

The general swallowed and smiled weakly. “I hate crowds.”