Ghosting the Hero (4 page)

Simry laughed. “The Citadel is a school and employment center with occasional forays into being a refuge. The Sector Guard goes in for rescues and natural disasters. More law enforcement and emergency services.”

“I heard you mentioning teaching when I arrived.”

She blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. “Ah, yes. I do teach from time to time. Tomorrow, I am teaching a class on why a psychic would use astral projection and how to protect yourself from exterior interference when you are away from your body.”

“Are there spaces available?” He quirked his brow and gave her a charming smile.

She had to admit, she was charmed. She had been in dozens of bodies, but his was the only one she had wanted to explore.

“Um, you would have to check the registration. I just show up, and if there are folks to speak to, I talk.”

He inclined his head. “I shall look into it. I have a few weeks off and would enjoy learning what I could about the Citadel and its people.”

There was much more in his tone than a simple interest in education.

“Well, it is time for me to head to medical, so I am afraid that this conversation will have to come to an end.” Simry got to her feet and balanced with her cane.

“Are you ill?”

“No, but I need a massage to get to sleep tonight. My mind is remembering an old pain, and it will remain with me until I can purge it. I am used to it. Even with Reset’s help, this is as good it will get.”

He offered her his arm again. “You need a massage to rest?”

“Yes. That or a sedative. I just prefer the rubdown that reminds my body that my leg is no longer broken.”

N’kad nodded and escorted her to medical. “Well, thank you for your time. The information you have given me has been most helpful.”

Simry smiled. “I am glad you are up and around. Enjoy your new life as a Guardsman.”

He bowed and pressed a kiss to her hand again. “You know, I think I will.”

Simry watched him disappear down the hall before she hopped into the med center. “M’rin, I did it again.”

Simry tried to remain calm and centered as she faced the full class. Fifteen faces stared at her and one was increasingly familiar.

“Astral movement is a fairly common talent. It can be anything from seeing visions of another room to sending your consciousness across the stars. It can be done in dreams or while wide awake. Not all psychic talents can engage in this manoeuvre, but for those who can, recognisance is a matter of sending your mind to a place where your body can’t go.”

Simry flicked the screen behind her and images of men and women on life support scrolled across in a slow procession. “When you leave your body for a living, you need to know where you have put it. Most astral walkers who have issues in finding their bodies end up unravelling across space, a blip on a sensor until they fade away. Keeping control over your body and its location becomes a matter of survival.”

Several of the students in the lecture hall looked ill.

“Today, we will discuss your tether, protecting your body and holding your mind in a tight column. Who here is familiar with the relay system?”

Three of her students raised their hands.

“Well, for those of you who are unaware of the relays, they are talents and simply open-minded individuals who act as a secure transit point for information. That will include some of you. By going through the relays, you have a last point of contact and a first point of contact. You can literally find your way home by remembering the first and last place you went. The relays will do the rest.”

One student called out, “Can’t the relays tell us which way to go?”

Simry shook her head. “No. We are routed through a portion of their brain that they don’t use for active cognition. That is what makes them relays, they can compartmentalize their minds to let information simply glide through using their thoughts as locks similar to those on waterways.”

She went on and explained how relays functioned and how they were of no help to anyone in an emergency. It was a lie, but it served its purpose.

The next phase was to show how the psychic could more easily project themselves if their bodies were comfortable.

A copy of her chair was on the speaker’s dais, and she settled into it. “Finding the means and method for making yourself comfortable is the key to being effective. For some, they curl into a ball, others cross their legs and meditate, others kneel and a few can even do this standing up. The astral projector attaches monitor leads, which alarm if he or she suffers any physical stress. This pulls the wanderer back to the body with a disorienting snap, but it gets you back where you are supposed to be.”

She clipped the lead to her finger and another around her neck. With a deep breath, she relaxed, left her body and ghosted into the computer, projecting herself on the screen.

“Now that I am in the computer, I can manipulate it to my purposes. This is my particular skill and one I had no idea I possessed until I left my home and entered the Citadel.”

While she was in the machine, she continued to talk as a small gun rose from the machine and panned the room.

“Control of mechanical objects is not an unknown skill, but actually keeping your consciousness inside it is a little different. I am inside the machine and moving it by its own means and methods. I can’t change its shape, and I, also, cannot phase my body into it. My body is vulnerable and unprotected. Any of you could go up and do anything from stabbing me to shaving my head and I am helpless. This is the exchange of the astral projection. You get massive travel abilities and your body could be murdered while you are gone, that is why the monitors are vital. Do not leave your body without them.”

She resumed her body and removed the leads.

The rest of the course was about insulating their minds and crafting a tether to keep them tied to their bodies.

When the chime rang, she sighed in relief and thanked everyone for coming.

N’kad came up to her and waited in line as the students pelted her with questions. When he stopped in front of her, he inclined his head. “Thank you. It answered many questions.”

She smiled and blushed. “I am glad. I am off for lunch. Would you join me?”

He sighed. “I regret that I have booked another class. Please excuse me. Thank you again for the informative morning.”

He nodded again and headed down the aisle to the door.

Simry sighed softly as she watched him go. Wide shoulders, a narrow waist and an intriguing backside made the view extremely entertaining. The tawny colouring of the suit enhanced the nearly nude factor of the suit, and her admiration would have been unremarkable if he hadn’t turned slowly in the doorway and winked.

Simry felt her knees buckle as she fought the urge to flee her body. She simply grinned and shrugged, waving him on his way.

She fanned herself with the edge of her instructor’s robes, tidied up the room and headed to the commissary for lunch.

She joined friends and sat around discussing the pros and cons of teaching new recruits how to leave their bodies. As if to prove her point, one of her students dropped to the ground across the dining hall.

Simry took a deep breath, left her body and went to hunt down the loose soul on the astral plain. It looked to be that kind of an afternoon.

* * * *

N’kad worked at the simulator; his hands looked ridiculously large on the computer-generated limb under his palms. Taking a massage course had become mandatory when he had expressed his desire to be partnered with Simry on all future assignments.

He hadn’t told her yet, but if he couldn’t manage to learn enough about her to keep her healthy while they travelled, General Brodin and Reset would not let them be together. It would be financially beneficial to her, and he would have her close.

Even though it was an assignment, he had felt a connection between them when she teased and taunted him back into caring about the world around him and his part in it.

She had given him a reason to live, whether she knew it or not. He was going to be worthy of her effort and keep her whole during their assignments.

The healer who was guiding the class came by and checked the readouts. “Excellent, N’kad. Just the right amount of pressure.”

He nodded but didn’t lose his focus. He kept his hands moving over the simulation until the class was over. When the class was over, he thanked his instructor, flexed his hands and returned to the Guard base.

Fixer was fitting a shuttle with a suspension couch for Simry, as well as working on a suit that would work to keep circulation moving while she was immobile. N’kad had ten more days to learn everything about his soon-to-be partner before he was going to have to tell her what was going on. Maybe he should aim for eight days. It might take her a while to calm down.

* * * *

Simry finished an afternoon of work and headed to medical. Three more of her students had jumped out of their bodies just to see what they could do. Two had broken wrists and one had a concussion.

Simry settled in a chair and quickly caught her loose students, stuffing them back into their bodies. The medical students took it from there, healing the broken bones and the contusion with their own means.

Simry sighed and got to her feet. The healing instructor grinned.

“I do love your classes. We always get to practice right afterward.”

“Not as much as the flying course.”

“No, not as much as that, but a lovely variety of coma and injuries. It really makes us work.”

Simry stretched. “I am so happy I can be of use. No matter how many times I tell them not to do something, they seem drawn to it.”

Healer M’rin looked them over. “They don’t seem incredibly stupid. Just adventurous, I suppose.”

As Simry glared at her students, they looked sheepish and glanced at each other.

“It was a group effort. They wanted to try it together. Gee. I hope I got them back in the right bodies.” She raised her voice for the last sentence.

M’rin caught on. “I hope so. The last time it happened, we had them mixed by the psychic-healing class. It took you a while to help sort them after that.”

Simry gave a theatrical shudder. “Or the two that were spliced together.”

The three in the beds were staring at their limbs and trying to figure out if they were who they thought they were.

Simry chuckled and headed off for dinner.

M’rin stopped her. “Drinks later?”

“Sure. I will meet you in the dining hall.”

“I will be there as soon as this bunch is sorted. Yivick is a fire healer, so this is not going to be fun.”

Simry left quickly before the screaming started. Flame healing was definitely not something she enjoyed experiencing or listening to.

Dinner with friends and drinks with M’rin seemed to be her kind of evening.

“So, why is the new Guardsman taking massage courses?” M’rin looked at her over the top of an ornate cocktail glass.

Simry spluttered. “What?”

“I was teaching a therapeutic massage class this morning, and he was in it.” M’rin smiled slyly.

Simry blotted at her lips with the back of her hand until M’rin handed her a napkin. “Did he say why he was in the class?”

“Nope. He was just intent on learning all he could with the simulators.”

“Let me know how he does with a living patient.”

“You aren’t going to volunteer? You normally offer your body for education.” M’rin grinned.

“I...”

M’rin laughed out loud. “There is something between you, isn’t there?”

Simry remembered being in his mind. “Not as much as I would like. I was inside him and that creates a bond on both sides.”

“Oh, sounds dirty. Tell me more.”

She sighed and made a rude gesture while drinking deep of the cocktail. “Nothing to tell. I kept his thoughts company while his body was paralyzed. He focused entirely on me.”

M’rin gave her a long look. “That explains his fixation; what about your reaction?”

Simry blinked. “What do you mean?”

“When you think about him, you smile. It is a slow, sexy smile that has never crossed your face in my presence, not even when Leodar is doing naked yoga.”

“I...” she rubbed the back of her neck. “He was a hero to his people, and they just threw him away, yet he still wants to save them. It was in his mind when I was inside him. He wants the best for his people even if they abandoned him when he needed saving.”

“And you are interested in him beyond the wounded-warrior attraction.” M’rin had that sly smile again.

Simry got up and refilled their drinks. “I am not sure. Aside from a few disasters as a teen, I haven’t really sought out the opposite sex.”

“Or the same sex, though I have offered.” M’rin sighed wistfully.

“As pretty as you are, you are not my type. You are far too fickle. A nice compound fracture and I would be yesterday’s news.” Simry chuckled.

“I am not that fickle. It would have to be major body trauma to take me away from the pools of your eyes.”

“I thought it was my deep purple hair that caught your attention.” Simry flipped the cropped locks of her hair.

“Yes, but the crystal blue of your eyes keeps it.” M’rin winked.

They sat in silence for a moment, and then, Simry sighed. “Do you really think he is interested in me?”

“He massaged the legs of the simulator until
it
wanted to be with him. I am pretty sure that he is learning for you.”

Simry felt a light blush running over her skin. “Well, I am still not going to volunteer to be manhandled in front of a crowd.”

M’rin nodded. “Of course you aren’t. Drink up. I intend to ply you with alcohol, vids and conversation to get you to bend to my will.”

Simry emptied her glass and held it out. “You are welcome to try.”

“Oh, I do love a challenge. So, what shall we watch tonight?”

“Greatest mech fights in the last three months?”

M’rin grinned and ordered the vids. “I think there was a championship.”