Magnet (7 page)

Daylight was beginning to peek through the windows when she crawled back into bed with Loesh. He cuddled her against him and inhaled deeply against her neck.

“Maybe I should go back to my bed. I don’t want to interfere with your sleep. You are still on duty tomorrow.”

He chuckled. “Not after I tell them that I am seeing Gerald. We will both be off duty unless they are desperate.”

Polly sighed and placed her arm on his around her waist. “So romantic. Who thought a psych leave would work as a honeymoon?”

He nipped her shoulder. “Be still and sleep. You are going to be physically taxed during adaptation, and the next few days will be hard for you. You need to rest.”

She snickered. “You should have thought about that two hours ago.”

With one final squeeze, he slowed his breathing into sleep.

Polly winked at Gerald, and he curled into a small ball on the pillow next to her. This was it. She was one of an odd trio, and she wished she could be a little more upset about it. As she dozed off, she wondered what shade she would end up. She liked Nanette’s colouration, but she didn’t know if she could pull it off.

Breakfast was amusing as hell.

Beryl looked at her for the ninth time. “You seem…how did that happen?”

Loesh snickered and filled Polly’s teacup.

Polly grinned. “I am guessing that it is the same machines that act as the power system. They were busy while I slept.”

She held out her hand and admired the pale pearl skin that had silvery freckles. She had adapted rather quickly.

Toyo asked her, “Do you feel well enough to go on missions if called upon?”

She looked to Loesh and nodded. “As long as Gerald looks calm, I am pretty sure that everything is going well. If he gets rabid or anything, Loesh or I will let you know.”

They all stared at Loesh.

Toyo asked, “You can see it?”

Loesh nodded. “I can. He is rather cute and his appearance is distinctive. I can see how he would have gotten Polly’s attention.”

Drovin looked around, “Where is he now?”

Polly worked on her fruit salad. “On Loesh’s right shoulder.”

Wren was staring with wide eyes and then squinting. “Even through Drovin’s link with Loesh, I can’t see it.”

Drovin paled, “I didn’t know you knew about that.”

His wife snorted. “I figured it out in a week.”

Polly cocked her head at Loesh. “Mental link with your brother?”

Loesh coloured slightly. “Yes, we use it when necessary.”

Wren snorted, “Like getting information on Terrans from me to feed to your brother in the middle of the night.”

Loesh smiled sheepishly. “It helped tremendously, thank you.”

Polly laughed; there was nothing else to do. Loesh was in her body and her fate was as linked to his as his was to her.

She reached out and squeezed his hand. He was right. She could feel so much more now. Every ridge, callus and scar on his hands was now part of her mental landscape. She looked forward to going over every inch of him and learning him with the senses she had inherited.

He was going to have a much harder time with her magnetism. It hadn’t manifested yet, but she was looking forward to it. He wouldn’t enjoy it; it would mean being grounded until he got it under control.

As he finished his breakfast, she watched the quivering of the cutlery and she sighed. It was going to happen fast.

Polly smiled at Toyo. “I am fine for assignments, but Loesh is going to need to be grounded until he gets a grip on the manifestation of my talent.”

Loesh blinked. “What?”

“You are going to be a hazard to electronics until you manage to get your focus right. When you start emanating a magnetic field, you are going to be a hazard to navigation as well.” She patted his thigh.

“Can’t you train me?”

“Of course I can, but if they need help, I will go and you can stay here until you manage to tie knots in wire and then untie them and walk through a path of iron filings without attracting any of them.”

He frowned. “That isn’t...”

“What? Fair? This is life and death for those around you. Be glad that it isn’t catching you by surprise. You will know what is happening. That was a luxury that I didn’t actually have.”

Wren smirked and Beryl sighed and rubbed her hand over her belly. She froze in place and her eyes went wide. Polly seemed to be the only person who was looking directly at her.

“What is it, Beryl?”

Beryl smiled brilliantly. “Kicking. I felt a kick.”

Toyo’s hands were pressed to his mate’s belly in an instant and the room went quiet as they all waited.

When the kick finally came, Toyo’s hands flew back, and he looked at Beryl’s belly in horror. “How is it that you can stand that?”

Beryl smoothed her hand over her belly. “Because my body changed for this purpose, dim bulb. This was the entire purpose of my change; it wasn’t just so that I could freak you out.”

Polly sniggered and Toyo gave her a narrow-eyed look that let her know her amusement wasn’t appreciated.

Beryl laughed, “Don’t laugh too hard Polly. You could be in this condition before you know it.”

Polly was smug. “I doubt it. I had everything disconnected.”

Wren raised her hand. “Uh, when the change took over, it might have plugged everything back in. Do you want a scan?”

Polly was suddenly a lot less smug. “Yes, please.”

“Come on then.”

They headed off to medical and the scan was clear, but her tubes were now back where they should be in pristine condition. “Well, hell.”

“You could just avoid sex.”

Polly narrowed her eyes and glared. “Really? That is your advice?”

“Well, yeah.”

“What do the W’lyn do for population control?”

“They have sex as often as possible. They don’t have a lot of kids, so keeping the population up is important.”

Polly exhaled sharply. “I don’t want to get pregnant right away.”

Wren patted her shoulder. “I know. I can cheat, so it will be next year before I consider it.”

“Cheat?”

“Telekinesis as birth control. The sucky thing is that Drovin tries to cheat as well.”

Polly laughed. “He wants to have kids?”

“They all do. They thought that their talents burned them out of the running when it came to families and then we popped up on their radar.”

Polly sighed. “I will see if I can use the magnetic energy to keep from getting knocked up. With my luck, if it did happen, the machines would build it from scratch overnight.”

Wren laughed and they returned to the kitchen where the dishes had been managed and Loesh was playing with cutlery.

Polly grabbed his arm and hauled him outside. “Come on, let’s get you focussing.”

They walked up to the cliff and sat down, with Gerald watching them intently. She took a handful of dirt. She explained it the same way that she had gotten the information in basic training. “You have a skill to move the energy that surrounds all objects. To move that energy is to move that object. Metal is easiest but almost everything has a magnetic field in action.

“Even living beings have a magnetic field, and we are here to teach you how to start from the dirt under your feet and work your way up to another living being.”

He gave her a surprised look. “You sound like an instructor.”

She grinned. “I am just telling you what I was told when I left Earth for the moon base. My instructor was a telekinetic but he did just fine with my magnetism.”

She threw a handful of dirt into the air off the side of the cliff, and with her talent, she pulled it back to her palm. “When you can do that, we can move on to the next task, and by tomorrow, you can be wadding up the cutlery.”

He nodded and he picked up a handful of dirt, throwing it off the cliff and watching it fall.

Polly sat back and suggested, “To begin, don’t pick it up. Pull it from the ground to your hand.”

He did it and grinned at her with legitimate pleasure. “I did it!”

“Good for you.”

She looked at Gerald and muttered, “It is going to be a long day.”

He gave her a commiserating look and groomed his tail. At least he had something to keep him busy.

Five days later, Toyo called them out on a mission and Polly could see Loesh’s relief. Gerald was on her shoulder, and they sat side by side in the skimmer as they headed to another research station under attack.

Polly could feel the crackling along her skin again, and this time, she could see it in Loesh’s face as well.

The moment they landed, Gerald ran forward with his fur standing out, and he made a beeline for the ship settled on top of what had been a small building.

Toyo and Drovin ran for the research station.

Polly spoke in her com unit. “We are being drawn to the ship. They won’t get out of here with anything.”

Gerald had evidently seen what he needed to, because he streaked back to Loesh and her mate stiffened. “There are survivors under that ship.”

Side by side, they lifted their arms and the extra energy boosted their power to the point where the ship lifted and glided to the side. In a fit of irritation, Polly flipped the ship upside down.

Loesh looked at her as they moved toward the crushed building. “Was that necessary?”

She snorted. “Yes. Yes, it was.”

He nodded and they followed Gerald into the rubble.

The few mechs that came charging out of the research station were dealt with with absent gestures that opened their suits and crushed them into large metal balls.

Polly was focussing on the frightened eyes looking up at her from under a chunk of crushed metal and stone.

Loesh stood next to her, and they moved together to lift the collapse in one smooth sheet, holding it while the survivors ran for safety. Gerald continued to search, and they followed him into the shattered remains.

Polly flinched when she found W’lyn remains, but fortunately, there were only two dead out of the thirty that had been in the small prefect hall.

When the living had been attended to, they brought the dead out of the building and placed them on the green grass of the square that had been the central park of the prefecture.

Polly leaned against Loesh, and she cried over the dead. Gerald climbed up her body and nuzzled her cheek.

Toyo and Drovin joined them, triumphant but sombre at what had transpired.

This wasn’t home anymore, her job was now life and death, and for these two, she had been too late. Tomorrow would be another day and she would try and do better, to act faster, but in the meantime, she would mourn with those who had suffered at the hands of those who had greed and unlimited power as their goal. The Guardians would be with her and she would do her utmost for them and the child she was carrying. An invisible squirrel could only go so far to help a girl’s career.

Magnet
was a bit of fun, and once I realised there was a squirrel on the cover, he had to go in. Gerald might make it into another book, but for our next book, we leave W’lyn and head further into the Nyal Imperium in
Manifest
.

Thanks for reading,

Viola Grace

http://www.violagrace.com

[email protected]

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.

An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.

Listening to readers has gotten her this far, and with her 300th short story looming before the end of 2014, she will continue to listen in the future