Numb

Given the chance to feel touch for the first time, she sacrifices her body for eternity in the arms of an immortal.

Gala suffered from lack of nerve response and had lived her life numb. Her lifetime was spent looking for damage to her body or avoiding it. When you can’t feel your limbs, anything can happen.

Given the chance to gain a sense of touch by giving her body to a planet for occupation, she becomes the Avatar of Rekfa without hesitation.

Rekfa shares her body and convinces her th
at she needs to seek out her own sense memories in whatever form they come.

Arez has been waiting for a mate of his own, and the Avatar is as close as he can come in this lifetime. He offers himself to her and is amazed when she takes him up on his offer to teach her what seduction can feel like when both parties are focused on the outcome.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Numb

Copyright © 2015 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-4874-0308-9

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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Numb

Terran Times Second Wave

By

Viola Grace

Gala Golden wiped the counter down with care. The scars on her hands made her scowl, but she kept to her routine.

She had to wait twenty minutes before she could go to her follow-up appointment at the Volunteer Centre or she would be too early.

“Gala, aren’t you getting ready?” Miriam West was the owner of the coin shop and her employer.

Gala nodded. “I have twenty extra minutes. I don’t want to get there too early.”

Her movements were careful, and she kept an eye on what she was doing. If she could feel pain, she would know when to stop applying pressure, but she couldn’t, so she had to watch her own skin for indicators.

“Better too early than too late. Go, get yourself some coffee and head to your meeting.”

Gala nodded and put the cloth and glass cleaner away. She pulled on her coat and put on her gloves, exchanging her clear lenses for sunglasses. She flexed to make sure that she didn’t have an injury that she could not feel in her fingers, and when everything moved properly, she headed out of the shop.

“See you later, Miriam!”

Gala kept her hands at her sides and walked the six blocks to the Volunteer Centre. She checked in at the front desk and waited.

“Ms. Golden? Would you come with me please?”

She kept her leather gloves on and followed the man to a comfortable office in the rear of the centre.

He held the door open for her and asked, “May I get you some tea?”

“Um. All right.”

The man smiled politely and left her alone in the comfortable chair.

Gala loosened her jacket, but she left the covering on her hands. They embarrassed her and had embarrassed her family until they decided that putting her in a medical facility was the only way she was going to make it to adulthood.

The visits had grown less and less frequent as the years went on, and her scars had built up every time she snagged a finger or lost track of where a car door was. Her hands were damaged beyond what was considered socially acceptable.

The rest of her body had suffered similar damage, but her hands were the part she couldn’t easily hide.

A small person in a snazzy tunic and trousers came in. “Good afternoon, Ms. Golden. Are you warm enough?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“You don’t want to remove your jacket? Your gloves?”

She flexed her hands and hid them in her lap. “No, I am fine.”

“Well then. Ah, here is the tea.”

The man who escorted her in brought a tea tray, and the small silver man poured two cups, handing her one. She took the tea with a smile. “Thank you.”

She took a sip and set the cup in the saucer. Her mouth didn’t close in a normal position.

Her host cursed and quickly opened a small container on the tray and dumped it into the tea. “Drink that.”

She tried to sip it, but only a small bit ended up in her mouth. Apparently, it was enough.

“I do apologise, but I had to test you. We have many applicants claiming pervasive injuries and genetic damage that does not exist. I had to be sure that you were telling the truth.”

She nodded and sipped again. “It is fine. It isn’t the first time that someone has tested to see if I could feel anything. Usually, it ends up with someone stabbing me or breaking my fingers.”

Gala put down the tea on the table. “So, what was in my cup?”

“A mild acid. It was just enough to cause pain and swelling.”

“Oh, good. Nothing dangerous.”

He sighed. “May we begin again? My name is Recruiter Norz, and I would like to offer you an opportunity to live a normal life...sort of.”

She blinked. “Sort of?”

“There is a world who needs a physical Avatar. Its previous Avatar has passed on and it needs a new body. We are assured that if you are interested, the connection could make you feel. He would also repair the damage to your body. All scars and broken bones would be healed without a trace. You would be able to start again with a solid body, and the price would be sharing your mind with that of a world.”

“So, the congenital analgesia would be gone?” She fixated on that one fact.

“You could touch and be touched. The world swears that you will have a life beyond five hundred years on a world you cannot imagine.”

She pulled her gloves off and showed him the mass of scars, the buckled joints and the knobbly digits that she had to see every day. “Can he help me with this?”

Recruiter Norz looked at her through his wide black eyes. “He says he can. It is the mind of a world, do you understand that?”

“I understand that I am in a body I can’t feel. Someone can—and has—stabbed me in the back, and I didn’t notice. Every day, I live knowing that I can be struck, and unless it is hard enough to knock me off balance, I won’t even know. My joints are so damaged, I am binding up, and I will take any opportunity to live a life where I can touch and be touched.”

She took a deep breath. “If the opportunity is available, I would like to take it. I can go any time.”

“You don’t need any more details?”

“No. If I can repair my body and learn to feel, I will take it.” Gala’s hands trembled, and she carefully pulled her gloves back on. “The world is a dangerous place, and if you can’t sense it, can’t feel it, you are vulnerable. I hate that feeling. It is my life each and every day. I want a new life. I want a new start, and I am willing to pay for it with my body.”

He blinked and leaned back. “You have been abused.”

“A few times. When you can’t feel what is happening, the doctors only need to repair your body. I wasn’t even called to testify, because the police determined that if I couldn’t feel things, it wasn’t really a sexual assault. They depicted me as someone with a medical condition that precluded me from speaking for the prosecution. I don’t want to be helpless; I want to feel what is coming at me, a touch on my arm or a flicker of pain. I have never even felt pain.”

Norz smiled, showing shark-like teeth. “It is not all it is cracked up to be.”

“I would like to try it.”

“And so you shall. Rekfa is waiting to hear from us. I will send him the data today, and we will see how long it will take him to respond.”

She got to her feet. “Thank you. Pardon me for not finishing the tea.”

He chuckled and got to his feet. “We will be in touch. Where can we contact you?”

“At the shop or at home. I can’t manage a cell phone.” She shrugged and held up her hand.

“Of course. How much warning do you need?”

“I will pack today and be waiting. When you say go, I go.” She nodded and didn’t shake his hand. He didn’t try to touch hers, so it was a fair exchange.

She curled her hands into fists and walked down the hall and out through the Volunteer Centre front door. She returned to the coin shop and smiled at Miriam.

“How did it go, Gala?”

“Pretty good. I should know one way or another in the next week.” She smiled and went to the back room, hanging her coat up and carefully removing her jacket. She checked her hands and returned to work. There was glass to polish and lights to replace. Nothing brought out the sparkle in a coin like a spotlight.

* * * *

“So, I get in there, and the ship takes me to Rekfa?” She stared at the column filled with glowing, translucent liquid.

The physician nodded. “Yes, it is the best way to reduce the scarring and keep you in a secure position during transport. If you let us, we will wire you up and put you into the tank.”

“In for a penny, in for a pound. Where do you need me?”

“We usually apply an anesthetic.”

“Not necessary.”

“Right. Well then, into the decontamination beams and we will get the implants ready. Welcome to the Alliance Warship Triganna.”

Gala smiled and went behind the screen to remove her sundress, sandals and underwear. She wrapped the medical gown around her and stepped out from behind the screens.

She stood for decontamination and then walked up the steps to the top of the tank. The ports went in, the jacks were plugged to nutrients and she was lowered into the liquid for her trip to Rekfa.

It certainly beat every time she had caught her thumb in a seatbelt. Joints that had been dislocated as many times as hers did not hold. This was a longshot, but it was a chance at a future that might hurt, but she could feel it.

She was tired of being numb all day, every day.

Being decanted was peculiar. The oxygenated fluid in her lungs came out in a rush, followed by a wave of coughing that lacked dignity but got her breathing again.

The medical station at the Rekfa spaceport was fairly busy, but a wide berth had been made for her tank to be escorted into the private operating theatre for her decanting.

Two doctors watched from a distance, but it was the young man at her side stroking her back and helping her calm down to breathe easily.

“Come on, Gala. You can do it.” He ran his hand over her wet spine over and over until the coughing eased. She could hear the slide of his hand on her skin and the sound was reminiscent of sex.

She finally raised her head and stared at him. “Hiya.”

The man smiled. “I am Rekfa. You are here to replace this body.”

“That was blunt. What is wrong with that one?”

His lips quirked, and there was a sad expression on his features. “Jurad passed into the next world a few centuries ago. He was dying when I took him, and I gave him hundreds of years until he was ready to pass into the next world. You are not dying, so I expect your will to live is stronger.”

She sat up slowly, monitoring where her limbs were. “Is it painful?”

“No. I have heard it is pleasant and the feeling of freedom is tremendous. We can fly, call the winds, do whatever you want to do.”

“Can I feel?”

“It will be the first thing that we do, but I need to bring you to my home where the transfer can be engaged in with no damage to the surrounding area.”

“Will it be dangerous?” She reached for the railing, but he helped her to her feet.

“No, but there will be a lot of power coming out of me and entering you. It will have the effect of sunrise and sunset at the same time.”

She cocked her head. “Fine with me. That is what I am here for.”

Rekfa looked her over, and she knew what he saw. A lifetime of checking for injuries had turned up more than one. She was dotted with scars, her joints were swollen and burn marks dotted her arms and legs. She was a mess. She didn’t want to be beautiful; she just wanted to be normal.

Letting the mind of a world use her body was a price she was more than willing to pay.

“When do we leave?”

“As soon as you are dressed. Wait here a moment.”