Baffle (3 page)

“Sinder, are you unwell?” Geor’s hand was on her shoulder.

She couldn’t answer. Her body fought for oxygen, and as she continued gasping and coughing, hands lifted her. Geor ran with her until more hands held her down, placing a mask over her face.

They tinkered with the blend until finally she dragged in a shuddering breath.

A High Nalu with silver horns and snow-white skin looked down at her with a frown. His blue eyes were bright and concerned. “The gas burned her lungs. In her body, it became a toxic substance. She will need to remain here until her lungs heal themselves.”

Geor frowned. “How long will that take?”

“Days, weeks, months. I don’t know. I have never dealt with someone who wasn’t Nalu before.” The man was apparently a physician. He ran his hand through his white locks and spoke quietly to a female who was standing nearby.

Geor looked down at her, and Sinder met his gaze with fear in hers. She was terrified that she would not be able to breathe again on her own. Fire in her lungs was not something that happened all that often in her call of duty.

He took her hand. “I will contact your people and see what is to be done. I am sorry about this, Sinder. It was never my intent to harm you in any way.” He stroked her arm with one hand while he held her fingers in his other. “I am sorry.”

Sinder saw the sincerity in his eyes, and she nodded acceptance of his apology.

He released her hand with reluctance and left her in the infirmary in the care of the physician and his assistant.

Tears fell from her eyes as she realised that this was the most helpless she had ever been in her life.
This sucks.

Chapter Four

Geor returned, and there was a tension in every line of his body. He didn’t speak a word to her, but his gaze was intense as Crixox shared the occupation with his host in a blending of eye colour. With the doctor’s help, he released her breathing tank and lifted both her and the tank in his arms.

He walked slowly with the guard following them.

She looked up at him and concentrated on breathing through the mask. His features were tight and determined.

“Where are we going?” Her coughing stopped any further words.

“To speak with Kema. Your keepers have given her permission to help you. Now, don’t speak. Your lungs are not up to it.”

Their path took them over two bridges and up the side of a rocky hill. The scar from a meteor impact skidded up the hillside next to their path and when Geor reached the summit, the round mineral sphere that was Kema sat exposed and teetering on the edge of the crater that led down into a lava pool.

Geor carefully navigated the edge of the crater, and with deliberate care, he set Sinder down next to the precarious stone.

“Just speak to her in your mind. At this distance, she will hear you.” He spoke softly and hunkered down just out of reach.

Um, hello?

Greetings, Avatar. I have waited for you.

Um. I have not agreed to be your Avatar.

Do you wish to live?

Yes.

Then you have no choice. The gas they used to subdue you turned to acid in your lungs. Crixox’s touch was able to hold back the decay, but when his energy wore off, you were left with a dying body. I can fix that.

Can’t Crixox simply put more energy into me?

It would have the same effect. Only then, you would be a joint Avatar with Geor instead of my representative. I am by far the better choice.

This can’t be. I need to get approval.

Crixox has already obtained those agreements from your people, but he was unwilling to inform you for fear it would change your growing attraction to Geor.

Sinder sat there, stunned. Just like that. To save her life, she had to allow a strange consciousness to set up housekeeping.

I am not a huge fan of the process either. I was enjoying my flight through the universe until I smacked into Crixox. He is nice enough as a companion, but I want to experience more, and I wish to have a body to do it in. That means you. I promise to keep my intrusions to a minimum.

Sinder coughed and blood spattered the inside of her mask. She made up her mind before she could change it again.
How do we do this?

Lay your hands on my surface, and open your mind. It will have to be quick, because my balance isn’t the greatest, your touch will destroy my form as it rolls it into the lava. Are you ready for it?

A low croon came from the six guards, and they chanted a low refrain that entered Sinder’s bones and gave her the energy she needed to turn and touch the unstable rock that housed the last portion of a dead world.

Fire cruised up her arms the moment that she pressed her palms to the hot stone. Kema surged along her nerve endings and into her mind. The stone shifted and rolled slowly down the incline before it settled in the pool, slowly sinking beneath the bubbling stone.

Kema, are you in?

I am. I am repairing you as I speak. Thank you for agreeing to host me, you only had minutes left.

I felt as much. That level of weak, queasy and helpless are not things I normally experience.

You have no idea how happy I am to know that, Sinder.

Sinder laughed silently at the sarcasm of the sentient’s thoughts. It was nice to know that she and Kema had sarcasm in common.

The planet’s mind was moving into her own and there was less of Kema than Sinder had thought.

I am not whole. I am less than one ten-thousandth of my normal size. If I were larger, you would have needed to remain near my physical form. As it is, you are carrying all of me. Well, all that is left. I was only able to put my consciousness in that one segment, and it eroded on entry into Crixox’s atmosphere. He was very welcoming, but I knew what I wanted at that point and that thing was an Avatar.

Why did you want one that was fertile?

A delicate laugh rippled through her thoughts.
That was all Crixox. Geor has been with him for a while, and he misses not having family of his own. I agreed that my Avatar would consider mating with his in an effort to produce little High Nalu hybrids, but my Avatar had to be compatible. They picked you.

Crap.

Indeed. Don’t worry. I can stall your cycle indefinitely. When you are ready, we will discuss it and not before.

Well, that was something at least. A rush to motherhood had never been in her plans. Learning what her mating partner’s penis looked like had to be phase one of her plan, and given the size of Geor, she was not keen on that little exploration.

You are amusing, Sinder. Your mind flits from one subject to the next with such speed.

Thank you, Kema. You are far less invasive than I imagined.
She chuckled and then inhaled sharply. No pain. She carefully reached up and removed her mask, taking soft, exploratory breaths.

It feels better.

Well, don’t try to run quite yet, but breathing should be fine. Your body is responding well.

Sinder sat up slowly, checking her balance as she braced her hands on the stone under her. The world around her glittered with more than simply the normal colours of the spectrum, she could see the energy patterns in every living thing around her.

Kema, what am I looking at?

Crixox. He is in everything around us. You are seeing him the way that planets see each other. We have individual energy patterns, and now that I am bonded to you, you see them as I do.

What did I look like?

An image of her pale grey aura barely clinging to her body was placed in her thoughts.
You were very close to the edge.

Apparently. So, can I get up?

If Crixox’s men will allow you to walk on your own, go ahead.

Sinder fought a scowl and swivelled until she was crouching. With a low grunt, she pushed herself to her feet, swaying on the edge of the crater.

“How are you feeling, Avatar?” Geor gripped her elbow and stabilized her.

“Better. Do I need to take the tank back?”

He laughed. “The guard will carry it. Come with me.”

She wobbled and followed him off the edge of the crater, back to the path that snaked up the side of the open mountain. As she left, she cast one look back at the rock that had contained the soul of Kema. An image of glowing sky redolent with pinks and golds came to her mind, and a tear snaked down her cheek.

Geor was watching her carefully when she returned to face him. He didn’t say a word but helped her slowly down the hill and back into the city of the High Nalu.

The few people on the walkways took one look at their group and moved out of their way. The colours she was seeing in the population fascinated Sinder. When one of the women displayed two distinct patterns, it was obvious that she was pregnant.

His voice was low. “What are you seeing, Avatar?”

“Probably the same thing that you are, the colours of Crixox in the souls of the High Nalu.”

Geor didn’t say anything, merely nodded and continued to guide her through the city. The guards were still with them but further out and less tense than they had been on their way to Kema.

Sinder listened to Kema as she made space for herself in Sinder’s mind. The planet was humming softly, songs ancient and slow. The songs calmed the parts of Sinder that were still panicking at the feeling of another mind inside her own.

Surrounded by strangers on a strange world, she had one friend, and she was carrying it with her wherever she went.

Chapter Five

Geor led her back the way they had come.

“I am not sure that I am up to another trip to the infirmary. I feel fine actually.” She tried to keep her tone light.

“The physician will still need to verify that your lungs are healing. I am still not sure what occurred there, but the Alliance provided us with your species specs, so he will have a better idea of what happened.”

She nodded and entered the infirmary ahead of the group.

The physician seemed shocked to see her up and walking. “Agent Baroque, you look better.”

“I feel better. Mind you, I am now a
we
, so there are two of us in here now. One of us is bound to be in good shape.”

He didn’t seem to know how to take that, so he bustled her into the examination room and closed the door in Geor’s face.

Sinder stifled a laugh and hopped up on the table. In a peculiar mimicry of an earth physician, he listened to her breathing with an instrument slipped into contact with the skin of her back.

“If I did not know better, I would say this was a miracle. Do you really have the mind of the meteor inside you?”

She shrugged and noted that the colouration of his aura had changed.

He isn’t right. Get out of here.
There was tension in Kema’s thought.

Sinder faced the physician while she gathered her power and prepared to act. The physician seemed to have the same thought, and he lunged at her with a hypo in his hand.

She didn’t scream. Sinder slipped from the table and speared the doctor with as much confusion as she could manage.

He jerked to a halt, and his eyes widened. The hypo clattered to the ground, and he looked around in confusion.

Sinder backed toward the door, unwilling to let him out of her sight. When she got the door open, she struck Geor.

“What is wrong, Sinder?”

She dragged in a deep breath. “I don’t think that the doctor is a fan of Kema. He tried to zap me with a hypo, but I am in fairly sound health, so I zapped him instead.”

Geor gripped her shoulders and barked a strange sound. Two of the guards entered the examination room and quickly searched the workstation. One of the cowled men nodded and spoke, “A Purist, Lord Geor.”

The doctor’s assistant was facing one of the guards.

Geor whispered, “What do you see when you look at her?”

“Fear, confusion, but no hate.” Sinder could feel Kema watching nervously from within her mind.

“Are you sure?” The guard facing the woman grunted.

“Yes, and she could not have been affected by the spike, she wasn’t in the room. Her confusion is genuine.”

Geor walked over to the assistant and spoke quietly to her.

Two of the guards moved and flanked Sinder on either side.

The guards in the exam room finished their work on the doctor’s workstation. One of them took the loaded data pad and the other took the baffled physician into his custody.

Geor returned to Sinder’s side. “We will return to my home. I will fill you in on what seems to have transpired.”

She nodded and took a few steps toward the door. The guards surrounded them and closed ranks, on full alert once again. Sinder followed the lead guard and noted that their destination was far more ornate than the surrounding buildings.

“You live in a temple?”

Geor quirked a strained smile. “
We
live in a temple.”

She knew that he wasn’t just referring to Geor and Crixox. She and Kema were now in the equation with them.

Once inside, the doctor was hustled off in one direction while Geor steered Sinder down a hall and into a large dining area.

Row upon row of tables took up a lot of the space. It could house over a hundred diners if they got cozy. A solitary table was up on a platform at the far side of the hall. The glowing light coming through the panes of coloured glass would frame anyone sitting there.

Geor took her right to the platform and settled her in a chair before summoning a server with a slight flick of his hand.

The server brought tea and bustled off with a smile and a blush.

“She likes you.” Sinder smiled and sipped at her tea.

He sighed and leaned back. “Geor was popular with the ladies even before he became my Avatar
.
”

Blinking, Sinder turned and saw that Crixox was in charge again. “Oh, hello again.”