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She leaned her head forward and enjoyed the feel of his hands. For one week, she and those hands had been intimate as well as the rest of his body. After that week, he had gone his way and she had been stuck staring at the sky. It had taken her months to recover from her elevated hopes being dashed, and she had no inclination to pine for him again. That said, he really knew how to administer a neck rub.

“You know, you make the same noises when you are having sex.”

She laughed. “Both of them give me release of tension. Ohhh.”

He worked at a knot in her shoulders. “You realise I am hard as a rock right now.”

“You realise that I don’t care.”

He sighed and bit the back of her neck carefully. “You are a cruel woman.”

“You are the one who informed me that duty was paramount. I learned to separate sex from work, and it was all thanks to you.”

He paused. “I am sorry that my leaving was so unexpected.”

“I got used to it and I have no urge to feel that again, so keep it in your suit, Solos.”

He went silent but continued to knead her back.

When he finally smoothed his hands up her back and patted her shoulders again, she sighed. “How long until landfall?”

“Another day of travel. Thirty-two hours until we reach Jaluum.”

She nodded.

He asked, “Have you found other candidates?”

“You mean aside from the defender that made headlines? Yes.”

“How many?”

“Nine. Different powers, different genders, but I believe that I can find what I need.”

“Good. I will look at the offered sites and give you my opinion.”

“Thank you.” She smiled politely at him.

He left her in the cargo hold, and she got back to making notes and reading news reports going back three years.

The obvious choice was becoming less obvious with every passing story. It seemed that Jaluum had a lot of powerful people who just wanted to live their lives. The hardest part of getting them to join the Guardian project was going to be convincing them to leave their normal lives behind.

No one wanted to leave their families for danger. It just wasn’t something that was what folks wanted to do when they grew up. They wanted to be happy and healthy with occasional frissons of peril. That was it.

Brigs sat back and blew her hair out of her eyes. The damned white stuff liked to crawl all over the place; it refused to be tamed. She was one of a handful of Terrans whose hair had been prematurely white. A few other pale heads had caught her attention during the orientation speech, but she had not gotten together with any of them until she ran into the wife of Charm. She was an artist who could paint the future of her subjects. She had offered to do a painting for Brigs, but Brigeet had declined.

From a little note she received two months after their meeting, Rhoda had done a portrait for her, but she wasn’t willing to send it to Brigs without authorization. Apparently, it was not a standard combination of persons within the image.

Brigs had just separated from Solos when she met Rhoda, but based on veiled references, he was not the sole person in the portrait with her.

The curious nature of the portrait had been something that Brigs had pushed to the back of her mind. She was better off not knowing.

Dealing with the men in the Nyal Imperium took a lot of effort. After a lot of soul searching, she had decided to ignore them as a rule. Brigs didn’t have a temperament for loving and losing. The next time she let herself fall in love, she would have herself in a position to let it last.

When she was in love, she gave it her all, and when it was taken away, she lost part of herself. The next time she fell, there was going to be someone to catch her.

She kept chanting it to herself while she worked. She wanted love, she deserved love, but work had to settle and she had to know where her next meal was coming from. The imperium could be cruel to those who didn’t have family to back them up and a Terran in their midst qualified.

Brigs put her list aside and headed to bed.

There would be plenty of time to nail down the options, but the
saviour of Jaluum
was going to have a problem with her. With every passing bit of research, she found out that he had had a much smaller involvement with the resistance to the alien attack than most people wanted to admit. He was all flash and minimal damage, so unless he could prove differently, he was going to remain a memory of Jaluum.

Brigs didn’t bother locking her door. Solos could open it if he just thought about it. There was literally nowhere to hide on his ship. He was everywhere.

She snugged under the covers and passed out with images of files dancing in her head.

Tomorrow would be soon enough to think about what she was going to do with being confronted by the man of her dreams and not wishing him to join her nightmares.

Emotional hangovers were the worst. The next morning, her mood was black and she flinched whenever Solos came into her vicinity. If she didn’t make herself more pleasant, she wasn’t going to have much luck with her recruitment.

Solos was steering clear of her so that left her with one option; it was time to lock herself in her quarters.

Solos pinned her to the wall and thrust into her. She shivered at the graze of his teeth against her neck as her back pressed to the unyielding surface and his body was the only thing that supported her.

She licked and bit at his shoulder, gasping with every hard slide. He drew his nails up her torso, stroking and irritating her skin with delicate precision. They had been intimate for days, but he already knew what did and didn’t work.

Their bodies slid and smacked together as Solos took her higher and higher, until she bit his shoulder and groaned as her mind came apart and light flared behind her eyes.

Brigs fell to her knees in the gel shower and let the pleasure run its course through her system.

It felt like cheating to use a memory of Solos to ease her stress, but it worked, so she was going to have to live with it. She slowly stood, braced herself on the wall and cleaned off the slick residue of her stress relief using the gel.

It came out warm and hardened on her skin, shattering and taking all the dirt and oils from her body. She felt relaxed and ready for another day of narrowing her choices. Brigs not only had to choose the right super-being, but she also had to do it in the correct order. If she picked wrong and the citizen was not interested or was repulsed by her offer, it could blow the whole thing. Word would spread and she would be off world in no time, with a stain on her recruitment record.

There was nothing like performance anxiety to freak her out.

Brigeet got her formal clothing on, and when she exited her quarters, Solos shook his head.

“That won’t do. Wear your bodysuit, cloak and practical boots. Jaluum is a harvest-based culture. You don’t want to present as someone fancy or elite. You want them to see you as someone who can offer them employment in the service to their people but not someone putting on airs.”

Brigs returned to her room and put the cloak on. “Fine.”

She pulled off her formal footwear and yanked on the boots. Aside from the hero that she was to interview, the rest of the visits were going to be on farms, so it was practical.

Brigs exited her room again and stalked toward the cargo hold. “I hope you know what I am doing.”

Solos smiled and pushed the hood of the cloak off her head. “You know how we love the white hair.”

“Oh, okay. I thought it was just you there.”

“Nope. It is cultural. Only one in fifty thousand women have white hair here. It is a highly desirable characteristic.” He pulled her long braid out and let it cascade down her right side.

“It makes me feel a little cheap to play on a cultural peculiarity.”

“Just forget that it is there.”

“I usually do. It will just make me guilty later.”

“I know. We will go somewhere nice for dinner when your recruitments are finished.” He smiled and caressed her cheek.

She nodded. “I might take you up on that.”

He straightened his shoulders and brushed at his uniform. When he was his normal, flawless self, he opened the rear hatch for their check through Jaluum customs. Once the officers had completed their scan of the vessel, they were free to leave to visit any areas of the world that would catch their interest.

Brigs kept her data pack with her and showed Solos the addresses when he asked. He keyed in the information, and their small skimmer shot out of the back of the ship, taking to the air with incredible speed.

The clear dome over the top of the skimmer made the flight easy with a lack of wind in her hair.

The first name on her list was Deniali Sarco. She had first immerged on the radar when a new weather system had emerged without warning to water an area wracked with drought.

Brigs was here to see if she was interested in the Guardian project and to check into Deniali’s marital status. Things were different on Jaluum, but bonding was still in the society, they just didn’t limit the bond to two.

A few people came out to greet them, and Solos stepped forward to make the introductions.

“Good afternoon. My name is Solos. I am the companion of the recruiter for the Nyal Imperium special projects.”

The head of the household smiled with a friendly grin. “Welcome to our home. Please, come inside.”

Brigs walked calmly across the yard and followed her host into the house. Solos was right behind her. Having him with her was actually a good idea. He could break the ice with the isolated folk of Jaluum.

The family invited them in and the matriarch smiled. “Well, dear, what can we offer you?”

“Your hospitality is generous, but I wish to ask Deniali a few questions, if that is allowed.”

The young woman standing behind the matriarch blinked in surprise. “Me?”

The matriarch gestured and Deniali took a seat.

“This is where I ask a few questions, and when I leave, what is said here will go no further, there is no danger of discovery. Your decision is final and yours alone.”

Deniali nodded.

The matriarch gestured again and the rest of the family cleared the room. “Tell us, lady, what do you recruit for?”

Brigs smiled. “My name is Brigeet and I am a representative of the Guardian project. Three years ago, there was a weather anomaly in this area that preceded Deniali being sent to a medical centre with intense headaches. She remained in the med facility until the rains had stopped and the drought was over. I believe that she has a weather talent.”

Deniali blinked and swallowed.

The matriarch looked resigned. “I have been waiting for this day.”

Deniali rubbed her neck. “I had to do it.”

Brigs smiled. “I know. That is why you are on the recruitment list. You put your community above your own safety. That is a characteristic that I have been looking for.”

The matriarch leaned forward. “Where would my granddaughter be posted?”

Brigs smiled. “Here. There is a new Guardian outpost in the works and it will be here on Jaluum. With the strong community ties of your population, it would be best if the Guardians were all locals, so that is our goal. A minimum gathering of three Guardians will staff the base.”

Deniali bit her lip. “I do not have much control over it yet. I have been practicing in the barn, but it takes a bit of effort to roll a cloud in.”

Brigs nodded. “I understand. You have not been able to practice properly. It is a side effect of having a great power. I can guarantee you a place to work on control and a sizable income defending your world.”

The young woman’s eyes widened. “Income?”

“Yes. As Guardian, you would have an income, uniforms and meals provided as well as access to vehicles and the ability to visit your family on days off. You would still be on your world and still have everything familiar. If you are interested, I will give you my com link and I will return in a few days with a contract if you are inclined to sign on.”

Deniali blinked. “Just like that? You don’t want to see me in action?”

“I would love to, but that is not my primary function. I recruit members and they agree or not depending on their confidence level. If you would like to show me, I would love to see it.”

Deniali looked toward her matriarch and got a nod.

They followed the young woman to a barn that showed signs of lightning strikes. Inside, Deniali tucked them into an observation booth that had been reinforced, and the young woman quickly moved to the centre of the barn.

“She seems eager to show us her talent.”

“You are one of the few who can accept it on its merits. She is trying to impress you.” The matriarch spoke from behind them.

Brigs blinked. “Impress me?”

“Certainly. You are the most powerful female she has ever met. We have been taught to respect power since birth.”

Solos was standing in a corner of the booth, watching with a slight smile on his face.

Brigs sighed. “I am not powerful.”

The matriarch put a hand on her arm. “You sought and found her. No one has ever put the weather together with her before.”

Brigs didn’t know what to say. The connection had been obvious to her, but now, there was something happening in the centre of the barn.

Deniali was standing under a rapidly forming cloud and the weather system caressed her but didn’t touch her as she called wind and rain from the interior to whip around the barn.

When lightning struck out, Brigs jumped. Deniali could definitely be an asset, but when the storm ended, she slumped in exhaustion.

Brigs left the safety chamber and ran to Deniali’s side. “Are you all right?”

The young woman smiled. “I am great. Did you see it?”

“I did. Are the weak spells getting shorter?”

Deniali blinked. “How did you know?”

“Do you feel yourself getting the urge to use your talent, like a power surge is starting under your skin?”

The young talent nodded. “That is why this barn was set up. It is for me to burn off power without having an effect on the local systems.”