Rhoe’s Request (3 page)

“If that is an echo of what your father knew, it is truly impressive.”

Rhoe didn’t mention that her mother apparently had the same leanings. Secrets were in place for a reason.

She reached out with her mind and skimmed it along Hiiron’s. He really was impressed with her skills. She quickly had to pull her mind back as they were approaching the base very quickly.

“Slow it down, use the launch mechanisms and bring us in, straight down.”

She had to think fast, her hands knew what to do, and it was a good thing, because her brain had gone completely blank. She almost halted the ship before she had the hovering mechanism engaged, and they jerked downward for ten feet until she mastered the landing pattern.

Rhoe set the ship down on the tarmac and summoned the bots with a beacon.

“Well done, Cadet Rhoe.”

“Thank you, Captain. What did I miss?”

“Nothing. Power the ship down, and we will wait until we are settled before we disembark. Running around on the tarmac in a combat situation can be deadly. There is a reason we use bots. Each one has two backups waiting.”

His voice was even in her ears and echoed through her mind. She used that echo to poke around in his emotions once again. There was amusement, patience and curiosity foremost in his mind.

She blinked; there was also awareness! She jerked her probe back to her own mind and slammed the door shut.

Through the helmet, she heard a rich chuckle. “Was it all you expected?”

Rhoe tried to pretend she didn’t know what he was referring to. “The flying? I expected more wind.”

The bot clicked onto the tether and hauled them into the hangar. Once inside, she opened the canopy and left the ship. She pulled the helmet off and shifted from foot to foot.

She cleared her throat. “What now?”

He pulled his helmet off and tucked it under his arm. “Now, we go and I make my report to the colonel. You are a candidate for our newest fighter.”

His eyes were a brown just a shade away from red, and they gleamed in the electric light of the hangar.

He walked away from the ship and put his helmet back on the rack. She followed suit with the unmarked helmet and then followed him down the corridors until they were standing in front of Colonel Whisk’s office.

He knocked sharply and opened the door, gesturing for her to precede him.

“Captain Hiiron, how nice to see you so soon. Report on Cadet Rhoe?”

“She has the highest ever recorded score on the simulator and just took a ship out without additional prompting.”

Colonel Whisk gave her an amused look. “How was the landing?”

Captain Hiiron answered, “It was a little bumpy, but she managed to get it under control. Are you positive that she has had no previous training?”

The colonel grinned. “I am positive. She has an impressive lineage and a craving for the sky. That is all.”

Hiiron straightened his shoulders. “That is not all. There was a touch on my mind during the exercise.”

Whisk sighed and propped her chin on her fist. “Rhoe, what were you told about that?”

Rhoe blushed and looked at her feet. “That there were some who would be able to feel it and they might comment on it.”

“Be lucky that it was Hiiron. He doesn’t like anyone knowing about his talent as well. Now, what do you think of her over all?” Colonel Whisk tented her fingers and gave Captain Hiiron a piercing look.

“She is impulsive, daring, has an excellent and serious mind when it comes to flight. Her reflexes are amazing.”

Colonel Whisk smiled. “Good. Get her assigned to the skyrunner project and step up her education.”

“Who will her instructor be?”

“Why, you, Captain Hiiron. I am sure that you are up for it. She doesn’t have any bad habits to break.”

“Colonel?”

Hiiron broadcasted a frustrated sense of…Rhoe couldn’t figure out what. It was dark and light, twisted and straight, everything at once.

Her mother winced. “Suck it up, Captain. No fraternizing with subordinate officers.”

Captain Hiiron’s cheeks darkened. “I was not…”

“You were. I know lust when I sense it, Captain. Now, return Cadet Rhoe to her class. Her supplemental training starts in the morning.”

Rhoe was in shock, but she followed Captain Hiiron back to where her group was seated and learning the fundamentals of hangar protocol.

A few of the other cadets gave her curious glances, but their instructor demanded their attention, and she soon was learning right along with the rest.

Four days passed before she was removed from the simulator practice and escorted down to a hangar with only two vehicles in it. They were peculiar looking, large, clear plexi orbs encrusted with weaponry, stabilizers for balance and a standing harness for the pilot.

Captain Hiiron was waiting for her. “Welcome to the skyrunner project.”

Her escort left, and she was alone with the captain.

“Thank you. What are those?”

He laughed, “These are the ships that put me on medical leave. It takes a while to change your reflexes from a standard ship to the skyrunner. Colonel Whisk thought it would be wiser to train a cadet with the highest simulator scores in one of the new ships so that they would not form habits that had to be broken.”

She looked up at him and blushed as his gaze was quite frank. Apparently, the interest she had in him was not alone in the room.

Hiiron cleared his throat. “This is your skyrunner. It was named thus because you fly it while standing upright. The harness is gyroscopic and always keeps you aligned with the ground beneath you. It took a few days to get a harness rated for your size. Try it.”

Rhoe walked around the ship slowly; she took in the location of every gun, every jet and every turret. The front of the skyrunner opened at her touch, and she slipped inside.

“Instead of a helmet, there is a headset. It will connect to your temples and read your impulses rather than you having hand-controlled steering. The guns are at your disposal, though they are currently not armed.”

She found the headset hanging on its own stand inside the cockpit. She settled it in place and the harness grabbed her, holding her tight. “Wow.”

“When you send the command through, it will lock the cockpit and pressurize it. If you choose to do that, I will put on my headset and use it as a com unit.”

Rhoe blinked, and he climbed into his own skyrunner. Her ship sealed and her fingers curled around the armrests. The moment she curled her hands, she felt the clicking of the weapons systems.

“I see you found the guns.”

She laughed and relaxed her hands. The bands around her forearms read her release of tension and the guns rotated.

“I think I know how you injured your arm. The instinct to grab a stick shift is strong.”

He chuckled, and she could see him via the plexi domes they were standing under.

“So is the reflex to flap. The next step, Cadet Rhoe, is to lift off. Think it, and it will happen.”

She followed her instincts and engaged the lift engines inside the hangar. She went up six feet and kept a steady hover.

“Good, Rhoe, now take it out and lift off above the base, keeping a steady hover at two hundred feet.”

The ship floated out, weightless as a bubble. Hiiron was next to her in an instant. Together, they rose up and away until they were hovering two hundred feet above the ground.

“The skyrunners work on gravity repulsion in both weapons and in propulsion. They don’t need large engines because we are working with magnetic forces here.”

She was hearing his words in her earpiece at the same time that her mind was getting it from his ship.

“Where to from here?”

He laughed. “Down to the hangar again. Now that we know you can fly one, there are a whole other set of simulations you need to run through. You get sent to the special class instead of standard simulations.”

She groaned but slowly lowered her skyrunner down low enough to float her into the hangar. Rhoe parked it right where she had first stepped into it, opened the hatch and powered it down. The harness released her, so she removed the headpiece and put it on its little stand. She stepped out of the ship and smiled brightly.

“That was amazing.” She felt giddy. “I think that was as close as I will get to regular flight in my lifetime.”

He looked at her in surprise. “Haven’t you been on a skimmer?”

“No. We didn’t have one at my settlement. My first experience was during the trip here.”

“You will need instruction on that as well. I can arrange it. It is far simpler than a fighter. No weapons systems to lose yourself in.”

She blinked. “I would like that. Can I log one out of the motor pool?”

“You can. You can even use a skimmer to travel to your home if you wish, once you get a weekend pass.”

She perked up. “That would be great. Do you go home now and then?”

“I do. We are assigned leave on a regular basis. I visit my parents, brothers, cousins, everyone. Do you come from a large family?”

She blinked. “Um, no.”

“I know your father is an excellent pilot, but you never mention your mother.” He was standing close to her, looking down with interest.

She cleared her throat. “I was the result of a contract breeding.”

He backed away sharply. “Oh.”

Rhoe sighed. While her means of birth was widely accepted in her home, she knew it was not usually the shifter way. Swans ideally mated for life. Her father had judged the consequences worth the contract, and she had never lacked for parental love.

“I think I should return to class.”

He stopped her with a hand to her shoulder. “Do you know who your mother was?”

She nodded. “I do. I respect her and her decision to bear me. She gave me a good life and an amazing father, though she could not be part of either.”

“That is a very accepting attitude.”

“When we are dealt a hand that was not of our choosing, all we can do is accept and move on. It is the choices we make that define us, not our origins.” She inclined her head.

“Very wise.”

“I will send your admiration to my father. He had this embroidered on every wall of my room while I was a teen.”

They started the walk back to the corridors. “It sounds like he was prepared for your circumstances.”

“He truly was. I never lacked for confirmation that I was loved and part of a community.” She smiled as soft emotions washed through her.

“You feel it strongly.”

His hint was taken; she pulled her shields around her. “I do.”

“Have you ever travelled to any of the other settlements?” His tone was casual.

“I have not. Halflings are not well received everywhere, or so I have been told.” She wrinkled her nose at the remembrance of being visited by one of her father’s cousins. The woman had been most unpleasant and had broken the hospitality agreement that she engaged in by insulting Rhoe in public.

“Your kind are rare but beautiful for all of that.”

She jerked her head around and stared at him, but Captain Hiiron’s eyes were straight forward, his jaw set.

“Um, thank you?”

“No thanks needed. You are what you are.”

She returned to her navigation course and settled in with the other students. Her body tingled from the ride, and her soul was tingling for another reason. He had noticed her and spoke to her in a flattering manner. Back home, that would be the first step of courtship. Here, who knew?

She took her tests and kept herself focused on her work. Her tests were in the highest percentage of her class, and she wanted to keep them there. She had a family reputation to maintain, even if she couldn’t talk about it.

Days coursed past and the skyrunner weapons were put online. Captain Hiiron took her out for target practice, but he never commented to her about her appearance or family again.

Eventually, all the cadets received leave for the annual holiday. Colonel Whisk called her into her office.

“Yes, Colonel?”

“Cadet Rhoe, you are doing well, and it is time for the holidays. You need to be with your father. Now, there is a shortage of skimmers for the direction of your settlement, so you have been granted permission to take the skyrunner. You will have to keep a pager on, but you will be able to show your father what you have achieved so far.” Her mother smiled.

Rhoe squeaked and ran around the desk to hug her mother. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. It was my suggestion, but the final decision was up to Captain Hiiron. He confirmed that you could manage the ship without any problems.”

“And you both know where I will be if you need the skyrunner back.”

Her mother laughed. “It wouldn’t matter. You and Hiiron are the only ones qualified to fly it. Now, go and take your three days. I am sure that your father will be delighted to have you home.”

Rhoe smiled brightly and ran back to her quarters, gathering a few pieces of her kit before she headed to the hangar. She was going home.

The gathering meadow next to the lake was wide open, so she set the skyrunner down. People rushed to greet her, and as she stepped out and engaged the locks, she was looking for only one face.

“Father!” She dropped her bag and ran to him, holding him tight as he spun her around.

“Rhoe! I have heard good things about your progress, but what the hell did you land in?”

She grinned and took his hand, pulling him toward the skyrunner. “This is the ship I have been training to fly.”

“They let you take it home?”

She shrugged. “No one else can fly it, so there was little risk to my taking it.”

A new voice said, “That is not precisely true, Cadet.”

She looked over, and Hiiron was approaching, wearing a formal robe that swirled around him with every step. “Captain?”

Her father grinned, “He arrived earlier and informed me that you would be arriving in a similar conveyance.”

Hiiron shrugged. “Colonel Whisk ordered me to attend your settlement during this holiday break. She did not say why, but an order is an order, and there was something in her eyes.”

Rhand nodded. “There is always something in Whisk’s eyes. She always knows more than she is telling.”