Thunder Struck (2 page)

Six months after her initial arrival, Kedna was showing her improvement in control by holding a thunderstorm in a set pattern during Taedra’s two-hour visit.

They had tea and tiny sandwiches while the storm raged on next to the mountain range. Halwis-Iskan was smiling at Taedra's amazement.

“Kedna is a treasure. She can hold onto her focus without any trouble when it comes to controlling a storm. She can also increase the intensity so it burns itself out more rapidly.”

Kedna poured tea for her elders and smiled. “I would like to ask a favour, Rep Taedra.”

“Please. Anything you need.”

“Taller bodysuits. I have started my growth spurt and am going to go up nearly a metre in height in the next three years. I need larger clothing.” She looked down and showed the distance between the leg of her bodysuit and the flat shoe she wore.

“Done. You will have them in two weeks or less. I will requisition them before I leave today.”

Kedna sighed in relief. “Thank you. Halwis has offered some of her old tunics, but it doesn’t feel right.”

Halwis made one of her hissing chuckles. “And I was far wider at the shoulder when I was her size, and it was over six hundred years ago. The clothing is out of fashion.”

It was also hard leather but Ked didn’t mention that. Wearing extinct animal leather went against everything her parents had taught her; leather was fine, it was the extinction that was the problem. Her mind considered them museum pieces. Surprisingly, Halwis understood.

With nothing else to concentrate on, Ked had already gone through all the necessary schooling required by her species. She was now interested in geology and meteorology. Those were specialities that Iskan was only too happy to help her with.

Taedra smiled at her. “You seem to be thriving here.”

Kedna nodded. “It is the best place for me to be until I get control over this energy of mine.”

She could see the rep’s chest move in relief, and she fought a smile. She had turned twelve while she had been on Iskan and her family had thrown a virtual party for her in the education room. Her homesickness had faded and she was enjoying being able to use her talent without danger of injuring anyone or blowing up any buildings. When it came to her talent, Halwis-Iskan gave her a free hand to do what she felt she must.

* * * *

Four years later, Halwis sat her down and took her hands. “Ked, there has been an urgent request for your assistance.”

Ked blinked in shock. “Me? Why me?”

Iskan took over. “
Kedna, as we all know, we are sitting inside one of the largest cyclones ever seen on a habitable world. That is all you. Rep Taedra has been watching your progress, and she feels you are able to assist.
”

Kedna tried to pull her hands away, but Iskan held her.

“I don’t think I can.”

“
I am confident you can, but your open mind is an issue that has not gotten better with time. I have sent for someone with healer and minder training. It is one of Halwis’s descendants. He has the same skills that she does, and with a little briefing, he will make you a good companion on assignments.
”

She swallowed. “So what you are telling me is that I am going.”

“
Yes. Halwis was nervous about telling you. She thinks of you as a daughter and doesn’t want to stress your control.
”

Kedna smiled, “And you, Iskan?”

“
I know what you are and what you can be. I want to see you become everything that lies in your potential and that means that you are going to have to begin taking flights from my surface and stepping on new worlds, changing their weather in the ways requested of you.
”

Ked inhaled sharply and nodded. “Right. Using it for something practical. When do I leave?”

Halwis took over and pulled her forward in a hug. “The ship is on its way to us now. It just entered our system. Haedock is a good lad. He will take care of you.”

“Is he the pilot?”

“No. A new organization is handling your mobility. The Sector Guard has a ship that can withstand the weather you will be facing.”

“What do you mean? Will I be dealing with something in progress?”

“Many species set situations in motion without realizing the consequences generations down the road. Even a world cannot simply quell what their occupant has put in place. The years it would take would kill three quarters of their population.”

That made Ked pay attention like nothing else. “Right. I had better get some rations and food together.”

“That’s my girl.” Halwis stroked her hair. “Now, let me show you where you are going.”

They activated the projector and were staring at a large world covered in swirling storms.

“They were experimenting with tectonic control and caused a volcanic event that ripped the world open and filled the atmosphere with heat and particulates. More disaster followed and they called for help.”

“And the Sector Guard is sending it?”

“They called the Citadel, didn’t they?” Halwis stroked her hair again.

Kedna smiled as she realized that it meant her. “Then, I suppose I should get ready so I can answer.”

“Being ready is always best.”

It was the mantra that they lived by ever since the great flood generated by Kedna’s turning a lake into a cloud formation. The city had been flooded for days until she had moved it all along, but it had only been Halwis’s forethought that allowed them to keep their power. Everything important was on the second floor.

With her nerves jumping, she went through all possible scenarios while she packed her bag with bodysuits, robes and rations for two weeks.

If she couldn’t get the job started a day after she arrived, she wouldn’t be able to do anything at all and she would be home within the week. She wasn’t sure what she was hoping for.

Haedock didn’t look anything like his ancestress. His skin had a soft gold finish and his hair was a deep brown, brushed away from his broad forehead to fall in feathery waves to his shoulders.

She fidgeted with her Specialist robes and inclined her head as she entered the galley. “Um, hello.”

Pilot was at the helm, jacked into the system. The
Class One
was a solid ship designed for peace and nothing else.

The galley contained the Minder and no one else.

Haedock lifted his head from his focus on his data pad. “Hello, Kedna, is it?”

“Kedna. Yes. Do you mind if I sit?”

He shifted his documents aside and shook his head. “Of course not. Do you enjoy living with the Avatar?”

She chuckled and got herself some tea from the dispenser. “That was very direct.”

“It was. So, do you?”

Ked sat and sipped at the tea. “It has taken getting used to, but I do enjoy it. Iskan is an excellent teacher and Halwis is very patient with me.”

“There was an uproar when we found out that Iskan was putting off our return for a few more centuries because of you.”

Her enjoyment and anticipation drained away. “I didn’t know that.”

“The storms you generate are city killers.” He gave her a sneer.

She jerked away and pulled her thoughts inward. With a few stumbled steps, she left the galley and headed for the cockpit.

When she realized that she was seeking help from Pilot, she stopped and instead returned to her quarters. She closed the door and tried to calm her heart.

Her inner self wailed. His words highlighted her deepest fears. She was hurting other people just by being herself.

She sat on the bunk and folded herself into a meditative posture. She needed to get herself under control or she would be useless when they arrived on the world she was supposed to work on.

If Haedock wouldn’t help her, she would have to reach into herself. That might drain her, but she was sure that even a man who hated her would help if she were dying.

She hoped that everything was going to go well, but in the meantime, she had to keep the storm inside her, inside her.

* * * *

Haedock winced at the reaction of the young woman but what did she think she was doing, pretending that she could change a world?

He had just reached his twenty-fourth year and knew precisely what he wanted from life. He wanted to join the Sector Guard and represent his people to the best of his ability. This stupid assignment was taking him away from a tryout on Keral.

What was his ancestress thinking calling for him specifically for this assignment?

The frail little thing was probably sobbing in her quarters now. He sighed and got to his feet. A flash of light got his attention, and he slowly sat down.

In her teacup was a storm complete with lightning and waves. He stared into it as the lightning flashed and the clouds roiled three inches over the surface, confined by the edge of the cup.

As he watched, the storm slowed and dissipated. Stunned, he opened his mind and sought out his charge.

She held herself with a will forged in pain and exhaustion so deep he flinched away from it. To his shock, he found out that she wasn’t just a slight alien as others had reported from Citadel visits to Iskan. She was a young woman but still much of a child.

She was a child and he had just told her that she destroyed everything she touched.

“Haedock, you are an asshole.” He groaned and removed his thoughts from hers. He needed to present a calm demeanour to her and offer her what support he could. He would apologise after she had completed her mission, if she could complete it. She was just a girl. How strong could her talent really be?

Wrapped in her furred cloak, she raised her arms once again to move the air. The third time was the final stroke. The wind moved and she brought currents back in alignment.

This world had been confined to the beginning of an ice age for three months before she had been deemed strong enough to stop and start it.

The ice hadn’t completely covered their globe but it had made good progress. All she could do was stop the process and restart the normal system. They would still have to deal with the change in the mean temperature, but it would get warmer over the next decade. There was no quick fix for a planet.

Storms flushed the skies and left bright clouds when they passed.

Haedock helped her back to the ship, pushing her down to the medical bed and pouring fire through her neurons. She gritted her teeth and breathed through the pain, it was just like Halwis’s power, the burn was nastily familiar.

He finished and rubbed his hands together. “Did that help?”

She sat up and nodded. “Yes. Thank you. Good work on stabilisation as well.”

Haedock chuckled. “I didn’t think you could do it, but I felt it. The weather is returning to normal.”

Ked rubbed at the back of her neck. “Can we go home now?”

“Pilot is already working on it.”

She watched as he shifted from foot to foot. Ked couldn’t tell if he was conflicted or had to use the lav.

She pushed past him and headed for the galley. “I don’t care if we are lifting off right away, I am eating.”

Kedna heard him follow her, but she warmed her meal pack and settled onto the bench with her eating prong shovelling food in her mouth as fast as she could. The engines started up, and they lifted off in considerably calmer conditions than they had landed in.

Haedock sat across from her and he blurted out, “I am sorry.”

She finished her first ration pack and got up to retrieve the second. She sat back down and kept eating. “Sorry for what?”

It was mumbled around her meal but he understood her.

“I shared a judgement that my people hold with you, without knowing more about the situation. I have learned via our connection that there is much more to the story than my folk know. I will set them straight when I get home.”

She spluttered, “Don’t do that. I can do my thing just fine with them thinking I am hogging an entire world. Iskan decides who does or does not live on his surface and I had forgotten that for a moment. Your people have had their time and the environment that Iskan is designing isn’t for you.”

“Is it being designed for you?”

She shrugged. “No. I don’t know what it is for, but I think it is more of a general environment sort of thing. I have never asked Halwis-Iskan about what they have planned, and they have never volunteered it.”

“Aren’t you curious?”

Ked shook her head. “No. They have told me that I will have a place there until my training is complete. I trust them.”

Haedock sat back. “You are a very unusual young woman.”

She shrugged. “You are not the first to say it.”

Inwardly, Ked was delighted. She had fulfilled her obligation and survived the experience. It was definitely the best result she could have hoped for, but now, she just wanted to get home.

* * * *

Life passed by in a series of short journeys into the surrounding systems with a Minder at her side. Haedock had been accepted into the Sector Guard and was busy with basic training on any number of worlds. Kedna had no idea. After two assignments with him, it was decided that she no longer needed to have a healer on hand. A regular Minder worked just fine once she got the hang of things.

Seven years had passed since that first assignment and Kedna had gotten used to being picked up and swept away by the shuttles that came for her, but she wanted a ship of her own. Unfortunately the way her talent worked meant that she could not fly away once she had completed her exertions. It was a pain but part of the reality of her situation.

She sat in the education centre and used her hands on the projection to tear down a jump engine and build it again. Her talent for mechanical devices had gone unused, but she knew it was there. Like a lot of the skills she had learned in theory, it would wait until it was needed.

“That is the twelfth time this week, Ked. You are going to wear out the hologram.” Halwis smiled at her from the arched doorway.

“If I ever need to know it, I would rather have the information than not.” Ked smiled back.