Whyt’s Plea (2 page)

A small box was opened and the garbage was tucked inside it. “Okay, let’s get back on the trail.”

Whyt straddled the seat and scooted back so that he could mount in front of her. Once he had slid into position, she shifted forward until she was plastered against him. She felt him inhale sharply when her arms slid around him, but he started the engine, and they lifted off smoothly before they slid forward under the propulsion of the skimmer.

Three hours to Nathrin and she would be onto the next phase in her life.

The quartermaster gave her a grin as he handed her the collection of uniforms and a duffel bag to put them in. Once she had signed for them and filled out the necessary paperwork for the flight academy, Arguat loaded her back on the skimmer and took off for the depths of the nearby mountain range.

One moment, they were surrounded by stone, and the next, an open expanse of landing strips and buildings with personnel following strict paths around the facility.

Arguat settled down near one of the buildings and fished a pack out of the storage under the seat. “The administration building is waiting for you. We keep a thirty-six-hour staff rotation, so there will be someone there.”

Whyt was suddenly nervous. “I have to go in alone?”

“It is fine. I will accompany you and introduce you to the administrator.” He sighed and helped her settle her bag before setting a brisk pace across to the building with the lights on.

Whyt scuttled along and followed closely. When he showed her in and walked to the only person in the office, she straightened her shoulders and tried to make a good impression.

“So, this is Colonel Whisk’s personal pick, huh? Well, she wasn’t wrong about the other one, so I suppose we will see.” Every sibilant was hissed out through the woman’s lizard-like lips.

“Evening, Private Teh-sra.” Arguat leaned on the counter.

“Morning, Commander Arguat. What is your name, miss?” The woman’s large golden eyes were warm as she peered around the bulk of the commander to see Whyt.

“I am Private Whyt Beiencar.” She moved around her escort and approached the counter.

“Excellent. Here are your room keys, your itinerary and your map of the facility. Please sign here.” The woman extended a clipboard with a series of envelopes on it.

Whyt signed where instructed and stifled a jaw-cracking yawn.

The woman’s eyes narrowed kindly. “You can get six hours of sleep in before you are due at your first meeting. Go ahead to your quarters. They are in the same wing as the commander’s, so it should be easy to find them. He looks half dead, so it should be a fairly short trip.”

The envelopes were clutched in her arms and she held the key card with her name on it in her hand.

Private Teh-sra grinned. “Come back in tomorrow when you are dressed in your uniform and get your official photo.”

Whyt nodded numbly. She was exhausted, chilled to the bone and more than ready to crawl into bed. Any bed.

“Anything else?” Whyt asked it cautiously.

“Not tonight, sweetie. Go to bed.” The alien woman was kindly and waved her off.

Arguat sighed. “Finally. Come along, Whyt.”

She followed him out of the admin building, clutching her key card and trailing after him like a cygnet.

Her room was a relief and a quarter of the size of her rooms at home. She didn’t care and politely nodded farewell to Arguat before closing the door and crawling into bed. Five hours spent plastered to him had been interesting and given her more insight into male physiology than she ever had before, but it wasn’t enough to keep her awake.

She had six hours until her first meeting, and it was going to be a rough night’s sleep.

“I am not sure if this is me or not, but it is going to have to be.” Whyt looked at herself in the mirror, her hair was tightly braided in a coronet and her badge was clipped on the pocket.

The uniform was matte black, and it made her pale eyes and the white hair look even more surprising. The family marks on her cheeks stood out sharply, but her lips were pink and her skin was shining.

The alarm pinged again, and she turned to her map, routing her path before folding the map up and stuffing it in her pocket. The itinerary was clipped to her clipboard and she headed off for a quick meal in the commissary before her meeting.

Whyt tried to portray confidence as she made her food selections, but she ended up with a number of dishes that she could not identify, let alone digest. It was strange food mixed in with the Athuuna specialities, but she tried them.

She checked the clock, and when she had five minutes to spare, she drank her water, bussed her tray and took off for the meeting three buildings away.

When she entered the empty hangar, she paused and looked around. She called out, “Excuse me, am I in the right place?”

“Are you Private Beiencar?”

“Yes.”

“Then, you are in the right place.” An older male came around the corner wiping his hands on a rag.

“Oh.” She checked her paperwork and frowned. “I am not sure why I am here.”

He chuckled. “I am Sargent Drewing. You are my apprentice.”

“Um, sir, I am not sure what I am doing here.”

“Rule one, never call me sir. Call me Sarge or Drewing. Rule two, we are here to work; now, come with me. I am tearing apart one of our newest designs, and I want to see if you can spot the problem.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You will. Come along. We have a lot of work to do.” He winked his dark gold eyes and led the way.

She followed him, her gaze took in his deep chestnut hair, and she blinked as she recognized her first brown swan shifter or possibly goose. It would be impolite to ask, but if she saw anything more than the marks on his cheeks, she would know for sure. Less than eight hours at the base and she had already met nine more species than she had grown up with.

He took her around a curtain, and she whistled.

“That is quite something.”

“Tell me what it is, Private.”

“A flying device.” She circled it. “It has guns, struts for directional transfer and inter-atmospheric manoeuvring jets.”

“Excellent. It is one of Athuuna’s newest defensive ships, and it has being giving its pilot fits.”

“Oh. How?”

“It is rigged for mental command, and she is distracted, so her ship is distracted. She flew it into the side of a mountain, and we have to find out why the systems didn’t stop it.”

Upon closer viewing, Whyt could see the scars from the impact with the stone. “Ouch. Was the pilot okay?”

“She is fine. Her partner fished her out of the wreck and grounded her for a month.”

“She was grounded?”

“So to speak. She is the sole pilot of this vessel, so he bought us a month to fix it. That was a week ago. Let’s get to work.” He gestured for her to put her clipboard down and pulled a tray of tools out into the open.

She put her clipboard on the desk and rolled up her cuffs. “Okay, I can do this.”

He chuckled and ratcheted open one of the housings. “I thought you might say that.”

Whyt got to work next to him, and she pulled wires and cables with abandon. It was the most fun she had had in months.

Sarge bumped her elbow. “Go eat, Beiencar. They delivered dinner.”

Whyt blinked and finished attaching the exhaust coupling she had been working on. She wiped her hands off and got to her feet. Her head spun a little, but she made it over to the cart with the food and took a sandwich.

“You are not nearly as filthy as you should be, but you have done more work this afternoon than I have in six days. Colonel Whisk was right about you. Once we get it fixed up, we will find out whether you can fly it.”

She choked on her sandwich. “Fly it? I thought I was repairing it.”

“Someone has to test it out, and I am way too old to learn how to pilot one of these new ships. It is enough for me to just know how to repair the damned thing.” Sarge snorted and smacked the hull.

Looking at the ship, she tried to imagine how it would feel to actually fly it; to spin it through the clouds and back would be amazing.

She felt the beginnings of a grin take over her features. If her parents could see her now…

* * * *

“What do you mean, she isn’t here?”

Yelana Whisk sighed and shook her head at the man whose child she gave birth to two decades earlier. “I mean she isn’t in Nathrin. You can search the entire base and the answer is the same. She isn’t here.”

Tevan Beiencar sat heavily in the chair on the other side of Colonel Whisk’s desk. “Damn. I was so hoping that it was something simple, like flight school.”

“I am sure she is fine, Tevan. How is Hyaki?”

“Nervous, just as she was twenty years ago. Do you think Whyt is all right?”

He looked at her with such desperation in his face, she gave in a little. “I am sure that if there was something wrong, you would know it. What happened the night that she left?”

Tevan blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I had just announced that she was betrothed and would be meeting her new husband this evening. Do you think that had anything to do with it?”

Yelana tried not to laugh. “It could have. It certainly would have spurred her to action if that was not what she had in mind. Does she know her fiancé?”

Tevan sighed and ran a hand through his snow-white hair. “Yes. They were introduced a few years ago. She thought him arrogant at the time, and so, we dropped it but neither of them is getting younger. We need to see her settled, and he is willing to take her as she is. He knows she can’t shift and that is our entire criteria for a mate for her.”

Yelana shook her head. “Does he know she is gone?”

“No. He was recalled to the base and is here somewhere. I don’t want to alarm him about her disappearance.” Tevan scratched his neck. “I hear that you and Rhand are together.”

Yelana laughed. “Now and then. The timing is almost right, but our daughter is so very lovely. What does Whyt look like?”

She smiled as he waxed poetic about the pale shimmer of her eyes, the bright white of her hair and the elegant sweep of both her cheekbones and the family markings that cruised over them.

When he added, “She will make someone an excellent wife.”

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why will she make someone an excellent wife? From what you have told me of her upbringing, she has been raised like a captive animal. How can she take charge of a household when she has never been given any responsibility?”

He scowled. “She has great capacity for learning. Her mind is hungry for new experiences. She will thrive in any environment.”

Colonel Whisk smiled and leaned back. “Then, be at ease. If I see our daughter, I will tell her to contact you. I cannot promise that she will return home, but she will make contact.”

He got to his feet, bowed and paused at the door. “Thank you again, Yelana. We would never have known the joy of raising her if it wasn’t for you. I think that the desire for a child was what drove Hyaki into her protective mode. I was simply unable to jostle her out of that mode.”

The colonel smiled. “She is a good mother. I have no doubt that Whyt is graceful and accomplished. She might even have table manners. You should be very proud.”

“We are. Pride has always been foremost in our thoughts when Whyt was mentioned. She is so much more than we could have dreamed of.” He saluted sharply and left her quarters.

Yelana muttered, “And it is the more that I am concerning myself with.”

She opened her drawer and looked at the grim photo that had come across her desk from the test base. Private Whyt Beiencar was staring back at her, exhausted but determined. It was a matter of time before they met, but Yelana had confidence that her daughter was doing well under the watchful eye of Sarge. He was always a good judge of the skills of those under him. If he said she was good, she was excellent.

Of course she was excellent, she came from superior stock if Yelana did say so herself.

* * * *

Mornings were spent in theory tutoring with Commander Arguat and afternoons were spent with Sarge, putting the finishing touches on the repairs of the fighter pod. Eventually, it was complete and it was time to test her work.

She watched Sarge push the pod out and swallowed nervously. “Why do I have to be the one to try the systems?”

Sarge grinned, “Because you are almost the exact size as the pilot. The ship will handle better for you. I would just weigh it down.”

Whyt nodded, and when they were out on the repair launch pad, she looked at the machine. “Well, I suppose I have to stand by my work.”

“Good way to look at it, Beiencar. Now, quit stalling.”

She wrinkled her nose and stepped into the pilot’s position. She had added sensors to the grip plates around her waist, and as the machine touched her, it came to life.

“Check the rotation.” Sarge’s voice came through the interior speakers.

She slipped the headset on and nodded. She bent and twisted in the confines of the ship. The ailerons moved with her, and she sighed with relief. “Working.”

“Good. Key up the engines and try to keep a hover.”

Whyt inhaled and cued the engines. The ship lifted off, and she felt the rush of being airborne for the first time in her life.

It was hard to hold the ship at a hover when she wanted to surge it into the skies and see what it could do, but she held it and took it through its paces while Sarge gave her orders through the headset.

She asked, “Sarge, to properly give this a shakedown, I need to take it for a spin.” Whyt heard a chuckle in the headset.

“I thought you might. Your flight buddy is standing by in the newest fighter pod. I will switch you over to his frequency, and you can meet him over by the research centre.”

She grinned and moved up to inter-base flight height before skimming along to the research hangar. A pod rose to greet her, and she should have been more surprised to see Commander Arguat behind the controls, but she wasn’t. It seemed perfectly right that he be the one to fly next to her through the air corridor over the base.