Broken Wings (2 page)

Morganti Base was clean, neat, well organized and surprisingly busy. The base physician met her at the shuttle and helped her out of the tank and into the building.

He kept his arm low so as not to stress her shoulders as they walked the halls. “Well, this is Sector Guard Base Morganti. We are honoured to have you here. My name is Dr. Nywyn, but you can call me Effin.”

“Minerva Nhu, but you can call me Minny.” Her voice was hoarse from coughing out the tank fluid.

“Well, Minny, when you declined Teklan, they asked to bring you here for an assessment. They want to determine if you have an underlying psychic talent that you have not been aware of.”

They were walking slowly, and a line of children went giggling through the hallway with one of the little girls flicking in and out of view.

“There are children here?”

“Yes, the Sector Guard encourages the teams to be made up of mated partners. There is an inevitable result from that interaction if the species are genetically compatible.” He smiled. “And they like to play tag in the corridor.”

Minny wanted to run down the hall and play with them. She was only two years out of the schoolroom herself. Her introduction to adulthood had been rather aggressive and sudden. One moment she was a cadet, and the next, she was climbing into a mech.

Effin eased her into the Medical bay and settled her carefully on a bed that had a gel surface to support her back with cool gentleness.

“Do you get a lot of folk with intensive damage to tissue?”

“Being a Guardsman is dangerous work. Reset is a great asset to the team, but she can’t be everywhere at the same time. She is only used for large repairs when no other option is available.”

He talked and moved around her, setting up a bevy of machines.

“The Sector Guard bases try and take care of their people.”

She smiled slightly. “It must be nice. When my family joined the colonists leaving Jela, it was to start a new life in a society where women and men could live in harmony. This was achieved by only having mated couples on the journey. The children born there were educated in equality, but we always knew that there was another way to do things, and one day, it might land on our heads. The attack from the miners was not anticipated.”

“My sympathies for the loss of your family.”

She swallowed heavily. “Thank you.”

He patted her hand. “The units here will move and operate on their own. Please feel free to breathe and move as necessary.”

“Do I need to be quiet?”

“No, if you have questions, ask them.”

The machines began to move over her, lights hummed from the gel bed itself.

It took Minerva a while to formulate the question that was running around her mind, but she asked it with as much control as she could muster. “What happens to me now?”

Effin paused and stood as close to her as he could. “You go on, you get better and you find a new way to live.”

She nodded and the scans continued.

“Well, I don’t know what your talent is, but your wings are trying to regrow. There is something going on, but I cannot pin it down.”

“Can you stop my wings?”

Effin paused. “What?”

“Can you stop them from regrowing?” She swallowed.

“Why?”

“I was raised at Decla colony. I am not an Enjel and don’t fit in on Jela. I don’t want to be an Enjel anymore.” She sounded like a petulant child, even to her own ears.

He paused next to her and helped her to sit up. “You are an Enjel and always will be, at the genetic level. Your wings or lack thereof has no bearing on it.”

“I don’t want anyone to look at them and comment. I am not what I was two weeks ago.”

He eased her to the side so she could dangle her legs over the edge of the bed. “I am going to bring in a consultant, and we will see if we can halt the progress that your body wants to make.”

The words were enigmatic, and she sat with her legs dangling until a small girl brushed against her foot. There was a hiss from nearby and another girl became visible. The two stood and scowled at each other, having a rapid conversation in a weird short hand.

One of the girls turned and smiled. “You don’t look good.”

The other elbowed her. “You aren’t supposed to say that.”

Minerva smiled softly. “I don’t feel good.”

One hissed and shoved her sister to the side. “I told you so, dummy. She is in Medical and wearing a gown. She isn’t a Guard yet.”

“I am not here to be a Guard.” She shifted and her body ached.

One of the little girls put her hand on Minerva’s leg, and she held on. “I hope you feel better.”

The other girl chirped, “Why are you here?”

“Because my parents are dead and I was injured. There is nowhere else for me to go.”

The little girls must have had more than their fair share of empathy, because they wrapped their arms around her legs and sobbed.

Effin came in and a woman with dark rainbow hair followed him. She sighed, and the moment she took hold of the children, the resemblance was more than apparent. “Come on, girls. You are getting Minerva all wet.”

The little girls turned and clung to their mother. Babbling out how Minerva didn’t have parents and she needed to stay with them.

“Enough. Isala, Mabi, go to your nanny. He is looking all over for you, but since Medical is not in your allowed zones, he didn’t look here. Go and set his mind at ease. Junior is worried about you.”

The girls bobbed quick curtsies to Minerva and left Medical.

The mother smiled. “I apologize. I am Mala, or Fixer if you prefer. Effin has told me about the regeneration with your wings, and I have to say, I have been dying to try something temporal. Your wings will come back. Based on the scans there is no doubt of the regeneration. But, I can delay it.”

“You can?”

Mala’s expression was kind. “I hope I can. Effin will guide me while I work, but halting the growth in the base of your wings should be possible. Will you let me try?”

Minerva stared into the rainbow eyes of Fixer. The solemn determination was more bracing than any pity. “Please. Do what you can.”

Effin was moving around in the background, and soon, Minerva was face down on a surgical table with the two prodding the scars on her back, analyzing the tissue damage.

She was given a shot and everything faded to black.

“Mechanical! That is it; you control any object you are in touch with.” Mala was reading the display and checking the data from the initial medical team.

Minerva was sitting in her new suit with the heavy metal banding around her waist and back. Her hair was in a shiny cut that swung when she moved, and she was feeling a lot better.

“What about my skin growing like that?”

“The body is a machine. It was trying to bond you to anything touching your muscles, since you had an open wound, it was a dangerous situation.”

“Why would you think I had a leaning toward mechanical control?”

Mala turned toward her and sighed. “Well, as you don’t seem to know, a blast to your mech turned it into a large chunk of scrap metal six hours after you first got into it. It was you and you alone that kept the mech moving and operating even after it had run out of ammunition. That was all you.”

Minerva blinked. “Great. How would we test it?”

Mala slowly rotated the chair to look around her workshop. “Aha! That should do.”

“What?”

“It is a jumper harness that I made to help regular-gravity species on heavy grav worlds. It is designed to propel folks upward. I haven’t installed a power system. I keep getting interrupted.”

Minerva tried to flex her wings, but the pressure of the metal against her back reminded her that they weren’t there anymore.

Mala must have seen something in her face. “How are you adapting?”

“I am doing better today. I have only tried to move them three times today.”

Mala made a sympathetic face and then smiled. “Well, you will be flying in a sort of way if you can get the harness moving.”

The straps were odd, the harness confining, but Minerva stood in the exoskeleton and slowly lifted her arms. Mala stood in front of her and waved for her to approach.

Minerva took one step and then another. The thudding of the harness was echoing inside the workshop.

The spring in the steps was increasing, propelling her with more force. “I am going to need to get this outside soon.”

Mala stepped to one side. “Take it for a run and then bring it back.”

Minerva kept the bouncing to a minimum until she made it past the door, and she headed down the tarmac, getting as high as she could with each step. When she reached the far end, she sprinted around the edge until she was aimed toward Fixer’s workshop once again.

* * * *

Effin called Mala on the com. “How is she doing?”

Mala looked at him. “She is doing well. The growth is arrested and has not recurred. She should be able to travel soon.”

“Relay has contacted Citadel Balen. Minerva will be welcome there until she finishes her recovery, and then, she will be sent on to Citadel Ohkhan for training and permanent assignment.”

Mala glanced out and watched Minerva bounding around in the distance. “Why the double transfer?”

“From what Balen has said, there is someone who wishes to meet with Minerva.”

Mala scowled. “I don’t like her being shifted around. If she is being sent to Ohkhan, I want her to go straight there.”

“I will have Relay make the arrangements. I don’t know if anyone has ever mailed one of them before, but Minerva is a special circumstance.”

Mala looked up as Minerva tried to still the bouncing of the harness. “She will remain here for a few more days; I need to complete her suits.”

“Are you going through with it?”

“If she needs them, she will have them. I don’t care what she says right now, flying is part of her life.” Mala could sense it; she knew what it was like to have lost a beloved parent, and to lose two and her wings in the course of a few hours had dented Minerva’s sense of her personal reality.

Mala had had her mother to focus on, but Minerva had nothing. Everything familiar was gone. She needed a new purpose as quickly as she could find one.

Citadel Ohkhan had an excellent reputation for training; they were going to earn another star talent for their team if they could get Minerva under control and seeking a future.

For Minerva’s species, she was barely out of her teens. A new adult, she had just been learning her path on her world when it had been shattered beneath her. Now, she was something new, and it would take others who could help her gain a grip on the changes to get her to accept what she had become.

Mala was eager to see where Minerva’s career would take her.

Minerva was nervous as she put in the coordinates for Citadel Ohkhan, but the ship she had been given was Fixer’s gift to her. It was one of a kind, and it was all adaptable for form and function.

Two days of flight training in a shuttle made her nervous, but the comforting pressure of her suit eased some of the tension. Being out on her own was just what she needed.

When the ship’s controls took over, she put her gloved hands over her eyes and sobbed until she was dizzy, her throat was raw and her soul matched it.

She got to her feet and staggered to the galley, getting a pot of tea and looking back toward the present that Mala had added to her pile of equipment. She could not imagine the circumstances that would drive her to that extreme, but she had not been able to imagine any of the events in her life that had led to her being alone on a ship and heading for a new world that she was bound to call home.

She pressed a cool compress to her eyes and cheeks.

Oh, she missed them. She missed everyone on Decla, for that matter. What use could she be to the Citadel if she was no longer what she was born to be? Mala had tried to cheer her up, but without the relentless efforts aimed at her, Minerva felt the hollowness creep in.

Leaning back in a chair was an odd feeling. The support that it offered was surprising. Enjel chairs were designed with narrow backs that settled between the wings. It was more for looks than support. Actual backs on the chairs were rather interesting, as was the act of lounging.

She poured herself another cup of tea, and she returned to the controls. Watching the stars go by was a far better option than sitting and reflecting on all the changes she had just been through.

It was a two-day journey in silence, and she would have plenty of time to grieve on the way. The stars were alone and they would sympathize. It was better to be alone in company, sometimes. This was one of those times.

Her ship wobbled as it landed, but she followed the directions from ground control and settled in her assigned zone.

“Whew.” She wanted polite applause, but she settled for standing up and getting her bag of light armour and clothing.

She made sure that all systems were set to passive mode, and she disembarked into the highly floral air of Ohkhan.

An arrangement of buildings clumped together until they culminated in a tower was her destination. From the brief information pack she had studied, it was the hallmark of every Citadel, no matter the architecture.

A man approached her, and he raised his eyebrows as she drew near. “Minerva Nhu?”

She nodded. “I am.”

“I am Master Kibor. I will be your instructor while you are in training. Novice Minerva, or would you prefer Novice Nhu?”

“Novice Minerva, please.” She swallowed as the sound of her family name sent a pang through her.

“Please, come this way. Your quarters will be in the Specialists’ quarters. We have been assured that you already have a grasp of your talent, so the title of Novice is mere formality.”

“I believe that Guardsman Fixer has overestimated my skills.”

“I do not believe that is the case; however, that is what we will discover. After I show you to your quarters, we shall have lunch and you can tell me what your goals are for your education.”