Tech Tack (2 page)

She was shown to a door and left to open it with her credentials. She slipped inside the tunnel that led ever downward. Ainora crossed a gantry over a chasm and approached the inverted cone structure that was the only source of light.

The steps led up and into a peculiar arrangement. On the lower level was living quarters and on the upper, the room was filled with monitors and one solitary chair.

The woman sitting in the chair was wearing a neutral expression, a bodysuit and four heavy cuffs.

“Hello, I am your new tech. I am here to check your cuffs.”

“Of course you are. I will just go about my duties while you work.”

Tech 534 knelt next to the chair and checked the cuffs and their linkages. The moment that she looked at them, she saw that an expert hand had tampered with the cuffs. They were no longer able to do more than deliver an unpleasant jolt. She replaced the necessary wiring, one cuff at a time but didn’t touch the altered settings.

It took about an hour and Tech 534 hummed to herself the entire time. The talent she was working with didn’t speak to her, so once she was done, Tech 534 got to her feet and said. “That is all for today. Have a good one.”

The talent took her gaze from the screen and cracked a small smile. “Thank you.”

Tech 534 waved farewell and headed back down the steps.

She kept her calm demeanour on her face until she was back at the capitol, and then, she sat in her quarters and shuddered, trying to get herself under control.

She had fixed dozens of control bands over the three years she had worked for the government, but this was the first time she had seen a facility built around a specific talent. It was a grim development.

Once she had herself under control, she washed her face and went to the commissary to get tea and a sandwich.

She got her tray and sat down, mulling over what she had seen that day and in the days previous to it. She had seen electrical talents used as emergency power supplies in areas with developing or faltering systems, had seen light-emitting talents used in mining, and medical talents were brought in when the patients had been sedated.

The use of talents was everywhere on Resicor, hidden from sight. The hypocrisy was enough to make her grind her teeth.

“Went to the New City?”

A man sat across from her and smiled.

She sipped at her tea. “Yes.”

“See anything interesting?”

He seemed to be trying to communicate with her. There was worry in his eyes.

She sipped again. “Have you been there?”

He nodded.

“Just routine maintenance, nothing extraordinary.”

The man nodded his head with a jerk, but she could see his relief.

“Have you been with the program long?” She needed to ask some casual questions in case someone was watching or listening.

“A few years. You?”

“The same.”

She nodded and got to her feet. “Nice speaking with you.”

He continued eating. “You as well.”

Tech 534 put her tray in the pile and headed back to her quarters. She now knew something she hadn’t before, but she didn’t really know it, which was better for her if she got a deep scan. Her mind was resilient to casual roaming, but a deep scan could still rip her inner thoughts wide open.

She settled on her bed and opened her mail to read the file her mother had sent her. All the wording was careful as it was known that other eyes read her mail.

Dear Ainora,

I was glad to hear that you are in good health and enjoying your work.

Your cousin has finished school and is seeking a government position. We are all very proud of her.

I wish that you were able to attend our twenty-fifth anniversary, but we understand that your work keeps you busy. Wish us well when that day comes and know we think of you often.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Ainora sat back and blinked. There was something in that message and a quick glance at the calendar gave her the clue that she was looking for. The anniversary had come and gone in the previous month. Her parents had also been married for twenty-six years, not twenty-five.

The nineteenth day of the month was coming up and if anything was going to happen, it was going to happen then or possibly on the twenty-fifth.

Ainora promised herself that she would be ready, but in the meantime, she would work as scheduled. If anything happened, she would be ready.

The nineteenth came and went without anything happening, as did the twenty-fifth. Ainora thought about her parents’ anniversary, and her eyes went wide. She would have to wait two years for the next eclipse over her parents’ home. It would be the anniversary of her conception. She had been conceived under the rare darkness, and her family considered it lucky.

With time stretching before her, she kept her attitude cheerful and her work accurate so that she never caught attention. She tried to lift the spirits of the talent at New City, but she had no idea if she managed it.

It wasn’t until she was due to visit New City again that she ran into trouble.

“Tech 534, come with us.” Having two guards burst into her rooms in the morning was not a normal event.

She got to her feet and finished putting the clip on her braid. She followed the two men down the hall and into a section of the facility that no talent wanted to go into. She was going to be
questioned
.

Ainora held her core beliefs and tried to remain calm as she was seated in an interrogation room and her hands were cuffed to the arms of the chair.

To her surprise, it was the empath from her first interview that came through the door. She didn’t let her guard down though, she remained in a forced calm and she breathed slowly.

“Hello, Miss Lenz. I wasn’t expecting to see you again.”

“I could say the same.”

The empath sat across from her and she smiled politely. “I have a few questions to ask you, and then, you can resume your work. You have an exemplary record.”

“Thank you. I will answer what I can.”

The empath brought out a flat screen, and she turned it toward Ainora. “Do you know who this is?”

Ainora shrugged. “He’s another tech.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He asked me if I had seen the New City. I told him it was from a distance. I was done and I left.” She looked at the image and tried to see if there was any give away as to why he had sat next to her.

“Had you met him before?”

Ainora shook her head. “No. That was a first for me. I never saw him after that.”

“Did he request any details about the talent at New City?”

“No. He just mentioned that he had been there as well.”

The empath looked at her and nodded. “Have you gotten any unusual communication since you have been here?”

Ainora was relieved to say, “No. Nothing unusual. Just letters from my family. My mom likes to write.”

“She is a language teacher.”

Ainora nodded.

The empath checked a file and nodded. “Before I let you go, there have been reports of you humming while you work with talents.”

Ainora blinked and then realized that they thought she was passing along information. “I hum to concentrate whether people are there or not. No one notices when I hum to an instrument panel.”

“Why do you do it?”

“My father was a music teacher.” She shrugged.

The empath smiled. “That would explain it.”

She touched something on the screen and the cuffs opened. “Have a good day, Miss Lenz.”

Ainora nodded, got up and said, “Good day.”

She walked out and smiled at the guards. “Back to the normal schedule, I guess.”

The men blinked and led her back to the dispatch office for her to collect her assignment for the day. She grabbed her kit and the assignment and got on with her day. There were three days of more waiting until the eclipse. She just needed to bury herself in her work until then. She could do it; she had had plenty of practice.

Adjusting a communications array, she was out of her normal routes by several hundred kilometres. The guards with her were nervous, but no one was watching the sky. Without shielding, the bright flares of light could cause permanent damage.

She hummed to herself as she closed the housing on the array and her hum was stifled as a hand wrapped around her, a sharp stab of pain struck her neck and the world began to spin. The guards were nearby, strange spikes sticking out of their necks.

Whatever had hit them was now carrying her off while the light of the sun was blocked for the first time in decades.

She groaned and tried to press her hand to her head, but it was fastened down. The world around her felt strange. Ainora made out a roar of engines to either side of her, and she held still as the pressure on her body increased before it suddenly relaxed and then a lighter pressure came into play.

She could hear someone speaking a few metres away, and it was a male voice with no other voice answering. This was going from bad to worse.

Ainora struggled to sit up, and she looked at her restraints. With a little analysis and nearly dislocating her thumb, she managed to press the release that would free her hand to free the rest of her.

She unlocked her other hand and sat up, snapping the restraints on her ankles loose. Massaging her aching thumb, she draped her legs over the edge of the bed she had been tied to.

If Ainora didn’t know better, she would say she was in a spacecraft.

With her determination screwed in place, she got to her feet and went in search of the intermittent voice.

“I told you that I have her. She is safe and strapped down. No, she is not a danger at the moment. Don’t be an idiot. The dart will keep her out until we finish the first jump.”

He was a large shadow against the display of the stars and his voice was a deep rumble that carried easily.

Unsure of the etiquette, she knocked on the hull with four rapid taps.

He whirled around, and she hit the floor as the darts whizzed over her head.

“Don’t do that. Those things hurt.” She looked up at him and blinked at the black and silver hair that was up in a startled halo. “I didn’t want to clear my throat.”

“Are you upset?” He moved toward her carefully. His hair settled back into an even wave on his skull.

“No. I rarely get upset. Can I get up from the floor or are you going to stick me again?”

He smiled and extended his hand. “If you don’t mind, I could use the company. Getting sent here to pick you up was an odd assignment. Normally, I am a bodyguard.”

“I see. Normally, I am working on some kind of an instrument panel. Why am I here?”

He blinked. “They didn’t tell you I was coming?”

She looked at him and snorted. “I live on a world with telepaths running the government. No. No one told me anything.”

He looked completely befuddled.

“Who were you speaking to?”

He balanced himself. “Morganti Base. They were wondering how your language pack is sitting and when we are going to arrive.”

“Can I sit down?” she pointed at the empty seat.

“Oh. Of course. Where are my manners?” He stepped aside and held the seat for her.

“My name is Ainora Lenz.”

“I am Lyon Tacks. Pleased to meet you.”

“Pleased to meet you as well, Lyon, now tell me what the hell is going on.”

She smiled up at him and he took a seat behind the controls.

He settled and jerked his head. “No, she is awake and calm. Do you wish to speak to her?”

Ainora stared at him and saw through the smooth locks of hair a tiny speck of silver in his right ear. He was on a communication device.

“Well, that explains the one-way conversations.”

He smiled and leaned forward. “You heard that?”

“Your voice carries.”

He opened the com and a female voice chuckled. “It does carry, even to this distance, Agent Tacks. Greetings, Ainora Lenz. We are happy to invite you to live and learn at the Citadel Morganti.”

“Excellent. Who is
we
and what is a Citadel?”

The voice chuckled. “My name is Relay, and I am the administrator of Sector Guard Base Morganti. The Citadel is a training centre for talents of all varieties and strengths. The resistance on Resicor put your name forward for evacuation, so you and several others were set for rescue during the eclipse.”

“I see. Well, you did get me out, but why did Lyon Tacks have to dart me?”

Relay laughed. “It was an effort to convince your government that you and the others were being kidnapped. You were all sent to relatively normal assignments in public areas, just as you always would be, but our inside informers had you placed where we could get at you. It looked like a mass snatching of talents.”

Ainora snorted. “That is what it was.”

“Well, if you ever get returned to Resicor, it needs to look like you went under duress, so that is what happened.”

Ainora sat back. “Where am I going?”

“You are being taken to Morganti where you have a set of quarters waiting for you at the Citadel. You will be able to use your talent daily and in the manner you choose.”

“What about my family?”

“They are safe. There is no connection between them and the informer. Your family will get a message from the government that you have been taken, and they will know that you are safe. They have been trained for this.”

Ainora smiled. “Of course they have. They have been working toward this since I was pulled in.”

Relay paused. “How are you adapting to the language flash?”

“Is that what is going on? I feel a lag between thought and speech.”

“It is an experimental learning technique. A data flash. It was posited by one of your own people, actually."

“Yes. Data and light can be combined to imprint on the optic nerve, and from there, the brain takes over. Your pronunciation will improve with time.”

“I thought that it was coming too easily. Lyon Tack did not mention it.” She gave him a sidelong glance.

He smiled and shrugged, turning his attention to the controls.