Page 57

Daphne was elegantly welcoming, as befitted the wife of the ambassador. Ula greeted her formally, and the moment they were inside the embassy, she was treated to a hug that made her squeak.

“I am glad to see you too, Daph. Now, put me down.”

Ula kicked her heels.

Daphne set her on the floor. “It has been over a year.”

“I know. I am sorry, but they have been watching for me.”

Daphne scowled. “Not here they won’t. My husband would kick them into next week.”

“Do you have a pot of tea handy?”

Daphne laughed and led her into the main floor parlour where a tea set was waiting for them.

“You are going up to the ship?”

Daphne poured, and Ula busied herself loading the teacups.

“Apparently. I think it might be good for me. I have been too insular, even for me. A week on their ship will give me a new perspective, and they might get something out of it as well.”

Daphne nodded and sipped at her tea. “I have no doubt about that. While no one from the Nine Corp of Engineers has come down before, I think they are about to get a rather serious education.”

Ula smiled slowly and sipped at her tea. “That is why I am going.”

Deniir was a competent pilot, but being inside the ship, Ula saw at least four items she would change for convenience based on what she knew of the Nine races and their physical needs.

Her pilot spoke to her. “How does your talent work?”

“You want to know now?”

“Well, I wanted to make conversation, and it is a subject of interest.”

“Ah. Well, I look at things and see what can be done to make them perfect. If they are already sound, I can see all the components that make up their form and disassemble them in my mind, identifying the components individually for their optimum versatility.”

“And you can use those components.”

“Of course. Even if I only have primitive tools, I can still take most things apart. They simply part in the precise weak points that I identify. It just takes practice.”

“How did you alter the torture harness?”

“Trial and error, combined with terror that a friend would be paralyzed for life if I didn’t succeed.”

She shrugged. The redesigning process was a bit of a blur. The wound in Niika’s back was never far from her mind, and she had just acted. No thought required.

“You can create on instinct?”

“I don’t create. I never create. I just redesign using components at hand.”

She shrugged. Her mind was running through her inventory and coming up with components to create a set of wings. There was no stopping it; she was going to build them. She had no idea if she would ever have the nerve to try and use them.

She opened the door to her home, and he came in, gasping in shock. Ula smiled and kept moving. “I will just pack a bag. You can dig around and play with whatever you like.”

She heard a few of her machines click and twist as he examined them.

Shaking her head and thinking about boys and toys, she grabbed a bag and shoved in a few days’ worth of clothing. She usually wore leathers to work. It cut down on fire from sparks when she welded. No one wanted to run around the house while on fire.

She looked around and shrugged, returning to Deniir before he found her fire extinguisher.

She paused when a shout and a hiss preceded the white cloud of vapour that tumbled down the hall toward her. “Breathe through your mouth for a moment. The taste will fade.”

When she turned the corner, his gold hair was sticking up straight, his face betrayed his shock, and the expression on that face was priceless.

He closed his mouth, and it took him a few attempts to speak. “What in the name of the first feathers was that?”

His mouth sounded dry, so she moved to the side of her workspace and poured him a glass of water out of her storage canister. “Drink this.”

He shuddered and swallowed rapidly, obviously running his tongue around the edges of his mouth.

She stifled her grin. “That is the fire-suppression system. It is an herbal extract that Emharo found for me in some underwater plant life. I powder it and then put it under pressure in a canister.”

He blinked. “So I see. What was the cloud of gas?”

“It absorbs all heat in the area, including the heat from open sources. Fortunately, it does not take heat from anything biological. I don’t know how it works, but it does.”

She shrugged. “I just design and build things, I don’t always know how they work.”

He blinked. “That doesn’t seem right.”

Ula snorted. “Welcome to my world. Are you ready to leave?”

He carefully put down the canister and nodded. “Yes, please. I am terrified of how you get rid of household pests.”

She chuckled as they exited through the front door, and she armed her defensive systems. No one was going to get any of her projects without blowing the entire house to hell and back. There was nothing safer than a pile of radioactive matter blasting up through the floor to dissolve the floor if the right code wasn’t entered.

“Will your workshop be secure?”

She laughed. “I think so. It has the best lock I could design.”

“In that case, I believe we should be on our way.”

He offered her his arm, and she inclined her head. “Thank you, but contact is not necessary. I have heard that your kind is sensitive to it, and I don’t want to take any chances.”

Deniir looked a little put out, but she merely smiled and walked down the narrow path that led away from her home. She heard a sharp chirp from behind her and turned.

Deniir had folded his cuff back and was typing rapidly with two fingers. “There. We should be seeing the pickup in a few minutes.”

“You have shuttle clearance for the interior?”

“I do. The engineers have been providing your people with any number of handy devices. They are appreciative.”

She snorted. “Just watch it. They can turn on you before you know it.”

Ula rubbed the back of her neck and looked at the sky. A tiny speck appeared, and as they continued to walk down the path to the plateau, it grew larger in the sky until she was being pummelled by the blasts of air that it gave off in its effort to land.

Deniir stood between her and the landing shuttle and opened his wings, creating a windbreak.

She spit out a few bits of grit. “Thank you.”

“It is a hazard on loose soil like this. How is it that you live in a dormant volcano?”

“Oh, it was the hardest place to get to; so after a while, the politicians stopped sending parties up here to negotiate with me.”

She kept her eyes closed and waited until the jets of air stopped trying to knock her over.

“Please come with me. We are about to leave for the mother ship.”

He lowered and snugged down his wings again, covering them with his cloak.

She nodded and dusted her features as she headed to the ship. Her leathers creaked slightly as she walked up the steps, and a voice spoke in peculiar, liquid tones.

Deniir responded and then translated. “Our pilot is Lenur of the Water People, and he has apologised for the landing. He was not expecting the sediment.”

“Tell him it is fine. If I couldn’t handle dirt, I wouldn’t have gone into my current line of work.”

The pilot spoke rapidly again, and there was no mistaking the amusement.

“He says thank you for your graciousness, pretty lady; now, take a seat before takeoff breaks your nose.”

Blinking, she followed Deniir’s lead. When they were settled in seats and strapped in, the ship rumbled under them, and Ula felt the peculiarity of takeoff.

Her hands gripped the arms of her chair, and she occupied her mind by looking around the cabin for materials and design flaws.

She found seven design flaws and thirty-two pieces that she could remove and use in her workshop. By the time she finished calculating where to place the items she had located, they were on their way to the mother ship through empty space.

Ula could see Gaia beneath her, and she had to admit, it was a beautiful planet.

“How are you taking to spaceflight?”

She jumped at Deniir’s voice as his breath heated her cheek. He was peering out the window beside her.

She studiously pointed her face toward the window and kept it there. “I think I am adjusting fine. I have found any number of things to occupy my attention.”

“Like what?”

“I have identified seven improvements in this space that would make it more efficient and comfortable.”

She chuckled.

“Can you make me a list?”

She blinked. “Are you serious?”

“Of course. The Nine are always seeking means by which we can change and improve. We would welcome a few new designs.”

“That is refreshing. Can I choose what changes to include?”

“Of course. It is your design.”

He smiled and directed her to look away from Gaia toward the huge ship surrounded by tiny buzzing shuttles. “Welcome to the mother ship of the Nine.”

She looked forward, and her talent kicked in. There were enough tiny changes to be made to keep her designing for a lifetime.