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Ula made a few final adjustments to the blue and white fabric before she shook it out. “Here, try this on.”

Everyone in the room had an eye on Vida, so she grabbed the suit and returned behind the screen. The robe was off in a moment and she stepped into the legs, working the soft skin up and around her. It was a change from the metal suit, like water was to rock. The blue and white fabric hugged and supported her, but most of all, it felt like comfort.

She fluffed out her short hair and poked her head around the screen. “Nobody laugh.”

The room was very solemn as she came around, and Ula came up, tugging slightly until the fit was perfect. “Excellent. It has been wired to channel your sight and amplify your perceptions. I know enough about your ability to make a guess at the means by which you operate. Your eyes are your focus, so the power needs to flow through there.”

Dr. Meevin used a hand scanner and nodded. “It is helping to balance your body temperature. Good. How are you feeling?”

“My bones ache a little.”

“They were resurfaced and are still in the process of being reinforced. It will be an extensive remodel. Your body has taken to the injection that you received yesterday. It has decided to rebuild you using the DNA as a template.”

Ziggy cleared her throat. “The DNA of what?”

“Whom, really.”

Lerinian bowed slightly. “S’rin designed the bone builder, but it was set for members of the Nine. We used my DNA as a starting point, but in your body, it has become something else.”

Vida narrowed her eyes at the cloaked figure. “What has it become?”

S’rin answered her. “Something new. We don’t know what it is, but it is making changes to you that normally do not happen outside of a bonding, and yet, there is no identifiable DNA left in your system. You have taken it apart.”

“So, am I Balance, Gaian, something in between?”

S’rin chuckled. “Yes.”

Vida sighed. “Right, well. Can we stop it?”

Lerinian and Meevin shook their heads. “No.”

“Fine. It is happening without my willing it, so do we just wait and see?”

S’rin spoke up, “You will come to my lab once a day, and we will go over your alterations. Dr. Meevin has agreed to have a standing scanner sent to my work area.”

Lerinian cleared his throat. “We are still working out the details. However, on to the other portion of your reason for being here, I have volunteered to assist your search.”

S’rin made a strange noise before murmuring, “As have I.”

Ziggy took Vida’s hand, and the strangest thing happened. An upload of the mating habits of the Nine bloomed in Vida’s skull.

It could be summed up in one thought. The noise S’rin made wasn’t good, but hostilities amongst the Balance were not common.

Ula smiled, “I am going to have a bunch of suits made up for you while you go through this change and until you finish your search.”

“Good. Where can I get a robe so I don’t feel like I am flashing my butt to all and sundry?”

Ziggy laughed. “I will take you and get you fitted out. Are you up to some shopping?”

Vida realised that Ziggy had basically told everyone that the meeting was over. Even Ula grinned and waved as she headed out of the room.

The doctor remained in conversation with the two members of the Balance while Ziggy and Vida headed to the door.

“What is going on between the researchers? Oh. I got your message. It hurt like hell though.”

Vida rubbed her forehead.

“Sorry about that. Downloading information is harder than acquiring it. I thought you might want to know that what I saw, I interpreted as those guys facing down and trying to wrestle for contact with you.”

“It seemed very polite.”

“Well, they are the Balance. They do everything a little differently.”

Ziggy grinned.

“I am certainly getting that idea. Now, shopping?”

“I think I owe you breakfast first. I know just the place.”

At the mention of food, her stomach roared. “Good. I think we have ten minutes before my stomach goes critical.”

“We can be there in five.”

Vida had no idea what she had eaten, but her stomach didn’t care. It was happily going to work on her meal.

“Where are we going to shop? Come to think of it, I should have gotten a robe before I stuffed myself.”

“Not an issue. You aren’t shopping for anything form fitting.”

Ziggy smiled at the server and swiped her chit across the payment screen.

“Thank you, Potential. Have a good day.”

The young man flicked his wings and bowed.

Vida got to her feet with a groan and followed Ziggy across the walkway.

The shop was peculiar and Ziggy was speaking with a shadow.

“The Potential tells me that you need a robe to go with that amazing suit.”

Vida extended her arms slightly. “Something a little more subdued if possible.”

“Black then?”

“You tell me. I just want this covered up.”

The shadow moved around her and hemmed and hawed. Suddenly, he retracted and disappeared behind the counter.

Vida asked her friend. “Is this normal?”

“It is part of his process. He has analysed your hair, eye and clothing colour. I briefed him on your physical activities, so this is going to be interesting.”

It took three minutes until a rack with several long robes was brought out. The shadow lifted one off the rack and settled it on her shoulders. “How is that?”

Vida walked to the mirror and turned from side to side. From the hip down, the robe was sliced to allow for full movement of her legs. She could run in this.

“I like it.”

She smiled and the shadow slipped it off her shoulders, producing the next one that included a belt that changed it from robe to coat. It would be fine on Gaia, but it seemed a little silly to wear a coat on the ship.

“Nah. A little too much.”

“Right. How about this?”

They went through twelve robe styles, which amazed Vida. She didn’t realise that there were twelve robe styles.

In the end, she picked three with hoods and two without. She wore one of the hooded robes out of the shop. Ziggy paid for it all with a swipe of her chit and had everything sent to the delivery slot in Vida’s rooms.

Ziggy steered her toward a shop that specialized in footwear when her wristband got a call.

Vida continued looking at boots with the shopkeeper while Ziggy was on the call. The moment she finished, she came over and grabbed Vida by the arm.

“Please excuse us. There is a matter we need to witness. We will return as soon as we can.”

Ziggy fired the statement over her shoulder as she hauled Vida to the transport pods.

“What is going on?”

“There is a challenge taking place in the atrium, and I am hoping that we haven’t missed it.”

Ziggy scowled as their pod whisked them along the rail.

“What kind of a challenge?”

“That is just it. No one has any kind of idea. The Balance don’t normally settle their matters in public, and there haven’t been any face-offs of this nature since the ship left their home worlds.”

The pod slowed to a halt and they got out. Ziggy lifted her skirts and scooted down the steps toward an archway that contained a green space.

The way Ziggy spoke of it, Vida expected a huge crowd, but less than twenty people were standing near the open, grassy meadow in the centre of the park.

Two members of the Balance were facing each other twenty feet apart, and what surprised Vida was that she had met both of them.

She caught up to Ziggy who was next to her husband. Rothaway held his wife’s hand as the strange and silent battle was waged.

Vida slipped to the front of the small crowd and closed her eyes. She had a front-row view of the actual battle that none of the others could truly appreciate.

Dark and light energy were lashing back and forth across the distance between the two men, each was trying to upset the balance in the other. It was strange, but each contact of power was absorbed and intensified by the victim. The two men were lashing each other into a fury of power and light.

It was a stunning display, and finally, Lerinian allowed his power to drain back to normal levels.

S’rin stood motionless and mastered the energy from the fight. He didn’t dispense with it; he wore it and balanced it.

Lerinian bowed low, surrendering the field.

Ziggy came up next to her, “Who won?”

“S’rin. He managed to hold more power and maintain the balance while he did it. I think that was the point.”

Vida shrugged. “Do you know what it was about?”

S’rin turned his face toward her, and he approached her slowly as if carrying a wobbly burden. When he was five feet from her, he stopped and bowed.

She bowed slightly in return. It seemed the thing to do. “Congratulations on your success, S’rin.”

“Thank you, Lady Vida. I have won the right to assist you in your investigations and pursue you socially if you are amenable.”

“Pursue me? Am I running away?”

She opened her eyes and blinked at the duality of his energy over the calm, dark robes of his daily garb.

She could hear amusement when he said, “No, I don’t think you are the type to run from danger.”

“Are you dangerous?”

“To you? Never. Would you care to accompany me to the Balance area where we can look into the best means by which to use your talent?”

She looked back at Ziggy, and her friend waved her on with a smile. “I know where to find you. There is a tracker in your suit.”

“Then, S’rin, my afternoon is all yours.”

She stepped toward him, and he offered her his arm.

With a sense of destiny, she wrapped her hand around the fabric that covered him. He shivered and her body heated. There was something between them, and it went deeper than a shared fashion sense.