Crystal Dragon Read Free Page A

and—

    Monitor the flux of the emotion 'gratitude. '

    She was not a base construct. She was not . She would fight. She would—

    She would dominate.

    Atom by atom, she scraped together her shattered will and focused on the roaring source of energy obscuring her perceptions. Pain. Pain could be used.

    Beyond the inferno, she felt the weight of her tutor's regard increase.

    She thrust her will into the howling depth of the pain—

    The tutor's regard altered, sparked—

    Using raw power and no finesse whatsoever, she created shields and threw them into place.

    There was an orange and yellow detonation as the tutor's will slammed into her barriers—but she had no time for that, now.

    The tutor launched another assault, but her protections held. Of course they held. Had she not survived the First Doom? Her shields had withstood the stare of one of the Iloheen; they would hold against a mere dramliza .

    For a time.

    Working with rapid care, she bled off the pain, sublimating it into working energy, using it to rebuild her depleted strength.

    As she dominated the pain, her focus returned and she was able to survey the wreckage of her envelope.

    Tentatively at first, then more swiftly as she began to integrate the fine points of the interrupted lesson, she rebuilt her body.

    Arms, legs, eyes, ears, nerves, dermis... As she worked, she considered making alterations—and regretfully decided not to do so. Alterations made in haste and in unstable conditions might later be revealed as errors. Best to wait.

    She did, however, strengthen her shields.

    Then, she opened her eyes.

    Carefully, cocooned in total silence on all perceptual levels, she came to her feet, and raised her eyes to the instructor's dias.

    Lower your protections . The characteristic bright orange thought was shading toward a dangerously bland beige, and the taste of manganese was very strong.

    With all respect , she answered— no.

    You may lower them or Anjo will destroy them .

    She looked to the submissive, and found his pale eyes open and focused on her face, with ...interest...

    I will not , she made answer to the dominant. And Anjo shall not.

    Upon what order do you undertake this action ?

    Upon my own initiative.

    Ah. The dominant extended her will to the submissive—and froze in time and space as a long Shadow fell across the room and the perceptions of all within.

    The air grew chill and the tile took on a glaze of ice before the Iloheen deigned to speak.

    Discipline has been meted and met. It goes no further.

    Edonai , the Anjo Valee dominant answered, her thought warm against the Shadow's chill. On the dais, the dramliza bowed low. Those who yet knelt before their lab dishes threw themselves upon their faces on the ice-slicked floor.

    She—she bowed until her head touched her knees, and held it, as the Shadow fell full upon her—

    And was gone.

    Abruptly, the room warmed. Behind her, she heard small noises as her cohort straightened and stilled. She unbent slowly, and looked up to the dais. The dominant did not meet her eyes.

    You will return the specimen to its original state , the tutor ordered the class entire. When that is done, you will wait upon the philosophy tutor.

iii.

    THE DOWNLOAD WAS about to take place.

    She, with those of her cohort who had survived the Second Doom, watched from a distance, thought stilled and vital energies shielded, to insure that the tumzaliat would not perceive, and thus seek to attach, their essences.

    In the birthing room, the vessel was readied. Its arms were spread, held thus by chains woven of alternating links of metal and force, the ends melded with the smooth tile floor. Similar chains around each ankle pulled the legs wide. Its head was gripped in a metal claw; a metal staple over its waist held it firm and flat.

    On the plane from which they observed, the vessel was nothing more than a smear of pink, which was the glow of the autonomous systems. The hopeful dominant showed