Eyes in the Sky Read Free

it boded ill for someone of Resicor.
    Reset checked the scans and grinned. “Excellent. You are clear.” Reset paused. “But your stress level just hit the roof. Oh, darn. It is the Kozue thing, right?”
    Riasa nodded. “That is it.”
    “I will explain it to you later, but both sides were deceived. The Kozue tribe hired for it thought they were killing warriors because of the interference of an illusion talent, and the quantity of people were exaggerated for the Resicor viewers. They thought it was an entire town, but there were considerably less people.”
    Oddly enough, it was fairly easy to believe that her government had something to do with it. They wanted to make it clear that there was no help out there for talents. It had to be driven home with a bludgeon to kill hope, so they had done it.
    “Come on inside for the final scans and you can meet Mist. He is a Nishan, but his form is that of a Kozue warrior. He is also my husband, so there is that level of comfort as well. You are not in danger here.”
    Riasa nodded and followed Reset down the transparent hall, watching the swing of her dark blue hair.
    In medical, there were more scans and some blood work. Reset commented, “You are in amazing shape.”
    “I work on a farm so there isn’t a muscle I don’t use in a day.”
    “That would explain it.” Reset smiled. “We work closely with the Citadel. They are still getting settled in.”
    She checked the readouts several times before letting Riasa out of the machine.
    “What was wrong?”
    “Nothing. Your people have a tendency to hand over minor talents to Raiders for experimentation and enhancement. I wanted to be sure that you hadn’t been tampered with.”
    “You are kidding. They wouldn’t do that.” Despite the horrors she knew about, that ratcheted it up above normal levels.
    “They could and did. Sector Guard Base Udell, is home to Quint, and he was born on Resicor as a single being. Now, he splits into five and the process was not painless.” Reset sighed. “I spent weeks reworking several Resicorians into the talents they had been born with after they had been transformed into weapons. What made it worse was that they were breeding another generation.”
    Riasa sat down. “I think I am going to be sick.”
    “The ones who were rescued are alive and well. They have all been reset to their original talents and are living at a variety of bases and Citadels. They have normal lives now, which is more than they could have had at home. It is just a shame that the agony had to come first.”
    A knock at the door brought Riasa’s dazed head up.
    A man stood in the doorway, and he smiled in a friendly manner that belied the scars that were carved into his cheeks and jawline. “Greetings. I am Clovid Aturn, manager of the Citadel Teklan, such as it is.”
    “Riasa Zorgard.”
    “If you would like to come with me, we can walk to the Citadel and I can get you settled.”
    Reset nodded her release. “Feel free to pop in for a chat.”
    Clovid offered her his arm and, bemused, she took it. He showed her the cafeteria and walked outside across the tarmac with her to the large, squat building she had seen from space.
    “I hear that you were collected by Stone.”
    “Um, I was?”
    “The grey Guardsman with the wings.”
    She blinked. “Right. Stone. Yes, he snagged me from my home.”
    “It must have been traumatic for you.”
    “Not particularly. It was a fairly easy snatch. I knew someone was coming; I just didn’t know how or who.”
    He patted her hand, and she carefully released his arm.
    He gave her an intense look. “I am a little fuzzy on the details of your talent.”
    “I see things. My vision is my talent and little escapes it.”
    “What do you see now?” He puffed out his chest.
    She looked up and around. “Three satellites, a white moon hiding in sunlight, nine base personnel working on shuttles, three flowers and the scar on your left cheek was done by a different hand