Rain of Tears Read Free Page A

four hours.”
    “Excellent. I will give the ship their final instructions. Thank you for your help, Rain.”
    “It is about time this planet was set to rights. I am glad it is finally happening.”
    The com call ended, and Unrik’s gaze locked with hers. “Ready to go in four hours?”
    “Come on, Mr. Mayor. Grab a wrench. We have work to do.” She chuckled and headed out through the huge double doors.
    She heard him scramble to keep up, and by the time they exited at street level, he was next to her. “You really don’t wait around, do you?”
    She chuckled. “No. There is always somewhere else to be. I did a rotation in this system until the Nekahar weather machine started up. Then, I was stuck here trying to undo the damage that it was causing to the rest of the world.”
    The crowd waiting in the street cheered as they appeared.
    Reyan flipped her hood back up over her head as the two guards tried to keep up with her and Unrik.
    “Why are you covering your head? The water isn’t touching you.” Unrik’s words were said in a low tone as they passed through the crowd and down the street toward the weather machine.
    “Force of habit. No one has this particular shade of hair on Jarko naturally, though several young women mimic it when I am passing through an area.”
    “They dye their hair pink?”
    “It’s lavender.” She sighed and moved to the bane of her existence and the only reason she was on Jarko. Fortunately, the weather station was central to the city hall and the mayor’s office.
    The station was under guard, but a few words from the new mayor’s guards and the men stepped aside. The dome of the building was huge. It was designed to make the populace think that the machine was huge and beyond theft. It wasn’t really that large. Reyan had designed it two hundred years before it was built, and she never expected her doodled designs to be seen, let alone sold and built here.
    This was the prototype, and with the help of folk over the centuries, the design had never been considered entirely successful. Reyan had felt bad when she organized guerrilla attacks on the weather machine, but the results had enabled her to keep on top of the havoc that was occurring because of her lack of judgement.
    “How do you know where you are going?” Unrik was curious as he followed her through the maze of corridors that led to a small room marked Maintenance .
    “I have been here before.” She didn’t want to mess with finding the administrator, so she tried the door, and when it was locked, she extended her hand and aimed a blizzard at the metal.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Opening the door, Mr. Questions.” It took concentration to direct cold and air, so she shifted until she was blocking his view of the door. Another minute and she heard the distinctive crack. She backed up and kicked the door with all her considerable strength. The knob shattered and the door swung inward with a bang.
    The room was filled with wires, equipment and her precious weather system. Whistling, she grabbed a wrench and started on one of the bolts that anchored it to the floor. As soon as she touched it, the power drained and it hiccupped softly. “It’s okay, baby. Mom’s here.”
    “It is sentient?”
    “Not as much as it should be. That is my fault. I had it crippled a few years ago, and since it just crashed over a year ago, I can only imagine the struggle she was under.” Reyan worked on the opposite bolt while Unrik took up the one in between.
    “How did you cripple it?”
    She shrugged. “I designed in a few fail safes, but in the intervening years, they tinkered her into someone I didn’t recognize, but she still had the same bones, so I was able to work with that.”
    Unrik froze. “You designed it?”
    “It was one night eight hundred years ago. The Ichadrans were gone, and I was wondering what could replace me if I decided to follow them.” Reyan moved around and worked on the last bolt.
    “You were