Shiver and Bright Read Free Page A

experiments and now drifts through walls at will. She is confined to the station, so I stay here with her. In Alliance parlance, she is known as Haunt of the Sector Guard.”
    Kaylee took charge of the session, but Dirven had to do the physical organization.
    Nat just had to provide the actual power.
    She stood on the plate in the center of the room and shook it as hard as she could. The suspension creaked as she rocked it while standing still. The effect increased dramatically when she gripped a connection to the plate in the floor. The rod transferred the power efficiently, and the violence was apparent.
    Kaylee called a halt and looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Do you require contact with the object to shake it?”
    “Usually. I have only worked at a distance twice in my life. Neither time was particularly successful.”
    “Then, that is what you will work on.” Kaylee grinned and bossed her husband into arranging an elastic ball filled with gel. The ball had sensors on it and was placed off the grid that Nat was standing on.
    Dirven explained it to her. “She wants you to vibrate the gel while not moving your platform or body.”
    “I will try.”
    Three tries later, Nat was sweating as she tried to still herself while shaking the gel. When the small quiver was detected in the gel, she got excited.
    Worvin came in and inclined his head. “Apologies, but she has not eaten in eleven hours. You are not getting the proper readouts and desired results because she isn’t able to focus.”
    Nat blinked at him through sweaty bangs. “You are keeping track of what I eat?”
    “The food stores are part of my domain, and you have made no requests. You need a meal, rest and a change of clothing.” Worvin stood in his dark uniform and crossed his arms.
    Dirven looked surprise; Kaylee was amused. “Fine. Take her and feed her. Show her the gardens while you are at it. I think she will enjoy the feel of something akin to a world around her.”
    Nat staggered off the platform and inclined her head. “Can I return here and practice when I have rested?”
    Dirven nodded. “Of course. I will leave a number of gel sacks staged around the lab. Would you take the monitors off?”
    He had put them on himself, but she nodded and peeled the monitor tabs off. “Can you leave a set here for when I return?”
    He smiled. “And a schematic of where they go. Go and eat. You have gone from golden to chalky. It is no wonder that your control suffered.”
    Nat smiled and peeled off the final tab. “Well, Worvin, I am all yours.”
    He paused and nodded curtly. “Please come this way.”
    “A charming invitation. Thank you.” Her skirt swayed as she walked across the decking of the suspension platform.
    To his surprise, she took his arm. The station didn’t feel right under her feet, but she didn’t tell him that. He simply shut up and led her to the commissary where a number of other beings were getting meals and others were simply sitting around and talking.
    “I have put the food compatibilities into the system, so scan your wrist here and the foods you can eat will have a purple glow to them. Well, the trays will.”
    It seemed non-invasive, so she scanned her wrist, and it happened as he said, right down to the beverages. Purple lit them up, and she went through and made her selections. The food wouldn’t taste right, but as long as she could digest it, she was ahead of the game.
    Worvin sat across from her with his own meal and cup of caf.
    “Your clothing looks like it fits.” He smiled.
    “Yes, thank you. The fit is perfect. Is it your doing?”
    “My eyes have a special orientation assessment skill that I don’t understand, but I can look at anything and know what fits.”
    Nat nodded and tried not to laugh at the thoughts that ran through her mind with that comment.
    She slowly made her way through her meal and was surprised at the appeal of several of the items. She mentally made notes of which foods she preferred