Whyt’s Plea Read Free

Private Beiencar?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then, you are in the right place.” An older male came around the corner wiping his hands on a rag.
    “Oh.” She checked her paperwork and frowned. “I am not sure why I am here.”
    He chuckled. “I am Sargent Drewing. You are my apprentice.”
    “Um, sir, I am not sure what I am doing here.”
    “Rule one, never call me sir. Call me Sarge or Drewing. Rule two, we are here to work; now, come with me. I am tearing apart one of our newest designs, and I want to see if you can spot the problem.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “You will. Come along. We have a lot of work to do.” He winked his dark gold eyes and led the way.
    She followed him, her gaze took in his deep chestnut hair, and she blinked as she recognized her first brown swan shifter or possibly goose. It would be impolite to ask, but if she saw anything more than the marks on his cheeks, she would know for sure. Less than eight hours at the base and she had already met nine more species than she had grown up with.
    He took her around a curtain, and she whistled.
    “That is quite something.”
    “Tell me what it is, Private.”
    “A flying device.” She circled it. “It has guns, struts for directional transfer and inter-atmospheric manoeuvring jets.”
    “Excellent. It is one of Athuuna’s newest defensive ships, and it has being giving its pilot fits.”
    “Oh. How?”
    “It is rigged for mental command, and she is distracted, so her ship is distracted. She flew it into the side of a mountain, and we have to find out why the systems didn’t stop it.”
    Upon closer viewing, Whyt could see the scars from the impact with the stone. “Ouch. Was the pilot okay?”
    “She is fine. Her partner fished her out of the wreck and grounded her for a month.”
    “She was grounded?”
    “So to speak. She is the sole pilot of this vessel, so he bought us a month to fix it. That was a week ago. Let’s get to work.” He gestured for her to put her clipboard down and pulled a tray of tools out into the open.
    She put her clipboard on the desk and rolled up her cuffs. “Okay, I can do this.”
    He chuckled and ratcheted open one of the housings. “I thought you might say that.”
    Whyt got to work next to him, and she pulled wires and cables with abandon. It was the most fun she had had in months.
    Sarge bumped her elbow. “Go eat, Beiencar. They delivered dinner.”
    Whyt blinked and finished attaching the exhaust coupling she had been working on. She wiped her hands off and got to her feet. Her head spun a little, but she made it over to the cart with the food and took a sandwich.
    “You are not nearly as filthy as you should be, but you have done more work this afternoon than I have in six days. Colonel Whisk was right about you. Once we get it fixed up, we will find out whether you can fly it.”
    She choked on her sandwich. “Fly it? I thought I was repairing it.”
    “Someone has to test it out, and I am way too old to learn how to pilot one of these new ships. It is enough for me to just know how to repair the damned thing.” Sarge snorted and smacked the hull.
    Looking at the ship, she tried to imagine how it would feel to actually fly it; to spin it through the clouds and back would be amazing.
    She felt the beginnings of a grin take over her features. If her parents could see her now…
     
    * * * *
     
    “What do you mean, she isn’t here?”
    Yelana Whisk sighed and shook her head at the man whose child she gave birth to two decades earlier. “I mean she isn’t in Nathrin. You can search the entire base and the answer is the same. She isn’t here.”
    Tevan Beiencar sat heavily in the chair on the other side of Colonel Whisk’s desk. “Damn. I was so hoping that it was something simple, like flight school.”
    “I am sure she is fine, Tevan. How is Hyaki?”
    “Nervous, just as she was twenty years ago. Do you think Whyt is all right?”
    He looked at her with such desperation in his face, she