* * * * *
The sun hovered beneath the horizon, casting purplish beacons into a cloudless sky when Leader Beren, Ambassador Ricimar Regorr, and I left for our predetermined destination early the next morning. Small black birds rose into the sky as we drove past the few straggly trees on the field. The main agricultural region wasn’t far outside the city, but by the time we arrived, it had become so hot that our guide warned us how dangerous it would be to leave the transport.
Because seedlings planted in the earlier seasons to survive the sweltering heat only died during the sub-freezing nights, part of the plan we had outlined called for the creation of a dome over the entire area, lined with panels to deflect some of the heat, and solar panels on the roof to collect and store the solar heat for use when the temperature dropped.
The installation of the dome had been begun according to my instructions during the second week of my stay on Tiasenne but had only just been completed. The chief engineer for the project had met and discussed the plan with me on Tiasenne, and had been busy since. Countless workers were milling about waiting for our transport to arrive. They appeared to be content to enjoy the cool temperature inside the dome, and had gladly volunteered their labor in exchange for an improvement in their environment, however temporary.
The workers deposited my seedlings from the Tiasennian shuttle in the center of the Complex, beside the maintenance machinery. Working in shifts, they stirred and raked the soil into radial hillocks separated by water ditches. Irrigation rods hung at right angles across the main water pipes twenty feet above each row of soil. As the irrigation machines passed back and forth on the spoke-like pipes above each row, a valve allowed water to flow into a rod, and then the valve recapped as each machine moved to the next rod on each pipe.
The Orians had gone to great lengths to simulate Tiasennian rain down to the force with which it hit the ground. I heard Regorr explaining how fertilizers had also been dissolved into the water. They had put the leftover fertilizers in the small building next to where we stood at the center of the complex, and there was enough for several tendays. All that remained now was the task of sowing the fields, and the workers had volunteered to do that by hand.
It took the entire day to plant all of the seedlings. Leader Beren, his advisors, and Ambassador Regorr left after the first few hours and returned late into the night just as we finished. The solar heat storage system soon proved to be a success. Even well after sunset, the temperature had fallen only marginally.
After the sowing of the seedlings was finished, the workers finally loaded into a transport bound for the city, except for a handful who remained to operate the facility until the next shift. Leader Beren and his entourage seemed immensely pleased with the results of our effort as he and Ambassador Regorr moved down a lane to inspect the seedlings at close range.
A moment later, Beren was explaining Engineer Horans’ catalytic converter that processed water from mineral compounds found in abundance around Nayin to Regorr as the two moved further down the lane. I was packing the soil around the edge of a row with my foot when I suddenly sensed danger. When I looked up, a poorly connected irrigation rod dangled precariously above Beren and Regorr.
The rod broke and fell, and a shout of warning came from one of the workers. The two men looked up, cringing, knowing that they were too late to move out of the way.
Was there time to decide? I don’t remember. Without thinking, I let a current of telekinetic waves flow from my mind, energy I directed through the medium of atoms in the air to those of the steel rod. For a split-second, I held the rods suspended before pushing them slowly and deliberately to the left of the shocked and terrified men awaiting death...
As I did it, I knew I would not be able to sustain the veil. They would see me as I truly was.
And never fully trust me again.
Energy flickered around my body, and my hair fluttered silver like live wires. The officers nearest to me were clearly afraid and began to slowly back away.
Beren recovered first—he picked himself up off the floor, shook the dust off, and looked about. His eyes found me, wide in disbelief, settling into a mistrustful stare. Gradually, I began to appear as I had before.
Several officers rushed to Beren’s side to help him and to help the Tiasennian Ambassador to their feet.
“Are you a devil or a god?” Beren said, carefully. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Did you all see it?” he asked his men. His eyes did not leave me.
They nodded in amazement. All eyes had turned to look at me, some accusing, others in fear.
“Who are you?” Beren demanded. “You claimed to be one of our race. But there is no man or woman on this planet who can do what you just did.”
“Do you think she just assumed a guise to look like us?” Ambassador Regorr wondered aloud.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I laughed, privately upset by this reaction, even though I expected it.
“I assure you, I am grateful for what you just did to save my life—our lives—Alessia,” said Leader Beren, his eyes flickering towards the heavy steel rod, now lying harmlessly on the ground. “But we will need to know how you did it, if we are to believe you mean us no harm.”
“If I had wanted to ‘assume a guise’ as it were, I would have chosen to appear something closer to Tiasennian.” I said, then immediately shifted my appearance to that of a female version of Orashean.
“Unbelievable!” the officers shouted, now in great fear. Beren grimaced lightly. Ambassador Regorr just stared mutely.
I shrugged off the temporary transformation.
“Impressive. You are a shapeshifter.” Beren said at last, keeping his voice studiously level. “But if you can do that, how can I know that you are one of us?”
“Just because you do not know how to do this, does not mean that our race cannot learn how.” I explained. “You are a lost colony. Many of the secrets of our race were lost to you. I am what I seem, except when I use the temporary power of transformation. I cannot keep the change for long. I can move objects, but that is a variant of my mind’s communicative power. Using this power creates light from the energy inside us, and from charged particles in our environment. This power is not easy to learn. But I assure you I was not born knowing how to do this, or with the ability to shift matter. It was something I had to learn. And something—a gift as it were—that was given to me. It is all a trick of science and technology. I am no devil.”
I felt his change of emotion, and allowed his thoughts to enter my mind.
She moved that thing just by thinking about it?! If she is one of us, as she claims, perhaps I can learn how to do that with her help. Can I gain power over her somehow? Manage to learn her secrets, or convince her to teach us on Orian and not the Tiasennians?
To think how easy it would be to conquer Tiasenne, if I could win her trust.
As we left to return to the city, Beren and Regorr each wondered how he could use my power to his advantage, provided each could persuade me to take sides against the other.
And the workers at the dome would tell their children about what they had seen.