Free Liquid Compassion by Viola Grace Page B

to the safe and extracted her project. He took it to his station and examined it under magnification.
    The other apprentices filed in, and still, Master Weran kept turning the small box in his fingers.
    Bits got to work on one of the assembly pieces and tried not to think of what Weran was doing.
    After an hour, he came over to her, and he nodded with a smile. “It has been entered into the colony records. You will be elevated to journeyman at the next guild meeting.”
    She exhaled in the suit. “Thank you, Master Weran.”
    He nodded and left her to her work.
     
    Four days later, she was given her journeyman papers and she stepped out of the guildhall and into the custody of the Citadel.
    Recruiter Ambith was at her side and protecting her from the gaze of the matron and others from Hesko’s family. He was fine. He lived at the edge of the continent and was doing very well for himself. He simply wasn’t comfortable being home anymore, and they blamed her.
    They probably were not wrong.
    She had said supervised goodbyes to her parents and hugged them without the suit before she had been forced to put it on again. Her mother’s expression when she saw how thin Bits was was heartbreaking. Her father had just looked angry.
    She had lost about twenty-five percent of her body weight in the suit. She would have been dead far before she finished her sentence. It was a little fact that Bits had come to terms with, but she had done the crime and she had to take the punishment.
    The suit covered her as she walked to the transport and got into the vehicle with Ambith. A last look at her home and she was on her way to the spaceport for a trip to the Citadel. It wasn’t funny, but she hoped her body could take the strain of the takeoff.
    “Are you upset at having to leave?”
    She shook her head. “No. I would have had to leave home anyway. I would be working in a shop half a world away and living a life that I never wanted. I wanted to be a seamstress and was all lined up for an apprenticeship, but then, this happened and this suit isn’t suitable for fine detail work.”
    “Understandable. Your sister escaped unscathed?”
    “Yes. She is engaged and immersing herself in her new life.”
    “We are getting you out of that suit as soon as we can. You just might need it for part of the trip.”
    “I have fourteen hours in here before I lose consciousness. I can stretch it a bit if I go to sleep.”
    “That might be your best bet. We are sending you to Citadel Morganti. They have access to the best physicians and have a telepath as an administrator. He will keep an eye on you while you recover. Nothing can be done until then.”
    “I know that. I just couldn’t tell anyone what was going on under the suit without breaking the terms of contrition. When you send the records back to them with an estimate of my lifespan, make sure they know that I was willing to carry out the full sentence.”
    Ambith nodded. “I will add it to the report.”
    “Good.”
    Inside the shuttle, she was strapped onto a gurney with monitors all over her. If she couldn’t make it, they would crack the suit.
    She settled in and prepared for takeoff.
     
    Bits went in and out of consciousness. She had felt her bones breaking on takeoff, and now, Recruiter Ambith was rushing her into Morganti Base.
    They cut the suit off her and eased her from her former prison, onto a med bed. Lights flashed in her face, and she tried to respond, but she was so very tired.
    A med tech held her hand, and Bits tried to make her understand how tired she was, but the woman passed out.
    “Gloves!” The doctor’s voice barked it out, and moments later, everyone had resumed their positions around her. The unconscious woman was propped up in the corner.
    “Abitika, just breathe, and we will take care of you. You don’t need to tell us anything. Your body is telling its own story. Do you understand?”
    She nodded slightly, and he gave her a hypospray to the arm. The