Free Waking Dream [Tales of the Citadel 23] by Viola Grace

 
     
     
    Chapter One
     
     
    Wiyra Kwinto settled into her pod. “Do we have the sites that you want me to check out?”
    Her cousin Stennar nodded and grinned. “They are loaded. Feel free to check on them, cuz.”
    “I will. I hate it when you use me to surprise other folks on the mining colony.”
    He chortled and put her drips into her arms and thighs. “You spoil all my fun.”
    “And you like to use me to give people heart attacks. We all have our burdens to bear.” She exhaled and let the gel lining of the pod take her weight. It would keep her hydrated, fed and breathing while her mind went for a walk without her body attached.
    She carefully gave Stennar a thumbs up as she used the keys under her left hand to get her locations. Her mind automatically corrected for drift and propulsion, and the next moment, she was out of her body and standing on a slowly rotating asteroid.
    She did her standard mineral check. Several hours of walking through the rock layers later, she was confident that it was a viable site. She moved onto the next rock and the one after that.
    Six hours out of her body was enough for one day, she returned her astral form to the drifted locale where it should be and ran into a slight problem. The mother-platform was gone. All the surrounding asteroids were in the proper alignment, but the platform where her family and her body were was gone.
    Son-of-a-bitch.
     
    “Wake up, Master Tracker Burin, I need your help.” She carried on the conversation with her hand inside his skull. It was the only way she could transmit her thoughts into something he would understand.
    It had been hard to force her way into Citadel Reevish. The tower and the Masters’ quarters were fully lined against psychic spillage. Apparently, she qualified, but she was also very determined.
    He opened his blue-green eyes and jolted in surprise. “I have had this dream, but you were in your body at the time.”
    “That is my problem. Someone has stolen my body and my family platform.” She really didn’t want to be here. The last time she had spoken to Burin, he had offered her an amazing amount of money to join Citadel Reevish. She had rudely turned him down and told him where to stuff his offer. Now, she was sitting in his bedroom with her hand inside his skull. Life was unpredictable.
    He chuckled. “You are joking.”
    He sat up and she moved with him, trying to ignore the muscular nudity of his form. “Could you put some clothes on?”
    She had to stay up on her toes, almost pressed against him in her astral form. He couldn’t feel her directly, but she had been told that the experience was rather stimulating as her electrical impulses interacted with the person she touched.
    “Why do you have your hand in my head?”
    “It fools your brain into thinking that I am talking. Otherwise, I have to act it out with hand signals and that is no fun for either of us.” Wiyra scowled, knowing that she was just a vague glow to him, a black and white outline of her own body.
    “What do you want me to do?” He crossed his arms and leaned against his desk.
    “I want you to find me. I will pay you.”
    “There is only one currency that I want. You know what I want from you.” He looked at her eye-line, and she could almost believe that he could see her clearly.
    “Refresh my memory.”
    “I want you to join Citadel Reevish as my partner. With my tracking and your ability to walk through walls, we will make an amazing team.”
    She wanted to smack him with her astral hand. “I can’t say yes. My family has final say on what I can and cannot do.”
    “Your grandfather authorized your employment with the Citadel, and you know it.”
    “He didn’t tell me that.”
    “He is terrified by you, and you know that as well.” Burin laughed. “He authorized me to make you an offer and said if you agreed, you could go. Wiley bugger.”
    It did sound like something her grandfather would say. Vecho Kwinto was an amazing