Free Transformation Space by Marianne de Pierres Page A

reason he let me in. Once the scan’s done, yer can have her back. How are yer planning to
     feed her?’
    ‘Feed?’ Mira hadn’t even thought of it.
    ‘Yeah. They do need it, yer know,’ Linnea said with gentle sarcasm. ‘And what name have yer picked?’
    Mira felt her face warm with embarrassment at her exposed ignorance. Estelle wouldn’t have been so ill prepared. Nor Faja.
     Both would have picked their child’s name before the birth.
    She spent some precious moments thinking about her sister and her best friend, wishing they were with her, longing for their
     company and advice. Then she let her self-pity go and looked to her child.
    Our child
,
Insignia
corrected.

T HALES
    ‘Villon?’ The detention room was so achingly familiar that Thales felt compelled to say the old philosopher’s name aloud.
    But no aged and gentle person emerged from one of the bedrooms; no refined and thoughtful voice replied. Villon was dead,
     and Thales found himself back in the exact room he had shared with the great man.
    Rene had been in the docking bay when the politic guards led him away. He’d seen her there, pressed back against the wall,
     a slim almost ethereal figure with her fingers clasped tight. He didn’t call out to her or plead for her help. He hadn’t endured
     the last months to return home like a boy needing protection.
    In the furore of their arrival, and Mira’s transfer to Mount Clement, Fariss had eluded the guards. Even though she hadn’t
     really understood all the reasons for him risking detention again, she’d happily acknowledged his determination. If she’d
     forbidden him, he didn’t know what he would have done. His urge to obey her was so strong, and yet his desire to preserve
     the integrity of his world was equally so.
    Fariss had supported him through her nonchalance, and he’d seen the sparkle in her eye at the promise of trouble. She relished
     conflict and battle.
    ‘Do what you must,’ she’d told him before theyberthed on Scolar. ‘And I’ll do the same. Right now, that means not surrendering to your police. I’ll be there for you, watching
     from the sidelines.’ Her beautiful big eyes widened in thoughtful surprise. ‘And to tell you the truth, I’m not sure why,
     except that your skin feels good against mine, and your voice is like a song to me, and my guts tell me to protect you at
     all cost.’
    Her unexpected declaration almost liquefied his resolve. Tears had burned his eyelids, and he’d knelt before her.
    She’d cuffed him gently and pulled him to his feet. ‘Pleasure me now, before what will be.’
    And they’d rolled together in their bunk with a passion that had left Thales weak again.
    ‘Msr Berniere?’
    Thales blinked from his reverie. A guard was standing at the door of what had been Villon’s bedroom. How long had he been
     there while Thales was lost in thought?
    The red-robed guard gave him a curious look. ‘Follow me.’
    Thales walked between two Robes, along the familiar marble-grand corridors, until they ushered him into an opulent meeting
     room. This time, though, Thales viewed the whole Pre-Eminence building through fresh eyes, marvelling at the smooth polished
     flooring, intricately carved window frames and rich textured furnishings.
    How luxurious these surroundings were, compared to the oddity of Rho Junction architecture, or Lasper Farr’s world of parasite-clean
     refuse. Now that he was home, he found the aesthetics of the building bothsoothing and unsettling.
We have such wealth, but have lost our wisdom.
    ‘Thales Berniere.’
    This time it was a member of the Sophos who spoke his name. A dozen of them sat along one side of a long table, as if keeping
     a deliberate physical distance from him.
    Thales recognised most of them: Lauda and Kantos, Averro-ji and Juan Alermo. Sophos Mianos was the notable omission, but in
     his place sat his daughter.
    ‘Rene,’ whispered Thales.
    His wife’s delicate complexion lacked colour, and