Free Shared Skies by Josephine O Brien

like sardines in a tin. But the energy
holding things together is still the same. And, as Alasdair said,
Gaianans are beings of energy. We can affect the forces holding
matter together, we store energy and use it as we need.”
    They’d parked beneath the huge lilac tree
Gaiah remembered so well. Kaley got out of the car, gesturing at
the scene that was Gaiah's memory come to life. “Our house here was
held together by Gaianan energy and when we returned to Gaiana we
simply released the energy holding the atoms and–poof–they all
slowly dispersed; tiny, tiny, invisible atoms going to a billion
different places. Now we need a house again, so we reassemble atoms
and supply energy and here we are. It’s not identical but it’s
basically the same.”
    Different atoms or not, it still felt like
home to Gaiah. Alasdair opened the front door and stood back to let
Gaiah in. The same yellow, cream and ochre colours surrounded her.
She almost ran around the house, finding the same carved armchairs
and sofas with their richly-coloured upholstery and cushions in the
pleasing arrangement of rooms. Yes, these were the heavy, ivory
brocade curtains she remembered. They were pulled across the
windows in every room, shutting out the dark highland night and
making a bright, cosy haven of the cottage.
    The kitchen hummed and purred as the bright
red Rayburn whooshed into life. Kaley turned on the dishwasher and
a new addition, an American retro fridge, crackled on with its ice
making.
    “ All on Gaianan energy?”
queried Gaiah.
    “ Oh no, dear–special
delivery from Harrods! I do believe in spending as much as I can
when I shift Earthways. It helps the economy.”
    “ But surely not if it’s…if
the money is…y’know, fabricated somewhere?” Gaiah was studying
economics for her A levels and was quite sure first principles
stated money had to be backed up with real cash value, and not spun
into existence out of the blue.
    Kaley looked shocked.
“Powers no! We’d never do that. We have several small but extremely lucrative
businesses here on Earth staffed by Gaianans on Earthways sojourn.
We make more than enough to spend what we like while we are here.
In Scotland we have a luxury cashmere shop. It’s mostly mail order
but with some retail. Perhaps we’ll get you a weekend job there?
You will have to be seen out and about, you know. Some things have
to be open and above board. I’m sorry about the short notice for
school, but we really needed to get you up here now.”
    Oh God! School! She knew she had to go but hadn't wanted to think
about it. “Do they know I was thrown out of my last
school?”
    “ Of course! The whole file
was faxed to the head, Mrs. Patterson, but I encognated her after
she read it, so now she thinks it was wonderful and she’s looking
forward to greeting a high-achieving, well-liked student, coming to
finish her A levels in her school–a most welcome
addition.”
    “ You...what-ed her?” Gaiah
was almost speechless at the implications of this
sentence.
    “ Encognate . It's an ancient word that
means ‘influence thinking’. Gaiah, you know you have that ability
too. In fact, that’s why we had to get you here so suddenly, you
were encognating so wildly and strongly, we felt it. It was only a
matter of time before others noticed. Our brain patterns are more
energy-than electricity-based and therefore are capable of
influencing the human thought pattern.”
    Of course, Gaiah knew exactly what Kaley
meant, if not the whys and hows. But to hear it spoken about so
casually, astonished her.
    “ But don’t you need eye
contact? That’s the only way I could do it. Are you doing it to me
now? Is that why I’m not freaking out?”
    “ No eye contact needed.
That’s just the way you developed it on your own, which is
extraordinary anyway. And no, we can’t encognate each other or,
unfortunately, the Or’kans. And in your case, you can’t encognate
your father because he’s family. But I was