Harness Read Online Free PDF Page A

scanner cruise over her palm. It chirped happily and started whirring away.
    She poured herself a cup of water and heated water for tea.
    She felt El-sur before she turned around. “Good morning?”
    “Correct. You slept for one full rotation. It seems that it did you good.” He smiled at her and inclined his head.
    “I feel better, though I have no idea why I look this way.” She wrinkled her nose.
    “Instinct perhaps? Your body is that of a female Sukra, right down to the pigments in your eyes. This is the standard default appearance for our people.”
    She blinked and tried to remember her human form, but it was long gone. Shrugging, she retrieved her meal when the machine binged and took the tea, her water and her tray to a table.
    Three minutes later, El-sur joined her. “What do you remember about your walk?”
    “That wasn’t a dream?”
    “No. The doors are alarmed for security. They went off when you went out.”
    “Ah. I looked out the window and I saw lights in the forest. I felt something call me, and so, I went out to find out what it was.” She forked her food and raised her eyebrows at the surprisingly pleasant taste. “This is good.”
    He laughed. “It should be. We have the best programmers in the imperium.”
    She could feel the pride in his tone. “Interesting. I didn’t realise that there were different levels of catering equipment.”
    “You are tasting the difference.”
    Fred laughed. She couldn’t argue with it. Her stomach was happy with what it was getting, and in the Nyal Imperium, that was a situation few and far between.
    “So, you followed the lights.”
    “I did. They thickened into a column and beckoned me to the top of the hill. Once there, a voice called me daughter and said it had been waiting for me.” She struggled to remember everything. It was faded into a warm and secure feeling with all details blurring together.
    “You think that it was the voice of Arxuxsa?”
    “That is how it identified itself. I have no reason to disbelieve it. It felt strong, and it is running through the ground under our feet.”
    “That does sound like a living world all right.” He nodded in agreement.
    She laughed. “It does indeed. I have only met one of them before.”
    “Where?”
    “Gaiolura. The Avatar there is very charming.” She smiled softly. It had been a good weekend with plenty of pleasant distractions.
    El-sur’s hand suddenly clenched on his water cup. There was a sharp retort as the liquid escaped the shattered cup.
    “What was that?” She looked at him with concern.
    He got to his feet and blotted the towel onto the spill. “I was just surprised to hear that you had a social life.”
    “Of course I do. I can take any form, so for a lot of men, I can be their ideal woman, at least for a night. I get some physical contact out of it for pleasure and not business, so it is win-win.” She smiled.
    He didn’t look happy about that. He continued frowning and mopping up of the spill.
    “I expect that being able to change into a woman’s fantasy hasn’t been all bad for you.”
    He looked scandalized. “I would never take advantage of someone’s deepest desires just to satisfy my own.”
    For the first time since she had selected her first lover, she felt shame.
    The ground underneath them shook.
    “What the hell was that?” She grabbed for her teacup and held it tight.
    El-sur scowled. “I don’t know. Let me call the main base.”
    She nodded and picked up her cup to follow him as he walked through the kitchen and into a doorway that she had seen the night before. Fred moved silently after him as he headed to the com where lights were already flaring up on the board. It was refreshing to see that they used the same local com systems as the majority of the imperium. The moment he struck a button, a voice rang out.
    “What is going on there, El-sur?”
    El-sur took a seat at the unit. “I was hoping you could tell us. The ground shook.”
    “There was a