Hearts and Stones - Robin D. Owens Page 0,18
But the others pressed for the man of stiff military bearing, the trouble-shooter, to interrogate her. And their psi-gifts buzzed around her, tingling her skin as they gauged her truthfulness, probed into her emotions.
Levona answered every question in crisp detail as they requested, all too aware of her lower-to-middle-class upbringing, the fact that she’d taken off on her own to the mountains instead of working with the psi-mutant community, and that she sat with raggedy hair in shabby clothes with the fragrance of sweat and the underscent of muddy ditch water rising from them.
They discussed the breach that only skinny young people could wriggle through and which had been fixed that day. Levona closed her eyes enough to visualize any other tiny stress cracks in the vehicle and broadcast that information to everyone so they could work on those, too. She hoped that would demonstrate her cooperation …
Finally Pizi protested that she needed food and her wonderful heart friend, Levona, must also. At that point, the black woman who’d handled the provisions delivery earlier — also showing a military bearing — left. She returned with a nice steaming heap of beef and greens on a plate for Pizi, and a small hot hand pastry of standard meat-like and cheese-like substance for Levona. No one else ate.
Probably because breaking bread still held connotations of hospitality and courtesy.
“I recognize you,” the black woman said. “You worked all day unloading provisions.” She paused, swept a glance over the other nine. “And she stood with me during the attack.” A wintry smile. “I didn’t need her help, but I believe she’d have entered the fray on my side, if necessary.” She held out a hand. “Megan Dufort.”
Levona took her hand and shook it. “Levona Martinez.”
“I know.” Megan faded back to lean against the table. “Levona worked hard today.” Megan cast a glance at Pizi. “Unlike the cat whom I observed coming and going and playing around the landing site. I’m inclined to think well of Levona and support her in her bid to take an empty space if someone doesn’t show.”
“We have a full waiting list! She would take the place of someone who has already proven their worth to us! It is unfair for this person to take someone else’s deeply desired position,” the sharp-toned woman pointed out. A pale blond, she stood, tall and thin, with a small hunch of her shoulders. She didn’t introduce herself, but others had called her Ava Quintana.
With a sinking feeling in her gut, Levona admitted the justice of the woman’s statement. All the others radiated acceptance of those words, backed by emotions of … honor.
While marching to the conference room surrounded by other gifted psi-mutants, Levona’s brain had scrambled to find a way she could stay on the ship. Sucking in her breath now, she scanned the faces before her — Donna Clague, Megan Dufort and Netra Hoku sympathetic, Ava Quintana and a couple of others antagonistic, but most showed an impassive expression like Umar Clague.
All these people judged her.
She couldn’t lose this opportunity. She couldn’t. She met each chill gaze. “You need a volunteer for the cryonic process.”
Pizi gasped, but Levona continued. “I will do that. I will volunteer to be frozen and put in stasis and later be revived. For a place in the crew, and for a tube for myself and Pizi, should one become available.”
“All the tubes are bespoke,” Ava Quintana said in a hard voice.
“But not all of those who paid for the tubes have arrived, right? If you have a vacancy, I want it.”
“The cost is much higher than anything you could provide,” replied Ava. She kept staring just past Levona’s ear, so she must see something normal people didn’t.
“Is that what my aura tells you?” Levona asked. “That I have little money? That is true.”
BUT WE HAS SKILLS! Especially My Levona! Pizi yelled.
Most people winced at the sound blasting into their brains. “We can hear you, cat,” Hoku said.
“She does have the cat,” Donna murmured. “And the cat is extraordinary, a true psychic mutant. A cat with excellent psi that could show up in her kittens, if she bred. We need all the psi we can get.”
“And Levona Martinez also carries excellent psychic talent in her genes, should she decide to breed on this voyage, rather the same situation as myself,” Megan Dufort said.
Accent thicker, Umar Clague said, “We will not discriminate on the basis of psychic power. We will not refuse a person on our waiting list with