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wait to eat and went off to have their own break, expecting me to simply wait for them to finish and offer me one of the elements the experiment was lacking. That is how I do it, by the way. I use one element to form or offset another. With nothing to transform into the change demanded, the power came from my body. That makes me hungry. So, they ate their meal down the hall from the lab where I was confined, and I summoned their base elements out of reflex.”
    Storic’s gold eyes were wide. “You ate them?”
    She rubbed the back of her neck. “I involuntarily broke them down. When the nightshift showed up, they released me and used the monitors to find out what happened. I was as horrified as they were.”
    Burn gave her an understanding look. “What happened then?”
    “The goddess project was put on hold, they removed my hunger from the sequence of events for the next clone and I was sent to Ki. Ostensibly, I was supposed to prepare it for Ichadra-forming and keep new colonists from landing, but it was a prison.” She was sure that he knew that already, but it was freeing to say it out loud.
    “You learned to control your hunger.” Burn smiled.
    “You saw Ki. The only desert was my home. The rest was recovering with plant life. I learned control about five hundred years ago.”
    Storic nodded, “Which was why you warned me not to touch you when you woke. In that state, you would be working under reflex, not self-control.”
    “Precisely. I don’t want to get so hungry that I lash out without control, so I try not to let that happen. On a space station, it is hard. The only element I can grab easily is air, and moving it takes a lot of effort. If I eat the station to move the air, we will all be in trouble.”
    Burn nodded. “So, if Turan makes an appointment for you on any world, he has to make sure they are willing to let you feed.”
    Vexa smiled. “It would have helped dramatically.”
    They sat and continued their conversation until Turan’s secretary came in and summoned them to his office. They had an assignment.
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
    “You know, I do enjoy these armoured suits.” The blast struck her mid-chest and Vexa flew backward, stopping her progress inches from the stone wall behind her.
    Burn was laying down covering fire, but Vexa still had to pull the water out of the cliff face.
    Making a well under fire was not something she considered to be an option previous to this moment, but the Gorwins were addicted to the plants that the Cawhiel traded for fresh potable water.
    The Cawhiel wanted to get out of the drug-running business, so they had asked the Sector Guard who had asked the Citadel for a tamper-proof well. Vexa was currently in the process of pulling the water through layers of stone and sand to the surface.
    It was coming from a depth that she would never have considered feasible before, but it was the deepest and closest water table that she could access.
    “It’s almost here. Just a little longer.” She divided her attention between the rapidly approaching spring and building barricades in front of the Gorwins.
    They didn’t want to hurt the six-legged beings, but their opponents did not have that personal restriction.
    Burn was at her side, backed there by the impending physical attack as the Gorwins got too close to shoot.
    “It’s here.” She dove forward, tackling Burn to the ground as the initial geyser of water sprayed over both of them, hissing as it struck his overheated skin.
    The Gorwins rushed the newly born spring. No matter how hard they struck it, how many blasts they delivered, the water kept coming.
    “Send up the flare.” She whispered it into Burn’s ear and he removed the flare from the safe case on his belt, lighting it and aiming it skyward.
    As it soared upward, the Gorwins howled in denial as a jubilant cry came from the lowlands nearby. The Gorwins retreated as the Cawhiel surged up the hillside to their new water