Shayn

CHAPTER ONE-1

CHAPTER ONE

A WIDE GASH TORE THROUGH the earth; all around her dirt lay in disturbed piles, a formerly peaceful forest wracked by unknowable destruction. Naomi looked for the source but saw nothing that could cause such damage. She could feel its absence, feel that something had once stood here, something dangerous, something that never should have existed.

But where was here?

She wasn’t on Oscavia, the planet she had called home for most of her life. It looked similar enough, but the scent of the forest around her and the shape of the trees was wrong. She’d seen plenty of different planets in visions like this and had long ago learned the small tricks for telling them apart.

Beneath her feet the ground rumbled and the air shimmered around her as the vision shifted, and suddenly she was far from the forest, far from any planet, suspended in the air on some kind of ship, chaos around her as metal crashed to and fro and panicked voices called for help.

Did this have something to do with the forest? Or was this vision different? It was all jumbled up inside of her, a confused mishmash of pictures and noises and sounds, more mixed up than what she usually saw. More violent too, but the visions could be that way sometimes. She didn’t know why she was seeing this. It had nothing to do with what she was supposed to be looking for.

The ship she was observing might have been Oscavian in make but she hadn’t been on a ship out of orbit since she was 12 and she couldn’t say for sure. She tried to memorize little details, knowing that she would be grilled about them when the time came. But there was too much to memorize it all.

She saw a man in the middle of the wreckage—not Oscavian, not any kind of alien she recognized. From what she could make out his skin was blue and he was shaped like a human with dark hair and broad shoulders. She was too far away to make out his expression, but from the way he was moving he looked desperate. And when he shuffled away from the console he was standing in front of she thought she understood why. A woman stood up, a human woman, and they shared a glance. Naomi should not have been able to see the expressions on their faces, but visions were strange like that and she could read every hope and every fear they let show. Something had gone terribly wrong and both of them feared that the other would not make it home. They shared some kind of deep connection, something she could feel in her gut though she’d never encountered it before. Something that bound them soul to soul.

Something that made her ache deep inside.

Something that wasn’t for her.

A wall fell away, but neither the human nor the blue alien looked that way and Naomi was pretty sure it was just another way for her vision to shift. She caught a glimpse of teal skin and dark hair with an arm dotted with dark marks in vaguely triangular shapes. Her heart lurched and she angled her body towards the figure but as she tried to move, the vision cracked into a thousand pieces and shattered.

She opened her eyes and dragged in a gasp of air, breathing deep until her lungs hurt. Restraints dug into her wrists tight enough to make her normally brown skin red. Even knowing that the restraints wouldn’t give, Naomi fought against them, trying to loosen them a little bit. The doctor working with her was new and was following the instructions in her file to the letter, rather than trusting her when she said that he could leave her loose and she wouldn’t hurt herself. She hadn’t done that in years.

Her heart raced, and despite the restraints, her fingers shook. That vision was far more intense than normal and she wasn’t sure what she should do about it. The interrogation was about to start and she didn’t want to share what she’d seen.

Strange.

Normally she didn’t care. Visions were visions and she’d been having them for years. They showed her everything from war to profit to city plans to family drama and celebration and everything beyond. But it wasn’t her family or her city or her war and the doctors working with her knew that. They didn’t care what she saw, they cared that she saw. So why were her instincts screaming at her to stay quiet? She hated the word ‘psychic’, but it was the only one that fit for someone who could look into the past and the future with only the power of her mind. And it would be foolish for someone as psychic as her to ignore her instincts.

“How are you feeling, Naomi?” Dr. Konnor asked. His voice grated, a bit too high and somehow sounding like each word was strained through some kind of sieve. Maybe it was just that he was new and she wasn’t used to him. New doctors didn’t work with her that often, not when there was an entire staff dedicated to helping her and studying her. “Would you like something to drink?”

She wiggled her wrists again and waved her hands towards him. “Would you undo the restraints please?” She didn’t like the way the Oscavian doctor looked at her while she was tied up, like she was some specimen that he owned. She was an equal partner in this endeavor, had been working with these people for years, and just because they got to tie her up sometimes didn’t mean they owned her.

Dr. Konnor looked at her wrists for a long moment and Naomi was scared that he would leave her there, but finally he smiled and nodded. “Of course. Your file noted that you broke your arm during a vision once, and I don’t want there to be any more accidents.”

“When I was sixteen,” Naomi grit out as he undid straps. She rubbed her sore wrists once they were free. “I fell out of my chair and landed wrong. It could happen to anyone. That’s why we have this bar on the chair and the extra deep seat.” A restraint bar fell across her chest almost like an infant’s highchair. It clicked into place but didn’t lock. With her hands free Naomi lifted the bar and slid it into its resting place.

Dr. Konnor nodded. “I’m sure once we work together more I’ll become more confident. But until then I hope you’re willing to put up with me.”

He looked sheepish, like he was a bit embarrassed to be following the rules so closely. Naomi decided to give him a break. He was new, he was learning. And even though her accident had happened ten years ago, that didn’t mean the doctors should be careless of her safety. Visions could cause unexpected responses, and since he wasn’t used to what could happen, keeping her restrained was the safest option.

For now.

“If that’s what you want,” she conceded. She held up her wrists and showed them to the doctor. “But next time a little looser, please.”

Dr. Konnor winced and his purple cheeks got even more purple with a blush. “Oh my. I’m so sorry. Yes, of course. Now shall we get to the questionnaire?”

Naomi nodded.

The doctor scrolled for something on his tablet and held it in front of him. “Time frame of the vision?”

Naomi closed her eyes and breathed deep, summoning the memory of what she’d just seen. Sometimes she was lucky enough to see a calendar or something else that gave her a clear idea of when the vision was taking place. But the forest and the ship had nothing of the sort and she had to rely on what her instincts were telling her. Past? Future? No, neither of those felt right. “Um, I think... Now?” Whatever she had seen was happening somewhere far away, but it wasn’t a memory and it wasn’t a premonition.

“What do you mean? Can you please elaborate?” Dr. Konnor asked.

Another reason to dislike new doctors. The ones she usually worked with would know exactly what she meant. “I think I’m seeing something that’s going on now. Or possibly just happened. There was no indication of the date, but I can sort of feel the when of things. Past, present, future: they all taste a little different.”

“Taste?” he asked.

Naomi shrugged. “That’s not the exact word, but it’s not a smell or feel either. The closest sense I can liken it to is taste.”

“Interesting,” Dr. Konnor said as he made a note.

So clearly he hadn’t read all of her files. Naomi was sure that she had described the taste of a vision before.

“And what did you see?”

She still didn’t want to tell. Why the hell didn’t she want to tell? Konnor wouldn’t let her out of here until she gave him something. “I was in the forest, and then the vision shifted and I was on a space ship. They might be connected. I didn’t recognize the planet. The trees had brown bark and green leaves and the dirt was brown. The ship was huge and it might have been Oscavian. I didn’t hear anyone say anything, I don’t think there’s anything actionable.” She kept her mouth shut about the teal alien at the end. She didn’t know who he was, but she didn’t want to give him up. For now he was hers.

Dr. Konnor made several notes, but before he could speak again the door to the small office they were in slid open with a hiss and a familiar Oscavian scientist walked in. She was shorter than most Oscavians, with light purple skin and light green hair. She wore a dark coat and slim fitting pants and Naomi could not have been more happy to see her.

“How is the session going?” Morgyn asked. Technically Naomi should have called her Dr. Pitner, but Morgyn had been there for her for the past fourteen years, had found her when she was twelve years old, orphaned and lost on the edge of the Oscavian Empire. She’d given her purpose and a home and been the closest thing to a mother that Naomi had had since hers had died. And she had the best sense of timing ever.

“I think we’re about done?” Naomi looked at Konnor and dared him to contradict her with her grin.

The doctor scanned his notes before agreeing. “It was a very interesting session. I look forward to our next one.”

Morgyn looked at Konnor for a moment before inclining her head towards the door. Konnor left and the door slid shut after him. Morgyn took his seat. “How do you like the new doctor?”

Naomi gave Morgyn a look and hoped it conveyed every ounce of her frustration.

It must’ve worked. Morgyn laughed. “He’s new and he’s eager. Brilliant too, based on the papers he’s written. Give the guy a shot. If you’re still feeling this way next month we’ll revisit, okay?”

Brilliant? He was running scared and didn’t know how to deal with her. But Morgyn must’ve seen something in him and Naomi trusted her judgment. “Fine. A month. But if he straps me down like a prisoner again I’m going to complain.”

Morgyn looked at her wrists and grimaced. “Ouch. I’ll talk to him. And thank you. I think he could really open up some avenues we haven’t explored yet. Maybe even get that fine tuning we’ve wanted for so long.”

Naomi hadn’t been born psychic. Or at least, she didn’t have visions. She’d always had strong intuition, a strong sense of good and bad things about to happen. She could clearly remember the days leading up to her parents’ fatal final flight and the way her stomach had curdled every time she thought of the journey they were about to embark on. She had spent an entire day curled up in bed crying and getting sick while her parents packed. And her parents had thought it was a simple fear of temporary separation.

They were meant to be flying out to a mining camp to send a report back to their employer. A week-long trip that they’d taken a dozen times before. Normally Naomi had accompanied them, but they had enrolled her in a local school and didn’t want to take her out during an important exam week. Mechanical failure led to the crash and Naomi was left alone, the only human in an Oscavian school on the edge of the empire. Morgyn had seen her potential and Naomi’s instincts had screamed at her that the path Morgyn offered was the one she needed to take.

Fourteen years and a lot of work later, and Naomi no longer just had strong instincts. Now she got visions of the past, of the future, of the faraway present, things few people were able to see or understand, especially with their sanity intact. But she didn’t have much control. Sure, she knew the conditions most likely to induce a vision, which was what the session with Dr. Konnor entailed. But she couldn’t recall the specifics, couldn’t make herself see who would win an important sports match or battle. For the past three years Morgyn had been working on ways to make it happen.

“You really think so?” She’d like to have a little bit of control. Not because she wanted to know everything that would ever happen, but because staving off some of the more horrifying crap would be worth whatever ordeal Morgyn put her through.

“I really do.” Morgyn smiled and reached out to pat Naomi on the arm, careful to avoid her tender wrists. “But we’re going to need to take a peek at your brain again. Minimally invasive.”

Naomi’s hopes crashed. She almost reached up to touch one of the scars running along her skull. Her gift had come at a very steep price. She couldn’t count the number of times Morgyn had opened up her skull and tinkered. “We can’t just do a scan?” Even the most minimally invasive brain surgery left her in a fog for days.

Morgyn was already shaking her head. “Not this time, I’m afraid. It’s perfectly safe. Shouldn’t take long either. We just need a look.”

How many surgeries was enough to repay the life that Morgyn had given her? Naomi didn’t know where she would’ve ended up as an abandoned human girl left in an empire far from home. “I know it’s safe, but I just feel...”

“Our research is saving lives, Naomi.” Morgyn spoke over her, her voice firm. “You have a gift, do you really want to waste it?”

“Minimally invasive?” That didn’t sound too bad. They’d just take a few pictures and be done with it.

“You won’t even know we were there,” Morgyn promised.

Naomi didn’t need her psychic powers to know that was a lie.

***