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Bloody hellfire! What the.... Rinnah kept arching her back trying to see over her shoulder and each time she did she found herself revolving slowly in mid-air. Yet it was the non-winged person in the room that came to her aid with a stern "Relax! Stop fighting it and stop straining yourself."
The first thing that was evident was that the pain receded but Rinnah hardly noticed. She forced herself to relax and in doing so felt her toes and heels touch the floor of the medical bay. She couldn't help but arch her head trying to get a glimpse of these glowing white wonders that seemed to be growing from her back. The hybrid finally looked at Selwyn who had left and returned with a mirror. "Here, take a look at yourself." Selwyn came close enough yet positioned far enough back so that Rinnah could get a clear view of herself in the mirror. "Rachel, are these things attached to my back?" She asked whispered wonderingly. She kept her face turned to the mirror while trying to reach back over her shoulder with one hand to touch the feathers sprouting out of a wing. Gleaming white, sparkling with a light of its own, she managed to snag a few feathers in her grip and worked until she had just one feather between her fingers and jerked, hard. "AAAHhh, DAMMIT! Ouch! Oh shit that hurt!" She squinted her eyes as tears threatened to leak out. Selwyn chuckled and said, "Standing here not feeling sorry for you star dim! What did you think was going to happen?" "I wanted to make sure it was a part of me and take my word for it, they are!" She was turning in place again trying to see the hovering great wings rising over her head and settled for looking down at the feather in her hand. Rinnah looked up and stretched her hand out to the doctor. "Here, you may need this for your scans. See what it is." Dr. Rachel Selwyn ranked ninth in her age group class of over a thousand extended her hand for the feather, took it between her fingers, held it up to the light, rolled it between her fingers, studied it with pursed lips and then spoke in her most clinical and dispassionate voice, "It's a feather." Rinnah glared, "Dammit!! I KNOW it's a feather! But WHY am I growing the freaking things out of MY back! I'm not supposed to be able to do this at all!" A thought occurred to her. She started, or tried to cross the medical bay but ended up staggering back and forth with the gait of a drunken sailor. Rinnah heard chuckling but ignored it. The unaccustomed weight and size of the wings were throwing off her balance. Rinnah speared Selwyn with a dark look which only made her laugh harder. The muffled laughter followed her across the room and she opting for the silence of wounded dignity instead. Punching the panel a little harder than need be she buzzed Jammer at his station but made sure that the vid was kept off. "Jammer, are you up there minding the store?" "Of course, C'tin. Do'n ye need me down tere?" "No, what I need is the most secure channel to Professor Blackstock that we have and pipe it down here to the med bay." "Yes'n C'ptin." Only she and Jammer knew about the codes that she had attached in a cryptic coded program to the communications system that only they knew how to run. It was the result of her own paranoia she knew, but it had come in handy at times, such as a time like this when she wanted to have a little heart to heart with man who sired her. Soon Jammer was back on the com to alert her that her father had been contacted and was waiting, and did she want a vid or only audio. "Both Jammer." "Right it is C'ptin." On the screen appeared a man with deep crow's feet alongside vivid blue eyes, eyebrows still black as a raven's wing and a full head of white hair, although Rinnah knew that at one time it had been as black as her own obsidian locks. Now that she had him on screen, Rinnah was feeling an anxiety rising up within her and checked to make sure she was standing at an angle so he couldn't see her wings yet. She wanted to surprise him with them. And hoo boy, what a surprise this was going to be! "Hello Dad!" "Well punkin, how are you," with a tone of worry after all this was a secure channel and he already knew it wasn't a "miss you" call, something was up. He took in her stance and expression, knowing her well enough to sense that she was upset about something. "I have missed you but I did get your last letter. I am glad that you were able to keep your temper at the last peace initiative talks." She scowled and her father smiled in sympathy, he knew how hard it was for her. "Um Dad?" Feeling nervous she ran one of her hands along a newborn wing rustling in empathy with her growing agitation. Her father, reading her aright said, "Rin honey, you know you can tell me anything and nothing will make me love you any less." Rinnah, scourge of a plantoid race, powerful Battle Captain, rare dispenser of mercy, felt a sting of tears at the edges of her eyes and took a deep breath. Feeling like a small child once again, she grabbed at the edge of one of her wings and pulled it around in front of her letting it cover half of her body. Whatever reaction she had thought her father would make, she wasn't disappointed. He appeared to stagger, his face went white and his mouth opened and shut without making a sound. She started toward the comvid in concern and without realizing it, let go of the wing. It swung back up over her head to join its mate, but now she was positioned so that both wings showed on the screen. She watched her father's eyes grow big as they scaled up over her head. "Dad, are you alright?" "Uhhhhh." He said, still gaping at the sight of his winged daughter. Finally he shook his head and appeared to gather his thoughts. "I'll be damned." He said softly and then broke out in a grin. Rinnah cocked her head at him inquiringly. "Well, honey, it looks like you have grown into your wings!" And chuckled. "You,.... You're okay with them?" She asked, once again the child to her father. And then, almost accusingly "Did you KNOW this was going to happen?" He held up his hands shaking his head again, and said, "Neither your mother or I thought you or Rellyn would develop wings. After all, none of the others did." 'Others' in this case being the other black-haired hybrids. "Of course, you two were part of the uncharted territory... wait til..." he trailed off lost in thought and then seemed to come to a decision. He looked into his daughter's face with serious eyes. "Rinnah, you must keep your wings a secret, as secret as you can. Don't let anyone know about them. Trust me on this, please, for my sake, for your sake, keep them under wraps." "Uh, Dad," feeling a thread of fear trying to rise up she questioned, "Why Dad? Is there something I should know? "Well, Rin, I think this is just the beginning. I think you are going to come into more abilities and powers. And, because of this," Here he gestured at the wings still gently waving above her back, stirring the air, "I think you will be more powerful in your abilities because you are a crossbreed, a hybrid. At least your mother thought so." He held up a hand to forestall her questions, "That is something your mother told me once, I wouldn't have come up with that on my own." She nodded. Mom had been real intuitive, frighteningly so at times. Just then she heard familiar thumping noises and felt her heart squeeze in fear. Her father had turned to look over to the side and said, "What are you...." "Dad, what is it?" She tensed. She knew the sound of gunfire and hoped with all of her being she was wrong. Just then off from the side of the screen a blast of light enveloped her father. He didn't have time to say or do anything but disappeared in ball of light. At that moment, Selwyn leaped, pushed Rinnah aside and slapped the off button on the screen while calling for Jammer to cut all connections. With a scream of pure rage and raw pain, Rinnah jumped back to the screen pounding on it, "Get him back, get him back NOW!" Too shocked for tears but she knew it was futile. Her father was already dead. She snarled at the empty screen, and she knew who had killed him. She would make sure they paid. Pounding on the wall, screams of grief came roaring up and out of her and with it shot flames of white fire. She would exact justice on the perverted race of plants if it took her until her dying day! If she had to pay in the coin of her life's blood she would gladly do so if it meant she could drag their precious superior plant asses down to hell with her! Hearing the hiss of a hyponeedle she turned to blast her rage at Selwyn when the edges of her vision became dark and a numbness quickly spread through her body. She felt herself falling and the doctor catching her. |
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Rinnah slowly came to and saw two concerned faces bending over her. Jammer and Selwyn. She tried to push up on her elbows and would have fallen back if Jammer hadn't braced her up.
Her tongue felt thick in her mouth, "Wha..." And then the memory came flooding back to her and tears started down her face. She tried to roll over on her side to curl up, but something stopped her. She looked down and saw that she was laying on one of her wings and it wouldn't bend any further for her to roll. Her wings! She remembered the last thing her father had said to her, to keep them a secret. How the bloody hell was she going to keep a fifteen-foot plus wing span a secret? She looked up at her friends. Both reflected back to her the anguish they saw in her face. She couldn't think, she felt numb. What was she going to do? How was she going to get revenge? And she most certainly couldn't captain her ship from the medical bay for the rest of her life! Seeing her consternation, Selwyn correctly guessed its source. "Listen, your mother had wings and she could call them forth on command so that means you can too! We just have to figure out how she did it. She, uh, didn't ever tell you about the whole process of wing sprouting and all did she?" Good question. Rinnah thought back. Yes, she did recall something. Her mother had tried to explain it to the two of them when they were small. She said it was like releasing a yo-yo and pulling it back up and to demonstrate, she had done that very thing, her glorious shining wings, in and out for the amusement of her two daughters. She had looked tired afterward though. So there had to be some kind of energy usage involved. Rinnah sat up, swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and closed her eyes. She had no idea what she was doing. "Do you have any idea what you are doing?" Asked Selwyn. "Do shut up Rachel, I'm trying to concentrate." Obliviously, they weren't going to sink back on their own or when she was relaxed or that would have happened while she was out from the shot. The winged hybrid cast a quick glance back over her shoulders to her stubborn wings, if anything, they looked larger than earlier. Were they growing? She whipped her head back around and closed her eyes again, don't think about that, think about them shrinking. She imagined herself pulling on a rope that stretched to the tip of the wings down to her heart. She called and gently pulled at the same time. And Glory BE! She was feeling something happening. "Whatever you are doing, keep it up, the wings are getting smaller!" Urged an excited Selwyn. "Aye, ye are doing it C'ptin!" Jammer called out, his excitement rivaling the doctor's. That was all she needed, it was working. She wasn't sure how or why it was working, but it was and she kept imagining herself pulling in the line of a stretched tight and wind-filled sail. Rinnah felt it fighting back yet she determined her will would be dominant now that she knew it could be done. Finally, she had nothing left and tipped over panting. She hoped they were absorbed into her back, as she doubted she could do one more pull. Star holes but she was tired, she felt like she had just finished swabbing all the decks with a toothbrush. She could just curl up now and take a nice long.... "C'ptin!" "Let her be Jammer, she needs to recuperate. You take over for a while, that's why they pay you the big money." He grumped but agreed and left the room to return to the bridge. In truth, Rinnah couldn't have opened her eyes even if a horde of plants surrounded her with dinner napkins on and asking someone to pass the salt. She was that exhausted. |
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It was on day three of the fourth week of wing training that Rinnah wished she could die. She felt like one big walking bruise and aching muscle. But at least it was also helping her work through her grief over her father's death. Of course the official story was that he had disappeared of his own volition a fabrication that set Rinnah's teeth on edge. She had lodged the expected official request for help in searching for the missing professor. Rachel had insisted that she make it, "So they won't know you know." was her explanation. It was still a deep raw and oozing wound, but she knew how to grieve, she had had plenty of practice over the years. She stumbled as she forgot to pay attention to her pacing and balance.
"Come on Rin, you can do better than that!" Encouraged and demanded Selwyn from the sidelines as Rinnah ran her laps. Rinnah stopped in her tracks, chest heaving, sweat running down her face and body darkening her work out clothes. If she wanted she could have run so fast she would have been a blur, but Rachel wanted to step it up slowly, a little at a time. Just like a flipping scientist always wanting to test things out. Panting, she replied, "YOU... get over here... and do better! Who... died and made.... you... training fairy?" Easy for her to say standing there cool and dry with her stopwatch in her hand and a disapproving expression on her face. Ever since the birth of her wings, Rachel had insisted that Rinnah exercise and practice her usual exercises with her wings out and added ones she had devised to torture, er, test her growing abilities. Each day they worked out each morning in a private gym with the doors locked. Rachel had her run through every practice and exercise imaginable and some just plain made up while Rinnah practiced furling and unfurling her wings. The idea was for her to learn the limitations and strengths of her wings and how to deal with them. Right at the moment she was running laps around the edges of the gym while popping her wings in and out without losing her balance or missing a step. Whistle-blowing training nazi! The problem they were both becoming painfully aware of as amateurs was that neither one knew what the limitations were of her inherited powers. Some of the limits discovered usually ended with Rinnah in some form of pain cursing Rachel's ancestry back several generations. Dr. Selwyn knew of some abilities such as a cloaking ability which they began to call the cloaking glamour. It made Rinnah invisible to the eye but not to the camera. The ability they had lucked upon was the healing ability that less than three percent of Antresslans displayed. They hadn't expected that one but had discovered it when ensign Sitlow had come in to the medbay with a burst appendix. Rinnah had concentrated so hard on her hurt crew member that she began to imagine she could actually see into the body with blood vessels and organs. Waiting in the other room she followed the surgery in her mind. Telling Rachel about it afterwards the doctor decided to test her. It hadn't taken long but Rinnah could now heal cuts and even deep wounds. It was the one ability that scared her and she insisted that they keep it to themselves not even telling Jammer. Most of the time, neither one knew what abilities being a hybrid would give her. They weren't sure as to what Rinnah could or could not so since they didn't know what she was and wasn't supposed to be able to do. There were pluses and minuses to this whole method of course. The worst misadventure though had happened the day before. Selwyn had talked Rinnah into jumping into the swimming pool and then had her pop her wings out while she was in the water. Two grown, college-educated, intelligent women responsible for the lives of hundreds and neither one could figure out what was going to happen next? Rinnah had damn near drowned, that's what had nearly happened! Rinnah had barely managed to haul herself out of the pool with wings so weighted with water they threatened to pull her back in. Small rivers of water drained from her half-mast wings dragging behind her as she advanced on Rachel with fire in her eyes intending to do bodily harm with arms outstretched and hands curved into claws aimed at Selwyn's throat. Prudently, Selwyn began backing away holding up her hands in front of her trying to make calming gestures while speaking rapidly. "Now, now, this wasn't a wasted experiment, we did learn something very important from this!" Rinnah, barely noticing the puddles forming in dark circles at her feet and under her sagging wings had halted to listen as Selwyn continued, "First, you can't retract your wings while panicking. Second, you can't swim with them extended, third, you can't fly out of the water and, and... fourth.... you look... absolutely..." she started to hiccup or giggle, Rinnah wasn't sure which one it was at first, "...ridiculous..." then bent over holding her stomach chuckling. Chuckling. Selwyn was definitely chuckling at her! "...Like some great... drowned cat...with..." starting to laugh harder "...with droopy wings!!" breaking into guffaws while pointing a finger at Rinnah's waterlogged feathery appendages. Rinnah placed her hands on her hips and asked through clenched teeth, "And at what point were you planning to leap in and save your captain's sorry half-plant ass, eh?" She cast a glance back over her shoulders as she began shaking the excess water out of her wings. Water drops went flying in all directions. Selwyn stood up, wiping tears from her eyes and gasped out, "I didn't mean for you to jump in the deep end... what were you thinking? Besides you were in no danger of drowning..." "Says you..." Muttered Rinnah darkly and then mimicked in a falsetto voice, "Jump in the pool Rinnah, let's see what happens when you open your wings while in water.... you know how to swim don't you?" She narrowed her eyes at her friend, pointed her finger in her direction saying, "I'll get you for this, don't think that I won't." Selwyn picked up a red and white striped life buoy and shook it at her. "Oh come on now. Stop being such a big baby. You weren't going to sink, I had this ready to throw in." Rinnah gave it a dubious glance. Through personal experience she now knew just how heavy sopping wet wings were. These learning experiences were near enough to kill her if she didn't start wising up more quickly than this, or at least stopped listening to Rachel. Huh, maybe that was the real lesson here, when to listen to Rachel and when to throw the good doctor out the door on her bum. In the end, the hybrid captain had firmly told Selwyn there would be no more swimming lessons. So that led to this, running laps for the pain queen. She leaned against the wall and waited until her breathing calmed back to normal. "I'm done doing laps. What's next?" She asked surprising herself. She had always known Rachel had a devious streak in her and would probably think of something incredibly difficult like doing pushups on her wingtips. She shuddered, don't bring it up, the doctor didn't need any help in thinking up new ways to torture her. "Okay, we have been concentrating on your wings in the morning and your growing mind abilities in the evening. Today I want to combine the two together." Right. "How the hell do you know all this?" Rinnah demanded stabbing her friend with a suspicious glance. "Because my dear star dim captain, by now I have nearly committed to memory all the scientific data concerning the hybrids and what they can and cannot do. And what I don't remember I have at my fingertips. I'm probably the only non-hybrid project doctor that is an expert on the hybrids. I know more about what you are capable of than you do!" Rinnah had to give her that but wouldn't admit it out loud and instead said, "Wouldn't be hard sawbones, you know I ignore that part of my heritage." "To your detriment." Rachel pointed out with a frown. "You have to learn now because it may mean the difference between life and death, victory and defeat. Really Rin, this is your blind spot and you can't afford to indulge yourself in it any longer." Selwyn looked at her serious and grim for the moment. Thus began a new level of training where Rinnah Blackfire had learned that a new level of training was the same thing as saying "I hurts in places I didn't know I had and places I didn't want to know I had". Selwyn had her reaching down into her "well" of energy that had given birth to her wings and practice pulling it up and out. It also had to be used for a purpose or it was apt to explode. They found out that Rinnah had to have strict control over it or else it had a tendency to send blasts all over the room. There were now scorch marks on the floor, walls, and ceiling. When they had finished and were looking over the results of their workout they had been amazed and somewhat mortified. Neither had been paying that much attention to where the bolts were landing. They had been too busy. Selwyn had been dodging the sizzling balls of light and diving for the floor while yelling instructions and Rinnah had felt like she was trying to hold onto a bucking and kicking mustang eager for the freedom to run wild. They looked at each other sheepishly. Eyeing the walls, Rachel asked, "Do you think anyone will notice?" Opting for nonchalance, Rinnah shrugged, "Nah, it always looks like this after a volleyball game." Reaching over to nudge the good doctor a step, she challenged "Last one to the showers has to pick up the shredded feathers!" Both sprinted for the shower doors but Selwyn shoved sending Rinnah stumbling to the side putting her in the lead. Rinnah leaped to her feet, sprouted and soared on wings filled with power catching her at the door. She placed her hands on Selwyn's shoulders and pushed off, tucking her wings in next to her body and somersaulted over Rachel's head through the door. It was so quickly done it was finished in the space of a couple of quick breaths. "HA!" She cried landing lightly on her feet. Triumphantly she turned and pumped a victor's fist in the air. It was the first time she had won since they had started wing training. Selwyn laughed as Rinnah did a little victory dance, "My turn to make a goose down pillow. Hey, how many Rinnah's does it take to make a down pillow?!" Eyes twinkling mischievously she waited. "How many?" Asked Rinnah with narrowed eyes. "Just one, but you have to push her in at the deep end!" Rinnah shook her fist at Selwyn's laughing face. "I'll push you, you sadist!" And would have chased her around the locker if she hadn't tripped over her own wings. All in all it was a good day's workout.
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