Evolution's Essence (6 page)

Trust is their most valued resource and
treasure.

“
Glad to hear it. Since
there is no time like the present. I’ll go grab Davan. He will be
eager for a little revenge.” Oliver said.

“
I’ll go with ye. We have a
discussion to do, Lad.” Jake added and they walked away
together.

The Hunters moved over to lounge as they
normally did as Renee came over to hug Netul. “How’s Callier and
your son?”

His eyes brightened with a
deep blue at the question. Happiness.
“Both
do well. Thank you for asking.”

“
What of
Jaffablin?”

Glowing eye color dimmed
with brown. Sad and angry.
“Reconstruction
is underway. It will take roughly three years to rejuvenate the
planet after the battle. New sprouts are being planted and soon
fauna will be delivered from other colonies to replenish the
wounded ecosystem. At least we are able to do that.”

She lowered her voice and threw up a shield
to cancel sound. “Between us, why did you chose to show up just as
Papa told us about the Goliaths?”

“
Honestly I did not know.
The Archivers sent me. I was readying another Mothership for the
routing when they must have thought it prudent I step in to limit
any excess danger. We wanted to attack before you found out and
needed to worry. Your aunt’s systems were more advanced than we
estimated for a long range bio-scan of the planet from here. If you
decided to go to surprise the hive and Goliaths you would have been
in danger of us beginning the assault in thirty hours. Your
unpredictable patterns made it necessary we step in since you
didn’t know our intention.”

“
Good to hear I’m
unpredictable.” She giggled.

Knuckles rasped loudly on the door to the
private science lab. After a few moments it opened to show a man of
average height holding a steaming cup of coffee. A white lab coat
contrasted to his skin that was entirely royal blue. He was bald
and had two vertical black lines going across his head, crossing
the eyes and cheeks. He immediately saw a wall and looked up into
the misting amber eyes of Oliver Void. “Come to help out again?”
his whole morning brightened right up. “I hit another snag on the
osculation matrix again. Can you point me in the right direction.
The cycles keep bre…”

Oliver held up a hand as Jake came around to
say “We’re not here for that, Laddie. Ye hear about the Hunter
assault yet?”

“
The crew talked about it at
supper. Why, Captain?”

“
Because Renee thought you
might want to get your hands on a working teleporter you most
likely helped design.” Oliver teased and Davan Took went still.
Even for a foremost human genius he didn’t know what to do. “Since
you are likely partly its inventor, you might want it for study and
to see if the parties involved were privy to the massacre they
orchestrated and used you as the scapegoat.”

“
Enough said. What do I need
to do to get retribution for my family?” he sat the steaming cup
down on a nearby table, giving undivided attention.

“
Come with me.” Oliver
simply said.

“
Lad, ye remember what I
warned. Not a hair harmed. I’ve got to go deal with the crew and
let them know. One hair and yer arse is mine.”

“
Aye aye.” Oliver said and
Davan was about to follow eagerly. “Oh, you may need to pack a bag.
Clothes and tools. We’ll be landing on Zerika soil in a few
minutes.”

“
Good thing I got the heavy
gravity splice a decade ago. My heart would give out otherwise.”
Davan mumbled and rushed to get supplies before eventually riding
the elevator back to the docking bay and gasp “A Creelin! Whoa and
a Beyleez at that!”

“
Netul, meet Davan Took.
Foremost human I know of researching instant travel.” Oliver
introduced the men who shook hands. Davan was completely speechless
and all the things he wanted to ask failed to come out. Oliver
slapped him on the back with a laugh. “Breathe now, Buddy.” He
did.

“
I’m sorry, I rarely get too
meet your people and never a Zeelin above Zant rank.”

“
The pleasure is mine, Davan
Took.”

“
Davan, please. Coming from
you it sounds like I stole something important.” The scientist said
humbly.

“
Awe, Davan’s got a bromance
going!” Renee joked and black eyes widened in embarrassment and it
made her smirk grow.

“
I’m heterosexual I’ll have
you know. Just haven’t found the right woman after my last
separation.” He informed to clear up the
misunderstanding.

“
Well your EQ certainly
can’t take a joke.”

“
EQ?”
telepathy inquired.

Evergreen misting orbs turned to the Creelin.
“Emotional Quotient. His IQ is one ninety nine and it effects
overly intelligent people. Like Papa, they have a hard time making
friends. Too smart, just like my personal Idiot who’s IQ is off the
charts. It’s why he’s so calm and doesn’t react to high stress
situations. They get angry, but you can’t expect them to cope like
normal humans. There is a correlation with IQ and EQ. Higher the
one, lower the other.”

“
My own people share a
similar trait. Our top scientists find it difficult to socialize
like the bulk of our people.”

“
So even some of your people
have the emotional range of a stump like my Olly?”

“
For a certain.”
Netul confirmed her assessment.

“
Stump? That isn’t
nice.”

“
Spank me later.” She winked
as Oliver turned on her.

“
You asked for me?” Came the
voice of Jessica Menann, maiden last name being Dorgen. Jessica and
Stephanie were married, but she was Renee’s biological aunt.
Jessica is now a hundred and fourteen, but barely looks twenty, has
bright auburn hair and hazel-green eyes. Just like her niece she
was cutely freckled, but was less prominent. “Oh, wow. Let me
guess, the famous Netul?” his ridged forehead dipped forward
slightly. “Seems I need to chew my brother out for not informing me
we have such an important guest aboard.”

“
Good, everyone’s all here.”
Renee jumped a little.

“
Here for what? What is
going on? You weren’t to leave for Zerika for at least six more
hours.” Jessica tossed her curly hair back over slim shoulders and
clearly expressed confusion.

“
Oh, well, I thought it
prudent you come to show off your Gravity Forge to Emperor Coleson
in person. What better person to show what it can do than the head
honcho we’ll meet in a few days.” The nonchalant way she spoke made
her aunt sputter before collapsing in faint. “Stars! I never get
tired of that.” Renee walked over, giggling, to gently slap her
loving aunt back to reality.

Eventually Jessica promised “I’m going to
strangle the life out of you one of these days you whore.”

“
Bite me bitch… Ow!
You
bit
me!” Renee
clutched the offended hand that just got assaulted by perfectly
straight teeth.

“
You told me to. It’s your
own fault for putting your hand so close to my mouth.” Jessica
shook her head clear as she got up off the ground. “Are you
serious?”

“
About what?” Renee
currently glared at the depressed tooth marks.

“
Showing off Oliver, Stephs
and my invention to the
Emperor
personally? What else would I be asking about,
Nitwit!”

“
Got a decent chance since
he wants to see my Idiot so badly though I can’t figure out why.
Besides, Stone has been itching to put the heavy ass fighter to the
test since Olly finished it two days ago. It’ll be a huge income
boost since the emperor will want a million Forges easily. And to
make a near indestructible ship from your Gravity Forge idea will
have him salivating. And when he go back to Earth… well you know
how it’ll effect the economy once Earth spreads the word. The
credits will never cease filling your account.”

“
Money I can handle… the
Emperor… well, I may need a shot of adrenaline so I don’t faint in
front of the man.”

“
Got you covered.” The
bracelet Valek was brandished. “Okay, Netul, send us
away.”

“
Close your eyes
everyone.”
He warned as he did the same and
looked up. Then came a brilliant bluish flash.

Silence aboard the large interstellar
sailboat instantly changed to noisy insects that were an explosion
considering where they just left. Cool air altered into hot and
humid darkness.

Sparky’s long neck snaked the head closer to
his rider and was literally glowing from snout to tail near
instantly when a screech came from above.

Ligers reacted first and one of the smaller
females used another like a stepping stool to launch herself into
the air and snatched a large Beast that dive-bombed from the
forest’s canopy. The maw of the Liger clamped down on the prey and
between sharp fang and crushing jaws, its screech was silenced. A
head thrash doubly made sure it wouldn’t get up before she spat the
feathered prey to the ground for her cubs.

Stone said “A Razor Beak. Nasty piece of
work. D-Rank, but their namesake is deadly. We must be near their
nesting grounds and the light must have startled it. Sparky, turn
your glow down.”

“
Very well.”
The ten meter long Drake replied, lowering scaled
lips revealing curved and sharp teeth.

Utilizing his chip, Oliver activated a
function to look around and say “We’re about eight klicks from the
village. Netul, is there a reason we’re so far away?”

The Creelin nodded.
“The Archivers decided this was adequate based on
the fact the cubs will endanger the humans who are and will be too
curious for their own sake. From what your Match has told me there
will be likely many thousands unaware of the danger they do not
understand. The adults will be overprotective among so many
strangers.”

“
Then why don’t we fly on
over to the Solarian city for shelter? By now a barrier system
should have been erected?” Breena proposed, holding her new
Solarian midnight black spear Oliver bound her to. It was all she
wanted from the armory made up from the raided derelict battle
cruiser.

“
Agreed, I’ve got the rights
to all discoveries to do with as I please.” Oliver said with
confidence. “By law, all property defers to me and as a Hunter
Elder I do not require credits to pay taxes.”

Davan coughed. “But do not forget it is a
historical site and any damages wrought will reflect on your person
when eventually humanity finds out your heritage.” He coughed
again.

Renee frowned and walked right up to the man
and stood roughly ten centimeters above him. “You alright?”

“
Pollen never agrees with
me.” Davan then sneezed.

“
Hold on for a moment and
don’t move too much.” Her arm lifted and the sleeve partially
transformed into a gauntlet where a red beam of light shot from the
top of her wrist and began a scan. Through her own chip she began
seeing inside the man and even multitasked by taking a blood sample
with her bracelet that didn’t hurt the man even slightly. “Wrong,
you haven’t gotten a vaccine for a common virus on this world and
it’ll make you violently ill. The nanites are helping, but you need
a booster. Wait a moment while I make one.”

The bracelet Valek disappeared under her
milky skin, passing the cells themselves and diving through the
outer bones of her body to collect the necessary ingredients she
stores in between the hollow outer and inner bone structure. Ever
since she got the protein that removed a block on her own unique
genetics her skeletal structure altered to be a living biological
factory of cures and poisons. Keeping volatile and deadly particles
suspended in plasma apart and only mixing so she didn’t accidently
kill herself. Having bone density ten times that of normal humans
made it that much harder for fractures.

When the particles were gathered she diluted
the concentrated serum with plasma and injected the blue skinned
man. Her abilities made it fast acting and within three minutes
Davan’s bolstered immune system no longer struggled and he was able
to cease coughing and sneezing.

“
Since laws prevent us
flying on our ships, I’ll carry them. Stone, you help Davan.
Steven, take care of Jessica. If we make good time we’ll reach the
city by sunrise about seven hours from now.” In Hunter law, the
strongest was leader and Oliver was undisputed in that
department.

Without warning all the fighters and Renee’s
large sailboat shuttle lifted silently off the ground. Oliver was
still trying to master his power. Big things were easy. Small were
not. He and others left the ground using telekinesis.

Renee though checked Sparky’s leather saddle
and mounted after he told her it was comfortable. Four wings spread
and blurred like a hummingbird to take a vertical flight and slowed
a bit to fly with everyone. The heavier gravity of Zerika at six
gees wasn’t hard for him even with his rider aboard. He was big and
strong.

The only ones to not fly were the Ligers
running through the dark forest. The adults ran an average of two
hundred kilometers per hour even trough thick foliage. They would
have gone faster, but that was the cubs’ limit as a group. Their
smaller strides and lack of collars and armor slowed them some.