Inheritance (Rise of the Empire Book 5) (17 page)

Adrian’s grin widened.
“Yes,”
he sent, and saw her study his unmoving mouth.

“Come,” he said, guiding her gently towards the entrance proper into the facilities, “let me show you your new home.”

***

Adrian, Clara, and Meifeng stood in the practice room, three crates standing in front of them. He had left a slightly overwhelmed Aileen alone in her quarters to get accustomed and settled into her new home.

“What are those?” Clara pointed at the crates.

Adrian winked at her. “Gifts from Warpath.” He approached one with his name on it and opened it. Inside were several items surrounded with foam, but in the corner of the crate was a small datachip. Adrian took it out and accessed it with his implant, downloading the instructions for the crate’s contents. He put the instructions on his HUD, and read them at an incredible rate by increasing his brain’s processing power consciously.

Then, once he’d finished, he reached into the crate and took out two black cloth-like gloves. They felt light in his hand, the material strange, at the same time flexible but also tough. He knew already that it was extremely strong Kevlar-like material. He put them on over his hands that now held a few more aspects—diplomacy and xenology, as those were now required for Sentinels. He wiggled his fingers and felt the gloves mold themselves to his hands until they fitted him perfectly. He pulled energy and accessed one of the psionics he had mastered, and his palms started radiating heat. He kept at it for a few seconds, and then checked the gloves, seeing that they let the heat through without a problem. He took off his coat, and then reached down and took out a larger silver-colored torso piece.

“Here.” He gave it to Clara. “Help me with this.”

She held it above his head and he put it on over his skin-suit. The piece had a solid plate across his over his upper torso. It fit awkwardly; it was too big for him. Then he took out the two leg pieces that were boots with shin bracers. He put them on and clicked them closed around his lower legs. He turned towards Meifeng and Clara, who had been looking at him in fascination.

“And what is that supposed to be?” Meifeng asked.

Adrian winked again. “Just watch,” he said, and made contact with the suit’s computer, turning it on with his imp.

The three round lights on the chest piece turned on, shining a faint bluish light. The torso piece started contracting and molding itself to his build. Then, once that was finished, Adrian turned to look at Clara and Meifeng. “Now for the battle mode,” he said, spreading his arms, and the second transformation began. Small black plates started spreading from the chest and leg pieces across his arms and legs, moving in a cascading wave of overlapping pieces until they covered every part of his body save for his face. Towards the end, the pieces on his shoulders and neck started spreading across his head, encasing it too in armor, until the helmet portion looked like a blank faceplate with a short crest at the back of the head. The area over the face was smooth, but the rest around the head was covered in the same scale-like plates. A new HUD appeared in front of him, but Adrian cleared it with his imp; he didn’t want to tinker with that part of the suit just now.

The suit was silver and black in color. The hard plates across his chest, shoulders, and back were silver, as were the lower parts of his legs. The hexagonal scale-like plates that covered the rest of his body were black. On his chest, the three glowing blue lights were arranged as the points of an upside down triangle.

After the transformation finished, Adrian lowered his arms and started moving, seeing how the suit felt. He had almost full range of movement; he couldn’t put his hands quite all the way down, as the thicker solid plate that surrounded his chest got in the way. The entire suit was of moderate weight, and wasn’t fully powered. It had power for functions other than movement, but Adrian would need to use his own strength to move. That wasn’t a problem for him, though.

He looked at his hands and saw that the plates went only up to his wrists and over the top of his hand, leaving the bottom side of his fingers and the palm covered only with the gloves. The gloves had been joined with the suit, and he was now completely sealed inside the suit. The gloves, on the other hand, had been made according to the specifications from the sphere, and were specially made to allow him to use psionics through them—most importantly his kinetic blast ability, as the majority of other abilities he could use even in full armor. The scales would be able to do something similar for other psionics.

Adrian telekinetically grabbed his overcoat from the crate where he’d put it before and raised it to the side. Then he fired off a small kinetic blast from his hand, sending the cloth a few meters away.

He looked back to Clara and Meifeng, who looked at him open-mouthed. With a command from his imp he retracted the helmet part and grinned at them.

“Matter compression,” Adrian said. “You each get one too. We call them the Sentinel suits.” And the two of them immediately opened their crates with the intent of putting them on. “Wait, wait,” he said quickly, stopping them. “You need to read the instructions first.” He pointed at the small datachip.

Clara took her chip in hand while Meifeng took out a short, small box from the crate.

“What is this?” Meifeng asked.

“Ah…that,” Adrian said, and took the small box from his own crate. “We call that the NX-02.”

“A drug?” Clara asked.

“It is concentrated energy—adrenaline, oxygen, and a few substances that boost brain processing, physical strength, and speed. If used, it will replenish your energy supplies, or add to them if you aren’t depleted yet. Plus, they’ll basically make you unstoppable for a minute or two,” Adrian said.

“Wait, we have means to replenish our energy artificially?” Meifeng asked, confused. “Why haven’t we been using it?”

Adrian shook his head sadly. “Because we can’t. It is an artificially synthesized energy substance that we copied from the sphere. It can do the job, but it isn’t as good as what your body produces on its own. In fact, prolonged use will damage your organs and cripple your psionics.” Adrian flipped the lid up and retrieved a small cartridge-like vial. “That is why each suit has only one dose. It needs to be used only as a last resort.” He sent a command over his imp, and a small opening appeared below his armpit. He slid the cartridge inside, and it closed seamlessly. “I don’t think that we will ever have a need for it. But with everything that has happened to the Empire in the last couple of decades…I just wanted another ace in our hands,” Adrian finished.

“Well, I know that I won’t have a chance to use it anytime soon. We will spend the next couple of decades on Sanctuary training and teaching others how to use their psionics,” Clara said as she reached and put the gloves on, and then the rest of the suit.

“Perhaps, but it is still there if we need it. Also, these suits are prototypes, so we will need to give feedback to the scientists that made them,” Adrian said, grinning as his helmet reformed. He got into a battle stance, and waited until the two had put their own suits on before he threw himself at them.

Chapter Twenty-Five

March; Year 54 of the Empire – Sol system

Aileen struggled to stay atop a small pillar as Clara and Meifeng threw rubber balls the size of her head at her. She was deflecting them with her mind only, without using her hands, which made it much harder. And she was allowed only telekinesis; no blowing the balls away with kinetic blasts. And she needed to use all her senses in order to sense what direction the balls were coming from, as Clara and Mei would sometimes miss her intentionally or grab an already deflected ball and then pull it back at Aileen from another angle.

All in all, she thought that she was doing well, aside from the fact that she was running out of energy. And then as she felt the last of her energy disappear, a ball hit her in the chest and threw her from the pillar down onto the tatami.

“Three minutes and forty two seconds,” Adrian said from the sidelines. “You held out for six seconds longer than last time.”

Aileen groaned and got up to her feet. “It’s still nowhere close to how long you guys can hold out.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Clara said, “we have been training for years. You, only for a couple of months.”

“She is right,” Adrian said as he approached. “The energy-containing organ is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more energy it will be able to store and the quicker it will recover. You just need to keep at it. Drain it all, then recharge.”

Aileen already knew that; they had been telling her the same thing since they’d begun her training. But still she couldn’t do anything like what the three of them were capable of. She could barely move three small objects around her. They could pick another person up and throw them across the room. And their reserves came back much faster, too, whereas she had to wait almost an entire day until she fully recovered.

“I know, I just feel as if I am not making any progress,” Aileen said.

Meifeng put a hand on her shoulder. “But you are. I know that it doesn’t seem that way now, but you are actually advancing at a faster pace than both Clara or I did.”

“I doubt that,” Aileen said.

“No,” Adrian said, “she is right. They were the first that I trained, and I was still learning myself. With you, it is easier; we know what works and what doesn’t. Trust us.”

Aileen sighed. “I do. I’m just frustrated, that’s all.”

“I know the feeling,” Clara said.

“Using psionics isn’t just about energy supplies. It is about skill, too, about focus. I am expending a lot less energy in order to use my abilities than you are. It is because I have learned how to use them more efficiently. In time, you will develop those skills too. But for now, it is more important for you to increase your capacity,” Adrian said.

Aileen nodded her head in understanding.

“Good, then that is it for today,” Adrian said.

“So, I guess that this is our last practice together,” Meifeng said.

“What do you mean?” Aileen asked, confused.

Clara turned to Adrian. “You haven’t told her yet?”

“No, I planned on doing it after this,” Adrian responded.

“Tell me what?” Aileen asked.

“Clara and I are leaving for Sanctuary tomorrow,” Meifeng said.

“What? Why?”

Clara smiled sadly. “We have learned all that we can from Adrian; now it is only a matter of training and improving ourselves. We are going back to start training others that will be going through the treatments. And soon children will be born with psionics, and we will need people capable of teaching them how to use their abilities,” she answered.

“Oh...” Aileen said sadly.

“But don’t worry, you and Adrian will be going on your own trip, outside of the Empire’s territory,” Clara said cheerfully.

“Really?” Aileen turned to Adrian.

“Yes, I am getting some last-minute things in order, and then we will leave. There is no point in waiting; I can train you on board a ship just as well as I can here. We were only waiting for Clara and Meifeng to feel comfortable with teaching others. And their time with you has given them that,” Adrian answered.

“Well...” Aileen turned to the two women. “I will miss you.”

“And we will miss you too.” Clara stepped forward and hugged Aileen, then reached and pulled Meifeng into the hug as well.

“Don’t let Adrian bully you,”
Meifeng sent her privately.

“I won’t,”
Aileen answered.

“If he tries, just send us a call. We got loads of dirt on him; we were his bodyguards for years,”
Clara joined in.

Aileen chuckled.
“I promise.”

***

Aileen sat across from Adrian as the small inter-system transport skimmed from Mars to Jupiter. He didn’t want to tell her where they were going, but she had been told to pack, as they wouldn’t be back to Mars in a while. At Adrian’s feet sat two massive wolions, Akash and Sora. She had seen them often over the last few months since they were rarely away from Adrian. But she hadn’t really paid that much attention to them, as she was trying to focus on her training.

The small transport started moving towards one of Jupiter’s moons, Ganymede. Adrian turned on the screens showing the outside, letting her see a massive closed shipyard orbiting the moon. Then the transport stopped a few kilometers away.

Aileen glanced at Adrian inquiringly, but he just pointed at the shipyard. She watched the screen and noticed that almost its entire side started to open up. Aileen watched open-mouthed as a massive ship exited the hollow seven-kilometer-wide and eight-kilometer-tall shipyard. The transport started moving towards the ship as it exited the shipyard completely. Its front had a blunt arrow look to it, almost as if someone had cut its sharp point off. The rest resembled the Vanguard ship Harbinger, only somehow sleeker and more menacing-looking. She used her implant to calculate its size based on that of the shipyard, and found that it was about 3200 meters long, 2300 wide at its widest, and 1000 tall at its tallest point.

The transport made its way to the ship’s hangar and landed inside. Adrian motioned Aileen to follow him out, and they exited. After they stepped onto the ship, Adrian turned to her and spread his hands wide.

“Welcome to the Sentinel ship Veritas,” he said.

Aileen looked around and saw people walking around or driving small grav-cars loaded with cargo. She turned back at Adrian. “Sentinel ship?”

“Yes. Eventually, I want every Sentinel operating outside of the Empire, commanding a ship just like this one,” Adrian said proudly.

Aileen looked around at the people, studying them closely and noticing that they were all dressed in Warpath colors. A few even had insignias on their overcoats designating them as adepts or masters.

“Come,” Adrian said, and led her and the two wolions to the lift. They went up to the command deck and stepped into a large, spherical room with half a dozen people sitting in chairs with holograms floating around them. At the end of the room was a large, round holo table, but there wasn’t anyone there at the moment.

“As you can see,” Adrian said as he led her to a dais that held a larger chair, “I took some inspiration from the new Fleet command ships. Only with a few improvements,” he said as he took a seat in the chair.

Immediately, holo screens appeared on his right side, with details about the ship’s status.

“We are ready to go, Lord Sentinel,” said one of the people below as he turned in his chair.

“Good, skim us to the trans-station,” Adrian said.

“Do we even know where we are going?” Aileen asked.

“Yes.” Adrian nodded. “We have explored all the trans-lanes leading out of and into Sol. But as we don’t know the exact location of Ra’a’zani space, only the general direction, we will be taking a trans-lane that is going in that direction.”

Aileen turned toward the large holo suspended above the people in the chairs and watched as Veritas sped from Jupiter to Venus in barely a minute. The ship then moved inside the trans-lane.

“You are free to transfer, Navigation Handler,” Adrian said. And within seconds, they left Sol. Adrian turned to her. “Now that we are underway, let me show you the training facilities,” he said with a wicked glint in his eye.

Something must’ve shown on Aileen’s face, because Adrian quirked an eyebrow, then made an unfamiliar Nel gesture. “You didn’t think that you were going to skip training today, now, did you?”