Star Force: Cascade (SF73) (2 page)

Paul shook his head, glad that the movement didn’t
ring his bell again. “I took my time…a long time, and still got fragged. Still
first try, but I dragged it out to get more data.”

“How old are you?” Aaron asked.

Paul looked up at him, knowing full well that he knew
how old he was, but that wasn’t the point. “Too young,” he answered.

“How many others have Jumat?” Davis asked, knowing the
Archons had gone over the psionics records more times than he had, but he still
remembered it was very few.

“98 thousand, give or take,” Paul answered. “The
youngest of which was 29,000 when he got it.”

“We knew Morgan’s was a mistake…a fortuitous mistake,”
Davis added, “but I’m guessing this is not. How do your skills match up with
the others? I know there’s data on some of them in the pyramid.”

“The age numbers don’t match the skills,” Aaron
answered. “They’re all over the place.”

“But,” Rio said, getting to the point, “even the
weakest of them could kick Paul’s ass.”

“It could be a cascade,” the medtech said, almost
apologizing with his glance when he realized he was interrupting an exclusive
conversation.

“Meaning?” Paul asked.

“I’m not involved in the research, but I have heard
suggestions that your psionics tissues have to be rearranged slightly when new
growths come in. The more tissues you have, the more alignment is required…”

“Hence a cascade in alteration changes,” Paul said,
pounding his right fist into the step, “that the V’kit’no’sat never had to
worry about since they didn’t have all the psionics.”

“Now the reports I’ve been reading are making sense,”
Davis added, thinking things through quickly and making the connections. “A lot
of mages’ reports indicate that they’re taking their padawans through the
ascension process in stages to lessen the fragging effect. The more psionics we
add to the pool the harder the transition is going to be.”

“And we’ve got
Sav
,” Rio
added.

“So the next time one of us ascends,” Aaron finished,
“we either have to face this or let the ascension process partially run its
course and cancel it, hoping to start over again the next time it pops up.”

“Except we don’t know that there will be a next time,”
Paul argued.

“You also didn’t have any help,” Rio reminded him.

“I don’t think that had an effect on the fragging, but
maybe on my fatigue. I need some ambrosia doses sooner rather than later. If I
move around too much I feel like I’m going to keel over.”

Davis glanced at the medtech and he politely hurried
off to fetch the required foodstuffs, but he hesitated before he got out the
quarters’ door and came back into Paul’s large shower room. “How many doses are
you taking?”

“213.”

The medtech did a double-take. “Per day?”

“Yah,” Aaron answered for him.

“That’s enough to kill a normal person.”

“Kill or render comatose?” Davis asked curiously.

“Still a debate on that. Fortunately no one has been
stupid enough to overdose far enough to find out. Do you just want me to
measure it off in liquid?” he asked Paul.

“I don’t care, I just need it in me. Between the
ascension and the regenerator, I think I’m actually totally empty.”

“That’s not fun,” Rio commented.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” the medtech said,
disappearing for keeps this time as Davis walked over and sat down next to Paul
on the carpeted steps.

“Do you think this is intentional or an unforeseen
complication?”

“The dragons are too good at what they do. Even if
they didn’t expect any Zen’zat to attain this many psionics, they would have
made contingency plans just in case.
Us
breeding was
unexpected because it wasn’t allowed and contrary to the program design, but getting
psionics is the point of advancement.”

“Another little test for us to pass?” Aaron wondered.

“Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“We’ve got to tell the padawans to take it slow,” Rio
insisted. “Ubven really worked me over, and we can’t expect them to be as
strong as us. Especially when we’re giving them psionics that were designed for
a much fitter person.”

“Agreed,” Aaron echoed.

“Which brings us back to Morgan,” Davis deferred.

“It was her first ascension…actually, she got it even
before all of tier 1.”

“There’s your answer,” Aaron pointed out. “No cascade
effect, just her nearly getting crushed to death.”

“About that. Got to be more involved than ‘moving around.’
I get his gist, but not the physical applications of it.”

“Perhaps a more intricate addition process,” Davis
offered.

“I’d guess something like that,” Paul agreed.

“Once you get some ambrosia in you, feel like taking a
nap on a med table?”

“Might as well figure this out sooner rather than
later,” he agreed, slowly getting to his feet. “If I fall feel free to catch
me.”

“Where you going?” Davis asked.

“To trade my towel in for some clothes. Morgan pulls
off the nude patient thing better than I do.”

2

“Here,” Vortison said, pointing to the hologram that
was situated beside the med table that Paul was now sleeping on. Curious as he
was as to what was happening to him medically, his need for rest had called for
a crash nap while the scanners did their work, arrayed over him like a giant
arch.

“Here what?” Rio asked, looking on with Aaron and
Davis at the small point somewhere inside Paul’s head that had been enlarged.

“Tissue displacement. And here,” the chief geneticist
said, pointing to the base of Paul’s holographic neck, “bone restructuring.”

“Why bone?” Davis asked.

“Curious, isn’t it? The nodules that make up the Jumat
emitters are located in all tissues, even the heart muscle. I’d guess this is
due to transmission angles, but in the case of his skeleton the flash growth
actually damaged the bone, for I can see the work the regenerator did creating
new tissue,” he said, zooming in even further and highlighting a specific
region around a tiny sphere.

“The flash growth actually broke his bones?” Rio
asked.

“On a very small scale, yes. That’s correct. I think
your insistence on pushing the ascensions immediately didn’t allow for a
necessary conversion. In fact I can show you,” he said, bringing up a second
hologram to Rio’s right that had Paul’s biomonitor data. The level of detail
was far less, but it showed the same location in his neck.

“If I can loop this…” Vortison said, bringing the
full, multi-hour process into a three second compression. “And there you go.”

The three Archons looked at the very small change in
the tissue, almost too small to notice if the medtech hadn’t pointing it out to
them.

“The bone was prepping,” Aaron realized.

“By beginning a ‘softening’ cycle that would allow the
flash growth to be absorbed, then the bone density could even out afterwards or
retain the higher density like a cocoon around the emitter. I’m not sure which,
but either way that softening was never allowed to fully take place, hence he
had a lot of tiny bombs go off inside and break bone, along with probably damaging
the new tissue at the same time from the collision.”

“Did the regenerator fix the Jumat tissue?” Davis
wondered.

“It did,” Vortison said, bringing up two more
holos
, one the before view of Paul post-ascension and the
other more detailed one of him currently. “All is functioning correctly now,
though I only have Morgan’s file to compare with. I highly suggest you don’t
try any more 1-time ascensions going forward, especially with the unknowns.
There is no data on them for us to speculate on.”

“Was this problem in the database file on Jumat?”

“No, it wasn’t. And not a lot is. I don’t think they
wanted people understanding the full depth of the psionics, medically speaking.
Most of the files are geared towards maintenance and repair, not their actual
construction. Ascensions aren’t even mentioned other than a transition period,
and that was in the restricted files.”

“What about his current fatigue?” Rio asked, glancing
down at Paul who was lying motionless with his hands folded over his abdomen in
a ‘Jedi trance’ pose.

“Jumat tissue is the densest and has the highest
volume of all the psionics we’ve discovered. As a result it had to suck a lot
of resources out of his body just for the building blocks, not to mention the
energy expenditure. Add in his workout load, which you said was already full
and completed for the day, then add the drain the regenerator had by
cannibalizing even more tissue to make repairs…well, let’s just say he’s been
hit on all angles and needs a table of food and a good, long nap.”

“Anybody got some whipped cream and a feather?” Aaron
asked, prompting a smirk from Davis before he pointed into one of the
holograms.

“How crammed is his head getting with the new
tissues?”

Vortison twisted his own neck to the side, as if in
redundant thought that wouldn’t quite process. “If you’d asked me earlier I
would have said you’d be experienced a world of problems by now, but every
upgrade has fit in seamlessly, excluding the first bit of nonsense with the
latent abilities being suppressed through successive reproduction cycles. It’s
all fitting in there, but there was a lot of reorganization going on this time,
simply due to the size of his emitter particles…which are larger than Morgan’s,
by the way. I don’t know why.”

“Did hers grow with time?” Rio wondered.

“In volume, no. Density, yes, and number, yes. It
seems you add a few more as needed in response to training, but not in any
localized area. The distribution pattern is like clockwork, and hers have
increased by…” he paused, checking another file for the number, “18% since her first
scan. Density has increased by 208% on the originals, less so on the newer
growths due to them beginning at a higher…damn, that may be your answer right
there.”

“Paul is more advanced,” Aaron said, catching on. “So
maybe the dragons built in a curve to match power output to your fitness
level.”

“No,” Rio differed. “Not unless volume is a variable.
Have any of Morgan’s doubled up in the same location?”

“Never,” Vortison said firmly. “There is a wide
distribution pattern.”

“How much bigger are Paul’s,” Davis asked.

“17%, each and every one,” the medtech testified. “The
precision is machinelike.”

“Individual variation?” Rio floated.

“Possible,” Vortison allowed.

“Morgan is not going to like to hear that,” Aaron
said, with Rio nodding. “Damn, what would this look like on a Zen’zat?”

“Given their larger size? No, it has no effect. Other
psionics may grow larger under the stimulation, but I’m positive Jumat
particles will not. They act almost like implants rather than a functioning
part of an entire system. Leaches, if you will, that suck ambrosia and other
nutrients out of the system while remaining isolated from it. Same way with the
bioshield emitters. They’re not part of your cognitive processes like the other
tissues are, even if some of them are positioned within your skull. They’re
‘hardware,’ linked to software but independent of it.”

“Do you think we got enough data to locate the
trigger?” Davis asked.

“Too early to say. The fact that we’ve got several
hours’ worth is promising, but I don’t want to commit to anything just yet.”

“How soon will you know?”

“Maybe tomorrow…maybe 50 years from now. We have a
stack of data to sort through looking for a needle. If it’s in there we’ll find
it, but I can’t quote you a number, even if I have my own suspicions…none of
which I feel like sharing, because they’re a total gut instinct that will
probably prove wrong.”

“So insecure,” Aaron commented, shaking his head
slightly.

Vortison frowned, then cringed as he decided to
violate his own order. “I think Paul got enough, but each trigger is different
so we won’t know until we actually find it…if we find it.”

“If you do,” Davis said, his voice imbuing importance,
“then we will have a significant advantage against the V’kit’no’sat…assuming
they hold to protocol.”

“You already do with
Sav
,”
Vortison pointed out.

Rio shook his head. “No, Davis is right. Jumat isn’t a
technique, it’s a literal biological cannon. If we all get this, par for the
course, we’ll be able to take down other Zen’zat far more powerful than us…even
some of the larger races. Jumat is pretty much the
holy grail
for the Zen’zat, and only a rare few have ever achieved it.”

“I know the numbers,” Vortison reminded him.

“But you haven’t seen it in action. Haven’t felt it
hit you. Morgan has a huge advantage over the rest of us, and she’s learned to
use it so well that no one could touch her until I got Ubven.”

“Unless she made a mistake,” Aaron added.

“She doesn’t make many. This is going to be extremely
important if you can find the trigger.”

“And give the V’kit’no’sat even more reason to hunt
down and eradicate us.”

Davis pointed a finger at the trailblazer. “Word.”

Aaron frowned at him. “Word?”

“It’s old school.”

“I know what it means, just didn’t expect you to use
it.”

“My vocabulary altered going through basic, then some
more in the sanctums afterwards.”

Rio glanced at Aaron. “We’re rubbing off on him.”

“It’s pithy, so therefore useful,” Davis clarified.
“We know the V’kit’no’sat will want us dead. If we get Jumat we’ll be better
able to defend ourselves, but it’ll enrage them even further.”

“How do you know that?” Vortison asked.

Davis hesitated to answer, trying to find the right
words. “It’s an Archon/Zen’zat thing.”

“It means we’re getting to use the cool toys they’re
banned from,” Aaron translated.

“That makes a weird sort of sense,” Vortison said,
returning to his data examination and dismissing all but the active hologram.

“How strong is he? Concussive wise?” Rio asked.

“Difficult to say, but he shouldn’t have any
coordination. That will come with training, as you well know. I would guess he
can produce a great deal more force than Morgan could initially, but nothing
compared to her levels now.”

“The new emitters Morgan has got…gradual or flash
growth?” Aaron asked, getting back to another point.

“She’s never mentioned any painful transitions, so I’m
assuming gradual. The flash growth seems to only manifest during ascensions or
under the stimulation of a regenerator. Something we still haven’t fully
cracked, and it’s not a tech issue, I’m afraid. We’re not supplying the
necessary genetic command codes. The ones the V’kit’no’sat use are so
complicated even I don’t fully understand what I’m reading when I’m reviewing
them…and like most things, they didn’t bother to leave an instruction manual in
the database.”

“Does bioshield add more emitters?”

“Yes.”

“Volume increase?”

“No. They actually seem to be patterned the same way,
or rather from the same source design material. The Jumat is larger, but
they’re pretty much the same type of psionic tissue. Density increases, along
with number of particles, equates to upgraded strength.”

“He was also the first to get bioshield,” Davis
pointed out. “Any chance that’s a coincidence?”

“Discounting Morgan as an anomaly,” Aaron clarified.

“Actually it’s going to be one of the first avenues I
pursue looking for the trigger,” Vortison said. “I’m hoping it’s not a
coincidence and there is a correlation between the two.”

Rio gestured towards Paul. “How soon is he going to be
back into training shape?”

“It’ll take more than a day for his body to digest the
necessary foodstuffs to replace the redundant tissue that was cannibalized.
Knowing him he’ll probably be back at it in 12 hours or so. I’d recommend
taking it longer than that, but new psionics are like candy to you guys and you
can’t help but pursuing them with equal fervor.”

“Change that to ‘donuts’ and you’d be about right,”
Aaron said deadpan.

“Alright then,” Rio said, taking a step back and
spinning around heading for the door. “If you find any more interesting stuff
send me a report. I’m heading back to my own training. I’ll get with Paul later
for…calibration issues.”

Vortison frowned at the retreating Archon. “Meaning
what?”

“Nothing you have to worry about,” he said, walking
out the door.

Synthia-462991 walked down a hallway of the advanced
training group’s private sanctum within Atlantis, having located Paul’s mental
signature in one of the many mediation chambers ahead and needing to find him.
Her master was in an intense training session at the moment and couldn’t be
disturbed so she’d been sent to relay the message to Paul personally, but she
didn’t expect to see Paul naked until she turned left and walked into the chamber
to find him standing in the center and his clothes and shoes piled up on the
edge of the circular room.

“Oh…I’m sorry,” she said, glancing down at the floor
for a moment out of reflex before looking back at him again as he turned around
to face her. “I didn’t think you’d be undressed.”

“If it mattered I would have closed the door. Am I in
your way?”

“Way?” she said, looking him up and down twice
approvingly.

“Do you need this chamber? I didn’t check the
schedule, just grabbed an open one since this wing looked deserted.”

“No, no…I was just sent to find you. Rio is stuck in
an endurance challenge but he wanted to grab you before you got busy too. He
didn’t expect you’d be back in training after only 5 hours.”

“I had a really good crash nap,” Paul said, running
his fingers through his short, blue hair. “And you can stop being awkward and
just enjoy the view while you’ve got it.”

Synthia almost blushed. “That obvious?”

“Well, I do try to stay in shape…”

“I noticed,” she said, smiling widely. “Rio said it’s
important, so he sent me to find you.”

“Important enough to bother me, but not stop his own
workout?” Paul said, raising an eyebrow.

“Sorry. When I felt you in here I didn’t think I’d
actually be disturbing you…do you always mediate naked? And where can I buy
tickets?”

Paul laughed. “No. I’m not meditating, just needed
some privacy to work on my new ability. The clothes really get in the way,
hence they had to go.”

“If you wanted privacy you could have closed the
door.”

“I’m displacing a lot of air, and connecting to the
hallway makes it less turbulent. I didn’t know any hot padawans would be
walking by.”

“Hot? Are you flirting with me?”

“A little.”

“Why…other than just messing with my head?”

“Returning the compliment in your eyes. I can get
dressed if it’d make things easier on you?”