Star Force: Sav (SF51) (5 page)

“Did his form incorrectly?”

“I would say no, for the most part. Everything appears
to be there that should be, it’s just chewed up from the hyper-condensed
process. He’s got more than a pound of new tissue in his head. That alone will
cause headaches until everything adjusts.”

“I went through that with the bioshield ascension,”
Paul reminded him.

“Yes, but that was spread out over your entire body.
His tissue is all in one place, more or less if you ignore the tendrils.”

“Cranial pressure?”

“Stabilizing.
The V’kit’no’sat
did good work when they designed these. My guess is he’ll work it all out in
time, he just rushed it and got temporarily fried in the process.”

Paul nodded, taking that as good news despite the fact
that meant Bo would be in considerable pain for at least few days, if not more.
“Any idea why he went to tier 3?”

Vortison held up a finger as he switched screens,
bringing up the data that had been transmitted to the computer just before the
ascension occurred.

“I don’t think the tiers are meant to be stepping
stones. They’re a level of power or difficulty if you want to think of it that
way. Sav has no precursor other than the tier ones, and I think it’s the
intensity of your training that triggered it. You know far better than
me…what’s your training like compared to what the Zen’zat do?”

Paul hesitated for a moment, for that was a tricky
question. “We use a different basic philosophy, but a lot of their training
regimens are just as intense, if not more so.”

“Do they have an equivalent to the drill you were running
with Bo?”

“Not that I’m aware of. We were actually trying to
activate Pren when this happened.”

“Same drills as the others?”

“Exactly the same.”

“Then I would hazard a guess that there was something
different in his training leading up to this point. I’d dig into those records,
if you have them.”

“I’ll see what I can find,” Paul promised, walking
back over to Bo and Jason.

“He’ll be alright,” Jason said confidently. “Not as
bad as I was,” he said, tapping the
flatscreen
display, “but he did get a good rug burn.”

Paul thumbed back over his shoulder towards Vortison.
“He thinks we’re pressing the ascensions too fast and that’s the problem. Seems
Sav is meant to occur in growth stages. You got it on the first try and as a reward
got fried.”

“So we shouldn’t be trying to press?” Bo asked,
knowing that flew in the face of everything they’d been working on to this
point.

“Oh we’ll press,” Jason confirmed. “There’s just an
added bonus if we fail a few times first.”

“Some reward,” Bo said, still in agony.

“Worth it in the long run,” Jason said from his perch
atop the pain pedestal…except maybe for Morgan, but hers was a special case.
Either way, Archons weren’t going to let a pain barrier stand in their way to
accessing the additional psionics…and given how impatient they were, they
probably wouldn’t back off much, if any, in probing instabilities when they
arose in the future. At least he knew he wouldn’t.

“At least you did this to yourself,” Paul commented,
“and there appears to be no structural problems.”

“Good…can I get stunned now?”

“Fastest way to recover is Sesspik,” Vortison
commented from a few meters away.

“And you need to be conscious for that,” Jason
reminded him unnecessarily.

“Wonderful,” Bo said, moving the scanning equipment
aside and slowly standing up. “Sounds like
it’s
back
to my quarters for a nap. Escorts, if you please,” he said, holding up a hand
for balance.

Jason took him by the elbow and began to lead him out.
“You’re such a
wuss
.”

5

July 13, 2546

Solar System

Earth

Bo woke up to a jabbing finger in his ribcage,
blinking his eyes open mid-dream and coming back to reality in a hazy flash. He
sat up in bed, shaking his head out as Jason retracted his arm.

“Ah,” he sighed. “Not again.”

“Afraid so,” Jason said, referencing the fact that Bo
had slept through his alarm. Ever since the Sav ascension his sleep patterns
had been deeper than normal…so deep in fact he’d arranged it with his fellow
trailblazers to come and wake him up if he didn’t signal them over the comms
that he was up within 10 minutes of his alarm going off.

Which it now did, on repeat.
Bo glanced at the control console on the wall and telekinetically flipped it
off, wondering again how he could have slept through the screeching wail…the
most annoying sound he could get his hands on, trying to find something that
would pierce his doped up state. He put his hands on his head, massaging his
forehead that was still carrying a lingering bit of discomfort but the outright
pain was gone.

“Meet you in the cafeteria in 20?” Jason asked,
heading for the door.

“I’ll be there in 15,” Bo said, heading for the
shower.

The warm water nearly made him doze off again, but he
focused on flexing his muscles every now and then to get some tension in his
body as he cleaned up. Fortunately shaving was a thing of the past with his now
deactivated hair follicles, so after a moderately long shower he pulled on a
fresh training uniform and headed out, meeting Jason, Paul, Emily, and Greg at
one of the tables for a not so early breakfast. Apparently the others were
already out and about, for no Archon ever slept in late…
save
for losers like him that couldn’t keep it together.

He had thought he was getting better, but it seemed
his head was craving sleep. Probably some type of recalibration going on but it
was starting to look like this was going to be a normal thing. He told himself
that so long as his head hurt a little then he wasn’t done recovering and so
not to worry, but very many more of these inadvertent comas and he was going to
start to wonder.

He piled up a full plate of carb and sugar-laced
foodstuffs and headed over to their table amongst over 300 other people at
various stages of breakfast. Most weren’t Archons, but regular Atlantis staff,
though they were quite well acquainted to seeing the living legends walking
around so not too many people stared.

Bo grabbed a bottle of green on his way and sat down
next to Emily, immediately drinking half of the vitamin-laced liquid before
tearing into one of several pastries. She glanced over at him, then reached a
hand up and put it on his head.

“You’re running hot still?” she asked, not meaning
temperature but how his brain was processing.

“Can’t turn it off.
All I can
manage is a slow idle,” he said before taking another large bite and chewing
vigorously.

“Is it eating ambrosia?”

“Thankfully no…” he said with his mouth half full.
“But it’s still taking over when I sleep.”

“Have you tried staying awake?”

“Doesn’t help, but yeah.
I
only got about 6 hours in last night.”

“So you’re physically fried too?”

“Not so much, but if this keeps up I
will be.
I just hate nodding off before I can’t get all the way asleep.
My new processor wants to run its own simulations. The only way I can get it to
shut up is to be really tired, then it takes over sometime after my body soaks
up the rest it needs.”

“Want some help?”

“I don’t even know what
could
help…other than letting this
play out.”

“We can catch a nap later and I can help nudge you off
to sleep. At least give you an hour or so of real rest.”

Bo hesitated, thinking. “Not sure if that will work or
not, but it’s worth a shot.”

“About 3 then?”

“That works…I think. Not sure what drills these guys
have set up for me today.”

“Still holding your hand?” Greg commented.

Bo glared at him but didn’t say anything, preferring
to continue eating.

“Speaking of which,” Paul added, “they’ve got the new
obstacle course ready. I ran through it this morning for a light trial and got
my ass kicked pretty easy. I’m curious as to how you’ll stand up.”

“New course?”
Greg asked.

“Designed for me,” Bo answered. “They want to put my
multi-tasking abilities into the next dimension so they rigged up something.”

Emily whistled. “Oh, I want to see this.”

“Later,” Jason said. “He needs to get adjusted first.
Cheerleaders can wait.”

Emily levitated a bit of the filling out of one of her
pastries and sent a glob Jason’s way, but Bo telekinetically intercepted it,
freezing the red goo a foot in front of his face and pulling it into tiny
pieces that he arranged in a cubical grid, further dividing them down into
smaller and smaller segments until it looked like a holographic grid map.

Greg’s jaw dropped when he saw the intricate control
he had over his Lachka. “Now that is impressive. How many pieces is that?”

“12 by 12 by 12.
Can’t do much more
without losing focus.”

“1728?” Greg said after doing the math. “That’s one
hell of an upgrade. Most I’ve ever managed was 162, and nowhere near that
small.”

“I can see smaller detail now too,” Bo added. “I think
my Pefbar was overloading to the point that we can only see as much as we can
process and now…”

“How small can you go?” Greg asked.

The filling collapsed in on itself, returning to a
single glob that Bo sent the rest of its way to Jason’s face.

“That small.”

Greg laughed, but Paul just shook his head. “No,
look,” he told Greg, pointing to what appeared to be an empty spot of air in
between him and Bo.

Greg focused, then his jaw dropped again when he
flicked on his Pefbar and saw a tiny little speck…no, four tiny little specs so
small that they were all but invisible with normal eyesight.

“How in the galaxy are you doing that?”

“Not sure,” Bo admitted. “I just have a finer control
of my Lachka.”

“When did this kick in?”

“A couple days ago when I started
messing around with stuff.”

“Jealous yet?”
Paul asked.

Greg stared at the tiny little pieces, not believing
what he thought he was seeing. They were so small it was hard to be sure.
“Combat applications? I could see how this would help a tech but…”

“We’re working on it,” Jason said. “Right now it’s
about mass coordination. We’re not sure if the microscopic angle is intentional
or just a side effect.”

“I don’t think the database mentioned anything about
it,” Emily said, thinking back to what she’d read a few weeks ago.

“It doesn’t,” Bo answered between bites, for he was
really shoveling it in trying to make up for lost time. “I’ve been through
those files more than these two, and there’s nothing there. All they’ve got is
some notes from the few Zen’zat that achieved it, and they cited use in either
remote control or particle deflection with Lachka…including a huge power
savings versus the wall technique.”

“If you can individually track and catch every piece,”
Greg said, following the line of thought.

“Exactly.”

“But you don’t have time for than in the case of an
explosion.”

“Actually…he does,” Jason said, glancing over at Greg
after a sip from a bottle of blue. “His reaction speeds have increased. Not his
physical skills, but his mental processing. Eye hand coordination has gone up as
a result, but now it’s his body that’s holding back further upgrades.”

“I can see things before they happen,” Bo said, taking
another swig.
“Sort of.
It feels that way because my
senses are a step ahead of my body. They’ve got me running through drills to
test that theory and so far my reaction speed is upwards of Mage 73.”

“Holy crap,” Emily said, looking at him again. “And I
thought you were just becoming a better chess player.”

“Haven’t actually tried that,” he admitted. “Head is
still fried enough that I don’t want to plug into an interface just yet. Need
to clean out the debris with drills first.”

Emily raised an eyebrow at Paul.
“Can’t
believe you’re holding him back on that one.”

“I just want him at full strength before I kick his
ass,” he said with a smirk.

“I think we’re going to sell tickets for that one,”
Jason commented as he finished his tray.

“What’s up first today?” Bo asked his two volunteer
trainers, starting on another pastry.

“Light sparring drills then a 5k before we hit the
obstacle course.”

“We?”

“I’m doing it to. Jason needs someone to compare you
with.”

Jason stood up. “I’ll meet you guys there.
Got some sword practice to do first.”

Bo nodded and Jason walked off with his empty
tray…while his was still half full.

“
Em
, what are you up to?”
Greg asked.

“Swimming, swimming, and more swimming,” she said,
sipping out the last of her bottle of blue. “Endurance day, then I’ll catch a
nap with Bo and probably go back for some flexibility drills or sparring
afterwards. Depends how dead I am. Wish we’d get the stupid triggers figured
out so we can start sharing. I’m really envying those bioshields.”

“Speaking of which, where’s Riona?” Greg asked Paul.

“An early start today.
I
won’t join her for training until the afternoon.”

“I thought you two were joined at the hip?”

“We are, but had to make room for this guy. Besides,
we can’t train bioshield all day every day.”

“I thought you were going for the whole Master and
Apprentice thing,” Emily added.

“About that,” Paul said, taking the opportunity while
the three of them were here. “I don’t like suggesting this after the fact, but
I think we should rework the Mage levels.”

“How?”
Greg asked, curious.
Paul was top ranked at level 8 now, with Morgan none too happy about it, but
she still preferred field work to training on Earth so for her it was kind of
like letting Paul get out ahead of her so she’d have a challenge to reel him
back in. At least that’s what it appeared to everyone else. Her thoughts on it
were less…cheerful.

“The time I’ve spent with Riona has opened my eyes to
a lot of things.”

“I’ll bet it has,” Emily said sarcastically.

Paul threw her a very familiar annoyed look but
continued on without comment. “I think we need to keep previous Archon levels
as they are. We might not need a lot of the stuff in them now, but the newbs
do…like the heavy armor and no psionics up till acolyte.”

“Agreed,” Greg said, not sure where
he was going with this.

“I think we need to rework Mage and make it into a
much larger category…and one that has an automatic pairing with a higher
ranking Archon.”

“Except there are no higher ranking Archons,” Greg
pointed out.

“Our problem, which we’ll work through, but when the
second gen get to this point I think it just has to happen and we have to start
working and traveling in pairs…for all assignments.”

“I don’t know about that,” Emily said. “There are too
few of us as it is.”

“If the V’kit’no’sat didn’t exist I’d agree, but we’ve
got to take it to the next level and having, at minimum, a sparring partner
with you at all times will help us advance quicker.
Me
pulling ahead of Morgan should be proof enough of that.”

“Generous of you,” Emily pointed out.

“I like beating her, you know that, but if she were
here training the same amount I was we’d be even…at best. That’s a challenge I
like tackling and going back and forth with her on, but since she’s out
fighting and doing other stuff her training isn’t at such a high level. Don’t
tell her I said that, because it’s not a dis, just a fact that she has no peers
to work with. Now, we all learned how to train solo and the newbs should as
well, which is why I’m not suggesting we pair them up until they hit Mage, or
as I like to think of it, the ‘Apprentice’ stage.”

“Enter the automatic Jedi metaphor,” Emily declared.

“Actually I think he might be onto something,” Greg
said, thinking hard. “We’ve already been seeking each other out, those of us
with the same psionics, to train for them. A more formal structure that has it
happening automatically would make sense…though I really don’t want to lose the
freedom we have right now.”

“We can do whatever we want,” Paul reminded him. “I’m
thinking mainly about the second gen coming up.”

“We’re the masters and can take on an Apprentice by
choice?” Bo asked, finally working to the end of his plate.

Paul waved a hand side to side in an unsure gesture.
“Numbers game, but eventually yes. If we want to go solo we can, but if we’re
in the field I think we need a partner. The combat applications should be
obvious, but even if just for training purposes.”

“I can agree with that,” Bo added. “6 years out on
Lothlorien without any of you guys around sucked.”

“My point exactly,” Paul agreed.

“So we split up…how?
By psionics?”
Greg asked.

“What Riona and I have going works well, but I’m
thinking further ahead to when we learn how to share. I think the sharing
should be done Master to Apprentice.”

Greg leaned back in his chair, rubbing his smooth
chin. “They get whatever psionics they can break through to on their own up
until they hit ‘Apprentice’ then they get the full load, along with the
personalized training of how to make use of them.”