Void's Psionics (5 page)

“
The battle took two whole
days and we lost nine Marines, one brother and a Drake, but no
civilians were killed as they hid as soon as the warning system
detected Keptl life signs. We had just gotten the all clear from
the Sweet Cheeks and I decided Visor and I needed to go have a
little rest.

“
We were laying out in a
clearing together when my stomach knotted up and I rolled away
though nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I hopped to my feet and
as I stare at our campfire. I then watched as a reddish rusty spine
began pushing up through my bedroll to find we had missed one Lisk.
It had been burrowed and tunneling underground before it thought to
catch me when it thought I had my pants down. So I grabbed my spear
and gave it a rather nice piercing through its nose. If I hadn’t
moved when my gut said to get the hell out of dodge it would have
had me getting a new hole. Lisks are nasty customers. They can come
up right under you and it would be too late if you realized
it.”

“
Why didn’t the ship find
it?”

“
Too much iron in the ground
and it stuck close to me like a shadow. Plus, most of us were
soaked in Keptl blood and that screws up the bio-scanners
too.”

Oliver and Steven chatted back and forth for
several minutes before he felt ready to try again. Pain like before
crushed his hand, but the shield became part of everything. A new
sheathe appeared down on Oliver’s left ankle, perfectly suited for
the knife while a hook grew out from the back of the shirt to
properly carry the shield. In battle mode though the cape
completely hid the shield.

After another respite Stephanie asked to have
the knife in her hand chosen for herself. But Steven said “No, Mrs.
Menann, you’re too important to act as an experiment. I’m a bit
more expendable.”

“
Nonsense. I’m just
as…”

“
Let me say it a different
way. Shut up and let me go first. If I say it’s safe,
then
you can have a go.
You forget your other half is technically still a Dorgen though she
took your name.”

“
Well, when you put it that
way.” She said meekly when Steven got serious. He was still as
intimidating as any Hunter when he chose not to be
friendly.

Steven had his eye on a pair of weapons for
months and went over to lift first a royal blue leaf bladed spear
as well as a blood red flail with twin studded balls twice the size
if what he always carried. The lance was a half dozen centimeters
taller than what he was accustomed to and only marginally heavier.
He placed his normal weapons down and first unlatched the clamps
locking his glove, gauntlet and sleeve from the shoulder of his
armor to slide it off. Without the armor showed an arm knotted in
bulging muscle from someone who trains fanatically to be as strong
as possible. Taking the spear that was a head taller than his own
height in his hand, he held it out.

It was Oliver who asked “Have you come to
understand the weapon intimately.”

“
If you’re asking if I’ve
fondled it so much it would be pregnant with my child then you
better believe it.” He smiled wickedly. “I’ve played with it
whenever Mrs. Menann isn’t looking. I really like it as it
is
a phallic symbol to let
the ladies know I’m hardly overcompensating. Same with the flail’s
big two balls.”

“
Alright then.” Oliver
gripped over Steven’s hand with the intent to give him control and
what popped in his head made him chuckle.

“
What is so
funny?”

“
It’s asking permission to
bind a weapon to a child. Seems children weren’t able to equip
multi-tools till they hit puberty and needed an adult to give them
a weapon. Since blades can’t hurt the child there is no danger… but
it’s also warning me to tell you to be careful about charging it
up. See the central grip you’re holding?” Steven did as his hand
was covered in warm inky blackness. “If the sheen ever turns from
blue to black, make it discharge pronto. Otherwise it’ll explode
without a multi-tool to regulate it’s power. And for your
information, the explosion radius is more than thirty
kilometers.”

That last part put a grin on his face. “That
would be so amazing to see go boom, but warning will be heeded.
This is still an ancient artifact. If the grip goes black I’ll stop
channeling. Anything else?”

“
Yeah, it seems that it
won’t absorb upon touch like mine. It’ll light up close to you, but
unless you directly channel energy inside it, it won’t pull
constantly.”

“
Kind of like that safety
feature to tell the truth. Don’t want to go to sleep buck naked and
it go off because we’re spooning. Not a big deal though. My weapons
can explode too if the sensors overload.”

“
Okay, channel into it like
you normally would.” Oliver felt Steven’s humming hand increase and
the vambrace covered the whole spear now rather than their hands.
He gave approval and winced.

“
MOTHER
FUCKER
!” Steven yelled as the crushing
pain took hold.

Quickly over and the spear hit the ground
whereas Steven was hopping up and down waving his hand with a red
face.

Stephanie grimaced and asked “You
alright?”

“
What the hell do you
think!” he glared. “Fuck that hurt worse than sticking your dick in
a bed of ornery fire ants eating Ghost Peppers. Damn.”

“
Give me your hand.” Oliver
ordered and Steven reluctantly did so, but he still wanted to keep
cursing. He felt around gently to say “Aside from swelling, I don’t
feel any broken bones.”

Sucking it up Steven grabbed the flail and
said “Let’s get over with it right now. Same hand. I’ll need Renee
to look at it after, but get it over with.”

This time Steven cursed doubly and they all
heard a few crunches of bone this round. Despite it, when Oliver
recovered, Stephanie was adamant to have that pink knife.

A single tear of pain and quiver of her lip
is all she made as her left hand broke a few bones, but she got the
desire.

Just as it was laid down Renee came right in
and paused. “Auntie! Your hand!” she came right into the room and
glared after feeling. “Multiple fractures. The nanites will put it
back together, but take this for the pain till I can do a scan.”
Her bracelet sent a painless needle into Stephanie’s hand and neck.
Pain relief was near instantaneous. “Now let’s get you to the med
bay.”

“
Soon enough, but can you
help Steven too.”

“
Compound fractures. What
the hell did you two do?” Renee asked critically, also
administering pain killers her own body stored up.

“
We got Star-sabers bound to
us. Mrs. Menann got a knife and I got new upgrades for my old
toys.”

“
How?” She looked around and
stopped as Oliver raised his right hand. “Should have known it was
my idiot husband’s fault. Come on, all of you.”

“
One minute. There is one
thing I need you to do first. It’s why we called.” Stephanie said,
being careful to not touch her injured hand though she hardly felt
it.

“
Right. Oliver couldn’t do
it, so like all men, they leave it up to a woman to get the job
done. Like always.” She taunted. “So what is the issue?”

Stephanie very carefully retold her theory of
the cube and Renee nodded, but she made sure to only change the
story that Oliver’s multi-tool tested it to determine it was for a
woman’s sake. Stephanie also noticed Oliver had hid the color
change in his own device to make sure her blind study went
unobstructed.

“
Got it! I can try.” Renee
grabbed a cube and her bracelet began consuming it much like
Oliver’s had. Her lips parted as her focus was taken inwardly
judging by her unfocused gaze. The cube broke down and all around
the bracelet appeared oval designs like little ochre filigree. Each
little oval was as black inside as the rest, but the pattern made
the bracelet rather pretty than completely glossy black.

“
Uh, Renee? Renee? Renee!”
Stephanie’s third yell snapped her back to reality and Renee
pinched the bridge of her nose.

Then she turned and slapped Oliver upside the
head saying “Only for women my ass! They’re unisex batteries.”

He smiled as the smack was halfhearted, but
Stephanie asked “Tell me what you know.”

“
Auntie, my chip with the
bracelet just cooperated to tell me I can store and retrieve over
fourteen
trillion
terawatts of power. Give or take. I needed my chip to do the
calculations.”

“
Did you read his mind in
the time when you touched him?”

“
No, I just wanted to hit
something and he was closest.”

“
She did not.”
Sparky confirmed.

“
Oh, and I can integrate my
chip with my bracelet to see images and it’s showing me it is now
complete… and Stars there are near countless programs to unlock,
but I don’t know how or where to start. It wasn’t like that before
and I didn’t know.”

“
You can
see
its capabilities?!” Oliver asked.
“All of them?”

“
Yep!” Her gaze unfocused
again. “Mine is specifically functioned to heal and repair. It
can’t create shit like a factory… not like yours. Mine works on
biology. And now I know why. The female mind is wired a bit
differently and works through feeling and sensation… while yours is
able to do complex engineering and problem solving. It is why
you’re better at puzzle solving than me while you’re pathetic when
it comes to being a medic and the more intricate healing arts… I’ll
need a good long while to study up on what I’m viewing. It does a
hell of a lot more than I imagined.

“
Right now though you are
all going to get checked out so I don’t feel it would be better to
cut off your hands and let them regenerate. Best to know soon
enough than later.”

Problems turned out to be minor and not need
to chop a hand off.

Chapter 2

Two days later Oliver was back to normal,
getting plenty of sleep. Renee had declined taking a Star-saber of
any kind as she was more than powerful enough to deal with anyone.
Stephanie was working hard with Jessica trying to engineer a
program able to create sheathes for the weapons. It would fit in
leather well enough till she physically grabbed it and cut right
through. Stone and Deegen were upset with her as they wanted what
Steven liked to gloat over. But she made sure that till they could
be safely stored, no further weapons would be bound. It was
finalized after Jake came down and saw what one little pink dagger
could do to a solid chunk of tungsten under its own weight with a
bare pinch between Stephanie’s fingers. Until she could come up
with a sheathe that didn’t weigh a compressed ton just to hold it,
he banned further binding and took Steven’s lance and flail to his
absolute horror. Steven’s gloating turned to a pout, but followed
the captain’s orders at least till a solution could be found. Till
then he went back to his usual weaponry.

At the moment Oliver was fulfilling a promise
to the chief engineer of the Dorgenox, Jacob Wrench. He was out
flying his fighter known as the Flare, a yellowish personal
boat-shaped, two seated space fighter. It had two sharp wings
holding a pair of psionic cannons as the sole weapons. One of only
two known remaining ships in a prototype production of three, it
couldn’t be piloted by just anyone. It had no peer in terms of
maneuverability and could outrun nearly any ship made. The downside
was a sensitive steering system that makes even the best known
pilots sick. But in Oliver’s capable hands and reflexes, it was
perfect. A pair of angled solar sails were unfurled above a clear
crystal cockpit. It was sharply angled and sleekly designed for
both lethality and beauty.

The Flare had been later replaced by Seeker
fighters, just like what the Hunters flew, but they were
manufactured about a century later and little more than half the
Flare’s size.

“
Okay, My Friend, that’ll do
for me for
quite
awhile I’ll believe.” Jacob said and Oliver turned to find the
optionally short and bald engineer with his eyes closed and
breathing deeply.

“
If you’re going to puke I
told you where the bags are. I made sure to have spares after
Stephanie spewed all over earlier this morning. I’m glad solvents
got rid of the smell. It’s why I was four hours late to let you
have a ride.”

“
Stop talking about puking
already and my stomach will settle.” When Oliver said nothing Jacob
opened up his eyes to find the Sapphire Nebula still once again,
but found the Dorgenox seeming to be hanging upside down. Slowly
the view rotated and both ships seemed to be correctly positioned.
“I’m better. Just got dizzy. I see why they got passed over in
production, but I enjoyed flying in her. You give her a name
yet?”

“
I’m just keeping her the
Flare. She got the name for the blast she makes in the instant back
flip the ring of plasma it flares out. No other fighter can make
such a tight flip to make near perfect circle of expanding energy.
Since it is mine, I’m keeping this beauty just the way she
is.”

“
Quaint. Well head on in. I
need to get back to work with Steph and Jess.”

“
How is it coming
along?”