Void's Psionics (60 page)

“
Anyone having
problems?”
Renee asked.

“
Left at fifteen hundred.
Spotted a big ass squid.”
Steven alerted
and all heads glanced to the invertebrate lazily swimming
away.
“Bigger than any on Earth’s records
of indigenous species.”

Still they dropped. Deeper and deeper with
nothing to stop them. Twice were sightings of giant sharks, but
minimal movements didn’t draw either’s attention. Renee continued
to strengthen the barrier around the three following and she
manipulated it to render the increasing glow invisible due to
Phantom training where by manipulating electrical fields in a
delicate way rendered the barriers invisible. She could have
cloaked everyone, but it was decided to limit the sense of Psionic
energy. Going invisible required a large amount to sustain. Enough
that other creatures sensitive to electricity would follow.

More than twenty long and tense minutes was
spent in relative silence except when there was animal sightings.
They especially steered clear of fish that gave off natural light.
They had seen a shark take one out the size of the captain’s
shuttle.

Strong underwater currents blew them around
some, but the anchor was heavy enough to resist. Oliver was sure
glad Breena had thought up the binding together last week. It sure
came in handy. Some currents would throw them around like a
ragdoll.

When it seemed like the fall would take
forever it at last happened, the anchor hit something and was
deflected so hard Oliver barely unhooked his line from the anchors
as the weight was ejected so fast it left Mereddia space.

“
Fuck, that almost hit me!”
Steven yelled.

“
Shut up, Dumbass!”
Renee snapped.
“You were
told it would happen. How else has the planet not filled with
landmass? It stays water because of the barriers. It would have
been hit by dust, debris and asteroids to fill it up over millenia,
but hasn’t. Only living matter isn’t ejected. So unless you want to
be eaten, shut the fuck up!”

“
Oh I get eaten all the
time. It’s why I like Gemma so much.”

“
Just shut up
already.”

“
Yes, Mrs. Void.”
His mental voice was hardly scolded and he
imagined dancing, something Renee saw and punched him upside the
head.

“
Enough. We’re about to
reach the first barrier.”
Oliver canceled
further bickering.
“I’m going to let all of
you go. If I am rejected like the anchor, return to the surface.
Jake should be ready to catch me before I leave the
system.”

The lines connecting them unlatched as he got
closer to a translucent wall. With upmost care Oliver placed a foot
down going limp. Being tense would do more harm than good.

Sudden thrust didn’t happen
and he touched down completely.
“Solid.”
Carefully the four
followed.

“
Which way, Brother?”
Stone said as he hit bottom.

Oliver checked the readings
to say
“Three klicks that way.”

So began the slow march. On the surface
Andrea told Jessica the news who in turn said “Nova tells us they
reached the outer one. Come back to the planet.” Jake confirmed and
reentered the atmosphere.

“
Hold! Nobody move a
muscle.”
Stone mentally shouted and every
person froze. From his view they all watched as a great pale body
over a kilometers long swam roughly in their direction from below.
The lazy swim of the eel indicated they were not seen. Renee
readied to kill with a thought, but wasn’t needed.

Because from below it came another thrice as
large as the other. A brilliant flash slammed into the smaller eel
as the larger took the opportunity to kill its dazed victim and
tore into it.

“
Move fast while it is
preoccupied. Fresh blood will attract others.”
Renee said and wasn’t questioned. They swam and ran as fast as
they dared. What they saw next proved her words true. Another large
one began to fight over the prey from out of nowhere.
“Still want to play, Steven?”

“
I’m good.”
He just got a healthy dose of fear after that
ferocious display.

Good luck lasted all the way to the aquatic
gate. It wasn’t an actual gate with bars or a door. Instead was a
node that looked like a strange larval life form, but made out of a
strange azure metal that was untouched by debris and time.

“
Looks like I’m up.”
Renee told them and drifted right up to the thing
half her own height. She lifted her arm and willed her bracelet to
tell her what it is she was looking at. Fast image flashes passed
through her consciousness and if not for her adept and pliable mind
it would have been a garbled mess to anyone else.
“Right call, Olly. It is a trap for anyone who
fucks up… and only a woman can bypass this lock.”

The others tried to keep up with her thoughts
as she created a catalytic serum only someone with her background
could understand. She only would get a single shot. One is all she
needed.

A needle punctured the
larval creature’s skull directly in a hole made specifically for
using biology as the lock’s key. She pumped the creation over and
it began to move and change shape into a beautiful and colorful
fish. It then swung its fins and the gate opened up beneath their
feet slowly enough that it didn’t startle them. They began to fall,
only slower this time.
“It wanted me to add
the need for a fetus to develop in a womb. So I created an
elaborate mix of hormones and amitotic fluid. Seems Steph is right.
Water is life and if the key is to make life grow, it was a spot-on
educated guess.”

Falling for another ten steady minutes, being
knocked around a time or two by strong currents. They landed within
sight of the inner gate.

This time it was a complex puzzle. Oliver’s
specialty. The trap would trigger if it wasn’t solved in an hour.
Oliver finished it in three seconds. All two thousand individual
pieces. He put together a large sea lion-like mammal.

“
Show off!”
Steven chuckled.

“
BELOW! COMING IN
FAST!!!”
Breena shouted in voice and
mind.

Incoming was the biggest, meanest and most
scarred eel ever seen. It had been nearby when the gate opened and
prey, even the morels they were for a five kilometer long eel was
still prey. Darkness flared white hot before any defense was
mustered. An electrical discharge of mind boggling proportions
infused more than ten kilometers of deadly energy.

It’s wide maw parted enough to take them
whole.

Renee was blinded the worst as she was
looking right at it. Oliver and the Hunters weren’t hit by the
brunt, but her slip of concentration allowed the crushing depths to
squeeze in on the three under her protection. Before they were
crushed, Oliver erected an instant barrier just as Breena and
Steven made a thrust with their spears which blew painful holes in
the eel’s sensitive lips while Stone made a X motion as he chopped
and sent a slicing wave right in its gigantic eye.

It was still too big and fast to dodge, but
it gave Oliver enough time to infuse his cutlass and unleashed a
great slicing arc that parted the monstrosity more than halfway
down its entire length.

It passed to either side of them like great,
meaty walls that saturated the clean water with crimson blood. Its
passing also created turbulent waters that would have spun them had
Oliver not been so fast reacting. As it moved Renee said audibly
“Olly, I can’t see anything. The stars are blinding. Too
bright.”

“
Then momentarily disengage
your retinas.”

She concentrated and the Valek absorbed into
her body to sever the nerves. “Thanks for the idea… done…. Better.
Everything is black again.” She relaxed after using her bracelet to
help do the painless surgery.

“
Like Mrs. Void said
earlier. We need to get out of here. This huge thing will attract
everything not including the blood, but where is up from down now?”
Breena said.

“
Follow the carcass.” Stone
pointed out that the great creature was going in a different
direction. Getting pulled down. Down meant down, as in gravity’s
pull.

“
Then everyone better hold
on. I’m going to make my armor make fins to make us move fast, but
It’ll make noise. If we can make it four klicks down we’ll reach
the city.” Oliver transformed a portion to either ankle, using the
material used in making the flippers, two turbines began spinning
fast. The devices were patterned after seeing his Pride doing it
for flying. He angled and let the suit’s modification drive them
deeper into the near unknown.

A Kinetic blast from Oliver blew up a smaller
eel who was foolish enough to pursue, but they all held on. After a
few minutes, Renee fixed her eyes and said it was manageable, but
nowhere near normal.

Eventually came a most welcome sight. Faint
light in the oppressive depths grew brighter and brighter as a
barrier covered city appeared. There were eels aplenty, but smaller
and over a ways was the grand feast that made the five of them
unimportant. The need for enhanced vision made them disengage when
it was unneeded. There were many ports, large enough for ships
twice as large as the Dorgenox.

As they came within reach another AI of a
woman in flowing clothes to mimic a waterfall smiled. “Follow me
you five. Best to not be around when the really big ones come for
her.” She pointed to the carcass falling on the barrier that easily
held it and the water back.

Following the AI was wise because the barrier
would not let them through except by the portals designated during
the times when the city is submerged. A bubble surrounded them all
in reaching the nearest dock and then they were scanned. A little
drone came speeding around a smaller pyramid dwelling to some to an
abrupt stop over the pale AI’s feminine shoulder. Jutting like a
nose upon the marble size contraption was a needle. The AI said
“You three humans need to be injected so you do not suffer hypoxia.
The atmosphere is similar to the surface and I doubt you’d prefer a
week stuck inside a decompression chamber for that time. Without it
you will decompress too quickly as soon as Oliver Void relinquishes
the barrier keeping you alive.”

“
Go ahead.” Breena said as
she put away her lance and laid a hand upon the pommel of her
nimble rapier. The needle bypassed the robust barrier to inject her
first. Directly in the heart for maximum effect to circulate the
concentrated chemicals. Then Stone and Steven were administered a
dose.

“
You may lift the pressure
barrier, Master.” He did so. Carefully. The deep blue light
diminishing around them.

“
Recover you guys. Being hit
by my turbines wasn’t easy to get thrashed around in my
wake.”

“
Thanks.” Steven said as he
and the others dropped down to catch their breaths and look
around.

Still up, Oliver had a pressing concern for
the past three weeks. “What is your name?”

The pale woman gave a demure curtsey. “I am
called Aquerril.” It would have been more believable she was real
if his hearing had picked up the sound of clothes rubbing on
skin.

“
Aquerril, please tell me
the status of Jenniviq and Vladamin.”

“
I’m sorry, Master. Sorry I
have no good news. They were destroyed after the Corrupted One,
often called Subject One, forced them to display parts one and
three of the sequence. They were destroyed after a human Vladamin
overheard was called and spoke with an individual called Collin
Chandler who ordered their spheres shattered.”

“
So Chandler
is
responsible for this
conspiracy. What of Ice and Fire?”

“
Fire’s custodian, Laxus,
was forced to defend himself when the Corrupted One tried
teleporting inside the geode. The rejection was successful long
before my counterpart was in any danger.”

“
How did they get the pieces
of the puzzle?”

“
Your orders to Vladimin
were for us to tell all who asked…”

“
Then tell the rest right
now to only speak freely to myself or Renee or anyone near our
immediate persons. No more will I allow this person to take what
doesn’t belong to him. Tell me about this ‘Corrupted
One’.”

“
He is unaware the one he
calls ‘Father’ has made him dependant to survive. The custodian of
Terra, Jenniviq, managed to scan him before she was destroyed.
Three times he was administered a toxic suppressant for Keptl
infestation and lied to by being told it was to fix his face. He is
a corrupted composite of human parts put together from multiple
hosts for combining the best human attributes. Speed, strength,
endurance, Psionic potential and even heightened neural activity.
Enough mental fortitude to be able to withstand the effects of our
individual pieces left from our mistresses. His mind is capable of
survival, but has limited mentality.”

“
Limited? How
so.”

“
Neural deterioration will
kill him within six months unless the Keptl infestation is allowed
free reign to make repairs to his physiology. It is likely unaware
that those with the Corrupted One know of the deterioration. If he
gets the remaining three pieces, it will kill him within hours… if
he gathers them before his mind degrades that is. But with your
command he shall not gain them.”