Star Force: Clash of the Demigods (Star Force Universe Book 60) Read online

  1

  June 12, 128549

  Unexplored Frontier

  Beta Temple

  Morgan-063 and Ginsi-500289 landed on the roof of the now expanded Kiritak colony in Beta temple, having just returned from their exploration mission and caught a dropship back to base from the Caretaker subsurface network that spanned the massive sphere. Both Archons walked off the boarding ramp and into the now warm air stiff and sore, and neither one of them intended to go back out on a second mission unless absolutely necessary.

  Both girls wore their armor retracted, having spent far too much time in it, but they didn’t have to use their Rensiek to fight off the cold, for the environment in this region was now well above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. It hadn’t been near to that when they left, and Morgan was surprised at how fast the Temple mechanisms worked when given the basic amounts of Essence that it required.

  Now they knew what a lot of that Essence was used for, having mapped out an extensive network of near Temple facilities that were inaccessible to anyone other than the Caretakers…or those that hitchhiked with them under cloak as the ‘puddle jumpers’ moved from one location to another carrying various materials, most numerous among them being metallic hydrogen, but Essence carry orbs as well.

  Those were rarer, but it was how the machines moved Essence around without having an Essence user to do it. However it worked, the carry orbs were created using stored Essence, and they could then store more inside them. Whenever Star Force created their own storage units, known as ‘Magicite,’ there had to be an Essence wielder manipulating the physical matter in a way to make it reflective to Essence. Somehow the machines were able to do it, except that they couldn’t produce the Essence themselves, yet once some was donated into the Temple system there was a lot they could do with it.

  The transportation of these cargo-carrying puddle jumpers seemed to consume a great deal of it, and in exchange those cargo carriers brought in the metallic hydrogen that fueled the artificial star in the center of the Temple, the one now generating the heat for this region of the sphere while the rest of it remained a visible ice cube beyond the sky.

  Morgan and Ginsi had found where some of that metallic hydrogen was coming from. Alpha Temple harvested it from the nebula surrounding it, but Beta Temple had none. What it did have was a network of Caretaker units scrounging it up from the surrounding area, including one small nebula that had a rather large mining outpost in it. It had taken 5 agonizing hops through the Essence Realm to get there, but within that nebula were a few larger masses that traditional grav jump travel could get to if you were patient enough. So it was a point where Star Force could access the caretaker network without having to go through the painstakingly stagnant travel attached like a tick to the front of a puddle jumper.

  The pair of Archons had traced the metallic hydrogen to not just the temple, but other surrounding facilities that used it as fuel to power their internal reactors. Those facilities, in turn, were manufacturing a lot of stuff using ore shipments and some specialties that were beyond their ability to backtrack. The Caretakers did not just travel via Stargate effect, for they also had a network of mag jump ships with their own version of Grid Points. Morgan and Ginsi couldn’t travel via those, for they expected them to take longer than a day to reach their destination…probably much longer, and the 10-15 hour puddle jumper trips were, on their own, causing the pair enormous physical problems as their enhanced Saiyan bodies refused to accept sitting in one place for more than a few minutes.

  They had to fight it all the way, and get in what workouts they could between jumps. But the way their bodies were complaining now that they were free of the confines suggested that this would not be something they would be trying again, and they doubted the other trailblazers would be either. Hopefully the little piece of the Caretaker grid map that they’d cataloged, when combined with the others, would be worth it, but right now Morgan was cursing her stupidity for volunteering for this trip.

  “We’re the ones that decided to go more than one jump,” Ginsi reminded her as the short haired level 4 Saiyan stretched her arms high over her head as they walked.

  “At least we know what not to do in the future,” her level 3 Saiyan master noted. “You think any of the others tried the mag jump?”

  “I hope not, but knowing you guys, someone probably did.”

  Morgan cringed at the thought. “You’re probably right. We’re all going to lose a lot of levels for this.”

  “I’m going to the sanctum now,” Ginsi said as they walked down and into the cupola on the rooftop landing pad.

  “I thought you’d want to see what the others found.”

  “I do. You can fill me in when you catch up. I really need something to punch over and over and over again.”

  “I hear ya. Get going youngling.”

  “Yes, Mom,” Ginsi said sarcastically as she broke off at a T-junction, with Morgan headed to the left and through a series of hallways and lifts to the main control center where she didn’t find any other trailblazers, only Count Gorva, who had been brought in to run the colonial expansion and free up the Archons to focus on Essence related challenges.

  Morgan frowned. “Are we the first to get back?”

  The Calavari, dressed in flowing robes for each limb but with a trim fitting torso uniform, crossed his lower arms over his lower chest while leaning forward and resting his upper elbows on the work table before him.

  “No, but the others went back out again. They wanted to report what they immediately found before going further, and I’m glad they did. Studying the Caretaker network is a fascinating endeavor. What have you brought to add?”

  “A hydrogen mine along with a lot of other little manufacturing facilities spread around the perimeter of the Temple. We also found a Grid Point system, but we couldn’t scout that without our bodies exploding.”

  The Calavari’s large head turned away from the growing map as Morgan touched the work table and added her data to it. “You can actually explode?”

  “Our cells can. Metabolism expects resources to be depleted, and if they’re not they build up inside until the cell wall breaks. We have a way of slowing this down by rerouting some of the excess material back into the blood stream, but there are so many other functions that require activity that it feels like your body is tearing itself apart. I don’t even want to think about what would happen if I had to stay put for an entire week. ‘Explode’ is accurate enough.”

  “I hope not. Three teams also found mag jump launching points and were going back to travel on them with additional supplies.”

  “Oh those idiots,” Morgan said as she too leaned on the table and studied the Caretaker network map. “Have to show us up, don’t they?”

  “Your skills lie elsewhere, we all know.”

  Morgan cranked her left arm back, hearing something pop, as her normal flexibility was shot right now. It would take months to restore it again.

  “Give me the run down.”

  “We have a massive support operation hidden from the galaxy, with a few access points that outsiders can use if they know where to look, but the Founders were very careful to keep them hidden. We assume the Reapers use these when they need to go out and harvest Essence from their victims…”

  “We found Reapers?” Morgan interrupted.

  Gorva highlighted three different locations, then brought up one for closer analysis, with Morgan seeing data logged as coming from Larry-034’s armor sensors.

  “They not only have fleets of them, they have shipyards to produce more as needed. I think they’re
serious about keeping the Temples operational even if there are no denizens. In the grand scale of things I agree, but if you sacrifice your principles to attain victory, you accomplish nothing because you have now become the enemy. I do not think the Founders care about preserving individual life, only the collective, and that is a dangerous philosophy.”

  “It’s an old and recurring one, unfortunately,” Morgan said, shifting around to the other two locations with Reapers. “They’re using moon-sized gravity wells as a jumping off point?”

  “Doubling as a supply depot. The planetoids are artificially built from imports, we believe. That way if they need resupply they know where to get it rather than to have to rely on active mining sites that may or may not acquire enough. The planning is extremely thorough, though heartless.”

  Morgan glanced up at him. “What else?”

  “They have hunter units patrolling certain areas looking for corovon-heavy space-faring creatures. Jason found a harvest facility where they are bringing the living creatures they collect, then slaughtering them. He came back to get the necessary explosives and other ordinance to wreck the place a week ago and took a team of Archons with him.”

  “Wait a minute. Are they just harvesting corovon?”

  “No. They’re stripping down their bodies for other compounds, as well as Essence. I think this is their primary means of backup supply, and when it isn’t enough they resort to sending out the Reapers to harvest the surface of planets.”

  “Why have we not found these…space whales?” Morgan said, not wanting to call them baby Uriti, for they were far smaller and inferior to that.

  “The V’kit’no’sat apparently were aware of them, but they seem to have disappeared from most of the galaxy. Perhaps from over hunting, or perhaps they’ve gotten better at evading capture.”

  “Where are the Caretakers hunting them?”

  “We don’t know yet, but the cage ships were not jumping in from existing spacelanes.”

  “But they were jumping?”

  Gorva nodded. “Grav jumps, not stargate travel. We think their tiny little planetoids may be using an alternate form of gravity propulsion that makes their silhouette larger.”

  “You’re talking about what Candancen found?”

  “I think so, or something related. If one can alter the frequency of gravity to increase propulsion, perhaps it can also be used to enhance range of acquisition. The hunter ships came in on grav jumps, and I have no other explanation for their travel beyond a network of small gravity wells beyond the known star systems.”

  “Another hidden network,” Morgan mewed as she chewed her bottom lip all the while her arms and legs were slightly vibrating to stave off the stagnation that was still clawing at her. She understood why Ginsi had went immediately to get into heavy workouts, but the point of the mission was more important right now and worth the delay to the trailblazer.

  “Possibly,” the Calavari agreed. “But I think we are just sampling the tip of the iceberg here.”

  “Hitting,” Morgan corrected. “Not sampling.”

  “That would denote tragedy, not discovery.”

  “I hope you’re wrong about that, for Jason’s sake. The Caretakers get pissed off really fast.”

  “We have not been able to get any information on the space creatures from the Responders. Either they do not know, or they are withholding the information for higher level individuals.”

  “I can understand an emergency, but why are they farming them regularly?”

  “Perhaps the Temples are not supposed to be in this condition.”

  “Why build so many then? We’re still estimating hundreds, right?”

  “At least.”

  “So why build them if you can’t sustain them? There’s something else going on here.”

  “I agree. Hopefully Jason can ask the creatures if he gets a chance.”

  “If they’re anything like the Uriti they might just ignore him, but who knows. Damn, now I want to get back out there again.”

  “You do?”

  “No,” Morgan admitted. “My body doesn’t. The rest of me does. No one has made it to Alpha, I assume?”

  “None have returned that have found it or another Temple, and we have received no word through the bridge of any arrivals.”

  “They’re probably elsewhere on the mag jump network.”

  “That was my thinking.”

  “How many grid points have been found?”

  “11 so far, counting yours.”

  “Damn. They have to have a shit load of outposts out there. Why?”

  “Why not keep everything at the Temples? I asked myself the same question weeks ago, and I haven’t gotten a good answer, but I do have a suspicion that these networks service the Temples…as well as something else.”

  Morgan raised a brown eyebrow. “Now that’s interesting. Have you seen any supply flows elsewhere?”

  “Nothing that I can identify as not eventually getting to a Temple.”

  “Are the Reapers used to hunt the space whales?”

  “Jason doesn’t think so. He thinks they’re different mission priorities. For if they weren’t…”

  “…then why bring the whales back alive when you can harvest the Essence on the spot.”

  “Exactly. I have been surprised how closely aligned your thought patterns are. You all seem to think as one.”

  “We were recruited because we were all alike, and once we got together we harmonized even further,” Morgan said, remembering back to basic training long, long ago. “You never noticed before?”

  “I’ve never seen so many of you together in the same place before. You usually travel alone or with an apprentice.”

  “True. Empire-wide duties and all.”

  “You do take on another dynamic when together, I’ve noticed.”

  “We do?”

  “A highly competitive and efficient one.”

  Morgan cracked a smile. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Which is why you want to go back out again.”

  “I’m too smart to,” she countered. “But I am going out again, just not this way. We’ve got several locations marked as being able to be reached via starship. If something doesn’t happen here to redirect me elsewhere, I’m heading off the long way to get some real scouts out there. We’ll map this out the old fashioned way.”

  “The others said the security beyond the Temple was lessened.”

  She nodded. “Considerably so where there is no atmosphere. It was questionable whether we needed cloaks or not, for in many places we were not picking up any sensor beams.”

  “With so few people capable of using Essence, I wish you would let others take on that mission and remain here. Finding a way to open the main portals is our top concern.”

  “I know, but we’re nowhere close to raising our skill level to the point where the Responders will teach us the necessary technique.”

  “Regardless, I would prefer to have all of you here or in Alpha. I literally cannot push most of the buttons.”

  “You’re not here to, but I get your point. I’m thinking that if we can cheat part of the trip, then maybe some of us can hop the mag jumps. Not all Star Force Essence users are Saiyans, you know.”

  “So why weren’t the others sent?”

  “Because we didn’t know what was out there, and we still don’t have a mapped route to Alpha Temple. Trailblazers go first, then we send the others.”

  “But all trailblazers are Saiyans.”

  “Yeah, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot for this kind of mission with that, but we’re managing.”

  “Can you make a mag jump?”

  “I can’t…or rather I don’t want to try. I’ve taken considerable damage as is. Ginsi more so, I think, but she’s concealing most of it. A level 1 Saiyan might be able to make it, but we only have a few of those.”

  “Paul, Liam, and Roger.”

  “Yeah, they all didn’t want to give up the super-long ses
sions in a command Nexus. Technically we all still can do it, but the agitation of the stagnation is distracting and diminishes our mental outreach efficiency. They didn’t want that, so they didn’t go beyond level 1. Oddly though, they did create the Borg capability, which is stagnation inherent, and have mastered it.”

  “You also have that ability, or am I mistaken?”

  “I’m a low level, but for short periods of time I can if I up the artificial gravity to 22 or higher. That way I have to fight to stand up enough to keep my subconscious mind busy. I can get an hour or two of good naval combat out of that, but not nearly as good as the others that can devote their full minds to the task at hand. Bottom line is, we got so powerful we had to specialize in some cases, and I chose Brawler skills over Commodore. I didn’t regret that until now.”

  “There is one other significant discovery you need to be aware of,” Gorva said, highlighting a tiny outpost far from Beta Temple, but still short of what the basic mag jump Grid Point range was. “We think it’s a communication node, and Nash and Page both confirmed it was sending off tiny Essence rushes that they couldn’t identify.”

  “Omni or directional?”

  “Directional, with 13 spokes.”

  “So they can’t send a signal across the entire galaxy. Those pesky Responders are programmed to be deceptive to hide equipment specs.”

  “If that is true, can they send signals between galaxies?”

  “We still don’t know how they travel between galaxies, but if these Essence signals carry a long ways you could set up a chain through the void if the Stargate Effect can cheat the lack of gravity wells. So far we only know of pushing from a beacon source, but if there’s a more impressive technique hidden away…”

  “…then they could travel anywhere in the universe regardless of where you had gravity.”

  “And if that technique exists, I really want to learn it.”

  “Or, you could drop portals as you went and use them to launch from,” the Count suggested.

  “Good catch, but you’d have to refill them with Essence regularly. Not quite the same thing as a ship that can go anywhere on its own, but I’d still take it.”