Metamorphosis Read online

  They were feeding Wilson puzzle pieces as they figured out what this and that were doing, or could do, and it was his job to put everything together. The fact that they were not all transforming into the same thing had been a little shocking, but now it was making greater and greater sense. If one adapted to what they did and experienced, then individuals should not end up in exactly the same form from training, let alone whatever ascension process this was, but the growing differences between the trailblazers was far more drastic than anyone would have guessed.

  Yet some things were the same, such as their Saiyan genetics stabilizing and their bodies creating organelles that would actually produce ambrosia to be stored in their existing nodules…and as it turned out, the new creation process was some 1500 times more efficient than the best industrial manufacturing methods they’d been using to date. The new process was already cataloged and sent out to the engineers so they could begin implementing it technologically, and that one breakthrough alone felt like a massive cheat. They hadn’t earned their way to it with trial and error, it had simply been gifted to them through this metamorphosis, and Wilson began to wonder if many of the more advanced races in the universe had technological breakthroughs thrown in their lap in this fashion. If it did, it would explain why many of them sucked so badly in terms of exploration and research.

  Wilson was reviewing 6 things at the same time, bouncing back and forth between them, when an automated message pinged him. He’d set the city’s computer to alert him whenever Paul or Cal-com returned, and it seemed their ship had just arrived in orbit, but with no heads up they were coming…otherwise that would have been transmitted to him immediately.

  All he got was their assigned landing pad along with a tracking beacon that showed him their current descent towards the thin atmosphere that surrounded the planet.

  Wilson dropped everything and ran out the door, hoping to get to the landing pad before they did. He didn’t even bother trying to contact them on the comm. If they were coming in silent that meant something good. If there was a threat they would have warned of it. And if there was nothing to report they still would have checked in to inquire on the progress of the others.

  The fact that they were arriving unannounced suggested Paul wanted to make an appearance or couldn’t explain enough over the comm…and in his case it was probably both if he’d had the same breakthrough. Davis had ordered no word of this be transmitted out, so he didn’t know the others were going through the metamorphosis, but if it worked the same way with him, then he probably had determined it was or would happen, as well as the need for secrecy on this.

  Wilson got there just as the ship was landing, with him running out the doors into the bright sunlight and having to squint against the glare as the landing legs came out and the starship touched down, filling most of the pad with its bulk, for it was far bigger than a dropship, but not so big to require a dropship to get its passengers down to the city.

  When the boarding ramp lowered, Cal-com walked out first, then behind him came Paul…except he was almost the same height. That meant Paul had grown more than a foot, but he couldn’t tell much else due to the robe he was wearing, which included a hood. Cal-com had similar clothing on, but from the way both of them moved Wilson could tell Paul wasn’t fully accustomed to his new stride length, for he was bobbing a little too much with each step.

  It was hardly noticeable, except to someone who knew biomechanics and them so well.

  “Is it happening to all the others?” Paul asked aloud from some 30 meters away as he and Cal-com walked towards the Master Trainer.

  “All of them except Kara. We got her using Essence again before it could cause havoc with her Vorch’nas. How tall are you now?”

  “Seven two,” he said, walking up close enough that Wilson noticed his face beneath the hood that was shading most of it from the sun. “Kara is probably safe, since she never had the Saiyan genetics.”

  “What happened to your eyes?”

  Paul tilted his head down slightly to match his gaze with the now shorter Wilson, then two rings of green flared bioluminescence for a moment. “Upgrades. I’ve come back now that they’re complete, but my transformation is not all that has happened to me. I got a two for one.”

  Wilson frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “The Force is real. I’ve just become a Jedi, found ghost Yoda to teach me, and Star Force is back to being the little fish in the big pond. We have a lot of work to do, and I don’t want to have to explain things multiple times. So get everyone that can stay awake into the amphitheater now. We’re involved in a much bigger war than we could have imagined, and the Hadarak are only a tiny piece of it…”

  www.aerkijyr.com