Point Zero Read online

  “In a naval war…” Jason postulated.

  “It’s still the bigger ship that wins,” Paul agreed. “But what makes the Kiritak better workers? What makes the Bsidd more resilient? What makes the Dosogo faster? The Oso’lon more intelligent? It’s the base avatar each race begins with. It’s about the starting point, not the end result, but can anyone say that an Irondel Maverick can stand a chance against a Mainline Human commando in hand to hand?”

  “Well, there were a few times…” Kai-054 noted.

  “That didn’t involve abject stupidity,” Paul amended.

  “Never say never.”

  “The point is, we work with what we’ve got. Both in terms of races and technology. We can make some advancements, and do a lot of innovative things, but a more advanced race is always going to tip the power scales in ways you might not recognize at first.”

  “He’s right,” Wilson agreed. “I’ve been considering this possibility for a while. Putting too much power into an unworthy individual’s hands has always been our greatest concern, but we’ve chipped away at that starting with the Protovic and then the Knight races.”

  “The Elves didn’t turn out so well,” Greg-073 reminded them.

  “That was our experiment with the telepathic community, and for some of them it did work well…as a barrier they had to overcome to discover their individuality…but in general it was a failure because we need people starting off as individuals as much as possible. The Knight races have spent so much time as a telepathic society that walking it back fully isn’t possible without losing a lot of their strengths, but we have been trimming it down,” Wilson said, glancing at Davis.

  “To a point,” the Director agreed. “But we cannot reproduce Archons.”

  “No we can’t,” Paul agreed, “and I’m not saying we will. But we can give a lot of people better Avatars to begin life in. And we’re going to need as much strength as we can get for what’s coming. I’ve only got tidbits of information, but I’m starting to see the writing on the wall. Anyone who rises to a certain level of power is targeted and destroyed by those lesser than them, out of fear or prejudice of some sort. Azoro mentioned a ‘natural order’ that many of the other powers believe in. It’s about the only thing they have in common, and a race exceeding their natural state carried a death sentence from those whose natural state is more advanced and they want to stay at the top of the totem pole without climbing it any higher.”

  “Where are they?” Jason asked.

  “Scattered. Total galactic dominion is rare, apparently, and also frowned upon for a variety of reasons. I get the feeling their egos need other people suffering in squalor to make themselves feel superior, so they won’t help their neighbors and insist the universe be left to adapt ‘naturally’ all the while they will intervene when something occurs they don’t like. The Sha’kier, I’m told, were as close to a lightside empire as I’ve seen, though not all the way. Their focus was on building, and builders do not sit by and let problems exist. They craft solutions and help their neighbors. This is why they expanded out to fully claim 28 galaxies enroute to more. Not for conquest, but for stability. Stability and the natural order are not compatible, I’m told.”

  “Where do the Hadarak fit in? And the Apocalypse Monsters?” Davis asked.

  “Both players in the game, neither of which is ‘natural.’ Each has weaknesses, and a role to play…which is why the Hadarak do not go to certain galaxies, or fully conquer them. Too much power in any one player’s hands causes the others to gang up on them. Any of them.”

  “And the Neofan?”

  “JV team and not in the loop, most likely. But there are other threats besides the thugs. A lot of them. I’m amazed the Sha’kier made it as far as they did without self-sufficiency, but what they accomplished makes us look like newbs on the galactic scale. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but that said, we are doing it better than they did and I think Azoro realizes that. He wants to help us avoid their mistakes, as well as seeing his knowledge and history put to full use and not a watered down version of what went before. He was meant to help his race continually rise to new heights and overcome the ‘natural order’ that they believed was meant to hold everyone back by erasing experience with each generation. And the funny thing is, they never encountered any race that was obviously self-sufficient. Just some that were very long lived.”

  “Are you aware that our genetics are altering into an alignment that vaguely mimics the Zak’de’ron?” Jack-020 asked.

  Paul’s eyes narrowed. “I was not.”

  “We learned of self-sufficiency from the V’kit’no’sat, who got it from the Zak’de’ron. Do we know of any other source in this galaxy of that knowledge?”

  “Hard to say, since the V’kit’no’sat were pretty much dominance litter bugs that didn’t mind showing off for others. It’d be hard to track another source that didn’t have contact with them.”

  “I know of three,” Davis offered, “all in the Rim and isolated. Their biologies were near to it naturally, so they didn’t have far to go. And when they did, they stopped reproducing almost entirely and attained a neutral to slightly growing population. None of them sought heavy expansion.”

  “And here we are teaching everyone how to do it,” Kerrie said ominously. “A violation of the natural order?”

  “Bingo,” Paul confirmed. “We’re small fries now, in a fringe galaxy, and not really old enough for it to matter. But give us a few billion years and imagine the ‘damage’ that could be done.”

  “Wait,” Ian-033 interjected. “Are you saying these other powers are not self-sufficient?”

  “I don’t know. Didn’t come up in the conversations yet, but I get the feeling they’re more of the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ type.”

  “And the Apocalypse Monsters? Are they immortal?”

  “They are weak when you know where to hit them. I don’t have a firm grasp on the dynamics of their existence, but they retreat into the deep void for a reason, and that reason is fear. They come here to feed, then leave and enter a type of hibernation until their feeding grounds are ripe enough to warrant the risk of coming back.”

  “They’re Wraith?” Morgan asked.

  “Who are somehow merged with the Saiolum in a way that Azoro doesn’t understand either. The only way he could investigate is to hitch a ride on one of their few scouts all the way out there, then he’d be trapped until he could hitchhike back.”

  “Can they hurt him?”

  “He seemed to suggest no, but I didn’t explore that. They can affect the physical and he can’t, so I don’t think he knows for sure and that’s another reason he stays away.”

  “What sort of growing do we need to do, other than physically?” Davis asked.

  “Blind spots. Things we don’t know exist, and don’t know how to defend against, or to use. The Saiolum is one such blind spot, but there are others, including many technologies that will bypass our shields and armor. We have to harden our technology, our planets, and our empire before we can start poking around at what lays beyond…but be warned, the Sha’kier were not destroyed by known enemies. It was the ones that came out of the frontier that hit them the hardest. Azoro knows them now, but only to a certain extent. He warns that there will always be an unknown frontier that you cannot predict, no matter how far you search. This is the primary reason they pushed their empire so far, to give them galaxies to retreat to in case some fell to an unknown enemy. But they had no idea what was in store for them, and their expansion was what drew their downfall.”

  “Challenge accepted,” Morgan said calmly.

  “Azoro is going to give us his cheat sheet, and he’s promised it’s a massive one, but one thing seems to be clear. Dominion of the playing field is going to draw the giants to come and stomp you, for they like the galaxies to be primitive and no threat to them as they roam or turtle up where they like. They will stop us from helping others in order to preserve this status quo, so when
we make the move to expand beyond this galaxy, we have to be ready to face them before we catch their full attention. This is the single most important point I have to make. We have an advantage in Azoro, plus our own badassness. But if we rush, we’ll be discovered and targeted. If they learn that Azoro exists and is helping us, expect immediate deletion of our entire civilization and anyone who has ever had contact with us, or even heard of us.”

  “He’s that much of a threat?” Davis asked.

  “Knowledge is power, when given the time necessary to forge it into a weapon. They will not allow such time.”

  “Who exactly are they?”

  “He won’t give me a list of names, for it won’t matter unless we come into contact with them. Any new contacts, races or empires, he wants me to be made aware of so he can filter them. If something crosses our path that we should worry about, he’ll let us know.”

  “Holding back information?”

  “As would I,” Paul agreed. “The Saiolum itself is massive and I’m just playing around in it. He also wants to make sure Star Force stays Star Force, for we would not be able to operate the way the Sha’kier did. So he has to feed us little bits and we have to take what’s useful and incorporate it while discarding the rest. And in that light, doing it slowly is better…especially when we won’t understand most of it.”

  “What’s he given you so far?” Jason asked.

  “Other than help with my transition and cementing my link to the Saiolum, he’s given me so many ideas for empire upgrades I could stay here days talking about them. Not stuff he came up with, mostly, but spinoffs that I had never considered before. Most of it is Saiolum-related, and until Wilson figures out how to get others across the barrier it won’t be useful.”

  “Such as?” Megan pushed.

  “Such as having an individual aboard a ship or station that can scan for lifeforms through their displacement in the Saiolum currents, regardless of whether they’re cloaked or not. There’s no way to hide against such a scan unless you are aware of the Saiolum. Those civilizations that are not will be completely blindsided by another’s ability to track them wherever they go, and mass doesn’t matter. You can hide inside a planet and still be perfectly visible if it’s just a big, dead rock.”

  “So we’ll need an army of personnel with Saiolum skills?” Davis suggested.

  “Yes,” Paul confirmed. “And that will take a great deal of time to develop and train, for our physiology is not well suited to it, though mine now is since my upgrade occurred during my breakthrough. The rest of you may not be as close after you finish, but as long as we have my genetics the Furyans should be able to produce a lot of Saiolum-sensitive individuals whereas recruiting them out of other races would be far more difficult.”

  “How difficult?” Wilson asked.

  “I don’t have a clear sense of it, so just consider it like a breakthrough to Essence without mechanical assistance…though there are advanced Sha’kier rituals and devices to assist with such things. But we have to advance to that point before we can make use of them, so my future path is remarkably clear. I’m going to learn as much as I can from Azoro and explore the mysteries of the Force to share with the rest of you, as well as act as a conduit for his knowledge in other matters, particularly technology that we haven’t encountered yet.”

  “Onboard the Excalibur?” Jason asked.

  Paul shook his head. “No. My time there is over, for the most part. When the big battles come I’ll be there, but my highest value is no longer naval. It’s Jedi,” he said with an ironic smile.

  “About time,” Jason said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back as Jack suddenly slumped over and blacked out, with Jason telekinetically pulling him up into a better resting position. “Should have given us reclining chairs, Sean.”

  “An obvious oversight,” the Director said deadpan. “What can you currently do with this Saiolum?”

  “Observe,” Paul said, standing up and walking to the left of the podium as he reached both arms up forward like two horizontal poles…that he then used as leverage points to raise himself into an armstand…while his arms were on nothing but thin air.

  “What exactly are you doing?” Wilson asked.

  “No Yen’mer, no psionics or Essence at all. I’m gripping the Saiolum in my arms and using it as leverage to hold myself up,” he said, tilting back over again. “It burns a bit when I do it, but it’s because I’m new and raw, but I’m acclimating. In this same way Azoro can cling to me or others and let them drag him across the galaxy…or he can grip the Saiolum and propel himself at much slower speed, though there are many currents, and if you catch the right ones you can go a lot faster. But starships are still the best way to get around, and as long as the crew onboard are living he can ride with them. He can latch onto a drone, but only as long as the drone stays in a sufficiently dense Saiolum area. If not he’ll be peeled off when the density drops too low, such as in between star systems, or sometimes planets if the system isn’t sufficiently populated.”

  “Nice trick,” Morgan commented.

  “A lot more will come with time,” Paul promised. “But right now I need you to leave this to me to explore. I don’t know how to get you across the threshold, and frankly I don’t want you trying. Our new transformations are what you need to dig into, and hopefully we’ll each have something unique to add to the gene pool later. We need to own this, and be ‘we’ I mean mostly you guys, because I’m doing double duty here, as will Wilson. There are a lot more second gen out there that are probably in the same boat we are, and if they relax enough they may also start to transform. We need to get this nailed down before they accidentally do…which is why we’re not going to tell them about it. Got that, Kara?”

  “My lips are sealed,” she promised. “But what about me?”

  “You never went Saiyan, but your body has topped out. I don’t know if that’ll be enough.”

  “What about this?” she said, holding up her arm so her wrist jewel could be seen.

  Paul frowned. “Right. I don’t know about that. It may try to rewrite you to your original code, or maybe the transformation will rid you of the sabotage genetics. It took away my bioplasma, so it doesn’t seem to only make additions.”

  “You think I should try?”

  “Not today, but down the road, I would. Just let us figure out what this is first.”

  “Deal. Now to the most important question. Did you grow a second dick?”

  Everyone who wasn’t close to unconsciousness snickered or laughed out loud, including Davis, but not Wilson. He glanced back in her direction with an unimpressed look on his face, but she ignored him as she stared at Paul’s lower section.

  “Slightly larger, but still just one. Though my balls got tucked a bit. Guess they didn’t need to get any larger, so I ended up more streamlined.”

  “Show please,” Kerrie asked.

  Paul didn’t hesitate, and pulled down his pants to show them, with his slightly blue skin making him look even more odd than his altered bone structure did.

  “What happened to your hips?” Greg asked.

  “I got some nips and tucks all over the place,” he said, twisting to the side for a better view as Kerrie swirled her finger in the air.

  “Just take it all off,” Kara urged.

  “Fine,” Paul said, realizing that was best, though as he did so and the air hit his body, his skin went from slightly blue to streaks of hazy yellow.

  “Yellow means you’re turned on?” Sara guessed.

  Paul frowned. “No. I’m not sure what this is. Maybe vulnerable.”

  “I can see the organ on your spine,” Wilson commented as a slight bump along either side was visible. “Plus your entire skeleton looks to be configured for more agility and less brute lifting.”

  “All that running, probably,” Jason added. “No Saroto’kanse’vam?”

  “Nope,” Paul confirmed as he half turned again.

  “And you’re s
ure you’re finished transforming?” Morgan asked.

  “Quite sure.”

  “Where are your nipples?” Kara asked.

  “Lost them with my bioplasma and body hair. I don’t have any more hair follicles except on my head and in my nose. Has something to do with the skin alteration as much as them being deactivated, or so I assume.”

  Morgan stood up in the 4th row and raised one of her arms at Paul. “Mind a little test?”

  “You might black out,” Wilson warned her.

  “I’ll risk it if he will,” she said, looking at Paul.

  “Go ahead,” he said, taking up a slight defensive stance as she threw a not so small Jumat blast at him. He took it on his body without any shielding, and it pushed him back a step…and as it did so a splash of brown shot out across his body around the impact site, but it didn’t make it to his extremities before the blue quickly reasserted itself.

  “Ooo, my turn next,” Kara said excitedly, though she remained seated.

  Morgan slumped back into her seat, though she remained awake. “Interesting. What does it feel like?”

  “A little prickly, but otherwise all the colors feel normal.”

  “Riley can change his on command, and they stay put,” Jason added. “So I’m guessing it’s not the same thing.”

  “He went chameleon?” Paul asked.

  “Sort of, yeah. Takes a few hours to process.”

  “Hopefully there will be a lot more individual abilities popping up,” he said as he picked up his clothes and held them up as if asking if he could put them back on…only to have Kerrie telekinetically snatch them out of the air and pull them over to her where she wrapped her arms around them firmly.

  “You’re fine as is,” she said with a smirk. “Except you do look a little clumsy.”

  “I feel clumsy. The fitness I had before got washed away and I’m starting from scratch unfortunately…but it seems this new body was designed off my original fitness, so its base level is higher in most cases than my max before, so I’m sort of ok with it. Don’t know if I could take a second gen Saiyan right now or not. My timing is all off.”