Star Force: Lost Destiny (Wayward Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  Ok, five more laps then, she said, focusing her mind on the minimum she needed to accomplish this training mission. Now that Rammak had given her something tangible to do old habits started to come into play as she rationed out her effort, but as the laps flew by she started to feel better and increased her speed out of the slow jog she’d been in.

  The next few laps were ok, but then an unusual fatigue started to set in and she had to fight to hold her new pace despite the lightness she felt in her feet. The rest of her body was hot and slow, but her steps were almost magical. Between the shoes and this track she was beginning to feel sorry for Rammak having missed this all these years, for this place was unbelievable.

  Her awe dimmed a bit as Esna’s strength quickly left her, but she forced herself to grind out the 5 miles and then some, finishing the last bit of extra lap and touching the finish pedestal at the end so it would stop her count, flashing her final 5.07 miles for a while before disappearing as she sat beside the track and tried to get her breathing under control as she looked for Rammak and watched him run a few more laps. When he finished his said 10 miles and change, then to her surprise he walked off the pathway and sat down next to her.

  “Hard?” she asked.

  “Yes, but it feels good to be back on a track.”

  “How much did you lose?”

  “A lot, but I will recover it in time. How about you?”

  “Not as bad when you started with me.”

  “That’s good. But even with what your body has lost, your mind still retains the memory and lessons gained. That will help you level up faster than the first time.”

  “You’re right,” Esna said, leaning back on her arms and looking around at the other Calavari training. “I don’t feel nervous anymore. Too tired.”

  “When you are lost, running is one of the best ways to find yourself again.”

  “I’ll remember that. Can we go to the cafeteria from here or do they want us to shower first?”

  Rammak laughed. “This is Star Force. We all train, so none of us are concerned with sweat. We can go there now or to a nearby area where we can spar a bit, if you feel up to it.”

  “No, but I’m willing to try.”

  “Tomorrow then. It’s best not to rush after recovery from an injury. Let the new tissue adapt a bit before you start hitting it too hard. Are you ready to eat now or do you want to sit here a bit and soak it all in?”

  Esna looked up at his big orange, hairless head. “You read my mind.”

  “I was a newb once, Esna. I can remember a bit of what it was like when I left the maturia and entered more advanced training programs. I was so happy to be there I would sit and watch others train after my workouts were done, partly to learn from them, but it also just felt good to be in their presence, as it does now. I’ve missed this.”

  “It’s new to me, but I’ve missed it too…somehow. That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Actually it does. It means you’ve belonged here all along, even if you didn’t know this existed with your mind, deep down in the core of your being you longed for more. Correct?”

  “I guess I did. I just never imagined this. I assume they have a track wherever they’re taking us, or is it going to be a small town or something?”

  “They will have a track and more, for all our colonies do, but I have no knowledge of where we are going. All our worlds in this region have been destroyed and there was nothing on the map. Wherever we are going must be a hidden outpost. They will have training facilities, I can assure you. If they didn’t Star Force wouldn’t send people there.”

  “Do all your ships have these?”

  “The ones you plan to spend more than a day on, yes. The smaller dropships and transports do not, but they are merely to take you from orbit to the surface, or perhaps planet to planet within a system. Anything that travels between stars will have a Sanctum, and with it training facilities for the non-Archons. The Sanctums are reserved just for them.”

  “Is that where the Archons are now?”

  “Probably. When they’re not fighting they’re usually training.”

  “And the Mavericks?”

  “I don’t know for sure. They may be with them. I know Commandos and Knights cannot go in there.”

  “What happens if you do?”

  “We don’t have the access codes to enter, and if we found a way an Archon would deal with the situation.”

  “They’d beat you up?”

  “They’d do whatever was required, but no Commando is going to intrude on them while they’re training. And no one here will interfere with yours either. It’s an unwritten rule in Star Force. Training is too important to mess with, and even in the civilian areas they respect this.”

  “Is that where I’ll be going?”

  “Not at first. You’ll have indoctrination to go through to get you caught up with everyone else, but first we have to get out of the Devastation Zone. Whatever colonies they have here will not have maturia or younglings. They will be warriors and techs only. Until then I’ll stay with you.”

  “I don’t want you to leave at all.”

  “Don’t worry. It won’t be soon. I doubt there are regular flights moving through V’kit’no’sat-controlled territory.”

  After a long talk on the floor of the track chamber Esna and Rammak headed back to the cafeteria to fill up on foodstuffs that weren’t all cubes and a lot of it was hot food that Esna just inhaled, along with drinking 3 full glasses of red that were designed to replace stuff workouts drained from your body.

  After that Rammak took her on a brief tour of the ship while staying away from the crew, including a quick visit with the few Commandos that were onboard. They were curious about her but focused on talking to Rammak when they started to get the whole story of what had happened to him. For them it was like someone they’d lost coming back from the dead, though he admitted to Esna afterwards that he’d never met anyone on this ship before. But to Commandos, all others were brothers and sisters, though female Calavari Commandos were rare given their much smaller size.

  When they got back to their quarters Esna was tired, but not too tired to skip the shower, though she was going to insist that Rammak go first so she didn’t have to hurry. Before she could bring it up he pointed over at the comm panel.

  “We’ve left the system,” he said, with Esna seeing the live hologram they’d left up that showed the star and planets in the system along with their location, but now it had changed to a local starmap and their dot was just leaving one star along a line headed for another.

  “Where to?”

  “The Yaeren System, but we could just be passing through it to another. There’s no way to know for sure.”

  “Why not ask?”

  “Because if it’s not in the database then it’s a secret location.”

  “Won’t we know when we get there?”

  “Yes we will, but if the crew doesn’t know then we’d have to find the Captain or the Archons, and I do not want to bother them with questions unless we have to know.”

  “Not supposed to talk to them unless they talk to you?”

  “Not at all. You can ask anyone anything, but you learn not to bother busy people unless it’s important. If I’m not around and you need something, feel free to ask anyone you pass and they’ll help you. There’s no need to be shy.”

  “We just can’t ask about secrets?”

  “You can try, but they probably won’t know or won’t answer. Where we’re going doesn’t really matter, because neither of us will know anything about it.”

  “I guess that’s true. I’m just curious to know.”

  “We’ll find out when we get there. Until then we either get to work…which we have none…we catch up on sleep, or we train. Unless you’re lazy, life in Star Force is never boring.”

  “Are there lazy people here?”

  “Not on this ship, but there are in the civilian areas. They usually don’t live very long, unfortunately, beca
use self-sufficiency isn’t something you can train for part-time, so the lazy weed themselves out of the population eventually.”

  “Can’t that machine fix them?”

  “Yes, and it allows even the lazy to live longer, but every time you use it your tissue gets weaker. If you’re not strong to begin with, what do you think happens?”

  “Your body breaks?”

  “Something like that. And the medics won’t let you use it if you refuse to train. If you’re not going to even try to take care of your body they’ll get to the point where they force you to either change your ways and they help you recover or they just leave you to do whatever you want.”

  “They let you die?”

  “They know that you’ll get so weak eventually with subsequent uses that you’re a goner anyway. Original tissue, even as it gets weaker, retains more memory of strength than new tissue. So if you change your mind you have more of a chance of recovery.”

  “It sounds…”

  “Cruel?”

  “A little.”

  “Star Force doesn’t give up on anyone, ever, but we don’t coddle those who don’t try. We don’t kick them out or penalize them, we just give them their space and let them do their own thing while reminding them that we’re here to help if they ever change their mind. Those that do not eventually die out and the fit ones survive…unless killed.”

  “What about getting sick?”

  “The machine they used on us is a last resort, and if you heal naturally you’re stronger for it afterwards, so there is a lot of other stuff they use, but the regenerator can fix just about anything aside from brain damage.”

  “Why not your brain?”

  “It can regrow it, but if there is knowledge lost with the damage it can’t replace that. Your body may be whole, but your mind will be blank.”

  “Does that happen?”

  “Rarely.”

  “What does a person with a blank mind look like?”

  “Like they were just born, for all they have is genetic memory. Partial losses can be worked around, but full loss usually mean your head got blown off, and if that happens there usually isn’t a person left in it to heal.”

  Esna frowned, her mood still buoyant but a little less so now. “You know someone that happened to?”

  “No, but I’ve heard stories. The point is, if there’s a way to save you and you’re willing to work at it, the medics can bring you back from just about anything.”

  “What about the dead Zen’zat we left behind?”

  “The Archons probably put head shots into them so they couldn’t be recovered. The Era’tran had a regenerator in its armor so it would automatically heal. The Zen’zat armor has one too, but it’s weaker and once you take one down they may live, but they’re not going to get back up and in the fight. The Era’tran could have if left alone long enough.”

  “Ours doesn’t have that?”

  “No, but as you experienced, the Archons can do part of the job with just a touch of their skin against yours. Most of the Zen’zat cannot. It’s an advantage we have. One of the few.”

  “Are they part machines?”

  “The Zen’zat? No.”

  “The Archons.”

  “No. It’s an ability called a psionic. Zen’zat have less than Archons because Archons don’t follow the rules they do. We found a way to cheat the genetic protocols. It’s another reason why they want your race dead.”

  “Wait, you mean I can do that too?”

  “Not unless you become an Archon. But the Viks aren’t going to take chances. They’re going to kill you all on sight…though they’re not going to get you here and we’re gone from that now. Neither of us will probably ever see it again.”

  “I still don’t like having left Yammar and Innit. If they’re still alive…”

  “Could they have kept up with us?”

  Esna snorted at the absurdity of that question. “Not a chance. They make me look fast.”

  “If they lived, their path is headed in a different direction than yours now. If they died, then there was nothing that could have been done.”

  “I know, but I still don’t like leaving like we did. If they’re still alive, they don’t even know Star Force exists. None of those people do.”

  “If they did, they’d be killed for sure.”

  “So they just have to live and hope the Viks don’t decide to kill them?”

  “Yes, but most of them don’t even know the Viks exist.”

  “That’s a sucky way to live, Rammak.”

  “I can guarantee that if Star Force could retake the planet they would, until then we just need to be glad that we got out of there.”

  “I am. I am,” she said, not wanting to sound ungrateful. “I just don’t want anything bad to happen to them. Even all the jerks in town. Those Zen’zat, and especially the Era’tran…”

  “Very powerful,” Rammak finished.

  “Too powerful. How do you fight something like that? How did the Archons win?”

  “There are a lot of things about Archons that even I do not know, but they are of your race and have guided and protected us for longer than I have been alive. They lead, and we do our best to keep up and not let them down. They’re what kept the Viks from destroying us. Without them we wouldn’t have stood a chance. Without them, Star Force wouldn’t exist at all.”

  “That Era’tran was soooo big.”

  “There are larger ones,” Rammak said, seeing her eyes go wide, “but you can learn of our enemies later. Now it is time for you to learn about Star Force and the potential of your race. Focus on that and let the Archons deal with the V’kit’no’sat. When there is something you can do to assist them, they will ask. Until then focus on yourself and I will do the same. We have a lot of catching up to do, and we’re no use to Star Force in our current condition.”

  “I believe that about me, but not you. You kicked ass back there.”

  “I also died.”

  “Point,” Esna conceded. “You’ve got first shower.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want your own quarters?”

  “No. I’m happy on the floor. Its way softer than what we’ve been sleeping on. Actually, it’s softer than my old bed used to be.”

  “Very well. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want, but someday you may want a shower that is built Human size.”

  Esna frowned. “You mean they get smaller?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t want a smaller one. I like it big like this one.”

  Rammak smiled and headed back to the other room, pulling his shirt off as he walked. “Water rat.”

  Esna didn’t argue with the term, for she really did like the water. Probably because she had so little back on Mace…which was even now becoming a fading memory. She sat down at the comm panel and pulled up the information database again, this time searching for the V’kit’no’sat. Regardless of what Rammak said, she wanted to know how much bigger they got and what the worst they had to face was.

  By the time Esna finished she wished she’d listened to Rammak, entering the shower with a chill running down her spine that took more than a half hour for the warm water to wash away.

  26

  February 17, 4812

  Orlero System (Devastation Zone)

  Tauntaun

  As it turned out, the Ma’kri didn’t stop in the next system. They ended up making 4 jumps between stars before they ended up in a system that had only one, but it was a huge white one that put out more energy than the three back in Mace’s sky ever could combined. When they arrived Esna watched as they traveled far out into the system, bypassing the inner planets that were lifeless balls of rock or swirls of gas until they got to a tiny little world covered in snow from top to bottom.

  It looked as white as the star, but there was no one here. No ships, no cities, nothing…then Rammak came to get her and they were hurried to the hangar without even a set of armor on. Esna just had a full length casual uni
form and shoes, all of which were pale orange with white starbursts that had no meaning of rank. The clothes she’d previously worn she hadn’t earned, but these were available to everyone in Star Force and Esna felt fully comfortable in them now…not to mention glad they had extra Human clothing onboard a Calavari ship.

  But she thought they would have given her a set of armor before she left, though Rammak didn’t have any on either, just his casual clothing that was a dark black that showed off his pure orange skin. He led her to another ship like the one that had picked them up off the surface before, known as a ‘dropship,’ but when she got onboard they weren’t alone. Nor’far and Javvin were already there, though they both wore their armor with the helmets retracted.

  “Hi,” she said, sitting down opposite them with Rammak as the doors closed.

  “We will be traveling down with you,” Javvin said, his face glowing with two shades of light, “then we will be heading elsewhere. Once we acquire a new ship we will be off on another mission.”

  “Looking for more people like me?”

  “If they are there to be found,” Nor’far answered. “Yes.”

  “That’s not all we do,” Javvin added. “How are you feeling?”

  “Fully healed.”

  “That’s not what I asked. You haven’t been off that planet for most of your life. How are you feeling?”

  “I just got used to this ship, now I’m jittery again. Where are we going?”

  “A hidden base where you will stay until transport is available rimward. I don’t know how long you will be here, but expect to get bounced around from system to system for a while. The safe zone is far from here.”

  “Where will I get to eventually?” Esna asked. “Or is it a secret?”

  “You will go to an intact colony that isn’t currently involved in the fighting, and all of those are secret. The ones the V’kit’no’sat know of they target in one form or another, but there are many that they dare not touch with reinforcements so close. You will be taken beyond that region entirely to somewhere you can train and learn in peace. Whether you return here someday is up to you, but if you do it will not be soon. The threats here are too great from newbs to contend with.”