Star Force: Essence (Star Force Universe Book 51) Read online

  “How many more of these things are there?” Nathan wondered.

  “I want to know what ‘these things’ are first,” Dina said, internally twisting like Paul was, but in a far weaker fashion as her Essence fought against the foreign Essence to see which pattern would dominate. Since there was no Core for the foreign Essence to form on the winner was inevitable, but the shake out process left her with a wicked shiver running down her spine. “Paul?”

  “Working on it,” he mumbled just before the water around him began to churn. The Archon was turning it into a vortex using his own Essence as he drew more out of himself to compensate for the foreign while also using it to power the vortex. The draining process would help him skip over some of the absorption issues, meaning he was finally getting a handle on it and draining the toxicity faster now.

  “I don’t envy you that,” Dina mentioned, then looked at the Elarioni. “Or you.”

  “We need a construction crew immediately. I cannot see the Orb, and unless you want to stay here and monitor it constantly, we need an artificial sensor that can do the same.”

  “Best we could do is an Essence stream and monitor it when it gets sucked in. That’s gonna be expensive. Do you think this thing can move?”

  “I do not know how it is attached, thus I cannot answer.”

  “Good point,” Dina said, reaching out another hardened Essence rod and poking the orb…which resisted just like it had the first time. “It seems fixed to the rock.”

  “I didn’t think Essence clung to anything that hard,” Veeron asked.

  “This isn’t clinging…it’s something new. Call for a construction crew. I want a full outpost built around this location within the next 6 hours.”

  “I’ll start sweeping the area,” Paul said, no longer churning the water or twitching, “and see if there are any more of these things.”

  “Wait,” Dina said, holding up an armored hand. “I can understand how this Orb survived if it’s containment, but what about the small traces Ariel’s been picking up for years?”

  “I think there’s your answer,” Nathan said, pointing above them to the Essence cloud that had shrunk considerably.

  “There’s what?” Dina asked.

  “Part is acting normally and dissipating, but I can feel strands that are not.”

  Dina stretched her Essence field up and washed across it, feeling the sickness inside her kick up a notch in response, but Nathan was right. There were filaments that were Essence, but they were different in a way she’d never encountered before.”

  “Ariel, are these what you encountered before? I’ve never been here.”

  “One moment,” she said, swimming up towards them and gritting her teeth as she passed through the light amount of Essence around the edges. It pulled towards her like a magnet, soaking in and adding itself to her own aura, but when she got to the nearest ‘strand’ it didn’t move until she extended her aura over it, then on contact it merged with her along with a torrent of the ‘regular’ Essence.

  Ariel turned and swam away fast, with some of the Essence chasing after her, but she broke free and gradually returned in a long circle to the others.

  “I believe it is the same, but far more potent. It is unreactive unless touched by an Essence field. I cannot explain it.”

  “Has anyone picked up a Core?” Paul asked.

  “No,” Dina answered, with the others signaling they had not through a series of head shakes and telepathic pings. “What do you think?”

  “I think we’re still newbs with Essence and just got a master lesson. But whatever did this was big. Very big. I have no idea what something of that size could do with so much Essence.”

  “Kill Hadarak,” Veeron offered.

  “Something big is going on,” Dina added, “and we just stumbled onto a piece of it. Let’s get this site locked down and hushed up. We don’t want people snooping around.”

  “You are referring to outsiders?” Ariel asked.

  “If you tell people we found evidence of something potentially stronger than Hadarak…”

  “She’s right,” Paul agreed. “And while we wait, Dina and I are doing perimeter sweeps. Veeron and Nathan hold here. Do not lose this position. Ariel, where were the other small hits near here?”

  “Both ways through the valley, but not up the ridge.”

  “All in the rock? None floating?”

  “All were fixed in rock.”

  “Alright. You go wide and scout out a security perimeter. Make it generous and give it to the construction team when they arrive.”

  “I will,” she said, turning and swimming off quickly to get started.

  “Boys,” Dina said as she and Paul both left and began spiraling around the site in an expanding corkscrew fashion as they scanned, “take a nap. And don’t touch it…or the Essence cloud.”

  “Don’t touch the creep black hole or the pain field…got it,” Nathan agreed wholeheartedly as he swam down to the rock nearby and latched onto it with his foot so he couldn’t drift away.

  The next day the seafloor was totally transformed with a series of small prefab structures and shield pylons setting up a hemispherical bubble to keep everyone and everything out, not that there were many people all the way down at these depths, but several had come to look at what was happening and Paul assumed more would make their way down eventually just to nose around.

  Those that were part of Star Force could be told to move off and most would stay away, but the less advanced natives couldn’t be communicated with in a similar fashion and Paul didn’t want them being attracted to all the attention and then brush up against the mysterious orb or anything else in the area. He and Dina had found a lot of smaller filaments in the underwater valley, soaking them up just as Ariel had before, but they were much more sensitive to their existence and picked up a lot that she hadn’t found.

  All of them were slightly ‘sticky,’ with that being the term Paul and Dina had settled on. Rather than clinging to other things or dispersing, these Essence filaments stuck to each other and persisted, much like Kip’s log indicated when he had investigated this planet before. Why they were imbedded in the rock he wasn’t sure, but the research team that was being brought in from across the galaxy would hopefully figure it out in the coming years. He had little hope of them finding anything initially, because he and Dina were amongst the tops in the Essence department and no tech, Master or otherwise, had been able to achieve even the most rudimentary Essence skills.

  And it wasn’t for a lack of trying. They badly wanted the Borg ability that Paul possessed, but it was a high level Essence skill amongst the Archons that only 403 had achieved. The Mastertechs all used advanced computer interfaces to do a lot of their work, partially melding their minds with the technology, but only the Borg Archons could actually create a second brain for themselves that they could link to and unlink from at will over the course of an hour initially, though Paul had got his transition time down to 8 minutes in and 17 minutes out.

  The second brains weren’t common knowledge, rather a closely guarded secret within Star Force, but the Archons referred to them as Astromechs and Paul’s was onboard the Excalibur, one of the newest Borg-class warships that was shaped as a perfect cube 327 miles on a side. It was black/green, covered with Yeg’gor equal to that of a Mach’nel, and smooth to the eye unlike the namesake from Star Trek that were covered in pipes and plates and all kinds of gismos.

  He hadn’t traveled to Trident in it. The Excalibur and the other Borg vessels were tucked away in storage for when they would be needed, with Paul traveling on a more reasonable sized, donut-shaped command ship named Rubi. He had a small Astromech onboard it, about the size of a basketball, but his primary one onboard Excalibur was 26 feet high and shaped like a sword with his body node being in the hilt as it pointed upward.

  When merging with it he became extremely vulnerable, meaning he had to basically lock himself in a vault with additional guards placed outside to
protect him in case anyone got onboard the ship. He also had a lot of automated defenses that he could remotely control, but the Borg technique was not something that could be flipped on and off rapidly, for it involved mentally linking with the custom-made computer system of the Astromech and extending your Essence out into it. When that happened, it ceased to be a computer and became part of your body. Technology and biology bound together by Essence and allowing Paul’s Core to inhabit both.

  It took time to extend himself outward, but even more to withdraw. Expanding your capabilities was easier than giving them up, and every time Paul came out of the melding he felt greatly diminished, but he eventually reset himself and the more he melded with a particular Astromech the easier it became, for his Core somehow made adjustments to it that couldn’t entirely be explained by physics, as well as leaving traces of his Essence behind that were reluctant to fade quickly.

  As such, each Borg’s Astromech was a personal one, and Paul used the small one onboard Rubi when he needed the extra brain power for processing data or to just practice his Borg skill. In the beginning he had only been able to meld with a palm-sized device, but had worked his way up to the monstrosity that was the Excalibur within the Excalibur, and it allowed him to control massive fleets all by himself and plan out detailed blueprints for experimental technology in remarkably fast time. The Astromech was the Archon’s fix for the cranial limitations they encountered as their psionic tissues peaked out, and the Lachka ‘tissue’ that the Astromech had made Paul stronger than an Oso’lon, but he was still vulnerable to a skilled assassin.

  That was because when melded with the Astromech he couldn’t leave the interface node without it killing him. His Core, however it managed it, spread out into both the technological and the biological, and pulling them apart before a withdraw could happen…well, it had never been tested, but all the Archons that had achieved Borg level knew it would be bad, perhaps fatal, so they had to do a ‘power down’ sequence that took a lot of time and left them vulnerable during it, for they couldn’t operate the ship while scaling down.

  But in naval warfare, being inside the heart of your command ship was about the safest place you could get, and the Borg vessels had almost no crew at all. Paul could operate his all by himself if needed, but he kept a good detail of guards onboard at the minimum to protect him when he interfaced with the node, though he hadn’t needed to use Excalibur in a long time, for it was built for massive fleet combat that was rare these days.

  Borg-level Archons were optional, as were Saiyans, who could not become Borg because of all the downtime within the node. Their bodies wouldn’t handle it, which was why Paul had only achieved Super Saiyan level 1 after it had been refined so much that he could turn it on and off at will…mostly. The base Saiyan transformation didn’t have to be as extreme as it once was, but still, when inside the Borg node, Paul’s body would vibrate with small muscle contractions to feed the itch that the inactivity created in him, but the mild muscle activity was enough. The higher level Saiyans, however, could not stay still for hours on end and Paul knew he couldn’t go there. Not without giving up his naval endurance for the grandiose battles that went on for days straight.

  So he had only stuck his toe in the Saiyan branch, as far as he could without losing anything else. When needed he could go Super Saiyan and get a speed burst, but the higher level transformations require too much of a base alteration. That’s why Saiyan was optional beyond Goku level, which was when the Archons reached their peak regarding cellular density of their psionic tissue. That’s when they were considered to be ‘mature’ Archons and they went into intense training to open up their Essence vision.

  Not all could, because before you made that first breakthrough you couldn’t sense or control your Essence. It was like it didn’t even exist. But Master Trainer Wilson had found a way to provoke the breakthrough for many Archons, though each one took on a slightly different route that Wilson personally oversaw. Once that breakthrough was made, if it was made, you became a Neo and opened up a whole new world of skills. Paul was currently a Neo 4311, with there being no current limit on levels like the previous ones had. The highest Neo at the moment was Greg, at level 4482, and new level testing had to be devised as he continued to progress onward, like it had always been for the trailblazers.

  To become a Borg you had to be a Neo first, and the melding technique didn’t always manifest itself in a predictable manner, but on the rankings you had to have the rudimentary ability to achieve Neo 3682, which was why so few Archons had achieved it.

  So beyond Goku there was the Essence skills of the Neo level with a Borg branch off. Saiyan ran parallel to it, and there were many Saiyans that had not been able to break through to their Essence skills, at least not yet. Some didn’t care to, focusing on increasing their rank amongst the Saiyans, while still there were other Archons that never went beyond Goku level…but rather abandoned their advancement in order to pick up specializations.

  Specializations were certain fields of work. Archons had to be good in everything, and these were up through Goku level, but after they reached ‘maturity’ some said that was good enough and decided to focus on certain areas only while maintaining their skills in others. The current specializations were Brawler, Jedi, Rambler, Beerus, Inquisitor, Vanguard, Architect, and Commodore, but each Archon could basically detail their own mission parameters after reaching Goku level and not all fit into a predefined niche.

  Paul was an Archon that refused to specialize and kept advancing his skills in all areas, but he didn’t begrudge those that wanted to focus their attention in one or more specialties. There were enough Archons now that having specialists actually enhanced them all, but there always needed to be a foundational group that could do everything at an elite level, and that was the niche that Paul fit into.

  Others would say he was a Commodore, focusing on naval and other duties that put him as the organizer coordinating things from afar, but one look at his test marks said otherwise. He kept up his levels in all disciplines while somehow finding time to add more…and the fact that he only slept once every 5 days, and then for only a few hours after intense workout, gave him pretty much an open ended schedule that he had mastered long ago to give him the flexibility needed for these spontaneous missions, for an Archon trained not to just train, but to act when the need arose, whether it be combat, troubleshooting, or probing yet another mystery of the universe.

  And this one, in the grand scheme of things, was a big one that Paul wouldn’t completely figure out for a very long time.

  4

  March 13, 128440

  Vilchad System (Jumanji Kingdom)

  Twer

  “Hello, trailblazer,” the Hjar’at said as Paul flew down out of the sky and landed on the grassy plain. “What do you require of me?”

  “Information,” Paul said, wearing his armor in jewelry mode and having it covering both his forearms in gleaming white/chrome metal. “Something that must be kept between us.”

  “As you wish,” Virokor said as the old Hjar’at continued to walk along a trail with Paul keeping pace beside him at a hop/walk to match the quadruped. The former V’kit’no’sat commander who had led the last war against Star Force had, after finishing the defeat of their rimward enemies, transferred along with a sizeable contingent of Hjar’at to Star Force while the rest of their race went to war with the Hadarak. Virokor had made that choice for several reasons, one being the lure of combat in the Rim that didn’t involve near suicide missions and offered far more ground combat that the mostly naval battles in the Inner Core.

  Another reason was distaste and distrust of Itaru, even after Mak’to’ran took full control. Others just wanted a change and Virokor’s transfer was their excuse to make the transition, but the primary reason was the debt Virokor felt he owed Star Force for their revealing the existence of the Zak’de’ron and the shame he’d felt at foolishly trying to destroy their rimward brothers. Virokor and the other Hjar’a
t were now part of Star Force’s Knight race, but this 2 million year old Elder was the most ancient individual within Star Force and he came with a wealth of knowledge about the V’kit’no’sat that did not appear in the pyramid database.

  “What do you want to know?” Virokor asked.

  “We have discovered something disturbing and have been searching our records for similar occurrences. We have found none within Star Force, but there are two possibilities in V’kit’no’sat territory. Berto’dor and Scarret.”

  “Both are Hjar’at worlds. What specifically did you find there?”

  “Evidence of ancient cataclysm. As if giant claw marks were cut across the surface of the planet.”

  “Many V’kit’no’sat worlds bore the mark of Hadarak damage. We have tried to erase most of it.”

  “I am not talking of Hadarak damage. I fear it is evidence of something worse.”

  Virokor stopped and turned his large head until it was two meters away from Paul’s seemingly small body.

  “What have you found?”

  “What do you know of Essence?”

  “Only that it is something Archons hold tightly to and will not discuss with me.”

  Paul reached out his hand and levitated a rock up off the ground and held the palm-sized stone steady between them. “How am I doing this?”

  Virokor hesitated, activating his Pefbar to confirm there were no Lachka tendrils involved.

  “Some type of invisible shield matrix?”

  “Invisible is correct, but it’s not a shield. It’s Essence. You can’t track it unless you can feel Essence, and few can. Only one other race in the galaxy has been known to have this ability, and since it can’t be detected it’s a close secret that we intend to keep that way.”

  “What other race?”

  “The Knights of Quenar can use Essence, we think, but they’re not exactly talkative about these things.”