Point Zero Read online

  4

  April 29, 154931

  Black Widow System (Home One Kingdom)

  Low Stellar Orbit

  Menchi was the Kiritak overseer of a Star Forge-class mining station, though not one of the larger ones. His was a Mark 219, meaning it was used primarily as a refueling outpost. It would draw material up out of the red/orange star that occupied half of the sky outside and convert it into reactor fuel for warships and starships, but not for civilian consumption.

  There were a few tankers that would show up here occasionally, but mostly it was individual ships passing through to refill their reserves, most of which would last 3 years, even under heavy travel. Many ships would not need refill for more than a decade, so a stop by a refueling station was a rarity for starship captains.

  Despite being in friendly territory, a Sentinel defense station had been paired with the Star Forge, given the fact that it was designed to ward off the star’s relentless burning and not enemy attack. The Sentinel was higher up in orbit, outside the star’s atmosphere, while the Star Forge was down in it, making the horizon glow and leaving even a hazy light when looking away from the star. Down here there weren’t many enemies that could reach them for attack, and the most direct assault would be from above…which was where the Sentinel was sitting.

  Star Force starships could brave the star’s burn for short periods of time, so they had no trouble coming down to the Star Forge and coming in close enough to dock behind the shield umbrella that protected the station and provided it with most of its power like a giant invisible solar panel. Menchi always went in person to see each ship arriving for fuel, and today was no exception, despite it being a very small scout craft.

  They needed fuel too, and more often than the big ships that sat in orbit waiting for a mission, and typically captains would come onboard during the refueling, given the fact that once in space you had very little personal contact with others beyond your own crew. Virtual communications could make it almost feel the same using solid holograms, but reality could never be fully copied, and Menchi liked getting to know more and more members of the grand Star Force fleet, as well as seeing some familiar faces come back again years later.

  That wasn’t his job, but it was something he’d come to like over the 14,004 years he’d been assigned to this station. He’d even turned down promotion and reassignment multiple times, liking his role here immensely. He was in charge of a crew that ranged between 5,000 and 6,000 Kiritak at all times, with enough extra hull space to accommodate special projects that would see his crew numbers spike tenfold on various occasions, but mostly it was the regular fuel processing and fabrication, for the higher end fuels the more advanced Star Force reactors used were not simply harvested from the galaxy. They were carefully fabricated, some of which were highly unstable due to the size of the atoms involved.

  But those larger atoms held so much more photonic ocean than the others they were worth it when you had the necessary protections in place. Deenva, in particular, had an atomic mass of over 2,000 and was held together by a very intricate sub-atomic balance, but it gave the warships the short span power surges needed for the bigger weapons without having to charge a capacitor first. That was why Star Force ships often had 6 or more different types of reactors onboard, each requiring different fuels, and Menchi had to manufacture all of them here, and thankfully Angry Widow…the star they were sucking material out of…had all the necessary components in ample enough amounts that Menchi didn’t have to move the Star Forge around to find them. The internal convection currents brought the material past the thousands of shield ‘straws’ he had sticking down into the fluid outer layers of the planet to draw material up, as well as to discard unwanted material back down.

  And that material wasn’t just to make fuel. Menchi was overseer on a Star Forge, after all, and they had the capability to redesign themselves as they wished using the default factories inside to produce new factory equipment, hull plates, shield generators, etc. He could even build another Star Forge if he wanted, though he’d have to send some deeper straws down to get at the heavier elements and pockets of planetoids that had fallen into the star and were still in the process of slowly melting away in the furious slurry.

  Then again, if he wanted to take the slow route he could use the alchemy processes the Star Forge possessed and turn the basic hydrogen into whatever other element he wanted, though the power costs for that were high and the volumes of product low. And that didn’t accommodate the more exotic particles, some of which had to be harvested, but the basic atomic table could be fully fabricated here as needed, giving every Star Forge an independence that Menchi liked. With the threat of the Hadarak breaking through the Grand Border, the possibility that disaster could befall Star Force was always in the back of his mind, and his ability to produce material for export without having to rely on imports was always a spot of mental relief for him.

  And in fact some non-fuel factories were at work inside the Star Forge, typically for repair parts the incoming ships would need, and Menchi worked to keep a large warehouse of the most basic ones in stock, for ship captains didn’t like returning to shipyards for minor repairs, nor did they like waiting in line for slips to open when so many were occupied with new builds to fill out the anti-Hadarak war fleets that were rumored to be getting close to active status.

  So many captains greatly appreciated being able to pick up some spare parts when they came by for fuel…which was another reason why many stopped by to fill up when they were no more than 20% depleted.

  Menchi walked most of the way to the docking area, knowing the approach had to be a slow one for the ship along with a number of shielding tricks required to allow the ship in without backfeeding the hot atmosphere against the station’s hull. As stupid as it sounded, Menchi’s Star Forge didn’t have unlimited shielding power, so it had to use the ample amount it had wisely, though most of the power involved was used to fuel the shields themselves as well as charge the fuel being constructed internally.

  He wanted a tertiary shield that covered the hull plates, but powering it and fitting the generators in would cause a lot of rebuilding at the sacrificing of other systems, and for that reason it wasn’t worth it. The collection ‘sails’ that were soaking in the energy from the star could only extend so far from the station, and building a bigger one meant more area to defend, which in turn meant more shield power consumed. Star Force hadn’t been able to build one ‘do it all’ Star Forge design to date, so they had to pick and choose what roles and equipment they put in them…which was also why the Sentinel was assigned here, for Menchi’s station had no weapons onboard at all, save for some inside the hangar bays to deal with unwanted guests.

  But today’s guest was not unwanted, and she entered via a docking hatch rather than a dropship, given the small size of the vessel. The Human stood taller than Menchi, but not much taller, for she appeared to be slightly smaller than most.

  “Greetings, Captain,” he offered, bowing his head crest slightly. “Welcome to Refueling Station Gamma 837. I believe this is the first time you have been here.”

  “It is, and while I do need fuel, that is not the purpose of this visit. I am a courier with new orders for you,” she said, holding up a palm-sized holographic generator, which she turned on to display a molecular schematic. “A new fuel compound recently vetted. It appears to be more stable than most, but we need larger amounts to conduct field tests with, and this Star Forge has been selected to be the primary producer until such time as we can fully sign off on its usefulness for the fleet.”

  “Fascinating,” Menchi said, looking at the rough diagram of the molecule. “Different atoms linked together?”

  “I’m not privy to the details. I’m just the delivery girl.”

  “This design…it’s unlike anything we’ve manufactured before.”

  “First time for everything. They want you to produce and store everything until specific ships arrive for testing. It doesn’t go
out to the general fleet. I’m told it looks compatible with our current reactors, but won’t be if the energy production numbers hold true. It’s rumored to burn them out, but there hasn’t been a full-scale test yet, nor industrial replication. You’re advised to step up production slowly while looking for complications.”

  “Did we develop this or discover it?” Menchi asked, taking the holo disc from the Human and holding it in the palm of his hand while he continued to stare at the slowly rotating molecule.

  “I’m told it was a discovery that we’re assimilating.”

  “This isn’t natural, is it?”

  “I don’t believe so, but I wasn’t told the source. Will you be able to handle this?”

  “We can handle anything,” Menchi said confidently. “Does your ship need any repairs or refitting while it’s here?”

  “I’ve got some burn marks on the hull from a debris impact during an interstellar jump that could use patching.”

  Menchi looked up from his new treasure. “Did it penetrate the hull?”

  “No, just my shields a few years ago. If it had been any bigger I’d be dead.”

  “Uncharted route?”

  “No, it was entering the Mu-enti System. Space junk most likely. They still have bits of it floating all over in the outer zone. Freak occurrence I’m glad to have lived through.”

  “Why didn’t your sensors pick it up?”

  “They picked up another larger chunk and diverted around it…into the smaller one. Bad alignment gave the ship no options other than moving into the way of bigger fragments further down. As I said, a very freak occurrence, but the shields took almost all the hit and the armor held up to the rest, but the scrape marks leave some vulnerability if hit there again.”

  “We’ll take care of it if you can spare a few days wait.”

  “I’m currently slated for repair work 3 years from now, so a few days will not be a problem. This is my only courier assignment, and I wasn’t given a return window.”

  “It’s hard to remember back to when our logistics weren’t always pressed to the wall. I thought when we got the last of the evacuees out of the Core we’d catch up, but the Director has us pushing hard constantly.”

  “The Hadarak aren’t going to go away because we ask them to,” the Human reminded him. “And they can produce replacements as fast, if not faster than us. We have to catch up to their industrial base before we can take them on in their own turf.”

  Menchi cringed. “I’ve seen some of their systems in records. Nasty stuff. I don’t envy the military having to clean all that out.”

  “Nor do I. I’m quite happy running sensor scans and messages.”

  “I also prefer my quiet work here. If you would like a tour, I’d be happy to accommodate you.”

  “Won’t that take you away from your work?”

  “I work from my armor as much as my office,” he said, thumping on the thin white cloth-like plates he wore from the neck down. “I prefer the hands on approach rather than relying on other’s eyes.”

  “Well then, I’ll accept a tour. A long walk would be welcome rather than pacing back and forth on my ship.”

  Menchi huffed humorously. “That I can accommodate you as well. Follow me,” he said, leading her out of the docking area and through the station as he simultaneously began a closer analysis of the new fuel he was being asked to fabricate…and it was going to be hard. The internal alignment of each of these atoms was unique, and getting them to bond to each other was going to require extremely cold temperatures…but the notes indicated that under certain select circumstances the molecules and atoms within them would virtually disintegrate, and rather than losing a portion of their photon ocean they would lose in excess of 97% of it.

  That was unheard of. Regular fusion shoved two atoms together into one, and that one would have a new photonic ocean smaller than the combination of the other two, but it would still be larger than a single one, so you’d end up with a 20%-40% loss that would then end up leaving as various forms of radiation, each of which was a particular size ‘droplet’ of photons clinging to each other. Smaller droplets were known as radio waves, while the medium ones were visible light, and the higher ones gamma rays and beyond. All could be absorbed by other compounds, but the bigger the droplets got the more disruption they caused when colliding with other matter…and in the case of Gamma Rays or bigger, they came in like a wrecking ball and would often destroy the target molecule or atom rather than deflecting off it or absorbing into it.

  But photonic use was a matter for the reactor assembly to deal with. Fuel design was all about producing as much photon ocean release as possible per volume, and this new design…as yet unnamed…was indicated to have the potential to far outstrip current Star Force fuels in terms of raw power production, power spike, and absorption potential…while having a significantly higher decay rate. That meant it had to be used regularly, and wouldn’t store well for long term scenarios, but in a ship’s reactor that had to keep internal systems running constantly, they’d need more than the decay rate release of photonic energy every second of every day, so it seemed perfect for continuous use reactors.

  The downside was you couldn’t build up a fuel depot for it the way you could for Vendium or Prose Trifate. Those could be stored for millennia with virtually no breakdown, and Menchi knew Star Force had huge repositories filled with them scattered across the empire, as well as a mandate that all new ships had to have at least one reactor onboard capable of using both in case fuel production facilities like Menchi’s Star Forge were shut down, cut off from the fleet, or destroyed.

  But this new fuel…it was going to be a game changer. Now Menchi just had to figure out how hard it was going to be to produce outside the limited amount synthesized in a lab with very precise alchemy controls. You couldn’t use those for industrial scale applications, so Menchi had a lot of work to do figuring out a way to get the same synthesis pathways using other means…because he knew already the current process supplied was not going to be good enough. He’d use it at first, but he was going to have to tweak it, and the particle techs that developed stuff like this had a habit of only worrying about whether or not it could be done, rather than figuring out ways to do it efficiently.

  That’s where fabricators came in. They’d take a discovery and figure out how to make it better, faster, and at less energy cost. And from the look of this, Menchi had the biggest challenge of his life ahead of him, for this design was clearly ahead of Star Force fuel technology. A huge leap ahead.

  And Menchi was damn curious to know where they had found it.

  5

  July 9, 154931

  Solar System (Home One Kingdom)

  Earth

  Kian-093 jumped straight up, traveling more than 15 meters before grabbing a suspended set of rings without having to use his Essence or Jumat. He grabbed onto one with his normally tan right hand, then began to monkey swing from one to another across the new super-sized obstacle course.

  His skin hadn’t gained any color changing properties like a lot of the others had, but it was now a little thicker and tear resistant. Almost slippery when dry, though right now he was pouring out sweat as his inefficient new body went through the rigors of newb training…something he hadn’t had to deal with more than once in his life, and that was a very, very long time ago.

  Yet his base attributes in the ‘Furyan’ body were largely superior to his bests in his Saiyan body, though not in all areas. Still, being out of shape as he was, he was near to his peak if not exceeding it in all aspects, with agility being his lowest area, but that was due to his size increase that now put him at 6’11’’.

  Paul had been right about eating heavy, for when the size modification began he felt starved immediately. It didn’t happen gradual, and when it finally peaked out he felt a great sense of relief…both from the lack of ravenous appetite, but also from the disappearance of his tightly packed psionic tissue. It was still there, though modifie
d now in some cases, but it had some breathing room now that his body was larger. His previous form had gotten crowded, so it was no surprise that all 100 trailblazers had seen the same size increase, with the smallest of them now standing 6’ 7’’…which was Oni-081…and the largest at a whopping 8’ 3’’, which was Brad-050.

  But all of them didn’t look big. They looked painfully thin and scrawny, for their musculature had to stretch out to their new forms, with the minimal new tissue being added to accommodate the changes. It would take time to buff up again in all the ways they chose to, but the size increase was messing with Kian the most, for his arms and especially his legs didn’t move in the way he was used to. He was having to relearn everything that was familiar, including running cadence, and Wilson had devised this new training course specifically for their immediate needs…and their size, for a good sprint for Kian now had him easily over 100 miles per hour without even having to go Saiyan.

  That speed, along with his larger mass, meant a lot of momentum had to change position when he tried to redirect…and he’d run into quite a few obstacles trying to go too fast too soon, but each day his body was rapidly adjusting and adapting, despite the fact that his upgrades were over. He could feel it clearly, though had a hard time articulating it. The transformation was done, as was the peculiar Essence effect, and now he was a youngling again in a new race that was patterned after his old form.

  And each of the trailblazers was different. No two had exactly the same attributes, though they shared many. Kian had no mental upgrades, at least not as far as the extra organs that Roger, Paul, and some of the other more heavy naval types has gotten, though his larger brain was now working quite a bit faster. No, Kian had gained no ‘special’ abilities that the others didn’t have except for one, and that one was bizarrely unique.

  After he finished swinging across the rings, he dropped down into an archway that he had to press upwards on, with the material giving slightly but resisting him. He had to push until it finally broke, then he picked up the top piece and put it on his shoulders, carrying it across a shallow pond that made him slosh through the water and focus on his balance even more than he had to on dry land, with the top heavy weight upping the difficulty even further.