Star Force: Sav (SF51) Page 4

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” Bo said as the little monitor icons on his headband began to tick up into the red. Before long they started flashing and Bo physically yelled a good imitation of a DBZ powerup as Paul felt the change occur within him. Tissue flash grew as his mind appeared to explode, dulling the other trailblazers’ limited connection to him…then after a few seconds it began to recede as the last bits finished their growth and stabilized.

  “Damn that hurt,” Bo said, holding his head and sagging backwards even further onto his heels, with them pressing up into his butt. “Still hurts, actually. Feels like I pulled something.”

  Jason and Paul exchanged glances. “It wasn’t that bad for us.”

  “Do you mind?” Jason asked, walking up to him and putting a hand on his head.

  “Help yourself…I’m still picking up the grenade pieces.”

  Jason linked in and began searching through his mind, particularly the physical structure, and blinked in surprise. “Ah, I don’t know what you ascended to, but it isn’t Pren or anything else we’ve got yet. The tissue is in the wrong place.”

  “You sure?” Bo asked, still wincing.

  “Positive,” Jason said as Paul came up and put a hand on the other side of Bo’s head, with Jason mentally directing him to the new growth.

  “Damn that’s big,” Paul said, seeing a spider-like network of tendrils where there should be none…and they were all mentally afire with activity typical of recent flash growth.

  “That’s what she…ah hell, I can’t even make a joke,” Bo said, leaning forward and curling up into a ball as he sat on his legs with the pain swelling again.

  “I’m not joking, you have a huge new growth,” Paul pointed out. “And Jason’s right, I’ve never seen this one before.”

  “Shoot me now,” Bo moaned.

  “Suck it up, cupcake,” Jason said half serious, for he’d been through worse back when their abilities were first manifesting.

  “Yeah, you’re all heart, Jason.”

  “And focus on slipping into Sesspik,” he added.

  Bo made an exasperated sound. “I can’t even think straight,” he said, trying to steady himself enough to get into a healing trance, which hadn’t even occurred to him to try.

  “Hold onto this,” Paul said, creating a telepathic hard point for Bo to hold onto. When he mentally grasped it the blurriness that came along with the pain reduced somewhat, but his head was still awash with disorientation. Paul felt his mind begin to settle a bit, but whether he got into Sesspik or not he couldn’t say, for his current state was so erratic that even Paul was having a hard time reading him without exposing himself to the same pain.

  “Thanks,” Bo said, not moving so much as a muscle as he tried to bleed off the fragmentation, getting just a hint of coolness as the Sesspik activated.

  “Wait a sec,” Jason said, not believing what he thought he was seeing.

  “What?” Paul asked, sensing something important.

  “Stay with him. I’ll be back,” Jason said, letting go of Bo’s head and hurrying out.

  “What?!” Paul asked.

  “Not sure yet. I’ll let you know,” he said, leaving the other two trailblazers behind and trying to keep a mental picture of Bo’s new tissue intact without it warping…too much. He ran through the corridors until he found the closest room with a computer terminal, politely kicking aside the trainer who was using it and logged him out. Pulling up a special prompt he accessed Atlantis’s online database of V’kit’no’sat translated information and dug into the psionics files.

  He skipped over the tier 2 abilities and brought up the 3 known tier 3s, though by this point they knew there were actually 8…but without any files on the other five.

  The three were Jumat, Beynat, and Sav. He knew it wasn’t Jumat, for he’d studied those files closely after what happened to Morgan, but he thought one of the other two might be the case. That spider-like tissue pattern caught in his memory and he dug up the files on the physical growths of the other two…with Sav coming up with an almost exact match.

  Jason double checked to be sure, comparing the image still in his head with the basic construction of the Sav psionic, and after several minutes of not believing his eyes he logged out of the terminal and headed back to the training area…finding Bo sitting up but still sprawled out on the mat with Paul’s hand on his head trying to help stabilize him.

  “Alright you space monkey,” Jason said, shaking his head as he walked over to and knelt down next to Bo. “Look at me.”

  Bo tilted his head up and unclenched his eyes…with Paul and Jason now seeing that they’d changed in color to an eerie twinkling gray.

  “You just skipped tier 2 and joined Morgan’s exclusive club.”

  Paul’s eyes widened. “He got Jumat?”

  “No, he got Sav…I think. The tissue looks almost identical.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me?” Paul said, looking from one to the other.

  Jason smirked. “Jealous?”

  “Very,” he said, actually a little ticked.

  “Remind the pain-stricken one what Sav does?” Bo said, his eyes watery.

  “It’s the multi-tasking upgrade,” Paul said, still miffed. As far as naval was concerned that was the holy grail of all psionics. “If you’ve really got it then you should be able to utilize different psionics simultaneously.”

  “Processing power upgrade?” Bo asked, vaguely remembering reading that file.

  “As well as being able to control more drones,” Jason added. “Which is why Paul really hates you right now.”

  Bo laughed, but that hurt his head even more. “Wanna trade?”

  “Just think of what this will do for your naval scores,” Jason prodded, with some amusement. “You’ll be able to remote control entire ships down to every available system…if not fleets. You might even come close to matching him.”

  “Shut up,” Paul said, looking down at Bo. “It’ll do a lot more than that. If I remember correctly it’s not psionic specific and essentially acts like a second brain, focus wise at least.”

  “Like what I needed to keep track of all the thuds,” Bo pointed out.

  “We need to take a close look at those files,” Paul insisted. “Not sure how we’re going to confirm this one while his head is fragged.”

  “I’m serious,” Bo reiterated. “You got bioshields and I got a bigger brain. Trade?”

  “Actually I want both,” Paul answered honestly.

  “You’re no fun,” Bo said. “Jason, any advice? This feels a lot like what you described.”

  “You think it misgrew?” he asked, his merriment now gone.

  “I don’t know, but it’s bad.”

  “Something caused you to skip a tier…though that might not be quite accurate,” Paul said, thinking. “Regardless, we’re not supposed to access the third tier until we’re much more advanced, or so the Zen’zat say. This might be some sort of glitch or malfunction.”

  “So don’t even think about undoing it,” Jason said firmly.

  “I’m not hurting that much,” Bo clarified, “but close.”

  “We need to get you under a bigger scanner,” Paul said, glancing at his headband that, as far as the indicator lights were concerned, was registering no lingering instability. “Walk or carry?”

  “Is stun an option?” Bo asked, slowly pulling himself to his feet with Jason grabbing his arm to help stabilize him.

  “Come on,” Paul said, leading the way. “Let’s get this figured out.”

  “Here,” Vortison said to Paul as Bo lay on a bed on the other side of the room under a scanner with Jason by his side monitoring other readouts. “This data you probably never looked at. It’s all statistics relating to the tissue growth process and has never been translated. I just got used to looking at it in V’kit’no’sat because some of their means of recordkeeping don’t have English or Metric equivalents.”

  Paul looked at the data, seeing a bunch
of mathematical symbols mixed in with various terminology. “What am I looking for?”

  “Nothing without the proper context, but basically this outlines how the tissue is supposed to be grown…and in this case the Sav is clearly supposed to occur in various stages. The ‘instability’ that you guys refer to is actually part of the prep work that allows a smoother transition. I’d guess that Bo forced the transfer too quickly, which is why he’s in so much pain now. Same thing for the rest of you. Once the flash growth stops the pain should as well.”

  Paul considered that. “I was under the impression that the instability was a hurdle to overcome in order to activate the ascension. I didn’t know it was variable?”

  “I can’t say for certain because I’ve never experienced it myself, but I would guess that your tissues want time to adapt in stages. Not entirely sure what that would feel like from your end though…”

  “Did his form incorrectly?”

  “I would say no, for the most part. Everything appears to be there that should be, it’s just chewed up from the hyper-condensed process. He’s got more than a pound of new tissue in his head. That alone will cause headaches until everything adjusts.”

  “I went through that with the bioshield ascension,” Paul reminded him.

  “Yes, but that was spread out over your entire body. His tissue is all in one place, more or less if you ignore the tendrils.”

  “Cranial pressure?”

  “Stabilizing. The V’kit’no’sat did good work when they designed these. My guess is he’ll work it all out in time, he just rushed it and got temporarily fried in the process.”

  Paul nodded, taking that as good news despite the fact that meant Bo would be in considerable pain for at least few days, if not more. “Any idea why he went to tier 3?”

  Vortison held up a finger as he switched screens, bringing up the data that had been transmitted to the computer just before the ascension occurred.

  “I don’t think the tiers are meant to be stepping stones. They’re a level of power or difficulty if you want to think of it that way. Sav has no precursor other than the tier ones, and I think it’s the intensity of your training that triggered it. You know far better than me…what’s your training like compared to what the Zen’zat do?”

  Paul hesitated for a moment, for that was a tricky question. “We use a different basic philosophy, but a lot of their training regimens are just as intense, if not more so.”

  “Do they have an equivalent to the drill you were running with Bo?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. We were actually trying to activate Pren when this happened.”

  “Same drills as the others?”

  “Exactly the same.”

  “Then I would hazard a guess that there was something different in his training leading up to this point. I’d dig into those records, if you have them.”

  “I’ll see what I can find,” Paul promised, walking back over to Bo and Jason.

  “He’ll be alright,” Jason said confidently. “Not as bad as I was,” he said, tapping the flatscreen display, “but he did get a good rug burn.”

  Paul thumbed back over his shoulder towards Vortison. “He thinks we’re pressing the ascensions too fast and that’s the problem. Seems Sav is meant to occur in growth stages. You got it on the first try and as a reward got fried.”

  “So we shouldn’t be trying to press?” Bo asked, knowing that flew in the face of everything they’d been working on to this point.

  “Oh we’ll press,” Jason confirmed. “There’s just an added bonus if we fail a few times first.”

  “Some reward,” Bo said, still in agony.

  “Worth it in the long run,” Jason said from his perch atop the pain pedestal…except maybe for Morgan, but hers was a special case. Either way, Archons weren’t going to let a pain barrier stand in their way to accessing the additional psionics…and given how impatient they were, they probably wouldn’t back off much, if any, in probing instabilities when they arose in the future. At least he knew he wouldn’t.

  “At least you did this to yourself,” Paul commented, “and there appears to be no structural problems.”

  “Good…can I get stunned now?”

  “Fastest way to recover is Sesspik,” Vortison commented from a few meters away.

  “And you need to be conscious for that,” Jason reminded him unnecessarily.

  “Wonderful,” Bo said, moving the scanning equipment aside and slowly standing up. “Sounds like it’s back to my quarters for a nap. Escorts, if you please,” he said, holding up a hand for balance.

  Jason took him by the elbow and began to lead him out. “You’re such a wuss.”

  5

  July 13, 2546

  Solar System

  Earth

  Bo woke up to a jabbing finger in his ribcage, blinking his eyes open mid-dream and coming back to reality in a hazy flash. He sat up in bed, shaking his head out as Jason retracted his arm.

  “Ah,” he sighed. “Not again.”

  “Afraid so,” Jason said, referencing the fact that Bo had slept through his alarm. Ever since the Sav ascension his sleep patterns had been deeper than normal…so deep in fact he’d arranged it with his fellow trailblazers to come and wake him up if he didn’t signal them over the comms that he was up within 10 minutes of his alarm going off.

  Which it now did, on repeat. Bo glanced at the control console on the wall and telekinetically flipped it off, wondering again how he could have slept through the screeching wail…the most annoying sound he could get his hands on, trying to find something that would pierce his doped up state. He put his hands on his head, massaging his forehead that was still carrying a lingering bit of discomfort but the outright pain was gone.

  “Meet you in the cafeteria in 20?” Jason asked, heading for the door.

  “I’ll be there in 15,” Bo said, heading for the shower.

  The warm water nearly made him doze off again, but he focused on flexing his muscles every now and then to get some tension in his body as he cleaned up. Fortunately shaving was a thing of the past with his now deactivated hair follicles, so after a moderately long shower he pulled on a fresh training uniform and headed out, meeting Jason, Paul, Emily, and Greg at one of the tables for a not so early breakfast. Apparently the others were already out and about, for no Archon ever slept in late…save for losers like him that couldn’t keep it together.

  He had thought he was getting better, but it seemed his head was craving sleep. Probably some type of recalibration going on but it was starting to look like this was going to be a normal thing. He told himself that so long as his head hurt a little then he wasn’t done recovering and so not to worry, but very many more of these inadvertent comas and he was going to start to wonder.

  He piled up a full plate of carb and sugar-laced foodstuffs and headed over to their table amongst over 300 other people at various stages of breakfast. Most weren’t Archons, but regular Atlantis staff, though they were quite well acquainted to seeing the living legends walking around so not too many people stared.

  Bo grabbed a bottle of green on his way and sat down next to Emily, immediately drinking half of the vitamin-laced liquid before tearing into one of several pastries. She glanced over at him, then reached a hand up and put it on his head.

  “You’re running hot still?” she asked, not meaning temperature but how his brain was processing.

  “Can’t turn it off. All I can manage is a slow idle,” he said before taking another large bite and chewing vigorously.

  “Is it eating ambrosia?”

  “Thankfully no…” he said with his mouth half full. “But it’s still taking over when I sleep.”

  “Have you tried staying awake?”

  “Doesn’t help, but yeah. I only got about 6 hours in last night.”

  “So you’re physically fried too?”

  “Not so much, but if this keeps up I will be. I just hate nodding off before I can’t get all the way asleep. My ne
w processor wants to run its own simulations. The only way I can get it to shut up is to be really tired, then it takes over sometime after my body soaks up the rest it needs.”

  “Want some help?”

  “I don’t even know what could help…other than letting this play out.”

  “We can catch a nap later and I can help nudge you off to sleep. At least give you an hour or so of real rest.”

  Bo hesitated, thinking. “Not sure if that will work or not, but it’s worth a shot.”

  “About 3 then?”

  “That works…I think. Not sure what drills these guys have set up for me today.”

  “Still holding your hand?” Greg commented.

  Bo glared at him but didn’t say anything, preferring to continue eating.

  “Speaking of which,” Paul added, “they’ve got the new obstacle course ready. I ran through it this morning for a light trial and got my ass kicked pretty easy. I’m curious as to how you’ll stand up.”

  “New course?” Greg asked.

  “Designed for me,” Bo answered. “They want to put my multi-tasking abilities into the next dimension so they rigged up something.”

  Emily whistled. “Oh, I want to see this.”

  “Later,” Jason said. “He needs to get adjusted first. Cheerleaders can wait.”

  Emily levitated a bit of the filling out of one of her pastries and sent a glob Jason’s way, but Bo telekinetically intercepted it, freezing the red goo a foot in front of his face and pulling it into tiny pieces that he arranged in a cubical grid, further dividing them down into smaller and smaller segments until it looked like a holographic grid map.

  Greg’s jaw dropped when he saw the intricate control he had over his Lachka. “Now that is impressive. How many pieces is that?”

  “12 by 12 by 12. Can’t do much more without losing focus.”

  “1728?” Greg said after doing the math. “That’s one hell of an upgrade. Most I’ve ever managed was 162, and nowhere near that small.”

  “I can see smaller detail now too,” Bo added. “I think my Pefbar was overloading to the point that we can only see as much as we can process and now…”