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  Kian trudged on, with ‘trudged’ being the best word to describe his workouts. He felt so bad, and yet at the same time he felt sky high. If the Zak’de’ron and Neofan felt something like this, he could understand their overstated superiority complexes, but Kian’s analytical mind knew that the measure of a man wasn’t with his starting equipment, but how he used it. The Archons were chosen for their ability to learn to do things, not their base attributes, and it seemed the ‘superior’ races in the galaxies relied on the reverse. Until recently he had thought it was mostly ego, but now he realized there was some truth to it.

  He wasn’t going to let Clan Valen go that route when he got around to producing hybrids between himself and Kerrie-057, and he knew the others wouldn’t either. The big difference between the Archons…and especially the trailblazers…and the rest of the universe, was that they had an ego and the Archons did not. An ego was someone claiming a status, whereas everything the Archons did defined their status. One was assumption, the other proof, and once you got calibrated to the proof of reality you could never go back to the weakness of assumptions. Claiming superiority because of your team was even worse, and though Kian was feeling quite proud of his new body, he did not want to take it into combat anytime soon. He was so off his mojo he needed time to recalibrate, for while he was quite a bit stronger than he had been previously, he was clumsy and could be taken unawares very easily.

  Then again, even before he wasn’t weapon proof…or rock proof. And the newb struggles he was going through for the second time reinforced that. What he had was a great opportunity and a brand new road before him that echoed of the past, and he knew his future wasn’t in lording his powers over the other lesser races…not that it had been before…but he could sense that more of his work now would be independent of them. They needed him, like all Archons, to not just lead them, but to seek out and deal with the most powerful enemies and neutralize them before they could get to Star Force’s weaker population.

  In Star Force the Kings and Queens didn’t hide behind the pawns. The Kings and Queens went to the front lines, shielding the pawns and escorting them to the other side of the game board so they too could become Queens. It was the exact opposite of every civilization Star Force had encountered. Not one put their leaders into the greatest danger, and in truth Star Force only half did so. The Monarchs remained protected, but for the Archons their place was in the deepest darkness the galaxy held, which was where the lightside was needed the most. And that was where most of Star Force could not go, let alone survive, so Kian foresaw his future being mostly a solitary one, but one with far greater importance than he had had before.

  He chucked the piece of arch off into the sand on the far side of the pond and sprinted through the remaining marshland, tripping and falling twice, before he got to the finish line and smacked the ‘end’ button, then he stood bent over breathing heavily as his nippleless chest looked like it was on the verge of exploding.

  He was about to walk it off, then reminded himself that while his mind was sharp and experienced, his body was new and he needed to go easy on it, so he instead sat down at the finish and gave himself a few minutes to rest, deciding not to move on until his breathing slowed back to near normal.

  When he did he looked down at his bare chest, for he was wearing only a pair of tight shorts and nothing else, and saw that his navel had sealed over again. It hadn’t been that way when he’d started the course, or had he just neglected to notice it? Either way, it wasn’t responding to his commands, but rather auto-triggering, which was annoying.

  Kian tapped the little fleshy covering that made it look like the hole in his abdomen didn’t exist, but it did, and inside it was something growing, as it had done twice before. The first time was a total shock when he was sleeping and he felt movement in what had been little more than a fleshy lump earlier. He’d used his Pefbar to look at it, as he did now, and saw a little creature inside then…but right now was just a forming cradle, similar to an egg, in which biomatter was being accumulated for the growth later.

  A few months ago that biomatter had been consumed to form a little spider, except it wasn’t a real spider, nor a person, but a highly advanced biological drone that had his genetic code augmented with elements of biology Star Force had yet to discover in this galaxy. The little 6-legged creature had a complex mind that he could upload commands and programs into, as well as remote control if it was near, but it could also operate independently like the Uriti minions, and when he’d left the first one in his quarters with a plate of food for it to chew on, he’d returned some 22 hours later after a string of workouts and medical tests Wilson demanded, only to find 4 of the spiders on the tray eating away heavily.

  The one had consumed so much it had grown a second spider on its back, then the two had split and ate, then divided again…which was when Kian realized he had somehow gained the ability to produce stargate-esk replicators, only in a biological rather than machine sense.

  At least that was until he exposed them to various ores and metals, with them ingesting them and augmenting their structure to the point where they were mostly metal, or rock, or whatever else he fed them. He’d been experimenting as much as he could in between training, and it seemed his little naval replicator shipyard was beginning to create a third automatically.

  Kian suspected there was a lot of use for them, though right now he wasn’t sure what…though the original ones were growing larger, now up to the size of a small cat, depending on how much he fed them or instructed them to grow. And the bigger they got, the more programming options he had available, for it was like they were drastically advanced technology that was unspooling its design dependent on its size.

  And their genetics, along with Kian’s, were not fully visible to Star Force technology. Like the Zak’de’ron, they’d taken on additional elements that could not be fully cataloged, and those new elements were densest in the replicators…of which he now had a small army of 2 inch versions in his quarters that he’d instructed to grow no larger, but to still keep replicating. At last count they were up to several thousand, looking like ants in the storage bins he’d modified for their ‘home.’

  Combat wise they were pretty much useless, unlike Paul’s spine growth that was also unique, though his seemed to be connected to the Saiolum in some way, which made it impossible for the medtechs to fully analyze, but from what Paul said, he could create a small bubble field around him that would shut down electronic technology and a few other kinds as well, just freeze up anything that wasn’t biological, and he said that for some reason that suited him well, because he preferred fighting an opponent based more on physical skill than technological gear…and Kian sensed a similar connection to his replicators, eventually tracing it to his love of RTS video games where one commanded an army rather than a character in order to accomplish missions.

  Others had said the same about some of their abilities, and all of them had agreed that any offspring had to be unique to each Clan, which meant Kian’s pairing with Kerrie would not be used by Kerrie for her Clan. She’d link with another one of the guys for hers, and while that offered many more genetic combinations than the 100 needed, they’d chosen to limit it there as they explored what the Furyans would become…but they weren’t even to that point yet, for the trailblazers had to figure out first what they’d become, and that would take a lot of training and self-exploration.

  And they were all eager for it after so many millennia of near stagnation as they waited for the fleet to build up to a level they could finally use to smash the Hadarak. Paul had taken it the worst, but none of them were immune, and they realized that in retrospect. They were meant to be fighters and explorers, not managers, trainers, and Admirals…and when The Admiral himself had said that, the others had immediately paid attention, for Paul to forgo most of his naval activities was shocking.

  Yet in retrospect they all agreed that’s the way he used to be, focused more on sword fighting than Naval. H
e’d just become so good at Naval he felt he was obligated to push hard in that path. And to be fair, in the beginning he was doing the most to design and build the Naval division. Now that that construction was over, there was little exploring to be done on that front.

  Then again, there was still some, for Paul’s Force Ghost had started to give him technology descriptions, including one for weapon systems none of them had ever heard of. Most were probably less powerful than what Star Force had, but give the Mastertechs something new to work with and they’d be able to improve it. Kian would bet a planet on that. Plus, the Sha’kier had a long battle record against the Hadarak, and already some specific weapons to fight them were being described…though he wasn’t in a position to download mental blueprints, for Paul’s ability to connect to him was still too feeble, so Azoro was having to explain in words alone, but even those little tidbits were groundbreaking, and Kian was beginning to see why Paul was so convinced Azoro was the key to Star Force’s future.

  And Kian admitted it was nice to finally get some help from a lightside-ish ally, rare as they were in the universe.

  The trailblazer blew out one long, final breath, then was able to get his normal respiration back. He stood up and walked out the nearby doors, dripping heavily with sweat that was unnatural for him. He didn’t think it was his Furyan body, but rather his out of shapeness doing it, but who knew. His appetite for certain foods had already shifted considerably, and who knew what else was going to be different.

  Time would tell, and all 100 of them were eyes full ahead and charging into the unknown. This was what they were meant for, and the physical limitations of the past, especially pre-Essence, were now completely destroyed, for if this race-upgrade could occur once, it could also occur again in the future when…and if…they mastered these bodies.

  They no longer had to be content with what they’d accomplished, they could continue to push forward…forever, and that was the biggest relief for all of them. The important part of their lives wasn’t over, just the early levels, with the bigger and more important stuff being ahead, as it always should be.

  That mindset change had brought them back to what they were in the beginning, only better for all the experience they had. So while they might be newbs in these bodies, the Cores inside them certainly were not, and that meant they weren’t going to stay newbs for very long, as long as Kian didn’t over press and get himself injured, as a few of the others had, though their healing rate was so high now they almost didn’t need a Regenerator for the smaller stuff, because the tissue would be fully repaired within a day or two as long as they ate enough foodstuffs.

  Kian was slightly more patient than the others, though he was chomping at the bit as well, and while his body needed rest right now after the obstacle course run, his mind wasn’t so fatigued, so he took his dripping self over to one of the mech simulators and climbed into a control sphere, with the force fields raising his body up and letting him essentially stand in a body-covering cushion as his mind connected to the program. He was inside a cat-like mech known as a Puma, with the quadruped nature of it causing many mechwarriors issues, but Kian found it more normal now than he had before, and the others had noted similar comfort with other forms…especially Cora-005, who had gotten a brain-augment that allowed her to almost effortlessly adjust her mind to any mechanical body she linked with, similar to how Roger-009’s upgrade had him controlling Naval fleets with such an ease that he had leapt past Paul in the Naval rankings virtually overnight.

  Kian really needed to work on his body, but he was still an Archon and wasn’t going to neglect any of the 5 disciplines…though the upper ranking system had just got blown out of the water, no aquatic pun intended, though the Furyans’ unaugmented swimming ability still sucked compared to other races, but was faster now than Humans thanks to their longer arms and legs.

  Kian would hit the pool in a few hours after his mech training was over, then get some food and a quick nap before heading to the gym for sparring practice with the Golden Knights, some of which had been recalled to help with the trailblazers’ training since they were now of equal body size, though Vermaire hadn’t returned yet. He was still out poaching Hadarak minions wherever he could find a good fight along the Grand Border, and he had a lot to choose from.

  The rest of Star Force would deal with that for the time being, and when the fleet got built up enough to finish this fight and claim this galaxy for the lightside, Kian was confident the trailblazers will have outgrown their newbness and be back stronger and sharper than before.

  In fact, he expected them to get to that point well before the fleet did…

  6

  July 13, 154931

  Solar System (Home One Kingdom)

  Earth

  Paul had been doing workouts like the rest, all of which were solo at this point. Wilson had demanded that before they began sparring or otherwise training with each other, but Paul also had a different set of training to work in, so he’d extended the normal 24 hour day to 27, which put him out of sync with the others, but at this point that didn’t matter. He didn’t need to eat with them, and they talked enough through the message boards sharing notes on their new bodies and brainstorming ways to deal with the challenges Wilson was throwing at them…which were getting harder each month now that the newbness had worn off, and Paul didn’t expect anything but headaches to come.

  But Wilson knew Paul had a bigger priority, and he’d likewise adjusted his training to accommodate the longer day, which meant a bit less intensity so he could extend it on the same amount of sleep…which he was getting a solid 6 hours of each day. That had been unheard of before, but since he could turn down his metabolism on a whim he didn’t need to stay in constant hyper mode…but come a combat situation that would be very helpful to go back into, especially if that combat was to last days or weeks, and so far it didn’t seem like they were losing their efficiency with all the down time. The higher metabolism was just now an option they had, and as long as they kept it dusted off now and again there wasn’t any loss involved.

  That didn’t mean they couldn’t train it to be better, and the others already were working on that, but Paul wasn’t. He has biding his time and energy, as it was necessary to relax in order to connect to the Saiolum. His grasp on it was so tentative he had to focus to know it was even there, but when he did it was as if he was transported into another dimension…except that it overlayed on this one, and was part of reality rather than something separate like the Essence realm.

  Today was no different, and after an 8 mile run at a casual 38 miles per hour, Paul sat down in a meditation room that had sound dampening walls and a hatch that could only be opened from the inside, though there was a single light on the door to use as a doorbell that would illuminate when someone outside wanted their attention. If the light wasn’t interacted with in a few seconds it would elevate to an audible chime that would get progressively louder, which was intended not to shock a person if they were in silent mode and had let their hearing adjust to the point where a mere rustle of clothing was as loud as a waterfall.

  With the hatch sealed, he sat down crosslegged on the padded floor and relaxed further, finding a pose for his arms that wasn’t distracting, and opened himself up to the Saiolum, with him immediately feeling the energy field around and inside him, with various currents flowing between high and low pressures like an atmosphere. Everywhere there was a biological lifeform, whether it be person or plant, that was a high pressure that was actively creating the energy, and it clung to the person like water clinging to a rock before gravity overcame the cloying effect and pulled it off.

  But for the Saiolum, gravity wasn’t involved. Rather it was the depth of the field around the biological source. Only so much could build up before it got too far away and ‘evaporated’ off, spreading out like mist and free floating through the environment. But put multiple lifeforms together and their ‘gravity’ held what they produced together into a much larger
communal sphere of energy, and even the tiny bacteria in the soil produced their own tiny outflows.

  Earth was covered with biology, so the entire planet was a giant ball of cloying energy, though the center of the planet was lesser so, because it was uninhabited. Still, it was close enough to the surface to benefit from the proximity and create a massive ocean in which the currents swirled more in some places than others, and Paul was getting better at sensing them away from him the more time he connected with and just let his awareness of the Saiolum drift and explore.

  He could see miles around him now, unless he hit on a specific current or strand, for two lifeforms near one another would create a higher density strand between them, making an ecology like Earth’s appear as a spider web if your sensitivity was high enough, and Paul’s was just barely getting to that point within close proximity. Yet when he mentally latched onto one of those visible strands a few meters away…enhanced by the fact that he had several potted trees in his meditation room to aid this…he could follow the strands further out, and where they connected to others he could choose a single pathway and follow it further out, seemingly without end.

  Range didn’t matter as long as there were connections, and he’d previously been able to reach all the way down to Antarctica until one of his link threads moved too far away from another and it snapped, cutting off his vision and forcing him to start over again entirely.

  Today Paul was just lazily looking around and exploring the planet without having to leave the confines of Atlantis, and when he did so he didn’t see people or places hardly at all. His vision wasn’t good enough for that. He just got little glowing lights with bits of images or emotions or memories when his mind landed on them, and it was almost as if just traveling through the Saiolum like this was leveling him up, for each time his connection and skill seemed to grow despite the fact that his body didn’t produce any more of the energy field than it had before. That part was constant, but it was his connection to it that was growing, though how he didn’t know.