Star Force: Battlemeld (SF45) Read online

  That blew Kara’s mind for a moment, then she started staring at a spot on the wall above the vid screen as a memory made its way to the forefront. In it she was a Zak’de’ron looking at a display with Zen’zat data and having a discussion with one of the other dragons about the abilities they were placing in their genetic code. They dismissed the foolish sentiments of the other V’kit’no’sat races involved in the programming and decided to include the full lexicon of abilities into the tiny beings, citing that if any of the Zen’zat proved to be capable enough of handling the myriad of skills then they would need the more extreme abilities in order to serve their purpose.

  A light argument was had about whether or not to create a separate genetic template for the Zak’de’ron Zen’zat or to use the same for all of them, with the later proposition winning out. They would design the Zen’zat as they so chose, but not inform the rest of the V’kit’no’sat about the extra abilities they were weaving into their genetic code…abilities that the Oso’lon and Hjar’at were adamant that the Zen’zat not possess.

  Their concerns were deemed paranoid, for even with all the abilities they were giving the Zen’zat the potential to develop, they would still be grossly inferior to the Zak’de’ron and the other major V’kit’no’sat races. True, the Zen’zat would have the full slew of V’kit’no’sat psionic abilities available to them, but their tiny size would make them inferior…so long as their counterparts worked to develop their own abilities. The dragons didn’t care one bit about the whinings of the lazy, especially when the Zen’zat would have to earn all their abilities past the initial 7 they were granting to them.

  All the other races received their psionics as default, and while they did have to be developed, none of them had to be unlocked in the way the Zen’zat gained theirs. That way the Zen’zat would never be superior to those who continued to work and advance, but they could exceed…and far exceed, those who did not. That is what most of the other races feared, despite the fact that the full range of psionics would make the Zen’zat far more useful servants.

  The Zak’de’ron that Kara was seeing the memory through wasn’t going to hobble their own Zen’zat based on what the others wanted, so they decided to go ahead with weaving the full array of psionics into the Zen’zat genome they were creating, while leaving out the controversial ones from their official report. The Zen’zat would maintain the potential to develop the other abilities, and if/when they did they’d deal with the backlash from the others. In the meantime the Zak’de’ron Zen’zat would train to develop them all, leaving the rest to chart their own path.

  The memory suddenly shifted, as if her Vorch’nas was sorting through the knowledge it contained to tell her exactly what she need to know and nothing more, and came to an overview of Zen’zat abilities from the view of the V’kit’no’sat and not the dragons. It showed what she had already seen in the pyramid database…the 7 basic abilities, 15 second level, and 3 third level. But from this memory she knew there were more that had yet to be unlocked, with a brief glance at the true ability tree from the V’kit’no’sat point of view, with 7 basic abilities, 27 second level, and 8 third level.

  She didn’t know what the others were, for the memory didn’t let her focus on that, but next came the Zak’de’ron ability tree, with many more being added that the V’kit’no’sat had never learned of…meaning their Zen’zat had never developed them. This memory wouldn’t let her count, but it did show her that there was a 4th level of even more powerful abilities…but there was also an 8th basic ability showing, which spawned its own very large ability tree of which, again, she couldn’t focus on enough to count, let alone identify the abilities.

  The basic 8th did come through clearly though, with the word Pa’no’semak emblazoned over it. The name translated as ‘battlemeld,’ and as soon as Kara focused on it alone a wealth of knowledge opened up to her, all in a split second, making her feel like she’d known it all along but had somehow forgotten.

  The memory epiphany ended, leaving her blinking and wondering how long she’d been staring at the wall. Bringing up a comm prompt, she activated the holocamera, intending to send Paul a recording instead of a text message.

  “Paul, just had a…” she said, pausing to tap her fingers on her forehead twice, “update. What the twins stumbled upon is very significant. It’s something in the Zen’zat genetic code that the V’kit’no’sat never unlocked, only the Zak’de’ron Zen’zat did. The other V’kit’no’sat races don’t even know it’s in their code. It’s called Pa’no’semak, translated as Battlemeld…”

  Paul watched Kara’s message for the third time, having brought Jason in for this showing, as she detailed how three of the other V’kit’no’sat races had the ability to link together to create larger and more intense Fornax fields, increase Ikrid transmission range, and generate stronger bioshields. Those abilities had been given to the Vi’vek, I’rar’et, and Ni’ma’so, respectively, for special purposes unique to those races while any and all tandem skills were forbidden to the other races.

  The Zak’de’ron, however, already could combine virtually all of their skills to greater power…though they had never elaborated to the full extent of those abilities. It was yet another sticking point between the dragons and the other V’kit’no’sat races, and they had been adamant that the soon to be created Zen’zat not possess any tandem abilities.

  The Zak’de’ron had originally wanted the battlemeld to be part of the basic skills granted to the Zen’zat, but instead they chose to hide it, with the trigger being any individual developing a similar tandem skill using their existing Ikrid ability. As far as Kara knew none of the V’kit’no’sat Zen’zat had ever opened it up, and if that were still true to this day, then it was an opportunity to one up them if they could figure out how to do what the twins accidentally did.

  She then went on to explain the other abilities that she’d glimpsed, indicating that the V’kit’no’sat Zen’zat had not discovered all of their hidden talents. That was a welcome bombshell, despite the fact of being unaware of what was happening to them over the last 100 millennia. It meant that as good as they were, they were still ‘inferior’ in the eyes of the designers of their genetic upgrades.

  Kara went on to apologize for not having further information, insisting that there must have been some safety protocols in place to keep her from having full access to the memories and that any further breakthroughs should be relayed to her immediately, for they might unlock further information. Then she ended with the option of recalling her to Earth if Paul thought her knowledge and skills would be needed in their probing of this new ability.

  Jason sighed after the message ended. “Are you going to bring her back?”

  “I’d like to bring all of us in to work on this, but I think you and I can handle it.”

  “I concur. After Travis and Karen we’re the closest to developing a sufficient psionic link…though from the techs’ analysis I think we’re still far off.”

  “Way off,” Paul agreed. “But we’ve got them to actively pattern off of, and I think I’m starting to get a feel for what they did. From what Kara said, the battlemeld is just a primer used to link other abilities as they manifest, with the enhanced coordination being mostly a side effect.”

  “You’re underrating it.”

  Paul shook his head. “I know it’s valuable, but by the way it’s designed it lets two people work together…like creating a conduit between them. Useful enough on its own, but it’s built as a foundation to build on. They could practice with the meld, but since we don’t have it…”

  “…or anything like it…” Jason added, catching on.

  “…neither we nor they knew what to train for.”

  “Until Ken and Barbie stumbled onto it.”

  “A very fortuitous stumble,” Paul agreed, “for the linking they do is far more than we ever tried. Everything we’ve done is transmit, not read.”

  “They can’t read either.”


  “No,” Paul said, pointing a finger at Jason as he began to pace around his quarters. “They can’t. But they’ve gotten around it with years of experience. They transmit constantly and openly, so there’s no need to read because they’re not holding anything back…well, some things obviously, but not the essentials.”

  Jason gave him a funny look. “You’re saying our badassness is blocking us from attaining the necessary linkage?”

  “We think and fight as two individuals coordinating together. They act as a pair that occasionally operates as individuals. Whatever these battlemeld powers are, they must require an enormous amount of connection, either in finesse or processing power. All we’ve ever needed is some situational awareness and thought sharing.”

  “You’ve obviously got an idea of how to train for this, so spit it out already.”

  “We spend a few more days piggybacking on their battlemeld, then we one-up their twin link by training with constant physical contact.”

  Jason raised an eyebrow. “That will get us past the Ikrid blocks that even their twin link suffers from. After which we get very comfortable inside each other’s head.”

  “More than that…we have to stop thinking like individuals.”

  “Yeah, that could be a problem. Archons are supposed to act as individuals.”

  “And they will once we learn how to teach them to meld, but since the twins are clueless as to what they’re doing, we have to go overboard.”

  “Alter our training, temporarily, and go deep into paired philosophy?”

  Paul nodded. “We put our individuality on the shelf for a while, then reclaim it after we’ve learned what we need to.”

  Jason followed that line of thought quickly through several logic functions. “We’ll need to minimize breakage. The twins spend most of their hours together. They even have quarters next to each other, though I’m not sure if their bunks are within transmission range or not now, but they were growing up. They shared a single room.”

  “Then we do too from now on.”

  “Handcuffed,” Jason reluctantly suggested. “That way we don’t have to worry about holding hands constantly.”

  “Ugh,” Paul said, realizing he was right…and how this was going to hamper their training, but it had to be done if they were going to stand a chance of unlocking the battlemeld. “Restroom breaks?”

  “And shower, but nothing else and we keep those brief.”

  “Agreed. Let’s get the techs to design something more useful than normal restraints.”

  “Already got a few ideas,” Jason said as the two headed for the door, intent on starting this deviation in their training immediately, knowing how big of a training hit it was going to be and not wanting to let their minds dwell on that with second thoughts before they committed to it and linked up.

  Six hours later they were bound together at the wrist with palms facing out so that the back of Paul’s right hand was smashed against Jason’s left inside a short gauntlet that not only held their hands and wrists together, but the lower portion of their forearms. This kept their skin in constant contact without rubbing from rotation, a deliberate design with long term planning in mind.

  The gauntlet could be switched off from arm to arm, meaning they wouldn’t be stuck with a strong arm and a weak arm after weeks of training, but the pair quickly learned that there wasn’t much they could do with their linked arms, meaning all sparring blows had to be accomplished by their other three limbs.

  Paul and Jason got through several hours of training on Balboa Lane and an awkward lap around the command deck before Travis and Karen finally met up with them…laughing their heads off.

  “What the hell is that?” Travis asked between additional snickers.

  “I didn’t realize holding hands required any…accoutrements,” Karen added mirthfully.

  “We’re replicating your twin link,” Paul said calmly, dismissing Jason’s idea to Vader them both, “since you two don’t have a clue what you’re doing.”

  “You’re trying to gain our ability?” Travis asked, settling down.

  “It’s called a Battlemeld,” Jason explained, equally calm, “and is an ability that the Zen’zat never attained.”

  “Except the Zak’de’ron Zen’zat,” Paul added.

  “And it is the 8th basic psionic,” Jason finished.

  “What? I thought there were only 7?” Karen asked.

  “There were only 7 known to the V’kit’no’sat. The Zak’de’ron did the genetic programming and included things the others didn’t know about, and over their objections. Apparently the Zen’zat didn’t stumble onto them on their own…until now,” Paul said, looking at both of them in turn.

  “Kara filled us in,” Jason told them.

  “What’s it supposed to do?” Travis asked. “The battlemeld, I mean.”

  “It creates a link between two individuals that is the precursor to a number of tandem abilities. Kara couldn’t give us specifics, but there are many.”

  “And the V’kit’no’sat don’t know about them?”

  “Apparently not, as of 106,000 years ago. That’s why they’re not in the database.”

  “Though they do know of some that aren’t in there,” Jason corrected. “The pyramid database is the system hub, but it seems some things are kept more private. The restricted files didn’t contain the other abilities yet to be unlocked, so it’s possible that most of the V’kit’no’sat didn’t know they existed either. And according to Kara there’s a lot the Zak’de’ron knew that the rest didn’t.”

  “Did the dragon Zen’zat have these other abilities?” Karen asked.

  “The battlemeld, yes,” Paul answered. “The others…somewhat. Kara couldn’t be specific.”

  “Is she still in Alpha Region?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well nuts. She could be a lot of help here.”

  “She already has helped. And now that we know…”

  “Kind of know,” Jason added.

  “…what we’re doing, we’ll figure this out and learn to teach the others. You two just focus on getting better at what you do. Oh, and Kara did say the battlemeld isn’t supposed to be constant. You’re supposed to turn it on and off at will.”

  Karen and Travis looked at each other and shrugged. “We’re fine.”

  “Thought you’d say that,” Jason said as he pointed to the perimeter of the command deck. “Once you finish your laps meet us in Cerebro 6.”

  “Will do,” Karen said, taking one last glance at the trailblazers’ bracelet and snickering as the pair ran off ahead of them.

  Little pricks, Jason thought.

  Slow pricks, Paul amended as they started running again and, despite their arms being bound together, quickly caught up to and passed the twins…who then sped up to match them.

  That set up an impromptu race that lasted a quarter lap before Paul and Jason veered off to the interior and kicked it up another notch, getting better at syncing their strides together. They weaved back and forth and around the giant lounging pedestals, sometimes doing two or three completed circuits before breaking off again and chasing some of the mongooses on their painted trails.

  Eventually it ended up with a long, straight finish run that had the twins barely hanging on when they began it, but another speed increased dropped them a few seconds later…with the trailblazers running ahead and waiting for them at the foot of the down ramp, seemingly untired while the twins were dragging as they finally caught up.

  “Stupid younglings,” Jason commented with a shake of his head before he and Paul rotated around and began hopping down the dino-sized steps in a bit of a victory dance.

  Karen and Travis watched them descend, not feeling like walking with them down to the lower level in the pyramid where additional training facilities had been built.

  “Pricks,” Karen commented, with Travis nodding in agreement as they walked over to the side where the smaller steps were and slowly made their way down the ramp.
/>   7

  February, 2477

  Solar System

  Earth

  Paul sat with Jason in one of the cafeterias built inside the pyramid, eating along with a few Archons and a lot of techs, their arms bound together but having no trouble getting food in their mouth, for in addition to their free arm they also has telekinesis to work with, making every meal a bit of a show for the techs that weren’t used to having them around. Just for a bit of fun, Jason had gotten used to pulling liquid out of his drinking glass or bottle telekinetically, and in between bites of pasta he created a snake of red that stretched out of the bottle’s thin neck and arced up into his mouth.

  Doing so was far more difficult than people thought, given that he had to grip the entire exterior of the liquid glob with Lachka and not just a few key points that would suffice on a solid. After a few more bites he did it again, but this time tried for a loop rather than a straight shot. As he got through half a curve in his invisible straw, the liquid started to drip off at a couple of points as Jason’s telekinetic skills were pushed to their limits in terms of small scale control.

  Being Ikrid linked at the hands, Paul knew he was having trouble even before the first drop fell and reached out with his own Lachka to grab the drops and return them to the stream, then combined his telekinetic power with Jason’s to reinforce the loop, succeeding in delivering the post workout replenishment liquid to the striker’s mouth.

  Jason, already being inside Paul’s head to a degree, didn’t thank him, for they’d gotten in the habit of just picking up after one another over the past months without recognition, whether it be in training drills or seemingly pointless tricks like this, though they both knew that every bit of psionic practice they got, regardless of the circumstances, would have an additional training effect, meaning they actually had a reason to play with their food.