Star Force: Sav (SF51) Read online

  It took more than a week after that before he even attempted to do any psionic training, but when he did the Pren was immediately obvious. His Pefbar and Lachka skills were unbelievably upgraded, with him able to lift 3 times the weight and his Pefbar range reaching out to 2.5 times what it had previously been…and that was without any training, which he imagined would take on a slightly new dynamic with the extra tissue being added. He suspected it wasn’t just more of the same, but wouldn’t get to test that theory until all the pain and clenching in his head was gone.

  His ascension made, he left the trailblazers’ training group and went back to his normal routine overseeing the Archon trainees and his subordinate trainers who by now could run things without him. None the less he scrutinized each trainee’s progression and made tweaks where he thought he could help, all the while delving into new forms of training on his own, attempting to probe the Pren ability for all it was worth so he could give the Archons some help as they developed their powers.

  They were quick, innovative, and all around insightful…but there were still some things that they never seemed to learn, or at least learn as well as Wilson had concerning training. Not facts or methods, but an innate understanding of the way the body and mind worked. Their approach could be likened to hitting every button in order to find out what they did, while Wilson would look them over and try a few he had deduced the functions of.

  That meant he could trailblaze training problems quicker than they could. He had no doubt they’d figure things out eventually, but with so many new and impressive abilities ahead of them, not to mention the gradual increase in their physical training, he knew they could use a hand…and the faster he got them up to snuff the greater the chance of them being able to pull off the impossible and defeat the V’kit’no’sat if/when they came back to Earth.

  Jason was sitting in his quarters when suddenly Paul was outside at his door. Jason telekinetically hit the open switch and his fellow Archon walked in without missing a step.

  “What is it?” Jason asked, sensing his mood.

  “Message from Morgan. The Skarrons are amassing a huge fleet at Achkor.”

  “Damn it,” he whisper swore, getting to his feet. “Looks like the hammer is finally going to drop.”

  “One of us needs to stay here,” Paul said apologetically.

  Jason nodded reluctantly. “You’re right. Go.”

  Paul put his right hand up and the two best friends fist bumped, with Paul leaving just like that and Jason knowing he was heading straight to a dropship.

  That left Jason with the primary responsibility for sharing Pren with the others coming into or passing through Sol, not to mention with finding the triggers for the other psionics. He really wanted to go fight, knowing that the more trailblazers there were on the front the better chance they had of holding out…but both he and Paul had discussed this earlier, and they agreed that they couldn’t just play defensively or they’d get so distracted that they wouldn’t be making the advancements necessary for the endgame.

  That meant his task was here, with as many trailblazers and second gen that would stay…which wouldn’t be many. From now on they’d come in for short visits, he imagined, to pick up the share and be off. That was going to hurt their group training efforts, but there was one that he couldn’t afford to lose.

  Following Paul out a few steps behind him and heading a different way, Jason was off on his own mission, and one that could have just as much importance as Paul’s in the long run.

  “You want me to stay, don’t you?” Bo asked when Jason found him on the track and fell in beside him while he completed mile 6 of what was going to be 15. He held to the pacing hologram, which made it a little difficult to speak, but what was a tiny challenge like that to an Archon? And he certainly wasn’t going to slow down just for a conversation.

  “You have to. I want to go fight just as much as you, but we have to get these triggers dug out. Especially the battlemeld ones and I can’t work on those with some second gen. Hell, we need the psionics discovered first anyway, and there’s no way I can do that with the second gen. You have to stay and we have to find both so we can share them with the others. We can’t let them fighting the enemy hold back their psionic advancement. We have to do this for them and you’re the key to locating the triggers after we find the psionics.”

  “I know, I know,” Bo said, frustrated. No more field assignments had been bad enough, but with a major Skarron push coming staying on Earth just felt wrong…but he couldn’t deny the logic in Jason’s plea.

  “How many others are staying?”

  “I don’t know. Probably not many.”

  “We need a few others, even if they’re second gen strikers. And no rotations. If you and I are going to be stuck here we need a team that doesn’t change up. We can add individuals in and out on top of the core group, but we’ve got to have a badass squad that will be used to training together.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Then we have to take it up a notch. I mean Goku in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber training. I’m not going to feel comfortable doing any less with people fighting and potentially dying out on the front.”

  “You read my mind, but you know that’s not going to be easy to do. We’re going to have to cut off all outside connections, including war news.”

  “If that’s what has to be done so be it,” Bo said, a fiery determination entering his stride that had him inching ahead of the hologram. “And I want exclusive training facilities. I don’t even want to see someone else working out around us. Food in our quarters…no, shared quarters. We stay together for everything.”

  “I like where your head’s at…and I’m wonder why we haven’t done this before.”

  “We did back in basic. Since then we’ve had a military to lead.”

  “Point. Any suggestions on who to draft?”

  “We need Aaron for Ikrid. No one is better than him. And Sara…for sex appeal.”

  Jason blew out a laugh between breaths, not expecting Bo to throw in a joke at the moment…but then again he should have known better. Sarcasm was almost as dear to Archons as sugar.

  Bo coasted to a stop near the start line and deactivated his hologram, cutting his workout short and drawing a raised eyebrow from Jason. “Let’s get our team set now, before they have a chance to take off.”

  “Paul’s already on his way to orbit,” Jason told him. “I’ll find Aaron, you grab whoever else you want…or can.”

  “Go,” Bo prompted, restarting his run as he headed for the exit. The pair split and literally ran off through Atlantis, tracking down as many trailblazers and strikers as they could in person or remotely, including those in the pyramid and elsewhere in the system.

  Jason was able to convince Aaron to stay, thankfully, but Sara and Greg were already gone and Riona, naturally, had went with Paul. A few others that hadn’t heard yet Jason and Bo got to, but they all declined, knowing how important it was to get to the front ahead of the Skarrons so they weren’t late to the party. Ultimately they were able to find a handful of willing and eager volunteers…though none of them liked sitting back out of combat, but they all understood the importance of what had to be done and committed themselves to it fully.

  In the end there were eight of them. Jason, Bo, Aaron, Emily, Kiran, David-441, Rikku-452, and Vermaire…who sought them out after he heard what was going on. With Wilson’s blessing they kicked the trainees out of a small piece of Atlantis and cordoned it off giving only the 8 of them access save for a handful of couriers who would bring in foodstuffs, training gear, and whatever else they needed while they were busy and drop off the crates for them to use later.

  The restricted zone included a small number of quarters, with the 8 of them choosing those neighboring each other, literally keeping them within a few meters of each other down the same hallway. They deactivated the terminals in the zone and kept a handful of datapads around so they could send out requisitions and correspond with Wi
lson, who occasionally stopped by to offer insights or to monitor their progress. Other than that they put themselves into a complete blackout and focused on their workouts and team camaraderie…for they knew well and Wilson emphasized…that in order to really press their abilities, psionic and otherwise, they had to calibrate each person into the team unit which until now had never existed.

  They had to form bonds, learn tendencies, and spot weaknesses in order to strengthen the group as a whole, and doing that took time, meaning they would be training both their individual selves as well as each other into a workout and sparring machine…which would need challenges. Lots and lots of challenges.

  Wilson volunteered to see to that, ordering a slew of new construction in the surrounding areas of Atlantis to facilitate their needs so the 8 of them could focus on beating the challenges rather than designing them. That was the role Wilson had always taken, and did so now gladly, knowing that an individual had to fight the challenge from a fresh perspective rather than knowing beforehand how to beat it. It was a blind spot that he wasn’t going to let them have…which could very well result in them coming up with new ways to best the challenges that he hadn’t intended.

  That kind of unexpected growth is what they needed, so the Archons and Vermaire went from being the masters back to being the trainees…though very advanced trainees at that.

  Wilson knew it would be a challenge to stay ahead of them, but like the Archons he reveled in challenges and this was one he was going to go at full bore, suspending most of his duties with the infantile trainees and focusing on the advanced ones in order to give them the tools they needed to go to limits that he wasn’t going to be personally testing for the next few centuries.

  He couldn’t help them as a peer, but he could help them as support and as a nemesis, so he set out to design the hardest, damn near impossible training regimens and challenges to the point that he wasn’t even sure that they could handle it. But even if they failed they’d gain from the experience.

  And if they did somehow pull a rabbit out of the hat, again, and make it…then they were going to see a whole new level of Archon, and that thought alone was ample incentive for Wilson to sink his teeth into his new and ultimately important assignment.

  What was old was new again, and about to be better than ever.

  9

  August 3, 2546

  Solar System

  Earth

  Bo beat Emily back across the sparring ring, moving his arms slightly faster than she could and being well aware of the precise movements he was making while she was flailing with most of her blows, trying to keep up in the punching/blocking match they had going. Every now and then one of them would throw a kick in, but both Archons were trying to find a way through the other’s arms so they could land a torso hit, with Bo’s Sav giving him a considerable advantage.

  But then suddenly Bo went back again, him being the slower as Emily threw in another Yetu burst and her arms threatened to overwhelm him with movements. He could see her blurry arms and mentally track them just fine, but moving his own to intercept was the problem with him backstepping to give himself some more time, forcing her to move forward as her limited Yetu burst came to an end.

  Then it was back to him being the faster and her retreating. The two danced around the ring like that for some 30 minutes before Bo finally wore her down and landed a stiffened palm to her chest. That knocked her back and for a split second left her vulnerable. Bo jumped on the opportunity and didn’t let up, punching and kicking her back to the edge of the ring and knocking her down on the boundary line.

  “Took you long enough,” Emily said from the floor, looking up at him.

  “Those speed bursts are annoying,” he said, telekinetically helping to pull her up to her feet with a firm grip on her waist.

  “Your consistency is annoying,” she countered, dropping into a slight combat stance as the two reset to the center of the ring. “But I’m going to find a way in.”

  “You will try,” Bo said, taking a step back with his left foot and waving the fingers on his right hand, motioning her to come at him.

  She did exactly that, but instead of going back to the punching game she activated another Yetu burst, feeling the small reservoir of strength in her flow out as she darted in to a punch towards his face to get him to block high, then she dropped low and kicked at his knees, catching his right and knocking that leg back.

  Already under him she pelted his abdomen with three quick punches before he got an arm in the way and began twisting out of line…then he suddenly spun back the other way and knocked her arm aside, grabbing her wrist at the same time and pinning her long enough to get a kick of his own into her hip.

  Emily went back as he released her and Bo came after her, cycling through another round of arm to arm combat before he slipped through and knocked her out of the ring…this time with her staying on her feet.

  They both moved back to center again, this time without any comments, and began again. Both trailblazers were a flurry of arms and occasional kicks, with Emily pressing Bo through her Yetu and him pressing her through his consistent ‘semi-Yetu’ that his Sav gave him. Bo won out on most of their head to heads, but Emily got him enough times to give him a feeling of where he was weak, as well as giving him a wealth of practice just moving that fast.

  Everyone else was always slower than him and would fatigue with time, mainly from them being punch drunk, but her ability to come back at him and put him on the defensive also allowed her a moment to collect herself, thus extending their sparring to the length that both of them gained considerable experience from.

  Sweat soaked to the point of dripping onto the mats and making them slippery with tiny puddles, Emily finally raised a hand and called it quits when Bo motioned for her to come at him again.

  “Enough for today,” she said, standing up straight and pulling her hair tie off. Several strands had escaped it and she put them back into place, reforming her telltale short ponytail.

  “Slacker,” Bo joked, but his arms were starting to get a little sore anyway from all the blocking. “Where you headed?”

  “Pool. My swimming scores are pulling down my levels. Aquatics is my bane right now.”

  “I’m headed to the simulator for the next hour. Aerial is pulling me down and I’m sitting on level 99 by a hair. I really want padawan.”

  “Same here, but I’m still at 98,” she said, referring to the change they’d made in the Archon ranks. What had been mage was now padawan, with it being required before any sharing of psionics would take place…except for the trailblazers and some of the higher ranking second gens. The idea was that when you hit padawan you’d be paired with a mage or higher, which would be the next level up, but since there weren’t any ‘masters’ to train the padawans they were making exceptions for themselves.

  Such was the roll of a trailblazer. You never had anyone to learn from, you were always the ones doing the figuring out and building…with those that came after you reaping the benefits. And in order to make those advancements the trailblazers needed the sharing now, even with only 12 of them having earned the padawan rank and its dark brown armor, with the dark blue being shifted up with the mage rank. That had been Greg’s little wrinkle, which Paul heavily applauded due to it being the color of Jedi robes, all of which had happened before they’d left and the eight of them had sealed themselves away to focus on this exploratory training.

  The up side was that they expected to catch up to the existing padawans, and earning that title was the first step towards doing so. Intense training trumped field work training any day, which meant that Emily and Bo were going to be catching up to Paul and Morgan eventually…or at least that was the hope. Right now they were just getting started and still strikers, but the furious pace that they were developing was going to start eating into their lead, and for Bo he was nearing the transitional threshold already…with Aerial being his weakness and the Archon levels being measured strictly by yo
ur weakest area, making them a gage of multi-tasking ability rather than strengths.

  Bo’s hand to hand scores were already padawan level 23, and some of the other trailblazers had even higher marks…such as Paul’s naval scores. All the Archons wanted to advance their levels, which meant training in all areas, but some of the second gens skewed their efforts towards one area, creating a strength that was on par with some of the trailblazers while neglecting others. Bo respected that approach, but wouldn’t emulate it, for he hated weaknesses.

  He also wanted the new armor, which while he wouldn’t have much use for in training he knew he needed to get used to the telepathic interface. The striker armor was remaining the same, save for a few tweaks, while the brand new armor that was still in late prototype stage was coming out to them. That was another wrinkle in the ranking change. Originally they were going to hold off on it and just offer the two options to padawans…which was still the plan, but for the trailblazers they were going to give themselves the new prototype telepathic armor.

  Being the tip of the spear did have a few privileges, plus they needed to work it out and troubleshoot the tech in the field before the second gen got to it. The few that had already been working with the techs to develop it, namely Vitor and Olivia, had said it was more or less ready to go and had already used it on a few light missions with no problems.

  The trailblazers had decided to give themselves access to it when they hit padawan, adding a little carrot to their own progress for those who weren’t there yet. Bo knew the armor was heavily Ikrid linked, with a setting that had the Archon creating a small, continuous link to the technology that transmitted biotelemetry to the powered function and gave one much more agility and grace despite the thick armor. Olivia had said she could literally dance in it, despite it being the most dense corovon lacing to date and causing the Archon’s weight to more than double when wearing it.