Star Force: Revision (SF78) Page 8

  “Take it slow. This is going to be a big shock.”

  “Understandably,” Vortison said, adjusting the controls to begin waking him up.

  Brad made mental contact with him to ease the process, with his voice being the first thing Memma heard in his mind as he returned to reality. The Archon coached him through the process, while also warning him before his senses fully woke up.

  His eyelids flicked open, with the same intense blue orbs being there like spotlights, but the rest of him was wholly unrecognizable. Brad thought he looked like a skinny, black version of The Thing from Fantastic Four. “How you doing?”

  “Heavy,” Memma said, with approximately the same voice as before, save his lips moved differently and his pronunciation was a bit off. He looked down at his hands, seeing only the thin glow of the lines rather than the previous large patches of skin. Also the green was gone, with only those bits of blue remaining.

  “We can knock you out again if needed,” Brad said, feeling Memma start to panic.

  “No,” he said, focusing his mind. “I can do this. Take your scans.”

  “We are,” Vortison answered. “All you have to do is stay within the chamber. You can raise your hands if you wish.”

  Memma lifted one up and twisted it around in front of him. “So heavy.”

  “Your body mass has increased by 12%.”

  “Why is this a good thing?”

  “A type of armor, I’d imagine,” Brad said, walking over to stand beside him just outside the railing. “Try a few stretches. See how much you can move, joint wise.”

  Memma twisted at the waist, then flexed his arms wide, over his head, and behind his back. From Brad’s perspective he didn’t move much at all.

  “Not good,” Memma said. “I am so stiff.”

  “What about your sense of touch?” Brad said, sticking his hand inside and in front of the altered Protovic. “Grab my wrist.”

  Memma did as instructed, feeling the Human’s arm with his fingers. Brad could sense the diminished feel, but he was still functional.

  “Everything is dull.”

  Brad pulled his arm back. “Can he come out for a minute or two?”

  “Take as long as you need,” Vortison said.

  Brad pulled up the arm bar. “Walk out, slowly.”

  Memma did as instructed, taking short steps until he cleared the machine and then began to hop in place experimenting with his new body. “Hit me…lightly,” he requested

  “Here goes,” Brad said, stepping forward and palm-punching his chest. The shirt he wore still covered him, hiding the rock hard skin beneath until the Archon made contact with a loud ‘thump.’

  “Barely felt that,” Memma said as he rocked in place. “Go harder.”

  Brad smirked, gave him a warning, then put a good punch into him. Memma fell backwards, but Brad telekinetically caught him before he hit the floor and pulled him back up to his feet.

  “I feel like crap,” Memma admitted, “but that barely hurt.”

  “Hit me,” Brad said, pointing at his chest as he steadied himself. Memma stepped forward and swung his fist forward slowly, knocking Brad back a step.

  “I have no speed,” Memma said.

  “I noticed that, but those spurs on your hands hurt.”

  Memma glanced down at his fingers. “I didn’t even feel it.”

  “If you don’t mind, we’ll take a tissue sample now,” Vortison interrupted. “Then the sooner we get you reversed the easier it will be on your body and mind.”

  “I can handle it if you want to put me through some fitness tests.”

  “No, I think we know enough,” Brad said, not wanting to put him through much more of this. “I’m guessing you wouldn’t recommend this transformation?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Then let’s get the data and get you back to your luminous self,” Brad said, pointing back into the machine. “If we want armored bodies, we build it. We don’t grow it.”

  “I 100% agree with you, Archon,” Memma said as he stepped back inside and put his hands on the sphere. “This is not an upgrade.”

  “Not for us, but someone else thinks so.”

  “Ancestor or not, they’re dumb.”

  Brad laughed. “Perhaps, but they went to a lot of trouble to program this into your genome. I’ll wager they had some use for it. We, however, do not.”

  “Can you show me what I look like?”

  “Of course,” Vortison said, pulling up an auxiliary hologram and configuring it to replicate the live recordings being made. He projected it in front of Memma so he could see.

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah,” Brad agreed. “Quite the change.”

  “Externally yes. Internally no,” Vortison added. “Almost all of the changes have occurred on the surface. Inside you’re still basically Protovic.”

  “Good to know,” Memma said, “but I don’t feel like it.”

  “We’ll get you back soon. Just hang on a little bit.”

  “As ordered,” Memma said, shutting his eyes and just focusing on standing in place.

  Brad could feel his distress, but he was weathering it well and taking one for the team. Maybe rushing the transformation had a negative side effect and a gradual process would not be traumatic, but there was no way Star Force was going to use this. Memma would be the one and only Blue that they were going to unlock, and once they had the activation key from him and all the data Vortison wanted they were going to permanently lock down the others so this couldn’t happen naturally.

  The Protovic were going to stay Protovic, not turn into rock monsters.

  7 months later…

  Brad walked back into the medical station chamber, finding Vortison and a staff of Humans and Protovic crammed into the small space along with biocrates stacked nearly to the ceiling.

  “Is this a bad time?”

  “It may look chaotic but I can assure you it is not. Just step carefully, I need to show you something,” Vortison said from the control station.

  “Excuse me,” Brad said, stepping between two of the Protovic while easing across the surface of one of the closed crates before he stepped up next to Vortison. “Trouble?”

  “No, no…something else,” he said as the medical station was empty, but there was a full genetic profile before him. “I had them bring in some Red eggs along with the rest, just for analysis sake, and it turns out the mental augmentation has not occurred yet. Not even in a minimal way. I’m guessing that it will kick in down the road at some stage, but this is not an anomaly.”

  “The Red eggs shouldn’t be unlocked yet.”

  “Most aren’t, but a handful are.”

  “How?”

  “How do you think?”

  “The only ones that are unlocked are in the experimental training units, and they’re forbidden from mating for the duration.”

  “Forbidden isn’t the same as incapable. You should have mandated temporary sterilization.”

  “Who?”

  “We’ve traced a single individual that gave us 3 augmented eggs. It was an anomaly that we even found the first one, because I was only going to scan a handful of them. When we located the other two I confirmed my results. The genetics are unlocked, but they’re not formed yet in any of the three. They still have a ways to go before hatching, but we’ve got a window of opportunity here to remove the capability before it kicks in that I previously wasn’t aware of.”

  “Noted, but how did this happen? Who did the eggs come from?”

  “A civilian not involved in your exclusive group. I’m guessing the father is.”

  “Can you determine who it was?”

  “Given time, but you should be able to find out quicker with your psionics.”

  “True, and I’ll get to that, but we have to find out if there are other eggs out there like these…damn it, there may be younglings already in the maturia if this has been going on for a while.”

  “There’s another point worth noti
ng.”

  “How the father can pass on his genetics?”

  Vortison nodded. “Typically anything that is binary defaultly reverts to the mother’s code, and aside from some genetic glitches everything Protovic is binary.”

  “Except the augmentation.”

  “We’ve had Oranges impregnate Reds before with no activation, so we didn’t think this was possible. But apparently Red on Red does transfer the unlocked code.”

  “Because if a male unlocked first it would be waste,” Brad said, thinking out loud.

  “Your guys probably thought there was no risk in transmission and that the restriction was pointless.”

  “It’s also about mental focus,” Brad said, thoroughly ticked. At least one of them had violated protocol to get laid, which they had been told could not happen under any circumstances while they were in the program. He’d told them that if they wanted to quit there would be arrangements made to shut off their reproductive capability so they couldn’t transmit the unlocked genetics. Maybe some of them didn’t like that, but it didn’t matter. They’d agreed to the restrictions and then violated it, resulting in what may have been younglings gaining access to the upgrade without earning it.

  “I need you to scan all Red unhatched eggs, as well as run tissue samples from the younglings that have been born since the Red program started and give me numbers to work with. If they are in the maturia we need to pull them out and put them into a special version.”

  Vortison waved a hand at all the crates. “What do you think all this is?”

  “I’ll put an end to the wellspring, but we’re going to have new eggs to test for a while too.”

  “Already prepping for it.”

  “Have you ordered tissue samples taken yet? Or do you want everyone marched down here one at a time?”

  “Samples, and I was going to let your people handle the collection. Just send them to my staff and they’ll get them checked. I’ve got more pressing matters to deal with, but this does mean that we can include all Red offspring going forward, so we no longer have a hole in our plan.”

  “How’s the first batch coming?”

  “I’ve gotten through 237 so far, and all are accepting the changes without incident. The egg shells remain unchanged, but internally they’re our new Protovic as soon as they come out of the machine.”

  “How long does it take…and are there any developmental side effects on the horizon?”

  “Unknown at this point, but I doubt it. They’re all accepting the Orange code and their latent mystery genetics are being wiped clean without incident. I think I can do the same with an adult now, but this is much easier.”

  “How many variants have you gotten through?”

  “Orange, Purple, Yellow, and just now Red. I’ve halted the process to begin scanning the rest of the Reds, but I don’t anticipate any trouble with the other four. Here, let’s run one now,” he said, turning to one of the Protovic maturia staffers. “Get me a Blue egg please.”

  The Red Protovic walked over to a crate stack near the wall and opened the case revealing the sterile life support systems inside that were more or less unnecessary, for the eggs didn’t need to be given any fuel other than air access, but Star Force didn’t take chances with them and always stored them in a controlled environment…including during transport.

  He pulled out a baseball-sized egg that was soft to the touch but not slimy. It was slightly oblong and blue in color, though not bioluminescent. The handler brought it over to the machine and set it inside a specialized crate that was hooked up to an interface port so biomatter could be added if needed.

  When he saw that Brad frowned but when he opened his mouth to ask, Vortison was already a step ahead of him.

  “A safety precaution. If there is something wrong with the egg or the infant we can repair it or restock the internal fuel supply. The alterations don’t require enough physical changes to warrant a supplement themselves,” he said as he pulled up the live genetics readout from the Blue egg that was several months away from hatching.

  “Basically point and click at this stage. The leg work has already been done in the lab,” he said as he began the mostly automated process with the hologram highlighting the code segments that were being altered. Some small bits were changing, from what Brad could see, with a chunk being added that he assumed was the Orange’s enhanced strength/speed code that all the new Protovic would be getting as default, then he saw what amounted to pages and pages of code being deleted and knew that was the mystery transformation that he had ordered removed from them. Vortison assured him he could put it back in if needed, but it was safer to have the younglings squared away from birth rather than leave this time bomb in place.

  If they were ever exposed to all the activation keys it would be of no consequence to them now, whereas the risk of having whole populations start transforming like a plague was not something that was appealing. If the mystery change was beneficial they could add it to everyone a person at a time here or in future eggs just like this, but for now Brad wanted a clean slate with the new Protovic only having the Orange augmentation and the potential for nothing else. The Blue armor modification had just been stripped away from this egg, so this female would never have to worry about going through that unwanted transformation if/when her internal clock ever got to the natural unlocking point, for it was now gone entirely.

  “No anomalies detected,” Vortison said after the massive erasure was finished. “Growth sequence stable and unaffected. Easy enough.”

  “And the bioluminescence?”

  “Already switched. I don’t want to puncture the egg, but if you put a microprobe through the skin you’d see the new Star Force glow.”

  Brad put a hand on Vortison’s shoulder. “Good work.”

  “That’s what I aim for.”

  “I’ll leave you to it then. Right now I’ve got some skulls to crack,” Brad said, meandering his way through the crate stacks as he headed towards the doorway.

  9

  December 19, 3086

  Aphat System (Bsidd Region)

  Nym

  “You’re back,” Octaviak said from her seated position within the meditative chamber as a Human approached the open doorway. Her eyes were still closed, but she could sense her Master’s familiar presence whenever he was nearby, even within a crowd.

  “And you’re stronger,” Pel-9833 said as he walked into view outside his armor but wearing the telltale Archon white uniform with an identifying stripe down the sides. “I can feel it.”

  “I do try,” she said, standing up smoothly and turning around to face him…with her eyes widening a bit. “Your stripe is different.”

  “I’m a titan now. Level 3 at the moment.”

  “I thought you were out fighting lizards, not training.”

  “We always train. Taking planets doesn’t happen overnight, and there are opportunities to advance your skills if you know how to take advantage of them.”

  “I thought most people stayed even at best and usually lost a bit of strength during lengthy campaigns?”

  “We’ve learned to manage most of that, but it does happen. Less so for Archons than Commandos and Knights.”

  “My congratulations, titan. To what do I owe the honor of your presence?” she said with a sarcastic little bow.

  “Checking on my students,” he said, looking her over. “Why are you still green?”

  “I’ve chosen to focus solely on my telepathy.”

  Pel raised an eyebrow. “Curious on its own, but that doesn’t preclude you from taking on the Star Force blue.”

  “I know, and in my heart I’m pure Star Force, you know that, but the ranking system is built for the younglings coming out of the maturias. I don’t fit in that advancement system because I already have telepathy, so if I took on the coloration of a level 1 I’d be both ahead and behind them. I don’t have the Orange upgrade, so it wouldn’t be a true representation of where I stand. I prefer my own colorat
ion anyway. It marks me as a prior, which I am, rather than me pretending to be something that I’m not.”

  “Then you don’t want the other upgrades?”

  “No…well, a part of me does, but if I have to choose between pursuing them and furthering my telepathic skills, I choose telepathy. It sets me apart from nearly all others in the galaxy and I need to be as strong in it as possible.”

  “You haven’t neglected your physical training?”

  “Of course not. Mind balances with body, as you taught me, though I’m beginning to see more depth into it now. How long are you here for?”

  “A few years at least.”

  “Oh? Aren’t you needed back on the front?”

  “The lizard systems are falling fast now, but they’re also becoming more difficult to take. Most of the easy ones are gone, leaving the more developed band around their core…on our side anyway. Over the past two years the amount of reinforcements they were getting have dropped off sharply. We think they’re hoarding them now to protect the core worlds, making naval invasion of their other systems far easier…yet those systems also have a great deal more defensive infrastructure, both in orbit and on the surface, that we have to fight our way through. The victories are almost assured, so long as we don’t get sloppy, but there’s a lot of work to do in each location, for their anti-orbital defense networks are far more dense than we’re used to dealing with. We punch a hole, then have to work everything through on the ground else we lose far too many ships.”

  “And you’re not needed for that?”

  “We’re not in a hurry, and we need to cycle people back for many reasons. I need a breather and a chance to work on other projects…including you.”

  “You’ve already taught me what I needed to know.”

  Pel smiled. “I’ve given you the beginner knowledge. Time to amp it up a bit.”

  “How so?”

  “You’ve been focusing on solitary skills. Now that there are several of you sufficiently advanced, I’m going to teach you how to make use of interconnected telepathic elements.”