Star Force: Battlemeld (SF45) Read online

  The few star systems they actually owned had remained exclusively theirs, and thus far the Core Region was remaining a Star Force-only zone, but Alpha, Zeta, and Beta Regions were seeing heavy colonization, including lesser amounts in Gamma and Delta. Only Epsilon, which had very few Star Force colonies, was left unsettled by Alliance refugees, and Greg wasn’t sure how much longer that would last.

  With their borders becoming more firm by the year, Greg wasn’t overly concerned about leaving, but he had never liked Paul disappearing from what had been his personal little empire out in Alpha, and would have much preferred he’d stayed out there tinkering with their infrastructure and defenses.

  That said, he understood the importance of what Paul and Jason were doing, which was why he hadn’t complained when they’d called Greg back to Earth.

  “Been a while,” a familiar voice said as Greg walked in the main doors of the pyramid along with a light flow of mongooses carrying both people and cargo in and out.

  “That it has,” Greg agreed as he walked up to Aaron carrying his gear duffle and shook his hand. “How goes the psionic training? You qualify for the X-men yet?”

  “Not quite up to Xavier levels yet,” Aaron said with a laugh, “but it’s really Paul and Jason that have taken it to another level.”

  “So I heard. What exactly have they been up to?” Greg asked, stepping aside as a super-sized mongoose drove past.

  “What haven’t they been up to,” Aaron corrected him. “I’ve managed to keep the top Ikrid marks, but their battlemeld skills are getting scary. They’ve uncovered 7 of the 19 abilities, and have developed a couple of them to combat ready levels in an incredibly short amount of time.”

  “Whoa…hold up. 19?”

  “Kara was finally able to give us a specific number.”

  “How’s she been doing?”

  “Been here two years and working her tail off every day, but she’s not up to Paul and Jason’s level.”

  “Who is,” Greg scoffed as the pair of trailblazers began to walk inside and down one of the humongous hallways meant for dinosaurs that stood dozens of meters tall.

  “Actually, in a very narrow field the twins are, and it’s pissed them off something fierce.”

  “Really?” Greg asked, suspecting that there was some grounds for teasing to be found there.

  “They’re the ones finding the new abilities first, then teaching them to Paul and Jason. They like them having the breakthroughs, but are aggravated that they aren’t getting to them first.”

  “How are they getting to them first? They’re just adepts.”

  “If you ask me they’re just getting lucky. Paul and Jason are designing their training for them, so in a way they’re working against themselves, but they know the twins are the best bet to finding the other melding abilities. That doesn’t stop them from trying to get there first though.”

  “Define ‘lucky?’”

  “I don’t think they know what they’re doing and they’re just finding them by accident.”

  “Isn’t that how we find all the new psionics?”

  “No, I mean lucky by getting there without training…or much anyway. Their whole messed up Ikrid link somehow skips them ahead and puts them very close to the trigger requirements, then they just stumble around and trip over them and…boom, new ability. Neither Karen nor Travis is even a tenth as powerful as Paul or Jason in the battlemeld category, yet they’re the ones ascending first.”

  “That is interesting. And that’s where this mind meld came from?”

  Aaron nodded. “Jason was the one who found it…with a lot of help from the techs. It’s the one actual trigger we’ve been able to locate, and without the twins to study we wouldn’t have found it. Their lack of skills is giving us a much smaller haystack to look through.”

  “Score one for the newbs,” Greg said as they turned a corner and headed up one of the segmented ramps, choosing the smallest pieces along the side that were meant for their tiny legs.

  “I give them some credit. After Paul and Jason they’ve got the next highest battlemeld scores.”

  “Out of how many?”

  “Last I checked there were 15, though I don’t know about Rikku. She got here a week ago.”

  “How long’s it usually take?” Greg said, taking very steep steps with almost a bouncy ease, despite the duffle over his shoulder.

  “Depends on the individual. Took me four days with Paul.”

  “Are the twins helping?”

  “Like I said, they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s all instinct with them. Their battlemeld automatically turns on as soon as they’re in range of one another and stays on permanently. They had to work to learn to turn it off and link with others. With each other their linkage is crazy good and effortless, which allows them to rack up some considerable scores on the challenges.”

  “But Paul and Jason are better?”

  “They’re writing the training as they go, which is the only reason why the twins are progressing. They have no knack for it, and without the push they’re getting they’d be stuck on a plateau…but it’s a very high plateau within the discipline.”

  “Sounds like cheating to me…no wonder Jason and Paul are pissed.”

  “If their situations were reversed, we’d have all 19 by now. Probably would have had them by the end of the first year.”

  “The twins are that close by default?”

  “Seem to be, which makes them very valuable. Otherwise I think Paul and Jason would have beat them to death by now.”

  “Attitude problem?”

  Aaron laughed. “Oh yeah. Those four have had a private feud going on for a decade. Karen and Travis even went so far as to revoke their Clan affiliation, citing they were going rogue and too valuable to this training research to be distracted with Clan issues.”

  “Is that a nice way of saying nobody else would take them?”

  “No. They meant every word of it.”

  “Screw that. And you said they’re still writing workouts for them?”

  “They have to, otherwise Star Force loses out, and you know they’re not going to let that happen because of a personal squabble. The twins have got situational leverage and they’re milking it in compensation for every ounce of strength they don’t have.”

  “Oh, I have got to meet these pricks.”

  “Later,” Aaron promised. “We want to get you going as soon as possible. I’d do it myself, but sadly I’m not advanced enough. Paul’s spending his time with Rikku, leaving Jason free for you.”

  “Let’s get to it then,” Greg said, accelerating into a jog as they climbed the second half of the ramp, with Aaron jumping out ahead of him and leading the way.

  The pair of trailblazers moved to a level above the command deck that had been a Rit’ko’sor area, now repurposed into more training facilities, with the one they were coming up on being of recent construction. Inside was a room that mimicked the Jedi temple from Star Wars, right down to the fake windows making it look like they were standing in the council chamber atop one of the spires. Greg didn’t see any cityscape outside, but there was a desert-like landscape that gave the interior room a feel of great space with an empty, calming ambiance.

  “Paul’s idea?” Greg asked, setting his duffle on the floor behind one of the masters’ chairs.

  “Of course,” he said, coming out of the doorway on the far side. “What better place to meditate?”

  “Like the view,” Greg said as the three of them met in the middle.

  “The walls are shielded for Ikrid,” Paul added, “so when the doors are shut you know you’re not going to be disturbed. Kind of a necessity, for the battlemeld trigger is tricky to find.”

  “How exactly does that work,” Greg said, picking one of the cushioned circles and sitting down. “Comfy.”

  Paul and Aaron backtracked a few steps and sat down on their own chairs, with Paul sitting in what would have been Yoda’s spot, prompting an ironic smirk
from Greg.

  “It’s a two part process,” Paul explained. “First is simulating the trigger, which I can do because I know what it is and I’ve already achieved it. I just have to resume that state, which in this case is a mental processing requirement necessary to achieve the battlemeld. High sustained bandwidth with an interlinking component remaining open for the duration…which basically proves that you’re capable of limited Ikrid ‘melding’ before you’re given the hardware for the real thing.”

  “You can measure it?” Greg asked.

  Paul nodded, then hesitated as Rikku-452 came out of the back area with her shirt off and just now pulling it over her head.

  “Sweetie, you didn’t say we had company,” she said sarcastically, drawing a muffled laugh from Aaron.

  Greg looked at Paul questioningly. “You didn’t say it was naked meditation.”

  “It’s not,” Rikku said as she walked through the middle of the circle of chairs headed for the exit. “I just prefer the simplicity.”

  “And trying to distract me,” Paul added.

  Rikku shrugged as she got to the door. “Hasn’t worked yet,” she said with a wink before walking out.

  Paul rolled his eyes after she left. “Second gen are always trying something.”

  “Are you complaining?” Greg asked.

  “Nope,” Paul said with a hint of a smile, “but now that she’s gone there’s something else you need to know…in house.”

  Greg’s amusement faded and he responded with a nod, knowing that by ‘in-house’ Paul meant it was to be kept private amongst the trailblazers.

  “The second part of the process involves recreating the way the twins share their biofeedback. When they ascend they both do so simultaneously, because on some level their minds act like a single individual. It’s a very weak bond that doesn’t compromise their individuality, but it’s created a glitch in the trigger process that I think the V’kit’no’sat never anticipated, given that Zen’zat were never meant to reproduce.”

  Greg nodded. “So you need to teach me how to form that link with you to trigger the battlemeld upgrade?”

  “Not me, Jason will. I’m still working with the stripper and it takes several hours a day, the rest of the time I have to spend training. Right now the two of us are the only ones that have learned to create what we’re calling the ‘mind meld’ effect. The twins have it, but they don’t understand what they’re doing, so they can’t help train others.”

  “So I’ve been told,” Greg said. “What’s the in-house part? I assume you told Rikku the same thing.”

  “If we can identify more triggers, Jason and I think we can figure out how to share our abilities with other Archons…all of them, not just the battlemelds.”

  Greg whistled. “That would certainly change things.”

  “No kidding,” Aaron agreed. “Right now we’re restricting battlemeld to rangers with Ikrid level 50 or better.”

  “Ranger 1 plus the Ikrid?”

  “Yeah,” Paul answered. “Learning the mind meld takes a lot of skill, and there’s only so much I can do from my end.”

  “And if you can find the other triggers?”

  Paul sighed. “I don’t know. We’re all going to get them, but the second gen and others…we’ll have to figure that out later.”

  Greg looked at the ground for a moment. “How certain are you that you can do this?”

  “It will work,” Paul said confidently, “if we can find the triggers. For that we’re going to need a lot of help from the techs, but this will only work if at least one of us gains the abilities on our own.”

  “What’s the chances of the techs being able to unlock the rest directly?”

  “Nil,” Paul said. “The only reason we’ve even got this option is because of the twins’ cheat.”

  “But in theory, if the V’kit’no’sat could create these abilities, then someone with equal knowledge should be able to do the same…or at least turn them on?”

  “We’ve already had this discussion,” Aaron said. “Kara seems to think that the pyramid database isn’t complete. That there are deeper secrets that had no need to be known on this planet, or probably a lot of others. She also says that the Zak’de’ron were responsible for most of the genetic coding, and those files are not definitely not in the pyramid. She thinks they kept them to themselves and maybe the V’kit’no’sat don’t even have a full copy.”

  “Wait,” Greg stopped him. “Do we or do we not have the necessary genetic engineering knowledge in the pyramid?”

  “We think yes,” Paul said noncommittally, “but the coding is essentially a masterpiece of ingenuity, and it was designed with triggers, not ‘on’ buttons. We’d have to rebuild the abilities from scratch, and from what Kara said that’s a very bad idea.”

  “And the techs agree,” Aaron added. “Plus, they’re nowhere close to understanding that level of science.”

  “Alright, I like the training route better anyway,” Greg admitted. “I just hate the idea of some V’kit’no’sat tech being able to whip up new superpowers on a whim and us not able to counter that.”

  “Kara thinks the Zak’de’ron gave us the premium package,” Paul said, feeling much the same way Greg was. “If that’s true, we should at least be on par with the V’kit’no’sat no matter what new tricks they pull out of their collective butt.”

  “Once we root out all the abilities,” Aaron cautioned.

  “Work, work, work,” Greg said with a sigh. “Good thing we like training our asses off.”

  “On that note, I’m due for a workout with Jason. His schedule is a mirror of mine, more or less, so he’s not going to be able to work with you until tomorrow, probably.”

  “Good enough,” Greg said as Paul stood up. He and Aaron did as well, then as they walked out with Greg in the rear he added, “Might as well take the opportunity to meet the twins.”

  Paul half stopped and glanced at Aaron.

  “I filled him in a bit.”

  “They’re valuable,” Paul said deadpan. “Try not to break too many bones.”

  “I heard they joined Clan Asshole?”

  “Founded it, actually. I’ve tried cognitive recalibration…doesn’t seem to have any effect. They’re a stubborn pair. See what you can do.”

  “Happy to,” Greg said, both interested in seeing how these two little adepts could have got under his skin this bad, and reflexively viewing them as adversaries given they’d set themselves against two other trailblazers. Tick off one of them and you’d usually get the other 99 gunning for you as an added bonus.

  9

  June 11, 2489

  Solar System

  Earth

  Greg sat crosslegged opposite Jason in one of the smaller meditation rooms in the back of the ‘council chamber,’ facing each other with their arms resting on their legs and their fingers interlocked with one another’s until Greg jerked suddenly and broke their Ikrid connection as the biomonitor he wore went straight to 2 red.

  Jason pulled back slowly on his padded seat, giving his fellow trailblazer a few more inches of room as he saw him physically clench up as he fought to both maintain control of the surging instability and to ward off the pain of the flash tissue growth. It only took a few seconds for him to reach three flashing red lights, then the ascension process fully activated and Greg suffered through a brief, but intense period of pain…all the while riding it out in his meditative pose like the beast he was.

  Jason noticed the slack return to his form a moment before Greg reopened his watery eyes.

  “Damn that hurts.”

  “Well done,” Jason congratulated him. “Now try and link up.”

  Greg reached out his hands again, but Jason sat still and shook his head. “Not like that. Just pick up my call.”

  “What call…” Greg said a split second before he felt what Jason meant. He released his mental clenching a touch, despite the fragging his mind was still fighting against, and opened himself to the
connection…immediately seeing Jason ‘glow’ in mind’s eye as he got a wave of biofeedback from the other trailblazer.

  “Wow,” Greg said, swiping a tear from his eye. “This is one hell of a mind meld.”

  “And it doesn’t require a physical link,” Jason said, referring to the Vulcan version. “Now break and reestablish.”

  “Give me a moment,” Greg said as he concentrated, quickly finding it wasn’t difficult to break. He reestablished some of his mental armor and the connection severed, but remaking it was far harder, for Jason wasn’t reaching out to him this time.

  “You have to search me out with the ability, not your standard Ikrid,” Jason said when he realized he was having trouble. “The battlemeld has its own spotlight.”

  “Trying, but my head really hurts right now.”

  “I know. I felt it when we were linked.”

  “Duh,” Greg said, realizing how slow his thought processes were at the moment giving the searing pain. He felt like someone had just cauterized his brain with a plasma torch.

  It took several bumbling tries before Jason telepathically sent him a memory of what it felt like, after which Greg was able to find and reproduce it in short order. Locking it onto Jason took a bit of work, with him realizing he needed to search out a target with his Ikrid before aiming his battlemeld spotlight. Once he did he got a firm lock on Jason then reached out towards him as if he were extending a shield column on an aquatics warship.

  When the invisible energy conduit reached him it connected immediately, with the glow of telemetry coming from Jason dulling all his other senses.

  “Why is everything…”

  “That’s just your senses getting adjusted. It won’t look so dark later.”

  Jason reached a hand up in response to a subtle suggestion from Greg and they did a triple fist bump, 360 swirl, and a top/down/side/side/middle fist bump before finishing off with a finger ripple with perfect coordination, almost as if Greg were mimicking his reflection in a mirror.