Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven}) (9 page)

“Yes.”

“I will be following you keeping track of your actions to offer feedback afterwards. My armor will not be seen by the various devices in the valley. Are you ready?”

“Of course not, but that isn’t going to stop this from happening.”

Manny nodded and said, “You will start in ten seconds.”

Jake looked out at the valley and decided to go down the peak he was standing on by jumping off the cliff into the trees below. It was only about two thousand feet. Jake wondered how he had come up with that plan, then he heard Manny say, “Go!” Jake turned on his armor’s weapons mode, jumped off the peak, and fell toward the ground far below.

Manny watched him fall, “Now that’s unexpected.” He knew there were several ambushers in the trees below but it would be difficult, if not impossible, to see Jake through the tree’s canopy. His armor had been set to see Jake’s armor through the dense foliage and he watched as Jake picked up speed as he fell.

As Jake started falling, something happened to his perceptions. He felt a small shock and everything slowed down. He felt like he was falling very slowly toward the ground and he noticed a bird flying over the trees below him that appeared to be almost stationary. He looked at the ground below and saw eight thin black lines extending from his faceplate into the trees below. Without thinking he raised his right arm and activated his arm projector, which immediately fired a small wasp at each of those black lines. He watched as the wasps took off at normal speed as he continued to fall slowly. Each of the small projectiles followed the black line straight into the trees without veering. As they struck, a bright red light appeared. He heard Manny say over his com, “Each time you hit an ambusher, a red strobe light will go off indicating that they have been eliminated from the simulation.”

Manny had jumped behind Jake and had used his armors jets to fall slowly to the ground. He saw Jake, falling quickly and picking up speed, fire the small wasps and was amazed at his accuracy. He also noticed that he could not see those ambushers; he wondered how Jake could.

Jake saw the ground coming up ,so he pushed his armor’s jets to max power and came to a halt on the ground. Jake was wondering just how he had timed that jet burst so exactly. He suddenly turned sideways and watched as a small wasp went by his right shoulder. He saw it coming. It was moving so slowly that he could have reached out and plucked it out of the air. “This is not part of the armor’s systems,” he thought. He began moving to the left at a fast pace, then realized this must be part of his psychic ability which had come out due to the stress he was experiencing. Valerie said that some of his skills may emerge if he was stressed enough. He also noticed that he no longer felt any pain.

His sensors tracked the wasp back to its source and saw the ambusher standing behind a tree. He saw another black line between him and the attacker and fired another wasp. He looked away from the wasp he had fired and began running. He saw nine more black lines going out into the forest in front of him. He heard his sensor unit announce, “Attacker hit,” as he raised his left arm and fired nine rounds out of his auto cannon; one for each black line. He saw numerous rounds of projectiles coming towards him, along with twenty wasps. He moved to the right quickly and saw a dark shadow coming up to about three feet off the ground. He dove and rolled into the shadow. The projectiles and wasps all passed overhead; he came to his feet running.

Manny followed Jake and saw the ambusher’s red lights going off so fast that it was hard to keep track of them. He was amazed at the speed Jake was making and he knew that Armor was not designed to travel that fast. What was going on here?

Jake saw a black line over his head and he fired a hornet at it. An armed floater came roaring up and the hornet hit it, causing a bright red flash. The floater stopped and moved away from the exercise, having been deemed destroyed.

Jake saw ambushers on all sides, but no black lines. He felt like he was moving at normal speed, but their motions seemed to be taking place in extremely slow motion. He saw that he had passed those on either side before they could target their weapons.

Jake saw another black shadow ahead six feet off the ground. He jumped and entered the shadow just as a volley of slugs passed under it. He grabbed a light grenade off his armor as it rose up out of his chest plate and tossed it at the weapons platform hidden in the trees to his left.

The ambushers manning the platform fired at the approaching target, but it was moving faster than their sensors could track. The gunner tried to sight visually but could not keep up with the speed of the approaching figure. He decided to fire a spray of projectiles in front of the oncoming target. Suddenly an object came at them and hit at the base of the platform, covering it in red light. The platform’s red light activated and they were out of the exercise. The gunner commed, “Platform Alpha is out.”

Manny commed, “What happened?”

“I don’t know Colonel. Whoever that warrior is, he’s moving faster than any armor I’ve ever seen. He somehow sensed our targeting and moved out of our sights faster than we could fire. He just hit us with a light grenade and then passed us before the grenade went off.”

Manny tried to keep up with Jake, but he could see red lights being activated more than four miles in front of him. This was impossible.

Jake moved through the forest and fired his weapons every time a black line appeared. If he saw a shadow he moved into it, then ran toward the shadows ahead of him. He knew his armor could run at sixty miles per hour on open ground, but he saw that he was moving much faster than sixty in dense forest. He finally emerged from the forest and climbed the peak. He covered the forty miles in less than twenty minutes. He realized that he had traveled faster than a hundred miles per hour, but to his senses he was moving normal speed. He saw everything around him start speeding up, then he sat down on the ground as his pain returned with a vengeance.

Manny jumped on his armor’s jets and arrived at the peak right after Jake sat down. “What did you just do? There’s no way your armor could have moved that fast. Also, according to my sensors, you didn’t miss a shot. Quite frankly, that’s impossible.”

Jake looked up at Manny, “I think the stress of this simulation released a psychic ability. I have no idea how I did it.”

Manny stared at Jake, “Well, your armor training is over. I think there’s nothing we can do to improve on what you’ve just accomplished. How do you feel?”

“If there’s a part of me that doesn’t hurt, I’ve been unable to find it.”

Manny raised his com, “Bring a floater to my location and take Mr. Talant to the corps hospital.” Jake looked up. “Mr. Talant, we can give you something for your pain now. We couldn’t do it before this exercise because it would have affected your reaction times.”

Jake nodded, turned off his armor, then his eyes glazed over and he fell back unconscious. Manny took a reading of the energy used by Jake’s armor and discovered that it was still at a hundred percent. If Manny had not witnessed what Jake had done he would never believe it. This was just not possible.

“How did he do in the exercise, Manny?”

“He appears to have the time dilation ability that the first Gardners’ exhibited. My forces couldn’t touch him, Your Majesty.”

Valerie smiled, “See? I told you he should have armor.”

Manny shook his head, “I’m now of the opinion that he would have made it through my warriors without armor. I hope he’s the kind of person that can be trusted with it. He is now a very dangerous individual.”

Valerie thought a moment, “He needs to be dangerous, Manny. As far as what kind of person he is, I have more respect for him than anyone I’ve ever encountered.”

Manny smiled, “That’s good enough for me.”

“Thanks, Uncle.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Cynthia wanted to scratch her head. The new device to block telepathy was melded into the top three microns of her scalp. It was hidden in her hair and it itched constantly. She reached up to scratch it and the technician said, “Leave it alone. It will stop itching in about an hour.”

Cynthia dropped her hand and fidgeted in her chair. This was going to be a long hour. “How does this work?”

The technician looked up from her console, “Thoughts cannot get through this coating. The links to your ship’s computer are in your hands and will make direct connection when you touch any part of the ship. The energy to communicate is actually lower than the cosmic rays that emanate from the star in the system you’re going to enter. We believe that they will mask your communications. Your computer will also hear you when you speak.”

“What about Talant?”

“He has the same coating on his scalp and will hear you when you talk. You will be on the surface of the moon and he will be able to hear you, and you him. However, you will only hear each other when you speak aboard ship.”

“So we will hear every word we say.”

The technician nodded, “When he is on the ship with you. Once he’s on the planet you will not be able to communicate.”

Cynthia scowled at the tech.

The technician looked at her com, “You’ll be leaving is less than two hours. Mr. Talant should be out of the hospital by then.”

Cynthia narrowed her eyes, “Hospital?”

“They linked his armor in less than an hour, then ran him through the initial training exercise.”

Cynthia was astonished and shook her head, “Poor Jake.”

Valerie was standing by Jake’s bed when he regained consciousness. “I keep waking up to find the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen beside me.”

Valerie smiled, “You’re so gracious, and thank you. It’s time for you to leave.”

Jake sat up, then fell back from dizziness, “I hope I can walk.”

“You’ll be recovering rapidly and back to normal in just a few more hours. I just want to say a few things before you leave.”

Jake looked at Valerie, “Go ahead.”

“Jake, you are going to have to go down to the planet to search for your initiator. While you’re in the local population you are going to see some of them taken by the creatures to be killed. You must not use your armor to try to stop them.”

Jake just stared at Valerie, saying nothing.

“I mean it, Jake. Once you find your initiator, Commander Dodd has been ordered to teleport you and your initiator to the ship and make a grand exit back to the Stars Realm. We cannot risk losing you. Promise me you won’t take any foolish risks; the Realm’s survival depends on you.”

Jake saw Robby standing behind Valerie looking over her shoulder at him. Jake gave a heavy sigh and said, “I promise.” Robby disappeared.

Valerie’s shoulders dropped; she said, “Thank the creator you listen to reason.” She turned to the technician, “Send him to his ship.” Then she turned, leaned down, and kissed him fully on the lips. “I’ve wanted to do that since I met you on Cynthia’s ship. Now come back to the Realm, Jake. Remember, you’re about to meet the love of your life.” She turned and left the room.

Jake watched her leave and knew he had wanted to do the same.

The tech helped Jake stand, then led him to the teleport screen. He looked back at the door Valerie had exited, then turned and stepped into the screen.

The Collective turned its attention to technology. “Did you find the necessary information for universal travel?”

“Yes. It was really quite simple. The Green Creatures were limited to jumping through a single door into other universes.”

“And?”

“All that’s needed to jump in anywhere is a powerful enough generator. We have that in abundance.”

“Are you going to make your deadline?”

“We will have two million ships ready by the original deadline. It is a simple matter to modify our existing drives to incorporate the new one.”

The Collective turned its attention to the military quadrant, “Have you developed a plan for finding the Green Creatures?”

“We are sending one ship to each universe to scan for the enemy. If they are not present, then another will be searched.”

What are your plans for those where they are not present?”

“Why, we will prioritize them for later conquest.”

“And if you encounter a formidable enemy?”

“Scan them for weapons and then develop a counter for them.”

The Collective thought about that statement. “Scan all you want, but do not lead them here. Have the ship go to other universes before coming back to our home. I want the same thing done if you find the Green Creatures. Consider that we will not be in contact with the ships when they leave our universe and issue your instructions accordingly.”

The Quadrants all considered what was said and agreed.

J
ake stepped out of the screen onto the bridge of a ship that was much larger than Cynthia’s previous ship. Cynthia was sitting in the command chair with her hands on the chair’s arms. She turned and saw Jake, “How do you feel, partner?”