Evolution's Essence (28 page)

“
What we’re doing can simply
be stated as throwing up a Psionic barrier around the entire star
itself.” Many of the men and women gulped. Having hearing such was
about to happen made reality set in. “Olly has already sent the
barrier generators into a stable orbit, that will take the power
you’ve input into the relay and generate a barrier to drones
roughly a thousand kilometers wide. He’s put billions of these
generators out there already. What we lack in numbers the Creelin
will fill. This star is too large for any one of us to contain, let
alone all here. It’s the fifth largest star in
Andromeda.

“
It was why my match had
each of you sign a waver to allow each of you to gain a Valek able
to store your Psionic energy and for a full year you’ve hopefully
did minimal power usage to store up for today.” Some laughed
nervously and not everyone had stuck as closely to the guidelines
rather than learn as much about their Valek as store as much as
possible.

“
Around, you’ll find large
crates. When I unlock them you each will attach your Vlaek to the
blob-like canisters in this box, it will protect you from any
excess heat, light and radiation by bulking your armor up
considerably by twenty five centimeters. When we return you will
deposit it back. The suits will be destroyed after in the event
they leak radiation. It will keep you cool and safe though. Olly’s
suit already tested the durability by appearing in the star’s
corona for twenty of our hours. If it can sustain the corona even
for a few seconds, where we’ll be will be plenty safe for our
fifteen plus hours.

“
Lastly, know that if there
is a failure, the relays will teleport us out the nanosecond it
detects an error so
never
let go. We need all the stellar dust before Oliver
drops a manmade white hole to negate the super massive black hole
that it will become if we do nothing. The moment the archway is
charged we all leave before the white hole meets black. Do not
deviate from the plan. Keep it simple and hold on. If you get
bored, use your chip to play a game. No matter what you see or
hear, trust that Oliver has thought of every possible
eventuality.”

“
Even if Keptl show up with
our asses free-floating in space?” Soifon of Wind
grinned.

“
Even Keptl.” Oliver spoke
up. “Samuel is well read on every eventuality even should the
Creelin betray us.” This raised eyebrows. “I’m not going to let
anyone harm my family or friends or any of you who came to help me
find out what happened to my people. By coming here and offering
aid, you have my sincerest gratitude.”

“
We understand, Daddy.”
Vikki coolly interrupted another Soifon classical
retort.

“
Lad, ye aren’t the only one
eager to find out if yer people still live.” Jake Dorgen said and
it wasn’t hard to hear his baritone voice. “For many of us, this is
the next to last stop to meet the creators of our whole race. If
they live, ye can bet this isn’t for ye why we come. Me personally,
I want to find if they can hold their liquor like ye can.” This
caused many to chuckle. “Enough talking. We got a star to explode…
Damn, never thought them words would leave me lips.” At this he
belly laughed and it was infectious.

When it ran its course Renee said “Laxus,
disengage locks on the Star Suits.” The AI complied and each metal
crate opened with a hiss where inside were cylinder canisters
holding twenty liters of jet black liquid.

All around clothes of individuals was
replaced into fearsome Solarian style armor. All men had the same
fearsome complete covering, full body pattern of Oliver’s and women
were smoothly cloaked like Renee with a facemask. Telekinesis made
short work by passing the canisters to everyone. At a thought the
Valek sent a tendril into the dark liquid and drank in thick gulps
to build up the metal’s thickness till the liquid was gone. The
extra insulation felt awkward to everyone. The Ligers though were
more uncomfortable, but soothing thoughts from their masters kept
them docile when their collars did similarly.

Sparky looked the most fearsome of all when
his collar, patterned after the Ligers after extensive
modification, could wear spiked armor at any moment. He would go
too since after all Renee spent months researching how Oliver could
send his Psionics to Nova and the Pride when they could not.
Eventually she added a gene sequence she found in the Ligers and
spliced it into the Drake so he could use her power to be the first
Drake in history to use Psionic powers as well as she can. After
adding the larger canister he needed, he looked even more
formidable.

Sadly the gene would only work for bonded
Drakes. It required the bond he and Renee shared for him to draw
upon. Still, he was not alone. A dozen more bonded Drakes and their
companions had also come.

Many walked around to try getting comfortable
till Renee instructed the masses to calmly head to the teleporter
that were coded to send individuals to designated relays. Soon as a
person was gone another stood on the teleporter to likewise get
sent.

It took twenty minutes to clear the deck and
just before Oliver used the ship’s teleporter he activated a
hyperspace teleport on the ceramic gateway. Outside the force
field, the massive ring vanished faster than a blink.

Immediately his suit’s visuals dimmed due to
the extreme star’s brightness as he stood on a platform twenty
meters wide with a pedestal jutting from the center. The platform
was transparent and below Oliver’s feet was the gateway and below
it was the star that was so massive it was a straight horizon even
though the platform was over a hundred and fifty thousand
kilometers from the surface. He didn’t need to bother activating
magnetic boots to stick to the platform as he walked to the dais
where a wide bar waited. Soon as his armored hand grasped hold a
display appeared and he began rapidly taking in thousands of
readings as fast as he could manage. Even faster than the day he
was found on the desert planet and Stephanie let him use a crystal
to learn Human history and everything else that started him on this
path.

Through his mind’s eye he saw Nova and his
Pride were all comfortably safe on their relays. All suits being
scanned were reading everything was in more than reasonably safe
parameters. The suits were easily able to block everything harmful
from reaching their bodies.

More information passed his
console as the Creelin began landing on their areas. Soon as Netul
landed there came a chip-produced hologram of the legendary Creelin
warrior saying
“My people are in place and
awaiting your command.”

“
Everyone, Begin
transferring power in five, four, three, two, one…” Oliver counted
down and sent power to Nova who sent it to all the others while
biting down.

Barrier generators activated everywhere and
spread out. The naked eye couldn’t see the drones spread out
systematically as everyone orbited the star, but with unified help
the barriers began spreading and combining. In what seemed twenty
minutes the barrier completely encased the cobalt super giant.
Everyone continuously poured their power, keeping the gauge display
in the green section. Some struggled, but were managing. Many of
the more skilled didn’t even make the needle quiver a
hairsbreadth.

“
Very good everyone. The
barrier is trapping everything except gamma, alpha, beta, neutron
and x-ray radiation. The heat and cosmic radiation are effortlessly
holding. Now comes the difficult part. I need to destabilize the
gravity field keeping the star from leaving the core. Everyone,
brace yourselves for space-quakes and an increase of heat. Do not
let go or the material will escape the hole you’ll leave behind. If
there is a fault, you’ll leave the area immediately. All sensors
are fully operational. I’m initiating he program. If you feel you
need to put a barrier around yourselves to ease your mind, I will
not stop you so long as you continue fueling your relay. In three,
two…”

At zero he pressed a holographic button and
from every angle the drones and relay stations generating the
barrier shot a laser-like beam of silver light straight down
simultaneously.

For several moments nothing happened, but
then the star seemed to roll as if some gargantuan creature was
rudely awakened under the surface.

Pillars of flame rushed up and out thousands
of kilometers wide as the star went nova and spread in a haphazard
way. The pillars struck the barrier, but nothing escaped. Heat and
light intensified to the point that the star’s former surface was
mere meters away, held back by a relatively thin shell. Although
the barrier was ten kilometers thick after all. The platforms all
shook almost dangerously, but it held. Below where Oliver stood he
could no longer see the gateway at all.

Yet the giant oval was doing as designed.
Port holes began hungrily consuming billions of tons of matter
through small holes once thought to allow air and water to flow in
and out of the former King’s Tusk Tower part. It’s sturdy design
ate like it was meant. Ravenously. The confusing pathways in the
interior was actually a way to distribute the excess heat for the
heavy, raw stellar matter to collect and the exploding vibrations
cycled through itself to keep from ripping itself apart. The smooth
outer walls also reduced surface tension so it could sit in the
most dangerous area as long as it needed till satisfied its
appetite.

Hours began to pass and slowly the quakes
equalized, but it was still dangerous work. So far all went
according to plan.

More hours passed.

At fifteen hours, five minutes and eleven
seconds the gateway could accumulate no more. It was filled to
capacity and soon as readings indicated such Oliver didn’t bother
announcing it was complete. He activated the gateway teleportation
to send it between galaxies, sent everyone back to their ships and
dropped a massive spike containing the ingredients of a white
hole.

Simultaneously.

An instant later everyone was back aboard the
hangar and was confused by the abrupt change of scenery and it was
cleared up as Oliver shouted “Success!”

Half the people collapsed from sheer
exhaustion. The other jumped for joy.

Amidst the congregations came a deep voiced
“Welcome home, Mom, Aunts, Grandpa, Grandma and Grandpapa.”

Heads spun and it was Isabella who shouted in
surprise “SAMUEL! My Babies!” she looked at her two daughters
too.

Samuel and all the third generation along
with other family members of those who left stood a ways back.
Samuel was now fully grown and like all the half Solarian males
they each stood two hundred centimeters tall minimum. They all were
heavily muscled. Females were curvy and thickly muscled too, but
didn’t grow near as tall as their brothers or cousins.

“
Stars! We know where they
get their height from.” Renee laughed, throwing her head back as
she said “How long?”

“
You’re two hours earlier,
but it’s been more than two years Grandma. If you can’t tell.” His
wry smirk couldn’t hide how relieved he was his family came
back.

“
What have we
missed?”

“
Not too much. The Empire
has been waiting and watching all these years and aside from a few
things, not much.”

“
Except if you don’t
consider he’s made you a great grandmother, My Queen.” Poked the
head of a youthful olive skinned woman with a toddler on her hip,
coming up beside Samuel.

“
OH MY STARS! I’M A GRANDMA
NOW!” Isabella shrieked, then pounced over to stand in front of the
couple.

Suddenly Isabella was jerked back and
slapped. Her mask pulled away and she confusedly asked “Ma? Why did
you?”

“
Your own son was about to
gut you.” Renee glowered at her firstborn.

“
What?” Isabella turned and
saw Samuel had his Star-saber out and stood poised in front of the
girl. “Sammy? My boy? What is that look? So deadly…”

“
You moved too threatening
to his offspring and the armor didn’t help him take you as less a
threat to his female you moron. Have you forgotten how your papa
used to be when your sisters were toddlers?” Renee almost growled
at the stupidity of her eldest daughter. “Besides, you forget we
must rid the excess armor. My Valek tells me it radiates lethal
amounts in extended close proximity.”

“
She’s Samuel’s
Match.”

“
What?” Isabella and Renee
asked simultaneously as Oliver spoke.

The Solarian sniffed and detected scents like
no other biped as the demure woman gently coaxed Samuel down and to
put his blade away. “Their scents match. I can approach safely I
believe, but first…” he turned and ridded the excess material from
his body into a biohazard tub and changed into something more
comfortable. His Pride followed the master’s example.

Samuel stiffened as his much larger
grandfather approached them and stopped to stare down Samuel till
he lowered his eyes in surrender. The youth stepped aside and
Oliver knelt to sniff the child and mother. “Good. Your female is
strong. Class Fifteen judging by her aura and my great grandson has
no defects…” Only Oliver could approach without too much risk
because Samuel’s own heightened senses recognized that not only was
he not a threat, but an Elder member of the bloodline. Oliver
sniffed again. “Smells like Samuel… Renee, scan the babe and verify
if my nose is correct. The child remains Half Solarian though he
should be quarter.”

The queen if Fire approached, did a scan and
took a painless blood sample, looked her eyes and grinned. “Yup,
the hellion’s DNA sequence is stable. The spliced gene I designed
for humans isn’t weakened after the second generation. Just as I
designed. A complete relief. The child’s adult potential will be
close to his father’s than Samuel is to his mother and me. A ten to
fifteen percent loss of power, but still above spliced Humans. Good
nose.” She swatted her male playfully.