Star Force: Sav (SF51) (8 page)

In this case Bo had gotten an emitter count increase,
just as Paul and the others had done before. The thing was
,
he’d gotten a higher level version. Paul could see the difference, though not recognizing
all of the statistics at first glance despite the extensive study he’d done
into this area. Vortison was the expert, but still he could tell that this
wasn’t the same Pren as he had.

“Wilson?” he asked.

“From a functional standpoint it only makes sense that
the Sav would unlock higher processing capabilities that would aid the other
psionics. In order to do that there would be a physical restructuring
needed
above and beyond training adaptation. I’m guessing
that since Bo already had Sav those upgrades simply occurred simultaneously
with the growth.”

“What are you basing that on?” Vortison asked,
glancing at his datapad.

“Nothing more than a hunch.”

“A hunch?” the medtech repeated.

“You look on the body from a designer’s point of
view,
I look and learn as a user. We see things from a
different angle and trust our gut and experience, because we have no rulebook
to work off of except what we write and record as we live and learn.”

“Gamers guide,” Paul said, understanding his metaphor,
as would the other trailblazers, he knew, for they were all gamers.

“Can I get a copy of Wilson’s version,”
Jace
said in a pleading voice. “Please.”

The taller man raised an eyebrow at him. “I record
everything in my logs.”

“That just didn’t come from your logs,”
Jace
pointed out. “I can from your head and things you
would never write down because you’re uncertain of them. That’s the playbook I
want.”

“We each have our own,” Wilson said, dismissing the
compliment. “We share when we can, but mine won’t work for you and vice versa
because we have different experiences to pull off of.”

Bo looked at
Jace
. “Try to
give the man a compliment and he schools you for doing it inaccurately.”

“Yep,” Wilson confirmed.

Paul laughed. Usually the master trainer didn’t show much
sass.

“So,” Bo said, glancing at both Wilson and Vortison.
“Big picture is if I can ascend again it’ll take longer?”

“If his theory holds, yes,” the medtech said.

“And if yours lasts longer,” Paul added, “we might be
able to get enough data from you alone to find the triggers.”

Riona walked over and wrapped Bo up in a big hug from
behind. “Looks like you’re going to be our new training buddy.”

“She’s right,” Greg said. “You’ve got to stay here and
train your ass off. Forget field
work,
go after as
many triggers as you can.”

“Please,” Paul urged.

Bo held up his hands in surrender. “You don’t have to
tell me twice. Sounds cool, regardless I’ve
been wanting
to catch up to Morgan for a long time anyway.”

“Ha,” Greg laughed. “Good luck with that one.”

“Hey,” Paul said, frowning. “I’m ahead of her now.”

“We all know that won’t last,” Bo dismissed offhand.

Paul glared at him. “Now
them’s
fighting words.”

“If I can beat Vermaire…” he floated with an innocent
look.

“I believe,” Wilson said casually, still studying the
hologram and making some notations on his datapad, “that he is looking for a
rematch. I’ll wager 100 credits he’s going to beat you next time around.”

“Ouch,” Paul said with a hushed laugh as he saw the
air visibly go out of the other trailblazer.

“No bet there,” Greg added. “But it’ll be fun to
watch.”

“Killjoy,” Bo mumbled.

8

July 18, 2546

Solar System

Earth

It took three days for Jason to get the trigger down,
with him having to internally adjust his physical and mental state to what was
required for Pren ascension. He’d already gained that ability, but it was
necessary for him to realign himself with it in order to pass it onto
others…something rather easy in execution, once you knew what you were looking
for. The trick was calibrating yourself without knowing where you were.

Originally he and Paul had learned the battlemeld
trigger, which was now so familiar to him he didn’t require any biomonitor help
when he helped a ranger ascend and gain the ability. In this situation that
wasn’t the case, so he’d worn a headband biomonitor connected to a datapad
display and sat in a meditation chamber making internal adjustments until he’d
hit the mark. Then he repeated the process again and again until he was fairly
confident he could hit and hold the necessary trigger.

That was when it was time for his first ‘handshake.’
Paul was lagging a little behind him in learning the trigger, as was Greg, so
it was Jason who got to try the first share outside of Battlemeld, with him
choosing Wilson to be at the head of the line. He did that for two reasons, one
being that Wilson was already close to getting it on his own, so it shouldn’t
take that much link prodding to hit his trigger. The second was that he knew
that if Wilson got it he’d probably learn new angles to train it, which Jason
would rather have sooner than later.

When the time came the two sat down in a meditation
chamber, alone with nothing else aside from Jason’s datapad that he kept linked
to his biomonitor so he could troubleshoot if he lost the trigger.

That wasn’t the hardest part, for he also had to form
the twin link with Wilson. He and everyone else who had the Battlemeld shared
with them already had been trained to replicate the link, so that wasn’t a
problem, but each person was different and forming the link was a bit of a
customization endeavor. He’d done it so many times with Paul that it just felt
natural, but attempting to do so with others always required a great deal of
work…which is what Wilson and Jason started with.

They spent nearly four hours in a mental chess game as
they tried to line up their minds with one another, then finally they achieved
the handshake and locked up, with one’s body/mind mimicking the other by
registering it as their own. It was essentially a forced Ikrid glitch, but a
very useful one, not only in that it could help share triggers but that it
completely bypassed the Ikrid blocks and allowed one to read another, not by
requisition of data but by continuously transmitting
everything
.

Once the two men had that link established they
remained still, Wilson focusing on holding the twin link while Jason began
adjusting himself to the Pren trigger…without jeopardizing the link. That was
very delicate work, but he’d done this so many times with others in sharing Battlemeld
that he knew how far to press before the twin link would break on his end. It
was Wilson that was the unknown factor, but the man was a beast in anything
training related and held his end up admirably.

A little less than an hour later and Jason successfully
held himself aligned to Pren long enough for it to register in Wilson’s mind,
making his subconscious think that he was actually in that required state. When
that happened his trigger activated and Jason immediately felt the instability
surge inside both of them.

The trailblazer broke the twin link, knowing that it
would interfere with the process. Wilson had to chase it, and Jason’s presence
would be a stabilizing point that would essentially weigh him down. That said
,
he was going to help him, so once he broke the link he
reached with his Ikrid and transmitted like a beacon a stable point into his
mind for him to use, but otherwise staying out of the process. This was
Wilson’s battle to fight, as it should be.

It took him a long time to increase the instability,
and Jason felt him almost lose it several times, but whenever that happened Wilson
used Jason’s mental anchor to effectively reset the ascension process and try
again. He was learning each time without losing the trigger activation, which
impressed Jason thoroughly after he reached out and made physical contact to
monitor what was happening more closely. Wilson only had
one
ascension
under his belt to date, and he was showing considerable skill
navigating the process despite his ‘newb’ status…and on top of that he wasn’t
even an Archon.

There were a handful of trusted individuals who had
gotten the psionic carwash, but only two had been given battlemeld…Wilson and
Davis. Paul had offered it to Vermaire, but he’d declined stating he didn’t
want anyone in his head. That was typical Black Knight, to the core.

Davis had taken some 18 tries to eventually get the
battlemeld, underscoring the fact that it was something he wasn’t ready for and
reinforcing
the Archons’ ranger 50 minimum benchmark for
sharing the ability
. They didn’t regret sharing it with Davis, for he
was a very special case, but those who weren’t Archons and didn’t earn it were
so mentally inexperienced in such training disciplines that it was going to be
difficult for them to achieve the ascension, even with help.

Wilson was no exception, but how he went about working
the problem was the impressive part. He was literally learning how to fight as
he fought, which truly showed his caliber in a way that Jason nor any of the other
Archons had ever seen before…which only added to his already considerable
respect for the man.

Jason sat and gave him the mental anchor for more than
5 hours before Wilson’s headband started flashing 3 red and he eventually let
go of his wrist, breaking the Ikrid connection.

Viewed from the outside Wilson was sitting perfectly
still, then blinked his eyes a few times before opening them and craning his
head up towards the ceiling and stretching his neck against the pain Jason knew
was coursing through his head.

“Got it,” the head trainer said. “Thank you.”

“Well done. I’ve never known of anything to hold onto
the instability for that long.”

“That’s because you guys don’t need to. I’m still the
learner here.”

“That won’t last long,” Jason said as he stood up. “
Ow
…watch yourself. Been sitting here too long,” he said,
limping off to the door as his legs were sore and half asleep.

Wilson stood up and followed him with less effort, but
at a much slower pace. When he got to the doorway he put his hand on the rim
and steadied himself.

Jason reached out and touched his forehead, taking
another read on his bios. “That long effort really scrambled your head.”

“I believe ‘fragged’ is the right word, though it
seems to be insufficient at the moment.”

Jason withdrew his hand. “Can you walk?”

“Barely…but I’ve got a window. I’ll work it out.”

“Come on,” Jason said, grabbing his arm for some added
support…by way of hacking into his nervous system and partially taking control
of his body to keep him from falling over. “I’ll get you back to your
quarters.”

Wilson was in agony for the next two days, with most
of the first just staying in bed and trying to be as still as possible. When he
wasn’t making much progress there he experimented with various music,
eventually finding an active song that his mind seemed to lock onto and fall
into sync with rather than randomly going every which way in a chaotic frenzy.
He put it on continuous repeat and felt the first slight crack of relief, doing
his best to stay in it until his stomach began complaining enough for him to
venture out for some food some 19 hours later.

The second day he got three short runs in, staggered
out with long naps in between along with brief computer sessions where he got
caught up on events and just killed some time. He kept changing up what he did,
because stagnation seemed to hurt his head more than light activities, almost
as if he had to keep changing what he did in order to keep the
painmaker
from getting a lock on him.

Come the third day the mental fragging had diminished
a detectable amount and Wilson could have no more sitting and lying around so
he laid out a light but long training schedule for the day and suffered through
it. He did the same for the fourth and fifth days before his head finally relented
and the pain began to diminish, having been beaten into submission.

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.”