Void's Psionics (25 page)

“
We arrived safely and being
so close to the core meant it was too unstable a place to safely
make a home. That being said, it was perfect to test. Steven loaded
titanium alloy into the Gravity Forge and we sent it out the
airlock. Jacob sat and maneuvered it for twenty hours away from our
ship. Jess, I forgot to mention, continued to build on the program
you made.” Stephanie told Oliver who slid the blade back and handed
it over to Renee. “When all safety parameters were set I put a
normal knife under a scanner to map out an accurate design. Jacob
initiated the sequence and for a time we all held our breath. We
all sat on deck watching the cameras inside and out of the Gravity
Forge. The forces were astronomical and we are glad you found its
weakness.”

Jessica nodded slowly. “My
original calculations were
way
off for practical application. It would have
failed in under ten seconds had you not been aware. Now that I have
Jacob’s engineering program it sure has helped a few other ideas
I’ve been working on.”

“
Back to the Forge, we all
knew practical application using gravity to fold and cut metal has
been around ever since the gravimetric strip and dampeners were
invented for safe sublight and FTL travel. But now it is more
efficient and practical than ever before. Jess’s program allowed
for the metal to be folded into shape before full pressure was
applied. The exerted force generated so much heat the titanium
turned molten in an instant, but remarkably the temperature got so
hot it inverted in on itself to shrink and compress. When the
molecules fused completely together an explosion of heat flew out
the relief chamber you invented without compromising neither the
inner or outer shells. All we saw was a relief of heat reminiscent
of a neutron star’s beam. But it was over in an instant. After the
flash we all saw a one kilo dagger sheathe.

“
The ship and remote
operated Gravity Forge flew back together to save time. We brought
it aboard and Jacob worked to find any form of stress while Jess
and I took the sheathe and first checked that it fit with the blade
of a knife to find the compression was denser than expected. It fit
too loose so Jess modified the program with the new data’s result.
I meanwhile went about testing the durability and discovered the
metal is as versatile as your weapons, Oliver. But not to the same
degree. Your metal is still unknown in composite.

“
My new knife couldn’t cut
it, but a powerful laser focused on a point for twelve continuous
hours was able to bore a hole through the thin titanium. But
afterwards I tried painting it, but the surface is so smooth that
nothing sticks. It’s frictionless. Only the rippled shape keeps it
from flying out of our hands.

“
Remembering all the clean
colors on the other Star-sabers got me thinking how they were so
vibrant without paint when the metal is near identical to yours. So
I decided that the metal must be colored
before
being formed in the Gravity
Forge. Running with the idea, I took another titanium composite and
melted it down to be mixed with corundum and aluminum oxide to give
it a light blue tint.” Renee passed it back and as the handle
touched Stephanie’s hand it lit back up, but she tapped a
fingernail against the sheathe. “When it finished and cooled I
returned just as Jacob was filing the report that only minor stress
was added to the prototype. Since it was able to be used again I
sent out the kilo sheet and scanned
my
knife.

“
A few hours later I was
returned this. I was right in adding trace coloring to the metal
beforehand and adding a crisscross texture and Jess was correct in
refactoring precise dimensions to the forging and forming
processes. It still weighs a solid kilo from before so there was
nothing gained or lost other than all the heat it absorbed was
expressed so quickly it didn’t have time to warp or burn the metal
itself. And as you can tell, the fit is
perfect
. And also of note, the
temperature is held stable at near to above human temperature
somehow. It neither gains or loses, but I have yet to learn how
your weapons adjust to gravities.”

“
Let me see now that I’ve
got a chip to fully integrate into my Valek.” Oliver jerked the
dagger from his outer left calf and let the vambrace do its thing
with the intent to learn how the dagger adjusts weight. They had
all gone silent as his eyes shifted through holograms they could
not see. “Hmm… strange.”

“
What is?” Stephanie
asked.

“
It’s hard to explain, but
the grip has a hollow area filled with a semi-organic and metallic
substance. Netul had once told me about Solarian weapons degrading
into useless metal dust when their host dies. The metal reacts to
touch… the semisolid organic material in the handle runs up through
microscopic coils in the blade itself to create a field of gravity
it can sense through the surroundings. It keeps its balance
perfect… so that’s why we felt pain…”

“
Idiot, you lost us.” Renee
playfully smacked his chest.

“
Oh… er sorry.” His gaze
snapped back to focus. “Remember how my Valek crushed our hands on
the items?”

“
Don’t remind me.” Stephanie
unconsciously flexed her fingers.

“
The pain was actually from
forcing our unique psionic energies as well as our genetic code
into the handle where the semisolid material waits to be activated
and linked to a single host. Think of our bodies as the key and the
weapon is a locked treasure. Without our unique and individual
touch, no one can access its features. It required tremendous force
to shove our essence into the material nothing can normally
penetrate. It is why it hurt so much.”

“
Makes sense.” Jessica
commented. “What else did you find out? Does this semisolid stuff
manipulate gravity like gravimetric strips?”

“
Similar concept, but the
organic components is the driving force. My people were obsessed
with living technology as is well documented… The metal stores a
limited amount of energy… is why it twinkles like stars… the only
other things I can find out is that the coils I spoke of in the
blade
directs
psionic energy to the edge to release a slicing wave based on
the host’s intent, but also erects a dulled barrier if the edge
gets too close to the host’s flesh and also erects one immediately
when separated from me… unless I intend to throw it.”

“
Interesting. Can you tell
what the compounds are made of?” Renee asked.

“
The blade itself is made up
of some form resembling as best I can tell to be similar to
tungsten carbide, but not exactly…” He was no longer looking at
them as the beige dagger’s readouts were visually displayed to his
eyes. “It’s not naturally occurring for a metal for certain. It’s
tough, heavy and can take levels of extreme abuse while maintaining
flexibility. Jess, take out your tablet and I’ll flash you the
metal’s molecule composition.” As she dug it out of her pocket he
went on. “The organic part is some kind of packed in, non-living
bacteria that forms a solid chain to make the coils and is under
extreme pressure. Like a spinal cord of nerves. It makes it all
seem as if the dagger was poured and formed in one
piece.”

“
Alright, I’m ready.”
Oliver’s chip connected to her handheld crystal and a moment later
a three dimensional creation of the metal’s composition and atoms
were put on display. A nucleolus surrounded by many moving
electrons. “I see what you mean. Hold on…” Jessica’s eyes narrowed
as she zoomed in on an unassuming electron to breathe “Those
aren’t
electrons
.
Those are gathered and compacted neutrinos. Solarians could capture
neutrinos and combine them with a metallic nucleolus… No
wonder.”

“
Damn… they are so far
technologically above us and that is just to make such a basic
knife. Why did they bother making such weapons?”

“
Because many warriors were
too strong to fight without them… like me.” Oliver spoke as he
watched the moving atom. He also knew humanity had still been
unable to capture neutrinos properly. They could detect, but
couldn’t hold on as the energy particles flow constantly through
all manner of materials.

“
Care to explain?” Stephanie
asked.

“
Well I asked the same
thing. When Netul and Callier helped me out I asked something
similar to what you said. Why would I need a sword when I could
demolish planets and yawn doing it? Apparently Solarian warriors
were restricted similar to the Zeelin in that those able to harness
extreme power be limited in how much they could legally exert. It
is why swords and shields were common. The basic weapons had
precise control that made sure the host didn’t go overboard. You
have no idea how difficult it is to control my power. I’ve not
mastered it by a long shot.” The three women seemed to swallow at
the same time. “But with a sword to limit the amount of devastation
I can unleash, I don’t need to hold back. The sturdiness of these
weapons ensure that even if I funnel one hundred percent of myself,
it won’t explode in my hand. It isn’t often my needs will ever
require to crack open planets so simple weapons are ideal for
conflict. You wouldn’t cut down a tree with a starship’s forward
cannon. You would use a simple handsaw. These tools are invaluable
for restraint if someone such as me got carried away.”

“
When put that way… I
agree.” Stephanie chewed her bottom lip. “I can see the use why
Creelin often fight with Psi Blades when they have superior
individual prowess than humanity. It would be necessary to restrict
those of power… just like we do with Phantoms. But we diverted from
the subject at hand.” She put the knife back behind and hid it
beneath a shirt. “The Gravity Forge prototype worked for another
eighty three tests before Jacob correctly said the next was going
to fail. We had to measure just how bad a catastrophic failure was
and moved much further away and readied FTL just in case… and I’m
glad we did. It failed and the sudden pull of gravity jerked
us
faster
than the
speed of light it took for us to receive back the subspace
transmission from camera relays. We got the hell out and returned
ten hours later to find it had made a micro-neutron star that was
heading deeper into the center of this galaxy and would reach in
approximately ten thousand years. You were right about it being
able to self sustain.”

“
Not good. I originally
calculated three thousand minimum uses and the potential that
gravity wouldn’t dissipate was less than a billionth of a percent.
It shouldn’t have had enough matter to self-sustain.”

“
Yeah, the prototype sure
opened up our eyes to the reality of danger.” Jessica agreed, but
then smiled. “But then it also gave me an idea too. If we can find
a better means to regularly produce those forces and reduce stress
then it
can
become
a viable product, especially to the space industry. What if we
could take a meter thick panel of steel and flatten it to half a
hair’s thickness? It would free up more room and be infinitely
harder to be destroyed. Imaging a battle cruiser facing off against
a Goliath without need for a whole armada? It would save lives and
be easily repaired since my program can push gaping holes punched
through a membrane and seal the gap in an instant if the ship was
metal. Living ships like ours aren’t capable of doing so.” Jessica
leaned forward. “My idea was to add a third and maybe a fourth
shell.

“
The innermost of the
failure test showed it imploded first to drag the outer shell of
the prototype into itself. Instead of the outer second shell simply
shielding and regulating the inner sphere doing all the forging…
what if we task the outer layer to
pull
with equal force on the inner?
Logically the extreme forces would negate each other and save the
inner shell’s hull integrity. The innermost shell sucks in to forge
and compress. The secondary shell pulls the inner, outward. While
those two essentially fight, the third sphere shields. If we add a
fourth protective covering to push itself into FTL subspace to go
to a predetermined and safe location, should the process fail,
using your compacted FTL drive you used on the Flare, it would
theoretically have time to contain the micro-neutron star and get
it far away before it does any real harm to lives… if you give me
the schematics of the FTL. I won’t mess with the Flare without your
permission, but it would help.”

“
A genius idea. I just ran a
preliminary simulation to what I memorized and the safety margin
for collapse dropped four hundred percent
minimum
… and can be resized according
to industrial applications. And you have my permission, but I’ll
dedicate some time to think of something better than the drive to
my fighter.” Oliver smiled right back at her.

“
Thank you. I’ve rechecked
my numbers five times and with minor maintenance we can mass
produce ships twelve percent faster and nine hundred percent more
durable. But I want to add your name to the patient we’ll loan
Galicom. It’ll send us a
lot
of credits, but since you were invaluable to these
ideas I feel like I’m cheating you out of acknowledgement at least.
It was originally Stephanie’s idea after examining your Star-saber,
but you and I made it a feasible and workable solution for real
world application for the Gravity Forge.”