Void's Psionics (54 page)

“
Creelin?”

“
No.” she saw his jaw
clench. “I don’t know
what
he was, but he was powerful, ruthless, cunning and
as fast as me. Nova though tells me something is wrong with the
man’s scent. Like he is diseased by the Keptl. He says its faint,
but there.”

“
Wait… you think?” It
clicked.

“
Yeah. I think someone has
restarted the rebirth testing we destroyed back on New Wrangler
prison before we broke out. I think someone succeeded in making
that bastard. He’s too strong for a human and Nova remembers the
scent of Keptl. One plus one equals…”

“
An abomination.” He
conceded hers was the better answer. “Did you scent this ‘Father’
on him?”

“
My nose was compromised at
the time so no.”

“
Err. Sorry.” She admitted
and came closer, realizing it was her fault because she used their
daughter to do it. “Let me check your side.” Renee held up his arm
as a section of his armor rippled back to show off the thin line of
puckered flesh. “Clean cut. Did you clean the wound?”

“
Stone and I had to reopen
it and do so.” Said one of Stone’s other mates. “Your mate fought
well with such an injury. I also gave him an herb to chew on that
helps numb the pain. It might be clean, but lung wounds make it
hard to breathe.”

“
Too true.” Renee admitted.
She lowered his arm to say “What else can you tell me?”

“
He carried a longsword
Star-saber for certain. And a dagger that was made of normal metal,
but he wore strange armor. It was flexible as ours, but made up
with plates similar to the skin of a snake except over rigid areas
like thighs, shins and a breast and backplate that were smooth.
I’ve never seen armor produced of that model. Also he had been
teleported out with a flash. It proves he doesn’t do it like
us.”

“
That is good. It means he
can’t get ahead of us too quickly. You think we should teleport to
the three other places before Papa gets…”

“
No. We’re going to wait for
Jake and go together. I must also tell you that Abdul also called
me.”

“
What the hell happened
now?” She sighed and sat down on a waiting bench outside the med
bay.

“
Seems someone aboard likes
to take vacations and…”

“
Meredith. She is the
vacation and recreation officer of the Dorgenox.”

“
Whatever. Well apparently
she came running to the bridge and apparently it was published that
scouts have been privately and secretly surveying the water planet
for the past three years and recently published its as the new
beach and ocean planet resort. It’s called Mereddia.”

“
You don’t mean
it?”

“
I’ve never lied to you.
Abdul paid in advance from Jake’s funds to charter our own private
beach within the past hour. But you should know the beaches
literally float on the planet’s watery surface. Seems algae a long
time ago made small landmasses. It has F-Rank Beasts, but they are
few and far between and not much of a danger… till you go deep
down. There are deep scans of gigantic sea creatures very deep down
reminiscent of Earth’s Eels. Otherwise, it is now the newest resort
planet published to those who can afford to pay it so the Empire
can afford to colonize it. Jake made sure to have Abdul buy one of
the largest islands in full. And the transaction was a
success.”

“
Mereddia huh?” Renee laid
her head back on the wall. “Haven’t seen a beach in what… a decade?
It’ll be good to unwind a little before we go looking for the
city.”

“
Speaking of going Mrs.
Void” Renee cracked a glowing eye to Stone’s mate. “I’ve been
approved commission aboard the Dorgenox as the third Hunter to be
the replacement for Deegen Castor.”

Renee cocked her head. “What is your
name?”

“
Breena. Breena Valdez.
Eight nine years old. Class One huntress with a Class Eight Psionic
cap.” She said casually while fingering a thin rapier at her hip.
On her back was the collapsed version of a lance she had seen from
Steven more times than she cared.

“
Companion?”

The barest hint of sadness touched her dark
eyes. “Died in battle thirty four years ago to distract a Stingray
that got the better of me. I can’t bear to get another Neo and go
through the loss again. Losing a companion is difficult to
overcome. They are part of you and losing it is like dying a
little. So I’m a lone huntress, Mrs. Void.”

She closed her eyes and said “Alright Breena,
I’ve accessed your medical information and flashed them over to my
med bay for future reference. I’ll give you a thorough physical
later. Now I just want a little quiet.”

She peeked as Oliver sat down and threw an
arm over her shoulders so she laid her head on his chest to soak in
some physical contact. Connected as she was she heard him
communicating to multiple people mentally, giving her silence. A
security detail was established at the door as the village remained
on lockdown till he was sure there was to be no more danger.

When that would be was a good question.

Chapter 14

Change in the steady breathing as well as a
speed up of the heart would be easily overlooked if they hadn’t the
acuity of hearing that goes with pointed ears. Oliver carefully
extracted himself from the observation bench inside the cooled med
bay, careful not to rouse Renee who was fast asleep on the soft
seat off to the far wall. His steps were almost totally silent in
crossing the area to the extended bed. One of six currently
occupied. The primary village medic gave Oliver a glance and left
his patient to follow, seeing what Oliver had noticed too.

The men stood to either side as Elder
Scimitar groaned and was in the process of coming out of the
induced coma the morning of the third day. The Elder’s head was
completely wrapped and tightly bound in white healing tape. Tape
that was changed every three hours for maximum healing
purposes.

Black eyes cracked in the dimly lit medical
bay where a curtain also helped block the early morning sunlight
from streaming in through windows. “Wha…”

Oliver extended a hand over the man’s chest
to push down gently, but firmly. “Best you keep laying down,
Brother.”

“
Brother Void?” Scimitar
blinked in confusion. “What’s going on? Where am I?”

The medic said “Just take it easy, Old
Friend. Tell me what you feel before you start asking
questions.”

“
Vic?”

“
I’m right here, old friend.
Talk to me.”

The Elder relaxed onto the bed and Oliver
pulled the blanket back up over the man’s sculpted chest. “Water
please first.” The Medic known as Vic nodded and carefully brought
over a soothing glass of mineral water and the Elder sucked it dry
through the straw. “Ha.” He said after the contents were empty.
Meanwhile Renee had been woken up despite their attempt to speak
softly, but she quietly came in and stood beside her man, using a
scanner discretely and nodded to the other medic not needing to say
anything. “My neck, head and chest really hurt, but I’m also a bit
groggy.”

“
It didn’t help my moronic
husband kicked you like a horse. He cracked a few ribs.”

“
Why… what fo…” Elder
Scimitar’s eyes widened. “I remember… we… we were attacked.
Right?”

“
I feared the trauma would
affect your memory.” Renee commented.

Vic said. “With the removal of his skull, the
minor swelling had room enough to limit neurological bruising. It
was both detrimental and beneficial.”

“
I was thinking that.” Renee
said calmly.

“
Did you kill the intruder,
Brother?”

“
No, he got away.” Oliver
shook his head. “I need to say thank you. Had you not reacted in my
defense, the assailant would have killed me before I could fight
back.”

“
Had I not the splicing
augmentation on my ligaments, I wouldn’t have been fast enough to
engage. What did you discover?” He went to touch his head, but
Renee smacked it away and shook her head.

“
No, the calcium bone graft
the synthesizer made hasn’t completely set to replace the top of
your skull. If you’re careful I won’t need to put your head in
traction, but it’ll itch like fucking crazy. Keep your hands away
as your skin knits over the new bone we had to put on. Think of it
as a new hat.” She smirked.

“
Jessica Menann, the
Dorgenox’s foremost computer hacker worked on all the camera angles
that caught the bastard in the act made this specifically for you
to see what happened. Do you feel up for it?”

“
Yes, Brother. Show
me.”

Oliver brought out his personal tablet from
his pocket and set up the holographic display it produced and let
the attack run from beginning to end. It was clear that multiple
angles from recordings on Hunter suits were used and rendered into
a three dimensional battle. The clearest angles came from
Scimitar’s and Oliver’s own shoulder-mounted micro cameras no
larger than a pinhead. At Scimitar’s request Oliver slowed down the
exchange, eyes narrowing.

“
Do you see
something?”

“
Yes.” Scimitar rubbed his
rough chin that hadn’t been shaved in three long days. “The
attacker is using an old form of swordsmanship learned in the time
of Vanishing Claw’s days as a boy. It is an ancient martial art few
remember and fewer can defend against, but this man is rather a
brute. He is no master as is shown by the sloppy movements. He’s
relying completely on his speed and brute force when fighting you.
Look how he moved the longsword, see how he twists his wrist? He
should relax the grip of his hand more, but instead keeps it
clutched like a vice. Had he relaxed it would have passed your
defense and slit your throat. It slowed him.”

“
But if he is using such an
ancient style, who could have taught him?” Renee asked. “If he is
not a master as you say, who would teach him?”

“
Someone with intimate
knowledge of those days near eight centuries prior as we abolished
the practice in favor of what we currently use six and a half
centuries ago. The style is flamboyant… too many wasted movements
compared to today’s, but still highly effective as was proven. No
Hunter would recommend teaching this to today’s warriors. Someone
could only teach this if they were around in the time the Grandest
was still just a boy. No one could hack our servers to find the
steps as they were only passed from master to apprentice. They were
expunged from our lessons long before I became an Elder. I only
know it from speaking with my brothers and sisters and seeing
Vanishing Claw demonstrate it for me a time or two.”

He gave Oliver a hard look.
“You should be aware the song of death your blade makes for
you
use
this
ancient style too. You have mastered it though. Vanishing Claw
taught you the moves only he and Talon know and use. None of us use
it as it requires finesse and speed to undermine people over
overwhelming strength, not just hunt Beasts. I see your mastery
from how you fought. Had your lung not been damaged your skill
would have defeated him.”

“
Why was I taught how to
twirl my cutlass instead of how you teach Hunters these days?”
Oliver was curious to find out this tidbit of
information.

“
Because Vanishing Claw
decided to. He knows what people need to realize their full
potential in the art of swordsmanship. It is a gift of sorts. He
especially isn’t known for taking an apprentice anymore, even for
one so short as your term. Do not doubt he had a reason. I do not
know, but he has a knack for doing such.”

“
This should help narrow
down our search considerably.”

“
Oh?” Scimitar turned to
look at Renee who had spoken. He winced at her bright
eyes.

“
Yeah. Do you remember
hearing about Olly and I being falsely imprisoned and on our way
out we discovered a lab referred to as ‘Rebirth?’” she leaned back
into Oliver’s shirtless chest as she wore something simple
herself.

“
Vaguely.”

“
Well they were cloning
humans in for retraining and used the illegally procured cells to
combine Keptl DNA spores to gather Psionic energy mixed with Beast
essence with the explicit goal of bringing the dead back to life.
Since Keptl physiology has been proven they gather energy and can
store it in their very cell structure, the idea is
plausible…”

“
But highly illegal and
punishable by death. Yes we are electrically held within our
physical bodies. But dead is dead. Binging them back completely as
they were at the point of death is impossible. Cloning itself is
highly illegal, but adding Keptl and Beast is… deadly.”

“
Damn right.” She nodded
with a grimace. “Well Olly’s nose and that of his Pride of Ligers
tell me that there is no doubt that
that
man has traces of Keptl and
Beasts within his normal scent. This person called ‘Father’ must
have used Keptl spores to store his own energy to fight on Olly’s
level since no human can stand a chance.
No
other way.

“
When I said your
observations help is by that whomever made that creepy masked
bastard
must
have
an immense credit account to recreate the lab I know for a fact I
destroyed, buy out scientists able to discover a way to stunt the
progress of Keptl infestation so the man doesn’t lose sanity and be
controlled,
and
with what you said they must be old enough to know how to
teach him this fighting style.