Authors: Jr H. Lee Morgan
“
So this was to be a
surprise? How long would we need to run and fly before you whipped
it out?”
“
Actually I was going to
show you once we all got outside. I had been practicing the a few
hours in private before we went to bed and Izzy decided to grace
us.” He touched her leftmost clear bosom, looking at his darling
daughter safe and warm.
“
I would have preferred she
gestate like a human baby, but she is still very beautiful.” She
placed her hand over his. “Well I’m glad you figured out how to get
us out of here safely. I’ve been worried for not just our little
hellion, but for the cubs too.” Renee glanced over to all the
watching females in full armor, their undersides a little bumpy as
the cubs suckled in safety too. “Running flat out as we did getting
here would not be good for the newborns. Jarring would not be
beneficial for day old young.”
“
It is why I prioritized
teleportation after I optimized the micro-drones to constantly fly
around the outpost and created a net that alerted me to any
incoming threats hours in advance.”
“
Well it definitely eased my
mind when you got them to work and told me exactly what I was doing
in another room and not be in my head. We will need to keep it a
secret. If anyone knew about drones the size of neutrinos, people
could be spied upon and they would never know. No door could stop
them and few sensors are sensitive enough to detect them. Hell,
fifty trillion plus pass right through our bodies every single
second of our lives at the speed of light or faster in some cases.
If someone duplicated the subatomic crystal machine you made, it
could be used to spy.”
“
Given current technology,
only two others have the capability to reproduce it. Even then,
they haven’t the mental capacity to recreate and understand how I
captured neutrinos as a basis to take same size pieces of crystal
and reorganize them into something so small and dense that they do
not degrade like normal neutrinos. And don’t worry, only you and
our grey friends understand the complexities.”
“
Speaking of, can your
micro-drones detect if the Creelin have been using the same method
to keep track of us? I do not like being watched twenty four
seven.”
“
Sorry, but no they aren’t.
They are using long range silicone based Observers cloaked in all
solar systems. For what, I don’t know. Perhaps to keep an eye on
things, but the technology was here long before humans left
Earth.”
“
Observers? How did you find
out?”
“
When I was working on the
micro-drones actually. They detected a strange and unnatural energy
signature so I sent a few out past Zerika’s reach and at the edge
of this system there is what I’m calling an Observer. They are
cloaked from visual and most forms of tech, but they give off a
signature identical to Netul’s armor. I think the Observers also
keep track of their people.”
“
You say cloaked, but do you
know what it looks like? Is it manned?”
In answer he pulled the crystal tablet and
voice activated it to display a three dimensional visual aid. The
Observer looked similar to a human eyeball surrounded by an
circling umbrella that didn’t touch the surface. The backside had a
long tail and it moved around to correct its orientation. It was
almost living, but Renee said “Yup, that is Creelin technology if I
ever saw it. They rarely have things that connect on their ship,
but is it manned and how big is it?”
“
Roughly half a kilometer
long, but it didn’t have any life-signs aboard.”
“
Now that I know we’ve been
watched by them, can you disrupt them?”
He looked up. Then smiled. “Why don’t you
tell her already?”
The mind of another Archiver
stiffly said
“He has already proven he can,
but we still request permission to continue our observations for
your safety. If you find yourself in a situation beyond your
capabilities, we will offer what aid we can within our
laws.”
“
And what do you get in
return?” Renee asked testily, arms crossed under her
bosom.
“
It is our duty. We are
honor bound to protect life. As much life as possible within our
means. Especially when circumstances force us to prevent
extinction. Our history is clear that when we first left Crelette,
our home world, Solarians aided us many times. We merely extend the
same for those worthy to advance life in a mostly lifeless cosmos.
There are many dangers even with all your power, Young Renee, you
are ill equipped to survive. Our mission as the eldest current race
is to ensure prosperity. You may keep all your freedoms, but please
allow us to safeguard you from afar. Especially in your present
condition as a nursing mother.”
That
last part struck her maternal instincts. She looked down and
would do anything to make sure her child lived. Sacrifice anything.
Anything. “Alright… but on the condition you stop watching whenever
I use the restroom or enter my bedroom. Only one person has the
right to see me naked.”
“
Fear not. We already block
moments of nudity and being indisposed. That was part of our
decisions long before we sent Beyleez Netul and Bezlin Callier as
instructors to your Match. I thank you for understanding we mean no
ill will. And should you need privacy, your Match can hide you from
our Observers, as he named them. Thank you again.”
With that he left.
“
Well my head is spinning
dizzy.”
Rose joked just enough to give the
four adult sentient creatures a light chuckle.
“Oliver, I would very much like to see this means of instant
transportation.”
“
Ditto.” Seconded Renee who
wanted back on topic and didn’t know how. She winked at her pinkish
reptilian friend.
“
Sure.” He bent over to pick
up the storage box that held all Renee’s supplies and research. He
also made a quick stop by the operations closet and made sure all
his and Netul’s upgrades were gone. They were.
Outside in the snow covered mountain the air
was frigid and cold. The air itself was thin, but not overly so and
only a few wisps of clouds were around the peaks and not anywhere
near the saddle of where Amethyst Outpost was stationed. Everything
else was clear and clean that bright morning. Smoke billowed out
with each breath as they all came out for the show. And though the
temperature was a bitter minus twenty seven degrees Celsius, all
the newborns were safe and warm inside their mothers’ armor.
Staying inside the onyx wall encircling the
outpost, Oliver sat down the box and stepped away, one hand resting
on the pommel of the cutlass. Outside stood everyone after Renee
sealed the front door for the last time. He liked how her smoking
evergreen orbs crinkled as she smiled when returning her gaze on
him. Yet she turned her breastplate back to something dark and he
didn’t see his daughter. It only made a mild, uncomfortable
twinge.
To alleviate it he said “You all heard me
talk about my teleportation earlier like a start and exit. In a way
it is more like a bridge. You get on one end and end up on another
via a folding of space itself.” He lifted his right arm and flicked
the metallic vambrace and it made a dull ‘Tink’ sound when solid.
“What happens is it envelops us in a bubble before warping and
shifting our place with another. It doesn’t switch one place with
another otherwise I wouldn’t worry about arriving somewhere solid.
We’d trade places with a rock and be none the worse for wear. I
haven’t found a way, but I’m working on it. What I do like though
it my method doesn’t generate light when I enter hyperspace, a
space where distance is meaningless so long as you got the power to
withstand the danger and pressure exerted in the moment upon the
bubble I told you that surrounds everything inside.”
“
How much power are you
talking?” Renee had to ask.
“
Equal to point five percent
what I can Gather for each move plus similar for each additional
mass I bring with me. The smaller, like yourself will need maybe
sixty three or four and each of the others will need more since
they obviously have more mass than myself.” He gestured to the
Drakes and Ligers.
“
Do you have enough?”
Sparky asked.
“
I’ve been diverting a
constant stream, the most I can withstand, every hour of the day
for over three months after what happened after the Dorgenox ripped
a crater out of the Zerika’s crust to remove that poison. I’m not
going to stop funneling till I fill this oval completely in.” He
tapped the amber oval on the forearm. “I got my ass kicked and
barely held back the assault. You know this, Sparky. Since twenty
five percent my maximum is needed, I could potentially do it
without using my storage to teleport upwards of sixty times a day.
Carrying all of you would take me just two days to be on the safe
side for that travel. Give me three months and you don’t need to
worry about the bubble bursting. Now watch, my target is that
boulder halfway to the peak.” He pointed at the
mountain.
Oliver connected to the near endless
functions of his specialized tool and located the means for
instantaneous travel. From the vambrace, it made a bond to his
intended nearby target just over a kilometer away and sent a
probing energy stream to detect for any solid objects, found none
and returned the signal for all clear. Power emanated from the
armament and a translucent bubble expanded from it, enveloping
Oliver. It was plenty for them to see the clear sphere surround
him. When it seemed to solidify, if you blinked… you missed it. One
moment and he was there. The next, not.”
Renee and the others turned to the mountain
where a large boulder was and found a black caped individual waving
down to them in a string breeze. The glint of sunlight reflected
off his angular armor. Zooming sight via the chip had him laugh at
their expressions. Then he did it again and arrived very close to
the exact same spot he had stood initially. “It looks simple, but
the math took even me a full month to create. A month.”
“
We got it. It was hard. It
took you less than twenty hours to learn all about human history
and finish schooling within that span of time. Believe me, I know.
I’ve watched your sorry ass from the day we found you. But it has
me thinking. How could you have made the Valek? You suck at
biology. Technology and you have no equal, but how did you
integrate it with what I’m good at.”
“
I get the feeling I wasn’t
alone inventing it. You do things with biology I can’t wrap my head
around… so I think Mantiv was like a lead researcher. If women are
better at manipulating molecules, DNA and living organisms then a
woman
must
have
been key to creating the bracelet as well as how technology and
biology can work as one superior form of tech. Besides, Mantiv
lived millions of years longer than all humanity scientists at the
tops of their field. He had plenty of time to tinker. And I haven’t
scratched the surface to fully appreciate how great this thing
is.”
“
Same here. It is almost
like they are teaching us too. But now that I’m willing myself to
find my teleportation features, I get the feeling it’ll need a
mountain of work to understand… but I do feel the limitation of
distance and yet the power I’ll need is less than what you suggest
yours needs.” Her gaze refocused to the outside world again. “This
will definitely help me out when I need to move quick in
administering medicine to wounded patients. Thanks for telling me.
And I did know about the locked functions, but I didn’t have time
to find out what they all were. Later I want help discovering
them.”
“
I would be happy to. Now
let us get off this mountain and somewhere warmer. Red, mount
Sparky. We’re going to fly a little. I’ll take care of my Pride and
Rose. Keep a bare hand on Sparky. He and Rose needs to bite my hand
or touch it. The Ligers will hold each other by the tail and Nova
will bite my leg.”
“
Gently I hope.” Renee
laughed as she threw a leg to hop in the contoured saddle. She let
her hand out and firmly rubbed his scaly neck as he took off
vertically.
Oliver Psionically lifted the twelve who
showed no signs of distress as they were deeply connected within
his conscious mind, placing them in a long line. They each
carefully bit the tail of the other all the way to the last. Making
a chain that curled in a ragged circle to keep things relatively
tight. Rising twenty meters off the ground Nova was the first to
latch his maw on a bare foot. Almost forgetting the box of
supplies, Oliver plucked it out off the snowy ground and threw it
over a shoulder as the Drakes instead maneuvered to encircle their
pseudo, talon tipped, hands around his arm. It was better than
sharp curved teeth meant for shredding meat.
Everyone was connected physically and the
bubble expanded from the black device, but left no physical
sensation as it encompassed all within. Once it expanded to hold
everyone there was a sudden and abrupt change in scenery. No sounds
like an electric hum, rush of air, explosion as a sudden increase
of mass appeared out of nowhere. Nothing outwardly foretold of
their arrival.
Snowy mountains were long gone and below was
a great sprawling forest surrounding the Hunter village. Frigid
temperatures and thinner air abruptly turned summer hot and heavily
humid. Next to the village of gems floated the Dorgenox inside the
forested canyon, anchored from drifting too much. Besides, the
starship sailboat was nearly ten times as large as the village. It
was easier to spot.