Evolution's Essence (3 page)

Called brain-hacker, a Valek can download the
memories of any sentient creature and transfer images and feelings.
It cannot transfer consciousness, but Renee just downloaded
everything from the subject who was already dead from a fast acting
poison that kills in seconds. Seconds were more than enough to get
information.

Downside to the brain-hacker is it applies a
lot of mental strain. Oliver electrified his sword to clean it,
slid it in the sheath and managed to scoop her into his arms before
she collapsed onto the bloodied floor. He moved her away as Steven
let the dead body fall and slammed his heavy boot in the skull to
make sure the job was finished for good. It squished like a
watermelon.

Another kick was for Elder Scimitar.

“
Red?” Oliver whispered,
laying her down. His hard helmet rippled and became malleable to
retract into his suit. Golden mist seeped from his eyes that were
worried. He hadn’t expected her to do it. He planned to take the
memories.

Eyes shifted fast under shadowed lids as she
assimilated the information nanoseconds at a time. In a few more
silent moments her eyes opened as Oliver pulled his energy back
from the Pride and stored it in the device on his right arm.
“Olly?” she whispered, sat up and shook her head. “Damn it. I hate
the after effects.”

“
Mrs. Void, are you
alright?”

Green eyes let out mist the
same color looked up at a blood soaked Stone as Satellite circled
above. She gave an evil grin. “Oh yeah. That bastard had all the
answers to our recent problems and now
I
got them. I couldn’t take the puzzle
pieces from the cores, but I’ve hit the mother lode and we don’t
have much time if you want to catch Chandler and the bitch
responsible for screwing with Deegen’s head and signing his death
warrant, both in bed together.”

Though she couldn’t see it, she knew Stone
was mighty fearsome behind the faceplate. So too was Steven who
came up ready for more action, ready to get revenge on a Hunter
brother and sister, Bell the wolf.

“
They are in on it, Mrs.
Void?” Stone said with ice and danger in his voice.

“
Damn right. Olly, you
better send word to the Elders for an armada of six hundred battle
cruisers. A… a dreadnought I think the Creelin call such a ship.
Chandler has made ten thousand more ‘Corrupt Ones’ just like
him
and the new corpse
knew he planned to use them to kill all the Hunters after
uncovering whatever secrets were in the puzzle we’re searching for.
He’s got a private fortress and has been funding it without anyone
knowing about it on a carrier class starship with weapons equal to
fifty battleships. It is so damn big and heavy it takes sixteen
days to ready FTL. Make the armada go to Zerika to amass the
forces. It’s about five days FTL from it right now. Don’t waste a
second, the ship rivals the Emperor’s ship in defense and exceeds
firepower.”

Aquerril appeared and said “Master, I have
located the point of origin from transmission to the Corrupted
One.”

“
Show me.” Beside the woman
appeared a star chart Oliver instantly memorized it and zoomed in
on a gigantic ship armed to the teeth.

“
That’s
the ship!” Renee pointed from her memory.

“
Fuck me.” Steven whispered
in dread.

“
Aside from a visual,
Master, I cannot penetrate the interior. My long range visual scans
cannot bypass a field I do not have the ability to
circumvent.”

“
Thank you, Aquerril. You’ve
done more than enough. Begin city repair, but remain on standby in
event of another attack. Also please keep a constant visual and
contact me for any relevant updates on that ship. Disengage the
defensive protocols inside the city unless you pick up more
Corrupted bio-signs.” She smiled and disappeared.

Oliver stood and tapped his ear for the
imbedded crystal for a long range communication. He kept his hand
hiding a golden metal tooth than began to glow by the ear. With it,
he had access to do this “Priority alert to all Hunters within ten
days travel to Zerika. This is High Elder Void. There is a credible
threat to all Hunters by President Chandler of Galicom. Right now
he holds a powerful ship called a dreadnought in empty space five
days FTL from Zerika that exceeds firepower in Emperor Coleson’s
imperial destroyer. Commandeer all battle cruisers and immediately
enter FTL for Zerika. The ship holds enemies capable enough to
destroy and take over our order if we do not act now. Elder Scythe
is ranking Elder on Zerika at present. He will assume temporary
command. All Elders are commanded by me to arrive there for full
council if you can make it in time or not. I repeat…” he did just
that near word for word.

All ships within the message under that
criteria were rushed to answer the call as soon as it came to an
end.

One minute after word spread there came a
call from the oldest living human Hunter. Grandest Vanishing Claw.
“Brother Void, all Elders are listening to us at the moment. I’m on
the imperial destroyer Gaia standing with the Emperor as we speak.
Give me specifics right now of the situation, from the beginning
for those not up to speed.”

So began the account of private matters of
the newly discovered lost cities to a silent audience all on the
move or hurrying to a ship. He told of the ‘Corrupted One’ and the
subsequent battle and of Elder Scimitar’s aid in saving him. He
explained some of what he did here on Mereddia to set up a trap to
block teleportation and contain him. Spoke of the most recent
heated battle and Renee added her own accounts from what she
learned using a brain-hack.

Silence dominated for about a minute when a
soft spoken male voice calmly joined the network of Elder Hunters.
“Everyone, this is Emperor Coleson, first of all I wish to thank
you for doing all this Mr. Oliver Void. And I agree your actions
are justified. I ask you transmit an encrypted file on this
grievous situation and add the visuals on what we face so a plan of
action can be established. Since I believe you are our best hope to
avoid bloodshed and seek justice, may I ask you use your gifts in
the battle and make sure they cannot use their teleportation to
leave. I’ve read you can do many things beyond our understanding.
Can you prevent a field of sorts to make sure when we appear in
normal space they cannot leave?”

“
Simple matter. I’ve already
begun mental calculations to replicate the same effect here on the
city over a broader range.”

“
Good. Good.” He sighed over
the link. “Then I leave you in charge of readying the Hunters to
stop a travesty before it can be unleashed. It is good Mrs. Void
says the others like this assassin are still in growth chambers.
Save what you can, but Chandler and the two women he’s mated to are
to be detained and sit for an Elder’s Council and be publically
executed so justice is made. Know this, my fleet is two days from
Zerika and we will join the fight. My ship, Gaia, will face the
enemy to take on the heaviest fire. I’ve recently had a shield
upgrade to the Gaia before leaving Earth Chandler doesn’t know of.
Short of a star exploding, my ship and fleet can take a heavy
beating. We’ll meet soon, Solarian.”

“
Look forward to it. If you
will excuse me, I’ve got a lot of work to do.” He canceled the call
by tapping his ear again. “Well?”

“
My skills as medic will be
needed.” Renee was adamant she’d go.

“
Like we’re going to miss
out on the fun, but we’ve got to go back to finish up in the
frostbitten city. The captain won’t like twiddling his thumbs.”
Visor chirped, looking at the wall of water solidifying the earlier
gap of Oliver’s grand entrance.

“
Yeah, and we need to make
sure our daughter is taken care of for a couple days and Sparky is
coming too.” Renee added on.

“
Okay. We’ll incinerate the
mess to lift the quarantine, get cleaned, let the Marines secure
the area again and head back. Let’s go freeze our asses off again.
While you lot do that I’ll meet up with Marines I’m assuming Mrs.
Void’s pilots from earlier are being detained and set up an armed
detail to send them to Verard for torture and get additional
details along the way.” Steven joked and added coldly. “I’ll
execute the bastards involved in the conspiracy for Deegen and
Bell. I really liked them… Oh, would you look at that.”

Eyes turned to where the burly hunter pointed
on the ground to watch the white longsword Star-saber begin to
decompose before their very eyes into dust. Its bonds breaking
apart with the death of the wielder. The incomplete Valek on the
same armored arm likewise decomposed. Taking an opportunity Oliver
scooped the remains into individual containers for further
study.

They then began doing exactly as planned and
fixed things before leaving the atmosphere again to leave.

Six hours after, the group returned to the
frozen world and Oliver sent the Ligers to resume running a
perimeter with their cubs. Before flying down the large tunnel made
in a perfect circle he glanced up at the many moons he had to move
away from the planet for safety reasons. Without altering their
orbit they were too close to the thin atmosphere and created a
flash-freeze effect where the temperature got so cold so fast near
all thermal energy is lost in a handful of seconds. The few Beasts
who lived for millennia under such conditions were most definitely
a robust species not to be underestimated.

Armor returned to warm and furry for the
Solarian duo and they led the way down back to the solid nano-wall,
placed their hands on it. A soft blue silhouette responded to their
touch to read their access and the wall rippled. They then stepped
right in to be greeted by a pair. Breena and the captain who said
“Welcome back, Lads. I’m glad to see ye all doing well with me own
two eyes.”

“
Hi, Papa. It was rather fun
finally getting valuable answers why we’ve had so much trouble
since my idiot was found.”

“
Aye, Lass. Chandler has no
chance now that his whole operation is now in yer pretty little
head.” Jake chuckled. “While we go meet up with Andrea, Jessica and
Jacob, I wish to hear what ye know.”

Breena looked over her man’s form and nodded
without her helmet on covering her youthful dark features. The city
was indeed cold, but nowhere near that of temperatures outside the
nano-wall. Stone first followed her example then the others
mirrored it. Their breath frosting the air.

“
Papa, Chandler has been
seeking revenge ever since he was expelled from the Hunter order
over five centuries ago. The guy I hacked was called Subject Ten K.
As in ten thousand. Chandler has been planning this the entire
time. Trying to create a product to exceed the Hunters, kill them
and sell the clones for hefty profits over security robots.
Chandler mistakenly spoke with Ten K in confidence, believing the
system that made the abomination be unable to expose his
secrets.”

The group quietly listened to her go into
details since the walk was long to the heart of the icy city. “The
bastard had a tracer on our ship, Papa. He put it on when we were
docked on Verard trying to renew our galactic visa. Olly already
removed it. He was rendered blind when Auntie’s blackout systems
were in effect, but after my kidnapping is when Ten K successfully
came out of the growth chamber. Chandler used the tracer painted on
the hull to follow us to Drakken Prime and after Olly drilled a
hole through the mountain and deactivated the windy city’s defenses
Ten K was sent to capture the Core and succeeded without detection.
Stole it about three weeks after we left and waited for an
opportunity on Zerika, but was curious about Olly and me. He was
strong enough to feel our power even when we block it. He believed
Oliver was a credible threat to his ‘Father’ and took it upon
himself to kill my idiot.

“
Papa, this Ten K was
brainwashed, but also highly trained in an even shorter time than
Olly. Chandler pushed him ruthlessly, but also made it seem he
loved him. Ten K had no interaction except with the mothers,
Chandler’s mates. The one with canary yellow hair called Veronica,
is a damn good psychologist. She trained his mind to be
self-destructive in event of capture. And worse yet, they hardwired
his brain to be incapable of following the rules of anyone he
didn’t have an emotional connection to. He’s like a loyal dog. If
they said not to tell anyone, he’d kill himself before revealing a
thing. Chandler taught swordsmanship and Psionic usage too. It is
why he fought like Olly.”

“
So ever since the lad got
the boot from the Elders, he’s planned revenge and funded secretive
plans with the expressed purpose of starting a war with all
Hunters.” Jake shook his large head. “Insanity to the very
core.”

“
Chandler adamantly
believes
Hunters
are the cause for the continued Keptl attacks and aren’t doing
enough to kill them all. Ten K’s memories are clear to me except
with Olly’s puzzles. For some reason I didn’t get them, but he
believes himself a revolutionist. By using the clones as Keptl
fodder, no more humans need to fight and using modern technology he
can make billions to set against them in short order.”

“
The reason why you couldn’t
hack the puzzle memories, Red, is because they are seared
permanently in my mind. I can’t shed them, least not yet.” Oliver
answered. “Memories I’ve noticed, tend to fade or aren’t as clear
in long-term memory. The three parts I’ve got are clear as polished
cut crystal still.”