Void's Psionics (13 page)

Several times there were unexplained power
outages and the crew began to suspect it was his doing. Jake made
sure that no one goes near Oliver if found, but to report his
whereabouts. Many saw blurs from the corner of their eye and
weren’t certain if it was their imagination playing tricks or he
was moving too fast to be seen. Nevertheless it was making the crew
extremely uneasy with strange occurrences. Even Davan Took, wanted
criminal for the murder of his assistants he was unknowingly forced
to do, came out of hiding in his lab. He had spoken to the captain
about missing supplies, materials and very precise machines taken.
Jake did his best to calm the crew, but even he was starting to be
unnerved as the strangeness only got increasingly worse week after
week.

It wasn’t till fifty two days later that
Oliver came out onto the deck. What people saw had people shake and
shiver. He hadn’t shaved and grew a thick beard. His teeth were
coming back in, but were barely half their normal. His eyes were
sunken from lack of sleep and his hair was a wild mess. He was
tired to even look at, but the pinpoint focus of his gaze was
absolute. He was ready to kill any in his way.

Jake barely managed to not choke on his brew
sitting on the throne in the bridge as he saw the wild appearance
coming his way. Beside was Jessica, her splint gone, along with
Stephanie and Andrea Loke. Abdul’s feline eyes constricted warily
along with everyone else. “Lad… I…”

“
I’m going to keep this sort
and sweet. I’ve finished my preparations and am
leaving.”

“
Where?” Jessica spoke up
with a squeak.

“
To planet
BQX-63.”

“
You can’t possibly be
serious!” Abdul choked.

“
I can
not
wait to get my woman back for a
second longer. I’m going to the Beast Quarantine Extreme world with
the most deadliest and heavily populated Beasts controlled planet
that even Keptl fear to venture. I’ve made all preparations and
replaced all the equipment I took. Oh, let Jacob know I also
extracted one ounce of Booster Oil for my FTL drive I made for the
Flare.”

“
Ye made a faster than light
capable fighter to reach BQX-63… that’s what? Sixteen million light
years away.”

“
Seventeen point three four
to be more accurate.” Oliver admitted. “And it will only take me a
day rather than three weeks. I’ve increased output without a drain
to the engines and batteries by four thousand percent. The coolant
system needed to be completely redesigned and I did. Plus I dropped
four percent weight so I could add more storage for medical. Just
so you know, I’m taking Renee’s field synthesizer kit and
injector.” He put a hand on his sword. “If you don’t hear from me
in eight months, go through with the ransom because I’ll be dead.
If I don’t contact, make sure Renee doesn’t know. Also I left
thirty ounces of my semen time-locked for nine months in a
cryogenically frozen state in our bedroom. Don’t open it before the
timer zeroes out. It’ll explode. Make sure to keep her from pointy
things because you know what she’ll do if she learns I’m dead. Tell
her I want her to have my children, but if she does manage to kill
herself if she figures it out, I left research on artificial wombs
in the container to safely make sure our deaths aren’t meaningless.
In it is a complex solution to nourish Solarian children. And if I
lose to the Beasts I also wanted to say thank you for finding me
and did so much for my sake. But I sure as hell am going to fight
in event your plan fails and they go back on their word. After all,
Sparky did say you’ve been a thorn in their side for years. Killing
her would bring pleasure as well as keeping all your
credits.”

Oliver turned and Jake stood. “Wait just a
moment, Lad.” The tone was more a request than an order. “We’ve
been unable to locate where ye holed up for some reason, but I
wanted ye to know Andrea’s idea panned out. The mercs accepted the
sixteen million in exchange for no body parts and gave us
this.”

He turned to find Jake sitting down and there
appeared a holo-screen that showed Renee with a swollen eye. Oliver
knew a fist to the face and his blood boiled along with seeing her
for the first time in a month was like the first real breath of
life he had taken. Her voice sang through him as she said “Papa,
they give me just sixty seconds so listen up. I’ve tried escaping
several times already, but I’ll stop since they let me speak. Do
what you have to and make sure my two idiots don’t do something
that will get me killed. Tell Sparky I said to stop gnawing on his
tail as I can feel it too and for my husband to sit still. He’s not
patient. And keep him away from the fish tanks. He needs a wider
diet variety. I’m safe for now.” And then the screen went
black.

“
Seems like my Lass knows
they’ll go back on their word too. Yer gut was right, but I’ll keep
up pretenses for inside information to make it look like I’m doing
my damndest to scrape the money together. Sparky’s being sedated
for his mental sanity. Seems she also wants ye to go hunting to
break her out too. So I won’t stop ye, Lad. If eating Beasts can
strengthen yer abilities I hope ye are never sated. It came two
days ago. I wanted to see if ye were working hard and I was right,
but I thought ye were making a weapon.”

“
In eight months I will be
the ultimate weapon or dead. I’m off.”

“
Best of luck, Lad. Ye’ll
need it.”

Oliver hit the elevator and found himself on
the flight deck soon enough, but was surprised to find Stone,
Satellite, Steven and Visor. “Hello you four.”

“
Captain told us your plan.”
Stone spoke. “We came to see our brother off.” He came over and
embraced Oliver quickly. “Hunt relentlessly, Brother.”

“
I shall feast well.” Oliver
said the Hunter’s farewell.

Steven did the same while the birds dipped
their beaks.

The Flare was soon turned on and sounded only
mildly different after all the upgrades Oliver had put in her from
studying and imagination. It wasn’t too bad, but he hit the button
to lift the door and flew out as if chased by hounds. Once clear of
the Dorgenox, Oliver activated FTL navigation which calculated star
position and automatically made corrections to the perfect angle.
Outside of all planetary gravity wells which would interfere with
precise travel through subspace, when the green light locked and
calculated time in FTL precisely he pressed a new button and bright
colors appeared along with the hum of engine output.

The Flare disappeared from the Dorgenox
screens.

Inside the cockpit Oliver knew a little over
twenty four hours was coming up so he took a look at himself,
grimaced and did a quick shave after remembering the startled
reactions of everyone. After grooming he kicked the seat back and
locked it into a bed. Memories flooded and he held back the tears
as he remembered Renee making love on it on what seemed lifetimes
ago. Holding onto the pleasant thoughts he closed his eyes and
covered his head to make it dark to finally get some sleep.

Chapter 4

‘
Beep. Beep.’ A sharp chime
sounded dully in his groggy state. ‘Beep. Beep.’ It incessantly
chirped and after a dozen times he awoke with a start as he came
out of a remarkable dreamless sleep. He sat up and looked at the
console to rub his eyes to see if he was dreaming and read the
countdown. One minute ten seconds to dropping back into normal
space. Moving quick, he hit a button and the bed unlocked to adjust
into a set of large seats comfortable for his bulk. By the fifty
eighth second he was situated and readied for drop out. He flicked
on personal shields on par with a ship the size of the Dorgenox and
waited.

Studying thoroughly prepared him as just as
FTL dropped out sparks flashed in a solar system with three
asteroid belts that are unstable with the size of the planets. Only
three giants called this red giant star home as it had likely
consumed lesser worlds centuries or millennia ago. The red giant
wasn’t dangerous as calculations put its nova around ten to twenty
million more years before it finally collapses into a white dwarf.
Two worlds were gas giants and the planet Oliver had chosen was up
there in size too. The planet was a six gee, like Zerika, only the
surface was fifty percent larger.

An alert filled the cabin. “Warning. This
system is closed due to X-Rank Beasts present. Turn back. Warning.
This system is closed due to X-Rank Beasts present. Turn back…” the
message repeated from an orbiting satellite around the planet
covered in lush forest of dark green flora. Oliver, tired of
hearing the voice, turned off the transmission and hit the sublight
engines. Asteroids the size of his head was deflected off the
ship’s barrier, the large ones were flown around till leaving the
debris field.

Checking power reserves had
him smile.
Nice. Sixty three percent
reserves. Better than my original fifty two calculations. Good to
know.

The large planet was soon found spinning
around and around without moons to keep it stable. Regardless,
Oliver began long range biological scanning and more warnings went
off silently, detecting many of the most deadly Beasts ever
discovered below. He searched from afar, looking for a safe place
to land. Quite a bit of cloud cover blocked natural visual, but
scans pierced right on through. Multiple safe areas were displayed
and in the end Oliver chose a high mountain.

Entry wasn’t so bad and after avoiding a
flock of flying Salamanders found Oliver hovering in front of a
sheer rock wall. He grinned as he pressed the red button on the
control stick and squeezed the trigger. The cannons under the wing
fired and blew holes deep into the mountain. He kept firing till he
made a circular cone pattern before rising, tilting the nose down
and switching to use only the left cannon to bore a single shot
directly into the point of the cone. With it gone a great slab of
stone slid out in one piece to shatter deep down below. The pattern
of fire was precisely calculated and with the new hole made, Oliver
turned the Flare backwards and backed in to set it down. The new
cave offered shelter and made sure many of the Beasts couldn’t get
in. Least not without leaving massive signs the ship would detect
like from Vipers and Moles burrowing up through the solid
mountain.

Needing a stretch of the legs Oliver opened
the hatch and right away thousands of scents made his mouth gush
with saliva. It was such an unexpected blow he had to breathe a
couple times to clear his head and make his stomach settle. When it
did he climb out to be assaulted by heat from cutting out a cave to
decide. “Needs a little work If I’m going to live here for a few
months.” He drew his cutlass and let it absorb as he sliced it to
level out the deep gouges from cannon fire and lifted a slab to
toss out. He used it to cut out a cavity for any trophies. But on
the other side of the cave he selected it as there was a fault
where a steady stream of water flowed from the snowcap peaks. For a
few hours he cut out a stone tub with a space below before slicing
a line vertically through the wall. Right away water began to flow
down the incline to collect in the tub. The smell was pure, but
just to make sure he analyzed the water and was proven correct.
Using his cape, he collected some snowmelt in a bladder and
modified a straw to take a refreshingly cold drink.

A couple more hours were spent cleaning the
cave before he dared walk to the ledge to listen to the wind. He
had a wide view from so high, but he felt no vertigo. Excitement to
finally do something productive filled him. On the wind were many
loud calls of Beasts asserting themselves and others were cries of
death. The land was bathed a tint of red from the star far away,
but the temperature was rather pleasant. Despite the ruggedness of
this primal and untouched land where only the fittest survive, this
was perfect.

He sat there for hours, just watching and
observing. He had to pace himself, but down below he saw trees
shake and heard a scream. Taking it as a sign he moved and drew his
cutlass. He turned and dropped off the sheer ledge, but the sword
cut a straight line for him during the fall. He braced and landed
heavily on the rubble that fell earlier more than nine stories
below the cave.

Hunting instincts kicked in and his helmet
covered as he jumped in and flew down the forest silently, making
little sound, but headed for the tree shake.

A kilometer later and Oliver wasn’t shallow
for breath, but he peeked around a thick tree to find an enormous
Tortoise at least double the one he last saw on Zerika. It’s hard,
spiny shell was used for defense and offense when it digs in one
leg and coils it like a spring to throw itself at its target, but
right now it was eating the innards of another Beast of an insect
Beast of a Rhinoceros Beetle of the same relative size.

Taking a chance, Oliver jumped and spun to
swing his sword upside down. As he landed on his feet, the
Tortoise’s severed head hit the ground.

Knowing what he needed, Oliver removed the
head of the beetle too and got out quick as something big had heard
the fight too and was coming to collect an easy meal. Oliver got
where the true meal of essence lay, to strengthen himself. Before
leaving the trees he cut a few limbs and threw it in his cape that
turned into a bag. He ran to the cliff and added the heads to the
bag of wood. With his cape closing its mouth he dug his fingers in
the slice made earlier with the sword and began climbing. It was
far from easy and one slip did make sure to remind of the danger of
falling and landing incorrectly, but he pulled himself up into the
cave and drew the knife from his ankle to cut into the skulls and
retrieve gray brains covered with syrupy purple blood.