Void's Psionics (59 page)

“
Did me granddaughter behave
herself?” Jake said in a fatherly tone.

“
As a matter of fact I have
something to show you.” Renee carefully pulled her daughter off the
nipple to use her pinky finger to softly rub the pink
belly.

The reaction had the bearded giant grin. “She
moved her arms! She didn’t move two days ago.”

“
My hellion is growing her
first muscles aside from her diaphragm. My milk is loaded with
protein so she’ll quickly put on weight.”

“
If only I had that book,
Lass.” Jake didn’t touch his grandchild, not with Oliver so close.
“Yer development would have been better, even after I spliced yer
mind to not make ye seem too different from other children yer
age.”

“
I’m glad you protected me,
Papa. Had you given me breast milk like the kind Izzy is feeding
on, I would have been two and looked six to seven years old. I’m
just glad when I went hunting Beasts it was at the age where no one
would notice my puberty was a bit faster than normal. After all,
what girl has a C cup bra size at fourteen? I’m just glad they
stopped at a D. Besides, Izzy will have a normal childhood even if
she reaches adulthood in about ten years.”

“
I’ll spoil her
rotten.”

“
I didn’t turn out so
bad.”

Oliver chuckled.

“
And what the hell was that
sound supposed to mean?” Renee looked up and glared. Her emerald
irises darkening.

“
Nothing. Nothing at
all.”

“
He means yer a pain in the
arse, Lass.”

“
Papa!” Renee gasped and
glared.

“
Just telling it how it is,
Daughter. Yer a stubborn wench and ye get it all from me. I needed
an heir worthy to take over me armada if I were killed. I raised ye
to take no shit from anyone. Ye know this. Me crew is yers if I
die. When I do one day I’ll rest easy among the stars knowing ye
are me worthy successor.”

“
Papa, you know I hate
death. So stop acting like it is going to happen soon.”

“
It is the truth, Lass. True
immortality is impossible. We just prolong the inevitable. I could
die in the next minute or the day when the universe eventually dies
itself. We never know when the end of our story comes to a close.
So enjoy the time we have together and remember them. Ye know
nothing of yer ancestors, but they live on through ye. In essence,
when I lose me life, it won’t be gone completely. Ye’ll live and so
will me granddaughter.”

“
I don’t want to talk about
this anymore.” The forcefulness in the way she said it made that
conversation end and they watched the Liger cubs play some more for
several minutes.

Eventually the silence was broken as the
captain asked “Lad, how goes the micro-drone search?”

“
Not as well as I originally
hoped. I found a pathway to reach the city, but it will not be
easy. I’ve checked the defenses and there are aquatic gates your
sensors didn’t detect. From what I can tell, the city of water is
made of puzzles you have to complete and also avoid the eels who
can pass the gates easily. We also have to deal with undersea
turbulence the giant eels create with their massive
bodies.”

“
Aquatic gates?”

“
Yes. I’ve found nanites
that noticed my neutrino size drones and found the water compresses
into a density resembling steel. The nanites reacted to foreign
proximity. There are two gates I located to pass deeper into the
core. And they were heavily defended. And I mean that the firepower
there is near as great as the defensive drones that fired on the
ship when it ripped a chunk of the land off Zerika. Enough to kick
my ass in no time. Add to it the immense pressure of the water that
deep and I’ll be taxed too much. I’ve yet to test my armor so deep,
but I did find that the city of water is maintaining around a ball
of a black hole which keeps the planet from spinning all its water
away. Very likely the city is mobile. I was wrong, it isn’t the
core. A shielded chunk of dense black hole is what is actually
keeping Mereddia together. Most likely I can raise the city to the
surface. When the castles closed down, they left natural defenses
in place to deter access. This castle is no different.”

“
Truly?” Jake was seriously
intrigued.

“
Yes, but a second opinion
will always be welcome. Want me to flash over my
reports.”

“
Aye. It will change how we
go about organizing a drop team.”

Oliver accessed his neural chip and sent over
the accumulated and condensed data surrounding the aquatic gates,
planetary core and how the city was maintained.

“
I’ll need some time to sift
through this data. It helps it reads like a program from a
holographic video.”

“
Take all you need. We are
safe for now, Papa.” Renee expressed. “But now it is your turn to
hold Izzy. Olly and I are going for a swim.”

“
We are?” she gave him a
look. “Right we are.”

Jake chuckled as Oliver moved to the water.
When he wasn’t looking Renee gave her daughter to the grandfather
to go joining him in more undersea exploration.

Little colorful fish flitted to and fro,
nibbling on algae or each other if they were a slightly larger
predator. Trying out a technique Callier once taught, Oliver
projected serenity and friendship to the aquatic creatures and did
so so gently that the fishes came right up to play without fear.
Renee stood on the bottom, watching with a smile as she wore just
her clear helmet and dark mouth and nose mask to breathe and a
bikini to feel the warm water on her flesh.

They were soon joined by Stone and Breena who
also helped out when one Crab came in for their breakfast. This
time Oliver stabbed it through the throat. There was plenty of meat
in addition to the extra one set out last night to feed everyone,
Ligers and Drakes included.

Chapter 15

Plans were made, revised and scrapped over
and over for many days as Oliver’s micro-drones came up with new
and more detailed analysis of the situation down at the core. It
was day seven on the beach and it was often the cool heads of
Oliver and Stephanie that kept the peace. Sadly Steven and Sparky
loathed each other as they ever had and fought daily. Hardly a
surprise there.

Three minor jellyfish accidents made Renee
teleport to the patients spread around the large island to be the
dedicated medic everyone relied on.

Yesterday Andrea’s son and daughter, their
respective mates and young children arrived and spent most of their
time with her and finally meeting the legend soon to become their
mother’s husband. Sadly her parents couldn’t make it.

It was first thing this morning that the
daily plans were put on hold and everyone aside from Renee, Andrea
and Jake were outside waiting for news.

Renee had Andrea sit up on the soft bed and
used her bracelet to induce labor as well as administer a neural
pain blocker. It made childbirth an actual simple experience for
the mother. Instead of hours of contractions, nanites opened the
cervix to the appropriate dilation within fifteen minutes. From
there Renee extended her hand and telekinetically reached inside to
gently grab hold of her baby brother and pulled him and the
afterbirth out gently. A tiny shock from Renee’s finger forced a
loud cry from David. She passed him over to the parents and
finished closing Andrea up within twenty minutes and with the
nanites, everything of bearing a baby was quickly rearranged back
into their natural place.

Andrea was back on her feet within another
ten minutes and all of them came out with Jake proudly yelling “Me
boy is here!”

Everyone with hands clapped, the Ligers
roared and Drakes flapped their wings against their sides loudly.
Baby David wailed at the noise and everyone began to laugh.

The day was spent fawning over the new child.
It was also the first day Isabella make her first squeaking sound.
Mead flowed freely despite the tolerance law. Jake’s rank as pirate
king allowed the rare liberty. What was especially funny was one of
the cubs snuck a drink and got rebuffed by Nova, but the inebriated
cub was too cute.

Not till the following morning did Oliver,
Stone, Jessica and the captain stand inside his shuttle looking
over the holographic display did Steven ask “So this is the final
decision? You sure you don’t want to keep changing the plan just
one more time…”

“
Don’t be obnoxious, Lad.”
Jake was tired too and he wasn’t known for patience. “This is the
best way to raise the city safely.”

“
You mean send us to the
belly of the beast blind.”

“
Give me twenty minutes and
I’ll create a means to see in the dark and combine our views so we
aren’t blinded. Don’t forget that the eels are light sensitive.
Even a spark will send them into a frenzy. We go in completely
black while my Pride is the relay to the surface. Sparky’s pissed
as it is, but he can’t control his body’s glow. He’ll get too
excited to fight and must stay too. You’re going because you can
control yourself more than he is capable. So go black out your
armor, cover every blinking light and seal off the pauldron lights.
One spark of illumination and they’ll be on us. If I can create a
way for us to see, we can go in hopefully undetected.”

“
If we cannot,
Brother?”

“
Then Renee will kill by
telepathy. But that is a last resort.” Stone said and got a nod
from Oliver. “Come, Brother, we must ready our armor.”

“
I’ll go create that linked
visual aid.” Oliver stepped out and flew over to the beach. On the
way he aimed an arm at the beach and a tendril scooped up the
silica sand and he touched down in the trees for space from others
as he began transforming sand into specialized crystalline devices
that integrate into Hunter armor circuitry as well as into four
lenses for two sets of Solarian. His vambrace began imputing
information as well as power with which to operate the crystal
technology. It took longer to create the technical aspects than to
make the optical enhancements in practically total darkness. Where
light never seemed to reach.

Out ejected three tiny white crystals and
four thin lenses. Two of which were set inside the hidden eyelets
of his helmet. He sent out a single micro-drone to see how he
looked and the completely black form that sucked in all light
didn’t glint. Not even the new lenses offered reflection.

Oliver soon returned to the beach where
Stone, Breena and Steven had removed all their armor and were
spraying their armor completely black. He handed the rice size
crystal to all three and showed them where to integrate it and how
to activate it by vocal command.

Renee had also come up, hearing it all
through him to say “I synthesized my breast milk enough to feed
Izzy for a good week. Andrea and Gemma will look after her along
with Rose. These the new optics?” she wondered, taking the lenses
and inserting them over the blackened film covering her whole
head.

“
Yes. Just don’t activate
them till we get deep.”

“
Yep. Don’t want to go blind
anytime soon. I hear growing back an eyeball sucks ass.”

All too soon the paint dried and the Hunters
donned the jet black armor. Oliver then willed the armor and out
shot four tethering lines. “So we don’t get blown apart in the
currents.” He said and they nodded.

Together all five of them walked into the
water. Renee was centered among them, Stone taking the rear, his
hatchets also blacked out and ready. To either side of her were
those carrying a lance. Oliver out front moving with his blackened
shield and sword so the sparkle didn’t give them away. They all
walked across the bottom, Oliver using his armor to snatch the
spare anchor Jake disengaged from his shuttle. The line was
attached to his waist like everyone else. Without a trial of
hesitation the five stepped off the roots to plunge after the
anchor dragging them all down to save energy.

By the time the sparkling blue water was
going darker and darker, pressure sensors inside Hunter armor were
getting to dangerous levels and Breena said so. Renee, as the core
in the group, stretched out her hands and a foot to Stone and
released a barrier to counteract the water pressure that would
crush them like a tin can.

Remarkably both Oliver’s and Renee’s
specialized armor began to transform all on their own. Their masks
began sucking oxygen straight from the water to add counter
pressure to the crushing depths. The thing is, the pressure was
done inside the material itself so they didn’t get hit with
hyperpoxia, too much oxygen forced into bodily issue. The armor
compensated for each additional increase of pressure, making them
feel only the minor squeeze put on from the armor itself. Inside
they were experiencing a comfortable oxygen rich atmosphere.

With pressure came a drastic drop in
temperature. Hypothermia was negated by extra insulation.

Oliver said “We’re deep enough. From here on
all talking is by telepathy. Not only are they light sensitive,
they are also sound too. ‘Illuminate the deep abyss’.”

“
Illuminate the deep abyss.”
They all chorused to activate the new visual systems.

Darkness turned to a soft blue, pushing the
gloom back. From the display projected inside the helmet came up
four other views.

“
Much better. I was getting
worried there for a moment.”
Breena
announced with her mind.